Japan earthquake - contamination & consequences outside Fukushima NPP

Azby

His failings have to do with a blatantly self-serving agenda. He's now selling radiation measurement sevices in Japan, with prices much higher than those charged by other labs :

http://www.busbylab.com/%E9%A3%9F%E5%93%81%E6%A4%9C%E6%9F%BB/

And is also selling expensive "Busby Laboratories" brand vitamin supplements!! "Devised by the noted radiation risk specialist Dr. Christopher Busby," for "detox against impurities in the body." If he actually said "for detox against radioactive contamination" he could be accused of fraud, so he just leaves it implied.

http://www.4u-detox.com/

I thought it was a joke at first, and that the site had been hacked by a detractor. But it's genuine.

Has anyone seen Soderbergh's latest film, "Contagion"? Busby looks more and more like the blogger character Krumweide every day...

swl

I wonder what children are to be "monitored."

Edit: see following post.

Gary7

Asahi Shinbun says that all kids in Fukushima prefecture who were under 18 at the time of the disaster (360,000 kids) will have lifetime thyroid testing.

http://www.asahi.com/special/10005/TKY201107240415.html

tsutsuji

erratum (as underlined): A full translation of the Mainichi article is now available at http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/natio...na018000c.html

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/genpatsu-...0_america.html the United States lifts the 80 km zone that had been decided for the United States citizens living in Japan.

Astronuc

Children who were present in higher exposure areas, e.g., a "hot spot" near the village of Tsushima (Namie Precinct, Futaba District, Fukushima Prefecture) and at Hirusone (Namie Precinct, Futaba District, Fukushima Prefecture - 8 km to the east) with levels of up to 74uG/h recorded on the 28 & 29th March, should be monitored. Ref: http://www.postharvest.com.au/Fukushima_Radiation.htm

http://japanecho.net/cms/wp-content/...022en_fig1.jpg
http://japanecho.net/311-data/1022/

http://www.mext.go.jp/english/incident/1303962.htm


http://www.nature.com/srep/2011/1109...00087.html#/f3
http://www.nature.com/srep/2011/1109.../srep00087.pdf

tsutsuji

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/genpatsu-...009/index.html 100% of Fukushima prefecture children (360,000 children below 18 years old as of 1 April) will receive their first thyroid medical examination by 2014. Then they will be checked every two years until they are 20 years old. Then they will be checked every five years. 150 children from Iitate, Kawamata and other places in the planned evacuation zone have had their first check on 9 October. Results are to be mailed about one month after each examination.

clancy688

Just a thought that occured to me:

As good as this precaution is, won't that give raise to a new generation of Hibakusha? I fear that those kids could be the target of bullying campaigns, since it's likely that they'll be spread all over Japan.

NUCENG

Based on Japanese social history that is possible, but the choice is between testing for thyroid cancer and risking social ostracism or not testing and possibly dying from an undiagnosed cancer that is highly treatable.

The survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki included large numbers of victims who had burn scars and other visible injuries. That will not be the case with the people exposed to radiation from Fukushima. Thyroid screening is non-invasive and would seem to be easily kept private. Further, I would hope that the Japanese have learned from the past. In any case, based on the lessons learned at Chernobyl, I would want my children tested.

Bodge

Strontium-90 Discovered in Yokohama City, 245 km from Fukushima I Nuke Plant

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/10/s...-yokohama.html

“To convert from “per kilogram” to “per square meter”, Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission uses the factor of 65.”

This equals over 12,500 Bq/m² of strontium-90 in Yokohama.

It's time to stop focussing on Iodine and Caesium - there are nastier isotopes around..

Sorai

The sample comes from dirt accumulated near a drain on the roof of a building. Using NSC's conversion factor for soil samples would not be accurate in this case. Actually you would have to divide by the total square meters of the roof and try to take into account how effective the drain was to get an idea of the fallout per square meter.

