SimplyInfo » Entries tagged with "contamination"
Highly Radioactive Fukushima Town Reopens
The town of Katsurao currently has radiation levels of 20-50 mSv/year, with some areas above the 50 mSv/year level. 20 mSv/year is the annual maximum exposure for nuclear workers in most countries. The Japanese government has decided to reopen the town, allowing residents to live there. This declaration also serves to remove a protection for evacuees who receive compensation payments. Without the restriction many may lose their payments, compelling them to return to this highly radioactive … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Pacific Contamination Will Show Back Up In Japan 2-3 Years
Oceanographer Michio Aoyama presented an estimate at an international conference recently showing that the cesium 137 contamination in the Pacific will begin to show back up in Japan. The releases from the initial disaster in 2011 are flowing with the strong ocean currents and are expected to begin showing back up in Japan in the next two to three years. He did not expect the levels to be severe but indicated they would show a detectable rise in … Read entire article »
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WHOI Erases Fukushima Pacific Contamination Data
**Update and additional information added at the end of the post** The Woods Hole “Our Radioactive Ocean” project has erased years of Fukushima Pacific contamination data from their website. The website originally contained data from their 2011 monitoring voyage and data for each year up to 2015. As of today the website only contains data for 2013-2014 with some of the 2013 data near Hawaii now missing. Since we have been following the ongoing monitoring done by … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Contamination Found In Tap Water; New Report
The report for July to September of 2015 again found traces of Fukushima contamination in tap water in certain cities in Japan. The readings are very low but drinking water is used in so many things people consume it does create a long term method of ongoing exposure. NRA did not mention if any of these municipalities were doing anything to try to further filter out contaminants before delivering water to the public. The cities with … Read entire article »
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New Analysis Shows Fukushima Unit 3 Released High Concentration Of Contamination
Yomiuri Shimbun is reporting a new analysis by Japan Atomic Energy Agency that shows Fukushima unit 3 may have released a high concentration of contamination northwest of the plant. Their analysis assumed that the release happened late in the evening of March 15, 2011 to early morning March 16th. Yomiuri reports that JAEA assumes a venting could have caused the release, but the last venting publicly documented by TEPCO was on 10:15pm March 14th. If … Read entire article »
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Municipal Drinking Water In Japan Still Show Traces Of Fukushima Contamination
A recent Health Ministry report showed that a number of Japanese cities were still finding traces of Fukushima related contamination in their drinking water. The amounts found were low but they did include cesium 134, the shorter lived contaminant from Fukushima Daiichi. A strontium 90 test was not conducted on these samples. These cities had traces found in their drinking water: Morioka-Shi, Iwate Sendai city, Miyagi Prefecture Fukushima city, Fukushima Prefecture Ibaraki city Utsunomiya-Shi, Tochigi Maebashi city, Gunma prefecture Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Chigasaki-Shi, Kanagawa Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the … Read entire article »
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Last Of Fukushima Daiichi Steel Wall Closed
The last portion of the steel piling wall installed in the sea front of Fukushima Daiichi has been closed. On September 24th the last section was installed. This portion of the wall had been left open near unit 4′s intakes to allow groundwater and rain runoff to escape into the port to avoid flooding the areas around the reactors. With the land side section of the frozen wall operational, TEPCO finally completed this section of steel … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Unit 1 Discharge Canal Contamination Rising
A report released on July 26th showed that contamination levels in the unit 1 discharge canal at the end closer to the building have risen significantly. Cesium 137 was at 91,000 bq/liter Beta radiation was at 110,000 bq/liter Both readings taken July 24th. Cesium 137 was at 79,000 bq/liter Beta radiation was at 94,000 bq/liter Both readings taken July 22th. Cesium 137 was at 28,000 bq/liter Beta radiation was at 36,000 bq/liter Both readings taken July 15th. Cesium 137 was at 29,000 bq/liter Beta radiation was … Read entire article »
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Japanese Companies In Taiwan Fukushima Food Scandal Banned From Importing
Taiwan has announced that those companies that falsified origin labels to bypass importation regulations on Japanese foods will be banned from future importation. They could also face $100,000 USD fines for their law violations. It was also mentioned by the same source that Hong Kong is currently one of the largest importers of Japanese food products. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org © 2011-2016 SimplyInfo.org, … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Contamination Hits US & Canada, Readings Near Peak Estimate Range
Woods Hole announced some recent findings of Fukushima identified radioactive contamination found offshore in the US and Canada. The test samples were collected seven months ago, with the exception of sample CS109 that remains undated. The press release provided no actual data except the undated CS109 sample, but insisted it was “trace” amounts. and “well below internationally established levels of concern to humans and marine life” but did not cite any sources for this claim. Pacific … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Sea Soil Radiation Readings Released
