Fukushima radiation concerns coastal communities Altogether about 30 sites, from Alaska to Baja, Calif., have been funded, said Ken Buesseler, a chemical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who put together the project, called How Radioactive is Our Ocean? It uses crowd-sourced money and volunteers to collect water samples along the Pacific Coast, then ship them to Buesseler in Massachusetts to be analyzed on an $80,000 instrument. Each sample costs $550 to $600, depending on location. I really hope everybody gets together so we can fund Woods Hole to do more of these, Adams said. Theres a big black hole where information should be. Buesseler is looking for increased levels of Cesium-137, which already is in all oceans from previous nuclear testing and accidents; and for Cesium-134, a fingerprint of Fukushima. Because of its short, two-year half-life, any Cesium-134 could only have come from the plant, he said. So far, Buesseler said, no samples have indicated that the plume has reached the West Coast. Buesseler posts results on the projects website. They show Cesium-134 and increased levels of Cesium-137 off the coast of Japan and across the ocean. We know its out there, Buesseler said. Weve seen it more than halfway across the Pacific. Northwest of Hawaii, for example, Buesseler has found Cesium-134 at concentrations as high as 3.8 becquerels per cubic meter. But to put that in context, he said, the U.S. drinking water limit is 7,400 of those units. Every additional radiation exposure causes additional risks for cancer, he said. But when the numbers are in the one to 10 range, thats a very small additional risk. Thats the range that is expected to hit our shores, with lower levels coming first. As the contamination arrives, we expect the concentrations to go up over the next two years, Buesseler said. Buesseler launched the project in frustration after discovering that federal officials werent doing any testing. The Oregon Health Authority takes quarterly samples of surf and sand at three locations, but is not looking for cesium-134, the fingerprint of radiation from Fukushima. Its most recent samples, taken May 15, detected no cesium-137. Theres a dismissive argument that well, the levels are pretty low, so why bother, Buesseler said. The counter to that is its good to confirm low numbers. You build public confidence. And we can use the data to model ocean currents for the next time. What next time? Well, Buesseler said, there are currently 1,000 tanks of radioactive water on the Fukushima site, containing the more persistent isotope strontium-90. If a major earthquake were to hit the site, that water would be released to the sea. We would see it in three years, he said. Thats reason enough to be improving our models. statesmanjournal/story/tech/science/environment/2014/06/25/fukushima-radiation-concerns-coastal-communities/11377463/ statesmanjournal/story/tech/science/environment/2014/06/25/fukushima-radiation-concerns-coastal-communities/11377463/
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 17:22:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015