nuclear-news

Fukushima radiation will be higher on USA West coast, than off Japan

Study: N. America’s West Coast to be most contaminated by Fukushima cesium of all regions in Pacific in 10 years — “An order-of-magnitude higher” than waters off Japan (MAPS) July 15th, 2012 Title: Model simulations on the long-term dispersal of 137Cs released into the Pacific Ocean off Fukushima, IOPscience, Erik Behrens, Franziska U Schwarzkopf, Joke F Lübbecke and Claus W Böning
“…. in the following years, the tracer cloud continuously
expands laterally, with maximum concentrations in its central part
heading east. While the northern portion is gradually invading the
Bering Sea, the main tracer patch reaches the coastal waters of North
America after 5-6 years, with maximum relative concentrations ( > 1 ×
10-4) covering a broad swath of the eastern North Pacific between
Vancouver Island and Baja California. Simultaneously some fraction of
the southern rim of the tracer cloud becomes entrained in the North
Equatorial Current (NEC), resulting in a westward extending wedge
around 20°N that skirts the northern shores of the Hawaiian
Archipelago. After 10 years the concentrations become nearly
homogeneous over the whole Pacific, with higher values in the east,
extending along the North American coast with a maximum (~1 × 10-4)
off Baja California. The southern portion of the tracer cloud is
carried westward by the NEC across the subtropical Pacific, leading to
increasing concentrations in the Kuroshio regime again…..
http://enenews.com/study-n-americas-west-coast-to-be-most-contaminated-by-fukushima-cesium-of-all-regions-in-pacific-in-10-years-an-order-of-magnitude-higher-than-waters-off-japan-maps

July 16, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | oceans, USA