2012-05-22 to 05-24 [for these dates] 570 Bq/Kg of Iodine 131 was measured in Gunma, posted by Mochizuki on May 30th, 2012, fukushima-diary.com
Following up this article..Iodine 131 measured in Kawasaki, Yokohama, Chiba and Gunma
The highest reading of Iodine 131 to suggest the possibility of recriticality was measured in the small city of Gunma called Kiryu city. (The population is 119,393 on 4/1/2012)

"SFP 4"

"The water is not clear because of the dust and debris."

"Can’t see inside."

From Reactor 4 open for press, posted by Mochizuki, fukushima-diary.com, on May 26th, 2012 "...Spent Feul Pool 4, can't see inside...water not clear"

From A baby in 0.36µSv/h posted by Mochizuki, fukushima-diary.com, on May 21st, 2012. [Editor's Note: Infants are about a 100 times more vulnerable to radiation compared to adults. The pictures above show a mother holding her baby in Motomiya station, a hazardous radiation level reading, and a map of her location. A huge portion of the Japanese population is still not taking adequate self-protective measures].

Japan

2012-05-20 Fukushima REALLY Steaming Away, majiasblog.blogspot.com, Sunday, May 20, 2012
Fukushima REALLY Steaming Away
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_0hjFJU3SA&feature=plcp
Heart of the Rose posted the link. Here is her description of the video clip from 5/16/2012
May 20, 2012 at 3:30 pm · Reply
May 16 2012..
..Emissions from the left to begin with..
All reactors and behind the "work light" ..rare gas building..are just spewing.
Then emissions from the Common Spent Fuel Pool area..
At 1:00 look at the tops of reactors 1 and 2.
By approx. 1:20..Unit 1 can be seen to increase activity.
Majia here: Potrblog is reporting detections of recent fission activities:
"The sample also had readings which point to a recent nuclear fission and control rod fire occurring within the last few weeks. The results of that testing are presented in the video below..."
http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com/2012/05/alert-radioactive-fallout-detected-in.html
2012-05-20 Work at Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 “being handled like a construction project and that’s unfortunate to say the least” — “There is no international effort” (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-20 “Pacific Ocean will continue to be contaminated, kind of for the rest of time” — Containment vessels continuously leaking into sea (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-20 Trillions of becquerels per day still being emitted from Fukushima Daiichi — Radioactive steam continues (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-20 Former Senior Reactor Operator: You can get a recriticality in Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 — “Never ending fountain of particulates and gas” (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-20 M6.2 quake and several above M5.0 hit off Northeast Japan in last day — UPDATED, ENENews.com
2012-05-20 Gundersen: Recent hydrogen build up inside Fukushima reactor “worrisome” (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-20 Work at Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 “being handled like a construction project and that’s unfortunate to say the least” — “There is no international effort” (VIDEO), Published: May 20th, 2012 at 7:59 pm ET, by ENENews
Dr. Helen Caldicott interviews Arnold Gundersen, If You Love This Planet Radio, May 8, 2012

Arnie Gundersen: The Japanese gov’t and Tepco are controlling everything.
It might mean there are international companies involved, but they are being payed for by Japan/Tepco.
There is no international effort.
European/American experts are not unilaterally giving up of their time to offer solutions.
It’s just being handled like a construction project and that’s unfortunate to say the least.
[Download the broadcast here]

2012-05-21 Reporter: What plans do you have in case Unit 4 pool does come down? — Gov’t official ‘evaded or wouldn’t answer’ -Wall St. Journal, published: May 21st, 2012 at 7:33 am ET, By ENENews
Fukushima Daiichi’s Unit 4 Spent-Fuel Pool: Safe or Not?, Wall Street Journal, by Phred Dvorak, May 21, 2012, 7:48 PM JST

[...] The bottom line [at Unit 4]: The steps Tepco has taken look fine, [legislator Ikko Nakatsuka, Japan’s senior vice-minister for reconstruction] said—as far as they go.
[...] Mr. Nakatsuka stayed determinedly away from making big-picture conclusions. And in the wake of last year’s accident, he said, the government has learned there’s no such thing as absolutely safe.
“When we say ‘safe,’ we have to say at what (risk) level,” Mr. Nakatsuka said. [...]
But just how big an earthquake could Unit 4 withstand before it collapses? That’s one of many questions from reporters that Mr. Nakatsuka and the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency’s seismic safety unit evaded or wouldn’t answer. Some others: What plans does the government have in case the pool does come down? What’s the biggest risk at the plant now?

2012-05-20 “Pacific Ocean will continue to be contaminated, kind of for the rest of time” — Containment vessels continuously leaking into sea (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-20 Plutonium AND Fukushima, majiasblog.blogspot.com, Sunday, May 20, 2012
Plutonium AND Fukushima
According to Arjun Makhijani and Scott Saleska in The Nuclear Power Deception: A Report of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research "the classification of plutonium according to grades is somewhat arbitrary" (p. 226)
Plutonium 239 is formed in military and civilian nuclear reactors from Uranium-238.
Plutonium 240 has absorbed an extra neutron (as compared to P-239).
All grades of plutonium can be used to make weapons, although plutonium with less than 7 percent P-240 is preferred for weapons production because the extra neutrons in P-240 make yields less predictable (p. 227).
The oxidation of plutonium poses the greatest health risk "since the resulting insoluble stable compound, plutonium dioxide is in a particular form that can easily be inhaled. It tends to stay in the lungs for long periods, and is also transported to other parts of the body" (p. 224)
Arjun Makhijani and Scott Saleska explain that if plutonium is being produced for military purposes, then "the 'burn-up' is kept low so that the plutonium-239 produced is as pure as possible--that is, the formation of the higher isotopes, particularly plutonium 240, is kept to a minimum" (p. 226).
Majia here: We still do not know why an explosion occurred in the reactor 4 building and we do not know the nature of the explosion that occurred in 3.
There have never been clear explanations for these occurrences.
After reading about Japan's history with plutonium,
summarized here: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/tokai.html
I wonder whether reactor 3 (or 4) weren't just using mox fuel, but may very well have been "enriching" fuel to produce plutonium-based fuel (to "close the fuel cycle") or, perhaps, for weapons.
The cold war with China has been heating up and Japan and China are historically entrenched antagonists.
Wall Street Journal: "Japan Lifts Decadeslong Ban on Export of Weapons" p. A8 Dec 28/2011
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-cold-war-rising-update.html
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/peddling-death-through-nuclear.html
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/new-cold-war-enriches-industries-of.html
Tokai is the place where Japan historically enriched plutonium for their breeder reactor program http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/tokai.html
I have to wonder why all the secrecy and deception about reactor 4 and why reactor 3 has simply been dropped from the news entirely, despite having had a very severe, nuclear-looking explosion back in March 2011.
Irrespective of why it was being produced, it is clear that plutonium was produced (intentionally or not) and has been spread throughout parts of Japan (and maybe in the US and Canada as well)
NHK reporting Plutonium detected http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/06_40.html "Plutonium detected again in Fukushima plant soil Tokyo Electric Power Company has again detected a very small volume of plutonium in soil samples from the disaster-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The operator of the plant collected samples from 4 locations at the compound of the plant on March 25th and 28th for analysis by an outside organization. The utility says the radioactive substance was detected on the soil about 500 meters west-northwest of the No.1 reactor and a site near a solid waste storage facility 500 meters north of the reactor. The first sample measured 0.26 becquerels of plutonium-238 per 1 kilogram of soil, down about 50 percent from the volume found earlier."
[MAJIA HERE: THIS PAGE IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE]
Ex-SKF Monday, August 15, 2011Neptunium-239 Detected from Soil in Iitate-mura in Fukushima???
[Excerpt] The information comes from a strange source - the husband and wife comedian couple cum independent journalists attending and reporting on TEPCO and the government press conferences when they are not on stage.
In their blogpost on August 11 (in Japanese), they relate their talk with a researcher at the University of Tokyo who has submitted a scientific paper to a foreign academic society. This researcher, whom they say they cannot name because the paper is being reviewed right now, went to Fukushima and collected soil samples, rice hay samples, and water samples. He even went to the front of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant and collected samples there.
He also went to Iitate-mura. And he tells the couple that he found neptunium-239 in Iitate-mura, about 38 kilometers from the plant, in approximately the same amount as he found at the front gate of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. That is the topic of his paper. ...
... Uranium-239, whose half life is about 24 minutes, decays into neptunium-239 through beta decay. Neptunium-239, gamma emitter whose half life is about 2.4 days, decays into plutonium-239 whose half life is 24,200 years.
If this Tokyo University researcher went to Iitate-mura after April 20 and he was still detecting neptunium-239 whose half life is only 2.4 days, I just abhor to think of the implications. The locations that he found neptunium-239, in Iitate-mura and in front of the plant, were never tested by the Ministry of Education and Science or by TEPCO, according to the post.
Evacuation of Iitate-mura wasn't completed till late May, but not all villagers evacuated. There are still old people living in the village, and the villagers regularly go back to the village to check up on things.
I don't know how much longer Japan can continue to "Extend and Pretend", but probably much longer than anyone outside expects. We'll find out when this paper gets published. "
[end excerpt]
ALSO
Ex-SKF Monday, September 12, 2011 Nikkan SPA Magazine: Researcher Says Large Amount of Neptunium-239 Also in Date City, Fukushima
[excerpted] "It's the same researcher who said several thousand becquerels/kg of neptunium-239 was found in the soil in Iitate-mura, about 35 km northwest of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. It seems it's not just Iitate-mura that got doused with neptunium, which decays into plutonium. Date City, about 25 km northwest from Iitate-mura and 60 km from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, also got a large amount of neptunium...." [END EXCERPT]
CONSIDER ALSO ...
Understanding the Ongoing Nuclear Disaster in Fukushima: A “Two-Headed Dragon” Descends into the Earth’s Biosphere by Fujioka Atsushi Translated by Michael K. Bourdaghs
http://japanfocus.org/-Fujioka-Atsushi/3599
[excerpted] March 21: A Second Massive Release of Radiation
On the morning of March 21 the wind was blowing from the north. In areas downwind from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant (including the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Plant and the cities of Kita Ibaraki, Takahagi and Mito), levels of airborne radiation suddenly spiked. What caused this abnormal jump?
According to Tanabe Fumiya, an expert in nuclear power, at this same time the air pressure inside the pressure container of the No. 3 reactor, the one that used MOX (a mixed oxide fuel containing both plutonium and uranium), suddenly soared to 110 times the normal level. Because of this extremely high pressure, it was no longer possible to add cooling water from outside; as a result, the damaged fuel rods in the reactor once again went into meltdown, and the resulting build up of steam led to an explosion.
The molten remnants of the fuel rods then breached the pressure container and leaked to the floor of the containment vessel. Tanabe concludes that the blast caused some of the radiation to escape the reactor, leading to contamination of the downwind region, an area extending from the interior of Fukushima prefecture to Kita Ibaraki.7.
On March 23, a new plume formed, moving southwest from the coastal areas of Ibaraki through Chiba prefecture. During this period, most of the Kanto region saw several days of rain, resulting in accumulations of radioactive materials on the ground across the region.8 ...
Majia here: Here are more links on plutonium contamination
Study: Modeling Fukushima NPP P-239 and Np-239 Atmospheric Dispersion
http://www.datapoke.org/blog/89/study-modeling-fukushima-npp-p-239-and-np-239-atmospheric-dispersion/
and
http://datapoke.org/partmom/a=114
Plutonium Found in Japan: Plutonium Keeps on Giving Even When You're Dead
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110606x2.html
Japan has a law, Article 15, that allows Japan to suppress news to prevent riots. What isn't Japan reporting?
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2011/03/japan-imposes-article-15.html
2012 -05-20 Trillions of becquerels per day still being emitted from Fukushima Daiichi — Radioactive steam continues (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-20 Former Senior Reactor Operator: You can get a recriticality in Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 — “Never ending fountain of particulates and gas” (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-21 A baby in 0.36µSv/h posted by Mochizuki, fukushima-diary.com, on May 21st, 2012
A freelance journalist reported from Motomiya station in Fukushima, where is 57km away from Fukushima plants.
Motomiya station now. A mother with her baby. It’s a beautiful view but the atmospheric dose is 0.36µSv/h. I only hope for the safety of the baby.
After taking the picture, the dose became 0.40µSv/h.
2012-05-21 Reporters repeatedly ask gov’t why it does not consider worst-case scenarios at Unit 4 and get help from foreign experts, published: May 21st, 2012 at 1:39 pm ET, by ENENews
Subscription Only: Officials try to calm fears about spent nuclear fuel rods, Asahi Shimbun AJW, By Hiroshi Matsubara, May 21, 2012

