Plutonium in the desert

Here is mention of plutonium detected after the Fukushima disaster - it could slip through unnoticed. Thanks to ENENews

Director: We saw plutonium from Fukushima out in New Mexico desert

“Local and regional contaminations of plutonium in environment have resulted from nuclear accident”

Las Cruces News,

8 December, 2013

Fukushima

On March 11, 2011, a tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan, causing the plant to lose the ability to cool its reactors, resulting in a meltdown. On March 14, CEMRC observed activity from this event in their environmental filters.

"It took roughly three days (for radioactive material) to come 10,000 miles," Hardy said. "It was low-level activity, below any environmental concern, but we started seeing iodine-131, tellurium and cesium. We know that it came from Fukushima because of when it happened and because each of the nuclear incidents -- whether it's Chernobyl, Fukushima or Three Mile Island -- they each use different mixtures in their fuel rods and they have different types of reactors. When they have an incident, they create their own signature. Looking at these ratios of plutonium, americium and cesium, you can determine which event it was tied to."

"The four times that we've seen plutonium out in the desert (from a 1960 Atomic Energy Commission underground explosion 12 miles from Carlsbad), as well as the Fukushima incident, just validates that what we're doing works," Hardy said. "Most of the time we see zero, and that's a good thing, but if there ever were a release, we would be able see it and with the data that we have, be able to determine where it came from."

That has to be squared from the following -

"Eye on Research" is provided by New Mexico State University. This week's feature was written by Emily C. Kelley of University Communications and Marketing Services

011 Report: Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring & Research Center (.pdf):  [...] in the event of a nuclear accident like Fukushima, such contaminants could be rapidly dispersed through the atmosphere and spread throughout the environment. […] local and regional contaminations of plutonium in the environment have resulted from nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl and Fukushima. These events resulted in the release of substantial quantities of radioactive contaminants into the global environment [...] No detectable concentrations of 238Pu, 239+240Pu or 241Am were detected in any of the 2011 samples. However, a trace amount of cesium (134Cs) and (137Cs) was detected in the March monthly composite samples due to the Fukushima NPP accident in Japan. […]

Then is it “no detectable concentrations” of plutonium were detected from Fukushima as stated in the 2011 report, or “we’ve seen plutonium” from Fukushima as stated in today’s article?

Read the full CEMRC report here (.pdf)

http://enenews.com/facility-director-we-saw-fukushima-plutonium-out-in-the-new-mexico-desert-local-and-regional-contaminations-of-plutonium-in-the-environment-have-resulted