Japan’s NRA has released a series of sea soil and sediment readings taken off the eastern coast of Japan. The readings cover the near shore areas of Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki and Chiba prefectures. The highest cesium readings were south of the nuclear plant site in Ibaraki prefecture, south of Iwaki City. High strontium 90 readings were found both north and south of the plant. These readings were higher than the ones directly offshore from the … Read entire article »
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TEPCO Begins Concreting Unit 4 Trench At Fukushima Daiichi
TEPCO has begun concreting in the seawater piping trench for unit 4 at Fukushima Daiichi. The work has been on the longer term roadmap but has been moved up as similar work began last week for unit 2′s seawater piping trench. Japan’s NRA recently criticized TEPCO’s efforts, claiming that contaminated water is still leaving the plant and that it may be leaking out below the current blocking efforts. The water displaced by the concrete is … Read entire article »
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New Study Finds Fukushima Food Contamination Underestimates Strontium 90
A new study in the journal Environmental Science & Technology looked at governmental food testing in Japan. The study reviewed foods testing for cesium 137 contamination and also strontium 90 contamination. Official assumptions had been than there was a set ratio of cesium 137 to strontium 90 across all foods. What was found is that over time the ratio of strontium 90 in foods had increased. This makes the standard assumed ratio being used incorrect. … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Daiichi Seafront Well Radiation Skyrockets
Well number 1-12 experienced an over 50 times increase in radiation this week. The well sits between the unit 1 and unit 2 intakes. This reading is the highest to date for this well. It is currently unclear exactly what is causing the increase since no nearby wells increased before or in conjunction with this one. There are three possible reasons for this well to increase: 1. The groundwater plume of contamination from unit 1 is now … Read entire article »
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Greenpeace Survey Finds Unsafe Radiation Levels In Fukushima
A new Greenpeace radiation survey done in Fukushima prefecture, outside the evacuation zone, showed unsafe levels of radiation. Various locations around the prefecture including Fukushima City still show with hot spots that are above the safety limits. Places with unsafe levels included in front of a hospital, on roads and other locations. Levels in less traveled locations such as forests were much worse. The government has avoided dealing with the unsafe levels and hot spots by … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Mushrooms Still As High As 102,900 Bq/Kg
I report from late September showed that mushrooms cultivated for home consumption were still very high in cesium contamination. Mushrooms ranged from 85 bq/kg up to the high reading of 102,900 bq/kg. Most were in the thousands to tens of thousands of becquerels of cesium. Foods like mushrooms, wild berries (including wild strawberry & blueberry) and wild game are still highly contaminated in parts of Europe decades after Chernobyl. So this problem in north east Japan … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Contaminated Food Was Found In US Right After The Meltdowns
A presentation given at a recent American Chemical Society meeting outlined the discovery of Fukushima radioactive contamination in food soon after the disaster. Private sector testing done for food importers in the US did find contamination in some food items sent in for testing. Since this work was done with a private lab by a food company there was no mandate to make this information public. One sample of imported fresh fish from Japan intended for … Read entire article »
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TEPCO Publishes Arrogant Press Release To The US On Fukushima
As news came out about yet another finding of Fukushima radioactive contamination offshore of North America, TEPCO published a rather bizarre press release. The corporate statement insists the contamination “Level raises no concern for human or animal health”. This is a bit like taking healthy food advice from McDonalds. They go on to misrepresent statements made by Woods Hole for their own purposes including one twisted to try to claim cesium doesn’t contaminate fish. This is obviously … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Contamination Found 150km Off Eureka California
Woods Hole’s radiation mapping program has found Fukushima identified cesium 150km off the shore of Eureka California. A press release mentioned that the reading was “below 2 bq per meter” but didn’t give the exact reading. Previous findings of Fukushima identified cesium include 2013 readings north of Hawaii and one earlier this year offshore further north near Canada. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org © … Read entire article »
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Fukushima; Radiation Spike In Unit 1 Discharge Canal
TEPCO hasn’t released radiation readings for the set of discharge canals for well over a year. This location has been historically quite high when they sampled it before. TEPCO announced that the sampling location in the discharge canal was again quite high while a downstream location was not. They provided no explanation where they assume the highly contaminated water is migrating to. Beta radiation: 120,000 bq/liter Cesium 134: 31,000 bq/liter Cesium 137: 95,000 bq/liter TEPCO closed off the end of the discharge … Read entire article »
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What May Be Causing The New Reactor Building Leak At Fukushima Daiichi
