Kirchner, and 2 co-authors, reported in 2012 that information can be extracted from the monitoring of radionuclides emitted from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant and transported to Europe. In this part, the focus will be on the analysis of the concentration ratios. While 131I, 134Cs and 137Cs were reported by most stations, other
detected radionuclides, reported by some, are 95Nb, 129mTe, 132Te, 132I, 136Cs and 140La.
From their activity ratios a mean burn-up of 26.7 GWd/t of the fuel from which they originated is estimated. Based on these data, inventories of radionuclides present at the time the plant was over run by rising water from the bay.
The authors concluded that the analyses of activity ratios of the emissions from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant flooding which were transported into air over Europe allow for estimate the mean core burn-up and decay time of the fuel from which they originated. The isotopic composition observed in Europe corresponded to emissions from a core with an effective burn-up of approximately 26.7 GWd/t being in operation until the date of the earthquake, i.e. from units 1 to 3. Emissions from the core of unit 4 which had been unloaded just prior to the incident are confined to volatile radionuclides.
In cases of severe nuclear accidents the methodology proposed here may allow to use measurements of environmental radionuclides for getting information on the on-site situation which may be difficult to receive otherwise.
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