Abstract Assessing the release of radionuclides into the environment is important for protecting public health, predominantly when radioactive pollution enters the food chain. The uptake of radionuclides by plants from the soil is usually described by the transfer factor. The present study investigated soil-radish transfer factors and associated radiation risks for radionuclides 226 Ra, 232 Th, 40 K, and 137 Cs in radishes grown along the Little Zab River in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq using a high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector to measure radionuclide activity concentrations. The average activity concentrations of 226 Ra, 232 Th, 40 K, and 137 Cs radionuclides in the soil samples are (15.1 ± 5.1) Bq kg −1 , (6.2 ± 1.4) Bq kg −1 , (296.8 ± 43.9) Bq kg −1 , and (7.3 ± 3.72) Bq kg −1 , respectively. Also, the average activity concentrations of 226 Ra, 232 Th, 40 K, and 137 Cs radionuclides in the radish samples are (1.03 ± 0.06) Bq kg −1 , (0.21 ± 0.03) Bq kg −1 , (1,238.5 ± 284.9) Bq kg −1 , and (0.14 ± 0.02) Bq kg −1 , respectively. The highest observed TFs in radish samples were (0.27 ± 0.08) for 226 Ra, (0.09 ± 0.02) for 232 Th, (6.38 ± 0.30) for 40 K, and (0.15 ± 0.05) for 137 Cs. The annual effective dose ingested was less than the global average value of the annual ingestion effective dose of 290 μSv y −1 by UNSCEAR (2000).
Smail et al. (Tue,) studied this question.