Trace amounts of radiation detected along U.S. West Coast

EUREKA, Calif., Nov. 14 (UPI) -- As scientists have been predicting for months, trace amounts of radiation from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster have finally arrived on the shores of the United States.

"Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) found the trace amounts of telltale radioactive compounds as part of their ongoing monitoring of natural and human sources of radioactivity in the ocean," the research organization confirmed in a press release.

The sample tested by WHOI researchers was collected just 100 miles of the coast of Eureka, California.

"We detected cesium-134, a contaminant from Fukushima, off the northern California coast," Ken Buesseler, a marine chemist who is heading WHOI's the monitoring efforts, explained. "The levels are only detectable by sophisticated equipment able to discern minute quantities of radioactivity."

While the news may worry some Americans, scientists insist there is and will be no risk to the public. The test results have been expected for some time. Ever since radiation-filled water leaked into the ocean during the meltdown of the tsunami-destroyed Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, it was almost inevitable the Pacific's currents would eventually carry trace amounts of radiation to North America.

That inevitability became a reality earlier this year when cesium isotopes were detected off the coast of British Columbia. And now the same isotopes have arrived off the coast of the U.S. Concentrations of the radiation will likely go up over the next two to three years.