Japan nuclear agency upgrades Fukushima alert level

[Cidersomerset]

Japan enacts strict state secrets law despite public protests

'Last month the Japanese government has passed a harsh state secrets law that
threatens to reduce or eliminate reliable information about Fukushima'.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=EXyx_BT2eNE

6 Dec 2013

In Japan, thousands of people have held a demonstration to denounce the
government's decision to enact a state-secrets law to toughen penalties for
whistleblowers and journalists.

Thousands of protesters, who braved Tokyo's cold weather, gathered across from
the parliament building, chanting anti-government slogans. Under the state-secrets
law, anyone who leaks information about the Fukushima nuclear disaster or the
country's tense relations with China could face a long prison sentence. Journalists
and others in the private sector convicted of encouraging such leaks would be put
behind bars up to five years if they use inappropriate means to solicit the
information. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said the law is needed to persuade
allies like the U-S to share intelligence. The ratification of the law came as a
worldwide debate on secrecy is underway, sparked by U-S whistleblower Edward
Snowden's leaks of classified documents.

====================================================
Fukushima Meltdowns: A Global Conspiracy of Denial

Sunday 5th January 2014 at 07:26 By David Icke



Fukushima Meltdowns: A Global Conspiracy of Denial
By William Boardman
Global Research, January 05, 2014
Reader Supported News





‘Does anyone in authority anywhere tell the truth about Fukushima?

If there is any government or non-government authority in the world that is
addressing the disaster at Fukushima openly, directly, honestly, and effectively, it’s
not apparent to the outside observer what entity that might be.

There is instead an apparent global conspiracy of authorities of all sorts to deny to
the public reliably accurate, comprehensible, independently verifiable (where
possible), and comprehensive information about not only the condition of the
Fukushima power plant itself and its surrounding communities, but about the
unceasing, uncontrolled release of radioactive debris into the air and water,
creating a constantly increasing risk of growing harm to the global community.

While the risk may still be miniscule in most places, the range of risk rises to lethal
in Fukushima itself. With the radioactive waste of four nuclear reactors (three of
them in meltdown) under uncertain control for almost three years now, the risk of
lethal exposure is very real for plant workers, and may decrease with distance from
the plant, but may be calculable for anyone on the planet. No one seems to know.
No one seems to have done the calculation. No one with access to the necessary
information (assuming it exists) seems to want to do the calculation.’

There is no moral excuse for this international collusion. The excuses are political
or economic or social, but none of them excuses any authority for withholding or
lying about information that has potentially universal and destructive impact on
everyone alive today and everyone to be born for some unknown generations.

Japanese authorities may be the worst current offenders against the truth, as well
as the health and safety of their people. Now the Japanese government has passed
a harsh state secrets law that threatens to reduce or eliminate reliable information
about Fukushima. The U.S. government officially applauded this heightened
secrecy, while continuing its own tight control on nuclear information. Japanese
authorities are already attacking their own people in defense of nuclear power: not
only under-measuring and ignoring varieties of radioactive threat, but even
withholding the iodine pills in 2011 that might have mitigated the growing epidemic
of thyroid issues today. Failing to confront Fukushima honestly, the Japanese are
laying the basis for what could amount to a radiological sneak attack on the rest of
the world.

Just because no one seems to know what to do about Fukushima is no excuse to go
on lying about and/or denying the dimensions of reality, whatever they might be.

There are hundreds, probably thousands of people with little or no authority who
have long struggled to create a realistic, rational perspective on nuclear threats.
The fundamental barrier to knowing the scale of the Fukushima disaster is just
that: the scale of the Fukushima disaster.

Chernobyl 1986 and Fukushima 2011 are not really comparable

Chernobyl is the closest precedent to Fukushima, and it’s not very close. Chernobyl
at the time of the 1986 electric failure and explosion had four operating reactors
and two more under construction. The Chernobyl accident involved one reactor
meltdown. Other reactors kept operating for some time after the accident. The
rector meltdown was eventually entombed, containing the meltdown and reducing
the risk. Until Fukushima, Chernobyl was considered the worst nuclear power
accident in history, and it is still far from over (albeit largely contained for the time
being). The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone of roughly 1,000 square miles remains one of
the most radioactive areas in the world and the clean-up is not even expected to be
complete before 2065.

At the time of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, the Fukushima plant
had six operating reactors. Three of them went into meltdown and a fourth was left
with a heavily laden fuel pool teetering a hundred feet above the ground. Two other
reactors were undamaged and have been shut down. Radiation levels remain lethal
in each of the melted-down reactors, where the meltdowns appear to be held in
check by water that is pumped into the reactors to keep them cool. In the process,
the water gets irradiated and that which is not collected on site in leaking tanks
flows steadily into the Pacific Ocean. Within the first two weeks, Fukushima
radiation was comparable to Chernobyl’s and while the levels have gone down, they
remain elevated.

The plant’s corporate owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), in turn
effectively owned by the Japanese government after a2012 nationalization, began
removing more than 1,500 fuel rod assemblies from the teetering fuel pool in
November, a delicate process expected to take a year or more. There are additional
fuel pools attached to each of the melted down reactors and a much larger general
fuel pool, all of which contain nuclear fuel rod assemblies that are secure only as
long as TEPCO continues to cool them. The Fukushima Exclusion Zone, a 12-mile
radius around the nuclear plant, is about 500 square miles (much of it ocean); little
specific information about the exclusion zone is easily available, but media
coverage in the form of disaster tourism is plentiful, including a Google Street View
interactive display.

