Post by Joe Neubarth on Dec 23, 2011 13:57:22 GMT -5
MIT: Radiation-contaminated seawater would reach U.S. west coast in as little as 5 years -Estimates
Modeling the spread of radioactivity in seawater, Massachusetts Institute of Technology News, Dec. 21, 2011:
web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/modeling-radioactivity-spread-seawater.html
[...] Researchers Changsheng Chen of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and Robert Beardsley of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute are investigating where that radioactivity may spread, using a mathematical model they developed in part through funding by the MIT Sea Grant College Program. [...]
Early estimates by oceanographers Chen and Beardsley suggest that the radioactive particles would disperse throughout the ocean differently at different depths. In some cases, contaminated seawater would reach the western coast of the United States in as little as five years. [...]
The mathematical model that Chen and Beardsley created and use, known as the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model, or FVCOM, has been in existence for about a decade. Unlike other ocean models, this program can be used to examine what happens to different parts of the environment at different levels of detail. In other words, the researchers can use very small grid cells to compute information about what’s going on in the complex near-shore ocean environment, and at the same time they can use big grid cells to simulate, in broad strokes, the calmer currents of the open ocean. [...]
Modeling the spread of radioactivity in seawater, Massachusetts Institute of Technology News, Dec. 21, 2011:
web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/modeling-radioactivity-spread-seawater.html
[...] Researchers Changsheng Chen of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and Robert Beardsley of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute are investigating where that radioactivity may spread, using a mathematical model they developed in part through funding by the MIT Sea Grant College Program. [...]
Early estimates by oceanographers Chen and Beardsley suggest that the radioactive particles would disperse throughout the ocean differently at different depths. In some cases, contaminated seawater would reach the western coast of the United States in as little as five years. [...]
The mathematical model that Chen and Beardsley created and use, known as the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model, or FVCOM, has been in existence for about a decade. Unlike other ocean models, this program can be used to examine what happens to different parts of the environment at different levels of detail. In other words, the researchers can use very small grid cells to compute information about what’s going on in the complex near-shore ocean environment, and at the same time they can use big grid cells to simulate, in broad strokes, the calmer currents of the open ocean. [...]