Biokinetics of radiocesium depuration in marine fish inhabiting the vicinity of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant

Abstract

Radiocesium (134Cs and 137Cs) released from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (1FNPP) accident contaminated the fish inhabiting the port of 1FNPP. Radiocesium concentrations in some fishes, especially rockfish, have still remained at elevated levels, while concentrations in olive flounder have decreased in 2015 to the level which is close to the Japanese regulatory limit for seafood products (0.1 kBq kg-wet−1). In this study a dynamic food chain transfer model was applied to reconstruct radiocesium levels in olive flounder residing around the port area. As a result, the observed 137Cs concentrations in olive flounder collected from the port could be explained by the simulated values in the fish, using the seawater level records at the port entrance. The reconstructed maximum 134+137Cs concentration in olive flounder inhabiting the port area was 72 kB kg-wet−1 in July 2011 and the ecological half-life (EHL) was estimated as being 180 days during the period of 2014–2015. Short term simulation which assumed that the coastal water fish swam into the port during 1 month, demonstrated that the radiocesium level in the olive flounder may become equivalent to the depurated level in the fish which were initially contaminated. This result indicated that the increase of radiocesium levels in wandering fish is unlikely to change total radiocesium concentrations in the olive flounder. In this sense, the radiocesium levels in the olive flounder of the port area can be interpreted as being convergent in 2015, regardless of the differences in their contamination histories. On the other hand, the higher 137Cs concentrations in fat greenling, compared to the olive flounder, can be attributed to a history of exposure to the contaminated seawater and food at the inner area of the port, such as the shallow draft quay and seawall area. As a result of the reconstructed initial higher radiocesium concentration, constrained by exposure history at the inner area of the port, the depurated radiocesium concentration in fat greenling is still likely to be greater than the regulatory level in the port area in 2015.