Tag Archives: seawater

Cesium, Isotope, Location, NW Pacific, Peer Reviewed, Sample type, Seawater

Update: Fukushima Derived Contamination in Pacific Surface Water Up Until 2017

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Northeast subarctic Pacific from the deck of the Canadian Coast Guard Ship J.P. Tully in September 2

By Jay T. Cullen

The purpose of this post is to summarize a recently published, peer-reviewed study that documents levels of Fukushima derived contamination in surface waters of the Pacific Ocean. This post is part of an ongoing series aimed at communicating scientifically derived information about the impact of the disaster on marine environmental and public health. Michio Aoyama and colleagues measured the activity of Cesium-137 (137Cs, half life ~30 years) and Cesium-134 (134Cs, half life ~ 2 years) in seawater collected from the western Pacific Ocean including waters off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture from 2011-2017. They found the following:

  • Contamination decreased dramatically and rapidly in waters offshore of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) from maximum values of ~3000 Becquerel per cubic meter (Bq m-3) of seawater in 2011 to values  in 2015-16 of ~2-3 Bq m-3. This precipitous decline is consistent with the ongoing but relatively low rates of release of radionuclides from the site compared to the bulk of contamination that was released in March-April 2011.
  • Levels of 137Cs close to FDNPP now are similar to levels of contamination present there before the disaster occurred (1.5-2 Bq m-3) owing to atmospheric nuclear weapons testing in the middle of the 20th century.
  • Levels in the western Pacific were around 1-7 Bq m-3 in 2011-2012 but stabilized at lower values in 2017.

Levels being measured in nearshore and offshore waters in the western Pacific near to Japan do not approach levels known to represent a credible risk for ocean or public health. These results in the western Pacific are consistent with what the Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide Monitoring (InFORM) project is finding in the eastern Pacific off of North America.

Aoyama and others recently published their study in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity. The collected and analyzed surface seawater for the presence of radiocesium isotopes between 2011 and 2017 in waters of the western Pacific in the following locations:

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AoyamaetalFig1.jpg​
Boundaries of areas (boxes) sampled by Aoyama et al. (2018) in the western and central Pacific Ocean.

​The activity of 137Cs and 134Cs in Bq m-3 with time that they found are summarized in the following figure:

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1-s2.0-S0265931X17307750-gr2_lrg.jpg​
Long term trends (2011-2017) in radiocesium activity in boxes defined in the first figure. Solid blue squares are 137Cs activity concentration and open red circles represent 134Cs.

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The researchers found that in Box 2 (closest to the FDNPP) contamination in surface waters offshore were highest in early 2011 coincident with the largest releases from the site in March-April of that year when the vast majority of radionuclides were released to the atmosphere and directly to the ocean.  Values dropped dramatically so that by 2014-2016 levels were ~3 Bq m-3 and similar to levels of contamination measured before the disaster occurred owing to nuclear weapons testing that occurred in the 1950s-60s. Note that the concentrations of 134Cs diminish relative to 137Cs, and the red symbols on the figure diverge from the blue symbols, because 134Cs has an ~2 year half life and is decaying away from the environment much more rapidly. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly challenging analytically to detect Fukushima 134Cs in environmental samples.  Contamination farther offshore in Boxes 4-6 indicate that maximum levels of contamination from Fukushima approached by did not exceed 200 Bq m-3 in 2011 and are now ~2-3 Bq m-3.

Based on best estimates of how much radiocesium was released from FDNPP in March-April 2011 the authors used a model of the water circulation and mixing in the Pacific to predict the levels and movement of Fukushima 134Cs in the Pacific from April 2012 until October 2016.  The results of the modeling study are summarized in the following figure:

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1-s2.0-S0265931X17307750-gr3b_lrg.jpg​
Horizontal distribution of 134Cs from Fukushima for the period April 2012 to October 2016. Open circles represent observations/measurements of 134Cs while shading reflects model results.

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What the model and observations indicate is that the bulk of contamination from the site went into the Pacific Ocean in 2011 and that rates of release from the site after that time are very small in comparison. Most of the Fukushima contamination is now in the eastern Pacific near to North America and that levels in behind the main body of contamination are difficult to detect.  Similarly, the lack of appreciable 134Cs and 134Cs/137Cs activity ratios close to FDNPP indicate that there is little evidence for ongoing fission in the reactors at the site as is commonly speculated by those with little scientific training.  The levels the scientific community is measuring close to FDNPP and those expected and measured in waters close to North America do not represent a significant risk to the marine ecosystem or public health.

