Radioactive Cesium-137 From Fukushima Found In California Wine

 

Following the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan – which left Japanese residents contending with toxic water and radioactive wild boars, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said that particles of radioactive fallout which made its way to the Western United States and elsewhere was no biggie and didn’t pose a health risk.

California wine lovers will get to test that theory, after researchers at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) discovered cesium-137 in several golden-state vintages. The researchers tested 18 bottles of California rosé and cabernet sauvignon from 2009 onward – finding increased levels of the radioactive isotope in bottles produced after the Fukushima disaster. The cabernets had double the radiation of the other wine, according to the study.

Radioactive Uranium Detected in Alaska

(TruNews)

 

A group of scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have published a report in which they state microscopic traces of radioactive Uranium-235 has be detected for the first time in 20 years in Alaska. the substance is usually used to fuel nuclear reactors and in nuclear weapons.

Report: Massive radiation leak at Fukushima plant — Extremely high levels being detected outside reactor — Officials can’t explain why — Expert warns of global threat: “It’s a disaster of unseen proportions” (VIDEO)

Watch NHK’s broadcast here

 

 

The Independent, Feb 2, 2018 (emphasis added): Fukushima nuclear disaster: Lethal levels of radiation detected in leak… Expert warns of ‘global’ consequences unless the plant is treated properly… [Tepco] found eight sieverts per hour of radiation, while 42 [sieverts] were also detected outside its foundations… It came as Tepco said the problem of contaminated water pooled around the plants three reactors that is seeping into the ground has caused a major headache in its efforts to decommission the plant… Mycle Schneider, an independent energy consultant and lead author of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report, said that Tepco “hasn’t a clue what it is doing” in its job to decommission the plant. He added that the contaminated water that is leaking at the site could end up in the ocean if the ongoing treatment project fails and cause a “global” disaster, he told The Independent… “I find it symptomatic of the past seven years, in that they don’t know what they’re doing, Tepco, these energy companies haven’t a clue what they’re doing, so to me it’s been going wrong from the beginning. It’s a disaster of unseen proportions.” Mr Schneider added that the radiation leaks coupled with the waste from the plant stored in an “inappropriate” way in tanks could have global consequences… “This can get problematic anytime, if it contaminates the ocean there is no local contamination, the ocean is global, so anything that goes into the ocean goes to everyone.” He added: “It needs to be clear that this problem is not gone, this is not just a local problem. It’s a very major thing.”

AP: “Japan poised to flood Pacific with 1 Million tons of nuclear water contaminated by Fukushima” — Newsweek: “Experts want Japan to push a Million tons of radioactive water Into ocean” — Release could kill fishing industry (VIDEO)

 

AP, Nov 26, 2017: Japan is poised to flood the Pacific with one million tons of nuclear water contaminated by the Fukushima power plant… The Japanese government is being urged by experts to gradually release radioactive water in to the Pacific Ocean… The water is stored on site in around 900 large and densely packed tanks and could spill should another major disaster strike. The government has been urged to release the water into the ocean… Local fishermen are extremely hesitant to this solution… Fumio Haga, a drag-net fisherman, said: ‘People would shun Fukushima fish again as soon as the water is released.’…

New Study: US state hit with up to 200 times more Fukushima fallout than expected — Over a Trillion becquerels of nuclear waste fell on Hawaii — Scientists: “Plume may have taken an alternative path… Greater than anticipated”

University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Oct 31, 2017 (emphasis added):

• Fukushima-derived radiocesium fallout in Hawaiian soils… This study estimated the magnitude of cesium deposition in soil, collected in 2015-2016, resulting from atmospheric fallout… Detectable, Fukushima-derived 134Cs inventories ranged from 30 to 630 Bq m-2 and 137Cs inventories ranged from 20 to 2200 Bq m-2… This research confirmed and quantified the presence of Fukushima-derived fallout in the state of Hawai’i in amounts higher than predicted by models and observed in the United States mainland…

Fukushima radiation found in Hawaii fish — Almost half contain fallout from Japan nuclear disaster

University of Hawaii at Mānoa, 2017:

