[ RadSafe ] Der Spiegel - Fukushima nuclear catastrophe changed the world????

[Brennan, Mike (DOH)]

I really hope she and her cohort really are as dishonest as this makes her sound, because the alternative is a level of stupidity that I wouldn't wish on anyone (one might argue ignorance, but I contend that remaining ignorant for this long in a field one makes public statements in qualifies as either dishonesty or stupidity). 

I particularly liked comparing snow on top of a glacier to ice taken by core into the glacier.  I am not sure how long it takes snow to compress into ice (I suspect it varies from glacier to glacier, and probably from year to year), but it is at least a number of years.  If the only component of the rad falling on the glacier was radon decay products (clearly not true, but a starting point) then after a couple of years lead-210 would predominate (22 year half-life). This means that ice less than about 80 years old would have 1/10th the activity of snow a year or two old (all other conditions being equal, which they aren't).  

The "... and killed hundreds of thousands of farm animals..." is particularly vile, as almost all of those animals died because of a panicked evacuation, driven not by public health needs, but by political considerations.
 

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Roger Helbig
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2015 11:35 PM
To: RADSAFE
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Der Spiegel - Fukushima nuclear catastrophe changed the world????

Is Der Spiegel known for campaigning against nuclear power?   This
article certainly does not appear to be based on sound journalism or reporting.

Roger Helbig

Fukushima nuclear catastrophe changed the world

by Christina MacPherson

Magazine: 'Fukushima catastrophe changed the world'; Worst nuclear accident in history, like two Chernobyls; 'Poisoned entire landscapes for centuries' -- Study: Fukushima 'overwhelms' the peak radioactivity from nuclear bomb testing in ice core samples; 'Affected the global
environment'http://enenews.com/magazine-fukushima-catastrophe-changed-world-worst-nuclear-accident-history-like-having-chernobyls-poisoned-entire-landscapes-centuries-study-fukushima-overwhelms-peak-radioactivity-atmospheric-bom?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29

Spiegel Online International (Der Spiegel, German news magazine), Feb.
5, 2015 (emphasis added): [It's] the worst accident in the history of civilian atomic power... The Fukushima catastrophe changed the world.
Nuclear reactors melted down on live television and twice as much radioactive material was released as during the Chernobyl accident in 1986. The disaster... poisoned entire landscapes for centuries and killed hundreds of thousands of farm animals... Fukushima is more than just a place-name, it is an historical event...

Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Venice, and Nanjing University, Feb 6, 2015: The β radioactivity of snow-pit samples collected in the spring of 2011 on four Tibetan Plateau glaciers demonstrate a remarkable peak in each snow pit profile, with peaks about ten to tens of times higher than background levels. The timing of these peaks suggests that the high radioactivity resulted from the Fukushima nuclear... The released radioactive nuclear substances not only polluted Japan... but also spread to other areas of the Northern Hemisphere via atmospheric circulation and ocean currents, affecting the hemispheric and even global environment. As an overdose of nuclear radiation may seriously threaten human health and wildlife survival, this nuclear accident has caught the attention of the world. The radioactive fallout [was] detected in the atmosphere, soil, surface water, and pastures in the low-altitude regions of North America... Much of the radioactive material was transported by the westerlies, resulting in the fallout over North America... [T]o reach the Tibetan Plateau, material transported by the westerlies has to first circle much of the globe... In May 2011, snow-pit samples were collected on the Gurenhekou Glacier... Dongkemadi Glacier... Muztag Glacier and Yuzhufeng Glacier... In 2005 and 2007, we drilled ice cores...
Tanggula ice core [and] Yuzhufeng ice core... Clearly, the peak β radioactivities in the snow pits... are much higher than that in the corresponding local ice cores, and even overwhelm the peak β radioactivities caused by past atmospheric thermonuclear tests in the early 1960s... The peak β radioactivities... are 11.0 and 92.4 times larger than their local average background levels... attributed to the Fukushima radioactive fallout... The Fukushima nuclear accident... created a radioactive horizon that can be used as independent age markers in snow and ice cores in the Northern Hemisphere... providing a direct record of the impacts of human activities on the Earth's environment...

See also: VIDEO: New data shows Fukushima radiation release exceeds Chernobyl

Christina MacPherson | February 18, 2015 at 6:50 am | Categories:
Fukushima 2015 | URL: http://wp.me/phgse-iTy

http://nuclear-news.net/2015/02/18/fukushima-nuclear-catastrophe-changed-the-world/
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