Monitoring

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 2011-08-22 12:20

No new milk/air sampling results. It seems there are more spikes in the radiation release from Fukushima. There are measurements of radioactive rain in Georgia and other states.
Did Berkley stop monitoring?

‹ TEPCO presents plan to extract melted rods Possible field screen for better Fukushima rain rad monitoring? ›

We are still monitoring

Submitted by bandstra on Tue, 2011-08-23 11:10.

We have been at a slower clip lately because we are down to only one testing station, and frankly because the levels of fallout have been so small that we have had many non-detections. There are a few samples in the queue (mostly milk), which we will test after our current setup has been calibrated.

Air samples were discontinued on July 1 because we had a solid month of non-detections of all fission products. There have been no further releases of sufficient magnitude for us to continue our air filter testing.

What is your reference for the "spikes in the radiation release from Fukushima"?

Also, what are your references for the radioactive rain measurements? By now I have seen many videos where people wipe down surfaces that were outside during a rainfall and then see surprisingly high levels on a Geiger counter. It turns out that this is a completely natural phenomenon that is well-understood and which I have tried and confirmed myself. I should mention that using our sophisticated detectors, we have not seen any radioactive isotopes from Fukushima in our rainfall since about mid-April.

Mark [BRAWM Team Member]

Monitoring

Submitted by AnonymousMD. (not verified) on Sun, 2011-08-28 12:58.

Thank you very much for your prompt response.
The refernces for the spikes in radiation are:

1.Fukushima radiation reaches lethal levelsDiscovery at crippled plant a fresh reminder of risks faced by workers battling to contain nuclear accident-reddit this Reuters
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 2 August 2011 08.09 BST Article history

2.Fukushima Radiation So High, Geiger Counter Can’t Register It! {Video}
20 comments August 6, 2011 in Disasters & Extreme Weather, Nuclear
Japan suffered one of the biggest nuclear disasters just 5 months ago. Now, instead of things getting better, they are getting worse, much worse.

The Fukushima nuclear power plant, the epicenter of the earthquake-tsunami disaster, according to TEPCO, the company that owns the plant, now has radiation levels six times higher than the highest level they have ever record before.

TEPCO reported that radiation levels are over 10,000 millisieverts per hour on the second floor of reactor one. The problem with that report is that Geiger counters can’t measure past 10,000 millisieverts per hour.

Source: Planetsave (http://s.tt/12YQO)

3.Tepco Reports Second Deadly Radiation Reading at Fukushima Nuclear Plant
QBy Tsuyoshi Inajima and Kari Lundgren - Aug 3, 2011 3:24 AM MT -Bloomberg.com
"The latest high radiation readings are probably coming from materials released during early failed attempts to release pressure in containment vessels and vent hydrogen gas to prevent explosions that damaged reactor buildings, Matsumoto said. There were about 2,760 workers at the plant on Aug 1. "

4. VIDEO: RT News on Fukushima – Cracks in Earth,Radioactive Steam Aggravated by Aftershocks
Posted to Youtube by fairtradenow on August 17, 2011, this RT News piece includes interviews with Dr. Robert Jacobs and Dr. Chris Busby. Cracks in the ground at Fukushima are aggravated by continuing aftershocks. Radioactive steam escaping is causing more problems for workers at the site, not to mention more radiation escaping into the air.

There were other articles where workers at Fukushima have seen steam being released from cracks in the ground, I can't find them anymore.
Also an article I think in BBC news about some problems at one of the spent fuel tanks.

About the rain water, I don't know what normal is. There are videos and reading all over internet about radioactivity in rain water- here are some of them:

5.Deadly Levels of Radiation Found in Oklahoma Rain water ( ENENEWS)

On Saturday August 6 2011, Oklahoma received their first rainfall in weeks, but this was not the type of rain that they had been looking for. A youtuber by the name of “Firebynight” decided to test the rain water for signs of radiation. What did his tests find? Well, a staggering 1.62 microsieverts per hour! This is very dangerous and to know this is falling into our soil makes you wonder how much Radiation we really are consuming. Watch this video and you will see no tricks of any kind were attempted. Just plain old radioactive rain!

6. Report: St. Louis rain sample shows radiation dose on August 20 almost triple previous high reading (VIDEO)
August 21st, 2011 at 06:32 AM

7.4000 mile Radioactive Road Trip

I am a mother and a physician, and I really appreciate team BRAWM's effort to provide information about the radiation in the food we feed our children.

