Seven-year temporal variation of caesium-137 discharge inventory from the port of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant; Continuous monthly estimation of caesium-137 discharge in the period from April 2011 to June 2018

Machida, Masahiko; Yamada, Susumu; Iwata, Ayako; Otosaka, Shigeyoshi; Kobayashi, Takuya; Watanabe, Masahisa; Funasaka, Hideyuki; Morita, Takami*

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 57(8), p.939 - 950, 2020/08

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2020.1740809

After direct discharges of highly contaminated water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (1F) from April to May 2011, Kanda suggested that relatively small amounts of run-off of radionuclides from the 1F port into the Fukushima coastal region subsequently continued by his estimation method. However, the estimation period was limited to up to September 2012. Therefore, this paper estimates the discharge inventory up to June 2018. In the missing period, the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings have continued efforts to stop the discharge, and consequently, the radionuclide concentration in seawater inside the 1F port has gradually diminished. We show the monthly discharge inventory of Cs up to June 2018 by two methods, i.e., Kanda method partially improved by the authors and a more sophisticated method using Voronoi tessellation reflecting the increase in the number of monitoring points inside the 1 F port. The results show that the former always yields overestimated results compared with the latter, but the ratio of the former to the latter is less than one order of magnitude. Using these results, we evaluate the impact of the discharge inventory from the 1F port into the coastal area and radiation dose upon fish ingestion.

Monte Carlo radiation transport modelling of the current-biased kinetic inductance detector

Malins, A.; Machida, Masahiko; Vu, TheDang; Aizawa, Kazuya; Ishida, Takekazu*

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 953, p.163130_1 - 163130_7, 2020/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2019.163130

Simulation study of the effects of buildings, trees and paved surfaces on ambient dose equivalent rates outdoors at three suburban sites near Fukushima Dai-ichi

Kim, M.; Malins, A.; Yoshimura, Kazuya; Sakuma, Kazuyuki; Kurikami, Hiroshi; Kitamura, Akihiro; Machida, Masahiko; Hasegawa, Yukihiro*; Yanagi, Hideaki*

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 210, p.105803_1 - 105803_10, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2018.09.001

To improve the accuracy of simulations for air dose rates over fallout contaminated areas, the distribution of the radionuclides within the environment should be modelled realistically, e.g. considering differences in radioactivity levels between agricultural land, urban surfaces, and forest compartments. Moreover simulations should model the shielding of rays by buildings, trees and land topography. Here we outline a system for generating three dimensional models of urban and rural areas in Fukushima Prefecture. The Cs and Cs radioactivity distribution can be set flexibly across the different components of the model. The models incorporate realistic representations of local buildings, based on nine common Japanese designs, individual conifer and broadleaf trees, and the topography of the land surface. Models are generated from Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and Digital Surface Model (DSM) datasets, and refined by users assisted with ortho-photographs of target sites. Completed models are exported from the system in a format suitable for the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS) for the calculation of air dose rates and other radiological quantities. The system is demonstrated by modelling a suburban area 4 km from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that has yet to be decontaminated. Air dose rates calculated in PHITS were correlated with measurements taken across the site in a car-borne survey.

Research and development behind a computation system for 3D distributions of air dose rates in the environment; Estimating environmental radiation doses using PHITS together with remote sensing data

Kim, M.; Malins, A.; Sakuma, Kazuyuki; Kitamura, Akihiro; Machida, Masahiko; Hasegawa, Yukihiro*; Yanagi, Hideaki*

Isotope News, (765), p.30 - 33, 2019/10

https://www.jrias.or.jp/books/cat3/2019/765.html

Here we outline a system for generating three dimensional models of urban and rural areas in Fukushima Prefecture. The Cs and Cs radioactivity distribution can be set flexibly across the different components of the model. The models incorporate realistic representations of local buildings, individual conifer and broadleaf trees, and the topography of the land surface. The system is demonstrated by modelling a suburban area 4 km from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that has yet to be decontaminated. Air dose rates calculated in PHITS were correlated with measurements taken across the site in a car-borne survey.

Quantum chemical calculations for the norbadione A complexes with Cs, K, and Na in gas and aqueous phases

Suno, Hiroya; Machida, Masahiko

Chemical Physics Letters, 730, p.26 - 31, 2019/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cplett.2019.05.012

We perform quantum chemical calculations for the Cs, K, and Na complexes of norbadione A (NBA), a pigment molecule in mushrooms known to accumulate Cs. A numerical two-step approach, by Ota , is employed to examine its alkali-metal-cation complexation selectivity in aqueous solutions. Applying it to the neutral, di- and tetra-deprotonated NBAs, we confirm that the complexation selectivity on Cs emerges only in high pHs, in which the di-protonated NBA dominates, in agreement with experimental results. This is the first demonstration of the approach for a biological molecule whose selectivity is known to be anomalous.

