The transfer of radiocesium from soil to plants: Mechanisms, data, and perspectives for potential countermeasures in Japan.

The recent events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Japan, have raised questions about radiocesium (137Cs) transfer from soil to agricultural plants. This transfer has been studied extensively in Europe following the Chernobyl accident, in Soviet Ukraine in 1986. This article briefly discusses whether that transfer may be different in Japan in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident.