Cesium-134, the fingerprint of seaborne radiation from the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan, has been detected on the West Coast of the United States for the first time, as well as in Canadian salmon.
Seaborne radiation from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster has been detected in seawater samples taken from Tillamook Bay and Gold Beach in Oregon, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have announced.
The institution’s chemical oceanographer, Ken Buesseler, has been tracking the radiation plume in a crowdfunded effort “to monitor the ongoing spread of radiation across the Pacific and its evolving impacts on the ocean,” the institution’s website states.
The researchers say they know the radiation, cesium-134, had to come from Fukushima because of its short half-life.
The isotope was also detected in November in a Canadian sockeye salmon sampled from Okanagan Lake in the summer of 2015, the Fukushima InFORM project said. The level detected was more than 1,000 times lower than the action level established by Health Canada.
The Oregon samples were taken in January and February of 2016 and later analyzed. Those results will grow in importance when it comes to tracking the radiation plume, because cesium-134’s short half-life will make it harder to detect as time progresses.
There is no way to stop Fukushima radioactive water leaking into the Pacific
According to the central government, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), TEPCO is struggling to contain massive influxes of contaminated water on a daily basis and must now weigh the risks of dumping excess radioactive water into ocean.The rate at which contaminated water has been pouring into the Pacific Ocean from the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant is worse than previously thought.
Groundwater entering the reactor buildings on a daily basis (approx. 300 tons) and water drawn up from well points and transferred to the reactor buildings on a daily basis (approx. 100 tons) will continue to be treated as part of the overall process.
Fukushima will continue to release radioactive material into the ocean for 20 or 30 years at least.
Noting that groundwater flowing into the complex and its reactor buildings is adding to TEPCO’s struggle to store the contaminated water in makeshift storage tanks, some of which have sprung leaks causing radioactive materials to be released into the sea, Juan Carlos Lentijo, head of the IAEA’s mission floated the idea of releasing radioactive water into the ocean when on a recent mission to the stricken facility in December.
“Controlled discharge is a regular practice in all the nuclear facilities in the world. And what we are trying to say here is to consider this as one of the options to contribute to a good balance of risks and to stabilize the facility for the long term,” Lentijo said.
What has FDA’s screening and testing shown so far?
As of March 10, 2014, FDA has tested 1,345 import and domestic samples specifically to monitor for Fukushima contamination. Two hundred and twenty-five of these were seafood or seafood products. Of the 1,345 samples, two were found to contain detectable levels of Cesium, but the levels were well below the established Derived Intervention Level (DIL) and posed no public health concern. They were:
- Ginger Powder (sample no. 686901, collected April 2011)
- Green Tea Bag (sample no. 827430, collected August 2013)
FDA radionuclide in food analysis results (PDF – 3.24 MB)
During this time, routine monitoring of the domestic U.S. food supply was also conducted and included roughly 1,500 samples of many food products, including six containing seafood or fish. No contamination was detected during this routine monitoring. Information about this monitoring program can be found at: http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/ComplianceEnforcement/UCM073281.pdf
Two examples of these migratory fish are Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis) and albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga), and both 134Cs and 137Cs have been detected in these species caught in the eastern Pacific. For public health, the levels of radiation are very low and far below levels that are considered cause for concern. In a recent study of fifty bluefin tuna sampled off the U.S. West Coast in 2012,
the smaller bluefin (recent migrants from Japan) had 134Cs (0.7 ± 0.2 Becquerels (Bq)/kg) and elevated 137Cs (2.0 ± 0.5 Bq/kg) in their white muscle tissue, while most larger, older fish had no 134Cs and only background levels of 137Cs.1 For scientists the 134Cs and 137Cs served as a marker indicating migratory pathways. If, for example, a Pacific bluefin tuna had detectable levels of 134Cs (which decays relatively quickly), it indicated that they recently migrated from Japan; this has provided important insight into the dynamics of tuna migration in the Pacific.
