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This is a short video showing the lasting effects of radiation on biological systems in Chernobyl called The Animals of Chernobyl, and now also showing how the same effects now can be seen in Fukushima after the Fukushima Disaster.
Mutated Apple in Chernobyl
In 1986 an explosion and fire at the nuclear reactor at what was then
the Soviet union in Chernobyl Ukraine, launched an plume of radioactive
fallout that rendered a large swath of the region here uninhabitable.
Since then the creation of a 1000 square mile exclusion zone prohibiting human activity has led some to declare the area an restored eden, brimming with wild life.
But for more than an decade Timothy A. Mousseau an American scientist has conducted an extensive biological survey here, and his studies have shown that life has been far more slow to recover than previously believed.
Timothy A. Mousseau, PH.D.
Mutated Birds with Tumours Chernobyl
It is a perfect area for biological studies because we see a lot of diversity of plants and animals, it is one of the hotter areas in the Chernobyl zone and so from our previous working now this level of chronic exposure is above that what most species will tolerate.
This year we have been looking at these small rodents, we have been looking at spiders.
Earlier this year we were here working with the birds, we find that the
abundance of many species of birds are depressed in these areas of high
contamination, leading to an overall decrease in the biodiversity on the
order of 50 percent fewer species in hot areas than there should be if
there wasn't radioactivity in the area.
Tree Rings Show Radiation Fallout Chernobyl
Timothy A. Mousseau says he have seen much higher frequency of tumours
and physical abnormalities, like deformed beaks among birds compared
with those from uncontaminated areas.
Deformed Spider Webs Show Fallout Radiation Chernobyl
Deformed Spider Webs Show Fukushima Fallout Radiation
With all this "recent talk" about Fukshima leaking 400 tons of radioactive plutonium water into the Pacific Ocean every day (experts say it has most likely been going on for 2 years already) the safety for ourselves and our loved ones are on many peoples minds. The one thing that enables you to see the dangersous presence of radiation is with the well known Geiger Counter.
Homemade Geiger Counter
However not many people today can afford to get one because they do cost a bit. I remember that right after the Fukushima disaster most stocks of radiation meters where emptied so back then you could not even get one even if you had the money.
Well fortunetly you can make your very own homemade Geiger Counter for under $10. And if you already happen to have a simple volt meter you probably wont need more than a few bucks and some time to make one yourself.
MrTeslonian on Youtube recently made a very good video explaining and showing you exactly what you need to do. Some thin copper wire, small piece of aluminium pipe, aluminium foil (you could probably make due with just aluminium foil and not even have to use a pipe) and a volt meter set to AC Current and you are done. The great thing is that this simple homemade Geiger Counter will work for almost any form of radiation.
I am certainly going to give this a try, because it's a simple design, you don't need a lot of time and most likely have all parts avaliable around the house. It's proven and tested and shows that it works. If another disaster where to happen I strongly urge everyone that is anywhere near any sort of nuclear power plant to at least learn how to put one of these things together if you don't already have or know someone that owns an Geiger Counter.
Samples taken from 27 wild boars captured in northern Italy during the hunting season, have revealed the animals to be radioactive.
Traces of the radioactive isotope cesium-137 exceeded the legal limit by 10 times.
The Italian Health Ministry carried out routine tests on wild boars in the Piedmont mountain area and discovered radioactive contamination in 27 boars.
According to Sina the Enea Radiation Protection Institute stated "the cesium-137 is an artificial radionuclide produced by nuclear fission, and is released from nuclear sites."
To Vima reported Italian Health Minister Renato Balntoutsi said teams of experts will try to solve the "mystery of cesium" by testing samples of water and soil in the area. Rabbits, hares and deer will also be tested for the presence of cesium.
Experts from the regional institution for environmental monitoring ARPA consider the most likely cause of the radioactive contamination is from Chernobyl.
Professor Christopher Busby, scientific secretary to the European Committee on Radiation Risks talks to Russia Today Dec 27, 2011 about the situation at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant. Cold Shutdown Extremely Unlikely. This is an Criminal Affair with the Japanese government and IAEA publishing understated figures on the spread of the radiation.
Transcribed Video:
RT: Fukushima crisis says that it was down to the plants operators being ill prepared and not responding properly to the quake and tsunami disaster. A major government inquire said some engineers abandoned the plant as the trouble started and other staff delayed reporting significant radiation leaks. To discuss more on this I am joined by Professor Christopher Busby, scientific secretary to the European Committee on Radiation Risks.
RT: Thanks for joining us, so the report claims that the operators failed to respond properly and you said before that the authorities had been lax and slow in handling the situation. To what extent do you feel the assessment has been confirmed by these findings?
Busby: Well I think my assessment has been confirmed 100% but I do have to say that I don't think that this enquiry has goon far enough. Because there are lots of questions that they haven't asked and lots of questions that still haven't been answered.
RT: What are some of those?
Busby: Well the main, the most important one has to do with the health effects off the contamination. Now it's kind of assumed that everybody knows that these health effects are not going to be serious, but just like I said before that this was a much more serious incident than anyone were suggesting at the time. I'm now saying or have been saying all along that the health effects will be very much more serious than anyone is saying now. And I can tell you now there will probably be in some years time another enquiry that will show also that I am right there. And this is really sad because actually if they did concede that there was a big problem then people could be moved out and other activities could take place which would ensure that fewer people got sick than are going to.
RT: Why do you think it has taken Japan so long to admit that it's response was inadequate.
Busby: I think that there is an enormous pressure from the nuclear industry and from the people who stand to loose a lot of money with regard to the general nuclear expansion scenario that we have been seeing in the last year or two. I mean for the nuclear industry, this was an absolute disaster and it does seem to me from not only the way in which the Japanese has been constrained to handle this event but also the way in which people all over the world are handling this event through the media. I have to say not Russia Today, and I am very pleased about that. There does seem to be an enormous iron grip on the media with regard to the effects of this terrifying accident, this catastrophe.
RT: The report also said the government published understated figures on the spread of the radiation, can that be justified when millions of life's are at risk.
