ICtheC Posted July 16, 2015 #1 Share Posted July 16, 2015 I know that ships use flash distillation to remove salt and impurities from the sea water but does it also remove radiation. Since we read that the radiation from fukushima is just 100 miles off the US shore - it is a concern to us and we will be drinking only bottled water onboard if it comes from a safe source. Need to know whether to budget for that expense. Thanks for any info! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sail7seas Posted July 16, 2015 #2 Share Posted July 16, 2015 HAL permits guests to bring bottled water aboard. No need to budget; bring as much as you wish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruiserBruce Posted July 16, 2015 #3 Share Posted July 16, 2015 The water from Japan has incredibly low radioactivity. It has some microscopic materials that can be identified as radioactive, and specific from the Fukushima reactor. Beyond that, it is NO danger to you. Air with the same materials arrived more than a year ago. Are you glowing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Ellen Posted July 16, 2015 #4 Share Posted July 16, 2015 (edited) You know your food will be prepared with the same water? All dishes will also be washed with water distilled on board. I'm not seeing any way around that. :confused: Edited July 16, 2015 by Mary Ellen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sopwith Posted July 16, 2015 #5 Share Posted July 16, 2015 Your chances of dieing or becoming seriously injured driving to and from the ship are at least 1,000,000 times higher than the chance of any signifant health risks from radioactive isotopes in the water. Relax and enjoy the cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Ellen Posted July 16, 2015 #6 Share Posted July 16, 2015 You'll also need to bring a whole LOT of water if you don't want to shower/bathe/shampoo with the distilled water. Washing your hands frequently is very important on a cruise. That will require even more water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare POA1 Posted July 16, 2015 #7 Share Posted July 16, 2015 From Deep Sea News: http://www.deepseanews.com/2013/11/true-facts-about-ocean-radiation-and-the-fukushima-disaster/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khaos WolfKat Posted July 16, 2015 #8 Share Posted July 16, 2015 From Deep Sea News: http://www.deepseanews.com/2013/11/true-facts-about-ocean-radiation-and-the-fukushima-disaster/ That article rules! It was made even more awesome, due to the fact that she not only used the Simsons as a handy visual guide, but that she referenced xkcd as well!!! I squeed! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
take us away Posted July 16, 2015 #9 Share Posted July 16, 2015 You may receive more radiation having dental x-rays than many days at sea so no worries. The flash distillation will probably not do anything to the minute levels of radiation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chengkp75 Posted July 16, 2015 #10 Share Posted July 16, 2015 Cruise ships generally use a combination of flash distillation and reverse osmosis to make fresh water from sea water. Lets look at both methods. Flash distillation. This method boils sea water in a vacuum (to lower the boiling point, and save energy). The steam produced is then condensed into distilled water. Last time I checked, cesium has a much higher boiling point than water, so no cesium would carry over to be condensed in the drinking water. Reverse Osmosis. This method pressurizes sea water to about 3000 psi, and then squeezes it through a membrane whose pore size allows water molecules through, but not larger things like sodium or chloride ions that make up sea water. Again, cesium and other radioactive isotopes from a reactor are far larger than these particles, so they will not be passed to the drinking water. If you want to drink bottled water, that is your decision to make, but as others have stated, all water onboard, including all water used in food preparation, ice, etc., is made from the same source, so you will be exposed to any perceived radiation from these sources as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Kruizers Posted July 16, 2015 #11 Share Posted July 16, 2015 We don't worry about drinking water on the ships. It is better than what comes out of our taps at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hunt182644 Posted July 16, 2015 #12 Share Posted July 16, 2015 My cousin and wife only glowed for a few days after their cruise.:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chengkp75 Posted July 16, 2015 #13 Share Posted July 16, 2015 Couple more points. You don't remove radiation from something, you remove the radioactive particles. Quickly scanned a couple articles on water contamination with radioactive particles, and both reverse osmosis and charcoal filtration are among the recommended processes. All water outlets on the ship like ice makers, bar guns, and the water/drink dispensers in the buffet and at the service stations in the other dining venues use charcoal filters to remove the chlorine from the water (not for taste, but for maintenance reasons in the equipment). Now, water that is subject to intense radiation can have the hydrogen change to tritium, which does have a half-life of about 12 years, but tritium gives off very low amounts of beta emissions when it decays, and also when formed into tritiated water and ingested, it has a half life of 7-14 days in the body, so you would need quite a lot of severely concentrated tritiated water to cause harm. Tritium is also naturally occurring through the interaction of hydrogen and water vapor in the atmosphere with cosmic rays. Finally, how do you know the bottled water is "from a safe source"? I remember a couple decades ago when Perrier was found to have high levels of benzene in it, as an example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Gail & Marty sailing away Posted July 16, 2015 #14 Share Posted July 16, 2015 I know that ships use flash distillation to remove salt and impurities from the sea water but does it also remove radiation. Since we read that the radiation from fukushima is just 100 miles off the US shore - it is a concern to us and we will be drinking only bottled water onboard if it comes from a safe source. Need to know whether to budget for that expense.Thanks for any info! Welcome to Cruise Critic... