Alaska seafood is free of radiation stemming from Japan's 2011 tsunami and Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster.

That was the take home message from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation to the state Senate Resources Committee at a recent hearing.

Citing information from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Pacific states including Hawaii, California, Oregon and Washington, as well as Health Canada, "all have demonstrated there are no levels of radiation that are of a public health concern," said Marty Brewer, director of DEC's Environmental Health Division.

She added that only small amounts of radiation have been detected from the reactor source.

"There has been detection of cesium that is reportedly from Fukushima but at miniscule levels," Brewer said.

DEC Commissioner Larry Hartig said programs in the Lower 48 are testing fish that swim between the Gulf of Alaska, the West Coast and Japan, and they have come up with a clean bill of health. The DEC also is monitoring marine debris washing ashore in Southeast Alaska and Prince William Sound, Hartig said.

None of the debris that has washed ashore anywhere in the U.S. so far has shown signs of radiation.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce>>