Read the paper:
Buesseler K.O. Opening the floodgates at Fukushima: Tritium is not the only radioisotope of concern for stored contaminated water. Science 369 (6504): 621-622, 2020.
After reading the paper, visit the following webpage at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and then hit the tabĀ
http://ourradioactiveocean.org/results.html
Answer the following questions:
Question 1
Compare the Cs-137/Cs-134 radioactivity of the water samples collected off the coast of Japan in 2011, with the Cs-137/Cs-134 radioactivity measurements off the California coast in 2018. [The do this, you will need to click on each location marker to reveal the measured values, andĀ transcribe those values into an Excel spreadsheet.] Then use the Excel spreadsheet calculate the ratio of Cs-137 to Cs-134 in each of the samples, and show the ratio of Cs137/Cs134 for each sample in another column. Then calculate the average radioactivity values for the two cesium radioisotopes individually, and the mean of the ratios for each country. Upload the Excel file of the spreadsheet you have created, showing the calculated mean values at the bottoms of the columns.
Question 2
How do the mean radioactivity measurements for Japanese waters in 2011 and California waters in 2018 compare? What might explain these differences?
Question 3
How do the means of the Cs137/Cs134 ratios for Japanese waters in 2011 and California waters in 2018 compare? What might be the explanation for any difference you observe?