the soil results in a very markedly increased adsorption of strontium
throughout the range of acidity or alkalinity studied.
make plant uptake of strontium much less likely.

The effect is to

This phenomenon will

be discussed more fully in a subsequent section on hazard evaluation.
Movement of radioactive particles by wind erosion has been studied
by the Hanford Group.

This study was designed to investigate particle

pickup as well as the relative efficiencies of various surfaces for re-~
taining small particles.

Using a 20 foot circular sand plot as the

contaminated study area, “it was found that the source was seriously de-

pleted following two days of fresh surface winds of 15 to 25 mph, indicating that the natural surface of this particular type of soil is
highly erodible and that particles deposited on such a surface are
susceptible to subsequent translocation in windy weather.

A second

experiment was a study of the relative retentive efficiency of grasscovered, rock-covered, furrowed and fence-protected surfaces.

Prelin-

analysis of the data indicated that rock-covered and grass-covered
surfaces retain particles equally well.

The furrowed surface retained

particles poorly when compared to the grass or rock-covered surfaces.
The highest particle retention was observed in the immediate lee of the
fence, but this result is somewhat open to question because these areas

were shaded from the sun and were noticeably wetter than the other areas.
Both strontium-89 and strontium-90 are examples of radioisotopes
having gaseous precursors and are thus subject to a high degree of

fractionation. To illustrate the decay chain, the following equations
are shown:

Krypton-89 sport Rubidium-89 min
+--+
is eo Strontium-89 age
ane aareete
Krypton-90 sae
35

Rubidium-90 eo Strontium-90 sat Yttrium-90
14-4

ont Zirconiwi-90 (stable)

Thus, the duration of the ‘fireball, at which time radioactive particles
are being formed, will have a marked effect upon the availability of
dL

Select target paragraph3