Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Ukraine nuclear plant: what happens if it releases a radioactive plume?

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An atmospheric scientist describes how researchers would track a toxic cloud in the case of an accident at the occupied Zaporizhzhia power station

A serviceman with a Russian flag on his uniform stands guard in front of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
A soldier with a Russian flag on his uniform stands in front of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

Officials from the United Nations’ atomic-energy watchdog have this week begun inspections of southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, where shelling and fighting have raised the risk of a nuclear accident. Russian troops have occupied the nuclear plant — Europe’s largest — since March as part of their ongoing war in Ukraine. The international community has issued stark warnings that damaging some of Zaporizhzhia’s six reactors could lead to catastrophic meltdowns like those that occurred in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan.

Following that accident, a network of stations around the world — primarily built to enforce a treaty that will ban nuclear-warhead tests across the world — helped to monitor and predict the motion of the radioactive plume emitted by the damaged reactors. The network is being built and maintained by the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).

If an accident were to occur at the Zaporizhzhia plant, Jolanta Kusmierczyk-Michulec could be among the first people to know. Kusmierczyk-Michulec is an atmospheric scientist at the CTBTO’s International Data Centre in Vienna, which is equipped to conduct computer simulations of the motion of a radioactive plume, forwards and backwards in time.

Nature spoke with Kusmierczyk-Michulec about how her work could help the world to cope with a possible accident at Zaporizhzhia.

What does the CTBTO’s nuclear-monitoring network do?

The International Monitoring System is a network of stations that are built and maintained by the CTBTO to ensure that no nuclear explosion goes undetected. For that purpose, we use monitoring stations, which are based on three waveform technologies — seismic, hydroacoustic and infrasound — and we also use radionuclide [detection] technology. This technology is the only one that can confirm whether an explosion detected and located by other technology is indicative of a nuclear test.

And how is your work involved?

In case a radionuclide station detects elevated values of radionuclides, we do backwards simulation [of how the air moves] to have information about the potential source of this detection. In special cases, we also do forward simulations.

We use an open-source atmospheric-transport model, and data from the meteorological centre ECMWF, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and from NCEP, the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction. Researchers also use this type of model for various other purposes, for example monitoring of volcanic emissions.

How did the CTBTO help to track the plume from the Fukushima Daiichi accident?

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant released radioactivity into the atmosphere, which the International Monitoring System observed in the Northern Hemisphere for about three months. Radioactive noble gases, such as xenon, and radioactive particulates were detected.

During the Fukushima event, we did atmospheric-transport modelling to show where the air masses were going. I joined CTBTO in 2012, just after the accident, but still I did a lot of simulations related to it. It was one of the cases that we could use for scientific purposes and for research.

How would we find out if there is a detection of radioactivity released from the Zaporizhzhia plant? Does your network have stations nearby?

The fact that a station is close to the source doesn’t mean that this station will observe something, because air-mass trajectories are quite complex.

The CTBTO cooperates with the International Atomic Energy Agency in the framework of IACRNE, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiological and Nuclear Emergencies [which was established after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine and coordinates international preparedness and response to a radiological disaster].

For the CTBTO, the critical response task in the case of nuclear or radiological emergencies is to provide real-time data. It’s very likely that the international community would find out about the accident via the IACRNE.

Are there prevailing weather patterns around southern Ukraine that would determine how the plume would probably move?

The answer is not so straightforward. Air masses can travel a long way, for a long time. After a few days, they may reach quite a far distance, depending on the weather conditions, wind directions and wind speeds. Prevailing weather patterns are not a sufficient indicator, especially in that region with quite variable wind direction.

To provide a reliable answer, we would need to do a forwards simulation using atmospheric transport modelling and actual weather data. It’s likely that if I would repeat the simulation two days later, the air masses would move in a different way.

Have you performed any practice simulations of how a plume coming from the Zaporizhzhia plant would move?

The IDC [International Data Centre] isn’t practicing specifically for any such event, but I did some simulations as an exercise before we spoke, so I know that the wind direction is very variable. As of 29 August, a hypothetical plume would have moved towards the south-east, and after a few days would turn eastward. But this result was based on the forecast data, meaning that in an actual event the simulation should be repeated with the analysed data for higher confidence, once these are available.

Fukushima cleanup efforts put northern hemisphere on alert.

