[ RadSafe ] Scientists: Test West Coast for Fukushima radiation

[Dan McCarn]

Just a question for the group:

As a uranium geologist, I am very aware of significant uptake of ocean-circulating uranium into marine phosphorites and marine black shales. For the phosphorites, uranium can be extracted economically as a co-product in the wet phosphoric acid process to produce fertilizers. 

Given that the ocean-bottom materials also have high cation exchange capacity, I would have thought that much of the cesium/strontium would have been adsorbed onto this material given their high cation exchange selectivity. 

Around Chernobyl, much of the Cs and Sr has been concentrated in the humus zones in soil and adsorbed into clays. 

How I are the radionuclides from Fukushima distributed in the water column?  What mechanisms are active in the ocean for sequestering radionuclides?

Dan W McCarn
108 Sherwood Blvd
Los Alamos, NM 87544 USA
+1-505-670-8123
Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 11, 2014, at 12:26 PM, Brad Keck <bradkeck at mac.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Roger,
> 
> 
> Thanks for the links.  While I am inherently skeptical of not having rigid control of the sampling process (hard earned lessons here :}   ),
> 
> it is interesting to see the dissipation of the 134Cs and the near-uniformity of the 2014-measured 137Cs which overlaps nicely with previously measured values.   
> 
> Apparently the method here is to have 20 L of seawater collected, then isolate the Cs on a resin and count it on a high end, high resolution gamma spectrometer, and they even throw in a cold Cs "tracer."      Intersestingly, they report values decay corected to the Fukushima peak release, so you have to "uncorrect" them for current values.....  
> 
> Is there any reason to think at this point, that there could be a sample which is not yet diluted to 137Cs background levels or 134Cs MDA?  
> 
> 
> Bradly D. Keck, Ph.D.
> 
> 
> On Mar 10, 2014, at 09:33 PM, Roger Helbig <rwhelbig at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> They are obtaining the samples from trained volunteers and doing the
> testing - take a look at this website -
> http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=83397&tid=3622&cid=94989
> which has link to
> http://ourradioactiveocean.org/
> On Mon, Mar 10, 2014 at 7:05 PM, Brad Keck <bradkeck at mac.com> wrote:
> 
> Apparently some "scientists" are crowd-sourcing the samples from volunteers along the west coast, according to the report.
> 
> 
> What could possibly go wrong?
> 
> 
> Bradly D Keck
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mar 10, 2014, at 10:31 AM, Jim Darrough <darrougj at onid.orst.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Gosh I hate when they make misstatements like that. A lot of my friends ask
> 
> 
> me questions about it when this happens.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Jim Darrough
> 
> 
> Oregon State University
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> 
> 
> From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
> 
> 
> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Joel C.
> 
> 
> Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2014 9:59 PM
> 
> 
> To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
> 
> 
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] Scientists: Test West Coast for Fukushima radiation
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> USA Today has a piece on Fukushima contamination. Here's a sample:
> 
> 
> "In Oregon, state park rangers take quarterly samples of surf water and sand
> 
> 
> at three locations along the coast. The water is analyzed for Cesium 137 and
> 
> 
> iodine 131. Both of those already exist in the ocean at low levels from
> 
> 
> nuclear testing decades ago."
> 
> 
> Boy, that I-131 is sure persistent!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --- Joel I. Cehn
> 
> 
> joelc at alum.wpi.edu
> 
> 
> Radiation Info
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