Busby: Well of course that really is an criminal event as I said before. This is criminal irresponsibility because if people had known the extent of the radioactivity, had the government and I also have to say the international atomic energy agency come clean with the extent of the contamination people would have left. People would have got out and these people who didn't get out would have been seriously contaminated and this will effect their health. So really this is quite an criminal affair and I would hope that eventually that someone would be brought to justice, or at least there should be some court case about it.
RT: Japanese officials claim the plant is now under control but there have been reports that many Fukushima evacuees remain reluctant to return to their homes, do you think those concerns are valid?
Busby: I think that those people should not return to their homes and I think it's extremely unlikely that these reactors are in what they call cold shutdown, I mean I think this is discourse manipulation. Very recently Xenon Isotopes have been released from those plants, and these Xenon Isotopes have sufficiently short half life's for us to know that fissioning is still taking place in those reactors.
RT: Alright and briefly, what do you think should be done with the Japanese nuclear network now?
Busby: Well you know the Japanese nuclear network was always dangerous, it was always built on the coasts in areas where there was tsunamis, it was always build in areas where there possibly were going to be earthquakes so really if I were the Japanese people I would demand that the government closed down the entire nuclear operation in Japan and revert to some other form of generating energy.
RT: What would that be you think?
Busby: Well there have been studies made that show that Japanese, that Japan is very rich in wind power and there is lots of ways in which you can get alternative generation of electricity. But the main problem of course is that there is to much electricity being used, we are burning up the planet in order to continue with a lifestyle which really is not sustainable and I think that is the real answer to all of these questions about nuclear and fossil fuel and the rest of it, we are just burning to much fuel.
RT: Alright we have to leave it there Professor Christopher Busby, scientific secretary to the European Committee on Radiation Risks thanks for your time.
New reports coming out saying that all of the nuclear fuel at reactor unit 1 have melted and broken the bottom of the steel pressure vessel inside the reactor. The corium (melted nuclear fuel) is now on the bottom of the concrete below and is eating it's way down further and soon it will reach the containment vessel steel that is the last defence before completely outside.
Reports say that not only is this happening in reactor unit 1 but also in Unit's 2 and 3. In the light of this it has again shown the seriousness of the Fukushima Disaster.
The melted nuclear fuel in reactor unit 1 have already eaten it's way 65cm into the concrete below and have another 37cm left before it reaches the containment vessel steel.
In Unit 2 and Unit 3 it is estimated that 63% and 57% of the nuclear fuel have melted outside. The situation is serious and with this new information there are doubts in my mind that workers can continue to work close the the reactor units for much longer. Radiation readings outside the reactor buildings are already high.
This is a confirmation that radiation levels are high even outside the reactor buildings. There are reports done from Yoichi Shimatsu that radiation levels outside the Nr. 2 reactor building to be 1000 millisieverts or 1 Sieverts per hour.
We also hear from Henry living in Japan about 100 km from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that news is highly controlled and he show us a video from a private owned television channel showing 300 microsieverts on camera when reporters where allowed to take a bus tour outside.
Unit 1 fuel melting erosion 65cm
November 30, 6:19 minutes
Accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co. Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Unit 1 fuel meltdown occurred, the substantial fall in the amount of containment of the reactor by breaking the bottom of the steel melt the concrete bottom of the vessel estimated to be 65 inches maximum erosion has revealed the results of TEPCO.Some fuel for Unit 2 and Unit 3 has been estimated that fall into the containment vessel, has again highlighted the seriousness of the accident.
For Unit 3 from Unit 1 of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is going to melt fall meltdown of nuclear fuel, but was seen as falling into the molten fuel from the reactor containment vessel, some more than eight months from the accident Even after the situation is not known for more.
Multiple research institutes and national TEPCO about it, different ways to analyze the state of the molten fuel from the reactor temperature and injection situation obtained so far, 30 days, resulting in open country Study Group announced. TEPCO's analysis of this evaluation was the most severe cases, for Unit 1, burn all the fuel has been estimated to have dropped considerably in the amount of containment break through the bottom of the reactor. The store has a concrete bottom of the container, and further covered with steel plates.
Falls to the bottom of the vessel containing the fuel, in the sense that this concrete erosion and melting reactions in the heat, the worst case, has been estimated to reach to a depth of 65 cm in Unit 1. At the most concrete thin, with only 37 centimeters until later that no containment, has again highlighted the seriousness of the accident. Also, Unit 2 and Unit 3, the worst case, the fuel burn of 63% and 57%, respectively, has been estimated to have been part of it falling into the containment.
According to TEPCO, the temperature of the containment vessel and the reactor is now 21, has not been below 100 degrees both fuel melted and is cooled by water, erosion of the concrete was evaluated and has stopped and. Study group is also presented another analysis of this research was to discuss the state of the reactor and fuel on multiple results. TEPCO and countries to further analyze the results of this analysis, we have decided to consider how and whether to retrieve the decommissioning of nuclear fuel for the future.
NITE Nuclear Safety, Mr. Seiji Abe, technical advisers, the results of TEPCO's analysis, "and I do not think it is wrong, yet have taken that first step. Results can be derived only one answer I can not. the future is different stacking analysis, we need to analyze the reality of the accident, "we said.
There have been measurements taken by The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare now and radiation measurements of wild animals in Fukushima now show high levels of Cesium 137 in almost all types of animals. The ones that stand out the most are boar, bear and also deer. The measurements started 10/3/2011.
40 samples of boar were taken and results shows that levels of Cesium 137 to be as high as 14,600 Bq/Kg in one sample.
Sample from Nihonmatsushi: 676 Bq/Kg
Sample from Fukushimashi: 640 Bq/kg
Common pheasant: 402 Bq/kg Duck: 165 Bq/kg Japanese deer: 464 Bq/kg ( They took only one sample but the only one sample was irradiated.)
Now what we have learned from Chernobyl is that radiation in animals actually vary from year to year. If we have a look at the diagram of Cesium 137 measurements collected in Moose from Sweden over the past years since the Chernobyl disaster we can clearly see how the radiation some years shoot up and the go down a bit again the next year. Although Sweden is far away from Chernobyl the levels are still high in animals.
