Diseased seals in Alaska tested for radiation

[Emily]

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/diseased-seals-in-alaska-tested-radiation-4669702

Diseased seals in Alaska tested for radiation

Published: 2:24PM Wednesday December 28, 2011 Source: Reuters
[snip]
"We recently received samples of seal tissue from diseased animals captured near St Lawrence Island with a request to examine the material for radioactivity," said John Kelley, Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Marine Science at the University of Alaska Fairbanks....

Note that the article says that tests did not pick up evidence of elevated radiation in US Pacific water. However, somehow the seaweed here picked up radioisotope contamination.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/118812574.html

UPDATE- Scientist confirms Barkley Sound seaweed radiation testing
By Wawmeesh G. Hamilton - Alberni Valley News
Published: March 28, 2011 5:52 PM
Updated: March 28, 2011 5:52 PM
[snip]
Simon Fraser University nuclear researchers have detected increased levels of iodine-131 (131-I) from rainwater and seaweed in the Lower Mainland.

Small amounts of the element have also been detected in Barkley Sound seaweed....

 

[Emily]

Re: Diseased seals in Alaska tested for radiation

I haven't seen any radiation testing results on these seals published yet, but if there was radiation exposure or accumulation of radioisotopes, it looks like they might have to rule out a local source that was last tested for leaks in 2006:

http://www.alaskascienceoutreach.com/index.php/science_seen/item/exploring_amchitkas_nuclear_legacy/

Exploring Amchitka?s nuclear legacy

Lean, muscular and nearly seven feet tall, blonde-haired oceanographer Mark Johnson leans across the rail of the research vessel Ocean Explorer and scans Amchitka Island's emerald-green bluffs. "It's a beautiful place, no doubt about that," said Johnson, a professor of physical oceanography at the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. It was on this lonely outpost along the Aleutian Island chain, some 1,200 miles southwest of Anchorage, that the United States conducted three massive underground nuclear tests between 1965 and 1971. The largest--code-named Cannikin--exploded with a destructive power 400 times larger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. More from Alaska Sea Grant writer Doug Schneider:....