NHK’s Newsline FOCUS: Inside Fukushima Daiichi, Mar. 29, 2014 (at 18:15 in): A network of trenches runs between the reactor buildings and the shore. They are flooded with extremely radioactive water that’s been trapped** there since the triple meltdown. Tepco data shows concentrations of cesium up to 4 million times above the government safety limit. Engineers estimate that the trenches hold about 15,000 tons of toxic water but radiation levels are too high for them to get a more precise look at the situation. Some experts point out these trenches are a source of contamination for the Pacific Ocean. Tepco says there’s no evidence of that yet, but it recognizes the need to act quickly.
**Yomiuri Shimbun, Mar. 6, 2014: “It appears that high-level radioactive contaminated water from tunnels [trenches] extending from the No. 1 to No. 4 reactor building is flowing into the sea.”
Extreme contamination in the trenches was first reported exactly 3 years before NHK’s special above — NHK, Mar. 28, 2011 (h/t MsMilkytheclown):
- At 0:30 – Tepco: “Now we have found water in the section between the underground area of the building and the sea in the area called the trench.” Workers detected contamination in the trench on Sunday [Mar. 27]. They recorded more than 1,000 millisieverts per hour on the water’s surface. […] Tepco says it’s unlikely the water is leaking into the ocean […] Tepco had no intention of hiding it.
- At 4:15 — Yoshiyuki Yamazaki, NHK: Of the Reactors 1-3, one, or more, or all, have likely sustained damage to their nuclear fuel rods. Which is why iodine, cesium, and plutonium are leaking out. […] Tepco mentioned they don’t think the current level will affect human health […] We have to be very careful. Compared to iodine and cesium, plutonium would have a substantially larger adverse effect on health if taken into the human body.
Where we are, on the other side of the Northern Hemisphere, the background level has nearly doubled, so with added spikes from jetstream based downpours rendering the total exposure per year equivalent or just over the original maximum allowable per person based on experience gained from the levels reached after the atmospheric Nuclear Bomb Tests in the fifties and sixties.
But nobody says a word. There is no Gov Guideline. The official Gov body remains silent. I notify my contacts but nobody responds. Ostrichitis.
Bollocks to the lot of them, I’m looking after my own.
To Squodgy: How are you looking after your own? With air, water, food and soil poisoned, how can we survive? Answer in my book is that we cannot. Am I missing something?
Quiz question:
The amount of radiation released by Fukushima is?
A. 100000 times the natural radiation in the Pacific Ocean
B. 100 times the natural radiation in the Pacific Ocean
C. About equal to the natural radiation in the Pacific Ocean
D. 1/100 of the natural radiation in the Pacific Ocean
E. 1/100000 of the natural radiation in the Pacific Ocean
Please answer to the nearest, the answer will help you decide the risk on the other side of the world.
@Bill,
And after playing around with numbers it is always good to take a close look if those numbers match what is happening in reality:
– NBC: Record level of sick or injured California seals and sea lions turning up – ‘The numbers are extraordinary’ – ‘Scientists worried… The worst kind of perfect storm’ – Pups should be weighing 2 or 3 times as much, ‘severely malnourished’
– Experts: Sea Stars Decimated On West Coast – Population Ravaged As Mystery Disease Spreads South, ‘Gone From 100s To ZERO …’
– ‘Ultra-Rare’: Up To 70 Endangered False Killer Whales By California Coast
– Head Of Radiation Testing Program On West Coast: Fukushima Plume Could Threaten Ecosystems … Whatever Is In The Kelp Will Get In Bodies Of Those Animals Also
– Fukushima Explains Unprecedented Concentrations Of Whales And Other Sea Life Clustered Just Off West Coast
– US Gov’t: Scientists investigating if Fukushima radiation contributed to unusual deaths and sickness in marine mammals – Expect ‘hairless seals’ this spring
– Massive Die-Off Of Oysters And Scallops In Pacific Northwest: ‘Millions Of Shellfish Dying’ – ‘By July Mortality Hit 95 To 100 Percent’
– 60 Bald Eagles Dead In Utah Since December (Not From West Nile Virus) (See related article below.)
