Abstract
After the accident at the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011, it became important to study radiation dynamics, assess internal radiation exposure and specify factors affecting radionuclide variation in wildlife. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate which physicochemical fractions of radiocaesium (137Cs) are absorbed from ingested material in species with high activity concentrations of 137Cs, such as wild boar. This study analysed the physicochemical fractions of 137Cs in the stomach contents of wild boar to evaluate the transfer from ingested food to muscle. The 137Cs activity concentration in muscle showed a significantly positive relationship with the 137Cs activity concentration in the exchangeable fraction, and the sum of the 137Cs activity concentrations in the exchangeable and bound to organic matter fractions. Seasonal variations were also found in the 137Cs activity concentration in the exchangeable fraction, and the sum of the 137Cs activity concentrations in the exchangeable and bound to organic matter fractions. These findings suggest that the proportions of the physicochemical fractions of 137Cs in the exchangeable and bound to organic matter fractions in the stomach contents are important factors affecting the increases and seasonal dynamics of the activity concentrations of 137Cs in wild boar muscle.
Highlights
After the accident at the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011, it became important to study radiation dynamics, assess internal radiation exposure and specify factors affecting radionuclide variation in wildlife
The results of the present study indicated that the activity concentration of 137Cs in muscle showed a strong correlation with that in (1) the activity concentration of 137Cs in the exchangeable fraction, and (2) the activity concentration of 137Cs of the sum of 137Cs in the exchangeable and bound to organic matter fractions
This suggests that the activity concentration of 137Cs in the exchangeable fraction of the ingested material, as well as that in the bound to organic matter fraction, all or part of which is considered to be digested in the stomach, are strongly related to the transfer of 137Cs to the body of a wild boar
Summary
After the accident at the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011, it became important to study radiation dynamics, assess internal radiation exposure and specify factors affecting radionuclide variation in wildlife. After the FDNPP accident, serious radionuclide fallout occurred over extensive areas of north-eastern Japan As most of this region is covered by forests (approximately 70%), the long-term 137Cs contamination of forestry ecosystems has been a concern[12]. Monitoring results in Fukushima Prefecture after the FDNPP accident showed that wild boar tended to have higher activity concentrations of 137Cs in muscle tissue than did other wildlife species[10,19]. Studies conducted after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident reported that wild boar had high activity concentrations of 137Cs, which enters the muscles after the digestion of food, and that the accumulation of 137Cs occurred over extended periods[20,21,22,23]. Seasonal changes have been reported in the activity concentration of 137Cs in wild boar muscle;[19,25] the factors that affected these fluctuations in wild boar after the FDNPP accident remain unclear
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