Most Popular This Week
- Not to Worry, Rape Victims Who Want An Abortion: We Won't Charge You With Felony Tampering With Evidence, Just Your Doctor
- The Non Zero-Sum Society: How the Rich Are Destroying the US Economy
- Obama Administration Compromise Would Implement No-Cost Birth Control
- The Right of the People, Even At the Airport
- To End Extreme Poverty, Let’s Try Ending Extreme Wealth
- The Non Zero-Sum Society: How the Rich Are Destroying the US Economy
- Don’t Put a Fork in It: On the Perils of Genetically Engineered Salmon
- Five Possibilities for the Next Great Progressive Push
- An Economic Alternative to Exploitative Free Market Capitalism
- To End Extreme Poverty, Let’s Try Ending Extreme Wealth
Popular content
Today's Top News
Plutonium 'Detected Outside Fukushima Plant'
A limited amount of plutonium has been detected in soil outside Japan's troubled Fukushima nuclear power plant which was crippled by the March 11 quake-tsunami disaster, the government said Friday.
Photo taken by the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) shows an aerial view of the third reactor building of the No.1 Fukushima nuclear power plant at Okuma in April 1. Plutonium has been detected in soil outside Japan's troubled Fukushima nuclear power plant. It was the first time plutonium had been found in government tests outside the plant, presumably due to the nuclear accident, the worst since 1986 Chernobyl, the education and science ministry said in a statement.
Plutonium was detected in soil at six places in a survey which was conducted in June in an area within 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the ministry said.
Nuclear reactors at the plant suffered meltdowns after cooling systems there were knocked out by the double disasters. Plutonium has been already detected in the plant's compound, some 220 kilometers from Tokyo.
The highest density of plutonium-239 and 240 -- 4.0 becquerels per square meter -- was registered in a town some 30 kilometers from the plant, the ministry said.
In a village 45 kilometers away, the reading was 0.82 becquerels per square meter.
Plutonium has previously been detected in Japan following atmospheric nuclear tests, the ministry said.
The average density of plutonium, which was detected in soil samples between 1999 and 2008 in Japan, was 0.498 becquerels, the ministry said. The highest reading before the Fukushima accident was 8.0 becquerels.
"The plutonium density, which was detected this time, was within the range of past readings. So the dose of radiation is deemed very small," the ministry said.
Plutonium is formed from uranium in nuclear reactors and generally stays in the body for decades, exposing organs and tissues to radiation and increasing the risk of cancer, experts say.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
101 Comments so far
Show AllO-oh, here we go again. Notice that the levels of Plutonium recently measured are virtually identical to what they were prior to the accident. In that respect we see that the hazard that we have been living with since the 1950's and 60's when nuclear weapons were tested in the atmosphere and sent Plutonium, Cesium and Strontium world-wide are still present albeit in reduced amount. While the Cesium near Fukushima has been clearly increased above that fallout level, the Plutonium ievel is basically unchanged from that which was present before the accident. So let's not have another panic attack over 'deadly Plutonium'. But I doubt that the usual commentors here can restrain themselves.
I guess nuclear fallout is perfectly safe then??
Funny, every nuke story, there YOU are, the "usual" commentator stumping for the nuke industry, challenging the 'alarmists' and crazy hippies. Don't have a panic attack! Take some Xanax and go over there and start helping with the cleanup.
I suppose "RFinston" will now counter that this story proves there's nothing that needs cleaning up . . . (*sigh*)
If it's not deadly, why don't you snort a line of the stuff?
~~Webwalk~~ posted the current 53rd comment here in a reply to ~RFinston~.... Ya gotta read it.... Woo-hooo, dyno-mite ! __ Blew Finston off into orbit.
I really am impressed how RF manages to be the first poster in these threads. Also, laughed at "deadly plutonium," specifically the quotation marks. The defendant used a "deadly weapon" when he murdered the family of twelve with the gardening shovel.
Good point, but a gardening shovel isn't the best analogy, since unlike plutonium, it is not inherently dangerous to humans (and other life forms).
