3/26/2012 Tokyo Soil – Blanketed With Fukushima Radiation – Would Be Considered “Radioactive Waste” In the United States

Source: Washington's Blog
Date: 3/26/2012

Tokyo Slammed with Radiation

We noted in August that some parts of Tokyo have more radiation than existed in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zones. And see this and this.

There are indications that radiation levels are increasing in Tokyo.

Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen took 5 random soil samples in Tokyo recently, and found that all 5 were so radioactive that they would be considered radioactive waste in the United States, which would have to be specially disposed of at a facility in Texas:

Tokyo Soil Samples Would Be Considered Nuclear Waste In The US from Fairewinds Energy Education on Vimeo.
Video Description

While traveling in Japan several weeks ago, Fairewinds’ Arnie Gundersen took soil samples in Tokyo public parks, playgrounds, and rooftop gardens.

All the samples would be considered nuclear waste if found here in the US. This level of contamination is currently being discovered throughout Japan.

At the US NRC Regulatory Information Conference in Washington, DC March 13 to March 15, the NRC's Chairman, Dr. Gregory Jaczko emphasized his concern that the NRC and the nuclear industry presently do not consider the costs of mass evacuations and radioactive contamination in their cost benefit analysis used to license nuclear power plants.

Furthermore, Fairewinds believes that evacuation costs near a US nuclear plant could easily exceed one trillion dollars and contaminated land would be uninhabitable for generations.

Indeed, shortly after the earthquake, U.S. government officials noted widespread contamination throughout northern Japan, including Tokyo, and said:

Entire region would be required to be posted as radiological area.

No wonder the potential evacuation of Tokyo has been quietly discussed by Japanese officials ever since the earthquake hit.

11/16/2011 Land in parts of Japan 'too radioactive to farm'

Source: The Telegraph
Date: 1:33PM GMT 15 Nov 2011

Farmland in parts of Japan is no longer safe because of high levels of radiation in the soil, scientists have warned, as the country struggles to recover from the Fukushima atomic disaster.

A deserted field and buildings inside the contaminated exclusion zone Photo: David Guttenfelder/Bloomberg

A team of international researchers said food production would likely be "severely impaired" by the elevated levels of caesium found in soil samples across eastern Fukushima in the wake of meltdowns at the tsunami-hit plant.
...
Read full article here

10/10/2011 Nuclear decontamination to begin in Japan

Source: NHK World
Date: 10/10/2011
by: Catherine Kobayashi and Keiko Kitagawa

Part 1: Decontamination plan compiled http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/10_24.html

The Japanese Environment Ministry has come up with a revised plan to clear away radioactive substances from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

It announced details on Monday at a meeting of a panel of experts.

Ministry officials say decontamination will be carried out in areas where radiation levels are higher than 1 millisievert per year.

The ministry revised an earlier plan to only decontaminate places with more than 5 millisieverts per year. Municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture that have areas with less than 5 millisieverts argued they should be included in the cleanup.

The government will be responsible for the decontamination of no-entry zones and government-designated evacuation zones. Local governments will clean up the rest of the affected areas.

Areas with radiation levels higher than 20 millisieverts per year will be reduced stage by stage as soon as possible.

In areas with less than 20 millisieverts per year, radiation levels recorded at the end of August will be cut up to 60 per cent in the next 2 years.

Environment Ministry officials say the government will help prefectures that have a massive amount of radioactive waste.

The ministry's decontamination plan will be further discussed within the government before being adopted by the Cabinet as the basic national plan.

Monday, October 10, 2011 22:04 +0900 (JST)

Part 2: IAEA team continues observing decontamination http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/10_26.html

Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency have observed the Japanese government's experimental decontamination of a farm in Iitate Village. The land is in Fukushima Prefecture, inside the government-designated evacuation zone.

The 12 experts on the IAEA team arrived in Fukushima on Sunday to give advice about effective methods to clear away radioactive substances.

They visited a rice paddy on Monday where the experimental decontamination is being carried out.