We can see that in 1986 the year of the Chernobyl disaster the average levels in Moose were around 1500 Bq/Kg this is the maximum allowed level to be able to sell the meat in Sweden. The yearly consumption of 50 Kg of this meat would make you're own body radiate 1 millisieverts per year. This would be the equivalent to the background radiation but inside you're body. We see that even 20 years later in 2006 the radiation levels in Moose are still well above 1000 Bq/Kg in Sweden almost as high as in the years after the disaster however the next year 2007 the levels have dropped again. Why is that?
Well it has to do with what the animals eat. If for instance there is a good year with plenty of mushrooms then the radiation would again shoot up in animals that consume this sort of food. And if they move to areas that have a higher concentration of radiation then there would be the same effect. However if the animals move to less contaminated areas and there for instance where less mushrooms that year for them to eat then the radiation levels would go down again. And this is what we now see in Fukushima with the animals. But on thing is for certain, the radiation wont go away, this we can clearly see from Chernobyl and this stuff will stay with us for some 60 years before it's completely gone from the soil. Now Chernobyl was "small" compared to Fukushima, the radiation and the whole situation is still out of control there with workers that tweet and say they are unable to even enter the buildings due to the radiation levels. So because of that and with the "smart" move by the Japanese Government along with TEPCO to start burning radioactive waste all over the country this I'm afraid is only the beginning.
This is what airborne radiation does to animal / humans.. Now what about the radiation that is pumped into the ocean at Fukushima?
Below you can read the measurements taken (in Japanese) 2r9852000001vvlm
A few days ago journalists where allowed to take a bus tour around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The reporters filmed and took photos of the damaged reactor buildings, although the journalists where not allowed to step outside during the tour it looked like things where somewhat under control at the plant.
But it was not, what the media don't show you is the fact that the tour was controlled. No free press to be found here. Fukushima reporters where controlled by a male on the bus. After the tour passed Nr. 3-4 reactor building probably heading to reactor Nr. 1 the dosimeters were showing 300 microsievert /hour. (Shown in the video text 0.3 = 300) The limit for workers at Fukushima is 250 microsieverts / hour...
ANN News from the private Japanese KHB Channel did a story and we can clearly hear how the reporters are being told to put down their cameras.
Author aristoman007 (youtube) Henry living in Japan 100km from Fukushima have been watching the news reports and here now gives us his take on this and what is already known to many of us about the continuing media blackout of the Fukushima Disaster.
36 reporters where on the tour, 19 of them belonged to the press club of the parliament and seven to the press club of the Fukushima prefecture management. The remaining ten journalist’s were reporters represented from abroad. Independent journalists and Internet reporters have not been granted access.
More media blackout from TEPCO and the Japanese media is clearly not FREE. Radiation levels where going up during the tour, although this is only my take on the video shown here we can see some static (audio and video cuts) this is a common thing when dealing with high radiation. Electronic equipment don't work well near affected areas.
Immediately after the accident "shoes melted instantly," the worker testified Fukushima Daiichi
Once in the reactor building at the event, quickly melted back of the shoe.
Immediately after the accident TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, part of the testimony showed support workers hit. The public will have a detailed testimony of the first field workers. Testimony was also told by the fear of electric shock due to dehydration and working in the puddle aftershocks that reveals the restoration work has been performed in a difficult situation.
On March 4, Vice President, Nuclear Energy Division located in TEPCO Aizawa S. Zen, held in Tokyo, "Third Symposium on Energy and Environment University of Tokyo," was introduced in.
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station is due to loss of all AC-DC power supply tsunami. The central control room lighting fell, unable to watch as well as reactor water level.
For the situation at that time, workers' felt unable to lose any power, "testified. Loses power, increase in the amount of radiation, "the meaning remains the central control room, became a fierce debate among the operating personnel remained on the scene".
In the reactor can no longer irrigate, TEPCO began to alternate injection, the scene was followed by aftershocks still great. Workers' still wear a mask full of every major aftershock, ran away with 死Nimonogurui the hill "and the back.
Field can be flooded by the tsunami, recovery efforts were difficult. "There is an outdoor pool, cable laying work at night in fear of the shock had" called.
Field situation revealed an attempt at containment vent Unit 1 to 3. Normally, but Bent can be operated from a central control room, Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station at the time because they were losing power, was forced to move the valve went to the field workers.
However, the reactor was exposed to high temperature fuel exposure. "Because of the event, enter the reactor building, Taurus (scaffold) were subjected to foot, soles of shoes melted instantly" a testimony of workers, says it is the anomaly.
Temperature in the reactor building as well as, extremely high radiation doses.TEPCO considers the risk of exposure, such measures had to do field work on older workers.
Time and time again we can read about how safe and under control the situation is at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Cold shutdown is well underway and the tents are being made to cover the damaged reactor units. Evacuation zones have been opened allowing people back to their homes to live at areas that he now been made "safe" by the government.
All is well we read in the papers, nothing to worry about.. If anything breaking is found or occur at the Fukushima plant or if high radiation readings are measured around Tokyo, "experts" are quick to calm the public that.. Oh it's was just a few bottles of "glowing paint" used by a business making watches that had been left in the basement of an old building that gave the high readings.. With measurements being made 1 meter of the ground in the streets of Tokyo, sure a couple of bottles found in a nearby basement is of course the culprit. And discarding all other measurements of high measurements that are found around Tokyo by public and independent experts in the field. This we see time and time again, the governments and TEPCO's experts SPIN on what is reported.
On Wednesday Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced “There is the possibility that criticality, a sustained nuclear chain reaction, had occurred ‘temporarily’ and ‘locally’ in the No. 2 reactor.”
Lets watch how they spin this. Well it's widely know amongst the real experts that criticality is and have been going on for quite some time and that this TEPCO’s claim of "spontaneous" fission is an very “improbable phenomenon”. Nuclear professors agree that it is strange that such a “rare” event was detected almost immediately after sampling began.
