46 replies to this topic

[Bob-C]

Hi everyone, according to a report from enenews.com, "Fukushima workers transported to hospital in "bad shape" after working at No. 2 reactor April 10th, 2011 at 04:28 AM." The report explains:

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, workers transported the hospital in bad shape, Yomiuri Shimbun, April 10, 2011:

Google Translation

… TEPCO, instead of radioactive material deposited in workers Exposure (Nuked) Dose that was less than planned dose.

According to TEPCO, became ill in one minute 10:11 am 30-something male workers were working to install a drain hose 10 No. 2 in the morning. …

Read the report here.

Bob-C

Edited by Bob-C, 10 April 2011 - 04:47 AM.

[Bob-C]

Hi everyone, according to a report from enenews.com, "Human embryos in US likely bioaccumulating radioactive iodine, cesium, and strontium says physician who taught at Harvard Med School April 10th, 2011 at 06:58 AM." The report explains:

There is no 'safe' exposure to radiation, Salt Lake City Tribune, April 9, 2011:

Radiation from Japan is now detectable in the atmosphere, rain water and food chain in North America. Fukushima reactors are still out of control and hold 10 times more nuclear fuel than there was at Chernobyl, thousands of times more than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. …

Bioaccumulation increases the concentration of many contaminants as one moves up the food chain. Beef is much higher in dioxins than cattle feed and tuna fish have much higher mercury than their marine environment. Radioactive iodine, cesium, and strontium, all beta emitters, become concentrated in the food chain because of bioaccumulation. At the top of the food chain, of course, are humans, including fetuses, and human breast milk.

In 1963, one week after an atmospheric nuclear bomb test in Russia, our scientists observed the magnifying power of bioaccumulation when they detected radioactive iodine in the thyroids of mammals in North America even though they could not detect smaller amounts in the air or on vegetation.

Bioaccumulation is one reason why it is dishonest to equate the danger to humans living 5,000 miles away from Japan with the minute concentrations measured in our air. If we tried, we would now likely be able to measure radioactive iodine, cesium, and strontium bioaccumulating in human embryos in this country. Pregnant women, are you OK with that?

Hermann Mueller, another Nobel Prize winner, is one of many scientists who would not have been OK with that. In a 1964 study, "Radiation and Heredity", Mueller spelled out the genetic damage of ionizing radiation on humans. He predicted the gradual reduction of the survival of the human species as exposure to radioactivity steadily increased. Indeed, sperm counts, sperm viability and fertility rates worldwide have been dropping for decades. …

Read the report here.

Brian Moench is a physician at LDS Hospital and former instructor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School.

Bob-C

Edited by Bob-C, 10 April 2011 - 07:58 AM.

[Bob-C]

Hi everyone, according to a report from enenews.com, "East Coast city’s tap water has highest radiation in US — Philadelphia only .8 pCi/L below EPA’s maximum contaminant levelApril 10th, 2011 at 09:59 AM." The report states:

EPA: New Radiation Highs in Little Rock Milk, Philadelphia Drinking Water, Jeff McMahon (Forbes blog), April 10 2011:

… [D]rinking water from Philadelphia contained the highest levels of Iodine-131 from Japan yet detected by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to data released by EPA Saturday. …

The EPA’s [maximum contaminant level] for iodine-131 is 3 picoCuries per liter. …

A sample from the city’s Queen Lane Treatment Plant showed 2.2 picoCuries per liter—the highest concentration in EPA’s drinking water data so far. … Belmont Treatment Plant contained 1.3 picocuries, and… Baxter Treatment Plant contained 0.46 picocuries. …

Read the report here.

Bob-C

[Bob-C]

Hi everyone, according to a report from enenews.com, "Japanese Experts: Effort is in danger of failing… and reactors too hot to cover in concrete — TEPCO admits there is no end in sight April 10th, 2011 at 03:06 PM." The report further explains the worsening crisis:

Improvisation, frustration mark Japan's nuclear crisis at 4 weeks, CNN, April 10, 2011:

… A month into the crisis, the utility acknowledges, there is no end in sight. …

Some Japanese experts now say the effort is in danger of failing unless Japan seeks more help from international experts to bring it to an end. Tetsunari Iida, an engineer-turned-industry critic, said the situation is "beyond the reach" of Japan's closely knit nuclear establishment. …

[E]xperts say the overheated fuel rods are likely to have suffered extensive damage, and there is a complication for seemingly every advance. …

Tokyo Electric officials told CNN they can't say when they'll be able to restore those normal cooling. …

Satoshi Sato, a Japanese nuclear industry consultant, called the current line of attack a "waste of effort." Plant instruments are likely damaged and unreliable because of the intense heat that was generated, and pumping more water into the reactors is only making the contamination problem worse, he said.

"There is no happy end with their approach," Sato told CNN. "They must change the approach. That's something I'm sure of 100 percent."

After the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the world's worst to date, the Soviet Union encased the plant's damaged reactor in a massive concrete sarcophagus. Iida said Fukushima Daiichi's reactors remain too hot to pour concrete, but he suggested pouring a slurry of minerals and sand over them to carry away heat before encasing them. …

Read the report here.

Bob-C

[Bob-C]

Hi everyone, according to a report from enenews.com, "TEPCO officials unsure of what to do next — Korea calls Japan's handling of Fukushima 'incompetent' April 10th, 2011 at 05:36 PM." The report states:

Japan fails to stop radioactive discharge into ocean, Reuters, April 10, 2011:

[Emphasis Added]

… China and South Korea have also criticized Japan's handling of the nuclear crisis, with Seoul calling it incompetent, reflecting growing international unease over the month-long atomic disaster and the spread of radiation. …

TEPCO… has been pumping in nitrogen to cool the core, but officials say they are unsure of what to do next.

