Japan - 9.0 Earthquake-Tsunami -Reactor Status, 2011 #6

[Daisyjane]

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110607a2.html

NISA doubles early fallout estimate
Kyodo

NISA on Monday more than doubled its estimate of the radioactive material ejected into the air in the early days of the Fukushima nuclear crisis to 770,000 terabecquerels.

The assessment by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is expected to be reflected in Japan's report on the accident at a ministerial meeting being hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency later this month.

In April, Japan raised the severity level of the crisis to 7, the maximum on the International Nuclear Event Scale, putting it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

At the time, NISA believed that 370,000 terabecquerels of radioactive material had been ejected from reactors 1, 2 and 3. That was revised Monday after NISA found that more material escaped from reactor 2 than thought.

Level 7 accidents correspond to the external release of material equal to tens of thousands of terabecquerels of radioactive iodine 131. One terabecquerel equals 1 trillion becquerels.

 

[Quiche]

770,000 trillion becquerels.

 

[Daisyjane]

770,000 trillion becquerels.

yup, and some of it's coming from Bad Boy #3, Mr. MOX.

Question: what's the diff/relationship between becquerels, sieverts, and curies? Those units of measure confuse the daylights outta me.

 

[Quiche]

Report From Tokyo: The Spread of Radioactivity

Quote: On June 7, Japanese authorities officially doubled the release of radioactivity for the initial days of the crisis to 770,000 terabecquerels, bringing the total close to 40 percent of official emissions estimates made by the Soviets during the Chernobyl crisis.

Radiation from the plant has spread over 600 square kilometers (230 square miles). Soil samples showed one site with radiation from Cesium-137 exceeding 5 million becquerels per square meter about 25 kilometers to the northwest of the Fukushima plant.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-wagner/daiichi-fukushima_b_872887.html

 

[Quiche]

The measurements are really confusing, but here's a little translation:


Radiation

1 rad = 1,000 millirad
1 rad = 0.01 gray
1 rem = 0.01 sievert
1 rem = 1,000 millirem
1 rem = 1,000,000 microrem
1 Roengten = 0.876 rads (in air)
1 gray = 100 rad
1 sievert = 100 rem
1 curie = 1,000,000,000,000 picocurie
1 curie = 37,000,000,000 becquerel
1 megacurie = 1,000,000 curies
1 kilocurie = 1,000 curies
1 curie = 1,000,000,000 nanocuries
1 curie = 1,000,000 microcuries
1 curie = 1,000 millicuries
1 curie = 37,000,000,000 disintegrations per second
1 curie = 2,200,000,000,000 disintegrations per minute
1 millicurie = 37,000,000 disintegrations per second
1 millicurie = 2,200,000,000 disintegrations per minute
1 microcurie = 37,000 disintegrations per second
1 microcurie = 2,200,000 disintegrations per minute
1 nanocurie = 37 disintegrations per second
1 nanocurie = 2,200 disintegrations per minute
1 picocurie = 0.037 disintegrations per second
1 picocurie = 2.22 disintegrations per minute
1 becquerel = 1 disintegration per second
1 becquerel = 2.7E-11 curies
1 becquerel = 27 picocuries

http://www.iem-inc.com/toolconv.html

 

[mister happy]

A couple of weeks ago, I thought the death toll could very well reach 30,000-plus with the huge number missing persons factored in. But now I see that the tally of both dead & missing persons has dropped to 24,771. A lot of the missing were actually already included in the death toll -- "overlapped" as the statisticians would say. Hope the number drop some more!

A month later and the number of missing continues to drop: 15365 dead, 8206 missing.

Total = 23571.

 

[essies]

[video=youtube;G23Ik5Xf1bk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G23Ik5Xf1bk[/video]

 

[SewingDeb]

My daughter is going to school in Japan. She is over 200 miles from the reactors but this still scares me.

 

[Daisyjane]

It's been nearly three months since the quake/tsunami/nuclear crisis, yet less than half the relief funds have been distributed to the victims? I pasted tidbits of the article below, but you can read all the stats (and excuses) at the link:

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110607004731.htm

Less than half of the more than 80 billion yen in disaster-relief donations already sent to prefectures affected by the March 11 quake and tsunami has reached the hands of people waiting for urgently needed cash to rebuild their shattered lives, it has been learned.

Although a committee tasked with distributing cash donations to survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake has decided how to hand out the second batch of payments, only 45 percent of the money already sent to 15 affected prefectural governments has reached people's pockets. The slow progress in the distribution of donations is largely seen as due to the loss of family registries and residents' certificates in the tsunami, as well as a lack of staff in the affected areas.

According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, about 82.3 billion yen has been sent to 15 prefectural governments by the four organizations involved in the committee in charge of donation distribution. Only about 37 billion yen, or 45 percent, has reached the disaster survivors.

The prefecture's social welfare section said many municipalities lost their family and resident registries in the tsunami. Without these documents, it is difficult to decide who is entitled to a share of the donations. "The quake left us with a ton of clerical work, and we're short of staff who can handle making donation payments," one official said.

