Female reproductive function in areas affected by radiation after the Chernobyl power station accident V. I. Kulakov, T. N. Sokur, A. I. Volobuev, I. S. Tzibulskaya, V. A. Malisheva, B. I. Zikin, L. C. Ezova, L. A. Belyaeva, P. D. Bonartzev, N. V. Speranskaya, J. M. Tchesnokova, N. K. Matveeva, E. S. Kaliznuk, L. B. Miturova, and N. S. Orlova Small right arrow pointing to: This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract This paper reports the results of a comprehensive survey of the effects of the accidental release of radiation caused by the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in April 1986. The accident and the resulting release of radiation and radioactive products into the atmosphere produced the most serious environmental contamination so far recorded. We have concentrated on evaluating the outcomes and health risks to women, their reproductive situation, and consequences for their progeny. We have concentrated on two well-defined areas: the Chechersky district of the Gomel region in Belorussia and the Polessky district of the Kiev region in the Ukraine. A number of investigations were carried out on 688 pregnant women and their babies, and data were obtained from 7000 labor histories of the development of newborns for a period of 8 years (3 years before the accident and 5 years after it). Parameters examined included birth rate, thyroid pathology, extragenital pathology such as anemias, renal disorders, hypertension, and abnormalities in the metabolism of fats, complications of gestation, spontaneous abortions, premature deliveries, perinatal morbidity and mortality, stillbirths and early neonatal mortality, infections and inflammatory diseases, neurological symptoms and hemic disturbances in both mothers and infants, trophic anomalies, and biochemical and structural changes in the placenta. Several exogenous, complicating influences were also considered such as psycho-emotional factors, stress, lifestyle changes, and others caused directly by the hazardous situation and by its consequences such as treatment, removal from affected areas, etc. The results allow us to conclude that health of mothers, fetuses, and children were significantly influenced by the radiation, with adaptational and pathological abnormalities of various organs and body systems of pregnant women and children. Although the female reproductive system itself remains relatively intact, the decrease in compensatory-adaptive mechanisms of mothers and fetoplacental disorders cause long-term or chronic diseases in the newborns. It is suggested that special attention is paid to possible prophylaxis and to treatment of groups at risk in order to reduce hazardous consequences of such accidents and to preserve the health of future generations. Full text Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article (1.3M), or click on a page image below to browse page by page. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...articles/PMC1519931/
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Traces of iodine-131 detected in Europe 11 November 2011, 17:27 (GMT+04:00)
Low levels of a radioactive isotope have been detected in several European countries in the past days, but the source of the emission was unknown, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Friday, DPA reported.
"The IAEA believes the current trace levels of iodine-131 that have been measured do not pose a public health risk and are not caused by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in Japan," the Vienna-based agency said.
"But it's a concern because there is a source somewhere," an offical close to the IAEA said, adding that atmospheric measurements were made in countries including Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
He said that iodine-131 could theoretically be released by a nuclear accident, as was the case at Hungary's Paks power plant in 2003. The emission could also come from a plant producing radioactive pharmaceuticals.
People who take a transatlantic flight are exposed to a radiation dose 40,000 times as high as the one detected recently, the Vienna health ministry said. http://en.trend.az/regions/.../europe/1956006.html
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1 taken to hospital after Idaho National Laboratory fire
Posted: Nov 11, 2011 12:43 PM by KPAX/KAJ Media Center Bookmark and Share Rating: 1 2 3 4 5
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IDAHO FALLS, ID- Emergency personnel are continuing to respond to a sodium fire on the Idaho National Laboratory
Officials report that one Idaho Cleanup Project employee was taken to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center after suffering burns. Ten other employees have been evaluated on scene by medical personnel and released.
Officials say in a news release that the fire may have been caused by a sodium reaction and that at this time there's no evidence of continued reaction or fire.
Employees that were working in the building and immediate vicinity have been evacuated while all other employees in the MFC complex have been told to remain inside the buildings.
Special Report on the Nuclear Accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, INPO (Institute of Nuclear Power Operations), November 2011 [Emphasis Added]:
* “Hydrogen explosions in the units 1, 3, and 4 reactor buildings, coupled with the loss of the blowout panel in Unit 2, resulted in the SFPs of all units being exposed to atmosphere. The explosions may have also caused additional inventory to be lost from the pools.” * “A large hydrogen explosion occurred in the Unit 3 reactor building at 1101 on March 14 […] Debris on the ground near the unit was extremely radioactive“
Yet the report contradicts itself in the conclusion to section 4.5 Spent Fuel Pools, “Subsequent analyses and inspections determined [...] that no significant fuel damage had occurred.”
Document link: fukushima report.pdf
See also: Highly radioactive pieces from the spent fuel pools were blown up to a mile away
New York Times by James Glanz and William J. Broad, April 5, 2011:
“The [confidential U.S.] document also suggests that fragments or particles of nuclear fuel from spent fuel pools above the reactors were blown “up to one mile from the units,” and that pieces of highly radioactive material fell between two units and had to be “bulldozed over,” presumably to protect workers at the site.”
“The ejection of nuclear material, which may have occurred during one of the earlier hydrogen explosions, may indicate more extensive damage to the extremely radioactive pools than previously disclosed.”
Nuclear agency reports low, but unusual, radiation across Europe
By Associated Press, Published: November 11
VIENNA — Very low levels of radiation, which are higher than normal but don’t seem to pose a health hazard, are being registered in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday.
The agency said the cause was not known but was not the result of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which spread radiation across the globe in March. The “very low levels of iodine-131 have been measured in the atmosphere,” the agency said in a statement. It said such radioisotope will lose much of its radiation in about eight days.
However, an official familiar with the matter, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said the release appeared to be continuing.
Crisis worker woes, shortage another story Calm at J. Village belies the danger
By REIJI YOSHIDA Staff writer
NARAHA, Fukushima Pref. — Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Friday for the first time let reporters into the base camp for thousands of workers striving every day to fix the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, showing off new dining facilities, a dormitory for single workers and the latest radioactivity monitors to check vehicles and clothing.
News photo Hand-off: Workers at J. Village in Naraha, Fukushima Prefecture, receive disposable protective-gear from colleagues returning from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. REIJI YOSHIDA
What wasn't readily apparent, however, is the number of temporary dispatch workers without job or health insurance, and who face the ax once their radiation exposure tops out, according to a municipal assembly member from a nearby city.
Tepco had long barred reporters from visiting J. Village in the town of Naraha, Fukushima Prefecture, the main gate police are using to control access to the 20 km no-go zone around the Fukushima plant.
All the workers going to and from the Fukushima plant must stop at J. Village and undergo radiation checks and thorough decontamination procedures if necessary.
On average, 2,100 workers a day are trying to tame the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, which experienced three reactor meltdowns in March.
Tepco apparently waited until working conditions improved before officially allowing reporters to visit, and J. Village, a former soccer training complex now being used by Tepco, is no longer in crisis mode.
Tepco recently opened a new dormitory for single workers that can house 1,000, complete with cafeteria and laundry facilities.
The outside radiation reading at J. Village, located 20 km from the plant, now stands at about 0.5 microsiervert per hour, about 10 times higher than in Tokyo but not high enough to force an evacuation.
"The situation has calmed down a lot here now. We find fewer (irradiated) cars," Toshiro Iinuma, 56, a worker from Tokyo-based maintenance firm Atox, told reporters Friday at J. Village.
Tepco decided to let in reporters as the government is preparing to soon declare that the crippled reactors have achieved cold shutdown, as temperatures have remained under 100 degrees for weeks.
Reporters will be officially allowed to enter the Fukushima No. 1 plant Saturday for the first time since March 11 as part of a press tour.
But despite significant improvements in services and facilities at J. Village, serious problems have remained for workers at Fukushima No. 1, insiders say.
Hiroyuki Watanabe, a member of the Iwaki Municipal Assembly, has interviewed about 20 nuclear plant workers and some have told him conditions were extremely bad. Some even claimed they only had a verbal contract for the job.
