#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: 510,000Bq/kg of Radioactive Cesium from Greenling Inside the Plant Harbor

TEPCO announced (link in Japanese) on February 28, 2013 that a greenling caught inside the harbor of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on February 17, 2013 was found with 510,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium, highest ever tested in fish since the start of the nuclear accident.

• Cesium-134: 180,000 becquerels/kg

• Cesium-137: 330,000 becquerels/kg

In January 2013, a spotbelly rockfish inside the harbor was found with 254,000 becquerels/kg of cesium.

A Pacific cod, caught in the same location as the 510,000 Bq/kg greenling (near the harbor mouth), had only 130 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. Greenling is a bottom-dweller, while Pacific cod isn't.

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Extremely High Levels of Radioactive Cesium in Fish Inside #Fukushima I Nuke Plant Harbor

The statement is not really true that the radiation level inside the harbor right at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant is no different than those outside, further away from the plant, say 10, 20 kilometer radius, as far as the contamination in fish goes.

The data that TEPCO released on January 18, 2013 shows the fish inside 20 kilometer radius to have radioactive cesium in one to three digits, and the fish inside the harbor in three to six digits.

It is not just the "murasoi" spotbelly rockfish with 254,000 Bq/kg of radioactive cesium but also jacopever with 110,000 Bq/kg, greenling with 40,000 Bq/kg of cesium. There was another spotbelly rockfish with 140,000 Bq/kg cesium.

The highest outside the harbor is 480 Bq/kg, and the lowest inside the harbor was 770 Bq/kg of radioactive cesium.

From TEPCO's Handout for the Press, January 18, 2013 (click to enlarge):

(Page 1, with highest number outside the harbor)

(Page 5)

(Inside the F-I harbor, pages 8, 9, 10)

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Fish with 254,000 Bq/kg Cesium Was Caught Right at Fukushima I Nuke Plant, Not "Near Fukushima"

(UPDATE) True to its tabloid form, UK's Daily Mail reports the news, which clearly steals the lines from Zero Hedge calling the fish "Mike the Murasoi", or "Murasai" as the writer Mark Prigg misquotes in the article text. The writer fails to credit Zero Hedge though, and fails to quote Le Monde or AFP who spread the meme of "fish caught in the bay near the plant". Some journalism.

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"Fish was caught near Fukushima" is how France's Le Monde seems to portray the event, though I can only read the Google translation:

Radioactivity on a record fish caught near Fukushima

Fish, close rockfish was caught in the bay near the central Fukukshima Daiichi...

Le Monde's article was sited at Zero Hedge also, calling the fish "Mike the Murasoi".

As I posted, the bottom-dwelling fish was caught right inside the harbor for the nuclear power plant, not near the plant or not near Fukushima:

TEPCO plans to close off the harbor mouth with a net.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: 254,000 Bq/kg of Radioactive Cesium from Fish Caught Inside the Harbor

A fish caught inside the harbor at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was found with 254,000 Bq/kg of radioactive cesium, highest so far.

From independent journalist Ryuichi Kino's tweets, as he watches the live TEPCO press conference:

１Ｆ内の魚、１０月から漁業関係者に相談して、閉止の対応をした。汚染された魚が外に出ることについて、１０月以前には対応はとっていなかったと尾野さん。港湾内の魚、最大で正シウム１３４と１３７の合計で２５万４０００ベクレル。過去最高値。

As to the fish inside the [harbor] at Fukushima I Nuke Plant, TEPCO consulted the fishermen in October [last year] and took measures to stop the fish from escaping the harbor. TEPCO's spokesman Mr. Ono says they didn't do anything about the fish escaping the bay until October. The highest level detected so far in the fish is 254,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium (Cs-134 and Cs-137).

The fish with 250,000 Bq/kg of cesium was a spotbelly rockfish. Kino continues:

最高値のムラソイ、２００ｇ食べた場合には０．８ミリシーベルトの被曝。１ｋｇ食べると４ミリシーベルト。もちろん食べないけども、そういう魚がこの近くにはいるということ。港湾から外にでる魚がいないとはいえず

It was spotbelly rockfish that was found with the highest level [of radioactive cesium]. If one eats 200 gram of fish, one gets 0.8 millisievert radiation exposure. If one eats 1 kilogram, 4 millisievert. Of course no one eats [this fish, that much], but we should remember that there are fish like that near Fukushima I Nuke Plant. We cannot say for sure that no fish escapes from the harbor.

