E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Joji Otaki / EPA
This handout photo, released Tuesday, shows a healthy adult pale grass blue butterfly (top) and a mutated variety (bottom). Severe mutations were found in butterflies collected near Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
TOKYO -- Researchers in Japan have found signs of mutation in butterflies, signaling one of the first indications of change to the local ecosystem as a result of last year's nuclear accident in Fukushima, according to one of the first studies on the genetic effects of the incident.
Joji Otaki from the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, who led the research, collected 144 commonly-found pale grass blue butterflies two months after the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
Initial results indicated that roughly 12 percent of the butterflies showed signs of abnormalities, such as disfigurement in their antennas, smaller-sized wings, change in color patterns and indented eyes, Otaki said.
Even more alarming, when he collected another 238 samples six months later he found that those abnormalities had increased to 28 percent and the mutations had doubled to 52 percent in their offspring.
To see the effects of internal exposure to radiation, unaffected clean butterflies were also fed cesium-coated leaves collected from Fukushima. The result was a reduction in the size of those butterflies, as well as a lower survival rate.
In Japan, a nuclear ghost town stirs to life
The Fukushima disaster occurred after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake knocked out a power line at the plant and generated a tsunami that flooded the facility's emergency generators, destroying the plant's cooling system. Catastrophic meltdowns occurred in three reactors, releasing radiation that has tainted the surrounding environment.
Five nuclear plants in total suffered some level of damage from the earthquake and tsunami; all but Fukushima Dai-ichi were shut down safely.
Story: What are the odds? US nuke plants ranked by quake risk
'Something has gone wrong'
Otaki, who has been studying these butterflies for 10 years to analyze the effects of global warming, said that butterflies are the best environmental indicators because they are widely found in almost any environment.
"But since we've seen these effects on butterflies, it’s easy to imagine that it would also have affected other species as well. It’s pretty clear that something has gone wrong with the ecosystem,” he said.
AP
View side-by-side the progress that Japan has made since the tsunami and earthquake in March 2011.
However, at the same time, he also warns that because each species’ sensitivity to radiation varies, it was too early to immediately apply these finding to humans.
NYT: For new nuclear chief, concerns over plant safety
But what is clear, said Otaki, is that the genetic changes found in these butterflies indicate a disruption in Fukushima's ecosystem and that more study is needed to learn the full scope of the effects of the radiation released into the environment.
At Hiroshima memorial, Japan leaders vow to listen to citizens in revamp of nuke policy
"Effects of low level radiation is genetically transferred through generation, which suggests genetic damage. I think it’s clear that we see the effects passed on through generations," Otaki added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More world stories from NBC News:
- Will world inaction help al-Qaida gain foothold in Syria?
- Analysis: Egypt's Morsi shows he's a force to be reckoned with
- Vatican says the 'butler did it,' orders trial
- Olympic heroes turn tourists as London 2012 end nears
- Mormon church brings in $7 billion a year from tithing
Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
gearing up for the next string of Mutant creature, Godzilla Movies.
Jim: Right on. Let them make movies but do not allow them any more nuclear reactors. Maked them keep all of the shuttered. Cannot be trusted.
Well it's a good thing someone clarified in the caption the "normal" vs. "mutated" butterfly, since obviously we couldn't figure that one out...
We have to keep destroying our planet because of our ever growing population. If we kept the global population what it was only 100 years ago, we wouldn’t even need nuclear energy. The bottom line problem and cause of most of our global issues is population growth. We are going to change everything until we kill this planet.
Are you powering your computer with Hydro-Electric, Coal or Nuclear power?
And the sad part is Luke... Most people don't care... This generation of people are so self involved and so self gratifying that we do not care if everything else and everyone else is affected by our actions... Let's torture a cat because it walked on our car... Let's bash a babies face in because it doesn't stop crying... Let's eat a homeless mans face because we are always looking for new drugs to give us the ultimate HIGH... Maybe the Incas stopped their calendar because they didn't want to be associated with the human monsters we have become. It about high time we started caring about our affects on this earth and our surrounding creatures. Before it is too late... Let's find ways to work with our Earth and not destroy it.
Are you saying that we need to eliminate over 4 billion people?
Would you be here today if the world tried to limit global population?
Like it or not, there will be a point when the world will have no other option other then Nuclear energy.
The world is far better to work out the bugs now than have to develop Nuclear energy while under duress.
It's a tough ethical question. Our population grew as we conquered more and more diseases. With improved methods of agriculture and transportation, etc. we were able to help ?populations in need, thus allowing them to survive to reproduce in environments that aren't conducive to very large populations.
In other words, we've broken most of Nature's methods of population control. The ethical questions come in when we ask who would we let die? By not giving them vaccines, medicine, food, water. My child? My neighbor? The people in the next town? Next state? Next country?
In the meantime, the world is going to eventually have some cataclysmic event(s) that will take care of the problem, but the event will be caused by our overpopulation. It's the cause of global warming.....Imagine how low carbon emissions would be with only 1 billion people on the earth.
I have no answers.....I'm just sayin'
And would I be here today? Maybe, maybe not. But if not, I wouldn't know it.
Luke, we are not going to kill this planet. We will kill our enviornment, we will kill each other, and we will die off as soon as we deplete the food supply.
Animal populations grow according to their food supply. When the food supply grows, the animal population associated with that food supply grows too. When the food supply becomes extinct, so does the animals that feed on it.
You've gone to the crux of the problem, jimmyfox. I absolutely agree. This part of the article: "To see the effects of internal exposure to radiation, unaffected clean butterflies were also fed cesium-coated leaves collected from Fukushima." caused me to shake my head. Obviously, what there was to learn in the disaster has totally passed the researchers by. Life, to most humans on this planet, is a Leggo toy to be pulled apart regardless of the agony and destruction such actions cause.
