A second week of Japanese disaster | 322 comments (322 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: A second week of Japanese disaster (none / 1)

The activity of Caesium-137 is 440 TBq/mole. So 186kBq/kg of Cs-137 in topsoil is 4.227 10^-10moles of Cs-137 in a Kg of topsoil.

Let's see, a banana contains about 0.01 moles of potassium and t

So, if you replaced all the potassium in a banana with radioactive caesium you would have 4TBq. The limit you quote for meat, by weight, would be about 100Bq for a banana. So a "safe" banana can have no more than 2.5e-11 moles of Cs-137 per mole of potassium.

If you grow vegetables in topsoil contaminated with Caesium-137, at what rate does the Caesium replace the Potassium?

So, in what may be my last act of "advising", I'll advise you to cut the jargon. -- My old PhD advisor, to me, 26/2/11

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Mar 23rd, 2011 at 10:54:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: A second week of Japanese disaster (none / 0)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2603856/pdf/yjbm00642-0078.pdf

To the extent that rubidium or cesium are capable of substituting for
potassium in biochemical and biophysical processes one would expect that
these ions would be at least a temporary nutritional substitute for potassium.
Thus, it has been shown that rubidium and, to a lesser extent, cesium
can replace potassium as an essential nutrient for the growth of bacteria,"1'53
yeast," sea urchin eggs,' and rats." ' Young rats immediately cease growing
on a potassium-free but otherwise adequate diet and usually die within
a few weeks. The addition of rubidium to the diet will permit almost normal
growth to occur for one or two weeks before the animals sicken again and
die. To a more limited degree cesium is also capable of substituting for
potassium in this way." ' Characteristic lesions develop in the kidneys and
in the skeletal and cardiac muscles of potassium-depleted animals." The
addition of rubidium or cesium to the diet will prevent these changes' and
if they have already developed, the feeding of these elements will rapidly
effect a cure.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Mar 23rd, 2011 at 11:05:26 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: A second week of Japanese disaster (none / 0)

ceebs:

To the extent that rubidium or cesium are capable of substituting for
potassium in biochemical and biophysical processes one would expect that
these ions would be at least a temporary nutritional substitute for potassium.

Yes, but what is the extent of biochemical substitution?

So, in what may be my last act of "advising", I'll advise you to cut the jargon. -- My old PhD advisor, to me, 26/2/11

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Mar 23rd, 2011 at 11:06:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: A second week of Japanese disaster (none / 0)

Wish I had full access to Academic journals,

Transfer of radioactive caesium from soil to veget... [Environ Pollut. 1989] - PubMed result From here, and just from the abstract it appears that the uptake depends on the potassium levels in the soil, In uplands grass it appears that The relative uptake depends on the dryness of the soil, the dryer, the better the relative uptake of potassium, (Which doesn't sound good for a country with a rice diet)

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Mar 23rd, 2011 at 11:28:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: A second week of Japanese disaster (none / 0)

Tangentially - how much would it cost to get ET access to JSTOR? is there a free community option? (He wrote, optimistically.)

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Wed Mar 23rd, 2011 at 12:01:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: A second week of Japanese disaster (none / 0)

JSTOR: Options for Access to JSTOR

Options for Access to JSTOR
JSTOR is available at more than 6,000 participating institutions.
If you are affiliated with a participating institution and are unable to access content in JSTOR:
You may need to login at your library first. Check the list of participating institutions for a login link, visit your library's web site, or contact your library for assistance.
Your institution may not license the specific collection that contains the article. Check with your library for help locating this article through another source.
If you are not affiliated with a participating institution:
We have a geographic list of participating institutions, to help you find a participating library near you. Many libraries offer walk-in access to electronic databases.
Many articles in JSTOR are also available for purchase or available through individual subscriptions with participating publishers.

So, in what may be my last act of "advising", I'll advise you to cut the jargon. -- My old PhD advisor, to me, 26/2/11

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Mar 23rd, 2011 at 12:13:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: A second week of Japanese disaster (none / 0)

Ive not heard of one, although my knowledge is a couple of years out of date. We were talking about a new login system which would have allowed access in any university facilities anywhere in the country when i was last involved, but how far that has got, I don't know. Probably the easiest way is to sign up for an Open University course and get access through their library (I know theyre a subscriber but processes for getting access through them isnt something I know about)

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Mar 23rd, 2011 at 12:25:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: A second week of Japanese disaster (none / 0)

You may be thinking of eduroam. We have it, and it lets you get online from any participating institution using your home institution's login. Hopefully you can then access your own institution's library, but I doubt it will let you do any more than that.

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Wed Mar 23rd, 2011 at 01:19:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: A second week of Japanese disaster (none / 0)

there were talks of allowing more than that, but as I said my knowledge of where that was heading is (Thinking about it) Three years out of date

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Mar 23rd, 2011 at 01:34:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: A second week of Japanese disaster (none / 0)

There's an yearly access fee to JSTOR itself and then each collection has an yearly access fee.

At a quick glance we're talking around $10,000/yr.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Wed Mar 23rd, 2011 at 01:14:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: A second week of Japanese disaster (none / 0)

I find this: Chernobyl: country by country A - H

Clooth, G. and Aumann, D.C. (1990). Environmental transfer parameters and radiological impact of the Chernobyl fallout in and around Bonn. J. Environ. Radioactivity. 12(2). pg. 97-120.
Bonn escaped significant Chernobyl fallout.¹³⁷Cs to 1,383 Bq/m² (highest of six locations).
Geometric mean for soil-to-plant concentration factor for¹³⁷Cs into pasture = 4.2 x 10^-2 (concentration of radionuclides in plant, wet weight, divided by concentration of radionuclides in soil, dry weight.)

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Thu Mar 24th, 2011 at 05:27:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: A second week of Japanese disaster (none / 0)

Same source, on transfer into meat rather than plant:

Chernobyl: country by country S-Z

Rosen, K., Andersson, I. and Lonsjo, H. (1995). Transfer of radiocesium from soil to vegetation and to grazing lambs in a mountain area in northern Sweden. J. Environ. Radioactivity. 26. pg. 237-257.
"Activity analyses of soil samples,... showed a mean deposition of¹³⁷Cs of 15.7 (range 14.1-17.6) kBq/m²." (pg. 237).
¹³⁷Cs concentration of the herbage cut at the various sites decreased with time from 1,175 to 900 Bq/kg dry weight." (pg. 237).
"The average¹³⁷Cs concentration in the abdomen wall muscle of lamb carcasses was 1,087, 668, 513 and 597 Bq/kg wet weight in the years 1990-1993 respectively..." (pg. 237).

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Thu Mar 24th, 2011 at 05:29:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

A second week of Japanese disaster | 322 comments (322 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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