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Page added on December 20, 2015
Huge Fukushima Cover-Up Exposed, Government Scientists In Meltdown
Fukushima radiation just off the North American coast is higher now than it has ever been, and government scientists and mainstream press are scrambling to cover-up and downplay the ever-increasing deadly threat that looms for millions of Americans.
Following the March 2011 meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, reactors have sprayed immeasurable amounts of radioactive material into the air, most of which settled into the Pacific Ocean. A study by the American Geophysical Union has found that radiation levels from Alaska to California have increased and continue to increase since they were last taken.
Naturalnews.com reports:
The highest levels yet of radiation from the disaster were found in a sample taken 2,500 kilometers (approx. 1,550 miles) west of San Francisco.
“Safe” according to whom?
Lead researcher Ken Buesseler of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was one of the first people to begin monitoring Fukushima radiation in the Pacific Ocean, with his first samples taken three months after the disaster started. In 2014, he launched a citizen monitoring effort – Our Radioactive Ocean – to help collect more data on ocean-borne radioactivity.
The researchers track Fukushima radiation by focusing on the isotope Cesium-134, which has a half-life of only two years. All Cesium-134 in the ocean likely comes from the Fukushima disaster. In contrast, Cesium-137 – also released in huge quantities from Fukushima – has a half-life of 30 years, and persists in the ocean, not just from Fukushima, but also from nuclear tests conducted as far back as the 1950s.
The most recent study added 110 new Cesium-134 samples to the ongoing studies. These samples were an average of 11 Becquerels per cubic meter of sea water, a level 50 percent higher than other samples taken so far.
Instead of presenting the findings as an alarming sign of growing radiation, however, Buesseler emphasizes that the Cesium-134 levels detected are still 500 times lower than the drinking water limits set by the U.S. government. The news site The Big Wobble questions whether Buesseler and Woods Hole’s heavy financial reliance on the U.S. government – Woods Hole has received nearly $8 million in research funding from several government agencies – plays any role in this emphasis.
Situation still worsening
The reality, however, is that radiation along the West Coast is expected to keep getting worse. According to a 2013 study by the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Norway, the oceanic radiation plume released by Fukushima is likely to hit the North American West Coast in force in 2017, with levels peaking in 2018. Most of the radioactive material from the disaster is likely to stay concentrated on the western coast through at least 2026.
According to professor Michio Aoyama of Japan’s Fukushima University Institute of Environmental Radioactivity, the amount of radiation from Fukushima that has now reached North America is probably nearly as much as was spread over Japan during the initial disaster.
The recent Woods Hole study also confirmed that radioactive material is still leaking into the Pacific Ocean from the crippled Fukushima plant. Cesium-134 levels off the Japanese coast are between 10 and 100 times higher than those detected off the coast of California.
Without directly challenging the U.S. government’s “safe” radiation limits, Buesseler obliquely references the fact that any radioactive contamination of the ocean is cause for concern.
“Despite the fact that the levels of contamination off our shores remain well below government-established safety limits for human health or to marine life,” he said, “the changing values underscore the need to more closely monitor contamination levels across the Pacific.”
* * *
Don’t worry though Olympians, everything will be fine in a few billion or so years.
86 Comments on "Huge Fukushima Cover-Up Exposed, Government Scientists In Meltdown"
diemos on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 12:24 pm
I just love conspiracy theories.
Since it’s government funded scientists that are going out and doing these measurements and publishing the results.
If the government wanted to cover up what’s going on wouldn’t it be easier to just not do the measurements in the first place?
shortonoil on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 12:46 pm
“I just love conspiracy theories.”
“Lead researcher Ken Buesseler of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was one of the first people to begin monitoring Fukushima radiation in the Pacific Ocean”
By law Woods Hole is funded a specific amount for 15 years in advance. The government has no say in their work. It can not cut its funding, or fire its head of administration. There is no conspiracy involved in what they do.
Apneaman on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 1:25 pm
No promises in Fukushima cleanup, director says
The man leading the daunting task of dealing with the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant warns with surprising candor: Nothing can be promised.
