nuclear-news

Fukushima radiation transported over entire northern hemisphere

New study finds radiation dose for US West Coast from Fukushima over 500% of recent gov’t estimate Fukushima Emergency What Can We Do   Release from Japan disaster could exceed Chernobyl 

Atmospheric transport and deposition of radionuclides released after the Fukushima Dai-chi accident and resulting effective dose, Atmospheric Environment, Sept. 2014 (emphasis added): On 11 March 2011 an earthquake off the Pacific coast of the Fukushima prefecture generated a tsunami that hit Fukushima Dai-ichi and Fukushima Da-ini Nuclear Power Plants. From 12 March a significant amount of radioactive material was released into the atmosphere and dispersed worldwide. […] The simulation shows that the radioactive plume, consisting of about 200 PBq by adding contributions from 131I, 134Cs, and 137Cs, has been transported over the entire northern hemisphere[…] An early quantitative estimation of the amount of radioactive material discharged in the atmosphere has been provided by Chino et al. (2011) by coupling environmental monitoring data with atmospheric dispersion simulations, then updated by Katata et al. (2012) with a more detailed description of the emission from the morning of 12 March to late night of 14 March. The total amount of radioactivity has been estimated in 12.6 PBq of 134Cs and 137Cs, and 128.2 PBq of 1311. […] The uncertainty associated with this source term has been estimated by Chino et al. (2011)to be a factor of 5 or greater.

August 22, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, environment