Fukushima radiation in Canada

Award-winning project finds seafood sold in Canada with high radiation levels 

• Many samples well over contamination limit 
•  “Incredible discovery; Something unexpected may be lurking in Canadian waters” 
• Believes dangerous Fukushima pollution carried across ocean 
• “I hope people will open their eyes”

ENENews,

3 April, 2014

Metro News, Mar. 24, 2014: Alberta student’s science project finds high radiation levels in grocery-store seafood [...] Bronwyn Delacruz [...] said she was shocked to discover that, in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) stopped testing imported foods for radiation in 2012. [...] Delacruz studied a variety of seafoods – particularly seaweeds – as part of an award-winning science project that she will take to a national fair next month. [...] Her results caught the attention of judges at the Peace River Regional Science Fair, who moved her project along to the Canada-Wide Science Fair [...]

Daily Herald Tribune, Mar. 25, 2014: Local science project finds high levels of radiation in seaweed — When Bronwyn Delacruz started testing seaweed in her living room last August, she made an incredible discovery: Something unexpected may be lurking in Canadian waters. [Delacruz] found disconcerting radiation levels in seaweed products from local grocery stores and is concerned for the health of families who may be consuming them. Her research on the subject recently earned gold at the regional Canada-Wide Science Fair [...] Delacruz tested more than 300 individual seaweed samples, with 15 brands exported from New Brunswick, British Columbia, California, Washington, China and Japan. Each was purchased in an Alberta grocery [...] 0.5 Bq per square centimetre is widely considered an actionable level of contamination [...] many of her samples tested well over this amount. [...] Delacruz believes the current has carried dangerous radiation from Japan’s east coast to Canada’s portion of the Pacific Ocean. [...] and believes dangerous radiation may only have reached the Canadian coastline recently. [...] Delacruz is a CWSF Physical Award of Excellence in Physical Earth and Chemical Sciences-winner [...]

Bronwyn Delacruz, Mar. 24, 2014: “Some of the kelp that I found was higher than what the International Atomic Energy Agency sets as radioactive contamination, which is 1,450 counts over a 10-minute period [...] Some of my samples came up as 1,700 or 1,800.”

Bronwyn Delacruz, Mar. 25, 2014: “I think any dose of radiation can be harmful [...] Any dose can cause negative health effects  [...] I’m kind of concerned that this is landing in our grocery stores and that if you aren’t measuring it, you could just be eating this and bringing home to your family. [...] Kelp was higher than what was considered dangerous [...] Some of them came up to 1,700, 1,800 (counts). [...] The way the currents and the radiation would arrive in Canada, it wouldn’t arrive until now [...] My pre-Fukushima (nori) measured about 400 (counts) [...] post-Fukushima measured around 500 to 600, which also not dangerous, but it’s considerably higher and statistically significantly higher too. [...] I eat a lot of seaweed in almost everything [...] I would like the government to test before they ‘OK’ imports from other countries [...] they’re just relying on other countries to do it for us. [...] I hope people will open their eyes to this.”

How You Can Help: Delacruz is fundraising to purchase a $15,000 germanium spectrometer for the High School science department that can detect radiation in fish and other complex foods. To donate, call Grande Prairie Public School District Education Foundation at 780-532-4491.

Seafood contamination

Fukushima Radiation Traced in Pacific Seafood

VOA,

25 October, 2013

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has insisted that seafood caught near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is safe to eat. Scientists have voiced concerns, however, that radioactive isotopes could accumulate in fish and pose a danger to human health.

Well before dawn on a cool October morning in Soma port, 30 kilometers north of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, fishermen prepare their nets and get ready to head out to sea.

Fishing resumed here last month, following the lifting of a ban imposed after it emerged in July that radioactive water had leaked into the ocean.

As the fishermen prepared to cast their nets once again, the head of the cooperative, Hiroyuki Sato, offered his encouragement.

Sato said that due to the problem of the contaminated water, he knows that everyone has various concerns. He said in embarking on this trial fishing, they must show that the cooperative in Soma Futaba is willing to continue fishing.

The fishermen are permitted to land 16 types of seafood. About 95 percent of the catch is discarded. Many fishermen, like Toshihiro Miharu, question the future of their livelihood.

Miharu said the fishermen are worried about whether they can actually sell the catch.

Opening a new session of parliament this month, Abe insisted the leaks do not pose a threat to human health.

Abe said the local fishermen are suffering from a bad reputation founded on falsehood, and that the effects on food and water are well below the limits for radiation levels.

Just offshore from the Fukushima plant, scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the United States are working alongside their Japanese counterparts, monitoring radiation levels. Among them is senior marine chemist Ken Buesseler.

“That radiation is moving across the Pacific, but it gets much, much lower even short distances offshore,” he said.

Buesseler said a bigger concern is the accumulation of isotopes in marine life. Earlier this year, cesium isotopes from Fukushima were found in tuna caught off California.

“The tuna that were caught off San Diego with the Fukushima cesium isotopes, they were 10 to 20 times lower than they had been off Japan. Now the new releases, the leak from the tanks - they’re changing in character. Strontium 90 has become of more concern because it’s a bone-seeking isotope. That will stay in fish much longer,” he said.

TEPCO, the owner of the Fukushima plant, is building an underground frozen wall to prevent contaminated water leaking into the sea. It is also testing a system to decontaminate the water.

Rianne Teule, nuclear expert at the environmental organization Greenpeace, says it is not clear whether those technologies will work.

“They already spent a lot of money trying to implement them. What Greenpeace wants is that the government really gets in international advice, gets as much support as possible to try to find the right solution for this problem.”

The livelihoods of the fishermen of Fukushima depend on finding that solution.