Radiation level in Fukushima No. 1 ditch hits record high

www.japantimes.co.jp...

FUKUSHIMA – The highest level yet of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances, including strontium, has been detected at one point in a drainage ditch at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant where measurements are regularly taken, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday.

I have been following the whole Japan/Tepco fiasco, but this is my first thread here on this topic.

I don't really know what more to say than is said in the article. Radiation levels continue to rise. There is no plan in place to contain, let alone rectify the situation. And there are many more Fukushima-like distasters just waiting to happen along the U.S. eastern seaboard.

Wake up, world. This is suicide on a planetary scale.

reply to post by AnonymousCitizen


Yup. ELE. The only question is how many species, and how long it will take.

reply to post by AnonymousCitizen


To give you an idea of how hot the Pacific plume is: the Ronald Reagan (yes, new nuclear carrier) was steaming through it a little too close to the site on the way to a deployment; an unspecified distance offshore, and I wish I knew how far--
and became contaminated enough so the radiation levels through the hull got it mothballed for a cleanup. The levels were described high enough to be dangerous to not only the onboard personnel but basic operation of the ship. Hoo.

That was just over a year he was out of commission and up in drydock getting scrubbed: and not a peep from the media about it. Adjusting tuna out of my diet now seems about as much preventive medicine as wearing a surgical mask to clean my loaded shotgun. We're so redundantly done for....

fukushima is out of control....amazingly I have conversations with people about this a lot and the amount of times people look at me like I am crazy and say something along the lines of "oh I thought that was fixed years ago,i saw a tv show that said it was fixed"....

reply to post by derfreebie


Wow. I never heard that one yet!

That's insane, do you have a link to the source on that info?

Holy Radiated Planet Batman!

reply to post by derfreebie


If I remember correctly, they were 160 miles offshore for less than a week; the entire crew was said to be filing for damages as they showed signs of radiation poisoning very quickly afterwards.

We're so redundantly done for....

Well Said. Very Well Said.

I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize profusely to all the creatures in the great ocean, especially our wiser cetacean brothers (with brains 10 times the size of ours) and tell them, if a strange ship arrives and tries to take you off-planet, please go with them and save yourselves.

reply to post by derfreebie


The Ship is a Nuclear Ship with a highly educated Crew (for the Reactor)
and they used the best Equipment
and deployed even the first reliable Surveillance Tools for the US!

It would be nice to see a Source for your Claim!

The Crew is according to Wiki:
Ship's company: 3,200
Air wing: 2,480
Wiki-Source:

Ca. and Afair. 120 try/ tried a Class Action
But only the Helicopter Crews have a very slight chance of success


Did Japan's radiation sicken U.S. sailors?
American Source:

Tepco wrote (Regarding the Topic)

This is follow-up information on "Water Leak at a Tank in the H4 area in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station" and "Water Dropping from the Top Plate of the B area (South) Tank at Fukushima Daiichi NPS", which were respectively found on August 19, and October 2.

We analyzed the all-β radioactivity level of the samplings obtained at the junction of the drainage channels B and C (C-1), the junction of the drainage channel C and the side ditch beside the tank (C-1-1), the downstream of the drainage channel B (B-2), and the drainage channel C OP. 35m (C-2) on October 16. The all-β radioactivity level was relatively high compared to the samplings in the past.

The measurement results were as follows.


The junction of the drainage channels B and C (C-1): 2,100Bq/L

The junction of the drainage channel C and the side ditch beside the tank (C-1-1): 2,000Bq/L

The downstream of the drainage channel B (B-2): 2,300Bq/L

The drainage channel C OP. 35m (C-2): 1,400Bq/L

We attribute the higher all-β radioactivity level to the nearby pollution flooded into the drain ditch due to the typhoon.

As for other measurement results, no significant change was found.

We will continue to monitor the situation.

For the results of the samplings, please refer to the following page on our website.
www.tepco.co.jp...

I would give you a star+flag, but for some odd reason ever since the site upgrade I can't seem to hand them out.

