Indiana Take Two X-rays To The Chest, But Don't Call In The Morning (8:19) from Indiana Take Two X-rays To The Chest, But Don't Call In The Morning, potrblog.com, Friday, June 15, 2012

Japan

2012-10-10 Reality in Fukushima 4, Posted by Mochizuki on June 10th, 2012
Following up this article..Reality in Fukushima 3
On the same condition, radiation level was measured at more schools in Koriyama city Fukushima. [more here]
2012-06-10 Monitoring post shows radiation level lower than actual by 0.6~0.7µSv/h Posted by Mochizuki on June 10th, 2012
Following up this article..A Fukushima citizen proved monitoring post was manipulated
The movie to capture the manipulation of official monitoring post. This is located at JR Koriyama station.
Actual radiation level is about 0.9 ~ 1.0 µSv/h but it’s indicating 0.275 µSv/h. [more here]
2012-06-10 Violent fluctuations of hydrogen concentration in reactor1, posted by Mochizuki on June 10th, 2012
Hydrogen concentration of reactor 1 has been fluctuating violently since 6/3/2012.
On the daily press conference of 6/4/2012, Tepco explained hydrogen gas is heterogeneous inside of PCV, the indicator captured the mass of high concentration by chance.
2012-06-10 Insanity, majiasblog.blogspot.com
Asahi: Oi restart policy deeply divides ruling party, nation
http://www.asahi.com/english/
NHK Fukui nuclear committee basically accepts report
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120610_23.html
[excerpted] The nuclear committee of Fukui Prefecture, western Japan, has accepted most parts of a draft report guaranteeing the safety of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at the Ohi power plant....
...It concludes that the Ohi plant has sufficient measures to secure the safety of the reactors even if they are hit by powerful earthquakes and tsunami. The estimates are based on data from last year's accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Asahi Top Researchers urge survey of possible active fault under Oi plant
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201206090238.html
"Two scientists are calling for an inspection of a possible active fault line under the Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture before two reactors are brought back online."
2012-06-10 Report: Japan journalist says it’s all a big conspiracy theory to conceal facts — Public has been brainwashed — Local press is just covering up, by ENENews.com
2012-06-10 Mainichi: Cattle attack police car in Fukushima — Chernobyl Biologist: ‘One hog attacked our car with such force we almost went in ditch’ (VIDEO), by ENENews.com
2012-06-10 Researchers having ‘extraordinarily difficult time’ getting Fukushima articles published due to nuclear industry pressure (AUDIO), by ENENews.com
2012-06-11 Japan Times Interview: “Tokyo is still in danger of being lost and the gov’t should be acting accordingly”, by ENENews.com
2012-06-11 Analyst: If truth admitted about Fukushima, it would have broken backbone of Japan’s economy (VIDEO), by ENENews.com
2012-06-11 NHK: Gov’t refused to release Fukushima fallout forecasts — Officials knew simulations were reliable, by ENENews.com
2012-06-11 Kyodo: Fukushima data ‘leaked via infected computers’ — Sent to servers in U.S., by ENENews.com
2012-06-11 “So Terrifying”: Radioactive materials from Fukushima Daiichi won’t be recovered — They are just going to be taken into our bodies — I feel deep regret -Local Official, by ENENews.com
2012-06-11 Kyodo: 1,300 people file criminal complaint seeking to jail gov’t officials and Tepco execs — Haruki Madarame, 32 others accused, by ENENews.com
2012-06-11 IAEA "Training" in Tokai????, majiasblog.blogspot.com
NHK: IAEA training program begins in Tokai village
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120611_25.html
[Excerpted] "An international study program on nuclear energy and the Fukushima accident has begun in Tokai village, north of Tokyo.
Engineers from countries mainly in Asia and Africa are taking part in the Nuclear Energy Management School. The program is sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency...."
[end excerpt]
This is very strange.
Is Tokai village the same place as the Tokai nuclear reactor?
The Tokia nuclear reactor has had some serious problems recently.
Please see my post here:
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/tokai.html
TOKAI is one of the reactors that has suffered damage. It is also the location for reprocessing of plutonium and has been for many years.
In March of 2011 Robert Alvarez reported that Tokai was one of the plants damaged by the earthquake.
[Alvarez 3/13/2011 Meltdowns Grow More Likely at the Fukushima Reactors March 13, 2011 · By Robert Alvarez]
“Meanwhile, Unit 2 of the Tokai nuclear complex, which is near Kyodo and just 75 miles north of Tokyo, is reported to have a coolant pump failure. And Japan's nuclear safety agency has declared a state of emergency at the Onagawa nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan because of high radiation levels. Authorities are saying its three reactors are "under control. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-alvarez/meltdowns-japan-earthquake_b_835121.html
Furthermore, Japanese media reported that reactor at Tokai has leaked radioactive water and suffered a fire in Dec 2011 and Jan 2012
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/nhk-eu-to-defer-releasing-nuclear.html
"Low-level radioactive water leaks at Tokai nuclear plant "The Mainichi Daily News
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120320p2g00m0dm015000c.html
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- [excerpted] "Some 1.5 tons of low-level radioactive water leaked from a storage tank of a nuclear reactor in the process of decommissioning at Japan Atomic Power Co.'s plant in the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Monday..."
Enenews: Fukushima Report Introduced by Top Official Hosono: “Other reactors are all in considerably severe condition” — 14 total; Dai-ni, Onagawa, Tokai — “Extreme situations, though not much has been broadcast” (VIDEO)
http://enenews.com/must-see-report-introduced-by-top-govt-official-hosono-actually-other-reactors-are-all-in-considerably-severe-condition-besides-fukushima-daiichi-14-reactors-total-dai-ni-onagawa-tokai
Why in the world would the IAEA hold training there?
2012-06-11 80,000 Bq/Kg from Imperial Palace Posted by Mochizuki on June 11th, 2012
Following up this article..290,000 Bq/Kg at 18km from National Diet
Radiation is concentrated by algae more and more. Mr. Oyama, the city councilor of Minamisoma measured high level of cesium from center of Tokyo. [more here]
2012-06-12 1.04 million Bq/kg at the poolside of a school in Koriyama Fukushima
Posted by Mochizuki on June 12th, 2012
Following up this article..Elementary school to have students clean the pool gutter
Mr. Suzuki, a freelance journalist tweeted like these below.
<Translate>
In an elementary school of Koriyama city Fukushima, they measured 1.04 million Bq/kg of cesium at the poolside. However, Koriyama city board of education let them have swimming class.
<End>
<Translate>
In Iwaki city, school is going to have students wait in the poolside even though they cancel the swimming class. It is because in case of another major earthquake, teachers can’t save them if they are away from the pool, but mothers are questioning because poolside is contaminated too.
<End>
<Translate>
A mother offered not to use pool outside. The director of Koriyama city board of education said, radiation is the matter of mentality.
<End>
2012-06-12 A very short message from me, Posted by Mochizuki on June 12th, 2012
This is not news.
I thought I wouldn’t lose anything to tell it to everyone.
Today I had a major pain in the middle-left side of my chest. I hope it was nothing serious but it was the same place as last year before evacuation.
It wasn’t the pectoral muscle. The pulse was 73 per minute, a little faster than usual but still in the normal range.
Unlike normal pain in your arm or leg, pain in your chest doesn’t let you escape. and the more you worry, the worse it gets.
It felt like someone was picking my heart. Don’t even want to recall it.
More and more people are dying in Chiba or Tokyo. It’s easy to think it won’t happen to me, but I don’t want to be too late.
I mean, Fukushima Diary is against media blackout. but that’s only for the Fukushima battle line.
Media blackout is everywhere. Media is almost only to conceal the world from you.
so I expect everyone to fight against media blackout on your own battle line.
Battle line is everywhere, and you can fight with a little bit of bravery and passion.
Don’t let them dominate the information. Enlighten the people and help them make the better choice.
Let the soldiers know how stupid they are.
Truth doesn’t belong to anyone.
Break the “reality” in the screen.
2012-06-12 “Throw them to the pool” Posted by Mochizuki on June 13th, 2012
Following up this article..1.04 million Bq/kg at the poolside of a school in Koriyama Fukushima
On 6/5/2012, the board of education of Koriyama city announced all of the elementary schools and junior high schools are going to have swimming class this year. The pools are outside.
They state the atmospheric dose of poolside is the same level as playground after decontamination, but the atmospheric dose of playground is not published.
36 of 86 schools finished decontamination supposedly. The pool water is supposed to contain less than 10Bq/L of cesium but no information is given about how much cesium is accumulated as time passes.
Mr. Suzuki, a freelance journalist tweeted like this below.
<Translate>
The managing staff of Koriyama ciry board of education stated 80% of the parents want schools to have swimming class but it was actually only 80% of managers of PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) and principals. Mothers are upset, ” No even questionnaire, we were not asked anything.”
<End>
2012-06-12 Analyst: Cost of admitting the truth about Fukushima is so great that Japan won’t admit it — Enough to make you question whether to live in Tokyo (VIDEO), by ENENews.com
2012-06-12 Well-known Japanese actor leaving country because of Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 at Fukushima, burning of debris, by ENENews.com
2012-06-12 Fukushima Woman to Officials: I started to suffer from various health problems one after another since last June — “Exactly the same as those found in villages around Chernobyl” (VIDEO), by ENENews.com
2012-06-12 “It is a great agony to live in a contaminated area, I lost hope to live” — “We are struggling hard to suppress our insuppressible feelings” (VIDEO), by ENENews.com
2012-06-12 Wall St. Journal starts ‘Fukushima Watch’ — For ‘juicy details’ lurking in reporters’ notebooks — Readers have an ‘obsession’, by ENENews.com
2012-06-12 Japan Times Interview: “In some ways, I believe Fukushima exceeds the level 7 rating as there are 4 reactors involved”, by ENENews.com
2012-06-12 Professor measuring contamination warns police of high radiation levels in area — Commander responds “Slander!”, by ENENews.com
2012-06-12 Japan Today: 1,324 Fukushima citizens file criminal complaint against TEPCO, gov't, majiasblog.blogspot.com
Japan Today Jun. 12, 2012 -http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/over-1300-fukushima-citizens-file-criminal-complaint-against-tepco
[Excerpt] "More than 1,300 residents of Fukushima Prefecture have filed a criminal complaint against 33 named Tokyo Electric Poer Co (TEPCO) executives and the Japanese government in connection with the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant last year.