"We cannot say what the outlook is for the next stage," Hidehiko Nishiyama, a deputy director-general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said on Sunday. …

Read the report here.

Bob-C

[Bob-C]

Hi everyone, according to a report from enenews.com, "High radiation levels cause Japan to expand nuclear evacuation zoneApril 11th, 2011 at 04:47 AM." The report gives further details:

Japan Broadens Nuclear Evacuation Zone, Wall Street Journal, April 11, 2011 at 4:40 am EDT:

Japan’s top government spokesman said Monday that Tokyo has decided to evacuate all or part of five towns and villages outside the current 20-kilometer evacuation zone around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, citing the possible risk of long-term cumulative radiation exposure in those areas. …

Mr. Edano also said that all schools within a 30-kilometer radius from the plant will be closed.

Read the report here.

Bob-C

[Bob-C]

Hi everyone, according to a report from enenews.com, "After quake, external power off at Fukushima reactors 1, 2 and 3April 11th, 2011 at 09:01 AM." The report adds:

Kyodo News, April 11, 2011 at 4:49 am EDT:

NEWS ADVISORY: External power sources unavailable at Fukushima Daiichi reactors 1-2

Read the tweet here.

Bob-C

[Bob-C]

Hi everyone, according to a report from enenews.com, "Japan officially raises Fukushima to Level 7, same as Chernobyl April 11th, 2011 at 03:50 PM." The report explains:

Accident assessment raised to Level 7, NHK, April 12, 2011:

Google Translation

For a series of accidents happening at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency of the Ministry of Economy, which released large amounts of radioactive substances that affect human health and the environment in a wide range As an assessment based on international standards of the accident, the worst “level seven” decided to raise. “Level 7″ is the same as the evaluation occurred in the Soviet Chernobyl disaster. Nuclear Safety Agency, 12, held a press conference with the Nuclear Safety Commission has decided to publish the contents of the evaluation. …

Read the report here.

Bob-c

[Bob-C]

Hi everyone, according to a report from enenews.com, "Amount of radiation in 3 gallons of milk from Hilo, Hawaii surpasses annual maximum contaminant level set by EPA April 11th, 2011 at 05:23 PM." The report states:

Comments from EPA: New Radiation Highs in Little Rock Milk, Philadelphia Drinking Water, Forbes blog of Jeff McMahon, April 11, 2011:

Jeff McMahon

… EPA lumps these gamma and beta emitters together under one collective MCL, so if you're seeing cesium-137 in your milk or water, the MCL [Maximum Contaminant Level] is 3.0 picocuries per liter; if you're seeing iodine-131, the MCL is 3.0; if you're seeing cesium-137 and iodine-131, the MCL is still 3.0.

Here's a somewhat historic EPA document that speaks directly to that issue:

Although not having a 4 mrem per year equivalent level specified in the current drinking water regulations as do tritium and strontium-90, the compliance monitoring scheme indicates that an iodine-131 level of 3 pCi/L is the MCL compliance level (presumably derived from the NBS Handbook); the ANPRM indicates that 700 pCi/L is the 4 mrem/year equivalent.

… If we lump together the three radionuclides in that Hilo, Hawaii reading, we get 61 pCi/L. …

[P]eople should not be exposed to more than 4 millirem per year. To make sense of that number we need to be able to express picocuries as millirems, but that's what that legacy document does that I quoted above:

"the compliance monitoring scheme indicates that an iodine-131 level of 3 pCi/L is the MCL compliance level; the ANPRM indicates that 700 pCi/L is the 4 mrem/year equivalent."

What this all means to me is that if you're a water company, EPA will insist you keep the gamma/beta emitters in your water below 3 pCi/L in pursuit of another aim, which is to keep your customers' annual radiation exposure below 700, or, put another way, below 4mrem, over the course of a year.

If we should not be exposed to more than 700 pCi/L per year, then anyone who drinks two liters of Boise rainwater or 13 liters of Hilo milk is in trouble. Both those scenarios may be unlikely, but they're beginning to get closer to likely than the reassurances we've been receiving would seem to indicate.

Read McMahon's comments here.

Note: It actually takes less than 12 liters of milk to reach the EPA's MCL, not 13 as McMahon states. An annual MCL of 700 pCi/l divided by the 61 pCi/l of cesium and iodine found in Hilo's milk equals 11.475 liters. There are 33.8 ounces in a liter, multiply that by 11.475 liters and it equals 388 ounces, or 3.03 gallons.

Bob-C

[Bob-C]

Hi everyone, according to a report ftom enenews.com, "Flames and black smoke near reactor No. 4 — TEPCO not sure if fire extinguished completely (PHOTO)April 12th, 2011 at 06:18 AM." The report explains:[quote] Fire seen at Fukushima nuclear plant; flames no longer visible, Reuters, April 11, 2011 at 11:48pm GMT:

… A worker saw fire at a building near the No.4 reactor at around 6:38 a.m. (21:38 GMT) and a fire fighting unit of the Self Defence Forces was sent to fight the blaze, a TEPCO spokesman said.

“Flames and smoke are no longer visible but we are awaiting further details regarding whether the fire has been extinguished completely,” he said. …

Read the report here.



Bob-C