Explanations

Submitted by bandstra on Tue, 2011-08-30 22:17.
Hi AnonymousMD, Thanks for providing those links. That's a lot of information and I hope I can provide some adequate explanations. 1–3 (Lethal radiation detected at plant):
There have been many news reports about "deadly" levels, or "off the scale" levels of radiation at the Fukushima plants. These are entirely true and are based on radiation measurements made by the workers at the plant. There are a few pieces of context that are not usually reported in those stories but that are vital to understanding the situation:
  • The radiation is stationary and localized. They are probably detecting places where large amounts of radioactive dust collected during and after the hydrogen explosions. They have made images of those places with a gamma-ray camera. The radioactive material is not being released; it is just sitting there.
  • The ambient radiation at the plant is not increasing; the workers are just entering and assessing areas they haven't been able to work in yet. So the story is not that the ambient radiation at the plant was fine and then suddenly became "lethal" — it is that the workers were able to enter a new room, survey it, and find the areas of high radioactivity.
  • The radiation is "lethal" within a short time only if you are very close. They have been detecting these radioactive patches from afar with their equipment so that they know where to avoid. The workers have dosimeters and withdraw if their dose increases too much. The whole point of these detections is so that the workers know what to avoid.
4 (Cracks in ground and radioactive steam):
I'm not sure what to make of this report. From what I can tell, that report is patched together from a handful of eyewitness accounts by workers at the site. I'm not sure how people are saying that the steam (if there is any) is radioactive — has there been a measurement? If anyone has found another source for this story, I would be interested to read it. If we assume that there is steam and it is in fact radioactive, it is not radioactive enough to cause increased levels in our air in the US. If the levels in the steam were high enough for a detection here, they would also have to evacuate workers from the plant, and the CTBTO network and other systems would detect something as well. That is not the present situation.
5–7 (Radioactive rain water):
My original reply applies to those videos: By now I have seen many videos where people wipe down surfaces that were outside during a rainfall and then see surprisingly high levels on a Geiger counter. It turns out that this is a completely natural phenomenon that is well-understood and which I have tried and confirmed myself. I should mention that using our sophisticated detectors, we have not seen any radioactive isotopes from Fukushima in our rainfall since about mid-April. The way that someone can tell that the excess radiation is from radon gas and not from Fukushima is to take a reading about 30 minutes later; the radioactivity should be about half what it originally was. Radon gas comes out of the ground and does not come from Fukushima.
Taken out of context, all of these stories can give the impression that there are increases or spikes in radiation releases from Fukushima. I hope my explanations help you to see that this is not the case. Mark [BRAWM Team Member]

aren't the high readings

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2011-08-31 05:44.

aren't the high readings after rainfall coming from rain that never even touched the ground? i get that rain that puddles could be contaminated with radon that is constantly escaping and rising, but this does not explain high readings people are getting from rain on their cars or anywhere else other than a puddle in the ground.

Rain collects radon decay products from atmosphere as it falls

Submitted by bandstra on Wed, 2011-08-31 08:36.

Great question. What is actually happening is that the radon gas seeps out of the ground and stays in the lower atmosphere until it decays. When the radon decays, it decays into elements that are not gases, such as Polonium, Lead, and Bismuth. These atoms stay in the atmosphere and attach to small particles. These are the radioactive elements (not the radon gas itself) that are actually detected by the Geiger counters.

As the rain falls, it "scrubs" small particles out of the atmosphere, including these particles. So rain will have small amounts of radon decay products in it. The concentration of the particles will generally be too low to detect them in the rainwater directly — I tried this and it did not show anything. However, if the rain falls onto a surface (e.g., a car), the particles will stick to the surface. When you wipe the surface down with a cloth, you will pick up the particles that stuck there and the Geiger counter may show an elevated count rate. I have done this and it works.

Mark [BRAWM Team Member]

excellent. that makes a lot

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2011-08-31 12:28.

excellent. that makes a lot of sense.

thanks very much Mark. and thanks for what all of you guys are doing.

You're very welcome

Submitted by bandstra on Wed, 2011-08-31 12:43.

You're very welcome!

Mark [BRAWM Team Member]

Rainwater

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2011-08-31 02:03.

Mark, thank you on the rainwater. That one was disturbing to me, but now that I see it is from Radon Gas, it is comforting. The discrpancy had been bothering me for quite some time.