Acid extraction as a predictive tool of Radiocaesium Interception Potential (RIP) in a worldwide scale

Abstract

The extent of radiocaesium in soil is very important to appreciate the risk of its recycling by the vegetation and thus the risk of food chain contamination. An intrinsic soil parameter, the radiocaesium interception potential (RIP), could be used to measure this retention. In this study, we tested the possibility to predict the RIP starting from a simple acid extraction in widely different soils coming from the whole world and pertaining to various soil reference groups of theWRB/FAO world soil classification. Our results show that a simple acid extraction could be used as an operational test to estimate the RIP whatever the soil type. © 2009 EDP Sciences.