Study on soil decontamination and dose rate reduction effect

Iwamoto, Yosuke   ; Satoh, Daiki   ; Endo, Akira   ; Sakamoto, Yukio; Kureta, Masatoshi   ; Kugo, Teruhiko 

The present report discusses the effect of dose rate reduction by soil decontamination in order to make a remediation strategy for contaminated environment by radionuclides discharged by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The relation between area of soil decontamination and dose rate reduction for lands considered to be typical residences, public facilities and schools has been analyzed using the particle and heavy ion transport code PHITS, and an analytical model to assess the dose reduction rate with a simple equation was also suggested from the calculation results of PHITS. In the case of DF (Decontamination Factor) = 10 and decontamination radius = 100 m for the soil uniformly contaminated by Cs-137, the dose rate at the center of decontamination area is decreased by a factor of about five compared with the dose rate before decontamination.