The chemical speciation of 137Cs in sheepmeat

Minced sheep muscle, homogenised liver and fragmented rib or cortical bone, from sheep grazing near Bootle, Cumbria, U.K., which had been stored for some months at -20 degrees C, were extracted at 4 degrees C with an isotonic 0.15 M NaCl-0.02 M phosphate buffer at pH 7.4. Each successive extraction released about 50% of the total 137Cs remaining in the tissue. Passage of the extracts through a column of the cation-exchanger Dowex 50 x 8 indicated that essentially all the extracted 137Cs was in cationic form.