The complaint was filed Monday by 1,324 citizens at the Fukushima prosecutors’ office, TBS reported. The bill of indictment formally accuses members of TEPCO and the government’s Nuclear Safety Commission of professional negligence resulting in injury or death.
The commission is accused of negligence in regard to its responsibility to take adequate safety precautions at the Fukushima plant. . . ."
[end excerpt]
read entire article linked above.
In an era of legally and litigation-defined "justice," the citizens of Fukushima have little recourse other than legal action.
Although a criminal suit is appropriate, there can never be adequate restitution or compensation to the citizens of Fukushima and planet earth for the ongoing destruction of the atmosphere and Pacific Ocean as a result of this mega-catastrophe.
Ulrich Beck, a sociologist of risk, was interviewed about the Fukushima catastrophe in July of 2011. Ulrich described the Fukushima nuclear event as a “catastrophe” that “is unlimited in space, time and the social dimension. It's the new kind of risk.”
When asked how such risks are produced, Beck responded: “Risks depend on decision making. The risk depends on the process of modernization. And they're produced with technological innovations and investment.”
Beck denied that the disaster could have resulted simply from unforeseeable natural catastrophes:
[excerpt] "the decision to build an atomic industry in the area of an earthquake is a political decision; it's not done by nature. It's a political decision, which has to be justified in the public and which has been taken by parliament, by businesses and so on. . . . I think industries try to define it as something which has been done by nature. But they don't realize that we are living in an age where the decision making is the primary background for these kinds of catastrophes.
I think it's very important to realize this because modernity, or even what you could say is the victory of modernity, produces more and more uncontrollable consequences.
Beck observes that with Fukushima and other modern risks stemming from human decision making “we have a system of organized irresponsibility: Nobody really is responsible for those consequences. We have a system of organized irresponsibility, and this system has to be changed.”
Beck notes that the denial of responsibility — the system of organized irresponsibility — requires the populace and the state to assume costs of disasters.
In this important sense, Beck points out, “And actually, this is a contradiction to capitalism and the market economy. We have the same discussion actually in relation to the banking system; it's quite similar. Actually, the banks should take care of possible crises, and maybe they should have an insurance principle as well. But they don't, so actually the state has to take it. This is socialism; this is state socialism.”
Beck cited Hirohito Ohno “Interview/ Ulrich Beck: System of Organized Irresponsibility Behind the Fukushima Crisis,” Asahi (2011, July 7):
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201107060307.html
2012-06-13 Radiation Calculations for Nuclear Plants and Nuclear Disasters, majiasblog.blogspot.com
As I'm writing I come across all kinds of interesting tidbits. Here is one from an excellent essay that was published last year:
Fujioka Atsushi. 2011. Understanding the Ongoing Nuclear disaster in Fukushima: A ‘Two-Headed Dragon’ Descends into the Earth’s Biosphere. Michael K. Bourdaghs trans. Asia Pacific Journal Journal Vol 9, Issue 37 No 3, September 12, 2011.
http://japanfocus.org/-Fujioka-Atsushi/3599
Fujioka Atsushi, the author, is Professor of Economics, Ritsumeikan University and Planning Director, Kyoto Museum for World Peace. He is a specialist on the US nuclear economy, space and intelligence strategy, and economic conversion from military to civilian-oriented industry.
[Excerpt] "a typical million-kilowatt class nuclear reactor will produce in a single day of operation as much “deadly ash” (spent nuclear fuel) as three explosions of a Hiroshima-class bomb. This means that in a year of operation, a typical reactor produces as much “deadly ash” as a thousand Hiroshima-class detonations. Each day, today’s nuclear reactors use as much energy as it would have taken to detonate three Hiroshima-class bombs to heat large amounts of water and drive enormous electricity generators...."
Majia Here: Prof. Atsushi also notes that the amount of fuel residing at the Fukushima plant is "roughly ten times the amount of nuclear fuel that was involved in Chernobyl. . . This means that the Fukushima plants holds [sic] an accumulated total radiation equivalent to 138 times the amount that leaked from the Chernobyl plant..."
Majia here: Another estimate provided by a different Japanese academic looks at the amount of cesium-137 released:
Professor Hiroaki Koide, Nuclear Reactor Specialist and Assistant Professor at Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute stated that the Japanese government report submitted to the IAEA quantified the radiation released by the explosions of March 2011 at 15,000 terabecquerels of cesium-137 alone.
This figure did not include other radionuclides, nor did it include radionuclides released into the ocean. Yet, it amounted to 170 times the amount of cesium-137 released by the Hiroshima explosion (Hiroshima was 89 terabecquerels of cesium-137).
Archive Footage of the NYC Press Conference May 4th 2012.” Cinema Forum Fukushima: Available: http://cinemaforumfukushima.org/2012/05/06/archive-footage-of-the-nyc-press-conference-may-4th-2012/On May 4, 2012.
OF COURSE, THE ESTIMATES KEEP CHANGING:
TEPCO's post-mortem shows No. 2 reactor main source of radiation may 25 2012
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201205250053
"Tokyo Electric Power Co. has come up with a new mind-boggling figure to explain the amount of radiation that spewed in the three weeks following the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year.
It is 900 quadrillion becquerels: That's 17 zeros (a quadrillion is one thousand trillion).
The latest figure, announced May 24, reflects findings by TEPCO a little more than a year after the crisis triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake...."
Majia here: BUT NO MATTER HOW MUCH THE CALCULATIONS for EMISSIONS CHANGE, THEY ARE ALWAYS REPRESENTED AS LESS THAN CHERNOBYL WHEN REPORTED IN THE MAINSTREAM PRESS.
How can that be when Fukushima has leaked for 15 plus months and involved 4 reactors, while Chernobyl emitted for 10 days from 1 reactor?
Fukushima has much more fuel than Chernobyl did.
Tepco is saying that only a small fraction of the fuel at Fuukushima has been released.
After watching the Tepco webcam for over a year, I'm not buying that story.
Previous Post on this Subject
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/politics-of-radiation-releases.html
2012-06-13 Incredible Video of Fukushima Steaming/Smoking Away, majiasblog.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tIyaNkJlzA&feature=youtu.be
Brought to us by Nuckelchen
This one is a must watch.
2012-06-13 What Happened to Unit 5 at Fukushima Daiichi?,
NHK offers an interesting reference to unit 5.
NHK: TEPCO studied huge tsunamis in in-house training
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120613_21.html
[Excerpted] Tokyo Electric Power Company says it failed to make use of an in-house study that estimated the extent of damage by huge tsunamis on nuclear reactors.
A group of TEPCO employees conducted a study in 2006 to determine what would happen at the plant's No.5 reactor if it was hit by waves higher than 5.7 meters, the maximum height assumed by the company.
The group estimated that if the waves exceeded 13.5 meters, all power would be lost and it would be impossible to inject water into the reactor.
...But on both occasions, the company failed to make use of the studies' results and did not take any measures against possible disasters."
Majia here: Is this story an indirect strategy for informing us that reactor 5 was damaged?
We have had no official reports for a very long time about the status of reactor 5. Early reports suggested flooding of that unit's basement.
The NRC transcripts had implied that all 6 reactors might melt-down - go to the "final conclusion"
Unit 5 was the same type of Mark 1 reactor as units 1-4. Today I did some research about the plant.
Here is a brief summary of the data contained in an interesting WSJ article (cited below):
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station was Tepco’s first nuclear plant. The plant was built in the 1960s by Ebasco, an American general contractor that no longer exists. Reactors one through five at the site were based on General Electric’s Mark I design.
Kiyoshi Kishi, a former Tepco executive heading Tepco’s nuclear plant engineering was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal about the lack of tsunami precations at the plant. Kishi was quoted as stating that at the time the plant was built, a threat posed by a large tsunami at the site was considered “impossible.”
Later, some precautions were taken to protect the plant against a tsunami with a height of 18.8 feet. The tsunami that hit the plant on March 11 was over twice that height. Tepco engineers interviewed by the Wall Street Journal also reported that the venting systems in reactors one through five were very inefficient.
Flooding of the generators and the poor ventilations systems are cited in the article as the causes of the meltdowns and explosions at the Daiichi units one through four.
The four reactors at the Fukushima Daini complex and building six at the Daiich complex used General Electric’s Mark II system and were purportedly tailored more specifically to meet Japan’s earthquake and tsunami risks.
These reactor buildings at Daini were reported in this article as having shut down safely. However, a status report issued by the IAEA on May 5, 2011, by Deputy Director General and Head of Department of Nuclear Safety and Security, Denis Flory reported that as of April 21st, the exclusion zone around Fukushima Daini plant was reduced from 10 kilometers to 8 kilometers. It is not clear why an exclusion zone around Daini was maintained if the reactors there all shutdown safely.
Source
Norihiko Shirouzu and Chester Dawson. Design Flaw Fueled Nuclear Disaster. The Wall Street Journal (2011, July 1), A1, A12.
2012-06-13 EPA'S Enviro-Facts No Longer Allows Beta and Gamma Inquiries, majiasblog.blogspot.com
I can no longer run gamma and beta charts at the EPA's envirofacts interface.
The links that previously took one to the interface page are no longer live.
I used the EPA's messaging system to ask how I could resume running charts.
