zamg.ac.at/pict/wetter/sonde … 1_FUKU.gif
first time (as far as i know) that the austrian weatherservice provided the radiation wind spread animation for the next days on a global scale instead of only for east asia.
Hot news from a possibly hotter place:
“Radiation, aftershocks could slow Fukushima stabilization”
asahi.com/english/TKY201104190193.html
[quote]High levels of radiation discovered at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant could disrupt Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s timeline for a cold shutdown of the crippled facility […].
On April 18 unexpectedly high levels of radiation were detected in water in the storage pool containing spent fuel rods in the No. 2 reactor […].[/quote]
“Robots face difficulties at Fukushima plant”
www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20_06.html
[quote]The company began using remote-controlled robots to explore the first three reactor buildings on Sunday and Monday.
At the Number 2 reactor building, the robot’s camera lens was instantly clouded by high humidity.[/quote]
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Not only hot also wet…
“Levels of radioactive water rising despite efforts”
www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/21_03.html
So here we have something to base a calculation on: 10 tons of water an hour being pumped into the facility means 2400 tons per day at reactor 2 alone…
[quote]TEPCO says the toxic water level in a tunnel near the turbine building was 2 centimeters lower as of 6 PM on Wednesday. But it says because there was no change in the water level in the basement of the turbine building, the leaking of toxic water into the basement appears to be continuing.
The utility company also says the water level in a tunnel linked to the Number 3 reactor has been rising several centimeters a day for the past week.[/quote]
No comment…
WTF? (Those are the two reactors that are somewhat separated from the other 4 and have not been seen any explosion damage.)
So the estimated 50,000 tons are now 67,000 tons… hm…
Gotta run - will analyize the Japanese reports that are more detailed and post (translated) excerpts later…
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Information from related Japanese pages is more detailed but in essence the same as the information shown above. Other points being mentioned:
-
the water level in the basement of reactor 2 has not changed but has slightly decreased in a contraption referred to as “trench”
-
the 67,500 tons of water that are estimated to be have collected in the power plant are preventing necessary repair work
-
contaminated water is being pumped at a rate of 10 tons per hour from reactor 2 to a special processing facility
(That matches the 10 tons per hour that are reported to be pumped into the reactor and also matches previous - until now unexplained - reports of the water level not changing much)
References: www3.nhk.or.jp/news/genpatsu-fuk … _0420.html
www3.nhk.or.jp/news/genpatsu-fukushima/ (on April 21) - this means that after midnight of
April 21 (Japan time) the latter page will be renamed to www3.nhk.or.jp/news/genpatsu-fuk … _0421.html
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Way to go Ryan the Third. Good call! Now I want to know what’s up with the cesium count in Taiwan. It’s all over mainland China but no report of it here! Something seems fishy about that. Does anyone have any info about this?
Getting a little paranoid here in Taoyuan.
The hot season is not over yet in Fukushima…
Looking back on what happened in the early days of April:
“Radiation 20,000 Times Annual Limit Leaks into Sea Off N-Plant”
jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2011042100600
And about that water in the basement and elsewhere:
Various bits of information in this article of the Wallstreet Journal:
online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 … 67622.html
“Traces of Radioiodine Detected in Mother’s Milk”
jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2011042000938
This had been in the making for a while:
“Japan bans residents from staying within 20-km from Fukushima plant”
english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/86858.html
“Japan to Impose 20km No-Entry Zone around Crippled Nuke Plant”
jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2011042100493
… but i am puzzled: they were previously talking about extending the zone… is there another step to come yet?
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No info, but some observations:
- “China” is a vast place - stuff being “all over mainland China” does not tell us much…
- Looking at the weather map at jma.go.jp/jp/g3/ (last updated April 21, 21:00 at the time of posting), we see that at this time the wind in Fukushima should be blowing from the southeast or thereabouts, carrying fallout over northern Japan and into Russia…
- The kind of weather that we’ve seen for the last few weeks, cold periods alternating with mild periods, is typical for the late winter/spring season - it also means that from time to time air flows from Japan toward Taiwan, so it i would expect some fallout to have reached Taiwan, too.
BTW, have you been able to make any use of the site at 203.69.102.242/gammadetect.php ? I can’t get anything from it, since it calls for some plugin that i don’t have (i suspect Flash).
[quote=“yuli”]
BTW, have you been able to make any use of the site at 203.69.102.242/gammadetect.php ? I can’t get anything from it, since it calls for some plugin that I don’t have (i suspect Flash).[/quote]
It’s Flash, yes. I’m watching that site pretty much every day - the values are oscillating a bit (as you’d expect) but I’ve never seen a significant increase. Obviously I can’t know whether these values are obtained correctly, but just from watching them: nothing significant appears to be happening in Taiwan as far as gamma radiation is concerned.