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#Radioactive Fish off Northeast Japan: Charts of Radioactivity of Bottom-Dwelling Fish Don't Show Much Downtrend (Halibut)

These charts are made by one of people I follow on Twitter, Kontan_Bigcat, who seems to have been very meticulously following the published data (both official and private, like NPOs) on radioactivity in Japan and been producing excellent charts visualizing the data.

From his updated togetter on radioactivity in bottom-dwelling fish in northern Japan on the Pacific Ocean side, charts and his comments (I added some English labels):

Halibut, north of Miyagi (Miyagi, Iwate, Aomori, Hokkaido), up to 9/30/2012 data: 20 to 40 Bq/kg in Sendai Bay (Miyagi), no discernible downtrend in radioactivity. Aomori is seeing an increase, from 5 Bq/kg at most in spring but 20 Bq/kg since summer:

Halibut, outside the 30-kilometer radius from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, up to 9/30/2012 data: Fish exceeding 1,000 Bq/kg is no longer found, but there is no discernible downtrend in radioactivity:

Shinchi-machi is located just south of Miyagi, and Iwaki City is north of Ibaraki.

Halibut, inside the 30-kilometer radius from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, up to 9/30/2012 data: Monitoring survey inside the 20-kilometer radius started in April, but there doesn't seem to be a difference between inside the 20-kilometer radius and between 20 and 30 kilometer radius. Fish that exceed 1,000 Bq/kg are no longer found, but there is no discernible downtrend in radioactivity:

Halibut, Ibaraki and south of Ibaraki (Chiba), up to 9/30/2012 data: It seems the radioactivity is slowly declining south of Ooarai, but north of Hitachinaka [i.e. closer to Fukushima] continues to show 10 to 40 Bq/kg, and there is no discernible downtrend.:

And the last chart for halibut, plotting all the data points, from north (Aomori, Hokkaido) to south (south of Choshi, Chiba):

Interestingly, the recent high for the radioactivity in halibut was found not inside the 20-kilometer radius from the plant, as one might expect, but outside, off Iwaki City, at 150 Bq/kg or so. The radioactivity in halibut caught in or off Sendai Bay is not far behind.

Kontan_Bigcat also has charts for marbled sole, common skete, greenling, Pacific cod, and Japanese sea bass (not the bottom-dwelling fish, but they feed on food on or near the ocean bottom). One greenling sample near the 20-kilometer radius from the plant tested 25,800 Bq/kg in August this year, as he notes, but successive tests at the location yielded radioactivity one order of magnitude lower (above 1,000 Bq/kg).

As Washington Post reports (quoting AP), Woods Hole researcher Ken Buesseler speculates in his article in Science magazine that steady radioactive cesium levels may indicate that cesium is being freshly supplied from the broken nuclear power plant.

It is possible, but there are other major and obvious sources of radioactive materials all along the coast of northern Japan: Rivers carrying radioactive sediments all the way from the mountains (where a lot of radioactive materials remain, un-"decontaminated").　Abukuma River in Fukushima alone carries 50 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium per day to the Pacific Ocean. The river runs through the contaminated middle third of Fukushima, and reaches Sendai Bay in Miyagi.

He also does not seem to consider "bioconcentration" much either - concentration of radioactive materials going up the food chain. For example, abalones in the seawater with 40bq/kg of radioactive cesium and the non-detectable level of radioactive silver (Ag-110m) were found with high concentration of both, particularly Ag-110m. Abalones eat seaweed.

Then there are coastal currents which shift bottom sands, which seems to be happening as evidenced by increasing radioactivity in halibut caught off Aomori/Hokkaido.

But Mr. Buesseler may have mentioned these in his article, which I do not have access to.

Just like many other stories in the past about Fukushima, his article, or the articles by the foreign media based on his article have been (re-)imported to Japan, and some Japanese are tweeting the same thing they have tweeted often before: "See, a foreign scientist is saying this, and the respected foreign media is reporting it! See how our own government and media lie and hide stuff! Fukushima I Nuke Plant is leaking!"

They do not read the fine print, that the Woods Hole researcher created his charts using the data from the Japanese government (and probably TEPCO, which is now part of the government), which has been available to anyone all along, and that it is his hypothesis that the plant continues to leak radioactive water.

But that's too much details for them, apparently.

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#Radioactive Cesium of Fukushima Origin (Cs-134) Found in Albacore Tuna Caught off Washington, Oregon

(Update) The albacore tested after Fukushima had 340 – 1024 millibequerels/kg of combined cesium, according to Simplyinfo.org. 0.34 to 1.024 becquerels/kg. One-tenth of the bluefin tuna that the Stanford researchers tested.

