Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Is Nuclear Waste Contributing to Warming Oceans?


Enenews has posted a map plotting location of radioactive water off of North American coast.
http://enenews.com/unpublished-govt-map-shows-massive-plume-fukushima-radioactive-material-west-coast-north-america-radiation-levels-quadrupled-recent-months-scientist-starting-penetration-cesium-offshore-coast-video
The cesium-137 level is "low," reportedly peaking at 5 becquerels per meter3, but where there is cesium there is likely to be other radionuclide, such as strontium-90s.

5 becquerels per meter3 of cesium-137 is about 5 times more cesium than existed prior to Fukushima.

Is the warm water "blob" merely a euphemism for water warmed by radioactive decay?

Unfortunately its not clear whether the water measuring such elevated cesium is warmer than surrounding, less contaminated water.

Regardless, warm water in the Pacific is a growing scourge that is destroying eco-systems and poses risks to agriculture:
Lucy Craymer, "El Nino Fears Heat Up Agriculture Futures" The Wall Street Journal, October 13, 2015. C4. 

[excerpted] The El Nino weather phenomenon is staring to push up prices for agricultural commodities as its impact spreads through key crop-growing regions in Asia and beyond. Government forecasters in the US and Australia have in rcent weeks warned that El Nino could be severest in nearly two decades. Last week the Japan Meteorological Agency said surface temperatures in the Pacific are "remarkably above normal" and warnd temperatures could even reach their highest level since 1950.

Majia here: Ocean temperatures have been rising steadily since 1950 and the beginning of atmospheric testing with Operation Sandstone in 1948:
Dan Vergano, Ocean Warming Faster Now Than in 10,000 Years," National Geographic, November 1 2013, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131031-climate-ocean-temperatures-years/

Pacific Ocean waters warmed 15 times faster in the last six decades than they did over the last ten millennia.

3 comments:

  1. While his political and social views are one thing, I believe his climatology is accurate: Real Science -- https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/
    In which case it looks very much as if hidden interests have taken over weather and climate studies. As a result I now do not trust any "scientific" reports on those matters. I guess we have seen science corrupted in many areas this past century and now. For example there was some years back a retired Cambridge physics professor saying that radiation was even good for people -- a stimulant! And mainstream medical science is frightening with its dependence on the pharmaceuticals. Mandatory vaccinations -- what about "To be secure in one's person . . . " I might prefer some time in jail to an unwanted needle jab injecting only God knows what into my body. I am grateful my four children are now all adults. But science as Power and Wealth was always bound to be taken over and corrupted. A great shame.

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  2. Are radiosotope wastes of cesium creating the warm blog in the ocean? what of all the other wastes? The blob is full pf radioactive cesium. Radioactive Cesium, Thorium, and iridium, and cobalt have been used in RTG generators. So the answer is yes, concentrated radioisotope blobs in the pacific are creating heat through decay. Diagram of an RTG used on the Cassini probe
    A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG) is an electrical generator that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material into electricity by the Seebeck effect. An RTG has no moving parts.

    RTGs have been used as power sources in satellites, space probes, and unmanned remote facilities such as a series of lighthouses built by the former Soviet Union inside the Arctic Circle. RTGs are usually the most desirable power source for unmaintained situations that need a few hundred watts (or less) of power for durations too long for fuel cells, batteries, or generators to provide economically, and in places where solar cells are not practical. Safe use of RTGs requires containment of the radioisotopes long after the productive life of the unit.

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