Persistent impact of Fukushima decontamination on soil erosion and suspended sediment

Mechanical soil decontamination is an important tool in remediating contaminated soils. Remediation efforts following the Fukushima Daiichi disaster increased soil erosion and downstream sediment loads that showed reduced Cs-137 concentrations, but rapid revegetation quickly restored decontaminated landscapes. In Fukushima, government-led decontamination reduced radiation risk and recovered Cs-137-contaminated soil, yet its long-term downstream impacts remain unclear. Here we provide the comprehensive decontamination impact assessment from 2013 to 2018 using governmental decontamination data, high-resolution satellite images and concurrent river monitoring results. We find that regional erosion potential intensified during decontamination (2013-2016) but decreased in the subsequent revegetation stage. Compared with 2013, suspended sediment at the 1-year-flood discharge increased by 237.1% in 2016. A mixing model suggests that the gradually increasing sediment from decontaminated regions caused a rapid particulate Cs-137 decline, whereas no significant changes in downstream discharge-normalized Cs-137 flux were observed after decontamination. Our findings demonstrate that upstream decontamination caused persistently excessive suspended sediment loads downstream, though with reduced Cs-137 concentration, and that rapid vegetation recovery can shorten the duration of such unsustainable impacts. Future upstream remediation should thus consider pre-assessing local natural restoration and preparing appropriate revegetation measures in remediated regions for downstream sustainability.

Automated summary

Mechanical soil decontamination is an important tool in remediating contaminated soils. The study found that upstream decontamination caused persistently excessive suspended sediment loads downstream, but rapid vegetation recovery can shorten the duration of such unsustainable impacts. Future upstream remediation should consider pre-assessing local natural restoration and preparing appropriate revegetation measures in remediated regions for downstream sustainability.