Plutonium detected 40km from Fukushima plant

[Octafish]

Illustration from The Yomiuri Shimbun

Plutonium detected 40km from Fukushima plant

By Mure Dickie in Tokyo
Financial Times
October 2, 2011 3:56 pm

Small amounts of plutonium believed to have escaped from Japan’s tsunami-crippled nuclear plant have been detected in soil more than 40km away, say government researchers, a finding that will fuel already widespread fears about radiation risk.

The discovery came as authorities lifted evacuation advisories on other towns near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power station in the north-east prefecture of Fukushima, saying radiation readings showed they were safe for residents.

Government officials played down the health implications of the discovery of the first traces of plutonium from Fukushima Daiichi to be found outside the plant’s immediate environs, saying clean-up efforts should still concentrate on the far greater amounts of radioactive caesium contaminating the area.

The plutonium was found at six sites – including one in Iitate around 40km from the plant – all of which are subject to evacuation orders. However, plutonium’s long half-life and the potential for even small amounts to pose a health hazard if ingested is likely to make it a focus of popular concern.

CONTINUED...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7e3af460-ece6-11e0-be97-00144feab49a.html#axzz1ZjUWpcg7

Nothing to worry about. Nothing, apart from dying a horrible death from ingesting plutonium or strontium. Come to think of it, the unfolding events may be exactly the agenda the pro-nuke world wants -- a fast, effective and inexpensive way of cleansing these radioactive elements from the environment through human uptake.

[marions ghost]

1. K & R

...and nobody cares...

[Octafish]

2. I noticed that, too, marions ghost.

No spoilers on discovery of radioactive contamination sources.

For those interested in such things:

Internal Radioactive Emitters – Invisible, Tasteless, and Odorless

Thanks, MG, for giving a damn!

[marions ghost]

7. Thank you for caring too Octafish...

Here's an excerpt (exactly as it was written) from another article about this same soil testing. Don't the following points seem contradictory?
------------------

"The detected amounts of plutonium were small and posed no danger to health, the officials said.

Plutonium has an extremely long half-life and is associated with a high risk of cancer if it enters the human body via breathing or other means.

"Because the fuels (in the reactors) melted down, plutonium may have been emitted with steam or other small particles and sent airborne," a Tepco official said. "(Judging by the amount of plutonium) it is believed to be from the accident."

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20111001a3.html

-------------------

So they tell people there's no danger, and yet if you ingest any of it at all, you are very likely to die. :argh:

[Octafish]

13. The ostrich syndrome lives big in the management mind. Here's some background...

The political leadership in Japan and their masters who own TEPCO and the rest of nukedom have stated "plutonium is not a health risk to humans." Garsh. That doesn't sound right.

Technical Topic Papers

Rocky Flats Public Exposure Studies

Plutonium

EXCERPT...

Why is plutonium a human concern?

Plutonium emits alpha radiation and low-energy x-rays, which are easily absorbed by tissue. The alpha radiation travels only about a quarter of an inch in air and cannot penetrate the skin. Therefore, if plutonium remains outside the body, it is generally not harmful. Plutonium is very toxic if it enters into the body because the alpha radiation can damage living tissue. The larger the "dose" in the body, the greater the toxicity.

Human exposure occurs mainly by breathing contaminated air or ingesting contaminated food or drink. Breathing is generally the route of most concern. When plutonium particles are inhaled and lodge in lung tissue, they continue to give off radiation internally. They can remain in the lungs or enter the gastrointestinal tract and the bloodstream. About 80 percent of the plutonium that enters the bloodstream goes either to the liver, bone or bone marrow, where it is retained for years, damaging tissue nearby. That damage may later develop into cancer. Common forms of plutonium do not dissolve significantly in water or body fluids, so little ingested material is actually absorbed into the blood from the gastrointestinal tract.

How do scientists estimate human health risks from low-level exposure to plutonium?

A great deal of research has been performed on the effects of radiation exposures at higher concentrations. However, little information is available for low doses of plutonium. Relatively few such exposures have been documented, with little solid evidence of effects. New information on exposures of Russian nuclear weapons plant workers has helped in developing better risk estimates for plutonium exposures. To estimate the risks of developing cancer from exposure to plutonium, the researchers conducting the Historical Public Exposures Studies on Rocky Flats used four independent sets of data:

1) Results of studies of Russian workers exposed to plutonium at the Mayak weapons plant, a production facility similar to Rocky Flats;

2) Data from populations exposed to other alpha-emitting radioactive materials such as radium, radon and thorium;

3) Data from Japanese World War II atomic bomb survivors exposed briefly to high levels of the gamma and neutron radiation from the atomic explosions; and

4) Results of controlled experiments on animals exposed to plutonium and other alpha-emitting materials.

