SimplyInfo » Entries tagged with "radiation"
EPA Signs Industry Authored Public Radiation Rules
[Translate] The EPA has signed the revised PAG rules that have caused much concern among experts and others in the EPA. These new rules were written by the NCRP, an industry funded group that represents the nuclear power industry’s interests. In an attempt to fight off criticism about the dangerous new standards the EPA tried to claim they are non-binding. Yet we have seen PAG standards being applied to the Fukushima disaster and being used as an excuse in the US to ignore contamination problems in the US. The new standards would take water contamination from 3 picocuries per liter to 81,000 picocuries per liter. The EPA claims since the levels are just for emergencies they are somehow OK. This is just another example of the dysfunction in government where an industry can … Read entire article »
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All Pit Tanks May Be Leaking At Fukushima Daiichi
[Translate] TEPCO had previously announced two pit tanks leaking at the plant over the weekend. Now a newer handout shows even more tanks are leaking at the plant. The graphic below shows the locations of the various pit tanks at the plant. These tanks have radiation detected outside the tank indicating they are likely to be leaking. Reservoir i: Northeast monitoring hole found radiation at morning April 7th Reservoir ii Radiation found at both monitoring holes morning April 7th. Also found to have cesium detected, this water was supposedly cleaned of cesium before being put here. Reservoir iii Northeast monitoring hole found radiation morning of April 7th Reservoir iv Northeast monitoring hold found radiation mid-day April 7th. This tank is holding water from the basements of units 5-6 that has been claimed by TEPCO in the … Read entire article »
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TEPCO Dumps Large Cache Of Radiation Readings From Daiichi Buildings
[Translate] TEPCO released a document of radiation readings for an extensive list of locations in the reactor buildings, related buildings and some other facilities around the plant. These maps include new floorplans of buildings that TEPCO has not shared with the public before. The attached waste processing building, service building that sits between the reactor and turbine building and also the turbine buildings are included. These provide more detail on the facility design and relation between buildings. Other buildings such as the bunker building and waste treatment building are included. Some of the readings are already known. Many of the reactor building readings had already been released. The turbine buildings show some interesting hot spots that don’t give an immediate reason for their location and existence. There was also an unusual reading in … Read entire article »
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Radiation Survey Shows Danger Outside Evacuation Zone
[Translate] Greenpeace did a survey of contamination levels outside the evacuation zone in Fukushima. For reference .5 uSv/h was considered an evacuation area after Chernobyl. Some of the highest levels were found near Kawamata, Date District with one of the high readings at 10 uSv/h at 1 meter off the ground. Parts of the heavily populated cities of Koriyama and Fukushima City were in the 2 uSv/h range. These are a combination of 2011 and 2012 readings. These two years of readings showed there was not a uniform significant reduction of radiation levels. 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 »
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Fukushima Government Deleted More Critical Radiation Data
[Translate] The Fukushima prefecture government deleted another batch of critical radiation data soon after the March 2011 disaster. Radiation readings were collected in Okuma on March 12 with a dosimeter. The prefecture government eventually collected the dosimeter but in September 2011 overwrote the data effectively deleting it rather than downloading and saving the data. The manufacturer confirmed the data can be downloaded off the device. Not doing so lost some very critical environmental data that could have been used to better understand human exposures in the evacuation zone during the early days of the disaster. The Fukushima government was previously under criticism for not sharing then deleting SPEEDI radiation plume prediction data during the early days of the disaster. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research … Read entire article »
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Unit 1 Torus Radiation Shows Possible Source Location
[Translate] TEPCO recently inspected the unit 1 torus room for a second time as we reported here. Workers involved in the inspection work made the comment that the torus tube and the proximity to the probe may play a role in the new radiation readings. The levels being found within the torus indicate that work in this region of the building could prove quite difficult and may require specialized robotic equipment. February 2013 Unit 1 torus inspection, probe (blue line) compared with torus and water proximity. We have reviewed multiple handouts issued by TEPCO concerning the inspection of the torus areas at 2 locations along the west side of the reactor building. The first being in June 2012 and the second in Februrary 2013. Each was conducted at different locations about 16900mm apart … Read entire article »
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Video: Press Symposium Exposes Media & Govt. Denial Of Radiation Exposure
