[Cytogenetic studies on submerged plants from the Yenisei river area in the zone of radioactive contamination].

Cytogenetic studies on three species of submerged plants from different parts of the Yenisei river area subjected to radioactive impact of the Krasnoyarsk Mining-and-Chemical Plant and the Electrochemical Factory have been conducted. A high level of irregularities in anatelophase and metaphase of mitoses has been revealed in test samples compared to the control: agglutination and fragmentation of chromosomes, lagging chromosomes, bridges, fragments, misdivisions, and others. The natuie of the disorders indicates that they are related in part to the direct damage to the chromosome structure and in part to damage to the spindle.

[Accumulation of radionuclides in food chains of the Yenisei River after the nuclear power plant shutdown at the mining-and-chemical enterprise].

Accumulation of artificial and natural radionuclides in the chains of food webs leading to non-predatory and piscivorous fish of the Yenisei River was investigated during one year before and three years after the shutdown of a nuclear power plant at the Mining-and-Chemical Combine (2009-2012). The activity of artificial radionuclides in the samples of biota ofthe Yenisei River (aquatic moss, gammarids, dace, grayling, pike) was estimated. The concentration of radionuclides with induced activity (51Cr, 54Mn, 58Co, 60Co, 65Zn, 141, 144Ce, 152, 154Eu, 239Np) decreased in the biomass of biota after the shutdown of the nuclear power plant; the concentration of 137Cs did not. Analysis of the accumulation factors (C(F)) allows us to expect the effective accumulation of 137Cs in the terminal level of the food web of the Yenisei River--pike (C(F) = 2.0-9.4), i.e. biomagnifications of radiocesium. Accumulation of artificial, radionuclides in non-predatory fish from gammarids was not effective (C(F) < 1). An effective accumulation of 40K is possible in muscles of non-predatory and piscivorous fish species from food (C(F) = 2:6-3.1 and 1.3-1.4, respectively). C(Fs) of K and 40K were equal in all trophic pairs, but C(Fs) of 40K and 137Cs differed considerably.

[Radionuclides in siberian Thymallus from radiation-contaminated area in the middle stream of the Yenisei River].

Concentration of artificial radionuclides in bodies of arctic grayling from the radioactively contaminated zone of the Yenisei River in the vicinity of the Mining-and-Chemical Combine of Rosatom was investigated in 2007-2010. Gamma-spectrometric analysis revealed artificial radionuclides in all the organs and tissues of fish. The isotope composition was the most diverse (60Co, 65Zn, 85Sr, 99Mo, 106Ru, 137Cs, 144Ce) in internal organs of grayling. The activity of radionuclides increased in internal organs including liver and kidney and in the content of digestive tract of grayling during winter and spring, which coincided with the change in the feeding spectrum of grayling. The trophic transfer factor of radionuclides from zoobenthos (Philolimnogammarus spp.) to whole bodies and muscles of grayling was over 1 (1.8-2.4) only for natural radionuclide 40K. The trophic transfer of artificial radionuclides (60Co, 65Zn, 137Cs) to muscles and bodies of grayling was one-two orders of magnitude less effective.

[Experimental study of 241Am transfer from herbal food to organs and tissues of crucian carp].

Freshwater fishes (Carassius auratus gibelio, crucian carp) were fed through catheter with homogenized biomass of submerged macrophytes labeled with transuranium element 241Am. The intensity of excretion of americium and its accumulation in organs and tissues of fishes were investigated. The highest release of americium (up to 70%) was recorded on the second day after feeding. 94-98% of americium were excreted during 3-4 days; however, americium was also recorded in the excrements after 11 days. Americium was registered in organs and tissues of fishes, including those tissues that had no direct contact with americium (bones and muscles). This implies assimilation of americium via digestive tract. The activity concentration of americium in bones (11 Bq/kg, fresh mass) was twice as high as that in muscles, heads and external tissues and organs (skin, scales and fins). The highest activity concentration of americium was registered in viscera (33 Bq/kg, 48% of the total activity in the body). Accumulation of americium in muscles enhances the probability of the further transfer of americium along a food chain.