Despite their significant differences as disasters, Chernobyl and Fukushima are
both rated at 7 – a “major accident” on the International Nuclear Event Scale
designed in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). That is the
highest rating on the scale, a reflection of the inherent denial that colors most
official nuclear thinking. Designed by nuclear “experts” after Chernobyl, the scale
can’t imagine a worse accident than Chernobyl which, for all its intensity, was
effectively over as an accident in a relatively short period of time. At Fukushima, by
contrast, the initial set of events was less acute than Chernobyl, but almost three
years later they continue without any resolution likely soon. Additionally Fukushima
has three reactor meltdowns and thousands of precarious fuel rod assemblies in
uncertain pools, any of which could produce a new crisis that would put Fukushima
clearly off the scale.

And then there’s groundwater. Groundwater was not a problem at Chernobyl.
Groundwater is a huge problem at the Fukushima plant that was built at the
seashore, on a former riverbed, over an active aquifer. In a short video, nuclear
engineer Arnie Gunderson makes clear why groundwater makes Fukushima so hard
to clean up, and why radiation levels there will likely remain dangerous for another
hundred years.

Fukushima Unit #3 activity led to some panic-driven reporting in 2013

The Japanese government and nuclear power industry have a history of not telling
the truth about nuclear accidents dating back at least to 1995, as reported by New
Scientist and Rachel Maddow, among others. Despite Japan’s history of nuclear
dishonesty, Japanese authorities remain in total control of the Fukushima site and
most of the information about it, without significant objection from most of the
world’s governments, media, and other power brokers, whose reputation for
honesty in nuclear matters is almost as bad as Japan’s. In such a context of no
context, the public is vulnerable to reports like this from the Turner Radio Network
(TRN) on December 28:


** NEWS FLASH – URGENT ** STEAM SUDDENLY EMANATING FROM FUKUSHIMA
REACTOR # 3 – WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA SHOULD BEGIN PREPARATIONS
FOR POSSIBLE RADIATION CLOUD WITHIN 3 TO 5 DAYS

Five days after this story was posted, the “radiation cloud” had not developed
despite the story’s assertion that: “Experts say this could be the beginning of
a ‘spent fuel pool criticality (meltdown)’ involving up to 89 TONS of nuclear fuel
burning up into the atmosphere and heading to North America.” The story named
no “experts” and provided links only to TEPCO announcements in Japanese. The
bulk of the story reads like an infomercial for “protective” gear of various sorts that
TRN makes a point of saying it does NOT sell. Despite such obvious warning signs,
others – such as The Ecologist and Gizmodo – reported the threat of “another
meltdown” at Fukushima Unit #3 as imminent.

Clarification and reassurance quickly started chasing the “new meltdown” rumor
around the Internet. ENENEWS (Energy News) promptly posted the TEPCO reports
in English, demonstrating that there was nothing “sudden” about the steam
releases, they’ve been happening more or less daily since 2011, but condensation
caused by cold weather makes them visible. At FAIREWINDS (Energy Education),
Arnie Gunderson posted on January 1:


“… the Internet has been flooded with conjecture claiming that Fukushima Daiichi
Unit 3 is ready to explode…. Our research, and discussions with other scientists,
confirms that what we are seeing is a phenomenon that has been occurring at the
Daiichi site since the March 2011 accident…. While the plants are shutdown in nuke
speak, there is no method of achieving cold shut down in any nuclear reactor. While
the reactor can stop generating the actual nuclear chain reaction, the atoms left
over from the original nuclear chain reaction continue to give off heat that is called
the decay of the radioactive rubble (fission products)…. constantly releasing
moisture (steam) and radioactive products into the environment.” [emphasis
added]

In other words, Fukushima Unit #3 continues to leak radioactivity into both air and
water, as Units #1 and #2 presumably do as well. But as Gunderson explains, the
level of radioactivity has declined sharply without becoming benign:


“When Unit 3 was operating, it was producing more than 2,000 megawatts of heat
from the nuclear fission process (chain reaction in the reactor). Immediately after
the earthquake and tsunami, it shut down and the chain reaction stopped, but Unit
3 was still producing about 160 megawatts of decay heat. Now, 30 months later, it
is still producing slightly less than 1 megawatt (one million watts) of decay heat….
1 megawatt of decay heat is a lot of heat even today, and it is creating radioactive
steam, but it is not a new phenomenon.”

Reassurances about Fukushima are as misleading as scare stories

The reassuring aspects of the condition of Unit #3 ­– radioactive releases are not
new, they’re less intense than they once were, the nuclear waste is cooling ­– while
true enough, provide only a false sense of comfort. Also true: radiation is released
almost continuously, the releases are uncontrolled, no one seems to be measuring
the releases, no one seems to be tracking the releases, no one is assessing
accumulation of the releases. And while it’s true that the waste is cooling and
decaying, it’s also true that a loss of coolant could lead to another uncontrolled
chain reaction. (“Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 is not going to explode,” says Gunderson
in a headline, but he can’t know that with certainty.)

For the near future, what all that means, in effect, is that the world has to accept
chronic radiation releases from Fukushima as the price for avoiding another
catastrophic release. And even then, it’s not a sure thing.