Yet "improbable phenomena" is something that TEPCO and the Japanese government have been throwing around to such an extent today in the media that some of us (yes me included) call most reports BS.
It is clear that things are not stable at all, you only need to look at some of the car air filter samples done by outside sources that show the extreme high radiation in the air around Fukushima and also found in Tokyo. With millions of people and children being exposed to these radioactive hot particles every day the situation is far, far from under control. ☢ Incredibly Radioactive Air Fukushima, Tokyo and Seattle Comparison Analysis Show ☢
On another note I read an interesting comment how this type disaster have actually never been encountered before "physicists do not understand fully what is going on at Fukushima because this is, in fact, unprecedented (Chernobyl was “contained” in days) and every time physicists have an opportunity to study matter in new environments (e.g., particle accelerators) they learn new and surprising things about how matter and energy behave." So with that comment we start to see what is taking place at Fukushima with the corium and chain reactions really has never been observed to this extent before.
Find out true reactor conditions
Friday, Nov. 4, 2011
Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced Wednesday that there is the possibility that criticality, a sustained nuclear chain reaction, had occurred "temporarily" and "locally" in the No. 2 reactor of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. It detected radioactive xenon-133 and xenon-135, products of uranium or plutonium fission, in gases collected Tuesday from the reactor.
Because the half life of xenon-133 is 5.25 days and that of xeon-135 is 9.14 hours, criticality is very likely to have occurred just before the gases were analyzed.
Although more than seven months have passed since the start of the nuclear fiasco, clearly the reactor has not yet been stabilized. Tepco's plan to achieve "cold shutdown" of the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 reactors by the end of this year may face difficulty.
The fact that Tepco cannot deny the possibility of criticality irrespective of its scale is a grave situation. The conditions are similar in the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 reactors. It is thought that nuclear fuel in them melted and has collected in the bottom of both the pressure and containment vessels.
Tepco should make serious efforts to accurately grasp the conditions of nuclear fuel inside the reactors.
Even after a reactor is shut down, nuclear fuel fissions occur bit by bit inside cladding tubes without reaching criticality. Experts concur that large-scale criticality will not occur in molten nuclear fuel. But Tepco and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency should take a serious view of the fact that radioactive xenon pointing to criticality was detected from the No. 2 reactor. What happened in it can happen in the Nos. 1 and 3 reactors.
They should strictly watch the conditions of the three reactors and do their utmost to prevent occurrence of criticality. They should not forget the simple fact that a large amount of nuclear fuel exists in these reactors.
Tepco injected 10 tons of a solution containing 480 kg of boric acid into the No. 2 reactor shortly before 3 a.m. Wednesday to restrain nuclear fission. This inversely shows that it has not been injecting a boric acid solution into the reactors in continuously cooling them by circulating water. Its laxness should be criticized. It wasn't till after 7 a.m. Wednesday that NISA reported the criticality incident to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. NISA clearly lacked the ability to make a correct judgment in this matter.
Fukushima Plant May Have Emitted Double Radiation Than Estimated
QBy Tsuyoshi Inajima - Oct 27, 2011 11:20 AM GMT+0300
The wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan may have released more than twice the amount of radiation estimated by the Japanese government, a study by European and U.S.-based scientists said.
Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima station, which was wrecked in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, may have emitted 35,800 terabecquerels of radioactive cesium 137 at the height of the disaster, according to a study in the Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics journal. Japan’s nuclear regulator in June said 15,000 terabecquerels of cesium 137 was discharged.
The amount is about 42 percent of that released at Chernobyl in 1986, the worst civil atomic disaster in history, according to the study. The plant north of Tokyo may have also started releasing radioactive elements before the tsunami arrived about 45 minutes after the magnitude-9 quake struck, contradicting government assessments.
“This early onset of emissions is interesting and may indicate some structural damage to the reactor units during the earthquake,” according to the report.
Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency remains convinced the quake didn’t cause significant damage to the plant, Tadashige Koitabashi, a NISA spokesman, said by phone. He declined to comment on the report.
NISA and Tepco blame the tsunami, which swamped backup generators, causing a loss of cooling and the meltdowns of the three reactors operating at the time of the disaster. Explosions at the plant sent radiation into the atmosphere.
Radiation Effects
Cesium 137 is a source of concern for public health because the radioactive isotope has a half-life of 30 years.
A becquerel represents one radioactive decay per second and involves the release of atomic energy, which can damage human cells and DNA. Prolonged exposure to radiation can cause leukemia and other forms of cancer, according to the World Nuclear Association. A terabecquerel is one million times one million becquerels.
Almost a fifth of the cesium 137 fallout fell on Japan, while the remainder was carried by prevailing winds over the Pacific Ocean, according to the study.
Areas around the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, which is still emitting radioactive materials, may be uninhabitable for at least two decades, according to a government estimate in August.
Radiation Release
The study led by Andreas Stohl, an atmospheric scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, was released on the website of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions. The authors used readings from stations around the world to assess the amount of radiation release.
Japanese government officials and the utility known as Tepco haven’t updated figures on radiation from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi station. Tepco said last week the amount of radiation being released has fallen to about 8 million times less than at the height of the disaster.
“We don’t need to add much to what was emitted in the early days,” Yasuo Kosaku, an official in NISA’s nuclear emergency division, said by phone today. Still, “the June estimate may have to be revised.”
The government plans to update the estimate, Goshi Hosono, the minister in charge of responding to the disaster, said in August.
The scientists provided other analysis that questions official assessments.
Reactor 4
The levels of cesium 137 emissions “suddenly dropped” after Tepco started spraying water on the spent fuel pool of the No. 4 reactor, they said. Reactor 4 was idle before the quake and the fuel assemblies in the core had been placed in the spent fuel pool of the unit.
“This indicates that emissions were not only coming from the damaged reactor cores, but also from the spent fuel pool of unit 4,” the report said.
Fukushima also discharged 16.7 million terabecquerels of xenon 133, “ the largest radioactive noble gas release in history not associated with nuclear bomb testing,” the study said.
