Japan has lost control of the situation (that much is clear) and has been polluting the ocean for weeks now.

Is it safe to buy/eat fish etc?

Lisa Jones wrote on Apr 12^th, 2011 at 2:50pm:


I wouldn't be buying fish or seafood from  Japan.  There are restrictions in force anyway.

Anywhere outside that area, the risk is negligible. You'd have a much higher risk of contracting lung cancer from passive smoking (assuming nobody in your house smokes).

Lisa.

Fish swim from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere as a matter of routine for feedind and spawing etc

I would Watch that next tuna salad very carefully

muso wrote on Apr 12^th, 2011 at 2:48pm:


According to Minoru Oogoda, an official with Japan's nuclear safety agency, "the agency made the decision because the impact of radiation leaks

had widely spread to the air, vegetables, tap water and the ocean.

"
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-04/12/c_13824832.htm

There was no reference to a time component!

Btw, I had previously looked thru the INES Users Handbook and I can not recall any 30 days timeline requirement!

Heavy insoluble metals tend to bioaccumulate. That includes such metals as Uranium and Plutonium, as well as Mercury.

The largest tuna have usually relatively high mercury content (still measured in parts per trillion) and usually fail the EU criteria.
 
It's likely that any significant Uranium or Plutonium release has been avoided in this case (unlike Chernobyl). If it was just on detectable limits on the site itself, then it's unlikely to be detectable above background anywhere else. 

The driving force in Chernobyl was the fact that the core melted down to form a lava en masse. The graphite control rods caught fire and the exhaust gases from the graphite fire carried many heavy radionuclides, including Uranium and Plutonium.

If there is a good thing about Cesium hydroxide, it's the fact that it doesn't readily bioaccumulate.  Iodine bioaccumulates in the thyroid valve, and in certain marine organisms such as shellfish and seaweed.

perceptions_now wrote on Apr 12^th, 2011 at 3:05pm:


you are spot on there.

The level 7 rating describes a major nuclear accident which Fukushima is. Its radioactive release has global implications.

This is on a scale far worse than Chernobyl - and it hasnt finished yet.

You cant cool a molten slag of fuel rods due to the basic ratio of surface area to volume being to small. The question now is how far will it melt? will it reach the ground water table?

Chernobyl and fukushima will be epitaphs for future human generations (if we survive) to acknowledge HOW STUPID humans can be.

Regarding Fuel rods. The initial temperature of the 'corium' at Chernobyl was 2600 degrees C. This cooled to around 1500 degrees within a few minutes, and within a week, it had solidified. You can see pictures of the "Elephants Foot" on the web.

The main problem is the fact that the Uranium in the corium is mobilised when it hits groundwater. It forms sodium uranyl carbonate, which is soluble. Plutonium can also form soluble plutonyl complexes, but they are quickly oxidised to insoluble species. Fortunately it's about 10,000 times less mobile than Uranium, because the cancer risk associated with Pu-239 is about 10 times that of Uranium 235.