Government officials explained radiation levels were reduced by 75 percent per kilogram of soil after workers removed 4 centimeters of top soil. They also said the dose of radiation in unpolished rice was about 0.1 percent of that of soil.

IAEA experts say these radiation levels are low and pose no problem.

They also inspected a site that uses 400 degree Celsius heat to process plants containing radioactive substances.

Government officials said they contained radioactive cesium within the plants when they converted them into charcoal. They said this method could help reduce the weight of plants.

An IAEA member said it would be necessary to work out a plan to effectively burn massive amounts of plants.

The IAEA experts are meeting Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato on Tuesday, their last day in the prefecture.

Monday, October 10, 2011 22:18 +0900 (JST)

8/22/2011 Tokyo Soil Cesium Radiation Nearly Twice Chernobyl Dead Zone Limit – 919,100 Bq/Sq Meter Detected

Source: Alexander Higgins Blog
Date: August 22, 2011 at 3:35 pm

Radiation soil tests from 150 sites in the Tokyo metropolitan area finds Cesium radiation up to levels limits nearly twice the Chernobyl dead zone evacuation limit of 500,000 Bq/Sq meter.
...
Read full article here

8/11/2011 Schools in Fukushima clearing radioactive dirt, but nowhere to dump it

Source: Asahi Japan Watch
Date: August 11, 2011

Part of the school grounds at the Kashima Elementary School in Minami-Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, exposed a hole dug to a depth of 1.5 meters on Aug. 10. Surface soil removed will be buried in the hole by the end of the summer vacation. (Kengo Hiyoshi)

Nearly 600 schools and other child-related facilities in Fukushima Prefecture have started or soon will start removing ground soil contaminated by radioactive fallout at their facilities, an Asahi Shimbun survey shows.
...
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8/5/2011 City resorts to secret dumping to deal with piles of radioactive dirt

Source: Asahi Shimbun
Date: August 05, 2011

Dump trucks unload bags containing radioactive dirt at a temporary disposal site in Fukushima Prefecture on July 28. (Satoru Murata)

FUKUSHIMA--Deep in the mountains, a 4-ton dump truck unloads burlap bags that land with a thud in a hole shaped like a swimming pool 25 meters long and more than 2 meters deep.
...
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7/30/2011 Japan To Use 1,500 Tons Of Sewage Sludge Too Radioactive To Bury As Soil For Gardening

Source: Alexander Higgins Blog
Date: July 30, 2011 at 12:11 pm

After discovering over 1,500 tons of radioactive sludge with levels of radiation above temporary burial limits Japan is now considering using the radioactive sewage as soil for gardening.
...
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7/20/2011 Fukushima city sows sunflower seeds to decontaminate 'hot spot'

Source: Kyodo News via Japan Today
Date: Jul. 21, 2011 - 05:05AM JST


FUKUSHIMA — Fukushima city officials sowed sunflower seeds Wednesday at a plaza in the city as part of efforts to remove radioactive materials from the soil.

Sunflowers are said to absorb radioactive substances, and the 6,000-square-meter plaza, located on a hillside about 1 kilometer away from the prefectural government offices, is one of the so-called “hot spots” where radiation levels are sporadically higher than other areas.

7/19/2011 Ex Japanese Nuclear Regulator Blames Radioactive Animal Feed on "Black Rain"

Source: Fairewinds Associates
Date: 7/19/2011
by: Arnie Gundersen


While many radioactive cattle have been discovered large distances from Fukushima, what is more important is where their feed is coming from. "It's not only about the radioactive cattle in Fukushima Prefecture; its also about the radioactive straw the cattle eat that was grown elsewhere". Straw found 45 miles from Fukushima is highly contaminated with radioactive cesium, which is an indication that radiation has contaminated large portions of Northern Japan. More than half a million disintegrations per second in a kilogram of straw are comparable to Chernobyl levels. This proves that the American Nuclear Regulatory Commission was correct when it told Americans to evacuate beyond 50 miles and that the Japanese should have done the same. An Ex-Secretariat of Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission blames this contamination on "Black Rain". Rather than minimize the information the Japanese people receive, Gundersen suggests minimizing their radiation exposure."

