Recent studies discovered that the Kuroshio Current has been spreading a large amount of radiocesium 137 left behind from the nuclear bomb tests by the US and Russia 60 years ago. Survey indicates that the radiocesium activity of seawater and marine organisms in the waters around Taiwan is far below the mandatory standard, and shows no radiation abnormalities and no impact on human bodies.
Chen Chen-dong, chair professor of the Department of Oceanography, National Sun Yat-Sen University, pointed out from his latest study that the Kuroshio Current has been spreading a large amount of radiocesium 137 left behind from the nuclear bomb tests by the US and Russia 60 years ago, and the level is more than 1000 times than the amount that was being released by Fukushima’s nuclear incident each year between 2016 and 2018. The radiocesium may be transported to the upwelling waters in the Northeast Coast, and absorbed by crustaceans and algae, which would be harmful to the human bodies if they are consumed.
The Atomic Energy Council explained from its press release that the media is claiming the radiocesium would rise from the deep waters to the surface, and may be absorbed by algae and marine organisms that would then impact human bodies upon ingestions. There have been no reports on radiation abnormalities, and are thus interpreted to induce no impact on humans.
As pointed out by the Atomic Energy Council, the Radiation Monitoring Center had commissioned the National Sun Yat-Sen University to conduct a survey on the radiation background of Taiwan’s sea environment, and help with obtaining samples of seawater, sediments, and cores, as well as data analysis, between 2018 and 2021. According to the survey on the level of radiation in the sea area over the past years, a stronger delivery quantity of radiocesium is found at a depth of 200-400m at the Kuroshio Current that will surge to the surface of East China Sea from Taiwan’s Northeast Coast. This discovery was published on the globally acclaimed journal Marine Pollution Bulletin.
The Atomic Energy Council explained that there is only a minor level of artificial radioactive substances in the sea since there are no testing of nuclear weapon, and the survey of the Radiation Monitoring Center indicates that the level of radiocesium in the sea water and marine organisms from the surrounding waters of Taiwan is far below that of the record standard of Taiwan’s Environmental Radiation Monitoring Specification, with no radiation abnormalities as well.
The Atomic Energy Council emphasized that it has planned for a seawater monitoring program in accordance with the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant’s emission of tritium-containing wastewater into the sea, and will continue to monitor the changes of radiation in the surround seawater environment of Taiwan in order to ensure radiation safety.
(Cover photo source: Atomic Energy Council)