Nuclear elements detected in West Philippine Sea

Nuclear elements detected in West Philippine Sea

UP MSI said the concentrations found in the WPS were higher than in any other part of the country, despite the Philippines having no active nuclear power plant or nuclear weapons program.

MANILA, Philippines — The University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute (UP MSI) has detected elevated levels of iodine-129 – an isotope commonly used as an indicator of nuclear activity – in seawater samples from the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

UP MSI said the concentrations found in the WPS were higher than in any other part of the country, despite the Philippines having no active nuclear power plant or nuclear weapons program.

The findings are based on an analysis of 119 seawater samples collected from the WPS, the Philippine Rise, the Sulu Sea and other areas across the archipelago.

Researchers found iodine-129 levels in the WPS to be about 1.5 to 1.7 times higher than those recorded in other sampling sites.

The study was conducted by experts from the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, UP MSI’s Geological Oceanography Laboratory and the University of Tokyo.

The team traced the likely source of the isotope to the Yellow Sea.

UP MSI said the results were consistent with recent Chinese studies linking iodine-129 in the Yellow Sea to decades-old nuclear weapons tests and nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities in Europe, which released the isotope into soils and rivers in northeastern China.

The study added that iodine-129 may have reached Philippine waters through ocean circulation systems, particularly the Yellow Sea Coastal Current and the Chinese Coastal Current, though further oceanographic modeling is needed to confirm the transport pathways.

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