Many were sent by subcontractor dispatch companies that do not provide job or health insurance, which is illegal, Watanabe said.
The workers are often abandoned by personnel companies once their cumulative radiation exposure exceeds the legal limits, Watanabe said.
"For example, one worker kept working at the Fukushima No. 1 plant for more than 10 years. Even after the accident, he kept working and he was fired after his dose exceeded 40 millisieverts," Watanabe said. "He had once falsified his exposure records so he would not lose his job."
Yukiteru Naka, who runs the Fukushima-based nuclear plant maintenance outfit Tohoku Enterprise Co., sees another long-term labor issue that he says could increase the chances of serious human-error accidents occurring.
Tepco is running out of midlevel skilled nuclear plant workers, given the legal limit for radiation exposure, he warned.
Naka's company has 23 skilled workers who have engaged in efforts to contain the crisis.
The firm had already withdrawn 14 to 15 of them because their cumulative exposure is near the firm's annual maximum limit. They won't resume work at the plant until April 1, when the new fiscal year starts, he said.
"About 90 percent of accidents at a nuclear plant are caused by human error. And human error means they don't have enough knowledgeable engineers who can keep the situation under control," he said.
Skilled engineers are badly needed at present to contain the crisis, as workers have to quickly finish their tasks before being exposed to dangerously high levels of radiation.
"(Workers) should know the locations of valves, which pipes run where, and what's inside them; cold water, hot water or steam," he said.
"And they need to go quickly to their destination in the plant and speedily finish their work because the radiation is high," he said.
The government recently lowered the maximum allowable radiation exposure to 100 millisieverts. Many companies also have their own maximum limits, which means experienced workers must retreat from a nuclear plant once the cumulative dose hits the ceiling.
Naka said nuclear plants haven't had enough midlevel skilled workers for 20 years.
The Fukushima crisis has floored the nuclear industry's image and will further discourage young people from seeking such work, Naka said.
"We need an environment where young nuclear plant workers can be proud of their jobs," he said. "We need to improve both the image and working conditions, which will decrease the chance of human errors." http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111112a3.html
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November 11, 2011, 5:16 pm An American Look at Fukushima, Minute by Minute By MATTHEW L. WALD A driver returning from the Fukushima Daiichi plant received a radiation check on Friday.ReutersA driver returning from the Fukushima plant received a radiation check on Friday. Green: Business
The new chronology of events at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, which we write about here, contains no new bombshells about the disaster. But in dry prose, it gives some additional indications of how bad things were after the quake and tsunami there and will probably be the basis for some lessons learned for the American industry.
One lesson involves the nature of radiation protection for plant workers in an emergency. Two operators received more than 60 rem (0.6 Sv), far above the level at which changes in blood chemistry can be observed and almost at the level where symptoms like nausea and vomiting begin.
But most of the dose came not from walking around in places where radiation was present – it was internal, meaning it was from particles inhaled or swallowed by the workers. Radioactive material that is lodged in the body will deliver a dose for an extended period.
Tony Pietrangelo, a nuclear safety official at the Nuclear Energy Institute, the American industry’s trade association, suggested that the reason was inadequate use of respirators and other protective gear at the plant. And the tsunami and power failure knocked out some equipment that measures radiation fields, he said, so the workers may not have realized the magnitude of the dose they faced.
Radiation doses were high by American standards. The Japanese government set an emergency limit of 10 rem (0.1 Sv). By comparison, nearly all American plant workers get less than two rem (0.02 Sv) a year, and the upper limit in this country is five rem (0.05 Sv).
But by the end of March, “approximately 100 workers had received doses greater than 10 rem,” the chronology said.
Natural background exposure for most Americans is about one-third of a rem a year.
Paradoxically, the new chronology points up another split in radiation thinking between Japan and the United States. The Japanese delayed using emergency vents that they had installed in the reactor containments at Fukushima. If they had used the vents earlier, pressures would have declined and it would have been easier to pump in cooling water. They also would have expelled hydrogen that was being generated in the reactor cores.
The hydrogen eventually exploded, causing worse problems. But the American chronology says the Japanese waited until surrounding areas had been evacuated, and the government had made an announcement, before turning to the vents. Then they ran into technical problems getting the vents open. Their chances of successful venting might have been higher if they had started earlier, the chronology suggests.
The Japanese, whose country is the only one where nuclear weapons have ever been used in combat, are ultra-sensitive about radiation exposures to the public. American reactor operators would vent promptly but tell public safety officials which way the wind was blowing and where it would be advisable for people to take shelter.
While the industry itself has not drawn final conclusions from the events that began eight months ago at Fukushima, Mr. Pietangelo cited some instances of innovation by workers at the Japanese reactor complex as a lesson for operators elsewhere.
American-designed reactors, including the ones at Fukushima, were built to withstand something called a “design basis” accident, usually the worst case that engineers thought was plausible. This is generally the instantaneous breaking of the biggest pipe in the plant, shorn away in two locations so that a segment falls out cleanly. It is known as a “double-guillotine pipe break,” and it has yet to occur in the United States, Japan or anywhere else.
The focus now, Mr. Pietangelo said, should go beyond design-basis accidents to include events for which a variety of emergency equipment could be useful, as at Fukushima, rather than just the built-in equipment that is thought to be capable of dealing with the hypothetical double-guillotine break. “The way we’ve been weaned in our industry is on very stylized accidents,” he said. http://green.blogs.nytimes....ma-minute-by-minute/
one rem = one rad, remember this was mostly from inhaled radiation according to the article.
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And then Mr. Haneda tells us he used to work for TEPCO, the nuclear power plant operator. He was at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, when the accident took place.
“Unit 3, Fukushima – this was no ordinary explosion. There has been a chain reaction of uranium and plutonium. That’s all been blown out. But no one does measurements. I believe the government does not want to have them done. Not only Tepco is lying – even our government is concealing the truth.”
A chain reaction of uranium and plutonium, if that’s true: it would be something like an atomic bomb explosion.
Disclaimer: Greg Palast is a BBC freelance reporter, so consider the following with that in mind, also understand he is trying to sell a book, but its still worth considering.... --------------------------- Fukushima: They Knew
Thursday, November 10, 2011
"Completely and Utterly Fail in an Earthquake" The Fukushima story you didn't hear on CNN
by Greg Palast for FreePress.org
I've seen a lot of sick stuff in my career, but this was sick on a new level.
Here was the handwritten log kept by a senior engineer at the nuclear power plant:
Wiesel was very upset. He seemed very nervous. Very agitated. . . . In fact, the plant was riddled with problems that, no way on earth, could stand an earth- quake. The team of engineers sent in to inspect found that most of these components could "completely and utterly fail" during an earthquake.
"Utterly fail during an earthquake." And here in Japan was the quake and here is the utter failure.
The warning was in what the investigations team called The Notebook, which I'm not supposed to have. Good thing I've kept a copy anyway, because the file cabinets went down with my office building ....
WORLD TRADE CENTER TOWER 1, FIFTY-SECOND FLOOR NEW YORK, 1986
[This is an excerpt in FreePress.org from Vultures' Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates and High-Finance Fraudsters, to be released this Monday. Click here to get the videos and the book.]
Two senior nuclear plant engineers were spilling out their souls and files on our huge conference table, blowing away my government investigations team with the inside stuff about the construction of the Shoreham, New York, power station.
The meeting was secret. Very secret. Their courage could destroy their careers: No engineering firm wants to hire a snitch, even one who has saved thousands of lives. They could lose their jobs; they could lose everything. They did. That’s what happens. Have a nice day.
On March 12 this year, as I watched Fukushima melt, I knew: the "SQ" had been faked. Anderson Cooper said it would all be OK. He'd flown to Japan, to suck up the radiation and official company bullshit. The horror show was not the fault of Tokyo Electric, he said, because the plant was built to withstand only an 8.0 earthquake on the Richter scale, and this was 9.0. Anderson must have been in the gym when they handed out the facts. The 9.0 shake was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 90 miles away. It was barely a tenth of that power at Fukushima.
