![]() "But we know that the cesium-137 production from the Pacific and Russian sites was more than 400 times the production of the New Mexico and Nevada explosions," he said. The bomb tests varied in magnitude and Kaste said it's impossible to determine the precise bomb that produced the cesium-137 found in any region, let alone any specific jar of honey. and the Soviet Union at sites ranging from New Mexico and Nevada to the Marshall Islands and the Russian Arctic archipelago Novaya Zemlya. ![]() ![]() The hypothesis also addresses why cesium-137 tends to show up in some areas more than others.Ĭesium-137 is a byproduct of uranium-plutonium fission, a component of the fallout from H-bomb test explosions conducted by the U.S. Kaste offers a multistep hypothesis of how cesium-137 moved enormous distances-even crossing the Pacific Ocean-to end up in jars of honey from hives on America's east coast. Elmore of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Paul Volante '20, who was a member of the COLL 150 seminar that uncovered the phenomenon. The research was published in "Bomb 137Cs in modern honey reveals a regional soil control on pollutant cycling by plants," in the journal Nature Communications. "I eat more honey now than I did when I started this project." "I'm not trying to tell people they shouldn't eat honey. ![]() Jim Kaste, an associate professor in the university's Department of Geology, reports that 68 of 122 honey samples from Maine to Florida show varying amounts of cesium-137.Ĭesium-137 contamination of food raised concerns following the nuclear incidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima, but Kaste said that the levels of cesium-137 he's found in honey is far below the levels that prompted authorities to pull food from the market after those nuclear plant disasters. The isotope is cesium-137, a relic of atom bomb tests conducted during the Cold War. ![]()
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