Landside tritium leakage over through years from Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant and relationship between countermeasures and contaminated water
Katsumi Shozugawa, Mayumi Hori, Thomas E. Johnson, Naoto Takahata, Yuji Sano, Norbert Kávási, Sarata Kumar Sahoo, Motoyuki Matsuo
Abstract
There has been tritium groundwater leakage to the land side of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plants since 2013. Groundwater was continuously collected from the end of 2013 to 2019, with an average tritium concentration of approximately 20 Bq/L. Based on tritium data published by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) (17,000 points), the postulated source of the leakage was (1) leaks from a contaminated water tank that occurred from 2013 to 2014, or (2) a leak of tritium that had spread widely over an impermeable layer under the site. Based on our results, sea side and land side tritium leakage monitoring systems should be strengthened.