It's disappointing that the nuclear industry and governments have remained silent and ignored this nuclear catastrophe.
WHOI to test for radioactive Pacific Ocean water
Ken Buesseler has been monitoring radiation levels in water collected near the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant which was damaged in the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in 2011.Cape Cod Times/Merrily Cassidy
WOODS HOLE — The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has launched a new citizen website to pay the cost of testing Pacific Ocean water for levels of radioactivity.
The idea is to help the public keep a close eye on a plume of water containing radionuclides, or radioactive elements, from the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant in Japan, WHOI senior scientist Ken Buesseler said during a teleconference Tuesday.
The new website, www.ourradioactiveocean.org, allows members of the public and coastal communities to support testing the water samples at WHOI.
The power plant was badly damaged in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami and has been leaking radioactive water into the ocean ever since.
Water containing radioactive cesium-134 should be hitting the U.S. West Coast including Alaska any day now, but it's hard to know for sure since no U.S. government agency is responsible for monitoring radioactivity in the ocean, Buesseler said.
He believes the radiation will be too diluted after traveling 5,000 miles across the Pacific to have an impact on American fishing and recreational activities.
But Buesseler said the American public has the right to know what the radiation levels actually are.
"It's something I do think should be monitored for the U.S. public," Buesseler said. "What I expect are low numbers. ... If we don't have data it's very easy to speculate and alarm people."
Buesseler says the website is an example of crowd sourcing. Individuals and communities put up $100 in seed money to propose a testing site.
If WHOI selects the site, the scientific organization will set up a fundraising web page to help the group pay for testing, usually $550 to $600.
Once the full amount is raised, the group or individual will receive a sampling kit to collect about five gallons of seawater to ship to the Center for Marine and Environmental Radioactivity at WHOI.
Buesseler's lab can process two to five samples a week, he said. Currently his lab has its eye on five sites from Washington state to Hawaii it would like to see fully funded.
Buesseler and his team have been collecting samples of water off Fukushima since shortly after the earthquake and tsunami.
WHOI scientists plan to return to Japan in May and September to conduct more research with colleagues in the Japanese scientific community, Buesseler said.
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