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At an estimated cost of $150 billion, the Fukushima nuclear power plant ‘cleanup’ efforts have suspicious ties to organized crime and many on-site workers lack the required expertise to handle such nuclear disasters safely or effectively. With over 7 layers of poorly-supervised sub-contractors, like Tepco, Kajima and Obayashi Corp. – workers are routinely being exposed, in less than 1 hour, to deadly levels of radiation. But, there’s more to this story and the truth needs to be told.

An unprecedented threat to humanity is about to unfold – in the next 18 months. Contractors, already proven to be incompetent, plan to move a huge stock-pile of damaged (highly-radioactive) fuel rods to ‘safer’ ground. Once you understand the magnitude of this project – you quickly realize what’s at stake.

On the next NaturalNews Talk Hour – we expose the unspoken truth about Fukushima and what you can do to protect yourself from radiation exposure. This important health show includes a comprehensive 4-step program to protect you from radiation damage. Don’t ignore the risks – learn more now.

Chernobyl is warning humanity about the dangers of nuclear power

Medical epidemiologists have already documented that Chernobyl’s total radioactive release – over 20 years (1986-2006) – killed about one million people and injured eight million more. We now know, from confirmed data, that the Fukushima accident has already released 6 times the radiation of the entire Chernobyl event – to date. This highly-toxic radiation has gone into the east-Asian aquifer (Japanese water table and the northern Pacific Ocean), as well as the atmosphere of the northern hemisphere.

27 years later, the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown continues to contaminate the food supply of unsuspecting consumers and has laid waste to huge areas throughout Eastern Europe. Most of the devastating effects have not even been reported – until now – and, no doubt Europeans will suffer the health consequences for hundreds of years. In terms of the Fukushima disaster, it’s almost unimaginable what the fallout will be to all life on this planet.

Get the facts about Fukushima and how to protect yourself from radiation poisoning. Visit: http://www.naturalhealth365.com and enter your email address for show details + FREE gifts!

It’s time to wake up – the Japanese people (and the world) are in for a big surprise

Humanity seems to have an insatiable need to feel ‘normal’ – especially after horrible events like 9/11 and Fukushima. But, as noble as it may appear to put terrible episodes behind us, we can’t neglect even bigger threats ahead of us. For generations to come, highly-toxic radioactive particles like, Cs-137 and Strontium-90 will cause a staggering number of cancers, injury and death to millions of people – worldwide. Those ‘in the know’ must do everything in their power to protect themselves and share this news with family and friends.

On an individual level, I encourage you to consume adequate amounts of selenium, clean sources of seaweed, non-GMO vitamin C, melatonin, bee pollen, chlorella, mushroom extracts plus, naturally, lots of fresh, raw and organic vegetable juices. If you live in the northern hemisphere – these preventative measures are a must and, if you suffer from health problems, seek immediate help from a qualified healthcare professional with experience in ‘regenerative medicine’.

The next NaturalNews Talk Hour features one of the most intelligent and compassionate healthcare providers in the United States. This is our strongest health alert of the year – join us for a life-saving event.

This week’s guest: John Apsely, MD(E), DC, ND – an expert in regenerative medicine

Find out how to protect yourself from radiation exposure – Sun. Nov. 10

Dr. John Apsley holds degrees in medicine – MD(E), chiropractic – DC, and nutrition – BS. His board certifications include: Acupuncture and Meridian Therapy, Spinal Disability Evaluator (CSDE), and Insurance Claims Reviewer (IRC). He is also a qualified instructor of Electrodermal Scanning as well as Darkfield Microscopy.

Dr. Apsley has written or co-authored five books, including a best seller entitled – The Regeneration Effect and, his latest work, Fukushima Meltdown and Radiation: Protecting Ourselves and Future Generations. Additionally, he has published and lectured extensively on the clinical applications of human regenerative techniques in medicine (Applied Colloidal Therapeutics? – ACT?).

This is an urgent wake-up call for humanity! In the next 18 months, Fukushima workers plan to move huge stock-piles of highly radioactive fuel rods to ‘safer ground’. This never-before-attempted work holds the fate of humanity in their hands. On the next NaturalNews Talk Hour, learn the truth about Fukushima – like you’ve never heard plus ways to protect yourself from radiation poisoning.

Source: naturalnews.com

Simple Steps to Help Protect Against Radiation Exposure.

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Our lives are so very busy that sometimes it seems that worrying about one more environmental health threat is too much to bear.  But there are some simple steps to take on a daily basis that can help to protect our internal environment from man-made radiation.

