Radioactive ocean water from Fukushima reaches Vancouver area

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      A Nova Scotia research scientist has told a scientific conference that isotopes for cesium-134 and cesium-137 have been identified west of Vancouver.

      John Smith, who is with the Canadian government's Bedford Institute of Oceanography, told the American Geophysical Union meeting in Honolulu that levels are far lower than the Canadian limit for drinking water, according to a story on LiveScience.com.

      Smith explained that cesium-134 has a half-life of two years, making it an "unequivocal" indication of ocean contamination from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which occurred after an earthquake on March 11, 2011 in northeastern Japan.

      Cesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years.

      Models suggest that concentrations of radioactive water along the West Coast will peak in 2016.

      Comments

      16 Comments

      matthew whitecloud

      Feb 25, 2014 at 11:43am

      what if the models of peak contamination are wrong.... what if the water cannot be contained... which is happening. cesium-137 has a half life of 30 years. yes but within 30 years of being contaminated and not quarantined, and contamination spilling into the ocean on daily basis until its fixed... who is to say how much contamination is happening.

      Information on...

      Feb 25, 2014 at 12:55pm

      the concentrations would be helpful? Is it well below the safe limits?

      RUK

      Feb 25, 2014 at 12:56pm

      I am not going to do any listeing to that song, because I don't want to be in daze and hypnosis, thanks.

      blah

      Feb 25, 2014 at 3:17pm

      "levels are FAR lower than the Canadian limit for drinking water" Then this whole article is pointless and just a scare tactic???

      Dug Grieves

      Feb 25, 2014 at 3:48pm

      Chernobyl continues to produce deformed children and that melt down of one nuclear reactor was entombed and somewhat contained . Now fukushima with three nuclear melt downs that we know of with the cores melted into the earth somewhere, That continue spewing fission contaminates all day everyday for almost three years now continuously, seems to be of little concern to the media and our health officials . I would like to know when radiation exposure became exceptable to the well being of all life forms. Something is seriously wrong with this situation and a child could comprehend this with in hours of being informed . This summer should be quite interesting when sea life give us the true nature of the situation . All the information related to radiation exposure is freely available on the internet so why the confusion on this matter? Our educated society seems no more aware then cattle being lead to the slaughter house.

      @children

      Feb 25, 2014 at 10:16pm

      Have some warm milk and cookies. Mommy will tuck you in soon. There are no fuckin safe limits for cesium 137 fuck ups. The more cesium 137 the earlier you die.

      Not a Hippie.

      Feb 26, 2014 at 7:51am

      If this makes all the new age tree hugging eco-elitists evacuate the west coast, perfect! More room for all of us who have not adopted their new environmentalist religion. Do some science before you panic over levels that are lower than naturally occurring radioactive elements that are already in all ocean water.

      Yannick

      Feb 26, 2014 at 2:07pm

      The US EPA limit for cesium-137 in drinking water is 7,400 Becquerels, in Canada it is 10,000 Becquerels per/sec/m3. The not so funny thing is, immediately after the first reactor melted down, both the US and Canada doubled the safe benchmark for drinking water..

      The waters tested around Vancouver and west coast of the US have been around 60-30 Becquerels for some time now. Not sure what they are as of now, as the article doesn't tell you much.

      I'm no physicist, but this appears to be big deal.

      Enjoy your sushi!

      @Yannick

      Feb 26, 2014 at 11:50pm

      If this is true:
      <blockquote>The US EPA limit for cesium-137 in drinking water is 7,400 Becquerels, in Canada it is 10,000 Becquerels per/sec/m3.</blockquote>

      And this is true:
      <blockquote>The waters tested around Vancouver and west coast of the US have been around 60-30 Becquerels for some time now.</blockquote>

      Then this does not seem to be true:
      <blockquote>this appears to be big deal.</blockquote>

      This part is certainly true:
      <blockquote>Not sure what they are as of now, as the article doesn't tell you much.</blockquote>

      I just read a few moments ago on http://www.CBC.ca/BC that Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute is crowd-sourcing ocean samples and/or testing off the coast due to lack of funding. $600 can buy a home testing kit.

      So they seemed to be saying that there is a distinctive lack of data for making claims either way about the radiation levels.