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Fukushima Increased Cesium Levels 100 to 1,000 Times Worldwide ... and 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 Times On the U.S. West Coast
We noted 2 days after the Japanese earthquake that radiation from Fukushima could end up on the West Coast of North America. And see this.
We started tracking the radioactive cesium released by Fukushima within weeks of the accident.
In fact, U.S. nuclear authorities were extremely worried about the west Coast getting hit by Fukushima radiation … but publicly said it was safe.
We reported that Fukushima radiation spread worldwide.
And we’ve documented for years that the failure to test the potentially high levels of radiation hitting North America is a scandal.
Sadly, we were right to be worried …
The Journal Environmental Science & Technology – published by the American Chemical Society – reported last year that airborne levels of radioactive cesium were raised by 100 to 1,000 times (what scientists describe as two to three “orders of magnitude“):
Before the FDNPP accident, average 137Cs levels were typically of 1 ?Bq m−3 in Central Europe and lower average values (<0.3 ?Bq m−3) were characteristic of northern, western and southern Europe.
***
During the passage of contaminated air masses from Fukushima, airborne 137Cs levels were globally enhanced by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude.
Indeed, even hot particles and nuclear core fragments from Fukushima were found to have traveled all the way to Europe.
The French government radiation agency – IRSN – released a video of Fukushima cesium hitting the West Coast of North America. EneNews displays a screenshot from the IRSN video, and quantifies the extreme cesium spikes:
- Cesium-137 levels in 2010: 0.000001 mBq/m³ of Cs-137 (blue writing)
- Cesium-137 levels in Mar. 2011: 1 to 10 mBq/m³ in Western U.S. (orange plume)
- Cs-137 levels increased 1,000,000 – 10,000,000 times after Fukushima
Levels on the West Coast were up to 500 times higher than estimated. Cesium levels from Fukushima were higher than expected worldwide, including in the arctic region of Europe:
Radioactive cesium bioaccumulates in large fish and animals.
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.
And the Fukushima accident has pumped out some entirely new forms of radioactive materials … in “glassy spheres“, buckyballs, ball-like spheres, and bound to organic matter. Scientists don’t really know how long these new forms will last …
The Day Tokyo Got Blasted by Fukushima Radiation
On March 15, 2011, the winds shifted …
The Fukushima radiation which had been blowing out to sea suddenly turned and hit Tokyo:
The image is a screenshot we took from a video released by the French government radiation agency, IRSN.
As we’ve reported for over 3 years, Tokyo got nailed by radiation. For example:
We knew what happened. Now we know when …
»
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GW says:
"...
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.
And the Fukushima accident has pumped out some entirely new forms of radioactive materials … in “glassy spheres“, buckyballs, ball-like spheres, and bound to organic matter. Scientists don’t really know how long these new forms will last …
..."
This is scientifically illiterate and dead wrong: The half life of cesium 137 is ALWAYS 30 years. This is a decay rate determined by the laws of physics.
How long the area around Chernobyl will have cesium 137 above a particular level is a function of the volume of cesium and its half life, nothing more, nothing less.
A two ton pile of Cesium 137 becomes a one ton pile in 37 years. A two gram pile becomes one gram.
What happens to be in the proximity of a Cesium 137 atom, be it soil, human bone matrix, or a Honda car seat, has no effect on the Cesium atoms nucleur behaviour, it's half life is unaffected. Only the laws of physics determine half life.
If GW doesn't understand such a simple and fundamental concept in physics as the half life of a radioacdtive element, then how could he possibly understand more complicated science topics?
Caveat Emptor.
"This is scientifically illiterate and dead wrong: The half life of cesium 137 is ALWAYS 30 years. This is a decay rate determined by the laws of physics."
Its possible for the decay rate to be slightly altered. Instead of 30.08 years it might be altered to be 30.079999 years. Not enough to matter. The Sun pumps out enormous amounts of neutrinos. At any time, there are trillions of neutrinos passing through your body. Perhaps there is some very weak interaction that can slightly alter the decay rate. but not enough to have any impact.
"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 "
Thats because after 30 years only half of the Cesium decays. In 60 years about 1/4 of the amount of Cesium 137 still persists. It take a long time before only a very small amount of cesium 137 exists in a sample.
Betch didn't know this...
Stanford University News reported that solar flares change the rate of radioactive decay of elements on Earth:
I'll be damned, so THAT's where they got the idea for the mechanism behind the disaster porn called 2012
yes, very interesting stuff. read rupert sheldrake for a heretical view on physical constants if that kind of thing interests you.
