Category Archives: N Pacific

Biota, British Columbia, Cesium, Citizen Science, Coastal, Isotope, Marine Life, Monitoring, N Pacific, NE Pacific, North America, Oceanic, Sample type, Seawater, Uncategorized

Insignificant Environmental and Public Health Risk from Fukushima in North America 8 Years On

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By Jay T. Cullen

Summary infographic for the Fukushima InFORM project including our measurements in North America, Japanese measurements, historical data and safety guidelines.

I am writing this post is to bring the public up to date on monitoring efforts of my research program into the impact of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident on environmental and public health here in North America. This post is part of an ongoing series summarizing work carried out by the Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide Monitoring (InFORM) project. Eight years since the peak in releases to the environment our project continues to measure radioisotopes released from the FDNPP that have the potential to present radiological health risks to living things. InFORM makes measurements of levels in seawater and common marine organisms as consumption of seafood is one of the most likely ways that residents of North America could be exposed to Fukushima derived contamination. We have found that:

  • Maximum contamination levels in seawater from Fukushima measured in waters offshore (~1500 km) and onshore British Columbia are now known to be about 8 to 10-fold lower than levels present in the North Pacific during the height of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  These levels are roughly 1000-fold below the maximum allowable drinking water standards for these isotopes.
  • Levels in Pacific salmon returning to North America have not changed in a statistically significant way since before the disaster and are lower than peak levels measured in the 1960’s.
  •  As was reported in 2015 in this comprehensive study by Health Canada and backed up by measurements made by the international scientific community the release of radioisotopes from Fukushima will have no measurable impact on the health of the marine ecosystem in the northeast Pacific nor on public health in North America.

Eight years after this disaster it is important to remember those lost in the tsunami and those still displaced from their homes and communities struggling to recover.

Offshore and Onshore Citizen Science Monitoring of Seawater Contamination

The levels of radionuclide contamination in seawater is important to understand as the levels that ultimately are found in marine organisms is set by seawater levels.  InFORM recently published a peer-reviewed paper in Environmental Science and Technology summarizing our results to date. Offshore levels of Fukushima derived isotopes have peaked and are now decreasing at our westernmost stations 1000-1500 kilometers from the North American coast. The peak levels are well below levels measured in the same waters during the 1950’s and 1960’s when atmospheric nuclear weapons tests were common.  Our study area is shown in the figure below along with the prevailing currents that brought the contaminated seawater to North America.

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Study area showing the onshore-offshore sampling line occupied by the InFORM project with the support of Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Station P26 is ~1500 kilometers from the coast of North America.

​Every month since about December 2014 volunteer citizen scientists in 15 coastal communities up and down the shores of British Columbia have collected seawater samples at the beach and returned them to our laboratories for analysis.  The sampling network is shown below.

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mar-2016-cs-update-01.png​
Coastal seawater monitoring stations in British Columbia.

Since monitoring began coastal seawater concentrations have increased as the Fukushima ​contamination plume arrives.  For the first time we can report that contamination levels have ceased increasing near the coast and are beginning to diminish. The activity of 137Cs leveled off at ~4 Bq per cubic meter of seawater which is about 2-4 times the background from weapons testing that existed here before Fukushima. Both the open ocean and coastal monitoring data are summarized in the figures below.

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Monthly averaged 137Cs detected in seawater in Bq per cubic meter collected along the coast of BC from 2014-2018.

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Levels of 137Cs in seawater (Bq per cubic meter) measured in samples collected by our citizen scientists along the BC coast compared to maximum levels measured offshore, weapons testing fallout maximum activities in the eastern Pacific in early 1960’s and Canada’s action level for the isotope in drinking water.

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Offshore levels of 137Cs peaked at a little less than 10 Bq per cubic meter and have been diminishing as less contaminated water moves across the Pacific from the west. Coastal activities have peaked at lower levels likely because freshwater runoff from the continent is less contaminated than the seawater and dilutes the Fukushima contamination.