Based on this information, the researchers developed revised estimates of the risks associated with plutonium exposure. (See the technical report Assessing Risks of Exposure to Plutonium prepared by Radiological Assessments Corporation for the Historical Public Exposures Studies on Rocky Flats in February 1999.) Because plutonium is retained in the lung, liver, bone and bone marrow, rather than in the reproductive organs, genetic risks are not the primary risks from plutonium.

CONTINUED...

http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/rf/plutoniu.htm

To the mangement class, and their overlords, We the People are mere "human resources." Meaning: We are expendable.

[cui bono]

3. If it has been detected that far inland you've got to wonder what it's doing to the ocean

and its living beings.

[Octafish]

14. Going through the food chain...

Plutonium, in particular, is a really weird element. Here's important background in PDF form.

DOE-STD-1128-98

Guide of Good Practices for Occupational Radiological Protection in Plutonium Facilities

EXCERPT...

4.2.3 Characteristics of Plutonium Contamination
There are few characteristics of plutonium contamination that are unique. Plutonium
contamination may be in many physical and chemical forms. (See Section 2.0 for the many
potential sources of plutonium contamination from combustion products of a plutonium fire
to radiolytic products from long-term storage.) The one characteristic that many believe is
unique to plutonium is its ability to migrate with no apparent motive force. Whether from
alpha recoil or some other mechanism, plutonium contamination, if not contained or
removed, will spread relatively rapidly throughout an area.

This bugs me, a toxic element that figures out how to fill a space on its own: The one characteristic that many believe is unique to plutonium is its ability to migrate with no apparent motive force.

[marions ghost]

16. that is really strange

Plutonium migrates around to fill a void--very like a fluid. I can just imagine those invisible flows moving around a landscape and contaminating it all...

thanx for link

[Octafish]

20. Breaking News: The measurement of plutonium was abandoned in Japan

TEPCO and their servants in government don't want people to worry, so they invent methods for not knowing.

-----------

Breaking News: The measurement of plutonium was abandoned in Japan

At the press conference of TEPCO and related ministries of Japanese government,Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology stated they will not measure plutonium anymore.

SNIP...

Now Japanese people are allowed to take 1~10 Bq/kg of plutonium.

However, 1 in a million gram of plutonium causes cancer.

SNIP...

Measurement of plutonium is almost impossible for normal people with normal equipment because it only emits alpha ray. Your Geiger counter hardly catches it.

[cui bono]

19. Wow, that is eerie.

I stocked up on frozen wild salmon when Fukushima happened but I've been on location in NYC for 1.5 months now and kind of forgot to think about what I was eating. I don't eat tuna and don't eat shellfish. I just wonder how far this has gone at this point, being carried by living creatures who are passing it on and on...

A couple months ago a guy from a nuclear watchdog organization said on Thom Hartmann that this is China Syndrome (I've got to watch that movie again), that there is a melt down going on and yet no one cares to report on it any more. I'm going to have to slack off a bit at work today and research this whole thing a lot more.

[PufPuf23]

4. kr

[Octafish]

15. One PDF worth saving...

GUIDE OF GOOD PRACTICES FOR
OCCUPATIONAL RADIOLOGICAL
PROTECTION IN PLUTONIUM FACILITIES

http://hss.energy.gov/nuclearsafety/techstds/docs/standard/STD-1128-98(master).pdf

Hope our friends in Japan get a copy.

[thereismore]

5. It's much wose than that. There are hot spots well SW of Tokyo.

Not plutonium AFAIK, "just" Cs.

[NNN0LHI]

6. Since March most of the websites I found Googling the key word "plutonium" were virus infested

I finally gave up looking.

Wonder who would do that?

Don

[leftstreet]

8. K&R

Thanks for posting this

[Uncle Joe]

9. Well that sucks big time.

:(

Thanks for the thread, Octafish.

[Octafish]

21. TEPCO fights to keep nuclear emergency procedures secret

TEPCO doesn't know what it doesn't know, but they don't want anyone to know that.

