'Cui Bono' Over Ukraine: Toshiba/Westinghouse for One, Selling More Nuclear Fuel to Ukraine, But Russia Says It May Lead to "15 Chernobyl Disasters at a Time"

The US's Westinghouse, 100% owned by Japan's Toshiba, will be selling more nuclear fuel to nuclear power plants in Ukraine to make up for the potential supply disruption from Russia.

Never mind that Russian Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin warns on his Facebook (link from Huffington Post Japan article) about a danger of using the US-made nuclear fuel in the Russian-made nuclear reactors in Ukraine.

As the FT article below quotes the vice president of Westinghouse, Ukraine is now the third largest nuclear power operator in Europe after France and the UK, with 50% of electricity from nuclear power.

From Financial Times (4/11/2014; emphasis is mine):

Westinghouse extends nuclear fuel deal with Ukraine

Westinghouse Electric Company has extended a contract with Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear power operator, to supply fuel to plants until 2020.

The deal struck on Friday, valued at between $100m and $200m, will see the Toshiba-owned company supply 15 annual fuel supplies for initially two reactors, easing Ukraine’s dependence on Russia for fuel supplies as disputes between the two countries rumble on.

Russia has raised natural gas prices to Ukraine by 80 per cent and threatened to cut supplies altogether. This has left the government in Kiev to seek alternatives in order to diversify fuel supplies in its energy inefficient economy, as talks on importing gas from European markets via Slovakia drag on.

Mike Kirst, Westinghouse vice-president, said the group aims to be providing “roughly 20-25 per cent of Ukrainian nuclear fuel supply through 2020”.

The first supplies will be shipped to the South Ukraine nuclear power plant. Supplies to other Ukrainian nuclear reactors currently burning fuel from Russia’s TVEL will follow.

Mr Kirst described the deal as a “milestone” for Ukraine and Westinghouse.

“This contract would represent roughly between 5-10 per cent of our European fuel business. When you talk about a fleet of reactors that are 15, it could [reach] 20-25 per cent” of our business in Europe, he said.

Citing Ukrainian officials, Mr Kirst said Westinghouse fuel had proven less expensive for Ukraine “if you factor in” price and efficiency.

For Westinghouse, Ukraine is a big market. Mr Kirst added: “Ukraine is the third largest nuclear power civilian operator in Europe. France is number one. The UK number two. Now that the Germans have shut off much of their reactors, Ukraine moves into third. It is literally one of the largest markets in Europe, and very reliant on nuclear fuel getting about 50 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power.”

Here's The Voice of Russia, warning against Westinghouse's nuclear fuel (4/11/2014; emphasis is mine):

The use of US-made fuel in Ukrainian reactors may lead to 15 Chernobyl disasters at a time

Kiev is reducing cooperation with Russia in the field of nuclear power production and is going to sign a contract with the Westinghouse Electric Corporation of the United States for nuclear fuel supplies. Flaws have been repeatedly detected in Westinghouse-made fuel assemblies. Experts believe that the use of such assemblies will make Ukrainian nuclear reactors less reliable and may pose a threat to Ukraine’s nuclear safety.

Ukraine’s new authorities have clearly decided to ratchet down Kiev’s dependence on Russian nuclear fuel supplies and sign a contract to that end with the Westinghouse Corporation. But the move may result in a manmade disaster in Ukraine, since the nuclear power plants in Ukraine have been built from Soviet design an can safely operate only on the fuel made in the Russian city Elektrostal, says Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Natural Resources, Maxim Shingarkin, and elaborates.

"Every single reactor is normally built on the assumption that it will consume the nuclear fuel with specific characteristics, such as the amount of highly enriched uranium and certain thermal response. Any deviation may result in a nuclear accident. We can get as many as 15 Chernobyl disasters at a time, with a danger of such a scale to Ukraine, Russia and Europe that the entire world’s civilization will fail to cope with them".

Ukraine already signed a contract with Westinghouse, five years ago to be exact. US-made fuel assemblies caused problems in two generating units in less than a year. The assemblies began to bend themselves due to design flaws. But Ukraine managed to avoid a nuclear disaster then. Ukraine banned the Westinghouse-made nuclear rods from loading into its reactors. But the people currently at the helm in Kiev seem to be prepared to ignore the negative experience of using US-made fuel assemblies and to have them loaded into as many as three reactors at a time. This runs counter to the international nuclear safety and security standards, says the Chairman of the International Union of Atomic Energy and Industry Veterans, Evgeniy Akimov, and elaborates.

"This kind of experiment was made several years ago when Ukraine and the Czech Republic attempted to use US-made nuclear fuel rods. The results proved negative in both cases. The rods were removed, and the plants resumed the use of Russian-made fuel".

The use of Westinghouse-made fuel in Ukraine may put out Ukrainian reactors out of operation, prompt a discharge of radioactive substances into the atmosphere, cause the whole of Ukraine’s electric power production system to collapse and trigger and environmental catastrophe in Ukraine and beyond.

The Voice of Russia may be exaggerating, for the fear (if there is fear on their part) of losing the nuclear fuel business in Ukraine. But Mr. Maxim Shingarkin's comment above rings true.

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Long Shadow of Chernobyl (4): Organic Blueberry Spread Imported from Italy Found with 164 Bq/Kg of Cesium-137

Japanese weekly magazine Shukan Asahi did its own checking on imported blueberry spread being sold in Tokyo and alerted the health authorities, who were reluctant to do anything at first.

Main points from from Shukan Asahi (10/23/2013) article:

• "Fior di frutta organic fruits spread" blueberry imported from Italy

• Place of origin: Bulgaria

• 164Bq/kg of cesium-137 by test commissioned by Shukan Asahi

• 140Bq/kg of cesium-137 by test by the municipal (Tokyo) health authorities

• Shibuya-ku ordered the importer MIE PROJECT on October 18 to recall 5,184 bottles of blueberry spread with the best before date of October 17, 2015.

• Ministry of Health and Welfare initially refused to do anything based on "private" (as opposed to "official" - i.e. by the government) test results.

• The public health centers involved didn't want to move either on just "an article that appeared in a magazine".

• Less than 10 percent of all imported food is tested; it is possible that people are eating contaminated food without knowing.

For articles on "Long Shadow of Chernobyl", go here.

