1. Assessment of the radionuclide remediation potential of novel miscanthus hybrids.
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Jurišić V, Rašeta D, Kontek M, Clifton-Brown J, Trindade LM, Lamy I, Guerin A, Kiesel A, Matin A, Krička T, and Petrinec B
- Abstract
There are few studies related to the radionuclide remediation options, which comply to the demands of the environmentally non-destructive physical remediation methods. So far, most of the research was conducted on the phytoremediation capacity of different energy crops, as well as the established miscanthus hybrids which involved metal and heavy metal contaminants. Hence, the objective of this research was the radioecological characterization of the examined agroecosystem, including the initial source of the radionuclides (soil) as well as different miscanthus hybrids grown on the same soil. The results have shown that the radioactive content of soil was similar to the global averages. All measurements of the activity concentration of
137 Cs in miscanthus samples were below the detection limits. There is also an indication that210 Pb is leaching into the lower layers (or is being taken up by miscanthus plant from the upper layers). Moreover, transfer factors (TFs) for radionuclides, as a more precise parameter for evaluating the phytoremediation potential, were calculated; the TFs were found to be very low for226 Ra (≤0.07), TFs for40 K (≤0.39) and for232 Th (≤0.21) were in the lower limits, whereas the TFs for238 U were found to be the highest (≤0.92). For210 Pb, the TFs were not calculated, since the expectation was that a significant part of the measured quantity came from the air, and not through the soil. Having in mind the sustainability and the circularity aspect of the radionuclide phytoremediation system, the appropriate management method should be applied for the disposal and utilization of the biomass contaminated with radionuclides. This research has shown that the radiological content in miscanthus is high enough and the ash content is low enough that miscanthus ash could be considered as a NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material), and it can be further used for the construction industry (i.e. concrete, tiles), in mixtures with other materials with certain limitations, similar to the utilization of ash from other sources such as coal or wood., Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Vanja Jurisic reports financial support was provided by European Regional Development Fund. Vanja Jurisic reports financial support was provided by 10.13039/501100000780European Commission and BBI consortium. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors.)- Published
- 2024
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