Plutonium detected in soil at Fukushima nuke plant

Kyodo News ^ | 03/29/11

[TigerLikesRooster]

Plutonium detected in soil at Fukushima nuke plant

TOKYO, March 29, Kyodo

Plutonium has been detected in soil at five locations at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday.

The operator of the nuclear complex said that the plutonium is believed to have been discharged from nuclear fuel at the plant, which was damaged by the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

While noting that the concentration level does not pose a risk to human health, the utility firm said it will strengthen monitoring on the environment in and around the nuclear plant.

Meanwhile, high levels of radiation exceeding 1,000 millisieverts per hour have been detected in water in a trench outside the No. 2 reactor's building at the nuclear plant, with the contaminated water suspected to have come from the reactor's core, where fuel rods have partially melted, authorities said Monday.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[Sacajaweau]

Nuclear accident bad. Plutonium not bad?????

[Cvengr]

I keep getting this unnerved perception that nobody is trained any more on how to assess nuclear engineering operations, and quite frankly, it’s annoying, because I know they exist.

[de.rm]

Ann "Corponaziwhore" told us it's good for us!

Btw- now 1000x higher at & around site.

[GraceG]

This is exactly what happens when they won’t let anyone safely contain nuke waste deep underground in a secure facility and re-process it and they have to “store” it onsite.

Instead you have an accident at a nuke power plant and it makes it 100X worse than it could have been.

Most of the spewing from the Fukashima plants has been from spent fuel.

[Sacajaweau]

Yeh...Just like xrays were good for us....which is why the tech stays behind a lead wall AND we NOW have to wear a gym mat for simple mouth xrays. Is our mouth near our brain???

[de.rm]

. . unless your in politics, . . . owwwwwww!

[Justa]

"I keep getting this unnerved perception that nobody is trained any more on how to assess nuclear engineering operations, and quite frankly, it’s annoying, because I know they exist."

Don't worry, 24,000 years will be over before you know it.

[The Antiyuppie]

I think you could find quite a few respectable scientists who would say that the only safe level of plutonium is zero. Beyond that, it’s all a matter of luck.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“Ann “Corponaziwhore” told us it’s good for us!”

That’s not what she said. If you’re gonna accept what the libs cherrypicked,,,, And she tweaks their noses with outrageous statements all the time! Usually said with a smirk on her face. Read her actual article, and the facts nd studies she sights;

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=42347

I’m no big fan, but,,,,,,,

[RummyChick]

[Moleman]

この記事を掲載していただきありがとうございます

[SAJ]

Easy for you to say...

;^)

[RummyChick]

All you need to see on that is the PU238, 239 and 240

Plutonium

[RummyChick]

btw , notice the dates of that test. It is days old and they just now revealed the info.

[SAJ]

No, what I need to see is comparative tables of: 1) PU-238/PU-239/PU-240 levels for each day since 10 March at 2) distances of 10 meters from the core, 50 meters from the core, 100 meters from the core and 1000 meters from the core, 3) all these values stated in BEDs, not microcuries or milliSieverts.

Then, I need to see the same tables for Cesium-137 (we can ignore Iodine-131 due to its short halflife).

Two tables, please, for each of the 6 reactors. Some of the reactors, I'm told, did not use PU as a fuel, and obviously the values for PU for these will be zero.

Sheesh, such a response to an obvious (if cheap) gag...

[Ditto]

Most of the spewing from the Fukashima plants has been from spent fuel.

How do you know that?

[NVDave]

