Saturday, October 27, 2012

Ocean Imperiled



WARNINGS ARE ESCALATING ABOUT FUKUSHIMA CONTAMINATION OF THE OCEAN

Cesium levels in fish off Fukushima not dropping. Aashi Shimbun. Oct 26, 2012

[Excerpted] "The (radioactivity) numbers aren't going down. Oceans usually cause the concentrations to decrease if the spigot is turned off," Buesseler told The Associated Press in an interview. 

"There has to be somewhere they're picking up the cesium."

"Option one is the seafloor is the source of the continued contamination. The other source could be the reactors themselves," he said.

…Hideo Yamazaki, a marine biologist at Kinki University, agrees with Buesseler's theory that the cesium is leaking from the Fukushima nuclear plant and that it will contaminate seafood for more than a decade.

He said he believes the plant will continue to leak until cracks and other damage to the three reactors that melted down are repaired. It's unclear when that work will be completed, or even how, because radiation levels in the reactors are too high for humans or even robots.

"The current levels of contamination in the fish and seafood from the Fukushima coast will continue for a while, perhaps more than 10 years, judging from the progress in the cleanup process," Yamazaki said in an email.

AP Interview: Japan nuke plant water worries rise By MARI YAMAGUCHI | Associated Press – Thu, Oct 25, 2012 http://news.yahoo.com/ap-interview-japan-nuke-plant-water-worries-rise-064339732.html

[Excerpted] Goto, the nuclear engineer, believes it will take far longer than TEPCO's goal of two years to repair all the holes in the reactors. The plant also would have to deal with contaminated water until all the melted fuel and other debris is removed from the reactor — a process that will easily take more than a decade.
He said TEPCO's roadmap for dealing with the problem is "wishful thinking." 

"The longer it takes, the more contaminated water they get," he said.

 

Japan Struggling to Store Radioactive Water By Al Jazeera 25 October 12  http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/10/2012102510561941251.html

[Excerpted] Masashi Goto, nuclear engineer and college lecturer, said the contaminated water build-up posed a big, long-term health and environmental threat.

He worried that the radioactive water in the basements may already be getting into the underground water system, where it could reach far beyond the plant via underground water channels, possibly in the ocean or public water supplies.

"There are pools of some 10,000 or 20,000 tonnes of contaminated water in each plant, and there are many of these, and to bring all these to one place would mean you would have to treat hundreds of thousands of tons of contaminated water which is mind-blowing in itself," Goto said.

"It's an outrageous amount, truly outrageous" Goto added.

The plant also would have to deal with contaminated water until all the melted fuel and other debris is removed from the reactor, a process that will easily take more than a decade....


Enenews: Top Scientific Journal: Fukushima still leaking radioactive contaminants into sea — Unprecedented events for ocean and society from 3/11 disaster http://enenews.com/top-scientific-journal-fukushima-daiichi-plants-continue-to-leak-radioactive-contaminants-into-the-ocean/comment-page-1#comment-298754


Comment from CATACLYSMIC AT ENEWS

Majia, more for you.. current measurements, bq/kg of fish by Japanese Fishery Agency. http://www.jfa.maff.go.jp/e/inspection/index.html

and.. from over a year ago, concentrations doubling every 30 days in fish off of San Diego.
entire article here: http://www.pnas.org/content/109/24/9483.full.pdf+html?with-ds=yes

Just the supporting docs here, that show the numbers:
http://www.pnas.org/content/suppl/2012/05/23/1204859109.DCSupplemental/pnas.201204859SI.pdf

Buesseler's other (earlier) article/research is here.. and be sure to notice at the end of the Buesseler article all of the parties..US department of State etc.. whereas the other article does not seem to have governments involved. hmmm
http://www.pnas.org/content/109/16/5984.full.pdf+html?sid=6398128f-cef7-43e7-aff0-5f81bd7c6fd8

 
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