Forty water samples have been collected between October 2014 and March 2015 from 13 communities along the British Columbia coast. Results* from 19 samples are currently available.
March 2015 InFORMal Monitoring Update
Tag Archives: Environmental Monitoring
Most Recent Measurements of Plutonium in Pacific: Fukushima Fallout Undetectable
By Jay T. Cullen
@JayTCullen and @FukushimaInFORM
The purpose of this post is to report results from two recently published studies on plutonium releases from Fukushima to the Pacific Ocean. The post contributes to an ongoing series where results from peer-reviewed studies on the impact of the triple meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichii nuclear power plant on the health of the Pacific ecosystem and residents of the west coast of North America are reported. A frequently asked question of those involved in monitoring the health of the North Pacific is why more measurements of the long lived, alpha-emitting isotopes of plutonium (239Pu half-life 24,100 years; 240Pu 6,570 years) are not being made given the potential for these isotopes to pose radiological health risks. Previous work indicates that 239+240Pu releases from Fukushima were about 100,000 and 5,000,000 times lower than releases from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and 20th century weapons testing respectively. Initial measurements of Pu isotopes in seawater and marine sediments off the coast from Fukushima indicated no detectable change occurred in Pu inventories in the western Pacific after the disaster. These two most recent studies monitored the activity and isotopic composition of Pu in seawater and marine sediments off of Japan from 2008-2013. Similar to earlier work these studies find that the release of Pu isotopes by the Fukushima accident to the Pacific Ocean has been negligible. The Fukushima signal is not detectable in the ocean off Japan relative to legacy sources from atmospheric weapons testing in the 20th century. Given these accumulating results 239+240Pu from Fukushima is unlikely to negatively impact the health of the Pacific Ocean ecosystem and levels in the environment from Fukushima will not pose a danger to the population of North America.
Continue reading Most Recent Measurements of Plutonium in Pacific: Fukushima Fallout Undetectable
Prince Rupert Citizen Science Monitoring Continues for February 2015
Feb. 19, 2015
Prince Rupert BC
Prince Rupert’s third sample was recently collected by our volunteer team including students from NWCC Desiree Louis (College and Career Prep program) and Michael Standbridge (Applied Coastal Ecology (ACE) program). Sampling is being coordinated by Cheryl Paavola (Instructor and Science Lab Tech) at Northwest Community College – Prince Rupert.
Continue reading Prince Rupert Citizen Science Monitoring Continues for February 2015
More Citizen Science Seawater Monitoring Results: No Fukushima Contamination Detected
@JayTCullen and @FukushimaInFORM
February 16, 2015
What we found:
The absence of any detectable 134-Cs (an unambiguous fingerprint isotope of Fukushima contamination) in the seawater samples indicates that as of November 2014 these locations covering the length of the British Columbia coast have not be affected by ocean currents carrying Fukushima contamination.
The detection limit for 134-Cs averages ~0.2 Bq m-3
Newly added results come from seawater samples collected in collaboration with citizen scientists at the following locations in British Columbia, Canada during November 2014.
Samples were processed and the amount of gamma emitting isotopes determined using a high purity germanium detector. We look primarily for radioisotopes of cesium (134-Cs half life ~2 years and 137-Cs half life ~ 30 years) for the following reasons:
- 134-Cs has a half life that is short enough that all other human sources to the environment have decayed away making it an ideal tracer for Fukushima contamination
- next to the short lived Iodine-131 (half life ~ 8 days), Cs isotopes were released in greatest activity to the environment from Fukushima and would be most likely to represent a radiological health risk given their chemistry and propensity to be taken up by the biota
- other isotopes were released in much lower amounts from Fukushima relative to Cs (see other posts here and search for plutonium and strontium for example) and would therefore be much more difficult to detect
- because they are gamma emitters (unlike Pu isotopes and 90-Sr which emit alpha and beta radiation respectively) they are relatively easy and resource efficient to detect
The absence of detectable 134-Cs indicates that waters near these locations spanning the length of British Columbia have not been contaminated with Fukushima radioactive elements transported across the Pacific by prevailing currents as of Nov 2014. The presence of 137-Cs is due to historical sources of this human made isotope owing to atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in the 20th century and contamination from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. You can read about the levels of 137-Cs in the North Pacific pre-Fukushima here.
More results will be published as they become available.
B.C.’s citizen scientists on alert for radiation from Japan
Amy Smart
Originally Published in the Times Colonist January 24, 2015 10:22 PM
Continue reading B.C.’s citizen scientists on alert for radiation from Japan
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