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Japan's Fukushima Nuclear No-Go Areas to Last 'Decades'
TOKYO — Some areas close to Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant will likely remain no-go zones for "several decades", a media report citing an unnamed government official said Monday.
Some areas close to Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant will likely remain no-go zones for "several decades", a media report citing an unnamed government official said Monday. (Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)
Prime Minister Naoto Kan is expected to visit the region as early as Saturday to apologize to people who had to flee their homes as a result of the nuclear accident more than five months ago.
The Yomiuri Shimbun daily, citing an unnamed government source, said areas within about three kilometers (1.8 miles) of the plant will likely be kept off-limits "for an extended period — possibly for several decades".
The government may buy up some of the land from residents to use as temporary storage sites for radioactive waste, including debris and sludge left from decontaminated water at the plant, the Yomiuri said.
Kan said he may visit the region as early as Saturday, after media reported that he would make the visit to apologize to local community leaders.
The top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, said: "I can't deny the possibility that it may be difficult for residents from some areas to return home for a long time. I deeply apologize for that."
Japan declared a 20-kilometre (12 mile) radius around the plant an evacuation area and then a legal no-go zone after the March 11 quake and tsunami triggered the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
A recent government survey showed that some areas within the 20-km zone are contaminated with radiation equivalent to more than 500 millisieverts (mSv) per year — 25 times more than the government's annual limit.
The science and technology ministry survey found that 15 out of 50 monitoring spots within the 20-km zone were contaminated at levels equivalent to more than 100 mSv per year.
The highest reading was 508 mSv per year, compared to the 20 mSv maximum safety limit declared by the government.
The ministry estimated cumulative radiation exposure for one year from the accident based on the assumption that a resident would be outdoors for eight hours a day and inside a wooden home for 16 hours a day.
The government and operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) have said radiation leaking from the plant has fallen dramatically five months after the accident, and they are planning to launch soil decontamination in nearby areas.
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61 Comments so far
Show Alla video asking for the evacuation of the Fukushima area: http://vimeo.com/27982280
I found it touching, moving.
Only decades? And thats After they use the area as a 'temp' storage area for nuke waste?
Our whole world has lost the ability of Clear Coherent Thinking.
Capitalism is suicidial --
and if that were enough, the dollar bills dazzle others into becoming middle men,
allies of this insanity --
The dollar bill, itself, must be uninvented along with corporatism/fascism --
and power returned to the people --
The value of a dollar bill is nil -- it is useless as many have pointed out long ago --
it is simply a means of transferring power from the many to the few --
Stop allowing the meaning of your life or any one else's -- any nation's life and
survival -- to an accumulation of dollar bills.
The government in Fukushima wanted to shut down these nuclear reactors 6 years
or so ago-- not only based on their age and design -- but also based on scientists'
reports of increasing seismic activity --
How much suffering could have been saved not only Japan but the world had that
been done -- ?
Something we would have previously called "priceless" --
And btw our own nuclear power reactors -- 103 of them -- roughly two in every state
-- require 6 months to shut down properly --
Fukushima's reactors -- designed by GE -- will take 1 year to properly shut down --
and in either case, I'm not sure whether that provides in the way of disposal of
the WASTE!!
Yes, I pick up on that statement too. I agree, we are in the Twilight Zone.
Well, it's all OK. It's not as if storage of waste was any part of the problem to begin with, right?
Welcome to post-Chernobyl reality. Where the land will come back green and beautiful (eventually), the animals will adapt, and in some cases thrive, and the occasional human will refuse to leave, only to slowly, painfully die of cancer.
This part of Japan will be a nuclear wasteland for the rest of human history. But I bet with some swell finagling, the US military could use it as a training ground and firing range...
Oh, expect to see lots of animal species dying of cancer until the ecocide of everything above cockroach as well.
Actually, I think the cockroaches would die too. I seem to remember something on the mythbusters about the survival of those things when exposed to radioactivity... (not that they're a 'real' scientific source, but...)