I was ready to vomit. Because I knew who had designed the plant, who had built it and whom Tokyo Electric Power was having rebuild it: Shaw Construction. The latest alias of Stone & Webster, the designated builder for every one of the four new nuclear plants that the Obama Administration has approved for billions in federal studies.
But I had The Notebook, the diaries of the earthquake inspector for the company. I'd squirreled it out sometime before the Trade Center went down. I shouldn't have done that. Too bad.
All field engineers keep a diary. Gordon Dick, a supervisor, wasn’t sup- posed to show his to us. I asked him to show it to us and, reluctantly, he directed me to these notes about the “SQ” tests.
SQ is nuclear-speak for “Seismic Qualification.” A seismically qualified nuclear plant won’t melt down if you shake it. A “seismic event” can be an earthquake or a Christmas present from Al Qaeda. You can’t run a nuclear reactor in the USA or Europe or Japan without certified SQ.
This much is clear from his notebook: This nuclear plant will melt down in an earthquake. The plant dismally failed to meet the Seismic I (shaking) standards required by U.S. and international rules.
Here’s what we learned: Dick’s subordinate at the nuclear plant, Robert Wiesel, conducted the standard seismic review. Wiesel flunked his company. No good. Dick then ordered Wiesel to change his report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, change it from failed to passed. Dick didn’t want to make Wiesel do it, but Dick was under the gun himself, acting on direct command from corporate chiefs. From The Notebook:
Wiesel was very upset. He seemed very nervous. Very agitated. [He said,] “I believe these are bad results and I believe it’s reportable,” and then he took the volume of federal regulations from the shelf and went to section 50.55(e), which describes reportable deficiencies at a nuclear plant and [they] read the section together, with Wiesel pointing to the appropriate paragraphs that federal law clearly required [them and the company] to report the Category II, Seismic I deficiencies.
Wiesel then expressed his concern that he was afraid that if he [Wiesel] reported the deficiencies, he would be fired, but that if he didn’t report the deficiencies, he would be breaking a federal law. . . .
The law is clear. It is a crime not to report a safety failure. I could imagine Wiesel standing there with that big, thick rule book in his hands, The Law. It must have been heavy. So was his paycheck. He weighed the choices: Break the law, possibly a jail-time crime, or keep his job.
What did Wiesel do? What would you do?
Why the hell would his company make this man walk the line? Why did they put the gun to his head, to make him conceal mortal danger? It was the money. It’s always the money. Fixing the seismic problem would have cost the plant’s owner half a billion dollars easy. A guy from corporate told Dick, “Bob is a good man. He’ll do what’s right. Don’t worry about Bob.”
That is, they thought Bob would save his job and career rather than rat out the company to the feds.
But I think we should all worry about Bob. The company he worked for, Stone & Webster Engineering, built or designed about a third of the nuclear plants in the United States.
From the fifty-second floor we could look at the Statue of Liberty. She didn’t look back.
Two Idaho lab workers inhale plutonium oxide from weapons-grade plutonium reactor Submitted by Rocky Barker on Wed, 11/09/2011 - 5:39pm
At least two Idaho National Laboratory workers inhaled plutonium oxide Tuesday at a nuclear reactor that has been closed down since 1992.
A third employee may have gotten an internal dose of the slightly radioactive material. Sixteen employees were exposed to the plutonium at the Zero Power Physics Reactor, INL officials said in a telephone press conference Wednesday. The employees were decommissioning the reactor that was fueled by weapons-grade plutonium -- plutonium pure enough to build bombs.
They were packaging the fuel for transport to a DOE facility in Nevada, but the destination is classified, officials said. DOE officials told me in the 1980s when I toured the reactor that the weapons-grade plutonium was loaned to the U.S. by the British government.
The fuel, in stainless steel cladding, was allowed to come into contact with oxygen, creating the plutonium oxide that is toxic and easily inhaled. But the workers were unaware the very pure plutonium had degraded.
The “hazards were not thoroughly understood and controls were not properly in place,” said Phil Breidenbach, nuclear operations director of the Materials and Fuel Complex that used to be the Experimental Breeder Reactor II complex.
Plutonium oxide exposure externally is not a threat because it emits only alpha radiation. But itcan lodge in the lung as a particle.
It can be coughed out but the plutonium can get into the bloodstream. Plutonium that reaches body organs generally stays in the body for decades and continues to expose the surrounding tissue to radiation, which increases the risk of cancer.
Worker taken to hospital after nuclear lab incident
By Laura Zuckerman
SALMON, Idaho | Fri Nov 11, 2011 7:40pm EST
SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - A worker at a U.S. nuclear laboratory was taken to an Idaho hospital on Friday following a chemical reaction that was not radiological and posed no risk to the public, the lab said.
The incident, initially described by officials at the U.S. Department of Energy's sprawling Idaho National Laboratory as a sodium fire, was the second there in the past week.
On Tuesday, at least six workers were contaminated by low-level plutonium radiation and 10 others were exposed following a mishap, the lab has said.
The latest incident involved a chemical reaction that occurred when sodium being stabilized for safer storage was exposed to moisture in the air, releasing hydrogen, project engineer Karen Moore said.
Moore said such a reaction, which took place in a building adjacent to a decommissioned, experimental reactor that was cooled by sodium, can range in magnitude from a flash to an explosion.
She said there was insufficient information on Friday afternoon to determine if the incident could be classified as an explosion.
The lab said in a written statement that the sodium reaction resulted in a sudden pressure release that compromised system integrity and set off fire alarms in the vicinity.
The lab initially said that the unidentified employee, who works for the private Idaho Cleanup Project, was taken to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls for evaluation of burns.
In a later release, the lab said that the worker had been sent home from the hospital with "no physical evidence of any injury."
Hospital spokeswoman Cindy Smith-Putnam said she could not comment on the lab worker's condition or treatment due to patient privacy laws.
Ten other employees were evaluated at the scene by medical personnel and released, the lab said.
Others at the complex were told to remain in their buildings as a precautionary measure, but later allowed to board buses home at their usual time, the lab said.
'NO RISK TO THE PUBLIC'
"Not only is there no risk to the public, there is no contamination or radiological involvement," lab spokeswoman Sara Prentice said.
The lab said emergency responders had reentered the control room of the building, which is owned and operated by the private Idaho Cleanup Project, but not the boiler room itself.
A recovery plan was under way along with a comprehensive investigation, the lab said.
Crews began treating the Sodium Boiler Building on Thursday by intentionally introducing a liquid into piping containing the metal to force a reaction and render the material safer to package and dispose, the lab said.
The Idaho Cleanup Project is a private company contracted with the Department of Energy to clean up waste at the site and workers there were involved in demolition and dismantlement activities, the lab said.
According to its website, the Idaho Cleanup Project at the Idaho National Labs involves the safe, environmental cleanup of waste at the site generated by World War II-era conventional weapons testing, government-owned research and defense reactors, laboratory research, and defense missions at other Department of Energy sites.
The Idaho Cleanup Project said in press release issued in March that sodium "can ignite on contact with air and react violently with water, producing hydrogen, making preparations and treatment a significant safety concern."
Sodium was used as a coolant for the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II until the early 1990s, according to the lab.
When the reactor was shut down, the sodium coolant was drained; however, crews were tasked with removing residual sodium from the Sodium Boiler Building before demolishing the facility, the lab said.
The incident earlier this week took place inside a deactivated reactor housing in a facility used for remotely handling, processing and examining spent nuclear fuel, radioactive waste and other irradiated materials, the lab has said.
Some 6,000 employees and contractors work at the Idaho National Laboratory, the Energy Department's leading facility for nuclear reactor technology, which is located about 40 miles west of Idaho Falls.
It opened in 1949 as a national reactor testing station.
