Decontamination of radioactivity from contaminated vegetables derived from the Fukushima nuclear accident

Many kinds of vegetables were contaminated by a huge amount of radioactivity, such as ¹³¹I or ¹³⁷Cs, derived from the Fukushima nuclear accident. The concentration of radioactivity in contaminated vegetables was higher than the value of the legal limit for shipment, therefore, we attempted to identify a simple and effective removal method for contaminated farm products to ensure the relief of farmers and the security of consumers. First, the radioactivity distribution and adhesion state of contaminated vegetables were investigated by an imaging plate (IP) image. As a result, there were two types of contamination, spot type or spread type, of vegetables. The removal of radioactivity by physical or chemical methods was investigated. As a result, radioactivity removal by water washing showed no significant difference between boiling water and cold water. There was no significant difference between hand washing and running water washing. The result of chemical removal showed that reducing agents removed radioactivity from vegetables by 70–80% for ¹³¹I and more than 80% for ¹³⁷Cs. In particular, ascorbic acid is promising as a safe and versatile option.     

从“福岛第一核电站事故”看我国核能利用的核安全

文章简要说明了福岛第一核电站事故的起因、发展和后果,并对核电站全厂断电、反应堆压力容器及安全壳超压、氢爆等导致事故恶化的原因作了分析.文章还就导致福岛核事故的相关因素与我国核电站的安全设计及防范对策进行了分析比较.在吸取福岛核事故的经验教训方面,文章提出了若干值得引发关注的启示,作为我国在建和在役核电站的改进,以及新设计核电站的参考.文章还就我国能源的状况,核能发展的必要性,以及核能发展的方针进行了探讨.     

从“福岛第一核电站事故”看我国核能利用的核安全

文章简要说明了福岛第一核电站事故的起因、发展和后果,并对核电站全厂断电、反应堆压力容器及安全壳超压、氢爆等导致事故恶化的原因作了分析.文章还就导致福岛核事故的相关因素与我国核电站的安全设计及防范对策进行了分析比较.在吸取福岛核事故的经验教训方面,文章提出了若干值得引发关注的启示,作为我国在建和在役核电站的改进,以及新设计核电站的参考.文章还就我国能源的状况,核能发展的必要性,以及核能发展的方针进行了探讨.     

Radioactive contamination of the atmosphere of Cairo,Egypt, from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant accident

Radioactive contamination in air dust particles of Cairo atmosphere from the Fukushima accident was detected by the gamma-ray spectroscopy technique. Analysis of the spectra obtained by using an High-Purity Germanium detector showed that there were some traces of ¹³¹I and ^{134, 137}Cs. Estimate and study of concentration of those radionuclides were done over a period of about 5 months after the accident. Comparison with corresponding results in different countries all over the world has been performed.     

Continuously improving safety of nuclear installations: An approach to be reinforced after the Fukushima accident

After the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 and the Chernobyl accident in 1986, the Fukushima accident shows that the probability of a core meltdown accident in an LWR (Light Water Reactor) has been largely underestimated. The consequences of such an accident are unacceptable: except in the case of TMI2 (Three Mile Island 2) large areas around the damaged plants are contaminated for decades and populations have to be relocated for long periods. This article presents the French approach which consists in improving continuously the safety of the Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) on the basis of lessons learned from operating experience and from the progress in R&D (Research and Development). It details the key role played by IRSN (Institut de radioprotection et de sûreté nucléaire), the French TSO (Technical and scientific Safety Organization), and shows how the Fukushima accident contributes to this approach in improving NPP robustness. It concludes on the necessity to keep on networking TSOs, to share knowledge as well as R&D resources, with the ultimate goal of enhancing and harmonizing nuclear safety worldwide.     

Internal radiocesium contamination of adults and children in Fukushima 7 to 20 months after the Fukushima NPP accident as measured by extensive whole-body-counter surveys

The Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP accident contaminated the soil of densely-populated regions in Fukushima Prefecture with radioactive cesium, which poses significant risks of internal and external exposure to the residents. If we apply the knowledge of post-Chernobyl accident studies, internal exposures in excess of a few mSv/y would be expected to be frequent in Fukushima.Extensive whole-body-counter surveys (n = 32,811) carried out at the Hirata Central Hospital between October, 2011 and November, 2012, however show that the internal exposure levels of residents are much lower than estimated. In particular, the first sampling-bias-free assessment of the internal exposure of children in the town of Miharu, Fukushima, shows that the ¹³⁷Cs body burdens of all children (n = 1,383, ages 6–15, covering 95% of children enrolled in town-operated schools) were below the detection limit of 300 Bq/body in the fall of 2012. These results are not conclusive for the prefecture as a whole, but are consistent with results obtained from other municipalities in the prefecture, and with prefectural data.     

