Estimation of Total Amounts of Anthropogenic Radionuclides in the Japan Sea

Investigation on the chemical recovery and stability of a newly developed method for 137Cs measurement in marine biota Scomber Japonicus

Seven sets of experiments based on a newly developed Mincing-Digesting method for ¹³⁷Cs measuring in marine biota Scomber Japonicus were conducted to investigate the method's stability and chemical recovery. The results show the chemical recovery of radiocesium for aqueous parts is 68.77 ± 11.2%, which is relatively stable with R² = 0.97, means this value could be used when measuring the Scomber Japonicus or other marine biota belonging to the same category and having similar muscular tissue and cellular structure. Meanwhile, the Minimum Detectable Activity (MDA) of the method is 0.013Bq/kg_-ww which is comparable with that of the conventional method, means that the method could be further developed as a reliable and efficient way to measure other radionuclides in other marine biotas in the future if more experiments were conducted.

137Cs and 239+240Pu in the Bohai Sea of China: Comparison in distribution and source identification between the inner bay and the tidal flat

We investigated artificial radionuclides (^239+240Pu and ¹³⁷Cs) in surface sediments and sediment cores collected from the Bohai Bay and the tidal flat of the Liaodong Bay, China. Increasing trends for ^239+240Pu activities and ²⁴⁰Pu/²³⁹Pu atom ratios (˃0.18) were observed from land to sea and from north to south in the Bohai Bay. This spatial pattern implied that the scavenging process between riverine sediments and Pacific Proving Ground (PPG) source Pu transported by the currents such as Yellow Sea Warm Current had occurred in the Bohai Bay. In contrast, relatively lower ²⁴⁰Pu/²³⁹Pu atom ratios in the tidal flat of Liaodong Bay were due to the mixing process between more global out and less PPG source Pu. The riverine Pu contributions to the total global fallout Pu in the Haihe River (32.8%) were much lower than those in the Yangtze River estuary (77%-80%), indicating better soil conservation in the Haihe River Catchment.

Fukushima Daiichi-Derived Radionuclides in the Ocean: Transport, Fate, and Impacts

The events that followed the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, included the loss of power and overheating at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants, which led to extensive releases of radioactive gases, volatiles, and liquids, particularly to the coastal ocean. The fate of these radionuclides depends in large part on their oceanic geochemistry, physical processes, and biological uptake. Whereas radioactivity on land can be resampled and its distribution mapped, releases to the marine environment are harder to characterize owing to variability in ocean currents and the general challenges of sampling at sea. Five years later, it is appropriate to review what happened in terms of the sources, transport, and fate of these radionuclides in the ocean. In addition to the oceanic behavior of these contaminants, this review considers the potential health effects and societal impacts.

Dispersion and fate of ⁹⁰Sr in the Northwestern Pacific and adjacent seas: global fallout and the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident

The 3D compartment model POSEIDON-R was applied to the Northwestern Pacific and adjacent seas to simulate the transport and fate of (90)Sr in the period 1945-2010 and to perform a radiological assessment on the releases of (90)Sr due to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident for the period 2011-2040. The contamination due to runoff of (90)Sr from terrestrial surfaces was taken into account using a generic predictive model. A dynamical food-chain model describes the transfer of (90)Sr to phytoplankton, zooplankton, molluscs, crustaceans, piscivorous and non-piscivorous fishes. Results of the simulations were compared with observation data on (90)Sr for the period 1955-2010 and the budget of (90)Sr activity was estimated. It was found that in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea the riverine influx was 1.5% of the ocean influx and it was important only locally. Calculated concentrations of (90)Sr in water, bottom sediment and marine organisms before and after the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident are in good agreement with available experimental measurements. The concentration of (90)Sr in seawater would return to the background levels within one year after leakages were stopped. The model predicts that the concentration of (90)Sr in fish after the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident shall return to the background concentrations only 2 years later due to the delay of the transfer throughout the food web and specific accumulation of (90)Sr. The contribution of (90)Sr to the maximal dose rate due to the FDNPP accident was three orders of magnitude less than that due to (137)Cs, and thus well below the maximum effective dose limits for the public.

Radiocesium derived from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in seabed sediments: initial deposition and inventories

Since the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (1FNPP), significant levels of anthropogenic radionuclides have been detected in seabed sediments off the east coast of Japan. In this paper, the approximate amount of accident-derived radiocesium in seabed sediments off Fukushima, Miyagi and Ibaraki prefectures was estimated from a sediment integration algorithm. As of October 2011, about half a year after the accident, the total amount of sedimentary 134Cs was 0.20±0.06 PBq (decay corrected to March 11, 2011) and more than 90% of the radiocesium was accumulated in the regions shallower than 200 m depth. The large inventory in the coastal sediments was attributed to effective adsorption of dissolved radiocesium onto suspended particles and directly to sediments in the early post-accident stage. Although rivers are also an important source to supply radiocesium to the coastal regions, this flux was much lower than that of the above-mentioned process within half a year after the accident.

Sedimentation and remobilization of radiocesium in the coastal area of Ibaraki, 70 km south of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant

Sedimentation and remobilization processes of radiocesium were investigated from time-series observations at nine stations in the coastal area of Ibaraki, 70-110 km south of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (1FNPP). Sediment samples were collected four times between June 2011 and January 2012, and concentrations of radiocesium as well as sediment properties such as grain size and elemental compositions were analyzed. Cumulative inventory of (137)Cs in sediment (0-10 cm) ranged between 4 × 10(3) and 3 × 10(4) Bq/m(2) as of January 2012. This amount was generally higher at stations nearer 1FNPP and has remained at the same level since August 2011. From these results, it can be inferred that dissolved radiocesium advected southward from the region adjacent to the 1FNPP and was deposited to the sediment of the study area in the early stage after the accident. The incorporation of radiocesium into sediments was almost irreversible, and higher concentrations of (137)Cs were obtained from the finer-grained fraction of sediments. In the northern offshore stations, resuspension of the fine-grained sediments formed a high-turbidity layer 10-20 m above the seabed. These results indicate that radiocesium-enriched fine particles were transported from the coast to offshore regions through the bottom high-turbidity layer.