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Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology quit measuring plutonium but they mistakenly published the contamination map of Tokyo, Kanagawa and north Kanto area. It was measured by a helicopter. Page 3 Radiation level of Tokyo (1m from the ground) Page 4 Cesium 134+137 on the ground in Tokyo Page 5 Cesium 134 on the ground in Tokyo Page 6 Cesium 137 on the ground in Tokyo Page 7 Radiation level of Kanagawa (1m from the ground)

Page 8 Cesium 134+137 on the ground in Kanagawa Page 9 Cesium 134 on the ground in Kanagawa Page 10 Cesium 137 on the ground in Kanagawa Page 11 Radiation level of north kanto (1m from the ground) Page 12 Cesium 134+137 on the ground in north Kanto Page 13 Cesium 134 on the ground in north Kanto Page 14 Cesium 137 on the ground in north Kanto Overview: Gunma, Tochigi, and north Chiba have hot spots. also, Katsushika, Hachioji, and western part of Tokyo are very contaminated.

TEPCO has just released "diaries" from early in the accident giving us a better view of the sequence of events from the operators point of view.

The bulk of the materials, distributed on discs with digital files, show reams of raw numerical data. They include photos of broadsheet computer printouts and other formatted charts with thousands of data points for measurements of reactor heat, pressure, water levels, fuel rod positions and the status of cooling pumps, among other functions. Tokyo Electric, or Tepco, also released a smaller batch of more recent documents highlighting its various efforts to restore electric power to each of the reactors, a task that was achieved on April 26. But a series of what Tepco terms reactor "diaries" from the first 48 hours after the quake include the most visually arresting materials. These feature snapshots of whiteboards on which plant employees—11 of whom remained in each of the plant's three control rooms—jotted down status updates on the progress of the reactor shutdowns and steadily increasing radiation levels around the facility.

Using red, black or blue ink markers, the plant operators appear to have scribbled down the notes quickly. Many are smudged or illegible. Others depict complex diagrams and are peppered with technical jargon or acronyms such as SBO for "station blackout." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281504576329011846064194.html

Part of the Radiological Assistance Program (RAP) team, region five, their normal operating ground covers 10 Midwestern states—but this time their expertise was needed abroad. Trained in radiation detection and monitoring, RAP teams are on call twenty-four hours a day to respond to any release of radiological materials in the U.S. When the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi began to emit radioactive material, the Department of Energy’s national emergency response assets, including several RAP teams, responded to calls from both the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. military. They wanted guidelines on protecting U.S. citizens and military personnel stationed in Japan from radiation hazards; but this raised the enormous task of finding out how much radiation had been dispersed.

In late March, several Argonne members flew to Japan to take over shifts from the initial response team members, who had been working around the clock to take measurements at U.S. military bases, other U.S. interests, and elsewhere in the 50-mile radius around the reactors. On the ground, small teams set out to comb the earthquake-stricken countryside, radiation detectors in tow. They took hundreds of readings and collected soil samples, mostly between the 20-80 kilometer zone from the plant. They ran into challenges right away.

"One of the problems we ran into was accessibility," said Dave Chamberlain, an Argonne chemical engineer with RAP. "When you practice going out to get samples, the classic technique is to divide the area into a grid and take samples say, every 10 meters. But many of the areas we were sampling in Japan were mountainous, forested and damaged by earthquakes, so you can't stick to the grid plan. We were often limited to roadside sampling." "The other difficulty was that we wanted samples from ground that hadn't been disturbed since the accident," explained Chamberlain. "If someone had plowed or watered the ground, it changes the dynamics of the distribution—and that time of year is rice planting season in Japan."

A recent headline on the six crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactors read: “40 microSv/h detected from radioactive gravel site used for schools, homes — Measured one meter above source,” Jan 21, 2012. I asked Physicist Dr. Paolo Scampa, PhD. of the AIPRI Blog fame, what this translates to for everyday people, their kids and families. The Fukushima nuclear tragedy is still going on after 335 days as of Wed, Feb 08, 2012 affecting the entire world.

US Imperial Unit Measurements Dr. Scampa stated

“An absorbed dose of 40 microSievert/hour at one Meter or about 39 inches above the ground, means a radioactive deposit creating an average of 12,330,000.00 Cesium 137 nuclear explosions per second (Becquerels) for every 39 inches square over much of the Northern Hemisphere. Further, the radiation is spreading rapidly through the air. The Earth’s  surface is covered with many deadly radioactive isotopes from the six crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactors.”  “This is 22 times more Radiation than the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) decreed for the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor Disaster Exclusion Zone when they said everyone had to leave.

