All posts by fukushimainform

Presentations, Presentations & Media

Fukushima Nuclear Accident Researcher to Give Bucknell’s Darwin Day Lecture

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Originally Posted on February 12, 2016, BY Matthew Beltz

Jay Cullen, professor of chemical oceanography at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, will give the annual Darwin Day lecture at Bucknell University on Thursday, Feb. 18, at noon at Trout Auditorium in the Vaughan Literature Building. The talk is free and open to the public.

Cullen’s lecture is titled “The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: Learning About Science and Risk Communication.” He will discuss his research surrounding the Fukushima nuclear accident, which was initiated by a tsunami following an earthquake off the coast of Japan in March 2011. In 2014, Cullen led the formation of a new radioactive monitoring network called Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide Monitoring (InFORM Network), the purpose of which was to conduct research and inform the public about possible risks to the environment and health. Thus far, the research of Cullen and his team has yet to find any threats to public health or the Pacific.

The Department of Biology at Bucknell has organized the annual Darwin Day talk since 2009. International Darwin Day is held on or around the Feb. 12 birthday of biologist Charles Darwin. This talk is co-sponsored by the Department of Biology and the David Burpee Chair in Plant Genetics.

Cesium, Fukushima, Japan, Marine Life, Peer Reviewed

Field Observations Show Decline of Japan’s Intertidal Biota Near Site of the Fukushima Disaster

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By Jay T. Cullen

Shells of sea snails (Thais clavigera); one of the organisms missing from near the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant

The purpose of this post is to report on a newly published, peer-reviewed study in the open access journal Scientific Reports that uses field observations to determine how intertidal species abundance and diversity were affected by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) disaster.  This post is part of an ongoing series dedicated to summarizing the results of scientific studies aimed at understanding the impact of the FDNPP disaster on ecosystem and public health.  Horiguchi and colleagues surveyed intertidal marine organisms and made measurements of artificial radionuclides in specimens in 2011, 2012 and 2013.  They found that in 2012 the number of intertidal organisms was lower closer to the FDNPP than farther away and that the sea snail (Thais clavigera) was absent from sampling locations <30 km from the FDNPP.  Because sea snails were found in other rocky habitats affected by the tsunami in 2011 the absence of these organisms in 2012 near the plant might be related to the FDNPP disaster.  In 2013 both the numbers of organisms and diversity of species were found to be lower at sites within several kilometers south of the FDNPP site.  While, according to the authors, there is no clear explanation for the findings at present it is clear that the intertidal biota has been impacted close to the FDNPP since the disaster.  The authors conclude that:

  1. it is unlikely that the tsunami was solely responsible for changes in the intertidal communities given the distribution of sea snails
  2. other causes might include acute or sub-acute toxicities from the largest leaks from the FDNPP site in March-April 2011 containing artificial radionuclides, boric acid and hydrazine (and other chemicals)
  3. most significant impacts to the intertidal community occurred along the coast south and proximal to FDNPP which likely reflects predominant local water currents

The changes noted by Horiguchi and colleagues in the intertidal community contrast with the lack of significant changes in benthic organisms along the Japanese coast by Sohtome and colleagues that was summarized here.

Continue reading Field Observations Show Decline of Japan’s Intertidal Biota Near Site of the Fukushima Disaster →

InFORMing Research

Coho Salmon Returning to the Quinsam River on Vancouver Island

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By Jay T. Cullen

Eiko Jones is a photographer who specializes in underwater imaging and works out of Campbell River on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. He recently completed a project where he captured a lengthy, high definition video of coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) returning to the Quinsam River.

You can read about the technical details of the shoot at Eiko’s blog if you are interested. The video shows these amazing fish completing their life cycle by returning to the natal river to spawn.  Our monitoring project has been collecting coho, other Pacific salmon and marine organisms to look for Fukushima radionuclide contamination and to determine the impact of the disaster on ecosystem and public health.

Enjoy Eiko and his teams work below.

British Columbia, Cesium, Iodine, North America, Peer Reviewed, Xenon

The Impact of the Fukushima on Canada: Health Canada Reports

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By Jay T. Cullen

The purpose of this post is to bring to the attention of interested readers a recently released report that provides comprehensive account of the environmental radiation surveillance activities conducted by Health Canada in the months immediately following the Fukushima accident.  This report includes an assessment of the overall levels of contamination and resulting impacts to the health of Canadians.  Contrary to irresponsible and inaccurate rumors that Health Canada suspended monitoring in the wake of the triple meltdowns, monitoring activities were, in fact, enhanced and expanded to increase the flow of information and improve understanding of the implications of the contamination for environmental and public health.  While there was no discernible change in total background radiation a distributed system of monitoring stations and the rapid collection and measurement of environmental samples tracked the trace levels of atmospheric contamination across the country. The report concludes:

  1. conservative estimates of the maximum individual dose from Fukushima was less than 0.0003 (1/ 3,000) of the typical annual dose for a Canadian owing to natural background sources
  2. the additional dose resulting from Fukushima derived contamination is far less than the normal variation in dose from place to place in Canada
  3. there are likely to be no health impacts related to this small, incremental dose

Continue reading The Impact of the Fukushima on Canada: Health Canada Reports →

Citizen Science

December 2015 Monitoring Sample Collected in Bamfield BC

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By Jay T. Cullen

We are partnered with the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre (BMSC) who coordinate our citizen science coastal seawater sampling in the coastal community of Bamfield on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

I received an email today from BMSC foreshore operations Janice Pierce that the sample was sent out with todays mail from Bamfield and headed to UVic for processing.

Bamfield Dec 2015 -water sample
InFORM coastal seawater sample being collected off of Bamfield from one of BMSC’s research vessels. Great winter sky.

The location of Bamfield is indicated on the map below.