How long will it take to decommission the three breached reactors, and how will it be accomplished, when not even robots have been able to enter the main fuel-debris areas so far? How much will it ultimately cost? Naohiro Masuda, tapped last year as chief of decontamination and decommissioning for plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Co., acknowledges he is a long way from answering those questions definitively.
“This is something that has never been experienced. A textbook doesn’t exist for something like this,” Masuda said at Tepco’s Tokyo headquarters Monday.
more
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/12/17/national/no-promises-fukushima-cleanup-director-says/
peakyeast on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 1:49 pm
I am very tired of those people talking about others using tinfoilhats and downplaying conspiracies. They are the dumbest least enlightened fuckers on the planet. They are One of the major reasons why so many get away with their abuse of power and influence.
The cases where the conspiracy theorists has been correct has been numerous. So they have every right to be evaluated seriously.
Of course, there are always mad people – but that doenst mean they ALL are and there is the problem. Many think ALL are mad.
And concerning nuclear power there is a fair share of both – and every reason to doubt everything said by all sides.
So STFU you effing ignorants if you dont KNOW what you are saying but are just throwing out the CONSPIRACY and Tinfoilhats accussations.
shortonoil on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 1:55 pm
“How much will it ultimately cost?”
Chances are that no one alive today will ever have the answer to that question. The impact on generations far into the future may not be known for centuries. Humanity really screwed the pooch on this one.
onlooker on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 1:55 pm
I am not very knowledgeable in radiation and what safe levels are and how long certain particles last etc. I do believe however something I read that ingested radiation is much much more harmful than exposure to ambient radiation. So their is definitely reason for concern about relatively high levels along the Western coast.
Oh and could not agree more Peakyeast
ennui2 on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 2:14 pm
peakyeast is a tinfoil hatter 😉
Ruppert was the one who said everyone’s gonna die because of Fukushima and then he proceeded to shoot himself.
It’s not a good situation but this article is overplaying it. Think of all the nuclear testing that occurred directly on US soil during the cold-war.
Did it raise cancer rates? Probably. Did it cause a massive amount of deaths? No. It’s a tragedy, but not the end of the world.
onlooker on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 2:25 pm
Conspiracy is in the eyes of the beholder. what is conspiracy to some is revelation to others.
shortonoil on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 2:47 pm
“I am not very knowledgeable in radiation and what safe levels are and how long certain particles last etc.”
What we do know is that one’s chances of contracting cancer is proportional to the life time accumulated dosage. The unfortunate part is that if you die of liver cancer in 20 years it doesn’t come with a tag that says; “radiation exposure from Hanover source 1953”. It is a means to kill without accountability. There is no way to prove what killed you! The nuclear power industry, and the military use this to cover up the impact of what they do. For them it is completely deniable; no one can prove it resulted from their activities. It is also known that exposure to radiation can cause DNA damage. Again, if a chicken is hatched with two heads there is no way to prove that it was caused by radiation contamination from a St. Georges above ground test 50 years ago. You have just got a two headed chicken!
Radiation toxicity also has other rather nefarious side effects, again without accountability. One of the first places to succumb is the body’s immune system. The radiation may not directly kill you, but some pathogen takes you out later. Again, radiation is not put on your death certificate. You died of the measles virus.
The part we don’t have any idea about is what will be the genetic effects in 100, 200, 500 years. Those radionuclides will still be around, and still capable of rearranging genetic code. We could be dooming the future to unimaginable horrors. Those who promote this technology and know the potential damage it can cause should be put in a special category. How about socially insane?
Apneaman on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 2:53 pm
ennui2, fuck off you piece of shit. Ruppert suffered from serious clinical depression. Happens to many ex cops who have seen the worst in humanity. Like being haunted by images of murdered babies and children. Cops and ex cops eat their guns every single day in every single country on the planet. Of course depression suffers don’t need to have seen horrors to kill themselves. Even the highly successful, like Robin Williams, are at risk of suicide if they have severe depression. Attempting to link a depressed suicide victims worldview to their death to try and score points for your argument is about as low as one could stoop. Like I said, you’re a piece of shit.
