fukushima fall out

[lionfish-eater]

I was a health physicist in the Navy (ELT) and I can assure you that any contamination reaching California is far below any sort of danger limit. As someone pointed out you'll get a lot more radiation on any flight between cities where you fly at high altitudes, or a getting an X-ray at the doctors or dentist. Eating a banana would probably give you more of a dose, they are high in potassium which is naturally slightly radioactive.

Since there is no danger, and I have your assurance on that, you may have just solved the problem of nuke waste disposal. We could haul it towards japan and dump it a few hundred miles off the coast, flushing the waste into the ocean much like a cruise ship dumping human waste.

 

[T.C.]

Since there is no danger, and I have your assurance on that, you may have just solved the problem of nuke waste disposal. We could haul it towards japan and dump it a few hundred miles off the coast, flushing the waste into the ocean much like a cruise ship dumping human waste.

That's wrong.

agesilaus is not saying that is ok to dump radioactive matter into the ocean. What he's saying is that the est. 15 million trillion (that a 15 with eighteen zeros) gallons of seawater in the Pacific Ocean will dilute and disperse the radioactive material to a level far below the safety limits by the time it reaches our coast.

He is not saying anything about the effects near Japan. Certainly this is a horrible event; but the entire Pacific is not going to become a highly radioactive dead sea like the ignorant masses have been lead by the bloggers and media to believe.

And actually one experimental idea for disposing of waste is to seal it into tough canisters, and bury it near a subduction zone. In a few hundred years, tectonic plate action will carry it back to the depths of the earth that it once came from. It has serious flaws, but it does permanently deal with this waste long before the half-life cycle would render it safe.

 

[fishb0y]

Since there is no danger, and I have your assurance on that, you may have just solved the problem of nuke waste disposal. We could haul it towards japan and dump it a few hundred miles off the coast, flushing the waste into the ocean much like a cruise ship dumping human waste.

Yup, I like the emotional argument. It totally sucks to have to use logic and facts to prove your point...

A-school in Orlando, Power School and Prototype in Charleston, then SSN-766, SSN-21, SSN-22.

 

[100days-a-year]

So after hundreds of nukyalar weapons have been detonated above and below ground we are now to die as a species due to 1 reactor leaking?Do people realize that Bikini Dive/Tourism Information

 

[lionfish-eater]

There is a lot of grey area between: the entire west coast will be uninhabitable and the ocean will dilute the radioactivity to a safe level. Tepco has not been accurate in releasing info. They have no current technology or equipment to deal with the two severely damaged reactors and are only working on the one reactor that had its roof damaged. There is no accurate measure of how much contaminated ground water is flowing into the ocean, and their plan is to someday freeze the ground down to a depth that will prevent groundwater flow. This is a serious pollution problem that is not being adequately addressed. Why are the designers, engineers and manufacturer not being held responsible? Was the site chosen because it was seaside with the idea that seawater could be used in the event of a disaster? There is no money to be made cleaning up a disaster so I forsee that tepco will continue to make attempts to mitigate the radiation until they can no longer hide the fact that they are unable to go any further, or another tsunami/earthquake strikes and they throw up their hands and again claim an act of nature caused the problem, not inadequate construction and poor site location.

 

[T.C.]

There is a lot of grey area between: the entire west coast will be uninhabitable and the ocean will dilute the radioactivity to a safe level.

No, there isn't. You really think that this will cause effects that will be felt around the world? I advise you to put down the kool-aid and research this topic. It's like the noise that the media made about the Gulf spill.

Tepco has not been accurate in releasing info. They have no current technology or equipment to deal with the two severely damaged reactors and are only working on the one reactor that had its roof damaged.

Yes, there is. The problem is the radioactive contamination, which prevents cleanup. You don't just walk in and scrape up corium. As the radiation is cleaned up, they will be able to defuel the reactors and remove the nuclear products.

There is no accurate measure of how much contaminated ground water is flowing into the ocean, and their plan is to someday freeze the ground down to a depth that will prevent groundwater flow. This is a serious pollution problem that is not being adequately addressed.

So what's your solution? Complain that others aren't doing enough? This is a huge disaster; and things don't just happen overnight.

