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

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Abstract

Radiocarbon and radiocesium were measured on litter fractions (LF) collected on November 19th, 2011 at 40 km NW of the FDNPP. The 137Cs concentration is much higher in the lower fraction LFb at 226,650 ± 170 Bq kg−1 than in the upper fraction LFa at 7290 ± 40 Bq kg−1. From leaf-air 14C comparison, no excess 14C due to the FDNPP accident is detected in LFa deposited in 2010–2011. A significant 14C 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 0.5–1 year of stored carbon for deciduous leaves growth.

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Acknowledgements

This work received the financial support of CEA-CNRS-UVSQ and of the French National Research Agency (ANR) in the framework of the TOFU (ANR-11-JAPN-001) and the AMORAD (ANR-11-RSNR-0002) research projects. Thanks are due to the teams of Gif-ECHoMICADAS Radiocarbon Laboratory and of the French AMS National facility LMC14. We thanked an anonymous reviewer for very helpful comments. The authors declare no conflict of interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Domaine du CNRS, 91198, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    Martine Paterne, Olivier Evrard, Christine Hatté & Patrick J. Laceby

  2. Environmental Monitoring and Science Division, Alberta Environment and Parks, 3115 - 12 Street NE, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Patrick J. Laceby

  3. UMR GEOPS 8148 - Géosciences Paris Sud, Université Paris Sud/CNRS, Rue du Belvédère, 91400, Orsay, France

    Julius Nouet

  4. Center for Research in Isotopes and Environmental Dynamics (CRIED), University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

    Yuichi Onda

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  1. Martine Paterne
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  2. Olivier Evrard
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  4. Patrick J. Laceby
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Correspondence to Martine Paterne.

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Paterne, M., Evrard, O., Hatté, C. et al. Radiocarbon and radiocesium in litter fall at Kawamata, ~ 45 km NW from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (Japan). J Radioanal Nucl Chem 319, 1093–1101 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-018-6360-9

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