SilentRunning on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 3:05 pm
11 Bq per cubic meter is a very, very low level of radiation. Remember folks – that same cubic meter of sea water ALSO has ***12,000*** Bq of radioactive Potassium-40. So do you really think a paltry 11 additional decays per second matter that much next to the 12000 decays per second that were all ready in there naturally since the earth was formed?
PS: Your own body has around 4,400 Bq of radioactive decays from the K-40 already naturally in your body…
onlooker on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 3:06 pm
Yes i will add that military veterans are also registering high levels of suicide. This very psychologically and physically toxic world is taking a toll on all of us without exception. It is just some are exposed to more shit than others.
shortonoil on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 3:34 pm
“Remember folks – that same cubic meter of sea water ALSO has ***12,000*** Bq of radioactive Potassium-40.”
Eating bananas that are very high in potassium could be detrimental to your health. Except as a banana eating monkey the body has figured out over millions of years how to eliminate potassium 40 very rapidly. Try again, how about strontium 90, and see how that works out.
G. Wayne Hild on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 4:30 pm
@apneaman; Robin Williams committed suicide because he realized his symptoms of Parkinsons disease. Also he was completely off drugs.
I had a low producing thyroid event in late 2011 and do wonder where and how many eventually be effected by the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown. America was a very stupid nation to ever test over a thousand nuclear bombs,mostly thermonuclear here on our own soil and what about the test that allowed plutonium to drift into cities where the deaths were listed as caused by other diseases. Yes, our government seems no longer able to serve the people as they should and instead serve them lies as often as they think is acceptable. I’m certainly thankful that I haven’t many more years left to live in a world that is quickly becoming a place of questionable health and happiness.
stephen on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 4:41 pm
The false propaganda regarding the “safety” of nuclear energy has been constant for years. How people can be so ignorant to think it is safe is pathetic. Nuclear waste must be buried deep beneath the earth for thousands of years before humans are no longer in danger to have contact with it yet people actually believe radiation is safe. People living within the vicinity of Fukishima have been getting thyroid cancer in large numbers. Plants are mutating and contaminated waste is continually pouring into the ocean poisoning fish getting into the food chain where people will be coming down with cancer and mutations for years to come. Better pay attention to california cancer statistics for the next twenty years.
Apneaman on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 5:03 pm
G. Wayne, do all people who realize their symptoms of Parkinson’s disease kill themselves? No. So what’s the difference between the minority of folks suffering from severe illnesses who kill themselves and the majority of sick folks who fight for as long as possible?
Substance abuse and addiction are simply a form of self medication and there is no difference between physical and mental pain. Only the false narrative society has created. Addiction is a symptom. Sobriety can and does happen without the depression and other root causes (pain) being eliminated. I’m quite familiar with long term hard core addiction. Also, it’s normal and quite common for a spouse or family member to try and avoid the stigma of depression and that is what I see happening with Robin Williams wife and many of his fans as well. Family physicians fudge death records out of compassion for families every day under similar circumstances.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-brqskIoBw
PrankMyAss on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 5:09 pm
so, instead of whining why don’t they think of something to clean up Fukushima since the Japanese couldn’t handle it by themselves ?? l@me !d!ots !
Bob Steaves on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 5:12 pm
“average of 11 Becquerels per cubic meter of sea water”
Can this extremely low level increase be measured accurately above the background?
SilentRunning on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 5:22 pm
>“Remember folks – that same cubic meter of sea water ALSO has ***12,000*** Bq of radioactive Potassium-40.”
>Eating bananas that are very high in potassium could be detrimental to your health. Except as a banana eating monkey the body has figured out over millions of years how to eliminate potassium 40 very rapidly. Try again, how about strontium 90, and see how that works out.
Strontium 90 is not the same as Cs-137. We’re talking CESIUM.
BTW: Cesium is eliminated from the body just like Potassium.
shortonoil on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 5:35 pm
“Can this extremely low level increase be measured accurately above the background?”
