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result(s) for
"Fallout"
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The shrinking man
While on a boating holiday, Scott Carey is exposed to a cloud of radioactive spray. A few weeks later, following a series of medical examinations, he can no longer deny the extraordinary truth. Not only is he losing weight, he is also shorter than he was. Scott Carey has begun to shrink. Richard Matheson's novel follows through its premise with remorseless logic, with Carey first attempting to continue some kind of normal life and later having left human contact behind, having to survive in a world where insects and spiders are giant adversaries. And even that is only a stage on his journey into the unknown.
Book
Downwind
Downwindis an unflinching tale of the atomic West that reveals the intentional disregard for human and animal life through nuclear testing by the federal government and uranium extraction by mining corporations during and after the Cold War.
Sarah Alisabeth Fox highlights the personal cost of nuclear testing and uranium extraction in the American West through extensive interviews with \"downwinders,\" the Native American and non-Native residents of the Great Basin region affected by nuclear environmental contamination and nuclear-testing fallout. These downwinders tell tales of communities ravaged by cancer epidemics, farmers and ranchers economically ruined by massive crop and animal deaths, and Native miners working in dangerous conditions without proper safety equipment so that the government could surreptitiously study the effects of radiation on humans.
In chilling detailDownwindbrings to light the stories and concerns of these groups whose voices have been silenced and marginalized for decades in the name of \"patriotism\" and \"national security.\"
With the renewed boom in mining in the American West, Fox's look at this hidden history, unearthed from years of field interviews, archival research, and epidemiological studies, is a must-read for every American concerned about the fate of our western lands and communities.
eBook
Fukushima-derived radionuclides in the ocean and biota off Japan
The Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11,2011, resulted in unprecedented radioactivity releases from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plants to the Northwest Pacific Ocean. Results are presented here from an international study of radionuclide contaminants in surface and subsurface waters, as well as in zooplankton and fish, off Japan in June 2011. A major finding is detection of Fukushima-derived ¹³⁴Cs and ¹³⁷Cs throughout waters 30-600 km offshore, with the highest activities associated with near-shore eddies and the Kuroshio Current acting as a southern boundary for transport. Fukushima-derived Cs isotopes were also detected in Zooplankton and mesopelagic fish, and unique to this study we also find ¹¹⁰mAg in Zooplankton. Vertical profiles are used to calculate a total inventory of ~2 PBq ¹³⁷Cs in an ocean area of 150,000 km². Our results can only be understood in the context of our drifter data and an oceanographic model that shows rapid advection of contaminants further out in the Pacific. Importantly, our data are consistent with higher estimates of the magnitude of Fukushima fallout and direct releases [Stohl et al. (2011) Atmos Chem Phys Discuss 11:28319-28394; Bailly du Bois et al. (2011) J Environ Radioact, 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2011.11.015]. We address risks to public health and marine biota by showing that though Cs isotopes are elevated 10-1,000× over prior levels in waters off Japan, radiation risks due to these radionuclides are below those generally considered harmful to marine animals and human consumers, and even below those from naturally occurring radionuclides.
Journal Article
Characteristic of microplastics in the atmospheric fallout from Dongguan city, China: preliminary research and first evidence
Microplastic pollution has exhibited a global distribution, including seas, lakes, rivers, and terrestrial environment in recent years. However, little attention was paid on the atmospheric environment, though the fact that plastic debris can escape as wind-blown debris was previously reported. Thus, characteristics of microplastics in the atmospheric fallout from Dongguan city were preliminarily studied. Microplastics of three different polymers, i.e., PE, PP, and PS, were identified. Diverse shapes of microplastics including fiber, foam, fragment, and film were found, and fiber was the dominant shape of the microplastics. SEM images illustrated that adhering particles, grooves, pits, fractures, and flakes were the common patterns of degradation. The concentrations of non-fibrous microplastics and fibers ranged from 175 to 313 particles/m
2
/day in the atmospheric fallout. Thus, dust emission and deposition between atmosphere, land surface, and aquatic environment were associated with the transportation of microplastics.
Journal Article
Survival in Fukushima
After the discharge of nuclear contaminated water into the sea has become established, Fukushima is once again facing tumultuous waves. China implemented a comprehensive ban on the import of Japanese seafood. For the local residents of Fukushima, the nuclear leak in the past was already a disaster, and this latest discharge of nuclear contaminated water into the sea has only added to their woes. Phoenix TV reporter Miao LI delved into Fukushima before the discharge of nuclear contaminated water, interviewing fishermen suffering from reputational damage, farmers unable to return to their homes, photographers tracking nuclear radiation, and displaced evacuees constantly appealing their situations. She investigated the living conditions of the local people and brought forth the voices of the grassroots. Facing this gloomy sea, the future of Fukushima remains uncertain.