Monitoring of Pacific Salmon

Since 2014 we have collected and analyzed ~100 Pacific salmon and steel head trout per year returning to rivers up and down the BC coast from the Pacific Ocean.  There has been no statistically significant increase in the levels of human-made isotopes in the fish since before the Fukushima disaster. Below we plot the maximum levels we have detected in fish returning to BC from 2011-2017 compared to levels measured in Pacific salmon during the 1960’s when weapons fallout levels were highest surface waters.​

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Maximum levels of 137Cs detected in BC salmon post Fukushima compared to levels in Pacific salmon in the mid-1960’s owing to weapons testing fallout.

 

On average our Pacific salmon have ~0.2 Bq per kilogram wet weight and it is important to note that there is no statistically significant different in the average contamination level in the fish in years 2011-2017. We are only showing the maximum value detected in each year and have not shown how much variability exists in the yearly data for clarity. Levels of contamination in the 1960’s were >10-fold higher than our average levels in years post-Fukushima. The dose of ionizing radiation experienced by consumers of Pacific fish and shellfish is still dominated by the presence of naturally occurring radioisotopes in the Uranium and Thorium decay series (principally 210-Polonium) and remains well below levels that might represent a health risk.

We will continue our monitoring efforts likely through the end of this calendar year and continue to report our results as they are generated. As always I am happy to answer any questions related to the project and our findings.

British Columbia, Cesium, Citizen Science, InFORMing Research, Location, Monitoring, N Pacific, NE Pacific, North America, Peer Reviewed

Update on Fukushima Monitoring Activities in North America: 7 Years On

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The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) and surroundings before the tragic events of March 11, 2011

By Jay T. Cullen

The purpose of this post is to bring the community up to date on monitoring efforts aimed at understanding the impact of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident on environmental and public health. This post is part of an ongoing series and will focus on North American monitoring, summarizing work carried out by the Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide Monitoring (InFORM) project. Seven years since the peak in releases to the environment our project continues to measure environmental levels of radioisotopes that could represent a radiological health risk to living things. InFORM makes measurements of levels in seawater and common marine organisms as consumption of seafood is one of the most likely ways that residents of North America could be exposed to Fukushima derived contamination. Maximum contamination levels in seawater from Fukushima measured in waters offshore and onshore British Columbia and in the Arctic Ocean are about 8 to 10-fold lower than levels present in the North Pacific during the height of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  These levels are roughly 1000-fold below the maximum allowable drinking water standards for these isotopes.  Levels in marine organisms have not changed significantly since before the disaster.  As was reported in 2015 in this comprehensive study by Health Canada and backed up by measurements made by the international scientific community the release of radioisotopes from Fukushima will have no measurable impact on the health of the marine ecosystem in the northeast Pacific nor on public health in North America.

 

On March 11, 2011 all eyes were on Japan and I was watching too and feeling acutely the loss of life that the earthquake and tsunami brought on the Japanese people. A little later I watched as events at the FDNPP began to unfold and it became clear that a major nuclear accident was underway. I wondered what it meant for me and my family and friends in Victoria, BC Canada. I catalogued all the monitoring data coming in in 2011 I could find from the international scientific community and kept careful watch on the scientific literature. In 2013 I began communicating with the public about what the triple meltdowns at the FDNPP meant for the health of our marine ecosystem and public health because much of the information getting to the public was not scientifically sound, misinformed the public in general and overestimated the risk to people living in North America. The short of the story then was that nothing in the measurements of air, soil and water suggested any significant risk to public or environmental health.  But it was clear that many in the public were being mislead by information online. To address the lack of quality information getting to the public I and other scientists in Canada and the USA, non-Governmental Organizations and citizen scientist volunteers put together the InFORM network. This is what we have found so far.

