Japan Earthquake

Japan Earthquake | Page 2494

Yokohama tests soil for radioactive strontium

Officials in Yokohama City are testing soil for radioactive strontium following a report from a local resident in September that the substance had been detected in sediment on the roof of an apartment building.

In September, radioactive cesium more than 80 times the government-set limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram was found in sediment collected from roadside ditches in Yokohama City, which is near Tokyo.

The city later removed sediment from the area.

But the city decided to retest the sample for radioactive strontium due to the request of a local resident.

The resident said a private testing institution had detected 195 becquerels of strontium per kilogram -- more than 6 times the government safety limit -- in the rooftop sample.

The science ministry says radioactive strontium can accumulate in bones if inhaled and that it poses a cancer risk.

The ministry added that it has found strontium in the soil in Fukushima Prefecture, site of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. But the agency says it has conducted few checks for the substance outside the prefecture because the amounts detected in Fukushima Prefecture were very small.

Yokohama is located about 250 kilometers from the Fukushima plant.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011 19:28 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp
by Edano 10/12/2011 3:00:52 PM

www3.nhk.or.jp

Tokyo ward passes ordinance on stranded commuters

A ward in central Tokyo has passed an ordinance asking local firms to keep employees in company buildings after disasters such as major earthquakes to prevent confusion on streets.

The Minato Ward assembly on Wednesday unanimously adopted the ordinance describing responsibilities of companies to help minimize such confusion. The ward has many small and mid-sized businesses.

The ordinance says companies should prevent employees from leaving and take in commuters and shoppers who have no way of going home. Companies are also urged to stock food and water for people who take shelter.

The ward says it introduced the measure because roads were packed by commuters soon after the massive March 11th earthquake. The disaster forced all railways in Tokyo to stop operation.

Experts warn that if an earthquake occurs directly beneath Tokyo, people walking home could be harmed by fires and collapsed buildings.

The ordinance is to go into effect on Thursday. Minato Ward is to be the first of Tokyo's central municipalities to enact such an ordinance.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011 18:29 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp
by Edano via Www3.nhk.or.jp 10/12/2011 3:02:27 PM

@Edano, hi Edano... I can't imagine where they will put all that top soil
by dean 10/12/2011 3:07:11 PM

@dean hi, spread and dilute ...
by Edano 10/12/2011 3:08:14 PM

Hi@all, in the link lillimunster posted, www.newyorker.com
Under slide 5 of 16,a picture of a field of sunflowers, they write: “Sunflowers were planted where there used to be a rice field as an offering for the dead, and in the hope of reducing the radiation level. In September, scientists announced that sunflowers were not effective in absorbing radiation.”
In the article below they write that a “transgenic strain” of sunflower can remove contamination. Could that make the difference?
“In February 1996, Phytotech, Inc., a Princeton, NJ-based company, reported that it had developed transgenic strains of sunflowers, Helianthus sp., that could remove as much as 95% of toxic contaminants in as little as 24 hours. Subsequently, Helianthus was planted on a styrofoam raft at one end of a contaminated pond near Chernobyl, and in twelve days the cesium concentrations within its roots were reportedly 8,000 times that of the water, while the strontium concentrations were 2,000 times that of the water. Helianthus is in the composite, or Asteraceae, family and has edible seeds.”
www.mhhe.com
by Liz 10/12/2011 3:08:32 PM

yes.. @Edano. or dump in the ocean off the coast
by dean 10/12/2011 3:08:47 PM

@Liz someone missed that when they started the sunflower campaign. You have to pre-treat the soil with something to "unlock" the cesium from the soil for better uptake. That is why it was so effective grown on water but not in the fields.
by lillymunster 10/12/2011 3:15:23 PM

@Liz @lillymunster isn't it easier and faster and more effective to remove the soil than planting and harvesting sunflowers ? the flowers are rad waste.
by Edano 10/12/2011 3:17:41 PM

and cheaper ?
by Edano 10/12/2011 3:17:57 PM

Im no farmer @Edano, but i have heard something about topsoil being importend for growing things. Maybe thats why they tryed it that way.
by Liz 10/12/2011 3:20:45 PM

well, no matter what you do, you never get rid of radiation. it's like chasing shadows.
by Edano 10/12/2011 3:23:06 PM

@Edano they were going to compost the flowers and then treat that as rad waste. So the total rad waste would be smaller than these mountains of topsoil.
by lillymunster 10/12/2011 3:23:50 PM

Sad but true @Edano
by Liz 10/12/2011 3:24:20 PM

Argonne Lab teams in Japan www.physorg.com
by lillymunster 10/12/2011 3:25:33 PM

by lillymunster 10/12/2011 3:34:22 PM

Um, I just got an emphatic "hell yes" from the hubby on the Japan trip.
by lillymunster 10/12/2011 3:42:58 PM

@lillymunster ah, a rad filter then. sounds too good to be true.
by Edano 10/12/2011 3:47:54 PM

@Edano, if the flowers concentrate the radioactivity, the enterprise is going to lead to less and different waste that you may be able to clean and dispose of more easily. If you take of the top soil off, you ruin the land for agriculture.
by Peter 10/12/2011 3:52:50 PM

lol @ lilly... you better get your application in ... and we all want HATS..
by dean 10/12/2011 3:54:33 PM

@dean The tourism website doesn't have anything up yet. If anyone sees more about it or finds the application page when it starts let me know.
by lillymunster 10/12/2011 3:56:07 PM

lilly.. nuclear white cat with black spots wow
by dean 10/12/2011 3:56:33 PM

@dean He is really skinny. Hatchiko coalition posted the video. I mentioned they should try to ply TEPCO with the offer of some humane traps if they let the rescue groups retrieve any caught animals. Hoping maybe TEPCO would see it as good PR
by lillymunster 10/12/2011 3:58:08 PM

