Tuesday, April 26, 2011

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Charts Showing Release of Radioactive Iodine and Cesium into Air May Be Going Up Again

Found them @Physics Forums, posted by clancy688 today. The poster doesn't link to the original site where the charts came from. Labels are in German, so they could be from DWD (Deutscher Wetterdienst), as CTBTO does not have a mandate to disclose the data.

CTBTO stands for "Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization", and "38" is their Takasaki Station in Gunma Prefecture in Japan.

It looks as if something had happened around April 18, and both cesium 137 and iodine-131 are on the rise again in a volatile fashion in Japan. The US West Coast is following suit.

I do not know and do not guarantee the authenticity of the charts.

Unit is becquerels in cubic meter, and the red dotted line indicates the highest daily amount in Germany (May 1, 1986 in Bavarian Forest) during the Chernobyl accident.




13 comments:

Apolline said...

Hello,
Helios from France again !
Do you trust the Tepco's informations ?
Where are you living in Japan ?
A blogger (writing in french) in Tokyo seems very optimistic about air radiations. He says tourists should come in Japan. What do you think about it ?
Thanks for your answers.
Best wishes

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Hi Helios. I have family members living in Tokyo and in Tohoku region, but I'm in California. I was just about to buy a plane ticket and visit them when the earthquake struck.

I do trust TEPCO's information, though it doesn't come in a timely and effective manner. The best way to get TEPCO info is to actually watch the press conferences that they still give every day, and they are available live on the Internet. And TEPCO cannot release information without clearance from NISA. The information coming from PM's Office and other Ministries and agencies are misleading at best, deceptive at worst. When the air radiation was the worst, the government was telling the residents in Japan that there was nothing to worry about, and outside 20-radius it was safe. They are apologizing now for not making the prediction available during the crucial days.

Air radiation may be OK in Tokyo, but the Tokyo municipal government only measures at a location in Shinjuku, 20 meters from the ground. And even that radiation is twice the normal. What's on the ground and near the ground is much worse. His optimism may be caused by lack of information. As for tourists, they have a choice not to come to Japan, and you can't force them to come.

Iwaki City in Fukushima is feeding primary school children with milk from Fukushima. Those kids have no choice.

Anonymous said...

Radiation readings from a variety of sources available here http://japan.failedrobot.com/

Not sure that Shinjuku radiation is twice normal. According to this site it is actually less than average currently. http://atmc.jp/

I would like to see the information that shows radiation on the ground to be much worse.

Fukushima is a very big prefecture. Milk from some parts of Fukushima would be safe. You are implying that the government is feeding children tainted milk, and it would be clarify or quantify that statement.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@anon, you're reading too much into what I said. I'm saying the Iwaki kids are fed with Fukushima milk, when safer choices do exist. I just don't understand the urge by city officials to gamble on the kids.

As for Shinjuku radiation, I do go to atmc.jp to check (I don't know what "average" they are using) and I also go to the source. (http://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/emergency/monitoring.tokyo-eiken.go.jp/monitoring/hourly_data.html)

Latest measurement for Shinjuku:
Max: 0.0722 microgray/hr
Min: 0.0654 microgray/hr

Before Reactor 4 blew up, from March 1 to March 14:
Max: 0.0374 to 0.0461 microgray/hr
Min: 0.0304 to 0.0313 microgray/hr
(from http://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/emergency/monitoring.tokyo-eiken.go.jp/monitoring/past_data.html)

That leads me to think that current level is twice of what it was before the explosion.

Pre-explosion number is also consistent with Ministry of Education's monitoring before the Fukushima accident. http://rika.s58.xrea.com/wiki.xcg?action=ATTACH&page=%B4%C4%B6%AD%C4%B4%BA%BA%A5%DE%A5%CB%A5%E5%A5%A2%A5%EB%A1%A1%A1%C1%A1%A1%BC%AB%C1%B3%CA%FC%BC%CD%C0%FE%CE%CC%A4%CE%C2%AC%C4%EA&file=m10%2Ejpg

No "official" measurement of ground level radiation, but there are plenty of live monitors, vids, tweets, blog posts on the net by the concerned residents.

Anonymous said...