Offshore Monitoring of Seawater Contamination

The levels of radionuclide contamination in seawater is important to understand as the levels that ultimately are found in marine organisms is set by seawater levels.  InFORM recently published a peer-reviewed paper in Environmental Science and Technology summarizing our results to date. Offshore levels of Fukushima derived isotopes have peaked and are now decreasing at our westernmost stations 1000-1500 kilometers from the North American coast.  The peak levels are well below levels measured in the same waters during the 1950’s and 1960’s when atmospheric nuclear weapons tests were common.  The study area is shown in the figure below along with the prevailing currents that brought the contaminated seawater to North America.

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Study area showing the onshore-offshore sampling line occupied by the InFORM project with the support of Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Station P26 is ~1500 kilometers from the coast of North America.

 

​Measurements of radiocesium isotopes help scientists determine how much impact Fukushima has had on seawater at any given location on the globe. Off North America levels peaked at about 10 Bq per cubic meter of seawater (a Bq = Becquerel is one decay of an atom per second).  This peak contamination is about 10-fold below levels measured here in the middle of the 20th century and 1000-fold below levels allowed in drinking water in Canada. The figure below shows how Fukushima derived contamination arrived in the upper ~400 meters of seawater from June 2013 until August of 2016.

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Line_P_sections_Jun13_-_Aug16_InFORM-01.png​
Progression of Fukushima contamination in the upper 500 meters of seawater over time toward the coast of North America along the Line P times series stations. Data J. Smith (DFO). The coast is on the right hand side of the figure with distance offshore plotted on the x-axis and depth in the ocean on the y-axis. Red values would indicate seawater with cesium concentrations that exceed drinking water standards. The color scheme is on a logarithmic scale.

 

​The figure below shows the change in contamination with time and the levels in comparison to historical levels in the eastern North Pacific Ocean.

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Peak levels of contamination from Fukushima in the northeast Pacific at stations P26 (offshore), P16 (intermediate) and P4 (coastal) since 2011 compared with model predictions of Rossi.  Insert shows Fukushima contamination relative to weapons testing fallout. Levels at P26 have peaked and are declining reflecting the large releases in the weeks following the meltdown with sustained by much lower releases persisting from that time on.

 

​Levels measured now and predicted to arrive along the coast in the future will not approach levels known to represent a significant risk to the health of marine organisms or human beings.

Coastal Monitoring Efforts by InFORM Citizen Scientists

Every month since about December 2014 volunteer citizen scientists in 15 coastal communities up and down the shores of British Columbia have collected seawater samples at the beach and returned them to our laboratories for analysis.  The sampling network is shown below.

mar-2016-cs-update-01.png​
Coastal seawater monitoring stations in British Columbia.

 

Since monitoring began coastal seawater concentrations have increased as the Fukushima contamination plume arrives.  The first detection of Fukushima contamination at the coast occurred in Feb. 2015 in the coastal community of Ucluelet on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Since that time levels have increased moderately and likely reflect that fact that the mixing of freshwaters coming from the land with the contaminated oceanic waters tend to insulate the coast from higher levels of contamination measured offshore.  At the coastal locations contamination levels of human-made isotopes (which are a very small fraction of the radioactive elements in seawater) have increased 2-4 times relative to the pre-Fukushima levels.

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InFORMenews_Jan18_2-01.png​
Levels of radiocesium detected at the coast of British Columbia since monitoring began in 2014.  Regional patterns are shown in the second panel with more ocean exposed (west coast of Vancouver Island and north coast of BC) sites showing more Fukushima derived contamination than sites in the Salish Sea or in sheltered areas of the central coast.

 

Our coastal ecosystem and food supply are not at risk from these low levels of radioisotope contamination.

