Six-year monitoring study of 137 Cs discharge from headwater catchments after the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident

Since headwater catchments are the source areas of Cs for downstream river systems, Cs discharge from headwater areas needs to be evaluated. Dissolved form (Dissolved), coarse organic matter (Org), and suspended sediments (SS) were sampled and Cs concentrations were measured from June 2011 to Novemb...

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Published inJournal of environmental radioactivity Vol. 210; p. 106001
Main Authors Iwagami, Sho, Onda, Yuichi, Sakashita, Wataru, Tsujimura, Maki, Satou, Yutaro, Konuma, Ryohei, Nishino, Masataka, Abe, Yutaka
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England 01.12.2019
Subjects
Cesium Radioisotopes
Fukushima Nuclear Accident
Japan
Nuclear Power Plants
Radiation Monitoring
Rivers
Water Pollutants, Radioactive
Japan
Cs
Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant
Stream water
Headwater catchment
Land use
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Summary:Since headwater catchments are the source areas of Cs for downstream river systems, Cs discharge from headwater areas needs to be evaluated. Dissolved form (Dissolved), coarse organic matter (Org), and suspended sediments (SS) were sampled and Cs concentrations were measured from June 2011 to November 2016 in four headwater catchments in Yamakiya District, located 35 km northwest of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP). The data up to September 2013 (2.5 y after the accident) have been already published (Iwagami et al., 2017a, b). The data up to November 2016 (5.7 y after the accident) are newly reported in the present paper together with data at a new sampling site. The whole data from June 2011 to November 2016 is discussed. The normalized Cs concentrations ( Cs concentrations normalized by the average deposition density of each catchment) in Dissolved, Org, and SS were in the order of 10  m /L, 10  m /kg, and 10  m /kg, respectively, before 2013 and declined to around 10  m /L, 10  m /kg, and 10  m /kg, respectively, in 2016. As a result of the decontamination program, the discharge of SS increased, whereas Cs concentrations in SS declined significantly and the total flux of Cs decreased. Although the clear effect of land use on decline trend in normalized Cs concentrations in Dissolved was not found, more data are necessary for elucidating the relation between them.
ISSN:1879-1700