elevated radioactive iodine in vancouver rain

A research team at Simon Fraser University has detected an increase in a radioactive isotope they say reached British Columbia from the damaged nuclear station in Japan.

SFU nuclear scientist Kris Starosta said he's confident the beleaguered Fukushima Daiichi station, which was struck by a devastating tsunami following a magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11, is responsible for the increase in iodine-131 in rain and seawater samples detected in their studies.
“The only possible source of iodine-131 in the atmosphere is a release from a nuclear fission,” Starosta said. “Iodine-131 has a half life of eight days. Thus we conclude the only possible release which could happen is from the Fukushima incident.”

However, he said, there is no immediate danger to the public.
“As of now, the levels we’re seeing are not harmful to humans. We’re basing this on Japanese studies following the Chernobyl incident in 1986 where levels of iodine-131 were four times higher than what we’ve detected in our rainwater so far,” Starosta said.

“Studies of nuclear incidents and exposures are used to define radiation levels at which the increase in cancer risk is statistically significant. When compared to the information we have today, we have not reached levels of elevated risk.”

The jet stream is carrying the radiation to North America from Japan. Most of the radioactivity disperses in the atmosphere and falls over the Pacific Ocean, but some has reached the West Coast, falling down with rain and mixing with seawater, the researchers say. It’s also accumulating in seaweed.
The rainwater tested was collected at SFU’s campus on Burnaby Mountain and in downtown Vancouver, the researchers said, while seaweed samples were collected in North Vancouver near the SeaBus terminal in Burrard Inlet. Seaweed samples taken from Barkley Sound on Vancouver Island’s west coast are also being tested.

Starosta predicts iodine-131 will be detected in B.C. three to four weeks after the Fukushima nuclear reactor stops releasing radioactivity into the atmosphere.

 

"It's impossible for radioactive material to get to Vancouver from Japan, it'll all decay!" - A week ago
"Okay, so there is radioactive iodine in our rain and seaweed, but it's not nearly enough to be harmful to humans."

What's next? Hopefully not: "Oops, we forgot to account for bioaccumulation..turns out that radiation was harmful after all but don't worry it'll only SLIGHTLY increase your risk of cancer."

 

It is the beginning of the end for Vanlantis

 

found in usa milk http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/03/31/bc-radiation-milk-concerns.html

 

Who takes a five hour flight everyday as a kid? IMO, no one's really differentiated between the acute and long term risks of radiation. When they say it's 5000x lower than dangerous levels, is that in regards to acute radiation sickness? The last time I checked, the consensus over long term radiation exposure and its relationship with cancer/mortality isn't as clear cut and that's what people would be concerned about.

It's good that they are putting the radiation exposure in the context of what we get exposed to everyday in order to calm the fear mongering but in some ways that oversimplifies the issue. When you're on a plane ride or getting a chest x-ray, that radiation isn't being ingested and accumulating in your thyroid. Quite frankly, I don't recall there being a "lower bound limit" before radiation starts having a deleterious effect.

FWIW, I think people have a right to be a little wary and at least a little concerned. First they keep emphasizing that it'll all decay by the time it gets here because of the vast distance. Now it's being found as far as the east coast of the US (albeit at low levels). That's not a good impression to make.

 

I wonder. If Iodine-131 has a half life of 8 days, does that mean if you leave a water supply sitting for more than two weeks, that the danger will decrease?

 

Yeah but depends on how much there is to begin with and also assuming that there's no new input of I-131.
100% x (1/2)^(14/8) ~ 30%

 

As someone who has Japanese roots (thankfully my relatives & friends live far away from the affected nuclear plants), I find it more difficult to be overly concerned about trace amounts when there are millions of people who are stuck near the plants and hundreds in direct contact who are risking their lives. Of course, I don't expect everyone around the world to view the situation in the same way, especially if they have children/are expecting.

However, I don't think the experts here have any reason to minimize the situation and I believe the scientific evidence that show that we're not in any significant harm. If even the media (which normally tends to blow things out of proportion) is admitting that produce at the supermarket regularly carry trace amounts of radiation and that there's really no reason why we should be panicking, then I'll go back to being concerned about the more pressing issues in my life.

 

My thoughts exactly

 

This situation is becoming very serious. The University of Berkley has a forum on it here http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/forum/218

This article released yesterday by the New York Times also has new information that is VERY concerning http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/world/asia/06nuclear.html?_r=2

It is not just I-131 we are dealing with here, there are more very serious radioactive materials that have been falling out over Vancouver for the last two weeks.

 

Radiation concentrates a lot as it goes up the food chain By the time it gets to tuna it'll be many thousands of times more concentrated than when it gets into plankton.

 

^Moving vertically through the food chain takes longer than the time for I-131 to decay. The concern would be radioactive atoms with longer half lives like Cesium. I haven't kept up to date with whether or not Cs has been found here (I know it's been found in Japan). The argument was that the heavier atoms wouldn't be carried by jetstreams as far as iodine but I don't know how much merit that has since many of the skeptic's arguments have turned out to be wrong.

Can't find what you're talking about. All I see are comments about how they're continuing to monitor radiation levels in local rainwater and plankton. They're emphasizing that current levels are harmless.

 

Thanks for your response,

You do not have to wait for I-131 to move through the food chain, it becomes like dust particles, you can breathe it in and it also gets pulled out of the air by rainfall and concentrates in our drinking water, which are open reservoirs. It only took a few days after the earthquake to bring to the west coast of Vancouver. Iodine-131 has a half life of 8 days, so it would take 10 cycles or 80 days to become “harmless”. Iodine-131 causes cancer of the thyroid, so there is plenty of time for that to happen. Here are some of the contaminates released in the fallout and their corresponding half-life:

Iodine-131 has a half life of 8-days and has been detected in the USA
Cesium-137 has a half-life of 30-years and has been detected in the USA
Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24.1 thousand years and has been confirmed released in Japan.

I posted the Berkley site for information, and there are many opposing and critiquing views throughout the posts. I was more concerned with the NY Times article, especially this line..."The document also suggests that fragments or particles of nuclear fuel from spent fuel pools above the reactors were blown “up to one mile from the units,” and that pieces of highly radioactive material fell between two units and had to be “bulldozed over,” presumably to protect workers at the site. The ejection of nuclear material, which may have occurred during one of the earlier hydrogen explosions, may indicate more extensive damage to the extremely radioactive pools than previously disclosed."

What needs to be understood is that the way these reactors are designed, the spent fuel rods sit in cooling pools on top of the reactors, so when the hydrogen explosions happened those Radionuclides were jettisoned into the atmosphere. You don’t hear that local media or the USA talking too much about that in the news; in fact they seem to be purposely downplaying the situation.

If you would like to educate yourself further on how serious this can be, then watch these videos from the bottom up... http://fairewinds.com/multimedia

I hope this is informative for Vancouver residents.

 

The Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan released a preliminary calculation Monday saying that the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had been releasing up to 10,000 terabecquerels of radioactive materials per hour at some point after a massive quake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan on March 11.

The disclosure prompted the government to consider raising the accident's severity level to 7, the worst on an international scale, from the current 5, government sources said. The level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale has only been applied to the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe.

The current provisional evaluation of 5 is at the same level as the Three Mile Island accident in the United States in 1979. http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/84721.html

 

Fear mongering helps nothing.

 

It is not "Fear mongering" ToeJam, have a look at this Video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z87CJv4T4_o

Individuals need to decide for themselves, if you want to beleive that the radiation will just disappear and will not affect the West Coast then go right ahead.