Thread by @JayTCullen

Thread 1/ #Typhoon Hagibis made landfall in #Japan and has caused widespread flooding with human lives lost. Spare a thought for those in Japan who need help at present. #Fukushima Daiichi. But some are using this storm to promote scientific misinformation

2/ I am seeing posts that link the #radioactive contamination/decay heat from #Fukushima Daiichi & the development of tropical cyclones like #Hagibis and going so far as to say the human caused global warming is not like to #CO2 but nuclear fallout/contamination

3/ The argument goes something like this and is summarized in a blog I posted some time ago @dailykos dailykos.com/stories/2016/1…:
1. Fukushima released radionuclides to the environment with much of the contamination ending up in the Pacific Ocean
2. Isotopes generate heat on decay

4/
3. Tropical cyclones feed off of ocean heat
4. Fukushima Daiichi is causing or causing more intense tropical cyclones and #ClimateChange not human greenhouse gases like #CO2

Let's do some maths to show why this doesn't make any sense

5/ One of the highest activity isotopes from #Fukushima Daiichi remaining in ocean surface water is #Cesium-137. Maximum 137Cs activities measured by the Fukushima InFORM project in the northeast Pacific are ~ 10 Bq m-3 (cubic meter = 1000 L or ~1000 kg) of seawater.

6/ So in one ton of seawater there is 0.0000000000031 grams or 3.1 x 10-12 g or 3.1 picograms of 137Cs. This highlights why detecting such low levels of contamination in the ocean is such an analytical challenge. fukushimainform.ca/methods/gamma_…

7/ Decay energy of 137Cs is 0.6 Watts per gram or 0.6 W g-1 (or 1 Joule per second). So to a first order the power added to one ton (1000 kg) of seawater from #Fukushima contamination is about: (3.1 x 10-12 g) x (0.6 W g-1) = 0.000000000002 Watts or 2 picoW. Very very small power

8/ We can compare this to the Watts added to a square meter of the ocean surface by the #Sun. Erring on the low side in order to be conservative lets say that the #Sun adds about 100 W per square meter at the ocean surface neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/view.php?datas… @NASA

9/ The ratio of the power contributed by the Sun at the ocean surface to #Fukushima Daiichi contamination decay energy is 50,000,000,000,000. Suggesting that Fukushima energy is fueling cyclone activity or #ClimateChange is, scientifically speaking, #silly.

10/ Friends don't let friends do this. If you want scientifically sound information on #climatechange & how tropical cyclones form consult the following links from @NASA & @rahmstorf et al. realclimate.org/index.php/arch… earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Hurri…

11/ If you want scientifically sound fact-based information on the environmental impacts of the #Fukushima Daiichi releases I'm happy to answer questions and you can consult @FukushimaInFORM fukushimainform.ca #scicomm

@NASA 8b/ If you add more #CO2 to the atmosphere you trap more heat from the sun which most of is stored in the upper ocean. See @Lijing_Cheng