Monday, December 31, 2012

(Now They Tell Us) US Nuclear Terrorism Specialists Were Sent to Japan Right After the Start of Fukushima Nuclear Accident to Measure Radiation


A short article by Kyodo News doesn't reveal much details, but it is clear, sort of, that the US was measuring radiation from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident from very early on.

Kyodo News writes as if everybody knew there was a team of US experts measuring radiation around Fukushima I Nuke Plant right after the accident. (Did we?)

Kyodo News (12/31/2012):

米、原発事故に核特殊チーム派遣 初展開、菅政権把握せず

US sent a nuclear special team to Japan, first [overseas] deployment of the team; Kan administration did not know about the deployment

東電福島第1原発事故直後に、原発周辺の放射線量を測定するために米政府が日本に派遣したのは、核テロなどに備える特殊専門チームだったことが31日、分かった。このチームが海外へ本格展開した初の事例だったが、当時の菅直人政権中枢は派遣の事実を当初把握していなかったことも判明。チームが実測したデータの公表が遅れ、住民の「無用な被ばくを招いた」(福島県浪江町議会の吉田数博議長)恐れがある。

It was revealed on December 31 that a team that the US government sent to Japan in order to measure radiation around Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant right after the start of the nuclear accident was a special team to counter nuclear terrorism. It was the first overseas deployment for this team, but the core officials in the Kan administration weren't aware of the deployment at that time. The actual measurement [as opposed to simulations like SPEEDI] by the team was therefore delayed, and it may have caused "unnecessary radiation exposure" for the residents (Namie Town Assembly chairman).

チーム派遣決定に関わった複数の米政府関係者と、日本側当局者らが共同通信に明らかにした。

Multiple sources in the US government and the Japanese counterparts who were involved in the deployment disclosed the news to Kyodo Tsushin.

派遣されたのは、上空からガンマ線を実測し汚染状況を分析する「被害管理対応チーム」の33人。

The team consisted of 33 people in "Damage Control and Response Team" [my translation, probably not the official name] in charge of measuring gamma radiation from the sky and analyzing the situation of contamination.


Could this team be from Nuclear Emergency Support Team? Kyodo article has a photograph provided by the US National Nuclear Security Administration, so it is likely it was this team.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where is THEIR radiation data? Is a FOIA possible, or is this classified as "national security"..so hidden from the public? Is this one more example of japanese and American Obamaism, "no immediate danger", to keep in office and now the truth is sloowwly dripping out...?? Would pray that is not the case..

Anonymous said...

These teams could measure external radiations.
But it is nearly impossible to measure hot particles (those that really cause health risks) because you need to have your station located exactly located were the particles charged clouds flow. These winds have flying paterns but it is impossible to know in advance exaclty were and at what time the charged wind will blow. You would need to be lucky to measure this lethal radiation. But no one should ever inhale from charged wind. A team could make a measurement at 8:00 am, but the charged wind blow from 9:30 to 10:30. Then the team makes another measurement at another location, but the wind had already blown there. Teams measuring external radiation emissions measure have an easy job, but what they measure is normally not considered harmful and is far less dangerous than hot billion particles blown in winds which can hit a person standing at a location but the person 2 meter away from him/her. External radiation measurements are stronger the closer the team is to the radiative source (Fukushima plant). Apart from very very contaminated area, the measurment will be the same at the same distance from the plant on any direction and get stronger the closer to the plant. Hot particles, which are by far the main health risks cause, can't be measured this way.

US and Japan governement are playing with this difference to cheat people into thiking there are no dangers. But they only mearure the less dangerous external radiations and provide data for these. However the thousands of thera becquerels blowing from Fukushima are more lethal to those who get in physical contact with them by standing in a charged blowing wind. By inhaling, touching, .....

Anonymous said...

One small correction in my post:

line 15:
"...but the person 2 meter away from him/her..."

should be:

but NOT the person 2 meter away from him/her.


Japan Nuclear Emergency said...

I think everyone is talking about this survey, it was released to the public March 28, 2011 but likely available to the Japanese govt. at least a week before: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2091491657786å63&set=a.209145639112349.65581.209074522452794&type=3&src=https%3A%2F%2Fsphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-snc6%2F189835_209149165778663_2947627_n.jpg&size=640%2C468

The Japanese media then published it on the same day, but it was ignored by major media & the Japanese government for another month or two. With all the Japan bashing going on re the U.S. military it is highly likely they had better results than the Japanese before the sailors took exposure, as they also have real time access to the CTBO data which is even more sensitive than the SPEEDI data. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=209149249111988&set=a.209145639112349.65581.209074522452794&type=3&theater

People are also missing that the Japanese government got pressure from Obama and Clinton to downplay the hazard, these were American nuclear plant designs and many more are in the U.S.. Anyone that followed the story closely saw how the nuclear industry locked step to downplay the disaster. And yes TEPCO participated, along with the METI people.

An odd occurrence was haw METI claimed many of their closest monitoring stations were offline, still I was following all the available stations, including a half dozen surrounding the plant and they all seemed active nearby. Conspiracy?

Japan Nuclear Emergency said...

Ah well I didn't even look at my own chart--the NNSA chart is dated 17, 18, 19 March 2011--ten days before it was made public. I'm almost embarrassed to say, even from the U.S. I was able to find & publish close to a dozen & a half Japanese monitoring stations, and recall at least 90% of them were up & working. It defies rationality for the Japanese govt. & U.S. Navy to claim any kind of ignorance of the amounts and patterns of fallout:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IebiZZ5ZvPkA5jOz3-VyWLN8c0eBFS7iuxCgpQBym3s/edit

It is blatantly obvious both governments downplayed the disaster to cover for the nuclear industry, and just hoped no one would notice, or maybe it would go away. People's lives were traded for PR scams.

