Post-Fukushima Report: Concern over Plutonium and Uranium being deposited and re-concentrating far away — Isotopes transfer to land via sea spray, aerosols, flooding — Human exposure by inhalation, food, contact
ENENews.com
December 27th, 2013
House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee (pdf), Volume II Additional written evidence, Sixth Report of Session 2012–13:
Recommendations for post event marine monitoring programmes
[…] At Fukushima the monitoring authorities chose to focus on those isotopes (iodine and Caesium) [and] failed to investigate the presence, concentration and radiological significance of “hot” particles of reactor fuel, used fuel from cooling ponds and/or pieces of reactor of cooling pond structure released into coolant and ECW [Emergency Cooling Water] flows as a result of explosion, meltdown, containment breach, washout of coolant and through flow of ECW.
[…] Such a programme should identify near, mid and far field end fate deposition environments (seabed and inter tidal fine sediment deposits) where very long lived, non-soluble isotopes of Plutonium, Americium, Uranium and Curium might be expected to deposit out and re-concentrate relative to ambient water column concentrations.
[…] scientifically attested work […] has demonstrated the ability of several isotopes […] to re-concentrate in marine micro layers, marine sea sprays and marine aerosols and hence to transfer from the sea to the land [with] potential human exposure via inhalation, contact etc.
[…] such isotopes […] have been shown to transfer from the sea to the land (via sea spray, aerosols, flooding) and to contaminate terrestrial foodstuffs and thus enter terrestrial dietary chains.
[…] radioactivity deposited in inter tidal sedimentary environments has been shown to be susceptible to re-suspension (in drying conditions) and blowing ashore adsorbed to fine sediment particles to contaminate house dust and perhaps terrestrial foodstuffs […]
