Jay Lehr
Latest posts by Jay Lehr (see all)
In efforts to keep the fear factor high in Japan as radioactive gases from the damaged Fukushima power plants subsides, the focus has moved to the radioactive water that is flowing from the plants as a result of its use as cooling water.
The main fear is focused on the fact that some of the water has leaked into the ocean. Has the world really gone bonkers? There are about 310 million cubic miles of water in the ocean. How long will it take to dilute a few Olympic-sized swimming pools of radioactive water down to a harmless level? No more than a few days and more likely hours.
The radioactive water is not of significantly different density, so it will not move as a separate body but be absorbed thoroughly into the ocean. The oceans already naturally contain 3 parts per billion of uranium — enough that some have actually considered mining the oceans for it’s uranium.
There may be international treaties that prevent ocean dumping of radioactive waste on a continuing basis, but this does not qualify as a continuous act of pollution. Rather, it’s an emergency action to let the people of Japan stop being scared to death unnecessarily by those who love to fear-monger the population for any number of reasons that benefit their positions.
The realities of even consuming seaweed and fish right from the coast of the plant from what is currently leaking is such that one could not consume enough in a year to equal the radioactivity from a series of medical X-rays.
It is time to let the Japanese people focus on digging out from this tragic disaster of a record earthquake and tsunami — and eliminate the distorted fear of radiation from the damaged plants.
