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International marine science organization releases report on radiation in Pacific Ocean

international-marine-science-organization-releases-report-on-radiation-in-pacific-ocean

If you've heard about Fukushima radiation spreading to the Pacific Coast of North America but were "corrected" by sources both official and expert that this was based more on rumor than reality, then consider the information presented at the October 2013 North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) annual meeting.

Researchers from Fisheries and Oceans Canada confirmed that the radioactive plume from Fukushima is indeed reaching the shores of Canada and the United States – and was detected at least six months ago – carried both in the ocean surface water and the atmosphere on similar but slightly different courses.

In a presentation titled "Communicating the forecasts, uncertainty and consequences of ecosystem change," (read here: http://www.pices.int) the Canadian researchers gave evidence that the bulk of radioactivity from Fukushima is shifting almost entirely from the western portion of the North Pacific (Japan) to the eastern portion (North America) over the course of the next five years. As of 2012, it had already reached the central region of the Pacific Ocean, and a previously unpublished map shows that, as of 2013, it had reached the shores of Alaska and British Columbia, with the most intense area of the plume yet to arrive.

The Fall 2013 discussion centered around competing calculations of the severity of effects from cesium-137, based around two differing models of the radiation's trajectory. The first, published by German researcher Erik Behrens and his colleagues at the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in 2012, drastically understates the potential dangers, predicting only modest levels of 2 becquerels per cubic meter (Bq/m^3) by 2015 for the 49th parallel near British Columbia and Washington state – scarcely above the background levels from the continued fallout of Chernobyl.

Meanwhile, the second, published by Vincent Rossi and other colleagues from the Climate Change Research Centre in 2013, presents a much more consequential picture. It predicts alarming maximum levels reaching 25 Bq/m^3 at their monitoring station in British Columbia by 2015 and peaks above 30 Bq/m^3. Cesium levels at the 30th parallel – reaching Baja California in Mexico – wouldn't peak until about 2019, though projected maximum levels would reach only about 15-20 Bq/m^3.

The amount of atmospheric cesium being transported across the ocean via winds remains the unknown yet potentially greater factor. It partially explains the drastic difference in projections, as there are no monitoring stations for airborne radiation in the Pacific and no reliable methods of predicting the scale of its effects. Further, it has only recently been publicly admitted that 300-400 tons of contaminated water have been pouring into the Pacific per day since the meltdown began in March 2011.

The fact is that the initial findings of radioactivity from Fukushima on the shores of Alaska, British Columbia, California and Mexico – confirmed privately within the scientific community months ago – are just the beginning. They are consistent with previous predictions of cesium-137 hitting the West Coast of the continental United States in late 2013 and early 2014. Scientists have acknowledged that it will continue to spread into the Arctic Ocean, reaching eastern Russia and eventually pouring into the Atlantic Ocean.

All models point to increased radiation from here on out. Just how bad it will get remains to be seen, but red flags were raised last week when health officials dismissed concerns about readings taken in San Francisco and posted on the Internet that showed levels as high as 150 counts-per-minute – about five times higher than normal background radiation levels.

Though public authorities continue to ignore warning signs – and refuse to inform the public about the scientific findings in order to quell panic – these radioactive nucleotides bioaccumulate in the food web, and in the human body, and should not be so handily dismissed.

Above normal levels were already detected in milk from the West Coast two years ago, tipping off the scientific community to the fact that rainwater, dairy, produce and meat supplies were already being hit with cesium-137, iodine-131 and possibly strontium-90. Bioaccumulation can greatly concentrate the amounts of radiation present in the environment, such that exposure to cesium through milk or meat – which aggregates the total amounts of radiation present in the water, grass, hay etc. consumed by the cow – could reach dangerous levels in humans.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.turnerradionetwork.com
http://enenews.com
http://www.pices.int
http://iopscience.iop.org
http://www.sciencedirect.com
http://rt.com
http://www.enviroreporter.com
http://science.naturalnews.com

Republished with permission from Natural News
Written by Thomas Henry

Featured image: Surface water distribution of Fukushima 137Cs in 2012. Credit: Aoyama et al., 2013; G. Hong, pers. comm.

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12 Comments

  1. Also, if anyone is interested in this new project from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, they're starting a updated map of radiation measurements taken along the west coast.
    ourradioactiveocean[dot]org/results[dot]html
    (they also say that the EPA max for cesium 137 is 7,400 Bq/m3)

  2. Erm, not disagreeing with everybody's concern, but did the author really read the PICES report cited? Near the end it says [in reference to Rossi and Behrens projections] "Caveat: These levels are still well below maximum permissible concentrations in drinking water for Cesium 137 of 10,000 Bq/m3: Not an environmental or human health radiological threat!" I'm sure people will debate that, anyway.

