Study finds wildlife in Fukushima's exclusion zone show no signs of radiation damage
Animals like pigs, snakes, and monkeys roam free in the no-go zone.
A recent study of wildlife living in the Fukushima exclusion zone shows almost no adverse effects of the radiation from the nuclear plant meltdown on the animals' DNA.
After the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami triggered the destruction of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, the Japanese government established an exclusion zone around Fukushima that extended for 20 kilometres. Nearly 230,000 residents had to flee their homes, and to this day much of the area remains off limits to humans.
"It pretty much is a ghost town," said Kelly Cunningham, who participated in this research as a part of her doctorate of Veterinary Medicine program at Colorado State University. "It was like walking in a zombie apocalypse town. Everything was evacuated and abandoned."
In 2016 and 2018, Cunningham was part of an international team of researchers who went into the exclusion zone to study the wild boars and rat snakes that populate the area. The team took genetic samples from the animals to analyze their DNA for biological responses to radiation exposure, and surprisingly found that the animals were showing no negative effects.
"They looked totally fine," said Cunningham. "They didn't look impacted. They didn't look sick to the naked eye or anything like that. All the things we measured didn't show any concerns."
The research was published in the journal Environment International.
You can listen to Cunningham's full interview with Bob McDonald at the link above.
Produced and written by Amanda Buckiewicz.