The transfer of (241)Am and (137)Cs to the tissues of broilers’ organs

Data on the transfer of artificial radionuclides from the environment to the food supply is necessary for internal dose assessment. There is a necessity for expanding and improving the available information on these factors in order to make better dose models for specific scenarios. This paper describes the results of a field experiment with broiler chickens on the transfer factor (F(f)) and concentration ratio (C(R)) for the long-term intake of (241)Am and (137)Cs with grass meal and soil. The broilers were divided into two groups, each group had nine subgroups and each subgroup had three broilers. The radionuclide concentrations in the feed and the thigh muscle, thigh bone, and liver of 54 broilers divided between the grass meal and soil groups were evaluated by gamma spectrometry for 241Am and 137Cs. The duration of feeding with “contaminated” sources ranged between 1–70 days. The equilibrium stage of (241)Am in muscle and bone occurs on the 1(st) and 40(th) day, respectively; for (137)Cs in muscle– 30(th) days of intake and for liver and bone– 7(th) days. For (241)Am, the liver did not reach equilibrium stage during the 70 days of intake. F(f) of (137)Cs in the “forage-muscle” and “soil-muscle” systems were determined as 1.9±0.3 and 0.18±0.05; F(f) of (241)Am in the “soil-muscle” system was—7.5×10(−5).