By: Michael Collins -EnviroReporter.com Millions of Southern
Californians and tourists seek the region’s famous beaches to
cool off in the sea breeze and frolic in the surf. Those iconic
breezes, however, may be delivering something hotter than the
white sands along the Pacific: Buckyballs. According to a recent
UC Davis study, these uranium-filled nanospheres were created
from the millions of tons of fresh and salt water used to try to
cool down three molten cores of the stricken reactors at Japan’s
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The tiny and tough
buckyballs are shaped like soccer balls. Water hitting the
incredibly hot and radioactive, primarily uranium-oxide fuel
turns it into peroxide. In this goo mix, buckyballs are formed,
loaded with uranium and able to move quickly through water
without disintegrating. High radiation readings in Santa Monica
and Los Angeles air during a 42-day period from late December to
late January strongly suggest that radiation is increasing in
the region including along