ABOVE: HIGH-LEVEL CESIUM CONTAMINATION OF SOIL. 2019
ABOVE: CONTINUED HIGH-LEVEL CESIUM CONTAMINATION OF SURFACE SEA WATER IN THE BERING SEA. 2015-2017
Abundance and distribution of radioactive cesium-rich microparticles released from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the environment.
--Cs-rich microparticles account for a significant fraction of FDNPP-deposited Cs.•
--The timing and source of the Cs-rich microparticle formation has been estimated.
Abstract
"The abundance and distribution of highly radioactive cesium-rich microparticles (CsMPs) that were released from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) during the first stage of the nuclear disaster in March 2011 are described for 20 surface soils collected around the FDNPP.
Based on the spatial distribution of the numbers (particles/g) and radioactive fraction (RF) of the CsMPs in surface soil, which is defined as the sum of the CsMP radioactivity (in Bq) divided by the total radioactivity (in Bq) of the soil sample, three regions of particular interest have been identified: i.) near-northwest (N-NW), ii.) far-northwest (F-NW), and iii.) southwest (SW). In these areas, the number and RF of CsMPs were determined to be 22.1–101 particles/g and 15.4–34.0%, 24.3–64.8 particles/g and 36.7–37.4%, and 0.869–8.00 particles/g and 27.6–80.2%, respectively.
These distributions are consistent with the plume trajectories of material released from the FDNPP on March 14, 2011, in the late afternoon through to the late afternoon of March 15, 2011, indicating that the CsMPs formed only during this short period. Unit 3 is the most plausible source of the CsMPs at the beginning of the release based on an analysis of the sequence of release events.
The lower RF values in the N-NW region indicate a larger influence from subsequent plumes that mainly consisted of soluble Cs species formed simultaneously with precipitation.
The quantitative map of the distribution of CsMPs provides an important understanding of CsMP dispersion dynamics and can be used to assess risks in inhabited regions."
WHY DIDN'T THEY EXTEND THE STUDY TO OTHER PARTS OF JAPAN?
HOW LIKELY IS IT THAT THE 'PLUMES' WAFTED THAT CESIUM AS FAR AS CHERNOBYL'S RADIATION WAS CARRIED 33 YEARS AGO?
WE CAN TELL OURSELVES THAT, FOR 8 YEARS, ALMOST 9 NOW, NEITHER THE ABE REGIME NOR TEPCO KNEW OF THIS.
HOWEVER, HAD ANY REAL MONITORING BEEN DONE, WE SHOULD HAVE HAD REPORTS OF CONTINUED HIGHER RADIATION LEVELS IN THESE AREAS THAT CONTAIN SO MUCH CESIUM.
ABE HAS ASSURED THE WORLD THAT THEY CAN SAFELY COME TO JAPAN FOR THE OLYMPIC GAMES.
SOUTH KOREA, CHINA AND OTHERS DISAGREE.
THE TEA ROOM CERTAINLY DISAGREES.
ABE INSISTS THAT THE WORLD BUY PRODUCE, ETC, GROWN/RAISED IN THE FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE, AGAIN, ASSURING THE WORLD THAT SUCH FOOD IS SAFE.
NO, NO IT IS NOT SAFE!
IN A SIMILAR STUDY PUBLISHED IN JUNE, 2018, OTHER RESEARCHERS FOUND VERY HIGH LEVELS OF CESIUM IN COASTAL AREAS.
NEITHER ABE'S ADMINISTRATION NOR TEPCO ALERTED THE WORLD TO THIS.
Radioactive cesium concentrations in coastal suspended matter after the Fukushima nuclear accident.
--We observed radioactive Cs concentrations of suspended matter around the FDNPP.
--The 134Cs concentrations ranged from 279 to 678 Bq kg−1.
--The 137Cs concentrations ranged from 893 to 2079 Bq kg−1.
--We discovered highly radioactive Cs particles from suspended matter.
