ALL RETURN, ALL PAYMENT: Radioactivity from Fukushima found in Californian wine

Some theories say that the quake that caused the tsunami that sank the nuclear power plant in Fukushima 2011 - artificially challenged

Radioactive levels are increasing in wine from the California Valley of Napa, thanks to a radioactive cloud that spilled out of the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Researchers from the University of Bordeaux in France tested California wine before and after disasters in Fukushima and found a twice as much cesium-137 in the Cabernet Sauvignon varieties after tsunami sank in 2011 the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The radioactive cloud released by the plant came to California and to the famous Napa Valley. There, the traces of cesium-137 entered the grapes of the vines. The levels varied depending on the wine, researchers pointed out, and red wine Cabernet Sauvignon had the most radioactivity, and at least the rose of wine. Although the idea of drinking radioactive wine is enough to ask ourselves whether we should consume this drink, the presence of cesium 137 in wine is actually a convenient way to examine the age of the wine.

This is because since 1952, each bottle of wine had some level of cesium-137, thanks to the development of nuclear weapons and nuclear testing. Levels of radioactivity in wines ranged from the fifties to the present, which allowed the wines to dictate to the levels of radiation without opening the bottle and destroying its age. The method was discovered by the pharmacologist Philippe Hubert in 2001.

"Given the sensitivity of 0.05 Bq / l, this technique allows dating of old wines between 1952 and 2000, but above all it is very effective for very old wines: moreover, any bottle that was harvested before 1952 can not contain cesium-137, even in traces "- says the study. Despite the radioactive cloud of Fukushima, which increased the level of radioactivity in wine, levels of cesium in wine during nuclear testing were far more so there was no need for panic. French wines had a similar amount of cesium after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

• 22 Jul, 2018
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