[R. Cromack] BRAWM's most recent Raw Milk test results (collected 4/20)
BRAWM's latest Raw Milk results are awfully encouraging. I would assume, then, that within the next few weeks, we might expect to see cesium levels in processed milk level off, and then begin to fall... slowly.
More evidence that, future complications and disasters notwithstanding, we are about to experience "the end of the beginning" of this crisis... And that the worst may be over, although accumulations will persist for the foreseeable future in many areas of the food chain.
Rick.
I will not be encouraged until I see new spinach and soil/rain
results along with mushrooms etc.
Cesium in milk, especially with such a small number of samples, really only says that THOSE cows ate something that was NOT AS radioactive as the week before. I have also read (somewhere around all these issues) that cows take a while to metabolize cesium so that we MIGHT see more increases IF BRAWM KEEPS TESTING.
We need MORE spinach and other produce tested (strawberries, mushroom) as well as more rain, soil and milk before we can see real observable SUSTAINED trends (and I am pretty sure the BRAWM team would agree that ONE sample or only handful is NOT sufficient to ESTABLISH downward trends - even iof they are expected).
OF COURSE reduced levels are good and are to be hoped for but there is NO certainty that this is the end of the beginning.
And Tepco said today it is still possible to have another hydrogen explosion and, I would assume, recriticality and more major explosions are still a possibility.
Sometimes when you THINK you are safest is when you are most vulnerable and least safe.
Just food for thought. Be happy it LOOKS better, but be prepared for further tests HOPEFULLY VERY SOON!
Oh, well, look...
...I hear you, Bill, really I do. There are still plenty of opportunities for this to turn into a total goat-[deleted]. And, note: I said, "might".
However... The air sampling results are pretty darned encouraging, and they've been CONSISTENTLY trending downward these last few weeks. I think it's safe to say that while Fukushima is clearly continuing to emit radionuclides into the atmosphere, and very likely the sea, said emissions are at a dramatically reduced rate from the crisis's peak (to date). As more and more time elapses, assuming no additional, spontaneous, explosive major releases, we'll continue to see the atmosphere scrubbed, if not "clean", then, at least, "significantly". A vast majority of the iodine and cesium remaining in the atmosphere has already fallen to ground... But this process will continue for the foreseeable future, and probably only actually CEASE a period of months after the LAST emission from Fukushima... Which could very well be YEARS in the future. The curve will decline, not to zero, but pretty close, until then... That whole "half-step toward the wall" thing.
We're not out of this yet... Not by any means. But we've gone almost a month, now, without any MAJOR screw-ups, and TEPCO seems to have their game faces on, finally. There's a LOT of work ahead, and not all of it will be easy, or pretty; more people are going to have to be exposed, perhaps even lethally, before this thing wraps up. I still don't know what to make of Reactor 2, and although it SEEMS like they have a momentary handle on the Reactor 4 SFP, I'm not confident in their conclusions. But, I'll take it. The world hasn't ended, yet. There WILL be implications... More, many more, disturbing revelations to see the light of day. And our Government's near-total breakdown in addressing this crisis MUST be run to ground. But... I am cautiously optimistic. The sun will rise tomorrow. I wasn't always certain that would be the case, you know.
Small moves, folks... Small moves. But in the right direction.
Rick.
cows move to different pastures
yes.. the cows may move to a fresh location which hasnt been chewed on for a month.
these new locations will have more grass to eat with higher concentrations
than those which have been eaten so we should rising levels and lowering
levels over the next few months as cows move to different pastures.