Tokyo Electric Power Company announced that their May soil samples are positive for plutonium-238.
The sample was taken on the compound of the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, on 30 May 2011. The samples were taken 500 meters away from Reactor 1 building.
This follows claims by university students who found plutonium as part of a class project.
NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation) discovered, through random interviews with local officials throughout Japan, that cesium is showing up all over, thanks to rain.
22 of Japan’s 47 prefectures (states, or glorified counties) have been testing their soil. 16 found their soil is contaminated with cesium. Some areas are as far south as Osaka, which is about 350 miles away from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Local officials believe the cesium is being spread by clouds that sweep through the Fukushima area then rain on other parts of Japan.
The area with the highest cesium levels, in their soil, is Fukushima, currently at 447,000 becquerels per kilogram. Tokyo has 55,000 becquerels.
NHK reported that Japan has no guidelines for dealing with radiation contamination in soil.
For the first time, Tokyo Electric Power Company says strontium 90 is contaminating ground water, and the Pacific Ocean.
Water samples that were taken on 16 and 18 May, 2011, are positive for strontium. Sample testing takes three weeks for results.
Three ocean inlets were tested on 16 May. The lowest reading was 53 times safe limits. The highest, 240 times, was taken at reactor 3 inlet.
Ground water samples were taken on 18 May. The highest reading was 6,300 becquerels per liter near reactor 2.
Strontium 90 is created during nuclear fission. It has a half life of 29 years and causes bone cancer.
Stabilization work at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been temporarily halted, once again, because of high radiation levels.
Reactor 3 began emitting levels above 100 millisieverts per hour. The government raised the safe limit from 100 to 250 millisieverts per hour, but workers at the damaged nuke plant refused to implement the higher limit.
Tokyo Electric Power Company sent nine workers into Reactor 3 on 10 June 2011. TEPCo said they are trying to limit workers to just 9 millisieverts per hour. After only 20 minutes the radiation levels far exceeded the original 100 millisieverts limit!
High radiation levels have made stabilization work almost impossible. TEPCo has acknowledged that it will take much longer to get the plant under control.
Two workers have tested positive for as much as 678 millisieverts of radiation. The National Institute of Radiological Sciences confirmed the exposure. The two men were in the control rooms of reactors 3 & 4, when Reactor 1 blew up on 12 March 2011. A third man is undergoing testing.
In Shizuoka Prefecture, about 300 km (186 miles) away from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, cesium contamination has continued to build up. Now tea production has been halted.
On 10 June 2011, cesium levels on tea leaves hit 679 becquerels per kilogram. The official limit is 500 becquerels. The local government ordered a halt to tea shipments. Tea is Shizuoka Prefecture’s main industry.
Last month cesium levels were 460 becquerels. The latest readings show cesium is continuing to be spewed by the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant.
Japanese Science Ministry has finished a survey of Fukushima Prefecture. They were looking for evidence of strontium 90, they found plenty.
Strontium 90 is created during nuclear fission. It has a half life of 29 years, and can cause bone cancer.
Samples were taken at 11 locations, all 11 tested positive. The furthest location from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, that tested positive, is Fukushima City at 60 km (37 miles) away. The highest reading was 250 becquerels per kilogram, at Namie City.
Two Japanese cities outside the current evacuation zone, now have radiation levels above safe limits.
Date and Minamisoma cities show increasing radiation levels, prompting calls for evacuation by the residents. Government officials say they are working quickly on the possible expansion of the evacuation zone.
The nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi has resulted in hundreds of thousands of tons of radioactive water being spilled into the Pacific Ocean, and it hasn’t stopped.
Greenpeace says they’ve found ocean species with unsafe levels of radiation, 50 km (31 miles) from the nuke plant.
The International Atomic Energy Agency announced they will begin monitoring the Pacific Ocean for radiation contamination. Australia, South Korea and Indonesia will make up a team that will sample water from the Pacific Ocean, and the East China Sea. They expect the process to take four years.
The contamination of the Pacific Ocean would not have reached this level, if Tokyo Electric Power Company, and the Japanese government, took the nuclear disaster more seriously at the beginning. Chernobyl was handled in a matter of weeks, not ongoing after many months like Fukishima Daiichi.
As proof that the Japanese government, and Tokyo Electric Power Company, were just wild ass guessing about the radiation levels being released from Fukushima Daiichi, a new report says the levels are more than double.
The governmental Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is now saying the initial radiation release from the damaged nuke plant was 770,000 terabecquerels. The independent Nuclear Safety Commission said they put the amount of radiation released, in the first month, at 630,000 terabecquerels.
The level of radiation being spewed from the plant has not let up. On Saturday, 04 June 2011, radiation emitted from Reactor 1 hit 4,000 millisieverts per hour!
The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Ministry maintains ‘off site centers’ near nuclear plants. The centers are government run emergency response units based ‘off site’ of the privately run nuclear plants.
The public news station, NHK, got hold of a NISA report that admitted that almost all of their off site centers were dysfunctional at the beginning of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
NISA operates 22 nuclear emergency response centers throughout Japan. On 11 March 2011, seven hours after the 9.0 quake, only three of those centers were staffed. The off site response unit for Fukushima Daiichi had been shut down by the earthquake. NISA claims all power generating capabilities, communications and other critical functions had been lost, making the off site response unit ineffective.
But, surprisingly, after it became clear there was a problem at the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, NISA decided to move the emergency response unit away from the stricken plant. Hello, what’s the purpose of the ‘off site centers’ emergency response units then? NISA officials said they were afraid their off site center building was not radiation proof! More proof of lack of planning and foresight by government officials.