[...] During the news conference on May 21, the government spokesmen were repeatedly asked why they do not consider a worst-case scenario and start working to prevent a catastrophe in cooperation with foreign experts.
[Ikkp Nakatsuka, senior vice minister of the Cabinet Office and a Lower House member of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan who entered the reactor in April for an on-site inspection] refused to comment on these questions by using a twist of logic. After the Fukushima accident, we must no longer use the term “safe” without evaluating actual risk, he said. “So, government officials should not talk about ‘safety’ without presenting concrete risks.” [...]

2012-05-21 Gundersen: Pyrophoric fire if fuel rods in Unit 4 pool are not cooled — Potential contamination of entire northern hemisphere (VIDEO), Published: May 21st, 2012 at 2:30 pm ET, By ENENews
Arnold Gundersen with a new report on the Fukushima meltdowns and their worldwide implications
IF YOU LOVE THIS PLANET, A Weekly Radio Program with Dr. Helen Caldicott
May 18, 2012

Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Chief Nuclear Engineer: Unit 4 is weakened… I think about a M7.0-M7.5 quake will knock that building to the ground…
The fuel is still hot enough where it can begin to burn… cesium and plutonium and all that…
It would volatilize as the fuel burns, it creates a pyrophoric fire which is a fire that water cannot put out.
Likely resulting in an evacuation of Tokyo at the least, and potentially contamination of the entire northern hemisphere.
[Listen to the hour-long broadcast here.]

2012-05-21 (UPDATED) Just In: Kitakyushu Residents Physically Block the Delivery of Disaster Debris to the Waste Collection Depot, ex-skf.blogspot.com
Headline only in Oita Press (5/22/2012):
Residents who oppose the acceptance of disaster debris to Kitakyushu City blocked the trucks that carry the debris from Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture to the Waste Collection Depot in the city.
Apparently, all it took was about 30 residents.
And the police to the rescue of the trucks. (Photo from Mr. Kenichi Hirose, who seems to be right there at the location.)..
2012-05-21 ‘The Sleeper’: Unit 3 building ‘fatally flawed’ (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-21 Ambassador’s comments translated by Asahi: Another accident at No. 4 reactor building could cause the “final catastrophe of the world”, ENENews.com
2012-05-21 Gundersen: Pyrophoric fire if fuel rods in Unit 4 pool are not cooled — Potential contamination of entire northern hemisphere (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-21 Reporters repeatedly ask gov’t why it does not consider worst-case scenarios at Unit 4 and get help from foreign experts, ENENews.com
2012-05-21 Fukushima reactors to be entombed like Chernobyl? Officials may say “We’re just going to fill it with concrete and walk away” (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-21 Gov’t Holds Press Conference on Unit No. 4 Fuel Rods: Workers still reinforcing reactor’s anti-quake capacity — ‘Despite growing international concerns… no plans to speed up their scheduled removal by 2015?, ENENews.com
2012-05-21 Report from Fukushima: ‘Total levels of radiation are not decreasing at all’ — Japan gov’t ‘does nothing’ — ‘Individuals are left to deal with the problem’, ENENews.com
2012-05-21 Reporter: What plans do you have in case Unit 4 pool does come down? — Gov’t official ‘evaded or wouldn’t answer’ -Wall St. Journal, ENENews.com
2012-05-21 Gundersen on Plutonium: I believe fragments of nuclear fuel are in the ocean — From explosions at Unit 3 AND Unit 1 (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-21 Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare banned staff from researching Fukushima contamination, posted by Mochizuki, fukushima-diary.com, on May 21st, 2012
2012-05-21 Links to Fukushima Webcam Videos, majiasblog.blogspot.com
Links to Fukushima Webcam Videos
This latest one by Fuk1live is worrying. It was filmed 5/21 (Japan time). At about 1 minute into the video thick and dark steam(?) begins blowing from the left across the plant.
It is unclear where the emissions are emanating from, but they are thick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA72yrpjO3E&feature=channel&list=UL
Emissions from unit 1 can be seen in this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYdEPS3rWgQ&feature=plcp
A range of videos can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/fuku1live/videos
2012-05-22 Water level is only 40cm from the bottom in reactor1, posted by Mochizuki, fukushima-diary.com
Related to this article..Water level was only 60cm from the bottom in reactor2 It was 60cm in reactor2, but it is worse in reactor1. Japan nuclear energy safety organization analyzed the water level from the connection of the amount of nitrogen injected to PCV and the air pressure of PCV. The result is that [...]
2012-05-22 Tepco will not solve SFP4 problem ahead of schedule, fukushima-diary.com, posted by Mochizuki on May 22nd, 2012
Officials try to calm fears about spent nuclear fuel rods, by HIROSHI MATSUBARA/ Staff Writer
Despite growing international concerns over the state of spent fuel rods at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, two government experts said on May 21 that there are no plans to speed up their scheduled removal by 2015.
Speaking at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo, the government apparently wanted to get the message out to the world that the No. 4 reactor at the plant, which houses more than 1,500 nuclear fuel rods, could withstand a similar strike to last year’s Great East Japan Earthquake. [more Here]
2012-05-22 Police make arrest over cleanup workers at Fukushima Daiichi — Crime syndicate “allegedly participated in containment work for the damaged facilities”, ENENews.com
2012-05-22 Asahi Headline: Incinerating radioactive material could contaminate environment, ENENews.com
2012-05-22 Japan Nuclear Experts: Fears corium not totally covered in water at Reactor No. 1 — May only be 15 inches deep, even lower than No. 2, ENENews.com
2012-05-22 Mainichi Expert Sr. Writer: All of eastern Japan evacuated if Fukushima plant was abandoned?, ENENews.com
2012-05-22 Debris truck raised atmospheric dose from 0.06 to 0.612µSv/h,
posted by Mochizuki, fukushima-diary.com, May 22nd, 2012
Following up this article..Kitakyushu city starts incineration of disaster debris to arrest nonviolent protesters
Unloaded truck coming out of the incineration facility raised the atmospheric dose.
It was measured when the debris was unloaded and the empty truck came out of the facility.
Beside the empty truck, radiation level picked up from 0.06 to 0.612 µSv/h.
After the truck left, it went down to 0.098 µSv/h again.
This debris is from Ishinomaki city. This is where Saipan USA accepts the debris from.[Link]
2012-05-22 to 05-24 [for these dates] 570 Bq/Kg of Iodine 131 was measured in Gunma, posted by Mochizuki on May 30th, 2012, fukushima-diary.com
Following up this article..Iodine 131 measured in Kawasaki, Yokohama, Chiba and Gunma
The highest reading of Iodine 131 to suggest the possibility of recriticality was measured in the small city of Gunma called Kiryu city. (The population is 119,393 on 4/1/2012)
The sample was dried sewage sludge taken from 5/22 ~ 5/24/2012.
210 Bq/Kg of Iodine 131 was measured in Tamamura machi (The population is 37,277 on 4/1/2012.) as well. The sample was taken from 5/14 ~ 5/16/2012.
2012-05-22 Infant death of heart disease doubled as 2010 in Fukushima, posted by Mochizuki, fukushima-diary.com, on May 22nd, 2012
In 2011, infant deaths of disease were significantly more than 2010.
2012-05-22 Film shows ‘enraged Japanese public about to explode at its leaders’ — In the News: Residents block radioactive debris delivery — Only 2 towns support restart of Oi nuke plant, ‘acceptance’ has failed — Actor says help from outside country is needed (VIDEO & PHOTO), ENENews.com
2012-05-22 Former Fukushima Daiichi Worker: ‘I believe the country will be evacuated if No. 4 fuel pool collapses’ — ‘Should be hundreds or thousands of people working furiously every day’, published: May 22nd, 2012 at 3:44 pm ET
By ENENews
Chris Canine has 15 years experience as a Health Physics Technician, Chemist and Radiation Safety Instructor. He has worked at over 20 plants throughout the United States, Japan and Mexico — including Fukushima #1 and #2 in the late 1970's.
On May 15, 2012 he wrote:

There are several reasons why I believe the country will be evacuated if the #4 SFP collapses. The amount of radioactive material in the fuel pool dwarfs the total amount at Chernobyl by a factor of 5 to 10. Chernobyl’s core was still mostly contained in a building (although heavily damaged), and most of the radioactive material melted downward and became lava like. If #4 SFP collapses it will be lying on the completely open ground, probably going critical on and off in portions of the pile for years. The dose rate from this pile will make dropping sand or anything from the air much more lethal than anything at Chernobyl. And probably impossible. The entire site at Fukushima will be uninhabitable and unworkable because of the dose rate coming from this pile of fuel. That means there will be no control of the other fuel pools, and we could lose control of them.
Nuclear experts will soft sell the ramifications because that is how the industry works. When the experts “have concerns” about the situation at #4 that means they are pooping their pants. My experience at Fukushima was 30 years ago. I worked in the industry for about 15 years as a health physics technician. I was also referred to as a “nuclear gypsy” because I traveled from plant to plant working outages. That meant I was always in the middle of the hottest jobs in the heart of the plant. The engineers will talk about this part or that part of a plant, but I have been all those places wearing full gear.