Pacific Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus orientalis)
The Pacific bluefin tuna is one of three bluefin species found worldwide, including the Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) and the Southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii). Of the tunas, Pacific bluefin has the largest geographic range. It spawns in the Western Pacific between central Japan and the northern Philippines and in the Sea of Japan from April through August. While some bluefin spend their entire lives in the Western Pacific, some young fish migrate to the Eastern Pacific.
At about age one, a portion of the population migrate to the Eastern Pacific and start to arrive off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. They remain in the Eastern Pacific for a few years and then migrate back to the Western Pacific Ocean to spawn, a journey taking as little as fifty-five days. Larger adults are rarely found in U.S. waters, which stretches from 3-200 nautical miles offshore. 
Fish and Shellfish Testing – Technical Laboratory Results
Washington State Department of Health – Office of Radiation Protection http://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/4100/042015FishTestTech.pdf Mothers’ Radiation Lab Fukushima publishes its findings online every month, and advises people to avoid foods with high readings as well as the places they were grown.
Limit of Radioactivity Allowed in Food
The Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network (FFAN) responded to statements by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that the agency is not advising people “to alter their consumption of specific foods imported from Japan or domestically produced food including seafood…” in the wake of the ongoing radioactive releases at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.
The National Academy of Sciences has stated that there is no safe dose of radiation, therefore FFAN rejects the current high levels that FDA recommends for food.
FFAN coalition member groups Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Health and Ecological Options Network filed a legal Citizen Petition with the FDA on March 12, 2013 to lower the amount of radioactive cesium allowed in food. The FDA’s only direct response to FFAN’s Citizen Petition is a letter dated June of 2013 stating they require more time to respond. “If the FDA wants to claim seafood is safe, then they need to institute a more robust food testing process. Considering the continued dumping of Fukushima radiation into the Pacific, we need to constantly monitor our seafood because the contamination levels we see today could certainly change.
This catastrophe and its impact on seafood will not be over for a very long time,” stated Cindy Folkers of Beyond Nuclear. Three years after the nuclear disaster began in Japan on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, FDA has not authorized a rational, transparent, and binding limit for radiation in food.
Instead, they recommend at minimum 1,200 Becquerels per kilogram of Cesium 134 and 137, the highest allowable levels for radiation in food in the world. The FDA’s limit is 12 times higher than Japan’s meaning that, in addition to seafood, other food and beverages considered far too dangerous for consumption there can be exported to U.S. citizens, including vulnerable children and pregnant women. FFAN’s petition seeks to significantly lower the current allowable levels of radiation in all food, including seafood to 5 Bq/kg, nearly identical to the limits proposed by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) in Germany and the EU “Why does FDA think it is ok to expose kids in the us to 12 times more radioactive poison than children in Japan? Even Japan’s limits are not protective enough.
If this is the standard FDA uses to determine what is safe, then our children are in danger,” stated Folkers, adding “Without a responsible contamination limit set, the FDA will doom a certain number of people to unnecessary disease, particularly children who are much more vulnerable to radiation.”
FUKUSHIMA FALLOUT AWARENESS NETWORK www.FFAN.us
Not Detected (ND) Does NOT Mean NOT DETECTED
JAPANESE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS (THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT OWNS 51% OF TEPCO!) AND TEPCO OFFICIALS, AFTER THE FAILED ROBOTS ATTEMPTED TO ASSESS THE REAL DAMAGE, STATED QUITE BLUNTLY THAT THAT 30-40 YEARS MUST BE “REVISED” TO PERHAPS 100 YEARS, WHILE THE WORLD WORKS ON TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN HANDLE THAT MUCH RADIATION AND SURVIVE MORE THAN 5-15 MINUTES!
THE VIDEO ABOVE IS FROM 2014, BUT FUKUSHIMA IS STILL LEAKING, SO REWIND AND REPLAY THIS OVER AND OVER AGAIN, ADD NEW RADIATION DAILY…FOR THE NEXT 40 TO 1000 YEARS, SINCE TEPCO THINKS IT MAY TAKE AT LEAST 40 YEARS TO DEVELOP THE TECHNOLOGY TO BEGIN, JUST BEGIN CLEANING UP THE DAIICHI PLANT.