[Translate] Freelance journalists in Japan participated in a symposium put on by the Japan Free Press Assn last December. Many speak frankly about being told by major newspapers in Japan that they can not report on radiation exposure at all. A former government minister also shared some insight in how the government has worked to deny the risk to the public from radiation exposure in policy and actions after the disaster. Much of this is already known to be a problem in Japan, it is still a bit shocking to see the stakeholders involved in government and media admit it. The video has full English subtitles. 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 »
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Futaba May Be Uninhabitable For Over 60 Years In Certain Locations
[Translate] The mayor of Futaba has told residents they may need to stay away for “a generation” citing the half life of cesium 137 at 30 years. He also mentioned return would not be possible until levels were at “1 millisievert” possibly referring to the 1mSv/year guidelines of ICRP. Parts of Futaba are at 50mSv/year. If you start with 50 msv/yr you need between 5-6 half lives (32-64) to get down to 1 msv/year. Higher level areas in Futaba could take 64 years or more to become safe if you include the higher readings and hot spots around town. Someone who is 40 years old today would be 70 years old at the earliest return date when rebuilding the town could begin. 30 years would cause extensive collapse to the structures and … Read entire article »
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Contaminated Foods Found In Aizumisato Fukushima
[Translate] The good news first, most of the routine garden produce like tomatoes, apples and cabbage showed with no detectable radiation. AizuMisato sits in the further west region of Fukushima. Where the radiation contamination was showing up frequently was in soybeans, autumn buckwheat, shiitake mushrooms grown indoors and a variety of wild vegetables and mushrooms. Autumn Buckwheat that showed contaminated ranged from .29 to 14.58 bq/kg Soybean that showed contaminated ranged from 5.55 to 21.16 bq/kg Koshiabura was the highest reading on the list at 166.3 bq/kg The entire list in English: Aizu Misato – emergency monitoring inspection on agricultural products2012 Original page in Japanese: http://www.town.aizumisato.fukushima.jp/11,11191,124.html Where is AizuMisato http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aizumisato,_Fukushima 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: Food/Water Contamination, The Latest
New Peer Reviewed Meta-Study Finds Even Low-Level Radioactivity Is Damaging
[Translate] A new study in the journal Biological Reviews has found that low levels of radiation may be harmful and even areas of high natural radiation may be damaging. The study looked at a wide range of other studies to build their larger analysis. When a single study found small effects they were frequently too small to make a solid declaration. By taking these studies together the researchers were able to get a clearer picture of actual effects. The researchers looked at 5000 studies that involved control groups and those exposed to elevated levels of natural radiation sources. “The organisms studied included plants and animals, but had a large preponderance of human subjects. Each study examined one or more possible effects of radiation, such as DNA damage measured in the lab, prevalence of a disease … Read entire article »
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Robot Inspection Of Unit 3 Finds Increasing Radiation Levels, New Robot Fails.
[Translate] TEPCO reports the results of a robot inspection in unit 3 at Fukushima Daiichi. The initial work was to look at the improvised duct hose to remove gas from the reactor containment. The new robot FRIGO-MA failed to work due to a bug. TEPCO sent in Packbot and Quince instead. TEPCO did not state the nature of the inspection other than to look at the gas duct hose. It appears the concern was due to increasing radiation levels in the area. TEPCO was likely inspecting the duct as the source of the possible increase. No leaks or damage were found on the duct. What they found was that the containment door and track were the source of the increased radiation levels. Workers had a .52 mSv exposure dose for their work. Packbot … Read entire article »
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76% Of Children In Nihonmatsu Radiation Monitoring Over 1mSv/year
[Translate] Some data has been released about the external radiation monitoring program going on in Fukushima. These programs involved issuing glass badges to school children then periodically handing them in for testing. This does not record the children’s internal radiation doses from what they breathe in, eat or drink. Those levels are in addition to what is recorded by the badges. What the new round of testing found is that 76% of school children in Nihonmatsu are above the government goal of 1 mSv/year with just their external radiation exposure. The government goal is based on the ICRP guidelines but many consider the ICRP levels to be too high. Some actually saw their levels go up compared to their 2011 levels. One researcher assumed this is due to children being allowed outside … Read entire article »
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Picture Of The Day; Inaccurate Radiation Meter In The Wild
[Translate] Naotoshi Kitada posted this photo today via Facebook. They did not include the location but it is a good example of how off the government radiation meters are. A .461 uSv/h difference. That may seem small but that difference is the entire radiation reading in some locations. 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 with limited permission. While we welcome the sharing of information or promoting our work, please do so with respect to the large amount of effort and time that goes into our research and analysis. Referring to something or a quote is great, copying it all … Read entire article »
