Air results update 5/14
5/14 (8:35pm): Air results were updated with our most recent measurement, spanning 5/6-5/10. I-131 has not been detected for the first time, and Cs-134 and C-137 continue to decline.
Mark [BRAWM Team Member]
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5/14 (8:35pm): Air results were updated with our most recent measurement, spanning 5/6-5/10. I-131 has not been detected for the first time, and Cs-134 and C-137 continue to decline.
Mark [BRAWM Team Member]
Thank you for all you do
Thank you for all you do BRAWN !!!
You guys are the last bastion of hope left for information "black-out" regarding fukushiama
Your efforts are GREATLY APPRECIATED !!!
Thank You!!!
BRAWM TEAM: Thank you for all you do!!! It is so appreciated!
BRAWM Team please clarify newest air sample results
I am a bit confused by this latest posting. BRAWM Team please clarify.
Cesium 137 (5-6-2011 - 5-10-2011) Air Results (chart)
7.4e-09
[MDA=2.3e-09]
(1.0e+05)
If this reading is correct, it is an increase above the last posting...not a decrease. However, on the Cs-137 graph, the amount appears lower????
Learn how to read scientific notation
You need to learn how to read scientific notation.
There's more to the number than just those leading digits.
Those numbers after the "e" tell you how many leading or trailing zeros to add.
The number that you "think" is the larger is actually about 15 orders of magnitude smaller than the other one.
How long have you been
How long have you been checking the charts without knowing how to read them?
No Need to be Snarky with a Newby
I did not understand the numbers for the first week or so and as this is the last "man" standing as far as public results being reported, there is a lot of media and new folks visiting. So be nice.
Anyway, for the uninitiated:
The previous test for cesium 137 was 1.3e-08
That, if I am correct, means 1.3 preceded by a decimla point and 8 zeros = .0000000013
The measure for the most recent test is 7.4e-09
or 7.4 preceded by NINE zeros and a dedcimal point = 00000000074
00000000074 is a little more than 1/2 of the previous measurement
00000000130
THAT is a good thing
While imho ANY amount still in the air is not a good sign, when the levels drop by almost 50% to such tiny amounts in the air, I, for one, will breath a LITTLE easier.
These are the absolute lowest amounts we have seen since right after the accident in the air.
Now we also know that given the hlaf lives of radiocesium, the likleihood is that it has been substantially being deposited on the ground and on plants and in water in both wet and dry amounts (when dry it settles like dust) SO...
What we now need to KEEP looking closely at is the amounts in the soil and plants and grass and milk and food chain. Even at such small amounts it is STILL accumulating and with a 30 year half life (a 300 year total radioactive life, approximately) and a fairly long biological half life (in the body).
The good news is that this is the first time we can feel that we are NO LONGER breathing in radioactive iodine (or in amounts so tiny even sophisticated testing cannot measure it) and that the amounts of radiocesium (in air at least) are much smaller than they were a month ago.
It is an honest question and unless one knows what the numbers mean, it can be very confusing to see a higher figure not knowing that the -09 means a decimal point followed by 9 zeros THEN the number listed.
Quote from Bill's Post, "The
Quote from Bill's Post, "The good news is that this is the first time we can feel that we are NO LONGER breathing in radioactive iodine (or in amounts so tiny even sophisticated testing cannot measure it) and that the amounts of radiocesium (in air at least) are much smaller than they were a month ago."
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Or, the plume might just be affecting another area at the time of the samples.
Oh wait, we no longer have a way of finding that out do we? Are there any Plume Trajectory stations still operating?
Thank You
Thank you for the clear explanation. Most kind of you. I like & appreciate your attitude.
Close, but off by one position
137 was 1.3e-08 which is 0.000000013 (the 1 is in the 8th position)
7.4e-09 is 0.0000000074 (the 7 is in the 9th position)
But, you are correct in that the current number is still only
57% of the previous.
Thanks, guys! I also did not
Thanks, guys!
I also did not know how to read the numbers... other than radiation amounts appeared to be getting much, much smaller. Well, up in San Francisco, you all can breathe a bit easier. Yet, the cumulative factor re continued low level radiation fallout onto soil and plants has me worried, as well. We eat the fruits and vegetables with these low level radiation levels over and over again. And, cumulative radiation levels increase over time. Epidemiologists in past studies of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island have found continued exposure to low level radiation over the long haul does result in increases in cancer rates for areas hit by low level radiation plumes. As Bill, I too remain cautious re West Coast food chain.
Don't eat the Strawberries!
Let me just say that I am on the East Coast and extrapolate that the plumes seemed, based on the CTBTO numbers of detections that the plumes more or less evenly distributed the cesium and iodine acoss the country. Some plumes came down over the East Coast from Canada after travelling over Alaska and others came across the U.S. from California, Washington etc.
I believe that the amounts in food stuff here is probably just as high or nearly as high as on the West Coast (after all it reached higher levels in France and Korea as it went round the world in worrisome amounts).
But I asume, more or less, that what you get on the West Coast is roughly equivalent here IF the plumes do not rain out due to a substantial dispersion in both the air and water.
Milk and rainwater tests across the nation show high amounts in some locations (Boston, Iowa, the Carolinas) which parallel the amounts in California more or less.
So - all of that is to say it is not JUST the produce in California that has contaminants. It is the whole country and...
based on the food chain test I would recommend that NOBODY eat the strawberries which seem to be bioaccumulating the contaminant radionuclides more than anything else so far (except perhaps the milk).
Evfen here on the East Coast I am still avoiding milk and would not eat local strawberries BUT...
I REALLY want more extensive food chain results (more variety of foods) and updated rain results when they come. Right now we had a huge downpour on the East Coast and I am not anywhere near as worried about it as I was BUT with ongoing steam and air releases in Japan I NEED results to feel secure that things are improving somewhat here on the East Coast.