“At present, radiation levels remain VERY HIGH inside the reactor buildings (several Sievert per hour) and make human intervention there impossible. The problem is compounded by problems with various types of robots that have got stuck in the buildings and had to be abandoned. Molten fuel debris removal is planned at units 1 and 2 in the first half of Financial Year (FY) 2020, and at unit 3 in the second half of FY2021.
How Much???
5 Billion Bq of Strontium-90 flows to the Pacific on the daily basis in 2014. Tepco announced in the press conference of 8/25/2014.
This is due to the contaminated water overflowing from the seaside of Reactor 1 ~ 4 to Fukushima plant port.
They also announced 2 Billion Bq of Cesium-137 and 1 Billion Bq of Tritium flow to the sea every single day as well.
Fukushima plant port is not separated from the Pacific. Discharged nuclide naturally spreads to the sea.
On 6/19/2015, Tepco announced they measured 1,000,000 Bq/m3 of Strontium-90 at two locations in Fukushima plant port.
This is the highest reading in recorded history. The sample is the port seawater. Sampling date was 5/4/2015. The location was near the water intake of Reactor 3 and 4, and also the screen of Reactor 4.
The previous highest readings were lower than 700,000 Bq/m3.
The Implications of Contamination with Radioactive Cesium
Although TEPCO didn’t admit it for two months, three reactors at the Fukushima site had immediate meltdowns. But there are many more reactors at the site. And unit 4 in particular is very likely to have its own meltdown, so the situation is incredibly perilous at the moment considering the impact on the planet if they have another meltdown and explosion.
Years ago there was a Hollywood movie called “The China Syndrome” which proclaimed that if the core in a reactor became too hot and the rods melted together, it would become so hot that it would melt it’s way right through the concrete containment structure built around it, and the molten core would keep right on melting until it reached the water table below (and ultimately it would keep going until it reached China, which is where the movie got its name). Once the reactor hits the water table, it will vaporize the water and send it up into the atmosphere in a permanent radioactive steam cloud.
We do know that radiation is being released regularly at the Japanese site as they pour seawater on it in an attempt to keep it from getting any hotter. The plume of Cesium-137 radiation that exploded out of the reactors back in March of 2011 grossly contaminated the Japanese mainland, probably making much of it completely uninhabitable. Because the cost and practicality of relocating the population of Toyko are so unthinkable, the Japanese government has attempted to stifle the real level of contamination. They are already having major health problems all over the island and it will only get worse.
You should know about this airborne contamination because it is likely to explode again, and this time much more of the radiation will likely go worldwide. If there is quite like to be another and more lethal explosion of nuclear waste in the future, Cesium-137 could reach you from the sky.
Contamination of the Ocean
By the year 2020 it is estimated that significant levels of Cesium-137 will reach every corner of the Pacific. By then it is believed that the Pacific will be virtually dead. If you want to stay healthy, I would suggest that you no longer swim or surf in the Pacific Ocean. I have stopped eating all seafood of any kind.
Whenever you come into contact with water contaminated by radiation, and if you eat seafood that has even the least bit of contamination in it, you should know that it all adds up. The amount of radiation building up inside of your body is progressive. Just because you feel fine today doesn’t mean that you are not being exposed. Radiation is cumulative and it builds up in your body until eventually you become more vulnerable to different forms of cancer and so many other diseases which radiation encourages to spring up. Once your genes and your DNA are damaged, forget about ever having normal healthy kids.
What will happen to all of the poor people who depend almost exclusively upon the ocean for their livelihood? In third world countries, when all the fish are gone, simply put, millions will starve. We already have a food crisis in the world and without any doubt the slow death of the Pacific will dramatically impact that crisis.
Think of all the industries in the US who depend upon food from the sea. The US is the fifth leading producer of seafood in the world, but over 90 percent of our seafood is imported.
The slow death of the Pacific will dramatically impact the world’s heath as most will not willingly stop eating it until it all goes away.
The availability of any kind of food and also food prices will skyrocket in the world.
The world is going to have some major problems coming from all the ocean die off.
Truly Fukushima is a disaster that is killing us.
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