Fukushima Fallout & Radiation Monitoring

[GCANE]

With Fukushima now rated highest level of nuclear accident severity, on par with Chernobyl, and no end in sight; I decided to start a thread concerning radiation levels through out the earth.

http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsu ... ate01.html

As time progresses, I'll post some dispersion models along with HYSPLIT trajectories.

Also, I'll try and discuss health effects of various isotopes and mitigation strategies.

Apparently many EPA sites are down.

There are a number of independent monitoring sites that I will try link in as time goes by.

This is a serious long term health effect that we should all maintain a strong focus on.

http://www.fairewinds.com/content/fukus ... onitoring-

[GCANE]

Busby: 400,000 to develop cancer in 200 km radius of Fukushima


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0H-mtsdsgg


Engineers at Japan's Fukushima plant continue work on emptying highly radioactive water from one of the nuclear reactors.

The latest tests show that radiation levels in the sea near the damaged facility have spiked.

On Tuesday, Japan raised the level of nuclear alert at the plant to the maximum of seven, putting it on a par with the Chernobyl disaster.

Recovery efforts came under threat as series of powerful aftershocks hit the area near the power station.

It came a month after the massive earthquake and tsunami devastated the country, leaving over 13 thousand people dead.

Monitoring stations around the world have been picking up small amounts of radioactive particles spreading from Fukushima.

[GCANE]

Japanese Officials on Defensive as Nuclear Alert Level Rises


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/world ... 2&ref=asia


Seiji Shiroya, a commissioner of Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission, an independent government panel that oversees the country’s nuclear industry, said that the government had delayed issuing data on the extent of the radiation releases because of concern that the margins of error had been large in initial computer models.

But he also suggested a public policy reason for having kept quiet.

“Some foreigners fled the country even when there appeared to be little risk,” he said.
“If we immediately decided to label the situation as Level 7, we could have triggered a panicked reaction.”

[GCANE]

Fukushima a Ticking Time Bomb


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiGzleep1K4


The Japanese government is trying to calm fears about radiation levels and food safety in the region around the heavily damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility, even as it has raised the severity rating of the crisis to the highest possible level.

"Radiation is continuing to leak out of the reactors.

The situation is not stable at all," says Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York and the City College of New York.

"The slightest disturbance could set off a full-scale meltdown at three nuclear power stations, far beyond what we saw at Chernobyl.

[RL3AO]

Busby: 400,000 to develop cancer in 200 km radius of Fukushima

If that number is right, its because about 398,000 of them would have naturally developed cancer anyway.

[GCANE]

Xe-133 cloud over west coast on the 15th

[GCANE]

Winds will be shifting on the 17th and large Cs-137 concentrations will appear over Tokyo and then move into mid-west Honshu.

[GCANE]

Melted nuclear fuel likely settled at bottom of crippled reactors

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/85646.html


TOKYO, April 15, Kyodo

Nuclear fuel inside the crippled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant has partially melted and settled at the bottom of pressure vessels in the shape of grains, according to an analysis by the Atomic Energy Society of Japan made public by Friday.

The academic body's panel on nuclear energy safety has said the melted fuel at the No. 1 to 3 reactors has been kept at a relatively low temperature, discounting the possibility that a large amount of melted fuel has already built up at the bottom of their reactor vessels given the temperature readings there.

A large buildup of melted nuclear fuel at the bottom could become a molten mass so hot that it could damage the critical containers and eventually leak huge amounts of radioactive material.

The panel has also said that the fuel grains with a diameter of between several millimeters and 1 centimeter are believed to have settled flatly at the bottom of the vessels, leaving almost no possibility of a nuclear chain reaction called ''recriticality.''

Takashi Sawada, deputy chairman of the group, gave the assessment that even if the current stabilization efforts proceed smoothly, it would take at least two to three months for the fuel to be stabilized with few if any radioactive emissions.

The panel also found that the fuel rods in the No. 1 to 3 reactors have been damaged after analyzing information made public by the plant operator Tokyo Electric Poser Co. and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

The panel has presumed that the fuel has slowly melted and become grain shaped as it was quenched when it fell into the cooling water and then settled down at the bottom of the reactor pressure vessels.

Parts of the fuel rods in the No. 1 and 2 reactors have apparently been exposed, while those in the No. 3 reactor have been completely submerged in water, according to the panel.

Meanwhile, small amounts of plutonium believed to have been released as a result of the ongoing disaster have been detected in soil samples taken at the nuclear complex in Fukushima Prefecture, the plant operator known as TEPCO said.

It is the third time that traces of plutonium have been found in soil samples taken at the plant. The latest samples were taken on March 31 and April 4. The levels of plutonium in them were about the same levels observed in Japan following previous nuclear tests elsewhere, according to the utility.

On Friday, workers continued their efforts to bring the reactors under control and stop radioactive leaks from the seaside plant, injecting more nitrogen gas into the No. 1 reactor and installing more steel sheets near a seawater intake for the No. 2 reactor.

TEPCO said it will throw sandbags containing zeolite, a mineral that absorbs radioactive material, into the sea near the plant to reduce the levels of contamination in the seawater.

The nitrogen injection is aimed at preventing a hydrogen explosion at the reactor. At a news conference on Friday, nuclear safety agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said the agency is also considering injecting nitrogen into the other two troubled reactors soon.

TEPCO has pumped out around 660 tons of highly radioactive water from a tunnel connected to the No. 2 reactor's turbine building into a container inside the building.

