Kinetics of 110mAg, 60Co, 137Cs and 54Mn Bioaccumulation from Water and Depuration by the Crustacean Daphnia Magna

As part of a research program on the transfer withinfreshwater ecosystems of the radionuclides present inthe weakly radioactive liquid effluents from nuclearpower stations, this article presents an assessment ofthe dynamics of zooplankton contamination from water.The experiments were carried out on young pre-adultdaphnids, placed at a density of 250 individualsL-1, in 0.45 μm filtered river water. Inorder to maintain the radionuclide contamination at ahigh level and to limit alterations in the chemicalcharacteristics of the medium, the water was reneweddaily. The dynamics of contamination were described bya one (137Cs) or a two compartmental model(110mAg, 60Co and 54Mn), taking intoaccount the fluctuations of the radionuclideconcentration in the water, as well as the growth rateof the daphnids. The contamination levels weredescribed by the steady state value of theconcentration factor, which was 2870 mL g-1 wetweight, 320 mL g-1 wet weight, 265 mL g-1wet weight and 30 mL g-1 wet weight, for110mAg, 54Mn, 60Co and 137Cs,respectively. During the depuration phase,radioactivity decrease in daphnids was a very fastphenomenon indicating that radionuclide adsorption tothe surface was the major process involved in thecontamination of daphnids. The two correspondinghalf-lives of the depuration kinetics were 10 min and7 d, 20 min and 1 d and 3 hr and 1.5 d for60Co, 110mAg and 54Mn, respectively.The loss of 137Cs was characterised by a singlehalf-life of 0.3 d.