* MILES O’BRIEN: But down the road, at the exclusion zone checkpoint, the police officers ordered to be here are hoping for the best. You don’t worry? * POLICE OFFICER (through translator): They have told us there that we’re OK, so we just need to trust them. * MILES O’BRIEN: Do you trust them? * (LAUGHTER) * POLICE OFFICER (through translator): That is what our bosses say, so we need to trust our bosses, yes.
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Martin Fackler of the New York Times sent this pooled dispatch. Eyewitness report - inside the wreckage of Japan's Fukushima nuclear reactor
by Martin Fackler in Fukushima
7:00PM GMT 12 Nov 2011
I was one of around three dozen journalists put onto two buses. We were given protective suits, double gloves, a double layer of clear plastic booties over shoes, hair cover, respirator mask and a radiation detector.
And then we began our drive to the plant.
First, we passed through the police check point. Through the bus window, I saw the empty towns of Naraha, Tomioka and Okuma pass by. There were abandoned homes. A plant store with its greenery still on display outside, but withered and dead.
I could see that many homes had been visited and fixed already by residents, with the surrounding areas swept clean and debris from the earthquake placed into neat piles.
Other houses, however, were clearly left exactly as they were when residents fled on March 11. Inside one office, I saw papers scattered in piles on the floor, apparently untouched since the earthquake. Related Articles
We continued past a pachinko parlour, its façade collapsed, and a car dealership with its windows shattered and insulation exposed.
Then came a gas station which had been cleaned up of debris – but then taken over by a population of crows.
All the time, I watched the radiation readings on my detector rise steadily as we approached the plant: it read 0.7 microsieverts per hour in Naraha, located just near the edge of the 12 mile restricted zone from the plant.
As we reached Tomioka, it rose to 0.9, and then soon it was 1.5. In Tomioka, we passed a former welcome centre for nuclear plants operated by Tokyo Electric Power Station (TEPCO), operators of Fukushima Daiichi.
It consisted of a small collection of Bavarian-style gingerbread buildings.
There was even a posted of Naoto Kan, the prime minister at the time of March 11 who is now no longer in power.
By now, the warning buzzer on my radiation detector was going off constantly: I watched the radiation levels rise quickly, from 2.7 microsieverts to 3.7 to 4.1.
When we arrived in a place called Okuma, the reading was 6.7 microsieverts and the bus came to a halt. We were instructed to put on respirator masks at this stage – which meant that ever inch of my skin was now covered and protected.
Then we turned onto the main road which leads to the plant. We were within 3 kilometres of the plant at this stage but even here, many houses appeared to be neat, with front doors closed, window curtains drawn.
Finally, we reached the security checkpoint at the entrance of the plant: the radiation detector buzzed at 20 microsieverts.
Then we were inside the plant: the first journalists in Japan permitted to visit since the March 11 disaster.
The first thing visible were half a dozen large cranes dominating the skyline. Next, we passed a field filled with blue train-car like tanks for holding contaminated water.
There were also dozens of large, four storey silver tanks, also containing contaminated sea water.
According to Tepco, there are 90,000 tons of water stored here, after been cleaned, with plans to build more storage.
Workers were visible at this point building new water tanks – as the day I visited was a Saturday, they were among 1,600 workers at the plant, around half of the 3,200 present daily during the week.
The next thing to catch my eye was a cluster of white tents surrounded by black sand bags, which apparently help protect workers inside from radiation.
This was the water decontamination facility, its entrance marked with US, French and Japanese flags.
As we drove through the grounds, I saw that it was filled with pine forest, giving it an almost bucolic feel.
Finally, we got our first proper look at the damaged reactor buildings. No 1 was covered by a new superstructure, No 2 was intact. No 2 was in worst shape: it was a skeletal frame, largely collapsed into a pile of rubble.
I spotted three cranes clearing up rubble at No 3, in preparation for also capping off that building with a superstructure.
No. 4 was also severely damaged. The building was intact, but it had clearly buckled, with concrete slabs blown out. The entire south side of the building was blown out, exposing the green crane for spent fuel rod pool.
At this point, around 1,640 feet from the reactors, I stopped to check my radiation reader: 50 microsieverts per hour.
Despite the radiation levels, there were signs of life still in the plant grounds: I spotted crows and dragonflies through the bus windows.
Most of the grounds of the plant are located 98 feet above sea level, but the reactors are located on a lower shelf-like area only 32 feet above sea level.
Arriving at the base of the reactor buildings, we could clearly see the damage was still not cleared up from the tsunami and the hydrogen explosions.
My eyes took in crumpled trucks, twisted metal girders and frames of buildings, a huge storage tank dented and bent.
Pipes on the side of the building had been twisted and pulled off, and remained hanging.
The damage reached as high as the second storey, attesting to the height of the tsunami.
Our buses drove between the reactors and the sea. I noticed a 13 feet sea wall built with rocks in black nets, which TEPCO said was a makeshift defence against future tsunami.
A glance at my radiation reader revealed the levels were 300 microsieverts per hour – the highest reading of my visit.
The base of the reactor buildings was filled with debris, the sort familiar to anyone who has seen the damage caused by the tsunami in other areas: lots of twisted metal, including three white cars with TEPCO markings crushed together.
There were twisted trucks fallen into empty pools and an office building left gutted by the tsunami.
Next, we headed back up by bus towards a place called the "Seismic Safety Building" – the plant disaster's headquarters.
As we drove there, we saw further evidence of the scale of the earthquake's damage: big cracks in the earth, buckled metal shutters on buildings, toppled sheds.
Then, we entered the disaster centre. Entering was a time-consuming process, due to radioactivity precautions.
In the first room, lined with pink plastic sheets, we took off our booties.
Then, in the next room, teams of workers cut off our protective suits with scissors, removed our gloves and masks.
Inside, I could hear the road of air filters. A quick radiation reading check revealed 1.5 microsieverts per hour. I saw long strings of paper cranes, posters and even hand towels with messages of support for plant workers from around Japan and a few from the United States.
Next, we went into the Response Room, the plant's crisis centre. This was a large room, filled with men alone as no women are permitted to work at the plant due to health reasons.
One wall was filled with screens, most showing live images from around the plant. A group of 25 men were sitting around an oval of tables at the front of the room, with another dozen tables filling the rest of the space, filled with men tapping at laptops.
At the head of the room was a white board listing temperatures and hydrogen readings of the six reactors. And on another wall, there was a small plain wood Shinto shrine.
Here, Goshi Hosono, the minister in charge of the nuclear crisis clean up, dressed in his blue workmen clothes, came to address workers.
I am sure glad we have you to post these 'pretty credible' reports about the 'dozens, possibly hundreds or thousands of bodies' of dead nuclear workers being hidden.
Where else could we get such a high level of bullshit?
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dennis_6 Member
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I am sure glad we have you to post these 'pretty credible' reports about the 'dozens, possibly hundreds or thousands of bodies' of dead nuclear workers being hidden.
Where else could we get such a high level of bullshit?
I see you didn't comment on the guy who said fukushima was basically a non-event. If you haven't noticed, I have posted both extremes and right down the middle. Its for members of PFF to decide what they believe, not for anyone else to tell them what to believe.
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dennis_6 Member
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AEC chief puts odds of N-plant accidents at ‘1-in-infinity’ PTI
A file photo of Atomic Energy Commission chairman Srikumar Banerjee. The Hindu A file photo of Atomic Energy Commission chairman Srikumar Banerjee.
The probability of an accident due to a nuclear plant is one is to infinity and all atomic power plants in the country conform to safety standards, chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Srikumar Banerjee said on Thursday.
No KANUPP linkage to Radioactivity in Europe, PAEC clarifies PDF Print E-mail ISLAMABAD, Nov 13 (APP): Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) on Sunday refuted a news item appeared in a section of national and international media alleging that higher than normal radioactivity noticed in parts of Europe could have originated from the recent KANUPP incident.In a statement issued here, the PAEC official said that there was no leakage of radiation to the environment from KANUPP on October 19. There was only a spill of heavy water within the containment building, which was brought under control following routine procedures.
