Abstract
The aquatic environment has received the greatest input of radionuclides from the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons—apart from the atmosphere itself—and continues to receive low-level radioactivity as a result of the controlled input of liquid and solid wastes from the nuclear industries. As a source of food, however, the aquatic environment does not compare with the land in terms of total food production but may, nevertheless, provide a large fraction of the diet of certain groups of people, or of individuals. Predicting the concentrations of radionuclides which are likely to obtain in different food species, for a given rate of input, is a considerably more difficult task in the aquatic environment, particularly in the sea: food chains are frequently more complex; many chemicals are accumulated by animals not only from their food but direct from the medium itself; and the bulk of the food species are not confined to one area but range over substantial ones and through widely differing radionuclide concentrations.
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© 1980 Applied Science Publishers Ltd
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Pentreath, R.J. (1980). Radioactive Materials—The Aquatic Environment. In: Blaxter, K. (eds) Food Chains and Human Nutrition. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-7336-0_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-7336-0_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-011-7338-4
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