– More Than 400 Dead Dolphins Found In Northern Peru
– Hawaii: More Than 500 Deep-Sea Lanternfish, Squid Found Dead Or Dying
– West Coast Sea Stars Melt Into Mush, ‘Just Vaporized … It’s The Change Of My Lifetime’ – ‘Ripping Themselves Apart … Innards Spilled Out’
– Alaska Professor: Fukushima Fallout A Suspected Factor In ‘Unusual Mortality’ Of Seals And Walrus
– Conditions Never Seen Before By Scientists In Pacific Seals And Walrus – Thyroid Cysts, Lesions Of Reproductive System, Retained Placenta
– Reports: White ‘goo’ everywhere in Alaska seal, crows won’t touch it… yet they eat people’s roofs — Slime in ones mouth, kidney almost black
– Problems with killer whales local to West Coast — Only baby born in 2013 died — Just two born in 2012 — Depleted fish supply blamed
– Conjoined Baby Gray Whales Found On West Coast Of N. America – Could Be First Ever Recorded — 2 Heads And 2 Tails, Joined In Middle (Video & Photo)
– L.A. Times: Alarming West Coast sardine crash likely radiating through ecosystem — Experts warn marine mammals and seabirds are starving, may suffer for years to come — Boats return without a single fish — Monterey Bay: Hard to resist idea that humpback whales are trying to tell us something
– ‘We see radiation from Fukushima in soils in Southern California, especially our desert regions’ – High concentrations in seaweed prevented harvest this year — Also found in cattle and chicken feed
– Scientists: Starfish Wasting Disease Outbreak Could Be Due To Fukushima Radiation
– LA Times: Experts suggest bald eagle deaths are related to Fukushima radiation – Idaho officials reporting similar sickness – ‘It’s hard to have your national bird in your arms, going through seizures’
– Unprecedented Decline In Alaska King Salmon
– Mystery Illness Killing Bald Eagles In Western U.S. – Wings Paralyzed, Full Blown Seizures
– Pelicans Starving In Pacific Northwest Since 2011, Killing Baby Birds For Food – ‘Sardine Crash’ Persists In Pacific Since Decline In 2011
– ‘Unprecedented Activity’ Near Canada’s West Coast: Whales In Record Numbers, Displaying Highly Unusual Behavior
– Marine Biologist: All Sea Stars Along West Coast Of North America Could Be Wiped Out
– Large Die-Off Of Alaska Seabirds From Disease Never Found Before In State History
– CNN: The Pacific Has Seen Its Fair Share Of Weird Recently – Bay In California ‘Now A Massive Soup Bowl’ – ‘Miles Of Anchovies, Mountains Deep’
– Study: Dead Sea Creatures Covered 98% Of Seafloor Last Year 150 Miles Off California Coast – Unprecedented!!!
– Weird Things’ Happening On California Coast: Unknown Toxic Algae Blooms Proliferating; Unprecedented Mass Of Oxygen-Poor Water – Mystery Strandings Of Large Squid Covered Miles And Experts Baffled … ‘Essentially Killing Themselves’
– San Francisco Chronicle: Fukushima Radiation Possible Culprit In Huge Starfish Die Off From Mexico To Alaska
– California: Threat Of ‘Dead Zone’ Developing Off Sonoma Coast
– Sea Star Die-Off Worse Than Thought; Now Over Entire West Coast; Going From One Species To Others
– Whale Expert Near Vancouver: In 30 Years I’ve Never Ever Seen This Kind Of Behavior, ‘They Must Sense This Is A Safe Place To Be’
– NBC Nightly News: “Another highly troubling report about what’s going on in the Pacific” — Millions of starfish ‘melt away’ from Alaska to California — Expert: Fukushima radiation ‘not ruled out’ as factor in epidemic — Very, very different than anything seen before
– CBS News: 100s Of Whales In Bay On California Coast – Experts: ‘A Once-In-A-Lifetime Chance … Unheard Of, It’s Unbelievable’
– Expansive ‘Death Zone’ Of Birds On Alaska Island, Perhaps Thousands Washed Ashore
– CBC News: Something Very Odd Is Happening In Pacific; Sea Creatures Acting Strangely
– Rarely Seen Sea Creature Normally Living At The Depths Of The Ocean Caught Off Miami Beach
– Unprecedented Concentration Of Sea Creatures Near Shore In California
– ‘Lots Of Sea Birds Washing Up Dead’ In Alaska (Photos)
– Alaska Island Shows Impacts From Fukushima – ‘Significant Cesium Isotope Signature’ Detected – Scientists Anticipate More Marine Life To Be Impacted As Ocean Plume Arrives
– Hundreds Of Sea Turtles Wash Up Dead On Pacific Coast – Dogs ‘Stopped Breathing And Died Almost Instantly’ When Eating Them
– Scientists ‘Especially Worried’: ‘We Don’t Know How The Pathogen Is Doing This’ – Sea Star Broke In Half, Walked Away, Then Turned To Goo
– Starfish Turn To ‘Slime’ Along Pacific Coast … ‘We’re Talking About A Loss Of Millions And Millions’
– Fishermen Boats Surrounded By Hundreds Of Dead (Nearly Extinct) Eastern Pacific Green Sea Turtles
– (UPDATED) ‘Extraordinary’ string of whale and dolphin encounters off Canada’s Pacific coast “could have a deeper meaning” — Indigenous Academic Adviser: “We see them as our relatives, as ancestors… It’s for the better of all of us to listen” (VIDEO)
– Sea Star ‘Ripping Itself Into Pieces’ – Like A Horror Movie – AP: Deaths From Alaska To S. California – Prof: ‘None Of Us Had Ever Seen Anything Like This Before’
– Sardine Population Plummets Along U.S. West Coast – ‘Canadian Pacific Fishermen Catch No Sardines In 2013? – AP: Collapse Of Species Feared
– West Coast Sea Stars Mysteriously Dying Off (KING 5 News Video): ‘Why Scientists Are So Concerned About The Rapidly Spreading Disease’
– Something Is Killing Life All Over The Pacific Ocean
– Head Researcher “Is Sounding The Alarm’ Over Dramatic Changes In Pacific Northwest Killer Whales
– 28 Signs That The West Coast Is Being Absolutely Fried With Nuclear Radiation From Fukushima
– The Pacific Is Broken: ‘After We Left Japan, It Felt As If The Ocean itself Was Dead’ – ‘I’m Used To Seeing Turtles, Dolphins, Sharks And Big Flurries Of Feeding Birds’ – ‘But This Time For 3000 Nautical Miles There Was Nothing Alive To Be Seen’
I guess the answer is 100000, or 1000000 or 10000000. Coral reefs are dying too.