He later noted: “No reasonable person with my type experience would question my conclusion if any of the fuel pools collapse. There should be hundreds or thousands of people working furiously every day to get the buildings fortified and the fuel moved.”
2012-05-22 Former Fukushima Daiichi Worker: ‘I believe the country will be evacuated if No. 4 fuel pool collapses’ — ‘Should be hundreds or thousands of people working furiously every day’, ENENews.com
2012-05-22 Fukushima worker concerned about ground settlement at plant — What will happen when Tepco starts pumping up 100s of tons of groundwater?, ENENews.com
2012-05-22 Film shows ‘enraged Japanese public about to explode at its leaders’ — In the News: Residents block radioactive debris delivery — Only 2 towns support restart of Oi nuke plant, ‘acceptance’ has failed — Actor says help from outside country is needed (VIDEO & PHOTO), published: May 22nd, 2012 at 11:08 pm ET
By ENENews
Subscription Only: German-made film takes hard look at Japan’s nuclear future
Asahi AJW, by LOUIS TEMPLADO, May 22, 2012

[...] A German editor and journalist, [Ralph T.] Niemeyer is also the director behind “Hibakusha–From Hiroshima to Fukushima, Nuclear Capitalism Tries to Rebound,” an English-language film made in cooperation with Dorothee Menzner, a member of the German parliament.
[...]
[Actor Taro] Yamamoto, regularly marching at the front ranks of Japan’s anti-nuke demonstrations, meanwhile, says the Japanese won’t be able to change the system themselves–outside pressure is needed.
The picture of an enraged Japanese public about to explode at its leaders that the film draws is at odds with the real facts: The movement seems more likely to fragment before the government does, judging by the diminished numbers at demonstrations a year after the accident [...]

Meanwhile…

Only 2 towns support restart of Oi nuclear plant in Fukui, Kyodo, May 22, 2012

Only two of the 11 municipalities within a 30-kilometer radius of Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Oi nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture are supporting the restart of it, according to a recent Kyodo News poll.
While Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is expected to make a final decision soon to restart two nuclear reactors at the Oi plant, the poll indicates that relevant local governments’ acceptance as a precondition for the restart has failed to make progress. [...]

May 22 report in Oita Press translated by EXSKF

Residents who oppose the acceptance of disaster debris to Kitakyushu City blocked the trucks that carry the debris from Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture to the Waste Collection Depot in the city.

SOURCE: @asat8

According to a report in Yomiuri translated by EXSKF
20 of the 22 trucks carrying 80 tonnes of disaster debris got inside, after 8-hour delays. The debris will be burned on May 23.
Radiation 10 times higher around truck carrying debris via EXSKF
Portirland blog has the screen shots of the survey meter, with the highest radiation level at 0.612 microsievert/hour. The embedded video shows the measurement was done after the truck left the site. The survey meter went from 0.06 microsievert/hour or so to 0.612 microsievert/hour in about 2 and a half minutes.
IWJ video (h/t Fukushima Diary)
2012-05-23 Mothers protested against accepting debris to be ignored, posted by Mochizuki on May 23rd, 2012
Following up this article..Kitakyushu city starts incineration of disaster debris to arrest nonviolent protesters
Mothers gathered in Kitakyushu city hall to protest against their accepting disaster debris.
Mothers with young children demonstrated, but Kitakyushu city ended up starting the test incineration.
Source 1 2 3
2012-05-23 Yomiuri: Tepco estimates cesium-137 release from Fukushima at 360,000 terabecquerels, ENENews.com
2012-05-23 UPI: Fukushima spent fuel pool a source of growing concern — Calls for more efforts to empty and secure Unit 4 continue in Japan and beyond, ENENews.com
2012-05-23 Intense M6 quake hits northeast Japan, ENENews.com
2012-05-23 Caldicott: The corium hasn’t finished and will never finish — I think it means the end of Japan financially (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-23 US gov’t map shows radioactive particles took direct route to Tokyo after Reactor No. 3 exploded, ENENews.com
2012-05-23 Japan researchers believe Reactor No. 1 filled with steam — Gas leaking from upper part, ENENews.com
2012-05-23 The Australian: Catastrophic radiation contamination at rice fields 60km from Fukushima Daiichi — No crop for at least 300 years — Farmer now living in Queensland, ENENews.com
2012-05-23 Fukushima students having their brain atrophied, Posted by Mochizuki; fukushima-diary.com, on May 23rd, 2012
About 20% of the 42 students in Tohoku university, who had MRI before 311 turned out to have their left orbitofrontal cortex become atrophied from MRI test to follow after 311.
They also suffer from PTSD.
Those 42 students consist of 33 male, 9 female and the average age is 21.7.
Prof Kawashima from Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University compared the MRI result taken in June ~ July of 2011 to the one taken before 311.
The left orbitofrontal cortex is to remove memories to provoke fear or anxiety. Researcher Sekiguchi from the same group as Kawashima comments, the atrophied left orbitofrontal cortex could not process fear properly.
Also, the students who had smaller part of the brain except for left orbitofrontal cortex suffer from PTSD more severely.
2012-05-23 The Australian: Catastrophic radiation contamination at rice fields 60km from Fukushima Daiichi — No crop for at least 300 years — Farmer now living in Queensland, published: May 23rd, 2012 at 12:47 am ET, by ENENews
Japan farmer harvests hope in our soil, The Australian, Sue Neales, May 23, 2012
JAPANESE farmer Takemi Shirado still sounds grief-stricken and shell-shocked when talking about last year’s Fukushima nuclear disaster that so devastated his rural community.
Catastrophic radiation contamination of the soil means his family won’t be able to sow rice on their Iwaki rice paddies, about 60km from the crippled defunct power plant, for at least 300 years.
[...]
More than 15 months after the tsunami and nuclear explosion destroyed his community’s quiet way of life, the proud Japanese rice grower could be found standing knee deep in green rice stalks, small Japanese sickle in hand, harvesting his first Kochi rice trial in tropical north Queensland.
[...]
2012-05-24 Tepco admits high temps may have degraded containment vessels after meltdowns — ‘Massive amounts of fallout’ released from upper part of reactors?, ENENews.com
2012-05-24 Press Conference: “Japanese gov’t kills our children, still now” — “I am very worried and afraid” (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-24 RT: Fukushima amounts to four Chernobyls of cesium-137 contamination, ENENews.com
2012-05-24 CNN: Fukushima’s nuclear fallout spreads through ordinary life in Japan — “I can’t believe the gov’t, I don’t believe them, we have to protect ourselves” — “Never listen to what the gov’t tells you, if you do, you’ll pay” (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-24 Nakate: Big change in number of child deaths in Fukushima due to illnesses after July 2011 — Death from cardiovascular disease doubled — Cancer and leukemia also increased, ENENews.com
2012-05-24 Ambassador Murata makes public statement in English: Once a quake beyond magnitude 6 or 7 happens, then the world starts heading towards the ultimate catastrophe — Unit 4 a global security issue (VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-24 Journalist in Japan: ‘To negotiate with the nuclear industry is like debating with the drug cartels about the introduction of law and order’ (VIDEO), published: May 24th, 2012, by ENENews
Hibakusha Press Conference, Foreign Correspondent’s Club Japan (FCCJ) in Tokyo on
22 May 2012
Asahi: Ralph T. Niemeyer, a German editor and journalist, is also the director of “Hibakusha–From Hiroshima to Fukushima, Nuclear Capitalism Tries to Rebound,” an English-language film made in cooperation with Dorothee Menzner, a member of the German parliament.
Niemeyer: To negotiate with the nuclear industry is like debating with the drug cartels about the introduction of law and order.
Watch the full video here
2012-05-24 Ambassador Murata makes public statement in English: Once a quake beyond magnitude 6 or 7 happens, then the world starts heading towards the ultimate catastrophe — Unit 4 a global security issue (VIDEO), published: May 24th, 2012, by ENENews
Hibakusha Press Conference, Foreign Correspondent’s Club Japan (FCCJ) in Tokyo on
22 May 2012
At 28:30 – 29:40 in
I’m Mr. Murata former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland.
The voices of the victims are not being heard sufficiently because of the efforts of the minimizers of the accident.
Today I want to only pick up one question, the problem of the Unit 4 reactor at Fukushima.
I’m saying this is a global security issue.
Because once an earthquake beyond a magnitude 6 or 7 happens, then the world starts heading towards the ultimate catastrophe.
According to the expert Robert Alvarez, the amount of cesium-137 is 85 times more than Chernobyl.
[Garbled Speech], but there’s not the sense of crisis.
I would like to ask your cooperation to alert the whole world to this danger.
Watch the full video here
2012-05-25 Tepco has no clue for the worst senario of SFP4, Posted by Mochizuki on May 25th, 2012, fukushima-diary.com
On 5/25/2012, in the daily press conference of Tepco, WSJ asked Tepco how they are going to settle it down in case of when SFP4 turns over or leaks. Tepco evaded the question to show they can’t deal with the worst senario.
2012-05-25 #Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 4 Bldg Is Not Tilting, Says TEPCO with Data, Friday, May 25, 2012
TEPCO released the 17-page summary of its survey of the Reactor 4 building, as if to respond to the allegations by the experts foreign and domestic that the reactor building is "tilting" and on the verge of collapse. It is only in Japanese right now. (Well that was when I was writing the post. Now they have an unofficial English version. But since it took me long time to put English labels, I'll present the Japanese version with my labels anyway.)
According to the summary, TEPCO did both the horizontal and vertical measurements, looked for cracks larger than 1 millimeter-wide, and did the non-destructive inspection using Schmidt hammer.
The result of the horizontal measurements have already been published.
The company says one location on the west wall near the elevator shaft has a bulge (33 millimeters), but all the measurement points were well within the spec of the Building Standards Act.
Problem of course is that there is no independent confirmation of the data.
From TEPCO's handout for the press (5/25/2012): [More Here].
2012-05-25 Fukushima Daiichi requires a Manhattan Project approach to avoid another nuclear accident, by Robert X. Cringely, Beta News, May 25, 2012 [h/t Gov’t TMI Investigator: Fukushima Daiichi requires a Manhattan Project approach — “Accident involving nuclear fuel rods is virtually inevitable” — Virtually 100% probability of large quake in 10+ years required to defuel plant, by ENENews, Published: May 25th, 2012 at 4:30 pm ET]
This is my sixth column about the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident that started last year in Japan following the tsunami. But unlike those previous columns (1,2,3,4,5), this one looks forward to the next Japanese nuclear accident, which will probably take place at the same location.
That accident, involving nuclear fuel rods, is virtually inevitable, most likely preventable, and the fact that it won’t be prevented comes down solely to Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) incompetence and stupidity. Japanese citizens will probably die unnecessarily because the way things are done at the top in Japan is completely screwed up.
Understand that I have some cred in this space having worked three decades ago as an investigator for the Presidential Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island and later wrote a book about that accident. I also ran for 20 years a technology consulting business in Japan.
Too Much Cleanup, Not Enough Time
Here’s the problem: In the damaged Unit 4 at Fukushima Daiichi there are right now 1,535 fuel rods that have yet to be removed from the doomed reactor. The best case estimate of how long it will take to remove those rods is three years. Next to the Unit 4 reactor and in other places on the same site there are more than 9,000 spent fuel rods stored mainly in pools of water but in some spots exposed to the air and cooled by water jets. The total volume of unstable nuclear fuel on the site exceeds 11,000 rods. Again, the best estimate of how long it will take to remove all this fuel and spent fuel is 10 years -- but it may well take longer.
Fukushima has always been a seismically active area. Called the Japan Trench Subduction Zone, it has experienced nine seismic events of magnitude 7 or greater since 1973. There was a 5.8 earthquake in 1993; a 7.1 in 2003; a 7.2 earthquake in 2005; and a 6.2 earthquake offshore of the Fukushima facility just last year, all of which caused shutdowns or damage to nuclear plants. Even small earthquakes can damage nuclear plants: a 6.8 quake on Japan’s west coast in 2007 cost TEPCO $5.62 billion.
But last year’s 9.0 earthquake and tsunami made things far worse, further destabilizing the local geology. According to recently revised estimates by the Japanese government, the probability of an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude or greater in the region during the next three years is now 90 percent. The Unit 4 reactor building that was substantially damaged by the tsunami and subsequent explosions will not survive a 7.0+ earthquake.
An earthquake of 7.0 or greater is likely to disrupt cooling water flow and further damage fuel storage pools possibly making them leak. If this happens the fuel rods will be exposed, will get hotter and eventually melt, puddling in the reactor basement and beneath the former storage ponds. This is a nuclear meltdown, which will lead to catastrophic (though non-nuclear) explosions and the release of radioactive gases, especially Cesium 137.
The amount of Cesium 137 in the fuel rods at Fukushima Daiichi is the equivalent of 85 Chernobyls.
To review, there is a 90 percent chance of a large earthquake in the minimum three years required to remove just the most unstable part of the fuel load at Fukushima Daiichi. The probability of a large earthquake in the 10+ years required to completely defuel the plant is virtually 100 percent. If a big earthquake happens before that fuel is gone there will be global environmental catastrophe with many deaths.
A Cultural Problem
Let me explain how something like this can happen. For 20 years I ran with a partner a consulting business in Japan serving some of that country’s largest companies. Here is how our business worked:
1. A large Japanese company would announce a bold technical goal to be reached in a time frame measured in years, say 5-10. This could be building a supercomputer, going to the Moon, whatever.
2. Time passes and in quarterly meetings team leaders are asked how the project is going. They lie, saying all is well, while the truth is that little progress has been made. Though money is spent, sometimes no work is done at all.
3. The project deadline eventually approaches and a junior team member is selected to take the heat, admitting in a meeting that there has been very little progress, taking responsibility and offering to resign. The goal will not be reached, the company will be embarrassed.
4. In a final attempt to avoid corporate embarrassment, the company reaches out to me: surely Bob knows some Silicon Valley garage startup that can build our supercomputer or take us to the Moon. Money is no object.
5. Sure enough, there often is such a startup and the day is saved.
Fix Now, or Pay Later
It’s my belief that this is exactly what’s going on right now at Fukushima Daiichi. The very logic of time and probability that scares the bejesus out of me is being completely ignored, replaced with magical thinking. Organizations are committing to fix the current disaster and avoid the next disaster when in fact they are probably incapable of doing either. Lies are being told because Japanese government and industry are more afraid of their vulnerabilities being exposed than they are concerned about citizens dying. Afraid of being embarrassed, they press forward doing the best that they can, praying that an earthquake doesn’t happen.
This is no way to approach a nuclear catastrophe. What’s even worse is this approach isn’t unique to Japan but is common in the global nuclear industry.
Time is critical. What’s clearly required in Fukushima is new project leadership and new technical skills. Some think the Japanese military should take over the job, but I believe that would be just another mistake. The same foot dragging takes place in the Japanese military that happens in Japanese industry.
Fukushima Daiichi requires a Manhattan Project approach. The sole role of the Japanese government should be to pay for the job. A single project leader or czar should be selected not from the nuclear industry and that leader should probably not be Japanese. Contracts should be let to organizations from any country on equal merit so only the best people who can move the quickest with safety get the work. Then cut the crap and get it done in a third or half the time.
But that’s not how it will happen. In Japan it almost never is.
Robert X. Cringely has worked in and around the PC business for more than 30 years. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Forbes, Upside, Success, Worth, and many other magazines and newspapers. Most recently, Cringely was the host and writer of the Maryland Public Television documentary “The Tranformation Age: Surviving a Technology Revolution with Robert X. Cringely”.
2012-05-25 Tepco plans to increase water injection of reactor 3, posted by Mochizuki, fukushima-diary.com, May 25th, 2012
Tepco is going to increase the amount of water to inject to reactor3.
They assume reactors will be heated as it gets warmer from winter to summer.
On 5/25/2012, Tepco announced that they are going to increase water amount to inject to reactor 3, but they will decrease the water amount to reactor 1 and 2 to keep the total water amount the same otherwise it would cause the water purifying system over-capacity.
They did not explain why they assume only reactor 3 may be heated in the same condition as other 2 reactors.
5/28/2012
Reactor 1 : 6.5 goes to 5.5 m3/h
Reactor 3 : 7.0 goes to 8.0 m3/h
6/4/2012
Reactor 2 : 9.0 goes to 8.5 m3/h
Reactor 3 : 8.0 goes to 8.5 m3/h
[Editor's Note: A follow up article is Tepco is going to attach a freezing machine to water circulation system, Posted by Mochizuki on May 29th, 2012

