Elevated radioxenon detected remotely following the Fukushima nuclear accident

Bowyer, Ted W.; Biegalski, Steven R; Cooper, Matthew W.; Eslinger, Paul W.; Haas, Derek A.; Hayes, James C.; Miley, Harry S.; Strom, Daniel J.; Woods, Vincent

doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2011.04.009

Cited by 155 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The first fission products arrived between 17-18 March about 7 days after the earthquake and in agreement with other reported detections of radionuclides in the western United States (RadNet, 2011;Taylor, 2011;Norman et al, 2011;Bowyer et al, 2011). Our models of the transport of air masses across the Pacific point to a typical transport time of 5 to 6 days.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Arrival time and magnitude of airborne fission products from the Fukushima, Japan, reactor incident as measured in Seattle, WA, USA

Leon

Jaffe

Kašpar

et al. 2011

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

122

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We report results of air monitoring started due to the recent natural catastrophe on 11 March 2011 in Japan and the severe ensuing damage to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor complex. On 17-18 March 2011, we registered the first arrival of the airborne fission products 131 I, 132 I, 132 Te, 134 Cs, and 137 Cs in Seattle, WA, USA, by identifying their characteristic gamma rays using a germanium detector. We measured the evolution of the activities over a period of 23 days at the end of which the activities had mostly fallen below our detection limit. The highest detected activity from radionuclides attached to particulate matter amounted to 4.4±1.3 mBq m −3 of 131 I on 19-20 March.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Arrival time and magnitude of airborne fission products from the Fukushima, Japan, reactor incident as measured in Seattle, WA, USA

Leon

Jaffe

Kašpar

et al. 2011

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

122

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“…Once the vapors and particles were lifted up to the free troposphere, they could be transported easily by the Westerlies. As mentioned earlier, it took only 4 days for Fukushima-derived radioxenon to travel across the Pacific Ocean (Bowyer et al, 2011) The time series at PCY, NK and DS (Figs. 3(a), 3(b) and 3(c), respectively) show a consistent pattern of waxing and waning in nuclide activities with a progressive lapse in time with respect to the distance travelled from the source region.…”

Section: The First Arrival Time Of Fukushima-derived Fission Nuclidesmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…It took only 4 days for the gaseous 133 Xe (T 1/2 = 5.2 d) to be transported from the emission point in Fukushima Japan (37°25′17′′N, 141°1′57′′E) across the Pacific Ocean, and be detected on March 16 at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Richland, Washington, U.S.A. (46°16′47′′N, 119°16′53′′W) (Bowyer et al, 2011). In the ensuing days, 131 I (T 1/2 = 8.02 d), 134 Cs (T 1/2 = 2.06 y) and 137 Cs (T 1/2 = 30.1 y) emitted from Fukushima NPP were detected across the contiguous United States, progressively from the western seaboard to the eastern seaboard (http://www.epa.gov/jap an2011/).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional Dispersal of Fukushima-Derived Fission Nuclides by East-Asian Monsoon: A Synthesis and Review

Huh

Lin

Hsu

2013

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

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The WRF/Chem tracer model is employed to simulate the dispersal of radiation plumes from Japan following the 12 March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. From a direct comparison between the model simulation and the time-series of Fukushima-derived fission nuclides monitored around southeast Asia, we can distinguish between global transport by the Westerlies in the free troposphere and regional transport by the northeast monsoon in the planetary boundary layer. In general, regional (mainly meridional) transport carried more weight than global (mainly zonal) transport in contributing Fukushima-derived radioactivity to the area covered in this review, particularly at the ground-level sites.

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“…Numerical simulation showed that the radionuclides derived from FNPP1 circulated around the Northern Hemisphere (Stohl et al, 2012), and the fission products were actually detected in aerosol, gaseous, rain and snow samples collected in North America (e.g., Bowyer et al, 2011;Leon et al, 2011), Europe (e.g., Bossew et al, 2012;Masson et al, 2011), central Russia (Bolsunovsky & Dementyev, 2011;Melgunov et al, 2012) and Taiwan (Huh et al, 2012). The radionuclides emitted from FNPP1 were also detected from terrestrial biota not only in Japan (e.g., Hashimoto et al, 2012;Higaki et al, 2012;Tagami et al, 2012) but also in North America (Thakur et al, 2012) and Europe Pittauerova et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Horizontal distribution of Fukushima-derived radiocesium in zooplankton in the northwestern Pacific Ocean

et al. 2013

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The magnitude of the 9.0 Tohoku earthquake and the ensuing tsunami on 11 March 2011, inflicted heavy damage on the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (FNPP1). Fission products were emitted, falling over a broad range in the Northern Hemisphere, and water contaminated with radionuclides leaked into the ocean. In this study, we described the horizontal distribution of the Fukushima-derived radiocesium in zooplankton and in seawater in the western North Pacific Ocean (500–2100 km from the FNPP1) 10 months after the accident. ¹³⁴Cs and ¹³⁷Cs were detected in zooplankton and seawater from all the stations. Because of its short half-life, the ¹³⁴Cs detected in our samples could only be derived from the FNPP1 accident. The highest ¹³⁷Cs activity in zooplankton was the same order of magnitude as it was one month after the accident, and average activity was one or two orders of magnitude higher than ¹³⁷Cs activities observed before the accident around Japan. Horizontally, the radiocesium activity concentrations in zooplankton were high at around 25° N while those in surface seawater were high at around the transition area between the Kuroshio and the Oyashio currents (36–40° N). We observed subsurface radiocesium maxima in density range of the North Pacific Subtropical Mode Water and the occurrence of many diel vertical migratory zooplankton. These suggested that the high activity concentrations in the subtropical zooplankton at around 25° N were connected to the subsurface radiocesium and active vertical migration of zooplankton. However, the high activity concentrations of radiocesium in subsurface seawater did not necessarily correlate with the higher radiocesium activity in zooplankton. Activity concentrations of radiocesium in zooplankton might be influenced not only by the environmental radiocesium activity concentrations but also by other factors, which are still unknown

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Elevated radioxenon detected remotely following the Fukushima nuclear accident

Cited by 155 publications

References 14 publications

Arrival time and magnitude of airborne fission products from the Fukushima, Japan, reactor incident as measured in Seattle, WA, USA

Arrival time and magnitude of airborne fission products from the Fukushima, Japan, reactor incident as measured in Seattle, WA, USA

Regional Dispersal of Fukushima-Derived Fission Nuclides by East-Asian Monsoon: A Synthesis and Review

Horizontal distribution of Fukushima-derived radiocesium in zooplankton in the northwestern Pacific Ocean

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