Friday, January 6, 2012

Mysterious Spike in Cesium Fallout in Fukushima on Jan 2, 2012 (Updated with Chiba Information)

The spike happened one day after the pretty big earthquake (seismic intensity scale 4) on January 1, 2012, which caused the water level of the Skimmer Surge Tank of Reactor 4 to fluctuate unexpectedly.

Only the people on the net paid attention to the data and it was not reported by the MSM. The Ministry of Education and Science issued the result of the fallout measurement, without saying anything as to why these dates (12/27/2011 to date) are being singled out.

This person tweeted the pic with three overlapping charts comparing (from the top): (1) amount of snow on the ground and amount of rain, (2) amount of cesium fallout, and (3) wind speed (average speed in black, maximum speed in blue, and maximum instantaneous speed in red), from December 1, 2011 to January 6, 2012:

The huge spike looks a few sigmas away from the norm, even with the wind speed picking up on January 2, 2012.

On Twitter, people in Tokyo were reporting strange white powder floating in the air several days ago, and people in Ibaraki and Chiba Prefectures were reporting elevated air radiation levels.

No news from the media, and these reports are dismissed by some on Twitter as "hysteria".

(UPDATE)

Inage District of Chiba City in Chiba Prefecture also had cesium fallout sometime between 12/26/2011 and 1/4/2012, according to the analysis by the Japan Chemical Analysis Center:


14 comments:

Chibaguy said...

Thank you! Now people finding higher levels in the US will figure out why the readings there are higher as well.

I agree with the tweet you attached. This appears to be additional new cesium fallout from somewhere. I do not think we need to speculate from where very much but would appreciate the government to protect us.

If this turns out to be from Daiichi, PM Noda will need to explain what "cold shutdown" means to him.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Noda will simply say "I said cold shutdown state, not cold shutdown".

Anonymous said...

the number are higher than usual at this website too, fwiw

http://www.radiationnetwork.com/

Lena said...

I think the "white powder floating in the air" was simply a type of snow. I saw it here in Tokyo. In Sweden we call it "kornsnö" = grain snow. It was very cold that evening and I made a note on my facebook page because it is unusual here. It was Wednesday (4th) evening. Snow is very unusual here and people are maybe not so familiar with snow and all the different varieties.

Chibaguy said...

@Lena

Even if it was snow it was contaminated snow. Japan simply needs to come to terms with the fact that this is not going away. You cannot live in a contaminated environment and not get contaminated yourself. This post is exactly aimed a you but basically my frustration re the government response.

Anonymous said...

'hysteria' ha ha ha. Who said the Japanese have a poor sense of humour?

Anonymous said...

My, 'free world' govts. have taken a turn against their citizenries.

So easily inspired by the killers of Litvinenko.

Anonymous said...

Chiba, I am not a scientist, but a dedicated webcam viewer. In my strictly visual opinion, there is an undeniable correlation between earthquakes registered at the plant and increased emissions soon after.

Anonymous said...

The other big spikes were on the 4th and the 23rd. There were no significant earthquakes on those dates.

Anonymous said...

I live in central Tokyo and measured radiation out my window, it was what it has been for the last several months: .08 microsieverts per hour.

I am sure the situation at Fukushima is a nightmare far from resolved and the earthquake is something to take very seriously, especially with the No. 4 fuel pool teetering at the edge of catastrophe. But the idea that white powder in Tokyo is somehow related strikes me as ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

@anon at 10:23PM, keep an open mind. After all, meltdown was a malicious rumor by the foreign press, and the tweet that said "don't go out, rain in Chiba is radioactive" on March 11 was considered a hoax.

Atomfritz said...

@ anon 12:54

My "personal unscientific theory" is that in some way one can compare the devastated reactor innards with a campfire.
You know, as the wood is consumed to ash, the "structural integrity" of the staple decreases.
Sometimes part of the wood staple crashes down, causing lots of sparks go up (analoguous to contaminants).
The same happens when the staple gets kicked (analoguous to an earthquake).

If this analogy is correct, it is not necessary to have earthquakes to produce spikes. It then would also explain why after earthquakes larger spikes would be common.
Time will tell.

Morgaine said...

Maybe the mysterious white powder was the contaminated baby-formula powder being dumped in a manner that will make it less likely to be identified...

The above postulation is tongue-in-cheek (hopefully not true), but it demonstrates the fact that a country that would allow baby formula makers to continue to make formula during the worst nuclear incident our planet has seen, and then allow them to distribute it.

BTW, about the infant exposure secondary to intake of the contaminated baby formula powder...

I don't remember seeing an indication that the radiation in the water used to turn the powder into drinkable baby formula was part of the cipherizations for the total intake of radiation in infants via that route. Hopefully, parents used bottled water.

That raises another question...who is monitoring for radiation in the bottled water? If it is coming from Japan's artisian springs, it could be contaminated.

Japan continues to allow rice grown in the vicinity of Fukushima to be distributed. I can look at rice (or nori) packages to see the country of origin, thereby avoiding buying products from Japan.

But what about the secondary products? Are rice hulls from Japanese rice being distributed? It is used in building houses, and in the concrete (as ash)we have in our homes, office buildings, sidewalks, etc. Contaminated rice hulls in concrete presents a long-term risk for exposure to radioactivity as the concrete degrades.

And, of course, one cringes to think of Fukushima rice hulls being used in those pillows we like to use...

Anonymous said...

It snowed very briefly at my house here in Tokyo January 2 PM. It was definitely snow--not mysterious white powder.

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