Posts tagged radiation

Tokyo, Jan. 23 (Jiji Press)—Tokyo Electric Power Co. <9501> on Monday reported an increase in radioactive materials leaking from damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

The total amount of radioactive cesium that leaked from the containment vessels of the No. 1 to No. 3 reactors reached 70 million becquerels per hour, up 12 million becquerels from the December level, the power firm said.
It seems that radioactive dusts were stirred up because plant workers went inside reactor buildings and removed rubble, TEPCO officials said.
The outcome was reported to the second meeting on medium- to long-term measures toward decommissioning of the damaged reactors held between the firm and the government on Monday.

Last month, the leaked amount was put at 10 million becquerels each for the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors and 40 million becquerels for the No. 3 reactor.

(Source: jen.jiji.com)

A ringed seal displays significant hair loss on the Artic Ocean coast near Barrow, Alaska. An unknown disease is killing or weakening ringed seals along Alaska’s north coast. Ringed seals, the main prey of polar bears, and a species that rarely comes ashore, in late July began showing up on the Beaufort Sea coast outside Barrow with lesions on hind flippers and inside their mouths, along with patchy hair loss and skin irritation around the nose and eyes.

SEATTLE — Scientists in Alaska are investigating whether local seals are being sickened by radiation from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

Scores of ring seals have washed up on Alaska’s Arctic coastline since July, suffering or killed by a mysterious disease marked by bleeding lesions on the hind flippers, irritated skin around the nose and eyes and patchy hair loss on the animals’ fur coats.

Biologists at first thought the seals were suffering from a virus, but they have so far been unable to identify one, and tests are now underway to find out if radiation is a factor.

“We recently received samples of seal tissue from diseased animals captured near St. Lawrence Island with a request to examine the material for radioactivity,” said John Kelley, Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Marine Science at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“There is concern expressed by some members of the local communities that there may be some relationship to the Fukushima nuclear reactor’s damage,” he said.

The results of the tests would not be available for “several weeks,” Kelley said.

Water tests have not picked up any evidence of elevated radiation in U.S. Pacific waters since the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which caused multiple fuel meltdowns at the Fukushima plant and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate the surrounding area.

Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have been seeking the cause of the diseased seals for weeks, but have so far found no answers.

(Source: MSNBC)

A food and dairy firm in Japan has found radioactive caesium in its infant milk powder, the latest food scare to grip the country after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Shares of Meiji Holdings plunged nearly 10 per cent to their lowest close since May 2009 following the news.

Meiji said it was recalling 400,000 cans of the infant formula, which is sold only in Japan.

Worries over the safety of food supplies have shaken the public after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima plant in the worst nuclear accident in 25 years, spreading radiation over a large swathe of northern and eastern Japan.

Cases of excessive radiation in vegetables, tea, milk, seafood and water have stoked anxiety despite assurance from public officials that the levels detected are not dangerous.

Meiji said it was unsure how the caesium got into the powdered milk, but it suspects radioactive substances emitted from the Fukushima accident may have been the source.

A company spokesman said hot air used in the drying process may have contained caesium.

Tests by Meiji showed up to 30.8 becquerels of caesium was found per kilogram in the powdered milk.

That is below the government-set permissible limit, but the firm will nevertheless conduct a voluntary recall of the product, called Meiji Step.

TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima plant, this week said about 45 tonnes of contaminated water had leaked from a system that cleans radiated water, of which the utility said 300 litres escaped outside.

Reuters

(Source: abc.net.au)

The operator of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant says at least 45 tonnes of highly radioactive water has leaked from the facility, possibly into the Pacific Ocean.

A statement by the operator TEPCO said workers noticed a leak in a purification device, with radioactive water escaping through a crack in a catchment wall.

The leaking water contained about 1 million times as much strontium as the maximum safe level.

Strontium is easily absorbed by living tissue and can cause cancer.

TEPCO says some of the 45 tonnes or more of contaminated water may have reached the Pacific Ocean.

