China's seawater will not be affected by radioactive leaks from Japan: experts

[jpak]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-03/17/c_13784227.htm

China's seawater, as a source of salt, would not be affected by radioactive leaks following explosions at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant in Japan, said the country's marine environment watchdog Thursday amid a salt panic among the public.

The National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center said in a statement that currents in the Pacific Ocean out from Fukushima were flowing west to east, while China is located to the west of Japan.

"It is impossible for radioactive substances to reach China's sea areas via the ocean current," the statement said.

Also, China has huge salt reserves and over 80 percent of the salt comes from inland areas. The public need not panic and hoard salt, the statement noted.

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[Atman]

1. The only "experts" now in Japan appear to work for the propaganda ministry

And they're not even very good at that.

[DCKit]

2. Baghdad Bob is now Tokyo Bob. nt

[AtheistCrusader]

3. Perhaps you were unaware, but Beijing is in China.

These experts are from the CHINESE National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center.

Slightly different wording from another news source to illustrate:

"BEIJING, March 9 (Xinhua) -- A strong earthquake that jolted northeastern Japan Wednesday morning has prompting a tsunami warning, but the waves was unlikely to bring any devastation to China, said Chinese forecasting center."

[DCKit]

4. My bad... and I know better, too. Xinhua.... Duh. nt

[AtheistCrusader]

5. No worries. :)

[AtheistCrusader]

6. See post #3

[FBaggins]

7. Just a reminder, the radioactivity of the Pacific ocean is about 250 Billion Curies.

Somewhere between 8,500 and 9,000 EBq.

Chernobyl released somewhere (depending on estimate) between 5-12 EBq.

IOW... if Fukushima somehow gets to the level of Chernobyl AND every single curie gets in to the pacific... the poor fish are going to have to deal with a 1/10 of a percent increase in radioactivity.

Of course... it wouldn't be that evenly spread out... but this also isn't close to Chernobyl (perhaps "yet") and the radiation isn't going to all end up in the sea (if only wishing made it so).