According to the article they have detected beta ray emitting substances. In my opinion if the article is correct it could be far worse. The link mentions beta rays, but says nothing about gamma rays or x-rays; which are far more dangerous. Note however that beta radiation can cause skin injuries to victims, or worse if taken internally. Hopefully there will be no continuing issues with gamma rays, or x-rays at least.

Just for information's sake I wanted to throw out some of the definitions, and effects of the different types of radiation.

Alpha Radiation

Alpha radiation is a heavy, very short-range particle and is actually an ejected helium nucleus.

•Most alpha radiation is not able to penetrate human skin.

•Alpha-emitting materials can be harmful to humans if the materials are inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through open wounds.

•Instruments cannot detect alpha radiation through even a thin layer of water, dust, paper, or other material, because alpha radiation is not penetrating.

•Alpha radiation travels only a short distance (a few inches) in air, but is not an external hazard.

•Alpha radiation is not able to penetrate clothing.

Next up the one mentioned directly in the article...

Beta Radiation

Beta radiation is a light, short-range particle and is actually an ejected electron. Some characteristics of beta radiation are:

•Beta radiation may travel several feet in air and is moderately penetrating.

•Beta radiation can penetrate human skin to the "germinal layer," where new skin cells are produced. If high levels of beta-emitting contaminants are allowed to remain on the skin for a prolonged period of time, they may cause skin injury.

•Beta-emitting contaminants may be harmful if deposited internally.

•Clothing provides some protection against beta radiation.

And the worst of the bunch here...

Gamma and X Radiation

Gamma radiation and x rays are highly penetrating electromagnetic radiation. Some characteristics of these radiations are:

•Gamma radiation or x rays are able to travel many feet in air and many inches in human tissue. They readily penetrate most materials and are sometimes called "penetrating" radiation.

•X rays, too, are penetrating radiation. Sealed radioactive sources and machines that emit gamma radiation and x rays respectively constitute mainly an external hazard to humans.

•Gamma radiation and x rays are electromagnetic radiation like visible light, radiowaves, and ultraviolet light. These electromagnetic radiations differ only in the amount of energy they have. Gamma rays and x rays are the most energetic of these.

•Dense materials are needed for shielding from gamma radiation. Clothing provides little shielding from penetrating radiation, but will prevent contamination of the skin by gamma-emitting radioactive materials.

•Gamma radiation and/or characteristic x rays frequently accompany the emission of alpha and beta radiation during radioactive decay.

My definitions are from the Health and Physics Society.

If I were in Japan I would be very wary of the water, and especially any seafood I ingested... I only pray for the best for the people, and life of Japan.

Fukushima is so out of control that it should be featured on Maury.


But, my words aren't strong enough so I'll let this guy do it for me...

hopenotfeariswhatweneed
fukushima is out of control....amazingly I have conversations with people about this a lot and the amount of times people look at me like I am crazy and say something along the lines of "oh I thought that was fixed years ago,i saw a tv show that said it was fixed"....

That's because the media doesn't find it important to talk about a very real threat to the world's ecosystems, but would rather talk about a bunch of idiots in a swamp arguing over who can spend their country into the poor house faster.

derfreebie
reply to post by AnonymousCitizen

 

To give you an idea of how hot the Pacific plume is: the Ronald Reagan (yes, new nuclear carrier) was steaming through it a little too close to the site on the way to a deployment; an unspecified distance offshore, and I wish I knew how far--
and became contaminated enough so the radiation levels through the hull got it mothballed for a cleanup. The levels were described high enough to be dangerous to not only the onboard personnel but basic operation of the ship. Hoo.

That was just over a year he was out of commission and up in drydock getting scrubbed: and not a peep from the media about it. Adjusting tuna out of my diet now seems about as much preventive medicine as wearing a surgical mask to clean my loaded shotgun. We're so redundantly done for....

edit on 17-10-2013 by derfreebie because: (no reason given)

It was during the crisis.

The USS Ronald Reagan was the first response carrier to the disaster area.

My brother was serving on the ship at the time, as an ammunition maintenance technician. the entire ship became irradiated, due to the water pumps. In order to make water for the crew the ship pumps ocean water up to a de-salinization plant inside the ship. It purifies the ocean water and makes it so the crew can drink, shower, clean etc. The water in the region became so irradiated, the pump was pumping all of that into the ship. The entire ship's water supply was gone, the crew had to live off of bottled soda/water for 3 days until they could get back to Okinawa to decontaminate the vessle.