Here is my message I sent to them:
comments
The links for the data exchange server are not working:
https://cdxnode64.epa.gov/radnet-public/monitorView.do
I would be grateful if someone can explain to me how I can get in to run graphs now that this link is no longer active.
THIS IS THE RESPONSE I RECEIVED IN MY EMAIL:
Thank you for your response to the Envirofacts Warehouse Website. Envirofacts is an EPA program undergoing continual research and enhancement, so your feedback is greatly appreciated.
The Envirofacts website (http://www.epa.gov/enviro/) is only a web tool that makes data from several EPA data systems available to the public via an online query format. Users specify the criteria by which multiple EPA databases are searched for environmental information. Please note that Envirofacts can only provide the information that is contained within the databases. The data retrieved through these queries are both collected and maintained by the individual program system offices.
Unfortunately your message falls outside the scope of Envirofacts. For issues concerning the CDX, we suggest contacting the CDX Help Desk at http://www.epa.gov/cdx/contact.htm . For Radiation Program Contact Information, go to http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/contact.html
If you have other questions and comments concerning Envirofacts, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Thank you again for your questions and concerns.
"idaemon.rtpnc.epa.gov" ---06/11/2012 02:22:50 PM---comments
"idaemon.rtpnc.epa.gov"
06/11/2012 02:22 PM
To
ENVIROMAIL GROUP@EPA
cc
Subject
(162142248) RadNet Metadata Comments
2012-06-13 Metro gov’t denies Mizumoto park in Tokyo needs radiation decontamination Posted by Mochizuki on June 13th, 2012
<Quote> [Mainichi]
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has rejected a local politician’s call to decontaminate a park where high concentrations of radioactive cesium have been detected, saying radiation levels are not high enough to warrant a cleanup.
The high concentrations in Katsushika Ward’s Mizumoto Park were found earlier by Japanese Communist Party (JCP) members of the metropolitan assembly, and JCP assemblyman Tamio Tazoe called for the decontamination of the site in a recent session. The metropolitan government, which detected a radiation dose of 0.99 microsieverts per hour in tests at the park on June 11, rejected Tazoe’s request, stating the emissions did not reach the national limit. [more here]
2012-06-13 All the pediatricians of Saitama Red Cross Hospital are going to leave Posted by Mochizuki on June 13th, 2012 [Editor's Note: Saitama is located 20-30 km north of Tokyo. Other articles have described how there is a very high rate of birth defects from radiation, to include "monster babies" born with two heads or one eye per head. Apparently it is fairly standard for Japanese doctors to immediately put such babies to death, sometimes telling mothers that their "monster babies" were delivered stillborn when in fact they came into the world alive and deformed. Hence, reading between the lines, we can make the educated guess that the effects of radiation only 20-30 km from Tokyo are causing so many of these kinds of problems that many pediatricians just can't handle it any more].
2012-06-13 Local Japanese Official’s Headline: “Please Diffuse! Are we the Guinea pigs after all?”, by ENENews.com
2012-06-13 “Cover over Reactor 1 is only cosmetic” — Built to keep webcam from filming badly damaged building — Has nothing to do with preventing radioactive materials from escaping, by ENENews.com
2012-06-13 Fukushima Worker: Tepco has another camera filming right now near Reactor No. 4 — We’ve been watching it, by ENENews.com
2012-06-13 Author: “Almost everyone I spoke to, even the most mild-mannered, said they no longer trusted the gov’t, and they said it bluntly, or angrily, or with a deep sense of betrayal”, by ENENews.com
2012-06-13 “A crisis on the scale of the Second World War for Japan” if Tokyo evacuated, by ENENews.com
2012-06-13 Tepco still unable to find where water is leaking out of Reactor No. 2 (VIDEO), by ENENews.com
2012-06-13 300 times more radiation released into atmosphere from burning debris than claimed by gov’t, by ENENews.com
2012-06-13 ‘The dust monitoring and fallout investigation are evidently fake’, by ENENews.com
2012-06-13 Local Official: So many people have sore, scratchy throats — I feel uneasy about amount of airborne radioactive substance, by ENENews.com
2012-06-13 DPA Headline: ‘Experts warn of possible catastrophe at Japan reactor’ — Professor Koide praises Tepco, faults gov’t, by ENENews.com
2012-06-14 Fukushima prefecture requested Hirosaki university to stop internal exposure test Posted by Mochizuki on June 14th, 2012
Fukushima prefectural government requested Hirosaki University to stop internal exposure test “because it causes fear of Fukushima people”.
Researching team of Hirosaki university conducted radiation test for Iodine 131 taken in the thyroid for 17 people in Namiemachi, where is in planned evacuation area and 45 people who evacuated from Minamisoma to Fukushima (62 in total). The researching team obtained the permission of the citizens and local government.
To make the reliable data, they needed over 100 testees but the local medical department of Fukushima prefecture stopped them conducting further research. They commented, “The researching team is allowed to measure environmental radiation level but internal exposure test causes fear, it shall be stopped.”
The medical department states, they don’t remember that comment but they actually requested other universities to “understand the feelings of local citizens.” as well.
As the result, almost none of the internal exposure data of Iodine 131 remained.
The radiation data of those 62 people are already published. On the assumption that they took Iodine 131 to their thyroid on 3/12,the total dosage of internal exposure of the 5 people exceed 50 mSv, which they had to take iodine preparation from the regulation of IAEA. However now it’s considered to be more possible that they took iodine 131 on 3/15, they are analyzing the data again.
Around the end of March 2011, Nuclear disaster headquarters of the government actually conducted thyroid internal exposure test for 1080 of 0 ~ 15 years old people living in Iidate mura but because they used the simple equipment, they couldn’t measure iodine 131 directly. [more here].
2012-06-14 Mainichi: Gov’t tells university researchers to stop radiation tests on Fukushima residents — “Testing people stirs uneasiness, so we would like you to stop it”, by ENENews.com
2012-06-14 Nuclear Expert: No. 4 fuel pool may have 5 times more cesium-137 than estimated — Either way, all of Japan would be an evacuation zone, by ENENews.com
2012-06-14 Asahi reports on highly radioactive mysterious bacteria around Japan — Children touching it, baby strollers nearby — Gov’t claims “no immediate effects on human health”, by ENENews.com
2012-06-14 Professor Hayakawa: We have to surmise that the radiation may have spread to Osaka, by ENENews.com
2012-06-14 Mystery Continues: Professor theorizes black substance on roads is actually radioactive particles — “Phenomenon occurs even in regular soil containing no cyanobacteria” — All roadside dirt can have high radiation, regardless of color, by ENENews.com
2012-06-14 Japanese Diplomat: It is speculated that melt-throughs at Reactors 1-3 might lead to ‘unintended criticality’ or steam explosion, by ENENews.com
2012-06-14 Professor Sasaki: Radioactive ‘black soil’ on Japan’s west coast is from Fukushima Daiichi, by ENENews.com
2012-06-14 Tepco a Year Ago / Meanwhile Hitachi Says Nuclear Power Sales to Double, majiasblog.blogspot.com
Dharmasyd and Heart of the Rose posted this at Enenews. Must watches from a year ago today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBuq-PFaIXQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mHbw_67OuY&feature=plcp
Meanwhile, Japan Today reports: Hitachi says nuclear power sales to double
http://www.japantoday.com/category/business/view/hitachi-says-nuclear-power-sales-to-double
"Hitachi said Thursday it would more than double its nuclear power business within a decade owing to growing overseas demand and post-disaster work at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant."
2012-06-15 Tepco's Safety Record At Fukushima, majiasblog.blogspot.com
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station was Tepco’s first nuclear plant. The plant was built in the 1960s by Ebasco, an American general contractor that no longer exists. Reactors one through five at the site were based on General Electric’s Mark I design.
Kiyoshi Kishi, a former Tepco executive heading Tepco’s nuclear plant engineering was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal about the lack of tsunami precations at the plant. Kishi was quoted as stating that at the time the plant was built, a threat posed by a large tsunami at the site was considered “impossible.”
Later some precautions were taken to protect the plant against a tsunami with a height of 18.8 feet. The tsunami that hit the plant on March 11 was over twice that height.
Tepco engineers interviewed by the Wall Street Journal also reported that the venting systems in reactors one through five were very inefficient. Flooding of the generators and the poor ventilations systems are cited as the causes of the meltdowns and explosions at the Daiichi units one through four.
The four reactors at the Fukushima Daini complex and building six at the Daiich complex used General Electric’s Mark II system and were purportedly tailored more specifically to meet Japan’s earthquake and tsunami risks. These reactor buildings were reported in this article as having shut down safely.
Tepco’s nuclear plants have been plagued with scandals. In 2002, Tepco’s president, vice president, and chairman stepped down after the utility acknowledged that it failed to report accurately cracks at its nuclear reactors in the 1980s and 1990s.
Tepco was suspected of falsifying 29 cases of safety repair records after a whistleblower stepped forward. The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency claimed that up to eight reactors could be operating with unfixed cracks, “though the cracks don't pose an immediate threat.”
In 2006, Tepco was found to have falsified coolant water temperatures at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in 1985, 1988.
The falsified records were used during a 2005 inspection. In the wake of these scandals, Tepco revealed that an uncontrolled chain reaction had occurred in unit 3 at Fukushima Daiichi when fuel rods fell into the reactor.
Tepco also acknowledged that it had falsified records of safety tests on unit 1’s containment vessel that occurred in 1991 -1992. In 2010, unit 2 reactor stopped automatically after problems with a generator resulted in a steep drop in the water level inside the reactor by about 1.8 meters.
Other nuclear plants in Japan have also had significant problems. In 1999 a uranium-reprocessing plant had an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction that killed two employees and released radioactive emissions. In 2007, Tepco's Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata prefecture was damaged in a magnitude 6.8 earthquake on 16 July 2007.
