Comparison of thyroid doses to the public from radioiodine following the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents

Abstract

Estimates of thyroid doses to the public from radioiodine intake following the accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants are compared. The basis for thyroid dose estimates after the Chernobyl accident was a large set of measurements of 131I thyroidal content for approximately 400,000 residents in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. Due to a lack of direct thyroid measurements after the Fukushima accident (just over 1000 residents were measured), thyroid doses were estimated based on ecological models and are therefore associated with much higher uncertainty than those based on direct thyroid measurements. Thyroid dose estimates for evacuees were up to 50,000 mGy for Chernobyl and up to approximately 100 mGy for Fukushima. This large difference in thyroid dose to the public is mainly due to the different dominant pathways of radioiodine intake: ingestion of fresh, locally produced cows’ milk (Chernobyl) and inhalation of contaminated air (Fukushima).