Fukushima Aftermath: Radiation Levels In US Tuna Triple

Written by: Daniel Jennings

Image source: Photoshelter.com

The amount of radiation detected in tuna caught off the coast of Oregon has tripled since the Fukushima catastrophe in 2011, scientists have discovered.

Researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) say the level is minute but has been increasing steadily for the past few years.

“You can’t say there is absolutely zero risk because any radiation is assumed to carry at least some small risk,” Delvan Neville, the graduate research assistant who oversaw the study, said. “But these trace levels are too small to be a realistic concern.”

Neville and his associates tested albacore tuna caught off the Oregon coast between 2011 and 2014 to see what effect Fukushima had upon the fish. They found that the level of radioactive cesium traces in the fish increased by 300 percent.

Radiation levels detected were a thousand times lower than the maximum safe level set by United States Department of Agriculture, The Salem Statesman-Journal newspaper reported.

“A year of eating albacore with these cesium traces is about the same dose of radiation as you get from spending 23 seconds in a stuffy basement from radon gas,” Neville said.

The parts of the tuna most likely to be eaten by people contain just as much radiation as other parts of the fish, the researchers determined.

“The loins, or muscle, is what people eat and the bioaccumulation was about the same there as in the carcass,” said Jason Phillips, a research associate at OSU said.

Radioactive Water Heading To US

The migration habits of the albacore tuna are not well known. Scientists currently think the fish swim across the Pacific from Japanese waters where they may have been exposed to radiation. News reports indicate that large amounts of radioactive water have leaked out of the Fukushima plant and into the ocean over the past three years, as Off The Grid News has reported.

The fish were most likely exposed to radiation near Japan but they could have been exposed as they crossed the Pacific, researchers said. The Statesman-Journal reported that a plume of radioactive water from Fukushima is expected to reach US shores sometime in the next month.

Just before Christmas, a video that showed a Geiger counter detecting radiation at a beach near San Francisco was posted on YouTube. Some government agencies, including the Oregon Health Authority, are now testing seawater for radiation.

Chinese scientist GuiJun Han predicted that radiation levels in water from Fukushima will contain pockets and streams of high concentrated radiation that could increase in strength as they cross the Pacific, Off the Grid News reported. Most scientists dispute those claims and instead believe that radiation will be diluted by seawater.

Even though scientists think there is no threat to humans the OSU study does prove that radiation from Fukushima is affecting the sea life including fish people eat.

If there are more many nuclear debacles like Fukushima, ponds and lakes might be the only safe source of fish for us to eat.

Source: http://www.offthegridnews.com/2014/05/01/fukushima-aftermath-radiation-levels-in-us-tuna-triple/

Chernobyl Red Forest, 30 years later dead trees don't rot, microbes affected by radiation. #CalRad

Red Forest, 30 years later dead trees don't rot, microbes affected by radiation

What’s Wrong With Chernobyl's Trees?
Original Article Link

A new threat to the Red Forest, 30 years later.
By Jim Festante

The effects of the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl are still evident nearly 30 years after the catastrophic meltdown in local animals, plants, and, researchers now note, all the way down to microbes

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As a result of the Chernobyl accident, tens of thousands of hectares of forests have experienced massive radioactive contamination, located in the immediate vicinity of the Chernobyl NPP and stretching approximately two kilometers west of the station. These were mainly single-crop plantings of Scotch pine (Pinus silvestris). Signs of radioactive mutation of conifers are already evident, having absorbed approximately 100 doses. It should be noted that the main radiation fallout on the pines resulting from the Chernobyl accident occurred during the revitalization process of plant growth. In such a period the radiosensitivity of plants increases 1,5–3 times as compared to other periods. The crown of fairly dense pines acts as an effective filter, which helped delay the effects of large quantities of radioactive dust and aerosols in the crowns of these trees. Pine needles are typically not dropped for 2–3 years, causing a slow natural cleaning of crowns as compared with hardwood trees. This factor increased the radiation effects on coniferous trees compared to other breeds.