Your problem GW is that you do an ADDH leap forward off what appears to you to be a safe lillypad. and you then go kerplunk into the deep end. It's not the first time you have done it here on ZH.
in this case, the variations in radioactive decay rates these scientists are attempting to measure are tiny - can't find a quote from their work - but think on the order of the decay rate being slowed down by a millionth, a billionth, a trillionth?
This slow down was observed serveral times durng x class solar flares - I am guessing there are fewer than one or two that hit the earth each year.
Lets's give you the benefit of the doubt here: One x class flare for 24 hours per year (1/365) x 1 millionth change in the decay rate durng that time - results in a really really really tiny change... as in irrelevant for the matter at hand.
The half life of Cesium remains 30 years - except for the GW subtraction of 0.0000001 years. So about 30 years, GW, not "usually 30 years".
Your two paragraphs remain incorrect and misleading for the reasons stated in my first response.
Since you have become so prolific, don't you think it is time to have your stuff reviewed before publshing?
I didn't mean the half-life will be different. I meant the "ecological half-life" - as the linked Wired story uses that term - may be more than 30 years.
In terms of review before publishing, who the heck would spend the time? I'm a busy professional for my day job.
"I didn't mean the half-life will be different. I meant the "ecological half-life" - as the linked Wired story uses that term - may be more than 30 years."
An isotope with a 30 year half-live will take a few centuries before it decays completely.
30 years 1/2 ramains
60 years 1/4 remains
90 years 1/8 remains
120 years 1/16 remains
150 year 1/32 remains
..and so on.
You need to discuss that half-life doesn't mean inert and safe after the half-live period. Isotopes with long half lives take very long periods to completely decay. The phrase "ecological half-life" is confusing and doesn't make sense.
1st time on ZH. Reading for years. Half life stuff matter? Radiation bad.
Reply to JW:
For those who search for knowledge, the more we know, the more we realize how much we will never know.
Ignorance is the predominant background state of the universe. The baseline to which all civilizations return.
If you can know only one thing, know yourself. It is your window into the world.
Except solar flare activity is way off and probably will be for some time during the grand minima we're facing. The "Google an answer for everything" method doesn't always work, does it?
If you read the quote, word-for-word, GW does not dispute the half life of 137 is 30 years. I think you read what you wanted to read so you could have a chance to spew your self proclaimed intelligence.
"...
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.
And the Fukushima accident has pumped out some entirely new forms of radioactive materials … in “glassy spheres“, buckyballs, ball-like spheres, and bound to organic matter. Scientists don’t really know how long these new forms will last …
..."
Word for word Frankie.
"usually 30 years". Usually means most of the time, not all of the time.
The second sentence has nothing to do with the first. It is a non sequitur. Starting the sentence with "But" implies that Cesium will persist 5 - 10 times longer becauuse the half life of Cesium isn'tbeing "usual".
I have an IQ of 82.000001 - there I spewed my self proclaimed intelligence.
Nature does not read Physics texts. Physics and math are attempts by Men to model the behavior of Nature. It is arrogant to think Nature must comply with our models. To the contrary, our models are tying to explain nature. Newton stated time was constant. How dare Nature disobey!
Half life calculations are mathmatical models to explain behavior. Perhaps, Nature decided to throw enough variation our way to question our model?
Cesium will persist in Nature longer than 30 years. If you have enough of it, using your own half life model.
From the Wired article (http://www.wired.com/2009/12/chernobyl-soil/):
Aha! So now the next nuclear generated monster will appear on the west coast! It's about time California had it's own Giant Behemoth (other than the state budget).
I hope they shut down and decomission those nuclear reactors on the west coast. Things can get much worse than they already are.
Yup!
Scaremonger map from French IRSN: "Athmospheric emissions" of Cs-137 near the US West Coast up to 100 mBq/m3
100 milli-Bequerel = 0.1 Bequerel = 0.1 radioactive decays per second
So 1 radioactive decay per second in 10 m3 (~100 cbft), but remember that's from Cs-137 alone. Assuming the map has some connection with reality.
Not impressed.
So don't stop there, malek. You're almost done.
How many Cs-137 atoms have to be floating around inside a cubic meter for us to observe the 100 mBq/m3 of activity? (Hint: lots) Now how many Cs-137 atoms are normally floating around naturally in a cubic meter of air? (Hint: essentially none).
So every observed atom of Cs-137 in the air is a) something that wasn't there before and b) represents an inhalation exposure that didn't exist earlier. You're going to absorb some of the Cs-137 every time you breathe.
