mutant daisies growing near Fukushima power plant

[herding cats]

13. I'm not a sensationalist...

Last edited Tue Aug 18, 2015, 09:21 PM - Edit history (1)

I can't say if these specific mutations in the daisies are due to radiation, or not. Biologist Dr. Mousseau has done extensive studies on the wildlife left to fend for itself around Chernobyl. He has documented many mutations, but also an odd sort of unnatural selection process where 25 years after the disaster, some of the wildlife is apparently evolving to appear to adapt to the elevated, yet not deadly, levels of radiation in the surrounding forest. Some of his research is here and here if anyone is interested in reading about his it.

I did read this today, though. It's food for thought on the reality of the fate of the Fukushima contaminants.

Date:
August 18, 2015
Source:
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Summary:
An international research team reports results of a three-year study of sediment samples collected offshore from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The research aids in understanding what happens to Fukushima contaminants after they are buried on the seafloor off coastal Japan. Scientists found that a small fraction of contaminated seafloor sediments off Fukushima are moved offshore by typhoons that resuspend radioactive particles in the water.

Examining the fate of Fukushima contaminants

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Led by Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist and marine chemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the team found that a small fraction of contaminated seafloor sediments off Fukushima are moved offshore by typhoons that resuspend radioactive particles in the water, which then travel laterally with southeasterly currents into the Pacific Ocean.

"Cesium is one of the dominant radionuclides that was released in unprecedented amounts with contaminated water from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami," says Buesseler. "A little over 99 percent of it moved with the water offshore, but a very small fraction--less than one percent--ended up on the sea floor as buried sediment."

"We've been looking at the fate of that buried sediment on the continental shelf and tracking how much of that contaminated sediment gets offshore through re-suspension from the ocean bottom," he adds.

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"This was a bit of a surprise because when we think of sediment in the ocean, we think of it as sinking vertically, originating from someplace above. But what this study clearly shows is that the only place that the material in our sediment traps could have come from was the continental shelf and slope buried nearshore. We know this because the coastal sediments from the shelf have a unique Fukushima radioactive and mineral signal," says Buesseler.

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"The total transport is small, though it is readily detectable. One percent or less of the contaminated sediment that's moving offshore every year means things aren't going to change very fast," Buesseler says. "What's buried is going to stay buried for decades to come. And that's what may be contributing to elevated levels of cesium in fish--particularly bottom-dwelling fish off Japan."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150818112431.htm

If people are curious about this, they need to read the full article to get a better understanding of what they're saying. I can't link to enough to actually explain in full. The gist is, it's moving out. However, the movement is small amounts and it's slow, very slow to be exact. Which is good news, yet still it's moving in ways it wasn't fully realized it would move via the sediment before the climatic factors were fully considered. It's interesting if you're into how the oceans are impacted by climate, and that sort of stuff, which I realize not everyone finds to be titillating.