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Long Shadow of Chernobyl (3): Dried Mushrooms from Italy Still Found With 170 Bq/kg of Cesium-137

One of the scientific researchers that I follow who goes by the name of "Tomynyo" on Twitter has been measuring all sorts of things after the Fukushima nuclear accident - soil accumulated on top of his apartment complex in Yokohama City with high levels of radioactive cesium to bamboo shoots and mushrooms served in the kindergarten lunch.

His latest tweets is not about the domestic mushrooms but about mushrooms from Italy:

イタリア製のボルチーニ茸6検体を測定したところ全ての検体からセシウム137が検出されました。 最大は170.3±18.0Bq/kg、最低は31.6±6.2Bq/kgでした。スーパーの乾椎茸はほとんど九州産ですから、普通に買える乾椎茸より汚染されていると思います　(link)

We measured 6 samples of [dried] Italian porcini mushrooms, and all samples were found with cesium-137. Maximum was 170.3±18.0Bq/kg, and minimum was 31.6±6.2Bq/kg. Dried mushroom you buy at a supermarket are almost all grown in Kyushu, so we think these Italian mushrooms are more contaminated than the dried Japanese mushrooms you can buy at a supermarket.

ボルチーニは水戻しした場合セシウム濃度は1/4になるそうです。... 3.11以前からそれなりの汚染された食品食べていた可能性があることは認識すべきです。(link)

If porcini mushrooms get rehydrated, the density of radioactive cesium would be one-fourths, we are told. We should recognize that we may have been eating food with certain levels of contamination even before March 11, 2011.

Just like the wood pellets from trees in Shikoku, Japan tested by one of my Twitter followers, cesium-137 is most likely from the atmospheric testing and the Chernobyl accident.

I happened on this video, supposed to be the raw footage of Chernobyl soon after the accident. I got scared watching workers with scant protection dumping loads of what looks like concrete debris:

Other "Long Shadow of Chernobyl" posts:

Long Shadow of Chernobyl: 224 Bq/kg of Cesium-137 in the Ashes from Burning Wood Pellets Made from Trees in Shikoku

Long Shadow of Chernobyl (2): German and Belarusian Researchers Say 64% of 229 Belarusian Children with High-Risk Thyroid Cancer in Complete Remission, 30% in Near-Complete Remission

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Long Shadow of Chernobyl (2): German and Belarusian Researchers Say 64% of 229 Belarusian Children with High-Risk Thyroid Cancer in Complete Remission, 30% in Near-Complete Remission

For what it's worth, on the anniversary day of the accident.

From Science Daily (4/24/2013; emphasis is mine):

Chernobyl Follow-Up Study Finds High Survival Rate Among Young Thyroid Cancer Patients

Apr. 24, 2013 — More than a quarter of a century after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, many children and teenagers who developed thyroid cancer due to radiation are in complete or near remission, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

Following the April 26, 1986 explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the former Soviet Union, the number of children and teenagers diagnosed with differentiated thyroid cancer spiked in Ukraine, Belarus and western areas of Russia. Most of the patients developed the papillary subtype of differentiated thyroid cancer. Although this cancer tends to be more aggressive in children than adults, nearly all of the patients tracked in the study responded favorably to treatment.

"Even though some patients did not receive optimal treatment initially, the vast majority went into remission after receiving state-of-the-art radiodine treatment and follow-up care," said study lead author Christoph Reiners, MD, of the University of Würzburg, Germany. "Many patients recovered from advanced cancers. Of this group, 97 percent had cancer spread to the lymph nodes, and 43 percent had cancer metastasize in the lungs."

The observational study followed the treatment and outcomes of 229 Belarusian children and adolescents who underwent surgery in Belarus and radioiodine therapy in Germany. The study participants were among the highest-risk young patients exposed to radiation from the accident.

Despite the risk, 64 percent of the patients are in complete remission and 30 percent nearly complete remission of their cancer. One patient died of lung fibrosis, a side effect of cancer treatment. Only two had cancer recurrences.

The findings suggest victims of more recent nuclear accidents like the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan face lower risk of developing advanced-stage thyroid cancer, Reiners said.

(Full article at the link)

From Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM) (4/24/2013; emphasis is mine):

Twenty-Five Years after Chernobyl: Outcome of Radioiodine Treatment in Children and Adolescents with Very-High-Risk Radiation-Induced Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma

Christoph Reiners, MD1,
Johannes Biko, MD1,
Heribert Haenscheid, PhD1,
Helge Hebestreit, MD2,
Stalina Kirinjuk, MD3,
Oleg Baranowski, MD3,
Robert J. Marlowe, BA4,
Ewgeni Demidchik, MD5,†,
Valentina Drozd, MD6 and
Yuri Demidchik, MD7

- Author Affiliations

1Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Würzburg, Germany;
2Department of Pediatrics, University of Würzburg, Germany;
3Hospital for Oncology, Thyroid Cancer Center, Minsk, Belarus;
4Spencer-Fountayne Corporation, Jersey City, NJ, USA;
5National Academy of Sciences, Minsk, Belarus;
6International Fund Help for Patients with Radiation Induced Thyroid Cancer “Arnica”, Minsk, Belarus;
7Belarusian Medical Academy of Post-Graduate Education, Minsk, Belarus

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Prof.Dr.Dr.med.h.c. Christoph Reiners, Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Würzburg, Oberdürrbacherstr. 6, D-97080 Würzburg, Germany, Tel. +49 931 201 55001, Fax. +49 931 201 655001, E-mail: reinersc@klinik.uni-wuerzburg.de.


Abstract

Context: After severe reactor emergencies with release of radioactive iodine, elevated thyroid cancer risk in children and adolescents is considered the main health consequence for the population exposed.

Design: We studied thyroid cancer outcome after 11.3 years' median follow-up in a selected, very high-risk cohort, 234 Chernobyl-exposed Belarusian children and adolescents undergoing post-surgical radioiodine therapy (RIT) in Germany.

Interventions: Cumulatively 100 (134) children with (without) distant metastasis received a median 4 (2) RITs and 16.9 (6.6) GBq, corresponding to 368 (141) MBq/kg iodine-131.

Main Outcome Measures: Outcomes were response to therapy and disease status, mortality, and treatment toxicity.

