The EDTA Amendment in Phytoextraction of Cs-134 From Soil by Indian Mustard (Brassica juncea)

摘要

Soil contamination with radiocaesium is a significant problem at any countries when a nuclear accident occurred. Recently, phytoextraction technique is developed to remediate the contaminated environment. However, the application is limited by the availability of the contaminant for root uptake. Therefore, a green house trial experiment of soil amendment with ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) has been conducted to examine Cs-134 availability for root uptake. Two groups of Indian mustard (Brassica juncea) were cultivated in Cs-134 contaminated soil. The soil in the first group was treated with EDTA amendment, while the other was not. Plant growth was observed gravimetrically and the Cs-134 concentration in soil as well as plants were determined using gamma spectrometry. The plant uptake capacity was determined as transfer factor (F-v), and the F-v values of 0.22 +/- 0.0786 and 0.12 +/- 0.039 were obtained for the soil treated with and without EDTA amendment, respectively. The phytoextraction efficiency of the plant cultivated in Cs-134 contaminated soil both with and without EDTA amendment was low. The EDTA amendment to the soil seems to enhance the Cs-134 availability for root uptake of Indian mustard and can still be considered to assist the field phytoremediation of contaminated soil.