To be paid, a person needs a disaster victim certificate. To get a certificate, one must undergo an inspection. The problem is that there is not enough staff to handle the issuing of the certificates, which has severely slowed up distribution of the donation money.

 

[Dr.Fessel]

appears to be a lot of steam coming up, watch close. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/f1-np/camera/index-e.html

 

[Quiche]

appears to be a lot of steam coming up, watch close. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/f1-np/camera/index-e.html

Unreal, that one has already melted down-- are they still pouring water on it?

 

[Kat]

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201106100213.html


8,000 still missing 3 months after quake.

BY KAZUYO NAKAMURA STAFF WRITER
2011/06/11

Kento Abe is still looking for his grandmother. He believes she was with his parents when the tsunami hit their homes three months ago.

 

[coastal]

This article was posted on my favorite "alt-news" site; OMfG.
(I can't even figure out how to snip it.) I'll look for the mentioned WSJ article and try to link it...

http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=15680

Worse than meltdown, ’melt-through’ has occurred at Fukushima; Official suggests Japan could become ’uninhabitable’
2011 06 09
By Ethan A. Huff | NaturalNews.com

>>>snip

Recent reports confirming that Reactors 1, 2, and 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility completely melted just hours after the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the area on March 11 (http://www.naturalnews.com/032537_F...) have been trumped by even worse news that those same reactors have all likely "melted through," a situation that according to Japan’s Daily Yomiuri DY is "the worst possibility in a nuclear accident."

And senior political official Ichiro Ozawa suggested in an interview with The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that the Fukushima situation could make the entire country of Japan "unlivable."


...

(article continues)

<<<snip

I don't know why this surprises me, really...but it does.
It does.

 

[hockeymom]

It doesn't surprise me its just very sad.

 

[Daisyjane]

Take a look at the chart on this site, representing levels over the past few weeks. What is causing the volatility? A pattern of spikes from less than 50 sieverts to 250?

http://enenews.com/251-sieverts-hour-radiation-inside-reactor-1-drywell-hits-new-high

 

[essies]

[video=youtube;oF-tTSfoKpc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF-tTSfoKpc[/video]
Shaun Burnie, an independent nuclear energy consultant from the UK, offered some insight into the political undercurrents surrounding the Fukushima crisis and Japan's nuclear policy.

YouTube - &#x202a;'Fukushima media cover-up - PR success, public health disaster'&#x202c;&rlm;
Residents of the Fukushima district, and those who lived near-by have not only faced radiation exposure but also social exclusion... That's according to Dr. Robert Jacobs, Professor of nuclear history, at the Hiroshima Peace Institute

YouTube - &#x202a;Anger over Fukushima spills on streets in Tokyo anti-nuke protests&#x202c;&rlm;
It's exactly three months since the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, causing widespread destruction and leaving some 15,000 people dead. The nuclear crisis that followed shows no sign of abating as radiation continues to leak, forcing tens of thousands of evacuees into crowded shelters. Our correspondent Sean Thomas is in Tokyo where anger over the situation is spilling onto the streets.

 

[Daisyjane]

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110613a1.html

High level of strontium found at Fukushima plant

Kyodo

Radioactive strontium up to 240 times the legal concentration limit has been detected in seawater samples collected near an intake at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday. The utility said the substance was also found in groundwater near the plant's Nos. 1 and 2 reactors. The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said it is the first time that the substance has been found in groundwater. The agency said it is necessary to carefully monitor the possible effects of the strontium on fishery products near the plant. Strontium tends to accumulate in bones and is believed to cause bone cancer and leukemia.

 

[essies]

[video=youtube;sEo3OVz7ocs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEo3OVz7ocs[/video]
James Corbett, Osaka-based editor of the independent news website http://www.corbettreport.com/, says workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant are running out of the ability to store radioactive water - meaning any leak may slow the recovery effort, or even undermine it
YouTube - &#x202a;Hot Particles From Japan to Seattle Virtually Undetectable when Inhaled or Swallowed&#x202c;&rlm;
Original estimates of xenon and krypton releases remain the same, but a TEPCO recalculation shows dramatic increases in the release of hot particles. This confirms the results of air filter monitoring by independent scientists. Fairewinds' Arnie Gundersen explains how hot particles may react in mammals while escaping traditional detection. Reports of a metallic taste in the mouth, such as those now being reported in Japan and on the west coast, are a telltale sign of radiation exposure.http://www.fairewinds.com

 

[essies]

[video=youtube;z49_1YkPgPE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z49_1YkPgPE[/video]
Radioactive material has been detected in seawater around Japan's Fukushima plant, with concentration levels 240 times higher than safety limits. Scientists warn that the element, strontium, is highly dangerous to humans as it can accumulate in bones and possibly cause cancer.

 

[Quiche]

Fukushima City to give children radiation dosimeters

Quote: Japan's Fukushima city is to give radiation dosimeters to 34,000 children to measure their exposure from the tsunami-hit nuclear power plant.

All children aged between four and 15 will wear the devices for three months, and data will be collected monthly.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13763601


I would have gotten my children far far away from that site...