The operation resulted in a lower water level in the vertical part of the tunnel, but the agency said that as of Friday morning the level had risen back to the same level as before the water transfer started on Tuesday.

Removing the highly contaminated water that has flooded the basements of the No. 1 to 3 reactor turbine buildings and adjacent tunnels is seen as key to restoring critical cooling systems for the damaged reactors, which were lost in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The flooding water is believed to be an unintended side effect of TEPCO's stopgap measure of injecting water into the reactors and their spent nuclear fuel pools to prevent them from overheating.

==Kyodo

[GCANE]

Elevated levels of radioactive iodine-131 have been detected in a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency water sample taken from an undisclosed source within the Chattanooga drinking water supply provided by the Tennessee American Water Co.

The spiked reading is linked to the badly damaged Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan that was rocked March 11 by a devastating 9.0 earthquake

Read more: Cleveland Daily Banner - Radiation traces in nearby water supply

http://www.clevelandbanner.com/view/ful ... efirstleft

[RobWESTPACWX]

GCANE, could you post a link to where you are retrieving those Air Plumes? Haven't seen those ones yet, curios what model there using for it .

[GCANE]

Hi Rob:

Here you go. Hope all is well with you.


http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weather/ ... an131&HH=1

[RobWESTPACWX]

Thanks, and all is good, had a little shaking just off the coast with a 5.5 this morning. Nothing new at this point.

[GCANE]

New TEPCO footage shows smoke/steam rising from reactor buildings — (AERIAL VIDEOS)


http://enenews.com/new-helicopter-drone ... ings-video

[GCANE]

Fresh leak fears as Japan rocked by ANOTHER earthquake

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-storie ... -23066249/


RADIATION levels around Japan’s stricken nuclear plant soared after another earthquake jolted the ­country yesterday.

Engineers fear the 5.9 quake may have caused fresh leaks at ­Fukushima Dai-ichi, north of Tokyo.

Levels of radioactivity rose sharply in seawater near the plant. It happened shortly after the Tokyo Electric Power Company had beefed up safety ­systems. TEPCO has been fighting leaks at the plant since it was crippled by a tsunami on March 11.



http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/86170.html

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/18_13.html

http://www.jaif.or.jp/english/news_imag ... 09874P.pdf

[GCANE]

TEPCO: Unit 2 containment vessel leaking

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/v ... 834199.htm

BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhuanet) -- In Japan, the Vice President of the Tokyo Electric Power Company, Sakae Muto, says the Containment Vessel of Fukushima Reactor 2 is leaking, and has probably been damaged. But he added that no problems have been found with the spent fuel rods in Reactor 4.

Meanwhile the nation's Chief Secretary, Yukio Edano, has arrived in Fukushima Prefecture for the first time since the disaster unfolded. Sunday's mission was aimed at explaining government policies to local leaders.

Edano says the administration will take full responsibility for the livelihoods of those evacuated. Late on Saturday, radioactivity around the facility was reported to have risen sharply once again, signaling the possibility of new leaks. Workers are continuing to spray water into the overheated reactors.

[GCANE]

Gundersen Discusses Current Condition of Reactors, TEPCO Claim of "No Fission" in Fuel Pool, and Lack of Radiation Monitoring in Fish

http://www.fairewinds.com/content/gunde ... d-lack-rad

[GCANE]

The good folks at Fukushima said they would have a major release of radiation on the 8th.

http://enenews.com/email-from-japanese- ... -continues

Guess what? - Its here.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26738/

[GCANE]

Reactor No 1 in Full Meltdown


http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/13_03.html


Tokyo Electric Power Company says the No.1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is believed to be in a state of "meltdown".

The utility company said on Thursday that most of the fuel rods are likely to have melted and fallen to the bottom of the reactor.

Earlier in the day, it found that the coolant water in the reactor is at a level which would completely expose nuclear fuel rods if they were in their normal position.

The company believes the melted fuel has cooled down, judging from the reactor's surface temperature.

But it suspects the meltdown created a hole or holes in the bottom of the reactor causing water to leak into the containment vessel.

It also suspects the water is leaking into the reactor building.

The company is planning to fully fill the containment vessel with water by increasing the amount injected.

The company says, however, it must review the plan in light of the latest finding.

Friday, May 13, 2011 05:21 +0900 (JST)

[GCANE]

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/13_29.html


The operator of the Hamaoka nuclear plant in central Japan has completed shutting down one of its reactors as it begins suspending operations at the plant.

The facility is being halted due to concerns over a massive earthquake that is forecast to strike nearby.

Chubu Electric Power Company started inserting control rods to stop nuclear fission at the No.4 reactor early on Friday morning.

The utility then disconnected the reactor's generator from the power transmission line. The control center monitor in Nagoya confirmed the reactor's output had fallen to zero.

Chubu Electric plans to reduce the temperature of the reactor to below 100 degrees Celsius on Saturday morning.

The company also plans to shut down the plant's No.5 reactor on Saturday.

The complete shutdown of the No.4 and 5 reactors will mean all 5 reactors at Hamaoka will be out of operation.

The No.1 and No.2 reactors have already been shut down for decommissioning, and the No.3 reactor has been stopped for a regular inspection.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan requested the suspension of the plant last week, saying it is located in an area where a major quake is predicted to occur in the near future, and safety measures are inadequate.

Friday, May 13, 2011 17:38 +0900 (JST)

[GCANE]

One step forward, four steps back


http://www.fairewinds.com/content/fukus ... w-problems