Last week, TEPCO reported that molten fuel rods at the plant may have eaten two-thirds of the way through a concrete containment base.

The statement was based on a new simulation of the March meltdowns.

It said the latest calculations suggest the nuclear fuel inside the No. 1 reactor has melted entirely.

Simulations predict the molten fuel has eaten through 65 centimetres of concrete in a containment base below, stopping just 37 centimetres short of an outer steel casing.

It is also believed the molten core has eaten part of the way through the concrete bases of the No. 2 and 3 reactors.

The findings indicate the facility came much closer to a cataclysmic meltdown than previously thought.

(Source: abc.net.au)

The Australian Labor Party has overturned its ban on the sale of uranium to India in a fiery and emotional debate which Prime Minister Julia Gillard said was a sign of a “vibrant political party”.

The third and final day of the ALP’s national conference in Sydney was met with protesters angry over the carbon tax, offshore processing of asylum seekers and the party’s move to sell uranium to India, which has nuclear weapons.

Former prime minister and now foreign minister Kevin Rudd also made his first and only foray into the conference, praising Ms Gillard twice in a broad-ranging speech which also criticised the world view of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

Ms Gillard said after the conference backed her resolution on uranium sales by a vote of 206 to 185 - to the jeers of anti-nuclear protesters and some delegates - that the ALP was alive and well.

“There’s always emotion and passion at Labor Party conferences, I think that’s a good thing,” she said.

“It’s a sign of a vibrant political party.”

Ms Gillard said it was illogical that Australia sold uranium to China and not to India, and any exports would be covered by a safeguards agreement and global checks that were better than those of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The industry says a safeguards agreement was likely to take several years but could yield export earnings of $300 million a year within two decades.

Resources Minister Martin Ferguson told the conference Australia couldn’t lecture the world about the importance of climate change action while denying them sources of clean energy.

But fellow frontbencher Peter Garrett spoke out against the motion, saying it weakened the party’s commitment to nuclear disarmament.

“What we are now saying is that we will make a one-off exception to a policy that has been held by Australian governments of both political persuasions for nearly four decades,” Mr Garrett said.

Speaking after the debate, Mr Garrett said he was disappointed but would be arguing strongly in caucus for “stringent safeguards”.

Left faction co-convenor Doug Cameron told the conference he didn’t want Labor’s light on the hill to become “a green pulsating nuclear light”.

“Prime minister, you are wrong,” Senator Cameron said.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy was almost moved to tears as he spoke about his family’s experiences living in England near the Windscale nuclear plant at which there was a major incident in 1957.

“I’ve never voted for it, and I’m not going to vote for it today,” Senator Conroy said.

Greens senator Sarah-Hanson Young said outside the conference it was disappointing that Ms Gillard was lining up with former Liberal prime minister John Howard on uranium.

“This is Julia Gillard living John Howard all over again,” Senator Hanson-Young said.

In a final-day pep talk to ALP members, Mr Rudd - who went unmentioned in Ms Gillard’s opening address - praised the prime minister twice and criticised Mr Abbott for having a narrow world view.

“I think it’s a combination of Rudyard Kipling, Biggles and the Boy’s Own Annual - that’s Tony’s vision of the future,” Mr Rudd said.

“Mr Abbott has neither the experience nor the temperament to ever be the prime minister of this great country Australia.”

Mr Abbott told reporters in Brisbane the conference had been a “lot of internal navel-gazing”.

“They’re desperately trying to prop up Julia Gillard, at the same time to airbrush Kevin Rudd out of the Labor Party’s history,” he said.

Addressing a protest rally outside the conference, ACTU president Ged Kearney said unions and refugee advocates would continue to argue against the party’s support for offshore processing.

“The fight is in the hearts and minds of the people of Australia,” Ms Kearney said.

ALP president Jenny McAllister said at the end of the conference that delegates had delivered the “passionate policy debates” the prime minister had sought.

(Source: Yahoo!)

Japan’s science ministry says 8 per cent of the country’s surface area has been contaminated by radiation from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

It says more than 30,000 square kilometres of the country has been blanketed by radioactive caesium.

