Factors associated with the variations in environmental gamma-ray spectra in Kashiwazaki Kariwa area

Since October 1983, the Niigata Prefectural Government has been carrying out the continuous measurements of gamma-emitting radionuclides in the environment around the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power station by environmental radiation monitoring telemetry system. Continuous measurements of gamma-ray spectra have been established since April 1996. As a result, the contribution of various radionuclides has been gradually clarified in the variations of the gamma-ray dose rate. In this paper, the energy spectrum of the incident gamma-ray to NaI(Tl) scintillation detector was obtained by the unfolding method using a response matrix, and the variations of the energy spectrum observed in the precipitation and snow were investigated. The increase in the dose rate in precipitation originated from the increase in the flux density of gamma-ray from 214Bi and 214Pb, daughter nuclide of 222Rn, which fell down with the precipitation. On the other hand, the reduction in the dose rate in the snowy period was confirmed due to the shielding effect of a part of gamma-rays from the natural radioactive nuclides by the snow layer, in coincidence with the decrease of the flux density in 40K and 208Tl.