Virtually all the numbers you're seeing about the radioactivity coming out of Fukushima are based oniodine-131which only has a half-life of 8 days, not the far more dangerouscesium-137which has a half-life of30 years. So while the mainstream media reports that "radiation levels are falling rapidly" from the 7.5 million times reading taken a few days ago, what they're not telling you is that the cesium-137 radioactivity will take30 yearsjust to fall by 50 percent.
It's the great global cover-up in all this: What happens to all the radioactive cesium being dumped into the ocean right now? It doesn't just burn itself out in a few months like iodine-131. This stuff sticks around forcenturies.
As part of the cover story,the FDAnow says it will test "all importedfoodproducts coming fromJapan" (http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/20...). This claim is, of course, ridiculous on its face. Even without thisFukushimaemergency in the works, theFDAonly tests a tiny fraction of all the food imported into theUSA. This agency has no existing infrastructure under which it could test ALL the food being imported from Japan. The very idea is ludicrous.
As this ABC News story reveals, the FDA says it's "really stretched" just to inspect a meretwo percentof imported food:http://abcnews.go.com/Health/radiat...
Read More: naturalnews.com
Marine radiation monitoring blocked by Japanese government
Since the start of the Fukushima disaster I have been following the worrying developments from a safe distance in Amsterdam, but suddenly, I am on rocking ship getting closer to the disaster area every day.
I joined the Rainbow Warrior a week ago in Keelung, Taiwan. Normally I work for Greenpeace Netherlands as a nuclear campaigner, but my radiation expertise was needed on board to guarantee the safety of the crew.
Now we are getting closer to Fukushima, the Japanese government has begun obstructing our efforts to do independent research. The sparse data published by the government and TEPCO is not enough to understand the real risks of the continuous leakage of radioactive water in the sea.
The Japanese people are in great need of independent information on the radioactive contamination of their seafood supply. Therefore, we are planning to do research on the radioactive contamination of seaweed, fish and shellfish.
Despite this great need for information, the Japanese government today refused a permit to do research within the territorial waters of Japan. We are allowed to conduct research outside this 12 mile zone, but this is not the area where the Japanese catch their fish and collect their seaweed.
This is a critical situation, so we are not giving up. We will continue heading for Fukushima to begin our research at a distance while we pursue further permission to carry out the sampling within the 12 mile limit.
The Japanese government should welcome such independent monitoring, the fact is they can never have enough information about the extent of the contamination, and the public are entitled to the benefit from the scrutiny and pressure that independent monitoring brings.
Approaching Fukushima is not without risks. The reactors are still not fully under control, and there is a continuous risk of further escalation. Another explosion could happen, releasing huge amounts of radiation, or an aftershock could lead to the collapse of the reactor building.
Therefore we have decided to implement various safety measures on the Warrior. We spent most of last week at sea making her ‘radiation proof’ by installing radiation detection equipment on the bridge, ordering special air filters, and building a designated decontamination area.
We devoted much time to briefing the brave crew. It is important that they have some basic understanding of radiation, and can assess the risks before working in a potentially radioactive contamination environment. We practiced decontamination procedures, and gave instructions on special clothing requirements: white Tyvek suits taped to rubber boots and gloves. I’m personally very happy that the crew puts their trust in me and Jacob, the other radiation safety advisor, to be responsible for their safety.
After the first days of inevitable seasickness, I’m now pretty sea-proof and ready to challenge the radiation risks, and any obstruction of our scientific mission by the Japanese government.
Exactly 25 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the Rainbow Warrior is on her way to another disaster that will keep reminding people of the dangers of nuclear power for at least the next 25 years.
Ike Teuling- Nuclear Campaigner and radiation expert for our field radiation team onboard the Rainbow Warrior.
Source: greenpeace.org
RADIATION EXPOSURE DEBATE RAGES INSIDE EPA
RADIATION EXPOSURE DEBATE RAGES INSIDE EPA — Plan to Radically Hike Post-Accident Radiation in Food & Water Sparks Hot Dissent
Washington, DC — A plan awaiting approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that would dramatically increase permissible radioactive releases in drinking water, food and soil after “radiological incidents” is drawing vigorous objections from agency experts, according to agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At issue is the acceptable level of public health risk following a radiation release, whether an accidental spill or a “dirty bomb” attack.
