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Radiation Will Pollute the Area Around Chernobyl For 5 to 10 Times Longer Than Models Predicted - Between 180 and 320 Years
The radioactive half life of cesium 137 is usually 30 years.
But scientists at the Savannah River National Laboratory say that the cesium at Chernobyl will persist in the environment between 5 and 10 times longer - between 180 and 320 years.
As Wired notes:
Cesium 137’s half-life — the time it takes for half of a given amount of material to decay — is 30 years. In addition to that, cesium-137’s total ecological half-life — the time for half the cesium to disappear from the local environment through processes such as migration, weathering, and removal by organisms is also typically 30 years or less, but the amount of cesium in soil near Chernobyl isn’t decreasing nearly that fast. And scientists don’t know why.
It stands to reason that at some point the Ukrainian government would like to be able to use that land again, but the scientists have calculated that what they call cesium’s “ecological half-life” — the time for half the cesium to disappear from the local environment — is between 180 and 320 years.
“Normally you’d say that every 30 years, it’s half as bad as it was. But it’s not,” said Tim Jannik, nuclear scientist at Savannah River National Laboratory and a collaborator on the work. “It’s going to be longer before they repopulate the area.”
The news may not bode well for Fukushima, although the reasons for the longevity of radioactive particles at Chernobyl is still a mystery.
Of course, some radioactive elements emitted by nuclear accidents - such as plutonium - can cause harm for thousands of years. As I noted in March:
Plutonium stays radioactive for a long time. Pu-238 has an 88-year half-life, Pu-239 has a 24,000-year half-life, and Pu-240 has a 6,500-year half life.
***
Plutonium from Chernobyl has been discovered in Sweden and Poland.
So plutonium might be heavier than other radioactive materials, but it is not so heavy that it can't travel hundreds of miles in the right circumstances.
But cesium is much lighter, and can travel much further. And Chernobyl and Fukushima put out much higher quantities of cesium than plutonium (even with the explosions at Fukushima, which spewed plutonium over the surrounding area)
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The radioactive half life of cesium 137 is 30 years
-it means that in 30 years the radiation level will be half of the current.
-so you have to wait for around 10 half-lifes for the radiation level to be non significant comparatively to the radiation level at t=0.
The Japanese people are being hoodwinked by their government, the same as we are being by ours, and the Ukrainians were by theirs. I am tired of the masters of propaganda. The truth needs to be exposed.
You can read the scientific paper that Wired article was based on. It's even worse. It's not up to 320 years but could be up to 420 years.
http://sti.srs.gov/fulltext/SRNL-STI-2009-00770.pdf
I told my family not buy any food made in Japan (no more sushi) - this is obvious. I also told them not to buy any food made down the wind - US, Canada and Mexico.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip4aMIXHd5s&feature=player_embedded
Sign The Petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/evacuate_fukushima/
There's always the sun......
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/08/23/teleconnected-solar-flares-to-eart...
There's always the sun......
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/08/23/teleconnected-solar-flares-to-eart...
Vice Guide: Chernobyl Episode... http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/the-radioactive-beasts-of-chernobyl
Please... Do not be deceived.
The situation in Fukushima is just getting started. Any notion of this mess being cleaned up in the next few decades is seriously mistaken.
The melted cores of at least two of the reactors are believed to have breached both the pressure vessel AND containment vessel.
#4 has a cooling pool filled with MOX fuel. The foundation of the structure is weak. The structure is visibly leaning. Supports added beneath the pool.
Tremendous amounts of water are being pumped directly into the failed reactors in an attempt to speed the cooling of the molten cores. All of this water is now highly radioactive.
Filtering systems are being designed on the fly to try and treat the water. These are performing far less effectively than desired, when they work art all. A bigger problem also comes in safely handling the now highly radioactive filters.
Nearly every segment of the Japanese food chain is being impacted. Dangerously high levels of radiation are being found in rice, vegetables, mushrooms, tea, nearly all dairy products, drinking water, fish, seaweed, etc.. Oh, almost forgot. The rice hay being used to feed the cattle... also highly radioactive. Radioactive beef is reportedly wide spread throughout the country.
This is just a start of the problems Japan and the rest of the world are facing. The human toll, over time, should be tragic. Look for problems to start appearing around Oct-Dec, when the first full or near full term babies start showing up since the accident. As radiation has the greatest impact on DNA during cellular division (which is raging along during the gestation process and well into ones growth), it is highly likely you will being seeing an increased incidence of deformaties, chilhood cancers and any number of health issues.
A rough explanation, but honestly representative of what is before us.
Keep in mind that GE designed these reactors.
If you are wondering why this has dropped completely off the radar of the MSM, at least part of the explanation could reside in GE's list of media holdings.
Television networks: NBC Networks, Telemundo, Ion Media (partial stake).