Whole-body counter surveys of over 2700 babies and small children in and around Fukushima Prefecture 33 to 49 months after the Fukushima Daiichi NPP accident

BABYSCAN, a whole-body counter (WBC) for small children was developed in 2013, and units have been installed at three hospitals in Fukushima Prefecture. Between December, 2013 and March, 2015, 2707 children between the ages of 0 and 11 have been scanned, and none had detectable levels of radioactive cesium. The minimum detectable activities (MDAs) for ¹³⁷Cs were ≤3.5 Bq kg⁻¹ for ages 0–1, decreasing to ≤2 Bq kg⁻¹ for ages 10–11. Including the ¹³⁴Cs contribution, these translate to a maximum committed effective dose of ∼16 µSv y⁻¹ even for newborn babies, and therefore the internal exposure risks can be considered negligibly small.Analysis of the questionnaire filled out by the parents of the scanned children regarding their families’ food and water consumption revealed that the majority of children residing in the town of Miharu regularly consume local or home-grown rice and vegetables, while in Minamisoma, a majority avoid tap water and produce from Fukushima. The data show, however, no correlation between consumption of locally produced food and water and the children’s body burdens.     

Whole-body counter surveys of Miharu-town school children for four consecutive years after the Fukushima NPP accident

Comprehensive whole-body counter surveys of Miharu-town school children have been conducted for four consecutive years, in 2011–2014. This represents the only long-term sampling-bias-free study of its type conducted after the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident. For the first time in 2014, a new device called the Babyscan, which has a low ^134/137Cs MDA of <50 Bq/body, was used to screen the children shorter than 130 cm. No child in this group was found to have detectable level of radiocesium. Using the MDAs, upper limits of daily intake of radiocesium were estimated for each child. For those screened with the Babyscan, the upper intake limits were found to be ≲1 Bq/day for ¹³⁷Cs. Analysis of a questionnaire filled out by the children’s parents regarding their food and water consumption shows that the majority of Miharu children regularly consume local and/or home-grown rice and vegetables. This however does not increase the body burden.     

Comprehensive whole-body counter surveys of Miharu-town school children for three consecutive years after the Fukushima NPP accident

Comprehensive whole-body counter surveys covering over 93% of the school children between the ages of 6 and 15 in Miharu town, Fukushima Prefecture, have been conducted for three consecutive years, in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Although the results of a questionnaire indicate that approximately 60% of the children have been regularly eating local or home-grown rice, in 2012 and 2013 no child was found to exceed the ¹³⁷Cs detection limit of 300 Bq/body.     

Fission products from the damaged Fukushima reactor observed in Hungary

Fission products, especially ¹³¹I, ¹³⁴Cs and ¹³⁷Cs, from the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (NPP) were detected in many places worldwide shortly after the accident caused by natural disaster. To observe the spatial and temporal variation of these isotopes in Hungary, aerosol samples were collected at five locations from late March to early May 2011: Institute of Nuclear Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (ATOMKI, Debrecen, East Hungary), Paks NPP (Paks, South-Central Hungary) as well as at the vicinity of Aggtelek (Northeast Hungary), Tapolca (West Hungary) and Bátaapáti (Southwest Hungary) settlements. In addition to the aerosol samples, dry/wet fallout samples were collected at ATOMKI, and airborne elemental iodine and organic iodide samples were collected at Paks NPP. The peak in the activity concentration of airborne ¹³¹I was observed around 30 March (1–3 mBq m^?3 both in aerosol samples and gaseous iodine traps) with a slow decline afterwards. Aerosol samples of several hundred cubic metres of air showed ¹³⁴Cs and ¹³⁷Cs in detectable amounts along with ¹³¹I. The decay-corrected inventory of ¹³¹I fallout at ATOMKI was 2.1±0.1 Bq m^?2 at maximum in the observation period. Dose-rate contribution calculations show that the radiological impact of this event at Hungarian locations was of no considerable concern.     

Generation and characterization of millimeter-scale plasmas for the research of laser plasma interactions on Shenguang-III prototype

In order to produce millimeter-scale plasmas for the research of laser-plasma interactions （LPIs）, gasbag target is designed and tested on Shenguang-III prototype laser facility. The x-ray pinhole images show that millimeter-scale plasmas are produced with the gasbag. The electron temperature inferred from the stimulated Raman scattering （SRS） spectrum is about 1.6 keV. The SRS spectrum also indicates that the electron density has a fiat region within the duration of 200 ps. The obvious differences between the results of the gasbag and that of the void half hohlraum show the feasibility of the gasbag target in creating millimeter-scale plasmas. The LPIs in these millimeter-scale plasmas may partially mimic those in the ignition condition because the duration of the existence of a flat plasma density is much larger than the growth time of the two main instabilities, i.e., SRS and stimulated Brillouin scattering （SBS）. So we make the conclusion that the gasbag target can be used to research the large-scale LPIs.     

The DESY Golden Jubilee in Hamburg: Lessons from the Past

I sketch the early history of the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron in Hamburg, Germany, and establish links to some current issues of science policy in Europe.     

