Fukushima in the Pacific: Research Cruise
I came across this blog recently. These people are testing samples of water etc. in the pacific ocean in the coming months.
Here is an excerpt from thier blog.
The need to understand the amount, type, and fate of radioactive materials released prompted a group of scientists from the U.S., Japan, and Europe to organize the first multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional research cruise in the northwestern Pacific since the events of March and April. A group of 17 researchers and technicians will spend two weeks aboard the University of Hawaii research vessel R/V Kaimikai-O-Kanaloa examining many of the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the ocean that either determine the fate of radioactivity in the water or that are potentially affected by radiation in the marine environment.
This site will chronicle their work on the June cruise and offers more information about the technology they will employ and radiation in the ocean.
"Over the coming months 16 labs in seven countries will analyze samples for a laundry list of isotopes that includes cesium-134 and -137; strontium-90; iodine-129; tritium; uranium-236; plutonium-239 and -240; rutherium-103 and -106; radium-223, -224, -228, and -226; and neptunium-237.
This will take time. Many of the instruments used to conduct these tests are extremely sensitive, but the amounts to be detected are extremely small—individual tests could require weeks and entire sample collections many months to complete. Some of the facilities required are highly specialized (one is deep underground to eliminate as much background interference as possible) and scheduling time on them will be a logistical challenge. A few of the methods used to measure trace amounts of some substances have also fallen out of practice as several of the isotopes themselves have faded from the environment after Chernobyl or the cessation of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing. Old techniques will have to be re-learned and some adapted to analyzing seawater or prepared biological samples."
