2021 Volume 2021 Issue 8 Pages 77-82
Annual radiocesium monitoring was conducted from 2012 to 2019 after the accident at the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)-Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP). Radiocesium concentrations in farmland soils and crops were shown to have continuously decreased, and the morphological distribution of radiocesium in soil was also revealed. It also shown that extremely low amounts of radiocesium were transferred from the surrounding forests to agricultural land, and that the amount of radiocesium in paddy fields in mountainous areas decreased faster than would be predicted by radiocesium’s half-life. These studies are regarded as important information for determining whether crops with low radiocesium concentration can be produced. A method of evaluation of the abundance of dissolved radiocesium in the soil in forms that are easily taken up by plants has also been studied, and is expected to be used in farmlands that have resumed farming.
