Radiocarbon and radiocesium in litter fall at Kawamata, to 45 km NW from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (Japan)

Martine Paterne (1, 2) , O. Evrard (1, 3) , Christine Hatté (1, 2) , Patrick Laceby (1, 4) , Julius Nouet (5) , Yuichi Onda (6)

1 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
2 GEOTRAC - Géochrononologie Traceurs Archéométrie
3 GEDI - Géochimie Des Impacts
4 Alberta Environm & Pk, Environm Monitoring & Sci Div, 3115-12 St NE, Calgary, AB, Canada
5 GEOPS - Géosciences Paris Sud
6 Université de Tsukuba = University of Tsukuba

Radiocarbon and radiocesium were measured on litter fractions (LF) collected on November 19th, 2011 at 40km NW of the FDNPP. The Cs-137 concentration is much higher in the lower fraction LFb at 226,650 +/- 170Bqkg(-1) than in the upper fraction LFa at 7290 +/- 40Bqkg(-1). From leaf-air C-14 comparison, no excess C-14 due to the FDNPP accident is detected in LFa deposited in 2010-2011. A significant C-14 difference of 1.4% exists between pine needles and deciduous leaves in LFb, which may be due either to post-depositional processes or to a turnover time of 0.5-1year of stored carbon for deciduous leaves growth.

Mots clés: Panoply

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]; Sciences de la Terre

Martine Paterne, O. Evrard, Christine Hatté, Patrick Laceby, Julius Nouet, et al.. Radiocarbon and radiocesium in litter fall at Kawamata, to 45 km NW from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (Japan). Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 2019, 319 (3), pp.1093-1101. ⟨10.1007/s10967-018-6360-9⟩. ⟨hal-02087713⟩