A sort of shellfish disappears near Japan's crippled nuclear plant: study

[bananas]

Source: Xinhua

Japanese researchers announced recently that a sort of shellfish called Thais clavigera disappeared in a 30-km coastal area near Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

<snip>

The team found that the Thais clavigera was extinct in eight of ten places within the 20-km-radius alert zone of the nuclear plant, which was damaged by tsunami in March 2011 and triggered the world' s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

Other shellfish species, such as Cellana grata, were found in the alert zone but the amount of them declined, with high dose of radioactive materials inside their bodies, according to the researchers.

<snip>

Toshihiro Horiguchi, a researcher from the environmental institute and the head of the team, said that it is a rare occurrence that Thais clavigera entirely disappeared from a 30-km long area, adding the extinct was probably caused by the nuclear crisis.

The link between the disappearance and the catastrophic tsunami was excluded as the shell was also found in other areas that affected by the disaster, according to the team.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.asp?id=134038

[bananas]

1. Photo of Thais clavigera

From the same article at another news site:

http://www.china.org.cn/environment/2013-04/01/content_28416905.htm

A sort of shellfish disappears in Japan

Xinhua, April 1, 2013

<snip>



Thais clavigera. (File photo)

<snip>

[madokie]

3. While in Vietnam the people there ate

something that looked a lot like these. They were about an inch long, maybe a quarter to three eights inch in diameter. They'd bite the tip of it off then suck the contents out. I think they were cooked first. I'm not sure of that as I never seen them cooking them. I seen them eating them as a snack or seemed to me anyway and sometimes a hand full of them would be all they'd eat for lunch.
At any rate these do not deserve to be cast aside as a price of doing business. Its wrong

[madokie]

2. There is just no way that radioactive materials can be good for anyone or anything

Just think where we could be today if not for the false assumption that we could safely get our electricity from nuclear power. If we'd embarked on a path of sustainability. Wind, Solar and Geothermal with some renewables thrown in for good measure, we'd not be in the CO2 mess we find ourselves in today. Due to the promise of cheap and the lie of it is safe we're where we are today. We took the wrong path is all I know. In a lot of ways LIED onto that path I might add.

Before 'Wrong' lights into me like a whirlwind this is my opinion

thx for the link

[truthisfreedom]

4. Nuclear power based on uranium is for the purpose

Of creating large amounts of bomb-making material. One reactor was created by the Air Force over 50 years ago that wouldn't ever melt down under any circumstance, and whose waste products had such a short half life that they could effectively be rotated in and out of storage without fear of long term problems. The fuel was thorium, available without war all over the planet, and energetic enough to provide us with clean safe power for thousands of years. We still stand a chance of bringing this back to life. Solar and wind are one thing, but concentrated nuclear power in small neighborhoods with a tiny footprint might be necessary someday.

[madokie]

5. Maybe but that doesn't change the fact we were mis-lead

Back in the early to mid 50s one of my families friends was a mathematician who worked on the Manhattan Project and he was terrified of nuclear energy. Scared to death that they'd try to use this new found source of energy to energize our electrical grid. An electrical grid that was just then finding its way to our piece of the world.
Once biten twice shy I guess you could say. My hope is the thorium promise pans out. You could say I'm a little skeptical about this because still to today, to the best of my knowledge, we don't have a functioning thorium power plant in operation anywhere.
Pie in the sky type thinking is why we're in this mess to begin with so I'm a tad apprehensive about all the claims about Thorium.

[AtheistCrusader]

6. This might not be radiation.

They dumped a CRAPLOAD of boron into that water, to quench any criticality. Boron is a moderator for such reactions.

What does boric acid do to shellfish? I'm guessing, 'nothing good'. What else did they lose into the sea? This is an industrial site that got whacked pretty hard with the tsunami. What else was washed away in all those holding tanks near the inlets and turbine buildings?

[madokie]

7. Of course it 'might not'

hell the sun 'might not' rise in the east tomorrow. doesn't mean it won't but it 'might not.'
Laughable if it wasn't so silly

[AtheistCrusader]

9. You don't think an unknown quantity of boric acid could harm shellfish?

Alter the carrying capacity of the water for calcium carbonate by adding carbonic acid and you alter/damage a shellfish's ability to construct a shell at all. You can break the whole thing with a mild temperature increase too.

The correlation to the reactor complex is strong, and the use of atomic fuels necessitates the use of boric acid, so I'm not saying the reactors or the pursuit of nuclear power isn't responsible, it IS, otherwise the boric acid wouldn't BE there. But the shellfish problem is probably not directly related as a matter of leaked radiation.

[Trillo]

8. How to sterilize the Pacific ocean?

It's kind of like anti-bacterial soap (triclosan) on an industrial scale.

Radiate the world, and return it to pristine rock! Get rid of all that pesky "life".

[Gregorian]

10. 7 billion humans all trying to live a modern lifestyle.

Sorry planet earth. We have pretty much killed you.

[formercia]

11. Shellfish are filter feeders

The micro-organisms accumulate the isotopes and the Mollusks filter out the Plankton, concentrating the amount of radio-isotopes inside their bodies...just one link in the Food Chain.