“The most recent study added 110 new Cesium-134 samples to the ongoing studies. These samples were an average of 11 Becquerels per cubic meter of sea water, a level 50 percent higher than other samples taken so far.”
Without actually seeing the data it is difficult to say. It would depend on the standard error of the sample sets, the form of the distribution, and the number of samples taken. But considering that there were 110 samples taken, and the results are coming out of Woods Hole I would be inclined to accept their determinations out of hand. These folks know that a lot of people are watching what they do very closely. Woods Hole has built an impeccable reputation over a very long time; it doesn’t seem likely that they would jeopardize that easily.
real7777 on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 5:41 pm
Risk is minimal. Tsunami killed 20,000 so 150 cancer is nothing. Coal is much more dangerous to health and they estimate 2 million death per year from pollution. VW fraud pollution probably will caused around 1000 death.
It is great that Japan started safer plants with new few extra backup plans. Each one opened will make around $1 billion per year. No other country would have shut down all reactors since Japan is the only country that could afford estimated us$33billion per year is loss.
Google “real7777 fukushima”
2015 Testing finds no disaster radiation in Alaska seafood.
Technically TEPCO was not legally responsible since it was natural disaster, but it was responsible Japanese company with good morals.
If accident happened in usa, GE would been bankrupt.
1) Very faulty design and unconcerned about safety(3 GE scientist resigned in protest)
2) 1980s lawsuit made it unbuildable in west coast USA due to unsafe design on earthquake west coast BUT GE built it in earthquake prone Japan.
3) GE(were expert) and built it at that location
4) Faulty procedure.
etc.
Of course if world force GE to recall unsafe plants, GE and USA will probably go bankrupt.
abcnews “Thirty-five years ago, Dale G. Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric resigned from their jobs after becoming increasingly convinced that the nuclear reactor design they were reviewing — the Mark 1 — was so flawed it could lead to a devastating accident. ”
Maybe GE INTENTIONALLY sabotage Japan since it could not compete in electronics.
shortonoil on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 5:44 pm
“We’re talking CESIUM.”
No, you were talking about potassium 40.
“ALSO has ***12,000*** Bq of radioactive Potassium-40. So do you really think a paltry 11 additional decays per second matter”
Don’t you ever read your own posts? There is not one mention of CESIUM in that post. Is trolling by number any relation to painting by number?
GregT on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 6:08 pm
Bioaccumulation of 137Cs in pelagic food webs in the Norwegian and Barents Seas.
In the present study, the bioaccumulation of caesium-137 ((137)Cs) has been investigated in marine food webs in the Barents and Norwegian Seas. The contents of (137)Cs in the different organisms were generally low (<1 Bq kg(-1) wet weight), but a marked bioaccumulation was apparent: The concentration of (137)Cs was about 10-fold higher in the harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena, representing the upper level of the food web, than in the amphipod Themisto sp., representing the lower level of the food web. The Concentration Factors (CF=Bq kg(-1) wet weight/Bq l(-1) seawater) increased from 10+/-3 for a mixed sample of krill and amphipods to 165+/-5 for harbour porpoises.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12527234
Ria on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 6:20 pm
Hate spreads
Anonymous on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 6:39 pm
diemos said:
If the government wanted to cover up what’s going on wouldn’t it be easier to just not do the measurements in the first place?
Interestingly enough, this was the *exact* approach used by the former harper regime in Canada. He ordered that NO tests be preformed on the west coast in the wake of Fukushima. Information that contradicted the regimes ‘All is well’ narrative, were kept from the public. Under harper, he made sure a lot of recommendations for detailed testing by experts, simply never happened. Between suppression and simply not allowing testing, the Canadian public has very little data they can reference on this question.
shortonoil on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 7:00 pm
“The concentration of (137)Cs was about 10-fold higher in the harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena, representing the upper level of the food web”
How many years will it be before it is 20 time higher in Homo sapiens?
If it took four years to get from Japan to Norway, it should take X years to get here. Maybe that’s -X???
ennui2 on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 7:06 pm
Robin Williams wasn’t trying to build a doomsday cult the way Ruppert was with his lifeboat site.