Now if you absorb Cs-137 through inhalation (it looks like potassium to your body) it will accumulate to concentrations much higher than are found in the atmosphere. Still, it's only going to accumulate to a few Bq/kg. over your whole body after a few days. No big deal, right? But if you're breathing it, it's probably also going to show up in your food and water. But only a few Bq/kg - they can barely measure that amount. Total effect after a few days is still only going to be a few Bq/kg in your body total. Still no problem, right?
Well, no. It has a particular affinity for that big muscle in the middle of your chest cavity: your heart. About 10x as much as other tissues. Same for your endocrine system, but ignore that for now. So after a few days of breathing and only partial absorption, you're going to have 10 x (a few Bq/kg) of Cs-137 in your heart tissue. Maybe 25 Bq/kg? 50 Bq/kg? That's not much either - you need to crack a few hundred Bq/kg in your heart muscle before your EKG starts going south.
Besides, the biological half-life of Cs-137 (the time it stays in your body) is only about 70 days. Even if you did accumulate 50 Bq/kg, it would be down to 25 Bq/kg just from your body's normal turnover and elimination in ten weeks. Heck, a few months and it's like you never absorbed any.
Here's the hard part: you have to stop breathing, eating and drinking after the first week for 63 more days. If you insist on continuing on with those unhealthy activities (eating, drinking, breathing) you're body is just going to keep sucking up more and more cesium.
If you're an adult, you're heart is much more tolerant of high Cs-137 levels. You'll probably never notice a thing from 100 mBq/m3 air.
Still not impressed? Kids are not so lucky. Gomel (Chernobyl) kids who died of heart attacks were autopsied with 2500 Bq/kg of cesium in their heart tissue, or 250 Bq/kg average body levels. Doctors could detect changes in their EKGs at heart tissue levels over 100 Bq/kg or whole body load levels averaging 10 Bq/kg.
You're equating the face-melting power of direct gamma radiation from 100 mBq/m3 air. You're perfectly right - it's negligable. Even the lung-frying power from the beta particles of decaying Cs-137 isn't significant at those levels. In fact, as long as you can magically counteract the tendency of your children's bodies to bioaccumulate cesium, their heart and endocrine systems' 10x affinity for that absorbed cesium, and Cs-137s 70-day biological half-life, then there's no problem at all. It's all just scaremongering.
I actually did the calculation all the way to how many mole / grams would need to be dispersed to cover an area of 5000 km times 1000 km and 1 km high (simplification) with 0.1mBq/m3 as shown in the map, to see if the concentration is even possible from Fukushima. My calculation gave me a result of only 0.25 grams of pure Cs-137 needed, so entirely possible.
And part of that calculation is how many atoms need to be in 1 m3. As Cs-137 has a half-life of (roughly) 30 years, that are 30 x 365.25 x 24 x 60 x 60 seconds, half of it has decayed then it would need twice of 946,728,000 Cs-137 atoms today for an activity of 1 Bq/m3, or a tenth of that for 100mBq/m3. Which looks like a lot until you calculate or look up how many nitrogen and oxygen atoms are in 1 m3 atmosphere...
Where you shouldn't stop however is that "Caesium-137 reacts with water producing a water-soluble compound (caesium hydroxide)", which means most of it will get washed out of the atmosphere into the ocean by rain rather quickly. While a little may go back into the atmosphere by spindrift on stormy days or at the beaches, it's mostly going to stay in the water.
So the inhalation danger is an exaggeration.
And if you're concerned about food intake, a first step would be to raise your level of potassium consumption.
"if you absorb Cs-137 through inhalation (it looks like potassium to your body) it will accumulate to concentrations much higher than are found in the atmosphere. Still, it's only going to accumulate to a few Bq/kg."
I believe the commons sources of contamination of Cs-137 is from food and water. Caesium is water soluable, and can become concentrated in the foods we eat. Plants will absorb Caesium and have higher concentrations than the surronding enviroment.
For the time being, there probably isn't enought Cs-137 from Fukishima to affect the USA West coast, if you don't eat seafood. Japan is another story. We'll probably see a significant number of Japanese getting cancer over the next ten years. If Japan losses a spent fuel pool than the West coast has a problem (as well as the rest of the world).
FWIW: At the moment the USA West coast most significant challenge is the long term drought and the ever increasing risks of a major earthquake. Those risks are reason enough to leave the West coast region.
GW, thanks for the information. Have you attempted to interest any add'l media outlets or their associated bloggers with this?
