Japan said on Tuesday it will start releasing more than 1 million metric tonnes of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant on Aug. 24, putting into motion a plan that has drawn strong criticism from China.
So I googled what the background level of Tritium is in seawater. The general consensus is that this various based upon where in the world you are, but it’s typically around 500 - 750 becquerels of tritium per m3. The amount they’re releasing is 190 becquerels of tritium per m3, or in other words, they’re reducing the average tritum radioactivity of the water…
So why is this news? Why haven’t the journalists gone, “Stupid people don’t understand how radioactivity and volumetrics work, and are complaining about the Japanese releasing water that is so highly treated it’s cleaner than the ocean average.”?
–edit–
Not going to edit the above, but @[email protected] correctly pointed out I’d got my units wrong… and then they got their units wrong replying. And that’s why we need good journalism who can actually look into this fucking stuff properly, and give reasoned responses!
Actually we both screwed up by a factor of 1000, the article states 190 becquerels of tritium per litre, not cubic meter.
Seems like you have the right order of magnitude, but the sources I’ve seen gives the ocean close to 0.5-2 TU, or “Tritium Units” which correspond to 180 Bq/m^3. So I wouldn’t call the water being released as cleaner, just basically on average with the ocean already.
Thanks - I did edit it to say whoops, but it’s still pretty informative I’d say. People get silly about radiation and then go out and tan in the sun for a few hours :P
So I googled what the background level of Tritium is in seawater. The general consensus is that this various based upon where in the world you are, but it’s typically around 500 - 750 becquerels of tritium per m3. The amount they’re releasing is 190 becquerels of tritium per m3, or in other words, they’re reducing the average tritum radioactivity of the water…
So why is this news? Why haven’t the journalists gone, “Stupid people don’t understand how radioactivity and volumetrics work, and are complaining about the Japanese releasing water that is so highly treated it’s cleaner than the ocean average.”?
–edit– Not going to edit the above, but @[email protected] correctly pointed out I’d got my units wrong… and then they got their units wrong replying. And that’s why we need good journalism who can actually look into this fucking stuff properly, and give reasoned responses!
Actually we both screwed up by a factor of 1000, the article states 190 becquerels of tritium per litre, not cubic meter.
Seems like you have the right order of magnitude, butthe sources I’ve seen gives the ocean close to 0.5-2 TU, or “Tritium Units” which correspond to 180 Bq/m^3.So I wouldn’t call the water being released as cleaner, just basically on average with the ocean already.https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/fac/etg.tmp/text/woce_method.html https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969718348034
This is why I should stick to computing ;) Thanks for the update.
Still the comment should be and stay top because it’s far more informative than most of comments usually
Thanks - I did edit it to say whoops, but it’s still pretty informative I’d say. People get silly about radiation and then go out and tan in the sun for a few hours :P
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