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- 13 Jan 2015
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by Margaret Munro
VANCOUVER — Radioactivity from Japan's crippled nuclear reactors has turned up off the British Columbia coast and the level will likely peak in waters off North America in the next year or two, according to a Canadian-led team that's intercepted the nuclear plume.
The radioactivity "does not represent a threat to human health or the environment," but is detectable off Canada's west coast and the level is climbing, a team led by oceanographer John Smith at Fisheries and Ocean Canada (also known as the Department of Fisheries and Oceans) reported Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The team's seawater measurements reveal Fukushima radioactivity first showed up 1,500 kilometres west of British Columbia in June 2012, more than a year after the Japanese nuclear accident.
By June 2013, the "Fukushima signal" had spread onto the Canadian continental shelf off the B.C. coast, and by February 2014, it was detectable "throughout the upper 150 metres of the water column," says the report, showing how the Pacific currents are carrying the radioactive plume slowly across the ocean. It says the Fukushima's radioactive signal off the B.C. coast is now double the "background" radiation in the ocean from atmospheric nuclear bomb testing.
The scientists predict the Fukushima radioactivity off North America will continue to increase before peaking in 2015-16 at levels comparable to those seen in the 1980s as a result of nuclear testing. Then levels are expected to decline and, by 2021, should return to levels seen before that Fukushima accident — considered one of the most serious nuclear reactor accidents.
A huge earthquake off the coast of Japan in March 2011 triggered a tsunami that flooded the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plants. Loss of backup power led to overheating, nuclear meltdowns and evacuation of the Fukushima site. Land and farms around the nuclear plants were severely contaminated and a large radioactive discharge washed into the Pacific.
Radioactivity from crippled Fukushima reactors turns up off B.C. coast | National Post
Radioactivity - examples, body, used, process, plants, form, energy, carbon, cause, basic, change, Stable and unstable nuclei, Types of radiation
Fallout from radioactive Fukushima rising in west coast waters | canada.com
VANCOUVER — Radioactivity from Japan's crippled nuclear reactors has turned up off the British Columbia coast and the level will likely peak in waters off North America in the next year or two, according to a Canadian-led team that's intercepted the nuclear plume.
The radioactivity "does not represent a threat to human health or the environment," but is detectable off Canada's west coast and the level is climbing, a team led by oceanographer John Smith at Fisheries and Ocean Canada (also known as the Department of Fisheries and Oceans) reported Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The team's seawater measurements reveal Fukushima radioactivity first showed up 1,500 kilometres west of British Columbia in June 2012, more than a year after the Japanese nuclear accident.
By June 2013, the "Fukushima signal" had spread onto the Canadian continental shelf off the B.C. coast, and by February 2014, it was detectable "throughout the upper 150 metres of the water column," says the report, showing how the Pacific currents are carrying the radioactive plume slowly across the ocean. It says the Fukushima's radioactive signal off the B.C. coast is now double the "background" radiation in the ocean from atmospheric nuclear bomb testing.
The scientists predict the Fukushima radioactivity off North America will continue to increase before peaking in 2015-16 at levels comparable to those seen in the 1980s as a result of nuclear testing. Then levels are expected to decline and, by 2021, should return to levels seen before that Fukushima accident — considered one of the most serious nuclear reactor accidents.
A huge earthquake off the coast of Japan in March 2011 triggered a tsunami that flooded the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plants. Loss of backup power led to overheating, nuclear meltdowns and evacuation of the Fukushima site. Land and farms around the nuclear plants were severely contaminated and a large radioactive discharge washed into the Pacific.
Radioactivity from crippled Fukushima reactors turns up off B.C. coast | National Post
Radioactivity - examples, body, used, process, plants, form, energy, carbon, cause, basic, change, Stable and unstable nuclei, Types of radiation
Fallout from radioactive Fukushima rising in west coast waters | canada.com
