North American West Coast Radioactive Plumes From Fukushima 2011

Summary: North American west coast radioactive plumes from Fukushima 2011 show increased levels of cesium-134 and cesium-137, finds Woods Hole's Ken Buessler.

North American west coast radioactive plumes from Fukushima 2011; Map of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Sampling Locations; "Caption This map shows the location of seawater samples taken by scientists and citizen scientists that were analyzed at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for radioactive cesium as part of Our Radioactive Ocean. Cesium-137 is found throughout the Pacific Ocean and was detectable in all samples collected, while cesium-134 (yellow/orange dots), an indicator of contamination from Fukushima, has been observed offshore and in select coastal areas."; credit Figure by Jessica Drysdale, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: Usage restrictions -- With appropriate credit, via EurekAlert!

North American west coast radioactive plumes from Fukushima 2011 are showing increased levels of cesium-134 and cesium-137 four years after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and 46+/-foot (14.02+-meter) tsunami of March 11, 2011.

Ken Buessler bases his findings upon sampling initiated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, within three months of the geophysics-related disasters in Japan, and off North America. Dr. Buessler conducts comparative sampling as director and marine radiochemist at the Center for Marine and Environmental Radioactivity of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He describes sampling procedures and results through online reports on the website for Our Radioactive Ocean, a citizen science endeavor of which he is the founder.

Samples expose heightened radioactivity off San Francisco.

One hundred thirty-five samples collected through Our Radioactive Ocean’s launching in 2014 and 110 additional samples gathered in 2015 furnish evidence of radiation plumes from Japan.

The ongoing study gives dates and sites since the first indications in October 2014 of cesium-134 745 miles (1,198.96 kilometers) west of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Monitoring stations have spiked concentrations of radioactive cesium (Cs-134, Cs-137), iodine (I-131, I-132) and tellurium (Te-132) in Fukushima air emissions carried eastward by the jet stream. Marine debris is the second of four ways by which radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi (Fukushima Number One) Nuclear Power Plant reactor meltdowns can be transported.

Decay joins rainfall and seawater flushes in tsunami debris testing negative for radioactivity.

Scientists know of sea life as radiation’s third transmission through such pelagic species as bluefin tuna traversing the North Pacific Gyre’s California and North Pacific currents.

Forbes likens concentrations of cesium-134 and cesium-137 in bluefin tuna, east and west Pacific Ocean round-trip swimmer, to one-twentieth that of one 7.05-ounce (200-gram), uncontaminated banana. Delvan Neville, Oregon State University nuclear engineering and radiation health physics researcher, mentions: “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, or sleeping next to your spouse for 40 nights from the natural potassium-40 in their body. It’s just not much at all.”

Scientists note the fourth transmission by water since cesium-134’s half-life is two years and cesium-137’s half-life of 30 years betrays nuclear bomb testing since the 1950s.

Samples from 20-meter (65.62-foot) and 40-meter (131.23-foot) depths 1,600 miles (2,574.95 kilometers) west of San Francisco offer levels at 11 Becquerels per cubic meter (264 gallons). Sealife, sediment and water samples one-half mile (1 kilometer) off Fukushima provide levels 10 to 100 times higher than America but 1,000 times lower than 2011. All Pacific samples quantify North American west coast radioactive plumes from Fukushima 2011.

Dr. Buessler reinforces the leakage’s severity since “That said, finding values that are still elevated off Fukushima confirms that there is continued release from the plant.”

Marine radiochemist Ken Buessler in his lab at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: "Higher Levels of Fukushima Cesium Detected Offshore," press release Dec. 3, 2015, via Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Media Relations Office

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

North American west coast radioactive plumes from Fukushima 2011; Map of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Sampling Locations; "Caption This map shows the location of seawater samples taken by scientists and citizen scientists that were analyzed at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for radioactive cesium as part of Our Radioactive Ocean. Cesium-137 is found throughout the Pacific Ocean and was detectable in all samples collected, while cesium-134 (yellow/orange dots), an indicator of contamination from Fukushima, has been observed offshore and in select coastal areas."; credit Figure by Jessica Drysdale, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: Usage restrictions -- With appropriate credit, via EurekAlert! @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/876766; (EurekAlert! news release URL @ https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/639497); (former URL @ http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/104573.php);
via Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Press Room @ https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-release/fukushima-higher-levels-offshore/

Marine radiochemist Ken Buessler in his lab at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: "Higher Levels of Fukushima Cesium Detected Offshore," press release Dec. 3, 2015, via Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Media Relations Office @ http://www.whoi.edu/news-release/fukushima-higher-levels-offshore

For further information:

Buchanan, Matthew. 4 December 2015. "North American West Coast Radioactivity Increasing Years After Fukushima Daiichi Disaster." Immortal News > Environmental News.
Available @ http://www.immortal.org/21219/north-american-west-coast-radioactive-fukushima/

Floyd, Mark. 28 April 2014. "Study finds only trace levels of radiation from Fukushima in albacore." Oregon State University News and Research Communications > News Releases.
Available @ http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2014/apr/study-finds-only-trace-levels-radiation-fukushima-albacore

Jay T. Cullen @JayTCullen. 14 September 2015. "Reminder about #Fukushima monitoring update live stream tonight 6:30 PM Pacific." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/JayTCullen/status/643528874358370305

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 November 2015. "Fukushima Contaminated Water at West Coastlines of the Americas." Earth and Space News. Monday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/11/fukushima-contaminated-water-at-west.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 30 November 2015. "Fukushima Is Afflicting the Pale Grass Blue Butterfly Zizeeria maha." Earth and Space News. Monday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/11/fukushima-is-afflicting-pale-grass-blue.html

WHOI Media Relations Office. 3 December 2015. "High Levels of Fukushima Cesium Detected Offshore." Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution > News Release.
Available @ http://www.whoi.edu/news-release/fukushima-higher-levels-offshore

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 3 December 2015. "Higher levels of Fukushima cesium detected offshore." EurekAlert! > Public Releases.
Available @ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-12/whoi-hlo120315.php