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Effect of cesium in Fukushima waning faster than in Chernobyl

The nuclear accident at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. caused 2,700 trillion becquerels of cesium-137 to fall on the ground (AFP)
The nuclear accident at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. caused 2,700 trillion becquerels of cesium-137 to fall on the ground (AFP)
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10 Mar 2021 05:03:24 GMT9
10 Mar 2021 05:03:24 GMT9

TOKYO: The effect of radioactive cesium-137 released into the environment due to the March 2011 nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, has been decreasing faster than in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, a study has found.

The study was conducted by institutions including the University of Tsukuba, Fukushima University and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.

The nuclear accident at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. caused 2,700 trillion becquerels of cesium-137 to fall on the ground, of which 67 percent is estimated to have been deposited on forests, 10 percent on paddy fields, 7.4 percent on other cultivated land and grassland, and 5 percent on urban areas.

The team studied more than 210 scientific articles on the cesium-137 situation in the wake of the accident, and compared the contamination levels within 80 kilometers of the Fukushima No. 1 power plant with those of the Chernobyl accident in the former Soviet Union.

In Chernobyl, most of the contamination was on forests and abandoned farmland. In Fukushima, meanwhile, much of the contamination was on urban areas and cultivated land, and decontamination work was carried out, leading cesium-137, whose half-life is about 30 years, to dive deep in the soil quickly.

According to the study, the amount of cesium-137 within 2 centimeters from the surface of paddy fields three years after the March 2011 disaster decreased to about 10 percent of the level immediately after the accident. The air dose rate also declined sharply, thanks to screening by the soil.

For forests, however, over 50 percent of the radioactive substance remained on the surface even after eight years.

The team also found that the level of cesium-137 concentration in rivers near the Fukushima No. 1 plant was 10 to 100 times smaller than that in the Pripyat River near Chernobyl and 25 affected rivers in Europe.

This is because of the decrease in the amount of cesium-137 on the soil surface in Fukushima and more rainfall there, according to the study.

Yuichi Onda, professor of the University of Tsukuba, said that a nation that caused a nuclear accident must keep records of environmental recovery, and that such data must be disclosed thoroughly for the reconstruction of Fukushima.

JIJI Press

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