Testing countermeasures to reduce Sr content in fish products.

Activity concentrations of Sr in fish in lakes located within the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (ChEZ) reach 100 kBq kg, which is several thousand times higher than the permissible level in Ukraine (35 Bq kg). This study was conducted in the natural conditions of the ChEZ to determine the effectiveness of keeping radioactively contaminated fish in "clean" water to reduce the Sr content of their muscle tissue, as previously shown in short-term laboratory experiments. It was found that transferring tench (Tinca tinca (Linnaeus, 1758)) from Lake Glubokoye one of the most contaminated lakes in the ChEZ, to a cage in the "clean" Lake Starukha for 45 days did not lead to a significant decrease in Sr content in both bone and muscle tissues. Establishing permissible levels of Sr concentration only in fish fillet, and not in the whole fish body (with bone tissue), is appropriate for human radiation protection, since the retention factors of Sr treatment for boiled bone tissue of crucian carp from the Chornobyl exclusion zone are less than 0.01, and up to 97% of strontium is contained in bone tissue.