Radiation forecast data released

[nadinbrzezinski]

The Japanese government has released data projecting the spread of radioactive substances from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The science ministry uses a computer system called SPEEDI to predict how radiation will spread depending on weather and geographical conditions.

On Tuesday, the government released about 5,000 bits of data showing hourly predictions from March 11th. The information appears on the websites of the Nuclear Safety Commission and other entities.

The data was calculated on the assumption that radioactive substances are being released at a rate of one becquerel per hour.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/03_20.html

[SlimJimmy]

1. For the Record - From the Harvard School of Public Health

A radiation expert at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), says that radiation leakage from the continuing nuclear disaster in Japan poses little risk to the U.S. Edward Maher, adjunct lecturer on environmental science, told AOL’s DailyFinance.com on March 23, 2011, “These risks are mitigated by … the great distance away the U.S. is from the accident site.

After being dispersed and diluted by 6,000 miles of atmosphere and the mighty Pacific Ocean, respectively, neither airborne or seawater concentrations will be a threat to the U.S. mainland.” By the time any radiation reaches the West Coast, the concentrations “will be either be indistinguishable from background radiation or so low in concentration as to have no health impact to our citizens,” he says. In addition, he says, the U.S. government regulates the amount of radioactivity food and water can contain and still be considered safe.

http://wajwaj.com/risk-to-u-s-from-japan-radiation-low-expert-says-harvard-poplic-health.html

[FBaggins]

3. Yeah... But what does Harvard know? n/t

[caraher]

2. Not much information there

It's really the same as all those projections that have been available for a long time through the test ban organization. Why it's not useful is summed up in the one line:

"The data was calculated on the assumption that radioactive substances are being released at a rate of one becquerel per hour."

In other words, those plumes don't say a thing about actual emissions, only where they were most likely to end up.