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Traveling Light

February 13, 2012

WHOI research technician Steve Pike is shown packing water samples on board the R/V Ka’imikai-O-Kanaloa in June 2011 off the northeast coast of Japan. Pike was part of an international team of researchers assembled by marine chemist Ken Buesseler to study the spread and impacts of radiation leaking from the tsunami-damaged nuclear reactors near Fukushima. During the two-week cruise, the team filled more than 1,500 containers with 3,000 liters of water weighing over 3 metric tons. At a workshop this week, representatives from 16 labs in seven countries will present preliminary results of studies examining the fate of more than a dozen radioactive isotopes in the air, water, and biota collected on the two-week cruise. (Photo by Ken Kostel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)