Fukushima Radiation Reaches Canadian Waters, Pacific Coast by April

Radioactive isotopes from Japan's leaking Fukushima nuclear power plant have arrived offshore of Vancouver, British Columbia. Researchers detected cesium-134 and cesium-137 in the Pacific Ocean waters. More radiation is expected in the coming months.

The March 11, 2011 earthquake that rocked Japan caused a leak in the Fukushima plant. The massive tsunami that followed on March 16^th caused the meltdown. This, in turn, resulted in the high levels of radiation pollution that engulfed the nearby waters. The radiation is now making its way across the Pacific Ocean.

Research scientists at Canada's Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia reported that the concentrations of the isotopes are significantly lower than the safety limit for levels in drinking water. Researchers at the institute have been tracking levels of cesium since 2011 and have witnessed small increases. They are currently awaiting results from the February 2014 ocean sample.

Cesium-137 is present in the Pacific Ocean due to nuclear weapons' tests as well as from waste from nuclear power plants; in fact, it would be relatively difficult for testers to detect a significant increase. However, the presence of cesium-134 (found in this Discovery News article) is solely from the Fukushima leak, so researchers can easily determine whether the radiation from Japan is getting closer and closer.

Scientists have also reported that the radiation could reach the U.S. Pacific coast by April. No reports have been confirmed about radiation arriving along the shores of Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, or California. Despite the warning, there have been no agencies assigned to monitor the ocean waters. In response to the lack of concern, Ken Buessler, a chemical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, has orchestrated a monitoring program of his own.

He has sent volunteers out to California, Washington, and Hawaii, where they will monitor 16 sites along the continental U.S. coast and two sites in Hawaii. The volunteers are assigned to collect seawater in 20-liter containers and send them back to the Woods Hole laboratory in Cape Cod.

Mr. Buessler hopes to keep the scientific world informed over the next month or so. To read more about the Fukushima radiation issue, visit this San Francisco Gate article.