Radiation From Japan’s Nuclear Disaster Spreads Off of US Shores

Radiation From Japan’s Nuclear Disaster Spreads Off of US Shores

In 2011, a massive earthquake caused catastrophic damage to Japan, including causing a meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant. That disaster wasn’t limited to just Japan, though, as radiation from the nuclear meltdown is now reaching U.S. shores.

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Radiation from Japan’s 2011 nuclear disaster has spread off North American shores and contamination is increasing at previously identified sites, although levels are still too low to threaten human or ocean life, scientists said on Thursday.

Tests of hundreds of samples of Pacific Ocean water confirmed that Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant continues to leak radioactive isotopes more than four years after its meltdown, said Ken Buesseler, marine radiochemist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Trace amounts of cesium-134 have been detected within several hundred miles (km) of the Oregon, Washington and California coasts in recent months, as well as offshore from Canada’s Vancouver Island.

Another isotope, cesium-137, a radioactive legacy of nuclear weapons tests conducted from the 1950s through the 1970s, was found at low levels in nearly every seawater sample tested by Woods Hole, a nonprofit research institution.

“Despite the fact that the levels of contamination off our shores remain well below government-established safety limits for human health or to marine life, the changing values underscore the need to more closely monitor contamination levels across the Pacific,” Buesseler said in an email.

The good news is that the radiation is not at dangerous levels. In all likelihood, there’s no reason to be concerned, especially since top scientists are continuing to monitor the situation.

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