IDK12--That is why we are now on MARS. because scientists know that it is a matter of time before we self distruct.
Exactly Jimmy! Well said. And the problem with the butterflies is that they might be some specie's food source. And so go the dominoes.
I only wish that our politicians, of every party, applied this knowledge to all of their decision making.
But they don't and I'm scared of the reasons why.
knitwit-405528: "...that they might be some specie's [sic] food source" is rather too cautious a statement, inasmuch as all species are some other species' food source.
Your comment at #56.8 seems to show that you are considering mutations to be akin to poisons/toxins such as, say, mercury and that the mutated insects referred to in the article are likely to "infect" predators (and those, in turn, yet other predators). Try not to confuse the problems of mutation (which changes later generations within a species) with damage to extant living things.
We dont want no stinking wind generators, we need more nuke plants. Wind generators are such a eyesore.
Actually wind mills are elegant and very lovely.
"The Fukushima disaster occurred after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake knocked out a power line at the plant and generated a tsunami that flooded the facility's emergency generators, destroying the plant's cooling system."
That is simply not what happened at all.
The cooling system worked perfectly until after about 8 hours they used up all the diesel in the emergency generator day tanks and only then realized that the main diesel storage tanks had not been elevated (like the emergency generators) and all the fuel in them was contaminated.
The tsunami did not flood the emergency generators nor was the cooling system destroyed by the earth quake. They simply ran out of fuel due to an engineering oversite.
Had the plant managers started admitted what would happen when the generators ran out of fuel immediatetly (Even days later they were not admitting the seriousness of their problems)they could have helicoptered more diesel onsite and the "Nuclear Disaster would never have happened.
Now my real question is this;
Is this Journalist merely an idiot who is writing about something of which they know nothing about or is the journalist purposly trying make nuclear power look bad and scare us?
Yet, the Nuclear Disaster did happen. It ain't no "if" my friend. This disaster is as bad as it gets and will have long time consequences on people's lives, health, death, friends, family, and way of life.
Not just in Japan, but in the USA and neighboring Countries.
Earthquakes and Tsunamies are a part of Nature. As devastating as they are, the Earth recovers and life goes on.
Not so, with a Nuclear Disaster. A Nuclear Disaster spells the end of life as we know it, the end of an eco system, the end of an evironment, death and destruction for years and years.
PFWiz, you couldnt be more wrong about the diesel generators.....take it from somebody who has taken a 20 hour course on the Fukushima disaster and who works at a Nuclear Power Plant.
its Mothra, just wait for GodZilla.
"It's Godzilla...run, run".....
Nuclear Energy is NOT clean or safe or cheap. Its just a disaster waiting to happen. When it does happen, all the nuclear wastes are exposed and/or released, delivering and untold devastation on the environment, and it cost Trillions to get all the fatal material cleaned up and it takes a life time to do that.
The Property Values in California, Oregon, and Washington just took another nose dive. The good news is....well there is not any, unless you count the effects of Radiation being a silent, cumulative, progressive killer.
It was years before Scientist released the catastrophic deaths and disaster associated with Chernobyl.
Good news...in 300 years the former residents of Chernobyl can return to their homes, farms, churches, and not worry about radiation poisoning.
My property value keeps rising in Washington State......and I live 20 minutes from a Nuclear Power Plant AND Hanford (the most contaminated place on earth)
OH No! GOZIRA or Mothera! I look forward to the revitalization of the Japanese mega monster movie industry that could come from this disaster!
Damn! I just paid an extra $299 for the Glow-In-The-Dark option on
my new Toyota. Are you telling me that I got it for free?
One word... MOTHRA!!!!
Mothra.... is coming!
its really unfortunate (bad) how mankind is screwing up this world.
Aww poor butterflies. I hope their species ultimately survive. The power of nuclear disruption..destructive...The next frontier is finding out a way to better control and contain nuclear energy...to every action there is a reaction. Scientist need to focus on this. Perhaps space holds the key. we can only hope and dream now so that tomorrow it can become a reality.
I agree, Jaime, except that I am afraid we will end up on Mars, and destroy it as well. Humans are much better at destroying than creating.
Mutated butterfly Vely Derishious with seaweed and fish egg. Go well with squid on a stick.
Forget about the Ninja Turtles; watch out for "Mothra".
Anyone surprised? Raise you hand.
And they all laughed at Mothra
And MOTHRA IS BORN!
It may take decades for the full effect of the nuclear meltdown in Japan to be felt there and elsewhere in the world. The study of these flutterbys is just the very beginning and while some conclusions may be drawn, it's not even reasonable to assume the results will be attributable to other species, especially humans.
If They would give the butterfly time to dry it would look like the other one. just a fresh one just out of old skin.
And they said it wouldn't cause any after effect to the environment...pffft
Kelly-4618559: Who said it? When?
Like with any other environmental concern, just do what the conservatives do; don't buy the science. It's "junk science". If artificial radiation can cause mutations, background radiation & cosmic rays can cause them too. Either the radiation and/or the mutations can't exist as that would lead to evolution.
It's a "2for". Deny environmetal contamination (pollution) & evolution at the same time.
There is no such thing as "artificial radiation"......radiation is radiation. I doesnt matter if its manmade or natural.
Hey Dumb Dumbs..enough with the Mothra and Ninja Turtle jokes. Read the Thread...about 50 people think they are the first to post these stupid jokes....DUH????
Somebody call Godzilla. Mothera is coming!