IAEA presentation shows japan deposition spike for I-131 and CS-137 on April 9 and 10

..But bear in mind, that we might be talking about two completely different things, here. As far as I know, NOTHING has been reported about smoke issuing from ANYWHERE at Fukushima on the 8th, apart from "normal" white steam venting from the four Reactor buildings.

Please look at the article below; I've also heard the location of yesterday's fire referred to as being in a "seawater sampling" building. What you're looking for is, naturally, buried pretty deep; I'll put a couple lines of asterisks (***, etc.) above and below the part I think is relevant.

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http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/world-news/4876768/Fire-seen...
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Japan's nuke crisis now on Chernobyl level
RYAN NAKASHIMA AND YURI KAGEYAMA
Last updated 18:33 12/04/2011

Another powerful aftershock has struck near Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

No tsunami warning was issued and no damage was immediately reported, news agency AFP reported.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake, which struck at 2.47pm local time (5.47pm NZ time), had a magnitude of 6.0 and hit less than 11 kilometres below ground.

Japanese officials had put the magnitude at 6.3.

Its epicentre was 70 kilometres south of Fukushima city in the prefecture of the same name.

Tokyo Electric Power Co said workers and engineers at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear plants had been ordered to evacuate after the quake hit.

The company is checking the status of the two plants and details are not yet clear, a Tokyo Electric spokesman said.

Hundreds of workers and engineers are at the nuclear complex to restore functions damaged by the devastating March 11 quake and tsunami.

Japan Atomic Power Co said there were no irregularities at its Tokai Daini nuclear plant after the quake.

Tohoku Electric Power Co also said there were no irregularities at its Onagawa nuclear complex in northeast Japan.

Japan's nuclear regulators raised the severity level of the crisis at a stricken nuclear plant today to rank it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

An official with the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, speaking on national television, said the rating was being raised from 5 to 7 — the highest level on the international scale.

The official, who was not named, said the amount of radiation leaking from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant was around 10 percent of the Chernobyl accident.

The level 7 signifies a "major accident" with "wider consequences" than the previous level, according to the standards scale.

"We have upgraded the severity level to 7 as the impact of radiation leaks has been widespread from the air, vegetables, tap water and the ocean," said Minoru Oogoda of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

NISA officials said one of the factors behind the decision was that the total amount of radioactive particles released into the atmosphere since the incident had reached levels that apply to a Level 7 incident.

The action lifts the rating to the highest on an international scale designed by an international group of experts in 1989 and is overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In Chernobyl, in the Ukraine, a reactor exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing a cloud of radiation over much of the Northern Hemisphere. A zone about 30 kilometres around the plant was declared uninhabitable, although some plant workers still live there for short periods and a few hundred other people have returned despite government encouragement to stay away.

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Meanwhile, setbacks continued at Japan's tsunami-stricken nuclear power complex, with workers discovering a small fire near a reactor building Tuesday. The fire was extinguished quickly, the plant's operator said.
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News of the fire came only minutes after a 6.3 aftershock struck off the coast of Chiba, 77km northwest of Tokyo. Kyodo said Japan's main international airport Narita closed runways for checks but later resumed flights.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the disabled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, said the fire at a box that contains batteries in a building near the No. 4 reactor was discovered at about 6.38am (9.38am NZ time) today and was put out seven minutes later.

It wasn't clear whether the fire was related to a magnitude-6.3 earthquake that shook the Tokyo area Tuesday morning. The cause of the fire is being investigated.

"The fire was extinguished immediately. It has no impact on Unit 4's cooling operations for the spent fuel rods," said TEPCO spokesman Naoki Tsunoda.

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The plant was damaged in a massive tsunami March 11 that knocked out cooling systems and backup diesel generators, leading to explosions at three reactors and a fire at a fourth that was undergoing regular maintenance and was empty of fuel.

The magnitude-9.0 earthquake that caused the tsunami immediately stopped the three reactors, but overheated cores and a lack of cooling functions led to further damage.

Engineers have been able to pump water into the damaged reactors to cool them down, but leaks have resulted in the pooling of tons of contaminated, radioactive water that has prevented workers from conducting further repairs.

Aftershocks on Monday briefly cut power to backup pumps, halting the injection of cooling water for about 50 minutes before power was restored.

RADIOACTIVE WATER

The March 11 tsunami, the largest recorded in quake-prone Japan, crippled the reactors' cooling systems.

Engineers at the plant north of Tokyo said they were no closer to restoring the plant's cooling system, which is critical to bringing down the temperature of overheated fuel rods and to bringing the six reactors under control.

TEPCO said yesterday it had stopped the discharge of low-level radioactive water into the sea that have drawn complaints from neighbouring China and South Korea.

It has already pumped 10,400 tonnes of low-level radioactive water into the ocean to free up storage capacity for highly contaminated water from the reactors.

In a desperate move to cool the highly radioactive fuel rods, TEPCO has pumped water onto reactors, some of which have experienced partial meltdown.

But the strategy has hindered moves to restore the plant's internal cooling system as engineers have had to focus on how to store 60,000 tonnes of contaminated water.

Engineers are also pumping nitrogen into reactors to counter a build-up of hydrogen and prevent another explosion sending more radiation into the air, but they say the risk of such a dramatic event has lowered significantly since March 11.

EVACUATION ZONE WIDENS

Because of accumulated radiation contamination, the government is encouraging people to leave certain areas beyond its 20km exclusion zone around the plant. Thousands of people could be affected by the move.

TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu visited the area yesterday for the first time the disaster. He had all but vanished from public view apart from a brief apology shortly after the crisis began and has spent some of the time since in hospital.

"I would like to deeply apologise again for causing physical and psychological hardships to people of Fukushima prefecture and near the nuclear plant," said a grim-faced Shimizu.

Dressed in a blue work jacket, he bowed his head for a moment of silence with other TEPCO officials at 2.46pm, exactly a calendar month after the earthquake hit.

-AP, with Reuters
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So, there, I guess. I don't think this is relevant in the slightest to the April 8 spike. I need to check back through the JAIF and IAEA documents to see if I can find a correlation... And I need to eat today, too, at some point.

Rick Cromack.
Allen, Texas
RichardFCromackJr@gmail.com
972-746-8575

Which means the spiked radiation can be carried on the Jet Stream to the United States around April 25/26th.

I wonder how much more the United States people and our environment can handle?