Radiocarbon Releases from the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Accident.

Radiocarbon activities were measured in annual tree rings for the years 2009 to 2015 from Japanese cedar trees (Cryptomeria japonica) collected at six sites ranging from 2.5-38 km northwest and north of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. The 14C specific activity varied from 280.4 Bq kg-1 C in 2010 to 226.0 Bq kg-1 C in 2015. The elevated 14C activities in the 2009 and 2010 rings confirmed 14C discharges during routine reactor operations, whereas those activities that were indistinguishable from background in 2012-2015 coincided with the permanent shutdown of the reactors after the accident in 2011. High-resolution 14C analysis of the 2011 ring indicated 14C releases during the Fukushima accident. The resulted 14C activity decreased with increasing distance from the plant. The maximum 14C activity released during the period of the accident was measured 42.4 Bq kg-1 C above the natural ambient 14C background. Our findings indicate that, unlike other Fukushima-derived radionuclides, the 14C released during the accident is indistinguishable from ambient background beyond the local environment (~30 km from the plant). Furthermore, the resulting dose to the local population from the excess 14C activities is negligible compared to the dose from natural/nuclear weapons sources.

(14)C levels in the vicinity of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant prior to the 2011 accident.

A 50-year-old Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) from Okuma, ∼1 km southwest of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, was cored and each annual ring was analysed for (14)C. The (14)C specific activity values varied from 330.4 Bq kg(-1) C in the tree ring formed in 1971 to 231.2 Bq kg(-1) C in the 2014 ring. During the periods 1971-1976 and 2011-2014, the (14)C specific activities are indistinguishable from the ambient background values. However, compared with the ambient atmospheric levels, the (14)C specific activities between 1977 and 2010 are significantly elevated, clearly indicating (14)C discharges from the reactors during their normal operations. In addition, the specific activities are positively correlated with the annual electricity generation values. The excess (14)C specific activities were <36 Bq kg(-1) C, corresponding to an additional annual effective dose of <2 µSv via the food ingestion pathway in the study location. The primary wind direction is east-southeast/southeast with a frequency of ∼30%, in comparison to ∼20% frequency for the direction of the site under study (north-northeast/northeast). This would tend to indicate a similar magnitude of additional effective dose and consequently no significant radiological impact of atmospheric (14)C discharges from the FDNPP during the entire period of normal operations. Additionally, no (14)C pulse in activity can be observed in the year 2011 ring. This might be caused by a limited (14)C release from the damaged reactors during the accident or that the prevailing wind during the short period of release (11th-25th March 2011) was not in the direction of Okuma.

Radiocarbon concentration in modern tree rings from Fukushima, Japan.

A 30-year-old Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica), collected from Iwaki, Fukushima in 2014, was analyzed for the long-lived radionuclide (14)C. Values of Δ(14)C varied from 211.7‰ in 1984 to 16.9‰ in 2013. The temporal Δ(14)C variation can be described as an exponential decline, indistinguishable from the general Northern Hemisphere Zone 2 (NH Zone 2) values in the atmosphere, until at least 1994. Values of Δ(14)C for 1999 and 2004 are slightly depleted compared with NH Zone 2 values, while from 1999 to 2013 the data suggest a clear depletion with a 2-8 ppmV additional CO2 contribution from a (14)C-free (i.e. fossil carbon) source. This change coincides with local traffic increases since two nearby expressways were opened in the 1990's. In addition, the small but visible (14)C pulse observed in the 2011 tree-ring might be caused by release from the damaged reactors during the Fukushima nuclear accident.