THE DEVELOPMENT OF RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION OF MILK IN THE FEDERAL-REPUBLIC-OF-GERMANY AFTER THE CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT

The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was followed by considerable depositions of radionuclides. In the Federal Republic of Germany the highest depositions have been observed in the southern part of Bavaria so that at the beginning contamination of milk with the radionuclides J-131, Cs-134, and Cs-137 was about one order of magnitude higher in that region than in the other parts of the country. After feeding of the plant material contaminated via foliage directly out of the atmosphere the transfer of caesium radioisotopes from soil to plants via roots tended to play the dominant role. As a consequence some ecological factors, mainly soil quality, got an important influence on contamination of plants and milk by caesium isotopes. Meanwhile activity concentrations for caesium radionuclides in milk in the northern part of Germany are higher than those in southern Bavaria where a tenfold higher depositions had been observed. The reasons are the unfavourable transfer conditions on the poor sandy and peat soils dominant in the north.