A. Jouve et al., NONLETHAL DEFOLIATION TO IMPAIR THE FOLIAR UPTAKE OF FALLOUT RADIONUCLIDES BY FOREST TREES, Science of the total environment, 157(1-3), 1994, pp. 407-410
The foliar uptake of fallout radionuclides is the most important way o
f contamination of plant species. The Chernobyl accident showed that t
he mangement of contaminated forest is not an easy task. Studies on co
untermeasures after a nuclear accident performed within the European R
ESSAC programme (Rehabilitation of Soils and Surfaces after an Acciden
t) were undertaken to impair the internal contamination of woody parts
of forest trees as well as perennial cultures like vine or orchards.
The first non-lethal defoliation experiments were to examine the selec
tion of appropriate defoliants. The five compounds experimented are no
n-toxic to man and wildlife. Some which give good results are normally
used to chemically dress vine without adverse effect on plant health
and are expected to be non-lethal defoliants. Parallel laboratory expe
riments on the translocation kinetics of soluble labelled caesium and
strontium deposited on the leaves proved that only 2% of the deposited
activity is translocated into the stem of poplar and oak after 200 h.
These kinetics compared to those of defoliants may suggest that this
countermeasure would be efficient in impairing the contamination of wo
ody parts of forest trees.