Post Fukushima accident 129I concentrations in the North Pacific Ocean.

Abstract The ongoing public concern about the Fukushima nuclear accident's real consequences determined us to start a new Accelerator Mass Spectrometry study of 129I concentrations in the North Pacific Ocean. Our results show that currently, the radioiodine 129 concentrations from coastal Japanese sea water samples are in the range of (0.9–1.6) × 108 atoms L−1. Higher 129I concentrations of 6.4 × 108 atoms L−1 have been found in the Tadami River, located close to the damaged nuclear reactors. For the North Pacific and all the way into the western shore line we found to have now much lower concentrations, with an average of 2.5 × 107 atoms L−1. Therefore, Fukushima and its vicinities remain an isolated area of nuclear pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]