By Jay T. Cullen

The purpose of this post is to report on a recent peer-reviewed study that investigated the radionuclide content of fish caught in the harbor of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Powerplant (FDNPP) in 2012 and 2013. The post is also written in part to address questions like:

Why don’t you measure ⁹⁰Sr in fish you catch off of North America?

This post is part of an ongoing series dedicated to summarizing results from scientific research into the impact of the FDNPP disaster on the environment. Fujimoto and colleagues measured the activity of Cesium-134 (¹³⁴Cs half life ~2 years), Cesium-137 (¹³⁷Cs half life ~30 years) and Strontium-90 (⁹⁰Sr half life ~29 years) in fish collected from the FDNPP harbor and just outside the port in 2012 and 2013. Fish were most contaminated in the harbor and had radiocesium activity concentrations (in whole body without internal organs, Bq kg^-1 – wet weight) that were ~200-330 times higher than measured ⁹⁰Sr levels. The much lower ⁹⁰Sr levels compared to radiocesium in the fish is consistent with much lower releases of ⁹⁰Sr to the Pacific Ocean compared to radiocesium in the aftermath of the meltdowns at FDNPP (see here, here and here for example). The activity of radiocesium in fish diminishes dramatically with distance from the harbor and as of April-June 2015 none of the fish caught in Fukushima prefecture waters exceeded the stringent 100 Bq kg^-1 Japanese safety standard. Across the Pacific, we have yet to detect Fukushima derived radiocesium in salmon and steelhead trout caught in British Columbian waters as part of the Fukushima InFORM monitoring effort. ⁹⁰Sr is much more difficult and costly to analyze in environmental samples than are the cesium isotopes. The results of the Fujimoto study suggest that ⁹⁰Sr from Fukushima is unlikely to be found at detectable levels in marine organisms in the northeast Pacific and that resources to monitor the impact of the disaster on our marine environment should focus on the detection of the cesium isotopes. Continue reading Radioactive Strontium and Cesium in Fish From the Harbor at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Plant →