![]() ![]() Here is their map for Cs-137 deposition after Fukushima. These are just models, not based on measurements and all models have their issues, as the modelers at the Centre d’Enseignement et de Recherche en Environnement Atmosphérique (CEREA) who produced these plots acknowledge. Yesterday I saw a new set of plots predicting the dispersion of Caesium-137 after the Fukushima accident from 2011. ![]() Nuclear may not be unique in the fact that it has global reach - though the concentrations of radioactivity are far higher than you’d find anywhere else - but it may be unique that you can always measure it. Pretty incredible, no? Now, the odds are that there are lots of other contaminants that, could we track them, would show similar world-wide effects. Here are four “frames” from a simulation run by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on their ARAC computer showing the dispersion of radioactivity after the Chernobyl accident in 1986: 2 The same sorts of maps are used to show the dispersion of radioactive byproducts of nuclear reactors when accidents occur. I find these things sort of hypnotizing. (And before you think atmospheric testing is a matter of ancient history, remember that France and China both tested atmospheric nuclear weapons long after the Limited Test Ban Treaty! The last atmospheric test, by China, was in 1980!) But one of the “special” things about nuclear contaminants is that you can track them for a very long time, and see exactly how one test - or accident - in a remote area is intimately connected to the entire rest of the planet.Īnd, in fact, nearly everyone born during the era of atmospheric nuclear testing had some tiny bits of fallout in their bones - you can even use it to determine how old a set of teeth are, to a very high degree of accuracy, by measuring their fallout content. They’re low numbers… but they’re non-zero. Now, you can’t see the numbers there, but they aren’t high - it’s not the same as being immediately downwind of these things. Here’s what the BRAVO fallout did over the next month or so after the detonation: 1 Of course, if you’re interested in the more diffuse amounts of radioactivity - more than just the stuff that you know is probably bad for you - the fallout maps get even more interesting. Of course, it’s all about which direction the wind blows, in the end. ![]()
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