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Improved Relationship between the Deposition of Strontium-90 and the Contamination of Milk in the United Kingdom

Abstract

ONE of the main difficulties in estimating the integrated radiation dose which the population may receive from environmental contamination with strontium-90 has been to determine the average extent to which it enters food chains many years after deposition. Environmental surveys gave little information on this question in the earlier years of fallout from nuclear weapons tests as 90Sr directly retained on vegetation was then the main source of dietary contamination1. A more complete analysis was possible after 1966 when the reduced rate of fallout caused uptake from the soil to make the dominant contribution. The integrated total of 90Sr which will enter diet from a given deposition now appears to be about half that suspected a decade ago.

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BARTLETT, B., RUSSELL, R. & JENKINS, W. Improved Relationship between the Deposition of Strontium-90 and the Contamination of Milk in the United Kingdom. Nature 238, 46–48 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1038/238046a0

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