But there’s another aspect of Fukushima Unit #3 that’s even less reassuring. Unit
#3 is the one Fukushima reactor that was running on Mixed oxide fuel, or MOX fuel,
in its fuel rods. MOX fuel typically uses Plutonium mixed with one or more forms of
Uranium. Using Plutonium in fuel rods adds to their toxicity in the event of a
meltdown. In part because Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 240,000 years and can
be used to make nuclear weapons of “dirty bombs,” its use in commercial reactors
remains both limited and controversial. Because it contains Plutonium, MOX fuel is
more toxic than other nuclear fuel and will burn at lower temperatures. As Natural
Resources News reported in 2011:


“The mixed oxide fuel rods used in the compromised number three reactor at the
Fukushima Daiichi complex contain enough plutonium to threaten public health with
the possibility of inhalation of airborne plutonium particles…. Plutonium is at its
most dangerous when it is inhaled and gets into the lungs. The effect on the human
body is to vastly increase the chance of developing fatal cancers.”

Reportedly, TEPCO plans don’t call for the removal of the MOX fuel in Unit #3 for
another decade or more. Fuel removal from Units #1, #2, and #3 is complicated by
lethal radiation levels at all three reactors, as well as TEPCO’s inability so far to
locate the three melted cores with any precision.

There is ample reason to hope that Fukushima, despite the complex of
uncontrollable and deteriorating factors, will not get worse, because even the
Japanese don’t want that. But there is little reason to expect anything but
worsening conditions, slowly or suddenly, for years and years to come. And there is
even less reason to expect anyone in authority anywhere to be more than
minimally and belatedly truthful about an industry they continue to protect, no
matter how many people it damages or kills.

The perfect paradigm of that ruthlessly cynical nuclear mentality is the current
Japanese practice of recruiting homeless people to work at Fukushima in high level
radiation areas where someone with something to lose might not be willing to go
for minimum wage.

Read more: Fukushima Meltdowns: A Global Conspiracy of Denial

[onawah]

As Fukushima radiation makes landfall on California beaches, Natural News announces lab to test foods for radioactive cesium-137
Tuesday, January 07, 2014
by Mike Adams

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/043409_Fu...#ixzz2pjFjHOYj

We have also announced a new initiative in our lab to use atomic spectroscopy in conjunction with mass decay radiation meters to test foods from the Pacific Ocean for trace levels of radioactive Cesium-137, the most dangerous element resulting from nuclear catastrophe:
http://www.naturalnews.com/043409_Fu...radiation.html

(NaturalNews) Radiation from Fukushima has reached the shores of California. This has been confirmed by county officials in Half Moon Bay, California, who conducted radiation tests and found a 500% increase in radiation on the beaches there.

Alarm has been raised over the past few days thanks to amateur videos like this one showing alarmingly high Geiger counter readings on the beaches. "The videos follow other alarming news last month that starfish were mysteriously disintegrating along the West Coast, a trend that has not been linked yet to any cause," writes the Half Moon Bay Review.

It has been confirmed that TEPCO lied about radiation readings at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plants. Actual radiation releases were as much as 18 times higher than "official" reports.

It is now widely believed by nuclear experts that radioactive elements such as Cesium-137 have entered the food chain in the Pacific Ocean and have begun to arrive on the shores of California. This means seafood caught in the Pacific Ocean must now be tested for radiation.

Natural News announces atomic spectroscopy lab to test for radioactive isotopes such as Cesium-137

Today Natural News announced the launch of its new laboratory project and the food science subdomain http://labs.naturalnews.com

Using high-end atomic spectroscopy instrumentation and working in partnership with the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center, Natural News is now publishing elemental analysis data on a large number of foods, superfoods, groceries, herbs and even nutritional supplements.

The elements currently being published at Natural News Labs are:
• Aluminum
• Copper
• Arsenic
• Cadmium
• Mercury
• Lead
• Uranium (atomic mass of 238)
• Cesium (atomic mass of 133)

In addition, Natural News is also publishing the Metals Retention Factor (MRF) and Metals Capturing Capacity (MCC) numbers pioneered by Mike Adams. These numbers describe the ability of foods to either retain toxic elements contained in their composition or attract and bind with toxic elements found in digestive acid (gastric acid).

Testing foods for radiation

Radioactive Cesium-137 is the most prominent and dangerous element found in foods in the aftermath of nuclear catastrophes or nuclear weapons. Cesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years, and it persists in soils for 200 - 300 years. Cesium-137 mimics potassium in plant and human biology, so it goes everywhere that potassium goes (i.e. every single cell of your body).

Directly testing foods for radioactive Cesium-137 is extremely difficult with atomic spectroscopy because Cesium-137 has the same atomic mass as Barium. Thus, atomic spectroscopy instrumentation is unable to distinguish between the two. However, Adams has combined atomic spectroscopy analysis with laboratory-grade benchtop timed radiation decay meters to arrive at a highly accurate methodology which can determine both a food's current level of radioactivity as well as that food's natural affinity for absorbing the Cesium element. These two numbers detail the "radioactivity profile" of a particular food substance.