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When considering radiation exposure it’s crucial to understand the Principle of Selective Uptake, as explained in nutritionist Sara Shannon’s book Radiation Protective Foods.  Simply put, when we load and maintain adequate stores of vitamins and minerals in our systems, the unhealthy minerals (think heavy metals and radionuclides) are less likely to be absorbed. Stable elements in our diet are similar to unstable and radioactive elements, the body doesn’t know the difference at first. If we have a sufficient amount of the stable type stored in our system, we won’t absorb their radioactive counterparts as readily. Just as we’ve heard that taking potassium iodide helps to protect the thyroid against radiation, the same principle applies to calcium, magnesium and other healthy minerals that are required so that Strontium 90 and Cesium 137 to name a few, won’t be readily attracted to the bones, heart, and other organs.  There is always a point to consider where the total body burden could potentially be too high to maintain a healthy state, but steps can be taken on a daily basis to help manage toxins while we also address the problem at it’s core.

Taking a high quality, digestible multivitamin and mineral supplement formulation takes some of the guesswork out of the equation while helping to keep the body from a depleted state.   While vitamins have been generally given more attention,  healthy minerals must not be overlooked and are just as critical for human health.  (Due to reports of radiation contamination from Fukushima Daiichi, please examine labels carefully to ensure that the iodine is not sourced from kelp, and that omega 3′s are plant based and not from fish, especially tuna.)

Ms. Shannon deserves a huge amount of credit for both her first book, Diet for the Atomic Age and her updated book cited above, Radiation Protective Foods.  She also understands that it’s not enough try to protect ourselves from the effects of man-made radiation. Indeed the problem must be addressed at it’s very source ~ the nuclear power industry. Radiation is not only coming from Fukushima, far from it.  Every operating nuclear reactor in the world emits radiation via planned “batch releases” as an inherent part of reactor functionality.

In addition to a multivitamin and mineral supplement, there are some other tools to keep on hand for an immune system regimen including Vitamin C, apple pectin fiber, fresh garlic, chlorella, spirulina and zeolite tincture.  Be sure to research the source by calling the company or searching online.

And last (for now) but not least, always be sure to maintain a positive outlook.  Repetitive stress endangers us by our lowering our immunity. When dealing with stress responses, the body’s natural healing functions are essentially disabled.  Daily meditation, even for five minutes, has been proven to help reduce stress and improve health.  Prayer or giving thanks to an entity larger then ourselves has also been shown to be beneficial to our health. And giving thanks before eating meals helps redirect us away from a stress response to a more healthy way of being.

Simple, small steps to take to give us, our families and communities a fighting chance in a stressful world.

For Tepco and Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, toxic water stymies cleanup.

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Two and a half years after a series of meltdowns, Japan’s effort to clean up what remains of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is turning into another kind of disaster.

The site now stores 90 million gallons of radioactive water, more than enough to fill Yankee Stadium to the brim. An additional 400 tons of toxic water is flowing daily into the Pacific Ocean, and almost every week, the plant operator acknowledges a new leak.

An aerial view shows Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO)'s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and its contaminated water storage tanks. The operator of the nuclear plant said that four tonnes of rainwater that may be contaminated leaked during a transfer of radioactive water between tank holding areas.

That operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., known as Tepco, was put in charge of the cleanup process more than two years ago and subsequently given a government bailout as its debts soared. The job of dismantling the facility was supposed to give Tepco an opportunity to rebuild credibility.

But many lawmakers and nuclear industry specialists say that Tepco is perpetuating the kinds of mistakes that led to the March 2011 meltdowns: underestimating the plant’s vulnerabilities, ignoring warnings from outsiders and neglecting to draw up plans for things that might go wrong. Those failures, they say, have led to the massive buildup and leaking of toxic water.

“Tepco didn’t play enough of these what-if games,” said Dale Klein, a former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, who recently joined a Tepco advisory panel. “They didn’t have enough of that questioning attitude” about their plans.

The leaks into the ocean are far less toxic than the radioactive plumes that emanated from the plant after the earthquake and tsunami, forcing 160,000 people to move out of the vicinity. Thanks to that quick evacuation, experts say, there are no expectations of a Chernobyl-style spike in cancer cases — although the government is conducting thyroid checks of thousands of children. But the flow of contaminated water amounts to a slow-burning environmental disaster with implications for Japan’s wildlife and its food chain.

