Radiation from Japan found in kelp off U.S. West Coast

Mother Nature Network - 

It was already known that small amounts of radioactive iodine 131 made it across the Pacific within days of the March 11, 2011 tsunami disaster.

Radioactive iodine was found in kelp off the U.S. West Coast following last year's earthquake-triggered Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown, according to a new study.

It was already known that radioactive iodine 131, carried in the atmosphere, made it across the Pacific within days of the March 11, 2011 tsunami disaster, albeit in minuscule amounts.

But marine biologists at California State University, Long Beach discovered the radioactive isotope in ocean kelp, which is "one of the strongest plant accumulators of iodine," within a month of the accident.

"We measured significant, although most likely non-harmful levels of radioactive iodine in tissue of the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera," said Steven L. Manley, author of the study with Christopher G. Lowe "Although it is probably not harmful for humans because it was relatively low levels, it may have affected certain fish that graze on the tissue because fish have a thyroid system that utilizes iodine."

The study, "Canopy-Forming Kelps as California's Coastal Dosimeter: 131I from Damaged Japanese Reactor Measured in Macrocystis pyrifera," appears in the online edition of the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

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