The helicopters that were performing arial water drops to cool the plant, were also bringing back contaminated Navy crewman after each round, requiring hours of de-contamination for the brave sailor who risked their lives in the aftermath of the disaster.

My brother had to go through de-contamination 2 times due to exposure to the helocopters incoming from the area.

God Bless,

ElohimJD
the entire ship became irradiated, due to the water pumps. In order to make water for the crew the ship pumps ocean water up to a de-salinization plant inside the ship. It purifies the ocean water and makes it so the crew can drink, shower, clean etc. The water in the region became so irradiated, the pump was pumping all of that into the ship.

Wow, that reminds me of the reports of contamination during "Operation Crossroads" (Wikipedia Link), that the military was trying to "decontaminate" the ships involved, using sea-water - which was already contaminated itself.

Small snippet:

By August 3, Colonel Warren concluded the entire effort was futile and dangerous.[138] The unprotected sailors were stirring up radioactive material and contaminating their skin, clothing, and, presumably, their lungs. When they returned to their support ship living quarters, they contaminated the shower stalls, laundry facilities, and everything they touched. Warren demanded an immediate halt to the entire cleanup operation. He was especially concerned about plutonium, which was undetectable on site.[139]
Warren also observed that the radsafe procedures were not being followed correctly.[140] Fire boats got too close to the target ships they were hosing and drenched their crews with radioactive spray. One fire boat had to be taken out of service.[140] Film badges showed 67 overdoses between August 6 and 9.[130] More than half of the 320 Geiger counters available shorted out and became unavailable.[141] The crews of two target ships, USS Wainwright and USS Carteret, moored far from the detonation site, had moved back on board and become overexposed. They were immediately evacuated back to the United States.[142]

Saturday...remember....Fukushima is HERE...it's EVERYWHERE.

The invisible dragon of Daiichi is loose, and will be for centuries. It's time to start talking about what this means for the world.

Stand with us on October 19th, in solidarity with the people of Japan. And here at home, let this be the wake up call we've been waiting for. We need to start demanding that our elected officials & agencies do what is necessary to test the water we drink, the air we breathe, the food we eat.

We need YOU Saturday, October 19th
on Ocean Beach in San Francisco at 11:00am
To help us say what we know...

We are all connected by bodies of water and we are mostly made up of water. We have one globally connected ocean and each of us has one body. All life was born in this ocean. She needs our help now. We need her help.

One ocean, One chance.

Join us on this beach, on this day. Help us align a thousand bodies in a message of great urgency:

FUKUSHIMA IS HERE.

Join us wherever you are on October 19th. Use any kind of sign, in any language, to cry out with us a message of great urgency:

FUKUSHIMA IS HERE.

Website: fukushimaishere.info...

PLEASE SHARE EVERYWHERE!

reply to post by Shark_Feeder


Thank you Shark_Feeder for the Radiation Primer - it's very helpful.

I went to look into it more (neutron radiation not being included) and I'd like to have a simple outline, as you presented, at hand for future discussions.

And I found, not what I was looking for (LOL) but a wonderful new source of information on the effects of radiation.

Nicely done, old fashion text based site, with well documented and source information from a variety of sources.

I'll share a little bit with you:

www.ratical.org...


Answers to Frequently-Asked-Questions
about "Radiation"
Fall 1996
John W. Gofman, M.D., Ph.D.
Egan O'Connor, Executive Director of CNR

2 Among the proven causes of human cancer, how important is radiation?

We think that ionizing radiation is very probably the single most important human carcinogen of the 20th century. In 1997, CNR will publish a study which is consistent with that hypothesis.

Other proven human carcinogens include certain viruses and chemical substances (including asbestos and tobacco smoke). Specific chemicals sometimes cause only specific types of cancer. By contrast, we predicted in 1969 that "All forms of cancer, in all probability, can be increased by radiation." This warning met with resistance from the radiation community, and we were called "controversial" (and worse). But by 1980, the radiation committee of the National Academy of Sciences acknowledged that "Cancer may be induced by radiation in nearly all the tissues of the human body" (BEIR 1980, Section 5).

