Behavior of Suspended Sediments with Radionuclide in the Paddy Field, Fukushima Japan

After the nuclear reactor accident in Fukushima on March 11, 2011, huge amounts of radionuclide such as Caesium-137, which is an artificial radionuclide with a half-life of 30.17 years, has been produced. Most of the fallen Cs-137 infiltrated into soil together with rainfall and was absorbed by soil sediments. The potential concentration of radionuclides into paddy field, as investigated in this study, has consequency on health, agriculture and remediation of contaminated areas. Paddy field typically are flat, surrounded by dams (10-50 cm)delimiting small pools with a water level of approximately20cm. Therefore, they can potentially catch huge amounts of suspended sediments from incoming rivers. However, recent studies suggested the paddy field can be a source of suspended sediments in some conditions. In this study, we intended to investigate the characteristics of Cs137 associated to sediment into paddy field as well as its incoming and outgoing and flux of that in paddy field. The study site was set on the Yoshiguchi, Kawamata-cho, Fukushima prefecture(N 37 35' 26.15", E140 38' 14.97"). This place is located 30km from the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactor. Two plots were set: One was tillaged as usual (plot UE, 30x17m), while the upper 5 to 10 cm of the other plot's surface was scraped before tillage.(plot ST, 43x17m). The lower part of each plot has a Parshall flume with water gauge, turbidimeter and rain gauge. After tillage, water was put into the plot field and rice seedlings were transplanted. Every week we corrected a suspended sediment samples and measured Cs137 concentration. At the plot ST, out flow of the Cs137 density was less than 35% of that of UE plot.