quote Originally posted by phonedawgz: This is the one that I worked at http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactor/poin1.html

"In a related development, TEPCO said on Aug. 2 that there were two more pipes nearby that apparently showed radiation in excess of 10 sieverts. The utility said it had not actually measured the radiation there and it had no plans to do so because there would be no one working there."
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnn...2a00m0na018000c.html

quote Originally posted by dennis_6: "In a related development, TEPCO said on Aug. 2 that there were two more pipes nearby that apparently showed radiation in excess of 10 sieverts. The utility said it had not actually measured the radiation there and it had no plans to do so because there would be no one working there." http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnn...2a00m0na018000c.html

It would seem to me that measuring radiation levels *everywhere* would be critical to developing both short term (one year) and long term (10 century) plans for dealing with the Fukushima mess. I guess deliberate ignorance can be substituted for true knowledge during the planning stages...

Tepco Reports Second Deadly Radiation Reading at Fukushima Nuclear Plant

By Tsuyoshi Inajima and Kari Lundgren - Aug 3, 2011 4:24 AM CT


Tokyo Electric Power Co. via Bloomberg


Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported its second deadly radiation reading in as many days at its wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant north of Tokyo.

The utility known as Tepco said yesterday it detected 5 sieverts of radiation per hour in the No. 1 reactor building. On Aug. 1 in another area it recorded radiation of 10 sieverts per hour, enough to kill a person “within a few weeks” after a single exposure, according to the World Nuclear Association.

Radiation has impeded attempts to replace cooling systems to bring three melted reactors and four damaged spent fuel ponds under control after a tsunami on March 11 crippled the plant. The latest reading was taken on the second floor of the No. 1 reactor building and will stop workers entering the area.

“It’s probably the first of many more to come,” said Michael Friedlander, who spent 13 years operating nuclear power plants in the U.S., including the Crystal River Station in Florida. “Although I am not surprised, it concerns me greatly; the issue is the worker safety.”

The 10 sieverts of radiation detected on Aug. 1 outside reactor buildings was the highest the Geiger counters used were capable of reading, indicating the level could have been higher, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility, said at a press conference.
Upper Limit

“Ten sieverts is the upper limit for many dosimeters and almost equal to the amount that killed workers at the JCO nuclear accident in 1999,” said Tomoko Murakami, a nuclear researcher at the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan.

In that accident, then the world’s worst since Chernobyl in 1986, more than 600 people were exposed to radiation after workers inadvertently started a nuclear chain reaction while processing nuclear fuel at a plant near Tokyo. Two employees of JCO Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., died from radiation exposure.

Tepco was forced to pump water into the three Fukushima reactors after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disabled cooling systems. The company in May estimated there would be 200,000 tons of radiated water in basements and other areas of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant by December.

“If nuclear fuels melted through containment chambers, Tepco will find even higher radiation readings after water in building basements is removed,” said Tetsuo Ito, the head of the Atomic Energy Research Institute at Kinki University.
Radiation Leaks

Tepco has been criticized by the government for withholding radiation data and other missteps that have worsened the crisis. About 160,000 people have been evacuated from areas stretching 20 kilometers and more from the plant.

On May 27, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Tepco’s withholding radiation data was contributing to “public distrust.” The utility responded by saying it will publish in August the combined figures of radiation released into the atmosphere and in contaminated water. It hasn’t given a date for release of that information.

Radiation leaks from the Fukushima reactors have spread over 600 square kilometers, Tomio Kawata, a fellow at the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan, said in a research report published on May 24 and given to the government.

Radioactive soil in pockets of areas outside the exclusion zone around the plant have reached the same level as in Chernobyl following a reactor explosion in the former Soviet Union, the report said.
Hot Spots

The threats to Japan’s food chain are also multiplying as radioactive cesium emissions from the Fukushima plant spread. Contaminated beef has been found on supermarket shelves around the country, forcing the government to ban cattle shipments from areas in northern Japan.

The latest high radiation readings are probably coming from materials released during early failed attempts to release pressure in containment vessels and vent hydrogen gas to prevent explosions that damaged reactor buildings, Matsumoto said. There were about 2,760 workers at the plant on Aug 1.

Tepco on April 17 set out a so-called road map to end the crisis by January, aiming to bring down radiation levels at the plant within three months and then achieve a so-called cold shutdown where reactor temperatures fall below 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit).

The utility needs to investigate other areas that may hold high radiation levels in line with the cold-shutdown and clean up, said Murakami at Energy Economics.