Meet the new boss.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/johnson/article/Meet-the-bad-ant-that-s-ov...
blu:The power companies are someday going to walk away from all their nuclear plants and stored fuel ponds. Just leave them unattended to whatever fate natural and criminal awaits them. Count on it.
Bad attitude, look at the bright side of things, they'll provide us with a hundred thousand years of very high quality charcoal briquettes.
It all depends on how you look at things. Are you a meat puppet with a spirit inside or a spirit that temporarily resides in a meat puppet?
THe philosphy that says the glass is only half radioactive.
Shall I be diminished by the lack of radioactivity or heartened by its potential to increase?
The great thing about radioactivity is it kills indiscrimenately without regard to class, wealth or birth.
The wealthy corporations have found a toxic teat to suck upon. We are merely remora swimming about the monster sharks, remaining alive by their benovelence. Cleaning the bits of carnage and kills from their flesh until we are prey.
Duc888, But the 12,000 abandoned wind turbines in California are just dandy with you, right?
....like I've been sayin' for two years.
Pretty soon this is gonna get serious.
On a footnote.
Everyone dies, no on gets off this rock alive (for long).
and strangely most reincarnation occurs within a 20 mile radius, making the soul a localized phenomena, or at least bound by some localized field.
http://www.medicine.virginia.edu/clinical/departments/psychiatry/section...
Please focus on global warming and trust your politicians.
Thank you.
Yes. Exactly. The only memes to be marketed are those that reinforce faith in big government.
</sarc>
...tip of the cap to GW for keeping this surrealistic topic front and center! Trolls abound trying to discredit accurate stories that will never breach the shores of any msm teleprompter, let alone barry's pursued and stretched lips. The poor sap looks like he has been sucking on a tailpipe.
I doubt I am the only one who watch the FDNPP footage on that fateful March day when a "hydrogen explosion" blew all apart in orhtern JAPAN. That WAS THE CONTAINMENT VESSEL that sealed our doom. And sent reactor core materials worldwide. Tepco was quick to reassure all was in order. Yet all of us "felt" was truly had exploded was the myth of safe nuke power. US Gov't is in Fascist Mode because they cannot halt support of the nuke industry. They are not nimble enough to even care about true scientific studies.
I wonder if anyone has software data showing all the nuke physicists in North America and elsewhere clearing OUT of the PNW within days of Fukushima? I know for a fact that wealthy Japanese families chartered private jets to whisk them outta Tokyo and to Thailand that day of the 'Quake. Check the Flight Service Systems on that day. They got insider info to vacate, most likely from TEPCO!
Since the US Gov't has removed any nuke monitoring of the PNW region, maybe they could dissemble their own regulatory body and halt their own bloated paychecks to themselves? Certainly someone INSIDE the monster can concur with GW's due dilligence and fine homework.
We are being lied to about everything and it sucks. ZH is great because an article such as GWs brings out what other's know...a data version of "Soldier's Stone Soup." Pieces of a scattered puzzle that powers-that-be do NOT want assembled.
Any teens or 20s year olds would do well to rack up HUGE student loan debts and get into Endrocinology Studies: the US Gov't will forgive your studen loan debt---provided you supply the chops and effort. Yes, you will have about 8-10 years of schooling ahead of you. This is sadly enough, a GROWTH FIELD.
Never lose sight of this. The world will need thyroid surgery specialists of the first order. Go long levothyroxine, thyrogen and anything involving the endrocrinology system.
Isn't is a bit ironic that following a thyroidectomy, one is treated with several doses of RAI-131 (radioactive iodine 131)? I've had more than a few doses. But then the wise thyroid cancer cells adapt and refuse to fall for this trick.
Forward News Blockage, Kudos mucho to GW!
Nice post. Research apricot seeds. Watch " world without cancer" on YouTube.
The power companies are someday going to walk away from all their nuclear plants and stored fuel ponds. Just leave them unattended to whatever fate natural and criminal awaits them. Count on it.
2
Weeks Ago, a Huge Solar Flare Almost Knocked Out Power Nationwide …
Which Could Have Caused Nuclear Meltdowns from Coast-to-Coast
...Einstein did remark that the future of nuclear energy would be decided at a town hall meeting. No town hall, what a concept!
I wonder if even he could envision a nuked watseland with zombies in new, yet junker GM cars cruising about, pants down below their buttocks, covered in tats, the new Nationality as Sports Team allegiance and combs stuck in their heads.
Wait! Neal Stephenson is the author to read: begin with "Snow Crash." This is when your brain is infected via computer software code. Ebola of the brain. And Stephenson penned all this in 1989.
