-Recommendations and requirements for the management of foodstuffs including drinking water and feedstuffs (but not other commodities) contaminated after a nuclear accident or a radiological event have been developed by international bodies such as Codex Alimentarius Commission or European Union as well as by individual countries. However, the experience from severe nuclear accidents (Chernobyl, Fukushima) and less serious radiological events, shows that the implementation of such systems (based on criteria expressed in activity concentration) seems to be not fully suitable to prevent several difficulties such as, for instance, stigmatization and even rejection attitudes from consumers or retailers (anticipating the fears of consumers). To further investigate the possible strategies and stakeholder expectations to deal with this sensitive issue, a study has been launched within the European research project PREPARE-WP3. The overall objective of this work, coordinated is to contribute to the development of strategies, guidance and tools for the management of the contaminated products, taking into account the views of producers, processing and retail industries and consumers. For this purpose, 10 stakeholder panels from different European countries have been set up. In addition, feedback experience from the management of contaminated goods following the Fukushima accident has been provided by Japanese stakeholders. This paper highlights the key topics tackled by the different European stakeholders' panels.
In 2011 the IRSN conducted several assessments of atmospheric radioactive releases due to the Fukushima Daiichi NPP accident (March 11, 2011) and of their impact on Japan's terrestrial environment. They were based on the IRSN's emergency management tools and on the abundant information and technical data gradually published in Japan. According to these assessments, the main release phase lasted from March 12 to 25, 2011 and impacted Japanese land in two events, the first on 15 and 16 March, in which the main radioactive deposits were formed, and the second from March 20 to 23, which was less significant. The highest amounts of radioactive deposits were found in an area extending upwards of several tens of kilometers northwest of the plant. Lower amounts were discontinuously scattered in an area extending up to over 250 km away. Initially composed mainly of short-lived radionuclides, the deposits' activity sharply decreased in the subsequent weeks. Since the summer of 2011, cesium-134 and cesium-137 have become the residual deposits' main components. According to IRSN estimates, in the absence of protection, the doses due to exposure to the radioactive plume during the atmospheric release phase may have been potentially higher for people who remained in coastal areas up to several tens of kilometers north and south of the damaged plant. Thereafter, people living up to 50 km northwest of the plant, outside the 20-km emergency evacuation zone, were potentially most vulnerable to residual radioactive deposits over time.
-This article proposes an assessment of the ingestion doses potentially received by people living in the Japanese areas most severely affected by the radioactive deposits due to the Fukushima nuclear accident. The assessment distinguishes two consecutive periods: the first 2 months (March 15th to May 15th 2011) and the rest of the year 2011, according to the two main foodstuff contamination periods identified (Renaud et al., 2013). On the basis of the worstcase hypothesis that can reasonably be made, the estimated doses are much lower than they might have been in other circumstances, on account of generally moderate levels of contamination for most foods, early evacuation of the most severely affected areas and the consumption bans ordered by the Japanese authorities. Thus, a single ingestion of 100 g of leafy vegetables in the early days by a one-year-old child living in non-evacuated localities near Iitate and Kawamata could have led to an equivalent dose to the thyroid of about 25 mSv; and to a thyroid dose of about 140 mSv for the rather unrealistic scenario of a daily consumption. Because of the rapid decrease in the contamination of vegetables and a much weaker contamination of other crops, and thanks to measures taken by the authorities (prohibition of consumption, use of certain fodder, etc.), the ingestion doses potentially received during the remainder of the year 2011 are estimated to be below 1 mSv. In the event that sales limits would have been ignored, only repeated consumption of mushrooms would have led to doses above that level. Even with the worst-case hypotheses, the doses potentially caused by ingestion are much lower than those resulting from outdoor exposure to radioactive deposits: approximately several millisieverts in a year for the population living in the non-evacuated localities near Iitate and Kawamata.
Abstract. From the beginning of 2002, Troyes prefecture has initiated a study about the management of a nuclear crisis caused by an accident at the Nogent-sur-Seine nuclear power plant. Several working groups were created, notably the "Decontamination of soil and food chain" group.The first results of this group, which involves the District Agricultural and Forestry Department, the Farming Chamber, the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety and the Veterinary Division are presented here.The scenario that had been developed for the accident considers the release of 3 radionuclides ( 131 I, 134 Cs and 137 Cs) in the environment. The scale of the crisis didn't require the evacuation and the sheltering of the population during the emergency phase.The consequences on the local agricultural products (cereal, sugar beet, vine, milk, cow meat…) have been assessed up to 50 km and different strategies of agricultural countermeasures have been studied regarding to the local constraints (soil types, surfaces and quantities concerned) and to the consequences of their implementation (waste types and quantities, costs). Then, decision-making diagrams summed up the technical results and allowed to deepen the global thought.
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