Results: Of 229 patients evaluable for outcome, 147 (64.2%) attained complete remission (negative iodine-131 whole-body scan and TSH-stimulated serum Tg <1 μ g /L), 69 (30.1%) showed nearly complete remission (complete response, except stimulated Tg 1–10 μ g/L), and 11 (4.8%) had partial remission (Tg >10 μ g/L, decrease from baseline in radioiodine uptake intensity in ≥ 1 focus, in tumour volume, or in Tg). Except two recurrences (0.9%) after partial remission, no recurrences, progression, or disease-specific mortality were noted. One patient died of lung fibrosis 16 years post-therapy, two of apparently thyroid cancer-unrelated causes. The only RIT side effect observed was pulmonary fibrosis in 5/69 patients (7.2%) with disseminated lung metastases undergoing intensive pulmonary surveillance.

Conclusions: Experience of a large, very-high-risk paediatric cohort with radiation-induced differentiated thyroid carcinoma suggests that even when such disease is advanced and initially suboptimally treated, response to subsequent RIT and final outcomes are mostly favourable.

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Long Shadow of Chernobyl: 224 Bq/kg of Cesium-137 in the Ashes from Burning Wood Pellets Made from Trees in Shikoku

And of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons by world nuclear powers, which did not stop until 1980 (China).

One of my twitter followers lives in southwestern Japan. A while ago he sent me the result of the test he had it done with the ashes from burning wood pellets in his stove this winter. The lab test, using the germanium semiconductor detector, found 223.8 Bq/kg of cesium-137.

He was upset, thinking it is from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, until I pointed out to him that there was no cesium-134 found. The cesium in the ashes is most likely from the fallout from atmospheric testing, and the Chernobyl accident in 1986.

He burned 600kg of wood pellets made from cedar trees in Ehime Prefecture in Shikoku Island in southwestern Japan. According to the pellet manufacturer, the concentration factor was about 375, and radioactive cesium (Cs-137) in the pellets was estimated to be about 0.59 Bq/kg.

He said he will "entomb" the ashes with concrete and bury.

The chart plotting the historical monthly fallout in entire Shikoku (4 prefectures, as they didn't start measuring the fallout in Ehime until 1977) shows the spike from the Chernobyl accident was less than that of the atmospheric testing, and larger than that from the Fukushima accident. (The chart was created from data at Japan Chemical Analysis Center. Y-axis in log scale.)

In 2012 he tested the ashes from burning the wood pellets from a different company, and to his great dismay the test found 1,000 Bq/kg of radioactive cesium (Cs-137) in the ashes. He had already spread some of those ashes on his home garden. Those pellets, it turned out, were made from trees from Europe (Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria) that the manufacturer had started to purchase in 1994 . That manufacturer told him that it had never ever occurred to them that the trees were contaminated from the Chernobyl accident, and there was no regulation on importing. The manufacturer told him that they chose European trees because they were cheap, and supply was steady.

April 26 marks the 27th anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant accident.

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(OT) Effect of Radiation on Living Organisms from Nuclear Accidents in Fukushima and Chernobyl

Birds, butterflies, King Kong, Godzilla...

I happened to pick up a tweet that had a link to the presentation Professor Timothy Mousseau of University of South Carolina, discussing the effect of radiation on living organisms in the contaminated areas in Fukushima and in Chernobyl.

In February last year, Professor Mousseau announced the result of his initial research on birds in Fukushima Prefecture, and it was "an immediate negative consequence of radiation for birds".

From Professor Timothy Mousseau's presentation on March 11, 2013 the 1st day of the Fukushima Symposium by Helen Caldicott Foundation (where former PM Naoto Kan made a video appearance):

A humorous page with our favorite radiation mutant monsters:

"Note lack of decomposition" - Are we supposed to infer that irradiated trees don't decompose? Or is it just a matter of no water or moisture to expedite decomposition?

Number of birds plotted against the air dose rates, for both Fukushima and Chernobyl.

So, do birds avoid high radiation areas? Were there birds in those high radiation areas before the nuclear accident?

Or are we supposed to conclude that birds died off or failed to reproduce in the high radiation areas?

(Oh wait, is King Kong big because of irradiation?)

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A Major Japanese Trading Company to Buy Non-GM Soybeans from Ukraine

Sojitz Corp. is the former Nissho Iwai and Nichimen merged, both of which were major trading companies. In search of non-GM soybeans, the company has decided on Ukraine, of all places. The company plans to import 5,000 tons within 3 years (which is about 0.66% of total soybean import in Japan) offer 10% discount to entice the Japanese buyers.

From Bloomberg News (3/7/2013):

Sojitz to Buy Soybeans From Ukraine as Japan Seeks Non-GM Crops

Japan’s Sojitz Corp. (2768) said it will import Ukrainian soybeans for the first time as Asia’s second- largest buyer looks outside North America for non-genetically modified produce.

Sojitz will deliver a trial “few hundred” metric tons this year and expand that to 5,000 tons within three years, Fukutaro Kobayashi, deputy chief of one of the food departments at the Tokyo-based trader, said in an interview yesterday.

U.S. and Canadian farmers are increasingly raising genetically modified crops, with GM soybeans accounting for 93 percent of the U.S. total last year, according the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Supply from the U.S. and Canada made up 92 percent of Japan’s imports in 2011, according to Finance Ministry data.

“If we ask ourselves: Will be we able to secure supply of non-GM soybeans in North America year-in year-out? The answer’s no,” Kobayashi said. “We need to diversify our geography of supply.”

While Japan doesn’t ban GM oilseeds, consumer preferences mean that these are only used in cooking oil and sweeteners, which aren’t required by law to notify buyers about their use.

Japan used more than 950,000 tons of soybeans last year for foods such as tofu, miso soup paste and natto, stringy beans eaten for breakfast. Of that, about 80 percent of demand was met with imports, according to the agriculture ministry.
Longer Wait

Sojitz may sell Ukrainian soybeans at a 10 percent discount to the North American equivalent as a way to attract buyers in Japan, Kobayashi said. The transport of soybeans from Ukraine’s Odessa port to Japan takes about three weeks, compared with a week from the U.S., he said.

Ukraine was forecast to produce as much as 2.33 million tons of soybeans last year, according to Kiev-based ProAgro. The U.S. and Brazil, the world’s largest producers, are forecast by the USDA to produce 83.5 million and 82.1 million tons in the marketing year that began Oct. 1.

In 2010, Sojitz joined with Soyko International Inc. and Grain Alliance, a Ukrainian farm operator and grain elevator, to secure local supplies, Kobayashi said. The Ukrainian firm owns 40,000 hectares of land, most of which is cultivated, and drying and storage facilities with a capacity of 80,000 tons, according to its website.

