An accident at a nuclear power plant has contaminated soil with strontium-90 (Sr 2+ ), a dangerous radionuclide. Health officials order forages growing in the area to be cut, baled, and destroyed....

An accident at a nuclear power plant has contaminated soil with strontium-90 (Sr²⁺), a dangerous radionuclide. Health officials order forages growing in the area to be cut, baled, and destroyed. However, there is concern that as the forage plants regrow, they will take up the strontium from the soil and cows eating this contaminated forage will excrete the strontium into their milk. You are the only soil scientist assigned to a risk assessment team consisting mainly of distinguished physicians and statisticians. Write a brief memo to your colleagues explaining how the properties of the soil in the area, especially those related to cation exchange, could affect the risk of contaminating the milk supply.