Strontium found in groundwater for first time (in Japan)

[blackdem76]

Source: Deutsche Press Agentur via Energy News

Tokyo - Radioactive contamination from the stricken nuclear power facility Fukushima has worsened, the operators Tepco warned Sunday, with probes of groundwater turning up traces of strontium that were 240 times above the allowable maximum limit.

Nuclear regulatory authorities reported finding the dangerously radioactive element near the damaged reactors 1 and 2.

The Kyodo news agency said it was the first discovery of strontium in the groundwater and was possibly caused by leakage resulting from pipelines being stopped up.

Meanwhile Tepco said that due to technical problems it could not yet start testing a new facility to decontaminate the tainted water.

Tepco had planned to start a week of testing on Friday, but due to the problems the start-up of the new facility - originally targeted for mid-June - would be delayed.

The decontamination facility poses a key element in Tepco's hopes of recycling the thousands of tons of highly-contaminated water used for cooling the reactors.





Read more: http://enenews.com/strontium-found-in-groundwater-for-first-time-240-times-above-max-limit

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The human body can't distinguish between strontium and calcium, so strontium is absorbed into the bones, and is especially harmful to growing children.

[Swede]

1. Because of prevailing winds and earth's magnetic field Canadians are loaded with the stuff.

From back in the atmospheric testing days.

[blackdem76]

2. "Loaded with" means what? 240 times the safe limit?

I don't think so. The Canadians would all be dead by now.

[Swede]

5. .

[quaker bill]

6. The "safe" limit is very likely

near the detection limit for the "ion coupled plasma" detectors used in modern labs. This type of detector is very sensitive to very tiny amounts of metals. They are 2 to 3 orders of magnitude more sensitive than the atomic absorption spectrometers they have largely replaced. In most cases this "safe limit" has little to do with actual health consequences. I don't think anyone has concluded that there is a level of Sr90 that is "safe", at least above natural background which is unavoidable. None of it is good for you. The point is that 240 times this concentration might still be a very small amount, not good for you no doubt, but perhaps still well less than lethal.

The "safe" level for most toxic heavy metals were lowered to the new detection limit when this technology became available to labs.

[AndyTiedye]

3. And It's Cumulative

The more you've already got, the greater the risk if you get more.

[blackdem76]

4. I'm hoping it's not Strontium 90, which has a half life of 28 years

The less alarming Strontium 89, which is in Hawaii milk, has a half life of only 50 days.

[leftyohiolib]

7. why is radioactivities' life span given in half life time ....

why do people say such-n-such's half life is 50 days why not say such-n-such is safe in 100 days? just curious.

[Esse Quam Videri]

8. I may be wrong......so any physicists feel free to correct but

the half life is the period it takes a substance to achieve half of its decay. So after the first half life expires the substance will have decayed by 1/2. After the substance has undergone its second half life it will be at 1/4 then 1/8 and so on and so on.

[eggplant]

9. because it doesn't disappear that way

if half of it is gone in (say) 10 days, then after 20 days half of *that* will be gone, and so on.

[leftyohiolib]

10. oh ok i see ...... thank-you both ....eom

[liberation]

11. Because the rate being measured is not linear, it is exponential.

[AndyTiedye]

12. Not so much Days as Millenia

The half-life of plutonium is 24,000 YEARS.

[hunter]

13. The half life of lead is freaking FOREVER...

Xinhua - More Than 600 People, Including 103 Children In Zhenjiang, Found To Have Lead Poisoning

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=299087&mesg_id=299087

By importing finished goods from China we've exported industrial pollution that used to occur here in the USA. Yes, radioactive pollution is bad. All industrial and agricultural pollution is bad, radioactive or not.

There's nothing special about radioactive industrial toxins, they're simply much easier to measure, and people make a much bigger fuss about them.

Herbicides and insecticides easily do more damage to our health in the USA than the accident at Fukushima ever will. Yet hardly anyone dreads driving past a corn field.

[intaglio]

14. And your point is?

Yes, lead is a very poisonous substance, so are cadmium and arsenic; however you can treat lead, cadmium and arsenic poisoning.

But you cannot treat someone contaminated with strontium 90 other than with palliative care and watch for developing cancers, weakening of the immune system and assisting the women or the female partners of the victims when they miscarry or develop damaged foetuses.

Like many apologists for the nuclear industry you are deliberately confusing acute damage with the long term chronic damage that radionuclides will cause. DDT, for example, is a potent carcinogen and teratogen but its soil half life is, typically, 2 years and probably less with good soil management. Strontium 90 has a half-life of 29 years.

[hunter]

17. My point is we ignore which crap we choose to ignore.

If we were consistent in our evaluation of risk we would ban coal, cars, and a lot of other things. That would be fine with me.

If the Victorians had discovered nuclear power, and assuming they hadn't obliterated civilization with nuclear weapons, we'd all be slightly radioactive and think nothing of it, just as we burn coal with little complaint, or ride around in deadly dangerous cars.

