Experts: Fukushima disaster ‘globally enhanced’ cesium-137 levels in air by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude — Radioactive plume that reached Europe “contaminated the land, and as a consequence the whole food chain”
ENENews.com
August 4th, 2014
Environmental Science & Technology (American Chemical Society), Published Sept. 3, 2013: Size Distributions of Airborne Radionuclides from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident at Several Places in Europe […] Before the FDNPP accident, average 137Cs levels were typically of 1 μBq m−3 in Central Europe and lower average values (<0.3 μBq m−3) were characteristic of northern, western and southern Europe. […] During the passage of contaminated air masses from Fukushima, airborne 137Cs levels were globally enhanced by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude. Collaboration Network on EuroArctic Environmental Radiation Protection and Research (pdf), March 12, 2014: Traces of Fukushima nuclear power plant accident observed in the EuroArctic region [...] As it can be seen from the figure the computer model underestimates the 131I concentrations [...] As seen from Fig. 4 [Comparison between observed 137Cs concentrations and results of EEMEP dispersion model (MET, unpublished study)], there is a good agreement between measured and calculated arrival times, but calculated concentrations are at least one order of magnitude too low compared to measurements. Thus, as in the case with modeling of 131I concentrations with Finnish SILAM, the model used in Norway also underestimated 137Cs concentrations. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, Volume 299, Issue 1, January 2014: Radionuclides from Fukushima accident in Thessaloniki, Greece and Milano, Italy [...] After the Fukushima accident a number of dose assessments have been carried out for the populations living in the north-west fallout zone of the Fukushima nuclear accident, by MEXT in Japan, DOE/NNSA in USA, IRSN in France, with quite similar projected dose values. In the more affected regions the estimated projected doses reach particularly significant values, some of them even above 200 mSv, which are no longer in the range of “low doses” according to UNSCEAR 2000 definition. The level of external projected doses in upcoming years is up to 4 Sv lifetime in the high-contaminated areas of 30 MBq m-² of 137,134Cs. On the contrary, the radioactive plume that reached European countries has only small amounts of radioactive isotopes. However, these isotopes, that were observed at low-level in the air boundary layer, were deposited by wet and dry deposition and have contaminated the land, and as a consequence the whole food chain. So the radioisotopes of cesium and iodine were found above their detection limits in all environmental samples but very far below levels of concern. Based on the observed values in our regions the total doses have been calculated.