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MIT Mouse Study Debunked In Journal
[Translate] SimplyInfo member Peter Melzer submitted a letter to the Environmental Health Perspectives Journal in response to an MIT mouse study released in May 2012. SimplyInfo had previously debunked this study here and here. In his letter he addressed in depth many of the concerns with the study. MIT of course is given the opportunity to respond. Peter raised a number of concerns including: The use of genetically altered FYDR mice for one portion of the study but not the comparison groups. The wide range in the numbers of mice used in the comparison groups. The Tanaka paper shows that a longer time frame might have detected abnormalities That children may have a 3 fold higher risk for damage from radiation as seen in other studies at half the accumulated dose used in the MIT study An inflammatory response may increase … Read entire article »
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Radiation Meters Reading Too Low
[Translate] The government is admitting that radiation monitors placed around Japan and the evacuation zone areas were reading artificially low. Citizen activists previously pointed out that many radiation monitors had the land under them decontaminated. Some had steel plates put underneath that shield the actual dose from the meter. Many meters have been placed on top of buildings and the adjusted to 1 meter high reading is only displayed in tiny print giving people a distorted understanding of the levels in an area. We documented these problems here. Now the government is admitting a new problem. The battery boxes that are part of the meter station have been influencing the readings. The readings were about 10% less than they should have read according to official. 675 of these new stations have been … Read entire article »
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Faking Fukushima
[Translate] Greenpeace released their findings today from their ongoing investigation of the contamination in Fukushima. Greenpeace confirmed with solid confidence that most of the government radiation stations have been systematically faked downward. Most showed signs of decontamination around the station and had up to six times higher radiation when the researchers stepped away from the radiation station area. In mid October Greenpeace checked 40 radiation stations around Fukushima, 75% of them showed artificially low readings. The government claims this isn’t dishonest as they published somewhere the fact that the area near some stations was decontaminated. No explanation is given for online readings that clearly allows people to understand this or how they could then calculate the true level of radiation. We mentioned previously where MEXT had done something similar by citing the … Read entire article »
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Unit 1, Where The Melted Fuel Is
[Translate] Update: The source for unit 1 torus radiation had an incorrect link. The correct link has been added to the page. Documentation for unit 1 torus radiation can be found here on our site http://www.simplyinfo.org/?p=6340 or directly from the TEPCO handout here: http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/images/handouts_120627_02-e.pdf The SimplyInfo.org research team has been following and documenting the events in Unit 1 since March 11, 2011. As part of our ongoing research into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Many pieces of new information have come out in recent weeks since TEPCO sent workers in to investigate the containment of unit 1. This has added new pieces to the big jigsaw puzzle of information on unit 1. One of the significant pieces of information is that the radiation levels inside unit 1′s containment are quite low. Inside unit 1′s containment the … Read entire article »
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Human Radiation Exposure Test Results Compiled
[Translate] We have compiled a considerable amount of human radiation testing results from Japan. The spreadsheet is an ongoing project to attempt to collect all of the publicly available test results in order to gain a better understanding of how people have been exposed. New data is added as our volunteers find and can transcribe the information. The spreadsheet available here. If you know of publicly available data that has not been included please let us know so we can add it to the spreadsheet. 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 with limited permission. While we welcome the sharing of information or … Read entire article »
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Data Shows Residents Near Daiichi More Exposed Than Previously Thought
[Translate] Some recently released data that was retrieved from radiation monitors memory cards showed high levels of radiation before the reactor explosions in Fukushima. This series of events shows that a large number of people were exposed and still in the vicinity of the plant during the venting and explosions. Futaba northwest of the plant saw a reading of 1,590 microsieverts per hour (1.59 mSv/h) by 3pm on March 12. This is before unit 1 exploded at The earlier readings are even more concerning. 0.18 microsievert/hour at 8:25AM on March 12, 2011 in Tomioka south of the plant. At 8:52AM on March 12, 2011, they measured 14 microsieverts/hour in Namie northwest of the plant. These are before the first venting. These joined timelines of TEPCO, Wikipedia and these new radiation readings show the series of events: 5:44am … Read entire article »
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