Decades? That's yet another lie.
Try at least centuries, if not millenia.
Henceforth, human beings will be nuclear janitors and garbage keepers for millenia. Employment in that sector is assured. Applications are welcome.
The market is working its magic
If the market were allowed to work its magic, there would be no nuclear power plants because the market has rejected nuclear power as a bad investment.
Every single nuclear power plant now planned or in construction is the work of government bureaucrats acting against the market, and against the wishes and best interests of their people.
Damn gov't, always making regulations... I say we encourage those who protest excessive regulation by the oppressive government to stage a sit in protest at Fukushima. (evil grin)
John Abrams, or the other John ___ name that he is using now, would surely be quite happy living in one of these zones, for the rest of his life, since there is no problem, right John?
Crickets.
Mark Abrams, actually.
thanks! you are correct
Gaia has been having a heck of a time trying to limit us as we are just clever enough to come up with disease cures and artificial fertilizers for short term yields from fields. We survive hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis.
Perhaps She has just decided to let us destroy ourselves with our stupidity and cupidity. Perhaps we will, but will no doubt try to take everything with us when we go.
The Nuclear Dragon doesn't need titanic explosions to devour us. It just needs to drool its venom over the earth. We are too greedy to chain the beast up in a cave, so it just goes on and on.
I Have Seen the Dragon
I have seen the Dragon
Through clenched lids and arms pressed tight.
I have felt its hot breath on my back
And listened to the rumble of its voice.
I have looked upon its breath,
Glowing Amethyst, red and purple,
Climbing towards the stratosphere
To deposit its venom downwind.
I have waited in fear as my gums began to bleed
And my hair came out in clumps.
I breathed a prayer of thanks
As I began to heal.
After fifty years, our ranks are thin,
We who have seen the Dragon and survived.
Those who have died or are sickened still,
Their numbers are legion.
All we can hope for, work for, pray for,
Is that no madman will ever be allowed
To unleash the Dragon again.
For its legacy to all is death, disease and decay.
© Stephen M. Osborn
2 November 2006
It Will Go On
The red, setting sun, casts long shadows of the rocks and hills.
When the guns are silent and the napalm has burned out,
The desert still exists, silent save for the susurration of the sand
Blown by the winds, slowly covering the wounds of war.
Forgotten monuments again becoming homes and shelter.
Small creatures creep out in the gathering stillness
To carry on their own lives, eating and being eaten
In the long dance that predates man and will continue long after.
As the climates change, volcanos and tsunamis rend the land and shore,
With the melting of the ice the seas rise; temperate zones become steppes.
Encased in permafrost, man's vaunted civilization may crumble away.
Man, himself, may run crying into the limbo that holds the dinosaurs.
The desert, silent save for the susurration of the sand, will still exist.
The red, setting sun, will cast long shadows of the rocks and hills.
Small creatures will creep out in the gathering stillness
To carry on their own lives, eating and being eaten as they always have...
Steve Osborn
21 November 2005
In the words of one who chose voluntary isolation from the barbarity of western society: The edge of the river does not end.
Considering the way the Japanese government has responded thus far I'm surprised they aren't turning the no-go areas into parks and playgrounds.
Stay at beautiful Club Rad! Relax in the "Hot Zone" saunas, try your luck in the Geiger Casino, watch the death defying Water-Ski girls temp fate as they slalom around the mutant fish! Swim and cure what ails you in our olympic sized radium treatment pools.
You'll have the time of your half-life at Club Rad!
The predominant long-term radioactive element scattered about is cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30.15 years. So, in "decades" the radiation levels might drop by half, which isn't acceptable unless you have throwaway citizens who don't vote.
The Japanese Government's statement actually means, no, you can't go home next year. A more truthful and less nuclear-friendly government would have estimated something in the range of 500 years. This is a bit different from Chernobyl, which dumped plutonium all over the place, where Plutonium has a half-life of 28,000 years, so their dead zone is for maybe 500,000 years. Either way, your great-grandchildren should avoid both dead zones.
