nuclear-news

Fukushima radioactive emissions – a guarded secret

”The notion that you can track an air parcel precisely as it travels across the Pacific is fanciful,” he said. “The difficulty in doing that is we really don’t know what is being emitted.” That information, if known at all, is being closely held by Japanese authorities and the U.S. government,

Computer models aid Japanese nuclear response,  The Washington Post, By Andrew Freedman, 23 March 11, U-Md. research team wants more data made public.  As the Japanese nuclear crisis continues to unfold, the airborne spread of radioactive materials from the stricken reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power station continues to be a key concern of Japanese and American officials.

To help determine the path that any hazardous emissions are likely to take, scientists are employing specialized computer models, known as “trajectory models,” which can take into account factors such as winds and temperatures aloft to determine how high a parcel of air is likely toclimb, how far it may go, and where it may be within certain timeframes.

In the local area, a team from the University of Maryland at College Park has been providing publicly viewable trajectory model projections for emissions of radionucleides from the Fukushima facility, in an effort to address a need they say was created in part by the lack of information being put out by U.S. and Japanese authorities……..

One of the key factors determining the destination of any radioactivity from the Fukushima facility is the height to which the emissions are lofted. Since very little is publicly known about the precise quantities, loft heights, and other technical details about the emissions, he says there are significant uncertainties involved with his group’s plots, as well as those from other entities.

”The notion that you can track an air parcel precisely as it travels across the Pacific is fanciful,” he said. “The difficulty in doing that is we really don’t know what is being emitted.” That information, if known at all, is being closely held by Japanese authorities and the U.S. government, which has a team of about 40 nuclear energy experts on the ground in Japan equipped with sophisticated monitoring gear……..

Computer models aid Japanese nuclear response – Capital Weather Gang – The Washington Post

March 24, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011, technology