REFERENCES
Japan's nuclear power operator has checkered past. Reuters (2011, March 12),
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/12/us-japan-nuclear-operator-idUSTRE72B1B420110312
Norihiko Shirouzu and Rebecca Smith . Plant's Design, Safety Record Are Under Scrutiny
Complex was central to a falsified-records scandal a decade ago that led Tepco briefly to shut down all its plants. The Wall Street Journal (2011, March 16),
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704396504576204461929992144.html
Norihiko Shirouzu and Alison Tudor. Crisis Revives Doubts on Regulation. The Wall Street Journal (2011, March 15 ),
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703363904576200533746195522.html
Norihiko Shirouzu and Alison Tudor. Crisis Revives Doubts on Regulation. The Wall Street Journal (2011, March 15 ),
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703363904576200533746195522.html
New Japanese nuclear power reactors delayed. World Nuclear News (2008, March 26), http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN-New_Japanese_nuclear_power_reactors_delayed-260308.html
2012-06-15 Re-Starting Reactors in Japan, majiasblog.blogspot.com
Read below for some interesting headlines and my interpretation of their implications.
Noda orders restart of two nuclear reactors at Oi plant. Japan Today. National Jun. 16, 201
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/noda-orders-restart-of-two-reactors-at-oi-plan
[Excerpted] The government’s own rules say reactors must pass International Atomic Energy Agency-approved stress tests designed to demonstrate they could withstand a natural disaster, and then get assent from their host communities."
Japan to get new nuclear regulatory body within 3 months. Japan Today By Linda Sieg
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/japan-to-get-new-nuclear-regulatory-body-within-3-months
[Excerpted] Japan will set up a new nuclear regulator around September under a law approved by the Diet’s lower house on Friday after months of delay as part of a drive to improve safety and restore public trust after last year’s nuclear disaster.
The 2011 Fukushima disaster cast a harsh spotlight on the cozy ties between regulators, politicians and utilities - known as Japan’s “nuclear village” - that experts say were a major factor in the failure to avert the crisis triggered when a huge earthquake and tsunami devastated the plant, causing meltdowns.
The legislation, however, swiftly came under fire for appearing to weaken the government’s commitment to decommissioning reactors after 40 years in operation, even as it drafts an energy program to reduce nuclear power’s role.
[end excerpt]
Fishing recommences off Fukushima coast for 1st time since disaster. Japan Today.
National Jun. 16, 2012
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/fishing-recommences-off-fukushima-coast-for-1st-time-since-disaster
"Experts say the stricken nuclear plant in Fukushima is still releasing radioactive material."
Majia here: Apparently the fish will "not be sold" and will decide whether or not fishing for consumption should proceed.
MAJIA'S SUMMARY OF THESE ARTICLES
1. Radiation is acknowledged to be still "leaking from Fukushima plant
2. Public is very anti-nuclear but Japanese government is bowing to pressure and is going to re-start Oil nuclear power plant.
3. Rationalization for re-start is that the plants must pass the IAEA approved stress test. However, the proposed legislation is being criticized for weakening efforts toward decommissioning aging reactors. Plus, stress test results have not been disclosed.
2012-06-15 880 mSv/h in reactor2 Posted by Mochizuki on June 15th, 2012
2012-06-15 1.32E+9 of cesium leaked from decontamination system of Areva
Posted by Mochizuki on June 15th, 2012
2012-06-15 Fukushima worker “Tepco is having difficulty to increase tanks because of poor ground” Posted by Mochizuki on June 15th, 2012
Related to this article..Possible uneven settlement of reactor 4
Tepco postponed the construction to increase tanks for the contaminated water.
They were planning to start the construction in July but it will be postponed to August.
Tepco explains it is for the construction scheduling and there is still enough capacity of the tank, but actual Fukushima worker, Happy11311 tweeted like this below [more here]
2012-06-15 11,000 people joined demonstration in front of official residence of JP PM posted by Mochizuki on June 15th, 2012
Following up this article..JP PM “Must restart”.- [Live]Massive demonstration in front of PM official residence
Though it was a weekday, 6/15/2012, over 11,000 people joined the demonstration in front of the official residence of Japanese prime minister.
Prime minister is planning to restart Ooi / Oi nuclear plant, demonstration against the nuclear policy is getting intense.
The demonstration in front of started on 4/6/2012 [LINK]. It has been held every Friday and the scale has been growing fast.
At the beginning, about 1,000 people joined, but it was 11,000 on 6/15/2012.
Regardless of the growing scale, none of the mass media report it to conceal the fact.
To remove this demonstration, Japanese government is planning to get the street under construction in front of the official residence.
TOA road corporation [LINK] won the public bidding of the construction, and the winning price was 150,000,000 yen.
[more here]
2012-06-15 10 thousand sardines found dead in South Kanagawa posted by Mochizuki on June 15th, 2012
Following up this article..A few tens of tones sardines washed up on fishing port in Chiba
10 thousand sardines were found dead on the beach in Minami shitaura machi Miura city Kanagawa as well.
Public Interest Incorporated Foundation staff reported it to the city government around at 15:00 6/14/2012.
Probably it’s been a few days since they were washed up.
From the result of simple water quality testing, nothing abnormal was found. Prefectural government is going to investigate more.
Staff talks there is a possibility that the sardines were chased after large predators from offshore, but a farmer near this area talks he hasn’t seen such a thing before.
2012-06-15 Another fish kill outside Tokyo — I’ve never seen such a thing before says local farmer (PHOTO), by ENENews.com
2012-06-15 Nuclear engineer identifies ‘weakest link’ at Unit No. 4 — “Potential catastrophic drain down” of fuel pool (PHOTOS), by ENENews.com
2012-06-15 Tepco: New 60-ton cover on top of Unit No. 4 fuel pool installed (PHOTOS), by ENENews.com
2012-06-15 Tokyo Professor: Deformities in cedar trees may be from Fukushima radiation — Sex abnormalities, malformed branches (PHOTOS), by ENENews.com
2012-06-15 Highest Yet? 6 million Bq/kg in black substance — 523 microSv/hr and 174,000 CPM — “Completely different from Mr. Ooyama’s samples” (PHOTOS), by ENENews.com
2012-06-15 NHK: Extremely high levels of radiation detected just above Reactor 2 containment vessel — Radioactive substances suspected to have moved through location (VIDEO), by ENENews.com
2012-06-15 NHK Documentary: ‘Very serious’ contamination near Niigata border — Rice leaf concentrates radioactivity at 600 times greater than water used for its cultivation (VIDEO), by ENENews.com
2012-06-16 Source: Local official “has not collected real black substances” — “He had only mixtures, not real substances” — Levels still reached over 5,000,000 Bq/kg, by ENENews.com
2012-06-16 Report: Algae is bio-concentrating radioactive material in Japan cities — Sucking in radiation from walls and asphalt — Strontium may be absorbed most, by ENENews.com
2012-06-16 Local Official: Radiation dose is increasing with rainfall around Fukushima plant — “I don’t expect level of contamination will decrease this year”, by ENENews.com
2012-06-16 “Oh, very high!!” NHK: Serious radioactivity accumulation causing hotspots in center of large city up to 300,000 Bq/kg (VIDEO), by ENENews.com
2012-06-16 Fukushima Daiichi worker thinks ground at plant causing construction delays and Tepco giving false explanations, by ENENews.com
2012-06-16 Japan Prime Minister orders restart of nuclear reactors under ‘intense pressure’ from banks — “The dustbin of history is waiting for him” says expert — Protests as 70% of public opposed, by ENENews.com
2012-06-16 [Mainichi] Japan to restart 2 reactors for 1st time since Fukushima crisis posted by Mochizuki on June 16th, 2012
Following up this article..11,000 people joined demonstration in front of official residence of JP PM
<Quote> [LINK]
TOKYO (Kyodo) — The Japanese government on Saturday approved the resumption of operation of two nuclear reactors in Fukui Prefecture amid concerns over the safety of atomic power generation following the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced the decision shortly after he was informed by Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa that the prefecture would accept the restart of the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at the Oi plant, operated by Kansai Electric Power Co. [more here]
2012-06-16 Japanese have to rely on foreign media to know what’s going on in Japan posted by Mochizuki on June 16th, 2012
Following up this article..[Mainichi]Japan to restart 2 reactors for 1st time since Fukushima crisis
and 11,000 people joined demonstration in front of official residence of JP PM
There was no media coverage about the demonstrarion, only NHK reported but it was told to be only 400 people, where it was 11,000 people.[LINK]
However, major foreign media covered the demonstration, they are the only source for Japanese to know what is happening in their own country.
<Quote> [BBC]
?BBC?Japan PM Noda orders nuclear reactors back online
<Quote> [Reuter]
Japan approves two reactor restarts, more seen ahead
By Linda Sieg and Kiyoshi Takenaka
TOKYO | Sat Jun 16, 2012 5:52am EDT
(Reuters) – Japan on Saturday approved the resumption of nuclear power operations at two reactors despite mass public opposition, the first to come back on line after they were all shut down following the Fukushima crisis.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, his popularity ratings sagging, had backed the restarts for some time. He announced the government’s decision at a meeting with key ministers, giving the go-ahead to two reactors operated by Kansai Electric Power Co at Ohi in western Japan.
The decision, despite public concerns over safety after the big earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima plant, could open the door to more restarts among Japan’s 50 nuclear power reactors.
“There is no such thing as a perfect score when it comes to disaster prevention steps,” Trade Minister Yukio Edano told a news conference after the announcement.
“But, based on what we learned from the Fukushima accident, those measures that need to be taken urgently have been addressed, and the level of safety has been considerably enhanced (at the Ohi plant),” he said.
Edano, who holds the energy portfolio, said the government policy to reduce Japan’s dependence on nuclear energy in the medium- to long-term was unchanged despite the decision.
The decision is a victory for Japan’s still-powerful nuclear industry and reflects Noda’s concerns about damage to the economy if atomic energy is abandoned following the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
The push to restart the two Ohi reactors, before a potential summer power crunch, also underscores the premier’s eagerness to win backing from businesses worried about high electricity costs that could push factories offshore. Kansai electric says it will take six weeks to get both reactors running fully.
