Pacific Ocean radiation back near normal after Fukushima: study

Radiation levels across the Pacific Ocean are rapidly returning to normal five years after a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant spewed gases and liquids into the sea, a study showed Monday.

Japan shut down dozens of reactors after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake-generated tsunami on March 11, 2011 triggered one of the largest ever dumps of nuclear material into the world’s oceans.

In the days following the quake and explosions at Fukushima, seawater meant to cool the nuclear reactors instead carried radioactive elements back into the Pacific, with currents dispersing it widely.

LINK

It's nice to have unequivocally good news concerning the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. I'm still not eating fish anymore. Bioaccumulation of radiation is happening in the Pacific Ocean regardless what the overall levels of radiation are. Since it's often impossible to know with certainty where the fish you may eat is coming from, I believe fish can no longer be consumed at all.

Bioaccumulation of radiation in an ocean is a very simple process. In the Pacific Ocean, fish are contaminated in the coastal waters off Fukushima, and they swim to other places in the Pacific Ocean. When they're eaten, bioaccumulation spreads throughout the food chain.

a reply to: Profusion

"Rapidly returning to normal"

Yeah, right. Only another 38,000 years and life will return to the North Pacific.

originally posted by: Ericthedoubter
a reply to: Profusion

"Rapidly returning to normal"

Yeah, right. Only another 38,000 years and life will return to the North Pacific.

Was watching a show on Discovery this week (shark week) about Bikini atoll. While it isn't 100% recovered yet, it is close, and the underwater environment seems healthy.

23 nukes there and it has been less than 60 years since the last one.

The earth fixes itself (but, yes, it takes time).

Edited: I read up on the changes to the EPA's PAGs related to radiation, and stand corrected.

No, no, no. We were all supposed to DIE from this. The West Coast was supposed to be toast by now. This was supposed to wipe out all life on the planet. Good Lord, why won't Nibiru show up when we want it to? I'm so disappointed.

LIES! My vegetables are all mutated again this year:

It's been barely or not even detectable in most of the Pacific for years now. I don't know how people can look into this and come to any other conclusion except that this is globally a non-issue.

a reply to: daryllyn

I don't know that I trust this, being that regulatory agencies loosened their standards regarding what's "safe", radiation wise, in the wake of the disaster.

False.
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

One of the article comments from a reader-

The solution to pollution is dilution

LOL !

What a state sponsored load of bull you know what that story is!

Who says the leak is freaking contained? It's not!

a reply to: Phage

I read up on it.

Thanks.

I wouldn't ever say the Fukushima disaster was any less than just that, a disaster. But, of course, the majority of the public doesn't have a terribly accurate understanding of radiation and radioactive elements. They hear "radiation", they think "doom".

a reply to: pfishy

They hear "radiation", they think "doom".

Yes. The internet is a very good thing. Right?

a reply to: Phage

That's a trick question, and I'm not answering it. Last time I responded to a question that loaded, I ended up with a timeshare in Soweto

Wouldn't heavy elements tend to sink and become entrapped in the sea floor?

I have a feeling that various studies took a static model of dilution, not factoring in any dynamic effects of settling and entrapment/containment from the ecosphere.

a reply to: Profusion

after they banned dumping barrels of nuclear waste in the sea, France came up with a solution to that "problem"
.
let's make a pipeline and
pump instead of dump the waste into the sea.

so what is "normal" with these fake tests?

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: pfishy

They hear "radiation", they think "doom".

Yes. The internet is a very good thing. Right?

We should ban the internet, and then all the dopes will be out of our way. yarrr...

Down with the internet. Maybe we should nuke it.

-- eta, but then, what about all that radiation??

why is everyone always worked up about nuclear disasters? My God, if they can be a non issue after just a few years, you'd think folks would stop whining about it. Perhaps flushing out Chernobyl with some sea water would fix that area.

//sarcasm off//

a reply to: TheBwaap

ah - so if the tests dont give you the result you want they are " fake " - go it

originally posted by: Profusion

Radiation levels across the Pacific Ocean are rapidly returning to normal five years after a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant spewed gases and liquids into the sea, a study showed Monday.

Japan shut down dozens of reactors after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake-generated tsunami on March 11, 2011 triggered one of the largest ever dumps of nuclear material into the world’s oceans.

In the days following the quake and explosions at Fukushima, seawater meant to cool the nuclear reactors instead carried radioactive elements back into the Pacific, with currents dispersing it widely.

LINK

It's nice to have unequivocally good news concerning the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. I'm still not eating fish anymore. Bioaccumulation of radiation is happening in the Pacific Ocean regardless what the overall levels of radiation are. Since it's often impossible to know with certainty where the fish you may eat is coming from, I believe fish can no longer be consumed at all.

Bioaccumulation of radiation in an ocean is a very simple process. In the Pacific Ocean, fish are contaminated in the coastal waters off Fukushima, and they swim to other places in the Pacific Ocean. When they're eaten, bioaccumulation spreads throughout the food chain.

hate to break it to ya but its not how nuclear half life works lol. also they dumping like 300 tons of radioactive water a day into the pacific ocean so there is no way its back to normal. its disinformation who ever wrote this. if you look at the noaa site the radiation is actually spreading into the atlantic now lol. its only normal if you classify cesium 152 as an essential mineral now lol.

originally posted by: FlyingFox
Wouldn't heavy elements tend to sink and become entrapped in the sea floor?

I have a feeling that various studies took a static model of dilution, not factoring in any dynamic effects of settling and entrapment/containment from the ecosphere.

Did you read the article? It does in fact mention the seafloor near the disaster site being "highly contaminated", from the OP link:

But the study also found that the seafloor and harbour near the Fukushima plant were still highly contaminated in the wake of the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

How rapidly the seafloor contamination levels fall at greater distances, I don't know because I've seen only information about water samples checked. The sea floor is deep in places so not easy to check, and even the water testing is expensive. But I'll bet if the sea floor off the Southern coast of Alaska was checked (has it been?), there will be some evidence of the Fukushima radiation found, because the the Kuroshio Current passes right by the Fukushima disaster site before heading toward Alaska, and helps that part of Alaska have milder weather.

Even so, we really nuked the Pacific ocean a lot and it got quite contaminated with radioactive cesium in the 1960s, so current tests for cesium have to consider how much was leftover from the old nuke tests, of which there was a fair amount before the Fukushima disaster even happened.