7/13/2011 (Video) High levels of Cesium-134 (23663 Bq/Kg) and Cesium-137 (28884 Bq/Kg) found in Tokyo metro playground

Source: AustralianCannonball YouTube channel
Date: 7/13/2011 upload date

The video below goes over the shocking lab radionuclide test results of soil taken from a Tokyo playground which a private Japanese citizen payed for with their own money:


Results
Iodine-131: < 20 becquerels/kg
Cesium-134: 23663 becquerels/kg
Cesium-137: 28884 becquerels/kg

For reference, the following chart taken from Bloomberg shows safe food and water limits set by the Japanese government:

================================================================
Prescribed safe limits for radioactive Iodine-131:
================================================================
300 Becquerel per kilogram         Drinking water
300 (Bq/kg)                        Milk, dairy products
2,000 (Bq/kg)                      Vegetables*
                                   (*Except root vegetables and
                                   tubers)
================================================================

================================================================
Prescribed safe limits for radioactive cesium:
================================================================
200 Becquerel per kilogram         Drinking water
200 (Bq/kg)                        Milk, dairy products
500 (Bq/kg)                        Vegetables
500 (Bq/kg)                        Grains
500 (Bq/kg)                        Meat, eggs, fish, etc.
================================================================
Prescribed safe limits for uranium:
================================================================
20 Becquerel per kilogram          Infant foods
20 (Bq/kg)                         Drinking water
20 (Bq/kg)                         Milk, dairy products
100 (Bq/kg)                        Vegetables
100 (Bq/kg)                        Grains
100 (Bq/kg)                        Meat, eggs, fish, etc.
================================================================

================================================================
Prescribed safe limits for alpha-emitting nuclides of plutonium
and transuranic elements:
================================================================
1 Becquerel per kilogram           Infant foods
1 (Bq/kg)                          Drinking water
1 (Bq/kg)                          Milk, dairy products
10 (Bq/kg)                         Vegetables
10 (Bq/kg)                         Grains
10 (Bq/kg)                         Meat, eggs, fish etc.
================================================================

Further testing will be done on the soil sample at a second lab, for other radionuclides.

Also, the above video illustrates that when placing a personal dosimeter (Geiger counter) right on the ground in Kashiwa, which is 23 km from the center of Tokyo, the measurement is astonishingly high showing a peak of 6.59 μSv/hr (microsieverts/hour). For reference, there is only one personal dosimeter shared on Ustream (that I could find), which consistently shows values in whole numbered μSv/hr. This is the GM-fukushima Geiger counter, which normally displays the outdoors levels of an open air cafe in Iitate Village, Fukushima Prefecture.  This is the closest Geiger counter in the Live Streaming Radiation Meters collection to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

7/13/2011 52,547 Bq/Kg Of Cesium Radiation Found In Soil Just Outside Tokyo

Source: examiner.com
Date: 7/13/2011
by: Alexander Higgins

52,547 Bq/Kg of of Cesium radiation measured in soil samples collected just outside of Tokyo over 135 miles south of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

A reader from Japan has sent me a copy of his official Lab results for nuclear radiation soil samples collected in Kashiwa, Japan, which is on the outskirts of Tokyo and over 135 miles south of the Fukushima nuclear reactor. The lab results show that 52,547 Becquerels Per Kilogram Of Cesium Radiation was found in the sample. 23,663 Bq/Kg of Cesium 134 radiation was found. 28,884 Bq/Kg of Cesium 137 was detected.
...
Read full article here

7/5/2011 Japan groups alarmed by radioactive soil

Source: AFP
Date: 7/5/2011

TOKYO — Soil radiation in a city 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Japan's stricken nuclear plant is above levels that prompted resettlement after the Chernobyl disaster, citizens' groups said Tuesday.

The survey of four locations in Fukushima city, outside the nuclear evacuation zone, showed that all soil samples contained caesium exceeding Japan's legal limit of 10,000 becquerels per kilogram (4,500 per pound), they said.