Status of study of long-term assessment of transport of radioactive contaminants in the environment of Fukushima (FY2018)

Nagao, Fumiya; Niizato, Tadafumi; Sasaki, Yoshito; Ito, Satomi; Watanabe, Takayoshi; Dohi, Terumi; Nakanishi, Takahiro; Sakuma, Kazuyuki; Hagiwara, Hiroki; Funaki, Hironori; et al.

JAEA-Research 2019-002, 235 Pages, 2019/08

JAEA-Research-2019-002.pdf:21.04MB

The accident of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (hereinafter referred to 1F), Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. occurred due to the Great East Japan Earthquake, Sanriku offshore earthquake, of 9.0 magnitude and the accompanying tsunami. As a result, large amount of radioactive materials was released into the environment. Under these circumstances, JAEA has been conducting Long-term Environmental Dynamics Research concerning radioactive materials released in environment, especially migration behavior of radioactive cesium since November 2012. This report is a summary of the research results that have been obtained in environmental dynamics research conducted by JAEA in Fukushima Prefecture.

Long-term simulations of radiocesium discharge in watershed with improved radiocesium wash-off model; Applying the model to Abukuma River basin of Fukushima

Liu, X.; Machida, Masahiko; Kurikami, Hiroshi; Kitamura, Akihiro

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 203, p.135 - 146, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2019.03.001

In order to simulate the long-term migration and distribution of radiocesium after the Fukushima accident, a numerical model, Soil and Cesium Transport (SACT) based on universal soil loss equation (USLE), has been developed in previous studies. Although the SACT model's results on radiocesium discharge in 2011 are in reasonable agreement with field measurements, it fails to capture the sharp decrease of radiocesium flux in subsequent years, especially in the case of Abukuma River. We therefore have improved SACT by implementing the vertical migration and fixation of radiocesium in soil. For validation purpose, the annual average radiocesium concentration in sediments discharged from Abukuma River has been evaluated from measurement data. New model achieved much better agreement with the measurement results without parameter tuning.

Development of the ReaxFF methodology for electrolyte-water systems

Fedkin, M. V.*; Shin, Y. K.*; Dasgupta, N.*; Yeon, J.*; Zhang, W.*; van Duin, D.*; Van Duin, A. C. T.*; Mori, Kento*; Fujiwara, Atsushi*; Machida, Masahiko; et al.

Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 123(10), p.2125 - 2141, 2019/03

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.8b10453

no abstracts in English

Modelling the effect of mechanical remediation on dose rates above radiocesium contaminated land

Malins, A.; Kurikami, Hiroshi; Kitamura, Akihiro; Machida, Masahiko

Remediation Measures for Radioactively Contaminated Areas, p.259 - 272, 2019/00

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73398-2_12

Development of the evaluation tool for air dose rate in forest using a Monte Carlo radiation transport code (PHITS)

Sakuma, Kazuyuki; Niizato, Tadafumi; Kim, M.; Malins, A.; Machida, Masahiko; Yoshimura, Kazuya; Kurikami, Hiroshi; Kitamura, Akihiro; Hosomi, Masaaki*

Kankyo Hoshano Josen Gakkai-Shi, 6(3), p.145 - 152, 2018/09

We simulated air dose rates using PHITS to consider how the partitioning of radiocesium between the forest canopy, litter layer and soil layer affected air dose rates by perturbing the radiocesium source distribution between different simulations. Transferring radiocesium from the canopy to the litter layer did not affect air dose rates at 1 m above the ground when setting up the simulation with a radiocesium distribution measured in October 2015. This is because there was almost no radiocesium in the canopy at that time. However air dose rates tended to be high near the canopy, and above the canopy up to 200 m altitude, when the simulations were initiated using source distribution data applicable for August-September 2011, due to the larger amount of radiocesium in the canopy at that time. Transferring the radiocesium from the canopy to the litter layer in this case was associated with a three times increase in the air dose rate at 1 m, as the average distance between radiocesium in the forest and 1 m above the ground was shortened. In both cases radiocesium transfer from the litter layer to the underlying soil was associated with a one third to 50% reduction in air dose rates at 1 m, due to the self-shielding effect of soil.