Natural News is now testing fish products harvested from the Pacific Ocean for their radioactivity and Cesium affinity profiles. Results will be published and made freely available at Labs.NaturalNews.com

In addition, Adams is also searching through hundreds of botanicals and dietary substances to identify substances which have strong ionic affinity for Cesium atoms. This research is well underway, and results will be published on Natural News.

"We have already documented the fact that Hawaiian Spirulina has an extremely high natural affinity for Uranium, capturing over 89% of the free Uranium in our digestion simulation tests. The Metals Capturing Capacity of Hawaiian Spirulina for Uranium-238 is 15.2, meaning each gram of Hawaiian Spirulina binds with 15.2 micrograms of Uranium."

Spirulina's affinity for Cesium, however, was much lower, clocking in at an MCC of only 2.6. "We are confident we can identify other dietary substances with higher affinity for Cesium, but the search is tedious and expensive," Adams explained.

To stay up to date on the search for Cesium-binding substances, stay tuned to Natural News and the Natural News Forensic Food Lab.

[SunSea]

Hi! Is it possible this radiation is coming from the dump 50 miles off the San Francisco coast? This was mentioned in the other Fukushima thread.

[panopticon]

Came across this the other day from the scientists whose research was manipulated to say that a large amount of sea life was dead in the Station M area and thought it worth while referencing. This false reporting has been mentioned before in this and other threads and the original research papers referenced and quoted from to disprove the veracity/accuracy of the "news article" supposedly based on the research.

This short video shows that there is not some sort of radioactive dead zone, caused by leaks from the Fukushima Daiichi NPS, near the Station M site, which is located here:



###

Time-lapse video showing a pulse of algae at Station M

The video below shows a time-lapse view of a small patch of muddy seafloor at Station M. This video consists of still images taken once an hour for several months during Fall 2012, documenting one of the biggest naturally occurring "food drops" at Station M since measurements began in 1989.

The video starts with sea cucumbers, urchins, and other animals crawling around the gray deep-sea mud. Over a period of weeks, the mud becomes covered with a brownish-green coating of dead algae that sank down from the sunlit surface waters. By half way through the video, this dead algae covers so much of the sea floor that the bottom looks dark. After the fall of algae, pinkish-orange sea cucumbers and other small animals move around the seafloor eating this algae. Any "leftover" algae is buried in the sediments and can be eaten years to decades later.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=bxL3Q3kVMt4

###

For more information see:

• MBARI debunks misleading stories related to the MBARI News Release
• Feast and famine on the abyssal plain

-- Pan

[Cidersomerset]

I think this is an update of an earlier article.....


Radioactive fish continue to be caught near Fukushima

Thursday 16th January 2014 at 03:39 By David Icke





‘Japan used to account for 15 percent of global fish catches, but now, nearly three
years after the earthquake and subsequent tsunami which struck Fukushima’s
Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in March 2011, sales are plummeting in Fukushima and
the surrounding prefectures, as the world focuses intently on radiation levels
mounting in the Pacific Ocean’s sea life.

The Japanese government-affiliated Fisheries Research Agency just announced on
January 10th that it had caught a black seabream fish contaminated with 12,400
becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium – an amount 124 times higher than
the safety standard. Two other black seabreams were found to breach the 100
Bq/kg limit at 426 Bq/kg and 197 Bq/kg.

Stories like this only confirm that Fukushima radiation is not decreasing but
continuing to accumulate. Five prefectures which catch some 40,000 tons of fish
every year appear to be directly affected by Fukushima, and taking radiation
measurements after a catch has become just a routine part of fishing there now.
Fish being caught in the waters around Fukushima are still dangerously
contaminated with high levels of radiation, and the majority of these catches get
destroyed rather than end up in a market or a restaurant.’

Read more: Radioactive fish continue to be caught near Fukushima

http://www.naturalnews.com/043531_ra...amination.html

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/

[panopticon]

Ken Buesseler from WHOI has launched a new crowd sourcing website aimed at "citizen scientists" collecting ocean samples for analysis. It's got some interesting information on it and very good explanations on the effect of different types of radiation:

http://www.ourradioactiveocean.org/

Here's a good article on it:

###

Ocean Radioactivity from Fukushima Leak to be Tracked
By Tanya Lewis, January 16, 2014.


WHOI senior scientist Ken Buesseler has collected and analyzed the seawater surrounding the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant since the 2011 disaster. As the low-level radiation travels across the Pacific, Buesseler has launched a crowd sourcing campaign and website to monitor radiation levels along the West Coast of North America.

Since the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami crippled Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011, concerns have spread among the public that water with traces of radioactive material might be traveling in a plume across the Pacific Ocean toward the west coast of North America.

Experts say the radiation levels reaching the U.S. coast and Hawaiian Islands will be too low to threaten human health or marine life, but no U.S. government or international agency is actually monitoring radiation in these places.

Now, a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts is launching a new citizen science project to measure levels of radioactive cesium in water washing up along the West Coast.

"The levels of cesium in the ocean we expect of the west coast of North America are not of concern for our own exposure or fisheries," said WHOI marine chemist Ken Buesseler, who is leading the project. But whether people agree with these predictions or not, radiation levels should be monitored to confirm them, Buesseler told LiveScience.

A recent study suggests the radioactive plume from Fukushima will reach U.S. coastal waters this year, peaking in 2016. But ocean currents off Japan's eastern coast have most likely diluted the radioactivity to well within safe levels set by the World Health Organization, said study leader Vincent Rossi, an oceanographer and postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems in Spain.