The radiation arm of EPA, called the Office of Radiation and Indoor Air (ORIA), has prepared an update of the 1992 “Protective Action Guides” (PAG) governing radiation protection decisions for both short-term and long-term cleanup standards. Other divisions within EPA contend the ORIA plan geometrically raises allowable exposure to the public. For example, as Charles Openchowski of EPA’s Office of General Counsel wrote in a January 23, 2009 e-mail to ORIA:
“[T]his guidance would allow cleanup levels that exceed MCLs [Maximum Contamination Limits under the Safe Drinking Water Act] by a factor of 100, 1000, and in two instances 7 million and there is nothing to prevent those levels from being the final cleanup achieved (i.e., it’s not confined to immediate response of emergency phase).”Another EPA official, Stuart Walker of the Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation, explains what the proposed new radiation limits in drinking water would mean:
“It also appears that drinking water at the PAG concentrations…may lead to subchronic (acute) effects following exposures of a day or a week. In a population, one should see some express acute effects…that is vomiting, fever, etc.”“This critical debate is taking place entirely behind closed doors because this plan is ‘guidance’ and does not require public notice as a regulation would,” stated PEER Counsel Christine Erickson. Today, PEER sent EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson a letter calling for a more open and broader examination of the proposed radiation guidance. “We all deserve to know why some in the agency want to legitimize exposing the public to radiation at levels vastly higher than what EPA officially considers dangerous.”
The internal documents show that under the updated PAG a single glass of water could give a lifetime’s permissible exposure. In addition, it would allow long-term cleanup limits thousands of times more lax than anything EPA has ever before accepted. These new limits would cause a cancer in as much as every fourth person exposed.
PEER obtained the internal e-mails after filing a lawsuit this past fall under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) but the EPA has yet to turn over thousands more communications. “EPA touts its new transparency but when it comes to matters of controversy the agency still puts up a wall,” added Erickson, who filed the FOIA suit. “Besides the months of stonewalling, we are seeing them pull stunts such as ORIA giving us rebuttals to other EPA documents they have yet to release.”
Source: PEER
Radiation in Japan's Fish Raise Concerns all Over World
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it will require seafood imported from Japan to be checked for radiation before it enters the food supply. But even with the new screenings, no one in the U.S. government is saying "stop eating tuna."
More specifically, an FDA spokesperson told ABC News that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement "is screening everything from Japan." However, screening does not entail testing all the seafood. all the testing of the seafood. In fact, the FDA inspects less than 2 percent of seafood, according to Winona Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch.
"FDA couldn't possibly with existing staff test all of the food that's being imported," Hauter said. "They inspect less than 2 percent of seafood. Their resources are really stretched."
So far, the FDA said that every piece of seafood that has been imported to the United States is safe.
Offshore from the Fukushima plant, the seawater is now testing at levels off the charts -- 7.5 million times more radioactive than the legal limit.
A fisherman said it was a "bad rumor" that the fish was unsafe to eat.
"The fish are totally fine, I believe," he said.
Even though radiation levels become diluted in large bodies of water, officials tested a sample of sand lance fish, often used for bait, and found that the species contained nearly double the levels of iodine 131 and cesium 137. The new regulation caps fish radiation levels at the same amount as vegetables—up to 2,000 bequerels of iodine 131 per kilogram.
Source: ABCNews
Source: ABCNews
Japan’s radiation contamination spread across Northern Hemisphere
Japan’s crippled Daiichi nuclear facility near Fukushima, hit hard by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, has released radioactive materials that have traveled across the entire Northern Hemisphere, a nuclear monitoring watchdog has reported.
The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Treaty Organization (CTBTO) reported on Thursday that within nine days after the accident, the radioactive cloud had crossed North America, and
Three days later when a station in Iceland picked up radioactive materials, it was clear that the cloud had reached Europe.
The report notes that dangers from some radioactive particles decrease with distance, due to atmospheric dispersion rates and precipitation, and a limited half-life of days or weeks, which reduces radioactivity over time. However, other radioactive substances such as Plutonium can linger for thousands of years.
