Japan has restarted the first reactor at the Sendai nuclear plant since closing all nuclear facilities after the largest nuclear meltdown in history. The reactor is located approximately 50 km from Mount Sakurajima, an active volcano that erupts almost constantly -- the reactor sits only 40 km from five giant crater depressions -- a result of previous eruptions. Japan's weather agency warns there is an extremely high chance of a large eruption soon and has told residence to prepare to evacuate.
In response to the disastrous Fukushima meltdown, resulting from damage sustained in a historic earthquake induced tsunami that crippled Japan in 2011, the Asian Pacific governments initiated a study to research possible effects of radioactive releases from the Fukushima nuclear facility.
The document statements are appalling, revealing that The area potentially affected may encompass much of the Pacific Ocean, which covers one third of the area of the globe. Following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan on 11 March 2011 and their subsequent impact on the nuclear reactors and associated fuel storage ponds at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, there have been releases of radioactively contaminated water into the marine environment neighboring the north east coast of the island of Honshu. It is assumed that this radioactive contamination could be transported and circulated through the Pacific Ocean.
Anti-nuclear advocate, Dr. Helen Caldicott, expressed her continuing alarm, Every day four hundred tons of highly radioactive water pours into the Pacific and heads towards the U.S. Because the radiation accumulates in fish, we get that too. The U.S. government is not testing the water, not testing the fish, and not testing the ambient air. Also, people in Japan are eating radiation every day.
Radioactive material has already migrated to Northern California found in water samples taken only 100 miles offshore -- but scientists expect the largest plumes of radioactive material from Fukushima to reach the California coast in 2017. While they don't have specific proof linking radiation as the culprit, ecological damage is evident in the 5 degree increase in water temperatures from San Francisco to Monterey -- and sea mammals, dead, or near death, are continuing to wash ashore at an alarming rate. Scientists hypothesize that the unexplained abnormally warmer temperatures are causing a food shortage.
You could equate it to a war zone, describes the Pacific Marine Mammal Center's Keith Matassa. In just one day, a sea lion pup, an adult elephant seal, and a large dolphin all dead -- washed ashore -- a highly unusual event for the beach near San Francisco. In the few months surrounding that day in July, 2015, a number of dead whales and thousands of dead or dying sea lions beached themselves along the coast from San Francisco to San Diego. Within the first six months of this year alone, more than 3,000 or sick and starving sea lions were stranded as well, coinciding with the fact that, for three of the five years since the Fukushima tragedy, an unprecedented number of sea lions have met the same fate.
Those interested in learning more about the alarming impact of the Fukushima disaster on the environment should visit http://bit.ly/1NEXt7K
