Fukushima: Ten years onRadiation Knows No Bounds—but Builds Strong Bonds Between Two Communities
PNNL’s detection prowess harkens back to early studies at Hanford, a former plutonium production site near the laboratory. This work gave rise to PNNL’s expertise in radiochemistry, nuclear physics, and the ability to sense, measure, and identify radioactivity at increasingly lower levels. PNNL’s scientific studies during Hanford operations also built expertise in predicting how contaminants would move in the environment and in estimating radiation releases and exposures.
An earthquake off the coast of Japan. A resulting tsunami. Ten years ago, Mark Triplett watched the news unfold and worried about two things. The safety of his son and daughter-in-law who were living in Japan at the time. He quickly learned his family was unaffected and safe. But the other concern? It’s still with him, almost daily.
Tsunami flood waters caused core meltdowns in three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Station. As a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) scientist with extensive involvement in nuclear cleanup efforts, Triplett understood the ramifications for Fukushima and beyond.
He didn’t know he’d soon be tapped by the U.S. State Department to advise the Japanese government on cleanup matters, or how the natural disaster an ocean away would come to link Fukushima with PNNL and the surrounding Tri-Cities, Washington, community.
Sensing Fukushima
Five days after the disaster took place on March 11, 2011, a PNNL team was the first in North America to detect the radioactive isotope xenon-133 from the ruined power plants. The isotope had drifted almost 5,000 miles to Washington State and would go on to repeatedly circle the Northern Hemisphere.
Although the concentration of radioactivity was extremely low and posed no health hazard in North America, the fact that a tiny quantity of the isotope could be detected halfway around the globe was a testament to decades of PNNL’s research on detecting trace amounts of radiation in the environment. Even when radioxenon comprises just one-trillionth of one-trillionth of a cubic meter of air, scientists can now detect it thanks to PNNL.
PNNL’s unusual detection prowess harkens back to early studies at Hanford, a former plutonium production site near the laboratory. This work gave rise to PNNL’s expertise in radiochemistry, nuclear physics, and the ability to sense, measure, and identify radioactivity at increasingly lower levels. The ongoing development of this expertise and technology supports nuclear nonproliferation and verification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
The Cleanup Connection
PNNL’s scientific studies during Hanford operations also built expertise in predicting how contaminants would move in the environment and in estimating radiation releases and exposures. During the first weeks and months after the Fukushima Daiichi reactor meltdown, PNNL participated with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to supply this expertise.
