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      Contamination of sea urchin Mesocentrotus nudus by radiocesium released during the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident

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          Abstract

          Countless marine organisms were polluted with radioactive materials that were dispersed when the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) was damaged in 2011 by the Great East Japan Earthquake. The aim of this study was to determine the degree to which marine herbivorous sea urchins, Mesocentrotus nudus, were contaminated with radiocesium because of the accident. We collected samples of sea urchins from four locations in Fukushima prefecture (at the coast and offshore from the Yotsukura and Ena stations) and investigated how the 137Cs activity concentrations changed. The biological half-life ( T bio) of 137Cs in the individual sea urchins was between 121 and 157 days. The ecological half-life ( T eco) of 137Cs was 181–423 days and was high in places close to the FDNPP. The T eco values in the sea urchins were longer than previously reported. The results infer that the food sources of the sea urchins around the Fukushima coast strongly influenced their uptake of 137Cs.

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          Impacts of the Fukushima nuclear power plants on marine radioactivity.

          The impacts on the ocean of releases of radionuclides from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plants remain unclear. However, information has been made public regarding the concentrations of radioactive isotopes of iodine and cesium in ocean water near the discharge point. These data allow us to draw some basic conclusions about the relative levels of radionuclides released which can be compared to prior ocean studies and be used to address dose consequences as discussed by Garnier-Laplace et al. in this journal. The data show peak ocean discharges in early April, one month after the earthquake and a factor of 1000 decrease in the month following. Interestingly, the concentrations through the end of July remain higher than expected implying continued releases from the reactors or other contaminated sources, such as groundwater or coastal sediments. By July, levels of (137)Cs are still more than 10,000 times higher than levels measured in 2010 in the coastal waters off Japan. Although some radionuclides are significantly elevated, dose calculations suggest minimal impact on marine biota or humans due to direct exposure in surrounding ocean waters, though considerations for biological uptake and consumption of seafood are discussed and further study is warranted.
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            Fukushima-derived radionuclides in the ocean and biota off Japan.

            The Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, resulted in unprecedented radioactivity releases from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plants to the Northwest Pacific Ocean. Results are presented here from an international study of radionuclide contaminants in surface and subsurface waters, as well as in zooplankton and fish, off Japan in June 2011. A major finding is detection of Fukushima-derived (134)Cs and (137)Cs throughout waters 30-600 km offshore, with the highest activities associated with near-shore eddies and the Kuroshio Current acting as a southern boundary for transport. Fukushima-derived Cs isotopes were also detected in zooplankton and mesopelagic fish, and unique to this study we also find (110 m)Ag in zooplankton. Vertical profiles are used to calculate a total inventory of ~2 PBq (137)Cs in an ocean area of 150,000 km(2). Our results can only be understood in the context of our drifter data and an oceanographic model that shows rapid advection of contaminants further out in the Pacific. Importantly, our data are consistent with higher estimates of the magnitude of Fukushima fallout and direct releases [Stohl et al. (2011) Atmos Chem Phys Discuss 11:28319-28394; Bailly du Bois et al. (2011) J Environ Radioact, 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2011.11.015]. We address risks to public health and marine biota by showing that though Cs isotopes are elevated 10-1,000× over prior levels in waters off Japan, radiation risks due to these radionuclides are below those generally considered harmful to marine animals and human consumers, and even below those from naturally occurring radionuclides.
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              Distribution of oceanic 137Cs from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant simulated numerically by a regional ocean model.

              Radioactive materials were released to the environment from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant as a result of the reactor accident after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011. The measured (137)Cs concentration in a seawater sample near the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant site reached 68 kBq L(-1) (6.8 × 10(4)Bq L(-1)) on 6 April. The two major likely pathways from the accident site to the ocean existed: direct release of high radioactive liquid wastes to the ocean and the deposition of airborne radioactivity to the ocean surface. By analysis of the (131)I/(137)Cs activity ratio, we determined that direct release from the site contributed more to the measured (137)Cs concentration than atmospheric deposition did. We then used a regional ocean model to simulate the (137)Cs concentrations resulting from the direct release to the ocean off Fukushima and found that from March 26 to the end of May the total amount of (137)Cs directly released was 3.5 ± 0.7 PBq ((3.5 ± 0.7) × 10(15)Bq). The simulated temporal change in (137)Cs concentrations near the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant site agreed well with observations. Our simulation results showed that (1) the released (137)Cs advected southward along the coast during the simulation period; (2) the eastward-flowing Kuroshio and its extension transported (137)C during May 2011; and (3) (137)Cs concentrations decreased to less than 10 BqL(-1) by the end of May 2011 in the whole simulation domain as a result of oceanic advection and diffusion. We compared the total amount and concentration of (137)Cs released from the Fukushima Dai-ichi reactors to the ocean with the (137)Cs released to the ocean by global fallout. Even though the measured (137)Cs concentration from the Fukushima accident was the highest recorded, the total released amount of (137)Cs was not very large. Therefore, the effect of (137)Cs released from the Fukushima Dai-ichi reactors on concentration in the whole North Pacific was smaller than that of past release events such as global fallout, and the amount of (137)Cs expected to reach other oceanic basins is negligible comparing with the past radioactive input. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: ResourcesRole: SoftwareRole: ValidationRole: VisualizationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Resources
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Resources
                Role: MethodologyRole: Resources
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: Funding acquisitionRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: ResourcesRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS One
                plos
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                15 August 2022
                2022
                : 17
                : 8
                : e0269947
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Minato, Tokyo, Japan
                [2 ] Soma Branch, Fishery Office of the Fukushima Prefectural Government, Fukushima, Japan
                [3 ] Fukushima Prefectural Research Institute of Fisheries Resources, Fukushima, Japan
                University of South Carolina, UNITED STATES
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6663-4992
                Article
                PONE-D-21-33548
                10.1371/journal.pone.0269947
                9377606
                35969598
                f227783d-836d-496d-90d1-be8a9c93b0fb
                © 2022 Rithu et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 19 October 2021
                : 31 May 2022
                Page count
                Figures: 4, Tables: 2, Pages: 17
                Funding
                Funded by: funder-id http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001700, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology;
                Award ID: 16H04960
                Award Recipient :
                This research was supported by the JSPS KAKENHI Grant (16H04960) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Research and Analysis Methods
                Animal Studies
                Experimental Organism Systems
                Animal Models
                Sea Urchins
                Biology and Life Sciences
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                Invertebrates
                Echinoderms
                Sea Urchins
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