Chemical behaviour of three radionuclides (cesium, americium and technetium) and their uptake at the cytosolic level in aquatic organisms.

In previous papers, we observed that there were great differences in the subcellular accumulation and elimination of 137Cs, 99Tc and 241Am in different marine animals. In this study, we analysed and compared the behaviour of these radionuclides at the cytosolic level. We found great similarities in the cytosolic distribution of a given radionuclide in the various organisms studied. The chemical characteristics of the radionuclides seem to play a major role in the biochemical affinity and metabolic behaviour in different aquatic organisms.