Fukushima - seawater contamination - ASR - Plume simulation - 20110311-20110805 (video), uploaded 5 Aug 2011

Japan and Other Asia-Related Articles

2011-08-02 Fukushima Fallout is Now Worst Since March - 2 August 2011, (YouTube video, 12:35).
2011-08-02 Record-high radiation detected at Fukushima: The company that owns Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant says it has detected record-high radiation on site, The World Today by Sarah Dingle
"Almost five months after Japan's government announced a nuclear emergency, the company which owns the Fukushima nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), says radiation levels have reached at least 10 sieverts per hour near Fukushima's No. 1 and No. 2 reactors.
The radiation levels are more than double the previous record high that was reached in early June.
One nuclear expert predicts the clean-up from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami will be even more difficult, but there is speculation that the reading could be an aberration.
Peter Burns, former chief executive officer of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, says given the scale of the Fukushima emergency, the high reading is to be expected.
"The levels reported of 10 sieverts per hour are very high levels and it's going to be very difficult to manage workers going into those areas and doing operations," he said.
"To put the 10 sieverts into context, that 10 sieverts is actually a lethal dose of radiation. So you can't afford to be exposed for more than a few minutes at those levels.
`It means you're directly exposed to fuel rods in the reactors or the spent fuel ponds very closely and while it's possible to get to those levels it means there is very little shielding going on there.'"
Late July to early August Time Frame: Japanese Researcher: Recriticality in July and August? (UPDATED), dated 17 September 2011, ex-skf.blogspot.com.
"Yoyo Hinuma, currently at University of California San Diego, says recriticality may have happened in one of the three reactors at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant in late July and again in mid August, releasing the largest amount of radioactive materials since April.
I cannot find much about the researcher, other than he was at MIT before, and that he has published papers in peer-reviewed magazines.
The article below says there was a criticality in March, but I don't know if the reporter is referring to the explosion events in March or the recriticality in one of the broken reactors as some researchers have alleged and hypothesized.
(UPDATE: I totally forgot about the report by the UC San Diego researchers that radioactive sulphur of Fukushima origin was detected in California in late March, indicating on-going chain reaction. So the Playboy magazine reporter may be right. To recap, chlorine in the seawater being injected back then captured neutron, turning to radioactive sulphur.)
(Of all magazines) the article appeared in the Weekly Playboy magazine in Japan.
Part from Shukan Playboy Japan (9/12/2011):

. . . Indeed, there are some inexplicable numbers reported on the air radiation levels by the government agencies. That is, a big rise in the radiation levels from late July to mid August. Dr. Yoyo Hinuma, who has published papers on the net about the seriousness of the situation since the beginning of the accident in March, explains.
nn"I think there was a recriticality in which the melted fuel started a chain reaction again in one of the reactors at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, and that the largest amount of radioactive materials since April was released from the plant. It may have happened twice. The first was between July 28 and 31. The second was between August 19 and 21. That the large amount of radioactive materials were released can be clearly seen in the radiation survey data in Tokyo and Yokohama City, where it is suspected that the announced radiation levels are lower than the actual levels. So it's a scientific fact."
For example, according to the data released by the Tokyo Metropolitan government, the air radiation level on August 19 was 0.0865 microsievert/hour (maximum), 1.4 times as high as the previous day. On the same day, Yokohama City measured 0.051 microsievert/hour, the level last recorded in late March.
"Further analyzing the data, we find that August saw a more definite rise than July. It may have been caused by the so-called "prompt criticality" which is bigger and lasts longer. The large amount of radioactive cesium and radioactive iodine released as the result may have reached the Tokyo Metropolitan area, raising the air radiation level", says Dr. Hinuma.
Looking back, it is since the end of July that the high level of iodine-131 have started to show up in the "dehydrated sewer sludge" in Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture. Half life of iodine-131 is 8 days, so it couldn't have come from the criticality happened in March. Also in August, radiation that exceeded the safety standard was detected in tens of sandboxes in the parks where children play, and the use of the sandboxes was prohibited until the sand was replaced. But before July, air radiation at most of these sandboxes measured lower than the safety standard.
We'd have to admit that there is a high possibility that the recriticality happened this summer at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, at least twice, and fresh radioactive materials are being released.

