Reconstruction of a Fukushima accident-derived radiocesium fallout map for environmental transfer studies

Abstract Ascertaining the initial amount of accidently released radiocesium is fundamental for determining the extent of radioactive contamination following nuclear accidents, and is of key importance to environmental transfer models. A series of the airborne monitoring surveys of radioactivity have conducted by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and provide basic information on radioactive contamination following the accident. However, there are no clear guidelines regarding the selection of airborne monitoring survey results for estimating the initial fallout input in studies of the environmental transfer of radiocesium. This study reconstructed a fallout map of Fukushima accident-derived radiocesium based on a comparison of the radiocesium deposition densities ( D l ) derived from the third and fifth airborne monitoring surveys. The D l derived from the fifth airborne monitoring survey were adjusted for variation in the measured radioactivity associated with the influence of radioactive decay, natural weathering processes, variation in the calibration procedure, and other, undefined mechanisms. The calibrated deposition density of the fifth airborne monitoring survey for each land use type ( A ′ 5th* l ) were used to establish the initial fallout map in the East Japan area. Furthermore, the airborne monitoring surveys which were independently conducted in each prefecture area were used to complement the lack of data in the South Kanto region and the mountainous area in the North Kanto region due to snow cover during the measurement period of the fifth airborne monitoring survey. The reconstructed initial fallout map of the Fukushima accident derived 137 Cs was opened to the public via the database of the Center for Research in Isotopes of Environmental Dynamics, University of Tsukuba, Japan ( www.ied.tsukuba.ac.jp/∼fukushimafallout/ ). Finally, the total atmospheric deposition of Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident-derived radiocesium onto each prefecture and land uses was estimated based on the reconstructed map in this study.