Friday, February 21, 2014

The International Workshop on Radiation and Thyroid Cancer in Tokyo, February 21-23, 2014


The workshop is ongoing, co-hosted by the Ministry of the Environment, Fukushima Medical University, and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency.

Presenters include expert researchers from around the world, including Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, in radiological research and thyroid cancer research.

The link to the English program: http://www.nsra.or.jp/safe/crpph2014/program-e.pdf

The link to the Japanese program: http://www.nsra.or.jp/safe/crpph2014/program-j.pdf


Live webcast in English:



Live streaming video by Ustream

Live webcast in Japanese:



Live streaming video by Ustream

I caught a tweet by a nuclear researcher in Japan viewing the live webcast, in which he mentioned a presentation that the higher intake of natural iodine in Japan than outside Japan through normal diet before the accident was one of the reasons why the ratio of iodine-131 and radioactive cesium in people exposed to Fukushima-origin radiation is different from the ratio of iodine-131 and radioactive cesium in the atmosphere. (I'm assuming the ratio of iodine-131 was much lower in people than in the atmosphere.)

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good to see that this symposium is hosted by three highly reputable bodies with a history of speaking the truth.
\sarcasm
Cliff notes please if anybody can be bothered.

Anonymous said...

Their "normal diet" from before may save them from thyroid cancers, but leukemias afterwards are what is most likely to get them.

Ab-"normal" diet, that is.

Anonymous said...

Anon at 5:11AM, even in Fukushima Prefecture, their daily diet contains very low cesium. The nuclide analysis of the meal has been continuously done by prefectural, municipal governments and citizens groups. Stop throwing a curse at these people with the comment like that.

You will probably say "what about plutonium?" It is statistically extremely unlikely that food very low in cesium contain any significant amount of plutonium.

Anonymous said...

Anon@9:48

Yes, the danger of eating food contaminated with Plutonium is small. BUT, the real danger is of eating food contaminated with Strontium, the bone marrow killer.

Levels of Strontium appear to be rising rapidly.

Plutonium however will wreak havoc in those who are unlucky enough to breath contaminated air.

Bottom lime is there are still plenty of carcinogenic and mutagenic poisons spread over a very wide area (some suggest 20,000 sq km) of Japan that will blight the lives of many.

Stop directing your anger at those who highlight the awful reality of the situation, and instead start directing your anger at those truly responsible for this catastrophe.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Anon at 10:57AM, do you have links to strontium level rising in food? That's news to me.

Anonymous said...

In case fallout is affecting memories:

"...a presentation that the higher intake of natural iodine in Japan than outside Japan through normal diet before the accident was one of the reasons why the ratio of iodine-131 and radioactive cesium in people exposed to Fukushima-origin radiation is different from the ratio of iodine-131 and radioactive cesium in the atmosphere..."

This 'presentation' has been discussed here before. A couple of Japanese nuclear apologists helped writeup a study that was published by the WHO/IAEA claiming Japanese children were less susceptible to fallout from a nuclear disaster compared to children of Chernobyl because of healthier diets preventing incorporation of radionuclides after intake (inhaling or ingesting). Inferring kids suffering from malnutrition have a tendency to allow their bodies to incorporate radioactive analogues more readily.

Well, that conclusion cuts both ways. If Japanese kids were nutritionally superior and are still falling ill at alarming above average rates esp. from thyroids conditions in the early years after Fukushima, Daiichi's nuclear fallout disaster, either the report has misconception about proper nutritional healthy preventing fallout abnormalities or there was a hell of a lot more fallout in Japan than is/was being reported that saturated an entire nation with deadly radionuclides. Poor health reports will only get worse into the future, it's a given.

By the way, Plutonium is an iron analogue.

Anonymous said...

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Anon at 10:57AM, do you have links to strontium level rising in food? That's news to me.
------------------------

Who, officially, from Japan is going to report the true facts??

Anonymous said...

That's just incredible curse.

Anonymous said...

Laprimavera, no I do not have links to Strontium levels rising in food per se. However, strontium levels in general are rising as was predicted

It is difficult to know what the true levels of Strontium in food are. All the emphasis has been on the 'easy to detect' Cs 134/137 despite the fact that Strontium is a far more insidious threat.

Given Tepco's ineptitude in testing anything accurately, and govt's clear desire to downplay any danger (even at the expense of the health of its' most vulnerable citizens), it would seem entirely reasonable to assume that where cesium contamination has been found in food, one should expect to find Strontium contamination also.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Strontium level rising in general? You mean the detection inside the plant?

Anonymous said...

Detection methods seem to have been modified to reflect more realistic (?) levels inside the plant. Strontium 90 now is the largest single component of the all beta radiation measured in the ground water wells inside the plant. A new record level each week it seems. And these are not trivial levels of Strontium 90,

Hot particles of 40,000,000,000 Bq/kg have been discovered over 250km from the plant. You yourself wrote an article recently about VERY hot debris discovered approx 15km from the plant.

Is strontium 90 to be found in food containing cesium 134/137? It would take a most unwise gambler to think it would not be.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

So far, strontium-90 in food remains very low to ND, according to tests by various citizens groups, municipal governments, etc.

Naraha-machi's radioactive pieces are in grams, to be sure.

Anonymous said...

This very good news eases my worried mind for the children and the women of the area. I was worried about the fact that the government will restart the other nuclear plants which will probably be damaged by another earth quake in the future such as the tokai earthquake that is predicted for the Tokyo area in the near future..

Indeed I can thank my lucky stars that my 8 year old daughter lives in a country that provides a diet that protects against these radioactive elements when such an accident occurs.