The cumulative effects of the hundreds of atmospheric nuclear tests released such vast amounts of radioactivity that the overall level of radioactivity in the Earth’s atmosphere increased to levels that even dwarfed the Chernobyl disaster. Radioactive isotopes could be traced in baby teeth of children born even at great distances from the test sites in these decades.
A wide range of emission sources can be detected by the CTBTO’s radionuclide stations, among them Iodine-131 and Caesium-137, and by determining ratios between the various radioactive isotopes, can pinpoint the source of radioactive emissions.
So sensitive are these monitoring stations that a rooftop detector at CTBTO’s Vienna headquarters still records trace emissions from Russia’s 1986 disaster at Chernobyl.
Read More: Digitaljournal
The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Treaty Organization (CTBTO) reported on Thursday that within nine days after the accident, the radioactive cloud had crossed North America, and
Three days later when a station in Iceland picked up radioactive materials, it was clear that the cloud had reached Europe.
The report notes that dangers from some radioactive particles decrease with distance, due to atmospheric dispersion rates and precipitation, and a limited half-life of days or weeks, which reduces radioactivity over time. However, other radioactive substances such as Plutonium can linger for thousands of years.
The cumulative effects of the hundreds of atmospheric nuclear tests released such vast amounts of radioactivity that the overall level of radioactivity in the Earth’s atmosphere increased to levels that even dwarfed the Chernobyl disaster. Radioactive isotopes could be traced in baby teeth of children born even at great distances from the test sites in these decades.
A wide range of emission sources can be detected by the CTBTO’s radionuclide stations, among them Iodine-131 and Caesium-137, and by determining ratios between the various radioactive isotopes, can pinpoint the source of radioactive emissions.
So sensitive are these monitoring stations that a rooftop detector at CTBTO’s Vienna headquarters still records trace emissions from Russia’s 1986 disaster at Chernobyl.
Read More: Digitaljournal
Hanford News : 2011
High radiation levels found at Ohio nuclear plant
This story was published Thursday April 28th 2011
By Meghan Barr, Associated Press
CLEVELAND (AP) -- High radiation levels recorded at a nuclear reactor in northeast Ohio have prompted a special inspection by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The NRC says workers at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant immediately evacuated it April 22 when radiation levels rose while it was shutting down for a refueling outage. The commission says the plant is safe and officials don't believe workers were exposed to radiation levels "in excess of NRC limits."
The commission says radiation levels rose when workers were removing a monitor that measures nuclear reactions during start-up and shutdown.
The nuclear reactor is owned by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. It's located about 35 miles northeast of Cleveland.
A FirstEnergy spokesman says the highest radiation exposure to any of the four workers involved was about the equivalent to two or three chest X-rays
Source: Hanfordnews
This story was published Thursday April 28th 2011
By Meghan Barr, Associated Press
CLEVELAND (AP) -- High radiation levels recorded at a nuclear reactor in northeast Ohio have prompted a special inspection by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The NRC says workers at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant immediately evacuated it April 22 when radiation levels rose while it was shutting down for a refueling outage. The commission says the plant is safe and officials don't believe workers were exposed to radiation levels "in excess of NRC limits."
The commission says radiation levels rose when workers were removing a monitor that measures nuclear reactions during start-up and shutdown.
The nuclear reactor is owned by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. It's located about 35 miles northeast of Cleveland.
A FirstEnergy spokesman says the highest radiation exposure to any of the four workers involved was about the equivalent to two or three chest X-rays
Source: Hanfordnews
Storms knock out TVA nuclear units, power lines
A nuclear power plant in Alabama that lost power after violent thunderstorms and tornadoes on Wednesday will be down for days and possibly weeks but the backup power systems worked as designed to prevent a partial meltdown like the disaster in Japan.
Severe storms and tornadoes moving through the Southeast dealt a severe blow to the Tennessee Valley Authority on Wednesday, causing three nuclear reactors in Alabama to shut and knocking out 11 high-voltage power lines, the utility and regulators said.
All three units at TVA's 3,274-megawatt Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Alabama tripped about 5:30 EDT (2230 GMT) after losing outside power to the plant, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency said.
A TVA spokeswoman said the plant's output had reduced power earlier due to transmission line damage from a line of severe storms that spawned a number of tornadoes as it moved through Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee.
The NRC spokesman said early information indicated the units shut normally and the plant's diesel generators started up to supply power for the plant's safety system.
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