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Updated: Aug 20, 2026

Speciation and Bioavailability Measurements of Environmental Plutonium Using Diffusion in Thin Films
Published on: November 9, 2015
Plutonium in daily diet in Poland after the Chernobyl accident
Z Pietrzak-Flis1, G Orzechowska
1Department of Radiation Hygiene, Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection, Warsaw, Poland.
Abstract:
The content of 239,240Pu was determined in the daily diet collected in northeastern Poland (Bialystok) from March 1987 to May 1992. The estimated annual intake of plutonium decreased from 774 mBq y-1 in the first year after the Chernobyl accident down to approximately 90 mBq y-1 in the sixth year. Large fluctuations of daily intake in the first 2 y suggested that a large fraction of plutonium in the daily diet originated from the external contamination. Assuming the fractional absorption factor of 10(-5) for externally contaminated foodstuffs and 10(-3) for root uptake, the assimilated 239,240Pu would be in the range from approximately 0.02 mBq up to approximately 2 mBq for the period studied.
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