Cable: NBC Entertainment, NBC News, NBC Sports, NBC Television, NBC Universal, CNBC, CNBC World (Arabia, India, Asia, Europe), MSNBC, Bravo, SyFy Channel, Telemundo, USA, Oxygen, Weather Plus, Mun2, Sleuth, Chiller, Universal HD, A&E Networks (16%; includes A&E, the History Channel, History en español, the Biography Channel, Military History Channel, Crime & Investigation Network, A&E HD, the History Channel HD, History International), the Weather Channel (partial), SyFy Channel HD.
Production and distribution companies: NBC Universal Television Distribution, Universal Media Studios
26 television stations, owned under the “NBC Universal” division. These include NBC affiliates, 46 stations, Telemundo affiliates, and a small number of independents.
International Channels: 13eme Rue (France), 13th Street (Germany), Studio Universal (Germany), Sci-fi Channel (Germany), Calle 13 (Spain), Sci Fi Channel UK, Movies 24 (UK), DivaTV (UK), Studio Universal (Italy), Universal Channel (Latin America), CNBC Asia, CNBC Europe, 18 Hallmark Channels (worldwide), KidsCo (worldwide, partial).
Programming: NBC Network News, NBC Universal Global Networks, NBC Universal International Channels, The Today Show, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, Dateline NBC, Meet the Press, Early Today, CNBC, Squawk Box, Mad Money, CNBC World, CNBC Arabia, CNBC-India TV-18, Hardball with Chris Matthews, the Rita Cosby Specials Unit, Morning Joe, Mun2, Sleuth, A&E [partial], the History Channel [partial], the Biography Channel (partial), ShopNBC (27%).
As for Tv stations, maybe the leftist (in theory) "TeleSur", (wanted and sponsored by Hugo himself), could be an alternative. By the way, it's already been labelled as the "enemy" by the US Broadcasting Board of Governors and some Congressmen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeleSUR
Live-TV (but just in Spanish and Portuguese): http://www.telesurtv.net/secciones/canal/senalenvivo.php
Ukraine has the sexiest women... maybe time to go long Japanese women
Chernobyl was not an accident....just an experiment to prepare the way for the war to come:
http://spiritoftruth.org/chernobyl.htm
http://thespiritoftruth.blogspot.com/2009/05/russias-secret-war-plans.html
There is a possible explanation:
Radioactive cesium gets added from a source. As all_in pointed out, the half-life of a radioactive element is constant. The unpleasant conclusion is that the rests of the reactor are not well enclosed and some more radioactive process is going on and adding new cesium to the environment.
Good point.
It could also be that maybe our belief in constant decay rates of radioactive isotopes is mistaken (i.e., holds only under laboratory/ideal conditions).
http://vimeo.com/28014740
i would wish the japanese government get serious and put the major fix on this fukushima problem. one thing is for sure. the cost in human capital will be high as anyone working on this will die, of course....goes without saying...
It is sad that a lot of people will end up getting sick in the long run because some people in power wanted to save face or something. Did Tepco and the Japanese government think there was no honor in admitting things were really, really bad? How about there being no honor in lying to your own people. Thousands of Japanese have been unnecessarily exposed to high levels of radiation. Shameful. On a brighter thought, now might be a good time to invest in what little real estate is left on Okinawa!
The Japanese people, all the way up to the Emperor, but excluding the top brass in the military, thought that they would win the war all the way up until Okinawa. Some of them still felt they would win the war even until the bombing of Hiroshima. Never, ever underestimate the power of self-deception in both individuals and society. Japan has not learned this lesson and neither has the US. But we will be reminded again. And again. And again.
I agree. You can call a fat girl skinny and she'll believe you because it makes her feel good. But she is still fat. We tell ourselves as individual people and as nations that everything is well even though we're screwed. Maybe if we stay positive things will turn out positive. Too bad history says otherwise.
Major stories most under-reported by the MSM in the past week:
1) Japan is toast with radiation
2) Bachman didn't win anything
3) SNB midnight shuttle of $$$ is a flashing red light
4) Chavez and $1900 are related
5) Libya's a staging ground, not a victory circle
'nuff said
the only reason anyone listens to bachmann or palin is that they are babes. if they were not babes , nobody would pay much attention to those idiots, but the horndogs like the easy on the eyes female politicians....
Sorry, I can give you Palin with the whole MILF thing but Bachmann reminds me of Johnny Depp in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. CRAZY!!!
LOL! Loads of the kenyan hope voters and arse *****rs are still here.
Friend of mine used to say wars are for teaching kids where certain countries are. I think nuclear meltdowns are to help kids learn the periodic table.
Cue 200-ft earless rabbit stomping on Tokyo...