Maybe the nuclear industry's paid boiler-room bloggers ("Hello folks") will defend the Japanese government's "decades" statement. After all, even 500,000 years is technically "decades", isn't it?
There is a purposeful misunderstanding going on here. The ecological half-life of Cs-137 in the environment around Chernobyl is apparently longer than expected, But that being said, the EFFECTIVE HALF-LIFE of Cs-137, the actual activity in Bq/m2 will decline with a half-life of less than 30 years. The two processes go on simultaneously, physical decay and ecological removal, and the bottom line is that the measured activity that is present will always decline at a half-life of less than 30 years.
RFINSTON- you are directly contradicting reality with your blathering. The bottom line is you have no idea what you are typing, the cesium is not disappearing at the "half life" 30 rate, the environmental dispersal is not occurring at the 30 year rate, there is no such thing as 'ecological removal', it is dispersal in the environment, the material is still in the ecosphere. The measured activity is the data, not your hypothesis, or bullshit rather. Adding pseudo scientific notation to improve the odds of confusing people is criminal, are you on the clock? Are you a human being? What are you working towards?
I was merely trying to clarify the issue of the time course of cesium-137 radioactivity at a given location that will result from a release of activity from Fukushima (assuming no further releases of significant magnitude, of course). The point is that environmental 'weathering' will move the activity around, generally dispersing it from higher concentrations to lower concentrations. It has been studied since the advent of nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere. That is the ecological half-life. That process goes on simultaneously and independently of the physical decay with its half-life of 30 years. The point of the article as I understood it, was that the ecological decay was not as fast at Chernobyl as was expected. Nonetheless, the activity at a given spot will disappear with near certainty at an effective half-life of less than 30 years.
I am somewhat surprised at the vitriolic language that those who are stronly opposed to nuclear power use at this site. I am not a proponent of nuclear power but believe the facts should be understood nontheless so that the best possible decisions and actions can be taken in the future.
Rfinston- the vitriolic language is a reaction to your 'use of facts'. I am pointing out there is no such thing as 'ecologic decay' and yet you still propose this as a valid and observed phenomenon, even when you semi correctly term it 'environmental weathering' you still return to the misleading vernacular immediately. There is no "ecological half life", if anything you should be explaining that FACT. The process you are referring to and renaming with the word ecological (some would recognize this as prevarication-linking the premise with a seemingly benign and 'natural' sounding process. Which I hope I explained clearly enough that even you might understand, that it is itself a LIE). You propose the use of facts, but ignore them in your post- the energy activity will be reduced at any given site by HALF every 30 years, NOT disappear. And the real world observations at Chernobyl contradict the hypothesis of HALF LIFE decay, and environmental dispersal. Just what best possible decisions and actions do think we should take? That sounds a lot like: Based on the facts, we need nuclear power, so you hyper emotional opponents to this failed and unworkable technology should listen to us adults about what is in your best interest. Perhaps that sounds vitriolic, but that is not the Fact of The Matter.
Ummm, just out of curiosity. I thought the half life was the half life, one of the few things you could count on when it came to radioactive stuff. If the half life of the Cesium isn't what it's supposed to be than isn't the science wrong? Or is the question itself wrong?
br br br, it's too hot outside to be typing br after every freaking paragraph...
Could it be that rather than there being a problem with the half life, the excess radioactivity (or cesium, I think I'm starting to confuse myself) is being caused by another source of cesium that isn't accounted for?
The idea that there is a decay rate in the lab that is different from a decay rate outside of a lab just strikes me as dodgy. (note, I'm not a scientist at all. I took astronomy in university as I hated chemistry, biology and math. I thought there'd be less math in astronomy... oops.)
Another serious problem is the Cesium-137 continues to spew out every day into the air and it accumulates in the soil... In addition do not inhale any of those deadly microscopic isotopes of radioactive poison. And do not believe those cloth or paper masks will filter it.