Lessons from Quantum Field Theory: Hopf Algebras and Spacetime Geometries

We discuss the prominence of Hopf algebras in recent progress in Quantum Field Theory. In particular, we will consider the Hopf algebra of renormalization, whose antipode turned out to be the key to a conceptual understanding of the subtraction procedure. We shall then describe several occurrences of this, or closely related Hopf algebras, in other mathematical domains, such as foliations, Runge-Kutta methods, iterated integrals and multiple zeta values. We emphasize the unifying role which the Butcher group, discovered in the study of numerical integration of ordinary differential equations, plays in QFT.     

Dryland hydrology in a warmer world: Lessons from the Last Glacial period

It has long been recognized that the tropics were drier and mid-latitude deserts wetter during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Until now there has not been a single, unifying explanation for this pattern. Recently, Held and Soden [34] suggested that ongoing global warming will cause the Earth’s drylands to become progressively drier and its tropics to become progressively wetter. Because no suitable “warm world” analogue is available in the paleoclimate record, the best available test of Held and Soden’s proposal is to look at records from the last glacial period in which drylands should have been wetter and the tropics drier. Our survey of the recent paleolake literature confirms that closed basin lakes located in the poleward limits (∼40°) of the drylands in both hemispheres were far larger during the Last Glacial Maximum and parts of the tropics appear to have been less wet. While these observations are consistent with Held’s prediction, evidence from the sub-tropical drylands (15 to 25°) is more complex. As with high-latitude drylands, lakes in subtropical drylands of South America and probably the Kalahari Desert were larger than present during the LGM. By contrast, lakes in the sub-tropical Sahara and Arabian Deserts of the northern hemisphere were largest in the early Holocene, but also apparently larger than today in the early LGM. What paleolake records show are that 1) a strong hemispheric symmetry in lake response occurred during the LGM, 2) a difference in response occurred during the latest-glacial, and 3) lake expansions occurred in response to shifts in the thermal equator related to Heinrich Events and insolation variation as well as to colder temperatures.     

Libraries from libraries: Generation and comparison of screening profiles

Summary A positional scanning tetrapeptide library was chemically modified through alkylation and/or reduction of the amide bonds, thus generating three new combinatorial libraries with physico-chemical properties very different from the parent peptide library (libraries from libraries). Specific results were obtained with each of these libraries upon screening in -opioid receptor binding and microdilution antimicrobial assays, illustrating the potential of the libraries from libraries concept for the efficient generation of a variety of chemically diverse combinatorial libraries.     

Mock catalogues for large surveys: Lessons from Gaia and implications for CSST

<正>Experience in large stellar surveys, such as Gaia, has shown that synthetic catalogues are very useful for preparing the data and evaluating scientific results (see the Gaia Universe model snapshot, ref. [1], as an example). This experience holds especially for complex datasets that provide not only positions and apparent magnitudes, but also proper motions,multi-band photometry, and spectroscopy.     

Starspots,stellar cycles and stellar flares: Lessons from solar dynamo models

In this review, we discuss whether the present solar dynamo models can be extrapolated to explain various aspects of stellar activity. We begin with a summary of the following kinds of data for solar-like stars:(i) data pertaining to stellar cycles from Ca H/K emission over many years;(ii) X-ray data indicating hot coronal activity;(iii) starspot data(especially about giant polar spots); and(iv) data pertaining to stellar superflares. Then we describe the current status of solar dynamo modelling—giving an introduction to the flux transport dynamo model, the currently favoured model for the solar cycle. While an extrapolation of this model to solar-like stars can explain some aspects of observational data, some other aspects of the data still remain to be theoretically explained. It is not clear right now whether we need a different kind of dynamo mechanism for stars having giant starspots or producing very strong superflares.     

News and Views: Perspectives for Nuclear Energy in Brazil After Fukushima

More than two decades after the Chernobyl accident, the world was experiencing a nuclear renaissance when an earthquake followed by a tsunami, both of uncommon proportions, led to major releases of radiation at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear central. Many countries are now reevaluating decisions to expand their nuclear parks, a change of course motivated by a number of considerations. Combined with the same premises, lessons learned from the history of its nuclear program compel Brazil to turn to the renewable sources of energy at its disposal.     

Starspots,stellar cycles and stellar flares: Lessons from solar dynamo models

We theoretically investigate the multistable behavior of a hybrid optomechanical system,in which a charged mechanical resonator is coupled via Coulomb interaction to an optomechanical cavity containing an optical parametric amplifier(OPA).It is shown that the multistable behavior of the mean intracavity photon number can be controlled flexibly by adjusting the nonlinear gain parameter of the OPA,the phase of the field pumping the OPA,the power and frequency of the field driving the cavity,and the Coulomb coupling strength between the two charged mechanical resonators.In particular,the increase of the nonlinear gain parameter can result in a transition from testability to Instability.Moreover,the effect of the Coulomb coupling strength on the bistable behavior of the steady-state positions of the two mechanical resonators is discussed.