Has anyone seen the latest story on the radiation leaking from the nuclear power plant in Japan?

I think that the Pacific Ocean will do a very good job of diluting it before it ever reaches the US, so I’m more concerned about the Japanese who lived close to the plant.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/fukushimas-radioactive-ocean-plume-due-reach-us-waters-2014-8C11050755

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23918882

From one of the articles: “Luckily, two ocean currents off the eastern coast of Japan — the Kuroshio Current and the Kuroshio Extension — has diluted the radioactive material so much that its concentration fell well below the World Health Organization’s safety levels within four months of the Fukushima incident.”

I worry about the innocent marine life more than the impact on humankind. We’ve created this mess for ourselves, and we’re ruining it for all earthlings.

What’s even the point of a nuclear power plant?

As someone who lives on the left coast and also eats seafood three or four times a week, it does have me concerned. While it may be diluted, it does not disappear. Nuclear power plant detritus doesn’t just get diluted and washed away; it has a half life of thousands of years, and those radioactive molecules remain dangerous for a long time.

So it is a concern about ingesting one or two atoms a week, pretty soon it can cause damage.

@PhiNotPi Yes, that was true six months after the event, but now the old plants are leaking radioactive material into the ocean on a constant basis, and there does not seem to be any safe way to contain it.

I haven’t seen any recent news on this issue (nothing more recent than a few weeks ago, anyway), but I doubt if my earlier response on the topic would change greatly.

Personally, I agree with @hearkat & @dxs – we should NOT be using Nuclear power to generate electricity (we have no way to safely store the spent fuel rods that power these Nuclear power plants… they remain radioactive for 5,000 to 10,000 years). We are contaminating all of the Oceans of our world and we will (ultimately) pay for it with our lives.

@CWOTUS Here’s the NY Times piece in today’s paper on all the cleanup mistakes.