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The camera study, published in the Journal of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, reports that over 267,000 wildlife photos recorded more than 20 species, including wild boar, Japanese hare, macaques, pheasant, fox and the raccoon dog -- a relative of the fox -- in various areas of the landscape.
UGA wildlife biologist James Beasley said speculation and questions have come from both the scientific community and the general public about the status of wildlife years after a nuclear accident like those in Chernobyl and Fukushima.
This recent study, in addition to the team's research in Chernobyl, provides answers to the questions.
"Our results represent the first evidence that numerous species of wildlife are now abundant throughout the Fukushima Evacuation Zone, despite the presence of radiological contamination," said Beasley, associate professor at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.
Species that are often in conflict with humans, particularly wild boar, were predominantly captured on camera in human-evacuated areas or zones, according to Beasley.
"This suggests these species have increased in abundance following the evacuation of people."
The team, which included Thomas Hinton, professor at the Institute of Environmental Radioactivity at Fukushima University, identified three zones for the research.
Photographic data was gathered from 106 camera sites from three zones: humans excluded due to the highest level of contamination; humans restricted due to an intermediate level of contamination; and humans inhabited, an area where people have been allowed to remain due to "background" or very low levels of radiation found in the environment.
The researchers based their designations on zones previously established by the Japanese government after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident.
For 120 days, cameras captured over 46,000 images of wild boar. Over 26,000 of those images were taken in the uninhabited area, compared to approximately 13,000 in the restricted and 7,000 in the inhabited zones.
Other species seen in higher numbers in the uninhabited or restricted zones included raccoons, Japanese marten and Japanese macaque or monkeys.
Anticipating questions about physiological condition of the wildlife, Hinton said their results are not an assessment of an animal's health.
"This research makes an important contribution because it examines radiological impacts to populations of wildlife, whereas most previous studies have looked for effects to individual animals," said Hinton.
The uninhabited zone served as the control zone for the research.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 09 2020, @11:08AM (5 children)
It's been long speculated that the only way to save the Amazon forest, one would have to spread nuclear waste over it. Anything short of that, we will burn down and make a parking lot. Progress and all that.
Fukushima is another prime example of this very thing.
And the Greens still against nuclear power??
(Score: 2, Troll) by c0lo on Thursday January 09 2020, @11:23AM (2 children)
Here's an idea to convince the Greens: spread nuclear waste over Washington DC.
Better still, kindly ask Kim the service to detonate a tacnuke over Capitol when both chambers are in session. (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 09 2020, @12:36PM
That is all.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday January 09 2020, @01:24PM
It's an idea to convince everyone outside the Beltway, not just Greens. In fact, if somebody did that he'd never have to pay for his own beers again.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PiMuNu on Thursday January 09 2020, @11:32AM (1 child)
...unless locals realise that "nuclear waste" is pretty harmless at the levels present around e.g. Fukushima
https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/appendices/fukushima-radiation-exposure.aspx [world-nuclear.org]
France's Institute for Radiological Protection & Nuclear Safety (IRSN) estimated that maximum external doses to people living
around the plant were unlikely to exceed 30 mSv/yr in the first year. This was based on airborne measurements between
30 March and 4 April, and appears to be confirmed by the above figures. It compares with natural background levels mostly
2-3 mSv/yr, but ranging up to 50 mSv/yr elsewhere in the world.
and also
The stresses of personal involvement in the evacuation, management and clean-up emerged as the biggest factors in ill
health for the people affected. Transfer trauma - the mental or physical burden of the forced move from their homes was
the cause of 34 early deaths, almost all elderly, reported then.
(i.e. the process of evacuating people killed far more people than the actual radiation)
One should also investigate whether the release of chemical pollutants following the earthquake tsunami has caused
any significant adverse effects on local wildlife. My guess is that far greater harm was caused by chemical pollutants
than radioactive pollutants.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 09 2020, @09:51PM
Tangentially - worked with a company trying to source mass quantities of Co60, talking with the breeder reactor dudes - one offhand comment they made was: "Radiation, that's easy... the hard part are the chemicals used in the Uranium refinement process - those are harder to contain, more directly lethal, and require much more advanced materials and handling technology than any radioactive problems."
And... around Fukushima, think about the tons and tons of biohazards, just starting with fossil fuels, lead in batteries, pesticides, etc. that would have been released and spread around by the tsunami. Radioactivity is super simple to test for; organophosphates? Much harder.
🌻🌻 [google.com]