Long-term variation of 90Sr and 137Cs in environmental and food samples around Qinshan nuclear power plant, China

Abstract

Environmental radioactivity monitoring in the surroundings of nuclear facilities is important to provide baseline data for effective detection in case of any radioactive release in the region. In this work, we report for the first time the long-term monitoring data of 137Cs and 90Sr in environmental and food samples around Qinshan nuclear power plant in 2012–2019. The distribution levels, temporal variations and source terms of 137Cs and 90Sr in the investigated samples were discussed. The annual effective dose (AED) for the local population from the ingestion of foods was also evaluated. Peak values of 90Sr and 137Cs concentrations and 137Cs/90Sr activity ratio were observed in total atmospheric deposition in 2016 and some water and food samples in the following years. This seems to be associated to an additional radioactive input, mostly likely from the operational release of a local facility. This demonstrates that 90Sr and 137Cs, especially the 137Cs/90Sr activity ratio, are sensitive indicators for detecting potential radioactive releases. Nevertheless, overall 90Sr and 137Cs activity concentrations measured during 2012–2019 in this work were at the background levels with average AED far below the internationally permissible limit and recommendation.

Levels, sources, variations, and human health risk assessment of 90Sr and 137Cs in water and food around Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant (China) from 2011 to 2020

“…Statistical analysis also confirmed this difference (p < 0.05). This phenomena was consistent with our previous findings (27), which should be related to additional water treatment processes (e.g. coagulation, filtration and precipitation) from surface water to tap water.…”

“…This may be related to the fact that 90 Sr deposited in the soil is easier to migrate to crops and water, because of higher solubility and mobility of 90 Sr in the surface environment (58). In our previous studies,the 137 Cs/ 90 Sr activity ratios in food and water samples form Qinshan NPP (China) (water: <1.2, food: <1.2) (27) and Hangzhou [water:<1.5(except for individual samples), food: <0.72] (44) were similar to this study, both lower than the global fallout signal.…”

“…Table 5 lists the activity concentrations of 90 Sr and 137 Cs in foods from different regions in the world. The values obtained in this study were at the same order of magnitude as 137 Cs and 90 Sr activity concentrations in food samples from other areas reported earlier (27,29,36,(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49).…”

Health impact of nuclear waste water discharge from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant

“…The two radionuclides also had much longer half-lives of 30.1 and 28.9 years, respectively. Previous studies on environmental radioactivity monitoring also chose the two radionuclides as radionuclides of interests [30][31][32] . Thus, we focused on 137 Cs, 90 Sr, and 3 H for the following simulations and health analyses.…”