Ruppert’s depression lead to mental illness in the same way, let’s say, L Ron Hubbard’s mental illness caused him to start a cult.
People should be careful when they obtain their “truth” from someone with a shaky grasp on reality.
“you’re a piece of shit.”
And you have anger issues, like a lot of doomers do. How soon before you pull a mass shooting, dude? Cool your jets.
Robert Alfred Larson on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 7:12 pm
Hmmm: What can I say people? I have been watching humanity for many generations now. This is my last incarnation. Who am I? Pronounce my initials one at a time… This will provide you with one of my many, many names. I do not kid you! I have the “White Stone” of the Bible. This is the same stone the Hopi know. “Behold a woman that is a man.” I am the “White Buffalo”… Repent! Your time is very, very short. These United States have become evil. The above link is of Casper Mountain Wyoming (satellite view). Zoom out and you will find the “Dragon” or, if you prefer, a bison skull. Zoom way out and you will find my brother “Jesus the Christ’s” image across the Rocky Mountains. Mankind has not been a good custodian of the Earth. FYI Wen hair products is not causing hair to fall out. It is this fall out. Repent or die forever!!! Your only safety is in Jesus. I am the Lion that will be with my Brother again. May God bless you and keep you. AMEN
shortonoil on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 7:15 pm
“Between suppression and simply not allowing testing, the Canadian public has very little data they can reference on this question.”
Outside of the fact that it is raining caesium 137, they don’t have a clue? It came right across the Bering Sea just like everything else around your part of the woods.
makati1 on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 7:34 pm
Wow! lots of ‘experts’ here. Denial is heavy in the “I don’t want to know” group, which are mostly Americans.
I do understand radioactivity somewhat having experienced Three Mile Island and having my interest alerted. I also wear a ‘tinfoil hat’ and believe in conspiracies. Especially when trillions of dollars are involved.
How many people does it take to start WW3? Answer: One. Who? Obama or Putin. Take your pick. Who is owned by the Elite? Obama for sure. Putin, who knows?
WW1 was started by a 19 year old teenager, with a gun, in Sarajevo. WW2 by a German fascist psycho who was in the right place at the right time and took advantage of it. WW3? Up for grabs at this point.
Twelve people control the Federal Reserve of the Us. 12 people. How many does it take to bring down the US? Maybe 12 people. Or just a majority of 7? Could these 12 people ‘conspire’ to take down the US? Is a desert made of sand? LOL
Not only is there a ‘conspiracy’ to take down the West and level the playing field so that a One World government can be created, but all current activities are obviously moving in that direction. Bilderberg meeting anyone?
AS for radioactivity. How much does it take to break the camel’s back? Just one more straw/accident?
shortonoil on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 7:37 pm
At one time there were these goat herders in the Sinai that had a god that they never called by name. It was something about getting “smoted” if you did. Apparently that was bad? Since as goat herders they hadn’t figured out the alphabet quite right (they forgot the vowels) they named him YHVH. No wonder they never said it, they couldn’t. Well, YHVH probably came from the Phoenicians. They had a mean old bastard as a god named Bale. YHVH seems to inherit some of Bales bad traits; like killing the men, women and children of people that you don’t care for. Now — that may have not been totally Bale’s fault, we are still seem to be doing that today, and Bale hasn’t been around for quit some time.
More next week on how YHVH got accepted at Harvard.
Apneaman on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 7:38 pm
BP Macondo blowout in 2010, Fuk in 2011, Indonesian palm oil slash and burn fires this year, Brazil forest fires and drought, US record wildfire season, California drought. Droughts all over the globe and water shortages, melting permafrost and ever greater sequestered methane releases, dangerous levels of smog in China, India and numerous big cities, a billion dollar plus deluge every week (sometimes a couple) and on and on and on. Lets all pretend it’s not happening – talk about solar panels, EV’s or propaganda climate agreements or Trump or obsessively count barrels. Anything except connecting the dots and extrapolating on what the final outcome will be for a global civilization gone completely fucking insane. I’m childless, so I used to think that there is simply no way all these parents would let the PTB do everything possible to fuck up their kids future/shorten their lives. I could not have been more wrong. Not only do they appear, by their actions, to be letting it happen, most seem to be willing participants and even cheerleaders in many cases. I don’t get it.