Following up this article..Tepco plans to increase water injection of reactor 3
Tepco is going to increase the amount of water to inject only for reactor 3.
It is because the coolant water is heated for summer, but it suggests the situation of reactor 3 is more severe than other 2 reactors.
In the daily press conference of 5/28/2012, Tepco announced that they are going to attach a freezing machine to the water circulation system.
Specifically, it will be attached to the facility called buffer tank located after desalination equipment and cesium removal system.
Tepco estimates they can keep the temperature of each reactor under 65 degrees Centigrade, which is 15 degrees Centigrade lower than the safety limit regulated by Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
However, there was no explanation that how much the temperature would be if they don’t rely on the freezing machine.

2012-05-25 “Impossibly High”: WHO’s initial report estimated Tokyo AND Osaka infant thyroid dose at 10 to 100 millisieverts — Up to 1 full sievert in Namie, by ENENews
Subscription Only: Tokyo says WHO overestimated Fukushima disaster radiation doses
Asahi AJW, By YURI OIWA, May 24, 2012
[...]
In its report, the WHO [World Health Organization] said residents living near the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant northeast of Tokyo were exposed to whole-body doses of between 10 and 50 millisieverts
[...]
“The WHO estimates deviate considerably from reality,” said one anxious Japanese government source. “If those figures are taken at face value, that may spread disquiet and confusion among the Japanese public.”
[...]
“Overall, (the latest WHO figures) are overestimates,” said Yoshio Hosoi, a professor of radiology at Hiroshima University’s Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine. “In particular, they have sharply overestimated the doses of external exposure and food-derived exposure,” he said.
But the Japanese government’s System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information (SPEEDI), which is designed to forecast the spread of radioactive substances, did produce larger thyroid gland dose estimates for 1-year-old infants in some districts of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture.
In that case, the WHO estimates “probably mostly reflect reality,” Hosoi said.
[...]
Initial Estimate
The WHO began compiling the dose estimation report last summer. Its first draft, which appeared last November, startled one Japanese government official.
The draft report estimated the whole-body doses for 1-year-old infants at 10-100 millisieverts in Namie and 1-10 millisieverts in Tokyo and Osaka.
The thyroid gland dose estimates for 1-year-old infants were 300-1,000 millisieverts in Namie and elsewhere and 10-100 millisieverts in Tokyo and Osaka.
bTokyo sent health ministry officials to the WHO headquarters and went through diplomatic channels to call for revisions.
“The figures are just impossibly high,” a government official said at the time. “If they are released, that will not only arouse unnecessary anxiety among the Japanese public but also serve as negative publicity.”
2012-05-25 WSJ: Tepco “hasn’t analyzed the chances of an accident destroying or cracking the pool”, ENENews.com, May 25, 2012
2012-05-25 WSJ: Tepco “hasn’t analyzed the chances of an accident destroying or cracking the pool”, ENENews.com
2012-05-25 Tepco: As a last resort, we are prepared to spray a concrete-like mixture over fuel rods, ENENews.com
2012-05-25 Gov’t TMI Investigator: Fukushima Daiichi requires a Manhattan Project approach — “Accident involving nuclear fuel rods is virtually inevitable” — Virtually 100% probability of large quake in 10+ years required to defuel plant, ENENews.com
2012-05-25 Wall St. Journal: First investigation of Unit No. 4 finds “slight buckling in an outside wall” — Tepco claims it’s far from pool and no danger, ENENews.com
2012-05-25 Mayor: “We are definitely suffering from radiation exposure in our bodies” and want health care — Just 2% of Fukushima residents have had radiation testing by gov’t, ENENews.com
2012-05-25 Fukushima Alerts, majiasblog.blogspot.com
Fukushima Alerts
Yesterday Potrblog issued a maximum alert based on unusually high radiation readings:
Thursday, May 24, 2012 !MAXIMUM ALERT! Unusual Jet Stream Radioactivity Detected
http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com/2012/05/maximum-alert-unusual-jet-steam.html#comment-form
Here is the link to the Radiation detection network references by Potrblog
http://radiationnetwork.com/Message.htm
Nuckelchen, an anonymous programmer, has used filters and acceleration to reveal a major nuclear event at Fukushima May 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms5_JcfV6g0
EPA's radnet for Denver does show spikes in May
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/net2/Denver-CO-Real-Time-US-Radiation-Monitoring-Graph.aspx
Radnet for Yuma showing substantial gamma spikes over the last couple of weeks
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/net2/Yuma-AZ-Real-Time-US-Radiation-Monitoring-Graph.aspx
Fresno data is "unavailable" for early May
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/net2/Fresno-CA-Real-Time-US-Radiation-Monitoring-Graph.aspx
I've been having major asthma problems throughout May. I've noticed before a correlation between my asthma and radnet levels.
2012-05-25 Tepco: Unit No. 4 wall bulging — Local deformation confirmed, ENENews.com
2012-05-25 Tepco checks for cracks in Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 — Now says reactor building not tilting “as a whole”, ENENews.com
2012-05-25 UN Radiation Expert: Neutron exposure from Fukushima criticalities not measured, ENENews.com
2012-05-25 Asahi: ‘Major problems’ with radiation testing for children, ENENews.com
2012-05-25 Unexplained: Tepco “could not measure” amount of radiation released when Unit 4 exploded, ENENews.com
2012-05-25 “Impossibly High”: WHO’s initial report estimated Tokyo AND Osaka infant thyroid dose at 10 to 100 millisieverts — Up to 1 full sievert in Namie, ENENews.com
2012-05-25 Check Out this Fukushima Video from the TBS-JNN Cam, majiasblog.blogspot.com
Check Out this Fukushima Video from the TBS-JNN Cam
Start at about 1:30 seconds.
At approximately 1:58 there is a very large light flare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMsuKDvhTd0&feature=relmfu
A red glow ensues in the aftermath of the flare
Hat tip: ChasAha at Enenews
2012-05-26 Head of Japan Gov’t Committee: “It’s a race against time” at Spent Fuel Pool No. 4, published: May 26th, 2012, by ENENews
Subscription Only: Japan Nuclear Operator Conducts Check on Risky Unit, Wall Street Journal, By PHRED DVORAK, May 25, 2012
[Tepco] said it took extra steps this week to check the soundness of one of its riskiest reactor buildings, in response to growing public unease over the possibility of further accidents at the facility.
The investigation—the first of its kind to take place at Fukushima Daiichi since three reactors spun out of control 14 months ago—also underscores how unclear conditions at the plant remain, and how deep the distrust in Japan’s nuclear industry runs.
[...]
even some who think there is little chance of the pool collapsing say the fuel rods should be transferred to a safer place as soon as possible. “It’s a race against time,” said Hajimu Yamana, a professor of nuclear engineering at Kyoto University, who heads a government committee on decommissioning the plant.
Tepco says it is pushing to start the removal process by the end of next year.
Related Posts
2012-05-26 [for this day] Hosono visits Fukushima plant to quell fears over No. 4's pool, AP, japantimes.co.jp
The environment and nuclear minister visited the crippled Fukushima No. 1 power plant Saturday to inspect a spent-fuel pool that has been raising safety concerns and said it appears to have been properly reinforced.
The visit by Goshi Hosono, apparently aimed at bolstering confidence in the safety of the facility, came amid renewed concerns about the condition of the No. 4 reactor following reports about a bulge in the building's wall. Nuclear regulators ordered a new probe and seismic tests of the No. 4 building and its pool.
The pool, which is situated precariously above the reactor, is one of the plant's biggest risks as it is filled with spent fuel rods that could get dumped out and combust if the building fails during an earthquake.
The building was damaged by a major explosion and fire soon after the plant was hit by the massive 9-magnitude quake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.
Its operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., has reinforced the structure and says it now can withstand temblors as strong as last year's.
A small group of journalists was allowed to enter the reactor building for the first time with Hosono. Inside were piles of broken wall panels, pieces of cement and mangled equipment reflecting the magnitude of the explosion.
Hosono, wearing a protective suit and full-face mask, climbed a narrow makeshift staircase to its fifth floor to see the pool, which was covered by a tarp. Officials partially lifted the cover to reveal the water's surface.
Hosono said he wasn't able to see the reported 3-cm wall bulge with his own eyes but urged Tepco "not to take an optimistic view and instead deal with it carefully in order to ensure safety."
Hosono later told reporters that he could see the pool had been sufficiently reinforced.
"I could see steady progress being made toward removal of the spent fuel, which is the next major goal," he said.
Tepco is preparing to move the fuel rods from the No. 4 pool to a joint pool for all six reactors next to the building, but the process will not start until late next year. The joint pool is at ground level and considered safer, although it already has 6,000 fuel rods in it, officials said. It is expected to take 40 years to decommission the reactors.
Akio Komori, one of the Tepco executives who escorted Hosono, said the utility will inspect the No. 4 building to ensure its integrity while continuing with fuel removal. Komori, however, rejected growing calls to let outside experts to inspect the plant.
"As the party with direct responsibility, it's our job to carry out the necessary checks," he said.
