Dose estimation in the recycling of removed soil for land reclamation

Shimada, Asako ; Nemoto, Hiromi*; Sawaguchi, Takuma ; Takeda, Seiji 

After treatments such as sieve classification and washing of decontamination soil taken in Fukushima prefecture, recycling of the treated soil in which radioactivity concentration level is relatively low to public engineering works is invented to reduce the amount of the decontamination soil that must be disposed of. In the present study, dose estimation for workers and the public was conducted from the viewpoint of application of recycling material of decontamination soil for land reclamation by considering exposure pathways from the construction to the servicing of the land as a greenery-covered area. In the case of revegetation with trees, uptake of Cs into trees was considered and the exposure from trees, trimmed or thinned trees, and organic deposit made from litter fall were evaluated. From the results, the concentration levels of radiocesium, Cs and Cs, for which the annual effective exposure dose does not exceed 1 mSv/y was calculated. In addition, the thickness of the cover soil required to maintain the exposure dose lower than 10 Sv/y for the public during servicing was ascertained. Furthermore, disasters were considered; for instance, by considering that tsunamis, fires, and concentrated heavy rain can increase exposure doses based on changes in the conditions of the reclamation land, we confirmed that the additional exposure dose during disaster and rehabilitation is lower than 1 mSv/y. Based on these evaluation results, we determined the concentration levels amenable to recycling.