Radiation at Japan's Fukushima Reactor Is Now at 'Unimaginable' Levels

Fox News Insider ^ | 02/08/17

[Enlightened1]

The radiation levels at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant are now at "unimaginable" levels. Adam Housley, who reported from the area in 2011 following the catastrophic triple-meltdown, said this morning that new fuel leaks have been discovered. He said the radiation levels - as high as 530 sieverts per hour - are now the highest they've been since 2011 when a tsunami hit the coastal reactor. "To put this in very simple terms. Four sieverts can kill a handful of people," he explained. He said that critics, including the U.S. military in 2011, have long questioned whether Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) and officials have been providing accurate information on the severity of the radiation. TEPCO maintains that the radiation is confined to the site and not a risk to the public. It's expected to take at least $300 billion and four decades to fix it. Housley said small levels of radiation are still being detected off the coasts of California and Oregon and scientists fear it could get worse. "The worry is with 300 tons of radioactive water going into the Pacific every day, what is that doing to the Pacific Ocean?" said Housley. He added that critics are now questioning whether the radiation has been this severe all along.

[enduserindy]

I was thinking that volume of water would find its way out no matter how far out you could effectively poor a barrier.

[enduserindy]

Our best indications point to the rest of their lives.

[ifinnegan]

Thanks.

Are there any actual medical references, do you know?

[BenLurkin]

Excellent

[Myrddin]

I read a few years ago that up to 1/3 of the fish caught in Alaska were showing radiation burns. This is a far bigger problem than what is being reported.

The ocean levels aren't intense enough to cause burns. What is happening in the ocean is bio-accumulation. Various nuclear daughter products resemble other elements in the body. Cesium accumulates where potassium goes...concentrates in soft and muscle tissues. Plutonium resembles calcium and accumulates in the bones and teeth. Iodine concentrates in the thyroid. When the accumulated radioactive material decays inside a cell, it can directly damage DNA triggering a cancer process. The sea life are exhibiting tumors. Damage to bone marrow brings on bleeding disorders and leukemia. Thyroid cancer is very common in my area (Pocatello). We had a big spike of I-131 within days after the initial event in Fukushima. I was living in San Diego at the time. We were hit with a metallic taste in the mouth and nose from Sulfur-35 in the air. It was generated by pouring sea water on the nuclear reactor to cool it. The Chlorine was converted to Sulfur-35 and went airborne from the heat.

I can't prove causality, but my elderly mother developed a heart problem 3 weeks after the crap blew over San Diego. She died in Nov 2011. Congestive heart failure and lung cancer. She had lived comfortably at her El Cajon home through March 2011. After multiple hospitalizations, the required assisted living support.

[Myrddin]

Fukushima blew plutonium laced fuel all over eastern Japan. The reactor cores melted through the containment vessels. A natural mountain stream up the mountain from the plant site is pushing a constant stream of water through the facility. Radiactive material is constantly being washed into the ocean. Levels of radiation just outside the Unit #3 are 20 Sieverts per hour. A 5 minute exposure is lethal to a human. The robots sent in to investigate are failing quickly after entering the building as level are MUCH higher inside. A nuclear weapon is a very clean event compared to a nuclear power plant meltdown.

[Myrddin]

Your assumptions are based on uniform mixing and dilution. That is not happening. Much of the material is caught in surface currents. It never gets much below 40 ft below the surface. When high winds cause frothy waves, the cesium-137/cesium-134 is lofted into the air and is blown far inland. It has been picked up 300 miles east of the CA coast. Plant life on the west coast is incorporating radioactive material blown in by storms and rained down. I've seen 30,000 CPM of alpha particles on fresh rain water from a person in the western Washington state area. Counts abate as the water soaks into the soil.

I'm waiting for the reports of strontium-90. It's coming.

[rottndog]

BTW, Uss Reagan was in the initial radiation release and had to be retrofitted. All of their water is intake from ocean and desalinized. Entire ship was radioactive. Many servicemen became sick and died

Complete BS....there is still NOT ONE single death attributable to Fukushima....NOT ONE...

[Myrddin]

Look up Operation Tamodachi. One of my co-workers was involved in collecting some of that data. The Navy personnel off the coast of Fukushima were hit with a hot fog. It was both hot from a thermal perspective and hot radioactively. The sailors weren't warned. Many were contaminated and developed serious symptoms within days.

[Myrddin]

The seawater contains Tritium from the Fukushima site. There is no way to filter it out. It becomes part of you when you consume it.

[Myrddin]

Baloney. There are many deaths and many damaged. You're playing a disinformation game. A few here. The Navy doesn't dare admit any culpability as the lawsuits would bankrupt the government. It's easier to play the denial game that you choose to support. The power plant is still spilling crap in the ocean 24x7. There is no fix. It is technologically beyond our capability and financially out of reach for any government.

[A CA Guy]

Can’t they just drop endless cement on it until it is sealed? Then lead shield it after?

[marktwain]

I do not see why you would limit your concern to sea water.

Sea water evaporates and becomes rain. The hydrosphere mixes pretty well, with the exception of ground water, which can take a long time to cycle.

But tritium is just an isotope of hydrogen, so, as part of water, it goes through the rain/snow cycle. The tritium in sea water will soon be fairly evenly distributed in all the rain and river water in the world. Fresh water lakes will take a little longer, and it will take much longer to distribute in ground water.

With a half life of 12.32 years, in 50 years it will be only at 1/16 the level it is at today.

[HereInTheHeartland]

“I read a few years ago that up to 1/3 of the fish caught in Alaska were showing radiation burns. “

Factually untrue.
The source of where you read it was posting hysterical nonsense.
As Abraham Lincoln once said; Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.

[marktwain]

The Navy doesn’t dare admit any culpability as the lawsuits would bankrupt the government.

---

The Navy might want to “cover up” but lawsuits certainly would not bankrupt the government. The government doesn’t even have to allow a lawsuit, and the number of people involved are comparable to the Tuskegee study, where the government was clearly culpable, and did not pay anything.

Come up with a more rational reason for the Navy to “cover-up”, or lose credibility.

[marktwain]

Your source on Navy deaths and damaged doesn’t hold up.

It is from an advocacy site and a lawyer who will benefit enormously from a lawsuit, so it has plenty of motivation to exaggerate the potential damages and danger.

Certainly, there may be some illness caused by the radioactive isotopes that end up in human bodies. But it will probably be hard to detect those out of the normal level of disease and human mortality.

[PIF]

From MIT for those confused about dosages and nomenclature: Basic conversions: 1 gray (Gy) = 100 rad 1 rad = 10 milligray (mGy) 1 sievert (Sv) = 1,000 millisieverts (mSv) = 1,000,000 microsieverts (μSv) 1 sievert = 100 rem 1 becquerel (Bq) = 1 count per second (cps) 1 curie = 37,000,000,000 becquerel = 37 Gigabecquerels (GBq) For x-rays and gamma rays, 1 rad = 1 rem = 10 mSv For neutrons, 1 rad = 5 to 20 rem (depending on energy level) = 50-200 mSv For alpha radiation (helium-4 nuclei), 1 rad = 20 rem = 200 mSv

[rottndog]

You’re dead wrong. Name one person killed by Fukushima radiation. ONE.

[Myrddin]

Perhaps you prefer an MSM source. Here you go link

[Cementjungle]

Earlier today in France, at Flamanville nuclear plant:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZha1zhg2aw