Worst nuclear disaster ever? High radiation levels found in seabed off Japan

May 28, 2011 – TOKYO – Japan has revealed radiation up to several hundred times normal levels has been detected on the seabed off the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. The science ministry announced highly radioactive materials were detected in a 300-kilometre north-south stretch from Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture to Choshi in Chiba Prefecture, the Kyodo news agency reported on Saturday. The ministry warned that the contamination could affect the safety of seafood, the report said, without giving figures for the radiation levels detected. The science ministry said it detected iodine and caesium on the seabed at 12 locations 15km to 50km from the coastline between May 9 and 14. The news followed an announcement by Greenpeace on Thursday that marine life it had tested in waters more than 20km off the Fukushima nuclear plant showed radiation above legal limits. The anti-nuclear group, which conducted the coastal and offshore tests this month, criticised Japanese authorities for their “continued inadequate response to the Fukushima nuclear crisis” sparked by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Greenpeace said it detected seaweed radiation levels 50 times higher than official limits, which it charged raised “serious concerns about continued long-term risks to people and the environment from contaminated seawater.”It also said that tests, which it said were independently verified by French and Belgian laboratories, showed above-legal levels of radioactive iodine-131 and caesium-137 in several species of fish and shellfish. In the aftermath of the quake small amounts of radiation from Fukushima spread across Asia, deepening concerns for millions of people in countries which had already imposed bans on Japanese produce from near the nuclear plant. –NZ Herald

Russian official recently confirmed Dr. Caldicott’s March 2011 findings- Japanese nuclear disaster worst than Chernobyl. Deputy Director at the Russian Institute for Nuclear Engineering, Chernobyl clean-up worker Igor Ostretsov commented on the situation in an interview with the VOR…”The Fukushima disaster has proved that nuclear industry should be controlled only by the state and not by private companies. The outcome of this tragedy has turned even worse than it was in Chernobyl. Graphite which was part of the reactor`s core, burnt out and vanished in the atmosphere. But at Fukushima the reactor’s core melted.” –Voice of Russia - May 24, 2011

Replay: Dr. Helen Caldicott original March 18, 2011 assessment of the Japanese nuclear crisis