Suchergebnisse

The purpose of this study was to assess whether or not the food monitoring campaign after the Fukushima nuclear accident has been successful in reducing the number of above-limit-food from reaching the consumers. The hypothesis of this study is that the fraction of "post-market" food can be used for this purpose, when the post-market fraction in the above-limit (p') items is compared to the post-market fraction in the entity of food items (p) that have been screened for radionuclides (134Cs and 137Cs). Indeed the post-market fraction in most vegetarian produce decreased significantly in the above-limit food items (p'/p 1), indicating a much lower effectiveness of the monitoring action for beef. The author speculates that, by following the governmental monitoring manual (which gives "meat" only second priority), the sudden exceedances caught the monitoring agencies unprepared and triggered a much higher density monitoring of beef with the delay of several weeks. Even then, many above limit items reached the market (mainly because the monitoring during this period had focused on the post-market). Therefore, it is likely that some above-limit beef has been consumed by the public. For other meat products, the fraction of post-market samples was very low, which does not allow for the validation of the effectiveness of the monitoring campaign. Overall, the monitoring seemed to have been more effective for vegetarian produce than for meat. © 2015 The Author. ; CDC NIOSH Mountain and Plains Education and Research Center/T42OH009229-07 ; US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)/NRC-HQ-12-G-38-0044

1 Two major nuclear emergencies: a comparison between Chernobyl and Fukushima -- 2 Lessons learned from the Chernobyl accident -- 3 Late atmospheric effects of a nuclear accident: comparison between the Fukushima Daiichi NPP and Chernobyl accidents -- 4 Fear of Radiation – A Comparison of Germany and Japan -- 5 "The psychosocial consequences of the Fukushima disaster: What are we suffering from?" -- 6 Impact of evacuation on lifestyle activity and metabolic status following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident: Preliminary Findings -- 7 "After the meltdown: Post-Fukushima environmentalism and a nuclear energy industrial complex in Japan" -- 8 Public relations in times of nuclear emergencies: examples from a medium-sized public university and a small Austrian municipality -- 9 Fukushima live" – about the role and responsibility of the media -- 10 Teaching radioactivity: What is the goal of education? -- 11 Agriculture in Fukushima - Radiocesium contamination of agricultural products -- 12 Isotopic signatures of actinides in environmental samples contaminated by the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident -- 13 "The key role of isotopic analysis in tracing the Fukushima nuclear accident-released Pu and radiocesium isotopes in the environment" -- 14 Radioactive iodines in the atmosphere -- 15 Utilization of Radioxenon Monitoring to Aid Severe Nuclear Accident Response -- 16 Response to Nuclear Terrorism in Germany -- 17 Nuclear emergency preparedness in Germany– lessons learned from Fukushima and Chernobyl and their implementation

The impact of Chernobyl on the 137Cs activities found in wild boars in Europe, even in remote locations from the NPP, has been much greater than the impact of Fukushima on boars in Japan. Although there is great variability within the 137Cs concentrations throughout the wild boar populations, some boars in southern Germany in recent years exhibit higher activity concentrations (up to 10,000 Bq/kg and higher) than the highest 137Cs levels found in boars in the governmental food monitoring campaign (7900 Bq/kg) in Fukushima prefecture in Japan. The levels of radiocesium in boar appear to be more persistent than would be indicated by the constantly decreasing 137Cs inventory observed in the soil which points to a food source that is highly retentive to 137Cs contamination or to other radioecological anomalies that are not yet fully understood. ; CDC NIOSH Mountain and Plains Education and Research Center/T42OH009229-07 ; NRC/NRC-HQ-12-G-38-0044

Understanding the circumstances of the undeclared 2017 nuclear release of ruthenium that led to widespread detections of the radioisotope (106)Ru in the Eurasian region, and whether it derives from a civilian or military source, is of major importance for society and future improvements in nuclear safety. Until now, the released nuclear material has merely been studied by analyzing short-lived radioisotopes. Here, we report precise measurements of the stable isotopic composition of ruthenium captured in air filters before, during, and after the nuclear release, and find that the ruthenium collected during the period of the 2017 nuclear release has a non-natural isotopic composition. By comparing our results with ruthenium isotopic compositions of spent nuclear fuels, we show that the release is consistent with the isotopic fingerprints of a civilian Russian water-water energetic reactor (VVER) fuel at the end of its lifetime, and is not related to the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons.

Internal, high-dose exposure with radioiodine is known to increase the risk for thyroid cancer in children and adolescents. Ingestion of contaminated food is generally regarded a dominant route of internal exposure. We analyzed the huge data set of the post-Fukushima food monitoring campaign and deployed a conservative model for the estimation of the doses to the general public in a worst-case scenario. Our data suggest that the committed equivalent ingestion doses to the thyroids of the affected Japanese public, even in the utmost conservative approach, remained below the limit on ingestion of radioiodine in foodstuffs and beverages of 50 mSv (as thyroid equivalent dose). This level of 50 mSv is also the intervention level for the administration of stable iodine, mainly after inhalation. Our study hence suggests that, based on the food data, the internal exposure of Japanese residents was too low to cause a statistically discernible increase in thyroid cancer, even if the contribution from inhalation is taken into account. The data also indicate that the governmental efforts in the food monitoring campaign were successful and cut the thyroid doses to the public by a factor of approximately 3 compared to a scenario without any monitoring.

International audience ; On August 8, 2019, an explosion of a military missile occurred at the Nenoksa (also transcribed as Nyonoksa) Missile Test Center (Russian Federation). Russian authorities confirmed arelease of radioactive material in the course of this incident,which fueled rumors that it could have involved a nuclear-propelled missile of the Burevestnik/Skyfall type. In this study,our radioanalytical efforts are summarized searching for the"smoking gun" of the incident. These included the gamma-measurements of air filters from two vessels that were in someproximity to the event as well as one Greek high-volume airfilter. In addition, we tested the hypothesis that radioactive 42Ar may have been used to operate a radiothermal generator. If the incident had released 42Ar, it may have become detectable by measuring characteristic gamma radiation emitted from a tank containing liquefied atmospheric argon. No traces what so ever were found that could provide clues about the release. It is possible that the presumably small amounts of radionuclides released from either a small nuclear reactor or a powerful radionuclide source dispersed quickly over Russian territory to non-detectable levels before reaching any of our assayed samples.

International audience ; On August 8, 2019, an explosion of a military missile occurred at the Nenoksa (also transcribed as Nyonoksa) Missile Test Center (Russian Federation). Russian authorities confirmed arelease of radioactive material in the course of this incident,which fueled rumors that it could have involved a nuclear-propelled missile of the Burevestnik/Skyfall type. In this study,our radioanalytical efforts are summarized searching for the"smoking gun" of the incident. These included the gamma-measurements of air filters from two vessels that were in someproximity to the event as well as one Greek high-volume airfilter. In addition, we tested the hypothesis that radioactive 42Ar may have been used to operate a radiothermal generator. If the incident had released 42Ar, it may have become detectable by measuring characteristic gamma radiation emitted from a tank containing liquefied atmospheric argon. No traces what so ever were found that could provide clues about the release. It is possible that the presumably small amounts of radionuclides released from either a small nuclear reactor or a powerful radionuclide source dispersed quickly over Russian territory to non-detectable levels before reaching any of our assayed samples.