“Tepco workers and its subcontractors who know the Fukushima plant well may be the only ones that can discover such hot spots,” he said. “For people new to the plant it’s deadly.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Tsuyoshi Inajima in Tokyo at tinajima@bloomberg.net; Kari Lundgren in London at klundgren2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Langan at plangan@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/ne...fukushima-plant.html

[This message has been edited by dennis_6 (edited 08-03-2011).]

Close as I can find anymore....
"As part of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization’s International Monitoring System (IMS), the Department of Energy also maintains the capability to detect tiny quantities of radioisotopes that might indicate an underground nuclear test on the other side of the world. These detectors are extremely sensitive and can detect minute amounts of radioactive materials."
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa...07373a5!OpenDocument

Do note the article was "updated". Also note this was the system the EPA claimed could detect the single hot particle.


Another article stating a single radioactive atom could be detected...
Even a single radioactive atom can cause them to measure something and this is more or less what we have seen in the Sacramento station," said the first diplomat, who declined to be identified."
http://uk.reuters.com/artic...dUKLDE72H1Q620110318

another article speaking of the capability of detecting a single radioactive atom
"People fear nuclear because radiation can't be detected with human senses, but technology has the capability to detect it down to a single radioactive atom, he said."

Read more: http://www.bellinghamherald...i.html#ixzz1U4qjAT9H

Another variation of article that stated monitoring stations can detect single "hot" atom http://www.trust.org/alertn...s-west-coast-sources


All I can not find is the EPA release, but they have "updated" their information, and yes it does say updated on the article. Next your going to argue about the semantics of single hot particle vs single radioactive atom. When they are the same thing from my understanding.

[This message has been edited by dennis_6 (edited 08-04-2011).]

20 left wing whackos ....

Rome, Italy, Aug 4, 2011 / 12:10 pm (CNA).- Twenty elementary school children from northeast Japan promised Pope Benedict “they would never give up” in the face of adversity.

The children traveled from the Japanese city of Ofunato, to Italy and greeted the Pope at the conclusion of this week’s Wednesday General Audience, reports L’Osservatore Romano.

Ofunato is a coastal city which was impacted by radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

They told the Pope of their will to “live and be reborn” and of their effort to “rebuild our still-beautiful city.” They also pledged to “never lose their smiles, which are a source of hope.”

To symbolize this hope, the mayor of the Japanese city of Hokuto, Masashi Shirakura, presented the Pope with a branch of cherry tree blossoms.

This will to be reborn, he said, “is the same that lifted up Nagasaki after the nuclear blast of August 9, 1945. The flowers were the first to blossom just 30 days after the disaster, to the surprise of all. They became of symbol of hope,” the mayor said.

http://www.catholicnewsagen...ugh-nuclear-tragedy/


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Remember kids, phonedawgz says everything is ok and radiation is good for you, if you disagree you are a left wing whacko, who doesn't understand the basics of Nuclear Physics, even if you are the former CEO of an agency that regulates it. Also geiger counters measure nothing, their units are purely abstract that have no real world value. Also EPA "UPDATED" articles have never changed from their orignal content, UPDATED means nothing unless your a left wing whacko. Fukushima beef is good for you, 10+sv is good for you, Nuclear power, even when its chernobyl like is better than one second of coal power, if you disagree you are a left wing whacko.

By Matthew Burrows, August 4, 2011

The Vancouver Quadra Liberal MP has criticized Health Canada’s “negligent” job informing Canadians of potential health risks relating to radiation levels following Japan’s Fukushima disaster.

“I think they have been negligent from the perspective of being clear and transparent with Canadians about this issue, right from the beginning,” Joyce Murray told the Georgia Straight by phone.

“And during the election, there were people in Vancouver that were concerned because they couldn’t get the straight story from Health Canada’s website. They felt that the monitoring was very inadequate and there was not clear messaging from Health Canada. I think people do deserve to have a straightforward assessment. If there’s little risk, that should be backed up.”

In his story in today’s (August 4) Straight, Alex Roslin noted that despite sustained levels of iodine-131 that far exceeded allowable levels, “government officials claimed there was nothing to worry about”.

“The quantities of radioactive materials reaching Canada as a result of the Japanese nuclear incident are very small and do not pose any health risk to Canadians,” Roslin quoted Health Canada as saying on its website. “The very slight increases in radiation across the country have been smaller than the normal day-to-day fluctuations from background radiation.”

Health Canada did not respond to Roslin’s requests for an interview.

Murray said: “I think it’s important that the Straight is raising this issue.”

The two-term MP and one-time provincial MLA said she understands that “Health Canada doesn’t want to create panic where it’s not necessary”, but she said she has a number of concerns.

