As evacuation advisory is lifted gov find plutonium far from Fukushima

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2011-10-02 11:05

"The ministry conducted inspections on soil at 100 locations within a radius of 80 kilometers from the crippled nuclear power plant in June and July. Plutonium-238, believed to have come from the crippled nuclear plant, was detected in six locations including Iitate, Futaba and Namie. Plutonium-239 and -240 were also detected in many locations, but the ministry said it was not clear whether they were directly linked to the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

According to the ministry, the levels of radiation in the plutonium detected fall below the levels of radiation in plutonium believed to have come from atmospheric nuclear tests conducted in the past. But because very little plutonium-238 had been detected before the outbreak of the nuclear crisis, the ministry concluded that it had come from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Namie registered the highest density of plutonium-238 with 4 becquerels per one square meter of soil. The combined density of 15 becquerels of plutonium-239 and -240 was detected in one square meter of soil in Minamisoma, while 0.82 becquerels of plutonium-238 was detected in one square meter of soil in Iitate. The ministry said, "The radiation levels of the plutonium are not high enough to affect human bodies." The half life of plutonium-238 is 88 years. Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) had previously explained that plutonium is heavier than radioactive cesium and therefore it is difficult for the radioactive substance to travel to distant places."

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111001p2a00m0na013000c.html

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Tenuous logic

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 2011-10-02 11:46.

But because very little plutonium-238 had been detected before the outbreak of the nuclear crisis, the ministry concluded that it had come from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
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The problem is that before the accident, nobody really did a careful measurement of the levels of plutonium-238 in this region. The levels that that found are consistent with what one can find almost anywhere due to the years of atmospheric nuclear testing.

Now they find plutonium-238 consistent with that in the environment due to nuclear testing, but they hadn't noted the presence of plutonium-238 before because they never really looked; so the plutonium most have come from Fukushima.

Pretty tenuous logic, if you ask me.