But the decision risks a backlash from a public deeply concerned about nuclear safety. As many as 10,000 demonstrators gathered outside Noda’s office on Friday night amid a heavy police presence to denounce the restarts, urging the premier to step down and shouting “Lives matter more than the economy.”
“Prime Minister Noda’s rushed, dangerous approval of the Ohi nuclear power plant restart ignores expert safety advice and public outcry, and needlessly risks the health of Japan’s environment, its people and its economy,” environmental group Greenpeace said in a statement.
PM’S FUTURE UNCERTAIN
Noda’s own future is murky as he struggles to hold his fractious party together after cutting a deal with opposition rivals to double Japan’s sales tax to 10 percent by 2015.
“I imagine there will be a fair number of (reactor) restarts by next year. The government under Noda is surprisingly eager,” said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University’s Japan campus.
Nuclear power supplied almost 30 percent of electricity needs before the March 2011 disaster, which triggered meltdowns at Fukushima, spewing radiation and forcing mass evacuations.
The accident destroyed public belief in the “safety myth” promoted by Japanese nuclear power advocates for decades.
Activists have collected more than 7.5 million signatures on a petition urging an end to atomic power. Protesters have poured into the street almost daily over the past week.
All 50 reactors were shut down for maintenance or safety checks in the months since the accident. The government had placed a priority on gaining the approval of local communities for the Ohi restarts to avert July-August power shortages.
Critics say the government was too hasty in signing off on the restarts, especially given delays in setting up a new, more independent nuclear regulatory agency.
Public trust in regulators was tattered by evidence that cosy ties with utilities were a key reason Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co was unprepared for the tsunami, and subsequent signs that relations remain far too snug.
Parliament’s lower house on Friday approved legislation to create a new atomic regulator, but getting it up and running will take months. That could force the government to go slower on restarts, though some politicians are keen to forge ahead.
“We can no longer go back to a life that depends on candles,” ruling party heavyweight Yoshito Sengoku said in an interview with the Sankei newspaper this week.
The Nuclear and Industry Safety Agency, the current watchdog, has approved stress tests for Shikoku Electric Power Co Inc’s 890-megawatt No.3 reactor in Ikata, southern Japan. Next on the list for possible approval are two Hokkaido Electric Power reactors in Tomari, northern Japan and Hokuriku Electric’s two in Shika, western Japan.
“Basically he (Noda) doesn’t want to wait but … it would attract criticism so the government would be cautious if they are clever,” said Hiroshi Takahashi, a Fujitsu Research Institute fellow and member of a panel advising the government on energy policies.
(This story has been refiled to fixe typo in second paragraph)
(Additional reporting by Aaron Sheldrick and Kentaro Hamada; Editing by Ron Popeski)
<End>
<Quote> [Aljazeera]
Japan to restart two nuclear reactors
First reactors to go online since last year’s Fukushima disaster to avert power
shortages, despite public opposition.
Last Modified: 16 Jun 2012 08:17
Japan’s government has approved the resumption of nuclear power operations at two reactors for the first time since last year’s radiation leak at the Fukushima plant in the wake of an earthquake-triggered tsunami.
The government’s decision to restart the two reactors operated by Kansai Electric Power Co at Ohi in western Japan was announced by Yoshihiko Noda, the prime minister, at a meeting with key ministers on Saturday.
The government’s approval came after Ohi’s mayor and the local governor publicly supported the plan, as the city depended heavily on nuclear energy before the crisis.
Yukio Edano, trade and industry minister, said safety remained the government’s main concern’.
“We have approved the beginning of the restarting process. It will take some time for the reactors to begin generating electricity. If there are safety problems, the process could be delayed,” he said.
The decision could open the door to more restarts among Japan’s 50 nuclear power reactors, which were shut after widespread protests and amid mounting public safety concerns after last year’s disaster.
The meltdown of reactors at the Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Fukushima led to massive leaks of radioactive material in the world’s worst atomic disaster since the Chernobyl accident in 1986.
Tens of thousands of residents near the plant were evacuated from the area, and large areas around the reactors are still off limits because of the danger of exposure.
Avert power shortages
Until now, the government had withheld approval to restart any nuclear reactors shut down for safety inspections or repairs since the disaster, and the last reactor went offline in May this year.
The government and power company that ran the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company, have acknowledged they were unprepared for such a disaster.
The government has been pushing hard to bring some reactors online as soon as possible to avert power shortages as demand increases during the summer months, particularly Osaka, Japan’s second-largest metropolis, and other areas in the west.
The sudden shutdown of nuclear plants has hit Japan’s economy hard.
The government argues that the higher cost of energy without nuclear will cost people their livelihoods and could impede economic recovery.
While pushing for the restart of reactors that have passed safety checks, Noda has pledged to gradually reduce Japan’s reliance on nuclear power, which contributed to one third of electricity generation before the crisis.
Japan is debating renewable energy targets of between 25 per cent to 35 per cent of total power generation by 2030.
<End>
and
nzherald [LINK]
Iori Mochizuki

North America

2012-06-10 Local L.A.-area Paper: “Radioactive sea spray has been shown to blow hundreds of kilometers inland” -Study, by ENENews.com
2012-06-10 *Listen to Fukushima Special* 1st Hour Guest Arnie Gundersen: When someone steps forward and publishes, we’re going to see higher radioactivity levels in California bluefin tuna (VIDEO), by ENENews.com
2012-06-10 *4-hour Fukushima Special* Gundersen: This basically means that every bluefin tuna in Pacific now contaminated with Fukushima cesium (AUDIO), by ENENews.com
2012-06-10 U.S. Physician on Fukushima: Beware of all the lifeforms you take out of the Pacific (VIDEO), by ENENews.com
2012-06-10 More on Missing Cockroaches, majiasblog.blogspot.com
The last two nights I went outside with a flashlight looking for cockroaches.
Both nights I found only 2. Typically I would see more than I can count.
I've now looked 3 separate nights and found only 2 cockroaches each night.
I don't like cockroaches, but their disappearance, starting in August, has me extraordinarily concerned.
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/concerned-about-cockroaches.html
We do not use pesticide. Nothing has changed with our gardening or watering. Our weather has not been atypical. We continue to feed our cat outside. The cockroaches used to feast on the crumbs.
I decided to Google "cockroaches and Chernobyl."
Low and behold cockroach numbers decreased significantly after Chernobyl.
Mary Mycio's Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of Chernobyl documents the decline in cockroaches after Chernobyl on page 116, along with the decline in "maybugs." She claims that insects that live in the soil were adversely affected by Chernobyl.
However, not everyone is convinced the radiation from Chernobyl caused the cockroach decline. See Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depopulation_of_cockroaches_in_post-Soviet_states#cite_note-autogenerated3-0
I found a Russian news article from 2006 that briefly attempts to discount, without explanation, Chernobyl radiation's role in the disappearing cockroaches.
According to this 2006 Russian article, cockroaches have finally made a come-back after their disappearance, but the article does not explain why or how they disappeared after Chernobyl.
Here is the Russian version of the article
http://www.bel.ru/news/belgorod/2006/12/04/21613.html
Here is the English translation via google translate:
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bel.ru%2Fnews%2Fbelgoro
d%2F2006%2F12%2F04%2F21613.html&act=url
In Belgorod
04.12.2006 10:58 The disappearance of the cockroaches in the Belgorod not associated with radiation
Several years ago, residents of Belgorod region drew attention to the sudden disappearance of cockroaches. Pestilent insects, known for their ruggedness and survivability, disappeared as if by command. Rumor had it that this is due to radiation.
As reported by the news agency "Bel.Ru" in the federal public health care facility "disinfection station" red cockroaches, or as they are called by the people "cockroaches" widely spread in the territory of the Belgorod region in the last century. Especially active are bred in 80 - 90 years.
First, in 2000 had reduced the number of red cockroaches at all sites, especially where their control was carried out on a regular basis: it's children's educational facilities, catering, trade institutions.
Contributed to this and the widespread use of drugs approved for use in the home and available to any citizen. Therefore, the disappearance of cockroaches in the Belgorod not associated with radiation.
Certain conditions and insect cycles have contributed to the fact that in 2003-2004 the total number of red cockroaches declined significantly, not only in Belgorod, and Gubkin, Stary Oskol, Shebekino and other cities.
However, in large cities of Russia: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and other cities did not become less than cockroaches. While the specialists of research institutes do not give a definitive explanation for these facts.
Since mid-2006 once again marked increase in the number of red cockroaches. This can be seen on request to carry out pest treatments.
In addition, this year in the city of Belgorod for the first time poslednie30 years of observations carried out by registered black, so-called "southern" cockroaches. Their appearance is associated with the migration of the population....
MAJIA HERE: It is worth noting that there exists now a fierce battle between (1) those who say that Chernobyl's legacy lives on, continuing to contaminate and mutate flora and fauna, and (2) those who see the primary effects as largely gone.
Here is an excerpt from a good overview of the debate:
Wired Magazine. Half-life: 25 years after the Chernobyl meltdown, a scientific debate rages on. By Adam Higginbotham. 05 May 11
http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2011/06/features/half-life?page=all
[Excerpted] "Meanwhile, the ecological repercussions of radiation exposure in the Exclusion Zone are now the subject of an increasingly bitter and polarised scientific dispute. On one side, there are Ukrainian and US scientists who argue that plants and animals in the zone are shrugging off the effects of long-term exposure to low levels of radioactivity and are thriving in a fecund wilderness. And on the other is the view represented by Mousseau and his colleague, a Danish biologist named Anders Møller, whose work supports a far more sobering hypothesis: the results of chronic exposure to low-level radiation are little understood and potentially catastrophic. Their evidence suggests that the zone is not an enchanted forest but a radioactive roach motel: animals go in, but they don't always come out....
