Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Update – March 30
Posted by feww on March 30, 2011
Radiation Rises in Seawater near Fukushima NPP
Radioactive iodine was detected at 3,355 times the legal limit in seawater some 330 meters south of Japan doomed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, said Japan’s nuclear safety agency.
Iodine 131 is believed to have caused the high incidence of thyroid cancer among children living near the Chernobyl plant when the 1986 nuclear disaster occurred.
Highly radioactive water has inundated at least 3 reactor buildings and is also found elsewhere at the stricken nuclear plant.
Half-life of some radioactive elements
[NOTE: Half-life is the time taken for a radioactive substance to decay by half.]
- Cesium-134 ~ 2 years
- Cesium-137 ~ 30 years
- Iodine-131 ~ 8 days
- Plutonium-239 ~ 24,200 years
- Ruthenium-103 ~ 39 days [Ruthenium is a fission product of uranium-235.]
- Ruthenium-106 ~ 374 days
- Strontium-90 ~ 28.85 years [Strontium-90 is a product of nuclear fission and is found in large amounts in spent nuclear fuel and in radioactive waste from nuclear reactors.]
- Uranium-234 ~ 246,000 years
- Uranium-235 ~ 703.8 million years
- Uranium-238 ~ 4.468 billion years
Source: Various
TEPCO UPDATE
The most ridiculous news out of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO): Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata has told reporters that he thinks Fukushima Reactors 1 to 4 MAY HAVE TO BE SHUT DOWN PERMANENTLY!
[REALLY?]
Also, is he implying that Reactor 5 and 6, or any part of the Fukushima Dai-ichi for that matter, are still safe?
Death Toll
The number of people dead or missing from the megaquake and tsunami on March 11 stands at about 28,000 people.
Aftershock
Meanwhile another strong aftershock measuring 6.0Mw struck off the east coast of Honshu about 246 km (152 miles) ENE of Tokyo, USGS/EHP reported.
Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) had not reported this quake, as of posting.
Related Links
- M6.4 Shock Strikes Off Fukushima Coast
- TOKYO AREA QUAKE WARNING
Large Earthquake Could Strike Tokyo Area – Megaqauke measuring up to 9.2Mw could strike Tokyo / Chiba Area: FIRE-EARTH Forecast
- FIRE-EARTH Forecasts: Japan Earthquakes
As Many as 4 Large Earthquakes [Megaquakes measuring ≥8.0] Could Strike Japan Region by 2015
Fire Earth 
Scott said
I was attempting to find quality resources showing animation of the ocean currents, specifically the Pacific currents. I found one that allows some simple extrapolation of possibly carrying radiation around the Pacific.
Here is one of the Modeling Dynamic Surface Ocean Currents http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMLy4jV7Xgo
“Strange Days on Planet Earth 2” – Dirty Secrets is a primer and eye opener for those unfamiliar with ocean pollution. Having visited most of the Aleutian Island chain years ago I have seen pristine ocean. This is a dramatic opposite showing the trash “field” in the Pacific.
feww said
The GFDL video is a good one. The air, oceans, volcanoes … are parts of a LIVING and life-giving system.
Any amount of radiation from human activity (e.g., nuke bombs and atomic reactors) is a bad thing.
Radiation from Fukushima AT THE MOMENT has very little or NO effect outside of a 200 to 300-km zone around the Japanese plant. The amounts that have been detected in the U.S. are minute and cannot cause any harm. Of course, that situation could potentially change depending on how the stricken NPP is handled from now on.
Indeed, there are probably dozens/hundrdes of locations in this country, some of them probably near your town, where nuclear waste from medical and other uses are dumped illegally, that have much higher radiation readings than the background levels.
Nuclear energy is EVIL! It’s highly hazardous, unnecessary and extremely expensive.
Though all of this is academic now as large scale dynamics of collapse move in to shake the life-styles out of us.