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Fukushima Fish Still Radioactive

Posted by Soulskill on from the teenage-mutant-ninja-mackeral dept.

the_newsbeagle writes "Bottom-dwelling fish that live near the wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant still show elevated radiation levels 19 months after the accident — and those radiation levels are not declining. Researcher Ken Buesseler says this indicates the seafloor sediments are contaminated (abstract), and will remain so for decades. He said, 'I was struck by how [the radiation levels] really haven’t changed over the last year. Since cesium doesn't bioaccumulate to a significant degree, and in fact is lost when fish move to a less contaminated area, this implies that the cesium source is still there'"

6 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. What was the baseline? by tomhath · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They've been monitoring the fish for a year and the radiation levels have remained constant. Makes me wonder what the radiation level was before the tsunami. I wouldn't want to eat bottom feeding fish downstream from a large city anyway.

    1. Re:What was the baseline? by Grayhand · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They've been monitoring the fish for a year and the radiation levels have remained constant. Makes me wonder what the radiation level was before the tsunami. I wouldn't want to eat bottom feeding fish downstream from a large city anyway.

      Come on! As rationalizing goes that's a stretch. Are you saying there was no spike caused by the release of radiation? You'd be the first to make that claim. The point is it's unchanged. I realize it's ancient history to most but we're seen this before. Remember all those nuclear tests in the 50s? The claim was the radiation would quickly disperse. In that case it not only didn't disperse it increased. It's the old predator/prey issue. What's low levels in algae eaters becomes high levels in predator fish that eat the algae eaters. It happens with mercury too. My concern is that some of what they are talking about like cesium levels have to decrease because of the short half life. One of two things are happening. Either more cesium is being released or what's there is concentrating in the fish so the concentration is offsetting the decay. Being pro nuclear doesn't mean you have to bury your head in the sand when there's an accident. Ignoring data won't help explain what's happening. If it's just concentration of what's there it should reverse in a few years. If it's continuing to leak then there's a bigger problem. The source of the new cesium may be something very obvious. The land was badly contaminated so that cesium is slowly entering the oceans for the rain washing it out of the soil. If this is the source then the fish may be contaminated for decades to come.

  2. Re:No more nukes from this generation by geekoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why are you comparing 3 reactors in the different country with three different regulatory control?

    I would argue the Three Mile Island shows us the regulatory system working, since exactly no one was harmed from that event.

    That said, I think the government should build and Run Nuclear power plants. Sell the electricity at cost to energy companies who can make money through.
    Remove bonus and person gain from how a nuclear plant is run.

    " Everyone of these disasters began with a coverup"
    Not true.

    I would say:
      corporations do not have the moral authority to run today's generation of fission nukes.

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  3. Re:The seafloor and Bikinis by SiggyRadiation · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Interesting point... that begs the question... How does Fukushima compare to Bikini Atoll or the other nuclear bomb testing in terms of radioactive materials released?

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  4. Re:No more nukes from this generation by Shakrai · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That said, I think the government should build and Run Nuclear power plants.

    I'd might willing to get behind the notion of turning it over to the US Navy; decades of reactor operation without any significant radioactive releases or (nuclear related) accidents. Not so sure that we want to see it turned over a civilian bureaucracy though.

    --
    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  5. Fukushima still spewing radiation out by 1800maxim · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Why does it surprise anyone that fish dwelling near the reactor are still radiactive 19 months later? 19 months after what? after the leak began, and has been only slightly reduced? the leak didn't stop, and it's still ongoing.

    the mainstream media stopped dwelling on this, all the while people in North America consume products with high radiation.