“I think it’s fair enough to say that it’s possible that there is risk from drinking milk products or drinking rainwater and that, certainly, vulnerable people might want to reduce their consumption,” Murray said.

“The idea of radiation-related toxicity in salmon, I think, is very worrisome, and it’s incumbent on Health Canada to either test or explain why it’s not necessary [to test]. Now, I don’t know salmon’s cycle. It may be that the salmon that are in the area that’s closest to Fukushima won’t be being consumed for a certain time period. So it’s best to test at a different time. I don’t know that, but if that’s the reason, they should be clear.”

Murray claimed that part of the reason things have got to this point is because of the ruling federal Conservatives’ priorities.

“We have never seen them have any priorities on the issue of health,” Murray said. “What are their priorities? Well, they’re on building maximum-security prison cells. There is a different set of priorities by this government.”

Murray said Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq has to step up. The Straight contacted the minister’s staff in Ottawa but received no reply today (August 4).

http://www.straight.com/art...-joyce-murray-claims

Thursday, August 4, 2011
#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: 2 Sieverts/Hr on Water Surface in the Reactor Bldg Basement??

That's what a worker at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant tweeted on August 4. He was expressing his concern for the radiation if the contaminated water in the basements of the reactor buildings becomes less, as TEPCO plans, because of the water treatment system.

TEPCO says that their plan to treat all the highly contaminated water at the plant is more or less intact; if not by the end of the year as planned, at least by the end of February next year.

This worker is worried that if that means lower or no water in the basement, the basement could become so radioactive; he thinks the melted fuel is in the basement. I don't know for sure which basement he is specifically referring to, but from his past tweets it could be Reactor 1 where he's been working to install the heat exchanger for the Spent Fuel Pool.

I have no way of verifying anything he says, but here are some of the things he tweeted:

Water shields radiation. If there's no water [in the basement], the highly radioactive materials will be exposed. The radiation level at the surface of the contaminated water in the basement of the reactor building is 2 sieverts/hour, and the half value layer of water is about 19 centimeters, and the water is 4 to 5 meters [400 to 500 centimeters] deep...

It could be an outrageous level of radiation... I don't think they can empty the basement... Personally I think the melted-through fuel dropped through the ICM [In Core Monitor?] pipe or RPV drain to the bottom of [or below?] the pedestal, but no way of knowing how much of the fuel is there unless you go there and look.

Well, if a worker at the plant like me worries about it, I'm sure TEPCO and the government have already thought about it and come up with the solution. But that's my concern.

I've seen a smaller number (14 centimeters) for the half value layer of water.

I don't remember that the surface radiation level of the basement water was ever released by TEPCO. If anyone is aware, please let me know with the link.

Reactor 1 is where the 4 sievert/hour steam was seen gushing through the floor of the reactor building in early June. So, if the radiation on the water surface is 2 sieverts/hour, that's an improvement, I guess.

In the so-called "hot spots" in Fukushima Prefecture and the rest of Tohoku and Kanto, we're still talking in "microsievert/hour". At Fukushima I Nuke Plant, the "hot spots" are now in "sievert/hour". Remember the good old days when anything exceeding 100 millisievert/hour was considered extremely high at the plant?

Just the "new normal" in Japan, and life goes on, apparently.

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/...2-sievertshr-on.html

PCO may use 'shower spray' on troubled reactor


August 05, 2011

By TAKASHI SUGIMOTO / Staff Writer

Tokyo Electric Power Co. is considering changing the method of injecting water into the No. 3 reactor at its hobbled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant as the current system isn't cutting it.

The No. 3 reactor is consuming nearly three times the coolant water that the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors are taking to cool down their fuel rods, as a considerable amount is missing the target.

TEPCO said that the pressure vessels in the No. 1 through No. 3 reactors, where fuel meltdowns have occurred, currently have temperatures at the bottom between about 90 and 120 degrees. In the meantime, the amount of water pumped in daily to maintain the temperatures at these levels is about 216 tons for the No. 3 reactor, as opposed to 84 tons for the No. 2 reactor, which is about the same size and contains roughly the same number of fuel rods, and 91 tons for the No. 1 reactor, which is smaller.

The question is, why is this discrepancy occurring?

TEPCO said that in all three reactors, coolant water is being injected from outside the shroud, a major component covering the core.

Analysis conducted so far has hinted at the possibility that, unlike in the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors, part of the melted fuel in the No. 3 reactor did not fall through to the bottom of the pressure vessel but has stayed on the grid-like core support plate. The current injection method cannot pump water into there, resulting in inefficient cooling and increasing the amount of radioactive water.