As a resident of Tokyo and as a long time admirer of this blog I would also have to say that I found these latest comments to be a bit alarmist. This blog is best when it sticks to the facts. When you say the ground radiation is "much worse" than twice the normal level, but have no data to present, I'm not sure you are helping your readers. Likewise with the milk story. I do appreciate the hard work and the very frequent updates.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@anon, twice the normal is the air radiation in Shinjuku, as I posted the numbers in my comment above.

Ground radiation is higher than the air radiation, and that's the fact, as the airborne iodine and cesium land. It is so in Fukushima school yards, which you could easily verify at http://atmc.jp/. No official data on Tokyo, as Tokyo government doesn't bother measuring. But particles behave the same whether it is Fukushima or Tokyo. Unofficial youtube vids: http://lang-8.com/19649/journals/890970/Is-Tokyo-contaminated-by-radioactivity%253F

If I am an alarmist and things are much much better, I would be very happy.

atmc.jp has raw milk number, too.

Anonymous said...

Robbie001 sez:

They are going to remove a little soil from some schools in the effected region. Of course an unnamed local official assures everyone the school yard radiation is "unlikely" to cause "major" harm. Just what you want to hear about a place you're going to send your kids to everyday.

"The local government implements the safety measure if radiation levels at a point 1 centimetre above ground reach 3.8 microsievert per hour for elementary and junior high schools, and 3 microsievert for nurseries.

Fifteen elementary and junior high schools and 13 nursery schools are subject to the measure, aimed at easing concerns among parents although the current radiation levels are unlikely cause major harm to children, an unnamed local official was quoted by Jiji was saying."

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1635392.php/Schools-in-Japan-disaster-zone-remove-radiation-tainted-soil

Anonymous said...

I think you misunderstood me. What I mean is that the readings for Tokyo at atmc.jp show that the normal readings for Tokyo (graph #13) are 0.028-0.079, and so the readings for today are within that range (I guess 0.89% of the high). When you say that ground radiation is much higher, I'm not sure it helps anybody because #1 it is conjecture, and #2 we don't know what you mean. Should be not breathe the air at ground level? Should we not walk in the dirt at ground level? It is a statement that is just meant to raise alarm. But otherwise I think the info is very useful.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@anon, if a dosimeter on the ground measuring radiation is conjecture, I don't know what to say. The government has decided to measure the ground level radiation, but only in Fukushima. There doesn't seem to be any plan to do it in Tokyo.

There are many experts (mostly university researchers, not necessarily in nuclear science) in Japan who give very practical pieces of advice on how to deal with radiation that's already there in the air and on the ground. They are all in Japanese, but I will try to translate some of those.

Anonymous said...

I'm not saying a dosimeter on the ground is conjecture. I'm saying if there is a dosimeter on the ground we should show the numbers. If there is no dosimeter on the ground but we say "the radiation on the ground is really high" that would be conjecture.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

I agree the ground measurement should be done, and should be made public, and not just for Fukushima. People are showing on youtube. Those volunteer sites with measurement numbers for locations in Japan should also do the version for the ground level, until Ministry of Education comes along...

An elementary school in Koriyama City in Fukushima was told to take down the detailed radiation measurement that the school had been doing (using a portable dosimeter from Ministry of Education, no less) from the school's website. The school cites the reason as "we were told that the only radiation measurement information that could be disseminated via the Internet is the information from the public agencies like Ministry of Education and the Fukushima municipal government." The school says it will continue to inform the parents via the school letters. (If you read Japanese, http://ex-skf-jp.blogspot.com/2011/04/blog-post_7126.html).

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@anon 4/28 2:18AM, about Shinjuku air radiation, here's from NHK Science and Culture division's blog (http://www9.nhk.or.jp/kabun-blog/400/80506.html):

東京都新宿区 0.07μSv/h (7~8:00a.m.)
通常の値:0.03~0.04μSv/h

Normal level (pre-Fukushima) is about half of what it is right now, according to NHK citing official data.

Anonymous said...

Information from Shinjuku shows the normal range for Shinjuku is 0.028-0.079 (what anon April 12, 10:05 said). So according to Shinjuku, the readings lately are within normal range.

Also some good information about ground vs. air readings, and why the readings are taken where they are. Good info for Japanese readers.
http://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/emergency/monitoring.tokyo-eiken.go.jp/monitoring/sokutei/sokutei.html

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