Long-term monitoring of radiocesium deposition near the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant: effect of interception of radiocesium on vegetables

• Published in: Journal of radioanalytical and nuclear chemistry Vol. 318; no. 1; pp. 65 - 70
• Main Author: Hirose, Katsumi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.10.2018; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Cesium 134; Cesium 137; Cesium isotopes; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Deposition; Diagnostic Radiology; Earthquake intensity; Hadrons; Heavy Ions; Inorganic Chemistry; Interception; Monitoring; Nuclear Chemistry; Nuclear energy; Nuclear Physics; Nuclear power plants; Physical Chemistry; Tsunamis; Vegetables; Cs deposition; Fukushima nuclear accident; Temporal variation; Interception factor
• ISSN: 0236-5731; 1588-2780
• DOI: 10.1007/s10967-018-5972-4

Monthly depositions of 134 Cs and 137 Cs at the site near the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has been monitored continuously since March 2011. The higher monthly 137 Cs deposition, exceeded 1 kBq m −2 , was observed in January–March 2017. When higher radioactive deposition continues, interception is an important pathway to radioactive contamination of plants. We, therefore, calculated a conventional interception factor (0.5 m 2 kg −1  w.w.) from monitoring values of the 137 Cs concentrations in leaves and monthly 137 Cs deposition in 2011.