Evaluation of exposure doses and reduction factor for sheltering for each nuclear site under each accident scenario (Contract research)

Hirouchi, Jun; Watanabe, Masatoshi*; Hayashi, Naho; Nagakubo, Azusa; Takahara, Shogo

JAEA-Research 2024-015, 114 Pages, 2025/03

JAEA-Research-2024-015.pdf:10.03MB

The public living in areas contaminated by nuclear accidents is exposed to radiation in the early phase and over the long term. Even under the same accident scenario, the exposure doses and the effectiveness of sheltering, which is one of the protective measures, vary depending on the meteorological condition and the surrounding environment. The exposure doses and sheltering effectiveness in the early phase are important information for the public and the national and local governments planning a nuclear emergency preparedness. In this report, we evaluate the exposure doses and sheltering effectiveness at sites with nuclear facilities in Japan using OSCAAR, one of the probabilistic risk assessment codes, for five accident scenarios: three scenarios from past severe accident studies; a scenario defined by the Nuclear Regulatory Authority; and a scenario assuming the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident. The sheltering effectiveness differed by approximately 20% among the sites. This was due to the differences in wind speed among the sites.

Effects of different accident scenarios and sites on the reduction factor used for expressing sheltering effectiveness

Hirouchi, Jun; Watanabe, Masatoshi*; Hayashi, Naho; Nagakubo, Azusa; Takahara, Shogo

Journal of Radiological Protection, 45(1), p.011506_1 - 011506_11, 2025/03

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6498/adba6e

Public living in areas contaminated by nuclear accidents is exposed to radiation in the early phase and over the long term. Even under similar accident scenarios, radiation doses and sheltering effectiveness, which is one of the protective measures, depend on meteorological conditions and the surrounding environment. Radiation doses and sheltering effectiveness in the early phase of nuclear accidents are crucial information for the public as well as national and local governments planning a nuclear emergency preparedness. In this study, we assessed radiation doses and sheltering effectiveness at sites with nuclear facilities in Japan using the Off-Site Consequence Analysis code for Atmospheric Release accidents, which is one of the level-3 probabilistic risk assessment codes, for five accident scenarios: three scenarios from past severe accident studies, a scenario defined by the Nuclear Regulation Authority in Japan, and a scenario corresponding to the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident. The sheltering effectiveness differed by up to approximately 50% among the accident scenarios at the same sites and by approximately 20%50% among sites under the same accident scenario. Differences in the radionuclide composition among the accident scenarios and the differences in wind speeds among the sites primarily caused these differences in sheltering effectiveness.

Comparison of codes for calculation of projocted radiation-induced cancer risks

Kujiraoka, Ikuo; Noguchi, Yoshihiro*; Shimada, Kazumasa; Hirouchi, Jun; Takahara, Shogo

Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 200(16-18), p.1561 - 1567, 2024/11

https://doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncae177

Lifetime Attributable Risk (LAR) of cancer induced by radiation exposures is one of the important factors for deciding about radiological protection measures or protective actions for nuclear emergency preparedness and response. In Japan, while a model for estimating LAR for the Japanese population has been developed based on epidemiological data from A-bomb survivors, a flexible projection code implementing this model needs to be developed. This study investigated the existing codes to contribute to the development of the projection code. Based on these investigations, we compared their LAR calculation results, and explored the cause of their differences.

Improvement of the resuspension model for OSCAAR using the atmosphere-soil-vegetation model SOLVEG-R (Contract research)

Nakanishi, Chika*; Ota, Masakazu; Hirouchi, Jun; Takahara, Shogo

JAEA-Research 2023-012, 29 Pages, 2024/02

JAEA-Research-2023-012.pdf:6.05MB

The OSCAAR program is a probabilistic risk assessment program for reactor accidents developed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency. To improve the model included in the OSCAAR program, which is about long-term exposure caused by the resuspension of radioactive materials deposited on soil surfaces, we calculated resuspension factors for Cs-137. The one- dimensional atmosphere-SOiL-VEGetation model, SOLVEG-R was utilized to compute resuspension factor. The wind velocity was kept constant in this study since it significantly affects particle resuspension behavior. Our calculations indicate that wind velocities below 6 m s resulted in little variation in the annual mean resuspension factor at a height of 1 m. However, as wind velocities increased above 6 m s, the resuspension factor significantly increased. The resuspension factors ranged from 10 to 10 m for wind velocities ranging from 1 m s to 7 m s.

Soil dust and bioaerosols as potential sources for resuspended Cs occurring near the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant

Ota, Masakazu; Takahara, Shogo; Yoshimura, Kazuya; Nagakubo, Azusa; Hirouchi, Jun; Hayashi, Naho; Abe, Tomohisa; Funaki, Hironori; Nagai, Haruyasu

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 264, p.107198_1 - 107198_15, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2023.107198

One of the current major radiation exposure pathways from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident-fallout is inhalation of the re-suspended Cs occurring in air. While wind-induced soil particle resuspension has been recognized as a primary mechanism of Cs resuspension, studies following the FDNPP accident suggested that fungal spores can be a significant source of the atmospheric Cs particularly in the rural areas such as difficult-to-return zone (DRZ). To elucidate the relative importance of the two resuspension phenomena, we propose a model simulating resuspension of Cs as soil particles and fungal spores, and applied it to DRZ. Our model's calculation showed that soil particle resuspension was responsible for the surface-air Cs observed during winter-spring, but could not account for the higher Cs concentrations observed in summer-autumn. The higher concentrations in the summer-autumn were in general reproduced by implementing fungal spore Cs emission, that replenished low soil particle Cs resuspension in that period. According to our model's concept, Cs accumulation in fungal spores and high spore emission rate characterized by the rural environment were likely responsible for the abundance of spore Cs in the air. It was inferred that the influence of the fungal spores on the atmospheric Cs would last longer since un-decontaminated forests still exist in DRZ.

Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses for the reduction factor of sheltering for radiation exposures

Hirouchi, Jun; Takahara, Shogo; Komagamine, Hiroshi*

Journal of Radiological Protection, 42(4), p.041503_1 - 041503_12, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6498/aca0ff

Sheltering is one of the countermeasures against radiation exposure during nuclear accidents. The effectiveness of sheltering for inhalation exposure is often expressed by the reduction factor, which is defined as the ratio of the indoor to the outdoor cumulative radioactivity concentrations or doses. The indoor concentration is mainly controlled by the air exchange rate, penetration factor, and indoor deposition rate. Meanwhile, the air exchange rate depends on surrounding environmental conditions: the wind speed, leakage area normalized by the floor area of the house, and gross building coverage ratio. In this study, the ranges of the uncertainty of the reduction factors for particles and I were investigated under various environmental conditions, and sensitivity analyses were conducted to understand the parameter with the most influence on the uncertainty of the reduction factor. From the results of the uncertainty analyses, the calculated reduction factor was highly variable depending on the environmental condition and the airtightness of the houses. The uncertainty ranges of the reduction factor for particles and I were up to 0.9 and 0.3, respectively, and were smaller for newer houses. From the results of the sensitivity analyses, the wind speed was the most influential parameter on the reduction factor. Additionally, the wind speed was less influential for the reduction factor in newer houses.

Assessment of radioactive contamination and effectiveness of remedial measures in urban environments, Report of Working Group 2, Modelling and Data for Radiological Impact Assessments (MODARIA) Programme

Boznar, M. Z.*; Charnock, T. W.*; Chouhan, S. L.*; Grsic, Z.*; Halsall, C.*; Heinrich, G.*; Helebrant, J.*; Hettrich, S.*; Kua, P.*; Mancini, F.*; et al.

IAEA-TECDOC-2001, 226 Pages, 2022/06

https://www.iaea.org/publications/15122/assessment-of-radioactive-contamination-and-effectiveness-of-remedial-measures-in-urban-environments

The IAEA organized a programme from 2012 to 2015 entitled Modelling and Data for Radiological Impact Assessments (MODARIA), which aimed to improve capabilities in the field of environmental radiation dose assessment by acquiring improved data, model testing and comparison of model inputs, assumptions and outputs, reaching a consensus on modelling philosophies, aligning approaches and parameter values, developing improved methods and exchanging information. This publication describes the activities of Working Group 2, Exposures in Contaminated Urban Environments and Effect of Remedial Measures.

Urban Working Groups in the IAEA's model testing programmes; Overview from the MODARIA I and MODARIA II programmes

Thiessen, K. M.*; Boznar, M. Z.*; Charnock, T. W.*; Chouhan, S. L.*; Federspiel, L.; Grai, B.*; Grsic, Z.*; Helebrant, J.*; Hettrich, S.*; Hulka, J.*; et al.

Journal of Radiological Protection, 42(2), p.020502_1 - 020502_8, 2022/06

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6498/ac5173

Assessment of radiation doses to off-site responders in TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Accident

Shimada, Kazumasa; Iijima, Masashi*; Watanabe, Masatoshi*; Takahara, Shogo

Proceedings of Asian Symposium on Risk Assessment and Management 2021 (ASRAM 2021) (Internet), 17 Pages, 2021/10

The radiation doses received by the off-site responders in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident were assessed. Atmospheric dispersion simulation was conducted with the source term of the previous research to calculate the atmospheric concentration and ground surface deposition in the municipalities where off-site responders actives. The external exposure dose from cloudshine and groundshine, the internal exposure dose due to inhalation of radioactive plume and resuspended radio nuclei, and the temporal and spatial distribution within each municipality were assessed. As a result of comparing the assessed values of the external exposure dose with the measured values of the personal dosimeter, the measured values were within the assessed range. As a result of our assessment with internal dose exposure, if the exposures occurred without protective measures, the potential daily effective dose in the period between 12 and 31 March 2011 were several tens mSv per day or more in the relatively high dose area. Therefore, to keep the doses received by the responders below the reference level of 20 mSv recommended by the ICRP, it is necessary to ensure that the protective measures for internal exposures such as masks are taken, and to manage the time spent for their activity at least daily.

Penetration factor and indoor deposition rate of elementary and particulate iodine in a Japanese house for assessing the effectiveness of sheltering for radiation exposures

Hirouchi, Jun; Takahara, Shogo; Komagamine, Hiroshi*; Kato, Nobuyuki*; Matsui, Yasuto*; Yoneda, Minoru*

Journal of Radiological Protection, 41(3), p.S139 - S149, 2021/09

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6498/ac025b

Sheltering is one of the countermeasures for protection against radiation exposures in nuclear accidents. The effectiveness of sheltering is often expressed by the reduction factor, that is the ratio of the indoor to the outdoor cumulative radioactivity concentrations or doses. The indoor concentration is mainly controlled by the air exchange rate, penetration factor, and indoor deposition rate. The penetration factor and indoor deposition rate depend on the surface and opening materials. We investigated experimentally these parameters of I and particles. The experiment was performed in two apartment houses, three single-family houses, and chambers. The obtained penetration factor ranged 0.3 1 for particles of 0.3 1 m and 0.15 0.7 for I depending on the air exchange rate. The indoor deposition rate for a house room ranged 0.007 0.2 h for particles of 0.31 m and 0.21.5 h for I depending on floor materials.