Assume a liter of milk has an activity of 1960 pCi due to 40 19 K, with RBE = 1.

Question

Assume a liter of milk has an activity of 1960 pCi due to 4019K, with RBE = 1. If a person drinks 2 glasses (0.440 L) per day, estimate the total dose received in a year. As a crude model, assume the milk stays in the stomach 13.4 h and is then released. Assume also that 15.0 percent of the 1.50 MeV released per decay is absorbed by the body, and that this person is a 64.6 kg adult.

? The maximum annual dose to be used for this calculation is given below. ?

b)
What percentage of the allowed dose does this correspond to if the allowed yearly dose is 5 mSv?

Explanation / Answer

It seems to stand the test of reason that the radionuclides deposited
from Fukushima were not deposited upon land, they were deposited into the
Pacific Sea upon moving seawater along with wreckage which was drawn out to
sea from the Tsunami. This was in addition to direct injections of highly
radioactive water that was dumped from Fukushima directly into the sea.

All of that contaminated wreckage along with the vast amounts of
radioactive seawater have been and are heading directly to the
US West Coast. Every wind current and Pacific Sea current indicates
that is true.

While the radionuclides move here, they are constantly being fed into
the natural water cycle.

Your following quote illustrates why this is important and ongoing:

"(1) The amount of fallout in the soil will depend strongly on how much rain the area received in late March and early April, when the air concentrations were at their highest. Said in another way, "wet deposition" (rain) is much more important than "dry deposition" (particles settling out of the air)."

Given these radionuclides are now mixed into the water cycle, 'Wet
Deposition' is still happening- there is just 'little to no
monitoring' going on. The monitoring that is happening is fairly
insufficient as we need full Gamma, Beta as well as Alpha testing
to get a full picture. We also need additional ranges of testing.
'Lichens' (at high altitudes for example), possess unique filtering
ability which could be useful:

The manner in which the EPA went about testing (air canister/air filter
testing) for Plutonium was about the best way to test for Plutonium, if the
goal was 'not' to detect Plutonium. Other methods of testing, such as Soil
samples from under raingutter downspouts as well as lichens at higher
altitudes are likely to easily reveal radionuclides with decay rates as far
reaching as Plutonium.

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