The venture with Grain Alliance in Ukraine, a newcomer to soybean cultivation, will produce about 3,000 tons of the oilseed for use in food this year, Kobayashi said.

“We’ve been sending trial samples to food producers and the reception has been favorable,” Kobayashi said. While producers prefer North American soybeans, cheaper supplies from Ukraine will win market share in Japan, he said.

Grain Alliance's website says "Restoring the Bread Basket of Europe". My cursory look didn't find any reference to Chernobyl on their site nor the information about the location of the farms.

(Photo from Grain Alliance's site)

Japanese trading companies were apparently one of the first to see the huge business potential in importing lumber from Europe right after the Chernobyl accident, as Professor Satoshi Mori of Tokyo University related back in 2011.

Historically, large Japanese trading companies have worked very closely with the national government. I wouldn't be surprised if both the lumber import in the 1990s and this soybean import are under the "administrative guidance" from the government.

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Environmental Health Perspectives Magazine: "Radiation and the Risk of Chronic Lymphocytic and Other Leukemias among Chornobyl Cleanup Workers"

I found the paper by the University of California - San Francisco researcher Lydia B. Zablotska et al regarding increased risk of leukemia for Chernobyl cleanup workers even at a low (less than 200 millisieverts) cumulative radiation exposure (see my previous post).

From Environmental Health Perspectives Magazine, advance publications (11/8/2012):

• PDF file
• Supplemental Material

The media report on this paper in Japan is causing anxiety. People are worried that any low level of radiation exposure from the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident would lead to leukemia, as it has been "proven" by this paper. It seems only Nikkei Shinbun actually cited the radiation exposure levels in the study (less than 200 millisieverts, with over 90% less than 100 millisieverts).

Speaking of "low level radiation exposure", I happened on an old article from June last year by Yomiuri Shinbun that mentions the radiation exposure sustained by Self Defense Force soldiers during two-day work (March 12 and 13 last year) at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, pouring water into the reactors to prevent core melts. Of 12 soldiers who had dosimeters on them, 2 soldiers got 80 millisieverts in 2 days, and 8 others exceeded 30 millisieverts. 8 soldiers didn't even have dosimeters.

Ministry of Defense at that time said there would be no health problem because the exposure was within the limit set by the ministry. What's the limit? 100 millisieverts. For 2 days' work.

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UC San Francisco Researchers: "Chernobyl cleanup workers had significantly increased risk of leukemia"

even with the cumulative radiation exposure of less than 100 millisieverts, as Nikkei reports (quoting Kyodo), supposedly from the paper published on November 8, 2012 in the journal Environmental Health Perspective. (I haven't found the paper yet.)

Here's from Eurekaalert.org (11/8/2012; emphasis is mine), UCSF Press Release:

Chernobyl cleanup workers had significantly increased risk of leukemia
Findings may help estimate cancer risk from low-dose exposures like CT scans

A 20-year study following 110,645 workers who helped clean up after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in the former Soviet territory of Ukraine shows that the workers share a significant increased risk of developing leukemia. The results may help scientists better define cancer risk associated with low doses of radiation from medical diagnostic radiation procedures such as computed tomography scans and other sources.

In the journal Environmental Health Perspectives this week, an international team led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the Chernobyl Research Unit at the Radiation Epidemiology Branch of the National Cancer Institute describes the increased risks of leukemia among these workers between 1986 and 2006. The risk included a greater-than-expected number of cases of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, which many experts did not consider to be associated with radiation exposure in the past.

The new work is the largest and longest study to date involving Chernobyl cleanup workers who worked at or near the nuclear complex in the aftermath of the accident.

Overall, there were 137 cases of leukemia among the workers over the 20-year span of the study, and 16 percent of those cancers were attributable to the Chernobyl radiation exposure, the team found.

The findings shed light on the thorny issue of estimating cancer risk from low doses of radiation – an issue of importance to miners, nuclear workers and anyone who is chronically exposed to low levels of radiation at work or patients who receive sizeable radiation doses when undergoing medical diagnostic tests.

"Low doses of radiation are important," said the lead researcher Lydia Zablotska, MD, PhD, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF. "We want to raise awareness of that."

Worst Nuclear Accident of All Time

The nearly 111,000 Ukrainian workers in the study were among the more than 500,000 former Soviets who worked directly on the front lines in the aftermath of Chernobyl disaster, which was the worst nuclear accident of the 20th century followed by the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.

It began in the early morning hours of April 26, 1986 when a planned test of a backup system for operating cooling pumps went awry. A combination of human error and unsafe reactor design led to the runaway production of heat in Chernobyl's Reactor No. 4, which quickly caused two massive explosions, ruptured the reactor, crumbled the building, exposed the nuclear core, rained radioactive debris around the compound and spread fallout through the atmosphere over the Soviet Union and Europe.

Many of the Ukrainian workers were exposed to high levels of radiation because they were part of the teams that helped sweep up contaminated debris from the immediate area – much of which was highly radioactive. Some of them, in fact, reached lifetime limits of radiation exposure within a matter of a few hours.

Although an elevated radiation-related risk of leukemia was not surprising, given the level of exposure among many of these workers, what did surprise Zablotska and her colleagues was the elevated risk of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), which was similar in size to the risk estimated for non-CLL leukemia.

Leukemia and Low-Dose Radiation

For many years, doctors have known that ionizing radiation from an X-ray source or produced by the decay of radioactive elements can cause leukemia, because it can penetrate the body, expose bone marrow to the radiation and damage DNA. But while scientists have understood this basic mechanism for decades, the question of how much leukemia risk is associated with moderate or low doses of radiation has been hard to answer.

For many years, the best estimates came from long-term studies involving survivors of the 1945 atomic bomb detonations over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan during World War II. People in the immediate vicinity of the blasts were exposed to various levels of radiation, and in the decades afterward, their health was monitored and the increase in cancer tracked.

From those assessments of cancer risk, scientists estimated risks from lower doses by extrapolating the data down. But there have always been problems with this approach, said Zablotska. Atomic bomb survivors were bathed in gamma or neutron rays, while someone who undergoes a CT scan in the U.S. is exposed to X-rays, a different type of radiation. Moreover, extrapolating risks for Japanese population to Western population is further confounded by differences in genetics, lifestyle and diet between the two.

