This working paper series shares research produced as part of the Fukushima Global Communication (FGC) Programme, a research initiative of the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU‐IAS). The FGC Programme applies a human security approach to examine impacts of the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident of 11 March, 2011 on people an...

This working paper series shares research produced as part of the Fukushima Global Communication (FGC) Programme, a research initiative of the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU‐IAS). The FGC Programme applies a human security approach to examine impacts of the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident of 11 March, 2011 on people an...

Published pre-Fukushima food monitoring data from 1963 to 1995 were used to study the long-term presence of 137Cs and 90Sr in rice and wheat. Effective half-lives (Teff) were calculated for rice (137Cs: 5.6 years; 90Sr: 6.7 years) and wheat (137Cs: 3.5 years; 90Sr: 6.2 years), respectively. In rice, 137Cs exhibits a longer Teff because putrefaction processes will lead to the formation of NH4+ i...

The recent events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, in Japan, have raised questions about the accumulation of radionuclides in soils, the transfer in the food chain, and the possibility for restricted land use in the foreseeable future. This article summarizes what is generally understood about the application of agricultural countermeasures as a land management option to reduce the...

Simulating carbon and water cycles of larch forests in East Asia by the BIOME-BGC model with AsiaFlux data M. Ueyama, K. Ichii, R. Hirata, K. Takagi, J. Asanuma, T. Machimura, Y. Nakai, T. Ohta, N. Saigusa, Y. Takahashi, and T. Hirano Osaka Prefecture Univ., Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, 1-1 Gakuen-cho, Naka-ku, Sakai, Osaka, Japan Fukushima Univ., Faculty of Symbiotic Sys...

This work compares the radioactive consequences due to the Chernobyl and Fukushima NPP accidents. Due to non-homogeneous features of the fallouts of radioactive isotopes in the both cases the comparison of radioactive contamination density was compared for similar administrative units – in Russia (Bryansk region, Novozibkov subregion) and in Japan (Fukushima prefecture, Namie municipality). We ...

In this research, TRACE model of Chinshan BWR/4 nuclear power plant (NPP) has been developed for the simulation and analysis of ultimate response guideline (URG).The main actions of URG are the depressurization and low pressure water injection of reactor and containment venting. This research focuses to verify the URG efficiency under Fukushima-like conditions. TRACE analysis results show that ...

Radioactive fallout; Chernobyl; Fukushima; Neural tube defects; Anencephaly; Spina bifida Abstract Possible link between radioactivity and the occurrence of neural tube defects is a long lasting debate since the Chernobyl nuclear fallout in 1986. A recent report on the incidence of neural defects in the west coast of USA, following Fukushima disaster, brought another evidence for effect of radi...

Multi-model analysis of terrestrial carbon cycles in Japan: reducing uncertainties in model outputs among different terrestrial biosphere models using flux observations K. Ichii, T. Suzuki, T. Kato, A. Ito, T. Hajima, M. Ueyama, T. Sasai, R. Hirata, N. Saigusa, Y. Ohtani, and K. Takagi Faculty of Symbiotic Systems Science, Fukushima University, 1 Kanayagawa, Fukushima, 960-1296, Japan Japan Age...

We propose an iterative method that solves a nonsmooth convex optimization problem by converting the original objective function to a once continuously differentiable function by way of Moreau-Yosida regularization. The proposed method makes use of approximate function and gradient values of the MoreauYosida regularization instead of the corresponding exact values. Under this setting, Fukushima...