Cesium-137 in grass from Chernobyl fallout

Grass ecosystem was monitored for Cs-137, a relatively long-lived radionuclide, for about 16 years since the Chernobyl reactor accident occurred on April 26, 1986. Cesium-137 in grass gramineae or poaceae the species, ranged from 122.9 Bq kg(-1) (September 4, 1986) to 5.8 mBq kg(-1) (October 16, 200 1) that is a range of five orders of magnitude. It was observed that there was a trend of decreasing Cs-137 with time reflecting a removal half-time of 40 months (3 1/3 years), which is the ecological half-life, T-ec Of Cs-137 in grassland. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.