http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-r ... 0490.storyResearchers say seaweed harvested from Orange County beaches tested positive for small amounts of radiation from last year's nuclear explosions in Japan.
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Researchers, who were working on a separate project mapping a different isotope, cesium 137, harvested the seaweed from three sites along Orange County at Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach and Crystal Cove in the week after the quake.
Those samples contained contained small amounts of iodine 131, as well as cesium 137.
Samples were also collected by marine biologists from UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz and the University of Alaska Southeast. The California samples contained varying low levels of the isotope, while the Alaska samples contained none.
"Radioactivity is taken up by the kelp and anything that feeds on the kelp will be exposed to this also," study author Steven L. Manley said. Even though we detected low levels, it still got into the environment."
Manley said the study only measured the surface of the seaweed, meaning there could easily be twice to three times as much radioactive material in the ocean.
"It's not a good thing, but whether it actually has a measureable detrimental effect is beyond my expertise," Manley said.
As a nuclear physicist said commenting hours after the Fukushima meltdown: "There is no safe low level of radiation".