There you go again, Hero. I have cited a reputable scientific publication that indicates that half the cesium taken into the body in soluble form is excreted in 70 days, which by the way means that it will reach 0.1% at 700 days (about 2 years) rather than your calculation of the physical decay of cesium-137, 300 years. Of course the physical decay to 0.1% would take 300 years, but in 2 years the body will have already excreted 99.9% of the cesium. You are ONLY off by 3-orders of magnitude, my friend, or don't you understand the concept of biological half-life? The two processes go on independently and simultaneously and in the case of Cesium-137 the biological turnover of the chemical predominates in determining the dynamics of its presence in the body.
I have said nothing about the metabolism of Plutonium which you throw in the mix in your last paragraph to confuse the situation, apparently. That is another story for later should you wish to raise it. Suffice it to say the article shows that Plutonium has not increased in a significant way far from the Fukushima plant.
[I have cited a reputable scientific publication]
I missed it, where did you do that 'professor'? Surely you could post it again, if it's not something you've pulled out of your butt.
See the earlier story this week, about planning for removal of dirt by the Japanese government, where in I referenced NCRP Report No. 65.
Yeah ~~Finston~~, well I cited a far more reliable source in reply to the nonsense which you and your sidekick ~~John Lanetta~~ posted yesterday, Medical Journal, which states, "when radioactive particles are lodged in the body they stay there for a LIFETIME."
You are not going to win your obtuse, ignorant, false arguments ~Finston~.
Posted by RFinston
Sep 30 2011 - 1:48pm.
I have cited a reputable scientific publication that indicates that half the cesium taken into the body in soluble form is excreted in 70 days
-----------------------------------------
this is factually correct in the laboratory setting. that is a SINGLE dose of cesium is lost with a half-life of about 70 days. however if keep taking more in, say from drinking milk from the SF Bay area, the 70-day clock never really starts in any meaningful way. So it is very dishonest to say "but in 2 years the body will have already excreted 99.9% of the cesium" when in reality it should have been stated like this "but in 2 years AFTER CEASING TO INGEST FURTHER CESIUM, the body will have already excreted 99.9% of the cesium"
How does cesium 137, which has a half life of 30 years, suddenly revert to oniy 70 days half life when it is injested in a human body?
Medical scientists with Phds, have published in Medical Journal, once cesium is in the body it stays in the body radiating body cells for a lifetime, or until the person is dead and then when the person is buried, it's still there radiating only no longer harming the dead body.
I have read that half life of 70 days is a theory, not a scientific proven fact...Although there are pro muker articles published that say it is a fact... I'll go with the Medical Journal info of 2010,, not some paper published 22 years ago.
Even if it were a fact ~Finston~ is spouting off incorrect information about it as ~.GottaGetOffTheGrid~ has noted.
. .
Yes, that is correct and has been taken into account. The consequent lifetime dose from each intake is calculated by itself, then added to that of earlier intakes, and the total is then measured against the recommended limits/risk estimates to determine whether the public is or is not at significant risk. The standards take your point into account and conservatively assume that intake per day at the limit will continue for a lifetime. Of course this issue only came up because Wayne and others contended that the cesium never leaves the body which has no basis in fact.
I think you could say that Wayne's contention and persistence is secondary to the fact that the real reason it came up is that there is extensive contamination in Japan and the world. That, and the recent conclusion that the people of Japan have no intention of living with the nightmare it could happen again.
I would agree that an area of Japan has extensive contamination. But so far the people of Japan (either by vote or by their legislature) have not concluded that they will shut down their nuclear plants given how many there are and how reliant they are for the electricity they produce. The contamination outside of Japan is as yet minimal compared to natural background and fallout from nuclear weapons testing a half-century ago. It could happen again so the nuclear industry is undertaking modifications that are needed in light of what was learned from Fukushima. It is up to people in the individual nations to decide if they will allow the industry to continue and whether to build new plants. I don't favor new plants, but I don't believe the Fukushima accident should cause the wholesale shut down of all existing plants without considering all the factors involved is such a move.