Why are the designers, engineers and manufacturer not being held responsible?

Because they didn't screw up. Tepco did, by placing their generators lower than was recommended. The reactor design was safe and effective, and included adequate back-ups. If Tepco had listened to the designers and secured off-site power supplies, or place the generators better, they would have been able to maintain circulation in their reactors.

It is the height of stupidity to hold a designer and manufacturer responsible for something that wasn't their fault.

Was the site chosen because it was seaside with the idea that seawater could be used in the event of a disaster?

You know that land is at an absolute premium in Japan, right? There is only so many places you can build a huge facility like this.

There is no money to be made cleaning up a disaster so I forsee that tepco will continue to make attempts to mitigate the radiation until they can no longer hide the fact that they are unable to go any further, or another tsunami/earthquake strikes and they throw up their hands and again claim an act of nature caused the problem, not inadequate construction and poor site location

Nice use of emotionalism that is utterly lacking in facts. You have nothing to support your arguments except wide speculation.

 

[radtype]

As noted in an earlier post there are various G-M detector designs. The unit used in the California coast video is a pancake G-M detector which can detect alpha, beta, and gamma radiation but is not sensitive enough to detect any changes in the ocean from Fukushima.

The oceans have very low levels of cesium from all the previous nuclear tests. There are lots of models showing Fukushima radioactivity reaching the west coast but...... at levels even less than the existing background levels. We have to wait and see.

Woods Hole Institute and UC Long Beach are sampling the water and kelp on the west coast using the best analysis techniques. If they see a change we will hear about it real fast.

I'm not worried diving or eating seafood in the Pacific

 

[agesilaus]

As pointed out I have no idea what the level of contamination is off the coast where this occurred. There are several factors involved (and probably more not obvious to me).

1) What landed in the water may not travel with the with the water movement. It can fall to the bottom or it can be absorbed onto or into the bottom or other things in the water column. Strontium would be absorbed the same way as Calcium for example and mostly end up in shells and bones of critters close to the site.

2) Reactors produce a lot of very hot (radioactive) isotopes. As a rule the hotter an isotope is the shorter it's half life. Half life is actually a direct measure of how instantly dangerous a isotope is. A half life of 1 day means that half of that isotope present decays and produces radiation in one day, and after a second day half of that is gone. Usually five half lives eliminates most of that isotope. So the hottest isotopes will not survive the trip across the Pacific. The incident occurred in March of 2011, three years ago. So one fifth of that is 200 days roughly, any isotopes with a half life less than 200 days will be mostly gone. Much of the fission products: I-131, Ba-140, Ce-140, Zr-95, Sr-89 have shorter half lives.

3) Some small portion of the isotopes would travel with the water column and travel with the North Pacific Current (just a guess) and might arrive off California after major dilution. I doubt it will amount to much.

If you want to worry about something, worry about Novaya Zemya. The Russian have dumped hundreds of tons of radioactive materials there. Spent reactor cores, bomb production wastes and who knows what else. Probably thousands of times more material than what made it into the sea from Japan. The Gulf Stream impacts those islands why aren't people out on the beaches worried about that?

 

[lionfish-eater]

Jiji: No solution seen for Fukushima?s radioactive water ? Kyodo: Toxic ocean leakage to go on into 2020s ? Experts: ?High potential for marine life and human health effects through ingestion over generations?

Japan considering dumping Fukushima?s radioactive water into the Pacific | euronews, world news

Radioactive bluefin tuna from Japan found in U.S. waters | The Raw Story

New radioactive water leak at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant - CNN.com

Japan utility agrees nuclear crisis was avoidable

 

[gopbroek]

Jiji: No solution seen for Fukushima?s radioactive water ? Kyodo: Toxic ocean leakage to go on into 2020s ? Experts: ?High potential for marine life and human health effects through ingestion over generations?

Japan considering dumping Fukushima?s radioactive water into the Pacific | euronews, world new

Radioactive bluefin tuna from Japan found in U.S. waters | The Raw Story

New radioactive water leak at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant - CNN.com

Japan utility agrees nuclear crisis was avoidable

Giant lobster feeds 4000000, a solution to world hunger is found