Radiation monitoring using an unmanned helicopter in the evacuation zone around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Sanada, Yukihisa   ; Kondo, Atsuya*; Sugita, Takeshi*; Nishizawa, Yukiyasu; Yuki, Yoichi*; Ikeda, Kazutaka*; Shoji, Yasunori*; Torii, Tatsuo  

The Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011 generated a series of large tsunami waves that resulted serious damage to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and a large amount of radioactive materials were discharged from the NPP to the environment. In recent years, technologies for an unmanned helicopter have been developed and applied to various fields. In expectation of the application of the unmanned helicopter to airborne radiation monitoring, we had developed a radiation monitoring system. Then, we measured the radiation level by using unmanned helicopter in soil contaminated areas by radioactive cesium emitted from the NPP to evaluate ambient dose-rate distribution around the areas. Here, we reports on the measurement technique and the result.