Depends on *which* Plutonium. There are several isotopes, all of varying decay modes and energies. http://www.evs.anl.gov/pub/doc/Plutonium.pdf http://www.evs.anl.gov/pub/doc/rad-properties.pdf Things to NB: 1. The amount released into the environment during nuke weapons testing: "Atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, which ceased worldwide by 1980, generated most environmental plutonium. About 10,000 kg were released to the atmosphere during these tests. Average plutonium levels in surface soil from fallout range from about 0.01 to 0.1 picocurie per gram (pCi/g). " 10,000 kg is a lot of Plutonium already spread in the environment. 2. Above-ground weapons tests consisted of either popping off a nuke at ground level (eg, on a tower), or an air drop from a plane, usually retarded by a chute. In either case, the resulting fallout was more widely distributed because the nuclides resulting from the explosion were pushed into the jet stream by the vertical thermal column resulting from the bomb. 3. The low specific activity of plutonium isotopes, coupled with the alpha emission as the typical activity, means that ingestion of Pu particles is the greatest danger to humans. OK, so what's the health outcomes of Plutonium ingestion (which is the most severe form of exposure to Pu, since the longest-lived isotopes give off alpha radiation)? Well, we have 37 Los Almos workers from the Manhattan Project who have been studied: From Google Docs: "Manhattan Project Plutonium Workers at Los Alamos," George L. Voelz. http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:5GfzUFiKKiwJ:www.crcnetbase.com/doi/pdf/10.1201/9781420037197.ch36+A+42-y+medical+follow-up+of+Manhattan+Project+plutonium+workers&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiz1d12B8ahsDxZEciLP3VDeJbK-4mnxN8M2lze9WrNTy4LQuitB5tDpC1uuFJYq6_XrwmzEci-Yws2QNv2pl-yLafezNc16KgwVPRPCY-s0b7oytdgY7EN5XuOB0zjr1hehAmW&sig=AHIEtbRfwGHQmo89qcJpZjXaQISwZNobTQ What's the bottom line? "Data on 26 workers exposed to plutonium-239 in 1944 to 1945 and observed for a period of more than 50 years have consistently shown that the mortality rates for all causes of deaths and for all cancers are not elevated compared with either U.S. white males or unexposed Los Alamos male workers with comparable hire dates. This finding differs from some popular misperceptions that large health risks occur after any exposure to plutonium. The median effective dose to these men is 1.3 Sv (mean dose = 2.1 Sv). The incidence of specific cancers, especially lung cancer (4) and osteogenic sarcoma (1), is interesting, but additional data are needed to draw conclusions about the relationship between plutonium doses comparable to those in this study and the induction of excess cancers." Now, look at the median effective dose to those men: 1.3 Sv. Not "milli," not "micro." Full-on Sieverts. That comes from Pu lodged in their tissues from inhalation, ingestion, deposits into the flesh from cuts/wounds, etc. As I keep telling people: Go do your own homework. There is plenty of data out there. I've read it, and that's why I'm not running in circles, screaming and shouting. The data show that, at the *very* least, that the widely-perceived lethality of radionuclides isn't as high or certain as the popular press would like to portray. But some of you want to panic about something, so I guess that this is as good as any reason to panic. Go ahead, get it out of your system.

[NVDave]

Depends on *which* Plutonium. There are several isotopes, all of varying decay modes and energies. http://www.evs.anl.gov/pub/doc/Plutonium.pdf http://www.evs.anl.gov/pub/doc/rad-properties.pdf Things to NB: 1. The amount released into the environment during nuke weapons testing: "Atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, which ceased worldwide by 1980, generated most environmental plutonium. About 10,000 kg were released to the atmosphere during these tests. Average plutonium levels in surface soil from fallout range from about 0.01 to 0.1 picocurie per gram (pCi/g). " 10,000 kg is a lot of Plutonium already spread in the environment. 2. Above-ground weapons tests consisted of either popping off a nuke at ground level (eg, on a tower), or an air drop from a plane, usually retarded by a chute. In either case, the resulting fallout was more widely distributed because the nuclides resulting from the explosion were pushed into the jet stream by the vertical thermal column resulting from the bomb. 3. The low specific activity of plutonium isotopes, coupled with the alpha emission as the typical activity, means that ingestion of Pu particles is the greatest danger to humans. OK, so what's the health outcomes of Plutonium ingestion (which is the most severe form of exposure to Pu, since the longest-lived isotopes give off alpha radiation)? Well, we have 37 Los Almos workers from the Manhattan Project who have been studied: From Google Docs: "Manhattan Project Plutonium Workers at Los Alamos," George L. Voelz. Google the title in quotes, and you should find the doc. I tried to include a URL and ended up with the solid mess of text above, so I removed the URL. What's the bottom line? "Data on 26 workers exposed to plutonium-239 in 1944 to 1945 and observed for a period of more than 50 years have consistently shown that the mortality rates for all causes of deaths and for all cancers are not elevated compared with either U.S. white males or unexposed Los Alamos male workers with comparable hire dates. This finding differs from some popular misperceptions that large health risks occur after any exposure to plutonium. The median effective dose to these men is 1.3 Sv (mean dose = 2.1 Sv). The incidence of specific cancers, especially lung cancer (4) and osteogenic sarcoma (1), is interesting, but additional data are needed to draw conclusions about the relationship between plutonium doses comparable to those in this study and the induction of excess cancers." Now, look at the median effective dose to those men: 1.3 Sv. Not "milli," not "micro." Full-on Sieverts. That comes from Pu lodged in their tissues from inhalation, ingestion, deposits into the flesh from cuts/wounds, etc. As I keep telling people: Go do your own homework. There is plenty of data out there. I've read it, and that's why I'm not running in circles, screaming and shouting. The data show that, at the *very* least, that the widely-perceived lethality of radionuclides isn't as high or certain as the popular press would like to portray. But some of you want to panic about something, so I guess that this is as good as any reason to panic. Go ahead, get it out of your system.