Rabbitzilla will eat your children!!! Is the killer rabbit of Caerbannog real? Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!!
www.fairewinds.com - new update from Arnie G
I read today that the levels at the plant had decreased significantly but that radiation travels like rain in a typhoon. As a result, the radiation has settled very unevenly across the landscape and for a distance of up to 250 kilometers you may find yourself in low radiation location when 5 meters to either side of you the tested level can exceed 400 bcqs where 20 becqs is the annual exposure limit considered safe.
Meanwhile, they continue to promote the weeks old news that the testing of rice from a location 90 miles south of the plant (basically west of Tokyo, where concerns of contamination had never exisited) had detected only 52 becqs declaring that all is fine without testing anything farther North until the end of the growing season.
I'm confused - aren't usually numbers of around 250,000 years mentioned, until certain Plutonium (or was it Uranium) isotopes have decayed mostly?
A Half-life of 25,000 years means that only HALF of the Pu 239 has decayed. It'll be another 25,000 years for half of the half that's still radioactive to decay, etc. So, 10 * 25,000 = 250,000 years BEFORE most of the PU-239 is gone!
But how come the radiation pollution will be (mostly) gone after 180 to 320 years from now, according to the headline?
Nagasaki and Hiroshima along with the big pacific tests show us otherwise. In time, that too will be gone.
I'm not too far from being an idiot, and definitely not a nuclear scientist, but it seems to me that a sudden explosion and subsequent and immediate fallout would not be as bad as a prolonged leaking of radioactive particles. You can get an x-ray of a broken foot and you will be fine. You wouldn't want to have one done 24 hours, 7 days a week.
The radioactive material in a nuclear bomb is measured in pounds. In comparison there are many many tons of radioactive fuel at Fukushima.
"The radioactive half life of cesium 137 is usually 30 years."
"Usually" is not the word to describe half-life of an isotope-its a physical constant as in having a single value independent of temp., pressure and so on.
When using radioisotopes in the lab setting you have to store your waste for 10 half-lives (300 years for Cs 137) to be considered non-radioactive.
Australia's 60 minutes did an expose of Fukushima, they said the whole Earth was being radiated and upspeakable consequences will be felt around the world. It is much worst than Chernobyl
http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.com/2011/08/australia-60-minutes-f...
Yeh, but by the time the radiation would have killed us all the crashing market and climate catastrophe is going to have done us in already
what ya gonna do eh?
Fukushima baby
glowing in the night
please baby don't say maybe
'cause i love that you're so bright
http://thepeakoilpoet.blogspot.com/2011/08/fukashima-baby.html
oh what a sad sad species
we "gods" of planet earth
we stupid kings of overshoot
what really are we worth?
http://thepeakoilpoet.blogspot.com/2011/08/for-our-sons-and-daughters-to...
Not quite sure where the assumption of a 30 year soil half-life came from. As I understand it, CS has always been known to remain in the top few inches of soil indefinitely.
Ever heard of radioactive decay? Read a little on nuclear physics boy...
It may remain indefinitely, but the MO FO IS SUPPOSED TO DECAY FASTER THAN 180 YEARS!!!
GW. Be aware of the mechanisms involved and it should come as no surprise.
Remember that biologically, in foliage and animals, CS is taken into the organism and treated like potassium. As potassium is a principal nutrient for plant life, it will be absorbed by foliage before it has a chance to settle through the soil layers. So each summer, as grass grows, it eats up the CS, dies, returns the CS to the upper layer of soil, only to be taken up again next summer. This will only be offset by the fraction not used by plants or the plants that are eaten by animals and deposited elsewhere.
Look at some of the old civil defence manuals for farming post nuclear war and you'll see one of the first remediations is to remove the top several inches of soil, place it in a ravine, and cover it. This is exactly what the Russians did (lackadaisically) in the area as part of the cleanup after Chernobyl. Obviously it was an overwhelming task which they could not achieve.
The real concern regarding CS long term is the fraction which does migrate past the upper layers of soil downwards. This eventually ends up in the water table, where it contaminates aquifers. As I understand it, Kiev is being threatened with this exact scenario. And quite possibly, Japan's nearby big cities may face the same fate in time.
What they see around Chernobyl is that the cesium is not washing away or being scattered as fast as they thought it would be.This is the environmental half life, ie how long it would take for half the cesium to be diluted/washed away.
The nuclear half life is still 30 years....and 10 half lives brings it down to a safe level....that is 300 years.Given that it sticks around in the environment so well...it means the land is useless for a very long time!!!Which is why the scientists are so dismayed.
What really sucks is how much neptunium they recently found in Japan.It decays in just days into plutonium....with a 24,500 year half life.Really horrible news.I saw the story in various places including ex-skf's blog.
Yea, house of horrors.
Aint physics great!
Thank you George.
Your updates are of value to all af humanity.