Aquatic Fukushima Radiation Plume to Reach West Coast in 2014

[n2doc]

By March of 2014 a strongly diluted plume of ocean water containing radionuclides from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear incident in Japan will reach the west coast of North America, according to a new study published in the journal Deep-Sea Research 1.

However, the plume, which contains cesium-137, is so diluted it will be harmless, according to the report, which cites the power of two energetic currents off the Japan coast -- the Kuroshio Current and the Kurushio Extension -- as the primary drivers for the accelerated dilution of the radioactive plume.

According to the study's authors, the Japanese currents diluted the cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years, so effectively that the plume dropped below the World Health Organization's safety levels within four months of the Fukushima incident, which occurred March 11, 2011 after a crippling earthquake and tsunami combination overcame the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station on Japan's northern Pacific coast.

Study co-author Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, said that a measurable increase in radioactive material will be observable on the west coast of the United States by the three-year anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear incident.

more

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/3726/20130829/aquatic-fukushima-radiation-plume-reach-west-coast-2014.htm

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. What about the radiation being poured into the ocean SINCE 2011?

Unless I am reading this wrong, it discusses the radionuclides from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear incident.

It does not address the 80,000 gallons a day of radiation water that has been dumped into the ocean in the last 2 years.

Guess we will have to wait for another study 3 years from now.

[FBaggins]

2. It wouldn't be measurable.

The initial release is likely many millions of times larger (and even that doesn't result in an appreciable increase this far away).

There is an ongoing release to the sea caused by land contamination washed by rain into streams/rivers that flow to the sea. But it too is much smaller than the subject of the article (and there isn't anything that could be done about it anyway).

Lastly there's the leaking that I suspect you're talking about. While it is a significant issue that TEPCO must be held responsible for... it really doesn't enter into this conversation. Because, so far, none of that has been detected outside the quay area immediately beside the plant (and even that has just been a small amount of tritium). They haven't been able to detect an increase in contamination in the harbor area (apart from the quay)... let alone anything in the sea. There's almost certainly some level of ongoing contamination, but if it's too small to detect just offshore... it obviously can't be detected after dilution by the entire Pacific.

[Nihil]

4. It's hardly going to overtake radiation from the original event is it?

FBaggins has pointed out the different in scale of the initial release to the ongoing
releases (yes, they shouldn't be happening) but even so, the OP shows that

1) the original release will have made its way around the Pacific in about 3 years

2) it will contain measurable amounts of cesium-137

3) the radionuclides will be so dilute as to be "harmless" (present but at exceedingly low levels)

4) the plume dropped below the WHO safety levels within four months of the incident

Whilst it should be obvious that the event is unwanted, all of the above are positive
results that are far better than the panic-mongering hysteria which keeps being posted
from certain quarters.

Let's hope that there isn't any increase as a result of screwing up the extraction of the
fuel rods as that would be a different order of magnitude altogether ...

[NV Whino]

3. It's not the currents themselves we need to be concerned about

It's the aquatic life that populates those currents. Plankton up to the largest fish. Corrals to seaweed. Ocean life is forever changed.