Monitoring of Pacific Salmon and Other Marine Organisms

Since 2014 we have collected and analyzed ~100 Pacific salmon and steel head trout per year returning to rivers up and down the BC coast from the Pacific Ocean.  There has been no statistically significant increase in the levels of human-made isotopes in the fish since before the Fukushima disaster. The dose of ionizing radiation experienced by consumers of Pacific fish and shellfish is still dominated by the presence of naturally occurring radioisotopes in the Uranium and Thorium decay series (principally 210-Polonium) and remains well below levels that might represent a health risk. Our results are summarized in the following two figures.

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InFORM_Salmon_2016_river_-_Sep17-01.png​
Monitoring results for Pacific fish as of September 2017. Approximately 450 fish have been collected over the period 2014-2017. No significant increase in artificial, human made isotopes has been detected.

 

​The ionizing dose from consuming these fish is insignificant relative to other sources of ionizing radiation dose experienced by members of the public in North America. No measurable health impacts are expected.

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Salmon_2016_concentration_dose_simplified-01.png​
Dose of ionizing radiation from Fukushima derived isotopes relative to other sources.

 

Summary

Our intensive monitoring of environmental levels of contamination from Fukushima here in North America indicate that there is insignificant risk to ecosystem or public health resulting from the levels of radioisotopes detected in seawater and marine organisms.  A summary of our program results thus far and monitoring of conditions off of Fukushima in Japan are given in the following figure.

InFORM_at_a_Glance-01.png

Consistent with model predictions and the measurements made by scientists around the globe, the FDNPP accident will not have measurable negative impacts on North America’s marine ecosystems or public health. Levels of contamination are simply too far below those known to represent a threat to wildlife or human health. The InFORM project will continue its monitoring efforts into March 2019 and will continue to report its results and make them available to the public as soon as possible. I am available and happy to answer and questions related to the project, its goals and results. As always on this somber anniversary I think about the incredible loss of life from the tsunami and wish the best for the recovery of Japan’s coastal communities.

Cesium, Iodine, N Pacific, Plutonium, Strontium

North Korean Atmospheric Thermonuclear Test: How much contamination can we expect?

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By Jay T. Cullen

The purpose of this post is to conduct a thought experiment to arrive at (I hope) a useful estimate of how much radioactive contamination might occur if North Korea detonates a thermonuclear weapon in the lower atmosphere over the North Pacific Ocean.  There are a significant number of unknowns, not the least of which is the fundamental uncertainty as to whether the rogue nation has successfully tested a Teller-Ulam style thermonuclear weapon or not.  I explain my assumptions and compare the resulting global release of radioisotopes that represent a radiological health concern from such a test to the amounts recently released from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) disaster, the Chernobyl disaster and aggregate atmospheric weapons testing in the last century. I invite comments and an accounting of the approach used here and how it might be improved. Continue reading North Korean Atmospheric Thermonuclear Test: How much contamination can we expect? →

Cesium, Marine Life, N Pacific, Peer Reviewed, Potassium

How much Fukushima contamination is in migratory Pacific fish?

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Proposed migration pathways of North Pacific predators.

The purpose of this post is to report on a recently published, peer-reviewed study that investigated the levels of Fukushima derived contamination in migratory Pacific predators. The post is part of an ongoing effort to inform interested members of the public what the scientific community is finding about the impact of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) disaster on the environmental and human health. Madigan and colleagues looked for radiocesium (134Cs, half life ~ 2 years; 137Cs, half life ~30 years) in a variety of large, predatory organisms in the North Pacific Ocean between 2012 and 2015.  Their results were as follows:

  • Fukushima derived 134Cs could not be detected in any of the organisms with the exception of a single olive ridley sea turtle with trace levels (0.1 Bq kg-1 dry weight)
  • Levels of 137Cs varied in the organisms but were generally unchanged compared with levels measured in organisms prior to the FDNPP disaster (pre-2011)
  • Levels of 137Cs were roughly 10 to 100-fold lower in the organisms than levels of naturally occurring Potassium-40 (40K)
  • Neither the levels of radiocesium or 40K approach levels known to represent a significant health risk to the animal or human consumers

These direct measurements of contamination levels in marine predators suggest that assuming that Pacific organisms will accumulate detectable FDNPP contamination is unwise.  Similarly, anxiety and speculation about the dangers of radiocesium bioaccumulation in the face of such data seems unfounded.

