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Observations of Fukushima fallout in Great Britain

Publisher
Environmental Information Data Centre
Updated
30 July 2026
Topic
Not set
Licence
Not set

Summary

Following the Fukushima accident in March 2011, grass samples were collected from 42 sites around Great Britain during April 2011. Iodine-131 was measurable in grass samples across the country with activity concentrations ranging from 10 to 55 Bq per kg dry matter. Concentrations were similar to those reported in other European countries. Rainwater and some foodstuffs were also analysed from a limited number of sites. Of these, I-131 was only detectable in sheep's milk (c. 2 Bq/kg). Caesium-134, which can be attributed to releases from the Fukushima reactors, was detectable in six of the grass samples (4-8 Bq/kg dry matter); 137Cs was detected in a larger number of grass samples although previous release sources (atmospheric weapons test and the 1986 Chernobyl and 1957 Windscale accidents) are likely to have contributed to this. All data and information for this sampling are available from this record. The data result from collaboration between CEH and the University of Stirling. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/1a91c7d1-ec44-4858-9af2-98d80f169bbd

Data links

Link Format Preview Updated
Supporting documents ZIP 30/7/2026
Download the data 30/7/2026

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Additional information

Source Metadata
XML, HTML
Date added
24 July 2026
Harvest GUID
1a91c7d1-ec44-4858-9af2-98d80f169bbd
Extent (Latitude)
60.861° to 49.864°
Extent (Longitude)
-8.648° to 1.768°
Dataset reference date (publication)
2011-12-31
Dataset reference date (creation)
2011-08-03
Frequency of update
asNeeded
Access constraints
If you reuse this data, you should cite: Beresford, N.A., Barnett, C.L., Howard, B.J., Howard, D.C., Tyler, A.N., Bradley, S., Copplestone, D. (2011). Observations of Fukushima fallout in Great Britain. NERC Environmental Information Data Centre https://doi.org/10.5285/1a91c7d1-ec44-4858-9af2-98d80f169bbd
Responsible party
(owner, author, pointOfContact, publisher, custodian)
ISO 19139 resource type
dataset
Metadata language
eng