I checked the Tokyo Metropolitan government's official measurement of air radiation in Shinjuku. The maximum levels recorded on July 30 and August 19 are indeed elevated:

July 29: 0.0697 microsievert/hour
July 30: 0.0735 microsievert/hour
July 31: 0.0610 microsievert/hour
August 18: 0.0621 microsievert/hour
August 19: 0.0865 microsievert/hour
August 20: 0.0605 microsievert/hour

For July and August, the maximum air radiation level recorded in Tokyo is in 0.06 microsievert/hour range, and does not exceed 0.07 microsievert/hour, except for these two days.
Iodine-131 detected in sewer sludge in mid August in Tokyo and in Oshu City in Iwate Prefecture (among others) is attributed to the medical use, because there was no corresponding increase in radioactive cesium. Also in the case of Tokyo, radioactive iodine has been continuously detected in sewer sludge since they started to take measurements in May..."
2011-08-04 Collaborating to create a radioactive fallout contamination map.mp4 (video), "This is a preview reel of a documentary made by NHK in Japan. It follows the research of Shingo Kimura, a very brave government researcher who has extensive experience in researching the fallout of nuclear accidents. When the Fukushima accident happened, he was ordered NOT to do any research. He quit and went rogue with a few colleagues in his field, and did valuable work in Fukushima in the weeks after the accident. This film is heartbreaking but essential viewing for anyone living off the benefits of nuclear energy."

Pacific

2011-08-05 Fukushima - seawater contamination - ASR - Plume simulation - 20110311-20110805 (video)

North America

2011-07-31 The only safe nuke is no nuke. Transcript of Cindy Sheehan interview with Nuke Expert, Arnie Gunderson. Interview includes preventive measures to deal with Fukushima fallout.
2011-08-01 Des Moines Radiation Levels VERY HIGH August 1, majiasblog.blogspot.com, Des Moines 318 beta, Omaha IA 91 beta, Kearney IA 46 beta, Mason City IA 112 beta...
2011-08-01 Atlanta, Ga: 3X Background Radiation INSIDE The Car, 6X Radiation On The Sample posted 2011-08-15 by Potrblog
"... The video is part of our 4000 mile Radioactive Roadtrip fact finding mission down to the Florida Keys and back. This video was taken driving South to North through Atlanta, Ga. During a heavy down pour, the Geiger counter INSIDE the car registered a sustained THREE times background radiation as its MINIMUM reading. Approximately 10 minutes later a sample wipe from the windshield returned a 6x background reading. The highest reading we had in Atlanta was approximately 9x background.
The pattern we noticed is that the radioactivity in the rain decreases the further one gets away from the jet stream, and the radioactivity goes to zero from storms that blow in East to West via the hurricane corridor.
2011-08-05 Experts: Fukushima 'off-scale' lethal radiation level infers millions dying by Deborah Dupre, Human Rights Examiner
"Fukushima nuclear power plant radiation recordings of external gamma radiation have been so high this week, they went off scale said veteran nuclear expert Arnie Gunderson on Thursday after the famous physicist, Dr. Chris Busby told the Japanese people this week that radioactive air contamination there is now 300 times that of Chernobyl and 1000 times the atomic bomb peak in 1963, inferring that hundreds of millions of people are now dying from Fukushima radiation, including people in the United States.
If noticing unusual amounts of hair falling out, confusion, nose bleeds or other odd symptoms typical of radiation sickness, it might be due to the United States record high levels of radiation, now multiple times acceptable safety limits not only on the west coast, but also in other locations around the nation.
Because Fukushima radiation data retrieval and interpretation has been so complex or non-existent for the concerned public, citizen reporters in Japan and United States have now established easily accessible ways to view radiation levels on the internet.
Fukushima radiation depopulation unfathomable: Possibly 100s of millions deaths
Dr Janette Sherman, a highly respected physician and acknowledged expert in radiation exposure who has reported a north-east United States 35% baby death spike since Fukushima fall-out reached the nation, concurs with estimates that world wide, the Chernobyl Kill is one million people killed to date reported NOVA News. Extrapolating, worldwide deaths by Fukushima radiation could eventually be hundreds of millions of people, becoming the most significant depopulation event to date..."
2011-08-05 EPA Radnet Data August 5 1:30 PM Pacific Time Omaha NE and Des Moines IA, majiasblog.blogspot.com,"The EPA has changed it webpage again...The high posted for [Omaha for] August 5 is just under 250 beta, which is very, very high ...Des Moines, with a high today of around 225 beta (also very high)."