Widespread Contamination in Japan

written by me:

Widespread contamination in Japan has been met with denial, censorship, and finally increases in the official standards for “safe exposure. A CNN commentator, David McNeill, remarked in June upon the missing word “meltdown” in earlier official accounts of the accident:

"One of the more striking aspects of the local media coverage of Fukushima was the missing word -- “meltdown.” It seemed reasonable to speculate, from March 11-15, that this is precisely what happened. One reason was the repeated news of cesium dispersed in the atmosphere on March 12. ( http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/life/tell-me-about-it/david-mcneill-whos-telling-truth-fukushima-448215#ixzz1PMTJwTk1)

A June 26 survey found of soil in Fukushima city found all samples contaminated with cesium levels exceeding legal limit of 10,000 becquerels per kilogram (“45%,” 2011, http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110705p2g00m0dm079000c.html).

Former senior policy advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Robert Alvarez, argued that fully 600 square kilometers were “technically uninhabitable” because of cesium-137 contamination (cited in Japan Admits http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/10/as_japan_nuclear_crisis_worsens_citizen).

A NHK documentary featuring a Japanese scientist who specializes in the study of radiation hygiene, Dr. Shinzo Kimura, a scientist specializing in radiation hygiene who worked previously forthe National Institute of Radiological Sciences.

The NHK team and Dr. Kimura recorded data and filmed their efforts inside the contamination zonein March and early April found many areas highly contaminated. They found a high of 166 million becquerels of Iodine-131 a square meter and 21.2 million becquerels of cesium per square meter were found with radiation air levels in excess of 300 microsieverts an hour (NHK http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LethPJ9Vd8Y)

Nuclear engineer Arnie Gunderson is quoted by Al Jazeera as describing the disaster as far worse than Chernobyl in relation to degree of contamination and the potential for ongoing releases:

"We have 20 nuclear cores exposed, the fuel pools have several cores each, that is 20 times the potential to be released than Chernobyl…The data I'm seeing shows that we are finding hot spots further away than we had from Chernobyl, and the amount of radiation in many of them was the amount that caused areas to be declared no-man's-land for Chernobyl. We are seeing square kilometres being found 60 to 70 kilometres away from the reactor. You can't clean all this up. We still have radioactive wild boar in Germany, 30 years after Chernobyl. (cited in Jamail, 2011 http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/201161664828302638.html)

Conformation of hot spots came in June 2011 in a CNN interview with Dr. Michio Kaku. Dr Kaku also stated that Tepco “lied to us they knew how much radiation was coming out,” that clean up would easily take “50 to 100 years” and that in the meantime radiation continued to be spewed from the plant, which was essentially a “ticking time bomb” (http://inthearena.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/21/fukushima-still-a-ticking-time-bomb/).

In July, Dr. Chris Busby reported that analyses of air filters from cars in Tokyo found radiation levels 270 times more contaminated with Cesium-137 than air levels during the peak of above-ground atomic testing Report: Air sample in Tokyo 270 times more contaminated with Cesium-137 than global weapons fallout peak (VIDEO)http://enenews.com/report-air-in-tokyo-270-times-higher-level-of-cesium-137-than-global-weapons-fallout-peak-video

Most disturbing are the comments made by Dr. Shunichi Yamashita, the appointed radiological health safety risk management adviser for the Fukushima prefecture, as reported by Aileen Mioko Smith, executive director of Green Action, in a Democracy Now interview on June 3:

AILEEN MIOKO SMITH: Yes, we’re very concerned that a health study is starting at the end of this month. This is concerning the effects of the Fukushima residents, on the prefectural citizens. It’s headed by a Dr. Shunichi Yamashita, who’s at the Atomic Bomb Research Institute… He’s widely shown on national TV. He speaks widely in the prefecture, always saying there’s absolutely no concern with the levels of radiation in Fukushima. He says that mothers, even mothers exposed to 100 millisieverts, pregnant mothers, will not have any effect, health effect. Remember the number 100. Compared to that, the Soviet Union required a mandatory evacuation during Chernobyl at five millisieverts. This doctor is quoted as saying, "The effects of radiation do not come to people that are happy and laughing. They come to people that are weak-spirited, that brood and fret." This is a direct quote. And he’s heading the study. And so, the citizens in Fukushima are very concerned.(Japan Admits 3 Nuclear Meltdowns, More Radiation Leaked into Sea; U.S. Nuclear Waste Poses Deadly Risks (2010, June 3). http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/10/as_japan_nuclear_crisis_worsens_citizen

It is instructive to compare this level of 100 millisieverts represented as safe by Dr. Yamashita for pregnant women with the 5 milliesieverts a year level used by the Soviets after Chernobyl to evacuate citizens (Hongo2011, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110610a6.html).

TO BE CONTINUED...