Radioactive cesium blankets 8% of Japan's land area

Asahi Japan Watch ^ | 11/21/11 | HIROSHI ISHIZUKA

[TigerLikesRooster]

Radioactive cesium blankets 8% of Japan's land area

November 21, 2011

By HIROSHI ISHIZUKA / Staff Writer

Some 8 percent of Japan's land area, or more than 30,000 square kilometers, has been contaminated with radioactive cesium from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Spanning 13 prefectures, the affected area has accumulated more than 10,000 becquerels of cesium 134 and 137 per square meter, according to the science ministry.

The ministry has released the latest version of its cesium contamination map, covering 18 prefectures.

Radioactive plumes from the Fukushima No. 1 plant reached no farther than the border between Gunma and Nagano prefectures in the west and southern Iwate Prefecture in the north.

Ministry officials said the plumes flowed mainly via four routes between March 14 and 22 after the plant was damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

The first plume headed westward from late March 14 to early March 15, when huge amounts of radioactive materials were released following a meltdown at the No. 2 reactor.

It moved clockwise over a wide area in the Kanto region. Radioactive materials fell with rain and snow, particularly in the northern parts of Tochigi and Gunma prefectures.

[BwanaNdege]

Does anyone in FR Land have a rule of thumb comparison for “10,000 becquerels of cesium 134 and 137 per square meter”?

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

10K Becquerels = 666 bananas

Don’t slip.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

post 4

[Georgia Girl 2]

Does anybody know what all this means? I read an article today that said likely the fuel rods are still going down into the earth and are probably 12 meters down already. I thought the Fukishima plant was close to a cold shutdown. Its hard to know what to think.

[TigerLikesRooster]

There are indeed some reports which say that fuel may have escaped the containment and into the ground.

[Mears]

And Japan is densely populated anyway.

[GOPJ]

I read an article today that said likely the fuel rods are still going down into the earth and are probably 12 meters down already. I thought the Fukishima plant was close to a cold shutdown. Its hard to know what to think.

Do you have a link?

[Georgia Girl 2]

Its on infowars front page.

[iowamark]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becquerel
“The average human body has 4400 becquerels from decaying potassium-40, which is a naturally-occurring isotope of potassium.”

[TigerLikesRooster]

There is a Japanese article, an interview with a man who designed reactor #3 at Fukushima No #1 Plant.

http://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/6041353/

You might use google translation to get the gist of it.

[BwanaNdege]

DOOMED! I’M Doomed!

Mrs. BN & I have just spend the past 3 weeks living in a banana grove in Belize. We must have received at least 5.8 “Fukushima No. 1” doses of radioactive exposure!

I think I feel a second head growing on my shoulder! (hope this new one at least has a brain)

[VanShuyten]

Darn! Some of the best outdoor hot springs are right in the middle of the plume. Hoping that all that fallout will have washed away by the next time I get there.

[justa-hairyape]

Does anybody know what all this means?

TEPCO recently admitted that some of the reactor cores have escaped the RPV's. Well that was obvious 6 months ago. Scientific research has shown that there was no way the RPV could contain a core that went as long as two of these cores went without cooling water. So publicly TEPCO and the Banana apologists are 6 months behind the learning curve. What it means is that the melted fuel cores have entered the cement core catch. That is the last line of defense to prevent the cores from entering the Earth below the plant. All the hype about Cold Shutdown is just that. Hype. It is impossible to achieve cold shutdown now, but that wont stop the banana apologist from claiming cold shutdown has occurred. Right now we are waiting to see if the cement catch stops the melted fuel cores. Wont know that until sometime next year. Unless of course one of the apologists wants to stop eating bananas for awhile and fly over there and volunteer to take a look.

[VanShuyten]

"Cesium 137 will have a long-term impact on the environment because it has a half-life of 30 years. It was detected even before the Fukushima accident, apparently as a result of nuclear testing conducted by other nations. Still, the maximum amount found in nationwide surveys since fiscal 1999 was 4,700 becquerels in Nagano Prefecture. The science ministry's cesium contamination map excludes the effects of pre-disaster contamination.

So the actual cesium contamination might be 40% higher.

[ransomnote]

VanShuyten, wow - that is an excellent point I completely overlooked. I think they probably should have reported the sum total amount and then noted the amount that was there prior because the sum is what people are experiencing. A blogger pointed out that they (government/TEPCO) never report the sum total of all radioactive contaminants for any area. They may report cesium here or strontium there but never all the isotopes in one area. According to the IAEA (Hah! Yeah they are corrupt but sometimes they slip facts into publications!), there were 31 different isotopes detected as a result of Fukushima. I realize that this doesn’t mean all 31 are present in every contaminated area but c’mon, more than one or two are present in various locations. Plutonium, Americium, Neptunium, Strontium etc. Lots of possibilities and those which I listed have be ‘detected’ but are seldom measured and the more toxic ones are NOT reported by TEPCO but are instead reported by 3rd party foreign agencies studying the site. Can’t imagine what the total radiation level is. Thanks for your post.

[TigerLikesRooster]

banana apologist

and then Brazil nut, and air flight apologists, too.

[VanShuyten]

Don't get too excited. While these numbers are a little worrisome, there's no reason to believe that the radiation levels are dangerous. Most of the isotopes you mentioned are rare and have short half-lives. The ones you need to worry about are iodine, strontium and the heavy metals such as uranium and plutonium. Iodine has a short half-life, and the heavy metals don't disperse as far as cesium or iodine and haven't been reported as a problem.

However, no rotemburos in the blue areas for a rainy season or two.

[ransomnote]

I am not excitable and yet I consider the numbers cause for concern. The schools have insisted that Fukushima produce and milk are safe and should be consumed by school children so I mentally add their exposure from the environment to their exposure to foods, beverages and come away concerned because history has shown how consumption and inhalation of radioactive particles damaged human health in the Ukraine. Basically I’ve been reading reports for months now about wheat, rice, beef and produce taken from the contaminated areas being insufficiently tested before sale to the public or use in schools and then resulting scandals here and there when it is revealed these products exceed safety limits.
I know that the isotopes I mentioned include some with short half-lifes but all of this contributes, even in the short term, to exposure. Also, the presence of precursor isotopes to plutonium (Neptunium) identifies the probable Plutonium contamination that neither TEPCO or the government will test for. I just thought that your close reading identified a factor I had overlooked.