Radioactive particles of Fukushima in seawater

07/11/2012

The consequences of the reactor catastrophe in Fukushima have largely disappeared from the media public sphere. There should be no reasons for this, as the nuclear consequences are far from over. Current measurements have shown that the ocean currents continue to drive radioactively contaminated seawater to North America.

Radioactive particles are distributed halfway across the Pacific
Already today, radioactive particles in seawater have been distributed by around 50 percent in the North Pacific Ocean, according to a study by researchers at the Geomar Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Kiel. In the course of a model calculation, the scientists have determined that the contaminated water will reach the coast of Hawaii by the autumn of next year at the latest. Two or three years later, the radioactive particles will reach the North American coast.

According to the research team in the journal "Environmental Research Letters", the measured radioactivity will be somewhat below the values ​​that are still measurable today after the Chernobyl supergroduce in 1986 in the Baltic Sea. Thus, there would be a slightly increased radioactivity compared to the normal value. Nevertheless, the value would be „below the permissible limit of drinking water“, emphasize the researchers. Wind and cyclones would have greatly diluted the water.

Contaminated air particles were already detectable a few days after the Japanese reactor accident on the California coast. But because a spread over the seawater through the ocean currents take longer, the particles in the water only arrive at a very late time.

The Fukushima Super-GAU released enormous amounts of radioactive materials in the air, soil and water. Also included were so-called isotopes, which have a high half-life. The material called cesium-137 is also highly water-soluble. A large part succeeded over the air in the sea water. A lesser portion was initiated by discharging cooling water to the Pacific as the fire department and reactor workers cooled the fuel rods. (Sb)

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Picture: Joujou