NEWS BRIEF: Radiaton found off the coast of California

Radiation from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in 2011 is now detected off the coast of Eureka, California

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Ed Apen, VOX Reporter

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute reports that low levels of radiation from the Fukushima plant accident in Japan in 2011, are now detected just 100 miles off the coast of California. (See map.)

The level of radiation, 1,000 times lower than the drinking water limit set by the Environmental Protection Agency, are not worrisome, and people who want to swim or fish in the water will not be affected by the radiation levels. After a devastating earthquake and tsunami in early 2011, radiation was released at unprecedented levels in the Pacific Ocean. Since then, these chemicals have traveled across the Pacific Ocean, becoming diluted along the way. Some say that fish, passing through a radioactive area, carried it over. It is predicted that the levels of radiation in these waters will increase over the next two to three years according the Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute, which first noted the presence of the radiation off the California coast earlier this month. It is unknown, however, if the radiation will be diluted and where it will hit the shoreline first.

US Government link for more information

Woods Hole Scientist sets up information site to involve and educate the public