Here is the thing, the nuclear industry is dishonest and incompetent. They say it is safe, it isn't. They do not take responsibility for their mistakes, if modification makes it reliable then they should be willing to pay if it doesn't work. The industry does not know how to manage its own waste. There are plenty of alternatives that do not leave vast geographical areas of the world uninhabitable. Who cares if the lights are on when there is nobody home and won't be for a l000 years.
~~Finston ~~ again... ("Wayne and others contended that the cesium never leaves the body which has no basis in fact.").
That is just another false comment by ~RFinston~... Once any radioacitve isotopes have entered the blood stream and lodge in a body organ, they stay in the body organ, brain, liver, bone marrow, etc and radiate body cells... They do not go away in 70 days,,, or ever.
Wayne, I can't say it too often, evidentally. but you are wrong. Every atom of every chemical element in the body turns over and a fraction is excreted daily. Otherwise we would never stop adding weight to our bodies, to put it simply. And the fractional excretion per day has been measured extensively over many decades. This is old and accepted science. No atom is in the body forever be it radioactive or stable. If you can show me otherwise please do. All the science of radioactive dosimetry will need to be revised, so do tell us.
Nope,,, you are wrong ~~Finston~~ again... For example: When a child chews on a pencil which is painted with lead based paint, the injested lead poison stays in the child's body (forever).and can cause brain damage... That is well proven medical science... That was a serious probblem 50 or so years ago btw. No, I used a mechanical pencil, my parents were rich,
The same is true if one inhales trichloetheline fumes, the trico stays in the body forever and causes serious liver damage... The weight of injested (cesium), lead paint fumes or trico fumes do not increas body weight to any measurable amount.
You being a professor and all, LOL, you should be able to tell us how much an isotope, or an (atom) if you wish, of cesium 137 weighs, and how many would weigh a 100th of a gram.
Your arguments and examples are so childish is is laughable... The more you talk the more ignoant and stupider you sound.
Men who worked as sprinkler fitters have been found to have little balls of (mercury) in their prostrate gland when having prostrate surgery... Mercury was on their fingers and it ended up in their body from fingers to mouth, to stomach, to intestines, where the microscopic particles were then absorbed into their blood stream and the mercury STAYED there in the body, the prostrae for one place, enough mercury injested over years of time to form little balls of mercury.
The mercury stayed there in the body until removed by a surgeon... Check it out ~~Finston~~ The same is true of cesium,,, it stays in the body for a (lifetime).
Btw, I can hang out here as long as you do Finston... Throw ya later. .
Wrong Wayne,
An atom of radioactive mercury once in the blood stream has a biological half-life of 16 days. An atom of cesium as as ion which crosses the gi tract or the alveoli of the lung has a half-life of 70 days. These have been measured using scientific methods. You are correct that there are some chemical forms of some elements that may have longer biological half lives than in simple chemical forms, however the vast majority of radioactive cesium in a nuclear meltdown is released as individual atoms given the meltdown temperature (2,000 degrees) when release occurs, and thus in simple chemical forms which it would have to be in order to be absorbed through the roots of plant matter and then into foods (similarly to potassium atoms). and so would not reach humans as a complex molecule that is retained with a long half-life. It has been tested and determined that is the case using radioactive cesium as the test substance. So if we are speaking of nuclear reactor accident cesium in food, water, or air the measured half-life of that is 70 days. Even those who you site as being poisoned by long-lived substances nonetheless you will find evidence of that chemical element/molecule in their urine, feces. or exhaled air. That in fact is usually how they are discovered to be contaminated by the way. Mercury is exhaled by patients contaminated with mercury so even it is not forever in the body. Can you site the research paper that shows cesium "stays in the body for a (lifetime)"? I have numerous citations showing otherwise.
If you want the last word, go for it. But I believe our audience is rapidly declining.
You are really (windy) Finston.
I supose those balls of mercury in the old guys prostrate came form the Mercury Fairy and had only been there for a few days when the docotr operating found and removed them... Mercury balls have been found in patient's kidneys and bladders also.