From early on, experts have raised concerns about the pool at the No. 4 reactor, where 1,535 fuel rods — the most of any of the six Fukushima reactors — were stored while No. 4 was being refurbished. The fuel ordinarily in its core was also put in the pool.
U.S. nuclear officials feared the rods would overheat and melt as water evaporated from the pool, releasing massive radiation.
2012-05-26 Fukushima Daiichi’s Unit 4 Spent-Fuel Pool Up Close, May 27, 2012, 8:10 PM JST, by Phred Dvorak, blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime, [h/t Rense.com]
...On Saturday, Tepco let a bunch of journalists, as well as Goshi Hosono, the minister in charge of Fukushima Daiichi cleanup, into the Unit 4 building to take a look for themselves.
What did they see? JRT annotates this account, from a pool report of the tour, made available to the foreign press.
The group — suited in a double layer of protective Tyvek — went into the building and climbed a narrow staircase to get to the pool, an 11-meter deep well that stretches between floors three and four. The staircase — around 150 steps, rising 40 meters — was mostly dark, with fluorescent lights at each landing.
Radiation spiked on the second floor at 500 microsieverts per hour — somewhat less than you’d get from a stomach X-ray, and roughly 220 times higher than the level Japan sets for evacuating communities. By the fourth floor, near the top of the building, where an explosion during the nuclear accident a year earlier had blown off the ceiling and bits of walls, readings were down to 300 microsieverts per hour.
The group paused to look at the concrete ceiling under the pool (“very clean, with no cracks,” Tepco’s guide noted). Then they went to the top of the building to look at the pool itself — though they couldn’t see in, since it was covered with a white tarp, supported by a lattice of blue floats. When workers lifted the tarp, reporters saw water, but not the fuel racks, which were too far below the surface. Outside the building was a crane, for use in erecting a huge cover over the top of the reactor building that will keep radioactive material from scattering when workers start removing the fuel, toward the end of next year.
So, is the Unit 4 pool and its cargo of hazardous nuclear-fuel rods safe from collapse? Mr. Hosono seemed largely satisfied. He endorsed Tepco’s analysis that the building could withstand a quake like last year’s, and said there was no need to cancel plans for a partial return of evacuees to nearby areas.
“A variety of concerns have been raised about the spent-fuel pool at Unit 4, and my goal was to assess the situation directly,” he said at a press briefing at the nearby J-Village soccer stadium that’s been converted into a staging area for workers going to the crippled plant.
Mr. Hosono added he’d instructed Tepco to thoroughly check out a three centimeter bulge in the west wall of the building, which Tepco thinks was likely caused by last year’s explosion. Next week, the government and Tepco are meeting to discuss whether they could get the fuel out of the Unit 4 pool faster, he said.
2012-05-26 Former Fukushima Daiichi Worker: TEPCO screwed up by admitting it’s prepared to spray concrete on spent fuel — “They are really admitting they know that it might collapse!”, published: May 26th, 2012 at 9:39 pm ET, by ENENews
Chris Canine on Unit 4 (Health Physics Technician, Chemist and Radiation Safety Instructor with 15 years experience. He has worked at over 20 plants throughout the United States, Japan and Mexico — including Fukushima #1 and #2 in the late 1970's)
May 26, 2012 at 10:24 am
If the building is standing they can spray water on the pool and maintain some kind of cooling, enough to get by, especially now that the pool is cooler than 14 months ago.
The concrete mixture idea can only be in response to a fuel pool collapse. So they are really admitting they know that it might collapse!! It is a completely crazy idea, those who have said the building would collapse if sprayed [with concrete-like mixture] in a standing pool are correct. But the idea was only generated if the building falls down on the ground. Then this idea might be better than doing nothing with fuel laying on the ground because it would slow the release of radioactive material. But it would mean that this pile would forever be dangerous and some releases would continue for years.
What a “Hail Mary” this is. TEPCO screwed up by admitting this, there have been several stories the last few days that are illuminating much more.
2012-05-26 Former Fukushima Daiichi Worker: TEPCO screwed up by admitting it’s preparared to spray concrete on spent fuel — “They are really admitting they know that it might collapse!”, ENENews.com, May 26th, 2012
2012-05-26 [for this day] Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station 26 May 2012, cryptome.org, 28 May 2012
TEPCO video of the 26 May 2012 tour shown below:
http://photo.tepco.co.jp/en/date/2012/201205-e/120526-01e.html
TEPCO high-resolution photos of the tour:
http://photo.tepco.co.jp/en/date/2012/201205-e/120528_01e.html
http://photo.tepco.co.jp/en/date/2012/201205-e/120528-02e.html
These photos are reduced to half-size of the originals. The 16 full-size originals:
http://cryptome.org/2012-info/daiichi-12-0526/daiichi-12-0526.zip (18.4MB)
TEPCO report on structural stability of Unit 4, 25 May 2012:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/images/handouts_120525_05-e.pdf
2012-05-26 Update: Fukushima is NOT 4½ Chernobyls of Cs-137… “but it is worse” — “Doubly ironic that it is all thanks to Yomiuri Shinbun, pro-nuke establishment newspaper”, ENENews.com, May 26th, 2012
2012-05-26 NYTimes: ‘The Web’ has amplified fears that are helping to undermine assurances by Tepco and the Japanese gov’t that Fukushima Daiichi in stable condition, ENENews.com
2012-05-26 Reactor 4 open for press, posted by Mochizuki, fukushima-diary.com on May 26th, 2012
On 5/26/2012, Tepco invited Japanese press and Hosono ,minister of environment to the inside of reactor 4 building. [Editor's Note: Mochizuki provides a lot of good photos].
2012-05-26 Japan Vice Minister: “Uncertainties remain” at Unit 4 — Tepco Official: We will inspect reactor building to reevaluate its safety, ENENews.com
2012-05-26 AP: Bulging wall at Unit 4 renews concerns — Gov’t regulators order investigation of fuel pool and reactor building, ENENews.com
2012-05-26 Reprocessing Nuclear Fuel to Continue in Japan?, majiasblog.blogspot.com, Saturday, May 26, 2012
Reprocessing Nuclear Fuel to Continue in Japan?
Asahi: Panel backs nuclear fuel reprocessing after talks with industry officials May 24 2012
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201205240100
[excerpt] "A Japan Atomic Energy Commission panel revised its draft policy evaluations to favor nuclear fuel recycling after closed-door consultations with pro-nuclear officials from the industry, sources said...
A senior official of Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., which operates a spent fuel reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, called for plant operations to continue, the sources said..."
MAJIA HERE: Why would Japan want to continue re-processing nuclear fuel?
There are only 3 reasons I can think of that Japan would want to continue "re-processing" a.k.a. "enriching" nuclear fuel.
1. They plan to re-start breeder reactors and/or reactors that can run on MOX fuel, which contains a much higher percentage of plutonium.
2. They plan on selling re-processed fuel to other nations.
3. They have a nuclear weapons program that they want to continue producing plutonium for.
Any of these answers is deeply unsettling.
Perhaps both they are all correct?
Japan has a history of "re-processing" fuel
AND of stockpiling plutonium by purchasing it from other nations.
Please see my post here:
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/tokai.html
2012-05-26 Head of Japan Gov’t Committee: “It’s a race against time” at Spent Fuel Pool No. 4, ENENews.com
2012-05-26 US NRC's Information on Spent Fuel Storage, ex-skf.blogspot.com
Since there are many experts who urge removing the spent fuel assemblies from the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant and into dry cask storage as soon as possible, I checked what the US regulatory agency of the nuclear power industry says about spent fuel storage to find out how soon is "as soon as possible".
The minimum the NRC has authorized is 3 years, 5 years normal, industry norm 10 years.
From NRC's webpage "Spent Fuel Storage in Pools and Dry Casks: Key Points and Questions & Answers" (part):
1. All U.S. nuclear power plants store spent nuclear fuel in “spent fuel pools.” These pools are robust constructions made of reinforced concrete several feet thick, with steel liners. The water is typically about 40 feet deep, and serves both to shield the radiation and cool the rods.
2. As the pools near capacity, utilities move some of the older spent fuel into “dry cask” storage. Fuel is typically cooled at least 5 years in the pool before transfer to cask. NRC has authorized transfer as early as 3 years; the industry norm is about 10 years.
3. The NRC believes spent fuel pools and dry casks both provide adequate protection of the public health and safety and the environment. Therefore there is no pressing safety or security reason to mandate earlier transfer of fuel from pool to cask.
The Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool contains fuel assemblies that were removed from the reactor core when the unit went into regular maintenance that included replacing the core shroud on November 30, 2010. The maintenance was to last until September 24, 2011 (299 days). There were 548 fuel assemblies in the reactor core at that time. (Information from TEPCO's press release, 11/29/2010)
Assuming that the fuel assemblies were removed from the core soon after the start of the maintenance and put into the SFP, say sometime in December 2010, they have been cooled in the SFP for about one and a half years by now. Another one and a half years to go, then, to reach the minimum that the NRC would authorize the removal from the SFP to dry casks.
TEPCO/Japanese government's current plan seems to be to move the older fuel assemblies in the Common Spent Fuel Pool into dry casks to make room for the Reactor 4 SFP fuel assemblies.

