Consideration of the conversion factor from air dose rates to individual external dose per hour after the Fukushima accident-individual external dose measurements of a TEPCO employee in Fukushima prefecture over a 9 year period.

Abstract

The accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) in 2011 resulted in the dispersion of radioactive materials throughout the surrounding area and an increase in the air dose rate was even confirmed in Fukushima City, which is located approximately 60 km northeast of FDNPP. A Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Holdings employee, who has lived and worked in Fukushima City since the FDNPP accident, measured individual external doses, GPS data, and his activities in Fukushima Prefecture over a 9 year period beginning in 2014. This data provides valuable information about the area. The data show the following results. (i) Comparison of the air dose rate at the home location to the individual external dose per hour at the home shows that the average conversion factor has increased over the 9 years and exceeded 0.3 since 2019, indicating an overall relatively good correlation. (ii) Individual external doses measured in the office on the fourth floor of a concrete structure in Fukushima City have not changed significantly from 2014 to 2022, when air dose rates showed a decrease. (iii) Outdoor individual external doses, such as those measured when commuting on foot, have a relatively strong correlation with air dose rates from airborne monitoring with the conversion factor of about 0.6. The conversion factor do not differ significantly from 2014 to 2022.In this study, the individual external dose data is applicable to the TEPCO measurer and is not necessarily representative of all residents of Fukushima City. However individual external dose data for 9 consecutive years will be useful for estimating individual external doses from air dose rates, and estimating annual additional exposure doses, if even some of them are applicable to similar life patterns and lifestyles.