Update # 50: August 19, 2011
by Nelle Maxey
Another important video interview has been released by RT TV.
Paul Gunter of the Reactor Oversight Project with Beyond Nuclear discusses what is and has happened at Fukushima.
His discussion of dosages is very good. He also discusses what is happening now with emissions and core meltdowns and the facts learned at an NRC meeting in late July regarding the fuel rods from the reactors being blown up to 1.5 miles away during the explosions in March.
The video is embedded at Energy News here:
Fukushima…is this the China Syndrome?, The Big Picture RT TV
Another video from a British news program is also embedded at Energy News. This one discusses the contamination and the cracks in the ground but in much less depth than the RT TV video.
Channel 4 News (UK), 6 minute video
On CBC news this evening, it was announced that CFIA (on behalf of Health Canada) is checking BC salmon for radiation contamination.
This is hard on the heels of the following Georgia Straight story yesterday. I believe public pressure is beginning to have an effect.
Radiation tests urged for sockeye salmon,
Georgia Straight (Vancouver) by Carlito Pablo, August 18, 2011:
“Marine biologist Alexandra Morton sees a need to test returning sockeye salmon for radiation from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster….”
Note that in response to the question at the end of the article “Should salmon be tested for radioactivity” 97% of Georgia Straight readers say yes.
Energy News reviews the Asahi News story on Japanese children’s radiation exposure near the plant.
Nearly half of children near Fukushima plant absorbed radiation, Asahi, August 19, 2011:
http://enenews.com/14-year-body-radioactive-materials-like-be-told
” […] During a one-on-one consultation session, a woman who had received a letter from the government saying her 14-year-old son had an internal exposure reading of 0.01 microsievert per hour asked the officials whether it was safe for her family to continue living in Iwaki.
An official responded that radiation levels were low in the city, but said she should be careful of grass and roadside ditches.
“The meeting did not answer my questions or eliminate my anxieties at all,” she said. She complained that the officials’ explanations were no more helpful than what is available on the Internet and other sources of information.
Her son, who also attended the meeting, said: “The figure is not zero because my body has taken in radioactive materials. I would like to be told whether I am OK or not.” […]
Nearly half of children near Fukushima plant absorbed radiation
and contains some interesting information on how the tests were conducted and the basis of the government’s exposure guidelines as follows:
” At the time of the tests, the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan said detailed examinations would be required if internal exposure levels reached 0.20 microsievert per hour.
The standard was based on the assumption that residents had inhaled radioactive materials gradually over 12 days from March 12, when an explosion shook the nuclear plant and released radioactive materials a day after the Great East Japan Earthquake struck.
But the Japan Atomic Energy Agency and other organizations have since found that large amounts of radioactive iodine were released over four or five days from March 12.
The finding shows that children’s internal organs and tissues may have been exposed to much higher radiation levels during that period than was initially assumed.
Iodine-131, for example has a half-life of around five to seven days, meaning that some children may have been exposed to levels of radiation that would require detailed examination.
Radioactive iodine can develop into cancer if large amounts are accumulated in the thyroid gland, and children are particularly vulnerable. The thyroid gland produces hormones related to metabolism and growth from iodine in the body.”
From NHK this morning, plant samples of rice (not the harvested rice itself) show some radiation.
Radiation detected in rice
“Ibaraki Prefecture, north of Tokyo, says it has detected small amounts of radioactive cesium in rice plant samples taken at a rice field in the prefecture.
The prefecture has been conducting tests on rice plant samples taken in 13 cities, towns and villages, where relatively high radiation levels have been detected in the air….” Friday, August 19, 2011 15:02 +0900 (JST)
There was a story at NHK on the lifting of the ban on cattle shipments in one prefecture, with others to follow. Read what SKF has to say about details of lifting the ban in the 2 articles following the NHK press release.
Cattle shipment ban lifted in Miyagi
“The Japanese government has decided to allow Miyagi Prefecture to resume shipments of all cattle that clear radiation tests.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters on Friday that only properly managed cattle whose meat is safe to eat will be allowed to reach markets….” Friday, August 19, 2011 23:55 +0900 (JST)
SKF on lifting the beef ban
“Nothing coming out of Japan makes sense any more, so this news is simply adding to that growing list.
The national government will lift the ban on sales and shipment of meat cows raised in Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures because the government is satisfied that the radioactive rice hay is now separated from other feed – either under the tarp or buried – so that it will not be fed to the cows.
If I remember right, the worry was not the rice hay but the meat itself, which tested high in radioactive cesium all over Japan as the cows from these two prefectures (and several more in Tohoku) had been sold far and wide because of the suddenly “affordable” price. They were particularly favored by certain cost-conscious municipalities (most notably Yokohama City) that fed the suspected meat to the kindergarteners and school children in school lunches, ignoring protests from the parents.
Humans eat beef not rice hay, as far as I know. But now the ban will be lifted because of … rice hay storage procedure?…
The Ministry of Health and Labor wanted the contaminated rice hay out of the cattle farms as a condition to lift the ban. On the other hand, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fukushima/Miyagi Prefectures insisted the rice hay remain within the farms as long as it was separated from the cows, because it would be hard for the farms to secure the storage space outside the farms.”
