Friday, March 9, 2012

The Politics of Radiation Releases


I am really getting tired of being told by the mainstream media, over and over again, that Fukushima's radiation releases were significantly lower than Chernobyl's.

This trivialization tactic is evident once again in The New York Times:

[excerpt] "The nation is also groping to find effective ways to monitor health and protect its food supply from contamination by the accident, which government scientists now say released about a fifth as much radioactive cesium as the Chernobyl disaster in 1986...."
 

We may never know the true scope of Fukushima's initial and ongoing releases because of the massive, international cover-up. 

However, enough data exist to demonstrate that releases are much more than Chernobyl because Fukushima had 3 reactors that were breached, 1 spent fuel pool that was completely destroyed (unit 3's spf)  and another spent fuel pool that burned at least interminably (unit 4's spf).

Most importantly, unlike Chernobyl, which burned for about 9 days, Fukushima has burned intermittently for 1 year now.

The mantra -- "less than Chernobyl" -- is so insistent that I have concluded that the scope of the disaster must be truly terrifying.


HERE ARE SOME ALTERNATIVE DATA


Arnie Gundersen also said: "I know someone who is very highly placed in the State Department, and US Government has come up with a decision. And i don't know whether it's influenced by fear of panic or commercial interests or whatever. But i do know that the US government has at the highest level of the State Department as well as other departments as FDA and on and on have made a decision to downplay Fukushima. And i can't speak for the Canadian counterpart but i will say that back in April Hillary Clinton signed a pact with her counterpart in Japan saying that she agreed that there are no problems with japanese food supplies and we will continue to buy them. So we are not sampling this material that comes into the country because our government has made the decision, a strategic decision, to downplay it. And i don't know if that's because they want to support the japanese government or whether they want to support the nuclear industry, but i do know that the decision was made at the highest level of government."
http://solarimg.org/shows/SolarIMG_podcast_Arnie_Gundersen_130811.mp3


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Fukushima caesium leaks 'equal 168 Hiroshimas' Japan's government estimates the amount of radioactive caesium-137 released by the Fukushima nuclear disaster so far is equal to that of 168 Hiroshima bombs. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8722400/Fukushima-caesium-leaks-equal-168-Hiroshimas.html

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Fukushima Radiation alarms doctors. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/08/201181665921711896.html

"How much radioactive materials have been released from the plant?" asked Dr Tatsuhiko Kodama, a professor at the Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology and Director of the University of Tokyo's Radioisotope Centre, in a July 27 speech to the Committee of Health, Labour and Welfare at Japan's House of Representatives….

"The government and TEPCO have not reported the total amount of the released radioactivity yet," said Kodama, who believes things are far worse than even the recent detection of extremely high radiation levels at the plant.


"There is widespread concern in Japan about a general lack of government monitoring for radiation, which has caused people to begin their own
independent monitoring, which are also finding disturbingly high levels of radiation.

“Kodama’s centre, using 27 facilities to measure radiation across the country, has been closely monitoring the situation at Fukushima – and their findings are alarming. According to Dr. Kodama, the total amount of radiation released over a period of more than five months from the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster is the equivalent to more than 29 ‘Hiroshima-type atomic bombs’ and the amount of uranium released is ‘equivalent to 20’ Hiroshima bombs


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Japan’s Fukushima Reactor May Have Leaked Radiation Before Tsunami Struck
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-19/fukushima-may-have-leaked-radiation-before-quake.html
 
"Japan’s government in April raised the severity rating of the Fukushima crisis to the highest on an international scale, the same level as the Chernobyl disaster. The station, which has experienced hundreds of aftershocks since March 11, may release more radiation than Chernobyl before the crisis is contained, Tepco officials have said..."

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Understanding the Ongoing Nuclear Disaster in Fukushima: A “Two-Headed Dragon” Descends into the Earth’s Biosphere. The Japanese original text is
available http://japanfocus.org/-Fujioka-Atsushi/3599 Fujioka Atsushi Translated by Michael K. Bourdaghs

The amount of radioactivity emitted to the outside world by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant is said to be 775,000 terabecquerels. This amounts to a radiation leak equivalent to the detonation of sixty Hiroshima-class, or 39 Nagasaki-class, nuclear bombs.”