North America

2012-05-20 A Vision, majiasblog.blogspot.com, Sunday, May 20, 2012
A Vision
Last night I had a strange set of visions as I was trying to fall asleep.
They were ephemeral and lacked the typical dream narrative.
The first was a hole in the ground out of which emerged a worm. The worm transformed as it was erupting from the hole into a terrifying serpent.
In quick succession, the next image appeared.
The next image was a an old wooden bridge shrouded in mist. I could not see across the bridge to the other side as the mist obliterated my view.
I have good recall of my dreams, but I was not asleep. Usually my dreams involve long narratives, not ephemeral images.
The visions can be interpreted.
The worm from the earth that transforms into a terrifying serpent is the transmutation of matter into the nuclear hell on earth that is Fukushima.
Plutonium and Cesium-137 are not of our planet. We have produced them in a terrible alchemy.
Like the sorcerer's apprentice, we have lost control.
The other side of the bridge is shrouded.
Will we survive the ongoing poisoning of our oceans and our air?
In Fukushima Meltdown, Takashi Hirose reminds us that "while there my be 'no immediate effects of irradiation, the effects will continue to surface slowly over a long period of time." (p. 65)
For instance, calculations of the radioactivity concentration of the Columbia River from Hanford suggest that if the river contamination value is 1, the egg yolk of a water bird will be 1 million times more concentrated (from Hirose p. 73).
We will not live on if our oceans and soil become highly contaminated.
What awaits us on the other side of that bridge?
I believe the answer depends upon what kind of beings we really are.
We are being tested and we will find out
2012-05-20 No Jetstream, And Still 20X Background Radiation In 8:15 pm Storm, pissinontheroses.blogspot.com, Sunday, May 20, 2012
We took a paper towel swipe from hood of our truck at 8:15pm on 5/20/12 during the tail end of a partial solar eclipse which was obscured by a storm that had just passed through the area. That sample returned a reading of 20 times greater than background radiation. The reading is unusually high given that the jet stream is currently over Canada, many miles north of Saint Louis.
2012-05-21 NYTimes: N.R.C. Chairman Jaczko to Resign, ENENews.com
2012-05-23 NRC Appointment Prioritizes Nuclear Industry Profits Over Safety, majiasblog.blogspot.com, Wednesday, May 23, 2012
NRC Appointment Prioritizes Nuclear Industry Profits Over Safety
The Sierra Club has issued this alert:
Take Action: Keep the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Focused on Safety
[Excerpt] President Obama has nominated, and the Senate has been asked to confirm, the appointment of Kristine Svinicki to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a second term. Unfortunately, Svinicki has already spent five years on the NRC voting to make life easy for the nuclear industry. Svinicki voted to reject new, tighter safety measures for radioactive leaks that could have given a higher level of protection to both the public and the environment. The commission needs members who will put safety first, and Svinicki's record proves she will not.
Common Dreams Reports:
94 Organizations Urge Senate to Reject Possible Renomination of Kristine Svinicki to NRC
Groups Cite Consistent Pattern of Supporting Nuclear Industry Interests at the Expense of Public Health and Safety
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2012/04/30-5
[Excerpt] in a letter sent to Senate Environment Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Ranking Member James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the groups said that “…during her first term as an NRC Commissioner, Ms. Svinicki uniformly voted for nuclear industry interests at the expense of public health and safety.”
For example, the letter noted that Ms. Svinicki was the only member of the Commission who voted against implementation of critical post-Fukushima safety reforms under a framework that would ensure they be considered necessary for “adequate protection” of nuclear reactors—a standard that would enhance NRC enforcement of the rules.
2012-05-23 BURDENING THE SPECIES WITH GENETIC MUTATIONS: WE ARE ALREADY DOING IT, majiasblog.blogspot.com, Wednesday, May 23, 2012
In 1956 a group of geneticists issued a report concerning effects of radioactivity on hereditary. The New York Times published the report on June 13, page 18.
The report's authors were stars in the field of genetics and included President of the National Academy of Sciences Dr Detlev Bronk; Dr. A. Geoffrey Norman, Chairman of the Committee of the Effects of Atomic Radiation on Agriculture and Food Supplies; Dr. Henry Wexler, Chairman of the Committee on Metrological Aspects of Atomic Radiation; Dr. Shields Warren, Chairman of the Committee on the Pathological Effects of Radiation; Dr. Abel Wolman, Chairman of the Committee on the Disposal and Dispersal of Atomic Waste; Dr. Roger Revelle, Chairman of the Committee on Oceanography and Fisheries.
The report begins by diplomatically acknowledging the medical and energy benefits of nuclear. It then turns to examine the health risks, particularly from “fall-out.”
The report queries:
[Excerpt] “Are we harming ourselves and are there genetic effects which will harm our children and their descendants, through this radioactive dust that has been settling down on all of us? Are things going to be still worse when presently we have a lot of atomic power plants, more laboratories experimenting with atomic fission and fusion, and perhaps more and bigger weapons testing? Are there similar risks, due to other sources of radiation, but brought to our attention by these atomic risks?”
The report continues that “even very small amounts of radiation unquestionably have the power to injure hereditary materials.”
Majia Here: The report was created in the early days of genetic research. However, the report authors expressed confidence in their conclusions because of the similarities across animal genomes that reproduce sexually. Thus, the report notes that although research to date on radiation’s biological effects were (primarily) limited to bacteria, fruit flies and mice,
[Excerpt] “the chemical nature of hereditary material is universally the same; the main pattern of hereditary transmission of traits is the same for all life reproducing sexually; and the nature of the effects of high energy radiations upon the genetic material is likewise universally the same in principle. Hence when it comes to human … we can at least feel certain of the general nature of the effects, and need only to discover ways in which to measure them precisely..."
The report is pages long so I will summarize the main conclusions.
First, the report addresses how genetic mutations occur to individuals exposed to any level of radiation, including background radiation:
[Excerpt] "...it cannot safely be assumed that the effect is a negligible one on the person in whom the mutation occurred, nor can it properly be said that this effect is nongenetic even though passage to offspring is not involved. For various kinds of cellular abnormalities are known to be perpetuated within an individual through body-cell divisions; so these effects are genetic in the broad sense.
What is involved here is not only mutant genes, but also larger scale disruptions of the genetic material, such as breakage of chromosomes.
The quantitative relations are not yet clear, but it is established that certain malignancies such as leukemia and certain other cellular abnormalities can be induced by ionizing radiations."
MAJIA HERE: After discussing the implications for individuals, the report discusses what happens when genetic mutations affect germ-line cells involved in reproduction. This is the central concern of the report because enough mutations to human germ line cells can effectively compromise the species' ability to produce healthy offspring.
Let me put this another way: The report is warning readers that too much exposure to radiation can cause the extinction of the human species.
[Excerpt] "To return to a consideration of the risks which are passed on to progeny, the mutant gene may exist in a sperm or an egg cell as a result of a mutation having occurred either in that cell or at some earlier cell stage. In this case, a child resulting from this sperm or egg will inherit the mutant gene….
…. Of great importance for our present study is the fact that mutant genes—genes which have, for example, been changed by radiations—are usually of the recessive types.
It is now easy to see that any organism may have, latent in its genetic constitution, ineffectual or recessive genes that have not had much of a chance to become apparent in its developed external characteristics since the recessive genes are masked by their dominant companion genes…
…Mutation ordinarily affects each gene independently; and once changed, an altered gene then persists from generation to generation in its new or mutant form.
Moreover the mutant genes, in the vast majority of cases, and in all the species so far studied, lead to some kind of harmful effect. In extreme cases the harmful effect is death itself, or the loss of the ability to produce offspring, or some other serious abnormality. What in a way is of even greater ultimate importance, since they affect so many more persons, are those cases that involve much smaller handicaps, which might tend to shorten life, reduce number of children, or be otherwise detrimental” [end excerpt]
MAJIA HERE: The report explains that mutant genes may not be expressed in the first generation of offspring. However, once they are encoded into the germ-line cells they get transmitted across generations.
CONSEQUENTLY, each new generation of offspring will receive every mutation their parents ever incurred to their germ-line cells. In effect, each generation is BURDENED with the LEGACY OF MUTATIONS TO GERM LINE CELLS incurred by previous generations.
[Excerpt] "the harmful recessive mutant genes are not usually completely masked. Even when paired with a normal and dominant gene, that is to say even when in the heterozygous state, they still have some detrimental effect. This ‘heterozygous damage’ is ordinarily much smaller than the full expression of the mutant when in the homozygous state, and yet there may be significant shortening of the length of life or reduction of the fertility of the heterozygous carriers of the mutant. And the risk of heterozygous damage applies to every single descendant who receives the genes....”
"...A mildly deleterious gene may eventually do just as much total damage as a grossly and abruptly one, since the milder mutant persists longer and has a chance to harm more people”
"....the concept of a safe rate of radiation simply does not make sense if one is concerned with genetic damage to future generations. What counts, from the point of view of genetic damage, is not the rate; it is the total accumulated dose to the reproductive cells of the individual from the beginning of his life up to the time the child is conceived...." [end excerpt]
MAJIA HERE: After discussing at length the mechanisms whereby genetic mutations caused by radiation are transmitted generationally, the report notes that measuring these changes in the entire population is quite difficult. But:
[Excerpt] “We should not disregard a danger simply because we cannot measure it accurately, nor underestimate it simply because it has aspects which appeal in differing degrees to different persons...."
MAJIA HERE: I think it is very important to address the message here:
This report is warning the public that at some unknown level of exposure, say X, humans will have such a legacy of genetic damage that their offspring are not able to successfully reproduce.
There is considerable research now pointing to the role of de novo mutations in autism.
Here is a definition of a de novo mutation: "An alteration in a gene that is present for the first time in one family member as a result of a mutation in a germ cell (egg or sperm) of one of the parents or in the fertilized egg itself " (Genetics Homepage Reference http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/glossary=denovomutation)
Majia here: It appears that we are on the fast track for burdening our descendents with genetic mutations so great in number that the species may not perpetuate.
FUKUSHIMA radiation is elevating background levels of radiation substantially and contaminating food supplies in the northern hemisphere, particularly in Japan, Canada, and the US.
We must act now to address the fallout and to shut down nuclear reactors everywhere that are routinely leaking tritium and other forms of ionizing radiation.
2012-05-24 !MAXIMUM ALERT! Unusual Jet Stream Radioactivity Detected, by potrblog, Thursday, May 24, 2012
Unusually high levels of airborne radioactivity have been detected in proximity of the Jet Stream in eastern Colorado on 5/23/12 by a member of the RADIATION NETWORK. A check of the Jet Stream map indicates that the flow is a veritable freight train coming out Fukushima. Given the unusual nature of the detection and our recent Gamma Spectrometry detection of Barium-140 (see video below), we have labeled this detection a "Maximum Alert".
For the POTRBLOG team the alert means:
Running HEPA filters full time,
Avoiding air travel any where near the Jet Stream
Staying out of the rain
Avoiding brining rain soaked items into the house
We give a big hat tip to the Radiation Network for noticing the unusual nature of the fallout pattern and reporting it.
Here is an image of the current Jet Stream Location
2012-05-24 Commander reveals nuclear fuel on board burned sub — Local News: He ‘could not say how much’, ENENews.com
2012-05-24 Local TV: Nuclear sub fire ‘very difficult to fight’ — Special operation team arriving on scene — Heat ‘creating significant amount of steam’ — Burning for over 7 hours (PHOTOS & VIDEO), ENENews.com
2012-05-24 Nuclear sub burning 50 miles from Boston — “It doesn’t smell like a regular fire” — Black smoke continues billowing (PHOTOS), ENENews.com
2012-05-25 US Congressman: Days before officials can enter fire-damaged area of nuclear sub, ENENews.com
2012-05-25 US Congressman: Days before officials can enter fire-damaged area of nuclear sub, ENENews.com
2012-05-25 Where Do I Go If Fukushima Blows? (Northern Hemisphere Nuclear Fallout Map), thedailysheeple.com
With warnings about the Fukushima disaster getting more dire every day, many are wondering how they can avoid the inevitable radioactive fallout should things worsen in Japan.
The bottom line is, unless you’ve got a fully stocked nuclear bunker and radiation suits, there’s not much you can do to prevent exposure – other than to get the heck out of Dodge.
Over the years there have been numerous maps developed to identify nuclear safe zones in the event of war between nuclear powers like the United States, Russia and China. While not exactly perfect, as the Fukushima nuclear release is not the same as multiple, simultaneous nuclear detonations across the Northern Hemisphere resulting from war, the following map may provide some insight as to where nuclear radiation will be limited and significantly lowered based on global weather patterns.
Evacuation tip: If you’ve made the decision to evacuate due to nuclear fallout north of the equator, you’ll want to head to the Southern Hemisphere as depicted by this map made available by Nuclear Darkness:
This may explain why elite members of society, most notably George Soros and the Bush family, have purchased thousands of acres of land in South America, directly above a major aquifer...
2012-05-26 THE BIG ONE, majiasblog.blogspot.com, Saturday, May 26, 2012
THE BIG ONE
Nuclear Power After Fukushima. The New York Times Published: May 25, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/26/opinion/nuclear-power-after-fukushima.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120526
[excerpt] "...After being hit by an unusually powerful earthquake and the tsunami it generated, Fukushima lost its connection to the off-site electrical grid and its own backup generators, making it impossible to cool the reactors to prevent a meltdown and release of radiation.
Although an equally powerful earthquake and tsunami were deemed unlikely in this country,"
[end excerpt]
Let us think about this for a moment. Hmmm...
San Onofre and Diablo Canyon nuclear plants are on the coast of California. Diablo Canyon is built ON A FAULT and San Onofre is in quake-prone LA.
I grew up in California and earthquakes are not unusual and indeed, one grows up expecting THE BIG ONE.
As children, we were prepped and prepared for "THE BIG ONE."
Those were the exact words.
Now, tell me how a strong earthquake and tsunami in California are "unlikely in this country."
San Onofre has had a series of severe pipe malfunctions. It may not take THE BIG ONE to destroy that aging plant...
Wind-farms and solar are emerging everywhere in CA and AZ. We don't have to rely on nuclear. We may have to learn with less electricity, but at least can live with alternative energy.
2012-05-26 NYTimes: “Oregon could lie in the path of any new radioactive plumes” from Fukushima, ENENews.com