The government estimated in June 11 million terabecquerels of the radioactive particle was released from the plant.
Xenon 133 has a half life of 5.2 days and is relatively harmless, Tetsuo Ito, the head of Kinki University’s Atomic Energy Research Institute, said by phone.
One car emitted more than 300 times the legal amount of radiation
By Greg Wilson | Wednesday, Oct 26, 2011
A Nissan worker checks radiation levels on a sports car produced in Japan at its Oppama factory in Yokosuka. AFP/Getty Images.
Cars that were contaminated by radiation during the March nuclear meltdown in Japan are finding their way into the reeling nation's used car market.
Vehicles from the area around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which suffered a series of meltdowns after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, were supposed to be destroyed. But unscrupulous dealers have registered them under new license plates and sold them, The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported. Unable to export the cars, they're selling them in Japan.
Dealers have traditionally bought used vehicles in Japan and exported them to Russia and Southeast Asia, according to the Telegraph. In June, Russian police turned back a half-dozen used cars from Japan after finding they were contaminated with radioactove isotopes, according to the Interfax news agency. Authorities in South America, Australia and the U.S. have also stepped up inspection of new and used cars coming in from Japan.
Now, with testing also being conducted at Japanese loading docks, dealers are selling the potentially lethal cars on the domestic market.
Nearly 700 cars have been barred from export for exceeding the legal radiation limit of 0.3 microsieverts per hour. One van that was re-registered and sold within Japan was found to emit 110 microsieverts of radiation an hour.
The dealer who bought the contaminated van, which had initially been registered in the town of Iwaki, within the 18-mile exclusion zone, said he sold the vehicle even after knowing it was poisoned because he wanted the money.
"I decontaminated repeatedly after the test and retested the filter of the air conditioner, the wipers and tires, replacing them thoroughly, but the radiation level dropped only to 30 microsieverts per hour," he said. "I decided to sell the vehicle in Japan because I couldn't afford to lose the money."
The video is only in Japanese so it's hard for us to understand what is said. If you still want to watch the video I noticed that it starts at 1:30 min in. Before that we only get to see the Independet Web Journal logo. Don't ask why they feel the need for have us stare at it for so long.
The things that are also said about the deaths of workers and police not being reported to the public and rest to of the world are also disturbing to hear. Some workers are also forced to work there even when their radiation detection meters show 1-2 Sv/h. Might be that they do it for extra money though, still a lot of deaths are not being reported.
The original video have now been taken down so we only have a part of the video to show you from Youtube.
Anyhow this this is parts of what's said and you can of course also find this same text at Fukushima Diary.
I highlighted parts of the text I feel is extra important for you.
A raged Fukushima citizen confessed everything at the interview with a journalist Iwakami Yasumi.
This guy, Mr.Sakuma is in Kawamata machi, where is east to Fukushima plant by 22km.
Even before 311, he had been having a problem in his eyes.
His doctor said he has a tumor in tear gland. He was having medical treatment but after the explosions, it went so bad that he couldn’t even close his eyes.
Having his 3 years old child have nosebleed, he decided to evacuate to Hachijo jima.
His family totally believes what the TV says so he was criticized hard but since he evacuated to Hachijojima, his eyes became better.
He runs motorcycle shop. He has 30,000,000 JPY load from banks so he had to come back to Fukushima.
He is aware of the health risk to live in Fukushima, but for the financial reasons, he must struggle being exposed.
His eyes get worse soon as he comes back to Fukushima. However, his doctors at Fukushima university asserts it has nothing to do with radiation.
Interview overview
1) 21 years old Fukushima worker died of cardiac infarct. It is not reported and police didn’t even do autopsy. He died when he was at home, and he was working at Fukushima plant since March to July.
2) Though everyone pays attention to reactor 1 to 4, actually reactor 5 and 6 are in crisis. Engineers from Hitachi are coming to the area to get it settled down but it’s concealed. It’s likely that they are going critical so Iodine 131 are measured in Tokyo or Iwate.
3) In the “worst” contaminated area,where is about 1 Sv/h or so, “unlisted” workers are forced to work. They are hunted in the downtown in Osaka, treated as disposable workers.
One of his friends had to go into reactor 3. When the person saw the area, it was full of debris and the counter showed about 1~2 Sv/h but then next morning, the area was perfectly clean. Because it needs sensitive work, it must have been done by humans.
They say, those disposable workers were forced to work in those situations, held captive until they die, and then marked as “missing”.
4) Police that guard within the 20km area border are not informed of the radiation level. (about 100 microSv/h when Mr Sakuma and his friend visited) and a lot of police are dead but it never be reported either.
5) He longs for the truth, so everything can give up living in Fukushima at least. Even if it’s revealed in 50 years from now, it’s too late.
6) Some of the radiation monitoring posts are taken away.
7) Local government requires citizens to report “lower” number of what the counter shows, so their radiation map shows lower than actual.
Boys playing baseball adjacent to shrubbery where a high level of radioactive cesium has been detected, Edogawa, Japan, October 15, 2011.
Residents in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area, the world's most populous with about 33 million people, have taken radiation monitoring into their own hands. They are making some unexpected discoveries following the March tsunami damage to the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant.
Uninformed parents
Just meters from where a hot spot of radioactive cesium was confirmed days before by a private laboratory, a Little League baseball game was underway Sunday.
The players, their parents and the spectators, mostly neighborhood residents, unaware that some of the dirt here has tested equivalent to four times the minimum level of the contaminated zones from the 1986 Chernobyl accident in Ukraine.
While the news about the Edogawa municipal ballpark complex had been reported overseas, including on the front page of Saturday's New York Times, it had yet to be mentioned in Japan's mainstream media.
Between two of the ball fields, the Odaka family was walking in a small park with their four year-old daughter.
Odaka (who wanted to be identified only by his family name) says he and his wife had not heard anything about the radiation here, nearly 250 kilometers from the reactors that leaked radiation in the days after a huge earthquake and tsunami hit Japan's northeastern Pacific coast on March 11.
