Changes in ambient dose equivalent rates around roads at Kawamata town after the Fukushima accident

Kinase, Sakae   ; Sato, Satoshi; Sakamoto, Ryuichi*; Yamamoto, Hideaki; Saito, Kimiaki  

To confirm that the ecological half-lives are appropriate for predicting ambient dose equivalent rates within living areas, it is important to ascertain ambient dose equivalent rates on/around roads. In this present study, radiation monitoring on/around roads at Kawamata town located about 37km northwest of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was performed using monitoring vehicles and survey meters. It was found that the ecological half-lives evaluated using changes in ambient dose equivalent rates through the vehicle-borne surveys were useful for living areas located around roads since the ecological half-lives on roads were essentially consistent with those around roads. The ambient dose equivalent rates around roads were found to be higher than those on roads as of October of 2012. As basis of dose predictions using ecological half-lives, it is necessary to make corrections to ambient dose equivalent rates through the vehicle-borne surveys against those within living areas.