Published: February 21st, 2012 at 5:11 pm ET
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Title: Radiation detected 400 miles off Japanese coast
Source: Associated Press
Author: BRIAN SKOLOFF and MALCOLM RITTER
Date: Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Radioactive contamination from the Fukushima power plant disaster has been detected as far as almost 400 miles off Japan in the Pacific Ocean, with water showing readings of up to 1,000 times more than prior levels, scientists reported Tuesday.
“We’re not over the hump” yet in terms of radioactive contamination of the ocean because of continued leakage from the plant, [Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts] said in an interview before Tuesday’s talk. [...]
The ship sampled water from about 20 miles to about 400 miles off the coast east of the Fukushima plant. Concentrations of cesium-137 throughout that range were 10 to 1,000 times normal [...]
The highest readings last June were not always from locations closest to the Fukushima plant, Buesseler said. That’s because swirling ocean currents formed concentrations [...]
The water’s cesium-137 concentration has been so diluted that just 20 miles offshore, “if it was not seawater, you could drink it without any problems.” -International Atomic Energy Agency’s Hartmut Nies
Read the report here
Published: February 21st, 2012 at 5:11 pm ET
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sending...
We are definitely not over 'the hump'. We are over a barrel.
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Hi milk and cheese
We are not just over in a barrel, we are also slowly sinking.
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So like, when people gonna realize that "I accidentally the whole Japan" by TEPCO?
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Once everyone accepts that Fukushima took an arrow to the knee.
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Somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the total radiation that will be released has been so far.
The rest is coming. We are still in warm up stage for this disaster.
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A disaster that will last thousands of years polluting our soil, water, and bodies.
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Contamination detected in the Jet Stream since March…levels on a steady upward slope according to Radnet graphs (except for heavily fallout coated places like Idaho where the CPMs are wild and extreme…
Corruption detected in the hearts and minds of members of all nuke "Police" IAEA, NRC, even small utility cos. StiLl beat the broken drum of nuclear waste our planet becomes…
Just read comment that the fuel rods from SFP 4 are strewn atop the MOX fuel core of meltthrough 3,,,
Am studying fission products to understand yield percentages better…so many radioisotopes that aren't even talked about…Shortlived, meaning less than 3 generations of dogs (30 yrs??) However Gamma so the damage is done quick
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The time is long past where people are going to accept any pro-nuclear agency's word for anything.
Perhaps they would like to go on a scuba diving expedition in those swirling currents to 'prove' their point.
For a year. Sans scuba gear.
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Some independent scientist reported on Naturalnews.com
that seals where dying off the coast of Alaska, because
of the radiation exposure from this man-mad disaster.
Its gone even across the entire Pacific Ocean.
http://www.naturalnews.com/034948_Fukushima_radiation_arctic_mammals.html
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Hi Alice. I've been spending a lot of time on IAEA's many glossy sites lately. They will say anything, it seems, completely without shame, and I imagine most people don't doubt them – the sites have lots of pretty pictures.
Here's one example, from IAEA's Asian Nuclear Safety Network (sic):
"The safety of a nuclear power plant is ensured by means of its proper siting, design, construction and commissioning, followed by the proper management and operation of the plant. In a later phase, proper decommissioning is required."
http://nucleus.iaea.org/sso/NUCLEUS.html?exturl=http://www.ansn.org/default.aspx
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Hi there, aigeezer.
They can paint lipstick on their reactors all they want but I'd rather watch grass grow.
It makes me sad to know that I can't even see anything without thinking about how radiation is going to affect it.
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if its safe they should bottle it up and drink it at there next meeting.
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Yeah and we want to watch everything from start to finish via web cam.
Oh, add an independent watchdog group to oversee that no one cheats and tries to enlist their hired help to smuggle in filtered water from their kitchen.
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more lies about "Nuclear power? yes please".
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they haavent done tests yet for any other isotopes apart from cs134 and ca 137 (as recomended byt the IAEA).. he only got 15 minutes!!!
"This presentation will provide an overview of these successful sampling activities and our plans for analyses of a wide range of radionuclides. For this talk we will focus on the cesium-137 and cesium-134 surface distributions and vertical profiles obtained during this cruise."
thought this interesting too
"…However, some of the drifters stayed in the coastal region suggesting that some contaminated water may recirculate in this area before being washed off-shore. The absence of drifter crossings across the Kuroshio Extension core suggests that it inhibits the southward spreading of contaminated water, at least over the western Pacific ocean."
and this
"With 5-m grid resolution around the facility, model results suggest that the breakwaters (designed to protect harbor in front of the facility from offshore waves) tended to guide the tsunami waves around the breakwaters and intensify flooding along the coast just to the north and south of the facility."
http://www.tos.org/osm2012_media/session088.html
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""This is good news," he said, adding that scientists expect levels to continue to decrease over time.