Buesseler started sampling the seawater around the Fukushima plant — sometimes from as close as a half mile away — three months after the disaster. His team has dozens of water samples from the coast of Japan to the middle of the Pacific, but needs samples spanning the rest of the Pacific to the West Coast.

He launched a website Jan. 14 called "How Radioactive is Our Ocean?", where the public can make tax-deductible donations to support the analysis of existing samples or propose and fund new sampling locations along the West Coast.

Collection and analysis of a seawater sample costs $550 to $600, depending on the site's location. The scientists are asking individuals or communities to donate a minimum of $100 in seed funding, and WHOI will create a fundraising website for each location that is selected for sampling.

When a person or group raises enough money, WHOI will send a sampling kit so volunteers can collect about 5 gallons (19 liters) of seawater and ship it back to WHOI for analysis.

The scientists will use a $75,000 instrument to detect levels of biologically hazardous gamma-rays, produced by the decay of radioactive cesium in the samples. The results of the analysis will be posted on an online map, showing cesium concentrations and the names of sponsors.

The oceans already contain naturally occurring radioactive chemical elements, as well as remnant radiation from nuclear-weapons testing during the 1950s and '60s. Scientists can take a fingerprint of the Fukushima radiation by precisely measuring the ratio of the chemical variant cesium-137 left by weapons testing, which has a 30-year half-life, to the chemical form cesium-134 from Fukushima, which has a two-year half-life. (Half-life is the time it takes for half of the material to radioactively decay.)

The U.S. safety limit for cesium levels in drinking water is about 28 Becquerels (Bq), the number of radioactive decay events per second, per gallon (7,400 Bq/cubic meter). For comparison, uncontaminated seawater contains only a few Bq/cubic m of cesium, and much higher levels of other, naturally occurring radioactive elements.

In a separate project, known as Kelp Watch 2014, researchers plan to monitor radiation in California's kelp forests.

"Part of the reason for doing this is because the public is very freaked out by all this talk of radioactivity,” the study's leader, biologist Steven Manley of California State University, Long Beach, told KQED Science. “If they can actually see the numbers and a commentary as to what they mean, hopefully that’ll put them at ease."

Source

###

So there's more information going to become available fairly soon on ocean radiation levels at the coast/surface. Curious about how deep the samples will go and if there will be more fish sampling undertaken to allay some of the concerns being expressed.

-- Pan

[mojo]

this is crazy...

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9pBUyOAr3Co

[MargueriteBee]

Pull up Google Earth, center the Pacific Ocean in the middle of your screen. Now, take a look at Japan, now look at the Pacific Ocean again. Compare that to 80k gallons.

[panopticon]

I'm a little confused.

The infowars video briefly showed a fish and said the radiation reading was 60 cpm.

What sort of particles were they? What was the source of the radiation (eg Caesium 134/137, etc)?

I'm not trying to be difficult, I'm genuinely confused as to what the video was trying to say about radiation levels on the West Coast of the US (ie the Pacific)...

[panopticon]

So there I was going through the latest video out from TEPCO on the Daiichi NPS.

It's good to know that a high tech company like TEPCO, with more than a couple of dollars to rub together, can save a bit of time and money on video editing by filming the monitor showing the video of the insides of one of their crippled reactor buildings ...

Evidently this is a video of a water leak on the First Floor of the reactor 3 building, near the main steam isolation valve, taken on the 18th January 2014.

None of that HD, high tech gizmo's for them, oh no, just a tech with a mobile phone filming the monitor screen... Lovin' it.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=r5vk68oreF0

Original available here:
http://photo.tepco.co.jp/en/date/201...40118-01e.html

-- Pan

[TargeT]

Posted by panopticon (here)
I'm a little confused.

The infowars video briefly showed a fish and said the radiation reading was 60 cpm.

What sort of particles were they? What was the source of the radiation (eg Caesium 134/137, etc)?

I'm not trying to be difficult, I'm genuinely confused as to what the video was trying to say about radiation levels on the West Coast of the US (ie the Pacific)...

60 cpm is so low it falls into the "background" radiation number (granted the higher end).

[panopticon]

Posted by TargeT (here)

Posted by panopticon (here)
I'm a little confused.

The infowars video briefly showed a fish and said the radiation reading was 60 cpm.

What sort of particles were they? What was the source of the radiation (eg Caesium 134/137, etc)?

I'm not trying to be difficult, I'm genuinely confused as to what the video was trying to say about radiation levels on the West Coast of the US (ie the Pacific)...

60 cpm is so low it falls into the "background" radiation number (granted the higher end).

I know! Totally bizarre.

I just don't understand what was trying to be said in the video.

Maybe it was about the level of radiation from going through the airport detectors being much more than the fish. I dunno...

It seemed more like an advert than anything else.

"Buy my magic concoction to fix what ails ya, my family uses it every day".

I wasn't being smart, sarcastic or funny. I really was/am bewildered by it.

-- Pan

[panopticon]

Latest radiation results of fish and basement water in reactor buildings 1 & 2.

Fish:

High levels of caesium 134 & 137 found in some fish in port area (maximum level found in Jacopever caught around the Fukushima Daiichi NPS port entrance @ 244,000 Bq/Kg), variable lower levels found in fish off shore (maximum level found in Schlegel's black rockfish caught 2km offshore of Kido River @ 400 Bq/Kg).



Radiation levels detected in basement water of reactor 1 & 2 buildings:



Source

-- Pan

[panopticon]

IAEA press release on final report on remediation efforts @ Fukushima & final report.

###

IAEA Delivers Final Report on Remediation in Fukushima to Japan

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) handed Japan the final report from an expert mission that reviewed remediation efforts in areas affected by the Fukushima Daiichi accident.

The IAEA report, which is available online, describes the findings of the Follow-up IAEA International Mission on Remediation of Large Contaminated Areas Off-Site the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, held on 14 to 21 October 2013. The report highlights important progress in all areas to date, and offers advice on several points where the team feels it is still possible to further improve current practices.

Juan Carlos Lentijo, Director of the IAEA Division of Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology, led the 16-member mission team, which comprised international experts and IAEA staff working in a range of disciplines including radiation protection, remediation approaches and technologies, waste management and stakeholder involvement.

"The Mission Team was impressed by the amount of resources allocated and by the intense work that Japan is carrying out in efforts to remediate the affected areas and promote the return of evacuees to their homes, together with efforts for reconstruction of those areas," he said.

The team welcomed progress achieved following the first IAEA remediation mission in October 2011, including the remediation of farmland and forest areas. The team also welcomed significant progress by municipalities and the national government in the development and establishment of temporary storage facilities for contaminated materials generated by on-going remediation activities. In addition, the mission team noted the progress made towards the national Government's creation of interim storage facilities, with the cooperation of municipalities and local communities.

The mission observed that comprehensive implementation of food safety measures is in place to protect consumers and improve consumer confidence in farm produce, reflected in an increase in the economic value of the crops.

Japanese authorities were encouraged to sustain current public communication efforts and enhance these whenever necessary, especially with a view to explaining to the public that, in remediation situations, any level of individual radiation dose in the range of 1 to 20 mSv per year is acceptable and in line with the international standards and with the recommendations from the relevant international organisations such as ICRP, IAEA, UNSCEAR and WHO.

The team recognized the efforts to reduce residual doses to less than 1 mSv per year, but stressed that this target is a long-term goal, and that it cannot be achieved in a short time - for example, through decontamination work alone. The IAEA is ready to continue to support Japan in its remediation efforts, at its request.

The Mission was in line with the IAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety, which was unanimously endorsed by the IAEA's Member States in September 2011 and defines a programme of work to strengthen the global nuclear safety framework.

--by Gill Tudor, IAEA Office of Public Information and Communication



Source

###

Mostly seems the IAEA recommends a wait and let the caesium decay away, let nature cover it up and farmers add more potassium to fields. In other words give it 5 years and see what it's like then.

-- Pan

[panopticon]

I made reference to a leak found in the #3 building @ Fukushima Daiichi NPS in post 390. The data to go with that water leak showed high levels of Caesium 134 & 137 as well as Co-60 and a higher temperature than expected (+13 degrees). Here's the video (no, it's not very exciting) and the statement from TEPCO (below):

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=r5vk68oreF0

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Fukushima Daiichi NPS Prompt Report 2014

Fukushima Daiichi NPS Prompt Report (Jan 21,2014)
Recent topics:Water Leakage was identified at First Floor of Unit 3 Reactor Building at Fukushima Daiichi NPS

· WATER LEAKAGE WAS IDENTIFIED FOR THE FIRST TIME BY A ROBOT WHICH WAS REMOVING DEBRIS AT FIRST FLOOR OF UNIT 3 REACTOR BULDING.
· REACTOR STEADILY COOLED AND NO LEAKAGE TO THE OUTSIDE OF THE BUILDING.
· TEPCO WILL CONTINUE INVESTIGATING THE CAUSE AND THE SPOT OF THE LEAKAGE.
· CONTINUOUSLY, TEPCO WILL STEADILY ADDRESS THE DECOMMISSIONG WORK.

FUKUSHIMA, January 20, 2014 - Since July 2013, TEPCO has been using robotic devices to remove the debris, inside the Unit 3 Reactor Building.

On January 18, 2014, one of TEPCO's workers, who was monitoring the device's screen found out that water was leaking to the drainage ditch at the northeasts area of first floor, where the main steam isolation valve is located.

The area has proceeded with removing the debris and this was the first time inspecting the place.

The water is assumed to be flowing out from the Primary Containment Vessel and it is confirmed to be flowing to the basement of the Reactor Building where accumulated water exists and not flowing out of the building. No significant changes in the monitoring results at the power station are confirmed and the reactor is steadily cooled.

TEPCO will continue investigating and identifying the cause and the spot of the leakage.

The monitoring video is posted at
http://photo.tepco.co.jp/en/date/201...40118-01e.html

The result of radioactive analysis and the temperature are listed below.
[radioactive analysis: Date / January 19, 2013]
· caesium134 :7.0×102Bq/cm3
· caesium137 :1.7×103Bq/cm3
· cobalt60 :2.5×101Bq/cm3
· all beta :2.4×104Bq/cm3

[temperature: Date and Time / January 19, 2013, around 5:00 P.M.]
· Aprroximately 20 degrees celsius
*Temperature at surrounding area was approcximately 7 degrees celsius.
*Temperarure in water for coolant injection was also 7 degrees celsius.

