Japan’s Food-Chain Threat Multiplies as Fukushima Radiation Spreads

By Aya Takada – “Radiation fallout from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant poses a growing threat to Japan’s food chain as unsafe levels of cesium found in beef on supermarket shelves were also detected in more vegetables and the ocean.

More than 2,600 cattle have been contaminated, Kyodo News reported July 23, after the Miyagi local government said 1,183 cattle at 58 farms were fed hay containing radioactive cesium before being shipped to meat markets.

Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano has said officials didn’t foresee that farmers might ship contaminated hay to cattle ranchers. That highlights the government’s inability to think ahead and to act, said Mariko Sano, secretary general for Shufuren, a housewives organization in Tokyo.

‘The government is so slow to move,’ Sano said. ‘They’ve done little to ensure food safety.’

Aeon Co., Japan’s biggest supermarket chain, said today 4,108 kilograms (9,056 pounds) of beef suspected of being contaminated was inadvertantly put on sale at 174 stores across Japan.” Read more.

Japan to Buy Australian Beef on Nuclear Radiation Concern – “Japanese demand for Australian beef may increase after radiation was found in domestic meat and amid concern that cesium leaks from the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant may spread further, according to Australian Agricultural Co. Ltd. ‘We’re expecting to see better demand out of Japan as they move away from their own herds,’ chief executive officer David Farley said on a conference call today. That follows a boost in demand for beef after radiation was detected in Japan’s seafood in March, he said.” Read more.

Children in Fukushima to Have Medical Checks for Thyroid Cancer Throughout Lifetime – “Children living in Fukushima Prefecture, the area hardest hit by the nuclear crisis in Japan, will receive medical checks for thyroid cancer for the rest of their lives. The local government of Fukushima says around 3-hundred-60 thousand children will start to have thyroid cancer checks from December this year.” Read more.

Official: 3 Nuclear Reactors Melted Down After Quake, Japan Confirms

“Tokyo (CNN) — Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced full meltdowns at three reactors in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami in March, the country’s Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters said Monday.

The nuclear group’s new evaluation, released Monday, goes further than previous statements in describing the extent of the damage caused by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

The announcement will not change plans for how to stabilize the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the agency said.

Reactors 1, 2 and 3 experienced a full meltdown, it said.

The plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., admitted last month that nuclear fuel rods in reactors 2 and 3 probably melted during the first week of the nuclear crisis.

It had already said fuel rods at the heart of reactor No. 1 melted almost completely in the first 16 hours after the disaster struck. The remnants of that core are now sitting in the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel at the heart of the unit and that vessel is now believed to be leaking.” Read more.

Nuclear Engineer: Seattle Residents Breathed Ten ‘Hot’ Particles A Day – “Well, I am in touch with some scientists now who have been monitoring the air on the West Coast and in Seattle for instance, in April, the average person in Seattle breathed in 10 hot particles a day… The average human being breathes about 10 meters a day of air, cubic meters of air. And the air out in the Seattle area are detecting, when they pull 10 cubic meters through them, this is in April now, so we are in the end of May so it is a better situation now. That air filter will have 10 hot particles on it. And that was before the Unit Four issue. Clearly we all can’t run south of the equator to our second homes in Rio or something like that. But it will stay north of the equator for anyone who has a Leer jet and can get out. But I guess what I am advising at that point is keep your windows closed. I would definitely wear some sort of a filter if I was outside. I certainly wouldn’t run and exercise until I was sure the plume had dissipated. This isn’t now. This is, as you were saying, this is worst case.” Read more.

Are Mutations Already Beginning to Occur Around Fukushima?

“A nuclear rabbit has sparked online panic in Japan. Amateur footage shows an earless mutant rabbit, and the person who made the video claims it was shot just outside the exclusion zone near Japan’s crippled Fukushima plant. The clip has given rise to fears the radiation threat in the area is far worse than previously thought. The funny bunny has caused an online frenzy, with predictions that babies in Japan may soon be born with mutations.”

Fukushima Reactor Had Meltdown 3.5 Hours After Cooling System Collapsed; Staggering Radiation Levels Now Measured in R1 Drywell

By the end of March the IAEA knew that a nuclear meltdown had occurred at Fukushima, yet this information was not released to the public until nearly 7 weeks later…

“A meltdown occurred at one of the reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant three and a half hours after its cooling system started malfunctioning, according to the result of a simulation using ‘severe accident’ analyzing software developed by the Idaho National Laboratory.

Chris Allison, who had actually developed the analysis and simulation software, reported the result to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in late March. It was only May 15 when Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) admitted for the first time that a meltdown had occurred at the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

According to Allison’s report obtained by the Mainichi, the simulation was based on basic data on light-water nuclear reactors at the Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Plant in Mexico that are about the same size as that of the No. 1, 2, and 3 reactors in Fukushima.” Read more.

More Melted Fuel At Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Plant Uncovered During UN Probe – “In addition, some chunks of the fuel appeared to have entered the inner containment chambers, or drywell, causing some damage. That suggests that the severity of the accident was greater than officials have acknowledged. TEPCO announced similar findings last week about Unit 1. The new revelations indicate that earlier official assessments may have been too optimistic…” Read more.

