Fukushima- Ocean Impacts and Public Concerns

Abstract:

The triple disaster of the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent radiation releases at Fukushima Dai-ichi were unprecedented events for the ocean and society. This presentation will provide an overview of studies of Fukushima radionuclides in the ocean. The radioactive releases from Fukushima will be compared to natural and prior human sources. The fate of cesium is largely determined by its soluble nature in seawater, though uptake in sediments does occur via cesium’s association with both detrital particles and biological uptake and sedimentation. Cesium’s continued supply from the rivers and ongoing leakages at the nuclear power plants suggests that coastal sediments may remain contaminated for decades to come. Although levels of cesium in the ocean and being released from Fukushima more than four years later are orders of magnitude lower than in 2011, other isotopes such as strontium-90 remain of interest as they are elevated relative to cesium in the groundwater and storage tanks at the reactor site. Across the Pacific, Fukushima cesium is starting to be detectable along the west coast of North America. Although models suggest cesium will be at levels well below those considered of human health concern, the public is worried about the lack of ocean monitoring of Fukushima radionuclides. We addressed these public concerns by creating “Our Radioactive Ocean” a citizen-scientist crowd-funded campaign that provides a sampling kit that can use to sample their favorite beach. Once collected, samples are returned to WHOI for analyses of the isotopes of cesium that allow us to distinguish Fukushima cesium from other sources (http://OurRadioactiveOcean.org ). However to measure the low levels of cesium already in the ocean 20 liter samples are needed. To increase public participation, we will also present results from a new wearable sample collector, the “RadBand” which contains a small amount of cesium selective resin that surfers and swimmers can wear on their ankle. A prototype RadBand is being tested as part of The Longest Swim, an attempt by Ben Lecomte to swim from Tokyo to San Francisco (http://thelongestswim.com/ ). This swim is being used as another way to engage the public on ocean and environmental issues.