SimplyInfo » Entries tagged with "cesium"
TEPCO “Changes” Contamination Levels In Groundwater
[Translate] TEPCO has yet again changed their statements on cesium contamination in the groundwater testing at the plant. Efforts to gain approval from local fishing groups and environmentalists to dump this water into the sea have been a primary public focus of the company in recent months. TEPCO has stopped reporting in English with the exception of the status of water storage and the groundwater issue. The Japanese website holds slightly more information but most reporting of activities at the plant has stopped. We do know from monitoring the web cam that work to remove debris at unit 3 has been progressing and work near the common pool continues. On the groundwater issue TEPCO reported no cesium was found in May, then in early June they admitted finding cesium in the groundwater wells. … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
TEPCO Caught Unable To Do Radioactive Analysis Properly
[Translate] This ads another big hit to TEPCO’s credibility or any notion they can handle the Fukushima disaster on their own. TEPCO has been telling the public there is no cesium in the bypass well water as part of their effort to convince fishing groups and others that they should be allowed to dump about 200 tons per day of groundwater from the plant. Officials from the NRA noticed an error in the way TEPCO has been processing samples at Fukushima Daiichi. In the process they need to take into account the high background radiation at the plant but have failed to do this properly. This appears to not be an isolated incident but an ongoing problem. Radiation testing being done since 2011 could all be underestimating the levels of contamination. TEPCO apparently … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Widespread Cesium Contamination Of Freshwater Fish In Eastern Japan
[Translate] A new study looked at the cesium contamination of freshwater fish in Fukushima and eastern Japan. The map to the left shows the average contamination levels of a non carnivorous fish called the ayu. The fish was found to be contaminated across a large section of the main island of Honshu. Freshwater fish across many prefectures and down past Tokyo were over the government intervention limit for food with most of the fish in Fukushima over 200 bq/kg. They also raised concerns about cesium concentration in certain river systems and cited irrigation canals and urban water systems as being particularly vulnerable. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content may also be copyright of other specific original … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Radiation Contamination In US Food Supply
[Translate] This has been known to those closely following the issue since 2011. It isn’t just about the contamination of domestic foods in the US but the purposely lax US standards that encourage the US food market to be a dumping ground for foods too contaminated to be allowed elsewhere. Cindy Folkers from Beyond Nuclear explains the details of how the US system both ignores and downplays the issue and why everyone in the US should be concerned. Video presentation at the Caldicott Symposium archive. Click on Cindy’s listing in the program to jump to her presentation. A copy of the presentation on Youtube (with some edits by the poster) This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content may also … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Oddities Found Near Unit 5 Fukushima Daiichi
[Translate] TEPCO’s air testing near each reactor unit produced an interesting situation. The readings were taken at the same locations at each reactor yet unit 5′s levels are generally higher or as high as the levels near units 1-4. Considering units 5 and 6 didn’t have meltdowns and sit a considerable distance away from units 1-4 these readings do not make sense. TEPCO provides no explanation. The cesium 134 readings were notably higher than the units that suffered meltdowns. The scaling factor and density limits used are the same for all units. TEPCO’s handout AirSamplingBuildings_130123-e This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content may also be copyright of other specific original authors or creators and was reproduced here … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Cesium Food Roulette
[Translate] TEPCO earlier tried to explain away highly contaminated fish in the region as having escaped from the harbor at the plant. TEPCO recently took measures to make sure fish do no escape from the harbor. A rockfish pulled out of the harbor recently had 254,000 Bq/kg of cesium when tested by TEPCO. Ex-SKF provided a translation of journalist Ryuichi Kino’s reporting of the TEPCO press conference and mentioned this relation to the contaminated fish: “If one eats 200 gram of fish, one gets 0.8 millisievert radiation exposure.” Apple juice pulled from a retail store in Iwate was found to have 4.1 bq/kg of cesium. Another bottle of the same drink was found contaminated also. It isn’t clear how the juice became contaminated. This also isn’t the only instance of random highly contaminated food found … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Did Cesium In Aomori Mushrooms Come From Chernobyl?
