NEW YORK, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Scientists have for the first time detected radiation from Japan's 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster on the west coast of the United States, local media reported.

The radioactive matter, in the form of an isotope known as cesium-134, was collected in seawater samples from Tillamook Bay and Gold Beach in the U.S. northwest state of Oregon, according to a report released by New York Post Friday.

The levels are very low and cannot harm people eating fish from the West Coast or swimming in the ocean, Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, was quoted as saying by USA Today.

"To put it in context, if you were to swim everyday for six hours a day in those waters for a year, that additional radiation from the addressed cesium from Japan is 1,000 times smaller than one dental x-ray," said Buesseler.

On March 11, 2011, a massive 9 magnitude earthquake, the strongest quake ever recorded in Japan, created three tsunamis that knocked out the Fukushima-Daiichi plant, causing the worst nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl disaster three decades ago.

Massive amounts of contaminated water were released from the crippled nuclear plant, more radiation was released to the air, and then fell to the sea.

"We don't expect to see health concerns from swimming or fish consumption, but we would like to continue monitoring until (the radiation level) goes back down again," said Buesseler.