[The accumulation of 241Am by suspended matter of the Yenisei River].

Laboratory experiments were performed to determine parameters of accumulation of 241Am by suspended particulate matter (seston) of the Yenisei River, with particles larger than 1 microm, and the diatoms A. formosa and D. vulgare. Concentration factors for seston were (2.8-4.1) x 10(5) and for diatoms--(1.5-4.2) x 10(4). As phytoplankton's contribution to the seston mass is rather small (< 10%), we assume that suspended matter contains other particles similar in size to the Yenisei River phytoplankton, which make larger contribution to 241Am concentration of seston than the studied algae. No energy-dependent accumulation of americium by algae was detected in the experiments. Addition of dissolved organics and hydrogen carbonates led to a lower uptake of 241Am from the Yenisei water by seston.

[Radioecological monitoring of the Yenisei River and citological characterization of a submerged aquatic plant Elodea canadensis].

The study was devoted to investigation of the contents of radionuclides and of heavy metals and to evaluate the frequency of chromosomal aberrations in samples of Elodea canadensis, a submerged plant, collected in different parts of the Yenisei River. The samples were collected in the area subjected to radioactive impact of the Mining-and-Chemical Combine (MCC) at Zheleznogorsk and in the control area, upstream of the MCC. The investigations shown that elodea biomass in the area affected by MCC operation contained a long inventory of artificial radionuclides typical for the MCC discharges. The upstream of the MCC, in the control sampling area, the sediments and the elodea biomass contained only one artificial radionuclide--137Cs. Thus, the exposure doses to elodea shoots and roots upstream of the MCC are small (not more than 8 microGy/d) and the main contribution info the dose is made by natural radionuclides. At the MCC discharge site (the village of Atamanovo) and at the downstream of it, the total dose rate increases almost an order of magnitude, reaching its maximal values--72 microGy/d for elodea shoots and 58 microGy/d for its roots. Cytogenetic investigations of elodea roots shown that at the MCC discharge site (the village of Atamanovo) and at downstream of it the occurrence of chromosomal aberrations in ana-telophase and in metaphase cells of elodea was considerably higher than in the control area. It is highly probable that this simultaneous dramatic increase in the total exposure rate and the occurrence of chromosomal aberrations in elodea is associated with the radiation factor. It is suggested that elodea is affected not only by the radiation factor but also by the chemical factor--toxicity of heavy metals.

[The accumulation of the technogenic radionuclides by mushrooms in the area affected by the activity of the Krasnoyarsk mining-and-chemical industrial complex].

The radionuclide content was measured in mushrooms collected in different sites situated in the zone of the radiation influence on the Mining-and-Chemical Combine at Zheleznogorsk and on the control site, near Krasnoyarsk, in 2002-2004. The analytical investigations of fruiting bodies of 12 mushroom species have revealed three gamma-emitting radionuclides: 7Be, 40K (natural) and 137Cs (artificial). It was found that only three species contain 7Be; activity concentration of 40K is not species- and site-dependent, averaging 1600 Bq/kg. All collected samples contain 137Cs, and its accumulation by mushrooms is species-specific. Suillus concentrates more 137Cs activity than other species and can be used as a bioindicator of soil contamination with radiocesium. The average activity concentration of 137Cs in Suillus granulatus collected in the sites subjected only to aerosol discharges of the MCC is more than twice higher than 137Cs content of the mushrooms collected in the control site--"Krasnoyarsk". The maximum activity concentration of 137Cs in Suillus samples collected in the sites that receive 137Cs with the flood water is an order of magnitude higher, amounting to 8624 Bq/kg. The analysis of the radionuclide distribution in a mushroom shows that 40K activity concentration is the same in caps and stems of Suillus, and 137Cs concentration in Suillus caps is 1.7-2.3 times higher than in stems. Binding of radionuclides by mushroom biomass was determined by chemical fractionation; it was found that the highest activities of 137Cs and 40K are in the exchange-adsorption fraction (56 to 71% of the total content of a radionuclide) and in the organic fraction (23 to 37%). Calculations were made for determination of the coefficients of 40K and 137Cs transfer from the soil to the fruiting body of Suillus.