The highest level was 46,540 becquerels per kilogram, and the three other readings were between 16,290 and 19,220 becquerels per kilogram, they said.

The citizens' groups -- the Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation and five other non-governmental organisations -- have called for the evacuation of pregnant women and children from the town.

The highest reading in the city of 290,000 people far exceeded the level that triggered compulsory resettlement ordered by Soviet authorities following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, they said.

Kobe University radiation expert professor Tomoya Yamauchi conducted the survey on June 26 following a request from the groups.

"Soil contamination is spreading in the city," Yamauchi said in a statement. "Children are playing with the soil, meaning they are playing with high levels of radioactive substances. Evacuation must be conducted as soon as possible."

The coastal Fukushima Daiichi plant has been spewing radiation since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out its cooling systems.

7/5/2011 Fukushima residents dump radiated soil in absence of plan

Source: Reuters
Date: Tue Jul 5, 2011 1:33am GMT
by: Antoni Slodkowski

FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - They scoop up soil from their gardens and dump it in holes dug out in parks and nearby forests, scrub their roofs with soap and refuse to let their children play outside. More than three months after a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear meltdown at a nearby power plant, Fukushima residents are scrambling to cope with contamination on their own in the absence of a long-term plan from the government. ... Read full article here

7/2/2011 Radioactive Waste Dumped in Open Pits Outside Los Alamos National Lab

Source: Washington's Blog
Date: 7/1/2011

To understand why a raging wildfire near the Los Alamos National Laboratory is a big deal, you must understand how wastes were disposed.
AP writes today:

Los Alamos Canyon runs past runs past the old Manhattan Project site in town and a 1940s era dump site where workers are near the end of a clean-up project of low-level radioactive waste. The World War II Manhattan Project developed the first atomic bomb, and workers from the era dumped hazardous and radioactive waste in trenches along six acres atop the mesa where the town sits.
“The threat is pretty limited,” said Kevin Smith, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration site manager for Los Alamos, which over sees the lab. “Most of the materials have been dug up.”

But a report produced by the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability found:

Approximately 18 million cubic feet of radioactive and chemical solid wastes onsite were disposed of since 1943. “All of the radioactive waste and most of the chemical waste have been buried on the mesas of Pajarito Plateau where LANL is located. Radioactive liquid wastes were discharged to the canyons, initially with little treatment.”

For many years, one method of disposal was “kick-and-roll”. The back of a truck was brought to the edge of a hole and barrels of waste were kicked. Wherever the barrels rolled tow as their final resting place.

No protection was put in place to ensure contaminants did not spread from the barrel. It is not clear that today’s practices are more protective.

An estimated 899,000 curies of low-level transuranic [i.e. radioactive elements heavier than uranium, such as plutonium] wastes were buried at Los Alamos. It is difficult to estimate exactly the quantity of radionuclides buried onsite due to the inaccurate record keeping and alterations in the definitions of low-elevel waste in the intervening years. Disposal continues today in unlined pits and shafts, a practice declared illegal by the New Mexico Attorney General’s office in 2011...

Tons of plutonium were processed at LANL in the early years of development and again in the 1980s. After the Savannah River Site, LANL contains the second largest volume of plutonium-238 in the US nuclear weapons complex: this type of plutonium has a 90-year half-life, a very high activity and is extremely hazardous...

No wonder people have warned that the trees and soil in the areas surrounding the Los Alamos Laboratory may themselves now be radioactive. See this and this.

5/25/2011 | Soil contamination from Fukushima crisis comparable to Chernobyl: study

Source: Japan Today
Date: Wednesday 25th May, 06:46 AM JST

TOKYO — Radiation released by the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has caused soil contamination matching the levels seen in the Chernobyl disaster in some areas, a researcher told the government’s nuclear policy-setting body Tuesday. ‘‘A massive soil decontamination project will be indispensable before residents in those areas can return,’’ said Tomio Kawata, a research fellow of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan, at the meeting of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission, which sets policies and strategies for the government’s nuclear power development.
...
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