Radiation from Fukushima Will Be 10 Times Bigger than All Radiation from Nuclear Tests Combined

[caraher]

20. This is a real jumble of factoids

How did they come up with a figure of "10 times?" I couldn't figure that out at all.

Reading the Woods Hole piece they link is much more informative. Bear in mind the graphic the Washington's Blog links compares surface concentrations nearby to levels in water contaminated by Chernobyl hundreds of miles away... it tells us nothing about overall levels of discharge, contrary to the OP article's claim. Later in the Woods Hole article we learn

Buesseler reviewed the range of current estimates of the total cesium releases. Their totals vary widely, he noted, but are “beginning to converge” on a total cesium-137 release of between 15 and 30 petabequerels (10^15 Bq). In comparative terms, he said, this is slightly more than the amount put into the sea by Chernobyl—although the total environmental release from that accident, at 85 PBq, was much higher.

So I don't see at all how this can support a claim of a "wave of radiation" 10 times greater...

The most interesting part about the Woods Hole article, to me, was the role of ocean currents in inhibiting dilution. So if you must worry, and are concerned about the US West Coast, worry instead about Japan's East Coast! Though apparently levels even there, as of a year ago, were within EPA drinking water standards...

“Dilution due to ocean mixing should be enough to cause a decrease in concentration down to background levels within a short period of time,” Buesseler told his audience at the Fukushima and the Ocean conference in November 2012. “Yet all the data we have show that measurements around the site remain elevated to this day at up to 1,000 becquerels per cubic meter.”
He hastened to put that number into context. “A thousand becquerels is not a big number for cesium. Just for comparison, that’s lower than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s limit for drinking water. At that level, Buesseler stressed, the cesium in Japanese coastal waters is safe for marine life and for human exposure.