Environment

Mutations, DNA damage seen in Fukushima forests

The March 11, 2011 magnitude 9.0 undersea earthquake off Japan's northeastern coast sparked a massive tsunami that swamped cooling systems and triggered reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Radiation spread over a wide area and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes -- many of whom will likely never return -- in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

As the fifth anniversary of the disaster approaches, Greenpeace said signs of mutations in trees and DNA-damaged worms were beginning to appear, while "vast stocks of radiation" mean that forests cannot be decontaminated.

In a report, Greenpeace cited "apparent increases in growth mutations of fir trees... heritable mutations in pale blue grass butterfly populations" as well as "DNA-damaged worms in highly contaminated areas", it said.

The report came as the government intends to lift many evacuation orders in villages around the Fukushima plant by March 2017, if its massive decontamination effort progresses as it hopes.

For now, only residential areas are being cleaned in the short-term, and the worst-hit parts of the countryside are being omitted, a recommendation made by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

But such selective efforts will confine returnees to a relatively small area of their old hometowns, while the strategy could lead to re-contamination as woodlands will act as a radiation reservoir, with pollutants washed out by rains, Greenpeace warned.

Environment

Radiation from Fukushima nuclear disaster spreads off U.S. shores

Radiation from Japan's 2011 nuclear disaster has spread off North American shores and contamination is increasing at previously identified sites, although levels are still too low to threaten human or ocean life, scientists said on Thursday.

Tests of hundreds of samples of Pacific Ocean water confirmed that Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant continues to leak radioactive isotopes more than four years after its meltdown, said Ken Buesseler, marine radiochemist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Trace amounts of cesium-134 have been detected within several hundred miles (km) of the Oregon, Washington and California coasts in recent months, as well as offshore from Canada's Vancouver Island.

Another isotope, cesium-137, a radioactive legacy of nuclear weapons tests conducted from the 1950s through the 1970s, was found at low levels in nearly every seawater sample tested by Woods Hole, a nonprofit research institution.

"Despite the fact that the levels of contamination off our shores remain well below government-established safety limits for human health or to marine life, the changing values underscore the need to more closely monitor contamination levels across the Pacific," Buesseler said in an email.

Wildlife

Animals abound at Chernobyl 30 years after nuclear disaster

Nearly 30 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, elk, deer, boar and wolves abound in the exclusion zone deserted by humans, researchers say in an international study.

The study, published on Monday in the Current Biology journal, shows that there at least as many of these mammals inside the 4 200km2 perimeter around the nuclear plant that exploded in April 1986 than in uncontaminated nature reserves.

Researchers counted the animals by aerial observations of the large zone devastated by a fire and an explosion of one of the plant's nuclear reactors. They found that there are seven times more wolves in the exclusion zone than in nearby parks. This doesn't mean radiation is good for wildlife, just that the effects of human habitation, including hunting, farming and forestry, are a lot worse.

Early studies after the nuclear disaster revealed major radiation effects on the exclusion zone, including a sharp decrease in the animal population.

The latest observations show nature's resilience and could provide insight on the long-term impact of the more recent 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

The helicopter survey data found growing abundance of elk, roe deer and wild boar from 1 to 10 years after the accident. A short-term reduction in the wild boar population was linked to a disease outbreak not related to radiation exposure. These increases coincided with a drop in elk and wild boar populations in other parts of the former Soviet Union.

Environment

‘Mutant Daisies’ Growing At Fukushima Nuclear Plant

A discovery of ‘mutant daisies’ has been made near the site of the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.

The pictures of the flowers appear to show stems and flowers connected to each other. Others appear slightly deformed, and have prompted fears that radiation is affecting the area.

Nuclear Radiation

Genetic mutations have been found in three generations of butterflies from areas near Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

Scientists found 34 per cent of 3rd generation butterflies had abnormalities, including smaller wings and damaged eyes.

The findings will raise fears over the long-term effects of the leaks on other species and people who were exposed in the days and weeks after the accident, as radiation spread over a large area and forced thousands to evacuate.