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Scientists measured 2,000 trillion becquerels of Cs-137 in one study area — Would’ve been much higher, but radioactivity was transported away by time of sampling

Published: April 3rd, 2012 at 10:18 am ET
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Title: Fukushima-derived radionuclides in the ocean and biota off Japan
Source: www.pnas.org/cgi/content/short/1120794109
Authors: Buesseler et al.
Date: April 2, 2012
Emphasis Added

[...] Vertical profiles are used to calculate a total inventory of ∼2 PBq 137Cs in an ocean area of 150,000 km2. [...]

Fukushima-derived 134Cs and 137Cs were measured at up to 1,000× higher activities than existed previously and were found throughout a 150,000-km2 area of the Pacific Ocean off Japan. [...]

We measured a total inventory of Fukushima-derived 137Cs of 1.9–2.1 PBq in our study area (Methods), which is lower because most of the 137Cs delivered either as fallout in March or direct discharges in April would have been transported out of the study area by June.

150,000km2 is equivalent to an area of 300km by 500km (~200 miles by 300 miles)

Published: April 3rd, 2012 at 10:18 am ET
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6 comments

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April 3rd, 2012 | Category: Japan (Fukushima)
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6 comments to Scientists measured 2,000 trillion becquerels of Cs-137 in one study area — Would’ve been much higher, but radioactivity was transported away by time of sampling

  • Tpac Olam Tpac Olam
    April 3, 2012 at 10:54 am

    Is not 2000 trillion actually 2 Quadrillion?

    Is this another attempt to downplay info?

    Example: You owe 2,000 thousand or you owe 2 Million.


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    • fireguyjeff fireguyjeff
      April 3, 2012 at 12:46 pm

      Tpac:
      Yes, 2000 Trillion is 2 Quadrillion.
      Since this data is coming from scientists who are looking for, finding, and measuring radioactive isotopes, they are unlikely to downplay anything. They were probably not attached to the outcome, i.e. not employed by TEPCO or Japan govt.
      After all, if they had an agenda to not find anything, then they would have collected samples where they knew it would be unlikely to find anything.

      Propeller heads ( I am one) like to deal with wide ranging value data sets in scientific notation.
      This simplifies things a lot in terms of mental effort.
      Hence, the usual mode is to express values or quantities as an integer raised to an exponent, usually in base 10.
      One million would be 1.0 x 10E6 or 1.0 x 10^6
      2012 would be 2.012 x 10E3
      The latter method also allows one to plot raw data on a logarithmic scale, like many we have seen posted here.
      You can fit a wildly varying range of values in to a small or fixed area graph that way.
      Think of it as a very rudimentary version of data compression.

      The dB (deciBel) scale we are familiar with in audio terminology and radio communications theory is by default a base 10 logarithmic scale.


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  • Whoopie Whoopie
    April 3, 2012 at 12:23 pm

    #Fukushima: DOWN Must Watch A new television ad targeting Southern California Edison calls on residents to let the utility know that their families come first http://youtu.be/clfjGBcAbuw via @youtube


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  • Whoopie Whoopie
    April 3, 2012 at 12:28 pm

    #Fukushima: See this?? Q-Cells Go to Japan | Made in Germany: http://youtu.be/kBFvENemGrY via @youtube
    A older video/news I never heard about. :)


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