Fukushima radioactivity poses little threat to California, scientists say [View all]

[FBaggins]

HONOLULU -- Radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan has not reached the shore of California and is unlikely to pose any threat to human health, two leading North American scientists said Monday.

The experts on the fallout's path across the Pacific Ocean presented their latest findings in Hawaii at the Ocean Sciences Meeting, a conference that brings together many of the world's foremost oceanographic researchers. They delivered their message amid lingering anxiety -- and misinformation -- about the potential of the 2011 accident to poison people living on the West Coast.

...snip...

The radioactive material is expected to arrive in small quantities on the coast this spring. But two models for predicting ocean circulation, said John Smith of the Bedford Institute for Oceanography in Nova Scotia, estimate that cesium-137 amounts will top out at roughly 25 becquerels per cubic meter. That's at least 300 times less than would justify worries about contamination here. "It's clearly not a health threat," said Smith, noting that his primary interest is tracing the course of the radioactive material to learn more about water circulation and mixing in the northern Pacific Ocean.

...snip...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's maximum allowable amount of cesium-137 in drinking water is 7,400 becquerels per cubic meter, Buesseler said. Swimming in the ocean, he added, exposes a person to about 12,000 becquerels per cubic meter of potassium-40, a naturally occurring radionuclide.

http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county-times/ci_25219738/fukushima-radioactivity-poses-little-threat-california-scientists-say