A look at how bad radiation contamination from Fukushima was on the BC coast
Posted September 16, 2017 1:59 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) – Radioactive contamination from a nuclear power plant disaster in Fukushima back in 2011 has never reached unsafe levels in the north Pacific Ocean, that’s the finding from a University of Victoria scientist.
Oceanographer Jay Cullen says even though many thought they would, the levels of radiation never got to the point of concern which we’re only now learning about. “What we were unsure about was how mixing both vertically and horizontally in the ocean would diminish the amount of contamination that was very high off the coast of Japan.”
There were predictions, but the maximum levels off our coast weren’t known until now. “It’s the measurements themselves that actually indicate to us what the maximum levels will be. And it’s those maximum levels that tell us what the risk to both the marine ecosystem’s and human health will be.”
“The levels are so low that they’re not known to represent a significant risk to health, either the environment or human health. In fact the peak levels that we’ve measured off shore, are actually about a thousand fold lower than the levels of this radioactive contamination than is permissible in our drinking water.”
The highest amount of radioactive contamination reached offshore BC in 2015 and 2016, and now levels are similar to what was detected in the 1970s, after weapons-testing wasn’t allowed.
