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Assessment of environmental radiation monitoring data inHungary following the Fukushima accident

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2013

Zs. Homoki
Affiliation:
Frédéric Joliot-Curie National Research Institute for Radiobiology & Radiohygiene, HU-1221 Budapest, Anna u. 5., Hungary
Zs. Déri
Affiliation:
RAMDAN Laboratory, Miskolc, Hungary
N. Fülöp
Affiliation:
Frédéric Joliot-Curie National Research Institute for Radiobiology & Radiohygiene, HU-1221 Budapest, Anna u. 5., Hungary
M. Kelemen
Affiliation:
RAMDAN Laboratory, Szekszárd, Hungary
J. K. Kónyi
Affiliation:
Frédéric Joliot-Curie National Research Institute for Radiobiology & Radiohygiene, HU-1221 Budapest, Anna u. 5., Hungary
É.O. Laca
Affiliation:
RAMDAN Laboratory, Gyor, Hungary
Gy. Szabó
Affiliation:
Frédéric Joliot-Curie National Research Institute for Radiobiology & Radiohygiene, HU-1221 Budapest, Anna u. 5., Hungary
Á. Ugron
Affiliation:
Frédéric Joliot-Curie National Research Institute for Radiobiology & Radiohygiene, HU-1221 Budapest, Anna u. 5., Hungary
I. Turai
Affiliation:
Frédéric Joliot-Curie National Research Institute for Radiobiology & Radiohygiene, HU-1221 Budapest, Anna u. 5., Hungary

Abstract

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The unusually strong earthquake in Japan on 11 March 2011 and the following extremetsunami caused enormous damage in the buildings of Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant(NPP) situated on the Pacific coastline of Japan. The accident led to the release of alarge amount of radioactive material into the environment. According to the measurementsof the Radiological Monitoring and Data Acquisitions Network (RAMDAN) the radioactiveplume reached Hungary on 24 March 2011. The main volatile fission products –131I, 134Cs, and 137Cs radioisotopes – were measurable in aerosoland fallout samples in Hungary. Their activity concentration in air reached the maximumvalue in the last days of March and returned to the background level in the first half ofMay. As a consequence of respiration of contaminated air, a maximum of 1 Bq per capita of131I could be accumulated in the thyroid gland of the Hungarian population during thegiven period. The calculated upper limits of the committed effective dose from inhalationof 131I were 4 nSv and 10 nSv to the Hungarian adults and infants,respectively. These values are a hundred thousand times less than the annual radiationdose from natural sources to the Hungarian population. The radiation dose from radioactivecaesium isotopes originating from Fukushima was even less, around 1 nSv on average, toHungarian residents. No health deterioration can be expected from this radiationburden.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, 2013

References

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