This is a previous EX-SKF post about the location in Yokohama (Kohoku-ku) where samples with high concentration (63 and 105 KBq/Kg) of radioactive cesium were obtained:
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/09/1...sium-from.html

And this is a photo of the sampling location:
http://tomynyo.tumblr.com/post/10646279634/105600bq-kg

It seems each portion of the roof is 6*3.7m, so around 22 square meters.

tsutsuji

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/region/news...8100003-n1.htm Dried shiitake mushrooms with 599 Bq/kg (above the 500 Bq/kg limit) have been found in Izu (Shizuoka prefecture). As a consequence all Izu shiitake sales are stopped. Some people propose to resume sales with a test on every box (20 kg), but nothing has been decided yet.

tsutsuji

http://mainichi.jp/select/today/news...40065000c.html As the results of the final tests in Nihonmatsu and Miharu became known on 12 October, all the rice grown in Fukushima prefecture has been found to be below the 500 Bq/kg limit and is allowed for distribution. Rice growing had been forbidden in the three zones (the restricted zone, the planned evacuation zone and the evacuation prepared zone) .

http://new-fukushima.jp/result.php?k...=all&x=28&y=24 The detailed rice tests results.

http://mainichi.jp/select/weathernew...40016000c.html The Yokohama City municipality is carrying out strontium tests in 3 locations in Kohoku ward. From March to May strontium had been found in Fukushima prefecture: 250 Bq/kg in Namie (29 km away from the plant), 120 Bq/kg in Iitate (36 km away), and 7.7 Bq/kg in Fukushima City (62 km away).

joewein

Near an elementary school in Tsurumaki, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo as much as 3.35 uSv/h have been measured, according to NHK news. On Oct 3, a resident alerted the city of Setagaya about high radiation levels he measured. A first test by the city yielded 2.8 uSv/h. After steam-cleaning the 10m piece of sidewalk, the reading only dropped to 2.71 uSv/h. See ex-SKF for a report.

It was also observed that the reading was higher off the ground than at ground level, which is kind of consistent with the failure of the steam cleaning to significantly reduce radiation. A test by experts then showed that the radiation comes off the side of adjacent properties, such as fences and walls (if my Japanese is good enough), with an even higher reading of 3.35 uSv. Both the original reading and the latest reading are higher than at the village headquarter at Iitate mura in Fukushima prefecture.

I also live in Setagaya, about 2.5 km from that location.

joewein

The news from Tsurumaki, Setagaya took a surreal twist when the city announced that the unusually high radioactivity measured out in the street was emanating from a bottle kept inside a cardboard box in a house at that street.

No explanation was given for why that bottle was there, what exactly it contained and how come it was kept in that home, except that the radiation was not related to the Fukushima accident.

See: NHK News

swl

Some good news about the triple meltdown. Had there been no accident in Fukushima, that radiation source in Setagaya might have gone undetected for years or decades.

joewein

There was a playground across the street from that house and a kindergarden and a pre-school for toddlers (hoikuen) nearby, as well as an elementary school.

It's the house at the corner of the intersection, surrounded by trees, in the middle of this map:

http://g.co/maps/fx9uc

The bottle was in a cardboard box inside a wooden box under the floor of the house, which was uninhabited.

tsutsuji

http://mainichi.jp/select/wadai/news...40083000c.html The dimensions of one glass bottle is diameter 5 cm x height 7 cm, and there are 3 or 4 thin and high glass bottles. The 30 μSv/h upper limit of the measuring instrument was exceeded. The owner says "it is the first time I see those [bottles]". The radiation in the area dropped to 0.1 to 0.3 μSv [per hour, I guess] after the ministry of education and science employees put the bottles in a lead containment.

http://mainichi.jp/select/wadai/news...0083000c2.html The Funabashi City municipality (Chiba prefecture) announced on 13 October that 0.91 μSv/h was found in a location in a park where a citizen group had found 5.82 μSv/h on 12 October. At a ceramic-made grass burning equipment it was 1.40 μSv/h. The spots have been designated as no entry zones and surface removal has been undertaken. 1.40 μSv/h is the highest record so far in that city. The municipality "does not want to treat lightly" the measurement difference with the citizen group, which is higher than the normal variation that is observed in one day's time.

http://radioactivity.mext.go.jp/ja/1...1/10/17485.pdf Niigata and Akita helicopter survey results.
http://radioactivity.mext.go.jp/ja/5.../5000_1013.pdf Aichi helicopter survey plan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGgql1MWhPM TBS video news about Setagaya, made before discovering the bottles. About the helicopter surveys, it is explained that helicopters display mean values, and are not able to detect small hot spots. Then there is a report about a junior high school in Ota ward, where 1.01 μSv/h was found. 13 among 37 schools in Ota ward were found with "high levels" of radiations. Then there is a report about the 1.40 μSv/h spot in Funabashi. Then it is about the schools and kindergartens in Karuizawa, Nagano prefecture, where a survey found results between 0.05 and 1.7 μSv/h. Then the video goes back to Setagaya with a university professor detecting radium-226 with a 90% probability with his measuring instrument, and suspecting the radiation is not Fukushima-related.