#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: France's IRSN Assessment on Impact on Marine Environment

Now that Japan is openly dumping contaminated water and their government telling everyone who still listens that everything is safe, let's hear what the French experts have to say about the impact on marine life.

France's Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire (IRSN) issued a paper on April 1 on impact of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident on the marine environment.

It doesn't seem that safe to me. The summary below (google-translated as my French is very rusty) says that while some of radioactive materials will be dispersed wide and over long distance, others will set on the particles suspended in water and will sink to the ocean floor, causing sediment contamination.

Oh great. The ocean floor will be contaminated with the likes of cesium-137 or worse. But not to worry. The Japanese government recommends you eat all the fish and seaweed you want, every single day for 365 days, and you still get only a quarter of the safe radiation dosage per year. What a bargain.

The paper is not yet translated into English/Japanese yet, but the Institute has started to do that for their March papers.

Here's Google translation (looks decent enough):

Measurements made over several days in sea water near the nuclear power plant in Fukushima-Daiichi in Japan show a high contamination of the marine environment by various radionuclides released during the accident at the plant.

In general, radioactive pollution at sea comes from:

• partly from the direct discharge of contaminated water from the plant;
• partly transferred by the rivers of radioactive pollutants deposited in soil following air emissions, then leached by rain;
• benefits for part finally in the ocean part of the plume of radionuclides atmospheric air currents that led to the sea for much of the accident sequence.

Some of these radionuclides are soluble, they will be transported by ocean currents and disperse in oceanic water masses over significant distances.

Others tend to set more or less easily on the solid particles suspended in water, causing sediment contamination after deposition on the ocean floor. Radioactive elements of short half-life, such as iodine 131 (131I), will be detectable for a few months (the radioactivity of iodine-131 is divided by 1000 all ten half-lives, or every 80 days). Others, such as ruthenium 106 (106Ru) and Cesium 134 (134Cs) persist in the marine environment for many years. Cesium 137 (137Cs) has a half long (30 years) it may be justified to ensure close monitoring of long duration, in the coastal areas of Japan where he is likely to be present in sediment. It might be true of plutonium if it was in discards, which is not established yet.

Depending on the persistence of these radionuclides and their concentrations more or less important, some plant and animal species could be contaminated to significant levels, justifying the establishment of a radiological monitoring program of seafood from areas Coastal Japan's most impacted.

Download the information note of the IRSN: " Impact on the marine environment of radioactive releases resulting from the nuclear accident in Fukushima-Daiichi "(pdf)

Half life of:

• Ruthenium-106: 373 days
• Cesium-134: 2 years
• Plutonium: 24,200 years (Pu-239)
  

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