Fukushima radiation present in Bering Sea, researchers say — but no cause for concern (at present)

Fukushima radiation present in Bering Sea, researchers say — but no cause for concern KNBA KBC Tuckshop , By DAVIS HOVEY (KNOM-NOME) • MAY 23, 2019 Radioactive materials from the Fukushima incident eight years ago have arrived in the Bering Sea. State epidemiologists say the levels are extremely low and do not present a health concern…….

The idea was to determine when Bering Sea coastal communities would see evidence of Fukushima contaminants, even in very small concentrations. Based on their knowledge of ocean currents, passed from generation to generation, St. Lawrence Island residents expected it to happen at some point. …..

For several years, the nonprofit Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has been testing the water samples provided by Sheffield and Ungott.

Dr. Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist with Woods Hole, studies radioactive elements in the world’s oceans and has been focused on Fukushima contaminants since 2011.

Cesium-137 is a radioactive isotope, which Buesseler says travels through ocean currents and behaves like potassium or salt. Since the initial release at Fukushima, the Cesium levels detected in the Pacific Ocean have decreased by about 15 percent, due to its half-life of 30 years. Meanwhile, Cesium-134, another radioactive isotope released from Fukushima, has a shorter half-life of two years, so Dr. Buesseler explains it is almost impossible to detect levels of that contaminant at this point in the Pacific Ocean.

He says partnering with Sheffield, Ungott, and other citizen scientists through a crowdfunding model has been beneficial for this project.

Buesseler wants to reassure people that, despite the contamination, they can continue boating in the ocean, do their normal, water-based activities, and still eat the seafood without concern.

“What we have to watch out for is either being too dismissive of people’s concerns — and that’s often why the government will argue, ‘why bother measuring, because the levels are so low,’ which I don’t think is the correct response, because that doesn’t address their concern — or being too alarmist, people saying, ‘stay out of the ocean because there is Cesium there,’ and I think that’s also not the right response, because the levels are quite low.”

Buesseler along with other scientists reiterate that there is no reason to be concerned about the small amount of Fukushima contaminants contained in the Bering Sea, nor will be there cause for concern in the future as these radioactive levels will continue to diminish as time passes……..

There are two pathways for dilution. Danielson says one is for swiftly flowing features distributed along the continental slopes, known as eddies, to mix the waters carrying Cesium-137 and other radioactive isotopes with the ambient Bering Sea waters. The other is the materials can diffuse, like when you put a little container of perfume in the corner of a room. The perfume will volatilize, and you’ll be able to smell it all the way across the room because it is diffusing out through the air. The same thing happens in the ocean water…….

The years’ worth of data from the water samples and analysis of that information can be accessed for free at http://ourradioactiveocean.org/results.html. https://www.knba.org/post/fukushima-radiation-present-bering-sea-researchers-say-no-cause-concern

May 27, 2019 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | oceans

No comments yet.

nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope