Cesium fallout widespread

Posted by zichi Lorentz

 
 

Radioactive cesium from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant may have reached as far as Hokkaido, Shikoku and the Chugoku region in the west, according to a recent simulation by an international research team.

Large areas of eastern and northeastern Japan were likely contaminated by the plant, with concentrations of cesium-137 exceeding 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of soil in some places, says the study, which was posted Monday on the website of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers for the U.S.-based organization said the study, which was based on partial data readings, is the first to estimate potential cesium contamination across the country. But they also played down the incident's impact on the three distant regions.

"The levels are not something that should raise concerns over agricultural production or human health," Ryugo Hayano, chairman of the physics department at the University of Tokyo, said in an email interview with The Japan Times.

The simulation indicated that eastern Hokkaido may have been contaminated with up to 250 becquerels per kilogram of cesium-137, while Shikoku and Chugoku were likely tainted with up to 25 becquerels .

The government's contamination limit for rice is 5,000 becquerels per kilogram for cesium-137, which has a 30-year half-life, and cesium-134, whose half-life is two years.

Although the study does not cover cesium-134, the results indicate contamination levels were under the limit for most parts of Japan. It's believed the two cesium isotopes were ejected in roughly equal amounts.

Hayano said that even before the Fukushima disaster, soil throughout Japan contained up to around 100 becquerels of cesium-137 per kilogram due to weapons tests in the Pacific and the 1986 Chernobyl accident.

But the study also confirmed that cesium contamination in eastern Fukushima Prefecture will result in extreme limitations on food production.

Food output in parts of Iwate, Miyagi, Yamagata, Niigata, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Chiba meanwhile face partial limitations because soil contamination exceeds 250 becquerels per kilogram, the simulation said.

Emphasizing that their study is not based on actual soil tests, the researchers called on the government to conduct measurements nationwide. So far, such surveys have been limited to eastern Japan, centered on Fukushima.

"The science ministry has been monitoring Fukushima and neighboring prefectures, but there are not enough data beyond such regions. We barely had contamination data covering all of Japan. That's why we relied on calculations," Tetsuzo Yasunari, a Nagoya University professor and climate system specialist, told The Japan Times Wednesday.

"The simulation's degree of accuracy is not that high. The gist of the paper is to recommend (that the government) actually survey the soil" not only in Fukushima and neighboring prefectures but across the nation, Hayano said.

The estimates were calculated by a computer simulation developed by a Norwegian research group based on ministry data compiled from daily fallout readings from March 20 to April 19 in each prefecture.

The study doesn't include fallout data on cesium-137 from before March 19."Because the science ministry didn't have daily deposition data between March 12 and 19 (a period in which the nuclear plant was racked by hydrogen explosions), the actual figure could be higher than our estimation," Yasunari said.

The science ministry doesn't have data of that crucial period because it took few days to prepare a monitoring device in each prefecture, a ministry official said. As for Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures, monitoring devices were damaged by the quake and tsunami, the official said.

There is no data for Fukushima up until March 26, and no data is available for Miyagi as of Thurday.

"But as for the western part of Japan and Hokkaido, I don't think the given figure would increase" even if data from the March 12-19 period — when the hydrogen explosions likely spread a great deal of fallout — were to be added, Yasunari said.

Yasunari also pointed to the need for a more detailed radiation survey in mountainous areas, as fallout from the Fukushima plant is more likely to have accumulated in ranges than in flatland.

The science ministry said the study is useful as a reference, and it will consider expanding its aerial monitoring to wider areas after completing the current monitoring in 22 prefectures from Aomori to Aichi.

via japantimes.co.jp

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Tokyo's imported food radiation checks suspended since April

Posted by zichi Lorentz

 
 

The Tokyo metropolitan government has not checked imported foods for radiation since April, citing differences in the safety standards for domestic products after the accident at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant.

But since the suspension, the metropolitan government's four units of radiation check equipment have not been used even for domestic food examinations--and even when the nation was confronted with the pressing issue of locating cesium-contaminated beef this summer.

The Tokyo government started checking imported foods for radiation shortly after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident.

However, after the nuclear accident started at the Fukushima plant in March, the central government set provisional safety standards for domestically produced foods, including meats and vegetables, at 500 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram. The figure is 130 becquerels higher than the 370-becquerel standards for imported foods.

"We would not know how to deal with this issue if we found an imported food containing radiation levels between the two standards," a Tokyo government official in charge of this matter said.

If a food item with 400 becquerels of radioactive cesium was detected, it would be allowed to stay in the market if it was produced in Japan. But it would be recalled if it had been imported.

This could cause serious confusion among consumers, the government official said.

In conducting radiation checks on imported foods, the central government picks particular items and production sites, while the municipal government randomly selects from a variety of foods in markets and similar places for wider coverage.

In fiscal 2009, the Tokyo government checked 616 imported items, including vegetables, meats and mushrooms. French blueberry jam was detected with radiation levels above safety standards.

via ajw.asahi.com

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Food and Water in Japan

Posted by zichi Lorentz

 
 

The standards of maximum radiation in food of 1200/600/500 becquerels per kg, for the U.S./EU/Japan is for cesium 134 and cesium 137. 

