A Japanese research group has published data suggesting that radioactive contamination from Japan’s 2011 nuclear disaster had circled the Pacific Ocean within just a year of the disaster.

According to the Japanese daily Mainichi Shimbun on Monday, a joint Japanese university research group said radioactivity presumed to have been released from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after it was hit by a tsunami in 2011 was detected in 2012 off Japan's coasts. 

If confirmed, it would mark a much faster pace than initial expectations that said it would take 20 to 30 years for the contaminated materials to return to Japan after circling the world's largest ocean.