...The potential genetic changes in human beings -- only now producing their third generation, as the children of the liquidators themselves raise families -- may take hundreds of years to fully unravel. While iodine-131 decayed long ago and the strontium and caesium are slowly becoming less potentially lethal, the hot particles of plutonium-241 scattered across the landscape are actually decaying into an even more toxic isotope, americium-241. A more powerful emitter of alpha radiation than plutonium, americium is also more soluble and can easily find its way into the food chain. Americium-241, in turn, decays into neptunium-237, another energetic alpha emitter that has a half-life of more than two million years. As of yet, the long-term effect of americium-241 remains largely unknown."
I've already stated where I come down on this debate. I know three people whose health was ruined by Chernobyl. They were born in the 1970s and 1980s and lived in Poland, Sweden, and Romania.
I've also seen The Children of Chernobyl
http://www.journeyman.tv/57557/documentaries/children-of-chernobyl.html
And I studied Yablokov et al's comprehensive review of research on Chernobyl:
Yablokov, Alexey, Vassily B. Nesterenko, Alexey V. Nesterenko, and Janette D. Sherman-Nevinger Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for the People and the Environment. New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1141, 2009.
http://www.strahlentelex.de/Yablokov%20Chernobyl%20book.pdf
Given my interpretive stance, I'm betting the Russian government wanted to downplay the potential role of Chernobyl radiation in decimating cockroach populations because its probably pretty disturbing for people to think that Chernobyl fallout wiped out cockroaches.
If it wipes out cockroaches, what is it doing to people?
We don't live in the soil, like the cockroaches do, but we do eat plants from the soil. I posted a discussion of research I found documenting the uptake of radioactive cesium by plants. Plants are fooled by cesium, thinking it is potassium. So, the plants distribute the cesium throughout their entire system. We then eat the plants and ingest the cesium.
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/bio-accumulation-of-cesium-cesium-is.html
Cesium has been detected in the pollen of California trees (Gundersen: Cesium-134 and -137 detected in Southern California pollen sample — “When you find them both together that’s a Fukushima signature” (VIDEO)
http://enenews.com/gundersen-cesium-134-137-detected-southern-california-pollen-when-find-both-together-fukushima-signature-video)
What do ingested radionuclides do to us? Well, take a look at the Children of Chernobyl video.
Here is some background on "internal emitters," or ingested or inhaled radionuclides, summarized from scientific studies http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/on-internal-emitters.html
Here are two discussions of what happens to our genetic code when exposed to ionizing radiation, particularly when ingested:
Mutations: Germ Line Mosaicism
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/mutations-germ-line-mosaicism.html
Discouraged http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/discouraged.html
I don't know how much fallout it takes to largely wipe out a thriving cockroach colony but I'm personally convinced that Fukushima fallout took out the one in my yard.
I don't miss the cockroaches, but their absence haunts me.
Perhaps it takes less fallout to destroy cockroaches than people.
I certainly hope so.
2012-06-11 Max Alert Continuation! Airborne Radiation + Ground Shine at 3x Above Background Radiation, potrblog.com
Another very unusual radioactive fallout reading this morning. It started storming around 9am and blew through by 10:30 am. At 10:45 we went outside to take a sample.
As soon as we stepped outside the Geiger counter started reading 3 times above normal background radiation. We took a paper towel sample swipe from a sheet metal surface and it returned approximately 29X greater than background radiation.
We took free air readings at approximately 4 feet above the ground. With the Geiger counter pointed perpendicular to the ground we had an airborne reading of approximately 2x over background radiation. Pointing the Geiger counter directly towards the ground to measure "ground shine", the same reading at 4 feet returned a value of 3x over background radiation.
We took a reading from approximately 1cm above the surface of a plastic garbage can, that reading was 7x above background radiation.
The situation remains very unusual because of the ground shine and airborne readings. The situation is additionally unusually in that the Jet Stream is not directly over head, but rather a few hundred miles to the North West. As a result, our Maximum Alert for the Jet Stream an rainfall avoidance remains in effect.
2012-06-11 ALERT! Indiana High Radiation Event Likely True Occurrence, potrblog.com
SEE THE UPDATE @ http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com/2012/06/data-shows-highly-radioactive-field.html
2012-06-11 Gundersen: Radioactive ‘snow’ working it’s way down through water column — It’s loaded with cesium, which these fish are swimming through (AUDIO, by ENENews.com), by ENENews.com
2012-06-11 Data Shows Highly Radioactive Field Saturated Geiger Counter In South Bend Indiana, potrblog.com
Sunday, June 10, 2012 A Pattern of DENIAL, majiasblog.blogspot.com
Majia here: The EPA declared the air safe after the 9-11 collapse of the WTC.
Consequently, emergency and volunteer responders have had to fight for recognition of the diseases they contracted as a result of their rescue efforts.
Finally, 11 years later, certain forms of cancer will be covered by a fund set up for those afflicted by the disaster.
Sept. 11 Health Fund Given Clearance to Cover Cancer By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: June 8, 2012 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/09/nyregion/ruling-to-allow-9-11-health-fund-to-cover-cancers.html?pagewanted=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120609
[Excerpted] "A federal health official’s ruling has cleared the way for 50 different types of cancer to be added to the list of sicknesses covered by a $4.3 billion fund set up to compensate and treat people exposed to the toxic smoke, dust and fumes in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The decision, released on Friday, came as a vindication for hundreds and perhaps thousands of people who have claimed — often in the face of resistance from public health officials — that their cancers were caused by their exposure to the dust cloud and debris thrown up by the attacks.
...The advisory committee had said that 70 known or potential carcinogens, including asbestos, arsenic and formaldehyde, had been found in the smoke, dust and fumes from the disaster, that 15 of those were known to cause cancer in humans, and that 37 were “reasonably anticipated” to cause cancer...."
MAJIA HERE: Let's go back in time a bit. At the time of the disaster, Hugh Kaufman, a whistleblower at the EPA, warned the air was not safe, in direct contradiction of his agency's assurances.
CNN: Investigator: EPA not properly testing WTC air. February 24, 2002
http://articles.cnn.com/2002-02-24/tech/rec.wtc.air.quality_1_epa-administrator-christie-whitman-air-quality-hugh-kaufman?_s=PM:TECH
[Excerpted] "The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) chief investigator has accused the EPA and other government agencies of deliberately not testing the air quality in the World Trade Center area properly and possibly covering up the reasons why.
"I believe EPA did not do that because they knew it would come up not safe and so they are involved in providing knowingly false information to the public about safety," said Hugh Kaufman, chief investigator for the EPA's Ombudsman Office, at a public hearing Saturday with scientists, residents, and small business owners....
[end quote] AND
Democracy Now White House Pressured EPA Not To Warn Public About Health Effects of 9/11
http://www.democracynow.org/2003/8/12/white_house_pressured_epa_not_to
New yet-to-be-released report from the EPA’s inspector criticizes the White House for ordering the deletion of information warning downtown New York residents about possible health effects and preventing the release on information on how the public should clean contaminated apartments. [Includes Transcript]
MAJIA HERE: DENIAL IS A PATTERN for Government agencies and corporations unwilling to acknowledge risks to human health when industry profits are at stake.
We saw this denial in the FDA's claims that Gulf seafood was (and is) safe after the BP oil spill in 2010.
FDA: Gulf seafood safe despite oil spill concerns
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/04/20/fda-gulf-seafood-safe-despite-oil-spill-concerns/
FDA: Gulf Seafood Safety: A Conversation with Don Kraemer
A Conversation with Don Kraemer, Acting Deputy Director of the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, on gulf seafood safety post the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill.
http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/Product-SpecificInformation/Seafood/ucm252467.htm
Question 1: A year after the Deep Water Horizon oil spill, is Gulf seafood safe?
"We’re very confident that the steps that we have put in place to assure the safety of seafood have worked. We put in an extensive program of sampling, at that time and since then, and the results have consistently been 100 to 1,000 times below our levels of concern. So, we’re quite confident that the seafood that’s in commercial channels is safe.
MAJIA HERE: Really? I just cannot believe that people would eat gulf shrimp but they do because they think it is safe since their government says so.
Health Effects of the Gulf Oil Spill Gina M. Solomon, MD, MPH; Sarah Janssen, MD, PhD, MPH JAMA. Published online August 16, 2010. doi:10.1001/jama.2010.1254
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/10275-bp-settles-while-macondo-seeps
[excerpt] "The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico poses direct threats to human health from inhalation or dermal contact with the oil and dispersant chemicals, and indirect threats to seafood safety and mental health. Physicians should be familiar with health effects from oil spills to appropriately advise, diagnose, and treat patients who live and work along the Gulf Coast or wherever a major oil spill occurs."
Majia here: Despite knowledge about the risks posed by consuming contaminated seafood, the US FDA failed to require adequate testing of chemicals in fish and shellfish:
STUDY: Seafood Contamination after the BP Gulf Oil Spill and Risks to Vulnerable
Populations: A Critique of the FDA Risk Assessment
http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.1103695
[excerpted] Background: The BP oil spill of 2010 resulted in contamination of one of the most productive fisheries in the United States by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs, which can accumulate in seafood, are known carcinogens and developmental toxicants. In response to the oil spill, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) developed risk criteria and established thresholds for allowable levels [levels of concern (LOCs)] of PAH contaminants in Gulf Coast seafood.
•Objectives: We evaluated the degree to which the FDA’s risk criteria adequately protect vulnerable Gulf Coast populations from cancer risk associated with PAHs in seafood.