He says he would like to know more about the source of the information relayed to him by VOA News. He says the government should evaluate this information and properly inform the public.
If the area is radioactive, then the government, he adds, should decontaminate the area.
Concerns
Two mothers watching their elementary school age boys playing in a league baseball game, also expressed surprise when asked by VOA News about the adjacent contaminated soil.
The women agree that they have heard numerous general reports about radiation since the March disaster, but felt they could not be overly concerned or they would not be able to go on with their daily lives.
But this is the first time they have heard about a high level of radiation in their own neighborhood. In the nearby city of Yokohama, higher than normal levels of radioactive strontium have been found at three locations.
The suspect materials were analyzed by a private company in Yokohama that charges entities to analyze soil, sediment and food samples for various types of radiation. The Isotope Research Institute is reported to have analyzed thousands of samples sent by citizens, ranging from swimming pool water to breast milk, in the past seven months.
Hot spots
Another hot spot has been uncovered in a children's theme park in Chiba Prefecture, which is adjacent to Tokyo. The reported level of radiation there is higher than in an evacuated village in Fukushima, 45 kilometers from the crippled plant.
Citizen monitoring last week also detected abnormal levels of airborne radiation on a sidewalk on the path to a primary school in an upscale Tokyo neighborhood (in Setagaya ward). That case, however, appears not related to the Fukushima nuclear plant.
Government officials say the radiation source was found under the floor of a nearby house, old bottles containing radium powder. Radium was previously used as a luminous paint to make watch and clock faces glow in the dark.
The incidents have prompted Japan's government to order the science and environment ministries to boost monitoring of radiation levels.
But local and central government officials say the isolated hot spots outside Fukushima are not a cause for alarm because no one spends such an extended period of time at such spots to absorb doses that would harm their health.
They also are expressing skepticism about some of the highest reported readings from citizens, saying they could be erroneous as uncalibrated small dosimeters can be very inaccurate.
Radiation in sea life off the Fukushima coast and its effects on the food chain also remain a concern. Researchers at the Tokyo University of Marine Sciences and Technology say samples of plankton collected in July exhibited high levels of radioactive cesium. Many fish feed on plankton.
But the scientists say it is too soon to conclude a serious risk to humans. Some species of fish caught off Japan's Pacific Coast since the reactor meltdowns have also been found to be contaminated and Japanese authorities moved to halt those fish from being sold.
All of Japan is full of suspicion since the nuclear reactors in Fukushima exploded and TEPCO, the operating company, consistently downplayed the situation. So, what progress has been made in the dangerous recovery of the melted fuel rods? Fukushima workers have now contacted our colleagues of ZDF studio in Tokyo. The often so-called "heroes" who do the cleaning work gave account on sever working conditions and are clueless about their effective radiation doses there. Even if the nuclear disaster got out of sight for most people: for those who work there, it is still going on, as Johannes Hano and Martin Niessen report.
Martin Nissen: We're on the road toward the restricted area. It is still approximately 30km away from the ruins of the damaged nuclear power plant in Fukushima Dai-ichi. The villages here are almost extinct, we are in the evacuation zone. Schools that haven't had classes since a long time. Children and teachers spread to other schools. Savaged rice fields and abandoned barns everywhere. And then suddenly there is ahead of us the so-called J-Village. It used to be the training and recreation center of the Japanese football league. Since the triple catastrophe of March 11, it serves as a focal point for the rescue of the nuclear power plant. It is located directly at the borders of the 20km exclusion zone. Unauthorized persons are prohibited from entering. The workers return to this place after their tasks at the nuclear power plant. Through a side entrance, we undetectably access the site and shoot covert because journalists are not welcome here. By a roundabout route, we then go further into the 20km exclusion zone. There, we undercover meet three workers who want to give us some information about the partly inhumane working conditions. But for fear of reprisal don't want to be recognized.
TEPCO Worker: In this area, you virtually find any work anymore. So now I work for TEPCO. If it emerges that I pass on information to you, I'll have no work and no income. Then I can't support my family any more.
Martin Nissen: Obviously TEPCO and it's sub-contractors fear nothing more than openness. During our research, we strike a contract that forbids workers to talk to journalists. Literally it says:
"If the signatory takes up this work, be it inside or outside the nuclear power plant in Fukushima 1, he must keep all information in relation (whether written, oral or obtained through observation) strictly confidential."
And further:
"The signatory will never accept an interview or other inquiries from any media, whether these requests relate to work or not."
Martin Nissen: Workers tell us about the situation and working conditions in the atomic ruins. No wonder the responsible want to silence them. Again and again, new hotspots are discovered on the site, ie places with extremely high radiation. Mostly, they would only find out about them via television, they tell us. So as in early August, the absolutely lethal dose of 10 Sievert was measured around a pipe.
TEPCO Worker: We don't know where the no-go zones are, where it is really dangerous. During the work meetings, they tell us a little bit, but there is no reliable explanation where we must not go to, and as well there are no clear barriers.
Martin Nissen: But radioactivity can't be seen or felt, and for those affected often not even measurable.
TEPCO Worker:With my dosimeter, I can only measure in micro Sievert, but if you go to the reactor building 1, it displays ERROR. This means that it can't measure there any longer. Such figures have come out, numbers that were so high they could no longer be measured.
Martin Nissen: Although TEPCO applies robots at the most contaminated places, working at the atomic ruin would be a suicide mission, as radiation experts warn.
Eisuke Matsui, Radiologist: The workers there are subjected to extremely high doses, simply because of the external radiation exposure. If you add the internal one, ie by inhaling, food or drink, the burden is much higher. And recently, 10 Sieverts per hour were observed there, say that at least 10 Sieverts, because the measuring instruments couldn't read above. But the absolute lethal dose for humans is 7-8 Sievert.
Martin Nissen: But even the much lower radiation doses that the workers are continually exposed to at the destroyed nuclear power plant could cause significant health problems even in subsequent generations.