Well, I don’t think Taiwan’s political system is perfect, and neither is Taiwan’s media. However if the DPP could show that the government had hidden information, that would be a nice political coup for them, wouldn’t it? These checks and balances are one of the automatic benefits of living in a democratic society- don’t see why it wouldn’t work in this case. Apart from that, there is worldwide information available, I can’t really imagine a university in Germany would care about the political machinations in Taiwan.
I found some interesting information from the university of Cologne (http://www.eurad.uni-koeln.de/).
Here is their model for distribution of radioactivity at surface height:
This is only a model - so we are seeing calculations, not measured data. However looking at that it appears that - most of the time - the meteorological situation should be quite favorable for Taiwan.
woweather.com/weather/news/f … s137&HH=46
The link above is weather online. It is keeping track of the Austrian detection instruments and it predicts as well as tells past wind currents, radioisotope spreads and stays up to date… apparently.
It makes it look as if Taiwan is the safest place in the world right now. I was thinking of taking off back to Florida. Don’t the isotopes decay and lose their effect as they reach out over the world. The further you are from them, the less the health risk, right? Would it be safer in Taiwan or Europe/USA?
I don’t know whether the level of gamma radiation can tell us enough about what is not happening, but it is at least one indicator one should keep an eye on…
I think the information coming from the measuring station in Okinawa is more indiciative of what particles are drifting our way - have a look again at this information:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=97140&hilit=Okinawa&start=673
Now, the information coming from there is not directly accessible to the public, but it is available to monitoring and research facilities all over the world, so it would be very difficult to keep things a secret if the situation in Fukushima got worse…
Yes. Major fallout could not be hidden from the public - but information that is more subtle does not automatically flow into our hands, we have to go and search it out…
Thanks for that informaiton - and there are more sites one can keep an eye on in our region, as well, such as pnri.dost.gov.ph/
It’s probably not (neither when it comes to radiation risks in general nor when it comes to various other risks), but from now on until next winter the wind will generally blow in ways that make a direct flow of fallout from Japan to Taiwan unlikely. Indirectly it is, of course, reaching all “corners” of the world sooner or later…
And the issue of decay: there are two effects to consider, dilution and decay. For example, the amount of radiation coming from a given quantity of long-lived isotope like Cesium-137 does not appreciably decrease in half a year, while that of Iodine-131 does. When radioactive material gets spread by wind and ocean currents, it also gets diluted. On the long run there is, of course, the issue of bio-accumulation, and there is no way to say radiation is safe at any level. But it is all a matter of balance: there are levels people have been living with, and one way or another we will have to live with whatever we get from Fukushima now, too…
BTW, talking about Cesium-137 gets us back to the matter of measuring gamma radiation: Cesium-137 emits gamma radiation, and it invariably shows up at times of a nuclear accident or a nuclear bomb being detonated, so not seeing any increase in gamma radiation in Taiwan would indicate that not much Cesium is floating over here from Fukushima… If you want to know more, read up on the radioactivity of Iodine-131, Cesium-137 and Strontium-90: those are the elements we need to be concerned most, i think.
And something about groundwater pollution:
physicsforums.com/showpost.p … count=4517
physicsforums.com/showpost.p … count=4526
There are links in these posts you can follow (most of the information is in English) - no idea how reliable the data are, but they are not telling a good story, that’s pretty clear…
Some may recall that i had previously reported why TEPCO never reported any other value but “over 1000milliSievert” when they measured something that was higher - the law requires no more from them than to report that. And we have noticed that they have been releasing videos of rather poor quality to the public - as far as i know there is no law that would compel them to share any of the high-resolution footage they surely must have gotten from using the drone he US made available. In this context you may find this exchange of information and opinions from another forum of interest - here are some posts in the order they appeared:
physicsforums.com/showpost.p … count=4510
physicsforums.com/showpost.p … count=4511
physicsforums.com/showpost.p … count=4513
physicsforums.com/showpost.p … count=4541
(Notice the comment about Japan…)
I think the levels are higher in the midwest USA than in Taiwan… still, all places are very low.
Hey does anyone know where we can get readings for Taiwan. I keep having to go to other websites from other countries and then conjecture.
