Growing food crops on radioactive soil?

Scientists at Horticulture Research International have been studying natural mutations in vegetables in the hope of identifying the genes responsible for limiting uptake of caesium. The results of their quest, to be presented at the annual SEB conference suggest ‘safe’ crops could one day be grown on radioactive soil.

Four million people in Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine currently live in areas where 137Cs deposition densities to soils exceeded 37 kBq m-2 following the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Countermeasures to reduce soil-to-plant transfer of Cs, such as deep-ploughing and mulching, have had some success, but the ingested dose received by people in some rural areas still exceeds 1 mSv year, the recommended maximum dose.

Scientists at the Horticultural Research Institute have been exploring the potential of a new, as yet untested, countermeasure – crops that can restrict their radionuclide content. By studying vegetables such as cabbage and tomato, Phil White and Martin Broadley have identified molecular mechanisms and genetic variations involved in caesium uptake.

The results of their work, to be presented at the Session (P1.14 and P1.17), could be used to match existing crop varieties to the conditions they would be grown under, and could also help breeders develop caesium-resistant crops.

But even where suitably ‘safe’ varieties were identified, these would have to be used in combination with other countermeasures. Most of the ingested radiation dose would be likely to come through the pasture-to-livestock-to-milk/meat route.

Phil White and Martin Broadley are beginning a two-year scoping study at a radioactively contaminated site in the Ukraine, funded by the Royal Society.