Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

No adverse effects from 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster on B.C. coast: researchers

Shutterstock Researchers at Simon Fraser University say the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan has presented no adverse effects on British Columbia's coast.

 ShutterstockShutterstock

Researchers at Simon Fraser University say the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan has presented no adverse effects on British Columbia's coast.

A team at the university's nuclear science lab collected soil and salmon samples from the Quesnel and Harrison rivers.

They used a high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy to search for signs of radioactive isotopes that do not exist in nature.

Lead researcher Krzysztof Starosta says that while they found evidence of the isotopes in both soil and salmon, they were measured at safe levels and pose minimal risk to either salmon or human populations.

The team attributed some of the isotopes to lingering evidence of 1960s nuclear weapons testing and the 1986 Chernobyl explosion.

The Fukushima disaster occurred seven years ago today, when a tsunami struck the nuclear power plant in Fukushima.