(H/T anon reader)

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The Seattle Times article below doesn't report the number. It doesn't mention cesium-137 (half-life 30 years) either, which should have been detected alongside cesium-134 if it was of the Fukushima origin.

To avoid "baseless rumor", I suppose. But I still wish the reporter (or the researchers and government officials speaking to him) simply mentioned the number, instead of doing the "Edano" and saying "It's barely detectable, no effect on health, it's just so little ..."

The article says "it is allowing scientists to track the migratory patterns of tuna for the first time", which I take it to mean "the first time in Washington and Oregon". The researchers at Stanford University in California already announced the result of their study of bluefin tuna off southern California in May this year.

From The Seattle Times (10/27/2012; emphasis is mine):

Trace Fukushima radiation found in Northwest albacore tuna

Researchers have found tiny amounts of radioactive cesium in albacore caught off Washington and Oregon. The radiation, originating from the 2011 tsunami in Japan, is thought to pose no public-health risk, but it is allowing scientists to track the migratory patterns of tuna for the first time.

Since the early 1950s, scientists have argued about one of the West Coast's most popular fish — albacore tuna.

Are the silvery streaks that tempt thousands of anglers each year part of one family of highly migratory fish? Or are there really two groups of speedy tuna, each traveling a different route around the sea?

Now this half-century-old argument could be clarified by a disturbing new pollutant: radioactive isotopes from Tokyo's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Oregon State University researchers and federal scientists are finding exceedingly tiny amounts of radioactive cesium in albacore caught off the coast of Washington and Oregon. And it's clear the radionuclide originated with the nuclear accident that followed the deadly tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011.

While some forms of cesium persist in the environment for decades, one isotope scientists saw, cesium-134, has a half-life of a little more than two years and could only have come from that accident.

So far, the trace amounts that OSU scientists found in tuna are far less than anything that would pose a risk to humans; a fish eater would have to consume several thousand pounds of the most radioactive albacore they discovered just to increase by 1 percent the amount of radiation they're exposed to from everyday sources.

"The amounts they found were incredibly small," said Donn Moyer, spokesman for the Washington state Department of Health, which also tested the same samples and came up with the same results. "There's nothing really remarkable about the amounts."

But because cesium decays so quickly, the discovery makes clear that fish caught in Northwest waters picked up the radiation while feeding on smaller fish in or around Japan.

"We're talking about barely, barely detectable levels," said Jason Phillips, who led the work while a graduate student at OSU's College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. "But because the radiation has to be derived from Fukushima, they had to pick it up within its vicinity or in the drift."

For most of the 1950s, researchers tagged North Pacific albacore and determined that the fish along the West Coast traveled between here, Japan and California and Mexico.

But in the 1970s researchers began to see signs that suggested some of the California fish might be part of a different population.

"It turns out there may be two different populations," said Richard Brodeur, with the National Marine Fisheries Service. "Ours up here might be completely different from those down off of California."

But the fast travel so far and fast — between 50 and 200 miles in a day — that tracking their movements is almost impossible, and no one has been able to confirm their theory.

After the Fukushima disaster, Phillips and Brodeur and another graduate student in radiation health had an idea: Why not map migration routes for West Coast tuna using the radioactive fish?

So far they've tested 18 Northwest fish, and the results are consistent: Fish caught before the tsunami are radiation free; fish caught afterward contain trace amounts of cesium.

But the real test is yet to come. The scientists have been collecting dozens of albacore from fishermen off the California coast. They plan to test those fish soon. If those don't show the same traces of cesium-134, it would suggest that they didn't travel to the same place as the Northwest fish.

Understanding when and where albacore travel can help scientists protect stocks of a West Coast fish worth tens of millions of dollars annually.

The researchers are presenting their findings to a conference in Italy this weekend.

The Stanford researchers found 4 Bq/kg of cesium-134 (and 6.3 Bq/kg of cesium-137) in bluefin tuna off California, which do migrate. Yellowfin tuna don't, and I'm not aware of any testing or study of the radiation in yellowfin tuna.

Oregon State University's press release on October 24, 2012 is more detailed, but still no number mentioned. The press release does say the researcher detected cesium-137 also, and the fish they tested were caught last year and frozen:

The researchers first identified two Fukushima-linked isotopes – Cesium-137 (Cs-137) and Cesium-134 (Cs-134) – this July, in samples of fish caught and frozen in 2011.

