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Live Reports from Bikini Atoll

Published January 19, 2015 by Dan Sythe

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Dr. Ken Buesseler is currently on Bikini Atoll, studying the residual radioactive impacts of nuclear testing that took place there.  This picture was taken on January 18, 2015.   We were able to send Ken a Safecast Nano radiation detector, and will be posting data from the instrument to the Safecast website.  Safecast will also be reporting on Kenʻs scientific mission, so stay tuned to the Safecast Website.

We got this report from Dr. Buesseler as he was approaching Bikini Atoll by boat:

“Essentially we left Majuro on Jan 16, are at Bikini atoll sampling 18-20, head 24 hours to Enewetak (with one sampling station in between for waters in upper 2000m) and then 3 days in Enewetak before the 3 day steam back to Majuro.  

This is a privately funded research cruise on the R/V Alucia.  Quite a nice ship compared to our govt. funded ones!  It’s a one off chance to sample an important site of over 100 nuclear weapons tests and about 80% of the total yield from US testing (so many big tests were conducted here).  Given our limits to space and funding, we are not sampling any living animals, plants, marine life, corals, fish, algae etc. so it is more focused on radionuclide concentrations and sources, not on uptake in food chain.  While levels for many will be higher……cesium in the ocean today post Fukushima near the NPP is actually higher than in the lagoons.  Plutonium may be a different story as it was/is? higher here, and quite low from Fukushima.”

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Japan was not the only population to experience the devastation produced by nuclear weapons.  The impacts of nuclear testing on the Marshal Islands population was quite severe.   American service men and women were also exposed during these tests.

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Things look more peaceful in the images Ken is sending us.  This Nano is one of several instruments Ken is carrying.  The Nano is unique in that it contains a GPS receiver that will log geographical position along with radiation data.  The instrument is an open source device designed by Safecast.  This one was built by my wife, Orapin, at a Safecast workshop in Tokyo, Japan

 

Orapin Sythe with Nano radiation detector she built in Tokyo
Orapin Sythe with Nano radiation detector she built in Tokyo

Circling back to another Japan connection to all of this, Ken was able to visit the Lucky Dragon ship in Tokyo recently, as he prepared for this trip.  The crew of the Lucky Dragon was not very lucky, and was hit by fallout from nuclear test Bravo on March 1 1946.  Read more on the Lucky Dragon on Wikipedia here.

 

Ken next to Lucky Dragon
Dr. Ken Buesseler next to the Lucky Dragon ship, Tokyo Japan

 

There is a lot more to this story, including the data Dr. Buesseler will be collecting.  Iʻm very interested to hear how the ecosystem is holding up there.  Stay tuned here, and keep an eye on Safecast for more news.

Dr. Buesseler is continuing to monitor radiation levels in the ocean worldwide, with particular attention being given to the Pacific Rim post-Fukushima at http://www.ourradioactiveoceans.org

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Updates on Earlier Posts

Published January 18, 2015 by Dan Sythe

We are continuing to monitor food, plants, seaweed for radioactivity from Fukushima Daiichi at our California lab.  We are upgrading equipment, refining our methods, learning a lot.   Right now any Cesium from Fukushima Daiichi is at levels too low for our equipment to detect.  Weʻll be reporting more on the equipment and techniques we are using.  The basic information is that we are using 3 inch by 3 inch Sodium Iodide detectors, which have pretty high sensitivity when you put enough lead around them to shield out background radiation.

We reported earlier that Dr. Ken Buesselerʻs project is reporting the detection of some Cesium 134 from Fukushima off the coast of Northern California.  The level reported is 2 becquerel per cubic meter of water.  A cubic meter of water, for those of you who havenʻt converted to metric yet, is a cube with dimensions of about 3.3 by 3.3 by 3.3 feet.   To visualize 2 bq per cubic meter imagine random flashes of light in an area of that size, at the rate of approximately 2 per second (which is about 120 per minute).  The fact that we have lived with radioactive cesium in the ocean since nuclear weapons were first tested in the atmosphere in the 1940ʻs does not give a lot of comfort to those of us who love the oceans.  But we still need to see it in perspective, and the levels are still relatively low.

Iʻve been thinking a lot about my earlier post about the radioactive sand at Surfer Beach, Half Moon Bay, CA.  I did determine to my satisfaction that the radiation was not from Fukushima Daiichi.  The State of California and others agreed with me and said it was safe.  While I still think it is a beautiful beach and that the radioactive minerals there are likely naturally occurring, I think making a blanket statement that it is safe is going a little farther than I am comfortable with.   I provide radiation detection instruments to many safety professionals who work to meet regulatory compliance in the petroleum drilling and transportation industries.   The sand on Surfer Beach contains the same NORM class materials that they have safety programs related to, and exceeds the levels deemed of concern by some States and by the EPA.  Both Radium 226 and Thorium 232 emit alpha radiation, which can be hazardous inside the body if these radionuclides are ingested or inhaled.  So people with babies and small children might want to think about whether that is the best beach to play on.   If you want to find out more google NORM, Thorium 232, Radium 226.  There is a lot of interesting information out there.  I did feel a sense of urgency to let people know the radiation on that beach wasnʻt from Fukushima – because people were getting a little crazy over a false rumor.

