Fukushima Daiichi–derived radionuclides in the ocean : transport, fate, and impacts
Date
2016-06-30Author
Buesseler, Ken O.
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Dai, Minhan
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Aoyama, Michio
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Benitez-Nelson, Claudia R.
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Charmasson, Sabine
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Higley, Kathryn
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Maderich, Vladimir
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Masqué, Pere
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Morris, Paul J.
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Oughton, Deborah
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Smith, John N.
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https://hdl.handle.net/1912/8669As published
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-010816-060733DOI
10.1146/annurev-marine-010816-060733Keyword
Cesium; Caesium; North Pacific; Radioactivity; JapanAbstract
The events that followed the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, included the loss of power and overheating at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants, which led to extensive releases of radioactive gases, volatiles, and liquids, particularly to the coastal ocean. The fate of these radionuclides depends in large part on their oceanic geochemistry, physical processes, and biological uptake. Whereas radioactivity on land can be resampled and its distribution mapped, releases to the marine environment are harder to characterize owing to variability in ocean currents and the general challenges of sampling at sea. Five years later, it is appropriate to review what happened in terms of the sources, transport, and fate of these radionuclides in the ocean. In addition to the oceanic behavior of these contaminants, this review considers the potential health effects and societal impacts.
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© The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Annual Review of Marine Science 9 (2017): 173-203, doi:10.1146/annurev-marine-010816-060733.
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Annual Review of Marine Science 9 (2017): 173-203The following license files are associated with this item: