New research in Japan: Radioactive material from the Fukushima nuclear accident spreads into the Arctic Ocean

New research in Japan: Radioactive material from the Fukushima nuclear accident spreads into the Arctic Ocean

Researchers from Japan's Marine Research and Development Agency have found that radioactive material leaked from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident has spread into the Arctic Ocean.

Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Infographic

Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported on the 14th that Yuichiro Kumamoto, chief researcher of the Japan Marine Research and Development Agency, recently released a study saying that the radioactive material cesium-134 leaked from the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011 spread to the Arctic Ocean about 8 years after the accident. This is the first time radioactive material from the Fukushima nuclear accident has been detected in the Arctic Ocean. Although the detected levels were only trace amounts, he speculated that radioactive material was spreading toward the central region of the Arctic Ocean. He also speculated that the radioactive material cesium-137 had also spread to the Arctic Ocean.

In early November, Michio Aoyama, a visiting professor at the University of Tsukuba in Japan, released a similar study. He found that after the radioactive material cesium-137 leaked in the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011 arrived on the west coast of the United States, it partially traveled north and returned to the northeast coast of Japan with ocean currents. He said the Fukushima nuclear accident leaked cesium-137 was detected in both the Bering Sea in the northernmost Pacific Ocean and the Chukotka Sea at the edge of the Arctic Ocean.

Screenshot of the Xinhua report

Source: Xinhua News Agency