The HIVE's mulatto puppet authorized 9 new nuclear power plants after Fukushima blew! And withdrew the machines that measured radiation in the Pacific northwest. Food, milk, all stopped testing. Which shows .gov is DIRTY and EVIL.
And now back to Fantasy Football picks.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/08/celebrated-ferguson-capt-ron-joh...
Celebrated #Ferguson Capt. Ron Johnson Pulls Gun on Unarmed White Kids on Bikes
Skip -
Kindly produce any PROOF to verify the claim that gov't has withdrawn all radiation testing equipment from the Pacific Northwest.
As far as I am aware, gov't has merely raised the "allowable safe exposure levels" for radioactive contamination in fish, fruit and vegetables, to a level that is significantly beyond what was once considered safe. (For instance I have read that California citrus and almond crops have been most affected.)
GW
I respect what you write but this is disingenuous. The half-life of Cs137 is ALWAYS about 30 years. Trying to conflate that with environmental persistence is misleading on the grounds that after 10 half-lives just about everything has decayed and it's no longer detectable (with current technology)
BM,
I was referring to the following quote from Wired:
Wired's reporting was probably sloppy, and so you're point may be well-taken.
It doesn't matter how you stack it, whether all in a pile or dispersed around the countryside. In 30 years half of the cesium will be "gone." There must be more cesium coming up out of the ground (severe groundwater contamination???) to maintain elevated levels of radiation.
Edit: beats me why strontium would behave as expected :)
Did it occur to any of you armchair geniuses that the decay by-products, as well as remaining isotopes, of Cs137 are also highly toxic and partly radioactive? You have half the 137 after 30 years, but some other nasty stuff in its place. 300 years sounds about right.
WRONG.
Caesium-137 has a half-life of about 30.17 years.[1] About 95 percent decays by beta emission to a metastable nuclear isomer of barium: barium-137m (137mBa, Ba-137m). The remainder directly populates the ground state of barium-137, which is stable. Ba-137m has a half-life of about 153 seconds, and is responsible for all of the emissions of gamma rays in samples of caesium-137.
****
So, Ba-137m is effectively gone in a couple of hours, and Ba-137 is stable, thus no further radiation. Ba-137 isn't completely harmless, but you need an awful lot of it to make you sick. The amounts generated by Fukushima and Chernobyl are insignificant compared to the dust kicked up from ordinary mining activity.
Yes, I understand all of that, BUT anyone claiming that the ecological halflife improves the area in question ignores that the problem is merely shifted (and diluted) over a larger area debilitating more land than before.
OK in aggregate it's all for a reduced timescale from the eco half-life pov.
But they should be glad that the 137 Cs isn't being redistributed. Ukraine is a large country, the Pripyay marshes aren't the most productive of areas anyway and notwithstanding the returnees the area is transforming into something of an eco-wilderness. That isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Sure it'd be nice to fully rehab the place, the new Safe Confinement is a step in the right direction to tackle the central problem, by the time that work is done (30 yrs) there's even less 137 in place external to the old Sarcophagus.
The biggest disaster would be if the damn thing collapsed into the dust below. I digress.
So bottom line - NOT having the labile Cs migrate (probably due to muds and clays helping sequestrate it imho) is GOOD especially if it stays near the surface so that bioremediation can be attempted - say with sunflowers.
Thanks for your interesting comments.
Some mushrooms help, also.
That they do - but I had to LOL when I read that. Picking mushrooms might be labour intensive. Mechanised sunflower patches could be a good biofuel resource too. Jury is out as to whether you do Caesium sequestration with the crop or at flue gas stage.
Either crop has to be proscribed from the food chain (unlike Fukurice)
It is a criminal act to not recognize or monitor, in a professional science manner, the Fukushema radiation arriving on the Pacific west coast of our continent.
Our North American Union dictators are lying to us about the arrival of the radiation and trying to cover it up. Being blind stupid is not the method to approach a science problem, it's an irresponsible, treasonous criminal act.
The west coast marine die off is real.
Here is a link to a recent report from a professional diver Dana Darnford that has documented the massive die off on the west coast of British Columbia.
Jeff Rense & Dana Durnford - Our Legacy...A Dead Pacific Ocean
There can be no delineation between the fate of the ocean and the fate of mankind.
Well, I spend a lot of time on the water and see oodles of life. In fact, we're in the midst of the best salmon run in a century despite all the alarmist calls last year about "global warming" and more recent "green" alarmism over the breach of the Polley Mine tailings pond. Anyway:
Scientist wants samples from islanders for testing for radioactivity (7-Jan)
You don't actually eat fish out of the Pacific do you?