High radiation detected 30km from nuke plant (NHKNews)

[jannyk]

Japan's science ministry says relatively high radiation levels have been detected on 2 consecutive days about 30 kilometers northwest of the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The radiation measured 170 microsieverts per hour on Thursday and 150 microsieverts on Friday. Experts say exposure to this amount of radiation for 6 to 7 hours would result in absorption of the maximum level considered safe for one year.

The ministry also observed radiation levels of 0.5 to 52 microsieverts per hour at other observation points within a 30 to 60 kilometer radius of the plant. It says these levels are all higher than normal, but not an immediate threat to health.


http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/18_25.html

[itsrobert]

1. It's at at stage where they can no longer suppress information now

Too many people know now.

[Raschel]

2. Americans have been ridiculed for rushing to buy iodine tablets.

We've been told the US is not at risk for high levels. Although this may be true, I don't think their actions are so ridiculous. It does show that Americans would rather follow their instincts than wait for the government to tell them they're in danger.

Overreacting? Okay, but better safe than sorry.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. The iodine yes

plus it is not safe for you at those levels

And this is not to be ridiculed though.

What we need to be concerned over is not the actual radiation reading and from what Understand I am under it. It is the particles.

Now off to get milk for sis and nephews...

[Statistical]

9. KI pills are not a magic bullet.

There is no indication that any I-131 has reached the US or will ever reach the US.
KI pills only prevent/reduce exposure to I-131. Nothing else.

Even worse is that KI pills have their own risk so people who are ill informed and taking them are not doing anything to protect themselves but could cause health conditions in the future.

[Raschel]

12. I'm just saying I think it's a good idea to have them if/when you need them.

People want to feel as though there's something they can do to protect themselves.

[daleo]

14. There won't be any indication until it actually reaches North America

But, given the cascade of disasters, it is prudent to assume that some radiation will reach North America. People shouldn't panic but reasonable precautions should be considered, same as for the H1N1 risk.

Time will tell.

[tekisui]

3. knr,

[Generic Other]

4. Getting very scary for those in the range of the readings

My family is in Ibaragi due south. My cousin's wife is on dialysis, so no real easy exit plan for them.

[suffragette]

25. Link for you, G.O.

You may already have this one:
http://www.pref.ibaraki.jp/bukyoku/seikan/kokuko/en/index.htm


They still have old news up about radiation.
But, it looks like they have more up-to-date info about trains (site back up) and buses (updated today).

Also found this. Hope it might help:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110319a3.html


Saturday, March 19, 2011

Prefectures open shelters for tsunami survivors

By NATSUKO FUKUE
Staff writer

SAITAMA — Governments in the Kanto region opened shelters Thursday for people who have evacuated from northern Japan.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government opened the Tokyo Budokan arena in Adachi Ward and Ajinomoto Stadium in Chofu for 1,600 evacuees. Officials also secured three places in central Tokyo where patients from the Tohoku region undergoing dialysis can stay.


Maybe your cousin could go there, too?

[marions ghost]

5. microsievert

--is this one tenth of a milliseivert?

So 1 microsievert is the level of a chest x-ray?

So 10 millesieverts is one Cat Scan?

Trying to get a handle on what these numbers mean.

[Statistical]

7. 1 uSv (microSeivert) is 1/1000th of a 1 mSv (milliSeivert).

So 170 uSv = 0.17mSv.

So roughly 2 1/2 days of exposure @ 0.17mSv is equal to a 10mSv Cat Scan.

[marions ghost]

17. thanks

that makes it clear.

Getting a cat scan every other day or so does not sound good. If the levels don't go down soon, they will have to remove these people no matter what, it would seem to me.

[jpak]

23. uSv = 1/1000th mSv - you forgot a zero there

:hi:

[Statistical]

24. Oops. Fixed.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Yes you are well on your way.

I am used to thinking in rads.

Which are much higher... measurements. 1 rad= 0.01 msillisiverts

[marions ghost]

18. I think that's how they talked about it

back in Chernobyl days, right? I don't remember seiverts. A finer system of measurement.

