Ever since the Fukushima disaster caused by the 2011 earthquake, radioactive material has been detected spreading toward North America’s west coast. This was first detected in Canadian salmon with elevated Cs-134. Cs-137 levels have also been increasing in the central north east Pacific – from Alaska to California. While these levels of radioactivity do not currently pose a threat to public health or the environment, the levels are expected to continue increasing.
Key Takeaways:
- Chemical oceanographer Ken Buesseler of Woods Hole has been one of the primary scientists tracking the plume, by means of the crowd-funded, citizen science seawater sampling project Our Radioactive Ocean.
- The radioactive samples were collected from Tillamook Bay and Gold Beach in Oregon in January and February 2016.
- Sampling had previously shown the North American arrival of the plume in the form of Cs-134 in seawater collected from Vancouver Island, B.C.
“Chemical oceanographer Ken Buesseler of Woods Hole has been one of the primary scientists tracking the plume, by means of the crowd-funded, citizen science seawater sampling project Our Radioactive Ocean.”