Environmental behavior of technetium in soil and vegetation: implications for radiological impact assessment

Significant radiological exposures have been estimated for hypothetical atmospheric releases of Tc-99 from gaseous diffusion facilities when vegetation-to-soil concentration ratios representative of laboratory experiments are substituted for generic default values assumed in current regulatory models. To test the relevancy of these laboratory ratios, field investigations were conducted to obtain measurements of the vegetation-to-soil concentration ratio for Tc-99 in samples collected near operating gaseous diffusion facilities and to observe the dynamic behavior of technetium in soil and vegetation following a single application of a sprayed solution of /sup 95m/TcO/sub 4//sup -/ Comparison of observed field concentration ratios and calculated steady-state concentration ratios with ratios obtained from previous laboratory experiments indicates that concentration ratios obtained from field data are one to two orders of magnitude less than those obtained from the laboratory. Furthermore, a substantial accumulation of technetium in soil and vegetation may not occur over long periods of time, since concentrations of technetium in both environmental media were observed to decrease with time subsequent to initial application of /sup 95m/TcO/sub 4//sup -/