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Radioactive pollution and accumulation of radionuclides in wild plants in Fukushima

  • JPR Symposium
  • Current status and future control of cesium contamination in plants and algae in Fukushima
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Abstract

The radionuclide status of wild plants and soil in the Fukushima area was investigated during the period May 2011 to October 2012, using an imaging plate (autoradiograms) or a high purity germanium detector. Analyses of autoradiograms showed that wild plants grown in March 2011 were strongly polluted with fallout released from the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant. The radioactivity was mostly due to fallout adsorbed on the surface of the plants. On the other hand, a number of herbaceous plants were regularly collected in the Fukushima area and their radionuclide concentrations were measured with a high-purity germanium detector. Plants grown in March 2011 showed very high levels of 134Cs and 137Cs, but these radioactivity levels decreased rapidly after July 2011 and eventually became lower than that of endogenous 40K. During this period, the radioactivity of the soil remained high. We therefore suppose that a significant proportion of the radioactivity detected from plants harvested after July 2011 was most likely derived from soil dust attached on the plant surface. Autoradiograms of rice plants were virtually identical between plants cultivated in Fukushima and Osaka area, reflecting the background radiation due to 40K.

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Abbreviations

F1NPP:

Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mr. Toshiyasu Okochi, Family Ouchi and Ms. Kazumi Tsutsui for their kind permission to collect plant and soil samples from their fields. We are grateful to Dr. Robert Reid, The University of Adelaide, Australia, for his kind assistance with the English text. The present work was supported in part by a grant from the Mitsui & Co., Ltd. Environment Fund, a grant from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and a grant from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (Grant-in-Aid no. 24110007).

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Correspondence to Tetsuro Mimura.

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‘Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station’ is cited as ‘Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant’ in the present manuscript.

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Mimura, T., Mimura, M., Kobayashi, D. et al. Radioactive pollution and accumulation of radionuclides in wild plants in Fukushima. J Plant Res 127, 5–10 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-013-0599-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-013-0599-6

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