Transfer Factor of 137Cs in Several Fruit Tree Species Planted After Radioactive Fallout in Orchard in Fukushima Prefecture and the Effect of Topsoil Management on 137Cs Concentration in Persimmon Fruits

• Published in: RADIOISOTOPES Vol. 69; no. 3; pp. 93 - 102
• Main Authors: Minami, Haruna, Yuda, Minako, Kusaba, Shinnosuke, Matsuoka, Kaori, Hiraoka, Kiyoshi, Horii, Sachie, Kuwana, Atsushi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan Radioisotope Association 15.03.2020
• Subjects: fruit tree; Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident; topsoil management; transfer factor of caesium-137
• ISSN: 0033-8303; 1884-4111
• DOI: 10.3769/radioisotopes.69.93

We conducted a 3- to 5-year study of the transfer factors (TF) of 137Cs in Japanese chestnut, satsuma mandarin and Japanese persimmon trees planted 1 to 2 years after the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. The TFs of these fruit trees were on the order of 10−4 and 10−3 across the several years and showed annual variations. Comparison of the TFs between two Japanese persimmon cultivars, ‘Hachiya’ and ‘Hiratanenashi,’ seemed to be higher TFs values of the fruit and leaves in the former than in the latter cultivar. We further investigated the effect of topsoil management (plowing, topsoil removal, and topsoil return) on 137Cs concentration in ‘Hachiya’ fruit and the planted soil. The soil 137Cs concentration in the topsoil removal treatment was lower than that in the plowing and topsoil return treatments, but the topsoil management had no effect on the 137Cs concentration of ‘Hachiya’ fruit in this experiment.