Results of the radiation effect on pine forests were directly
dependent on the amount of received radiation doses.
Considering the nature of the radiation effects,
scientists have classified four zones: Whole story at Nuclear Flower http://www.nuclearflower.com/zone/zone08.html 

Japan - Fukushima Meltdown Radioactive Aerosol Dispersion

NOAA - Fukushima Radioactive Aerosol Dispersion Of Nuclear Pollution Particles

Recent measurements of Fukushima derived radionuclides in the Pacific Ocean

Online Post Discussing Recent Sea Water Radionuclide Measurements In The Pacific Ocean

The purpose of this diary is to present measurements of radionuclides released from Fukushima Daiichi to the ocean in the years following the disaster precipitated by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. The concentrations of Fukushima derived radionuclides are discussed relative to the background of naturally occurring radionuclide activities and radionuclides present from the global fall out following atmospheric nuclear testing in the 20th century.

We must first familiarize ourselves with some of the jargon and units that scientists use when discussing radioactivity. A commonly used unit is the Becquerel (abbreviated as Bq), which represents an amount of radioactive material where one atom decays per second and has units of inverse time (per second). Another unit commonly used is disintegrations per minute (dpm) where the number of atoms undergoing radioactive decay in one minute are counted (so 1 Bq = 60 dpm). When we talk about the radioactivity measured in seawater in seawater the measurements are reported normalized per litre of seawater (Bq/L).

In a previous diary I presented a primer on the major contributors to radionuclide concentrations in average seawater. About 93% of radioactivity in seawater results from the presence of primordial, naturally occurring potassium-40 (K-40) and rubidium-87 (Rb-87). The remaining 7% are radioactive elements deposited to the ocean from past atmospheric nuclear testing. The sum of these activities is about 14 Bq/L on average though there are regional differences that scale with ocean salinity.

Studies of the concentration of radionuclides off the coast of Japan in the aftermath of the disaster have been published since 2011 with some of the most recent work being published or in press in 2013. A study by Povinec and others (2013) measured the concentrations of Cesium-137 (Cs-137), Iodine-129 (I-129) and Tritium (H-3) off the coast of Japan in June 2011. Cs-137 is one of the most important isotopes to monitor for long-term radiological impact because of the large releases involved, relatively long half-life, and its relative high bioavailability. The levels of Cs-137, I-129 and H-3 in seawater following the accident in offshore, surface seawater were 0.002–3.5 Bq/L, 0.00000001–0.0000008 Bq/L and 0.05–0.15 Bq/L, respectively. These represent at maximum an increase above the pre-Fukushima background concentrations of a factor of 1000 (Cs-137), 50 (I-129) and 3 (H-3). A companion study by Casacuberta and others (2013)of the bioaccumulating Strontium-90 (Sr-90) determined concentrations of 0.0008 - 0.085 Bq/L roughly 120 fold greater than Sr-90 background concentrations.

So there is clear enrichment of radionuclide concentrations up to 600 km offshore of the reactors in June 2011 resulting from the release of isotopes to the ocean. If we sum these isotopes together and compare their radioactivity to the natural and fall out background present before the disaster (~14 Bq/L) we see that Fukushima has increased the concentration of radioactivity in the seawater by a maximum of 27%. These concentrations will diminish as the ocean mixes and the isotopes decay.

More recent work that has monitored the concentration of Cs-137 between Japan and Hawaii to track the dispersion of radionuclides from Fukushima was published by Kamenik and others (2013). They found that Cs-137 levels near to Hawaii were similar to what would be expected for pre-Fukushima background concentrations of 0.0017 - 0.0028 Bq/L. Between Japan and Hawaii Cs-137 values were measured that exceeded background Cs-137 by a factor of 2-3 and the southeastern leading edge of the plume traveling westward. These levels are not significant when compared with total radiation levels in north Pacific seawater.

The data we have about concentrations and radioactivity of these isotopes suggest that they do not represent significant exposure risks to human beings through direct contact with seawater or through the consumption of apex predators like Pacific Bluefin Tuna link. Ongoing monitoring of the release and dispersion of radioisotopes, especially those with the potential to biomagnify in marine foodwebs, from Fukushima should remain a high priority for environmental and public health.

 All of the results discussed here have been published in the online journal Biogeosciences, an open access – peer reviewed scientific journal of the European Geophysical Union or Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Anyone with the interest can follow the links and access the studies mentioned below. The research summarized here was funded primarily through competitive grants from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the United States National Science Foundation.

by MarineChemist

ORIGINALLY POSTED TO MARINECHEMIST ON MON NOV 11, 2013 AT 05:54 PM PST.
ALSO REPUBLISHED BY JAPAN NUCLEAR INCIDENT LIVEBLOGS, SCITECH, SCIENCE MATTERS, AND COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT.

Hi Dawn....