“Wall Street Journal says the added radioactivity is about 3% of the naturally occurring radioactivity in the fish, and Reuters converts becquerels into curie to put things in perspective saying “It takes 37 billion becquerels to equal 1 curie”
IOW — next to nothing. At least they admitted it; but, it belies the headline.
Modern instruments can detect the tiniest fraction, of a scintilla of just about anything. It provides an endless source of apocalyptic (and completely misleading) headlines.
as long as my sushi remains raw I’ll be happy
“...The authors found that the fish contained modestly elevated levels of radioactive cesium-134 and cesium-137; by contrast, pre-Fukushima bluefin tuna, which migrated from Japan to California before the Fukushima disaster, and post-Fukushima yellowfin tuna, which primarily inhabit the Eastern Pacific Ocean, had no measurable cesium-134 and only background levels of cesium-137. Because cesium-134 was undetectable in Pacific Ocean seawater and marine life before the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, the findings suggested to the authors that the radioactivity in the post-Fukushima bluefin tuna derived from the Fukushima discharge. The authors emphasize that the elevated radioactivity in the 2011 bluefin tuna should not endanger public health as the reported radiocesium levels are more than an order of magnitude lower than the Japanese safety limit, and provide lower doses of radiation than other isotopes naturally present in the fish, such as potassium-40, which showed comparable levels in all tested fish. The findings reveal a potentially useful tool to trace the migration patterns of marine species, according to the authors.
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Article #12-04859: “Pacific bluefin tuna transport Fukushima-derived radionuclides from Japan to California,” by Daniel J. Madigan, Zofia Baumann, and Nicholas S. Fisher”
Cool. the 134 will be available as a ‘marker’... for a very few years (2 year half life).
Marine scientists thank Fukushima for this advancement of their science!
Have you seen this?
Fukushima reactor building is bulging, leaning
http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/05/west-side-of-the-reactor4-building-bulged/
Fallout map if reactor #4 goes.
http://technorati.com/lifestyle/green/article/fukushima-reactor-4-release-would-doom/