Scientists detect highest levels of Fukushima radiation off the coast of California taken to date!

[link to www.fukushimawatch.com]

Radiation from the 2011 Fukushima disaster is plaguing more and more identified sites on American shores, although research scientists continue to claim that these levels are still too low to harm marine life or the public, despite the ongoing epidemic of animal deaths in the Pacific Ocean.

The highest recorded level of radiation taken to date was discovered 1,600 miles west of San Francisco. The degree of radioactive cesium detected in water samples was 11 becquerel’s per cubic meter of seawater (264 gallons), which is 50 percent higher than other samples taken across the coast.(1)

Although this is the highest radioactive sample taken to date, it is still 500 times lower than U.S. government safety limits for drinking water, which says more about government safety standards than it does about the actual safety of the water.(1)

In fact, in response to the Fukushima disaster, the U.S. government actually chose to increase the amount of radiation that it would allow in citizens’ drinking water.

Cesium-134 and cesium-137

An increasing amount of cesium-134 has been discovered a few hundred miles from Oregon, Washington and California coasts in recent months, including offshore from Canada’s Vancouver Island. In addition, trace amounts of cesium-137 were found at low levels in almost all water samples tested by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), a nonprofit research organization.

Cesium-134 has a half-life of a little over two years, whereas cesium-137 has a half-life a little over 30 years. There was no background radioactive cesium in the environment before above-ground nuclear testing and nuclear accidents began, according to a document published on the EPA website.[PDF]

More: [link to www.fukushimawatch.com]