Source

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So, after converting to Litre from cm3 we get:

Caesium 134 was detected @ 700,000 Bq/L.
Caesium 137 was detected @ 1,700,000 Bq/L.
Cobolt 60 was detected @ 25,000 Bq/L.

Finally the reading for all Beta detected was 24,000,000 Bq/L.

In addition this seems to indicate a possible failure of the main steam isolation valve (MSIV) during the accident which, from what I've read, appears to be very peculiar.

-- Pan

[TargeT]

JUST an FYI, the becquerel (Bq) measurement is a very very small number.

1 curie = 3.7 x 10^10
disintegrations per second

1 becquerel =
1 disintegration per second

Bequerel

The becquerel (Bq) is the unit used to measure radioactivity in a substance, without consideration for the type of radiation it is or what its effects may be. One becquerel is equal to one nuclear disintegration per second. Since this is a very small unit, other units are often used, including the kilobecquerel (kBq: thousand Bq), megabecquerel (MBq: million Bq), and gigabecquerel (GBq: thousand million Bq). The name recognises the scientific contributions of French physicist A-H. Becquerel.

1 curie = 37 thousand milion Bq (or a GBq).

so all the numbers in the last few posts are: insignificant.

[panopticon]

Yes, thanks for pointing that out Target. I didn't mean to imply that they were dangerously high readings or that a disaster was imminent so if that was the impression apologies. I wouldn't go so far as saying that the readings are insignificant though either.

It does show that the water probably moved through the containment vessel on its way to the first floor through the MSIV (which I think was supposed to be shut), or cracks in the containment vessel, and that is quite significant.

I didn't think anyone was interested in figures and comparative data (that's why it's after the rest of the post) but did the conversion to show the values detected in the water leak in comparison to what has being found in the various drainage ditches, observation holes, port and ocean samples in, around and near the site. Most of the readings from TEPCO have been in Bq/L, not Bq/cm3, so it made sense to do that to show that this water had a higher measurement than the water leaked from the containment tanks by converting the Bq/cm3 in the TEPCO update notification to Bq/L. This was more for me than anyone else and I only added it to the post because I've been having trouble finding silly things like that of late and thought that adding it to a post with one of the Youtube clips I uploaded would make it easier to find later with the forum search facility.

For those interested in what a Curie is (not the lovely spicy dish nifer ) try Wikipedia or the US EPA. 1 curie is not an insignificant amount of radioactive activity and measurements in this legacy format are usually in mCi, µCi or nCi (unless were talking about radiotherapy machines, nuclear fuel rods and assemblies, nuclear bomb detonations etc).

So, for the sake of completion (but completely irrelevant to anything to do with my posts or measurement from TEPCO etc), here's the readings converted into micro-curies (sound like it's just a tiny vindaloo)

Caesium 134 was detected @ 18 µCi/L.
Caesium 137 was detected @ 45 µCi/L.
Cobolt 60 was detected @ 0.675 µCi/L.
Finally the reading for all Beta detected was 648 µCi/L.

Remember that Caesium-137 has an activity of around 3.2 TBq per gram (which converts across to around 85 Ci per gram) so when looking at the figures above from TEPCO, as Target rightly pointed out, we're talking about very small amounts (eg Caesium-137 ~0.0000005 grams per litre).

Mayhap the water moved past the entire core, mayhap the melted part of the core has moved somewhere else, I dunno. Maybe an alien beamed in and the measurement is of its equivalent of urine. I have no idea. In all likelihood, the increased water temperature (+13 C/+23 F) indicates that it went somewhere warmer and the concentration of Caesium 134/137 & Beta emitters says that the warm spot was probably the core (or part thereof). In particular (pardon the pun) the detection of Caesium-134 (with a half life of 2 years) in comparison to the Caesium-137 (half-life around 30 years) kind of indicates that the water may have moved past a semi-active core on its way to the basement. If it hadn't then the levels would have been lower for everything, including the water temperature recorded at that point (which would probably have already cooled some unknown amount due to travelling in a cooler environment then the one from whence it came).

Does this mean anything terrifying? Nope. Just that the water coming out had a higher temperature and that the contamination level was higher than most of the water elsewhere on site.

-- Pan

[TargeT]

Posted by panopticon (here)
Yes, thanks for pointing that out Target. I didn't mean to imply that they were dangerously high readings or that a disaster was imminent so if that was the impression apologies. I wouldn't go so far as saying that the readings are insignificant though either.

It does show that the water probably moved through the containment vessel on its way to the first floor through the MSIV (which I think was supposed to be shut), or cracks in the containment vessel, and that is quite significant.

I didn't mean to imply that you were implying haha... I just know it's a confusing part of the topic for a lot of people & yes,you are right, they are significant in investigatory ways; I meant they are insignificant in "danger" or "hazard to health" ways

Posted by panopticon (here)
Does this mean anything terrifying? Nope. Just that the water coming out had a higher temperature and that the contamination level was higher than most of the water elsewhere on site.

-- Pan

I'm actually quite surprised that nothing more major has happened, I guess some of the hype did get to me after all.

Even with the extreme inept handling of this situation, it's still being resolved in a safe manor. This, I think, underlines the over all viability of Nuclear energy.. if THESE guys can fix what a HUGE Tsunami damaged; surely when in more capable hands (like who-would-never-build-these-on-the-shore-line-in-the-first-place type of hands ) there isn't much risk of catastrophe.

