Radiation: Nowhere to Run—Nowhere to Hide

  The only thing I could think about during the Tohoku Earthquake and Fukushima disaster was the safety of my husband and daughter, both of whom work in Tokyo. Selfishly, I wanted them to leave Japan and come back home, as far away as possible from the leaking reactors at Fukushima. I consoled myself with the thought that, if things got really bad, they would find a way to leave–unlike the millions of Japanese who had nowhere to run. Now, two years after the disaster, I realize that not even “home” is safe, and it’s only a matter of time before the Pacific Northwest experiences its own nuclear environmental crisis. Toxic chemicals and radioactive waste from Hanford are already leaking, polluting the region’s ground water and aquifers, and threatening the once pristine Columbia River—spawning grounds for a large percentage of the world’s five species of Pacific Ocean salmon. The impact on the food chain and environment could be incalculable. Some nuclear experts believe that people on the West Coast have already received as much radiation from Fukushima as the people in Tokyo. Today, nearly two years to date after the Fukushima disaster, wild caught Pacific blue fin tuna and other foods continue to carry cesium-137 and cesium-134 right to our dinner table.

© Leah Stenson 2013