Observing the Arrival of the Fukushima Contamination Plume in N. American Coastal Waters

[Dixon]

I found this interesting, and offhand it looks like it might even be authoritative.
Dixon






This short diary summarizes an open access paper published today reporting results from a Canadian monitoring program tasked with documenting the arrival of ocean borne Fukushima contamination along the North American Pacific coast. This diary is part of an ongoing effort to communicate the best science available on the impacts of the Fukushima Dai-ichi meltdowns on the environment. High quality measurements to look for Fukushima derived radiocesium were made in seawater in the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans from 2011 to early 2014. The authors concluded that:

1. Fukushima derived radiocesium was first detected 1500 km west of British Columbia Canada in June 2012

2. Contamination was detected on the continental shelf (near coastal waters) in June 2013

3. By February 2014 Fukushima radiocesium was present at levels similar to preexisting weapons testing derived 137-Cs

4. The timing of the arrival and levels of radiocesium in the contaminated plume are in reasonable agreement with existing ocean circulation model predictions

5. These same models predict that total radiocesium levels from weapons testing fallout and Fukushima will likely reach maximum values of ~3-5 Becquerel per cubic meter (Bq m-3 of seawater in 2015-2016 and then decline to fallout background level of ~1 Bq m-3 by 2021

6. Fukushima will increase northeastern Pacific water to levels last seen in the 1980's but does not represent a threat to environmental or human health

[The rest of the article can be found at the link below]

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/...Coastal-Waters

[forveterans49]

I think Daily Kos is reputable.

I found this interesting, and offhand it looks like it might even be authoritative.
Dixon






This short diary summarizes an open access paper published today reporting results from a Canadian monitoring program tasked with documenting the arrival of ocean borne Fukushima contamination along the North American Pacific coast. This diary is part of an ongoing effort to communicate the best science available on the impacts of the Fukushima Dai-ichi meltdowns on the environment. High quality measurements to look for Fukushima derived radiocesium were made in seawater in the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans from 2011 to early 2014. The authors concluded that:

1. Fukushima derived radiocesium was first detected 1500 km west of British Columbia Canada in June 2012

2. Contamination was detected on the continental shelf (near coastal waters) in June 2013

3. By February 2014 Fukushima radiocesium was present at levels similar to preexisting weapons testing derived 137-Cs

4. The timing of the arrival and levels of radiocesium in the contaminated plume are in reasonable agreement with existing ocean circulation model predictions

5. These same models predict that total radiocesium levels from weapons testing fallout and Fukushima will likely reach maximum values of ~3-5 Becquerel per cubic meter (Bq m-3 of seawater in 2015-2016 and then decline to fallout background level of ~1 Bq m-3 by 2021

6. Fukushima will increase northeastern Pacific water to levels last seen in the 1980's but does not represent a threat to environmental or human health

[The rest of the article can be found at the link below]

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/...Coastal-Waters

[Scott McKeown]

Thanks, Dixon.

Yes, sources matter.

I followed the link on the Daily Kos site and the original paper the article was referencing can be found here: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2...14112.full.pdf.

Below is a list of the paper's authors with their associated institutions footnoted. These people are the sources and they are real oceanographers working at serious and respected institutions. I tend to believe people like this who have spent their careers in a particular field over fear-trafficking amateur bloggers who have no experience in the field.

I'm particularly noting the conclusion that the amount of radiation expected in the northeastern Pacific from Fukushima combined with the pre-existing radiation will be equal to that which was present in the 1980's (leftover from much ealier nuclear testing but that has been declining) and it is not a threat to the environment or human health. This is consistent with what scientists have pretty much been saying all along, but it's good to get further and more concrete confirmation.

Too bad we are still all ultimately going to die (from other things) though.

Scott

John N. Smith

a

Robin M. Brown

b

William J. Williams

b

Marie Robert

b

Richard Nelson

a

and S. Bradley Moran

c

a

Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, NS, Canada B2Y 4A2;

b

Institute of Ocean Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans

Canada, Sidney, BC, Canada V8L 4B2; and

c

Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI 02882-1197

Edited by David M. Karl, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, and approved December 2, 2014 (received for review July 28, 2014)

I found this interesting, and offhand it looks like it might even be authoritative.
Dixon






This short diary summarizes an open access paper published today reporting results from a Canadian monitoring program tasked with documenting the arrival of ocean borne Fukushima contamination along the North American Pacific coast. This diary is part of an ongoing effort to communicate the best science available on the impacts of the Fukushima Dai-ichi meltdowns on the environment. High quality measurements to look for Fukushima derived radiocesium were made in seawater in the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans from 2011 to early 2014. The authors concluded that:

1. Fukushima derived radiocesium was first detected 1500 km west of British Columbia Canada in June 2012

2. Contamination was detected on the continental shelf (near coastal waters) in June 2013

3. By February 2014 Fukushima radiocesium was present at levels similar to preexisting weapons testing derived 137-Cs

4. The timing of the arrival and levels of radiocesium in the contaminated plume are in reasonable agreement with existing ocean circulation model predictions

5. These same models predict that total radiocesium levels from weapons testing fallout and Fukushima will likely reach maximum values of ~3-5 Becquerel per cubic meter (Bq m-3 of seawater in 2015-2016 and then decline to fallout background level of ~1 Bq m-3 by 2021

6. Fukushima will increase northeastern Pacific water to levels last seen in the 1980's but does not represent a threat to environmental or human health

[The rest of the article can be found at the link below]

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/...Coastal-Waters

[podfish]

.. why start a new thread? anyway:

yet more radiation threats from the ocean. We're gonna get Gojira yet!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ioactive-waste