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      Managing Groundwater Radioactive Contamination at the Daiichi Nuclear Plant

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          Abstract

          The Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 severely damaged three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, leading to a major release of radiation into the environment. Groundwater flow through these crippled reactors continues to be one of the main causes of contamination and associated transport of radionuclides into the Pacific Ocean. In this context, a number of strategies are being implemented to manage radioactive pollution of the water resources at the nuclear plant site. Along with water treatment and purification, it is critical to restrict the groundwater flow to and from the reactors. Thus, the devised strategies combine walls containment, bores abstraction, infiltration control, and the use of tanks for the temporary storage of contaminated waters. While some of these techniques have been previously applied in other environments, they have never been tested at such a large scale. Therefore, their effectiveness remains to be seen. The present manuscript presents an overview of the methods being currently implemented to manage groundwater contamination and to mitigate the impact of hydrological pathways in the dispersion of radionuclides at Fukushima.

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          Most cited references12

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          Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality

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            Impact of Fukushima-derived radiocesium in the western North Pacific Ocean about ten months after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant accident.

            We measured vertical distributions of radiocesium ((134)Cs and (137)Cs) at stations along the 149°E meridian in the western North Pacific during winter 2012, about ten months after the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP1) accident. The Fukushima-derived (134)Cs activity concentration and water-column inventory were largest in the transition region between 35 and 40°N approximately due to the directed discharge of the contaminated water from the FNPP1. The bomb-derived (137)Cs activity concentration just before the FNPP1 accident was derived from the excess (137)Cs activity concentration relative to the (134)Cs activity concentration. The water-column inventory of the bomb-derived (137)Cs was largest in the subtropical region south of 35°N, which implies that the Fukushima-derived (134)Cs will also be transported from the transition region to the subtropical region in the coming decades. Mean values of the water-column inventories decay-corrected for the Fukushima-derived (134)Cs and the bomb-derived (137)Cs were estimated to be 1020 ± 80 and 820 ± 120 Bq m(-2), respectively, suggesting that in winter 2012 the impact of the FNPP1 accident in the western North Pacific Ocean was nearly the same as that of nuclear weapons testing. Relationship between the water-column inventory and the activity concentration in surface water for the radiocesium is essential information for future evaluation of the total amount of Fukushima-derived radiocesium released into the North Pacific Ocean. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.
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              Fukushima remediation: status and overview of future plans.

              The 2011 accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, Japan, released large quantities of volatile radionuclides, requiring evacuation of a 20 km zone around the reactor site plus additional areas where fallout was particularly high. After decay of shorter-lived isotopes, off-site contamination is now dominated by (134/137)Cs, with ∼1800 km(2) having external gamma doses above 5 mSv y(-1). Although the significance for health of such radiation levels is low, there has been a Government decision that these areas will be cleaned up to reduce exposure and allow displaced residents to return home. After initial tests at 2 sites, a further 11 demonstration remediation projects have been carried out. This work is coordinated by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), with MCM providing support in quality assessment of radioactivity measurements, evaluating the success of different clean-up methods and developing guidelines for the next multi-year phase of large-scale remediation. This work provides a unique perspective on the progress of remediation, experience gained and issues that still need to be resolved - particularly associated with management of the huge quantities of waste generated. This knowledge base will also be important for the bigger challenge of on-site remediation, which will require decades to complete. Additionally, experience and tools may be transferable to cleaning nuclear legacy sites around the world, a problem that is often forgotten in the debate on national nuclear waste management. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Academic Editor
                Journal
                Int J Environ Res Public Health
                Int J Environ Res Public Health
                ijerph
                International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
                MDPI
                1661-7827
                1660-4601
                21 July 2015
                July 2015
                : 12
                : 7
                : 8498-8503
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, Geo-resources and Environment Institute, Groundwater Research Group, Ibaraki-ken, Tsukuba 305-8567, Japan; E-Mail: marui.01@ 123456aist.go.jp
                [2 ]CONICET (Argentina National Scientific and Technical Research Council), San Luis National University, FCFMyN, Department of Geology, Ejercito de los Andes 950, San Luis 5700, Argentina
                Author notes
                [* ]Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: adgallardo@ 123456geowater.com.au ; Tel.: +54-2652-424-027; Fax: +54-2652-424-027.
                Article
                ijerph-12-08498
                10.3390/ijerph120708498
                4515732
                26197330
                0ed89df1-b78f-4adb-ba79-d40e437d4031
                © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

                This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

                History
                : 16 June 2015
                : 16 July 2015
                Categories
                Communication

                Public health
                groundwater contamination,management,radioactivity,control measures
                Public health
                groundwater contamination, management, radioactivity, control measures

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