The new water injection method under consideration is based on the use of an emergency cooling system called a "core spray." It can pour water down like a shower above the fuel rods, resulting in more efficient cooling and the use of less coolant water, TEPCO said.

Much has been learned about the state of the cooling pipe systems since workers regained access to the reactor buildings.

On Aug. 3, TEPCO conducted tests on the operability of valves along the piping.

"We plan to make decisions in two or three weeks," a TEPCO official said.
By TAKASHI SUGIMOTO / Staff Writer
http://ajw.asahi.com/articl...shima/AJ201108055286

quote Originally posted by phonedawgz: I didn't say there was zero chance of any radiation reaching the US. We have very sensitive equipment that can measure minute amounts of radiation. Clearly the increase above the background levels can be measured. You make many incorrect assumptions of my position. Your lack of understanding combined with your casualness with the actual facts leads you to this.

You make overtly vague statements so you can always be right, if it doesn't go your way. You said any issues, and I would call elevated levels in food and water an issue, even if it doesn't cause immediate death.
This is where you said it for the record....

quote Originally posted by phonedawgz: There is pretty much 0% chance that any radioactive issues could reach California, even in the worst foreseeable situations.

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/F...ML/083486-2.html#p72

[This message has been edited by dennis_6 (edited 08-06-2011).]

quote Originally posted by dennis_6: I really think that you are shaken now that there are lethal doses at the fukushima plant, where previously you stated that even if the core melted the containment vessel would contain everything...

You tried making that point before and I clarified my statement

quote Originally posted by phonedawgz: What this means is the core COULD melt and there still COULD be no release of radioactive particles. This does not mean that there is no possibility of a breach of containment.

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/F.../083464-16.html#p620

You don't twist my words, you just replace them with you own and then attribute them to me.

Whatever Dennis_6. Your actions continue to define you.

quote Originally posted by dennis_6: .... BTW I am pro nuclear power .....

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/F...L/083464-8.html#p280

City resorts to secret dumping to deal with piles of radioactive dirt


August 05, 2011

FUKUSHIMA--Deep in the mountains, a 4-ton dump truck unloads burlap bags that land with a thud in a hole shaped like a swimming pool 25 meters long and more than 2 meters deep.

Another dump truck soon arrives, also filled with burlap bags.

The two male workers in the first truck wash off the tires and then rumble off.

The Fukushima city government has not made this place known to the public, even to residents living near the area. That's because it is the dumping site for huge amounts of radioactive sludge and dirt collected by city residents cleaning up and decontaminating their neighborhoods.

"(If we did make the site public), garbage from other residents might come flooding in," a Fukushima city official said, emphasizing that the disposal site is only "temporary."

The Asahi Shimbun was not the only witness to this secret dumping operation. A 74-year-old man who lives near the site with six family members, including his two grandchildren, said he has seen many dump trucks coming and going.

"I am strongly opposed to them bringing such a large amount of radioactivity-contaminated dirt here," he said. "Even if authorities say it is a 'temporary' dumpsite, can they tell what they will do next?"

The answer, for now, is "no."

Municipal officials say they are also frustrated because the central government has made no decision on a final disposal site for the contaminated sludge and dirt.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency's decontamination manual released in July says municipalities can bury such waste if radioactivity levels are 8,000 becquerels or less per kilogram. But the manual does not mention final disposal sites.

"We are aware of the need to show our policy," a NISA official said. However, the agency does not appear to be close to deciding on where the contaminated waste will end up.

That delay has led to the secrecy among municipal officials.

"It would be difficult to gain the consent of residents when we try to secure a waste disposal site," a Fukushima municipal official said. "The national government does not mention anything about how we can specifically cope with the situation under such circumstances."

The situation is expected to worsen.

The site where the dump trucks buried the burlap bags on July 28 was about 8 kilometers from the final collection point in Fukushima city. On that day, the first dump truck was filled with bags of radioactive dirt in just 20 minutes.

Fukushima Prefecture is encouraging citizens to rid their neighborhoods of radioactive substances that spewed during the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. It offers subsidies of up to 500,000 yen ($6,370) per neighborhood association for that purpose.

But as the clean-up efforts increase, the radioactive sludge and dirt pile up.

At 6 a.m. on July 24, as many as 3,753 residents and cleaning company workers in Fukushima city's Watari district started clearing gutters and ditches of radioactive dirt.

The district, located opposite the Fukushima Prefectural Office across the Abukumagawa river, has recorded higher levels of radioactivity than most other parts of the city.

The volunteers used shovels to put the unwanted dirt into burlap bags.

