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Updated: May 4, 2026

Laser-heating and Radiance Spectrometry for the Study of Nuclear Materials in Conditions Simulating a Nuclear Power Plant Accident
Published on: December 14, 2017
Characterization of brown rice as a certified reference material for Fukushima accident-related radioactivity
Yasuhiro Unno1, Mayumi Hachinohe2, Shioka Hamamatsu2
1National Metrology Institute of Japan, Japan; The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (Sokendai), Japan.
Abstract:
We developed a certified reference material of brown rice to measure radioactivity from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. The rice was planted in the spring of 2011, just after the Fukushima accident occurred, and it was harvested in the autumn of 2011. The certified value of radioactivity concentration in the rice was 33.6 Bq kg(-1) of Cs-134 and 51.8 Bq kg(-1) of Cs-137 on August 1, 2012. The reference material is being widely distributed by the National Metrology Institute of Japan. To determine the radioactivity and its uncertainties in the brown rice, we employed gamma-ray spectrometry with a high-purity germanium detector and Monte Carlo simulation.
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