Fukushima vs The Blob

Chew

Senior Member.
There is a recent spate of YouTube videos declaring or JAQing if Fukushima is responsible for The Blob.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fukushima+blob

Evidently radiation can do anything!

Nishihara et al ran the numbers on various parameters of the 3 melted cores and the 4 spent fuel pools including the decay heat:
http://jolissrch-inter.tokai-sc.jaea.go.jp/pdfdata/JAEA-Data-Code-2012-018.pdf#page=128

Here is how the total decay heat of the 3 cores varied over time:

Decay heat units 1-3.png

Integrating the decay heat for the last 4 years yields 178 TJ.

The Blob is 1000 miles in diameter and 300 feet deep. The specific heat capacity of seawater is 3.993 J·g-1​·K-1​.

If the 3 cores at Fukushima had been ejected into the Pacific Star Trek-style at the moment of shutdown and had somehow managed to stay afloat near the surface it would have raised the volume of water of The Blob by 0.00000024° C after 4 years.
 
What's the blob?
(I've seen the movie)

Oh, it's this thing -


"In the fall of 2013 and early 2014 we started to notice a big, almost circular mass of water that just didn't cool off as much as it usually did, so by spring of 2014 it was warmer than we had ever seen for that time of year," University of Washington-based climate scientist and lead author Nick Bond said in a statement.


Bond, who refers to the mass as "the blob," says the patch of water spans 1,000 miles in each direction and runs 300 feet deep. Since 2013, the blob has continued to push against the coast, and is expected to persist throughout 2015.
http://www.weather.com/science/weather-explainers/news/weird-weather-warm-blob
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