Two months in, Porter Ranch gas leak compared to BP Gulf oil spill
http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20151219/two-months-in-porter-ranch-gas-leak-compared-to-bp-gulf-oil-spill
World Climate Change Conference Confirms Near Term Human Extinction
http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/world-climate-change-conference-confirms-near-term-human-extinction-wcz/
Some 130 fires rage across northern Spain
http://www.euronews.com/2015/12/20/some-130-fires-rage-across-northern-spain/
shortonoil on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 7:55 pm
World Climate Change Conference Confirms Near Term Human Extinction
The Road, possible. Extinction I don’t buy it. There are 7.2 billion people on this planet, and humans seem to have many of the same characteristics as coach roaches. See 1 and there are 100, and they are dam hard to kill off!
Gabe Fere on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 8:09 pm
So how come Ramsar Iran has higher radiation and no issues of health?
Apneaman on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 8:12 pm
Undoubtedly The Road is approaching. I won’t be travelling on it. Albert Bates does not discount the ‘possibility’ of ape extinction, but he is more hopeful than the NTE 2030 gang, and always an interesting read.
Soon it Begins, but First, We Celebrate!
http://peaksurfer.blogspot.ca/2015/12/soon-it-begins-but-first-we-celebrate.html
makati1 on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 8:28 pm
Failure to manage is common these days.
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California’s Worst Gas Leak In 40 Years (And Crews Can’t Stop It)
Tyler Durden’s picture
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/20/2015 17:30 -0500
Natural Gas
inShare2
While world leaders signed the ‘historic’ agreement signed in Paris to fix the world’s “greatest threat,” a natural gas storage site in southern California is belching 145,000 pounds per hour of Methane – a greenhouse gas 70 times more potent than carbon dioxide. What is worse, while official proclaim this a “top priority” a fix won’t arrive until spring as emergency crews recognize “the leak was far from routine, and the problem was deeper underground.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-20/californias-worst-gas-leak-40-years-and-crews-cant-stop-it
The US is disintegrating.
makati1 on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 8:29 pm
Oops! got some unwanted baggage. Too bad you cannot correct on this site.
makati1 on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 8:35 pm
short, maybe you have those blinders on too tight? When there is no oxygen, how do those ‘roaches’ breath? It only has to drop a few percent and we will not be able to do work or even move. When there is nothing to eat, how do humans survive? When the temps get so hot anywhere for the support ecology to survive, how will humans cope? By dying off, that’s how. Nothing new there. When? by 2100 for sure, at the speed we are killing the planet. Maybe much sooner.
Mother nature has killed of more than one ecosystem in the last 5+ billion years and will give zero thought to this one just because some greedy apes are involved.
Dubya on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 10:27 pm
In 2011 when I heard about Fukushima I pulled out my Chernobyl-era radiation monitor & did a background count here on the west coast. About 10 days later it was 5 times higher. Our background count is very low here, but it was a significant increase. I wrote to a few relevant government agencies & media to mention this: never did hear back from anyone.
That is about when the local radiation monitoring website changed to a less useful format & the Canadian government reduced monitoring as there was no risk.
I admire people in the government that can so effectively manipulate the media & the public.
Guy on Sun, 20th Dec 2015 11:34 pm
Just stop.
“11 Becquerels per cubic meter of sea water, a level 50 percent higher than other samples taken so far.”
11 Becquerels? Per CUBIC METER? That would indicate a concentration of micrograms of Cesium per TON of water.
That would put exposure at less than a millionth the recommended dosage. Not a disaster. Not a problem, as there would be no statistically significant change to the background radiation.
SilentRunning on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 12:32 am
11 Bq of Cs-137 can be distinguished from the 12,000 Bq of K-40 because the gamma ray spectrum is different.
And remember some other facts:
Typical human being has at least 4000+ Bq of radioactivity from K-40.
