Responses: 4
There is a big misconception about the rad levels in the pacific. The Image one the left is the one people see most of the time and it is claimed that it represents Pacific Ocean surface Radiation levels. This image was put out by the NOAA put out that shows the maximum wave heights in the Pacific at the time of the Japanese Tohuku Tsunami. Note the fault line representation and the magnitudes on the map. Radiation is measure in Becquerel[Bq], Sieverts[Sv], and REM. Mostly in Sieverts. If the radiation levels were really exceeding 50,000Sv/hr (this is the max dose a radiation worker is alowed to experiences in a year, by law) as the first image suggests they Government would have to post a warning about the radiation levels because that would be spending few hours in the ocean would be enough to start causing reduction in white blood cell count. That will put you close to 200,000Sv which is the government limit for EMS to operate under in an emergency. If you look at the legend it states the units are in centimeters which already makes this a farce. The second image shows the actual concentration of surface radiation in the Pacific measured in Bq/m^3 if you look the Radiation concentration is 10,000,000 times less than where it was released (Fukushima Daiichi). This is roughly 10^-12 Bq/m^3 or 10^-9Bq/L of water. If we take that and multiply it by the density of sea water, 1029 kg/m^3, we get approximately: 10^-6Bq for each kilogram of water. That's over 100,000 thousand time less than what is in a single cup of coffee (third image provided below). If we look at a cup of coffee as 8oz or roughly .226Kg, then there is about 30Bq/oz of coffee. Drinking coffee will kill you faster than eating fish from the ocean or swimming in it will. Oh did I mention that this is 2.5 years after the initial incident.... It's very likely that it has since dissipated further. The reason Chernobyl is still so bad is because it was a smaller body of water that was affected as well as the surrounding area, leaving less volume to dissipate the solution of fissile materials. I borrowed Images and bits of info from the following sources, and did the calculations myself.
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/radiation-dosage-chart/
http://www.deepseanews.com/2013/11/true-facts-about-ocean-radiation-and-the-fukushima-disaster/
https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1209/ML120970113.pdf
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/radiation-dosage-chart/
http://www.deepseanews.com/2013/11/true-facts-about-ocean-radiation-and-the-fukushima-disaster/
https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1209/ML120970113.pdf
Radiation Dosage Chart — Information is Beautiful
Chart visualising the range of non-lethal to lethal doses of radiation.
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I'm with you. How will this work? Still recovering from Chernobyl, now this. I say we should be worried.
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Most interesting
Most dangerous disaster since Ukraine... and Flooding the pacific with radiation and no one is saying any thing... Looks Like the Global warming people would be out there screaming Like Rats eating Onions...
Most dangerous disaster since Ukraine... and Flooding the pacific with radiation and no one is saying any thing... Looks Like the Global warming people would be out there screaming Like Rats eating Onions...
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