Soil-to-cassava transfer of naturally occurring radionuclides from communities along Ghana's oil and gas rich Tano Basin

Publication date: February 2018
Source:Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, Volume 182
Author(s): Israel Nutifafa Yawo Doyi, David Kofi Essumang, Asare Kwaku Agyapong, Samuel Asumadu-Sarkodie
Soil-to-plant transfer factor (TF) is widely used to assess the impact of soil radioactivity on agricultural crops. The root crop cassava (Manihot esculenta) provides 30%–50% of the calories consumed in Sub-Saharan Africa and is widely used in South America. γ-ray analysis was used to measure activity concentrations of ²³⁸U, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K in cassava root and soil. The TF values for ²³⁸U, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K were in the range 0.06–0.12, 0.01–0.10 and 0.04–0.28 respectively. The median transfer factors were 0.10 (²³⁸U), 0.04 (²³²Th) and 0.08 (⁴⁰K). For ²³⁸U and ²³²Th, the highest TF values were 0.12 and 0.10 respectively.



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