Radiation Of The Pacific Ocean In The Next 10 Years - Japan Nuclear Disaster

[DeSwiss]

TheCCCVideoChannel·Published on Feb 8, 2013

This is a 10 year timelapse of the radiation from Fukushima, Japan, contaminating the Pacific Ocean. A sequence of global ocean circulation models, with horizontal mesh sizes of 0.5°, 0.25° and 0.1°, are used to estimate the long-term dispersion by ocean currents and mesoscale eddies of a slowly decaying tracer (half-life of 30 years, comparable to that of 137Cs) from the local waters off the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plants.

The tracer was continuously injected into the coastal waters over some weeks; its subsequent spreading and dilution in the Pacific Ocean was then simulated for 10 years. The simulations do not include any data assimilation, and thus, do not account for the actual state of the local ocean currents during the release of highly contaminated water from the damaged plants in March--April 2011. An ensemble differing in initial current distributions illustrates their importance for the tracer patterns evolving during the first months, but suggests a minor relevance for the large-scale tracer distributions after 2--3 years. By then the tracer cloud has penetrated to depths of more than 400 m, spanning the western and central North Pacific between 25°N and 55°N, leading to a rapid dilution of concentrations.

The rate of dilution declines in the following years, while the main tracer patch propagates eastward across the Pacific Ocean, reaching the coastal waters of North America after about 5--6 years. Tentatively assuming a value of 10 PBq for the net 137Cs input during the first weeks after the Fukushima incident, the simulation suggests a rapid dilution of peak radioactivity values to about 10 Bq m?3 during the first two years, followed by a gradual decline to 1--2 Bq m?3 over the next 4--7 years. The total peak radioactivity levels would then still be about twice the pre-Fukushima values.

For more info visit:
http://oceanrep.geomar.de/14788/
http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/50176

[Downwinder]

1. They estimate 40yrs. to decommission the plant.

Should be well into the Atlantic by then.

[JDPriestly]

2. What will that mean for the health of the

many millions of people living along the coasts of the Pacific?

[FBaggins]

21. Not a blessed thing

Even if their estimates were correct (the current data shows them to be pessimistic), they're talking about 10 bq per ton (later falling to 1-2 bq/ton).

When they talk about levels doubling it's important to recognize that they aren't talking about levels of radiation doubling, just the amount from Cs137. A few Bq/ton is lost in the natural radioactivity of the ocean.

There are, for instance, about 33 Bq/ton of uranium there already. ~1,000 Bq/ton of Rubidium, 11,000 Bq/ton of Potassium 40 (and so on). They try to leave you with the impression that radioactivity oc the Pacific is doubling... when in fact it isn't even a 1% increase.

[Ford_Prefect]

3. What will it mean for the food chain in the Pacific? What effects will that have on those who

eat it?

Is there any reference point provided by the results of nuclear bomb testing in the Pacific by the US, France, or anyone else?

[cantbeserious]

4. At A Minimum - Stop Eating All Fish

eom

[diverdownjt]

5. As the radiated water begins to evaporate into the

atmosphere ....where do you think that rain will fall?
What do you eat then?

[cantbeserious]

15. Point Taken - Eat Seafood Now - Die Sooner

eom

[Buzz Clik]

6. Minimum? What would be the average? Maximum?

[dotymed]

11. I stopped eating sea-food when all of the untested dispersant's

were dumped into the coast following "deep-water." I was with the wave of first responders after Katrina, but I still ate a lot of sea-food.
I stayed there for over a year (and suffered 2 major heart attacks). As soon as I could fly (after they flew me home for more surgeries)
the company flew me back as an adviser and superintendent. They paid for plush accommodation's.
After corexant(?) was put into the gulf I lost my appetite for sea-food.

[cantbeserious]

14. Wise Man - Between Deepwater And Fukushima Consider All Seafood Unsafe

eom

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. Shrimp and snapper and salmon are but a distant memory for me now.

Did not take a rocket scientist to grasp the impact of Corexit and oil in the Gulf.
Years ago I read of the open secrect of radiation leaking from Hanford nuke plants in E. Washington, my home state, into the
columbia River where salmon go to spawn.
Between so many sources of continuing polllution and overfishing, seafood is off the menu.

I am slowly becoming vegetarian, I notice.

[L0oniX]

18. Fish here in Florida have been heavily contaminated with mercury way before BP....

...especially south Florida.

[Esse Quam Videri]

7. Uhhhhh.....except anyone who is paying attention knows that

radiation is still being released directly (or indirectly via groundwater) into the ocean. So this simulation is based on radiation released during the first few weeks after the accident. What about the radiation released in the subsequent two years?

[Buzz Clik]

9. What is the current rate of release compared to the initial?

I really have no idea.

[Esse Quam Videri]

10. Who knows? I don't even think TEPCO knows

Three nuclear cores breached their containment structures and lie somewhere below ground. These cores (or what is left of them) interact with the area groundwater that flows in and out from the sea. Then there are the constant problems TEPCO has with their cooling water ponds. These are most likely constantly seeping water into the ground. This is a no win situation for the planet.

[PearliePoo2]

16. This is uncharted water where no manual or plan to "fix it" has been written yet.

The technology has not even been developed to deal with these "melt-throughs".
They don't even know for sure where their corium blobs are. It's so radioactive hot, no man or even robot machine can get in there.
TEPCO is frantically trying to cover their ass and has been lying from the beginning about their nuclear franken-monster.

[cantbeserious]

19. It Truly Amazes One That This Ongoing Story Has Not Broken Through The MSM Stranglehold

eom

[PearliePoo2]

20. You mean the MSM that's owned by corporations? (corporations like GE "We bring good things to life")

The same GE that built these reactors in the 70's.
These plants had their safety inspections falsified over and over. They should have been shut down years ago. They were/are past their recommended shelf life.
In a just world, the truth of this event and its consequences, would have been disseminated globally with all nations lending their help and expertise trying to find a solution. But Japan basically told everybody to "butt out", that they would handle it themselves.
So now, reports are that in the surrounding Fukushima area, one third of the little children have thyroid anomalies. ONE THIRD. A bunch of little kids now have fucked up organs.
Yeah, there are a FEW people doing investigative work, but the vast majority of MSM is (criminally?) silent.
Maybe the truth is too horrifying to report.

[burnodo]

25. +1

Nt

[lunasun]

26. SHHH Don't wake anyone up-why rile the people about nuclear power?

[FBaggins]

22. There's ongoing monitoring from multiple sources

There's bound to be some ongoing leakage just from groundwater, but it isn't significant for this simulation (as that initial release was hundreds of thousands to millions of times larger) and isn't showing up in monitoring data.

[PearliePoo2]

13. You are correct...this is a TEPCO FUBAR.

There are leaks everywhere in the holding tanks. They are quickly running out of space to build more tanks.

[Buzz Clik]

8. Their choice of colors was interesting.

When the video finishes, the entire Pacific Ocean is shocking pink. The visual impression is, well, shocking. But if you look at the scale, the tiny inset at the upper right, you see that shocking pink means that the amount of radiation will be 0.00001 that of the source. That's significant radiation, but it's not as shocking as one might think.

[FBaggins]

23. And even that calls their estimated into question.

The volume dilution is orders of magnitude larger than a mere 100,000-fold.

[Buzz Clik]

24. One would think.

[BethanyQuartz]

12. Alternative Energy

Alternative energy that doesn't involve radiation seems more expensive than nuclear plants or fossil fuels. Until you look at things like this and imagine what it will be like after a few more decades of day by day pollution plus human oopsies.