TEPCO admitted last week that some subdrain pit wells at the Fukushima Daiichi plant showed a large increase in contamination. These wells were originally a system used to remove groundwater from the reactor building basements, similar to a sump pump system. After the disaster these wells were largely ignored until this year. TEPCO began sampling them and later came up with this idea to pump water out of the subdrain pits, decontaminate it and dump … Read entire article »
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Radioactive Spike In Norwegian Reindeer & Sheep
Annual testing of sheep and reindeer for cesium 137 contamination found an abrupt spike this year. Ongoing testing still finds considerable amounts of radioactive contamination throughout Europe in mushrooms, wild berries, game and field grazing livestock. Earlier this year we reported on the wide variety of commercial jam products still contaminated with cesium 137, thought to be mostly from Chernobyl. Researchers are assuming the spike in contamination in Norway is due to a bumper wild mushroom season. … Read entire article »
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Vongfong Aftermath At Fukushima Daiichi; Leaks & Rising Radiation
Vongfong passed over Fukushima Daiichi as a fairly sedate tropical storm. This didn’t leave the plant completely unscathed. We reported earlier on the spike of cesium, beta radiation and tritium at monitoring well 1-6 on the sea front. An updated TEPCO report now shows significant spikes in manganese 54 and cobolt 60 in the same groundwater well. MN54: 700Bq/L Co60: 3,600Bq/L TEPCO now states that they will sample the sea front monitoring wells daily to track what is going on. These additional readings may help determine where this plume of highly contaminated groundwater may be going. TEPCO also cited a number of rainwater leaks into the reactor and turbine buildings. These are somewhat expected due to the damaged nature of the buildings. Unit 1: First floor south side electric equipment room of the turbine building. Water is … Read entire article »
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New Radiation Spike At Fukushima Daiichi
Cesium levels in well 1-6 near the port jumped on today’s readings. Readings taken at 9:44am JST October 13 (before Vongfong hit in earnest) Cesium 134: 61,000 bq/liter Cesium 137: 190,000 bq/liter Readings a few days before on Oct 9th were previous record highs and were considerably lower than these new readings. Cesium 134: 17,000 bq/liter Cesium 137: 51,000 bq/liter Monitoring well 1-6 is near the unit 2 intake canal and is part of a cluster of monitoring wells that have seen the worst of the sea front contamination. Source http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2014/images/2tb-east_14101302-j.pdf This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org © 2011-2016 SimplyInfo.org, Fukuleaks.org All Rights Reserved Content cited, quoted etc. from other sources is under the respective rights of that content owner. If you are viewing this page on any website other than www.simplyinfo.org … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Unit 3 Dust Disperal Hints At Accident Events
TEPCO’s report on contaminated dust dispersal that ended up contaminating rice fields north of the damaged nuclear site may indicate more about the accident events. The dates where they were removing the sections of the crane and underlying debris from directly over the reactor well coincide with the contamination dates. TEPCO additionally cited that those days lacked rain that otherwise could have helped keep dust from flying away in the wind. The events combined with … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Daiichi Sea Releases Updated To 157 Billion Bq Per Day
Yesterday we reported on TEPCO’s admission of ongoing daily sea releases of contaminated water to the Pacific. The TEPCO rep in the press conference cited the tritium level as being 1 billion becquerels per day. The graph submitted by TEPCO to METI showed a quite different amount for the tritium readings. The journalists at the conference prodded TEPCO for actual readings due to the graph having wide ranges and exact numbers were not published along side … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Monkeys May Show Radiation Damage
A new study of Japanese snow monkeys shows that they may be suffering from damage from radiation exposure. Researchers found that the blood pathology of the contaminated monkeys showed reductions in white and red blood cells and other parameters. “Fukushima monkeys had significantly low white and red blood cell counts, hemoglobin, and hematocrit, and the white blood cell count in immature monkeys showed a significant negative correlation with muscle cesium concentration” The study also showed that the … Read entire article »
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Minamisoma Never Informed Of New Contamination From Fukushima Daiichi
The rice fields were contaminated in August of 2013, the Agriculture Ministry didn’t inform TEPCO until March 2014 and never informed the farmers or the town of Minamisoma. After the news was finally made public this week, residents and the town’s mayor are outraged. A brief review yesterday of the radiation stations in Minamisoma showed no detectable radiation spike between August 16 and 20th at the central library station. Either the levels had been elevated for … Read entire article »
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TEPCO Contaminated Nearby Town During Unit 3 Demolition
TEPCO has admitted to re-contaminating the area around Minamisoma after being confronted by the agriculture ministry. Rice in Minamisoma was found to be over the government radiation limit of 100 bq/kg. Upon further inspection the ministry found it was the outside of the rice plants that had the most contamination rather than the rice kernel itself. This indicated contamination fell on the plants rather than being taken up from the soil. Now TEPCO is admitting on … Read entire article »
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TEPCO Admits Deep Groundwater Contamination & Leak To Sea