[Translate] A recent Asahi Shimbun article cited professor Yasuyuki Muramatsu where he tried to explain cesium levels found in wild mushrooms from Aoimori to not be caused by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. “If the Towada “chichitake” mushrooms had been contaminated by the Fukushima accident, then two types of radioactive cesium–cesium-134 and cesium-137–would have been detected in roughly equal amounts, he said.” Mushrooms around Aomori have been found with varied levels of cesium 134 compared with cesium 137. Some were found to only have cesium 137. As far as the cesium levels being from Chernobyl, according to what we were able to find Japan received very low levels of fallout from Chernobyl, far less than Europe did. Mushrooms tested in southern Germany in recent years had between 5 bq/kg of cesium 137 up to over … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Highly Contaminated Mushrooms Found Outside Fukushima
[Translate] Asahi Shimbun is reporting that wild mushrooms are being found to be highly contaminated outside Fukushima prefecture. The mushrooms have been found in Aomori, Nagano and Shizuoka prefectures at locations of 200-350km from the nuclear disaster site. This is leading to more worries and lost sales as stores and restaurants pull the popular fall delicacy off the menu. Mushrooms in Tochigi were found with 3000 bq/kg and 2100 bq/kg in Nagano. The levels have actually increased rather than decreased with experts citing rain and falling leaves as a possible cause. This problem will likely not go away any time soon. In Germany, over 25 years after Chernobyl and 1500km away wild mushrooms are still highly contaminated as are the wild boar that eat them. Cesium tends to accumulate in the soil and mushrooms … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
High Cesium Contamination In Pacific Fish Off Fukushima
[Translate] NHK is reporting fish with 38,000 bq/kg of cesium caught 1km off the coast of Minamisoma. Minamisoma is outside the 20km evacuation zone. This contamination was found in rock trout. TEPCO has also found 25,800 bq/kg of cesium in greenling fish. These levels are hundreds of times higher than the current limit for fish to be allowed up for sale. Some seafood such as octopus have been showing with little or no contamination consistently and have been put up for sale on a trial basis. The ongoing seafood testing has shown a more complex pattern where some fish have levels of cesium drop while others continue to go up or stay at very elevated rates. The cesium is not diluting away but is instead appear to be concentrating in certain species. This … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Minamisoma, Dose Reconstruction Exercises
[Translate] The recent JAMA letter discussing radiation exposure among people in the city was quickly heralded by the western media as “proof” Fukushima exposures were low. We explained here how these scans were instead a very small slice of the total picture of exposure. The data used in the study discussed in the JAMA letter is partially publicly available via the Minamisoma municipal website. We looked at some of the body scans done for local residents. One that was in a higher range for children under high school age was used to do a hypothetical dose reconstruction. The common thought has been that people were exposed during the first days and weeks of the disaster. During this time reactors exploded and radioactive steam leaked continually. On March 14th unit 3 at Fukushima Daiichi … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Unit 2 At Fukushima Spewing 8 Million Bq Per Hour Almost 1.5 Years Later
[Translate] TEPCO has admitted the current radiation release levels at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. While these levels are a small fraction of what was being released early on, they still pose a considerable problem. The plant is emitting 10 million bq per hour. With 8 of the 10 bq coming from unit 2 alone. TEPCO officials tried to pass off the high levels as possibly due to “stirring up cesium” that fell on the reactors. This does not explain the high levels coming out of unit 2′s blow out panel as admitted by TEPCO. The image below is from a June 2012 robot inspection of the unit 2 refueling floor. The close up from a larger photo shows clearly the steam plume coming out of the edge of the reactor well. … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Sorry Charlie, There’s Cesium-137 In Your Tuna
[Translate] The announcement yesterday that radioactive contamination from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster has been found in bluefin tuna spread widely in just over a day. The media accounts were frequently short on details making it very hard to understand what it all really means. Dr. Fisher of Stony Brook University, one of the authors of the study was kind enough to provide us with an advance copy of the paper, Pacific bluefin tuna transport Fukushima-derived radionuclides from Japan to California. The paper will come out on the PNAS website later this week. The bluefin tuna were caught in San Diego in August 2011, five months after the start of the Fukushima disaster. The fish are estimated to have been exposed for about 1 month before they migrated across the Pacific. Based on the age … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Cesium Still Being Found In US West Coast Milk Supply