Streaming Video
Temporal markers in a temperate ice core: insights from .sup.3H and .sup.137Cs profiles from the Adamello Glacier
The article discusses the use of tritium (.sup.3 H) and cesium (.sup.137 Cs) as temporal markers in ice cores extracted from temperate glaciers. We present a complete tritium profile for a 46 m ice core drilled from the Adamello Glacier, a temperate glacier in the Italian Alps, and compare it to the .sup.137 Cs profile from the same ice core. Our analysis reveals tritium contamination between 19 and 32 m of depth, which can be attributed to the global radioactive fallout caused by atmospheric nuclear-bomb testing that took place in the 1950s and 1960s. Results show that the radioactive peak associated with 1963 does not occur at the same depth for both .sup.3 H and .sup.137 Cs; instead, the tritium peak is 1.5 m above the cesium one. Our hypothesis is that this misalignment is caused by meltwater-induced post-depositional processes that affect .sup.137 Cs, which is more sensitive to percolation than .sup.3 H. The total inventory of .sup.137 Cs in this ice core is also among the lowest ever reported, providing additional evidence that the presence of meltwater has affected the distribution of this radionuclide within the ice. In contrast, the total tritium inventory is comparable to what is reported in the literature, making it a more reliable temporal marker for temperate glaciers.
Journal Article
Strontium-90 activity concentration in soil samples from the exclusion zone of the Fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant
The radioactive fission product
90
Sr has a long biological half-life (˜18 y) in the human body. Due to its chemical similarity to calcium it accumulates in bones and irradiates the bone marrow, causing its high radio-toxicity. Assessing
90
Sr is therefore extremely important in case of a nuclear disaster. In this work 16 soil samples were collected from the exclusion zone (<30 km) of the earthquake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, to measure
90
Sr activity concentration using liquid scintillation counting.
137
Cs activity concentration was also measured with gamma-spectroscopy in order to investigate correlation with
90
Sr. The
90
Sr activity concentrations ranged from 3.0 ± 0.3 to 23.3 ± 1.5 Bq kg
−1
while the
137
Cs from 0.7 ± 0.1 to 110.8 ± 0.3 kBq kg
−1
. The fact that radioactive contamination originated from the Fukushima nuclear accident was obvious due to the presence of
134
Cs. However,
90
Sr contamination was not confirmed in all samples although detectable amounts of
90
Sr can be expected in Japanese soils, as a background, stemming from global fallout due to the atmospheric nuclear weapon tests. Correlation analysis between
90
Sr and
137
Cs activity concentrations provides a potentially powerful tool to discriminate background
90
Sr level from its Fukushima contribution.
Journal Article
High-resolution records of cesium, plutonium, americium, and uranium isotopes in sediment cores from Swiss lakes
The Aare river system in Switzerland, with two nuclear power plants on the banks of the river, and its intermediate lakes and reservoirs, provides a unique opportunity to analyze the contribution of different sources to the radioactive contamination. Sediment cores were collected from two lakes and a reservoir, all connected by the river Aare. In order to study the influence of the Chernobyl accident, one sediment core was collected from a lake in the southern part of Switzerland. The sediment cores were sliced and analyzed with gamma ray spectrometry. Plutonium, americium, and uranium were extracted radiochemically, and their concentrations were measured with a sector field ICP-MS. The uranium isotope ratios were further measured with a multi collector ICP-MS. The maximum
137
Cs activity from the Chernobyl accident and the Pu and
137
Cs activities associated to the 1963 global fallout maximum were well identified in sediments from all three lakes. High-resolution records of plutonium isotopes in the zone of the sediments corresponding to the period of maximum fallout from the atmospheric nuclear weapon testing showed distinct fingerprints, depending on the different test activities. Pu isotope ratios could be used to detect non-global fallout plutonium. The ratio
241
Am/
241
Pu was used to determine the age of the plutonium. Despite of very low
241
Pu and
241
Am concentrations, the calculated plutonium production dates seemed to be reasonable for the sediment layers corresponding to the NWT tests. The calculated production date of the plutonium in the upper most 15 cm of the sediment core seemed to be younger. The reason for this could be additional non-global fallout plutonium. For the lake sediments, natural ratios for
235
U/
238
U and enriched or depleted ratios for
234
U/
238
U were measured, depending on the lake. A small increase of the
236
U/
238
U ratio could be recognized for the NWT zone in all three lakes and, for Lake Lugano, a further distinct increase in the Chernobyl layer.
Journal Article