Europe and Rest of World

2012-05-21 Potrblog, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, majiasblog.blogspot.com, Monday, May 21, 2012
Potrblog: No Jetstream, And Still 20X Background Radiation In 8:15 pm Storm
http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com/2012/05/no-jetstream-and-still-20x-background.html
MAJIA HERE: Meanwhile, blogger Ex-SKF is reporting that a french study claims radiation fallout from Fukushima was a fraction of the fallout from Chernobyl (e.g., http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2012/05/french-researchers-lower-bound.html#comment-form)
I've posted previously competing estimates and I would take this new study with a grain of radium given the current efforts to frame media understanding of Fukushima radiation.http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/plant-erupts-into-poison-fruit-dont-be.html
Here is the study cited by Ex-SKF (who doesn't reveal whether he believes it or not)
French Researchers: Lower Bound Estimates of Atmospheric Release of Iodine, Cesium from Fukushima "about 5 to 10 times less than the Chernobyl atmospheric releases"
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 117, D05122, 16 PP., 2012 (Received 27 September 2011; accepted 23 January 2012; published 9 March 2012)
MAJIA HERE: CONTRASTING ACCOUNTS
Summary Report of RSMC Beijing on Fukushima Nuclear Accident Emergency Response
WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION
CBS/CG-NERA/Doc. 5.4 (27.10.2011)
“Nuclear leaks occurred in Fukushima and lasted for five days. The total release amount was equal to that of Chernobyl nuclear explosion” p. 4
Geoff Brumfiel Global data on Fukushima challenge Japanese: Fallout forensics hike radiation toll. Published online 25 October 2011 | Nature 478, 435-436 (2011) |
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/251011/full/478435a.html
Radioxenon levels were 40,000X Average Concentration In Pacific Northwest in Week Following Accident. Bowyer, T. W. et al. (2011). Elevated Radioxenon Detected Remotely Following the Fukushima Nuclear Accident. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 102, 681-687.
November 14, 2011 Xenon Gas and Lethal Doses by Inhalation
http://www.aipri.blogspot.com/ (this site is in French so I used Google translate): The AIPR or International Association for the Protection Against Ionizing Radiation posted this on Nov 4 (please note it is translated from the French) "The program "semi formalized" in Fukushima of 1.67 E19 Bq 133 Xe gas have meant the spread of 2.411 kg. This emission is equivalent in terms of internal radiation lung 400.8 million in potentially lethal doses by inhalation. As shown, 2.4 kg of material having the power to kill only transient 400 million people, the Xenon 133 is classified as very low radiotoxic. It's not beautiful science! "The Xe 133 has a half-life of 5.244 days. It decreases in beta mode with a decay constant of 1.52985 s-1 E-6. (Ln (2) / T1 / 2 ie 0.693147 / 5.244 * 24 * 60 * 60 = 1.52985 E-6. ) The specific activity of E15 6.9271 Bq / g E05 Ci/gr.- -1.872 (6.0221415 E 23 / ??133 * 1.5299 = 6.9271 E-06 E15 Bq / gr.) The inhalation dose factor is of 1.20 E-10 Sv / Bq.
MOREOVER
[Japan Times] “A former special adviser to Naoto Kan, who was prime minister when the crisis started, warned that the situation is far from resolved and said Fukushima has exposed a raft of serious nuclear problems that Japan will have to confront for years….”
Nuke dangers nowhere near resolved: Kan's crisis adviser. Japan Times 8 Feb 2012
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/print/nn20120208f1.html
Helen Caldicott Interview with Arnie Gunderson: If You Love This Planet Radio May 8, 2012
EXCERPT: I would say there are billions, actually trillions, of becquerels per day being released airborne, mainly from Units 2 and 3.
Actually on cold nights you can still the steam coming off those reactors, its not just steam its radioactive steam.
Something on the order of trillions of becquerels per day… trillions of disintegrations per second per day are being released even now.
Dr. Helen Caldicott: So what you’re really saying Arnie Gundersen is that the ocean will continue to be contaminated, kind of for the rest of time. Because there’s no foreseeable way to prevent water leaking out of containment vessels continuously into the ocean… We’re talking about continual contamination of the Pacific Ocean.
Arnie Gundersen: You’re right.
http://www.radio4all.net/files/jazzwilliams@gmail.com/3400-1-184IYLTP_20120508.mp3
Enviro-reporter found 7 ½ X normal level of radiation using inspector alert from dust from his hepa filter that collected for 40 days.
Title: Radioactive Rain & The Reality Of Japan’s Nuclear Fallout in High Definition Source: Attack of the Show with Kevin Pereira Channel: G4 Date: Apr. 17, 2012
HAT TIP ENENEWS FOR MANY OF THESE LINKS
2012-05-23 Exposed: World Health Organization beholden to nuclear interests — “Like having Dracula guard the blood bank” (VIDEOS), ENENews.com
2012-05-23 Mutations: Germ Line Mosaicism, majiasblog.blogspot.com, Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Majia here: This post is a follow up from yesterday's post on genetic mutations and ionizing radiation
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/burdening-species-with-genetic.html
Today I examined some UN reports. It is worth noting that the World Health Organization (and probably all health related UN organizations) is subordinate in authority to the IAEA and is barred from conducting their own independent research on the effects of ionizing radiation.
Enenews had a report on this subordination
http://enenews.com/exposed-world-health-organization-beholden-nuclear-interests-videos
It is clear from the research I'm doing that the effects of ionizing radiation have been extraordinarily politicized in order to legitimize the insanity of nuclear bombs and nuclear "energy."
However, I will make that particular argument later.
Right now I'm focusing on current research summaries of the effects of ionizing radiations on mutations.
The following report offers a discussion of germ line mosaicism that accords with the 1956 report I looked at yesterday: Genetics Committee Report Concerning Effects of Radioactivity on Heredity
ANNEX UNSCAR REPORT: Hereditary effects of radiation 2001
http://www.unscear.org/docs/reports/2001/2001Annex_pages%208-160.pdf
page 62
[excerpted] "Germ-line mosaicism (the occurrence of a de novo mutation in a germ-line cell or one of its precursors during early embryonic development), however, will result in a “mutant sector” in the gonad of an otherwise phenotypically normal individual, and such an individual will generate gametes carrying the mutation, which in turn may result in individuals carrying the same mutation in the following generation (“mutant clusters”).
The occurrence of germ-line mosaicism provides an explanation for the inheritance patterns in cases where multiple affected children are born to clinically normal parents. For instance, some diseases that satisfy two of the requirements for autosomal recessive inheritance, namely, expression in the offspring of unaffected parents and recurrence within sibs, may actually be due to a dominant mutation that was present as a mosaic in the parental germ line.
In organisms such as the Drosophila and the mouse, a sizeable proportion of spontaneous mutations is known to arise as mosaics in the germ line and can be readily inferred from the occurrence of clusters of identical mutations in the progeny of singlepair matings [F27, R40, S99, S100, S101, S102, W28]." [end excerpt from page 62]
MAJIA HERE: NOTE the report argues that the calculations of risk for mice mutations should not be directly generalized (in a formula) to calculate human mutation rates:
[excerpted] (a) the use of entirely mouse-data based doubling doses to estimate human genetic risks is conceptually incorrect; (b) it is not possible to extrapolate from mouse data on mosaics and clusters to human spontaneous rates at present; and (c) the prudent way forward is to use spontaneous mutation rates of human genes and rates of induced mutations in mouse genes to estimate doubling doses, as was first done in the 1972 BEIR Report." (page 64)
MAJIA HERE: Limits of mice studies for calculating specific risk factors duly noted.
Page 81 NOTES THAT PHENOTYPIC ANALYSIS MAY NOT BE ABLE TO DETECT DEVELOPMENTAL MUTATIONS BECAUSE THEY MAY BE RECESSIVE
This point was noted and emphasized in the 1956 Genetics Committee Report Concerning Effects of Radioactivity on Heredity I discussed yesterday.
It is an important point because it implies that many of the genetic mutations caused by radiation (and chemicals) may not be visible until they accumulate to such an extent that they cause gross mutations. The mutations can effectively "sneak" up on a population across generations:
[excerpted] "It can be argued, however, that a significant proportion of mutations or deletions in developmental genes is recessive, i.e. heterozygotes do not manifest the abnormal developmental phenotype. Some support for this line argument comes from homozygosity tests of radiation-induced specific locus mutations in mice which uncovered the existence of this class of mutations that were not detected by phenotypic analysis (e.g. [R12]).
Majia here: The report yesterday noted that although the mutations may be latent, they can still affect the health of the affected individual and may be carried down generations whereupon the accumulation of errors produces greater magnitude problems, since each generation inherits all genetic damage to germ line cells acquired by his/her family line.
On Friday or later this weekend I plan on examining ANNEX C: Non-Targeted and Delayed Effects of Exposure to Ionizing Radiation 2006
http://www.unscear.org/docs/reports/2006/09-81160_Report_Annex_C_2006_Web.pdf
Before concluding this post, I would like to point to a research study on mice that found that older male mice exposed to ionizing radiation had more permanent germ-line damage.
I found this study interesting because a correlation has been observed between advanced paternal age and autism.