People can begn counting (half lives) after the radiation stops spewing out of the three melted down reactors, which may be several more years.
You're highlighting the reason that Fukushima is far worse than Chernobyl ever was; the reaction at Chernobyl is contained and not spewing more stuff into the environment. That's what I was asking about, the point about the lack of predictable decay in the cesium around Chernobyl.
And now, we have another earthquake near another nuclear power plant. Nothing good will be coming from this one I think...
Aaronica wrote:
'Ummm, just out of curiosity. I thought the half life was the half life, one of the few things you could count on when it came to radioactive stuff. If the half life of the Cesium isn't what it's supposed to be than isn't the science wrong? Or is the question itself wrong?'
The "physical half life" of an isotope is the time required for the number of atoms of that isotope to decrease to half due to decay to another isotope. But suppose that the isotope (nuclide) is in the body after having been inhaled/ingested. If the body doesn't need that element, or if the body's requirements have been met, the nuclide will be eliminated (in urine, feces, etc.). But that occurs whether or not the nuclide is radioactive. The time required for the number of atoms of a stable (non-radioactive) nuclide to decrease to half by elimination is termed the "biological half life". If the nuclide is also a radioisotope, both half lives come into play. The result is the "effective half life", equal to the reciprocal of the sum of the reciprocals of the two values. Thus, if the physical half life is 10 days and the biological half life is 30 days, the effective half life is 7.5 days.
John
"The highest reading was 508 mSv per year, compared to the 20 mSv maximum safety limit declared by the government."
this "Safe" limit is 4.5 times greater than the permanent evac zone at Chernobyl.
and it just so happens that some of these areas could be in Tokyo too.
http://enenews.com/tokyo-area-soil-testing-finds-radioactivity-at-chernobyl-relocation-levels-at-least-550000-bqm%c2%b2-map
"Japan's Fukushima Nuclear No-Go Areas to Last 'Decades' "
Finally a glimmer of realism around this nuclear catastrophe. But coming so late as not to be noticed, in order not to make the headline news which always claims, de facto, "All is well - or soon will be". So the "public sphere" charades (for being neither "public" nor "spherical") continue, while in the background some of the necessary truth come out in whispers.
"Pst, it's not going well for those people around Fukushima, after all. Pst - 24.000 die from starvation in the world every day from infrastructural systems not working well. Pst - every environment on earth is soon polluted too much for humans to live in, even if everything's clean on tv. Pst - the nuclear energy we applied to save ourselves from pollution and simplify energy delivery is polluting to a novel degree of danger and complicating everything. Pst - we can do better, but our pampered leaders prefer stupid and blame it on democracy."
Where are our newest nuke apologist friends here at CD to denounce Japanese government officials as "irrationally hyper-emotional anti-science Luddites who love big oil and global warming"?
Or whatever today's talking points are for derailing comment threads and blogs.
Japanese government officials are irrationally hyper-emotional anti-science Luddites who love big oil and global warming. They just don't want to get with the program. They'll get the hang of it soon. Look at Hiroshima and Nagasaki - fine functioning cities with not much genetic damage to people, only 66 years later. They even have memorials to the a-bombs. Don't be girlie-people - nuclear energy is good for you. If a small spill happens, we'll limit the damage to a few countries and centuries far, far away. The contamination we'll drop in a hole in the ground and forget about it. Cancers are symptomes of bad morals in former lives. Don't worry, be happy. In the long run it's all good.
Webwalk- Share the sentiment, love the labeling, it sums up the bullshit that gathers around these "engineers, and scientists" derailing communication here.
Their exclusion zone is a farce. A much larger area has been contaminated, and the poison is still wafting over North America, too.
http://enenews.com/tokyo-area-soil-testing-finds-radioactivity-at-chernobyl-relocation-levels-at-least-550000-bqm²-map
Gerald wrote:
'Yes, as is also demonstrated here http://bit.ly/rulDYI :
'"___ 178 X Background Radiation in Saint Louis Rain 8/20/11, potrblog, August 20, 2011:
'[...] The reading was taken at approximately 10:20am on 8/20/11 in Saint Louis Missouri from a vehicle that had driven approximately 4 miles through the trailing edges of a thunderstorm.