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Summary Report of RSMC Beijing on Fukushima Nuclear Accident Emergency Response

WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION

CBS/CG-NERA/Doc. 5.4 (27.10.2011)

“Nuclear leaks occurred in Fukushima and lasted for five days. The total release amount was equal to that of Chernobyl nuclear explosion” p. 4

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Fukushima is Worse than Chernobyl – on Global Contamination Partial Japanese Text here Asia pacific Journal http://japanfocus.org/-Chris-Busby/3563
2011, july 8 Chris Busby Interview by Norimatsu Satoko and Narusawa Muneo

"Fukushima disaster involved a lot more material than Chernobyl where only 200 tons of fuel was involved. "I believe that in the explosions at Fukushima Daiichi, huge amounts of spent fuel were blown sky high. The ground contamination out to 100 km at Fukushima is worse than Chernobyl, the dose rates higher. And Fukushima has contaminated Tokyo with 35 million people. The population of the 200 km radius is also enormous, about 10 million. Most of the Chernobyl stuff fell away from big population centers. Luckily it went north and west and not to Kiev which is south. Fukushima is still boiling its radionuclides all over Japan. Chernobyl went up in one go. So Fukushima is worse….

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Cesium levels hit tens of billions of becquerels at river mouth  November 25, 2011 By EISUKE SASAKI/ Staff Writer http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201111250019
"Researchers have sounded the alarm over river water containing cesium levels at tens of billions of becquerels a day flowing into the sea near Fukushima Prefecture, site of the crippled nuclear power plant..."

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Early on a very brave scientist in Japan, Shinzo Kimura (a specialist in radiation hygiene) undertook an effort to create a comprehensive radiation map. NHK journalists accompanied him as he traveled in Fukushima prefecture and recorded his efforts. The video documentary was posted at Youtube. Unfortunately, the video is no longer available at the link or at NHK.

Kimura found a high of 166 million becquerels of Iodine-131 a square meter. 21.2 million becquerels of cesium per square meter were found with radiation air levels in excess of 300 microsieverts an hour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LethPJ9Vd8Y

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/incredible-nhk-video-on-heroic.html
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Former Minister for Internal Affairs Haraguchi Kazuhiro has alleged that radiation monitoring station data was actually three decimal places greater than the numbers released to the public. If this is true, it constitutes a “national crime”, in Nishio’s words. He follows with, “Giving us the truth once is much more important than saying ‘hang in there Japan!’ a million times.”  Matthew Penney Jul. 01, 2011. Japanese Cancer Expert on the Fukushima Situation http://japanfocus.org/events/view/100

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More data: Japan Times reported on August 27 that Fukushima’s “Cesium Leak Equal to 168 '45 A-Bombs.”[i] As of September 2011, the situation at Fukushima continues to worsen. Dr. Chris Busby reported on the Russian television network RT on August 17 that air filters from Tokyo are showing levels of Cesium-137 that are 1000 times higher than the levels of that radionuclide found in the air at the peak of atmospheric atomic weapons testing in 1963.[ii] 

Busby also stated that plant emissions were reported to the Japanese Prime Minister by Tepco to be 10 to the 13 becquerels per hour.[iii] Likewise, during an interview with Dr. Helen Caldicott, broadcasted online in September of 2011, Arnie Gunderson stated that he had been told that Fukushima was currently emitting a gigabecquerel per day (gigabecquerel or GBq 109 Bq), in radiation, which he described as over 2 billion decays per second a day.[iv] This radiation is contaminating Japan and the entire northern hemisphere as it is swept away by the Jet Stream. The latest data from Japan as of September 2011 has found 2,000 square kilometers to have radiation contamination levels at or in excess of 1 microsievert per hour at a measured height of .5 o 1.0 meter,[v] leading an annual external exposure rate of 8.76 millisieverts from soil contamination alone.
[i]     “Cesium Leak Equal to 168 '45 A-Bombs: NISA Compares Contamination to Hiroshima Blast,” Japan Times (2011, August 27): http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110827x3.html.
[ii]     Dr. Christopher Busby interviewed by Russia Today (RT) and uploaded to YouTube “Christopher Busby: Chernobyl-like radiation found in Tokyo,” [RussiaToday] YouTube (uploaded 2011, August 17): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNzDg4O9dkw.
[iii]    Ibid
[iv]    Helen Caldicott interviews Arnie Gunderson: “Arnold Gundersen with a Fukushima update,” If You Love This Planet (2011, September): http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org/?p=4952.
[v]    “Up to 1/7 of Fukushima May Be Contaminated,” Mainichi (2011, September 15): http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110915p2g00m0dm114000c.html.


1 comment:

  1. Simple Statement

    Majia---You rock! Keep up the good work

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