The study still has bearing on this problem I think, while I acknowledge the error of extrapolating actual quantitative risk figures for humans from mice:
Ionizing radiation-induced mutant frequencies increase transiently in male germ cells of older mice Guogang Xua, C. Alex McMahanb, Kim Hildretha, Rebecca A. Garciaa, Damon C. Herberta, Christi A. Walter Mutation Research/Genetic Toxicology and Environmental Mutagenesis Available online 31 January 2012
Abstract
[excerpt] Spontaneous mutant frequency in the male germline increases with age, thereby increasing the risk of siring offspring with genetic disorders. In the present study we investigated the effect of age on ionizing radiation-induced male germline mutagenesis. lacI transgenic mice were treated with ionizing radiation at 4-, 15- and 26-month-old, and mutant frequencies were determined for pachytene spermatocytes and round spermatids at 15 days or 49 days after ionizing radiation treatment.
Cells collected 15 days after treatment were derivatives of irradiated differentiating spermatogenic cells while cells collected 49 days later were derivatives of spermatogonial stem cells. The results showed that (1) spontaneous mutant frequency increased in spermatogenic cells recovered from nonirradiated old mice (26-months-old), particularly in the round spermatids; (2) mutant frequencies were significantly increased in round spermatids obtained from middle-aged mice (15-months-old) and old age mice (26-months-old) at 15 and 49 days after irradiation compared to the sham-treated old mice; and (3) pachytene spermatocytes obtained from 15- or 26-month-old mice displayed a significantly increased mutant frequency at 15 days post irradiation.
This study indicates that age modulates the mutagenic response to ionizing radiation in the male germline.
[excerpt from article] "Advanced paternal age (about 40 years or older at the time of conception) is associated with an increased incidence of a wide range of genetic and epigenetic diseases in offspring [2]. For example de novo mutations (C to G in fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) gene) in 57 Apert cases were all of paternal origin…In addition to several diseases with clear Mendelian inheritance, advanced paternal age is also linked to an increased risk for diabetes with a genetic component such as childhood cancers [5-7], diabetes mellitus type [8], multiple sclerosis [9], autism [10] and congenital malformations [11], and others. The association between paternal age and increased risk for diseases in offspring may be at least partially ascribed to mutagenesis in male gametes [12-16]."
Majia here: My previous post on this study and its potential implications for autism
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/ionizing-radiation-and-germ-cell-damage.html
2012-05-24 WHO Coverup Of Fukushima Radiation Is Unscientific Hogwash by Yoichi Shimatsu, World Exclusive To Rense.com
The recently released report titled "Preliminary Dose Estimation from the nuclear accident after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunamii" is a clumsy attempt by the World Health Organization to downplay the public-health catastrophe hitting the Japanese people and stalking the world population. To the many skeptics who have already experienced WHO malfeasance, please bear with this brief response to yet another scandalous cover-up from the Geneva-based international agency.
The 122-page WHO report is a classic example of data manipulation - reliance on biased studies, dismissal of contrary evidence and faulty logic - further weighed down by reams of irrelevant text that insurance agents call "boilerplate".
Buried deep in the report - though it should be buried six-feet deep - are the expert panel's conclusions:
"It can be concluded that the estimated effective doses outside Japan from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident are below (and often far below) the dose levels regarded by the international radiological protection community as very small."
"It can also be concluded that low effective doses are estimated in much of Japan."
"In the Fukushima prefecture and in neighbouring prefectures the estimated effective doses are below the internationally agreed reference level for public exposure due to radon in dwellings (annual effective dose of about 10 mSv ).
Thus, according to the warped logic from the WHO, a person living inside a house in Colorado or Kyushu is more threatened by radiation exposure from radon gas in their basement than residents of Fukushima are from reactor meltdowns. It should be noted that on the same day of the report's release, the U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation stated that none of the Fukushima nuclear workers' deaths were caused by radiation exposure.
It is implausible that the WHO experts could leap so blindly - not just stumble - into every pitfall laid by the Japanese government's spin-doctoring of the Fukushima public health disaster. The report is not just a compendium of minor errors; it amounts to a scandalous cover-up arising from the health industry's lucrative connections to the nuclear industry. Huge profits are made from radiation treatment of cancer with isotopes produced inside nuclear reactors, even if this brutal form of "therapy" is hardly more effective than a witch doctor's incantations.
The gross flaws in the WHO report include:
- acceptance of skewed data on radiation levels in food from testing centers affiliated with the Japanese government, without inclusion of studies by independent laboratories outside of Japan. No questions are raised about the suppression of findings of high-level contamination or of selective tissue samples from only the least -affected parts of vegetables, fruits, grains, meat and fish.
- unquestioning acceptance of bogus data under the Japanese government's system of so-called averaged-out radiation readings, which are diluted and ignore the actual range of measurements from low areas to hot spots, which can be up to 1,000 times higher.
- reference to thyroid studies done on Fukushima children taken after the half-life expiration of iodine-131 following the March 15 explosions.
- categorical dismissal of any quantitative readings of radiation levels in drinking water, based on dubious government measurements without any consideration of the variable factor of snow melt from fallout-affected watersheds.
- reliance on the British system of computer modeling of atmospheric dispersal of isotopes, which excludes analysis of concentrated contamination via heat-column interaction with the high-altitude jet stream (which has long since opened an Arctic ozone hole).
- assumption that sea dumping of nuclear material is harmless except for contamination of the fish catch in the immediate marine environs of the Fukushima coast, without concern for spawning areas and long-term contamination of marine feed stocks, including algae and plankton.
The WHO catalog of falsification is easily taken apart line-by-line in every section, although the summary above should suffice to relegate it to the medical fraud file.The modeling and selective data used by the WHO are so fundamentally flawed that the only logical deduction is that its experts are simply apologists for nuclear power - actually it is far worse than apologetics since the so-called experts are agents-in-place for the nuclear industry. A cursory glance at the qualifications of just a few members of the Expert Panel indicates close ties with the nuclear industry.
- Jane Simmonds, chair: U.K. Health Protection Agency, in reality with the National Radiation Protection Board, which is notoriously allied with the nuclear power industry
- Stephanie Haywood, rapporteur, University of Hull, Center for Adaptive Science
- Lynn Anspaugh, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- Mikhail Bolonov, Soviet-era radiobiologist, perpetrated the Chernobyl cover-up
- Carl Blackburn, U.S. expert on irradiation for the food industry
- Shin Saigusa, Japan National Institute for Radiation Safety, formerly with Fukushima University
- Ichiro Yamaguchi, head of the Yamagata testing station who stated that Tohoku residents faced only very low doses of radiation
- Philippe Verrger, WHO, French expert on irradiation for the European food industry.
Not a single critic of the nuclear industry was appointed to the expert committee, nor radiologists or cancer specialists from private research hospitals. None of the hot-spot readings by the Japanese citizen movements were taken into account or even given mention. It is no coincidence that stooges of Britain's nuclear industry led this panel, since the U.K. was the first nation to support postwar Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi's quest for nuclear-bomb production.
Hippocratic Code violated
An agreement between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the WHO, signed in May 1959, gave veto power to the nuclear authority over any decisions related to radiation damage made by World Health officials, which explains with its flunkies control the Fukushima study. The Hippocratic Code has thus been replaced by an unspoken deal by medical hypocrites.
The Fukushima whitewash adds to the WHO list of crimes against humanity, from its collaboration with major pharmaceutical companies in dubious vaccine campaigns in developing countries, the refusal to link new pathogens to over-dependance on vaccines and antibiotics in humans and animals, rejection of the efficacy of herbal therapy until late into the anti-malaria campaign, its botched response to avian influenza and the hysteria-driven travel ban imposed on Hong Kong during so-called "SARS epidemic"(when no travel advisory was issued on the far higher threat in northern Japan following the Fukushima meltdowns).
Given such a dismal record of fraud and failure, it becomes clear that the World Health Organization cannot be reformed. The WHO is a country club for medical malpractitioners, and as such it should be abolished. Its Fukushima hogwash is the last straw.
Author: Yoichi Shimatsu organized health-consulting seminars by a Hong Kong-based medical science team during the SARS and avian influenza outbreaks, whose recommendations have been widely adopted by Asia's food industry and hospital systems.