Damn Mercury fairy.
The mercury by its self is a poison, it may lose the radioactivity but it does concentrate in the human body and is harmful. It concentrates in the brain as well. Not to mention what happens to a developing fetus.
Strontium -
Sixteen unstable isotopes are known to exist. Of greatest importance are 90Sr with a half-life of 28.78 years and 89Sr with a half-life of 50.5 days. 90Sr is a by-product of nuclear fission found in nuclear fallout and presents a health problem since it substitutes for calcium in bone, preventing expulsion from the body. This isotope is one of the best long-lived high-energy beta emitters known, and is used in SNAP (Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power) devices. These devices hold promise for use in spacecraft, remote weather stations, navigational buoys, etc., where a lightweight, long-lived, nuclear-electric power source is required. The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident contaminated a vast area with 90Sr. 90Sr confined inside a concave silver plaque is also used for the medical treatment of a resected pterygium.[2]
hey, clearbluesky!
you have raised an aspect of this horror that I was discussing with myself this morning...perhaps you can help clarify my thinking...
you raise the topic of expulsion, highlighting the fact that strontium's physical similarity to calcium makes it attractive to our bones, where expulsion is prevented...
here's my question, the answer to which seemed so obvious to me, once I'd thought of it, that I couldn't think why I hadn't thought of either, before...
if I drink Cesium-laden milk, for example, and am fortunate enough, this time, to have all of the hot particles pass through me, have they lost any of their potency once no longer in my body, or have they simply returned to the enviornment to pass through other life forms in an endless cycle? if one dies with these particles inside one, do they outlive the decay process, atomically bombarding whatever is around the cadaver?
this would seem logical...that these tiny cannons continue firing, regardless of their immediate experiences or surroundings...this, of course, leads to the idea that the planet, and the living things upon it, are being slowly and consistently more saturated with these particles as emissions occur over time...
they just grow in number and density...
tireless, violent masters of their tiny regions of space-time...
is that right?
Well, I got this information from the periodic table of elements. It gives pretty detailed information about elements in the environment. The post I made is part of a larger article and relates to the thread that hero4peace is talking about (health effects from nuclear contamination). From that same site (PTE), cesium functions differently in the body as does plutonium but the source you sight (milk) is very good because there are direct links between contamination and milk as a source of exposure. To answer your question I don't think we know exactly how this accumulates in the environment, especially man made elements or restructured elements. I would question a discussion that tries to explain the effects of the Fukushima disaster one isotope at a time. I am not a scientist but I do look at this from a behavioral perspective. I do think (not being a scientist) that hot particles remain hot unless there is something that mitigates that, and I don't know what that would be. Generally, these things are isolated and contained.
"A limited amount of plutonium..." Really? What limit is being referred to? Oh, they're just trying to be reassuring. As if it would be an "unlimited" amount? Roughly the mass of the Earth?
The mainstream media, and the industrial and political interests they work for, are compelled to add meaningless but presumptively reassuring qualifiers to news of their unfolding disasters. i feel so safe with "limited" releases of plutonium! Let's put some reactors in my neighborhood too!
And see how Finston also feels compelled to grasp at reassurance. Since an argument can be made at this point that, based on government information, evidence of this fresh release of plutonium from this industrial disaster has not spiked past previous evidence of releases from blowing up nuclear bombs in open air, therefore anyone who points to the inevitable suffering disease and death that will result, or the unfinished, unlimited, ongoing nature of this industrial disaster, or evidence that the actual release of plutonium is far less limited than officials are urging us to believe, is just alarmist, emotional, absurd.
Thanks for the empty reassurance, Finkton. Gosh, it would almost make sense that Finkman works for the same industrial and political interests that the mainstream media serve!
Once again, excellent work monitoring Common Dreams for articles related to nuclear disasters, and pouncing early on the comment thread with your off-the-shelf talking-points reassurance and framing of critics. Good day to you, and to your friends who will join us to praise you for your reasonableness!
