High levels of Fukushima radiation detected in California and Washington coasts

21 Feb 2019

According to a study that a Marine Radiochemist conducted by Ken Buesseler, a nonprofit Oceanographic Institution, the radioactivity levels on North American Coasts were raised owing to the Fukushima Disaster of March 2011.

4 years after this nuclear power plant was melted down, 100s of samples of Pacific Ocean Water were tested and traces of cesium isotopes, a reactive alkali metal, were discovered. On the 14th of December, the results would be presented by Brusseler in San Francisco at American Geophysical Union Conference.

According to the study it has been suggested that Cesium 134 was found off the Washington, California and Oregon coasts as well as on the Vancouver Island in Canada. This isotope has a direct association with the nuclear disaster of Fukushima, but after a half-life of 2 years, its instant fading is seen.

On the other hand Cesium-137 was found in many samples of Seawater as its half-life is 30 years and part of them are left over from the testing of nuclear weapons that was conducted in the year 1950s to the 1970s. According to the results, the spread of radiations is not just seen in a few locations but along a 1000miles area offshore.

A sample was collected at 1600 miles west of San Franciso. A 50 percent rise has been shown in the levels of cesium as compared to samples that were gathered by expedition organized by Buesseler 3 months after that nuclear accident.

However, these levels don’t indicate any damage or danger to human life and they are lower by 500 times as compared to safety limits that the US government has set. This indicates that swimmers and boaters weren’t vulnerable. According to the findings, it is suggested that more research is needed for keeping the levels of radioactivity low.

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