Eisuke Matsui, Radiologist: If the male testicles are exposed to intense radiation, this can cause genetic defects in the descendants. This may be deformities of the limbs, for example fingers growing out of a shoulder. There may be abnormalities of the central nervous system and brain, mental retardation.
Martin Nissen: The workers see themselves in a hopeless situation, torn by fear, fear of radiation, fear of becoming unemployed and the fear of TEPCO. Two of them only want to talk to us in our studio, far away from the nuclear power plant.
TEPCO Worker: I am very afraid. What if in 10 or 20 years, when the highest expenditures for my family have to be paid, I got sick and could no longer support my family? I think about this a lot. I also worry about if my children will be born healthy.
Martin Nissen: But such worries are completely unfounded. At least the health advisers to the Fukushima prefecture claimed this during a briefing that took place shortly after the nuclear disaster. The man is a highly decorated doctor and he really is serious..
Shunichi Yamashita:Those who smile will have no radiation damage, only those who make constant worry. Well this is no animal testing, but I tell you. If you confront the situation as awkward as it is, then the radiation will not affect you. Less than 100 micro Sievert per hour is no danger to the health anyway.
Martin Nissen: 100 micro Sievert per hour, which would be 876 milli Sievert per year. The limit for workers in a German nuclear power plant is 400 milli Sievert, throughout life. But officials in Japan still downplay the risk. They don't bother to pay the workers properly, those workers who expose themselves to radiation every day. Our contacts show us their contracts with a sub-contractor. For the equivalent of 80-100 Euro per day they work at the nuclear ruin. A danger bonus is tied to conditions.
TEPCO Worker: You want a danger bonus?, they ask. If so please sign here. We have no choice, because of course we want a danger bonus that is up to 10 Euro an hour. But if you sign this, you accept that the employer is not sue able if you get sick later.
Martin Nissen: A spokesman for the energy giant washes his hands of responsibility. He had heard, he says, that the workers were informed about the hazards on site, and the contracts were no TEPCO business.
Yoshimi Hitosugi TEPCO Spokesman: We do not know what's written in these contracts, as they're concluded directly between our sub-contractors and their workers. We want to know whether TEPCO as the main employer didn't feel responsible for the workers who clean up their nuclear ruin.
Yoshimi Hitosugi TEPCO Spokesman: I'm sorry, I don't know the contracts, so I don't want to give any comment on them.
Martin Nissen: Workers who for a pittance do the dangerous dirty work at the atomic ruins, an employer who steals away from his responsibility and doctors, who recommend smiling as protection against radiation damages. Contempt for human beings in Japanese.
Since the nuclear accident in Fukushima, about 18,000 workers have already helped to cope with the disaster. Most of them were sent to the nuclear plants by sub-contractors and temporary employment agencies.
This show is 23 min long and Yoichi brings up some very interesting things. Like the loss of Ozone that the Fukushima disaster have done, there is now a big hole in the Ozone layer above the Arctic. And I have been asking myself why the Japanese government have opened up parts of the evacuation zone to residents when it's not safe for them to return. Well Yoichi tells us why. The reason is financial, TEPCO can't afford to pay out compensation to the residents affected by the Fukushima disaster. TEPCO ONLY compensate the Japanese people for loss of income and to even get that compensation you need to bring them all you're business records for the last 5-10 years, otherwise you don't get any money. So TEPCO have already made it very hard for the Japanese people to get any compensation.
So to lighten the compensation burden TEPCO and the government have now opened parts of the exclusion zone to allow people back to their homes. And I'm sure people are happy to be able to go back home. However what this also does is it disqualify residents from any further compensation. This is a very twisted and sick move done by the government and TEPCO.
Here is the October 3, 2011 MP3 with Jeff Rense and Yoichi Shimatsu avaliable for download. It can also be found on rense.com if you look in the Fukushima section.
Jeff Rense: And lets get right back to business here, Yoichi Shimatsu is on the line from Hong Kong he is of course an extraodinary man on this planet. Has been covering nuclear and environmental issues there since before Chernobyl. He is a great contributor to this program and to the well God given right to know what really is going on. Yoichi are you there?
Yoichi Shimatsu: Yeah it's more like the right to stay alive I think. Knowledge will see to that, without that you are domed. And I think a lot of people in Japan domed as in other parts of the world as radiation continues to spread so.. A lot of thing have been happening as of late.
Jeff Rense: Let me tell our listeners real quickly to by all means, if you haven't read them go to the center column and look for the Japan nuclear catastrophe featured story box. There are two exclusives from Yoichi there that are essential reading. One of them has to do with that Arctic Ozone hole, there is an enormous Arctic Ozone hole now opened up, and he has written an explanation as to how the Fukushima disaster has impacted that loss of Ozone. His big story is the secret US / Israeli nuclear weapons transfers which led to the Fukushima blasts the explosions in the plant, Fukushima 1 after the earthquake and tidal wave. Those were not as we have been told at all. So read the stories and understand this comes from a man who knows, he has remarkable services which he obviously can't even remotely elude to, and I think all of you can figure out why. But this is a professional journalist of many decades service to humanity, he doesn't play games and these stories are absolutely essential reading. As far as Japanese dieing, yes Americans are going to die, Europeans are going to die. They are finding rats now in Tokyo with defects in their bodies already the.. defects are missing that, bent this.
Yoichi Shimatsu: Birth defects, yes yeah. Birth defects are there, tumors appearing in Fukushima workers. A lot of people are very worried now. We are normally exposed to a lot of radiation most of it alpha and beta waves not to much gamma but this is sort of contribute to our total environment everywhere. Of course we are getting X-rays if you live in lets say rocky mountain areas where there are a lot of granite you are getting exposed. There is radon under you're house you are getting exposed to, this sort of fits the whole boat. You know this is like the problem you don't need a whole lot. And the problem is that it is sort of nuclear trading in it's most insidious way, I think I mentioned to you that Fukushima is kind of the Pandora's box of strange science, we are learning all kinds of things about fission reaction that we never seen before. But now the expansion of this Ozone hole...