[Statistical]

19. Metric.

Rem is a US measurement. Even at Chernobyl measurements were in Sv just US media converted to REMS. For scientific work metric is nearly universal now, more so than 20 years ago.

[marions ghost]

21. ah thank you

So we won't hear REMS being used much anymore, sounds like.

[Statistical]

22. Probably not.

Pretty much everything is now standardized on Sv. There are still some diehards but it is pretty much all Sv now.

The one exception being the US military who refuse to adopt that commie measuring system. :)

[jannyk]

10. Me too. But not just the #'s, but length of time exposed...

an x-ray or cat scan is over pretty quickly. What would be the effects if you were in a cat scan for 24 hours, or a week or more?

[marions ghost]

20. I can't think

the average unprotected person can stay there.

This is a bad disaster scene playing out in front of us. Reality TV you never want to see. I am identifying with the people in Japan, can imagine it all too clearly. After Katrina, Deepwater Horizon, the war horror show, 9-11, now this. Never have been one to ignore the big picture.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Yeah it is time\distance

Time of exposure

Distance from source

[Raschel]

13. How is this compared to radiation for cancer?

[marions ghost]

16. good question

any radiation techs out there?

[jannyk]

15. A little more info from Japan....

Expert: No immediate risk but figure is high

Associate Professor Keiichi Nakagawa of the University of Tokyo has suggested that 150 microsieverts per hour would not pose an immediate danger to humans, but the figure is still high.

The specialist in radiology says exposure to 150 microsieverts of radiation every day for up to a month would add up to around 100,000 microsieverts. He says human health could be affected at this level.

However, Nakagawa says people should not worry too much, since the amount of radiation would fall to about 10 percent indoors.

But he adds that the release of radioactive substances from the nuclear plant should be contained as soon as possible, from the viewpoint of preventing unnecessary long-term exposure.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/society.html

The complete text of the article is posted above.

[jtuck004]

26. Odd.

They call it high radiation, and it is higher than normal, but the readings were all taken 18 miles to about 38 miles from 4 nuclear reactors, most all of which have been emitting radiation at measured levels of 400, with bursts to 800 or 1000 _milli_ sieverts at times over the last week, with hydrogen and possible steam explosions, constant radioactive steam escaping, clouds of likely contaminated dark smoke wafting high into the atmosphere, and considerable damage to the areas that protect large storage areas for spent fuel, with at least one plant openly emitting its radiation from within the secondary containment (outer layer, not the core)in much worse condition than the others.

Yet in the article above they are reporting 170 _micro_ sieverts per hour, a level that is being reported in Tokyo a considerable distance away. They said the readings were taken in several places, 18 to about 37 miles away. Why no closer - there are still people in there, correct?

The US government has advised US citizens to evacuate out of a range of 50 miles, or about 80 km. from the reactors, yet they are not saying they should evacuate Tokyo with the same readings?

Postings on other sites are questioning these reports, suggesting that those doing the reporting from the government perhaps aren't being careful with the unit measurement, and a couple suggesting a more deliberate reason, to keep from scaring people and starting a panic.

The IAEA, however, reported numbers similar to the report in the OP, but said the readings varied from place to place.

I really don't know, but I was surprised there are not reporters walking around out there with their own meters, unless there is a government prohibition on that. But there is a CNN reporter - being ordered to evacuate herself from the country, along with several others, due to concern over radiation.

It seems low. But maybe I am just overly skeptical at this point. The IAEA was reporting similar results, maybe the same ones. They would't lie to us, or take readings in an area that would read far less risk, just to make things look better and not scare people, I am pretty sure.

Or maybe its just that they stayed in an outer ring a good distance away.

[Statistical]

27. The reason the US advised large evac radius is not based on current radiation but the THREAT

of higher radiation.

Under US regulations a spent fuel pond that has lost coolant requires a 50 mile evac.

So in the US if a spent fuel pond lost coolant and radiation was 0 it would still mandate a 50 mile evac.
Japanese regs are different and assigns less of a threat to a LOCA in spent fuel pond.

The NRC was indicating that radiation within 50 miles warranted an evac but rather the potential for much higher radiation that an uncooled spent fuel pond represents warrants the precaution.

[jtuck004]

28. Thank you.