The release of Iodine-131 is not possible unless there is a nuclear fuel failure, while the incident at KANUPP involved leakage of heavy water which contains tritium and not Iodine-131, said the official. Higher radiation levels were detected in Poland and Ukraine even before October 19 when the KANUPP incident had not even taken place. It may be added that even if there was a leakage from KANUPP, it could not have traveled to Europe without leaving any trace in the surroundings. PAEC routinely monitors radiation level in and around KANUPP and at various locations in the city and country. No unusual levels of radioactivity have been recorded at any of these locations. Furthermore, details of the KANUPP incident were provided to the press and also to the IAEA as per procedure,he said. The entire news item is based upon the statement attributed to the spokesman of the Polish atomic energy agency who only said: “Unconfirmed reports suggest there may have been an incident at a nuclear power station in Pakistan but this requires further confirmation”. And he did not cite any evidence or proof. None of the international organizations including IAEA has suggested anything leading to the conclusion that radiation in Europe could have come from KANUPP. Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission would like to avail this opportunity to assure the public, that at no point in time in its history, have the radiations from KANUPP been beyond permissible limits and, therefore, there is absolutely no possibility that the type of radiation detected in Europe could have come from KANUPP.
“I don’t want to be a murderer” Posted by Mochizuki on November 13th, 2011 A fisher from Iwaki shi, Fukushima decided to stop fishing anymore.
He is one of the fishers who are concerned about sea contamination.
At a Tepco’s meeting for the local citizens, he made them give out the data about the radiation level before 311.
(He knew they would not give out the data after 311)
According to the data, the highest radiation level had been 0.1 Bq/Kg.
He checks sea contamination data from Fukushima local government’s website, and analyzed by himself.
He saw the reality that radiation level is not decreasing, it dropped down once but it is in the increasing trend at variety of the locations at Fukushima off shore.
He decided to stop fishing anymore.
He said:
“It is a murder of possibility. My family, friends, loved one might eat my fish. Thinking about that, I can no longer fish and sell. Fishers in further north or Hokkaido can run their business better if we stop fishing too. Our fishing would cause harmful rumor for the market that might be still safe. We better withdraw. I can not understand why Japanese government is trying to re-start other nuclear plants either. It’s time to go back to our common sense.” http://fukushima-diary.com/...nt-to-be-a-murderer/
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Special Report on the Nuclear Accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, INPO (Institute of Nuclear Power Operations), November 2011 [Emphasis Added]:
Excerpts
* “Four of the five emergency diesel generators on units 5 and 6 were inoperable after the tsunami” * “One air-cooled emergency diesel generator on Unit 6 continued to function and supplied electrical power to Unit 6, and later to Unit 5, to maintain cooling to the reactor and spent fuel pool.” * “Unit 5 had been shut down and in an outage since January 3, 2011. Fuel had been loaded into the reactor and the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) reassembled.” * “Unit 6 had been shut down and in an outage since August 14, 2010. Fuel had been loaded into the reactor and the RPV reassembled.” * “The Unit 6 air-cooled EDG and portions of the electrical distribution system survived the tsunami and were used to reestablish cold shutdown on units 5 and 6.” * “After the tsunami impacted the site, operators were able to use the 6B emergency diesel generator (EDG) to provide power to cooling systems for the Unit 6 spent fuel pool. After installing temporary cables, the 6B EDG [generator] provided power to Unit 5 spent fuel pool cooling.”
The decommissions of Fukushima Daiichi's first four reactors will likely take more than 30 years to complete, according to a draft report released late last month by Japan's Atomic Energy Commission. The report indicated that nuclear fuel should begin to be removed by the end of 2021 -- a key, but hardly the last phase in a clean-up effort that is expected to continue for another two decades beyond that.
Masao Yoshida, the man in charge of the plant, said that all the reactors have stabilized and predicted that Tokyo Electric was on track to have a cold shutdown by year's end.
But he conceded that the danger is still far from over -- especially for the thousands still toiling to bring this nuclear nightmare to an end.
"Even saying it's stabilized doesn't mean that it is extremely safe," said Yoshida. "When working, the radiation remains high. So when it comes to working every day, there is still danger."
Thirty years to decommission? Might be able to start removing the melted cores ten years from now? Phonedawgz posted this on the last page:
In light of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, the panel revised its estimates for the amount of damage from a nuclear accident - including costs for decommissioning reactors - to some ¥5 trillion ($64 billion) from an earlier projection of ¥3.9 trillion ($50 billion). Above this level of damage, JAEC said that for every subsequent ¥1 trillion increase in damage, the cost of nuclear generation would rise by an additional ¥0.001 to ¥0.32 per kWh.
If you do some math, it looks like it will average about 2.13 billion dollars a year for the next 30 years to clean up the Daiichi nuclear facility, during which it will be producing not a single Watt of electricity. And, that 64 billion is in today's dollars, so it will absolutely be going up as normal inflation progresses over the next three decades. But wait, maybe that 64 billion dollar estimate is for a normal reactor decommissioning, since the article doesn't mention that it's specifically the estimate for the Daiichi reactors. How much extra does it take to decommission a nuclear reactor that's melted itself into a multi-ton blob at the bottom of a compromised reactor containment vessel? Bear in mind that getting into any part of that facility where one can actually see the core will expose the viewer to a very lethal dose of radiation, likely resulting in death within hours. Everything will have to be done with robots, hardware that will have to be disposed of the same as the core due to extreme irradiation. That doesn't sound cheap to me.
So, I'm guessing the TEPCO ratepayers will be paying that extra 2.13 billion dollars a year for the next one and a half generations? Or more?
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dennis_6 Member
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Originally posted by phonedawgz: (The payout was on individual basis, ranging from JPY100,000 to 300,000 per person depending on the circumstances and duration of their evacuation and other damage) Payments began on July 25, and to date, approximately JPY4.34 billion have been paid out to approximately 160,000 people (as of October 3).
From ENENEWS.com Tokyo schools check for Fukushima fallout, ABC Australia, Nov. 14, 2011:
ABC’s Mark Willacy:
[...] “The kids roll in it, scoop it into buckets – one even samples a mouthful of it. But there are fears something could be lurking in the dirt here and that’s radioactive caesium spewed out by the oozing Fukushima reactors. As the kids play, a few metres away in a corner of the yard the principal Michiko Ikeda is hovering over a Geiger counter and writing down readings.”
Michiko Ikeda, principal of Meguro Honcho Nursery School in Tokyo (speaking Japanese):
* “There is no solution here.” * “We cannot say this is absolutely safe. Parents are worried about radiation, our staff too.” * “By taking these radiation measurements, we want to show that we care for the children.” * “I still worry when it rains [...] I worry about it a lot. After it rains we wash all the outside equipment and toys and we clean out the drains to reduce the radiation level.”
A member of the local council in Meguro, Hiroshi Sato, accompanied principal Ikeda as she took measurements with a Geiger counter and said:
* “Recently it became clear that radiation came further south than we thought, all the way to Tokyo.” * “We are now checking dozens of schools in the Meguro area.”
Gov't aims for 'cold shutdown' of Fukushima reactors, but bemoans lack of data
The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) are trying to achieve a stable condition called a "cold shutdown" of crippled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant by the end of this year, but they have yet to come to grips with exactly what is happening inside the reactors crippled by the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami.
In the latest roadmap to contain the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the government and TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, aim for a "cold shutdown" of the reactors by the end of this year. Their definition of a cold shutdown of the Fukushima nuclear plant consists of 1) the temperatures of the bottoms of the reactor pressure vessels being held down below 100 degrees Celsius, 2) radioactive substances from the reactors being managed and controlled, and 3) stable maintenance of "circular cooling systems" designed to recycle radioactive water from the reactors as coolant.
