Abstract: OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to explore the enrichment and migration of strontium in different tissues of pepper,and to provide basic data for the radiation risk assessment of edible plants, vegetables and other foods after nuclear accident. METHODS: In this study, the stable nuclide strontium-88 instead of the radioactive nuclide strontium-90 was used to plant pepper in greenhouses. In the experiment, 159.33 mg/kg soil strontium was used as the background control, and five soil strontium concentration gradients were set as 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 and 3.5 times the control. The contents of strontium in pepper and soil were determined by ICP-AES. The transfer coefficient (TF) of strontium in the stem,leaf and fruit, and the concentration coefficient (CR) of strontium in the root, stem, leaf and fruit were calculated. RESULTS: The content of strontium in different tissues of pepper increased with increasing strontium concentrations in soil. The order was C_root > C_leaf > C_stem > C_fruit. The order of CR values were C_Rroot > C_Rleaf > C_Rstem > C_Rfruit, and the order of TF values were TF_leaf > TF_stem > TF_fruit. CONCLUSION: The content of strontium in the edible parts of pepper is the lowest,therefore the pepper fruit is relative safe for consumption. The non-edible parts of the pepper, roots and leaves, had strong enrichment ability, the pepper leaves and stems had strong migration ability. Therefore,they can be used as a candidate plant for radionuclide pollution investigations.

Key words: strontium, pepper, soil culture, accumulation, migration