"Plutonium 'Detected Outside Fukushima Plant'"
As soon as I saw the footage of a multiple hundred ton spent fuel rod pool being thrown as high as a kilometer into the air because of a massive hydrogen explosion, I knew that the Plutonium it contained would be scattered over a wide area.
That it took SIX MONTHS to admit this is criminal stupidity and deception.
TEPCO and the Japanese ministries responsible for this need to be dragged in front of a judge ASAP.
The explosion at unit 4 was not due to hydrogen gas generated in the fuel pool but apparently resulted from hydrogen generated next door at unit 3 which leaked into 4.
There is no evidence that a "multiple hundred ton spent fuel rod pool being thrown as high as a kilometer into the air" occurred. Your eyes deceived you. There was an explosion at unit 4 but the spent fuel pool and your surmise that the "Plutonium it contained would be scattered over a wide area" did not happen, thankfully.
Full of wishful thinking today, eh?
I never in any way said that the spent fuel rod pool exploded. I said that the pool was launched from the roof where it was installed BY the explosion of the plant beneath it.
If you watch the footage, you will see a large artifact heading straight up.
Here, use this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgQzNGhM3rA
Pay attention. At the 00:20 second mark during the close up, you will see a dark mass lift violently from the roof, and shatter on into multiple small fragments. THAT IS THE SPENT FUEL POOL SCATTERING IT'S DEADLY CONTENTS.
Moron.
In this model of reactor, the spent fuel pool is built on the TOP of the reactor. So if the containment building fails (or explodes) the pool (which has little or no reinforcement) either collapses into the building, or, in the case of an explosion, scatters it's contents around the surrounding area. THAT FLAW WAS ONE OF THE MAJOR CRITICISMS CRITICS HAVE HAD FOR YEARS ABOUT THIS PARTICULAR REACTOR DESIGN!
~Galenwainwright~ It is not easy to shut "professor" ~Fnston! up, but I believe you may have succeeded that time... Thank you.
Professor Finston? __ Oh yes, a couple of day ago, Finston claimed here on another thread that he was a professr, etc... A professor who has a serious reading comprehension disability and displayes the symptoms of a mad lunatic.
That's idiotic. In all likelihood, plutonium and every other radioactive agent was scattered to the wind during the explosions and fires, but to claim none has is unthinkable. Thankfully? Sheesh. They don't have devices to measure the radiation at the site currently, after they have some cooling systems in place.
I could have sworn that I read this story before. I'm certain that there have been stories about finding plutonium scattered all around that plant. Or is it now news because the government has mentioned that they too have found what others have already looked for?
Oh, and just out of curiosity... Is there not any plutonium in the MOX fuel that has melted down and breached the containment of the reactor vessels?
no you are not mistaken, there have been reports of Pu being found in large amounts outside of the plant since late March, however these were not reported by the government but by TEPCO and independent labs.
here's the list of (forgotten) stories:
http://www.google.com/cse?cx=partner-pub-7394524324300608%3At8ragrdpdz5&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=plutonium&sa=Search
Its like the billionaires want to kill themselves by destroying the planet and they want to make sure we all have to go with them
NRC calls for minor changes to the Mark IV reactor. Find out why those suggestions are flawed: http://www.fairewinds.com/ All such reactors should be shut down immediately. Nuclear containments are not designed to survive a shock wave traveling faster than the speed of sound (600 mph) while the Fukeshima earthquake was a shock wave traveling at roughly 1000 mph. Become educated and add your voice to the call to end nuclear power.
Stiv,
The shockwave you are describing was not related to the earthquake itself but rather due to what Mr. Gunderson's analysis was of the shock wave resulting from the hydrogen explosion at reactor 3. Let us indeed become educated and add our voices to the call to end nuclear power plant construction.
Nope, end nuclear power, slick-shift.
~~Finston~~,,, Have you ever considerd just shutting the F up?__ Damn RF, ~Stiv~ was not talking about the shock waves from the later explosins at the plant, he was talking about shock waves from a massive (earthquake).
