Above- and belowground distribution of radiocesium released from TEPCO' FDNPP accident in the mountainous forest of Fukushima

Niizato, Tadafumi  ; Sasaki, Yoshito ; Ito, Satomi; Mitachi, Katsuaki*; Watanabe, Takayoshi 

An understanding of the environmental dynamics of radiocesium, especially Cs with long half-life of 30 years, released from the TEPCO's Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident is crucial issue to estimate future redistribution and forest-products activities of radiocesium in forested environment of Fukushima, Japan. In this paper, we discuss above- and belowground distributions of radiocesium in a Japanese cedar plantation forest based on 2015-2017 investigations. The belowground Cs occupied 90% of the total Cs inventory in the Japanese cedar forest. Most of Cs was distributed until a depth of 10 cm, where the highest Cs inventory in the fine root. This result indicates that Cs is absorbed by the tree fine root from the soil layer with inorganic elements, nutrients, and water, although its amount is very limited.