Between 2012 and 2015 a total of 91 different organisms from a variety of predatory marine groups were sampled and analyzed for the presence of radiocesium contamination and naturally occurring 40K.  The human made isotope 134Cs, with its relatively short ~2 year half life, serves as a fingerprint of FDNPP contamination as all other human sources are sufficiently distant in the past to have completely decayed away in the environment.  Organisms sampled and their radioisotope content are reported in the following table:

Table1_Madiganetal2017.png

 

With the exception of a single olive ridley sea turtle no detectable (<0.1 Bq kg-1 dry weight) trace of FDNPP 134Cs contamination was found.  Levels of 137Cs found in the organisms were similar to levels measured pre-Fukushima. In addition, the 137Cs levels were less than 0.2% of US FDA levels of concern (370 Bq kg-1 wet weight) and less than 0.05% of US FDA derived intervention levels (1200 Bq kg-1 wet weight).  Simply stated levels in these organisms would have to be >1600-fold higher to be designated unfit for market.  The levels and ionizing radiation dose to consumers from naturally occurring 40K dwarfed those from FDNPP radiocesium.  Radiocesium derived ionizing radiation doses were <1% of those from 40K. Neither the doses from 40K or cesium isotopes approached, even remotely, those known to affect the health of the organisms or consumers of these organisms.

These results are consistent with those of the Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide Monitoring (InFORM) project. Ongoing, scientifically rigorous, monitoring of the marine environment provides the best evidence with which to gauge the risk that the FDNPP meltdowns represent for marine and public health here in North America.

Cesium, Marine Life, N Pacific, Peer Reviewed, Potassium

Measuring Fukushima Contamination in Fish Caught in Hawaii

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Yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares leaping from the water

By Jay T. Cullen

The purpose of this post is to summarize a recently published, peer reviewed, scientific study that investigated levels of Fukushima derived contamination in fish caught in the North Pacific and sold at market in Hawai’i.  This post is part of an ongoing series dedicated to bringing quality scientifically derived information to readers so that they can form an evidence based opinion regarding the environmental impact of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant meltdowns. The paper by Azouz and Dulai (both at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa) summarizes levels of human made 134-Cesium (134Cs half life ~2 years) and 137-Cesium (137Cs half life ~30 years) and naturally occurring 40-Potassium (40K half life 1.25 billion years) in 13 different fish purchased in Hawai’i in 2015.  The findings of the study were that:

  1. 3 of the 13 fish had detectable levels (above the 95% confidence interval) of 134Cs which can be linked to the Fukushima disaster
  2. Highest levels of radiocesium were found in ‘ahi tuna with 134Cs and 137Cs of 0.10 ± 0.04 Bq kg-1 and 0.62 ± 0.05 Bq kg-1 respectively
  3. Most of the fish carried no fingerprint of the Fukushima disaster
  4. Levels of radiocesium were well below intervention levels of 1,200 Bq kg-1 set by the United States Food and Drug Administration
  5. Doses to fish consumers from human made radioisotopes were 30-1,000 fold lower than the dose experienced because of naturally occurring 40K in the fish
  6. Neither the effective dose from the natural nor the human made radioisotopes represent a significant health risk to consumers of the fish given scientifically established dose-response relationships

These results agree with the results of the Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide Monitoring Project (InFORM) I head up at the University of Victoria which has been making similar measurements on North Pacific fish returning to rivers in North America.