"We still don't have a full picture," Nies said, "but we can expect the situation will not become worse.""
from the article
??
very reassuring!!
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Dont expect the problem to get worse? They dont even know where the corum is inside or outside the containment, but any breach would mean their cooling water is going into the environment and ocean that is about as contaminated as it gets. Until all waste is covered, spent fuel pools are emptied (not like the one that exploded at reactor 3) and all the melted cores from all 6 reactors will it not get any worse, until then the poisoning of Japan and the Pacific Ocean and the west coast will continue. Also fish are like water filters so the contamination will concentrate in them and work it way up the food chain, welcome to glow in the dark sushi.
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Do they think anyone is listening to this crap? I'd like to understand how water dilutes radiation so it's no longer a problem? Water isn't a solvent for radiation right….so just how does that work? Isn't even the tiny particles harmful?
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Yes MM, the tiny particles are still very harmful.
As for the water "diluting" the radiation, that is a matter of semantics.
That a certain amount of radioactive material gets
spread out in a specific volume of water simply reduces the concentration.
The problem is simply spread out over a large volume, hence, the chances of ingesting any of the particles is lower than when they were concentrated (like as when they left Fuku)
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we the Indigo children will use the force to help save the world. The force is with us. we will stop the death star[nuclear crap] from destroying the MOTHER EARTH. The time is now.
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The msm echo chamber are doing their thing with the story:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2107353,00.html
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/japan/120221/radiation-japans-fukushima-power-plant-found-400-mil
I noticed also that the IAEA spokesperson Hartmut Nies had published in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity – not surprising in his line of work. I was curious about the journal though, and noticed that its editorial board is heavily laced with IAEA people. Again, not surprising at some level, but I think it illustrates the familiar problem of practitioners/academics/regulators all "drinking from the same bottle" (whether or not it is sea water).
http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-environmental-radioactivity/editorial-board/
For example, the editor-in-chief of the journal, S.C. Sheppard, is listed on the masthead as from Pinawa, Manitoba, Canada. According to Wikipedia, Pinawa (population 1500) was centered around the largest organically cooled, heavy water moderated, nuclear reactor in the world, the WR-1…. Also… AECL built and partly commissioned a SLOWPOKE reactor (SDR), to demonstrate the Slowpoke Energy System, an in-ground pool reactor designed to supply 10,000 kW of hot water for district heating. The project was terminated after market interest in a nuclear heating system dwindled."
These reactors are being decommissioned in recent years and the town is diversifying into other projects including "environmental science firms".
Enenews readers may appreciate these ironical snippets: "Pinawa was chosen as the site for the research station due to the seismic stability of the area." and "The town is situated… within the western boundary of Whiteshell Provincial Park"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinawa,_Manitoba
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I forgot to mention that Hartmut Nies gave an "expert presentation" as far back as May, 2011 titled "Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant's Impact on the Marine Environment".
Sorry about the long link. It appears to be necessary. Please look at it if you can:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:vJZ2PEdwpHQJ:www.gesamp.org/data/gesamp/files/media/GESAMP_38/gallery_1735/object_1927_large.doc+Hartmut+Nies&hl=en&gl=ca&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiApNTFOaWayIshhEoZDCu6mY40kDVm0nMpoy0sg20GMpd7WEBnlo8OTSEOuwTfdvnJPCrYGMoLX2JcbUt6P3gqc3RFlsweCVnL1gnlkWjuVhOt63wE3H61-ixPkJWbHNTq5kWx&sig=AHIEtbQq23Z4BOLZNeg1V2XI8vAiy8GkGg&pli=1
One of his co-presenters spoke about Fukushima radioactivity in the Northern Mediterranean (in May, 2011).
I don't recall seeing anything about these presentations at the time.
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James2 typed this pixel projection:
>Somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the total radiation that will be released has been so far.
SP: Maybe… I would guess less… 15 to 20% may have left the plant by air or by water. Impossible to judge at this point, but it's a huge release… 5 to 10 times more total emissions than Chernobyl. Fukushima is off the scale for nuclear disasters… I don't know if an 8 (not yet invented) would suffice.