--A contribution ratio of these particles to each samples were 36% on average
.Abstract
Radioactive cesium concentrations in the suspended matter of the coastal waters around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) were investigated between January 2014 and August 2015.
The concentrations of radioactive cesium in the suspended matter were two orders higher in magnitude than those determined in the sediment.
In addition, we discovered highly radioactive Cs particles in the suspended matter using autoradiography.
The geometrical average radioactivity of particles was estimated to be 0.6 Bq at maximum and 0.2 Bq on average. The contribution ratio of highly radioactive Cs particles to each sample ranged from 13 to 54%, and was 36% on average.
A major part of the radioactive Cs concentration in the suspended matter around the FDNPP was strongly influenced by the highly radioactive particles.
The subsequent resuspension of highly radioactive Cs particles has been suggested as a possible reason for the delay in radioactive Cs depuration from benthic biota.
AND YET ABE WANTS US TO ACCEPT THAT FISH CAUGHT OFF THOSE COASTS ARE FREE OF RADIATION, ALLOWING COMMERCIAL FISHING THERE.
WHY HAVE WE 'FORGOTTEN' OR CHOSEN TO IGNORE THE FINDINGS OF THE 2015 TO 2017 STUDIES OF FUKUSHIMA CESIUM FOUND AT HIGH LEVELS IN THE BERING SEA?
WASN'T THAT PLAIN ENOUGH FOR ANYONE TO UNDERSTAND?
We measured dissolved radiocesium (134Cs and 137Cs) in seawater collected in the western subarctic area of the North Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, and Arctic Ocean in 2015 and 2017.
The radiocesium released from the accident of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (FNPP1) in March 2011 was still observed in the surface seawater of the western subarctic area and Bering Sea.
Between 2015 and 2017, the radiocesium concentration decreased and increased in the western subarctic area and the Bering Sea, respectively.
The increase in the Bering Sea was probably derived from the long-range transport of the FNPP1-derived radiocesium into the Bering Sea with the subarctic gyre circulation in the North Pacific.
The FNPP1-derived radiocesium was not detected in the Arctic Ocean in 2015 unlike that observed in 2014, which suggests a restricted transport of the FNPP1-derived radiocesium from the Bering Sea to the Arctic Ocean in 2015.
The significant elevation in the radiocesium concentration in the Bering Sea in 2017 associated with the long-range transport implies the increase in the transport of the FNPP1-derived radiocesium into the Arctic Ocean in the future.
IT'S NOT GOING TO STOP UNTIL WE STOP ALL THE RADIATION LEAKS, ALL THE OPEN-AIR BURNING OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE, PROPERLY BURY ALL THOSE FLIMSY BAGS OF NUCLEAR WASTE, PROPERLY DISPOSE OF ALL THOSE TANKS FULL OF RADIOACTIVE WATER, AND HOPE THAT, MAYBE IN 100 YEARS, THINGS GET BETTER.
JAPAN WILL HAVE TO FIND ALL THE ESCAPED CORIUM AND FIND A WAY TO ERASE THAT NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE FROM THE FACE OF OUR PLANET!
WOULD ANYONE OF A SOUND MIND IMAGINE THAT, WITH DESTRUCTION SUCH AS IS WITNESSED IN THE FUKUSHIMA AREA IN THIS ARTICLE, SOMEHOW THE DAI'ICHI NUCLEAR PLANT COMPLETELY ESCAPED DAMAGE?
WE DESPERATELY NEED AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM TO GO IN THERE AND ASSESS THINGS FOR THEMSELVES.
WE NEED PROOF THAT THAT CRIPPLED PLANT ISN'T BELCHING EVEN HIGHER LEVELS OF RADIATION SINCE THE LAST TYPHOON, AND BEFORE THE NEXT ONE STRIKES.,
Fukushima residents after Typhoon Hagibis: ‘We’ve never seen damage like this’
The highest death toll was in Fukushima prefecture north of Tokyo, where levees burst in at least 14 places along the Abukuma River, which meanders through a number of cities in the largely agricultural prefecture.
