Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Dec 6;108(49):19526-9.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1111724108. Epub 2011 Nov 14.

Assessment of individual radionuclide distributions from the Fukushima nuclear accident covering central-east Japan

Norikazu Kinoshita  1 , Keisuke Sueki, Kimikazu Sasa, Jun-ichi Kitagawa, Satoshi Ikarashi, Tomohiro Nishimura, Ying-Shee Wong, Yukihiko Satou, Koji Handa, Tsutomu Takahashi, Masanori Sato, Takeyasu Yamagata
Affiliations

Assessment of individual radionuclide distributions from the Fukushima nuclear accident covering central-east Japan

Norikazu Kinoshita et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

A tremendous amount of radioactivity was discharged because of the damage to cooling systems of nuclear reactors in the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011. Fukushima and its adjacent prefectures were contaminated with fission products from the accident. Here, we show a geographical distribution of radioactive iodine, tellurium, and cesium in the surface soils of central-east Japan as determined by gamma-ray spectrometry. Especially in Fukushima prefecture, contaminated area spreads around Iitate and Naka-Dori for all the radionuclides we measured. Distributions of the radionuclides were affected by the physical state of each nuclide as well as geographical features. Considering meteorological conditions, it is concluded that the radioactive material transported on March 15 was the major contributor to contamination in Fukushima prefecture, whereas the radioactive material transported on March 21 was the major source in Ibaraki, Tochigi, Saitama, and Chiba prefectures and in Tokyo.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

N.K. notes that sampling and measurement were done while at University of Tsukuba, and data analyses (calculation of radioactivity and drawing of contour map of radioactivity) were performed while at Shimizu Corporation.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Topographic map of the surveyed area including Fukushima and its adjacent prefectures; contour maps of depositions for 131I, 129 mTe, and 134,136,137Cs; and activity ratios for 129mTe/137Cs, 131I/137Cs, and 129mTe/131I. Activities on March 29, 2011 are shown. Open circle indicates position of sampling point.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Distributions of the air parcel that passed through the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant by HYSPLIT model and amount of rainfall based on AMeDAS.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Pranesha T-S, Kamra A-K. Scavenging of aerosol particles by large water drops 3. Washout coefficients, half-lives, and rainfall depths. J Geophys Res. 1997;102:23947–23954.
    1. Maqua M, Bonka H, Horn H-G. Deposition velocity and washout coefficient of radionuclides bound to aerosol particles and elemental radioiodine. Radiat Prot Dosim. 1987;21:43–49.
    1. Muramatsu Y, Sumiya M, Ohmono Y. Iodine-131 and other radionuclides in environmental samples collected from Ibaraki/Japan after the Chernobyl accident. Sci Total Environ. 1987;67:149–158. - PubMed
    1. Draxler R, Rolph G. Silver Spring, MD: NOAA Air Resources Laboratory; 2003. Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT4) model. Available at: http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready/hysplit4.html.
    1. Reineking A, Becker K-H, Porstendörfer J, Wicke A. Air activity concentration and particle size distributions of the Chernobyl aerosol. Radiat Prot Dosim. 1987;19:159–163.

Publication types