Level of radiation dump by TEPCO in the Pacific Ocean is so mind-boggling that a new unit may be needed for nuclear disasters (15 peta-Becquerels just for March 2011). Fish and seafood is contaminated and even the Ocean cannot dilute such a radioactivity source.
An article published 2 weeks ago in Japan Times states that cesium would be back in Japan after 20 to 30 years, promoting a false immediate sense of security. Yet sea radiation maps show the area of dispersion： radiation is here to stay, all along the coast and far reaching – the issue is not the round trip, even if it happens. After more than 90 years, there would still be about 10% of cesium – not to mention all the other radionucleides.
Here is a screenshot of a 3D map of the extent of the radiation in the Pacific Ocean from 2011 July 15. Two months and a half later, it is easy to extrapolate the reach to all of Japan eastern coast save Okinawa and hence absolutely no fish nor seafood from Japan should be eaten at all.
A private consulting firm called ASR also allows viewing it with Google Earth on their site.
Cesium in sea may return in 20 to 30 years
Kyodo, Thursday, Sep. 15, 2011
Radioactive cesium that was released into the ocean from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant is likely to flow back to Japan’s coast in 20 to 30 years after circulating in the northern Pacific Ocean in a clockwise pattern, researchers said Wednesday.
Researchers at the Meteorological Research Institute and the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry estimated that the amount of radioactive cesium-137 that was directly released into the sea came to 3,500 terabecquerels from March to the end of May, while estimating that roughly 10,000 terabecquerels fell into the ocean after it was released into the air.
Cesium-137 has a relatively long half life of about 30 years and can accumulate in the muscles once it is in the body and can cause cancer.
According to the analysis, the cesium is expected to first disperse eastward into the northern Pacific. It will then be carried southwestward before some of it returns to the Japanese coast carried northward by the Japan Current from around the Philippines.
survivaljapan 
Oh My Gosh!!!!! I just started craving fish again after a few years of hating it. I guess I have to give it up again 😦
Sad isn’t it. So many great fish-based Japanese dishes gone. We can still eat imported fish (mostly European salmon available) and freshwater fish from south and west regions of Japan. I would avoid any from Alaska and Hawaii for the moment – fish caught off the coast of California is still probably safe until Spring 2012 but I am figuring out how autumn and winter will change currents and plan a new post on this soon.
The positive side is that the spotlight is on the food supply chain now and interesting facts show up not only in Japan… A risk is always relative to another one, so we need to compare with other countries, other sources of fish contamination like PCBs, mercury, fluorides (solar panel industry), etc., remains from oil spills and nuclear tests, etc. and educate ourselves. Oceans worldwide have become much dirtier over the years and their capacity for absorption and dilution are not limitless. Besides, other food-linked risks must be taken into account such as growth hormones and antibiotics (American beef and milk), genetically modified organisms (Cf. Monsanto, Syngenta…), genetically modified growth hormones in beef (Monsanto again…), actually the whole cattle feeding process makes eating American beef a food hazard if you really look into it – the reason why hamburgers kill is not only because of fat. More than half of deaths in the US in 2009 were caused by heart diseases, strokes and cancers according to CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm) and contaminated food is playing an increased role. We should revise the definition for junk food actually.
“Have no fear for atomic energy, cause none of them can stop the time . . . “
ugh!
[…] « d’Hokkaido ». Arrangement Volti à partir de l’article: Survivaljapan.wordpress.com 1Partager :Partagere-mailImprimerRedditDiggStumbleUpon […]
It is believed by many commentors on the blogs that water will (by magic!) dillute the radioactivity from the tsunami debris and from the radiated water from Japan.
It is really an awful situation. The whole North Pacific seems like it will be making the most toxic seafood that will give deadly radiation internally to heathly people (not near Japan) worldwide.
Terrible.
I have a page of resources and updated news about the big tsunami debris floating toward North America here – http://wp.me/pA5vn-17K
What is sad is that the ocean current system travels the world not just the pacific. The radiation will travel through the Panama Canal and into the Atlantic and joining into the convection current in the upper Atlantic. The oceans will all die…and we die..
Any novice at how the oceans work and how the food chain works knows this.
We are being lied to and the issue ignored by the Government. Japan has killed the whole world.
The amount of radiation travelling through the Panama Canal is probably close to none. South Pacific was already polluted by American and French nuclear tests and populations in French Polynesia sick from radiations, as their descent, bear it silently. North Atlantic has been polluted for decades by France, Brittain, Switzerland, etc. as documented by Greenpeace. Barrels of nuclear waste have been thrown out at sea by French then public companies such as Framatome (current Areva), Cogema, etc. and these barrels have been found opened and empty by remotely operated cameras on the sea bed. In Normandy, France, the Hague plant daily disposes nuclear waste out at sea. Brittain did the same in the Irish sea. The Baltic sea is polluted with various chemicals including weapons. Basically, one would be advised not only to avoid Norwegian salmon but any fish from northwestern Europe. The American east coast is not better, nuclear waste has been dumped in the Columbia river, etc. Three Mile Island accident resulted in the pollution of the Susquehanna river, i.e. the Chesapeake bay and eventually the North Atlantic. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg, and industrial waste from northeast US into the Atlantic ocean has been going for half a century. China is an ecological disaster of its own and USSR has done its fair share in its time. So I disagree with you, Japan has not killed the whole world and we are still alive and kicking, even on this New Year’s Eve of 2013. For all we know, the whole world might disappear from a magnetic disruption in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a world effort to control what our technology and science are not able to, placed in a sismically active region in France (Cadarache), with no less than five earthquakes in 2013 in that beautiful region. As you can read, it is an international effort, Japan – and China – are only part of it.