[Accumulation of industrial radionuclides by the Yenisei River aquatic plants in the area affected by the activity of the mining and chemical plant]. / Nakoplenie tekhnogennykh radionuklidov vodnymi rasteniiami r. Enisei v zone vliianiia gorno-khimicheskogo kombinata.

The aim of the paper is to investigate accumulation of artificial radionuclides by the Yenisei River aquatic plants collected in the area affected by the activity of the Mining-and-Chemical Combine (Zheleznogorsk) from 1997 to 2000. The samples of aquatic plants were of four species: Potamogeton lucens, Fontinalis antipyretica, Elodea canadensis, and Ceratophyllum demersum. The gamma-spectrometric analysis of the samples of aquatic plants for artificial radionuclides revealed a wide spectrum of long-half-life and short-half-life radionuclides. Radionuclides of activation origin were found in the aquatic plants taken both near the Combine and 200 km down of it. The data obtained suggest that the cooling water of the operating reactor is still being released into the Yenisei. The radiochemical analysis of aquatic plants revealed strontium and plutonium isotopes. Among the aquatic plants, the highest concentration factors for the principal radionuclides were recorded in Fontinalis antipyretica (water moss).

[Experimental investigations of 211Am accumulation by macrophytes of the Yenisei River]. / Eksperimental'nye issledovaniia nakopleniia 211Am makrofitami r. Enisei.

Experiments were carried out in which 241Am was added to water samples containing macrophytes of the Yenisei River, and the radionuclide absorption rates and concentration factors were determined for the plants. It has been shown that the water moss (Fontinalis antipyretica) has a higher capacity to accumulate 241Am than the Canadian pondweed (Elodea canadensis) does. The laboratory experiments revealed that the capacity of dead biomass of the Canadian pondweed to accumulate 241Am is twice higher than that of living biomass. In contrast, no significant increase in 241Am accumulation by dead biomass of the water moss has been recorded. The transuranic element 241Am was firmly fixed by the plant biomass and was not released into water in the course of long-duration experiments.

[Experimental study of the intensity of phosphorus radionuclide uptake by samples of algobacterial community of the Yenisei river]. / Eksperimental'nye issledovaniia intensivnosti pogloshcheniia 32P probami al'gobakterial'nogo soobshchestva reki Enisei.

The experiments in which phosphorus radionuclide was added to samples of algobacterial community of the Yenisei River taken near the production area of the Mining-and-Chemical Combine (Zheleznogorsk) made possible determining the uptake rates and coefficients of radionuclide accumulation by microorganisms. Ratios between processes of adsorption and accumulation of phosphorus radionuclide by components of water seston (suspended matter) have been determined. The portion of the specific radioactivity of phosphorus adsorbed by unit mass of seston (and algae) has been found to be not more than 7% of the activity accumulated by algal cells.

[Intracellular phosphorus pool in a culture of the cyanobacterium Spirulina platensis]. / Vnutrikletochnyi pul fosfora kul'tury tsianobakterii Spirulina platensis.

An intracellular phosphorus pool in a monoculture of the cyanobacterium Spirulina platensis was assessed using radioactive and nonradioactive phosphorus. The derived dependence of specific growth rate on the intracellular content of mineral phosphorus can be presented in the form of the Droop equation. It was found that the stage of replenishment of the intracellular phosphorus pool may affect the phosphorus turnover estimation in aquatic environments from the results of short-term measurements of phosphorus uptake.