@lilly.. can you get a decent view of it's feet? to see if they are damaged or any hair loss etc?... you know that can has been all over the place for sure
by dean 10/12/2011 3:59:16 PM

@dean A couple of the dogs rescued from the region, not on the plant grounds had really bad hair loss. They found a puppy with no hair on its ears at all and thin coat over his body. He seems healthy now after a couple of months. They posted video of him playing with other dogs in the park. There are finding animals with skin issues frequently. Some can be allergy since pets manifest allergies more in their skin or could be radiation issues.
by lillymunster 10/12/2011 4:01:10 PM

Looked at the cat video - the feet looked black as the fur around them but could have fur loss without erupted skin. Usually the skin under a dark patch is dark pigmented. The video is hard to tell detail due to quality.
by lillymunster 10/12/2011 4:04:11 PM

ty lilly... I"ll return after gym work...
by dean 10/12/2011 4:04:57 PM

The free airline tickets thing starts in April to accept applications once they get govt approval to spend the money.
by lillymunster 10/12/2011 4:11:19 PM

Did Elaine finish painting her bathroom door yet? I just saw that rockhopper found someone to translate from German into Japanese, and wonder whether they accomplished to translate both Strahlentelexes.
by Peter 10/12/2011 4:20:43 PM

@Edano Might be a good idea for US emergencies as well. Commuters get stranded in snow storms all the time, and traffic jam in Seattle after our minor 2000 quake Tokyo ward passes ordinance on stranded commuters

A ward in central Tokyo has passed an ordinance asking local firms to keep employees in company buildings after disasters such as major earthquakes to prevent confusion on streets.
by artnuke 10/12/2011 4:35:24 PM

@Peter Have not heard more on that. I think she is still painting. :-)
by lillymunster 10/12/2011 4:36:06 PM

Does anyone remember how many hours from quake to melt through unit 1 or 3 was?
by lillymunster 10/12/2011 4:40:30 PM

@lillymunster #1 14.5 hours meltdown completed
by Edano 10/12/2011 4:41:59 PM

@lillymunster #1 core breach 4 hours 20 minutes
by Edano 10/12/2011 4:43:58 PM

@lillymunster #3 78.5 hours core breach
by Edano 10/12/2011 4:45:28 PM

@Edano thanks! Trying to gather info to write my public input letter to the NRC on the BWR petition
by lillymunster 10/12/2011 4:47:27 PM

#1: Meltdown / Core Breach 18:00 / 20:00 (3/11) [NISA] / Meltdown completed 6:05 (3/12)
by Edano 10/12/2011 4:48:14 PM

#2: Meltdown 19:50 / Core Breach 22:50 [NISA] (3/14)
by Edano 10/12/2011 4:49:28 PM

#3: Meltdown 11:10 (3/13) / Core Breach 22:10 (3/14) [NISA] / Core 'Dripping' [Tanabe] (3/21-24)
by Edano 10/12/2011 4:50:33 PM

free airfare? What do they do to you if you use it to organize an anti-nuclear tour educating japan on who screwed up and how badly? Do you think Japanese intelligence would do a background check on your views?
by artnuke edited by Edano 10/12/2011 4:50:47 PM

Can't your network dig up a doctor or even Uncle Arnie and escalate this? How in the hell can we let the Obama adminstration (oh wait, they're in cahoots with the nuclear industry..) well our government let the Japanese govt and industry sweep 3 maybe 4 cases of acute radiation sickness under the rug?? Wikipedia is full of people who died in radiation accidents, but the official count is 0 confirmed, 0 probable unless you're counting "unreliable" sources like simplyinfo.

Another poster on this board mentioned this to me. Good point that the radiation dose measurement must be faulty since all evidence that acute radiation poisoning only comes from massive gamma ray exposure, you can only get cancer year(s) after the initial exposure. It is beyond belief that he died of leukemia on a NPP meltdown scene, that we should just forget it because he supposedly got a low does. That claim should be assumed BS based on witness accounts I've heard of workers who report alterations were done to the dosimeter data for workers. Moreover, even if he did get a low dose, it assumes the contradiction that they can say the effects of low doses are unknown and we know low doses can't cause this.
by artnuke 10/12/2011 4:51:30 PM

@lillymunster , edano, retrieved this: www.yomiuri.co.jp
by Peter via Yomiuri.co.jp 10/12/2011 4:54:42 PM

@artnuke Japan should have some laws related to autopsies. The US govt no matter who is running it isn't going to get involved, it would be a diplomatic nightmare. Workers mentioned in one of the German interviews that their dosimeters error out when they get near unit 1. So it is certainly possible for someone to encounter a hot spot, yet not have it register on their meter record. The Hitachi crew complained about hot spots and made a demand that something be done to identify them all and remove them if possible. They seem to be one of the main big organized crews on site and are nuclear workers, not construction workers. The coincidence that the Hitachi workers mention the hot spot issue after someone drops dead, sometimes you need to look for the Japanese subtlety. The hitachi workers may have been trying to say something with that comment
by lillymunster 10/12/2011 4:55:26 PM

Did we ever determine why unit 1 failed so fast? Was it the IC valve issue?
by lillymunster 10/12/2011 4:59:13 PM

@lillymunster , that happened in good part because an operator, acting according to his manual, switched the only condenser off about 15 minutes after the quake.

by Peter 10/12/2011 5:06:23 PM