Radiation Travels
Fukushima’s Nuclear disaster occurred in early 2010, however its effects on the environment have only recently reached the surface. Scientists across the pacific coast and Hawaii have been anxiously measuring radiation levels in the sea, and studies are beginning to highlight the damage caused by the traveling radiation over 5,000 miles away1.
How the radiation moves is based on many factors. Radiation can travel to difffernt areas by the currents in the ocean and taken up by traid winds in the air. If particulates in the water are very small they will move with the current, but if they are bigger or denser, they can settle in sediment and contaminate immediate areas that foster fish and other marine life3 .
Although radiation travels from factors like wind and currents, it travels in the food chain3.
For example one contamintate such as iodine-131 is taken up by phytoplankton, it is then transferred to fish that eat them, and so on until the fish dies or is abosrbed by humans that injest the fish3.
Fukushima’s Nuclear Disaster occurred in early 2010, however its effects on the environment have only recently reached the surface. Scientists across the pacific coast and Hawaii have been anxiously measuring radiation levels in the sea, and studies are beginning to highlight the damage caused by traveling radiation over 5,000 miles away1.
Radiation from Fukushima was devasting to the region around, and its destruction is now traveling west towards the West Coast of the United States and poses a large threat to the world and the environment1. Radiation released from the explosion can travel from winds and ocean currants. It takes a long time for it to travel but when it does, has huge consequences.
Radiation can also travel through the food chain1. For instance, radiation can settle into sediment or get absorbed into fish. If plankton become contaminated, a predator that eats the plankton will then take in the radiation from it's prey. The fish are then eaten by humans or die and release the radiation back into the environment1.
Radiation Travels
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