[Translate] The numbers are somewhat low but radioactive cesium 137 and 134 are still being found in store bought milk in California. An individual drinking the milk at the rate of 1 gallon a week would receive an internal dose of 1 microsievert per year. Berkeley incorrectly compares and internal dose to an external dose of an air plane flight or background environmental radiation, both of those are external exposure and much less damaging in nature. Cesium 137 has a half life of 30 years. As long as cows continue to be exposed to this excess radioactive cesium in their environment there will continue to be some contaminated milk in that area. This should be enough of a concern for the EPA to do additional milk testing in other areas of the US known to … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Cesium Detected In Well Water Around Fukushima
[Translate] Cesium is now being detected in well water, meaning it has found ways into the ground water. Earlier reports also showed a growing problem of radioactive isotopes in river water and river fish in the region. Water was tested from private wells and found cesium in the following areas: 4 locations in Minamisoma with up to 14.7 bq per liter of cesium. 2 locations in Kitahara ward, Minamisoma Haramachi District with 11.4 to 14.7 bq per liter of cesium The report was not clear if the 2 locations in Kitahara were included in the 4 locations or were in addition. The report does not mention if other isotopes were tested for at the time the cesium was found. The original report is in Japanese at Mainichi This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Stronium Found In Tokyo, High Cesium In Front Of METI Building
[Translate] One of the citizen radiation groups testing for stronium and cesium around Tokyo with some concerning results. EX-SKF provides translations of Yasumi Iwakami’s report. Locations and amounts of radioactive materials: Kiyosumi Shirakawa Station, Koto-ku: Radioactive cesium (134 and 137 combined): 19,126 Bq/kg Radioactive strontium (89 and 90 combined): 44 Bq/kg Yurakucho Station, Chiyoda-ku: Radioactive cesium (134 and 137 combined): 20,955 Bq/kg Radioactive strontium (89 and 90 combined): 51 Bq/kg Front of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Chiyoda-ku: Radioactive cesium (134 and 137 combined): 48,176 Bq/kg Radioactive strontium (89 and 90 combined): 48 Bq/kg The highest location is in front of METI’s offices. BTW, the stronium found in Yokohama has not been addressed by local officials. It was discovered in October. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Half Of Students In Minami-Soma Found Contaminated With Cesium 137
[Translate] Half of the students tested showed low levels of cesium 137 contamination. “Radioactive cesium-137 was detected at below 10 becquerels per kilogram of a student’s weight in 199 students. The substance was also found at from 10 to less than 20 becquerels in 65 students; 20 to less than 30 becquerels in three students; and 30 to below 35 becquerels in one student, the hospital said.” It is not known if the students became contaminated through breathing in the fallout or if it was ingested with food. The students will receive ongoing checks that should show how fast and in what amounts the cesium is purged from their bodies. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Hot Spot In Kashiwa Likely From Fukushima
[Translate] Soil testing results have found very high levels of Cesium in the hot spot recently found in Kashiwa. The high levels of Cesium do not totally account for the high readings found in the field. The Ministry of Science & Education states that it is from Fukushima. Ex-SKF points out that the Cesium counts don’t add up to the total radiation being found in the area. So there are likely other substances in the mix. Stronium and Plutonium have been found in other locations far from the plant. There was no indication if they intend to test the soil for other isotopes. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content may also be copyright of … Read entire article »
Filed under: MEXT, The Latest
Scottish Nuclear Plant Sea Contamination Impossible To Completely Decontaminate
[Translate] The Dounreay nuclear plant on the coast of northern Scotland leaked radiation into the sea and coastline for twenty years. Fuel fragments were disbursed up to 2 km from the plant over those years. “The most radioactive of the particles are regarded by experts as potentially lethal if ingested. Similar in size to grains of sand, they contain caesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years, but they can also incorporate traces of plutonium-239, which has a half-life of over 24,000 years – meaning that is the time period for half of the material to break down”. The Scottish EPA has been working for years to try to bring the area back to pristine condition but has now announced that it would be impossible to do. This revelation that decontamination can’t fully … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest, Worldwide Exposure
Get SimplyInfo.org RSS Feed