If other countries are worried that the radioactive elements pouring into the Pacific will bioaccumulate and become a health hazard then they should change their diet. That is your problem. Deal with it. The people in Japan will be fine.

Laprimavera can you confirm that the tests undertaken were sensitive enough to detect strontium because there seems to be confusion about this.

Anonymous said...

So now we have areva suggesting Japan has dodged the radioactive bullet.

The picture grows .. "interesting".

Perhaps we're all behind the curve, somehow. We have missed the mythical or mystical "specialness" and the Smiles have won free.

Yes, yes, that's it. A penance of sorts has been accomplished on some unknown demand or sched-genda.

/sarc

Anonymous said...

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

So far, strontium-90 in food remains very low to ND, according to tests by various citizens groups, municipal governments, etc.
---------------------------

A German 1990s study based on an exercise in 1989 found that strontium-90 levels in ground water would likely spike dramatically 1,000 days after a meltdown. It also guesstimated that 90% of the volatile fission products escape during a meltdown, 100% of the non-volatile fission products remain in the melt subject to erosion over time.

"...The highest radionuclide concentration of approx. 10 to the tenth power Bq/m3 is reached by Sr-90 after 5000 days. The effective equivalent dose for an adult is above 10 the second power Sv/a..."
http://www.irpa.net/irpa8/cdrom/VOL.1/M1_97.PDF

Besides that, Strontium is difficult to test for as TEPCO has proven by doing it wrong and under-reported all radiation for the first 3 years since the Daiichi disaster. Just relying on handheld devices to detect Strontium and thinking all the Strontium blew away to the east, is silly.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/2013/02/canadas-land-of-milk-and-strontium-90/

Anonymous said...

Laprimavera, I am having difficulty reconciling the contradictions...

'Strontium 90 is difficult to test for' and yet you are convinced that 'various citizen groups and govt municipalities' have tested correctly for Strontium 90 in food?

Strontium 90 in groundwater is rising as predicted in the German study, and will continue to rise for some years. We already know that the groundwater table at Fukushima has risen to within a few cm of the surface. It is simplistic to think that all this contamination will simply confine itself to within the boundaries of Fukushima harbour, no matter how much Abe insists. Canute already demonstrated the futility of that exercise.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Not so much of any "conviction" on my part. I've seen the test results. There are also food retailers who test the foodstuff they sell for strontium, in addition to cesium. (Here's one: http://item.rakuten.co.jp/food-connect/c/0000000254/)

Anonymous said...

5,000 days is about 13 years until SR-90 finishes spiking. 10,000 days or about 26 years Cs-137 will finally peak. I said 'erosion' the study actually says 'leaching', this is what the study was all about pre-Fukushima, Daiichi.

The study sure predicted the Sr-90 activity correctly i.e. after 1,000 days the Sr-90 would begin to spike. There again, they claim the study's estimates are low and conservative [projected timelines might be shown to be correct but amounts of leaching in Japan involves (3) melts].

Anonymous said...

"There are also food retailers who test the foodstuff they sell for strontium, in addition to cesium."

It does have the ring of "conviction" to it. That would be the conviction that the testing is representative, and the conviction that the danger of hotspots is minimal or tolerable. And that would, again, be in direct contradiction to previous musings of your own, areva.

To contradict yourself in matters of such importance is to re-act.

People have begun to note such re-actions along with commenters who, for instance, state that the lawyer who represents sailors against Tepco is "profiteering". That, of course, is suggestive of Tepco NOT engaging in profiteering, politicians on Tepco's payroll not being prostitutes ... and that it IS possible to dodge the plumes' radioactive bullets.

Didn't see the stop sign, took a turn for the worse, is it?

Anonymous said...

I've looked at the Rakuten web site - they tLk a lot about testing fr cesium which is pretty straightforward. They don't see to talk about testing FYI Strontium 90 in any detail.

There is no machine that I am aware of yet that ca simply test a sample FD Strontium 90 unlike the many that can test for Cs.

Testing for Sr is a process which requires step by step chemical preparation of a sample ( to eliminate Strontium 89 false readings) the careful anadeductive analysis to determine Strontium 90 levels as distinct fro its daughter product Ytrium.

Best accuracy in a well prepred and very careful conducted test would see t be around the 70% mark

Anonymous said...

Btw, have you read this?
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2014/images/handouts_140205_05-e.pdf

Anonymous said...

Are there any links to this claim that strontium is rising? Is there any reason to jump on Primavera for trying to get to the bottom of this claim?
Sounds a bit suspicious to me. If there is no new fission going on, there is no new strontium being created. If anything is happening, it is that the strontium that already exists in the cores and debris and lava, is migrating through the water. As bad enough as that is, it is not the same as strontium in Japanese food being on the rise, or strontium in kids being on the rise, both of which would be specific claims that need backing up. But instead, people are parsing Primavera's words, rather than getting to the truth of a extraordinary claim. I'm curious about this 40bn bq/kg "hot particle" being found 250km from the plant as well.

Anonymous said...

Here are some strontium results taken by the National Institute of Health Sciences. Showing very negligible strontium amounts...less than a tenth of a becquerel/kilo. And no plutonium.

http://www.mhlw.go.jp/file/04-Houdouhappyou-11131500-Shokuhinanzenbu-Kikakujouhouka/24spring_2.pdf

Anonymous said...

Anon @ 4:06, that German study assumed the core melted through the concrete completely, and came into direct contact with the groundwater. I cannot prove that this didn't happen at Fukushima, but neither can anyone else prove that all three cores completely melted through the concrete. It does, however, seem to be an extraordinary claim. In any event, I will be interested to see the links discussing rising strontium levels in food.

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