Effective Microorganisms as a Potential Tool for the Remediation of 137Cs-contaminated Soils

During the development of a method using effective microorganisms (EM) to reduce the soil-to-plant transfer of
¹³⁷
Cs on land contaminated with radioactive Cs, an unexpected effect of EM on the reduction of the
¹³⁷
Cs activity in soil samples was observed. Laboratory experiments were then conducted to evaluate the impact of EM and fermented organic fertilizer (EM Bokashi) on the
¹³⁷
Cs activity in soil samples to investigate this observation. The experimental results indicate an increase in the
¹³⁷
Cs decay rate of up to 4 times the theoretical decay rate corresponding to the half-life of
¹³⁷
Cs, which is equal to 30.17 years. Our results suggest that EM accelerates the radioactive decay of
¹³⁷
Cs in soil.