Tanks of radiation-contaminated water are seen at TEPCO’s nuclear power plant in Fukushima.

The problems have prompted the central government to step in with about $500 million to fund new countermeasures, including a subterranean “ice wall” designed to keep groundwater from flowing into irradiated buildings.

The latest government-led actions are particularly galling for some, who say Tepco should have taken similar measures earlier. One lawmaker, Sumio Mabuchi, who was also an adviser to then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan, says Tepco, deep in debt, neglected to take important steps against the groundwater two years ago because of concerns about its bottom line. Tepco’s president, Naomi Hirose, testified in parliament last month that the company hasn’t “scrimped” on the cleanup, though he did say that Tepco is “majorly at fault” for its failure to manage the groundwater buildup.

The 40-year decommissioning is expected to cost 10 trillion yen, or about $100 billion — roughly two years’ worth of Tepco’s revenue — and the company says it is trying to save up and cut other costs. But for many Japanese, the company’s assurances inspire little confidence. Two members of Japan’s national legislature, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share what they describe as sensitive details, say Tepco continues to spend irresponsibly on lobbying politicians, offering them free trips to nuclear sites that include meals and lodging in hot springs resorts. A Tepco spokesman said the company does not offer such trips.

Government ‘must step in’ to halt Fukushima leaks.

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Ministers called on to intervene as regulators upgrade severity level of the leakage.

Pressure is mounting on the Japanese government to intervene in the clean-up of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after experts voiced fears that the power company responsible for the facility is unable to cope.

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The leakage earlier this month of hundreds of tonnes of radioactive water — the most serious incident at the beleaguered plant since it was devastated by a tsunami in March 2011 — highlights the failure by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to properly manage the operation. If the government fails to act, prime minister Shinzo Abe’s pro-nuclear stance may be jeopardized, analysts told Nature.

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“It’s clear that TEPCO is unable to solve the problems on its own,” says Tsutomu Toichi, managing director and chief economist at the Institute of Energy Economics in Tokyo. “The government has to step in to ensure these problems are solved quickly. It is going to have to provide funds, as well as a plan for moving forward, and explain this to the public in a way that is easy to understand.”

Wiktor Frid, a nuclear expert with the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority in Stockholm, adds, “That water leaked from a tank unnoticed for several days is alarming and extremely embarrassing for TEPCO”.

The leak has also led to renewed concerns over ocean contamination and food safety, with local fishing cooperatives suspending trial catches and one oceanographer saying that further leaks would have “severe” consequences for marine life.

Incident upgrade

The leak of some 300 tonnes of partially treated water that had been used to cool melted nuclear rods from the destroyed reactors was reported by TEPCO on 19 August. The radioactivity of the water stands at about 80 megabecquerels per litre, about 1% of what it was before treatment by an on-site purification system. Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority initially labelled the incident a level 1 event (known as an ‘anomaly’) on the International Nuclear Event Scale, but yesterday upgraded it to level 3(‘serious incident’), citing the large amount of contaminated water leaked and the fact that a safety buffer was not available for the water tank in question.

At present, TEPCO is storing more than 300,000 tonnes of radioactive water on the site of the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi plant. Radioactive caesium isotopes are being removed from the water by an advanced liquid-processing system built after the accident, but a facility for removing strontium isotopes is not yet ready. Tritium, another harmful radionuclide, cannot be safely removed by any known purification system because it is incorporated within water molecules.

The leaked water is thought to have seeped into the ground and will eventually reach the sea adjacent to the plant. The storage site near Fukushima’s reactor 4, where the leak was discovered, lies some 50 metres above sea level and is just a few hundred metres from the coast.

Measures proposed so far to prevent the polluted water from flowing into the sea — such as freezing or excavating the soil surrounding the storage site — seem to be either very expensive or technically unfeasible, says Joachim Knebel, a nuclear expert and chief science officer at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.

“We can’t really assess the situation from far away,” he says. “But it appears to me that none of the proposed measures would work. TEPCO would be well advised to seek international expertise in coping with the problems.”

Several countries, including Russia, have offered to assist with the company’s clean-up efforts, and TEPCO said last week that it will consider accepting outside help. On Monday, it also announced a series of measures, including the installation of a new central control system, to mitigate the risk of future leaks.

“Some tanks have automatic monitoring equipment and some don’t,” says Yo Koshimizu, a TEPCO spokesman. “We are currently determining whether to add such equipment to all of the tanks.”

