Landside tritium leakage over through years from Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant and relationship between countermeasures and contaminated water

Katsumi Shozugawa; Mayumi Hori; Thomas E Johnson; Naoto Takahata; Yuji Sano; Norbert Kavasi; Sarata K Sahoo; Motoyuki Matsuo

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-76964-9

Landside tritium leakage over through years from Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant and relationship between countermeasures and contaminated water

Sci Rep. 2020 Nov 16;10(1):19925. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-76964-9.

Authors

Katsumi Shozugawa¹, Mayumi Hori², Thomas E Johnson³, Naoto Takahata⁴, Yuji Sano^{4

5}, Norbert Kavasi⁶, Sarata K Sahoo⁶, Motoyuki Matsuo⁷

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo, 153-8902, Japan. cshozu@mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
² Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo, 153-8902, Japan. cmayumi@mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp.
³ Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA.
⁴ Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute (AORI), University of Tokyo, 5-1-5, Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba, 277-8564, Japan.
⁵ Institute of Surface-Earth System Science, Tianjin University, Nankai District, Tianjin, 300072, People's Republic of China.
⁶ National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, 4-9-1 Anagawa, Inage-ku, Chiba-shi, 263-8555, Japan.
⁷ Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo, 153-8902, Japan.

Abstract

There has been tritium groundwater leakage to the land side of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plants since 2013. Groundwater was continuously collected from the end of 2013 to 2019, with an average tritium concentration of approximately 20 Bq/L. Based on tritium data published by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) (17,000 points), the postulated source of the leakage was (1) leaks from a contaminated water tank that occurred from 2013 to 2014, or (2) a leak of tritium that had spread widely over an impermeable layer under the site. Based on our results, sea side and land side tritium leakage monitoring systems should be strengthened.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't