In the Wake of Fukushima: Radiocesium Inventories of Selected North Pacific Fish

Thirteen commonly consumed types of fish caught in the North Pacific and locally available in Hawaii were analyzed using gamma spectroscopy to measure Fukushima-derived and historic 134 Cs and 137 Cs isotopes. All fish samples had detectable 137 Cs above 95% Confidence Intervals. Three out of the thirteen samples had 134 Cs, an isotope indicative of Fukushima releases, detected above 95% Confidence Intervals. The highest 134 Cs and 137 Cs concentration in the examined species was in ahi tuna carrying 0.10±0.04 Bq/kg and 0.62±0.05 Bq/kg, respectively. Other samples with 134 Cs activities found above their 2-sigma uncertainty were albacore tuna and swordfish…

Fukushima should be ranked LEVEL 10 nuclear disaster (INES scale only goes up to 7) — Plant Worker: We caused the “worst kind” of accident (VIDEO)

Excerpts from Risk Analysis (pdf), Vol. 37, No. 1, 2017 (emphasis added):

…

• [T]he cost of the two largest events, Chernobyl and Fukushima (March 2011), is equal to nearly five times the sum of the 173 other events. We also document a significant runaway disaster regime in both radiation release and cost data, which we associate with the “dragon-king” phenomenon… we find that the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) is inconsistent in terms of both cost and radiation released. To be consistent with cost data, the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters would need to have between an INES level of 10 and 11, rather than the maximum of 7…

Hidden Fukushima nuclear waste being released into ocean — ‘Surprisingly’ high levels of radiation now detected along Pacific coast and in groundwater far from reactors — Expert: No one expected this — “Alarming example of how radiation has spread”

Newsweek, Oct 4, 2017 (emphasis added): Radiation From Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Discovered in Sand and Groundwater 60 Miles Away… the beach groundwater is even 10 times more radioactive than the ocean directly next to the Fukushima plant.

Gizmodo, Oct 4, 2017: Fukushima’s Radioactive Waste Is Leaking From an Unexpected Source— A new and unexpected source of radioactive material left over from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster has been found up to 60 miles away along coastlines… The discovery shows that damaged nuclear reactors are capable of spreading radiation far from the meltdown site, and in some surprising ways.

Pieces of Fukushima reactor cores still floating around, new study reveals — Hot particles with over 1 Quadrillion becquerels per kilogram detected — Radioactive materials contain Uranium, Polonium, Americium (VIDEO)

Science of the Total Environment, by Marco Kaltofen (Nuclear Science and Engineering Program, Department of Physics, Worcester Polytechnic Institute) and Arnie Gundersen (Fairewinds Energy Education), Dec 2017 (emphasis added): Radioactively-hot particles detected in dusts and soils from Northern Japan… Radioactive particles from Fukushima are tracked via dusts, soils, and sediments; Radioactive dust impacts are tracked in both Japan and the United States/Canada; Atypically-radioactive particles from reactor cores are identified in house dusts… After the March 11, 2011, nuclear reactor meltdowns at Fukushima Dai-ichi, 180 samples of Japanese particulate matter (dusts and surface soils) and 235 similar U.S. and Canadian samples were collected and analyzed…

Expert: Melted fuel found at Fukushima — Corium up to 6 feet thick beneath reactor — Nuclear waste “piling up at bottom” — Lava-like material has spread all over… “hanging like icicles” — Mystery orange material seen (VIDEO)

 

 

Kyodo, Jul 22, 2017 (emphasis added): In big step forward, Tepco finds melted fuel at bottom of reactor 3 in Fukushima… The debris was clearly identifiable to at least one nuclear expert. “The images that appear to be melted fuel debris match those found in the (1986) Chernobyl crisis,” said Tadashi Narabayashi, a specially appointed professor of nuclear engineering working at Hokkaido University. “It’s definitely fuel debris… It’s an epoch-making event.”