Fukushima’s Apocalyptic Threat Demands Immediate Global Action – “Fukushima may be in an apocalyptic downward spiral. Forget the corporate-induced media coma that says otherwise…or nothing at all. Lethal radiation is spewing unabated. Emission levels could seriously escalate. There is no end in sight. The potential is many times worse than Chernobyl.” Read more.

F.Reactor 1 – 204,000 mSv per hour in the drywell?! – Recent readings are so high at Fukushima Reactor 1 that I am surprised this isn’t being reported by the MSM.  This is a full 204 sieverts/hr.

Location: Unit 1 nuclear power plant Fukushima
Date: Mar 15, 2011 (Tuesday) to May 25, 2011 (Wed)
Current values: D/W: two hundred and four Sv/h , S/C: 0.987 Sv / h
Status Instrument: failure

Fukushima’s Apocalyptic Threat Demands Immediate Global Action

By Harvey Wasserman – “Fukushima may be in an apocalyptic downward spiral.

Forget the corporate-induced media coma that says otherwise…or nothing at all.

Lethal radiation is spewing unabated. Emission levels could seriously escalate. There is no end in sight. The potential is many times worse than Chernobyl.

Containing this disaster may be beyond the abilities of Tokyo Electric or the Japanese government.

There is no reason to incur further unnecessary risk. With all needed resources, it’s time for the world’s best scientists and engineers to take charge.” Read more.

1000 Millisieverts/Hr Debris Outside Reactor 3 at Fukushima I Nuke Plant – “TEPCO announced on May 21 that the debris that emits 1000 millisieverts/hour radiation was found outside the reactor building of the Reactor 3, on the south side. According to TEPCO, it is a pile of concrete bits and paper-like materials. It is the highest radiation ever found on the debris outside the buildings.” Read more.

Radioactive Sewage Sludge and Slag in Tokyo – “Nippon Television’s investigation has revealed that the radioactive materials in very high concentration, 170,000 becquerels per kilogram, had been found in the sewage slag from a sewage treatment facility in Tokyo.” Read more.

Highly Radioactive Substances Detected in Tokyo; Evacuation Zones Expanded

“Moving on to the latest developments in Japan’s ongoing nuclear crisis highly radioactive substances were detected in parts of Tokyo.

Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reports about 3,200 and nearly 2-thousand becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram were found in the soil of Tokyo districts of Koto and Chiyoda, respectively, from testing conducted between April 10th and the 20th.

This amount is higher than what was found in the prefectures near the Fukushima plant and experts warn that other areas may be subject to radiation contamination as clusters of clouds containing radioactive material remain in the atmosphere.”  Read more.

Japan widens evacuations outside plant zone – “TOKYO – JAPAN on Sunday started the first evacuations of homes outside a government exclusion zone after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami crippled one of the country’s nuclear power plants. Some 4,000 residents of Iidate-mura village as well as 1,100 people in Kawamata-cho town, in the quake-hit north-east, began the phased relocations to public housing, hotels and other facilities in nearby cities.” Read more.

Deadly Silence on Fukushima as Radiation Continues to Rise Outside of Evacuation Zone

By Vivian Norris – “I received the following email a few days ago from a Russian nuclear physicist friend who is an expert on the kinds of gases being released at Fukushima. Here is what he wrote:

About Japan: the problem is that the reactor uses ‘dirty’ fuel. It is a combination of plutonium and uranium (MOX). I suspect that the old fuel rods have bean spread out due to the explosion and the surrounding area is contaminated with plutonium which means you can never return to this place again. It is like a new Tchernobyl. Personally, I am not surprised that the authority has not informed people about this.

I have been following the Fukushima story very closely since the earthquake and devastating tsunami. I have asked scientists I know, nuclear physicists and others about where they find real information. I have also watched as the news has virtually disappeared. There is something extremely disturbing going on, and having lived through the media blackout in France back in April and early May 1986, and speaking to doctors who are deeply concerned by the dramatic increase in cancers appearing at very young ages, it is obvious that information is being held back. We are still told not to eat mushrooms and truffles from parts of Europe, not wild boar and reindeer from Germany and Finland 25 years later.”  Read more.

U.S.-Japan joint survey reveals high radiation beyond evacuation zone – “The first map of ground surface contamination within 80 kilometers of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant shows radiation levels higher in some municipalities than those in the mandatory relocation zone around the Chernobyl plant.” Read more.

Environmental Expert: 400,000 People Could Develop Cancer Within a 200 KM Radius of Fukushima

Environmental Expert Dr. Christopher Busby: “In my estimation, on the basis of the risk model of the European committee on radiation risks, about 400 thousand people will develop cancer in the 200 km radius if they are not moved out.  We’re talking about 7.8 million people living inside that 200 km radius … I’m basing my predictions on the health effects of the Chernobyl accident and I was in Berlin talking to a lot of researchers from the Chernobyl area who’ve been looking into the effects of the Chernobyl accident and on the basis of those figures it’s possible to predict the number of cancers that will develop in Fukushima.  And also along the coast, I have to say, because the marine sediment is now becoming contaminated and the shell fish will concentrate the radioactivity.  It’s an absolute disaster.”