At least 25 people died in Fukushima, including a mother and child who were caught in floodwaters, NHK said. Another child of the woman remains missing.
Part of Masaharu Ishizawa’s family’s back garden had been washed away, breaking water pipes and electricity lines.
The family was using water carried from a local community center to clean up.
Two doors down, an old house had collapsed after the flood washed its foundations away.
About 133,000 households were without water while 22,000 lacked electricity, well down on the hundreds of thousands initially left without power but a cause for concern in northern areas where temperatures are falling.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a parliament committee on Tuesday (October 15) that the government is planning to classify the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis as a “catastrophic disaster.” (Reuters)
DID DAI'ICHI LOSE POWER...AGAIN?
DID TEPCO MAKE A NEW BLUNDER DURING A POWER OUTAGE THAT WE WON'T FIND OUT ABOUT FOR MAYBE MONTHS?
HOW CAN WE EVER TRUST TEPCO OR THE ABE REGIME?
WE CAN'T!
___________________________
READ MORE:
-- Three regions of interest within 60 km from the Fukushima Daiichi site.
-- Similarities and differences of 137Cs distributions in the marine environments of the Baltic and Black seas and off the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in model assessments.
//WW
Fukushima, Beaten Down by Nuclear Disaster, Takes Big Typhoon Hit.
ReplyDeleteSome facilities that had been damaged in 2011 were hit again over the weekend."
WAS THE NUCLEAR PLANT DAMAGED? WE NEED TO FIND OUT!
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/world/asia/typhoon-hagibis-fukushima-japan.html
“I am thinking maybe now this is the end,” he said. “I think there is a possibility that this will be a place where not many people can live anymore.” -- Hiroyoshi Yaginuma, RESIDENT OF FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE, OCT. 15, 2019.
ReplyDeleteThe cleanup at the Daiichi nuclear plant is far from complete. The government has yet to decide what to do with more than one million tons of contaminated water stored in close to 1,000 tanks on the site. Soil scraped from land that was exposed to radiation in the days after the nuclear accident is still stored in millions of industrial-strength plastic bags all over the prefecture. In the city of Tamura, the floodwaters displaced an unknown number of these bags from a temporary storage area, although 10 bags were later recovered undamaged.
ReplyDeleteNow the region will have to undergo a more intensive cleanup to recover from the typhoon, especially as a stadium 55 miles west of the Daiichi plant prepares to host baseball during the Tokyo Summer Olympics next year.
Some facilities that had been damaged in 2011 in Koriyama, less than 45 miles from the nuclear plant, were hit again over the weekend. A hospital that was knocked out for two months by the earthquake, for example, flooded this time around.
On Monday, many neighborhoods were still underwater. Where the waters had receded, residents and business owners went back to retrieve what little was salvageable.
In an industrial park off the banks of the Abukuma, couches, bookshelves, desks and office chairs sat along roadsides, awaiting garbage pickup. As rain fell again, workers hosed down walls and mopped up floors. At Sanko Mokuzai, a company that sells wood stoves and lumber, the chief executive, Toshiyuki Iwasaki, 63, joined several workers to load water-damaged wood panels onto a flatbed truck.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster had already forced him to find another source of timber after the government forbade sales of lumber harvested from the prefecture over radiation fears.
Yet even with the pileup of natural and man-made disasters, he said he could not afford to move because of local connections built over the company’s 50-year history.
“If I have to move,” Mr. Iwasaki said, “I will have to abandon my business.”
Still, he said he had little appetite for some of the government cheerleading for Fukushima’s recovery.
“I don’t really have any ambitions for Fukushima,” he said. “We just have to do what we need for ourselves."
