Water contaminated by radioactivity that entered the sea from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant will reach the Hawaiian Islands in March 2014, according to a computer simulation by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.
Water contaminated by radioactivity that entered the sea from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant will reach the Hawaiian Islands in March 2014, according to a computer simulation by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.
The agency said the radioactivity in the water will be diluted to low levels by the time it has traveled 5,300 kilometers from the Fukushima plant.
Using data on contaminated water near outlets of the plant, an agency team, led by senior researcher Takuya Kobayashi, estimated the amount of radioactive substances that went directly into the sea after March 26 last year.
The researchers said 18,000 trillion becquerels of radioactive iodine and cesium have leaked from the plant into the sea.
The contaminated water will be carried by ocean currents, and the maximum radioactivity level in cesium-137 will be about 0.04 becquerel per liter when it nears the Hawaiian Islands, they said.