Japan and Other Asian Countries

2011-09-13 Japan gov’t prepares for further large-scale radiation release from Fukushima — Emergency drill on Monday presupposed further meltdown of No. 3 reactor core, enenews.com.
2011-09-14 Massive New Radiation Releases Possible from Fukushima … Especially If Melted Core Materials Hit Water by WashingtonsBlog
Governments Underreported Severity of Fukushima
As I’ve noted for 6 months, the Japanese and U.S. governments have continually under-reported the severity of the nuclear crisis at Fukushima.
The Wall Street Journal points out:

The Japanese government initially underestimated radiation releases from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, in part because of untimely rain, and so exposed people unnecessarily, a report released this week by a government research institute says.

PhysOrg writes:

The amount of radiation released during the Fukushima nuclear disaster was so great that the level of atmospheric radioactive aerosols in Washington state was 10,000 to 100,000 times greater than normal levels in the week following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the disaster.
***
[A] study [by University of Texas engineering professor Steven Biegalski and researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory] reports that more radioxenon was released from the Fukushima facilities than in the 1979 meltdown at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania and in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine.
Biegalski said the reason for the large release in Fukushima, when compared to the others, is that there were three nuclear reactors at the Japan facilities rather than just one.

Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen notes:

New TEPCO data measured on August 19 & 20 shows severe damage to the spent fuel in Fukushima Daiichi Units 1, 2, and 3…. This TEPCO data clearly contradicts and refutes the July assertion by the NRC the Fukushima Daiichi spent fuel pools were not damaged in this tragic accident.

There are also several unconfirmed reports that the Japanese government is trying to keep people from buying geiger counters to measure radiation.
New, Large Radiation Releases Are Possible
Mainichi Dailly News notes:

As a radiation meteorology and nuclear safety expert at Kyoto University’s Research Reactor Institute, Hiroaki Koide [says]:
The nuclear disaster is ongoing . . .
2011-09-14 Fukushima cesium contamination widespread but less than Chernobyl by Hiroshi Ishizuka, asahi.com, [Rense.com] [Editor's Note: This looks to me like another instance where Japanese authorities are dramatically underplaying the levels or contamination].
"An extensive area of more than 8,000 square kilometers has accumulated cesium 137 levels of 30,000 becquerels per square meter or more after the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, according to Asahi Shimbun estimates...
... An official at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said a nuclear plant accident is substantially different in nature from an atomic bomb.
Radiation accounts for only 15 percent of the energy of an atomic bomb, with the remaining 85 percent resulting in the blast and heated air."
2011-09-17 Japan's Fukushima 'worst in history' (video), "At least one billion becquerels a day of radiation continue to leak from Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant after the March earthquake and tsunami..."

North America and Europe

2011-09-11 Grand Canyon Radioactive Rain – September 11, 2011, by Michael Collins, enviroreporter.com.
"The results were stunning. One rain sample tested in at ~219% of normal and another ~270% of normal higher than a subsequent background averaging. The video bears out the heightened radiation here at one of the most beautiful national parks in America. A silent and deadly killer fell upon the land as oblivious people enjoyed the unusual rain and violent lightening show. This gentle genocide was particularly depressing coming on the ten year anniversary of 9-11 especially considering that few, if any, tourists visiting the park had any idea that fallout from meltdowns begun exactly half a year ago was raining down on them."
2011-09-12 Bryce Canyon Radioactive Rain – September 12, 2011, by Michael Collins, enviroreporter.com.
"One doesn’t expect to find radioactive rain in storm systems generated south of the Jet Stream funneling hot nuclear goo in the atmosphere from Fukushima across the Pacific into the United States and Canada. But that’s just what we found (though in the narration of the following clip I incorrectly speculate that that’s the case). Indeed, the storm system that brought this rain to Bryce Canyon National Park was from a series of week-long freak storms that trundled across Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and beyond from south of the Jet Stream which, at the same time, dropped hot rain on the region north of St. Louis 133 times background as reported by our colleague at Potrblog.com.
The rain tested here came in at 258% of background radiation higher than normal. the most disturbing part of this rain was the normal readings we got holding the Inspector up to the inside of the windshield which yielded no increase at all. This suggests that the rain we tested that fell on Bryce Canyon outside of the visitors center was alpha-dominant because alpha can certainly be stopped by glass (as well as less dense barriers like paper and human skin).
The problem is two-fold with this detection: First off, we did not expect to see any radiation in rains generated off of the Mexico/California coast that float eastward far south of the Jet Stream. Even at the half year mark since the ongoing and worsening Fukushima Daiichi triple nuclear reactor meltdowns, it was hoped that rains south of the Jet Stream were relatively uncontaminated by this airborne fallout (much like the crucial observation of Potrblog during his 4,000 road trip in July that “Storms moving East to West from Africa via the hurricane Corridor tended to have ZERO radioactivity.”) Secondly, since the rain we detected with our Inspector Alert nuclear radiation monitor seemed to indicate a strong alpha radiation presence, then the rain was far more dangerous that the 258% of previous background higher would indicate. That’s because alpha radiation is 60 to 1,000 times more dangerous than its beta or gamma counterparts.
For Denise and I to detect this alpha radiation in Bryce Canyon National Park at such high levels was especially depressing. Our national parks are America’s backyard. National parks are perhaps one of the greatest ideas this country has ever come up with. And there we were watching happy tourists from all over the globe, speaking a rainbow of foreign tongues, walking happily in the unusual late summer storm contaminated by alpha radiation that probably came from Japan and has worked its way south of the Jet Stream in increasing concentrations.

9/12/11 [RAIN CAME FROM SOUTH AS PART OF A NON-JET STREAM SYSTEM]
3:00 pm SPOT CHECK OF NEW RAIN in front of the Bryce Canyon Visitor Center after thunder burst = ~114 CPM or 258% OF PREVIOUS BACKGROUND HIGHER
2:50 pm SPOT CHECK OF AVERAGE in front of the Bryce Canyon Visitor Center near Lodge at Bryce Canyon, Bryce Canyon National Park, UT 84717; elevation 7,956 ft = ~43 CPM
2011-09-14 [MAXIMUM ALERT] Neptunium 239 Potentially Detected In Saint Louis 9/14/11 Radioactive Rainfall, posted Friday Sept. 16, 2011, for YouTube Video (also listed in the "North America" video section above) "[MAXIMUM ALERT] Neptunium 239 Potentially Detected In Saint Louis 9/14/11 Radioactive Rainfall." by POTRBLOG Team.
"Pertaining to the Sept 13th rainfall, 133 times background, fallout radioactivity has not died out completely, indicating higher half-lived fallout.
"The source has a calculated average 2.4 day half life. The half life matches Neptunium 239. Np239 decays into Plutonium 239. The source would probably be Americium 243 created in the MOX fuel reactor at Fukushima Unit 3
Updated to add:
IF WE ARE LUCKY, the source will not be Americium 243 but rather Uranium 239 (in Fukushima); given the 2.4 day half life of Np 239, it is possible that source came directly across the jet-stream as Np-239. The result would be higher levels of Np-239 and Plutonium 239 the further west one went from Saint Louis."
2011-09-15 Both cesium-134 and cesium-137 increase in latest San Francisco Bay Area milk sample (CHART), enenews.com
"UCB Milk Sampling, UC Berkeley:
San Francisco Bay Area milk
Best Buy Date: September 12, 2011:

* Cesium-134: .055 becquerels/liter
* Cesium-137: .059 becquerels/liter

Best Buy Date: August 22, 2011:

* Cesium-134: .047 becquerels/liter
* Cesium-137: .052 becquerels/liter