The new work helps to bridge this gap because the doses received by the Ukrainian cleanup workers falls somewhere in between the high level received by the Japanese atomic bomb victims and the lower levels received by people who undergo extensive medical scans.

It also challenges the idea that chronic lymphocytic leukemia is not linked to radiation exposure – something that earlier studies of atomic bomb survivors had seemed to support.

The genetic makeup of the Japanese population may have hidden any increased risk, Zablotska said, because they are much less likely to develop this type of cancer anyway. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia accounts for only 3 percent of all cases of leukemia in Japan – as opposed to about one-third of all leukemia cases in the U.S. and 40 percent of all cases of leukemia in Ukraine.
###

The article, "Radiation and the Risk of Chronic Lymphocytic and Other Leukemias among Chernobyl Cleanup Workers" by Lydia B. Zablotska, Dimitry Bazyka, Jay H. Lubin, Nataliya Gudzenko, Mark P. Little, Maureen Hatch, Stuart Finch, Irina Dyagil, Robert F. Reiss, Vadim V. Chumak, Andre Bouville, Vladimir Drozdovitch, Victor P. Kryuchkov, Ivan Golovanov, Elena Bakhanova, Nataliya Babkina, Tatiana Lubarets, Volodymyr Bebeshko, Anatoly Romanenko and Kiyohiko Mabuchi will be published online by the journal Environmental Health Perspectives on November 8th, 2012. See: http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/

In addition to UCSF, authors on this study are associated with the National Research Center for Radiation Medicine in Kyiv, Ukraine; the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md.; Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Camden, N.J.; Columbia University in New York City; and Burnasyan Federal Medical Biophysical Centre in Moscow.

This study was funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) through grant #CA132918 and contract #NO1-CP-21178 and by the Intra-Agency Agreement between the NCI and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) through agreement #Y2-Al-5077 and #Y3-CO-5117. Both NCI and NIAID are part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Additional support was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (contract HHSN 261 2004 55796C), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety.

UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.

Contact: Jason Socrates Bardi
jason.bardi@ucsf.edu
415-502-4608
University of California - San Francisco

The Japanese "safety" limit for workers doing decontamination, aka "shifting contamination elsewhere", is maximum 50 millisieverts per year, and maximum 100 millisieverts total in 5 years - same as radiation workers at nuclear power plants.

But as then-Minister of the Environment Goshi Hosono said, "Japan is different! We're not Russia! We have advanced decontamination technology!" Like screwdrivers.

The country is different indeed, that's for sure.

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Telephone Game for Nth Time: How "Fukushima's cesium contamination amounts to four Chernobyls" Came About (It's False, BTW)

I've lost track of how many telephone games there have been since March last year (here's one, I wrote more in Japanese blog), but here's the latest, and again it happened thanks to an English article written by a writer working for an English paper published by a Japanese newspaper. This time, it's Yomiuri's turn.

Here's Yomiuri Japanese on TEPCO's report of 900,000 terabequerels released from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant (part; 5/24/2012):

１～３号機から環境中に放出された放射性物質の総量（ヨウ素換算）は９０万テラ・ベクレル（１テラ・ベクレルは１兆ベクレル）と推定され、政府試算の１・２～１・９倍になった。

The total amount of radioactive materials released into the environment from Reactors 1 through 3 (iodine equivalence) is estimated to be 900,000 terabequerels (1 terabecquerel is 1 trillion becquerels), 1.2 to 1.9 times as much as the government's estimates.

The Japanese reporter correctly notes the number is iodine equivalence.

Here's Daily Yomiuri, Yomiuri's English paper, reporting on the same TEPCO report, but with a different focus (part below; 5/24/2012). It is not the translation of the Japanese article but its original article, focusing more on the difference between TEPCO's estimate and NISA's estimate. It also focuses only on iodine and cesium-137:

TEPCO combined the two methods and repeated its calculations under different conditions. It reached a final estimate of 400,000 terabecquerels of iodine-131 and 360,000 terabecquerels of cesium-137.

The amount of radioactive substances discharged in the Chernobyl accident in 1986 was 5.2 million terabecquerels.

Not just in the above quote but nowhere in the Daily Yomiuri article does the writer says the number for cesium-137 is iodine equivalence. Either the writer assumes the readers would know the numbers are iodine equivalence, or he/she didn't know how these numbers were calculated. I suppose you can infer that by looking at the number for the Chernobyl accident, but without the breakdown of the Chernobyl numbers you wouldn't necessarily realize that Chernobyl number is also iodine equivalence (which it is).

The number for cesium-137 itself, 360,000, is not what TEPCO reported either. TEPCO said "10,000 terabecquerels of cesium-137 times 40 to get the iodine equivalence of 400,000 terabecquerels" for INES evaluation.

But the English sites that read Daily Yomiuri's article (but not necessarily TEPCO's press release) naturally compared the numbers this way:

Cesium-137 released from Fukushima: 360,000 terabecquerels
Cesium-137 released from Chernobyl: 85,000 terabecquerels

without realizing the Fukushima number is iodine equivalence, and the Chernobyl number isn't. Thus the headlines like "Cesium-137 contamination: Fukushima amounts to four Chernobyls" at RT, for example.

But without the 40x multiplier on Fukushima, the numbers are (I use the correct number, 10,000 which would be 400,000 with 40x multiplier):

Cesium-137 released from Fukushima: 10,000 terabecquerels
Cesium-137 released from Chernobyl: 85,000 terabecquerels

Or with the 40x multiplier on Chernobyl to get iodine equivalence, the numbers are:

Cesium-137 released from Fukushima: 400,000 terabecquerels
Cesium-137 released from Chernobyl: 3,400,000 terabecquerels

As one of the readers of the blog commented, the meme, however false, that Fukushima contamination is 4 times worse than Chernobyl seems to have taken a life of its own and is spreading. It's doubly ironic that it is all thanks to Yomiuri Shinbun, pro-nuke establishment newspaper whose owner Matsutaro Shoriki did all he could to bring about a nuclear Japan and succeeded.

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Blueberry Jam from Poland with 220 Bq/kg of Radioactive Cesium, 26 Years After Chernobyl

The food retailer Meiji-ya was about to import blueberry jam from Europe, but the sample test found radioactive cesium exceeding the new safety limit of 100 becquerels/kg. Blueberries were grown in Poland.