[quote=“yuli”]Some may recall that I had previously reported why TEPCO never reported any other value but “over 1000milliSievert” when they measured something that was higher - the law requires no more from them than to report that. And we have noticed that they have been releasing videos of rather poor quality to the public - as far as I know there is no law that would compel them to share any of the high-resolution footage they surely must have gotten from using the drone he US made available. In this context you may find this exchange of information and opinions from another forum of interest - here are some posts in the order they appeared:
physicsforums.com/showpost.p … count=4510
physicsforums.com/showpost.p … count=4511
physicsforums.com/showpost.p … count=4513
physicsforums.com/showpost.p … count=4541
(Notice the comment about Japan…)[/quote]
Thanx for the update,yuli. There has been doubt as to the validity or reports and missing data since this thing started. Many environmental activists are going balistic right now. I hope more people start realizing the gravity of this situation and start making plans to proteect themself and loved ones if need be.
Last question… I am a big p#$$Y when it comes to this. I am afraid that I am going to have cancer in five or ten years if I stay in Taiwan due to Iodine, Cesium and Strontium. I’m afraid that if I don’t get on the next plane out of here, that I will be exposed to this in my drinking water, food and air. Am I overreacting? I want to head out of here as soon as Monday through Guangzhou to L.A. to Orlando, Florida.
You were saying that Cesium can be measured by the radiation monitoring. So if Taiwan is say, .065 on the website, does that mean that Cesium is still extremely low and practically safe/non-existent? Help me to make sense of this, because I am ignorant concerning this and I know, you probably have better things to do, but please humor me as you are vastly more educated on this subject. I apologize for my lack of knowledge and persistent bugging.
The Mediterranean
If you really want to worry about, let’s start with the lead in the gas fumes you breathe every day. Go on with the chemicals from silicon factorie sin your water when you bathe, followed by whatever melanine and palstic residuals in your food utensils and that brand watch you wear. Continue with the breakfast of antibiotics and bleach -chicken and white flour- plus your smogasboard of herbicides and persticides in veggies and fruits. At least we do not have GMOs… yet.
I’ll be a lot more worried about whatever bug is in fashion nowadays in Guanzhou than of any radiation. Do I have to name names?
So, you see my friend, we wer having cancer inducing substances way before, and in quiantitie sfar greater than whatever radiation is currently reaching us. Worried about ten years on? Worry now. Do your bit for the environment. You will see that when you do a bit to clean up and gain control, you will feel empowered and those fears will find a rational outlet.
[quote=“Mediterranean”]
So if Taiwan is say, .065 on the website, does that mean that Cesium is still extremely low and practically safe/non-existent? Help me to make sense of this, because I am ignorant concerning this and I know, you probably have better things to do, but please humor me as you are vastly more educated on this subject. I apologize for my lack of knowledge and persistent bugging.
The Mediterranean[/quote]
I think small amounts of radio active contamination will not show up on these measurements.
The problem with eating radio active isotopes is that it will emit a high doses of radiation in its nearest surroundings.
There is no way to compare this to a chest x-ray or anything like that.
I think the west coast of the US has more to worry about that than we do here in Taiwan.
Yes. Simply put, if the wind carries dust containing Cesium-137 (a radioactive substance that invariably shows up whenever nuclear bombs are tested or power plants “burp”), even a radiation measuring station checking only for gamma radiation will notice it. You can think of gamma radiation measuring station as first level alarms, so to say: they tell us there is something unusual going on, but we don’t know what is going on until we analyze the dust that sets off the alarm in more detail.
We don’t know what that means, unless we compare that value with values that were measured at other times, at least with values from before March 12. From what i have read, nobody is particularly concerned with Taiwan in the current situation, because Taiwan is not in the downwind path of central Japan.
[quote=“Hamletintaiwan”]The problem with eating radio active isotopes is that it will emit a high doses of radiation in its nearest surroundings.
There is no way to compare this to a chest x-ray or anything like that. [/quote]
The reason for that is easy to understand: radioactive isotopes that stay in the body, once inhaled or ingested - isotopes such as Iodine-131 (if no preventative measures have been/are taken) as well as Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 - cause damage buy continuously emitting particle radiation from. An x-ray exposes the body to a short burst of radiation that is like a weak gamma radiation and involves no particles that are being inhaled or ingested - not even any particles that attach to the body from the outside…
Possibly - but in order to know that someone would have to compare values of various recently arrived radioisotopes found in dust in the air or on the ground (for example, after having been washed out by the rain)…
I am in no position to make any predictions about the future, but as of this morning at least, it looked liked there is no higher exposure to fallout from the power plant in Fukushima in Taiwan than in most parts of the rest of the world - in fact less exposure than central and north Japan, the east coast of Russia and perhaps northern China.
Going to Florida may alleviate other problems, but looks to me irrelevant as regards the current situation: the situation in Fukushima may become worse in the future, but in Florida, too, something bad could happen in the future - but i will, for obvious reasons, abstain from any predictions (and also only admit speculation that is based on evidence that conforms to the laws of nature as we know them). 