Anonymous said...

I think they might be referring to the 155 man contingent of the Chemical, Biological, and Incident Response Force but they weren't deployed until the end of March.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_Biological_Incident_Response_Force

http://www.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=63387

BTW, according to this FOIA document all of the radiation data the USS Reagan was collecting, "is being passed to the DOE NARAC site, and so with everything, they should be able to start hopefully generating some more refined plume plots for us". The document also points out that the gamma shine is coming from overhead clouds not fallout deposition this mean they were aware of increased radiation levels before it was deposited on the ship.

http://enformable.com/2012/03/uss-ronald-reagan-measured-0-6-mrhr-direct-gamma-shine-from-clouds-130-miles-from-fukushima-daiichi/

NARAC is the National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center

https://narac.llnl.gov/

Anonymous said...

Actually I think I'm right NEST has definitely been deployed on foreign soil the most recent operation was in China during the Olympics.

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/2008/06/22/nuclear-emergency-support-team-nest-sent-to-china-ahead-of-olympics-bill-gertz/

But this is the first time for the CBIRF, by the way you'll notice it is a Chemical Biological INCIDENT response team (nuclear = incident in milspeak). If you look at their insignia you'll notice there are two nuclear symbols but you wouldn't know it from their name, (can't be panicking the public).

“This is the first time an IRF has deployed as a whole unit on foreign soil for an actual operation,” said Master Sgt. Patrick L. Lavender, Operations Chief, CBIRF. “There was a specific skill set needed that only CBIRF could address.”

http://www.cbirf.marines.mil/News/ArticleView/tabid/695/Article/14596/marines-sailors-return-from-disaster-relief-deployment.aspx

Anonymous said...

Forgot insigna link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CBIRF.png

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

anon @10:58AM, that team's presence was widely publicized in Japan at that time. I think this one is different.

Anonymous said...

OT Well this didn't take long:

"The new government in Japan has announced it will review the planned nuclear power phase-out proposed by the previous administration."

"We need to reconsider the previous administration's policy that aimed to make zero nuclear power operation possible during the 2030s,".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20850416

Anonymous said...

Hmm,who's providing them with Mox?

Anonymous said...

The US nearly immediately set up an 80km no go zone while the Japanese were talking up to 30km, if I remember correctly.
The best way to see which way the wind was blowing was on ZAMG, which I used daily. Basically it was the area north and north east which got covered daily by the radiation. Somedays it swept south down Ibaraki and Chiba, Tokyo, Yokohama and Saitama, a little in Tochigi and as far as Niigata on occasion. In fact twice the radiation swept round like a hook taking in Kagoshima and moving back up through Kyushu, with one rainfall included, but NOT the levels which the land immediately north and north east had. They were hammered. I remember thinking all the time that the authorities should be getting the tsunami/quake survivors OUT of those areas where the camps were set up. Instead of that they remained and breathed that shit in daily, poor souls. 'Throwing their own people under the bus' was commentated on at the time.
nb much of Tohoku and half of Hokkaido was also hit, enough for me to cancel my wheat orders from that area. Shame because that is-was- the best wheat/rice/sake producing areas in Japan.
Damage limitation. Now I know that government will never protect its citizens in the face of what they see as the "larger good"-in this case saving the Japanese economy, business etc etc.
Don't forget though that there WAS a period of total panic and exodus from Tokyo by women and children. As the lies continued, people dribbled back preferring to believe paradigm they knew and understood spouted from politicians who should have known better. Such is life.

Anonymous said...

see here for the first few days of the crisis.

http://vielmetti.typepad.com/vacuum/2011/03/fukushima-fallout-plume-animation.html

Anonymous said...

http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2011/04/austrias-zamg-iodine-131-forecast-in.html

look back!

Anonymous said...

OK I think I found the group they are talking about they were dispatched by the NNSA but they aren't NEST they are the CMRT & AMS. The NNSA is only 12 years old so this might be their first foreign deployment

Late afternoon on Monday, March 14, 2011, the "Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration deployed 33 people and more than 17,200 pounds of equipment - including Consequence Management Response Teams and NNSA Aerial Measuring Systems - to Japan in response to the recent earthquake and tsunami."

(see near bottom of page)
http://energy.gov/situation-japan-updated-8312

http://nnsa.energy.gov/aboutus/ourprograms/emergencyoperationscounterterrorism/respondingtoemergencies

"Members of the U.S. Navy Reserve Detachment 105 were joined by six members of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Liaison (LNO) and Consequence Management Advisory Team (CMAT). These two elements formed the initial core of the United States Forces Japan (USFJ) Radiological Consequence Management Team (RCMT) whose mission was to advise Lieutenant General Burton Field Commander USFJ on matters related to the nuclear fuel cycle, potential hazards, and potential mitigation of a radiological incident."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tomodachi#13_March_2011

Anonymous said...

DTRA is tasked with preventing nukes and nuke related things from falling into unfriendly hands. Their presence, as well as that of CBIRF, says that the US was concerned about potential loss of control over nuclear material, among other things.
Imo the concern was not entirely unwarranted, as the security around the affected NPPs was weak to non-existent. Someone with a truck crashed a gate at Dai-ni iirc?

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