Atmospheric resuspension of insoluble radioactive cesium bearing particles found in the difficult-to-return area in Fukushima

Tang, P.*; 北 和之*; 五十嵐 康人*; 佐藤 志彦; 畑中 恒太郎*; 足立 光司*; 木名瀬 健*; 二宮 和彦*; 篠原 厚*

Progress in Earth and Planetary Science (Internet), 9(1), p.17_1 - 17_15, 2022/03

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40645-022-00475-6

The deposition of insoluble radiocesium bearing microparticles (CsMPs), which were released from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (F1NPP) accident in March 2011, has resulted in the widespread contamination of eastern Japan. Obviously, these deposited insoluble CsMPs may become the secondary contamination sources by atmospheric migration or other environmental transferring process, however, the understanding of the transport mechanism remains non-elucidation, and the relevant evidence has not been directly provided. This study, for the first time, provides the direct evidence for the resuspension of these insoluble CsMPs to the atmosphere from (1) proximity of Cs radioactivity and resemblance of the morphology and the elemental compositions of CsMPs in the samples of soil and aerosol derived from the same sampling site, (2) the special characteristics of the resuspended CsMPs of which the ratios of Na/Si, K/Si and/or Cs/Si were smaller than those from the initially released CsMPs collected at either long distance or near F1NPP, which can be ascribed to the slowly natural corrosion of CsMPs by the loss of the small amount of soluble contents in CsMPs, and (3) high CsMPs concentration of 10 granules/gram in the surface soil of our sampling site, and high resuspension frequency of CsMPs in spring when predominant suspended particles were soil dust.