Online ISSN : 1884-7560
Print ISSN : 0367-6110
ISSN-L : 0367-6110

ジャーナル フリー

2016 年 51 巻 1 号 p. 19-26

The accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011 caused the release of large amounts of tellurium (Te) isotopes, with radio-cesium (Cs) and radio-iodine (I), into the environment. The total amounts of 127mTe and 129mTe released from the nuclear power plant were estimated as 1.1 × 1015 and 3.3 × 1015 Bq, respectively. At the location where the deposition of 129mTe was relatively large, the ratio of the radioactivity of 129mTe to that of 137Cs reportedly reached 1.49 on June 14, 2011. Since 127mTe has a relatively long half-life, it possibly contributed to the internal radiation dose at the early stage after the accident. In this paper, the ratio of the committed effective dose of 127mTe to that of 137Cs after the oral ingestion of rice was estimated by using various reported parameters. The relevant parameters are: 1) the deposition ratios of 127mTe, 129mTe, and 134Cs to 137Cs; 2) the deposition ratio of 127mTe to 129mTe; 3) the transfer factors of Te and Cs; and 4) the effective dose coefficients for 127mTe, 129mTe, 134Cs, and 137Cs. The ratios of the committed effective dose of 127mTe to that of 137Cs were calculated for adults after a single ingestion at the time of the rice harvest. The ratio was 0.45 where the 129mTe/137Cs in the soil was higher and 0.05 where the level of 129mTe/137Cs was average. The ratio of the committed effective dose from 129mTe and 127mTe to that from 137Cs for one year reached 0.55 and 9.03 at the location where the level of 129mTe/137Cs in the soil was higher. These data could indicate that radioactive Te should not be disregarded in reconstructing the internal radiation dose from food for one year after the accident.