3,000,000 Bq/m2 of cesium from the dam in Fukushima

 

Following up this article..Fukushima local gov is dumping radioactive mud from decontamination to Abukuma river

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology found out high level of cesium is concentrated in the bottom of the lake called Horai dam. This dam is to generate electricity, located in Nihonmatsu (60km North west to Fukushima plants), where is in Abukuma river.
Prof. Onda from Tsukuba university reported the mud sample taken in 20 cm deep underground of the bottom of the lake contained 3,000,000 Bq/m2 of cesium, where other samples taken in 4 other reservoirs around Horai lake showed 200,000~400,000 Bq/m2 of cesium.(July and August in 2011)  3,000,000 Bq/m2 is as contaminated as soil of 20km area.

Prof. Onda explains, cesium doesn’t melt into the water. Water of downstream is not harmful to drink.
However, they also found out that when the soil is highly contaminated, water of the downstream river is also highly contaminated, which proves Prof. Onda is wrong. Cesium was attached to the small swimming sand, which is smaller than 0.1mm diameter.
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism states there is the risk of the contaminated mud to flow into the downstream in flood, but there is no plan of decontamination at the moment.

Other nuclides such as strontium or plutonium were not tested.

Source
放射性物質:ダム底の泥に 雨で川へ流れ濃縮か 福島
阿武隈川中流域にある発電用の「蓬萊(ほうらい)ダム」(福島県二本松市、福島市、貯水量約380万立方メートル)の底の泥に大量の放射性セシウムが蓄積していることが13日、文部科学省の調査で判明した。付近の貯水池と比べ10倍の濃度だった。東京電力福島第1原発事故で土壌に蓄積したセシウムが、雨で土と一緒に川へ流れ込み、ダムでせき止められて濃縮したとみられる。

同省の委託で調査した恩田裕一筑波大教授(水文学)が同日のシンポジウムで報告した。恩田教授は昨年7~8月、原発の西北西約60キロにある蓬萊ダムの底の泥を深さ20センチまで採取、乾燥後のセシウム濃度を周辺の4カ所の貯水池の泥と比べた。その結果、蓬萊ダムの泥は1平方メートル当たり約3000キロベクレルで、原発から半径20キロ圏内の警戒区域内の土壌汚染濃度に相当した。他の貯水池の同200~400キロベクレルに比べ約10倍あった。

恩田教授によると、蓄積した土壌に含まれるセシウムは再び水に溶け出しにくく、下流の水を飲用などに使うのには問題ないという。ただし、「ダム湖の魚などに影響する恐れがある」として、調査を続ける。

ダムを含む阿武隈川を管理する国土交通省東北地方整備局(仙台市)の担当者は「洪水時にダムから下流へ土壌が流出する恐れもあり、いずれは除染をしなければならないが、まだ検討していない」と話す。

また、土壌中のセシウム濃度が高いほど、下流域の河川中のセシウム濃度が高くなることも分かった。大半のセシウムは、直径0.1ミリ以下の細かい「浮遊砂」に付着して流れていた。降雨や水田の代かきが原因で流出したとみられる。【野田武】

About this site

This website updates the latest news about the Fukushima nuclear plant and also archives the past news from 2011. Because it's always updated and added live, articles, categories and the tags are not necessarily fitted in the latest format.
I am the writer of this website. About page remains in 2014. This is because my memory about 311 was clearer than now, 2023, and I think it can have a historical value. Now I'm living in Romania with 3 cats as an independent data scientist.
Actually, nothing has progressed in the plant since 2011. We still don't even know what is going on inside. They must keep cooling the crippled reactors by water, but additionally groundwater keeps flowing into the reactor buildings from the broken parts. This is why highly contaminated water is always produced more than it can circulate. Tepco is planning to officially discharge this water to the Pacific but Tritium is still remaining in it. They dilute this with seawater so that it is legally safe, but scientifically the same amount of radioactive tritium is contained. They say it is safe to discharge, but none of them have drunk it.

Categories

March 2012
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031