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Beach Day

January 28, 2015

In 2013, WHOI chemist Ken Buesseler went to Japan, where he collected samples of groundwater and beach sands as part of his and chemist Matt Charette’s work tracking the spread of radioactive material from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. Since the earthquake and tsunami in 2011, Buessler has led efforts to trace the path that radiation has taken across the Pacific to the coast of North America. Buesseler is currently in the Marshal Islands collecting samples that will help him compare Fukushima radiation to that released during atmospheric nuclear weapons testing in the 1940s and 50s. (Photo courtesy of Ken Buesseler, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)