Health officials insist the possibility is remote that radioactive debris will wash up on Hawaii shores from the 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan, but some residents maintain the state isn’t doing enough to monitor the situation.
After the March 2011 earthquake and subsequent nuclear plant meltdowns, release of radiation prompted some people to buy iodide pills, which help prevent certain types of radiation sickness. While those worries proved to be unfounded, some people now wonder about the safety of debris that was washed into the ocean.
One volunteer group has canceled a couple of beach cleanups, citing safety concerns.
"We can’t guarantee the volunteers are safe," said Suzanne Frazer of the Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaii. "People should take precautions."
The group would like to have a state technician monitor the marine debris for radioactivity.
Frazer said the state is testing only two beaches on Windward Oahu — Kualoa and Hukilau in Laie — for radioactive debris, and she thinks there should be more.
Janice Okubo, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, said the department appreciates the help of Frazer’s group but doesn’t have the resources for monitoring during beach cleanups.
"The consensus among federal and state radiation experts is that finding radioactive debris is very unlikely," Okubo said.
For one thing, nearly all of the debris went into the ocean before radiation leaks at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. For another, debris reaching Hawaii is unlikely to be radioactive because of extended exposure to the elements, she said.
After more than a year of monitoring, she said, there has no sign of radioactive debris reaching the U.S.
"Various state and federal entities in Hawaii, Alaska, Oregon, Washington and California have been monitoring coastlines and marine debris and have not found any radiation levels above the norm," she said.
The department began quarterly shoreline surveillance in April 2011, a month after the tsunami, and began monthly monitoring this year, she said.
Results of the coastline surveys including September and August found no unusual radioactive levels, she said.
The department has been surveying 12 sites on Oahu, three on Maui, six on Kauai and three on Hawaii island, Okubo said.
On Sept. 19 a 4-foot-square blue plastic bin was the first confirmed piece of debris to reach Hawaii, and since then a 20-foot boat has been recovered by a fisherman. The state has set aside $100,000 to remove a 10- to 15-foot-tall yellow metal container that washed ashore on Hawaii island that may also turn out to be debris from Japan.
Federal officials are monitoring the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, including Kure, Midway, Pearl and Hermes atolls, and Lisianski and Laysan islands.
While radioactive cesium-137 was found in milk in Hilo after the Fukushima reactor disaster, the radiation levels have remained well below the federal level required to dump it, state health officials said.
"Local milk continues to be safe for human consumption," said Lynn Nakasone, administrator for the department’s Environmental Health Services Division.
She said for several months after the nuclear disaster, there were no detectable radiation levels in the air or surface water.
Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen said while finding radioactive debris is remote, he feels government officials aren’t looking in the right places.
Gundersen, a former licensed reactor operator, said officials should be testing barnacles on marine debris and in the "nooks and crannies" of flotsam.
"If you’re looking in the wrong place, you’re not going to find it," he said. "Ninety-nine percent of what you’re finding on the beach is going to be clean, but there’s still 1 percent that’s going to have contamination with it."
Gundersen said if government officials aren’t going to provide technical support for radioactive testing, there are hand-held devices that monitor radioactivity levels that cost about $1,000.
"I would clean the beach, but I would have someone on the crew with this device," he said. "I’m concerned but I’m not overly concerned."
Authorities ask people who find possible tsunami debris to call the Department of Land and Natural Resources at 587-0400, email dlnr@hawaii.gov or contact the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at disasterdebris@noaa.gov.
