California Wine Has Traces Of Radioactive Isotopes From Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Study Shows

Jul 27, 2018 by apost team

After the major Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan took place in 2011, experts weren't exactly sure how widespread the impact would be. It turns out that the effects have reached far off of Japan's shores and have even crossed the vast Pacific Ocean. Scientists are still discovering contamination from that unfortunate event.

Shockingly, California's vineyards have been some of the more recent areas to show traces of extra radiation from Fukushima. Wine vintages from Napa Valley have tested positive for these traces of the radioactive isotope Caesium-137!

Thankfully, these traces are not high enough to put humans consuming the beverage into any kind of danger. Even though the traces of toxin found in California wines are at safe levels to drink, they serve as a warning about the potential danger nuclear disasters can cause on a whole host of levels.

This discovery was made by a French experimental physicist by the name of Michael Pravikoff. He is affiliated with the Centre d'Études Nucléaires de Bordeaux-Gradignan. While he was shopping at a local store one day, he noticed some California wines for sale. They were Cabernet Sauvignon, vintage 2009 to 2012.

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Out of curiosity, he bought the wines so that he could test them for the Caesium-137 isotope. This particular isotope doesn't occur naturally in the environment. It has to be created through nuclear fission. Sure enough, when he tested the wine with his team at the lab with a technique known as gamma spectroscopy, they discovered trace toxins of Caesium-137. These same trace isotope levels have been recorded in the past as occurring in wine produced after nuclear missile tests and accidents dating back to the Chernobyl disaster and the Cold War.

In order to make sure that the results of the gamma spectrometry were correct, the research team decided to run a second test. They scorched the wine up to 932°F for hours until it was nothing but ashes. This method gave them the more exact data they were looking for regarding the Caesium-137 levels.

They found that the levels had, in fact, doubled in the wine that had been produced after the Fukushima accident happened.

They ran similar tests on a different type of California wine (Californian rosé) and this wine also showed heightened Caesium-137 levels for vintages produced after the nuclear disaster.

Pravikoff stressed that these results should not be cause for alarm and that the extremely low levels of radioactive traces in the wine would not pose a health safety risk for consumers. In fact, he mentioned to a New York Times interviewer, "These levels are so low, way below the natural radioactivity that's everywhere in the world."

A World Health Organization report agrees with his reassurances of the safe levels of toxins found in food grown outside Japan that may show faint amounts of radioactive toxins after Fukushima. The group stresses that the public need not be concerned about the safety of consuming such foods.

What are your thoughts on this surprising phenomenon? Are you comfortable drinking California wine with safe levels of Caesium-137 in it? Feel free to pass this story along to anyone who may be interested!