    I really just wanted to comment here about TurnerRadioNetwork and their fearmongering. Most of their articles don't even cite an author or their sources. I wish people would stop giving them web traffic.

    If anyone's interested, here's a really well researched, rational article about the health risks of radiation: www[dot]fukushimaresearchgroup[dot]com/radionuclides-in-the-food-chain/

    And uh… stop reading TurnerRadioNetwork, folks. Seriously. From the TRN link cited at the bottom of this article:
    "NORTH KOREA MAY ATTACK

    As the map above shows, off the western coast of Japan, considerable amounts of radiation have already reached the Korean Peninsula, with the majority already hitting North Korea. One can only imagine what the North Korean regime will do now that this information is out, especially given the fact they hate the Japanese and routinely threaten to attack without cause. Could this be the excuse they need to attack?"

    GARBAGE NON-JOURNALISM

  3. I appreciate some grounded reporting on a matter that easily fuels fear – in fact radioactivity is one of the modern symbols of fear-guilt since the dropping of the bomb.

    I'm aware that such symbols can be overstated, because fear is a means of stimulating and manipulating thought.

    So I'd appreciate some grounded reports that – as far as one can – quantifies the actual threat.

    It seems that Chernobyl hasn't killed millions. Greenpeace grossly exaggerated figures of its effect in something I once read.

    I am aware that the greatest danger is to our reproductive system and the very young – with a general sense of a significantly higher risk of cancers. Am I wrong in this?

    Whether the hidden power agenda instigates catastrophes or not – it does now use them to implement its 'global agenda' which initially serfs the population to a corporate servitude; as resource to be exploited; or indeed excess to be culled?

    If terror is being used as a weapon on our consciousness, then a grounded clear communication of what exactly is dangerous, what we can together DO – AND what opportunities arise in meeting the challenge together – rather than giving all power to governments or institutions who increasingly feed themselves on it.

  4. Using a middle amount of 350 tons per day from the date of the spill on March 2011, as of Jan 25 2014 approximately 488,250 tons of radioactive water has leaked into the pacific ocean.

  5. We have just taken delivery of the LAST Alaska Salmon we will eat. This was from the Kodiak Is waters/area (via ELKUSA over in Colorado). The issue of that "elevated" leaking cooling pool above #3 will be the real killer when it collapses – These are PLOTONIUM mixture fuel rods. They will support fission upon touching each other. An open to atmosphere event like this will load the "winds" with particles and next stop will be CAN/USA et al – at levels high enough to kill. The half-life involved is in decades and centuries! We be screwed.

  6. We keep getting taxed more and more every year our country dept gets higher and higher, everything goes up even food with radiation and you still don't see one phucken thing on the world news how the Pacific and coastal states are being attacked by radiation. Not one cent going to stop nuclear plants, its obvious to me when we learn how bad it is its going to be to late and we all are just going to be part of the pass that US did nothing to help americans, what a country we live in…………….

  7. Wonder how good all that gold, gems and money will taste.

    And still we let these !% corporate pieces of fecal matter to just keep ruining the planet to the point where they will be the only people left standing.
    What I don't understand it that here are a small group of peoples whom use there fortunes as a free pass to turn this planet into an unlivable home for any life which also begs the question that if your home was being broken into, you would do what you could to stop those attacking you, nice and well but all the people don't do a thing because we have been taught to just accept this faux authority and let those 1% reek havoc on the whole world.
    Sad to think that this world/planet will just fade away without a whimper as the people just stand around and stare as their home/earth is destroyed to the point of not supporting life.

  8. Well …. at least … if we all start glowing in the dark we can save on electricity .. Yet I am so very grateful for my hope and belief in the returning of Divinity and the promised deliverance for the people .. It seems our world has past the tipping point into zones of no return …

    1. I feel one has to be the change to recognize the change. That is, be the willingness to see and be the presence of love in our relations – and I mean that as a grounded presence of shared worth and not painting the roses red.
      I feel we may be just past the tipping point of a growing integrative moment – which though smaller in number than the segregating movement – is much more powerful because it IS integrative.
      One might say – "well we'll see wont we" – but I sense whatever mentality one chooses will determine the perception-experience.
      Here's to the re-appreciation of a divine awareness which never really left us while we dallied in self-blinding definitions.
      Yes, that's hard to believe, but that does not mean one need believe against it!
      Questioning our perceptions uncovers our self definitions. I do not believe we are locked in the 'human condition' but that human conditioning says so!

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