Is the fukushima radioactive plume cause for concern – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Is the Fukushima radioactive plume cause for concern?

DoE (Wikimedia Commons)
Arielle Duhaime-Ross
is a freelance science journalist, podcast host, comics artist, and TV host.

The tsunami that hit the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant located on Japan's east coast in 2011 did more than wreak deadly havoc. It also knocked out the electricity supplying the plant's uranium cooling system, causing 300 tons of radioactive water to leak into the Pacific Ocean each day over the last three years. That area of the ocean is now being called the "Fukushima plume," and it has been been slowly moving eastward ever since. But this shouldn't be cause for concern, because the plume really isn't all that radioactive, according to New Republic. Read the full story on why the plume reportedly isn't dangerous and how scientists are taking on the fearmongers.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that the Fukushima Daiichi power plant has leaked 300 tons of contaminated waiter into the Pacific Ocean since the tsunami. The correct number is 300 tons per day.

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