The world is not a better place if Germany and Japan replace their nuclear capacity with coal. It's equally as rotten but in a different way.

[liberation]

19. Germany is not replacing their nuclear capacity with coal...

"we'd all be slightly radioactive and think nothing of it,"

Uh? whaaaaat?

[hunter]

20. Yes, Germany is.

And Russian natural gas...

You'll get into a car without thinking you might die... right?

You inhale carcinogenic microparticles from car exhaust without thinking you might die, right?

[intaglio]

29. Any evidence for your contention about Germany?

Germany is shutting it's nuclear plants and, short term only, will be increasing its use of existing coal plants; however the announced intermediate and long term plan is to make up the shortfall with PV and wind.

Given that the on stream cost of PV is already competitive with nuclear and; given the lead time necessary for building new coal plant; is likely to be competitive with coal, it is increasingly likely that nuclear power is a dead industry. Yes, energy storage for overnighting is a problem, but it is a problem for which there are already solutions and more on the way.

As always, people making excuses for the nuclear industry will give you short term analyses and distract you from the long term stupidity of backing these dinosaurs.

[AndyTiedye]

15. You Have No Idea How Much Damage Fukushima Will Do Here

It hasn't stopped spewing radiation, in fact the sieverts keep hitting new highs.
The reactor cores have melted through the pressure vessels. Criticality is still happening.
They are frantically trying to shore up the fuel pool for reactor 4 to keep it from
collapsing. The cooling system for that pool is completely destroyed so all they
can do is pour water in with fire hoses.

Every day there is a fresh revelation of more radiation that TEPCO had been concealing from us.

We don't know how much radiation is getting here because the EPA stopped monitoring.
Only UC Berkeley is still testing, and that is only in one area.

[Downwinder]

16. Rabbit born without ears near Fukushima nuclear plant

http://www.news.com.au/world/rabbit-born-without-ears-near-fukushima-nuclear-plant/story-e6frfkyi-1226074074221

[Nossida]

18. of course

The fact of not only a Meltdown,
but indeed a Melt Thru of the bottom
of the containment vessel was reported
last week. The Slag will Melt straight
down into the Water table, and render
the water highly radioactive.

Let us all thank the Worthless Western
Media, for staying silent. Fukashima is
much worse than Chernobyl. I have read
a few reports, to the fact the entire of
Japan will become uninhabitable within
5 years time.

the Meltdowns occurred in the 1st 24 hours
after active cooling of the Cores stopped.
It took Japan 3 months to admit what the
data showed from day 2.

[Kelvin Mace]

28. That's a pretty strong claim

Do you have a link for these reports that render Japan "uninhabitable within 5 years time"?

I am not doubting your word, but i always like to see sources for such claims.

[IScreamSundays]

21. Excessive levels of strontium detected in seawater

Source: NHK

Radioactive strontium that exceeds the government-set safety level was detected for the first time in sea water in the inlet next to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, reported that strontinum-90, at a level 53 times higher than the safety standard was detected in samples taken from inside an inlet used exclusively by the nuclear plant, on May 16.

TEPCO also said that strontinum-90 was detected at a level 170 times higher than the standard in samples also taken on May 16, near the water intakes outside reactor number 2. At the reactor number 3 water intakes, the level was 240 times higher than the legal safety limit.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says the result is not beyond their expectations because the substance was detected in an inlet used exclusively by the power plant. They say they will closely monitor the fish and shellfish in the affected area.

Read more: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/13_02.html

[Poll_Blind]

22. And with a half-life of 30 years it'll be exceeding limits for quite a while to come!

PB

[Moostache]

23. Who cares? Isn't there more "news" about sexting somewhere? (n/t)

[kath]

24. new pics of Weiner today - and I haven't seen them yet!

Why should I give a crap about radiation?
Yemen? where's that?

[aquart]

25. And that's only what's there now.

[lonestarnot]

26. Nice.

And not a peep.

[suffragette]

27. "technical problems"

Clearly one major "technical problem" they've encountered is the growing resistance from Japanese people and organizations, which are tired of being lied to by TEPCO.

I would venture part of the technical problem they so vaguely reference is the Fisheries Agency opposition to yet more releases of radioactive water.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110608p2g00m0dm090000c.html

Fisheries Agency opposes Fukushima Daini nuke plant water release plan

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s plan to release water containing traces of radioactive materials from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant to the sea has been stopped due to stiff opposition from the Fisheries Agency, sources close to the mater said Wednesday.

Although the utility known as TEPCO told the agency that it will release the water after removing radioactive substances to an undetectable level, the agency is not approving the plan, leaving the fate of the 3,000 tons of the water accumulated in the nuclear power station, located 15 kilometers south from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant, undecided.

~~~~

The moves raised concerns over its effects on fisheries and TEPCO's unilateral notice on the releases to local fishermen drew public criticism.