Storage situation

Some 400 tonnes of cooling water are being collected in tanks each day. The growing fleet of storage tanks — which currently stands at about 1,000 — is a source of alarm for experts, who fear that huge amounts of contaminated water will eventually have to be dumped into the ocean. Worse still, some 300 tonnes of groundwater highly contaminated with caesium-137, which has a 30-year half-life, are thought to be flowing from beneath the destroyed reactors into the sea every day.

The potential for harm is huge, says Jota Kanda, an oceanographer at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology who monitors radionuclide distribution in sediments and biota off Fukushima1.

“The effects of one relatively small leak may be insignificant,” he says. “But there are huge amounts of radionuclides in these tanks and the water may have to be stored for a long time to come. If more leaks were to occur the consequences might be severe.”

The Fukushima nuclear accident resulted in the largest ever accidental release of radioactivity to the oceans. Some 80% of all the radionuclides released from Fukushima ended up in the Pacific2. In some local fish, high residual levels of radioactivity were measured two years after the accident. Commercial fishing in the area is still banned.

But it is unclear how much residual radioactive contamination is still entering the sea from leaks around the Fukushima plant, says Scott Fowler, a marine ecologist at Stony Brook University in New York who has been involved in previous assessments of contamination levels in the ocean near Fukushima.

To track changes in coastal waters and predict when seafood species in the region may be safe to consume, it will be necessary to establish a ‘temporal data set’ — that is, to measure the levels and distributions of contaminant radionuclides at a given location over time, he says.

“Even if one assumes that leaks from the plant into the sea will eventually be stopped, residual contamination would continue to be present in the adjacent marine ecosystem for many years,” he says. “So the contamination of long-lived radionuclides in different organisms in the local marine food webs needs to be monitored continually.”

Source: Nature

Radioactive Bluefin Tuna Caught Off California Coast.

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Every bluefin tuna tested in the waters off California has shown to be contaminated with radiation that originated in Fukushima. Every single one.

Over a year ago, in May of 2012, the Wall Street Journal reported on a Stanford University study. Daniel Madigan, a marine ecologist who led the study, was quoted as saying, “The tuna packaged it up (the radiation) and brought it across the world’s largest ocean. We were definitely surprised to see it at all and even more surprised to see it in every one we measured.”

Another member of the study group, Marine biologist Nicholas Fisher at Stony Brook University in New York State reported, “We found that absolutely every one of them had comparable concentrations of cesium 134 and cesium 137.”

bluefin-tuna

That was over a year ago. The fish that were tested had relatively little exposure to the radioactive waste being dumped into the ocean following the nuclear melt-through that occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March of 2011. Since that time, the flow of radioactive contaminants dumping into the ocean has continued unabated. Fish arriving at this juncture have been swimming in contaminants for all of their lives.

Radioactive cesium doesn’t sink to the sea floor, so fish swim through it and ingest it through their gills or by eating organisms that have already ingested it. It is a compound that does occur naturally in nature, however, the levels of cesium found in the tuna in 2012 had levels 3 percent higher than is usual. Measurements for this year haven’t been made available, or at least none that I have been able to find. I went looking for the effects of ingesting cesium. This is what I found:

When contact with radioactive cesium occurs, which is highly unlikely, a person can experience cell damage due to radiation of the cesium particles. Due to this, effects such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding may occur. When the exposure lasts a long time, people may even lose consciousness. Coma or even death may then follow. How serious the effects are depends upon the resistance of individual persons and the duration of exposure and the concentration a person is exposed to.

The half life of cesium 134 is 2.0652 years. For cesium 137, the half life is 30.17 years.

The Fukushima disaster is an ongoing battle with no signs that humans are gaining the upper hand. The only good news to come out of Japan has later been proven to be false and was nothing more than attempts by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to mislead the public and lull them into a sense of security while the company searched vainly for ways to contain the accident. This incident makes Three Mile Island and Chernobyl pale in comparison. Those were nuclear meltdowns. A nuclear melt-through poses a much more serious problem and is one that modern technology doesn’t have the tools to address. Two and a half years later and the contaminants are still flowing into the ocean and will continue to for the foreseeable future.

The FDA assures us that our food supply is safe, that the levels of radiation found in fish samples are within safe limits for consumption. But one has to question if this is true and, if it is true now, will it remain true? Is this, like the statements issued from TEPCO, another attempt to quell a public backlash in the face of an unprecedented event that, as yet, has no solution and no end in sight?