What on Earth is wrong with you? __ Please do not bother to attempt to answer that question... It is probably time for you to put on your ~John Lanetta~ hat and use a different computer to rave on here. .
George Lucas made a nuclear training film back in the '60's, "THX1138".
Nuclear power is neither compatible with the grass roots direct democracy we desperately need, being inherently centralist and authoritarian to control it's fuel cycle, nor with continued long term human survival IMO. If this isn't a wake up call I don't know what is.
Plutonium was detected in soil at six places in a survey which was conducted in June in an area within 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the ministry said.
This is one of the more revealing passages of this story. The Japanese government routinely waits three months to announce the results of radioactivity tests. This has been the usual lag for virtually all aspects of the largest nuclear accident in history. We did not hear that there had been multiple meltdowns until three months later.
No explanation or excuse is even offered for these reporting delays, which are clearly part of a propaganda strategy to minimize widespread health threats.
Nuclear power = Lovelock's Folly.
I posted this yesterday on another less than relevant thread, but this is more on topic here, sort of.
Cesium nearly doubles over past month in Bay Area milk — Now well above EPA’s maximum contaminant level
http://enenews.com/radioactive-cesium-doubles-bay-area-milk-last-month-above-epas-maximum-contaminant-level
the data is from UCBs nuclear dept: http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/node/2174
why is this not being covered in the... oh wait, what...sorry... naked kardasian sister? gottago.
Many thanks for that information ~GottaGetOffTheGrid~~ It is very important information.
We should all be concerned about the plutonium, but at the (present time), the massive amount of cesium 137 being emitted by the three melted down reactor cores' is a far more serious issue.
Cesium 137 arrives (every day) via the Jet Stream to the US, Canada and beyond and it (accumulates) in the soil, water and some is airborne once again whenever the wind picks up any of the deadly for life isotopes and carries them wherever the wind takes them.
There is no end in sight to when those three cores of lave will stop emitting their radioactive poisons... The Japanese are not doing what the Russians did at Chernobyl, containing the fires burning down into the earth beneath the plant.
This madness may continue for several years and cesium 137 which is inhaled or injested can kill anyone over time and there is no cure... Once in the blood stream and then lodged in a body orgean, cesium stays there, radiating body cells until cancers develop... The more inhaled or injested the more cancers one will have.
Those microscopic sized isotoes of deadly poison are as invisible to us as bacteria is... They don't kill immediately when inhaled or eaten, but they kill eventually.. This use of nuclear energy is so horribly unfair for the next generations, we must stop it. Another Fukushima will happen (someplace sometime) that is inevitable,,, and it's crazy...Crazy is one correct descriptive word.... Crazy!
The UCB data show cesium to be of such low concentration that one would have to consume 1000 gallons of that milk in order to experience the same dose one would get in a roundtrip cross-country air flight resulting from increased cosmic radiation at high altitudes. The milk levels show consistently that cesium-137 is present at these extrememly low levels and are no cause for alarm.
Really ~Finston~? Well the UCB data you refer to obviously didn't take into account that injesting, (or inhaling) cesium 137 which can and may lodge in a body organ will radiate body cells until cancer develops. Any single isotope of cesium 137 can and may do that ~Finston~... There is zero "safe" amounts in milk, food or the air we must breathe... NONE!
How much cesium 137 was in the milk in ppm or ppb 9 months ago? __ Who was bothering to test it 9 months ago?
Now I will agree we all are exposed to some radiation, every day of our lives... However; (normally) we are not expose to what is now compapred to 8 months ago of large amounts of cesium 137.
It is not reasonable to accept (more) daily radioactive poisons from a nuclear power plant. And the atmospheric radiation reading of cesium 137 soared when Chernobyl had it's meltdown and now it is soaring once again from Fukushima, making Chernobyl seem to be a rather minor event,,, which of course,, it was not.
Your continuing attemts to downplay the dangers of cesium 137 in food or the air, are both obnoxious and maddening ~Finston~. I seriously doubt any here appreciate you and your denying comments.