According to France's nuclear
monitor the amount of caesium 137 that leaked into the Pacific from the
Fukushima disaster was the greatest single nuclear contamination of the sea
ever seen.Caesium is a slow-decaying element, taking 30 years to lose
half of its radioactivity.This is the biggest single outflow of man-made radionuclides to the marine environment ever observed.
This is twice the
concentration that prevailed during atmospheric nuclear testing in the 1960s. Large
quantities of iodine 131 also entered the sea as a result of the disaster,
caused by the March 11 9.0-magnitude quake that occurred off northeastern Japan.
However, significant pollution of seawater on the coast near the damaged plant
could persist.
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