nuclear-news

Studies are revealing the impact that low-dose exposure to radiation is having on plants and animals after the Fukushima disaster in 2011. Biologists commenced research just a few months after the nuclear accident, now three years later the studies have been published in the Journal of Heredity. The research shows the genetic mutations and population declines that are occurring in a variety of non-human organisms.

“A growing body of empirical results from studies of birds, monkeys, butterflies, and other insects suggests that some species have been significantly impacted by the radioactive releases related to the Fukushima disaster,” Timothy Mousseau from the University of South Carolina in the US, who led one of the studies, explained in a press release.

All of the studies indicate that low-dose exposure to ionising radiation (the kind caused by the Fukushima meltdown) leads to increased mutation and genetic damage to both reproductive and non-reproductive cells.

Studies on this pale grass blue butterfly (pictured above) show slowed growth, reduction in size, higher mortality and abnormalities in butterflies from the affected areas and in their offspring. The butterfly on the left is suffering from mutations that stop it from escaping from its own cacoon.

“Detailed analyses of genetic impacts to natural populations could provide the information needed to predict recovery times for wild communities at Fukushima as well as any sites of future nuclear accidents,” Mousseau said in a press release. “There is an urgent need for greater investment in basic scientific research of the wild animals and plants of Fukushima.”