New York Daily News, Jul 22, 2017: Underwater robot captures images of melted fuel at wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant — An underwater robot captured photos of 3-foot thick lumps of melted nuclear fuel covering the floor…

Fury at Fukushima: Over 1 Billion pounds of nuclear waste “will be dumped into sea” — Top Official: “The decision has already been made” — “The solution is to pour the radioactive liquid into the ocean” — Toxic radioactive water to cause devastation

Kyodo, Jul 14, 2017 (emphasis added): Fukushima’s tritiated water to be dumped into sea, Tepco chief says — Despite the objections of local fishermen, the tritium-tainted water stored at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant will be dumped into the sea, a top official at Tokyo Electric says. “The decision has already been made,” Takashi Kawamura, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., said in a recent interview with the media… As of July 6, about 777,000 tons were stored [1.54 billion pounds]… Kawamura’s remarks are the first by the utility’s management on the sensitive matter…

Peak of Fukushima radiation now moving to West Coast — Levels much higher than predicted — Huge red blob of nuclear waste near shore — San Francisco area being hit hardest — Concern over Iodine-129 with 15 million year half-life (MAPS)

 

Feiro Marine Life Center, Apr 18, 2017 (emphasis added): Speaker Series: Studying Fukushima Radiation off the Coast of North America — The Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide Monitoring (InFORM) project is a partnership between academic, government, non-governmental organizations, and citizen scientists to monitor the arrival of Fukushima-derived contamination, cesium-134 (t1/2 = ~2 years), cesium-137 (t1/2 = ~30 years), and iodine-129 (t1/2 = 15.7 million years) in the open Pacific and Arctic Oceans and North American coastal waters. In response to public demand, monitoring began in the fall of 2014, when models predicted the arrival of radionuclide contamination from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. Monitoring efforts will capture the peak of the radionuclide contamination, predicted to occur in our waters… Contamination levels continue to be below levels that are known to represent a significant threat to human or ecosystem health.

Experts: Japan “wants to just drop tanks” of Fukushima nuclear waste into ocean — Americans worried over plumes hitting West Coast — “Reactors are now leaking really high levels of radiation into sea… The world does need to help” — Official says Japan lying about catastrophe (VIDEO)

 

TRT World transcript excerpts (government-funded public broadcaster of Turkey), Apr 14, 2017:

2:30 in – Dana Lewis, senior correspondent (emphasis added): As far away as the American Pacific coast there have been radiation levels found in fish, and radiation plumes have been tracked from Japan that have been detected on the shores of Oregon and in tuna caught nearby… Japan’s former prime minister has accused current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of lying about the situation being under control…

Officials: Melted fuel still leaking out of Fukushima reactor — Likely escaping from opening at bottom of containment vessel — Gov’t experts want to give up sending in robots to search for molten cores — “Disaster the likes of which has never been known”

Asahi Shimbun, Mar 24, 2017: Some Nuclear Regulation Authority members are skeptical of continuing to send robots into reactors in the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant… These regulators are increasingly calling for a new survey methodology after recent investigations utilizing robots controlled remotely generated few findings and were quickly terminated… The lower part of the reactor’s containment vessel is submerged in water where deposits of fuel debris are believed to reside below the surface after melting through… TEPCO and the government… have yet to collect information on the location, amount and condition of the melted fuel… [T]he surveys centering around the robots so far have failed to produce meaningful results.

Nuclear Investigator: Worry over underground explosions at Fukushima — New data shows molten fuel is “dropping lower each day”, melting deeper into ground below plant — Disaster far worse than public being told — “Why aren’t we reading about this everywhere?”

Excerpts from a column by Robert Cringely (Cringely is a best-selling author and his work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, and Forbes. He wrote in 2009 that “there is a place for nuclear power in our energy future”.), Feb 17, 2017 (emphasis added):

• Here’s why I am writing about this subject and why you should take me seriously. Back in 1979 I was hired by the White House to help investigate the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. My friend Robert Bishop, whom I consulted for this column, was the only American at Chernobyl.

…

• Well it’s six years later and, if anything, the Fukushima situation is even worse. Far from being over, the nuclear meltdown is continuing, the public health nightmare increasing. Why aren’t we reading about this everywhere?