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| A before and after photo of a shipyard |
In
2011, a tsunami and hurricane catastrophe caused radioactive contamination to
leak from the Fukushima Nuclear plant into the surrounding Japanese ocean and
soil. That radioactivity that was leaked into the water has migrated towards
the United States. Although the radioactivity has been diluted enough that it
is under the World Health Organizations safety limit it could have been very
dangerous if the power plant was located on the other side of Japan.
Researchers have been able to track the movements of the
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| The Fukushima Nuclear Plant |
contaminated waters
towards the US. They have been able to find new current patters by watching the
radioactive particles called cesium-137 using a current observing process. The
researchers have done extensive modeling on tracking the path of these
radioactive particles and have come to a conclusion that the radioactivity from
the 2011 Tsunami caused incident will reach the United States coast by early
2014. It was a lucky break that the radioactivity has been diluted as much as
it has or else the plume of radioactive water could have caused a lot of harm.
The Japanese government announced just this week that they will be spending
$320 million to put in what they call an “ice wall” to stop the leakage that
has continued to occur since that tragedy in 2011.
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| 10 year projected trajectory of radiation |
Works Cited:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/03/japan-ice-wall-fukushima-water
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