Tepco fights to keep nuclear emergency procedures secret

By Jonathan Soble in Tokyo
Financial Times
October 4, 2011 4:00 pm

Six months after the meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station, the Japanese utility that owns the plant is fighting to keep its pre-disaster emergency-response procedures a secret from politicians and the public, arguing they contain valuable trade information.

Tokyo Electric Power angered members parliamentary committee last month when it handed over manuals outlining steps that its nuclear plant operators are meant to follow in the case of accidents.

SNIP...

Tepco has told Nisa that if the manuals are to be made public, 90 per cent of the content related to “severe accidents” such as that at Fukushima should be kept under black ink. “The manuals contain knowhow that we have built up over a long period of operation,” a company spokesman said on Tuesday. “There are also issues of national security.”

Tepco did not elaborate on the potential security threat that releasing the manuals would pose. The manuals are based on procedures originally formulated by General Electric, which designed the nearly 40-year-old Fukushima reactors. GE’s original materials have been widely circulated inside the nuclear industry.

Tepco says it has added to and refined GE’s procedures, creating valuable intellectual property in the process.

CONTINUED...

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2dc211b0-ee78-11e0-a2ed-00144feab49a.html#axzz1ZuJSiPpu

Money. It trumps everything. For mobsters, that includes human life.

Thanks, Uncle Joe, for giving a damn about that and us.

[Agony]

10. Surely the Strontium found will pose "no health risk" either...

"Toshiso Kosako, a Tokyo University expert on radiation said in an interview that the level of plutonium found was "miniscule and poses no health risk.""

The maximum quantity of strontium-90, whose half-life of about 29 years is much longer than the approximately 50-day half-life of strontium-89, was 5,700 becquerels per square meter detected in Futabamachi. This is six times that of the maximum quantity of 950 becquerels found before the Fukushima plant accident.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T111001002464.htm

Thx for staying on top of this, Octafish.

Agony

[Supersedeas]

12. these numbers are scary

[malaise]

11. There were DUers who saw this coming

but they faced unbelievable attacks even hear on DU. The consequences of this mess will be felt for years.

[robdogbucky]

17. Nuclear Oversight Lacking Worldwide

Fairewinds disagrees with a recent New York Times Opinion that claims that Fukushima was caused because Japanese regulators did not properly oversee Tokyo Electric. Fairewinds shows that in the United States, the same cozy relationship exists between the NRC and the nuclear industry. Proper regulation of nuclear power has been coopted worldwide by industry refusal to implement the cost to assure nuclear safety.

A 9:21 minute video by Arne:

http://www.fairewinds.com/updates





Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011

Expert hits ministry for lack of promptness in test
Report of long-range plutonium find tardy

By MIZUHO AOKI

Staff writer

The science ministry was tardy when it reported last week for the first time that traces of plutonium fallout were found outside the Fukushima No. 1 power plant's compound through tests conducted in June, a nuclear expert said Monday.

The plutonium traces, which are too low to present a hazard to human health, were found at six spots far away from the plant's premises.

A soil contamination map released Friday by the science ministry shows that plutonium drifted as far as 45 km northwest from the crippled plant to the village of Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture.

In late March, plutonium and strontium isotopes were reportedly found in soil at Fukushima No. 1 based on tests by Tokyo Electric Power Co...

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/rss/nn20111004a3.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+japantimes_news+%28The+Japan+Times+Headline+News+-+News+%26+Business%29





It's raining again in California



Me, I'm waiting so patiently
Lying on the floor
I'm just trying to do my jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore


Jagger/Richard

[vets74]

18. Those points are upwind from Fukushima. Also, old atmospheric testing left massive radioisotope...

contamination over northern Japan.

Rain run off routinely brings strontium 90 down from the mountains. Plutonium is less common.

Despite the hype, chances that this is going to be from the FNPP disaster are low. SPEEDI atmospheric monitors showed no major aerial radiation hitting these areas.

The blow after 3/11 went south. You can track the aerial rad patterns back years.

SPEEDI data live realtime

The news is not all good. A monitor at the plant is showing 31 microGreys/hour radiation. That's fatal with steady exposure.

There's nobody inside that structure. They're not crazy.

Nuclear engineers and managers are very careful people. I've worked with them. It's likely the safest commercial business in the world -- which is why no one suffered radiation poisoning after the tsunami. Two drownings and a heart attack were the toll.

[marions ghost]

22. careful, safe

:rofl: