Japan's Nuclear Safety Agency: Radioactivity in Seawater Near Plant 4,385 Times Limit

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Reuters: FLASH: Japan's nuclear safety agency: radioactivity in seawater near plant 4,385 times more than legal limit - Kyodo

Reuters: FLASH: Japan's nuclear safety agency says it is possible radiation is flowing continuously into the sea

Read more: https://twitter.com/reuters/status/53282313039130624

[SoulSearcher]

1. let me know when it crosses the magic 4,386 threshold..

[Zorra]

2. What will this do to sea critters? nt

[truth2power]

3. Every time I hear one of these announcements they follow it up with

how it's no threat to the public health.

Could someone please tell me when it WILL be a public health hazard. Something is rotten here.

[Arrowhead2k1]

4. All radiation is a threat to public health.

Just in varying degrees. Right now, it may infact be a fairly small threat to the population as a whole. But at the same time, some people out of millions might win the "cancer lottery" and die all the same. We might not even be able to tell definitively whether or not those people were to die from cancer caused by this accident or something else. The bottom line is that it's a good idea to try minimize exposure to radiation, period.

[truth2power]

20. I should have said, When will it be a hazard to public health

to the experts. They just don't want people to panic.

[DeSwiss]

5. I found some informative vids.....

...concerning the problems at Fukushima at the Fairewinds Associates website link http://www.fairewinds.com/multimedia">here.

- They were they primary technical resources the turned the spotlight upon the radiation leaks and terrible maintenance at Vermont Yankee:

Blowing the whistle on Vermont Yankee

Terri Hallenbeck,
The Burlington Free Press,
Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Arnie and Maggie Gundersen came to the Statehouse last week hauling a poster-sized map that detailed the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and the monitoring wells that dot the grounds.

Sitting before a legislative committee, Arnie Gundersen recounted the tritium levels found in each well and their proximity to the Connecticut River and to the plant’s functions.

A committee of legislators listened intently, thirsting for information as the search for a tritium leak at the Vernon plant headed into its second month. Later in the day, the Gundersens would pore over this information with another committee down the hall.

MORE: http://www.fairewinds.com/content/blowing-whistle-vermont-yankee

[highplainsdem]

6. Radiation in sea off Japan nuclear plant 4,385 times limit

Source: AFP

Radiation in sea off Japan nuclear plant 4,385 times limit
31 March 2011

OSAKA: The level of radioactive iodine in the sea off Japan's disaster-hit Fukushima nuclear plant has soared to its highest reading yet at 4,385 times the legal limit, the plant operator said on Thursday.

The level of iodine-131, reported a few hundred metres (yards) south of its southern water outlet has risen in a series of tests since last week, carried out by plant operator the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

Previous readings there were 1,250 times the legal maximum on Friday, 1,850 times the limit on Saturday and 3,355 times the limit on Tuesday.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1119850/1/.html

[Iggo]

7. Maybe it's the good radiation.

You know, like the good cholesterol.

[BrightKnight]

10. The half life of the iodine-131 is 8 days. - n/t

[Canuckistanian]

8. What does that mean?

Are all the fish irradiated?

[PoliticAverse]

21. Only the fish that don't know about the evacuation zone... n/t

[grahamhgreen]

9. Nukes are worse than useless. Expensive, filthy relics. Wind is cheaper. Nukes have no advantages,

Only disadvantages.

It is completely irresponsible and to pursue nukes.

What size disaster do we need to get off of nukes? City, state, country, continent?

[jannyk]

11. Dupe - this was posted in LBN a few hours ago

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4794491

[Kablooie]

12. Seawater iodine soars to 3,355 times the limit

Source: Asahi Shinbun

The density of iodine-131 in seawater 330 meters south of an outlet at the quake-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant shot up to 3,355 times the acceptable limit on Tuesday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. Said Wednesday.
.....
Keiji Kobayashi, a former lecturer of nuclear engineering at Kyoto University's Research Reactor Institute, says those materials must have leaked into the sea from reactor cores.

"Given the types and densities of radioactive materials found, a predominant portion should have come in water contaminated by melted fuel in a reactor core, rather than being spewed into the air and coming down in rain," he said.

The utility said it has not determined where the leak originated, but officials suspect the culprit is fuel in reactor cores.
.....
How radioactive materials are concentrated and accumulated in fish also depends upon a variety of conditions in the natural world, according to Kenya Mizuguchi, a professor emeritus of resources management at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology.

Because iodine-131 has a short half-life of eight days, there is little concern that fish will become unedible due to high levels of contamination from iodine.

Takami Morita, a researcher of marine chemistry at the Fisheries Agency, also said cesium will have no major impact on marine life.



Read more: http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201103300156.html

---

"there is little concern"

Ummm ... really?

[The_Casual_Observer]

13. If there is little concern then why wasn't the limit set 3355 time higher?

[avaistheone1]

14. No kidding.

Good question. :thumbsup:

[TheMadMonk]

16. Because over extended periods those levels are of concern.

In the short term they are only of concern if exposure is maintained for hours or days. Even then it's still statistics and a long way from levels which would have a clear impact.

Once the source is cut off, levels of radio-iodine will quickly fall to normal as it breaks down.

[Kablooie]

17. But they have no idea how to stop it. I'd think that would come under the heading of "concern".

[TheMadMonk]

22. No they have no idea how to PREVENT it at this time.

Stop it they can at any time by simply turning off the water and waiting for something worse to happen.

Provided the rate of things going bad doesn't pick up, and it shouldn't to any great degree, conditions in the reactor cores will continue to stabilise naturally. In another month or two operators can hopefully begin looking at the posibility of removing fuel elements from the cores for safe disposal. Once the source is gone, the contamination will disipate and decay.

Long before then, substantial debris removal from the site should be possible, allowing a better assesment of the situation. Given that the pressures in the reactors tell us that they must be substantially intact, it stands to reason that any leak must be quite small. Once found, a bucket, changed once an hour, or a couple of tubes of caulk, may well suffice to contain this threat for the duration. Probably not, but the posibility exists. Mittigation of some sort though should almost certainly be possible.

It's an issue, but one which can wait until more pressing matters are dealt with.

[JVS]

18. Even with a halflife of 8 days, these kinds of levels don't quite fall quickly.

If it's 4,300 times the acceptable level, that means that it will take about 104 days for it to dip below acceptable levels. While this is quick in geological term, if it were something like a water supply 104 is a long time to be inconvenienced by it not being drinkable.

[TheMadMonk]

23. Acceptable levels based upon a year of continuous exposure/emission.

Levels which are set several orders of magnitude below the minimum levels which can be shown to have a statistically detectable effect on a large population.

The "acceptable" levels are not set as low as they are because it is necessary, but because it is practicable to set them that low. Unfortunately too many people choose to believe that if the levels are so paranoid, then there must be a real reason for them to be that paranoid.

Now you make a couple of errors, starting with assuming that the level will remain extremely high for the entire 104 days. And you also make an erroneous conflation which I will allow. ONCE. The levels being detected are in SEAWATER near the power plant. NOT DRINKING water in Tokyo which just barely topped the lowest daily limits for allowable anual exposure.

At any initial contamination level, 1/2 of iodine-131 is gone in the first 8 days. 90% in a month. 99.5% by the end of two months. After 104 days, the levels are one eight thousandth of starting levels. Fully immersed for the entire time, begining at 4300 times the limit, a person would pick up about 1/10 (or less) of the allowable (and very paranoid) lifetime dose if my mental arithmetic is correct. More obviously if the contamination continues.

IIRC, 4300 times permissible equates to less than 1/2 the continuous (1 year) dose necessary to raise an individual's risk of cancer by about 1/100th of 1% on top of a normal lifetime risk of about 25%.

[JVS]

15. I saw approx 4,300 on CNN earlier tonight.

[jannyk]

19. Dupe - this was posted in LBN a few hours ago

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4794491