From Chunichi Shinbun (5/1/2012):

食品小売りの明治屋（東京都中央区）が４月にオーストリアの業者から輸入しようとしたブルーベリージャム３個から、放射性セシウムの新基準値を超える１キログラム当たり１４０～２２０ベクレルが検出され、厚生労働省が荷の積み戻しなどを指示していた。

140 to 220 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected in the three jars of blueberry jam that food retailer Maiji-ya (Chuo-ku, Tokyo) was about to import from an Austrian distributor in April. The Ministry of Health and Welfare ordered the company to send back the shipment.

　輸入時の検査で判明した。商品は流通していない。輸入食品で新基準値を超えたのは初。

It was revealed by the import inspection, and the products are not sold in the market. This was the first time that imported food exceeded the new safety limit.

　ブルーベリーの原産国はポーランドで、明治屋は輸入する予定だったジャム約１千個全てを返品する。

The blueberries were grown in Poland. Meiji-ya will return all 1,000 jars that it planned to import.

　輸入食品のセシウムの規制値は３月までは同３７０ベクレルで、４月から新基準値の１００ベクレルが適用された。東京電力福島第１原発の事故後、３７０ベクレルを超えた輸入食品はなかった。

The safety limit for radioactive cesium for imported food was 370 becquerels/kg until the end of March, but starting April it is 100 becquerels/kg. Since the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, there has been no imported food that was found with more than 370 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium.

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NHK News: "30 People Died of Acute Radiation Sickness in Chernobyl Accident"

That's the only deaths that NHK mentions in the news on April 26, 2012, on the 26th anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant accident.

From NHK News (part; 4/26/2012):

チェルノブイリ原発では、１９８６年の４月２６日、実験運転中の原子炉で爆発が起きて大量の放射性物質が外部に放出され、半径３０キロ以内の住民１３万人余りが避難しました。

At Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, an explosion happened in the reactor during the test run on April 26, 1986, dispersing a large amount of radioactive materials. 130,000 residents inside the 30 kilometer radius from the plant evacuated.

この事故で、原発の職員と消防士らおよそ３０人が急性放射性障害などで死亡したほか、ウクライナをはじめ、ベラルーシ、ロシアでは、大量の放射性物質の拡散によって、今も環境への影響や住民の健康被害に対する対応が大きな課題となっています。

In this accident, about 30 people including the plant workers and firefighters died of acute radiation sickness. In the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, there are big problems even today of dealing with the environmental effect and the damage to the health of the residents due to the dispersion of large amount of radioactive materials.

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Part of Areas Around Chernobyl Will Be Off Limits Forever, Japanese Media Reports

While the Russian News (RIA Novosti) emphasized the "revitalization" plan for the areas around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the Japanese media decided to focus on the other half of the same story: That half of the areas around Chernobyl will be abandoned forever.

The media and the Japanese viewers are thinking about the areas around Fukushima I Nuke Plant, of course. Even the national government is starting to doubt the efficacy of "decontamination" in the immediate neighborhood of the plant, even though they have promised the residents that the government will do the decontamination so that they can return someday.

Here is one from ANN News (Asahi TV) on 4/25/2012 (the link won't last, as this is a Yahoo link):

チェルノブイリ周辺「永遠に立ち入り禁止」

Areas around Chernobyl will be "off limits forever"

　チェルノブイリ事故による一部の汚染地域には永遠に立ち入ることができなくなります。

Part of the areas contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear accident will be off limits forever.

　汚染区域管理機関副長：「現在の立ち入り制限区域は2000平方キロメートルあるが、このうち約半分（1000平方キロメートル）は今後も永久に立ち入りが制限される」

Deputy head of the contaminated area management agency [I have no idea what the official name is] said, "The current no-entry zone is 2,000 square kilometers, but about half (1,000 square kilometers) will be off limits forever."


　チェルノブイリ事故で、ウクライナの汚染地域を管理する政府機関は24日、立ち入り制限区域の半分は永久に制限が続くと断言しました。対象区域は、面積にして東京23区の約1.6倍にあたる広範囲に及びます。チェルノブイリ事故は26日で発生から26年を迎えます。

The government agency in charge of managing the areas in the Ukrane that have been contaminated by the Chernobyl accident declared on April 24 that the half of the no-entry zone will remain no-entry zone forever. The area is big, about 1.6 times the size of the Tokyo's 23 Special Wards. It will be 26 years on April 26 since the accident.

(H/T Chibaguy)

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2 Videos: "Chernobyl 25 Years Later" and "Fukushima One Year Later"

Several readers linked the Youtube video titled "Chernobyl 4 ever" by Belgian director Alain de Halleux, depicting the Chernobyl accident after 25 years. So I thought I would show the video here. I didn't know that they have nuclear fuel to deal with that was used in the other three reactors at Chernobyl until 2000. "History will repeat itself." Well it did.

In stark contrast, here is the video made by the World Nuclear Association for the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, titled "Fukushima and Chernobyl - myth versus reality". "6000 children developed thyroid cancer, and 15 of them died, perhaps." Dr. Gerry Thomas of London's Imperial College says she was anti-nuclear before Chernobyl, but not any more. "Nah. No problem at all." (Just like Monbiot who came to love nuclear after the Fukushima accident.)

If that's the case, why should anyone bother to do anything with the Chernobyl site, not to mention Fukushima?

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Belarus Ready to Build 2nd Nuclear Power Plant, Says President Lukashenko

From RIA Novosti (4/3/2012; emphasis is mine):

Belarus may build a second nuclear plant in the country in addition to one already planned for the western Grodno Region, President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday.

“If we have your cooperation, support and suitable conditions, we are ready to build a second nuclear power station in Belarus,” the president told International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Yukiya Amano who is on a visit to Minsk.

Construction of Belarus’ first nuclear plant in the Grodno Region, close to the Lithuanian border, was expected to begin in April. Lukashenko said on Tuesday its construction has “already begun.”

The $9-billion plant will be built by Russia’s Atomstroyexport company, a subsidiary of state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom. The plant will consist of two reactors with a capacity of 1,200 MW each and will boost the entire Belarusian energy system's capacity to 8,000 MW. The power station’s first unit is due to be ready in 2017 and the second in 2018.

Belarus began preparing to build a nuclear plant back in the 1980s, but the project was shelved following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in neighboring Ukraine.

Belarusian opposition and environmental activists have raised concerns over the project, which were further fuelled by the March 2011 accident at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power station. Lithuania has demanded the plant be moved away from its border.

