Measurements of Fission Products from the Fukushima Daiichi Incident in San Francisco Bay Area Air Filters, Automobile Filters, Rainwater, and Food

摘要

A variety of environmental media were analyzed for fallout radionuclidesresulting from the Fukushima nuclear accident by the Low Background Facility(LBF) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in Berkeley, CA.Monitoring activities in air and rainwater began soon after the onset of theMarch 11, 2011 tsunami and are reported here through the end of 2012. Observedfallout isotopes include $^{131}$I, $^{132}$I,$^{132}$Te,$^{134}$Cs,$^{136}$Cs, and $^{137}$Cs. Isotopes were measured on environmental airfilters, automobile filters, and in rainwater. An additional analysis ofrainwater in search of $^{90}$Sr is also presented. Last, a series of foodmeasurements conducted in September of 2013 are included due to extended mediaconcerns of $^{134, 137}$Cs in fish. Similar measurements of fallout from theChernobyl disaster at LBNL, previously unpublished publicly, are also presentedhere as a comparison with the Fukushima incident. All measurements presentedalso include natural radionuclides found in the environment to provide a basisfor comparison.