How long until you'd consider diving Japan's waters?

[Rascally Rabbit]

Glib comments aside, They will have to completely seal the reactors off, and that will take time. There is highly radio active waste water running into the ocean by millions of gallons a day (just to keep the reactor from completely melting down). The ground for miles around is highly contaminated and that will be running off into the ocean for quite a while.

It would be years after sealing before I would dive in the region.

You are quite correct in your assumptions. It seems that until the reactors are completely cooled and the fuel rods removed they can't even consider complete containment. The sea water that they were forced to use as emergency coolant has caused so much corrosion that they can't even deal with the leaks running directly into the groundwater. The water that was and continues to be directly pumped over and through the core and into the ocean will work it's way into the food chain and ecosystem for years. The range and extent are impossible to estimate with any accuracy. I don't want to even consider a dive anywhere nearby that the currents could be washing with contamination. Even for those of us that are past the point of trying to reproduce, the risks of cancers related to exposure and the resulting prolong sickness if not death make the choice to avoid those water the only choice for many years to come.

 

[Charlie99]

Bikini Atoll tells us a lot about contamination. Of course, obliterating 3 islands with a hydrogen bomb 1000 times the power of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs caused more contamination than the Fukushima meltdowns will cause, but it does give us some good indications of what will happen.

Diving in Bikini Atoll is now routinely done.

The atoll is safe to visit, but the contamination on land continues to be contaminate the plants on land. Some islanders returned in 1975, about two decades after the 1954 Bravo shot. After 4 years of eating the local coconuts, the islanders were found to have elevated levels of cesium 137.

 

[Fuzfuz]

What's the half life of plutonium? I'd probably wait a million years or so.

 

[drbill]

If I say I'm thinking of going somewhere to dive, pay attention. I had planned to dive the Red Sea earlier this year and had hoped to get a grant to dive Japan to study the Sargassum horneri native there but an invader here.

I think I'd still dive a Japanese destination where the Sargassum is found, but not in the northern regions. There are the southern islands and Okinawa, so diving Japanese waters offers a range of options.

 

[fire_diver]

If I say I'm thinking of going somewhere to dive, pay attention. I had planned to dive the Red Sea earlier this year and had hoped to get a grant to dive Japan to study the Sargassum horneri native there but an invader here.

I think I'd still dive a Japanese destination where the Sargassum is found, but not in the northern regions. There are the southern islands and Okinawa, so diving Japanese waters offers a range of options.

In that case, please don't ever go to the Caymans!

 

[ozzydamo]

I would only consider it only when they stop "scientific whaling", radioactivity aside- I wouldn't give them a penny, until whaling and fishing practices change- international waters should be international green/no take zones. Spain's a pain too!

 

[mongodives]

Based on the after effects of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Bikini Atol, nuke tests in Nevada, New Mexico and the melt down at Chernyoble.
There isn't much of a reason to be worried if your just going diving in Japan, unless you're diving in the cooling pool of the reactor.

 

[drbill]

I would only consider it only when they stop "scientific whaling", radioactivity aside- I wouldn't give them a penny, until whaling and fishing practices change- international waters should be international green/no take zones. Spain's a pain too!

Is that "no take" of ANY species for ALL countries or just for cetaceans? If across the board I might agree. However, if I go to Japan to research the Sargassum horneri in its native habitat, I go there to gather information to help stop a serious ecological invader here in SoCal waters. I do not condemn ALL Japanese for its countries whaling, or ALL Chinese for shark finning... any more than I'd condemn my fellow countrymen for some of the stupid things our government has done over the years.

 

[OkiMike]

I would only consider it only when they stop "scientific whaling", radioactivity aside- I wouldn't give them a penny, until whaling and fishing practices change- international waters should be international green/no take zones. Spain's a pain too!

Considering that the diving industry has nothing to do with the whaling or other fishing industries (other than having to grovel for permits to use "their beaches and coastline" for recreation), I don't see why you'd punish diving operations who are trying to make a living if you wre truly interested in diving over here.

 

[ozzydamo]

Is that "no take" of ANY species for ALL countries or just for cetaceans? If across the board I might agree. However, if I go to Japan to research the Sargassum horneri in its native habitat, I go there to gather information to help stop a serious ecological invader here in SoCal waters. I do not condemn ALL Japanese for its countries whaling, or ALL Chinese for shark finning... any more than I'd condemn my fellow countrymen for some of the stupid things our government has done over the years.

Most definitely Doc'
ANY species, as its the only way to to be fair about it, just imagine trying to allocate fairly catch quotas and enforce them politically on the international stage, this way countries will better manage their own waters so they have a sustainable fishery. AND!!!!! if anyone country doesn't, they pay a high price for imported fish and can't rape the remaining "world" stock(genealogy) which might one day re-establish in that same country(after they figure out their greedy ways don't work in the long haul). Blowfly fishermen are lowlives.

The sooner some of these indebted and propped up nations hit the wall the better!

Mining international waters also, its a can of worms yet to be opened.