On Oct. 14, TEPCO finished installing a covering over the No. 1 reactor in an effort to prevent radioactive substances from spreading. In addition, a ventilation system designed to remove radioactive substances from the reactor building through filters has been operating at the reactor, and the temperature of the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel has dropped below 40 degrees Celsius. At the No. 2 reactor, a "gas control system" designed to remove radioactive substances from the reactor building has begun to be operational. But an analysis of gas using the system suggested on Nov. 2 a possibility of a sustained nuclear chain reaction known as criticality following the detection of radioactive xenon. TEPCO and the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) eventually concluded that it was not criticality but "spontaneous fission," revealing the very fact that they were not able to come to grips with the situation inside the reactor accurately. TEPCO plans to start operating gas control systems at the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors by the end of this year to step up its efforts to monitor radioactive substances at each nuclear reactor.
At the No. 3 reactor, which suffered a hydrogen explosion shortly after a similar blast at the No. 1 reactor, debris remains scattered in the reactor building. Furthermore, levels of radiation from the debris remain high, hampering efforts to contain the reactor. Therefore, TEPCO continues to use a crane to remove debris from the upper reactor building blown off by the hydrogen explosion.
At the No. 1, 2 and 3 reactors, melted nuclear fuel seems to be penetrating the pressure vessels and even leaking out from the reactor buildings. About 10 cubic meters per hour of water has been injected into the reactors to cool nuclear fuel. TEPCO unveiled an estimate that the probability of another reactor core being further damaged would be once in 5,000 years if the nuclear plant were to be hit by a major tsunami again and lose its entire functions to inject water. The utility submitted to NISA its plans to ensure safety at the plant over the next three years or so.
At the No. 4 reactor, which has no nuclear fuel in the reactor itself, about 1,535 fuel rods -- about three times the number of fuel rods at the No. 1, 2, and 3 reactors -- are kept in the spent nuclear fuel pool. For this reason, TEPCO completed the work to sustain the fuel pool with steel frames in late July.
Reporters at damaged reactor plant told to stay in the bus Martin Fackler November 14, 2011
FUKUSHIMA: The most striking feature at this crippled plant was not the blasted-out reactor buildings, or makeshift tsunami walls, but the chaotic mess.
The ground around the four hulking reactor buildings was littered with mangled trucks, twisted metal beams and broken building frames, left mostly as they were after Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
In a country as compulsively tidy as Japan, the fact the scene has changed so little was as telling a sign as any of the tasks workers have faced while struggling to regain control of the plant's three badly damaged nuclear reactors. Advertisement: Story continues below
The media tour of the site, the first since disaster struck on March 11, appeared to be Tokyo Electric Power Co's way of declaring its confidence that it is close to stabilising the plant.
That message was driven home by the minister supervising the government's response to the nuclear accident, Goshi Hosono, who visited the plant at the same time as the journalists.
Speaking to hundreds of workers, Mr Hosono praised their hard work in difficult and dangerous conditions. But the hopeful talk skims over more troubling truths.
Two weeks ago, TEPCO announced it found signs one of the reactor cores may have had a burst of fission, a frightening sign the company might not be as close to a stable shutdown as it said. While no one died in the nuclear accident, the environmental and human costs were clear during the 20 kilometre drive to the plant through the evacuation zone.
The dosimeters of the journalists on the bus buzzed constantly, recording levels that ticked up with each passing kilometre: 0.7 microsieverts in Naraha, at the edge of the evacuation zone; 1.5 at Tomioka, where the welcome centre for Fukushima Daiichi told Japanese visitors that nuclear power was safe. Saturday's level was 13 times the recommended maximum annual dosage for civilians.
At the plant, journalists, outfitted in full contamination suits, were kept aboard the bus in recognition of the much higher radiation levels there.
One worker, Hiroyuki Shida, 57, said ''radiation levels aren't so high outside the buildings. But they are still high within the reactor buildings''.
“Shoes immediately melted” Posted by Mochizuki on November 14th, 2011 · No Comments
11/14/2011, actual Fukushima workers finally talked about how it was in the plant just after 311.
It was the situation beyond our imagination, no wonder, far from being announced officially.
It was told at the energy, environment symposium held at Tokyo University. The promoter was Mr.Aizawa, vice president of Tepco. (so it is likely that the ACTUAL situation was way worse than it was told at this symposium, but better than no information.)
The worker said:
After 311, power was lost, although it was a power station, they could not see anything. Radiation level kept going up. We had an argument if we must stay or escape from the central control room.
Because Tepco could not inject water, they used emergency methods of putting water. However, still huge aftershock kept coming. Every time an aftershock comes, they ran to higher place with the protective clothing.
Tsunami left the plant with puddles. Especially at night, workers felt fear to put cables because they may have been electrocuted.
Venting was done at reactors 1 ~ 3. Normally it can be controlled from the central operation room, but because it was out of power, workers had to go to the actual point to open the lid.
However, it was extremely hot because of the exposed fuel inside of the reactor. A worker states, once they stepped on the ladder, the shoes got melted like glue immediately.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
PNAS is one of the world's most-cited multidisciplinary scientific serials. Since its establishment in 1914, it continues to publish cutting-edge research reports, commentaries, reviews, perspectives, colloquium papers, and actions of the Academy. Coverage in PNAS spans the biological, physical, and social sciences. PNAS is published weekly in print, and daily online in PNAS Early Edition.
Paper title: Cesium-137 deposition and contamination of Japanese soils due to the Fukushima nuclear accident
Abstract:
quote
The largest concern on the cesium-137 (137Cs) deposition and its soil contamination due to the emission from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) showed up after a massive quake on March 11, 2011. Cesium-137 (137Cs) with a half-life of 30.1 y causes the largest concerns because of its deleterious effect on agriculture and stock farming, and, thus, human life for decades. Removal of 137Cs contaminated soils or land use limitations in areas where removal is not possible is, therefore, an urgent issue. A challenge lies in the fact that estimates of 137Cs emissions from the Fukushima NPP are extremely uncertain, therefore, the distribution of 137Cs in the environment is poorly constrained. Here, we estimate total 137Cs deposition by integrating daily observations of 137Cs deposition in each prefecture in Japan with relative deposition distribution patterns from a Lagrangian particle dispersion model, FLEXPART. We show that 137Cs strongly contaminated the soils in large areas of eastern and northeastern Japan, whereas western Japan was sheltered by mountain ranges. The soils around Fukushima NPP and neighboring prefectures have been extensively contaminated with depositions of more than 100,000 and 10,000 MBq km-2, respectively. Total 137Cs depositions over two domains: (i) the Japan Islands and the surrounding ocean (130–150 °E and 30–46 °N) and, (ii) the Japan Islands, were estimated to be more than 5.6 and 1.0 PBq, respectively. We hope our 137Cs deposition maps will help to coordinate decontamination efforts and plan regulatory measures in Japan.
Paper includes maps and cited data.
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Nov 16th, 2011
dennis_6 Member
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A worker cleans a gutter using pressurized water and a brush at a house in the Shimo-Oguni district of Ryozenmachi in Date, Fukushima Prefecture.
FUKUSHIMA--The Date municipal government has become the first municipality to begin decontamination of houses within specific sites recommended for evacuation by the central government because of high radiation levels.
The local government decided to decontaminate the houses on its own out of consideration for residents who wish to return to lives free of radiation fears as soon as possible. It is unclear, however, how effective the operations will be, as so far it has proven difficult to get radiation down to target levels.
A total of 54 households in the Shimo-Oguni district of Ryozenmachi in Date were designated as sites recommended for evacuation at the end of June. The district, located in a mountainous area about 300 meters above sea level, is about 55 kilometers northwest of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
As many of the households in the district are farmers, most of them have not evacuated.
The central government on June 30 designated 113 households in four districts in Date as so-called hot spots, where the annual amount of radiation is expected to exceed 20 millisieverts.
Currently, 12 districts in three municipalities in the prefecture are designated as hot spots. In these areas, residents are not instructed to evacuate, but the central government has recommended evacuation for households with pregnant women and children.
