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Post-Accident Sporadic Releases of Airborne Radionuclides from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Site.
Journal article

Post-Accident Sporadic Releases of Airborne Radionuclides from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Site.

  • Steinhauser G Colorado State University , Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, United States.
  • Niisoe T Research Division of Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Disasters, Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University , Uji 6110011, Japan.
  • Harada KH Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine , Kyoto 6068501, Japan.
  • Shozugawa K Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo , Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan.
  • Schneider S Leibniz Universität Hannover , Institute of Radioecology and Radiation Protection, D-30419 Hannover, Germany.
  • Synal HA Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, ETH Zürich , CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
  • Walther C Leibniz Universität Hannover , Institute of Radioecology and Radiation Protection, D-30419 Hannover, Germany.
  • Christl M Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, ETH Zürich , CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
  • Nanba K Institute of Environmental Radioactivity, Fukushima University , Fukushima 960-1296, Japan.
  • Ishikawa H Research Division of Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Disasters, Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University , Uji 6110011, Japan.
  • Koizumi A Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine , Kyoto 6068501, Japan.
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  • 2015-10-09
Published in:
  • Environmental science & technology. - 2015
Air Filters
Air Pollutants, Radioactive
Cesium Radioisotopes
Fukushima Nuclear Accident
Japan
Nuclear Power Plants
Radiation Monitoring
English The Fukushima nuclear accident (March 11, 2011) caused the widespread contamination of Japan by direct deposition of airborne radionuclides. Analysis of weekly air filters has revealed sporadic releases of radionuclides long after the Fukushima Daiichi reactors were stabilized. One major discharge was observed in August 2013 in monitoring stations north of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (FDNPP). During this event, an air monitoring station in this previously scarcely contaminated area suddenly reported (137)Cs activity levels that were 30-fold above the background. Together with atmospheric dispersion and deposition simulation, radionuclide analysis in soil indicated that debris removal operations conducted on the FDNPP site on August 19, 2013 are likely to be responsible for this late release of radionuclides. One soil sample in the center of the simulated plume exhibited a high (90)Sr contamination (78 ± 8 Bq kg(-1)) as well as a high (90)Sr/(137)Cs ratio (0.04); both phenomena have usually been observed only in very close vicinity around the FDNPP. We estimate that through the resuspension of highly contaminated particles in the course of these earthmoving operations, gross (137)Cs activity of ca. 2.8 × 10(11) Bq has been released.
Language
  • English
Open access status
hybrid
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Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/15383
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