Tuna contaminated with Fukushima radiation found in California {video @ link}

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/29/tuna-contaminated-radiation-fukushima-california?intcmp=122


Bluefin tuna contaminated with radiation believed to be from Fukushima Daiichi turned up off the coast of California just five months after the Japanese nuclear plant suffered meltdown last March, US scientists said.

Tiny amounts of caesium-137 and caesium-134 were detected in 15 bluefin caught near San Diego in August last year, according to a study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

The levels were 10 times higher than those found in tuna in the same area in previous years, but still well below those that the Japanese and US governments consider a risk to health. Japan recently introduced a new safety limit of 100 becquerels per kilogram in food.

The timing of the discovery suggests that the fish, a prized but dangerously overfished delicacy in Japan, had carried the radioactive materials across the Pacific ocean faster than those conveyed by wind or water.

[progressoid]

1. What's the best tuna?

Irradiated Chicken of the Sea.

[PearliePoo2]

2. More from the article:

Pacific bluefin tuna are prized in Japan where a thin slice of the tender red meat prepared as sushi can fetch $24 per piece at top Tokyo restaurants. Japanese consume 80 percent of the world's Pacific and Atlantic bluefin tuna.

The real test of how radioactivity affects tuna populations comes this summer when researchers planned to repeat the study with a larger number of samples. Bluefin tuna that journeyed last year were exposed to radiation for about a month. The upcoming travelers have been swimming in radioactive waters for a longer period.

[Nihil]

4. Seems to be a certain amount of irony there ...

The very people responsible for the death of large amounts of bluefin tuna
are the main ones to be affected by this "problem" ...

[FBaggins]

3. 10 Bq/kg for goodness sake.

One would assume that even the most rabid nuclear opponent would have some threshold for relevance... but honesty isn't exactly their long suit.

Take, for instance, their year-long ravings about unit#4 leaning over and on the brink of collapse (included multiple claims that it had actually begun to collapse or had already collapsed or was on fire, etc). A survey is done showing a "bulge" no bigger than a couple inches (in a 100+ ft tall building), proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were dead wrong from the start... and what do we get? Breathless new claims that there is "Growing Fear Over Fukushima Fuel Pool 4 as Wall Bulge Detected"

Frankly, I'm shocked that the claim hasn't already made its way here.