This morning Pieter, Xeni and I (pictured above) set out with Miles, along with father/son superteam Joe and Bryan Moross. The plan was to drop off a few Geiger counters with volunteers and try to cover some some new ground, perhaps near the exclusion zone. But it ended up being so much more.

The day began in Shinjuku around close to 7:30am when we picked up a rental car, this was a large group with a lot of gear so we had a need for two vehicles and the usual Safecast car on it’s own wasn’t quite enough. We wasted no time and started driving north. Depending on where you are in the city, background radiation levels in Tokyo hover right around 50 CPM which is only slightly higher than what we believe they were prior to 3/11 though we weren’t measuring things then so can’t be positive. For our purposes we are assuming the average around the country was 35 CPM which is worth noting before I start mentioning numbers going forward. It wasn’t too long in our trip before we hit our first hotspot in Nasu.

Our first stop was Nihonmatsu which is not too far from Koriyama to meet up with some volunteers in the area and hand out a few new sensors for them to take measurements with. We met at restaurant and of course started measuring things the moment we set foot in the parking lot. Levels were noticeably higher than we’d seen just a few hours prior in Tokyo.

The anonymous Fukushima I Nuke Plant worker whom I featured before several times tweets on the information, yet to be substantiated, related by an independent journalist Kota Kinoshita on his blog on August 15. Mr. Kinoshita related the information only because he had heard the similar information from his government source. What is that information? That there is steam gushing out of cracks on the ground, and that there are 6 locations that exceed 10 sieverts/hr radiation. 1. About "steam gushing out from cracks on the ground": In Mr. Kinoshita's blog:

It was early August, around 9PM. A worker at Fukushima I Nuke Plant sent an email to his local contact, saying "Steam gushing out of cracks on the ground. The area is foggy with steam, and the workers evacuated temporarily. Some kind of reaction may be occurring underground. Watch out for radiation level depending on the wind direction".

From the information source within the government, "I've heard about the steam coming out from the ground, and I am concerned". Fukushima worker's tweet:

As Canadians learned about dangerous radiation falling on them in rain on Tuesday as far east as Toronto registered at 20,000 CPM, equivalent to the highly targeted dose of radiation for cancer radiotherapy,  the Fukushima catastrophe escalated even higher Wednesday with evidence that the ground is cracking under the crippled nuclear power plant, causing radioactive steam to escape, "very serious and alarming" according to Anissa Naouai's guest on Russia Today, Dr. Robert Jacobs, Professor of nuclear history at Hiroshima Peace Institute. 

Fukushima nuclear plant workers have reported that the ground under the facility is cracking and radioactive steam is already escaping through the cracks that Dr. Jacobs says is very serious and alarming development because it has happened after two large earthquakes over the past few weeks according to Russia Today. (See embedded Russia Today interviewing Dr. Jacobs on Youtube video on this page left.) "There was a 6.4 earthquake on the 31st of July and a 6.0 earthquake on August 12th," Dr. Jacobs told Russia Today's Naoiai.

"What this indicates is there may have been some breaking of the pipes and some of the structures underground that happened during these earthquakes," he said. "There could be radioactive water that is venting into the soil and what's more, as cracks are opening, the steam and radioactivity is working its way up," he said.

"Radiation? What radiation?" must be the message from the Ministry which has been doing the aerial survey of radiation in Tohoku and Kanto.They did Tokyo and Kanagawa from September 14 to 18, using one helicopter that flew 10 times over the area. The radiation detection device on board the helicopter measured gamma radiation from the radioactive materials deposited on the ground from 150 to 300 meters off the ground. The measurement of about 300 to 600 meters radius below the helicopter is then averaged out. Here's the report by the Ministry (PDF).As far as I know, there is no plan for the national government to conduct the ground-level measurement outside Fukushima Prefecture.First, let's take a look at Tokyo.Air radiation level at 1 meter off the ground:

Many residents have been measuring the radiation on the ground level in Tokyo, so have many organizations. Their measurement suggests much lighter blue colors for the eastern most one-quarter of Tokyo.Cesium-134 and-137 deposition:

ABIKO, Chiba -- High levels of radiation have been detected on the premises of two elementary schools here, local education authorities have revealed. According to the Abiko Municipal Board of Education, 11.3 microsieverts of radiation per hour was detected just above the surface of the ground near a ditch in the compounds of the Abiko Municipal Daiichi Elementary School on Sept. 15. The amount was 1.7 microsieverts in the air 50 centimeters above the ground. Soil had piled up in the ditch, which had been damaged by growing tree roots, a situation similar to a residential area of the Chiba Prefecture city of Kashiwa where 57.5 microsieverts per hour was detected. Radioactive cesium amounting to 60,768 becquerels per 1 kilogram of soil was found in the ditch.

