Radioactive Strontium Detected At Fukushima Plant

[DeSwiss]

Source: NHK World

Radioactive strontium detected at Fukushima plant

NHK World
Monday, May 09, 2011 06:04 +0900 (JST)



Tokyo Electric Power Company has detected high levels of radioactive strontium in soil inside the compound of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Strontium can cause cancer and like calcium it tends to collect in bones once humans inhale it.

Up to 570 becquerels of strontium 90 per kilogram of dry soil were detected in samples from 3 locations. They were taken on April 18, about 500 meters from the Number 1 and 2 reactors at soil depths of up to 5 centimeters. The amount detected is about 130 times higher than a previous high, level that was measured in Fukushima Prefecture before the accident at the nuclear plant.

TEPCO also said it found 4,400 becquerels of radioactive strontium 89 per kilogram of dry soil taken from the same location.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/fixed/asx/09_01_512k.asx">(VIDEO)

Read more: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/09_01.html

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- Oh. Well. This should be easy enough to avoid. All we have to do is "not" breath.....

DeSwiss




"When some high-sounding institute states that a compound is harmless or a process free of risk, it is wise to know whence the institute
or the scientists who work there obtain their financial support." ~Lancet, editorial on the "medical-industrial complex," 1973

[Sirveri]

1. I'd love to experiment with planting legumes to leach the Sr from the soil.

Since Sr is chemically similar to Calcium you can use plants to take the radioactive material into their bodies, then dig up the plants and entomb them.

[izquierdista]

10. Los Alamos is way ahead of you

They've had a search on for plants that sequester radioisotopes for decades. Jimson weed is particularly good at picking up plutonium and uranium as well as spreading over the canyons of New Mexico.

[Buzz Clik]

11. Phytoremediation of contaminants in soil is becoming a mature science:

References for radioactive strontium:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16876232
http://www.pnl.gov/main/publications/external/technical_reports/PNNL-SA-49953.pdf

There are dozens more using just a Google. Google scholar will take you even further.

[jpak]

2. Strontium is non-volatile and its presence is soil indicates badly damaged fuel

I wonder how they are going to explain this away.

and why now?

Why didn't they test for this a month ago?

:shrug:

[Buzz Clik]

12. These (90Sr) are tiny levels of radioactivity.

There are still bigger fish to fry.

[nc4bo]

3. Fukushima's still there? Really?

Haven't heard one single peep about it on the news in weeks. They've all done an absolutely fantastic job keeping it under wraps and should be congratulated.

Amazing conspiracy in real time happening right now.

This problem isn't going to go away folks.

Btw, thanks OP for posting an update.

[Delphinus]

4. Love your

way of looking at this. You're right - nothing in the M$M news about Fukushima for a very long time.

[nc4bo]

5. But it does feel like a conspiracy doesn't it?

Most of the time, we aren't made aware of a conspiracy until after the fact and by then, people are made fun of and accused of going all :tinfoilhat:-nutters.

I just don't know how else to think of it.

[caraher]

13. Is the short attention span of the media a conspiracy?

I guess there's just such a long list of critical issues ignored or presented in a one-sided way that, no, this doesn't feel at all like a conspiracy to me... or at least not anything deeper than the usual neglect of substance.

Just for comparison, the US Public Health Service limit for Sr-90 in water is 10 pCi/liter, or 0.37 Bq/liter. This is obviously not the same as a soil concentration but clearly the soil concentration is quite high by comparison. I think we already knew that you probably don't want to breathe dust kicked up so close to the facility; this just confirms it.

[nc4bo]

19. I'll assume (hate saying that)

because I am aware of some(not all) of a few important issues just like many people who frequent DU or keeps up with a few events, that this neglect is more like a conspiracy by the rich and powerful to do whatever they see fit without much consideration to any harm that can be done to societies or to the environment.

If the media doesn't do its job and report important events that can help or harm, why? Is it because real news doesn't produce significant $$ or because there are corporations, governments and very wealthy individuals who do not desire this type of information being reported to the public.

Perhaps it's a little of both. I just don't know for sure and how can any thing change if we can't get to the real root of the problem?

..sorry for rambling/ranting having I'm having a major "why does weird crap always happen to me" days.