Also, Cesium and Potassium DO NOT bio-accumulate in people because of electrolyte balancing – you excrete the stuff in your urine. If you bio-accumulated Potassium – you would die of excess electrolytes LONG before the excess radiation from Potassium-40 killed you.
Go Speed Racer on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 2:25 am
HEY EVERYBODY THERE REALLY IS A TINFOIL HAT CONSPIRACY. Here I found the proof
https://saboteur365.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/tin-foil-hat-guy.jpg
Mac Maze on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 3:05 am
Was this supposed to be a “scientific article”? If so, you need to use actual science when you report, not just innuendo and implication. Case in point: “the amount of radiation from Fukushima that has now reached North America is probably nearly as much as was spread over Japan during the initial disaster”–this quote suggests that such proportions must be horrific–yet, the actual amount or radiation that spread over Japan at that time was MINIMAL–never an issue with plants, livestock, water supplies or air. Using fear to sell ads on your site is really not very productive.
Go Speed Racer on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 3:24 am
The most interesting thing about nuclear power (pronounced nukyalur in the Midwest) is there are multiple types. Almost everybody thinks there is only ‘nukyalur power’ and it’s all the same.
It’s not all the same, here is the information about the nuclear power that actually works:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_fluoride_thorium_reactor
A great read, down to the finest details. For example, it doesn’t produce significant waste, because the waste is consumed for energy.
James Gerard on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 3:56 am
“The most recent study added 110 new Cesium-134 samples to the ongoing studies. These samples were an average of 11 Becquerels per cubic meter of sea water, a level 50 percent higher than other samples taken so far.”
So the rate of radioactive decay events went from 5.5 to 11 per cubic meter. Hm. Sounds serious, right?
But wait, Cesium radioactivity off-shore Fukushima peaked at 4000 decay events per second (4000 becquerels) per cubic meter – written 4000 Bq / m3.
So that is a LOT worse, right?
But wait, Between naturally occurring K-40 (Potassium 40) and Rb-87 (Rubidium 87), seawater has a natural radioactivity of 14 becquerels per liter, 14 Bq / liter. That is, one liter of seawater will produce 14 radiation-emitting events per second, on average. A cubic meter contains 1000 liters, so that comes out to 14,000 Bq per second.
So now we must add 11 Bq per second to the naturally occurring radiation event level. That gives us 14,000 + 11 = 14,011. ER, wow?
Not very wow. No organism in that water is going to notice the difference. It is totally trivial.
This whole article is hogwash.
How much hogwash? Various medical authorities state that a 155-pound adult should maintain about 150 grams of potassium within his / her body’s cells. Potassium has three isotopes, K-39, 40, and 41. Only K-40 is radioactive.
It comprises about 120 ppm of all K atoms. Therefore our bodies contain about 0.018 gram of radioactive K-40. [150 g X 120 / 1,000,000 = 0.018 g]
There’s no avoiding this. It wouldn’t be possible to remove the 120 radioactive atoms from the million atoms during food processing even if we tried. That 0.018 gram dispersed throughout my body tissues causes me to be radioactive in the amount of about 4700 becquerels. This radiation is internal, affecting my organs continuously throughout life.
155 pounds is about 70.5 liters, so that means the ocean water would have 14.011 X 70.5 = 987.8 Bq per second.
That means that the 155 pound person would have natural radioactivity of 4700 Bq compared to 987.8 Bq of ocean water (Including the radiation from Fukushima). So we are naturally 4700 – 988 = 3712 Bq more radioactive than the “contaminated” ocean water.
Somehow I can’t figure out what the point of this article is. I guess it is to scare people.
Try harder, peak oil. But if anyone wants the truth about it all, in more detail, see:
http://www.timothymaloney.net/www.timothymaloney.net/Blog/Entries/2015/11/12_Germanys_energiewende_program.html
James Gerard on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 4:13 am
Go Speed Racer (comment above) is right about the Nuclear Reactor. That type of reactor is the MSR/LFTR (Molten Salt Reactor/Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor).
Those reactors are totally fail-safe, and can use “Nuclear Waste” as fuel, solving the storage problem.
