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NNN0LHI Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-28-11 11:30 AM
Original message
Japan's science ministry has detected extraordinarily high levels of radioactive cesium in seafloor
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/28_23.html

updated at 14:41 UTC, May. 28

Radioactive materials found off Miyagi and Ibaraki

Japan's science ministry has detected extraordinarily high levels of radioactive cesium in seafloor samples collected off Miyagi and Ibaraki Prefectures.

Experts say monitoring should be stepped up over a larger area to determine how fish and shell fish are being affected.

The ministry collected samples from 12 locations along a 300-kilometer stretch off Fukushima prefecture's Pacific coast between May 9th and 14th. It hoped to get an idea about the spread of nuclear contamination caused by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Radioactive substances were found in all locations, including those off Miyagi and Ibaraki Prefectures, which had not been previously investigated.


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aquart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-28-11 11:36 AM
Response to Original message
1. So the fishing industry dies for Japan.
And maybe the rest of us?
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closeupready Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-28-11 03:18 PM
Response to Reply #1
8. Yes, probably, until they find a real way to clean up the seafloor.
Which should take, oh, a few decades. :mad:
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iemitsu Donating Member (524 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-28-11 11:50 AM
Response to Original message
2. scary but not particularly surprising.
what do they think happened to the products of multiple meltdowns?
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NNN0LHI Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-28-11 12:06 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. Japan officials were telling people the radiation was going to be diluted and dispersed. Its safe
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/26/greenpeace-japan-nuclear-plant-radiation-accumulating-in-marine-life/

Radiation from Japan's damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is accumulating in marine life off Japan's coast above legal limits for food contamination, Greenpeace said Thursday.

The environmental group said its findings run counter to Japanese government reports that radiation from the Fukushima plant, damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, is being diluted as time passes.

“Despite what the authorities are claiming, radioactive hazards are not decreasing through dilution or dispersion of materials, but the radioactivity is instead accumulating in marine life," Greenpeace radiation expert Jan Vande Putte said in a press release.

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suffragette Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-28-11 12:50 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. I was repeatedly told on DU the same thing when I brought up
learning about the currents off of Japan and concerns about the food chain.

And scolded about "the sky is falling."

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NNN0LHI Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-28-11 01:58 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. I was mocked here for switching my grand kids to powdered milk in April
Guess the joke is on them now?

Don
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suffragette Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-28-11 02:32 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. I feel more that it's a sad vindication of those of us who brought
up these concerns and the likelihood of the danger.

I wish this had not turned out to be the case. But it is and the evidence was pointing to this all along and was bound to come out, despite all the effort made here to minimize and repudiate it. Add to that the condescending, rude and appalling way many people here were treated when trying to examine these issues and figure out likely impact.

Maybe now we can focus on what the situation actually is there and what that means for the present and future.

:hug:
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Snoutport Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-28-11 04:08 PM
Response to Reply #5
12. i got ridiculed for buying a bunch of canned milk
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robdogbucky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-28-11 03:14 PM
Response to Original message
7. Unfortunaely, I don't think things will change much
The government of Japan, the IAEA, the UN, the US, the rest of the nuke industry will see to that.





U.N. body to probe Fukushima radiation impact

Mon May 23, 2011 3:25pm GMT

* At least two years for full Fukushima radiation report

* U.N. scientific body has also studied impact of Chernobyl



VIENNA, May 23 (Reuters) - A U.N. scientific body said on Monday it would study the radiation impact of Japan's nuclear disaster on people and the environment, but it did not expect to detect any major health effects.

The United Nations Scientific Committee on the effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), which has published reports about the 1986 Chernobyl accident, said it would take at least two years to produce a full report on the issue.

"Everybody wants answers tomorrow or next week ... but this is not possible. We need time," UNSCEAR Chairman Wolfgang Weiss told a news conference, adding that preliminary findings were expected in May 2012.

"So far what we have seen in the population, what we have seen in children with thyroid screening, what we have seen in workers ... we wouldn't expect to see health effects," he said...

http://af.reuters.com/article/drcNews/idAFLDE74M0TL20110523



Japan Reaffirms Nuclear Energy Use

By MARTIN FACKLER

Published: May 9, 2011

TOKYO — Japan remains committed to nuclear power despite the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Prime Minister Naoto Kan indicated Sunday, as workers moved closer to repairing the crippled plant by opening the doors of a damaged reactor building.

The move is intended to air out the building that houses Reactor No. 1 to ensure that radiation levels are low enough to allow workers to enter. The plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, said the procedure would release little radiation into the atmosphere because an air filtering system installed last week had already removed most of the dangerous particles.

Eight hours after the doors were opened, workers entered the building to test radiation levels. The next step is to begin replacing the reactor’s cooling system, which was destroyed by the tsunami on March 11.

The company has said it will take at least six months to stabilize the plant, in which three of the six reactors were damaged by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami. Hydrogen explosions spewed radiation into the atmosphere, causing the worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl accident in Ukraine...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/world/asia/10japan.html?_r=1






Questions?




rdb




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closeupready Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-28-11 03:22 PM
Response to Reply #7
9. The likely response strategy for nuclear profiteers and their paid shills will be
Edited on Sat May-28-11 03:23 PM by closeupready
something along the lines of, "but wait! Fatalities, to date, are ZERO! So we can keep building nuke power plants, since radiation is clearly not dangerous! Boy, we should be GLAD that Fukushima melted down - it taught us how crazy Greenpeace is, and how safe nuclear energy is." You watch, it will be something like that.
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robdogbucky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-28-11 03:33 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. If I were them I would act fast
Chances are Mother Nature, who bats last if you recall, will deal them another blow before they can clean this up. Cleaning this up is no where near completion and it is still uncontained, it is still fissioning.

They bank on the fact that radiation is invisible, tasteless, silent, impossible to detect until it it too late. They will try to run the clock out and then numb people again with the "advantages," of nuke power. Look at our own president's commitment to this type of antiquated technology.

In what other area of our economy, our technology, indeed anywhere in our world of ideas, is a 45+ year old technology still in vogue? Why is nuke power so in vogue with the investor class? Because the worst effects are long-term and they make enormous short term profits from it. Safety is their last concern, believe it.




Just my dos centavos

robdogbucky
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blackbart99 Donating Member (421 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat May-28-11 04:00 PM
Response to Original message
11. you watch...
Now they will step up their whaling in the Antarctic because they can't fish at home.
I feel real bad for them and I want to help but now is the time for real soul searching in Japan.
Bad time to be a whale in the south. Hungry people will eat everything in sight.

Its actually a real good allegory for Western civilization. There are real consequences to your
actions. Go 110% for technology that inherently cannot be controlled and you will reap the
whirlwind. How many dead spots in the world are we going to have before we learn.

I love Japan but I can't make their choices for them.....Just stay away from my whales.:hippie:
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