The South Fork Natural History Museum’s SOFO Meets SOHO Gala will honor Christie Brinkley for her many years of work to raise awareness about nuclear radiation and the safety of the oceans. The event takes place today.
Brinkley To Be Honored At SOFO
June 16, 2012 by The SOTH Team
Decontaminating Fukushima with the help from Mother Nature in 10-15 years
Yes, Christie is against nuclear power and concerned about radiation. Maybe she finds the time to support this decontamination porject in Japan?
http://tohokuearthquake-help.com/
Fukushima is not an isolated problem, but affects the whole world, especially the US, which is “the next stop” in the jet stream and ocean currents. A complete Harley Davidson motorcycle from Sendai washed up in Canada. Cesium 137 showed up in seaweed at the California coast and ground beef from grass-fed cattle in Nebraska. Therefore, nobody can say that it is NOT their problem, it effects you and your children as well; so please listen.
People all over Japan are taking part in the activities of NPOs like http://www.sunflower-fukushima.com/ and multiply sunflower seeds. They want to plant 120 million. We have started to become engaged in this “phyto-remediation” program for reducing the cesium in the soil of Fukushima.
The Japanese government had belittled the efforts of the NGOs in Fukushima and stated that sunflowers were not efficient in collecting cesium. However, research in the US by Prof. Leon Kochian’s team, with whom we are already in contact, the primary limitation to removing cesium from soils with plants was its bioavailability. The form of the element made it unavailable to the plants for uptake. He has shown that it is possible to “super-charge” specific plants to become hyperaccumulators. In a series of soil extraction studies, Kochian’s team found the ammonium ion (in form of ammonium nitrate) was most effective in dissolving cesium-137 in soils. This treatment increased the availability of cesium-137 for root uptake and significantly stimulated radioactive cesium accumulation in plant shoots. One species, Amaranthus retroflexus, was up to 40 times (!) more effective than others tested in removing radiocesium from soil. It was possible to remove 3 percent of the total amount in just one 3-month growing season. With two or three yearly crops, the plant could clean up the contaminated site in less than 15 years! (http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/ar/archive/jun00/soil0600.htm)
In other words, using his methods could reduce the radiation in the soil within five years to about 50% of the current level.
That still leaves the question, what to do with the biomass. With the BOC system, proposed by us, we can efficiently separate the cesium from the biomass and contain it in radiation-tight containers made from TALBOR, which can completely shield the environment from radiation.
As the BOC process produces renewable diesel fuel or heating oil, another problem can be resolved – financing. It is estimated that cleaning up the soil with phytoremediation costs about $100 per ton of decontaminated soil. An acre has about 120 tons of contaminated soil (at 2.5 inch depth), which means $12,000 costs per acre.
If we assume 50 tons of bone-dry biomass per annum, the BOC process can produce about 6 tons (or 1900 gallons) of diesel per annum. This will reduce the cost dramatically and make it much more feasible to use phytoremediation.
With our combined efforts, we can make Fukushima livable again, for the sake of the children.
We therefore ask you to support this important demonstration. Like the tiny town of Schoenau in Germany bought out the grid from the unwilling utility company with donations from the anti-nuclear community, switched completely to renewable energy and received last year the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize from President Obama (http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/awards-season-for-environmentalists/), we appeal to the anti-nuclear community to not let the activists in Japan alone and help with small contributions. A bucket full of water is made up from drops.
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