At Sanko Mokuzai, a company that sells wood stoves and lumber, the chief executive, Toshiyuki Iwasaki, 63, joined several workers to load water-damaged wood panels onto a flatbed truck.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster had already forced him to find another source of timber after the government forbade sales of lumber harvested from the prefecture over radiation fears.
AT LEAST THEY ADMIT THAT TREES CAN'T EVER BE DECONTAMINATED.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/world/asia/typhoon-hagibis-fukushima-japan.html
SEE ALSO: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/11/world/asia/struggling-with-japans-nuclear-waste-six-years-after-disaster.html?module=inline
The extent of radiation contamination is mind-boggling.
ReplyDelete3.5 Billion Gallons of Soil, 1,573 Nuclear Fuel Rods, the discovery of lethal levels of radiation in one of the reactors in January, 2017, 200,400 Cubic Meters of Radioactive Rubble, Branches and Logs From 220 Acres of Deforested Land, 64,700 Cubic Meters of Discarded Protective Clothing, 3,519 Containers of Radioactive Sludge, 400 Tons of Contaminated Water Per Day, AND THIS WAS BACK IN 2017...EVERYTHING LISTED ABOVE HAS NOW GREATLY INCREASED, NO RESOLUTION, NO SOLUTION IN SIGHT.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/11/world/asia/struggling-with-japans-nuclear-waste-six-years-after-disaster.html?module=inline
His home stood near the Chikuma River in Nagano Prefecture, separated from the rising waters by a levee. “I had confidence in the levee,” Mr. Hiroshi Ogawa, 68, said. “I had faith that it was built to withstand a hundred-year flood, so it should be O.K.”
ReplyDeleteIt was not. A little over an hour later, the levee burst, submerging his home and sweeping away everything in it. He barely escaped: Minutes before, he had driven to higher ground after being warned by volunteer firefighters to flee.
The levee, in an area northwest of Tokyo, was one of at least 55 breached as Typhoon Hagibis dumped record-breaking rains on Japan last weekend, with more than 70 people dying in the storm and floodwaters hitting more than 10,000 homes.
Yasuo Nihei, a professor of river engineering at the Tokyo University of Science, said that in places around Japan, “we’re observing rain of a strength that we have never experienced. When we look at the costs, I think it’s clear that flood control programs need to be accelerated.”
Even so, he said, “realistically, there will be rains you can’t defend against.”
While the projects have saved countless lives, they are insufficient to meet the challenge of increasingly extreme weather patterns, said Shiro Maeno, a professor of hydraulic engineering at Okayama University.
“In the current state, it wouldn’t be strange for a flood to happen anytime, anywhere,” Mr. Maeno said. “Things we never could have considered have started happening in the last few years.”
The heavy investment in infrastructure has not come without a cost. The spending has helped send Japan’s national debt to record highs, as the country has approved many projects that turned out to be minimally effective or, at worst, damaging to the environment.
But planners now imagine a much worse scenario: 16 inches of rain over two days, resulting in more than a dozen levee breaches and leaving Naganuma drowning under 65 feet of water.
Even that might not be pessimistic enough. Last weekend, when Typhoon Hagibis hit Hakone, a mountain resort town south of Tokyo, 39 inches of rain fell in 48 hours.
Hiroki Okamoto, a local official in charge of managing the Chikuma River said,
“We have to move forward with the understanding that no matter what’s installed, there will be a flood that it can’t defend against.” The government needs to shift its focus to “doing public relations work so that people will evacuate” during floods, he said, adding, “It’s hard to get them to run.” Still, few residents expected that a typhoon would break the levee in their lifetimes. Mr. Ogawa himself was not quite so sanguine. His home and his apple business will recover, he said, but he’s not sure he ever will.
“Even if the levee is fixed, every time there’s a heavy rain or a typhoon, my chest is going to tighten,” he said.
“I want to move to a place where my family can live without worrying.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/world/asia/japan-typhoon-hagibis.html