TEPCO has been doing further groundwater investigations at the plant including testing for contamination at various depths to understand what layers are carrying most of the contamination. They now admit that contamination can make it into the deep groundwater layer and could be leaking out to sea. This is something both the NRA and various researchers have speculated since early this year. TEPCO noted that the pressure in the deep layer is less than the water … Read entire article »
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High Radiation Found On Seabed South Of Fukushima Daiichi
Contaminated soil on the sea floor was found a few kilometers south of Fukushima Daiichi. The samples were collected in late 2013 by NRA and found to have 2000 bq/kg of contamination. NRA cites that the currents run from north to south making contamination along the coast south of the plant likely. The same areas showed fairly low levels of contamination when the sea water itself has been tested. This adds to the concern that … Read entire article »
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US Pacific Kelp; Fukushima Radiation Testing Results
Kelp Watch has released their first batch of testing results. The program is a mash up of university, national lab and citizen efforts to test Pacific sea kelp for radiation. The main focus is on cesium contamination but also has been screening for natural sources of radiation. This first batch of test results are considers a “control” set. This establishes the radiation readings considered to be before any Fukushima related radiation would make it to the … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Groundwater Wells Contaminated From Leaking Tanks
This was bound to happen and TEPCO had to have known this at the time they pushed for permission to use the groundwater wells. The big radioactive water leak at the H4 tank farm where highly radioactive sludge leaked out of the tank enclosure, contaminated the surrounding soil and groundwater and eventually made way to the sea is impacting the nearby groundwater bypass. Well #12 of the groundwater bypass has been found to have levels of … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Cesium Found On Vancouver Beach
The Vancouver Sun is reporting that cesium 134, an identifier of the Fukushima nuclear disaster was detected on a local beach. The finding was tested by Simon Fraser University. They were surprised by the finding and confirmed it as evidence of ongoing contamination from Fukushima. The sample was collected by a local citizen who took it to the university. The newspaper report did not cite the exact level found in the sample. Juan Jose Alava from … Read entire article »
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Researchers Confirm “Black Substance” Is Fukushima Reactor Fuel
In a peer reviewed paper released this week by the journal Environmental Science & Technology, a Japanese team of researchers has concluded that portions of the “black substance” found in Japan is nuclear fuel fragments from Fukushima Daiichi. Discoveries of the black residue along roadsides in and near the evacuation zone have been going on since at least 2011. Most were initially found by local citizens doing radiation monitoring. Some of these black substance sightings have … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Is Here! Contamination Found Off Vancouver Coast
Scientists from the Bedford Institute of Oceanography have found levels of cesium in sea water off the Vancouver Canada coast that can be attributed to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The levels are low, but the presence of cesium 134 confirms the contamination to be from Fukushima Daiichi. They cited the levels as such: “less than one becquerel per cubic metre of water ” Recent readings off the US coast did not find traces of cesium 134 in their … Read entire article »
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Living With Radiation In Japan
Local food coops that carefully select and test their food have become a go-to source for people concerned about contamination in the food supply. Food vendors that source from safer regions or direct from farm sales from these safer areas have become popular ways to compensate for the uncertainty in the food supply. This non profit called Project Food is sourcing foods from safer areas, testing them then offering them for sale. They recently sent some … Read entire article »
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Fukushima & The Controversy Of The Pacific
There were big concerns thrown around about the situation in the Pacific related to Fukushima in the last year. Oceanographers raised concerns that the plant was still leaking, something TEPCO denied at the time. Newer testing had shown that contamination levels in sea life had not decreased as it should have indicating that the plant was continuing to leak over two years after the initial meltdowns. TEPCO later admitted this to be true. Testing further out … Read entire article »
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23 Tbq Water Leak At Fukushima Caused By Multiple Human Errors
100 tons of water leaked from a contaminated water tank at Fukushima Daiichi after workers incorrectly aligned valves. They then ignored the alarm that alerted them to a tank that was not supposed to be filling, had overfilled. After the tank spilled out over the top flange the water then leaked out through a failure in the water weir that is supposed to catch any leaks. This water is highly radioactive water left over from … Read entire article »
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Fukushima Brings New Awareness Of Contaminated Food Worldwide
The concerns about food contamination from Fukushima has also increased awareness of the lingering problems of world wide food contamination from various sources. Fukushima was not the first major radiation release to the environment. Atomic testing in the Pacific contributed to considerable amounts of radioactive contamination of the sea that can still be found in sea life today. Chernobyl contaminated a wide swath of Europe and Russia, this contamination is still routinely found in foods … Read entire article »
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