The Pacific Swallows Fukushima's Fallout

摘要

The Tohoku disaster had one unprecedented impact: an enormous amount of radiation was deposited in the ocean. The good news is that any long-term effects are likely to be trivial. And, thanks to strict testing of seafood, the radiation should not harm human health. But there are lingering conundrums. Flooding from the tsunami overwhelmed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, triggering hydrogen explosions on 12 and 14 March 2011; prevailing winds blew most of the vented radiation out to sea. A second calamity occurred from 2 to 6 April that year, when an estimated 520 cubic meters of highly contaminated cooling water leaked into the ocean. Together, the two events deposited an estimated 3.5 to 27 peta-becquerels into the Pacific-a small fraction of the radiation released during the Chernobyl accident.