Vintage nuclear particles collect in Japanese bay

TOKYO – Radioactive plutonium particles from US nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific some 50 years ago have been detected for the first time in Japanese waters, researchers said yesterday.

The particles were found in soil samples from Sagami Bay, about 50 kilometres southwest of Tokyo, researchers at the National Institute of Radiological Science said. The plutonium particles matched the fallout from the blasts at the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, but they pose no environmental risk, said research team leader Masatoshi Yamada.Yamada said the particles – made of coral pulverised in the explosions – started accumulating in the bay soon after the weapons tests, which lasted from 1946 until 1958.”We believe the plutonium was washed up toward Japanese waters by the ocean current,” Yamada said.The United States conducted 66 such tests as part of “Operation Crossroads.”The Bikini tests are well-known in Japan because 23 Japanese fishermen were contaminated by radiation when their tuna trawler was showered by fallout in the area in March 1954.A radio operator of the boat died from the effects of radiation poisoning six months after the blast at age 40, followed by 11 others who died from liver ailments linked to the same cause.- Nampa-APThe plutonium particles matched the fallout from the blasts at the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, but they pose no environmental risk, said research team leader Masatoshi Yamada.Yamada said the particles – made of coral pulverised in the explosions – started accumulating in the bay soon after the weapons tests, which lasted from 1946 until 1958.”We believe the plutonium was washed up toward Japanese waters by the ocean current,” Yamada said.The United States conducted 66 such tests as part of “Operation Crossroads.”The Bikini tests are well-known in Japan because 23 Japanese fishermen were contaminated by radiation when their tuna trawler was showered by fallout in the area in March 1954.A radio operator of the boat died from the effects of radiation poisoning six months after the blast at age 40, followed by 11 others who died from liver ailments linked to the same cause.- Nampa-AP