The Fukushima InFORM project will continue its monitoring activities in the eastern Pacific until Spring 2019.

Continue reading Update: Fukushima Derived Contamination in Pacific Surface Water Up Until 2017 →

Cesium, Fukushima, Japan, Marine Life, Peer Reviewed, Seawater, Strontium

Fukushima Radionuclides in Pacific: Doses to Japanese and World Public Unlikely to Cause Health Damage

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By Jay T. Cullen

The purpose of this post is to summarize a the most recent, peer reviewed scientific study to examine the likely impact of Fukushima contamination of the North Pacific on human health. The blog is part of a continuing series that seeks to communicate the results of scientific studies aimed at determining the impact of the triple meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (FDNPP) on ecosystem and public health. Povinec and Hirose’s recent paper in Scientific Reports examined the variation in Fukushima derived 90-Strontium (90Sr half life 28.8 years), 134-Cesium (134Cs half life ~2 years) and 137-Cesium (137Cs half life ~30 years) in seawater and biota offshore of the FDNPP and in the northwest Pacific. These isotopes are most likely to represent radiologically health risks to consumers of Pacific seafood given their propensity to concentrate in organisms and, in the case of 90Sr and 137Cs, their longevity in the environment. Doses to the Japanese and world population were estimated and compared to doses attributable to naturally occurring isotopes present in food. Doses from food caught in coastal waters right next to the FDNPP to 20 km offshore were similar to doses from naturally occurring isotopes (primarily 210Po) while doses from the consumption off fish caught in the open northwest Pacific were much lower than natural doses. In each case the individual doses are well below levels where any negative health effects would be measurable in Japan or elsewhere. Continue reading Fukushima Radionuclides in Pacific: Doses to Japanese and World Public Unlikely to Cause Health Damage →

Cesium, NW Pacific, Peer Reviewed, Seawater, Strontium

Dramatic Decrease of Fukushima Derived Radionuclides in the Northwest Pacific Ocean 2011-2012

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By Jay T. Cullen

A schematic view of the formation and subduction of mode waters in the North Pacific

The purpose of this diary is to report on a recently published (Jan 2015) open-access, peer reviewed study which examined the activities of 137Cs (half life 30.2 yr), 134Cs (half life ~2.1 yr) and 90Sr (half life ~28.8 yr) in the northwest Pacific off the coasts of Japan and China. The diary is part of a ongoing effort to communicate the results of scientific research into the impact of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster on environmental and public health. Men and colleagues report on how activities of these fission produced isotopes changed between three research expeditions in June 2011, December 2011 and June 2012. Activities in seawater decreased dramatically through time for all three isotopes consistent with very high release rates measured from the Fukushima site in March-April 2011 followed by ongoing but many orders of magnitude (10,000 – 100,000 fold) lower releases from the site thereafter. By 2012 the impact of the Fukushima releases could be still be detected in most samples for Cs isotopes however 90Sr distributions were much more uniform with the highest measured activity only slightly above the pre-Fukushima background. These results are consistent with:

  1. the relatively small source term for 90Sr from compared with the Cs isotopes from Fukushima as determined by measurements of air, soil and water after the disaster
  2. the much lower Fukushima derived activities for these isotopes in the eastern Pacific off of North America being measured given decay and mixing of the contamination as it is transported by ocean currents

Continue reading Dramatic Decrease of Fukushima Derived Radionuclides in the Northwest Pacific Ocean 2011-2012 →

Fukushima, Japan, Peer Reviewed, Plutonium, Sediment

Most Recent Measurements of Plutonium in Pacific: Fukushima Fallout Undetectable

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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 →

Media, Presentations & Media

Canadian scientists track Pacific Ocean currents… using Fukushima radiation

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Scott Sutherland
Meteorologist, theweathernetwork.com

Originally published by The Weather Network

Wednesday, January 7, 2015, 8:09 PM – Radioactive isotopes originating from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan have been slowly drifting across the Pacific Ocean since March 2011, and Canadian scientists have been using this to test some of their most basic ideas of how ocean currents work. Continue reading Canadian scientists track Pacific Ocean currents… using Fukushima radiation →