The amount of radiation 50 centimeters above the ground had declined to 0.6 microsieverts per hour by Oct. 7 after the soil was removed. The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry pointed to the possibility that rain water contaminated with radioactive cesium overflowed from the ditch, soaked the nearby soil and accumulated in it. At the Abiko Municipal Namiki Elementary School, 10.1 microsieverts per hour of radiation was detected near the surface of the ground where sludge removed from its swimming pool had been buried. The school covered the area with a waterproof tarp and piled up dirt on the tarp to decrease the radiation emissions, after which 0.6 microsieverts per hour was detected 50 centimeters above the ground. The two schools have sealed off the areas where high levels of radiation were detected.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission may force the nation’s nuclear power plants to reevaluate their earthquake detection and safety systems and the manner in which they calculate their resistance to earthquakes as a result of unexpected damage to American and foreign reactor complexes caused by recent earthquakes.

The decision to send a formal Augmented Inspection Team followed the notification by Dominion Power, which owns and operates the North Anna plants that the ground motion of the Virginia earthquake, measured at 5.8 in magnitude, “may have exceeded the ground motion for which it was designed.”

All of the nation’s nuclear power plants, which were designed in the 1950s and 1960s, were supposed to be able to handle the acceleration of the ground motion and shaking associated with the largest historically recorded earthquake within a 50 mile radius of the site. For North Anna, a ground motion of .12 of normal gravity is the “design basis” incorporated into the plant’s license. That was based on an earthquake of a magnitude 4.8, and the plant was designed to withstand the gravitational tug resulting from an earthquake of 5.1 in magnitude.

Construction of an underground barrier at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant to prevent leaking radioactive materials from reaching ground water will begin this year and be completed in about two years, plans released on Aug. 31 revealed.

The plans, announced by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), include use of a workboat and a temporary pier by the plant to speed up construction. According to the utility, the barrier will be built of between 600 and 700 22-meter-long steel sheet piles driven into the ground and stretch some 800 meters. The approximate 10-meter space between the steel barrier and the existing dike will also be filled with concrete.

Simulations conducted using benign substances that mimic the properties of radioactive materials showed the barrier at the coastal plant would stop the dangerous materials from reaching the ocean. The barrier is expected to last for 30 years.

First it was "it cannot be from Fukushima I Nuke Plant" when the radiation measured was 57.5 microsieverts/hour.Then it was "it may be from Fukushima I Nuke Plant, and it may not be" when the density turned out to be 276,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. But since the density was very high, the suspicion was voiced all around (including me) that someone secretly dumped the radioactive sludge or dirt, possibly from cleaning out his yard, onto that location.The Ministry's current position: "It is highly likely that radioactive cesium is from Fukushima I Nuke Plant, and radioactive cesium has been condensed at that particular location because the storm drain nearby was broken."So radioactive cesium from Fukushima I Nuke Plant has been naturally concentrated by elements, 200 kilometers away from the plant, to the density level on par with those found in Fukushima. The Kashiwa City's dirt contains almost as much radioactive cesium in the dirt in the location in Watari District (link is in Japanese) in Fukushima City where 300,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was found (also near the drain).

Points from the Ministry's announcement on October 23, 2011 "Result of the investigation of Kashiwa City's location with high air radiation" (my translation, not the Ministry's):On receiving the result of the soil analysis on October 22 where maximum 276,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected, the Ministry sent two officials, along with three experts from Japan Atomic Energy Agency on October 23 to Kashiwa City to consult with the local officials in charge of radiation countermeasures.The Ministry's survey of the location included measuring air radiation levels at the location and nearby, and investigating the surroundings to figure out what caused the high radiation level.Survey result:Maximum 2.0 microsieverts/hour 1 meter off the groundMaximum 4.5 microsieverts/hour 50 centimeter off the groundMaximum 15 microsieverts/hour on the ground

Typical air radiation levels in the surrounding area at 1 meter off the ground was 0.3 microsievert/hour.A 50-centimeter wide breach was found in the side drain (30-centimeter deep) next to the location with the high air radiation. This breach was close to the spot where cesium-134 (half life 2 years) was detected. We therefore presume that the rainwater containing radioactive cesium that came from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident flowed in from the breach in the side drain, and radioactive cesium was condensed and accumulated in the soil at that particular location.Asahi Shinbun (10/23/2011) has the picture of the broken side drain.

