Tag Archives: 134-Cs

Biota, Monitoring

2016 Biotic Monitoring Results: No Fukushima Contamination Detected in Salmon or Shellfish

3 Comments
Full results from 2016 InFORM salmon monitoring representing samples from 123 fish.
Results from 2016 InFORM salmon monitoring representing samples from 123 fish. Oceanic monitoring data were collected in 2015. Migration routes of various fish species are indicated with dashed lines.

More results from InFORM’s 2016 biotic monitoring results are now available and reveal that Fukushima contamination was not detected in sampled BC salmon after initial testing. These results are an update to the earlier report on the first 20 of the 123 fish donated by First Nations from 10 rivers in British Columbia and Yukon in 2016. Nine fish did have individual levels of 137Cs detected near the minimum detectable concentration (MDC). These levels (<0.7 Bq kg-1) are not known to present a significant health risk and are ~1,400x lower than the national and international action level (1000 Bq kg-1). For perspective, you would need to consume 1000-1500 kg of salmon at this concentration of cesium to receive the same radiation dose acquired during a single cross country flight. There has not been a significant increase to the total 137Cs concentration in BC salmon since InFORM monitoring began in 2014.

Continue reading 2016 Biotic Monitoring Results: No Fukushima Contamination Detected in Salmon or Shellfish →

Media, Presentations & Media

Should we be worried about Fukushima radiation?

Leave a comment
ap-japan-nuclear
This Jan. 12, 2016 photo, shows No. 3 nuclear reactor, bottom, at Takahama nuclear power station in Takahama town in Fukui prefecture, northwestern Japan. Japan has restarted a nuclear reactor that burns plutonium-based fuel for power generation, first under the post-Fukushima safety rules. The No. 3 reactor at Takahama nuclear plant in western Japan, operated by Kansai Electric Power Co., becomes the first one using plutonium-uranium hybrid fuel known as MOX to go back online since the 2011 meltdowns at Fukushima. (Photo: AP)

by Mary Bowerman and Tracy Loew
USA Today
Published 9 Dec 2016

For the first time, seaborne radiation from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster has been detected on the West Coast of the United States.

The levels are very low and shouldn’t harm people eating fish from the West Coast or swimming in the ocean, according to Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 

Continue reading Should we be worried about Fukushima radiation? →

Media, Presentations & Media

Fukushima radiation has reached U.S. shores

1 Comment

by Tracy Loew
Statesman Journal 
Published 7 Dec 2016

For the first time, seaborne radiation from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster has been detected on the West Coast of the United States.

Cesium-134, the so-called fingerprint of Fukushima, was measured in seawater samples taken from Tillamook Bay and Gold Beach in Oregon, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are reporting. Continue reading Fukushima radiation has reached U.S. shores →