Japan has taken a month to admit the reality of the accident in Fukushima. Last night (Spanish time), the Tokyo government admitted that the disaster deserves a 7 on the scale of nuclear events (on the international scale of 0 to 7 INES nuclear accidents, for its acronym in English) due to high levels Radiation leaks detected after the plant.
The jump from 5 to 7 places the accident at Chernobyl 25 years ago, the only precedent. The Japanese Nuclear Safety Agency (NISA) has recognized the change in level because the emission of radioactive iodine has been of tens of thousands of terabequerelios, a level considered as 10% of the issue of Chernobyl.
Still, the World Health Organization was quick to say that the risk to public health after the nuclear accident is no worse today than yesterday, when he still had not raised the level of nuclear disaster. "Our assessment of public health is the same today as yesterday, has said Gregory Hartl, WHO spokesman." At the moment there is very little risk to public health outside the 30 km evacuation, "he insisted .
For his part, Minister of Science and Technology has confirmed that Japanese have found small amounts of strontium, a highly radioactive metal that can cause leukemia, in the land and plants around the plant. These particles are attached to other elements found in the measurements around the plant, such as iodine, cesium and plutonium.
Although one month later, in his first appearance after the lift on the category of accident, the Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, has denied that there was a delay in recognizing the true magnitude of the tragedy and denied that what happened is undervalued . Khan has returned to demand more information to TEPCO, and asked him to show his plans to control the situation, but allegedly sent a reassuring message: "Fukushima plant is stabilizing step by step." However, despite yesterday decided to evacuate a larger area affected by radioactive releases from the plant, Kan has said it is down the escape of radioactive particles and has asked the Japanese who, little by little, start entering normal life, after asking, as a measure to rebuild the country, which consumes the products of the areas devastated by the quake, Kyodo reported.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the company that operates the plant, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), has recognized the local news agency Kyodo News, the company fears that leaks of radioactive materials in the future beyond that occurred in 1986 at Chernobyl. "The radiation leak has not stopped completely," said the spokesman.
And for its part, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed in a statement its review of the accident, while in the same report finds that the damage suffered in the first three reactors are now considered as a single incident, incident that deserves the title of Level 7, Efe reported.
So far, damage in these reactors were considered as separate incidents, rated a 5. Meanwhile, the Unit 4 of Fukushima remains in the preliminary level 3 on the scale. The IAEA also adds that the new rating "requires extensive and planned to apply countermeasures." As Japan struggles against nuclear disaster a month after the great earthquake, the earth continues to tremble.
This morning (Spanish time) have been two: first, that has been felt mainly in Tokyo, was of magnitude 6.4 in the province of Chiba, according to Japan's meteorological agency, an intensity that triggered the tsunami alert but it shook buildings in Tokyo, the second around Fukushima, of magnitude 6.3.
The NISA believes that most of the radioactive material released into the atmosphere from the reactor from Fukushima Daiichi 2, March 15 suffered an explosion of hydrogen near the suppression pool at the base of the reactor, which damaged the vessel containment that protects the core. That sparked a mass escape of radioactive materials in the reactor, which is believed to have experienced a partial meltdown of fuel rods, according to the nuclear agency, Efe reported.
Fukushima is not an "accident without significant impact," as stated by Tokyo for weeks, nor is it an "accident with off-site risk," as held for a month. Fukushima is a "major accident", a level seven. International experts insisted for weeks that the accident should be classified at least as a level 6 on the international INES scale.
Until yesterday, Japan still maintained the level 5, similar to the accident at Three Mile Island in Harrisburg (USA, 1979, in which there was little escape. Despite increasing gravity, NISA has insisted on separating the Chernobyl accident: "There are many differences," said spokesman NISA, including that you can still work with the nuclear issue or abroad is significantly reduced.
Estimating Fukushima issued it is 10% of Chernobyl and gave the French Institute of Radiology on 24 March. The Japanese watchdog also said that its preliminary estimates indicate that the amount of external exposure to radiation from Fukushima has reached the limits of a millisievert in areas over 60 kilometers northwest of the plant, about 40 miles southwest.
In the 20 km radius exclusion zone, extending yesterday by the Government, the amount of radiation varies from one to 100 mSv per hour, while in the area between 20 and 30 kilometers of the plant, the amount reduced to levels below 50 mSv. That Iitate, a town of 7,000 inhabitants 40 km northwest of the nuclear, there are high levels of contamination is no surprise.
March 25, two weeks after the tsunami, the Japanese government and cesium contamination detected in the soil -137 163 000 becquerels per kilo (500 times more than allowed in the EU). Cesium-137 takes about 300 years to disappear. Expansion of the exclusion zone Fukushima nuclear plant fell yesterday for 49 minutes starting point to the critical situation after the tsunami lived just a month earlier.