The ministry says most of the contamination was caused by four large plumes of radiation spewed out by the Fukushima nuclear plant in the first two weeks after meltdowns.

The government says some of the radioactive material fell with rain and snow, leaving the affected areas with accumulations of more than 10,000 becquerels of caesium per square metre.

Last week tests found unsafe levels of radioactive contamination in recently harvested rice from the Fukushima region.

The levels of radioactive caesium were measured at 630 becquerels per kilogram, above the maximum allowable level of 500 becquerels.

Officials from Fukushima prefecture have now asked all rice farmers in the district to suspend shipments.

There have been a series of scares over radiation in food in Japan in recent months; in products such as beef, mushrooms and green tea, but never before in the country’s staple, rice.

Authorities have also begun testing soil in some Tokyo playgrounds and schools for traces of radioactive contamination.

Many people in Japan have purchased their own Geiger counters to monitor radiation levels around them.

The Fukushima plant went into meltdown after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the country in March.

(Source: abc.net.au)

France´s nuclear watchdog on Tuesday said it had detected traces of radioactive iodine in the air last week ….

Concentrations of iodine 131 measuring a few microbecquerels per cubic metre were detected last week at four monitoring stations in northern and eastern France, the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) said.

“Although the presence of iodine 131 over national territory is quite exceptional… the level of concentrations that have been observed are of no risk for public health,” it said in a press release.

“The source and date of the radioactive emissions which caused this pollution are currently unknown,” the IRSN said.

Iodine is a very short-lived isotope that decays to half of its radioactivity in only eight days.

(Source: washingtonsblog.com)

Very low levels of radiation, which are higher than normal but don’t seem to pose a health hazard, are being registered in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday.

The agency said the cause was not known but was not the result of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which spread radiation across the globe in March.

The “very low levels of iodine-131 have been measured in the atmosphere,” the agency said in a statement. It said such radioisotope will lose much of its radiation in about eight days.

However, an official familiar with the matter, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said the release appeared to be continuing.

The agency said that it was investigating.

In Prague, an official at the Czech State Office for Nuclear Safety said he was “100 percent sure” that the radiation had not come from any Czech nuclear power plant - or from any other source on Czech territory.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media, the official said tests are under way around the country to try and identify the source.

The Czechs are betting heavily on nuclear power and have plans to dramatically increase production - a move that would give the country a place among Europe’s most nuclear-dependent nations. They currently rely on six nuclear reactors for 33 percent of their total electricity. The government hopes to at least double that output.

That’s in stark contrast to its neighbors: German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government decided to phase out nuclear energy by 2022 following the meltdown at the Fukushima plants, and Switzerland has followed suit. Austria abandoned nuclear energy after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and strictly opposes the Czech nuclear program.

No Iodine for you, says Japanese Govt to Fukashima residents.

Japanese media is reporting the government repeatedly ignored advice from the country’s Nuclear Safety Commission to issue iodine tablets to residents affected by the Fukushima meltdowns.

Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper is reporting the commission twice urged the government to issue iodine tablets the day after the hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima plant.

It says at least 900 people should have been issued the medication under the commission’s exposure guidelines.

But both times the advice was ignored by the government in Tokyo.

A panel investigating the Fukushima nuclear disaster is now expected to look into the matter.

(Source: abc.net.au)

A draft report by Japan’s nuclear agency says it will take more than 30 years to decommission the shattered Fukushima nuclear plant.

Authorities hope to have the stricken reactors in a state of cold shutdown by the end of the year.

The draft report from the cabinet’s nuclear agency estimates that reactors number one through to four at the Fukushima plant will not be fully decommissioned until 2042.

As well as achieving cold shutdown of the reactors, each reactor building has to be decontaminated, and then fuel from the spent fuel pools has to be collected.

The final stage involves collecting nuclear fuel from inside the four reactors.

Reactors one, two and three all suffered meltdowns after a tsunami slammed into the plant in March.

(Source: abc.net.au)