The Date municipal government started decontamination independently on Oct. 26, with a budget of 150 million yen. It aims to lower radiation levels in outdoor areas where residents spend time as part of their day-to-day activities to between 1 and 1.5 microsieverts per hour.
Misa Sato, 65, wife of farmer Mikio Sato, 70, watched the decontamination efforts get under way with a look of relief.
"I'm grateful that decontamination has started. If radiation levels at our house are lowered, our daughter's family will be able to visit us with their children," she said.
Sato and her husband refrained from sending rice, vegetables and fruit to their children this year, as radiation was detected in their produce, though the level was lower than the government-set provisional limit.
"It will be difficult to grow rice next year as well, because the farmland will not be decontaminated," Sato said. The only thing they can do, she added, is demand compensation for lost income from Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the crippled nuclear plant.
===
Time-consuming
Four workers, clad in thick uniforms, helmets, goggles, masks and boots, began decontamination work at Sato's house recently. They were members of a building cleaning company in Date hired by the government. An official from a radiation control-related company in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, oversaw the work.
The workers removed mud and fallen leaves using shovels and other means, and placed them into bags. They scraped moss from roof tiles and scrubbed gutters with brushes while flushing them out with water.
They then cleaned a concrete floor using a scrubbing brush and pressurized water.
Soil that was found to be contaminated with radiation was transported to a temporary storage site located near a forest in the district.
One 37-year-old cleaning worker said with bewilderment: "Unlike ordinary cleaning, this dirt is not visible. We don't know how far we have to clean."
After the cleaning work was completed, the radiation level in the gutters dropped to 2.2 microsieverts per hour from 4 microsieverts.
Three days later, an operation to remove topsoil in Sato's garden was conducted with the cooperation of city volunteers. However, when they scraped the soil away to a depth of five centimeters, the radiation level increased unexpectedly. It was an area where rainwater had seeped underground.
According to the municipal government, decontamination operations were conducted on 26 households in two districts during the three weeks from Oct. 26 through Nov. 14. However, radiation levels dropped to target levels at only four of the households.
An official at the municipal government's radiation-control division acknowledged the difficulty of removing radioactive substances. "Radiation levels will not drop as easily as expected. It takes a lot of time to decontaminate each house."
1.3 Sv/h at reactor 3 Posted by Mochizuki on November 16th, 2011 · 6 Comments
At the press conference of Tepco, 11/16/2011, Tepco published the video when a robot cleaned a rail in reactor 3.
A helmet is in the sight sometimes. Tepco used a robot because the radiation level is too high in reactor 3, but the video was taken by a human worker.
At first, the radiation level is “only” 700 mSv/h, but it jumps up to 1,300 mSv/h.
Still, the video was being taken by a human worker.
The types of nuclides or any other details are still concealed.
The video was taken in 11/14/2011 (JST).
TEPCO was pretending to be modernized by using a robot to check dangerous areas, but this video shows it’s only a pose, they still use human workers even in the presence of 1.3 Sv/h.
Radioactive Particles Are Spreading Across Europe and Nobody Knows Why
Radioactive Particles Are Spreading Across Europe and Nobody Knows WhyIodine-131 is a dangerous radioactive isotope. It can clog up your thyroid gland and contaminate food. It's been a big problem in Japan (for obvious reasons), but now it's been scarily detected throughout Europe. And nobody knows the source.
Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Sweden, and the Czech Republic have all detected clouds of iodine-131 within their borders—that's a very large swath of Europe. Nobody is sure of where it's coming from, Reuters reports, though speculation includes pharmaceutical companies, nuclear submarines, and the transportation of radioactive materials—but scientists are sure it's not from Fukushima. So how would that explain contamination that spans hundreds and hundreds of miles?
The International Atomic Energy Agency says "the current trace levels of iodine-131 that have been measured do not pose a public health risk," but we've heard that so many times before. It's not a cause for panic, but an unexplained cloud of dangerous radioactivity is absolutely cause for concern. It certainly deserves more than 129 words on the IAEA's website. [Reuters] http://gizmodo.com/5860020/...and-nobody-knows-why
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Surveys by Japan's Environment Ministry show that downstream radiation levels have risen in some rivers in Fukushima Prefecture.
The ministry has been monitoring radiation levels in rivers near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to assess the impact of the accident there.
Officials took sand samples from 2 rivers in September.
In northern Fukushima Prefecture, the upstream radioactive cesium levels were 3,200 becquerels per kilogram in the Niida River in a district of Iitate Village. The downstream levels of the same river in an area of Soma City were 13,000 becquerels.
The upstream levels had fallen to one-fifth of those observed in May, but the downstream measurements had tripled.
Cesium levels near the mouth of the Mano River in another part of Soma City had doubled from May.
Kinki University Professor Hideo Yamazaki says radioactive substances in riverbed sands are probably moving downstream, and radiation levels should be monitored near river mouths.
Minister of nuclear power [Goshi] Hosono [...] This will never be news on main street. but the spots on Hosono’s face can’t be hidden. People who entered Horoshima after atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima had the spots like that. It was called “city entering exposure”.
Radiation levels in Fukushima are lower than predicted
* 22:00 16 November 2011 by Chelsea Whyte
The fallout from the radiation leak at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor in Japan may be less severe than predicted.
Radiology researcher Ikuo Kashiwakura of Hirosaki University, Japan, and colleagues responded immediately to the disaster, travelling south to Fukushima prefecture to measure radiation levels in more than 5000 people there between 15 March and 20 June. Copyrighted story, more at link. http://www.newscientist.com...-than-predicted.html
---------------------- This story seems in stark contrast to countless others claiming the opposite, and it also does not take into consideration that Fukushima is still leaking radiation. Back in October, articles were claiming Fukushima released 40 percent of Chernobyl http://articles.economictim...strial-safety-agency That makes it impossible for Chernobyl to have released 10 times more radiation.
[This message has been edited by dennis_6 (edited 11-17-2011).]
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Staple Scare: Radioactive Rice in Fukushima Search Japan Real Time1
By Yoree Koh
While Japan has battled a series of food scares in the wake of the nuclear crisis, the latest revelation hits at the heart of the country’s proud national staple: Radioactive cesium exceeding the government limit was detected for the first time in rice harvested in Fukushima prefecture.
About 630 becquerels of cesium per kilogram were found in a rice sample taken from a farm in Fukushima City, the prefectural government said Wednesday night. The levels measure above the government-mandated limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram of harvested rice, prompting immediate calls to limit shipments from the area.
The detection is likely to fuel consumer anxieties already rife with concerns that products such as beef and green tea tainted with unsafe levels of radioactive contaminants have made their way onto store shelves. Although the tainted rice was being readied for shipment, the health ministry said it is believed that none has yet to reach the marketplace.
The Fukushima prefectural government urged the 154 farms located in Oonami, the district in Fukushima City where the rice sample was taken, to suspend shipments. Oonami is located about 60 kilometers away from Fukushima Daiichi plant. Meanwhile, the health ministry asked the national government for a formal temporary suspension.
“The government is considering ordering a shipment restriction and hopes to come to a conclusion promptly,” Osamu Fujimura, the government’s top spokesman, said at a press conference on Thursday.
But Mr. Fujimura and other officials played down the finding, insisting it didn’t suggest a broader problem. “My understanding is that this is a special case and does not affect a large area,” he said.
Still, Daisuke Takeuchi, an official in the health ministry’s food safety inspection bureau, told JRT that the inspection efforts of rice from the area will be strengthened. Prior to the discovery, samples from only a few farms from Oonami had been tested. Now, all 154 rice-producing farms in the district will be analyzed.
Despite a number of safeguards designed to catch excessive levels of radioactive materials, the latest discovery highlights the complex challenge of identifying how the contaminants spread and at what concentration levels. Japanese officials began conducting tests on rice fields in April, starting with one field per municipality in the areas surrounding the reactors, then increasing the number of test spots wherever they found elevated levels of radioactive cesium, the most common pollutant.
Rice cultivation was banned in fields found to have more than 5,000 becquerels of cesium per kilogram of soil.