[panopticon]

Article from examiner.com including a short video featuring the WHOI's Ken Buesseler.

Buesseler briefly explains Becquerels and then goes on to chat about how the different isotopes released during and after the Fukushima accident act in the ocean environment. Then Buesseler mentions the natural occurring radiation that is part of the oceans background radiation level.

The ~4 min video is worth the effort if you are interested.

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Woods Hole detects only 1950's A-bomb radiation, Fukushima plume yet to arrive
By David Herron, January 29, 2014.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=HJSrChfznIw

Search online for information on Pacific Ocean radiation from Fukushima, and the search results fill up with fear filled claims the Ocean is burning up from the radiation, and we're all about to die. On Tuesday, initial results were announced by an effort organized by the Woods Hole Institute showing trace amounts of Cesium-137 and other radioactive elements in the Pacific, at levels scientists say are what's left over from atomic bomb testing in the 1950's.

In March 2011, a Tsunami off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture crippled a nuclear power plant, leading to multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns and explosions, and large releases of radiation into the surrounding area. TEPCO has been unable to regain control over the nuclear reactors and, despite best efforts, radiation is continually leaking into the Pacific Ocean. The big question is whether this will cause serious harm to the Pacific Ocean, rendering it and the seafood we all depend on unsafe for human consumption. And, there are websites aplenty telling us the whole Pacific Ocean is already dying from Fukushima radiation, such as the sea floor is supposedly littered with dead animals, or 4,300 workers dying while cleaning up the Fukushima reactors but nobody knows because of collusion between TEPCO and the Japanese Government. Both of these are untrue, but that doesn't stop the spread of misinformation.

Seeing this, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute is hoping to organize dozens of seawater sampling sites along the western coast of North America. They've launched a website, Our Radioactive Ocean, which is crowdfunding an an organization which will do the necessary radiation monitoring necessary to bring the light of truth to this problem.

The current funding has supported seawater sampling at 8 sites from the Seattle area down to San Diego.

In all cases the level of Cesium-134 is below detection, and while Cesium-137 is detectable its concentration is about 1.3 Bq per cubic meters. That Cesium-137 concentration is exactly the level that's left over from atomic bomb testing in the 1950's. Meaning the scientists have yet to detect any radioactive material from Fukushima on the US West Coast.

It's known a "plume" of radioactive material is in the Pacific Ocean, and is heading to the US West Coast. The best estimates of the Woods Hole Institute scientists are that the plume will reach Alaska and coastal Canada first, in April 2014. It is being carried by the Kuroshio Current across the Pacific. Afterward it is expected to circulate southward along the coast, and then to Hawaii. It's expected radiation levels in the plume will be minor, due to dilution (the Pacific Ocean is pretty big).

Cesium-137 (CS-137) is one of the uranium fission byproducts, it has a half-life of 30 years, and is known to cause cancers. It does not occur naturally on its own, therefore all CS-137 is a byproduct of uranium nuclear reactions. Cesium-134 (CS-134) is another uranium fission byproduct, with a half-life of two years, which scientists say would indicate contamination from Fukushima.

Detecting no CS-134 and trace levels of CS-137 is what the scientists expect, at this moment, because the plume has not yet arrived. As they continue to take samples they'll be able to see the arrival of the plume. The radiation levels in the samples will validate, or not, as the case may be, the scientific model by which they've claimed the plume will not bring significant quantities of radiation to the west coast.

“The reason why we see such low levels of radiation in these samples is because the plume is not here yet. But it’s coming. And we’ll actually be able to see its arrival,” Ken Buesseler, marine chemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), says. “That baseline data is critical. “We expect over the rest of 2014, levels will become detectable starting first along the northern coastline. But the complex behavior of coastal currents will likely result in varying intensities and changes that cannot be predicted from models alone. Optimally, we’d like to be able to sample and analyze about 20 sites from Alaska to San Diego at regular intervals every few months. We even have had interest from the public as far away as Japan, New Zealand, Guam, and one sailing vessel traveling from Hawaii to Japan this summer, but the West Coast time series is our highest priority.”

According to the WHOI, no U.S. government or international agency is monitoring the spread of low levels of radiation from Fukushima along the West Coast of North America and around the Hawaiian Islands. That leaves no real information to counter disinformation, and as a result fear is running rampant among many.

Source

[panopticon]

Short AP article doing the rounds about a class action against the Fukushima manufacturers (GE, Toshiba, Hitachi).

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Hundreds Sue Makers of Fukushima Nuclear Plant
TOKYO January 30, 2014 (AP)

About 1,400 people have filed a joint lawsuit against three companies that manufactured Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, saying they should be financially liable for damage caused by its 2011 meltdowns.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the lawsuit, filed Thursday at Tokyo District Court, is a landmark challenge of current regulations which give manufacturers immunity from liability in nuclear accidents. Only the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co., has been held responsible for the accident, triggered by a powerful earthquake.

The plaintiffs, which include Fukushima residents and nearly 400 others from around the world, say the manufacturers — Toshiba, GE and Hitachi — failed to make needed safety improvements to the four decade-old reactors at the Fukushima plant. They are seeking compensation of 100 yen ($1) each.

Source