title: Fukushima Daiichi-Derived Radionuclides in the Ocean: Transport, Fate, and Impacts.
abstract: The events that followed the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, included the loss of power and overheating at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants, which led to extensive releases of radioactive gases, volatiles, and liquids, particularly to the coastal ocean. The fate of these radionuclides depends in large part on their oceanic geochemistry, physical processes, and biological uptake. Whereas radioactivity on land can be resampled and its distribution mapped, releases to the marine environment are harder to characterize owing to variability in ocean currents and the general challenges of sampling at sea. Five years later, it is appropriate to review what happened in terms of the sources, transport, and fate of these radionuclides in the ocean. In addition to the oceanic behavior of these contaminants, this review considers the potential health effects and societal impacts.
authors.affiliation: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543; email: kbuesseler@whoi.edu.
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Buesseler
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China; email: mdai@xmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Minhan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Radioactivity, Fukushima University, Fukushima 960-1296, Japan; email: r706@ipc.fukushima-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Michio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aoyama
authors.affiliation: University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208; email: cbnelson@geol.sc.edu.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Benitez-Nelson
authors.affiliation: Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire, PRP-ENV, La Seyne/Mer 83507, France; email: sabine.charmasson@irsn.fr.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Charmasson
authors.affiliation: School of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331; email: kathryn.higley@oregonstate.edu.
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Higley
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mathematical Machine and System Problems, Kiev 03680, Ukraine; email: vladmad@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Maderich
authors.affiliation: School of Science, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup 6027, Australia; email: p.masque@ecu.edu.au.|Departament de Física, Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelon, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain.
authors.forename: Pere
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Masqué
authors.affiliation: Environment Laboratories, International Atomic Energy Agency, MC 98000, Monaco; email: p.j.morris@iaea.org.
authors.forename: Paul J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.affiliation: Centre for Environmental Radioactivity, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås 1430, Norway; email: deborah.oughton@nmbu.no.
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Oughton
authors.affiliation: Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth B2Y 4A2, Canada; email: john.smith@dfo-mpo.gc.ca.
authors.forename: John N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D002588:Cesium Radioisotopes; D062406:Fukushima Nuclear Accident; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D010140:Pacific Ocean; D011834:Radiation Monitoring; D014872:Water Movements; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive
chemical_list: D002588:Cesium Radioisotopes; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive
keywords: Japan; North Pacific; caesium; cesium; radioactivity