An extremely important question remains unsettled, however. Do the various carcinogens work synergistically (as co-factors, multiplying the potency of each other), or do they work additively (as independent agents having a fixed potency in every situation and in every nation)? We predict that they usually work as synergists. If correct, then reducing exposure to ionizing radiation --- which would be easy to do --- would also reduce the impact of many other carcinogens.

6 How can radiation both be a cause of cancer and also be used to treat cancer?

The "current wisdom" is that cancer begins with a single cell having abnormal genetic instructions. Over time, it (or one of its descendant cells) acquires additional injuries. Finally, a cell's abnormal instructions cause it to do abnormal things --- such as dividing too often, or forming a tumor, or migrating from its appropriate location to live and divide elsewhere in the body (metastasis). These cancerous activities are done by living cells, whose abnormalities can be caused by radiation.

When radiation is used to treat cancer, it is used in very high doses which do enough damage to kill cells. Dead cells cannot behave like cancer. It is very difficult to give radiation only to cancer cells, without giving both high and low doses of radiation to healthy cells in the neighborhood. Methods in radiation therapy are improving with time.

4 When you estimate that 75% of recent and current breast-cancer in the USA is due to earlier exposure to medical irradiation, do you mean that all other agents combined are responsible for only 25% of the cases?

No, we don't. Our 75% incorporates a very big role for non-radiation agents, because it explicitly incorporates the assumption of synergy between them and radiation, with the other agents causing each unit of radiation to be much more potent in causing breast cancer in the USA than in Japan (Gofman 1995/96, Chapters 40 + 47).

This site is chock full of informational goodness.

Thanks for keeping the issue alive.

reply to post by FyreByrd


Here's another goody from:

www.ratical.org...


Nuclear Technology:
The Inappropriate Exercise of Human Intelligence
-- and Given This, What Is Appropriate?
by dave ratcliffe

It is not a normal situation when the people who are in charge
of the fate of a whole civilization lie quite openly to the whole world.
--Dr. Vladimir Chernousenko,
Physicist and Scientific Director of the Chernobyl "clean-up", 1986-91,
testifying at the World Uranium Hearings in Salzburg, September, 1992.

PART I: Shattering Treacherous and Lethal Assumptions
We need now, as we have for more than fifty years, to articulate and then dispel and shatter the false and exceedingly lethal assumptions underlying the "promises" of nuclear technology. The hierarchies of centralized authority, which have the greatest vested interest in perpetuating the employment of this technology, have lied about its true costs from the very beginning. These hierarchies include the Fortune 500 [1] / Global 500 [2] corpses [3], G7 governments, the World Bank [4] [5] [6] and International Monetary Fund, known by "grassroots" as players in The World Game. These players have a deep, abiding financial interest in and obsession with the promotion of nuclear weapons and energy. Collectively they have said and will continue to say and do anything to maintain the continuation of this technology with the falsehoods, uttered for decades regarding the "energy angle", about its being "safe", "clean", and "cheap". Such assumptions as, "There can be a peaceful promotion of atomic energy," and, "It has not been proven that exposure to low-level ionizing radiation causes cancer," are lethal to the extreme. Since the early 1940s such deceitful suppositions have sustained the nuclear nightmare that has seized upon and threatens all life, and all of its future, here on Earth.

I really don't understand. Didn't Japan and Tepco request world help? Has no one answered this call?! I realize there is little anyone can do, but if it's going to possible kill off much of every living thing at some point, shouldn't the world leaders at least pretend to be slightly interested?!

looks like Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is not worried at all- he is happily munching sea-food for the press in fukushima harbor."it´s perfectly safe and good" ... bizarre and sad.

reply to post by glowdog


I would eat it too but only after a Measurement in a Lab!

There is a lot of uncontaminated Fish, ca. 85% and 12,5% are under 25Bq a Kg,
only 2,2 are above the Level but still under 100Bq. a Kg and only 0,3% are above
100Bq. a Kg!

Here, our Citizens Data Collection, NGO and NPO:
Research me

I really hope that this Levels are already the Peak and that we see no further
Happenings in Fukushima and everywhere else