Foliar transfer into the biosphere: review of translocation factors to cereal grains

A review of the published literature about foliar transfer radionuclides to cereal grains was carried out with a special interest for translocation factors. Translocation describes the distribution of radionuclides within the plant after foliar deposition and radionuclide absorption onto the surface of leaves. It mainly depends on elements and the plant growth stage. The collected data were derived from both in-field and greenhouse experiments. They were analysed in order to select those coming from a contamination simulating a sprinkling irrigation or a rain. The data set contains 307 values. For each radionuclide the translocation factor values were sorted according to 5 characteristic stages of the cereal vegetative cycle: leaf development-tillering, stem elongation, earing-flowering, grain growth and ripening. Wheat, barley and rye have been treated together, independently of rice. For mobile elements such as cesium, the translocation factor is maximum when the contamination occurred at the earing-flowering stage. For less mobile elements such as strontium this maximum occurred for a foliar contamination at the grain growth stage. This review enabled us to propose the most probable value as well as the range of variation of translocation factors for some radionuclides according to the cereal vegetative cycle. Moreover, from these results, a radionuclide classification is proposed according to three mobility groups. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.