So the Ministry of Health and Labor lost. This is the Ministry that’s supposed to protect consumers.
Will they test all the cows? No they won’t. Not even in Fukushima. They only test the meat of the cows raised in the planned evacuation zone and evacuation-ready zone right outside the 20 kilometer radius from Fukushima I Nuke Plant. For everywhere else in Fukushima Prefecture, the first cow to be shipped from a cattle farm will be tested. If that passes the test, all cows can be sold.
Even when they do test, they will just do the simple test using “affordable” instruments that cost only a few thousand dollars and take only 15 minutes to test, and as long as the number is below 250 becquerels/kg they won’t test further. Only if it goes above 250 becquerels/kg, they will use expensive instruments that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take 1 hour to test.
What about the news at the end of July that radioactive cesium is NOT distributed evenly in the meat, not even within the same part?
Well, that’s not in the manual of elite bureaucrats in these two ministries, and Fukushima and Miyagi would be the last ones to alert them.
So here we go again. Radioactive beef will be force-fed through social pressure, now that the government declares safety. No way to test all meat, and even if they do, one piece of meat may test differently from another piece of the same part. And they won’t even tell you whether it is 244 becquerels/kg or 2 becquerels/kg, as long as it is below 250 becquerels/kg.
Fukushima Prefecture, probably in anticipation of the lifting of the ban, has launched a new campaign to push Fukushima produce – vegetables, fruits, meat – using celebrities. “Fukushima Shin Hatsubai (new product launch)” is the campaign.
The governors of these two prefectures will no doubt do the ceremony of “declaration of safety” of their own, and eat the beef in front of the press to appeal safety to the nation and the rest of the world. If they are so brave as the governor of Shizuoka, they will go to a gourmet Japanese restaurant in New York and host an event with some celebrities who (used to) love Japanese cuisine and eat the safe beef that tested below the provisional safety limit of Japan.”
And then this story was posted at SKF
Radioactive Beef Conundrum: High Level Cesium Detected from Beef NOT Fed with Radioactive Rice Hay
“Oops. There goes the lifting of the shipping ban for Fukushima.
So where did the cow get the dose of radioactive cesium? Air? Water? No one knows, because everyone in the government and the producers have been looking only at radioactive rice hay.
From NHK News Japanese (2:17PM JST 8/19/2011): [Japanese characters removed]
” According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, radioactive cesium in the amount exceeding the national provisional limit has been detected from the beef from a cow raised in Fukushima Prefecture. This meat has been stored at a meat processing facility, and according to the investigation so far the cow was never fed the radioactive rice hay. The national government was going to lift the shipping ban on meat cows in Fukushima Prefecture today (August 19) but instead has instructed the Fukushima prefectural government to continue to halt shipping for the time being and conduct further investigation.”
In a separate piece of news (link in Japanese), the manure made from chicken poop mixed with dead leaves and sawdust in Tama district of Tokyo (west) has been found to contain 890 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. I hope it is from dead leaves or sawdust, and not from chickens. Chickens are fed with the chicken feed from the US, and they are raised indoors.”
Physics Forum has an entry with interesting information on the SARRY system from various Japanese sources. Looks like the Toshiba SARRY system, as predicted weeks ago will be used separate from the other systems in the future. The links to sources are live at the Forum link:
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/08/radioactive-beef-conundrum-high-level.html
“[47news] Yesterday SARRY was connected in series with the French and American systems. Today they are going to connect it independently from those systems, with the goal of increasing the water treatment facility’s capacity from the present 45 tons per hour to 95 tons per hour.
[Jiji} Tepco has announced that the independently connected SARRY has been started with a 25 ton per hour flow. They plan to increase the flow to 50 tons per hour.
[Tepco press release](not translated yet) Yesterday’s decontamination factors using Kurion and SARRY in series. It seems the Areva system was not used.
[47news] Tepco is reducing little by little the water injection rate into unit 3 reactor, with the goal of reaching 6 tons per hour on August 20.”
And there is also a Forum discussion on new readings of iodine contamination:
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=480200&page=686
“Why iodine is again detected after some time when it wasnt ?
In almost two months the concentration of I-131 should have dropped by about two orders of a magnitude below cesium revels, instead it popped up at half an order of a magnitude below the previous detection level.”
______
The obvious answer to the I-131/Xe-131m question is ongoing transient criticalities.
Is there enough pu-240 for significant spontaneous fission?
Can we trust the decay heat calculations, which are based on all fission stopping at SCRAM?
And finally, the expected denials of earthquake damage are already appearing in the international press. See New Scientist, a UK non-peer reviewed “science” mag.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20811-did-quake-or-tsunami-cause-fukushima-meltdown.html
***
The Watershed Sentinel is proud to share Nelle Maxey’s Fukushima Updates prepared for the BC environmental community.
Every day, Nelle pours over the media and other reports of the status of the reactors at Fukushima, comparing figures and trying to make sense out of the conflicting reports.