Mr. Takeuchi said that the Oonami rice fields measured below the limit at the time. He added that steps will be taken to determine the cause of the high-levels of the radioactive isotope.
National News Radiation-tainted sludge, ash continues to pile up at Yokohama treatment centers Bags of ash are stored at the southern sludge treatment and recycling center, which is gradually running out of space. Bags of ash are stored at the southern sludge treatment and recycling center, which is gradually running out of space.
YOKOHAMA -- Nearly six months have passed since sludge and ash contaminated with radioactive materials from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant stopped being shipped from processing facilities here to cement manufacturers.
Two facilities in the city now hold over 5,500 metric tons of ash, and that figure continues to rise. The city is under pressure to find storage space and explain to residents how the ash will be buried, but no immediate solution to the problem is in sight.
At the beginning of this month, I visited the southern sludge treatment and recycling center in Yokohama's Kanazawa Ward, where some 4,000 tons of ash -- over 70 percent of the city's total -- is stored.
The 16,000 cubic meters or so of sludge that is produced at sewage plants in Yokohama each day is divided up equally and processed at the city's northern and southern treatment centers. The southern center previously handed incineration ash over to cement manufacturers, but after businesses stopped collecting the ash in mid-May due to the detection of radioactive materials, ash started piling up at the center.
As I was photographing workers transferring ash into bags, one worker warned me, "Don't get too close." Since pickups of the ash stopped, each worker has continued to pack 500 kilograms of ash into bags by hand. The fine ash particles rose into the air, making me realize the importance of wearing a mask. Since May, the workers have worn special filter masks.
Bags of ash covered with plastic sheets formed mountains on the premises. The amount of ash is increasing at a rate of 20 tons a day at the center. Seeing them up close, I felt the ominous weight of the nuclear crisis, which had seemed a distant affair to me up until then.
Though the center grounds seem spacious, they have their limits. The Yokohama Municipal Government is considering bringing in storage containers to secure more space, but when asked about the time limit for storing the tainted ash, center head Yoshikichi Takahashi appeared grim.
"If the amount overflows here, then sewage treatment facilities will come to a halt, and so will (the city's) water system lifelines. This is originally drainage water from homes. I want people to consider this an issue close to home," he said.
In May, the amount of radioactive cesium detected in ash at the southern treatment center exceeded 5,000 becquerels per kilogram, but by the end of October the level was below 2,000 becquerels per kilogram. Cement businesses are expected to consider receiving shipments again if the level falls below 300 becquerels per kilogram, but this will take time.
"We're caught between cement users and local bodies," one cement business that accepts sludge said. "I want officials to explain to users that the products are safe and start accepting ash." (By Mio Sugino, Mainichi Shimbun)
Most radioactive cesium piled up within 2 centimeters of soil surface A sandbox at an elementary school, where the sand is being replaced, is pictured in Tokyo's Adachi Ward on Aug. 24. (Mainichi) A sandbox at an elementary school, where the sand is being replaced, is pictured in Tokyo's Adachi Ward on Aug. 24. (Mainichi)
Most of the radioactive cesium emitted by the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant has piled up within two centimeters of the soil surface, the government has announced.
The Cabinet Office's Team in Charge of the Lives of Disaster Victims announced on Nov. 16 the detailed results of its survey on cesium dosage and accumulations in the soil, forests, buildings, rivers and other environments. Based on the results, the Cabinet Office has concluded that "most of the cesium can be removed if the top two centimeters of the soil is scraped away from its surface."
The survey, conducted between July and September, covered the Fukushima Prefecture town of Tomioka, which is designated as a no-go zone, and the town of Namie, which has both a no-go zone and an evacuation preparation zone. Officials said 80 to 97 percent of cesium detected in those areas' schools, parks, rice paddies and other locations was found within two centimeters of the soil surface. Workers spread lining sheets in a huge trench dug to bury radiation-contaminated topsoil collected from the ground of Yasawa Elementary School and Kindergarten in Minami-Soma, about 20 kilometers away from the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility, in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011.(AP Photo/Hiro Komae) Workers spread lining sheets in a huge trench dug to bury radiation-contaminated topsoil collected from the ground of Yasawa Elementary School and Kindergarten in Minami-Soma, about 20 kilometers away from the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility, in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011.(AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
In forests and orchards, cesium tended to penetrate deeper into the soil, but 68 to 88 percent of cesium still accumulated within two centimeters of the topsoil, according to the survey.
In the leaves of deciduous trees that have grown following the onset of the nuclear disaster in March, 60 to 26,000 becquerels of cesium per kilogram was detected, while the leaves of evergreen trees that have existed since before the March 11 disasters contained levels of cesium about 10 times higher than that, at 18,000 to 220,000 becquerels per kilogram. Meanwhile, fruits of trees that have grown in places with high cesium concentrations in the soil hardly bore cesium, the survey has found. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnn...2a00m0na016000c.html
[This message has been edited by dennis_6 (edited 11-17-2011).]
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07:05 PM
dennis_6 Member
Posts: 7196 From: between here and there Registered: Aug 2001
Early Report Suggests Low Radiation Exposure in Fukushima By Sora Song Thursday, November 17, 2011 | Add a Comment
In the aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated northern Japan on March 11, concerns have focused on the lasting health impact of the radiation that leaked from the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was crippled in the disasters.
Now a preliminary report published in PLoS ONE finds that the dangers may not be as grave as we first feared. Over on TIME's Ecocentric blog, our colleague Bryan Walsh reports:
The PLoS study, led by Ikuo Kashiwakura, found only 10 people among those surveyed with high levels of radiation exposure — and even those levels were not elevated enough to require decontamination. (The study covered March 15 to June 20.) Almost everyone else surveyed had low to nonexistent levels of radiation contamination, while the Hirosaki [University] staff members on site had undetectable radiation levels.
That's not to say that radiation-related health problems won't arise in the future, however, and scientists will need to keep long-term tabs on residents, Walsh reports — but it could have been much worse.
Read Walsh's full post on Ecocentric here.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/...shima/#ixzz1e0jx3hpR --------------------------------------- Guess there is nothing to worry about after all. One person claims 10 percent, despite claims of up to 40 percent by the media/industry in the past, the media runs with it. No, the 40 percent number is not "wacko", The "wacko's" are claiming 1000x Chernobyl. If the past is any indication, in a few months it will 60 percent Chernobyl. Seems to be the pattern, release a little info, down play, release a little more, down play some more, over and over.
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07:13 PM
phonedawgz Member
Posts: 17091 From: Green Bay, WI USA Registered: Dec 2009
Originally posted by dennis_6: Radiation levels in Fukushima are lower than predicted
* 22:00 16 November 2011 by Chelsea Whyte
The fallout from the radiation leak at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor in Japan may be less severe than predicted.
Radiology researcher Ikuo Kashiwakura of Hirosaki University, Japan, and colleagues responded immediately to the disaster, travelling south to Fukushima prefecture to measure radiation levels in more than 5000 people there between 15 March and 20 June. Copyrighted story, more at link. http://www.newscientist.com...-than-predicted.html
---------------------- This story seems in stark contrast to countless others claiming the opposite, and it also does not take into consideration that Fukushima is still leaking radiation. Back in October, articles were claiming Fukushima released 40 percent of Chernobyl http://articles.economictim...strial-safety-agency That makes it impossible for Chernobyl to have released 10 times more radiation.
When you have pre-determined in your mind what the facts are then you can just judge what news you will believe and which ones you will just dismiss as incorrect. But then why even bother with reading the news anyways.
Or maybe perhaps it was the first estimate that was incorrect.
When you have pre-determined in your mind what the facts are then you can just judge what news you will believe and which ones you will just dismiss as incorrect. But then why even bother with reading the news anyways.
Or maybe perhaps it was the first estimate that was incorrect.
No comment on the contaminated rice? I'm wondering who is paying for that? Somebody better, it's not that farmer's fault that rice is now worthless...