 Caesium-137 is water soluble with a half-life of 70 days. When ingested it can be treated with Prussian Blue, which binds to it chemically and speeds up its expulsion from the body.

 When there's a nuclear meltdown at a power plant, iodine-131 is one of the most cancer causing radioactive isotopes. Iodine-137 has a half-life of 8 days. When absorbed by the body it has a 100 day half-life.

 In America, the federal maximum level of iodine-131 allowed in drinking water is 0.111 becquerels per litre. The standard for Japan is 300 becquerels per litre for adults and 100 becquerels for infants.

 Following 3/11 it was discovered some Tokyo tap water contained 210 becquerels per liter of iodine-137, which was twice the recommended limit of 100 becquerels for infants, but below the 300 becquerels for adults. According to the WHO the international agreed operational level is 3000 becquerels per litre.

 The American Environmental Protection Agency stated back in July,

 "An infant would have to drink almost 7,000 liters of this water to receive a radiation dose equivalent to a day’s worth of the natural background radiation exposure we experience continuously from natural sources of radioactivity in our environment.”

 But not all experts are in agreement with that statement. Physicians for Social Responsibility state there is no safe levels of exposure to radionuclides.

 Most of the radioactive particles can be removed from water using reverse osmosis, but not iodine-137. When iodine-137 escapes from a nuclear power plant, it's in gas form which is captured by atmospheric water, it rains and falls to earth entering the water supply. Boiling water does not remove iodine-137.

 All vegetables need to be washed before use, particularly leafy ones, like spinach.

 In Sept. the WHO stated drinking tap water in Japan poses no immediate health risk. 

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Will Stress or Radiation Cancer Kill More Japanese People?

Posted by zichi Lorentz

 
 

Japan is the only country which experienced and suffered two atomic bombings. The people of Fukushima Prefecture are the only people to have suffered a simultaneous triple mega disasters of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant meltdowns and explosions. Anyone of these mega disasters would have been already too much to experience.

More people were killed by the earthquake, even more killed by the tsunami than those killed so far by the nuclear disaster. I think, there has only been six deaths directly because of the nuclear disaster? Six Self Defense members were killed in one of the hydrogen explosions. Two young engineers were found in the basement of one of the turbine halls who had died from the tsunami.

The atomic bombings branded the Japanese psyche forever. Once the true extend of the seriousness of the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichii power plant became known, and declared a Level 7 disaster, there was something of a reawakening of the effects of the atomic bombings and a comparison with Chernobyl. The headlines go from the worse nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, to worse than Chernobyl.

In so many ways, Chernobyl was a very different type of nuclear disaster. Different kind of reactor, more extensive damage, the top blew off the reactor releasing very high radiation which reached a very large part of Europe and beyond. It reached Ireland, which I think, is more than 2000 km from Chernobyl. The disaster involved many more countries than Russia which it was then, or Ukraine, which it is now.

The people of Chernobyl were evacuated and an exclusion zone implemented, is that 60 miles? Many workers and emergency workers died, some very quickly from the effects of the radiation. Thousands, especially children developed cancers. Some experts have stated the figure is millions while others have stated very few or no people got cancer from the radiation. There were also child birth deformities and animal birth deformities. Whatever the number is, people developed cancer from the radiation and there were birth deformities, much like in Vietnam from Agent Orange.

From what I have read and studied I don't think the current nuclear disaster is as bad as Chernobyl, unless there are some new developments. In other ways, for the people, I think it's worse than Chernobyl because they didn't experience a triple mega disaster. It's impossible to state no one from Fukushima, and other locations, won't develop cancers, 20 or 30 years further down the road. It's equally impossible to state, that ten of thousands or even millions will develop cancers. We just can't predict anymore than we can predict the next earthquake. But there will be cases. What was learnt from the atomic bombings will help all the experts, doctors and scientists who will be dealing with it.

Any child birth deformities will happen long before the appearance of cancers. If and when, a single child birth deformity is reported by the media, it will change the whole psyche thing about the disaster.

Doctors have known for some years that stress is a killer. Some people are dealing with a single disaster, some with two disasters, and others with three. The loss of life and physical damage was far greater with the earthquake and tsunami than the nuclear disaster, but both of those are easier to accept and understand because they were natural events, and the people can see their loss. The nuclear disaster was manmade, although both TEPCO and the government would prefer people to believe it was because of the tsunami.

We can see the extensive loss and damage from the earthquake and tsunami but radiation is an invisible enemy. We can't see it, we don't know exactly where it is, or how much there is? It creates fear and in turn stress in the minds and psyche in those people likely to be affected by it.

It might help if both TEPCO and the government stated what they know, and equally so, what they don't know. It's good that Fukushima Prefecture will have a 30 year health program to examine and treat the people, and science may be on the side of anyone developing cancer, because many predict a cure for cancer within the next ten years. 

 

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