nuclear-news

Fukushima to California – the path of nuclear radiation along Latitude 40

Study: Concentrated Fukushima radioactive plume staying on narrow path toward U.S. — Moving with surface water along 40 N — Same latitude as Northern California(MAP) http://enenews.com/study-concentrated-fukushima-radioactive-plume-staying-along-narrow-path-moving-surface-water-along-40-same-latitude-northern-california-map
Title: Surface pathway of radioactive plume of TEPCO Fukushima NPP1 released 134Cs and 137Cs
Source: Biogeosciences
Authors: M. Aoyama, M. Uematsu, D. Tsumune, and Y. Hamajima
Date: May 7, 2013

[…] The main body of radioactive surface plume of which activity exceeded 10 Bq m−3 travelled along 40° N and reached the International Date Line on March 2012, one year after the accident. A distinct feature of the radioactive plume was that it stayed confined along 40° N when the plume reached the International Date Line. […]

A distinct feature of the radioactive plume was that it stayed confined along 40 N when the plume reached the International Date Line, as stated in Sect. 3.2. The radioactive plume travelled 1800 km (from 160 E to 178 E) for 270 days (9 months) (Fig. 5); therefore, an average zonal speed (u) of the surface radioactive plume was calculated to be about 8 cm s−1 which was consistent with the speed of the reported surface current of 4–16 cm s−1 in the region (Maximenko et al., 2009). […]

We can also assume that the Fukushima radioactive plume moved with surface water […]
Full study here

May 20, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2013, Japan, radiation, USA