In Situ Gamma Spectrometry Intercomparison in Fukushima, Japan

Intercomparison of in situ gamma spectrometry was organized at a site contaminated by the radioactive fallout that originated from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. This intercomparison was conducted by eight teams from four different institutions, which have contributed to the government-led project to construct distribution maps of radionuclides deposited on the ground soil. The resultant 134Cs and 137Cs inventories evaluated by the participants agreed within 6% of the coefficient of variation, after correction for inhomogeneous distribution of the dose rate in air. The evaluated 40K inventories agreed within 4% of the coefficient of variation. The authors estimated that these results were in good agreement for creating distribution maps of the radionuclide inventory in the ground soil.