Temporal trends of ¹³⁷Cs activity concentration in pond waters in the vicinity of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant

Abstract

Closed and semi-closed water bodies, such as lakes and ponds, are important water resources in Fukushima area and they are the most sensitive environments to radioactive contamination after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant accident. Wakiyama et al. (2017) investigated 137Cs activity in water and bottom sediment in four ponds; Suzuuchi (SU), Funasawa (FS), Inkyozaka (IZ), and Kashiramori (KM), within 10 km zone from the FDNPP during 2015–2016. This study follows up their observation to address longer time trends of 137Cs activity concentration in pond waters and to show speciation of 137Cs in soil and bottom sediment. Mean total 137Cs activity concentration in water ranged from 2.5 to 29 Bq L−1. There was not found steady trend in the activity concentration of total and particulate 137Cs for four ponds. The concentration of dissolved 137Cs was usually low in winter during the entire observation period in all four ponds. A tendency to a decrease in the 137Cs activity concentration in suspended sediments was found for four ponds and the decreasing rate constants, including radiological decay, on SU, FS, IZ and KM were 0.33, 0.53, 0.29 and 0.25 yr−1, respectively. The results of sequential extractions of soil and bottom sediment samples showed higher proportion of bioavailable 137Cs, i.e., exchangeable and organic bound 137Cs, in bottom sediment than in the soil.