The United States could soon be visited by one million tons of debris, currently floating their way from Japan to the California coast.
The floating island of debris, made up of everything from household items to boats, stems from the 2011 Japanese tsunami that killed 16,000 people and led to the meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.
Now, years after the devastation in Japan, the U.S. could be dealing with additional fallout on its own shores.
Debris from the Tsunami have regularly been tracked by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, yet a new discovery of a floating island of trash discovered 1,700 miles from the U.S. coast is causing more concern than ever before.
The computer imagery model released by NOAA illustrates what appears to be an island of debris. The image, according to scale, looks to be the size of Texas. It was this image that sparked attention around the issue, causing concern among those who feared the giant island of trash could be devastating for U.S. shorelines.
According to NOAA, there’s no cause for concern — at this point.
“This model gives NOAA an understanding of where debris from the tsunami may be located today, because it incorporates how winds and ocean currents since the event may have moved items through the Pacific Ocean,” it states on the NOAA site. “This model is a snapshot of where debris may be now, but it does not predict when debris will reach U.S. shores in the near future. It’s a ‘hindcast,’ rather than a ‘forecast.’”
Concerns that such debris could be carrying radioactive waste from the Fukushima Power Plant were also voiced. Fox News labeled it the “toxic monster,” while Mark Karlin, Truthout’s Buzzflash editor, indicated in a recent post that there is concern that the items of debris could be toxic.
“Even accounting for a bit of sensationalism in the projected size of the giant bobbing debris field, it is widely assumed that a significant percentage of the trash has essentially been soaked in radioactive water,” he wrote. “In short, more radiation fallout from Fukushima is likely headed our way, and if so in gigantic fashion.”
NOAA is now pulling in the reins on those concerns, indicating on its site that radioactive threats aren’t likely.
“Radiation experts believe it is highly unlikely any debris is radioactive, and the debris is not in a mass. Beachgoers may notice an increase in debris near-shore or on the coast, adding to the marine debris that washed up every day,” NOAA stated on its post related to the debris.
The Japanese Ministry of Environment estimated that 5 million tons of debris escaped into the sea following the tsunami. However, the majority of the debris are believed to have sunk. The rest floated off into the Pacific, representing the scenario at hand.