Statistical characterization of radiation doses from external exposures and relevant contributors in Fukushima prefecture.

In areas contaminated by radioactive materials, well designed dose assessment is necessary in order to protect people from radiation exposure and manage the exposure situation appropriately. Probabilistic dose assessment is a useful method for providing a more complete characterization of information on dose distributions in the population and requires statistically characterized data on pathway-relevant contributors. The objective of this paper is to determine statistical features of contributors to external exposures, as well as to identify causes of variabilities of individual doses to the populations living in areas contaminated by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. To achieve these objectives, measurements of individual doses and ambient dose rates, as well as surveys of behavioral patterns, were performed between February and April 2012. These were made with the cooperation of indoor workers, outdoor workers, and pensioners living in Fukushima prefecture. On the basis of these results, statistical analyses were performed in order to identify variabilities of contributors. In addition, a multi-regression analysis was done to explore a significant relationship between individual doses and relevant contributors. Results showed that the ambient dose equivalent rate also distributed with lognormal form, and it had variabilities attributable to the spatial distribution of deposited radionuclides. The distribution form of time spent outdoors depends on the characteristics of occupation, and the distributions for indoor workers and outdoor workers were lognormal and normal, respectively. Results of a multiple-regression analysis suggested that such variabilities of contributors give rise to significant differences in individual doses among the populations.