The Azouz and Dulai paper was published recently in the journal Pacific Science and can be found here.  The authors obtained 13 different species (Ahi, Albacore Tuna, King Salmon, Cod, Dover Sole, Halibut, Mahi Mahi, Monchong, Onaga, Opah, Opakapaka, Swordfish and Yellowfin Tuna) of fish that were caught in the North Pacific (>20oN) and commonly consumed in Hawai’i at local markets.  Information about the range and size of the fish are given in Table 1:

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Levels of Radiocesium in Fish From Hawai’i

Samples of the fish tissue were freeze dried and homogenized before gamma emitting radioisotopes were measured using a gamma spectrometer by counting samples for a period of 7 days. Levels of 134Cs, because of its short half life, serve as a fingerprint of Fukushima in samples as previous sources of this human made isotope (e.g. 20th century nuclear weapons testing and the Chernobyl disaster) are sufficiently far in the past that all of the isotope has decayed away and is no longer present in the environment.  Results of the analyses are summarized in the following figure:

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Fig. 1 Cesium activities in fish collected in the North Pacific in 2015 and available for consumption in Hawai’i

In 3 fish statistically significant (>95% confidence interval) but trace levels of 134Cs was detected.  Given that 137Cs/134Cs ratio in vast majority of the release from the Fukushima site was ~1 the authors were able to determine the fraction of radiocesium present in these fish owing to Fukushima versus legacy sources like atmospheric weapons testing.  Maximum radiocesium levels in the fish approached 0.7-0.8 Bq kg-1 which is more than 1,500 fold lower than conservative levels thought be a health risk set by the FDA (1,200 Bq kg-1).  Most fish had radiocesium attributable to weapons testing fallout. Fukushima radiocesium accounted for ~60% of the radiocesium detected in an Ahi measured by the authors.

Levels of Naturally Occurring 40-Potassium in Fish

Naturally occurring 40K decays with a half life of 1.25 billion years and in taken up into the tissue of marine fish.  The levels of 40K in the fish measured by the authors are summarized in the table below:

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Levels of artificial radiocesium and naturally occurring 40-K in fish from Hawai’i

Activity of 40K (Bq kg-1) tended be ~100 fold higher in the fish tissue than radiocesium activities.

Effective Dose of Ionizing Radiation and Health Impact to Fish Consumers

The authors determined the impact of fish consumption on the ionizing radiation dose experienced by individuals consuming an average amount of fish per year (24.1 kg per year or 53.1 pounds per year).  The table below compares the dose in nanoSieverts per year (10-9 Sv yr-1) owing to historic and Fukushima sourced radiocesium and naturally occurring 40K in seafood.

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Committed effective dose to fish consumers from artificial (human made) and naturally occurring 40-K

Converting isotope activities in the fish to dose demonstrates that 40K is responsible for ~100 times higher dose than 134Cs + 137Cs. Doses to humans from consuming the fish owing to radiocesium were 0.02–0.2 µ Sv yr-1, while doses of 6–20 µ Sv yr-1 were contributed by the natural 40K present in the same fish. These levels of radioisotopes and the calculated doses to consumers are similar to those reported by the InFORM project who have looked at Pacific salmon returning to rivers and streams in North America over the last 3-4 years. It is important to note that the bulk of ionizing radiation dose to fish consumers normally results from 210-Polonium (210Po half life 138 days) naturally present in the fish but this isotope was not measured in the Azouz and Dulai study.

Conclusion

Fukushima derived radioisotopes 134Cs and 137Cs were detected (at 95% confidence interval) in 3 of 13 fish caught in the North Pacific and commonly consumed by people living in the Hawaiian islands.  The radiocesium in most fish reflected contamination largely present in the North Pacific Ocean owing to atmospheric weapons testing during the last century.  The levels of radiocesium in the fish were a small fraction of the levels of naturally occurring radioisotopes like 40K.  The committed effective dose of ionizing radiation to fish consumers is dominated by the naturally occurring isotopes and do not remotely approach levels known to represent a significant or measurable health risk to human beings.  The results of this study agree with previously published research and results of the InFORM project which focuses on the impact of the Fukushima disaster on the marine ecosystem and public health in North America.