One woman in her 60s involved in the effort complained, "Tokyo residents benefit from the nuclear power plant, but we're forced to clean gutters because of the radioactive fallout."

After four hours of cleaning, 5,853 bags of dirt were piled high. Radiation levels dropped to half in some areas, an official said.

The 67-year-old leader of the neighborhood association glanced at a dosimeter and said, "As we had feared, the figure has passed the (permissible) level."

It was 9.9 microsieverts of radiation, the maximum measurement of the dosimeter.

One resident asked the neighborhood association leader where the bags would go.

"I asked that to a city official once," the leader said. "I was told not to ask this particular question since it's not that simple."

(This article was written by Noriyoshi Otsuki and Satoru Murata.)
http://ajw.asahi.com/articl...shima/AJ201108055290

Japan's festival season has a somber undercurrent this year
By Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY
Updated 1h 37m ago


By Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

"I want to go back to my old school," the girl's message read.

It's summer festival season in Japan, a nation that deeply venerates tradition, but this year's celebrations carry more weight and poignancy than usual. Some events have been canceled as Japan still struggles with the social, political and economic fallout of the massive earthquake and tsunami March 11 that spawned the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

But across Fukushima, the prefecture that is home to the damaged, radiation-spewing Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, several festivals were underway this weekend to restore confidence and normality even as many residents worry about the ongoing danger of radiation poisoning.

In the city of Ikawi, whose northern districts are close to the 12-mile exclusion zone around the plant, thousands of people, many in traditional kimonos, gathered for the Tanabata festival Sunday.

Noriko Haga, 34, took Yuzuki and son Ryuta, 9, to enjoy the banners, games and snacks, but she couldn't shake her fear of the invisible.

"I worry about radiation in the air and also in our food, especially in school lunches, as I assume they use local products," said Haga, a pharmacy worker, whose children had to switch schools after theirs was flooded by the tsunami.

Grilling meat kebabs at a streetside stall, Narumi Sato had joined 10 fellow evacuees from their now ghost-town home of Tomioka. He and his family had to flee March 12 under an evacuation order.

Briefly permitted to return last month, Sato, 47, owner of a sushi restaurant, could barely enter his premises for the flies and stench of rotting fish, he said, after four months without power or personnel.

"I know we can't ever live there again, because the radiation contamination is too severe," said Sato, who has moved his family to a more distant city while he finds temporary work locally.

"The government, the power company and the mainstream media have not spoken the truth yet," he said. "I used to support nuclear power, as it brought a lot of development to our town. Now I want all the plants shut down."

Handing out strips for the Haga family and other visitors to mark their wishes, Kiyoe Seki, an Iwaki chamber of commerce employee, noted a stark change in this year's messages.

"Children used to write, 'I want to be a baseball player,' and women hoped to have children," said Seki, 42. "Now people want compensation for their losses, and to return home," she said.

In Sendai, a badly damaged city farther north, 1.75 million people will attend its ongoing Tanabata festival, reported the Fukushima People's Paper, while attendees at a giant straw sandal festival, in Fukushima city, also expressed hopes for the area's early recovery, the newspaper said.

The mood will grow more somber all along the coast of northeastern Japan in the coming week, as people remember deceased relatives at the close of the O-Bon Festival of the Dead. Japan's National Police Agency said Sunday that 15,680 people had died in the disasters and that nearly 5,000 are still missing.

Even in areas less directly affected by the disaster, towns are using summer events to spur recovery.

"We want people to cheer up and to get through this crisis together," said Shinji Suzuki, 40, co-organizer of the family festival in Aizubange on Sunday, where 400 of 1,600 evacuees remain, and stalls sold produce to benefit needy families. After 40 years, this year's event is the first to feature a slogan, he said: kizuna, Japanese for the emotional bonds that have helped people survive.

The kizuna spirit remains strong, but repackaging Fukushima remains a tough sell.

The prefecture's name "is just like Hiroshima now," said Iwaki tourist center official Megumi Tachihara. On Saturday, Japan marked the anniversary of the nuclear bomb attack on Hiroshima. Tourist numbers have dramatically declined in Fukshima, said Tachihara, who is posting stories and pictures on social media to encourage their return.

Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan removed three top nuclear energy officials as he battles criticism of the government's response.

More action appears necessary to reassure the residents of Fukushima. "I don't know what to trust, or what is the truth," Noriko Haga says. She's sure of one thing: "I can't trust the government."

Contributing: Chie Matsumoto

http://www.usatoday.com/new...ear-earthquake_n.htm

[This message has been edited by dennis_6 (edited 08-08-2011).]