Back to rumors again, there have been some reports of high radiation levels on beta sensors in the EPA Radnet network.   I have tried to get information on what is happening by going to the source:  The EPA.  I wish I could report anything useful.  I tried emailing them using email links on the Radnet website.   None of the links were functional.  I called EPA on the 2 phone numbers on their website on Dec. 17 2014.  Iʻm still waiting for a return phone call.  With response time like this, I hope we donʻt have a genuine emergency.  I am continuing to investigate and will report here if I find out anything about what is going on.

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Fukushima Cesium Traces Approaching California – Part I

Published November 15, 2014 by Dan Sythe

Breaking News this past week – Trace Amounts of Radioactive Cesium from Fukushima Daiichi have been reported  off the coast of California.  See the story on Yahoo News here.

In January of this year a wave of panic swept across the Pacific Rim – based on unfounded rumors of this happening.  Now that it is actually closer to happening, it is important for people to understand it in perspective.  To begin, the levels detected off the coast of Northern California are very low – millions of times lower than levels being detected in the ocean off of Fukushima Daiichi.  It takes specialized and very expensive equipment to detect the subtle levels recently measured 100 miles off of Eureka California.  Read the local story in the Northern California Press Democrat here.

When false stories and rumors circulated in January, I wrote this blog post to show that elevated radiation levels on a California beach were not from Japan.    I have been one of many people and groups that have been keeping an independent eye on things since events of  March 11 2011.   Why is independent monitoring important?  For one thing the U.S. Government is not operating any overt ocean monitoring program.  In Japan, the breakdown of monitoring systems due to the disaster, combined with political and other considerations, led to an information vacuum.   That vacuum was largely filled by  independent and nonprofit Safecast.  People are learning that they cannot count on governments to provide all the information they want or need.

Some countries, notably Germany, Finland and other European countries, have developed improved radiation monitoring systems since they were hit by Chernobyl fallout in 1986.  The United States was relatively  isolated from that event, and has not had a major nuclear disaster since the Three Mile Island incident in 1979.   While there is some limited government-funded monitoring of airborne radiation performed in the U.S. by the EPA Radnet system and CEMP, ocean monitoring just isnʻt on the agenda.

Enter Dr. Ken Buesseler.  Dr. Buesseler is considered to be one of the worldʻs leading experts on radioactivity in our oceans.  He has a PH.D. in Marine Chemistry from MIT and has studied both the naturally occurring radioactive elements in the worldʻs oceans, and also the effects of nuclear weapons testing and the Chernobyl incident.  He is eminently qualified to measure and interpret measurements in this type of monitoring program.  Dr. Bueseler has a well equipped lab with some very  sensitive equipment.   Funding for his program is coming from interested stakeholders, people like you and me who are interested enough to invest in the project.  The fact that he is not funded by government or industry gives him some insulation from pressures that can come with grants and contracts.

As a side note, I believe it is in the publics interest to have Dr. Buesseler engaged in this monitoring program.  I am encouraging people to participate, as I am,  in the  sampling project.  I am participating  by pooling resources with others to provide samples from Bodega Head, Sonoma County, California, and Maui, Hawaiʻi .  Our August test in California did not show anything from Fukushima yet.   The data from seawater we collected in August from Baby Beach on Mauiʻs North Shore is expected to be available soon.  The results of these and other readings are posted at Dr. Buesselerʻs website at http://www.ourradioactiveoceans.org.

How do we tell if radiation we measure is from Fukushima Daiichi?  Dr. Buesseler and others  have monitored the effects of above ground nuclear testing for some time now.  Cesium 137 and Cesium 134 are two radionuclides that were deposited during the atmospheric testing, and are also flowing into the ocean from the damaged complex at Fukushima Daiichi.  Cesium 137 has a half life of 30 years.  Cesium 134 has a half life of 2 years.   Cesium 137 from nuclear testing days is still detectable in very low concentrations, while the 134 is almost undetectable.  Dr. Buesseler believes the only new source of Cesium 134 today is from Fukushima Daiichi.  We have known for some time that it would be the marker that let us know when radionuclides from the Japan reactor meltdowns had reached North America.  Until now, all samples taken along Californiaʻs long coast have shown results in line with pre-Fukushima Daiichi conditions.

What does this mean for people and the environment?  Many scientists, including Dr. Buesseler, believe that the health risk is very low or negligible from these low level readings.  Health risk from radiation is a controversial and hotly debated topic.  Many scientists believe that, even though the risk may be extremely small, the risk from radiation exposure (even at small doses) is not zero.  This understanding is now the official position of the BEIR VII Committee of the National Academies of Sciences.  If this is indeed true, then there is even some risk from natural sources of radiation that humans have been exposed to for millennia.  Indeed, the natural Potassium 40 in ocean water exists in significantly higher concentrations that the radioactive Cesium in the sample off of Eureka.  Weʻll get into this further in future posts.

Coming up:  What is a becquerel?  How do we gain confidence in the data?

From around the web:   Dr. Buesseler on Reddit      Safecast     Our Radioactive Oceans

 

 

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