Russia says it employs advanced technology to ensure accident-free operations at all the power stations it builds.

Well, it is not really the technology per se, no matter how advanced, which is the issue here. It is how the plant is managed and operated and the kind of political and social environment that it exists. Abysmal failures on all of them in Japan. How will it be different in Belarus?

Maybe it was like selling nuclear power to the Japanese after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and immediately after the Bikini Atoll (Dai-Go Fukuryu-Maru) - since Japan suffered atomic atrocities, only Japan could use the atomic energy for peaceful purposes.

In the case of Belarus, the sales pitch (if they ever needed one) would be: "Belarus has suffered tremendously from the Chernobyl nuclear accident. So, only Belarus, who has learned the lessons from the accident, will be able to operate a safe, state-of-the-art nuclear power plant and demonstrate to the world that the country has totally recovered from the accident." Something like that...

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Ukraine Wants to ‘Revitalize’ Chernobyl Area

Ukraine's Prime Minister Azarov wants to bring back residents to "abandoned homes, cities and residential areas" in "the contaminated territories adjacent to the crippled Chernobyl nuclear power plant".

Well at least he waited for 26 years, unlike the Japanese national government.

From RIA Novosti (4/23/2012):

Ukraine is currently working on an expanded governmental program aimed at sprucing up the contaminated territories adjacent to the crippled Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said on Monday.

According to experts, the radiation level in Chernobyl’s exclusion zone has significantly decreased in recent years, Azarov said, adding that outside the exclusion zone there are no inhabited areas in Kiev Region with elevated radiation levels.

“There are good reasons to revitalize, ‘give a second breath’ to these abandoned homes, cities and residential areas. These are additional work places and additional revenue for our budget,” Azarov said.

In late March, Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych said the country would begin the construction of a new sarcophagus at the Chernobyl nuclear plant on April 26, the 26th anniversary of the nuclear disaster.

The Chernobyl sarcophagus will cost 935 million euro ($1.2 billion) to build. Most of the money was raised through a donation drive among the world’s governments held last year, with Ukraine only contributing 6 percent of the total.

Construction of the confinement chamber, a metal facility 105 meters tall and 260 meters long that will cover the reactor, is to be finished by 2015, Ukrainian officials said earlier.

The destroyed reactor was covered by a concrete confinement chamber months after the disaster in 1986 but the facility has since decayed and now threatens to leak radiation.

(H/T anon reader)

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(English Translation Part 2) Dörte Siedentopf on Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: "They Haven't Learned Anything from Chernobyl"

Translation Part 1 by the reader Viola is here.

The following is the translation of the remaining part by the reader Florian Zschage.

The original article in German is here.

The Japanese translation is here.

=======================================

Now i want to talk about the health situation, which is normally not an issue here in Germany. It is important to understand the following: The more time goes by, the more catastrophic the situation for the people and all biological life in the region become. That's what our media and our politicians don't want to see, just as Lukaschenko, who declared the accident a thing of the past.

The hidden mothers

After Chernobyl, multiple 'waves of catastrophe' occurred. The first affected the adults: the Liquidators, the physicians, people who went into the contaminated areas, and the people who lived there. Many of them died of cancer quiet fast. The children were affected from the beginning, too. In the affected regions of Belarus generally there is a general iodine deficiency, because there is no coastline as in Japan. Therefore the radioactive iodine was assimilated massively by the infantiles thyroid glands.

After Chernobyl, the government decided to perform abortions on all pregnant women. But many mothers hid. In the year after the accident, many of those infants had thyroid cancer, too. An illness that was practically nonexistent for children. 4000 cases of thyroid cancer in Belarus are officially confirmed. Those had operations, received radiation therapy and take hormone medication for all their life, to not become cretins. And they would have to get this therapy for free – also for later ocurring dysfunctionalities – until today, 25 years after the accident, but they don’t.

Nowadays in the succeeding generation we observe increased numbers of blood deseases. As we say: CHERNOBYL RAGES IN THE GENES. And that will continue for the next 300 years or so, because Strontium and Caesium has a half-life of 30 years, and as a general rule, after 10 half-life periods, no significant amount of these isotopes remain. That equals seven to eight generations. Plus the plutonium, which has a half-life of 24.000 years. Another problem is radiation induced diabetes for children and adults, especially in infants. A phenomenon that was unknown in the past.

The government buys two kinds of insulin and all have to deal with that. But children need at least a third type of insulin and that type is not available, unless NGOs don't take care of it. These NGOs also take care of the missing but necessary education.There are also eye diseases, opaqueness of the eye lens. And we saw an increase in breast cancer, many died within the first 5 years. One may ask oneself if radiation induced cancer is more aggressive than the "normal" one.

The number of birth deformities also increased. Abortion is a big issue. Contraception costs money, and many people simply can't afford it. That's a big problem. On the other hand, there are many infertile couples. In Kostjukovitschi, 30 % of the couples are sterile involuntarily. Another issue is the increase in malignant tumors that occur ow in 6-, 7-, 8-, 9-year old children. Brain tumors. Bone tumors.

Another big problem: In the contaminated areas, wounds didn't heal properly anymore, it was dramatic. The reason for that is low immunity, because radioactive Strontium is incorporated in the bones and stays there. In the bones, human blood is created, and this way, it is irradiated continously during its formation. In a way, it is like AIDS: Immunisation doesn't work anymore, because no antibodies are generated anymore.Therefore we have an increase of polio, despite immunisation efforts. Same with tuberculosis, the more, because the overall nutrition is bad. Many people watered their vegetables with rain water and they collect mushrooms and berries in autumn, which still are highly contaminated.

Aggrieved cells

The majority of the disabilities in children with mental or corporal handicaps in the region originate in radioactive radiation. One has to understand that the ovaries of women already exist in the woman's own embryonic stadium. A big amount of cells become follicles, around 8 millions of them. All damage that happens to the mother inflicts these cells, too. The placenta has a natural barrier but unfortunately it is this barrier where radioactive particles do accumulate. The damaged egg cells can not be repaired. When a woman is born, there are still around 1-2 millions of them. During puberty, there are still 400.000. And those can be already damaged, when a pregnancy occurs. With all the consequences.

One more thing is important to know: All those genetic damages, the cancer frequency and so on... those all are consequences of LOW DOSE RADIATION, and this is something completely different from the radiation disease of the liquidators. This is a fact that is contantly and continually denied by all persons in charge.

