Identifying the riverine sources of sediment and associated radiocaesium deposited off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture

Chaboche, P.-A.*; 脇山 義史*; 高田 兵衛*; 和田 敏裕*; Evrard, O.*; 御園生 敏治   ; 尻引 武彦; 舟木 泰智 

Chaboche, P.-A.*; Wakiyama, Yoshifumi*; Takata, Hyoe*; Wada, Toshihiro*; Evrard, O.*; Misono, Toshiharu; Shiribiki, Takehiko; Funaki, Hironori

The Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident trigged by the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami in March 2011 released large quantities of radionuclides in terrestrial and marine environments of Fukushima Prefecture. Although radiocaesium activity in these environments has decreased since the accident, the secondary inputs via the rivers draining and eroding the main terrestrial radioactive plume were shown to sustain high levels of Cs in riverine and coastal sediments, which are likely deposited off the coast of the Prefecture. Accordingly, identifying the sources of sediment is required to elucidate the links between terrestrial and marine radiocaesium dynamics and to anticipate the fate of these persistent radionuclides in the environment.