Analysis of a Nuclear Accident: Fission and Activation Product Releases from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Facility as Remote Indicators of Source Identification, Extent of Release, and State of Damaged Spent Nuclear Fuel

Schwantes, Jon M.; Orton, Christopher R.; Clark, Richard A.F.

doi:10.1021/es300556m

Cited by 85 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Local food supply in farming areas did not necessarily increase exposure to radiocesium because local municipalities routinely screen food products for personal consumption. Release of 90 Sr and other less volatile radionuclides from the FDNPP meltdown was considered to be limited compared with that of 137 Cs (34). A survey showed that the concentration of 90 Sr in soil samples was quite low (ca.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radiation dose rates now and in the future for residents neighboring restricted areas of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Harada¹,

Niisoe

Imanaka

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Radiation dose rates were evaluated in three areas neighboring a restricted area within a 20-to 50-km radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in August-September 2012 and projected to 2022 and 2062. Study participants wore personal dosimeters measuring external dose equivalents, almost entirely from deposited radionuclides (groundshine). External dose rate equivalents owing to the accident averaged 1.03, 2.75, and 1.66 mSv/y in the village of Kawauchi, the Tamano area of Soma, and the Haramachi area of Minamisoma, respectively. Internal dose rates estimated from dietary intake of radiocesium averaged 0.0058, 0.019, and 0.0088 mSv/y in Kawauchi, Tamano, and Haramachi, respectively. Dose rates from inhalation of resuspended radiocesium were lower than 0.001 mSv/y. In 2012, the average annual doses from radiocesium were close to the average background radiation exposure (2 mSv/y) in Japan. Accounting only for the physical decay of radiocesium, mean annual dose rates in 2022 were estimated as 0.31, 0.87, and 0.53 mSv/y in Kawauchi, Tamano, and Haramachi, respectively. The simple and conservative estimates are comparable with variations in the background dose, and unlikely to exceed the ordinary permissible dose rate (1 mSv/y) for the majority of the Fukushima population. Health risk assessment indicates that post-2012 doses will increase lifetime solid cancer, leukemia, and breast cancer incidences by 1.06%, 0.03% and 0.28% respectively, in Tamano. This assessment was derived from short-term observation with uncertainties and did not evaluate the firstyear dose and radioiodine exposure. Nevertheless, this estimate provides perspective on the long-term radiation exposure levels in the three regions.Fukushima nuclear disaster | exposure assessment | Strontium-90 | forest contamination | food duplicate

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radiation dose rates now and in the future for residents neighboring restricted areas of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Harada¹,

Niisoe

Imanaka

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The transport of the radioactive plume and its deposition over the Pacific Ocean (Aoyama et al 2013;Honda et al 2012), North America (e.g., Schwantes et al 2012;Zhang et al 2011), and Europe (e.g., Masson et al 2011) as well as within the Japanese Cs deposition level using a trinomial exponential function. The present simple estimation shows that more than a decade would be necessary for the 137 Cs atmospheric deposition level to return to pre-accident levels territories (Hirose 2012;Kinoshita et al 2011;Morino et al 2011;Terada et al 2012;Tsuruta et al 2014) has been well depicted by many researchers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atmospheric radioactivity over Tsukuba, Japan: a summary of three years of observations after the FDNPP accident

Igarashi¹,

Kajino²,

Zaizen³

et al. 2015

Prog. in Earth and Planet. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The atmospheric data for the 3 years since the accident form a basis for considering temporal changes in the decreasing trends and re-suspension (secondary emission), supporting our understanding of radioCs' atmospheric concentration and deposition. Information regarding our immediate monitoring, modeling, and data analysis approaches for pollution from the FDNPP accident is provided in the Appendices.

show abstract

“…Due to its chemical similarity to calcium, 90 Sr is accumulated in the bone and may cause leukemia or skeletal cancer. Its presence in the environment, therefore, causes much concern as it is often dictating risk of contaminated sites over longer periods of time and calls for the monitoring of this inconvenient radionuclide [18]. This is of great importance especially for ensuring food safety.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concentration of Strontium-90 at Selected Hot Spots in Japan

2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study is dedicated to the environmental monitoring of radionuclides released in the course of the Fukushima nuclear accident. The activity concentrations of β− -emitting 90Sr and β−/γ-emitting 134Cs and 137Cs from several hot spots in Japan were determined in soil and vegetation samples. The 90Sr contamination levels of the samples were relatively low and did not exceed the Bq⋅g−1 range. They were up four orders of magnitude lower than the respective 137Cs levels. This study, therefore, experimentally confirms previous predictions indicating a low release of 90Sr from the Fukushima reactors, due to its low volatility. The radiocesium contamination could be clearly attributed to the Fukushima nuclear accident via its activity ratio fingerprint (134Cs/137Cs). Although the correlation between 90Sr and 137Cs is relatively weak, the data set suggests an intrinsic coexistence of both radionuclides in the contaminations caused by the Fukushima nuclear accident. This observation is of great importance not only for remediation campaigns but also for the current food monitoring campaigns, which currently rely on the assumption that the activity concentrations of β−-emitting 90Sr (which is relatively laborious to determine) is not higher than 10% of the level of γ-emitting 137Cs (which can be measured quickly). This assumption could be confirmed for the samples investigated herein.

show abstract

Analysis of a Nuclear Accident: Fission and Activation Product Releases from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Facility as Remote Indicators of Source Identification, Extent of Release, and State of Damaged Spent Nuclear Fuel

Abstract: This document was printed on recycled paper.

Cited by 85 publications

References 21 publications

Radiation dose rates now and in the future for residents neighboring restricted areas of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Radiation dose rates now and in the future for residents neighboring restricted areas of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Atmospheric radioactivity over Tsukuba, Japan: a summary of three years of observations after the FDNPP accident

Concentration of Strontium-90 at Selected Hot Spots in Japan

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About