Atomic Age Symposium II: Fukushima, May 5, 2012 – Session III Roundtable Published: August 22, 2012 Published by: University of Chicago

Hiroaki Koide, nuclear reactor specialist and Assistant Professor at Kyoto University’s Nuclear Research Institute: The problem right now is not figuring out what the cause of the explosion [at Unit 3] is, but where in the world is the melted nuclear material that is in the plant right now? Unfortunately we have no way of figuring this out… We can’t go in and look… there’s nothing we can do at this point… Like I said we have no idea where the melted nuclear core is at this point… 100 tons [was in reactor]…

Fell through steel reactor… So where did the melted material go from there? It fell into the containment vessel and what is that made of? Also steel. But what Tepco has been telling us is that underneath that steel is a floor of cement and that cement hasn’t melted yet. But it’s not as if Tepco has gone there and seen if this is the case or anything like that. It’s based on calculations that they claimed to have worked out that way. But I don’t believe it for one second.

After the nuclear catastrophe that followed the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last spring, some Central Virginia activists cautioned that a similar nightmare could unfold right here at the Dominion-operated North Anna nuclear generating plant in Louisa County. Despite Dominion's assurances that the plant made it through the August 23 earthquake unscathed, activists contend that the quake, which measured 5.8 on the Richter Scale and had an epicenter just eleven miles from the plant, may have been more catastrophic than anyone is admitting. New information bolsters their fears.

On Monday, August 29, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that the quake may, in fact, have produced force that exceeded the North Anna plant's specifications and that the Commission is sending a special Augmented Inspection Team to assess the damage.

Initial reviews determined the plant may have exceeded the ground motion for which it was designed," says the release, which also assures that "no significant damage to safety systems has been identified."

France's CEREA has the simulation map of ground deposition of cesium-137 from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident on its "Fukushima" page. It not only shows Japan but also the entire northern Pacific Rim, from Russian Siberia to Alaska to the West Coast of the US to the entire US. According to the map, the US, particularly the West Coast and particularly California, may be more contaminated with radioactive cesium than the western half of Japan or Hokkaido. It looks more contaminated than South Korea or China. Canada doesn't look too well either, particularly along the border with US on the western half.

From CEREA's Fukushima page: Atmospheric dispersion of radionuclides from the Fukushima-Daichii nuclear power plant CEREA, joint laboratory École des Ponts ParisTech and EdF R&D Victor Winiarek, Marc Bocquet, Yelva Roustan, Camille Birman, Pierre Tran Map of ground deposition of caesium-137 for the Fukushima-Daichii accident. The simulation was performed with a specific version of the numerical atmospheric chemistry and transport model Polyphemus/Polair3D. The parametrisations used for the transport and physical removal of the radionuclides are described in [1,2,3,4]. The magnitude of the deposition field is uncertain and the simulated values of deposited radionuclides could be significantly different from the actual deposition. In particular, the source term remains uncertain. Therefore, these results should be seen as preliminary and they are likely to be revised as new information become available to better constrain the source term and when radionuclides data can be used to evaluate the model simulation results.

The page also has the animated simulation of cesium-137 dispersion from March 11 to April 6, 2011. If the Japanese think they are the only ones who have the radiation and radioactive fallout from the accident, they are very much mistaken, if the simulation is accurate. (Meteorological institutes and bureaus in Austria, Germany, and Norway all had similar simulation maps.) Radioactive materials spewed out of Fukushima I Nuke Plant went up and away on the jet stream, reaching the other side of the Pacific. When the fallout from explosions (March 14, 15) reached the US West Coast, it came with an unusually heavy rainfall in California.

In Chernobyl, 0.09 uSv/h → Children started having symptoms. (near radiation level as westen Tokyo) 0.16 uSv/h → Adults got leukemia within 5 years. (near radiation level as Adachiku) 0.232 uSv/h → Mandatory evacuation area in Cheronobyl. (near radiation level as Asakusa or Tokyo Disneyland) I received a lot of queries. I would like to add some more explanation to this. This is a lecture of Ms. Noro Mika, who runs the NPO “Bridge to Chernobyl”

She has been visiting Chernobyl for 25 years and help children to accept in Hokkaido for one month etc.. Currently, the radiation levels in some parts of Kanto area are 3 mSv/year. Annotator’s comment: According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the numerical values announced by the local government prove only the emission of gamma rays. The iodine and the cesium decay while emitting beta rays. If we have to deal strictly with gamma rays emissions, the degree of contamination can be understood, but we can’t measure the level of individual external exposure. Besides, the numerical values detected at the monitoring posts are measured at 10m above the ground level or even more.