•Discussion: The FDA LOCs significantly underestimate risk from seafood contaminants among sensitive Gulf Coast populations by failing to a) account for the increased vulnerability of the developing fetus and child; b) use appropriate seafood consumption rates; c) include all relevant health end points; and d) incorporate health-protective estimates of exposure duration and acceptable risk. For benzo[a]pyrene and naphthalene, revised LOCs are between two and four orders of magnitude below the level set by the FDA. Comparison of measured levels of PAHs in Gulf seafood with the revised LOCs revealed that up to 53% of Gulf shrimp samples were above LOCs for pregnant women who are high-end seafood consumers.
see more http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/bp-macondo-well-still-leaking-seafood.html
MAJIA HERE: Do you see a pattern here?
And then we have Fukushima
Elizabeth, Landau “West Coast Officials, Obama: Don't Worry about Radiation Risk n U.S.,” CNN (2011, March 17): http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-17/us/nuclear.concerns_1_potassium-iodide-radiation-levels-radioactive-material?_s=PM:UShttp://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/02/pdf/recession_poverty.pdf
Majia Here: Why do people continue to believe the lies?
2012-06-11 Nuclear Insanity in the US House, majiasblog.blogspot.com, Monday, June 11, 2012
Editorial
Nuclear Time Warp. The New York Times
Published: June 10, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/opinion/nuclear-time-warp.html?
_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120611
Majia here. The New York Times editorial is very clearly stated. The House Pentagon Authorization bill budgets $642 billion and includes more than $1 billion in nuclear-related spending. The New York Times identifies some of the absurd aspects of the bill:
[excerpted]
The 2010 New Start pact commits Washington and Moscow to cut their deployed strategic weapons from 2,200 to 1,550 by 2018. One provision in the bill would halt reductions if the president, or any successor, failed to meet Mr. Obama’s promise to spend $88 billion to upgrade the nuclear labs and $125 billion over 10 years to replace aging bombers, submarines and land-based missiles....
The bill would bar reduction, consolidation or withdrawal of tactical weapons in Europe ...
It contains $160 million to build a new plutonium plant in New Mexico to make new cores for weapons...
2012-06-11 2012 SUMMARY OF US BASED RESEARCH ON FUKUSHIMA FALLOUT, majiasblog.blogspot.com
XENON-133 WAS DETECTED AT 450,000X BACKGROUND IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST MAR/APRIL 2011
US Particulate and Xenon Measurements Made Following the Fukushima Reactor Accident
1 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington, USA
2 The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
Justin McIntyre1, Steve Biegalski2, Ted Bowyer1, Matt Copper1, Paul Eslinger1, Jim Hayes1, Derek Haas1, Harry Miley1, J.P. Rishel1, Vincent
Woods1 http://www.batan.go.id/inge2011/file/day1/1650_mcintyre.pdf
• Xenon-133 measurements were x450,000 our detection levels using a SAUNA-II xenon measurement system in Pacific Northwest
• Noble gas does not “washout,” and is the first emitted from any possible fuel damage
• Levels persisted for weeks and isotopes were ultimately detected across the northern hemisphere
• http://www.batan.go.id/inge2011/file/day1/1650_mcintyre.pdf
This research is the basis for the following articles, submitted for review:
• S. Biegalski, et al., US Particulate and Xenon Measurements Made Following the Fukushima Reactor Accident, accepted for publication in Jour. of Envir Radioactivity, 2011
• T. Bowyer, et al., Elevated Radioxenon Detected Remotely Following the Fukushima Nuclear Accident. Jour. of Envir.Radioactivity 102 (7):681-687. doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2011.04.009
• P. Eslinger, et al., Source Term Estimation of Radioxenon Released from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactors Using Measured Air Concentrations and Atmospheric Transport Modeling, to be submitted in Jour. of Envir. Radioactivity, 2011
PREVIOUS RESEARCH HAD ESTIMATED RADIO XENON AT 40,000X BACKGROUND IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST
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
IODINE-131 DETECTED IN CALIFORNIA KELP
Title: Canopy-Forming Kelps as California’s Coastal Dosimeter: 131I from Damaged Japanese Reactor Measured in Macrocystis pyrifera (ACS Publications) Source: Environmental Science & Technology Author: Steven L. Manley and Christopher G. Lowe, Department of Biological Sciences, California State University Publication Date (Web): March 6, 2012 Copyright © 2012 American Chemical Society.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es203598r?journalCode=esthag
• Abstract: The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, damaged by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 released large amounts of 131I into the atmosphere, which was assimilated into canopy blades of Macrocystis pyrifera sampled from coastal California. The specific activity calculated to the estimated date of deposition/assimilation ranged from 0.6 to 2.5 Bq gdwt–1, levels greater than those measured from kelps from Japan and Canada prior to the release. These 131I levels represent a significant input into the kelp forest ecosystem. Canopy-forming kelps are a natural coastal dosimeter that can measure the exposure of the coastal environment to 131I and perhaps other radioisotopes released from nuclear accidents. An organizational mechanism should be in place to ensure that they are sampled immediately and continuously after such releases.
• Findinding: Southern California had 2,500 Bq/kg of iodine-131 in seaweed — Over 500% higher than other tests in U.S., Canada
Interview with the authors:
Title: Study Finds Radioactive Fallout in California Kelp Beds
Source: Everything Long Beach Date:April 5, 2012
• “Radioactivity is taken up by the kelp and anything that feeds on the kelp will be exposed to this also,” [California State University, Long Beach marine biology professors Steven L. Manley] continued. “Even though we detected low levels, it still got into the environment and we don’t know anything about the other radioisotopes like cesium 137, which stays around much longer than iodine. In fact, the values that we reported for iodine probably underestimate what was probably in there. It could be two to three times more because we were just sampling the surface tissue; the biomass estimates were based on canopy tissue and a lot of kelp biomass is underneath. So, probably two or three times more was in the tissue at its height. Then it enters the coastal food web and gets dispersed over a variety of organisms. I would assume it’s there. It’s not a good thing, but whether it actually has a measureable [sic] detrimental effect is beyond my expertise.” [...]
• “Chris and I are pretty happy with this study,” Manley said, “because it was just one of those spur of the moment things and it panned out really well.”
IODINE-131 HAS BEEN DETECTED IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
Fukushima Fallout in New Hampshire: Radioactive iodine at 12,000 atoms per square meter in sediment (STUDY) http://www.pnas.org/content/109/11/4064.short Surficial redistribution of fallout 131iodine in a small temperate catchment Joshua D. Landisa,1, Nathan T. Hamma, Carl E. Renshawa, W. Brian Dadea, Francis J. Magilliganb, and John D. Gartnera. Edited by Mark H Thiemens, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and approved January 19, 2012 (received for review November 14, 2011) PNAS
• ABSTRACT: Isotopes of iodine play significant environmental roles, including a limiting micronutrient (127I), an acute radiotoxin (131I), and a geochemical tracer (129I). But the cycling of iodine through terrestrial ecosystems is poorly understood, due to its complex environmental chemistry and low natural abundance. To better understand iodine transport and fate in a terrestrial ecosystem, we traced fallout 131iodine throughout a small temperate catchment following contamination by the 11 March 2011 failure of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility. We find that radioiodine fallout is actively and efficiently scavenged by the soil system, where it is continuously focused to surface soils over a period of weeks following deposition. Mobilization of historic (pre-Fukushima) 137cesium observed concurrently in these soils suggests that the focusing of iodine to surface soils may be biologically mediated. Atmospherically deposited iodine is subsequently redistributed from the soil system via fluvial processes in a manner analogous to that of the particle-reactive tracer 7beryllium, a consequence of the radionuclides’ shared sorption affinity for fine, particulate organic matter. These processes of surficial redistribution create iodine hotspots in the terrestrial environment where fine, particulate organic matter accumulates, and in this manner regulate the delivery of iodine nutrients and toxins alike from small catchments to larger river systems, lakes and estuaries.
US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY STUDY
Fission Products in National Atmospheric Deposition Program—Wet Deposition Samples Prior to and Following the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant Incident, March 8–April 5, 2011 By Gregory A. Wetherbee, Timothy M. Debey, Mark A. Nilles, Christopher M.B. Lehmann, and David A. Gay http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2011/1277/
Abstract
Radioactive isotopes I-131, Cs-134, or Cs-137, products of uranium fission, were measured at approximately 20 percent of 167 sampled National Atmospheric Deposition Program monitoring sites in North America (primarily in the contiguous United States and Alaska) after the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant incident on March 12, 2011. Samples from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program were analyzed for the period of March 8–April 5, 2011. Calculated 1- or 2-week radionuclide deposition fluxes at 35 sites from Alaska to Vermont ranged from 0.47 to 5,100 Becquerels per square meter during the sampling period of March 15–April 5, 2011. No fission-product isotopes were measured in National Atmospheric Deposition Program samples obtained during March 8–15, 2011, prior to the arrival of contaminated air in North America.
Finding: Portland-area had highest Iodine-131 deposition in US at 5,100 Bq/m² by April 5 -Gov’t Study
GOVERNMENT SAMPLING
Washington Post: Mufson, S. (2012, Feb 7). “Messages show conflict within NRC after Japan’s earthquakes and tsunami” Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/messages-show-conflict-within-nrc-after-japan-earthquake-and-tsunami/2012/01/09/gIQA2ll6uQ_print.html
“While assuring Americans publicly that there was no danger, the NRC did not disclose one worst-case scenario, which did not rule out the possibility of radiation exceeding safe levels for thyroid doses in Alaska, the e-mails show. “Because things were uncertain, we considered it but the data that was available .?.?. did not support that very pessimistic scenario so no, it was not discussed publicly at that point,” NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said. In the end, Alaska was not affected. “
Gov’t Report: Kansas detected Iodine-131 in grass at over 2,000 pCi/kg — “Attributed to Fukushima” —Report of Radiological Environmental Monitoring of the Environs Surrounding Wolf Creek Generating Station, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, July 2010-June 2011: Sample: WCFV-1-A-005-2.5 Location: Sharpe \ Type: Pasturage Date: April 5, 2011
• “Sample contained 2072.0 ± 72 pCi/kg 131I and 503.0 ± 29 137Cs. This was not a result of WCGS operation, but is attributed to the Fukushima nuclear incident in Japan.”