The irradiation of vital organs is caused by incorporated radionuclides. If a cell is damaged, there are four possibilities for the cell. 1.: The cell dies instantaneously. 2.: The functionality of the cell is destroyed. 3. The cell degenerates and cancer occurs. 4.: The cell repairs itself. But this is only possible for adult cells. Cells in embryos have no such repair functions, children cells can't do that either. For them it's all about growing and dividing and only with time, the ability to repair themselves becomes existent. That's one of the crucial factors why children are especially in danger. And this is why all pregnants and all children have to be evacuated from the Fukushima area immediately!

The atomic industry in general is an issue that can't be evaluated properly and finally, because so many economic interests are involved, so much money stands behind it. But what we can judge is that the lobbyists – which include many political and semi-political organizations and their people in charge – are cynically and act upon that attitude. This begins with radiation thresholds. Even in the Ukraine and in Belarus, these limits are lower then here (in Germany).

There is simply no binding independent worldwide authority. At WHO, there is JUST ONE person, who deals with Radiation! But the WHO has nothing to say anyway. When it comes to radiation exposure and its consequences, they are not allowed to say anything. Since a contract was sealed in 1957, it is subordinate to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and therefore supresses all reports about the real dangers of radiation. We have to decry all of this. The IPPNW demands that this agreement is dismissed! Maybe the WHO is able to fulfill its first article: to help all peoples to reach the best-possible health status.

The Foodwatch-report of IPPNW (August 2011, German section) states clearly: The determination of limiting values is, in the last consequnce "a decision about the tolerated amount of causualties”.

© 26.12. 2011, taz (Die Tageszeitung)

http://www.taz.de/rztin-mit-sozialer-Verantwortung/%2184368/

English translation by Florian Matthias Zschage,
corrected by Dr. Björn Voss
7th of January 2012

==========================

Florian Zschage's entire translation can be downloaded at the following links:
PDF file: http://www.file-upload.net/download-4011943/The_hot_rock-taz_20111226.pdf.html
text file: http://www.file-upload.net/download-4012088/The_hot_rock-taz_20111226.txt.html

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OurPlanet TV: What's Happening to Children Now? (7/14/2011)

Our Planet TV is an Internet-based station "with no religious or political affiliations. It was founded by a small group of producers, video journalists and other media professionals who questioned the way mainstream media covered 9.11 and the events that followed." (from their website)

One of the programs, ContAct, did an interview with Mika Noro, which was webcasted on July 14, 2011. Ms. Noro has been active in helping children in areas affected by the Chernobyl nuke plant accident, and after the Fukushima accident her organization has been setting up free medical consultations for mothers and children in Fukushima.

Noro and the host of the program discussed health issues that were starting to get reported more widely around that time, and compared them to what Noro observed in Chernobyl. Her conclusion: weakened immune system due to exposure to radiation. She is no medical doctor or radiation expert, but considering what the medical doctors and radiation experts have been saying and doing since March 11 (remember Dr. Yamashita?), that doesn't necessarily disqualify her from commenting on health and radiation.

Rather, as Dr. Nishio of Hokkaido Cancer Research Center says in the video, if this many people report almost identical symptoms (throat problems, nosebleed, diarrhea, fatigue, etc.) after being exposed to radiation from the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident, "the doctors need to recognize them as new clinical symptoms of low-dose radiation exposure", instead of outright dismissing them (which is what almost all of them do).

Tokyo Brown Tabby translated the video into English and captioned it. (If you do not see the caption, click on "cc".)　

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Al Jazeera: Japan Radiation Levels to Exceed Chernobyl Disaster

Al Jazeera's Steve Chao reported on September 17.

He first meets Kouta Kinoshita, an independent journalist whom I have quoted several times here and who has been spearheading the grassroots effort to measure the radiation levels in many parts of Tohoku, Kanto, and now in Chubu and Kansai and beyond. He has also urged from the beginning of the crisis for people to leave Tohoku and Kanto, including Tokyo, as the contamination levels there are much more grave than the national or municipal government has admitted. In the interview, he says there are many spots in the Tokyo Metropolitan area where the radiation levels exceed those in Chernobyl where people had to evacuate.

Kinoshita's blog (in Japanese) is full of anecdotal but excellent information of change in people's health in various parts of Japan. Some of them may be just rumors, but many write their own experiences in the comment sections.

Then a mother and her young daughter who live in Tokyo. She says her daughter has been having symptoms that she never had before the accident: severe joint pains, fatigue, deep rings under her eyes, diarrhea. The mother says the daughter got better right away when they temporarily moved from Tokyo for the summer.

Then he goes to see one of the government researcher, Toru Kikuchi, sporting his glass badge for radiation monitoring, who assures him and the Al Jazeera audience that it's all just psychological, and that the radiation is not much different from before the accident.

Amazing. Not much higher? What planet does he live on? I think this is the same Mr. Toru Kikuchi who said the following back in April (from Mainichi Daily English article dated 4/13/2011, which has since been removed; I got the copy from this blog):

In its announcement, the Japanese government said that 370,000 to 630,000 terabecquerels of radiation are estimated to have been released from the Fukushima plant. Regarding that amount, Toru Kikuchi, general director of the Japan Association on Radiological Protection in Medicine, said that “compared to contamination caused by atmospheric nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States and the Soviet Union since the 1950s, the amount of radiation is very small.”

Kikuchi is with the Jichi Medical University Radioisotope Center. Jichi Medical University is a private university, but Al Jazeera is excused for calling him "government" researcher as he has helped the government promote the notion that it's all in people's head, the radiation.

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UK's Daily Mail: Eerie Echoes of Chernobyl in Fukushima

Daily Mail, which has always had excellent photos of Japan's triple crisis of earthquake, tsunami, and nuke accident, has a collection of photographs of Fuktaba-machi, Fukushima and Pripyat, Chernobyl, side by side.

From Daily Mail (9/4/2011):

Haunting images taken in a town close to Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have been released showing a community frozen in time.

The new set of photographs, taken in the town of Futaba 12 miles from the Fukushima plant, bear grim similarities to those taken in Pripyat, two miles from the Chernobyl power plant.

Children's play areas lie deserted, lonely dogs wander through empty streets, shoes and personal keepsakes are left hastily abandoned in the two towns, both the scenes of hasty evacuations after explosions at the nearby nuclear power stations.

For more photos, go to the Daily Mail page.

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