[DeSwiss]

20. That's my conclusion as well.

The failure of the feds to http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x581873">monitor the radioactivity, due to a "breakdown" of the monitoring systems on the west coast, is telling (although there are "http://www.radiationnetwork.com/">other grassroots resources" one can use to evaluate the danger). The http://www.adn.com/2011/04/16/1813982/fda-claims-no-need-to-test-pacific.html#ixzz1JlrzUS7x">refusal to test fish for radioactivity is not only damning, but conclusive of a conspiracy in my view.

[Vinca]

6. Psssst . . . it's also in the soil in Vernon, Vermont thanks to Vermont Yankee.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/05/23-2

[nc4bo]

8. If our media were to actually put in as much effort investigating and reporting on nuke plants

as they did DWTS or AI, perhaps more people would realize that nuclear power is not magical, not safe and not regulated nearly enough, imagine how much better off we'd all be.

Wind, solar, geothermal, etc wouldn't be looked upon as outlandish and unattainable as it does now.

Perhaps there'd even be a huge effort for us all to try and conserve while changing the way we create power.

A friend of mine said that this earth is just a giant fishbowl and it's true and I wish more people could actually visualize it.

[trud]

14. You got your choices

There's no way wind, solar, and geothermal can provide the energy needed to keep the carbon footprint low enough to reduce global warming. You got your choices - coal, oil, gas, or nuclear. Of those, nuclear is by far the safer.

[plumbob]

16. Why would you think that wind generation is insufficient?

In Texas, we're still at the beginning of wind farms, and there were several days last fall that wind provided 25% of the entire electricity demand for the state. And that was when nearly a quarter were shut down due to lack of enough transmission lines to carry the load.

Those lines are being built now.

Why anyone would choose antique methods like coal, oil, gas, or nuclear to heat water, I cannot guess. They're all dirty, dangerous, and inefficient. The reason these are preferred by industry is that they're not scalable down, which wind will be eventually. That means the end of the need for large corporate structures to produce electricity.

I can't wait.

[Moostache]

15. Not to be combative, but isn't your use of acronyms like that part of the issue?

Seriously, NOT a personal shot at the poster, just an observation...but it took me a while to figure out what the hell you were talking about and why a bomb of a movie by Spielberg would be relevant in this discussion...

The reasons for all of this mess - the economy, the ecology, the state of human rights abuses being carried out in each our names courtesy of the Government of the United States of America in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya - are all too clear and so frighteningly simplistic.

GREED
MONEY
POWER

The unholy triumvirate. And its all feed by the acquiescence o a public that knows "AI" does not mean "Artificial Intelligence" in the context of your sentiments...isn't the other acronym some kind of discount shoe store chain?

[nc4bo]

18. Most people have NO clue about an old Artificial Intelligence movie

and only care about some shoe chainstore if it's a "bangin' sale for a week and that's the entire crappy point.

(D)ancing (W)ith (T)he (S)tars and (A)merican (I)dol are much more important current events than what poisonous crap his being dumped on land, in the air or in the sea. Media isn't going to go out of their way unless the public demands it do so but if the public doesn't care or doesn't care because it isn't aware, then what?

Perhaps I'm more in touch with what turns on my friends and neighbors because if I put down the initials I posted, they would immediately know what I'm referring and look cross eyed at a reference to a sci-fi movie.

And, of course it's for those reason you listed why we don't have more discussions regarding energy production and consumption.

[Hubert Flottz]

7. How's That Cleany Energy working out for U?

I still don't think it's a good idea to play with fire. I think the "Experts" who think it's a good idea to build reactors in places where a giant wave or a giant quake could happen, are letting greed be the overriding factor in their calculations. Are nuclear plants safer inland? I hope the "Experts" don't plan to build one in the Yellowstone Caldera.

[madokie]

9. You know in life I've found that any time that I've let money be the deciding factor in a decision

I make it always is a mistake. I'm so old and been paying attention so long that I'm almost broke now. :-)

[Hubert Flottz]

17. Easy Money and Clean Power

in one hand and shit in the other hand and we'll see which one reaches critical mess the fastest. The feces is more likely than not, going to hit the fans, at the end of the day, when the "Experts" for hire plan our energy future.

Edit..."Cheap Clean Energy" = Making a mole hill out of a mountain.

http://mountainjustice.org/facts/steps.php

http://www.ohvec.org/galleries/mountaintop_removal/019/index.html

[bvar22]

21. Relax...They're just venting a little steam.

Did I mention that I know Science?

[Bennyboy]

22. Some 984) photos from yesterday...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/xtcbz/5705985390/in/set-72157626687253144/