INDEPENDENT TESTING OF AIR CONTAMINATION BY ‘HOT PARTICLES’ (alpha) AND SOIL DEPOSITION
Marco Kaltofen has conducted air and soil samples in the Pacific Northwest. He has posted his air sampling samples here: http://www.naticklabs.org/kaltofenJP.pdf
Conference Paper by Marco Kaltofen (2011, Oct. 31) “Radiation Exposure to the Population in Japan after the Earthquake. American Public Health Association.
http://apha.confex.com/apha/139am/webprogram/Paper254015.html
His summary: My group measured soil, air filter and dust samples from Washington, Oregon, California, and British Columbia. This particular soil sample, with 8 pCi/g of radiocesium, was our highest North American result. It came from a site on the outskirts of Portland, OR. The next highest result came from a site near Boulder, CO. Except for followup samples near these two sites, no other US or Canadian samples came close to the levels of radiocesium in these “hot spots.” Given the nature of radioactive fallout, this is an expected result. Both hot spots are likely due to rainouts that took place during March or April 2011. A recent study by the USGS, “Fission Products in National Atmospheric Deposition Program—Wet Deposition Samples Prior to and Following the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant Incident, March 8–April 5, 2011?, found remarkably similar results. The USGS study was more detailed, (and more with a much bigger budget), and found evidence of rainouts at Portland and Boulder. When you collect a lot of samples, some are bound to be much higher than the average.
“Radiation Levels in Northwest Rain Were Up to 131 Times Drinking Water Standards Following Fukushima, Japan Nuclear Reactor Explosion.” Heart of American Northwest. Press Release July 7: “Radiation Levels in Rain in WA and OR were high enough to be of concern despite news reports and officials stating that levels were ‘below any level of public health concern’”
Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gunderson Cesium has been detected in the pollen of California trees (Gundersen: Cesium-134 and -137 detected in Southern California pollen sample — “When you find them both together that’s a Fukushima signature” (VIDEO Title: The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster – One Year Later. Source: Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Nuclear Expert. Uploaded by: ChrisNolandTV Upload Date: Apr. 18, 2012. Available: http://enenews.com/gundersen-cesium-134-137-detected-southern-california-pollen-when-find-both-together-fukushima-signature-video)
SEAWATER FACILITATED TRANSFER OF URANIUM
Uranyl peroxide enhanced nuclear fuel corrosion in seawater. PNAS.
http://www.pnas.org/content/109/6/1874.short?rss=1 Christopher R. Armstronga,1, May Nymanb, Tatiana Shvarevaa, Ginger E. Sigmonc, Peter C. Burnsc,d, and Alexandra Navrotskya,2 Contributed by Alexandra Navrotsky, November 30, 2011 (sent for review October 31, 2011)
Abstract
• The Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident brought together compromised irradiated fuel and large amounts of seawater in a high radiation field. Based on newly acquired thermochemical data for a series of uranyl peroxide compounds containing charge-balancing alkali cations, here we show that nanoscale cage clusters containing as many as 60 uranyl ions, bonded through peroxide and hydroxide bridges, are likely to form in solution or as precipitates under such conditions. These species will enhance the corrosion of the damaged fuel and, being thermodynamically stable and kinetically persistent in the absence of peroxide, they can potentially transport uranium over long distances.
MORTALITY STATISTICS
Mangano, J. & Sherman, J. (2012). An Unexpected Mortality Increase in the United States Following Arrival of the Radioactive Plume from Fukushima: Is There a Correlation? International Journal of Health Services, 42(1): 47-62.
Excess mortality statistics by independent researcher Robert Soltysik
http://freepdfhosting.com/ccafb5715d.pdf http://i40.tinypic.com/2q39p8p.jpg
Hat Tip: Many of these citations were brought to my attention by the Enenews.com site administrator. Thank you.
2012-06-12 Poisoning The Well, majiasblog.blogspot.com
Wow. That study I critiqued about mice published in Environmental Health Perspectives is Getting Some Mileage.
The study was titled Integrated Molecular Analysis Indicates Undetectable DNA Damage in Mice after Continuous Irradiation at ~400-fold Natural Background Radiation. Environmental Health Perspectives.
My April 30 blog post critiqued the ecological validity and generalizability of the study's findings
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/plant-in-environmental-health.html
I stated that the study of gamma effects on mice DNA did not look at "delayed" bystander effects because the mice were killed after a mere 5 weeks of exposure. Thus, it was inappropriate to conclude that no DNA damage had occurred. Delayed effects are just that.
Moreover, the study only looked at exposure to gamma and did not look at beta or alpha exposures via ingestion so the mice study has no bearing on issues of nuclear fallout. Please see my link above for the specific analysis.
On May 17 I looked at how this mice study was used for propaganda
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/plant-erupts-into-poison-fruit-dont-be.html
Now I learn that MIT's public relations department is erroneously extrapolating results from that study in an obvious propaganda effort:
A new look at prolonged radiation exposure
MIT study suggests that at low dose-rate, radiation poses little risk to DNA.
Anne Trafton, MIT News Office http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/prolonged-radiation-exposure-0515.html
[Excerpt] A new study from MIT scientists suggests that the guidelines governments use to determine when to evacuate people following a nuclear accident may be too conservative.
The study, led by Bevin Engelward and Jacquelyn Yanch and published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found that when mice were exposed to radiation doses about 400 times greater than background levels for five weeks, no DNA damage could be detected."
Majia here: The error of "ecological validity" stems from the generalization of this mice study's findings to fallout from a nuclear plant.
I've come to see that these "no effects" studies are really simply for the purposes of propaganda.
If they get published, those who know the research area well will understand their limitations.
But the point of the research is NOT to persuade the informed.
The point of the research is to get cited by mainstream news, such as Science Daily and other such outlets that reach mass audiences.
The goal is to make the public think that a significant increase in background radiation has no effect.
I bet some people somewhere are anticipating that significant increases in background radiation are going to be reported.
This MIT study is poisoning the well…
Of course, MIT has very deep ties to the IAEA and the nuclear industry in general.
See the letter written to MIT's Provost by a commentator at Enenews
http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/letter-to-incoming-mit-president.html
Another commentator, ML, posted this interesting study on a thread at Enenews discussing Japanese women's message to their government about the Fukushima disaster and plans to re-start the Oi reactor in Japan. http://enenews.com/fukushima-woman-officials-started-suffer-health-problems-one-after-another-last-june-exactly-same-found-villages-around-chernobyl-video/comment-page-1#comment-261269
The study of damage to mitochondrial DNA by "background" radiation is fascinating and also disturbing.
ML describes the study: A study done on a population of people who lived in an area that was naturally more radioactive due to a concentration of radioactive phosphorus did not show outwardly apparent mutations. But when their mitochondrial DNA was compared with a population living with more usual rates of background radiation, then the patterns of damage that emerged.
(http://www.pnas.org/content/99/21/13950.long Natural Radioactivity and Human Mitochondrial DNA Mutations by Forster, et al, 2002.)
ML concludes: So when the pro-nuclear data started being generated it was well before we knew about mitochondrial DNA, and well before we began understanding how mitochondrial DNA was more susceptible to even relatively low levels of natural radiation.
Majia Here: ML cites the study when observing that it is the genetic inheritance of women to their children that is most at risk by exposure to radiation and so it seems right somehow that it is everyday women who are bravely standing up in Japan.
2012-06-14 Background Gamma Can Cause Leukaemia in Children,
Natural gamma rays linked to childhood leukaemia. June 12
http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2012/120612.html
[Excerpt] "The team found that there was a 12% increase in the risk of childhood leukaemia for every millisievert of natural gamma-ray dose to the bone marrow. While this finding was statistically significant, even with a study of this size there is still some uncertainty around the size of the effect. The relative risk increase is likely to lie within a range from 3% to 22% per millisievert."
2012-06-14 1.33 Million Tons of Debris Incoming to US/Canadian West Coast, majiasblog.blogspot.com
Mainichi: U.S. senator hopes Japan, U.S. split quake debris removal costs
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120615p2g00m0dm041000c.html
[Excerpted] "According to an estimate by Japan's Environment Ministry, the massive tsunami in March 2011 created 1.33 million tons of debris. About 41,300 tons is expected to wash ashore along the U.S. west coast by next February...."
2012-06-14 “What is the U.S. gov’t waiting for?”: Japan will not act; U.S. must address threat of No. 4 fuel pool, by ENENews.com
2012-06-15 Indiana Take Two X-rays To The Chest, But Don't Call In The Morning, potrblog.com

Europe

2012-06-13 New York Times: Haunted by "Ukraine's Poisoned Past", majiasblog.blogspot.com
June 12, 2012
Ukraine’s Poisoned Past. The New York Times.
By JERÉ LONGMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/sports/soccer/a-visit-to-chernobyl-which-some-athletes-can-recall-firsthand.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120613
[Excerpt] "Stiliyan Petrov, 32, was nowhere near when Reactor No. 4 exploded. He was a boy of 6 in Bulgaria, more than 600 miles to the south.
He became a soccer star, the captain of Aston Villa in England’s Premier League.
In March, Petrov received a diagnosis of acute leukemia. The Bulgarian national team doctor said he believed the illness resulted from exposure to the radiation of Chernobyl and a failure at the time by the country’s Communist leadership to inform citizens of the danger.
“It was in the late spring, the population was eating fresh radioactive vegetables and other foods,” Mihael Iliev, the Bulgarian team doctor who treated Petrov for 14 years, told The Sun of London in April. “Many people who were kids back then suffered cancer because of this. We called them the Chernobyl kids. Most were born in the same region as Stiliyan.”
Majia: Some secrets should not, and ultimately cannot, be hidden.
Efforts to conceal these types of secrets always produce worse outcomes than the path of truth and accountability.