In the OSU press release, the researcher Delvan Neville says they tested about 70 pounds (about 32 kilograms) of tuna, or 18 samples:

“This is what we've seen after testing about 70 pounds of tuna,” Neville said. “When you've run one or two samples, you can't really say much about the population you're testing yet. When you've run five or six, you could make some guesses. When you're up to, at this time, 18 samples and everything has fallen fairly neatly into two groups of results, you can start to make some predictions about that population.

(H/T Kontan_Bigcat)

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#Radioactive, Idiosyncratic Japan: Fukushima People Protest Against Nuke Plant, Miyagi Fish with 3,300 Bq/kg Cesium, PM Noda Wants To Lower Retirement Age to 40

Last post of the day (or night, whatever), a collection of small news pieces that I saw in the past hour or so:

Independent journalist Ryusaku Tanaka tweets he's at Fukushima Prefectural Government Building in Fukushima City. People gathered there are shouting "We don't need nuke plants!" Prime Minister Noda is visiting the governor of Fukushima at his office there today.

Meanwhile, the general manager of the antenna shop in Edogawa-ku, Tokyo that sells agricultural produce from Fukushima says he will drive the sales as hard as he can, paying close attention to quality, according to Jiji Tsushin. Uh huh. The Jiji article did say he asked the wholesalers to conduct the test for radioactive materials last year. No word about this year. And we know how the wholesalers' testing goes.

Miyagi prefectural government announced on July 6, 2012 that 3,300 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected from black seabream caught off the coast of Higashi Matsushima City in Miyagi. That is extremely high, even compared to last year. Miyagi's governor continues to ship disaster debris outside the prefecture even when his own Assembly says the debris should stay inside Miyagi, and he continues to support fishermen without spending much or doing much on testing the catch for radiation.

Nikkei Shinbun says the government committee on national strategy (chaired by Prime Minister Noda) has compiled the report on the government's long-term strategy called "Frontier Plan". What's in the "Frontier"? Japan is indeed going where no one has gone before. Noda and his people want to make the retirement age at 40, with the retirement money of 1 to 2 years worth of salary. Why? To make employment more mobile, to compete with developing nations. They want to eliminate the distinction between contract workers and full-time employees - i.e. cutting the benefits for full-time employees. In their mind, this somehow will translate into (hold your breath).... birthrate increase.

How will an extremely insecure employment with the developing country-level wage lead to the increased birthrate? It won't, except in Noda and his experts' minds it will.

Oh, and the baby Panda is male, says NHK.

I can't take it any more for the day. Signing off...

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Fish Imported from Japan Found with Radioactive Cesium in South Korea

From TBS News (3/9/2012):

韓国、日本産水産物 セシウム検出増える

South Korea finding more marine products from Japan with radioactive cesium

韓国に輸入された日本産の水産物から、放射性物質が検出されるケースが増加していることが分かりました。ただ、いずれも基準値以下のため、市場に流通しています。

It has been revealed that an increasing number of marine products from Japan imported to South Korea have been found with radioactive materials. Since the levels are below the safety limits, they are being sold in the marketplace.

　韓国の農林水産食品省は８日、輸入された日本産の水産物から、放射性物質のセシウムが検出されるケースが増加していると発表しました。

South Korea's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Food announced on March 8 that an increasing number of marine products imported to South Korea from Japan have been found with radioactive cesium.

　日本から輸入された水産物について、韓国政府は出荷する際に日本で行われる放射能検査とは別に、独自に検査を行っています。

The South Korean government conducts its own test of marine products imported from Japan, aside from the radiation test in Japan [by the Japanese authorities] at the time of shipment.

　セシウムが検出されたのは、サバやスケトウダラなどで、去年４月から１１月までの８か月間は１３件でしたが、去年１２月以降急増し、２月までの３か月間だけで４０件に上っています。

Radioactive cesium was found in mackerels and Alaska pollock. There were 13 cases of cesium detection in 8 months from April to November last year, but the number significantly increased from December onward. There are 40 cases of cesium detection in 3 months from December to February this year.

　ほとんどが１キロあたり７ベクレル以下でしたが、最大９７．９ベクレル検出されたケースもありました。ただ、いずれも韓国の安全基準値を下回る数値だったことから、市場に流通しています。

In most cases, the radioactive density was 7 becquerels/kg or less. The maximum was 97.9 becquerels/kg. Since they are all below the safety limit of South Korea, they have been sold in the market.

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