'The sample returned a reading of 1.786 mR/hr, which equates to ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY EIGHT times greater than normal background radiation. This reading is almost 3 times greater than are previous high reading of 62x background radiation. [...]'
According to the video at the URL given, the reading was taken with an "Inspector" Geiger counter, which canNOT measure exposure rate (in mR/hr). Background exposure rate in mainland US averages about 40 microR/hour, but varies considerably from location to location. I think that the most likely origin of the reading discussed in the video is the smokestack of a local industry. I consider Fukushima to be a very unlikely source.
John
Stutter post.
John lannetta sez; " I think that the most likely origin of the reading discussed in the video is the smokestack of a local industry. I consider Fukushima to be a very unlikely source."
You've said the source of a high radiation reading outside Toronto isn't Fukushima. Now you're saying the source of a high reading in St. Louis isn't Fukushima. Just out of curiosity, where do you think the high radiation readings in Fukushima come from?
ctrl-z wrote:
'John lannetta sez; " I think that the most likely origin of the reading discussed in the video is the smokestack of a local industry. I consider Fukushima to be a very unlikely source."
'You've said the source of a high radiation reading outside Toronto isn't Fukushima. Now you're saying the source of a high reading in St. Louis isn't Fukushima. Just out of curiosity, where do you think the high radiation readings in Fukushima come from?'
I suspect that elevated readings in Fukushima are due to the nuclear power plant accident. But in mainland US, I think that high background readings after a heavy rain would be most likely due to a local source. Radioisotopes traveling from Japan
if in the gaseous phase diffuse into the Earth's atmosphere (all 5,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms of it). If in the solid or liquid phase, the tiny droplets or particles (aerosols) slowly descend to Earth while spreading out horizontally. I think that a local source of radiation is a much more likely explanation. Please understand that radioisotopes are everywhere to be found. In our homes (americium-241 in smoke detectors and thorium-232 in microwave ovens), in hospitals (boron-10 for radiation therapy), and in industry (cobalt-60 for food irradiation, cesium-137 and iridium-192 for industrial radiography, cerium-144 for automatic weighing equipment, and bromine-82 used as a hydrological tracer). Despite elaborate procedures being put in place, radioactive sources do indeed get lost, stolen, and are unaccounted for.
Also, since the Fukushima accident, there's been much discussion about obtaining and using Geiger counters to check for radiation. These simple devices don"t MEASURE anything (despite the claims of their suppliers); they DETECT ionizing radiation. And if enough people look hard enough with the wrong instruments for something, it will surely be found.
John
John: Were you ever employed by the tobacco industry?
ctrl-z wrote:
'John: Were you ever employed by the tobacco industry?'
Not since I was a nicotineager many many years ago.
John
John Liar-aennetta- perhaps you should write an article. Your consideration is suspect, when your hypothesis is so bland, and devoid of 1)LOCATION OF THE SMOKESTACK, 2) EXPLANATION OF HOW A READING CANNOT MEASURE EXPOSURE 3) YOUR BACKGROUND RATE HAS NO DEFINITION, AND INCLUDES AN ABSURD CAVEAT.
What is the thrust of your comment: Nothing to worry about? Science is suspect when it alerts to possible dangers from your patron industry?
Don't forget Hillary Clinton's recent trip to India as a shill for the nuclear power industry. Together, India and the USA can contaminate an ever growing number of people.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2011/0719/During-Hillary-Clinton-s-India-visit-nuclear-power-is-front-and-center
WHYWHYWHWYWHWYWHWY WHY are taxpayers paying to have this SOS sell SELL????? goods for a huge American corp...since when are our paid officials lot lizards for the whores ruining the world?