An aerial radiation survey of the capital and Kanagawa Prefecture has revealed the northwest tip of Tokyo was tainted by an unusually high amount of fallout, while most other areas showed normal levels, a science ministry official said Friday.
The results, released late Thursday, show that fallout from the Fukushima No. 1 power plant contaminated part of the mountainous Okutama region on Tokyo's western fringe. Radiation readings in the area were the highest of the two prefectures at 100,000 to 300,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium per square meter.
The hourly radiation readings in the area hovered between 0.2 and 0.5 microsievert, but a few spots had higher levels between 0.5 and 1.0 microsieverts, science official Hirotaka Oku said.
Cesium ejected from the Fukushima plant was carried by winds in a southwestern direction through the northern parts of Tochigi and Gunma prefectures before heading south over eastern Gunma and western Saitama to reach Okutama, Oku said.
The geographic features of Okutama, notably its mountains and forests, made the area susceptible to catching radioactive materials, Oku added.
Contaminated areas were also spotted in eastern Tokyo, including Katsushika and Edogawa wards, which gave off hourly readings of between 0.2 and 0.5 microsievert per hour.
The highest levels of cesium-134 and -137 found in eastern Tokyo were between 60,000 and 100,000 becquerels per square meter in Katsushika, Oku said.
Cesium-134 has a half-life of two years and cesium-137 a half-life of 30 years.
The aerial monitoring didn't find much contamination in Kanagawa, however. Tainted areas were found only in some spots in the northwestern part, including in the town of Yamakita, with some areas containing between 60,000 to 100,000 becquerels per square meter at the most.
The monitoring was conducted by a helicopter equipped with a special device to detect gamma rays emitted from radioactive isotopes on the ground. Based on the detected amounts, the ministry used a calculation method to determine radiation levels about 1 meter above the ground.
Gamma rays decay as they travel through the atmosphere, and the ministry used that principle to perform its calculations to determine radiation levels near the ground, Oku said.
According to the science ministry, radioactive materials spewed from the stricken plant were carried away by the wind and landed on the ground mostly via rain, contaminating areas far beyond the Tohoku region.
On receiving the results of the ministry's survey, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government started preparations to conduct special food monitoring on produce from the town of Okutama, official Shinji Tomonaga told The Japan Times on Friday.
"Okutama is known for its production of wasabi. So we will conduct tests on wasabi from Okutama next week," Tomonaga said.He said Okutama is the biggest producer of wasabi in Tokyo. In 2009, 23 out of the 26 tons of wasabi production in Tokyo was from Okutama, he said.
Tokyo also plans to conduct tests on "yamame," a kind of trout that Okutama is also famous for, "yuzu" (citron) and mushrooms.
The metropolitan government will conduct sampling tests on other produce from Okutama as well, but the details haven't been decided, Tomonaga said.
As for Katsushika and Edogawa, it has no plans to conduct additional sampling for now because no radioactive cesium was found in its latest sampling tests in late September on "komatsuna" (mustard plant), which is grown in the area, Tomonaga said. The aerial monitoring was conducted from Sept. 14 to 18 as part of an effort also involving prefectures that started in June.
When it comes to radiation detection meters you really have a wide field of gadgets to choose from, however radiation detectors are the most common to use.
First of all if you need to know what type of radiation you are looking for. There are Alpha, Beta and Gamma radiation detectors. And also there is neutron emission of nuclear radiation. And all these different types of emissions have radiation detectors for a specific type of radiation that you can buy radiation detector for. Some also measure both Alpha and Beta. Others detect Alpha, Beta and Gamma. While others let you measure Beta and Gamma radiation.
What most people have use for though are Dosimeters you can buy a handheld radiation detector pretty cheap that are good addition to a survival kit. There are different kinds that you can use that will detect radiation. There are radiation badges that will tell you when radiation become high. Workers at nuclear power plants use these to inform them of how much radiation they have been exposed to. Now also children in the Fukushima prefecture have each been given a radiation badge so they know if they are exposed to radiation. Some come in the shape of a pen that you can carry in your pocket while other are made more compact so that you can attach them to your keychain. And then you have what is called a personal radiation monitor. These are also called Dosimeters and also normally called Geiger counters. Although not all use the Geiger-Muller Tube for the radiation detection some use a semiconductor instead. These and mostly the older geiger counters seen are pretty big to carry around, so they might not be best suited for a survival situation where you only need to carry the most important things. However if you have land and want to check radiation around the property and drinking water then these are the geiger counters to get because they are very well built units.
These are the once that you normally see people use. They have different units of radiation detection, because when it comes to radiation there are many standards used. some give the measurements in Rads, while other use Sieverts. Some have the maximum radiation value for the measured radioactivity quite low but they will still give you an idea of the amount of radiation in the area. With the units ranging from between background radiation 0.001 mSv/hr all the way up to 10 Sv/h. Normally a dosimeter will measure radiation in micro siverts per hour. If you were to walk into one of the reactor units at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant you probably would get an error reading from your dosimeter because the radiation levels are so high there.
Note that some places outside the exclusion zone in Fukushima that are too radioactive for people to live in have areas where the radiation levels are above 30 Sv/h. So if you are in a area that have high radiation the radiation detectors would also there go off the scale. However Geiger counters or radiation detectors are still favored as general purpose alpha/beta/gamma portable radiation detectors and radiation detection equipment, due to their low cost and robustness. Most come with an LCD Display that show you the radioactivity in the area. Nowdays you will even get alarm sound and the possibility to connect the device to a computer. Either with a Infrared, Bluetooth or USB connection.
So if you look at the radiation detectors for sale that have this, then these radiation detection meters will allow you to make maps of contaminated areas that show where the radiation is high and low. This also will help you to see which areas are becoming more contaminated over time. With several nuclear reactors in the US and around the world located near fault zones that makes it a danger if a big earthquake would hit the area there is always a good choice to have a radiation dosimeter avaliable. I'm sure many in Fukushima would have been grateful to have dosimeters avaliable at the time of the disaster and I am sure you to would be grateful to have a geiger counter handy when you need one.
radmon.org - Global Radiation Monitoring Live Map
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