There were pre-311 over 1.7 million spent fuel rods in the ponds and 176,000 fissile rods:
http://enenews.com/wapo-surprise-reactors-melted-down-tepco-conveniently-left-part-story-people-situation
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MSM
news.yahoo.com/radiation-detected-Radiation detected 400 miles off Japanese coast
By BRIAN SKOLOFF and MALCOLM RITTER | Associated Press – 6 hrs ago
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Radioactive contamination from the Fukushima power plant disaster has been detected as far as almost 400 miles off Japan in the Pacific Ocean, with water showing readings of up to 1,000 times more than prior levels, scientists reported Tuesday.
But those results for the substance cesium-137 are far below the levels that are generally considered harmful, either to marine animals or people who eat seafood, said Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in …
http://news.yahoo.com/radiation-detected-400-miles-off-japanese-coast-195135164.html
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Hey aigeezer.. tried the link and got a bad error.. is there another?
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Thanks, Cataclysmic. I'm getting that error now also. I tested it carefully after posting though. Hmmn – it might be a timeout thing.
I'll try to get at the document another way and let you know.
Tease: The document struck me as very important. It was the agenda for a scientific/academic "expert" conference with many reports purporting to give the latest news about the effects of the Fukushima disaster on the ocean. This was in May, 2011, when the public was being reassured that there was nothing to worry about.
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Cataclysmic, I've found it again in the form of a Word document. Here's the main page, copied and pasted:
38th session
GESAMP 38/9
4 May 2011
ENGLISH ONLY
WORKSHOP ON “RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION OF THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR ACCIDENT”
Draft agenda for the Workshop
Thursday, 12 May 2011, 9.00 am
1 Opening by the moderator of the Workshop Dr. Hartmut NIES, Laboratory Head, Radiometrics Laboratory (RML) Environment Laboratories
2 Presentations by the following experts1:
Hartmut NIES: “Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant’s impact on the marine environment”
Yuichiro KUMAMOTO: “Monitoring activity in the marine environment of the Fukushima NPP area”
Mats ERIKSSON: “Marine monitoring around the Fukushima NPP area, a field observation”
Roberta DELFANTI: “Fukushima Radioactivity in N. Mediterranean area”
Ronald SZYMCZAK: “Ecological Risk Analysis of radioactive releases from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (Japan) on marine biota”
Sabine CHARMASSON: “Marine monitoring and marine ecosystem vulnerability”
3 Discussion of the outcomes and possible recommendations by GESAMP
4 Closure remarks
***
The document appears on letterhead from GESAMP.
http://www.gesamp.org/
What would be very interesting now is to find out what these experts actually said to each other at that conference.
By the way, in digging for this stuff I came across a reference to Hartmut Nies in Majia's blog from May 5, 2011. At the time Majia speculated that Nies might not be willing to go along with an IAEA whitewash.
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/washington-post-what-isnt-reported.html
Finally, if you Google Hartmut Nies, you'll find lots of interesting stuff and some glimpses into the workings of the IAEA.
For example, here's a lavish presentation to convince you that the IAEA is on top of everything that matters:
http://www.scor-int…
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Darn – link got truncated even though counter said there was plenty of room.
Here it is. Prepare to be amazed at how these folks can spend money: http://www.scor-int.org/CB_Summit/IAEA_SCOR_CapacityBuilding_Bremen.pdf
Buried in that pdf is a reference to "maris" that makes it sound like "maris" would tell us everything we'd ever want to know about radiation in oceans. If you go to the maris site though, you find an empty shell.
http://maris.iaea.org/
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Anyone who states that radioactive food or water is safe to consume should be forced to go on diet of that same food and water or shut up.
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Bioaccumulation: Why Fukushima Matters
http://news.lucaswhitefieldhixson.com/2011/04/bioaccumulation-why-fukushima-matters.html
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Thank you Charlie…this diluting idea is ridiculous…more like making it available to a wider number of sea creatures, people, etc.
BP oil said the same thing.."the gulf is a large body of water" but they managed to pollute it…so much for dilution.
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They are detecting Cesium not Strontium which they are not able to remove from the water, so any "cleaned water" is contaminated with Strontium greatly increasing the chances of bone cancer. When will the lies and the half truths stop?
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nothing found in the fish…
Greenpeace seafood analysis finds more Fukushima radioactive contamination
Blogpost by Justin McKeating – November 22
"Of the 75 samples, radioactive cesium 134 and 137 were detected in 27. There was no company whose products were not contaminated."
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction/greenpeace-seafood-analysis-finds-more-fukush/blog/37962/
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Interesting arclight. The article had a link to another that said "Japan researchers have announced that 80% of the radiation from Fuku went into the Pacific. The link didn't work but…
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