I really can't believe that people still live there... I mean, this is so unreal.... I'd have just left....I'd rather live far far away in the woods somewhere, saving my kids lives than stay there with the radiation etc. This is what people have come to, they don't even understand it seems..... it so taken for granted.
Radiation is no respecter of persons.There is no safe level. Depending on the exposure it mutates or kills. There are no "do overs" when you make a mistake with it. You can't make lemonade with radioactive lemons. This alone should give pause to any entity pursuing nuclear energy (sorry, nuclear death - just a matter of time).
You are thinking in black and white, but the whole point of "no safe level" is to get you to see shades of gray. Radiation does not absolutely "mutate or kill." It increases the _risk_ of mutation and death. The more the radiation, the greater the risk. "No safe level" means "no threshold." Each and every particle to which you are exposed carries an increment of risk, and the risk associated with a large dose is nothing but the sum of all of the risks due to all of the individual particles.
Read about the wildlife around Chernobyl. Plants and animals live in zones that are considered too hot for human habitation. They are not as healthy or as numerous as plants and animals living in un-spoiled, non-radioactive wilderness; but they are very far from dead.
There is no _safe_ level, but there are _acceptable_ levels. Unfortunately for you and I, the people who decide what is "acceptable" are often motivated more by short-term profit than by any concern for your future or my future or even their own grandchildren's futures.
mudbass, I think you're right!
Trusting people who decide for us what is an acceptable risk for radiation exposure, is, well, risky. We need to verify (trust and verify, remember). The problem is that we can't personally verify radiation risk and our institutions that are suppose to verify in our name have proven to be untrustworthy. As I understand it the way the nuclear business is set up it can't be trusted to play well with such a powerful beast of destruction. The basic problem is in the nature of the beast. If casually played with, it will eat you!
Regarding "no safe level", I am persuaded that all levels of nuclear radiation distort the mechanics of life, no exceptions. That free-radical damage to tissues is just another name for radiation poisoning. And the antioxidants that tamp down free-radical damage in the body are doing the exact same job as the control rods in the reactor core (to absorb radiation signatures and make them inert).
Bottom line for me. First, nuclear radiation, regardless of the amount, is inherently unsafe. Even in the smallest amount it hurts tissue unless it is blocked or made inert first. Second, what is acceptable to risk depends upon the result we want. If the result I want is that I don't want to die then any radiation short of killing me is acceptable. But if I want to be a healthy plant or animal I want to stay away from nuclear radiation exposure. mudbass, I think you comments were thoughtful and had much to contribute. Thanks for taking up my post.
A Recent RT report by Thom Hartman says that there's clear indicators that some of the super-hot molten [or semi-molten] core that melted thru those reactor vessels & containments onto their concrete floors- is steadily melting &/or cracking its way thru the cement into the ground- meeting the ground water table & venting highly radioactive steam- radioactive enough to kill in a few hrs to a day or 2. This, if confirmed, would make Fukushima a classic 'China Syndrome' [in slo-mo] as well a Chernobyl scenario- & only God knows how long this will go on. Expect Radioactivity to spew not only over much / most of Japan but also the west coast of the US & Canada or maybe China & Russia [if the wind reverses] - INDEFINITELY!
The a/r report on RT andThom Hartmann was from Paul Gunter of Beyond Nuclear who also reported that more than 1000 REMs were coming out of the cracks caused by the "china syndrome" at unit 6 every hour. This is a lethal dosage that kills within several days.
The meltdown is releasing 20 - 29 times the radiation of Hiroshim ... Gunter goes on to point out that this is not mentioned by the MSM in the US.
Gunter goes on to describe a scenario where the molten core reaches the water table and begins separating elements (hydrogen from oxygen) creating a perpetual explosive environment ... What this means for Tokyo, Japan, Eastern Asia and the entire Pacific ????
I wonder what position on the volcanic rim this plant area has and if that melting thing goes down into the ground and starts disrupting the geology...??? The entire country sits on this precarious edge of a huge volcano...formerly quiet?