In Chernobyl, an area 30 km from the nuclear plant, where the radiation level was 0.232 μSv/hour, was declared “no-entry zone”. In Chernobyl, in area where radiation levels were daily even 0.16 μSv/hour have been admitted as being dangerous, and in fact, adults got leukemia and died. Annotator: In case, in Kamakura, were I live, the level is 0.16 μSv/hour. Concerning the gamma dose rate in a certain spots one meter above the ground level, the radiation levels declared officially for Kamakura city are generally between 0.11〜0.14 μSv/hour. Radioactivity, in case of of iron, concrete, etc causes the oxidation and corrosion, but in humans accelerates the aging process and cause them sickness.

Since the end of June when the contaminated water treatment system started the operation, total 50,000 tonnes of groundwater have seeped into the reactor buildings and turbine buildings at Fukushima I Nuke Plant. Now, the total amount of contaminated water (highly contaminated water plus not-so-highly contaminated, treated water) at the plant has grown from 127,000 tonnes at the end of June to 175,000 tonnes as of October 18, according to Asahi Shinbun.Does TEPCO have any plan to stop the flow of groundwater into the reactor buildings and turbine buildings, which just adds to the amount of highly contaminated water to be treated and stored? TEPCO is fast running out of storage space, even with cutting down more trees to make room for the storage tanks.Other than spraying the low-contamination, treated water on the premise, the answer is no. No plan, as TEPCO is running out of money that it is willing to spend on Fukushima I Nuke Plant.From Asahi Shinbun (10/19/2011):

It has been discovered that the contaminated water has increased by 40% in 4 months inside the reactor buildings and turbine buildings at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, with the inflow of ground water of about 50,000 tonnes. The flow still continues. TEPCO may run out of storage space for the treated, still-contaminated, water. There is also a possibility of the highly contaminated water overflowing from the buildings if a problem at the water treatment facility and a heavy rain coincide.

According to the calculation done by Asahi Shinbun based on the data published by TEPCO, about 450 tonnes of ground water per day have been flowing into the buildings of Reactors 1 through 4 since the end of June when the contaminated water treatment facility started the operation. It is considered that there are damages in the walls of the buildings.

Neutron ray was measured in Tokyo. This is the screen shot of the moment when they measured it in a car, around Toranomon, where is near Tokyo tower.(10/18/2011)

Before 311, average neutron ray was 4 nSv/h. After 311, it’s 464 nSv/h (116 times higher than before 311). Neutron ray is emitted from Uranium 235. In one of the worst hot spots in Chiba, Kashiwa shi, citizens detected Uranium 235. It was right beside a bench in Matsuba daiichi kinrin park. 10/11/2011 9:40 AM ~ 10:30 AM 1.2 m high from the ground Background 0.372 μSv/h 80.0 keV,　Unsorted type of radioactive material = 254 Count 191 keV,　LEU（low enriched uranium = 180 Count 594 keV,　Cs-134 = 221 Count 655 keV,　Cs-137 = 208 Count

15 mm high from the ground Background 0.628 μSv/h 30.2 keV,　Cs-137 = 621 Count 188 keV,　LEU（low enriched uranium = 156 Count 594 keV,　Cs-134 = 467 Count 654 keV,　Cs-137 = 412 Count In Kashiwa, even from the height of 1.2, they can measure Uranium 235. They are all scattered on the ground and they all emit neutron ray. Here is the video of the moment when they measure neutron ray.（In Tochigi）

The Need for Independent Assessment of the Fourth Reactor, Gordon Edwards, Ph.D., October 25, 2011: “In his recent blog, entitled “The Fourth Reactor and the Destiny of Japan”, Akio Matsumura correctly identifies the spent fuel pool in Unit 4 as the most serious potential threat for further massive radioactive releases from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.” The Fourth Reactor and the Destiny of Japan, Akio Matsumura, September 29, 2011:

“I, along with many eminent scientists, are emphasizing the precarious situation of the fourth reactor that contains 1,535 nuclear fuel rods in the pool and is balanced on the second floor, outside of the reactor containment vessel. If the fuel rods spill onto the ground, disaster will ensue and force Tokyo and Yokohama to close, creating a gigantic evacuation zone. All scientists I have talked with say that if the structure collapses we will be in a situation well beyond where science has ever gone. The destiny of Japan will be changed and the disaster will certainly compromise the security of neighboring countries and the rest of the world in terms of health, migration and geopolitics. The Japanese government should immediately create an independent assessment team to determine the structural integrity of the spent fuel pool and its supporting structure. This is of the highest importance: the structure’s security is critical to the country’s future.” h/t Anonymous tip About Akio Matsumura Throughout his long career at the United Nations and other organizations he has brought together the unlikeliest of people: Arafat and Rabin, Chinese government officials and the Dalai Lama, and many more.