Radiation reaching North American shores from Fukushima is considered
significant by Canadian scientists working for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The concentrations are several orders of magnitude below those that would be considered an immediate health threat to humans. However, radiation from the multiple meltdown is expected to persist for years. No state or federal agency is testing Pacific waters for radiation. However, Wood Hole Oceanographic Institute reported that 50% of samples from around the West Coast test positive. The closest sample to shore was taken 100 miles due west of Eureka, CA
[blue dots above]. About fifty samples were collected offshore from Dutch Harbor, AS to Eureka. The amount of cesium-134 found, the isotope considered to be a signature of the Fukushima disaster, is less than 2 Bq/m³. That is a level about 1000 times lower than the limit set by the EPA for drinking water. Levels of 10 million becquerels were measured off Japan in 2011. As contaminated water plume travels accross the Pacific it is being diluted.
A marine chemist at the University of Victoria, Canada said the latest calculations indicate Fukushima has released 80 quadrillion becquerels of radiation into the environment, more than the estimated amount released by the Chernobyl disaster. Fukishima radiation in trace amounts have been detected in Alaska salmon. After
years of denial Fukushima officials recently admitted around
400 metric tons of radioactive water has been flowing into the Pacifc
every day for nearly 4 years.