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare richstowe Posted July 16, 2015 #15 Share Posted July 16, 2015 This should eliminate all radiation plus it regrows hair . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRL_Joanie Posted July 16, 2015 #16 Share Posted July 16, 2015 The water from Japan has incredibly low radioactivity. It has some microscopic materials that can be identified as radioactive, and specific from the Fukushima reactor. Beyond that, it is NO danger to you. Air with the same materials arrived more than a year ago. Are you glowing? Joanie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prescottbob Posted July 16, 2015 #17 Share Posted July 16, 2015 Cruise ships generally use a combination of flash distillation and reverse osmosis to make fresh water from sea water. Lets look at both methods. Flash distillation. This method boils sea water in a vacuum (to lower the boiling point, and save energy). The steam produced is then condensed into distilled water. Last time I checked, cesium has a much higher boiling point than water, so no cesium would carry over to be condensed in the drinking water. Reverse Osmosis. This method pressurizes sea water to about 3000 psi, and then squeezes it through a membrane whose pore size allows water molecules through, but not larger things like sodium or chloride ions that make up sea water. Again, cesium and other radioactive isotopes from a reactor are far larger than these particles, so they will not be passed to the drinking water. If you want to drink bottled water, that is your decision to make, but as others have stated, all water onboard, including all water used in food preparation, ice, etc., is made from the same source, so you will be exposed to any perceived radiation from these sources as well. Excellent explanation. Thank you. Bob:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chengkp75 Posted July 16, 2015 #18 Share Posted July 16, 2015 And another point, here's a link to a study that involves Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The salient point is that the levels of the longest half-life and most important isotopes, Ce-137 is "expected to peak in 2015-2016 at 5 becquerels per cubic meter", while Canada's standard for Ce-137 in drinking water is 10,000 becquerels per cubic meter. So, the isotopes from Fukushima will add only a negligible amount of "radiation" to the sea water. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDAQFjAFahUKEwiM4uGE1d_GAhUKkw0KHeBbBU4&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffukushimaupdate.com%2Ffukushima-radioactivity-monitoring-in-the-north-pacific-ocean%2F&ei=NKWnVYz4LoqmNuC3lfAE&usg=AFQjCNEzHVnsVoRQfXQAKKHeaTeape9-qA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICtheC Posted July 16, 2015 Author #19 Share Posted July 16, 2015 thanks for all the good info - especially chengkp75 excellent explanation and puts it all in perspective. I did look up how they distill water for ship use but wasn't aware of the particle info. We come from a generation that was exposed to multiple x-rays chest x-rays every year for tb, dental, machines in the shoe stores to see if the bones of the feet fit into the shoe properly, as well as the medical x-rays over and over. So now we try to avoid radiation from any source when we can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chengkp75 Posted July 16, 2015 #20 Share Posted July 16, 2015 thanks for all the good info - especially chengkp75excellent explanation and puts it all in perspective. I did look up how they distill water for ship use but wasn't aware of the particle info. We come from a generation that was exposed to multiple x-rays chest x-rays every year for tb, dental, machines in the shoe stores to see if the bones of the feet fit into the shoe properly, as well as the medical x-rays over and over. So now we try to avoid radiation from any source when we can. Me, too. And I was of the generation exposed to asbestos aboard ships, so DW figures all my time now is gravy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir PMP Posted July 16, 2015 #21 Share Posted July 16, 2015 I know that ships use flash distillation to remove salt and impurities from the sea water but does it also remove radiation. Since we read that the radiation from fukushima is just 100 miles off the US shore - it is a concern to us and we will be drinking only bottled water onboard if it comes from a safe source. Need to know whether to budget for that expense.Thanks for any info! No it cannot be removed, that's why everyone is walking around the promenade deck so energized... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceMuzz Posted July 16, 2015 #22 Share Posted July 16, 2015 The residents of Denver Colorado receive higher radiation doses every day of the year (from natural radioactive Uranium in the mountains) than the residents of Fukushima received during their big crisis. Haven't heard too many dire news reports from Denver lately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boytjie Posted July 16, 2015 #23 Share Posted July 16, 2015 thanks for all the good info - especially chengkp75excellent explanation and puts it all in perspective. I did look up how they distill water for ship use but wasn't aware of the particle info. We come from a generation that was exposed to multiple x-rays chest x-rays every year for tb, dental, machines in the shoe stores to see if the bones of the feet fit into the shoe properly, as well as the medical x-rays over and over. So now we try to avoid radiation from any source when we can. You may want to avoid flying too then. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICtheC Posted July 16, 2015 Author #24 Share Posted July 16, 2015 chengkp75 Our daughter was exposed to asbestos in a school where she was working and she now has severe asthma and has to carry a mask in case of exposure to any irritants and also a epi-pen. Hope you are doing better than she is! Boytjie Yes, we avoid flying now - we are coming home by train There was an article about pilots getting sick from the bad air coming into the plane since 50% of the air is pulled in from outside plus the added radiation of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Keith1010 Posted July 16, 2015 #25 Share Posted July 16, 2015 You have asked a good question. When on board I would ask the Chief Engineer about this just to get his take. In the interim I just would not worry about it. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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