Japan: High level of strontium found at Fukushima plant(in groundwater)

Japan Times ^ | 06/13/11

[TigerLikesRooster]

Monday, June 13, 2011

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.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[AppyPappy]

Didn’t see that coming.

[ransomnote]

Yikes! So if the Strontium part of the cocktail is THAT HIGH, then I shudder to think what the rest of the cocktail adds to the overall contamination load. I’ve worried about the ground water all along - where does this ground water travel? What part of the water table does it belong to. Yikes!

[Pontiac]

Interesting that they tell you what the concentration is in the seawater but not the groundwater.

Nobody is going to drink the seawater.

[MamaB]

I remember sending msgs to freepers about this being a lot worse than the gov’t was saying way back then. Some agreed but most made fun of me. I am an avid reader so I knew this was very, very bad. The gov’t over there is just as bad as the Russians. Is anyone really surprised about this? I am not.

[EGPWS]

What's important is deciding who to sue for destroying the ecology, who is to blame, and who gets the money.

The rest is just non-political every day life.

We will ALL be fine in the long run just spending a bit more and having a bit less because of the wealth transfer game coming down soon on the nuclear power industry and anything that can be sucked out of the Japanese economy.

Yes, I AM a cynic.

[sefarkas]

Strontium tends to accumulate in bones and is believed to cause bone cancer and leukemia.

They believe because they cannot prove their hypothesis with any reproducible model. Cause-and-effect is a high bar and the uninitiated are left to conjecture. Radiation only has effect in sufficient dosages. The fact that radiation can be measured does not mean that it is causing a health effect. The human body is quite resilient as a few tens of thousands of years of history and poor medicine demonstrate.

[AnAmericanAbroad]

And I remember some folks saying something to the effect oh, “Ahhhh, radiations good for ya !” Ok.....so they can and live there, and demonstrate to all that life is much better when you grow a third head or something.
And I’m not anti-nuke; I live here in Germany, and I’m appalled at Merkel’s decision to phase out nuclear power. Energy costs here are high enough without taking a viable energy generation source out of production needlessly.

[HarleyD]

I’m sure it bring great comfort to the Japanese people that “management is concerned and is carefully monitoring the situation” every time we read about another (and more serious) problem.

[jonrick46]

The worst part of this disaster is the Left will use it to kill any new nuclear plants in the United States. The energy noose is around our necks and the environmentalists are tugging at it to hasten the die off of the U.S. Capitalistic system.

The bottom line: Don’t be blinded by the fear tactics of the environmental thugs.

[freebird5850]

I expect more of these type of reports will come.

[Tolsti2]

As soon as I saw the video of the explosions I knew the deniers were full of it. This is obviously incredibly bad and will be a problem for decades or more.

[BenKenobi]

“Interesting that they tell you what the concentration is in the seawater but not the groundwater.”

This. And they don’t tell you how much it really is, but they say 240x the legal limit. How much radiation is that?

[BenKenobi]

I’m seeing about 9 nanocuries.

You get a dosage of 1000 nanocuries in a single thyroid test.

That’s only about 9x what you get as background radiation in most consumer products. Elevated, yes, but dangerous? Hardly.

[Revel]

The radiation is good for you people have already shown up on this thread. They are a disgrace to human kind IMHO. And they probably have an invested interest in Nuclear power of some sort. They are just too unwilling to concede on any point at all that shows any ill effect from this disaster.

[lefty-lie-spy]

As soon as we saw those explosions the only conclusion to be made was core meltdown. After that, what happens is anyone’s guess. We just ride it out. Seeing how bad this is, it’s interesting that not people are dead due to radiation poisoning, however time will tell.

[Mount Athos]

well chernobyl was much worse, and they estimate than over 80 years a total of 9000 will have died.

That includes an estimated .3% increase in cancer deaths. 1/3 of one percent

[little jeremiah]

Thanks for the ping.

News just gets worse and keeps on coming.

Very tragic.

[MamaB]

Don't get me wrong. I am all for nuclear power. We live about midway between 2 of them in N. AL. People were a little worried when those tornadoes hit this area in April but everything was ok.