Thursday, August 18, 2011

Mapping Fukushima Radiation


NHK is reporting an official project to map radiation

NHK: Google Earth map shows radiation at ground level
A Japanese nuclear agency has created a detailed map showing ground radiation levels within 100 kilometers of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency made the map by having a survey team drive through the area in June. The team took readings of aerial radiation once every 10 seconds for several days along routes totaling 17,000 kilometers.

The map uses colors to indicate radiation levels and Google Earth technology to help users pinpoint locations.

The agency says the map is more detailed than those that show radiation levels based on data taken from high in the skies. For instance, it shows two sites that are only 100 meters away but whose radiation levels differ by a factor of 10.

The agency says it hopes the map will help evacuees decide whether it is safe to return home, and help government officials with decontaminating efforts.

Thursday, August 18, 2011 21:33 +0900 (JST)

MAJIA HERE: I would be suspicious of any "official" map of radiation. Over the last 5 months there have been reports of manipulation of testing by Japanese officials to minimize radiation readings.
 
Strategies for minimizing levels included counting only one isotope's radiation level (e.g., Iodine-131) or one form of radiation (gamma) and not including other forms in the total count. Another strategy involved locating the detector high off of the ground to avoid counting the accumulation of contamination on the ground.
 
I think people in Japan would be better off looking to their informal networks.Here is a link to the NHK documentary on one heroic scientist's efforts to create an authentic radiation map
 
Additionally, people in Japan should be way of official pronouncements of "safe" levels. Chernobyl’s Evacuation Zone was 5 millisieverts a year. Unless this has been changed recently, Japan has set their evacuation zone at an incredibly high 20 millisieverts per year
 
Furthermore, radiation levels in Japan are continuously rising as the plant emits radiation every single day and because of the burning of radioactive sludge.
 
NHK reports: "Radioactive material in sludge at 16 prefectures"

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/14_33.html

An illustration of potential double-speak can be found here.

NHK reports that Radioactivity down to one-fifth of July levels
The Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company say the amount of radioactive material being emitted from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has dropped to one-fifth that of a month ago.

The government and TEPCO said on Wednesday that maximum radiation levels around the plant during the past 2 weeks were 200 million becquerels per hour...

HOWEVER, Dr. Chris Busby recently reported that plant emissions were reported to the Japanesen Prime Minister by Tepco to be 10 to the 13 becquerels per hour.

Given the very high levels of radiation being detected by the EPA's radnet and individual monitors in the US and Canada I'm convinced that Busby's number is much closer to the truth.


















3 comments:

  1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LethPJ9Vd8Y

    censored !!!!!!!!

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  2. I live in Fukushima city and I can attest to the manipulation of radiation data. Last week I took a drive to the now ghost town of Idate. At the city hall there was a live radiation level LED display hooked up to a locked box that one could only assume was the Geiger. Anyways the box read 3.65 micro seiverts per hour in large orange led numbers (I have a picture on my iPhone of it). That night on the news when they give the radiation reading by city they reported Idate as 2.5 micro seiverts per hour.. I had just been there 8 hours previous to the broadcast...

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  3. Also I have a dosimeter which I use to take 'actual' readings. What I do is take a walk for 20 minutes and have my dosimeter in my cargo pocket at knee level. After 20 mins I take to accumulated dose my dosimeter recorded then multiply it by 3 and I get the true ' per hour' rate for the area.

    For example when an area that is said to be at a rate of 0.54 micro seiverts per hour (based on the local ward office testing results) is tested the calculated hourly rate is actually 1.5 micro seiverts per hour.

    The West side of Fukushima Station calculates out to be 3.7 micro seiverts per hour where the publicly published level is 1.5 micro seiverts.

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