Radiation release will hit marine life (Nature.com)

[jpak]

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110412/full/472145a.html

As radioisotopes pour into the sea from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, one reassuring message has been heard over and over again: the Pacific Ocean is a big place.

That the isotopes will be vastly diluted is not in question. Nevertheless, scientists are calling for a marine survey to begin as soon as possible to assess any damage to ecosystems in the area around Fukushima. Although the contamination is unlikely to cause immediate harm to marine organisms, long-lived isotopes are expected to accumulate in the food chain and may cause problems such as increased mortality in fish and marine-mammal populations.

<snip>

A team led by Dominique Boust, director of the French Institute of Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) in Cherbourg, is now predicting the level of contamination in marine organisms and sediments using estimates of the quantity of radioisotopes released from Fukushima, and the ratios of those isotopes calculated from available seawater measurements.

The team calculates that about 50 radio isotopes contribute to an overall concentration of roughly 10,000 becquerels per litre in the sea water within 300 metres of Fukushima. Before the accident, caesium-137 concentrations there were about 0.003 becquerels per litre, and iodine-131 was not detectable. On the basis of these figures, the IRSN researchers suggest that sediments in the region could now contain 10,000–10 million becquerels per kilogram; fish could carry 10,000–100,000?becquerels per kilogram; and algae, some of which are particularly susceptible to iodine uptake, could contain up to 100 million becquerels per kilogram. Japan has legal limits of radioactivity in fish for human consumption of 500 becquerels per kilogram for caesium-137, and 2,000 becquerels per kilogram for iodine-131.

"Doses will decrease very quickly with time and distance from the facility, if no further leaks occur, but there could remain a persistent low-dose component in the local marine environment for many years," says Thomas Hinton, deputy director of the IRSN's Laboratory of Radioecology, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Modelling in Cadarache, France. "The impacts are best addressed through an international long-term assessment."

<more>

[FBaggins]

1. But they don't expect to have an easy time detecting that "hit"

"Although radioisotope concentrations in fish, shellfish and seaweed could exceed limits for human consumption for weeks, Whicker thinks that it is unlikely that scientists would be able to detect any genetic effects on marine life. Any affected creatures would probably disperse into the Pacific, or die more quickly, he says. Moreover, teasing out radiological effects from other stresses, such as conventional water pollution and the damage caused by the tsunami, would be extremely difficult."

Weeks?

Goodness... I have it on good authority that the entire Japanese fishing industry will be out of business for decades. Who does this guy think he is?

[jpak]

2. "I have it on good authority...etc" - a man made outta straw

made up

yup

[FBaggins]

3. Really? What does "lose the Japanese fishing industry" mean to you?

A 3% drop in annual sales?

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. One word: bio-accumulation.

[Fledermaus]

5. TEPCO can't stop the leaking into the ocean. 300 nuclear gypsies and 6 or 7 big cement pumps?????

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Chernobyl equipment graveyard

[FBaggins]

6. Can't and haven't aren't the same thing.

They most certainly CAN. The question is how long it will take.

What do you imagine the relevance of your posted chart is?

[Fledermaus]

7. Apparently, at this date, they are the same thing, and they will be for some time to come.

They can't fix the cooling systems, because there is nothing left to fix.

[FBaggins]

8. If there's "nothing left to fix" then how are they keeping it cool?

Oh I know... they're making the whole thing up, right?

[Fledermaus]

9. They are pouring water on the rubble and all the water is collecting in the basement.

The spent fuel pools are cracked and leak. Apparently, the plumbing doesn't work any more. Its certainly not a closed loop any more. It all leaks and its collecting in the basement. They can't pump it out fast enough and all the storage tanks will be full again soon!

[FBaggins]

10. How does "rubble" hold a pressure?

Its certainly not a closed loop any more

Duh.

It all leaks and its collecting in the basement.

The pools leaking doesn't appear to be nearly the problem that at least one of the cores is.

They can't pump it out fast enough and all the storage tanks will be full again soon!

They most certainly can pump it out fast enough (they had the ability to pump it in didn't they?). Their problem is merely that they have nowhere to put it. That's not an insurmountable problem.

And the amount of water that they need to keep the cores cool continues to drop.