The MSR is less than half as expensive to build than a conventional reactor, and produces electricity cheaper than coal (even now when coal is not taxed or charged with the huge amount of ecological damage it causes.)
See fascinating graphic descriptions of this Reactor type at http://www.timothymaloney.net
Also see several other excellent articles on related topics.
And read: “Super Fuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future” by Richard Martin. It has an excellent history of the Nuclear Reactor, and a description of the first MSR which was built at Oak Ridge in the ’60’s, and ran successfully for 20,000 hours.
JuanP on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 5:41 am
Short “Extinction I don’t buy it.” I’ve gone back and forth many times on this point. At first, I thought that NTHE was a preposterous idea, but as I learned about methane clathrates, melting permafrost, the melting North Pole, Miami’s obviously rising sea level, megadroughts, forest fires, and other feedbacks, I changed my mind. And, now, I think it is possible.
Sooner or later human beings will cause their own extinction. I don’t believe we will last another thousand years. And, it could happen this century. We have crossed too many irreversible tipping points, IMO. What really settled the matter for me was my complete lack of faith in people, we are so arrogant, selfish, ambitious, ignorant, and mentally ill not to destroy the world.
People who have young kids and think that there is any chance that after the collapse things will get better for them at some point in the future are delusional and living in denial. We will burn every tree and blade of grass in the world and are causing irreversible damage.
This month in Miami we experienced the wettest December in 105 years of records. Winter is the dry season down here, and we usually get an average of six inches of rain in the Dec-Febr period. This year we already had 8 inches by Dec 8. In some places all that rain came down in a couple of hours. Winter is the main food growing season here and farms have been devastated. At least the drought we had been experiencing for years is over now. 😉
I believe this will become a regular ocurrence. I see a clear persistent global pattern of megadroughts and floods getting continually worse in our short, medium, and long term futures that will make growing food outdoors extremely difficult.
The same thing is happening in South America, too, as a consequence of the Amazon jungle’s destruction. Traditional rain and weather patterns have been changed making it very difficult for farmers to decide when to plant their crops.
I am 100% convinced that we will make the whole planet uninhabitable for us in time. More than 99% of all species that have existed have gone extinct and we will be no exception. It is only a matter of when, not if.
Davy on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 6:23 am
I have to agree with Juan and the inevitability of extinction. Yet, time frame is a factor for humans who live in the short term and live in fear and anxiety for the future. The extinction will surely be of modern man. Humans may continue on but as another species on the level of civilization in a new ecosystem that has been rearranged by decay and extinction.
Time frame is an exercise in divination at this point. Time frame is all important because ultimately we have finite time on this earth. Time is our living wealth. I believe we are going to see a cascade of failures and destructive changes. This has been happening but in an environment of the status quo. We are going to likely see the status quo unravel in the next months. It may resemble normality but the key variable missing will be the growth meme.
Descent dynamics will be overpowering growth trends. The human ecosystem is so large this momentum and inertia event will be clouded. Yet, those of us who live and die doom can see it. This will be a descending energy gradient, a social unraveling, economic decay, and ecological failures. This is part of a self-organizing process with forces beyond macro management.
You can manage your life and hopefully within a community who are also adapting. Some will have the tools others have no hope. This is one of those greatest epic events in human history and everyone of us will be a part of this without exception. No place is safe and time is short.
makati1 on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 6:26 am
JuanP, I think it will be the ‘irregular’ weather that will kill farming, as you said. When do you plant? And, if/when you do, what are the odds that the crop(s) will be able to be harvested at the right time, if at all? When a ‘freak’ storm lays over 500,000 acres of wheat/corn just as it is ready to harvest and the rain beats it into the dirt, what then?
Farming has always been a crap shoot, but I think the odds are now moving against there being a guaranteed food supply. Especially in currently ‘self-sufficient’ countries that use corporate megafarming practices to produce that abundance. As weather extremes become common, having enough food for a year, stored away, may mean the difference between life and death.
Eagle on Mon, 21st Dec 2015 7:20 am
http://enenews.com/