An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale 68 kilometers from the plant Fukushima left without power and no cooling between 17.16 and 18.05 (local time Japan). The loss of external power after the March 11 tsunami left four of six reactors at the plant in such bad shape that, after thirty working days, Japan is unable to control or adventure when you can take them to a cold shutdown.
Cooling is essential to cool the reactor and fuel pools and avoid the meltdown. According to TEPCO, when he took an injection of fresh water affected the four reactors were stable. The problem is that almost nobody knows exactly does that mean, because the central data are scarce. Democratic Congressman Edward J.
Markey was in Washington last week an email sent to him by the U.S. Nuclear Agency (NRC) under which feared that the reactor core and two were cast had left the vessel. That picture is worse than the present Japanese authorities, although the NRC hue after it was not clear if that had happened.
The situation reflects the uncertainty in which experts still move. Engineers around the world are watching the Japanese data to try to make public venture which may be the situation inside the reactors. The NRC has experts in Japan since the first day and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo encourages its citizens to remain at 80 km from center (to anger the Japanese government) and have been distributed potassium iodide tablets.
The high-dose potassium iodide saturates the thyroid and prevent absorption of radioactive iodine. On the other hand, the Government announced that will seriously with residents, ignoring the recommendation, still in the exclusion zone. Since 13 March, the Japanese authorities have measured the radiation 131,604 people.
Of these, 102 had contamination on clothing, but no body contamination above the limits. In Iitate and Kawamata measurements have been performed in 946 children to study the accumulation of radioactive iodine in the thyroid gland, without any detected levels above those set by Japan, according to the Nuclear Security Council.
"We agree with this decision, but should have taken it before," Greg McNevin said by telephone, the Greenpeace team in Japan. It is not the first time that reality forces to correct the optimistic forecasts of the Government of Tokyo. The organization says that people who still live around Fukushima could receive a radiation dose of five millisievert a year, "which was the threshold for evacuation in Chernobyl." The measurements show that the dispersion of radioactive particles is not uniform.
Although the prevailing winds are to the Pacific, is a tongue of pollution to the northwest, which is encompassing Iitate. 
The jump from 5 to 7 places the accident at Chernobyl 25 years ago, the only precedent. The Japanese Nuclear Safety Agency (NISA) has recognized the change in level because the emission of radioactive iodine has been of tens of thousands of terabequerelios, a level considered as 10% of the issue of Chernobyl.
Still, the World Health Organization was quick to say that the risk to public health after the nuclear accident is no worse today than yesterday, when he still had not raised the level of nuclear disaster. "Our assessment of public health is the same today as yesterday, has said Gregory Hartl, WHO spokesman." At the moment there is very little risk to public health outside the 30 km evacuation, "he insisted .
For his part, Minister of Science and Technology has confirmed that Japanese have found small amounts of strontium, a highly radioactive metal that can cause leukemia, in the land and plants around the plant. These particles are attached to other elements found in the measurements around the plant, such as iodine, cesium and plutonium.
Although one month later, in his first appearance after the lift on the category of accident, the Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, has denied that there was a delay in recognizing the true magnitude of the tragedy and denied that what happened is undervalued . Khan has returned to demand more information to TEPCO, and asked him to show his plans to control the situation, but allegedly sent a reassuring message: "Fukushima plant is stabilizing step by step." However, despite yesterday decided to evacuate a larger area affected by radioactive releases from the plant, Kan has said it is down the escape of radioactive particles and has asked the Japanese who, little by little, start entering normal life, after asking, as a measure to rebuild the country, which consumes the products of the areas devastated by the quake, Kyodo reported.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the company that operates the plant, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), has recognized the local news agency Kyodo News, the company fears that leaks of radioactive materials in the future beyond that occurred in 1986 at Chernobyl. "The radiation leak has not stopped completely," said the spokesman.
And for its part, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed in a statement its review of the accident, while in the same report finds that the damage suffered in the first three reactors are now considered as a single incident, incident that deserves the title of Level 7, Efe reported.
So far, damage in these reactors were considered as separate incidents, rated a 5. Meanwhile, the Unit 4 of Fukushima remains in the preliminary level 3 on the scale. The IAEA also adds that the new rating "requires extensive and planned to apply countermeasures." As Japan struggles against nuclear disaster a month after the great earthquake, the earth continues to tremble.
This morning (Spanish time) have been two: first, that has been felt mainly in Tokyo, was of magnitude 6.4 in the province of Chiba, according to Japan's meteorological agency, an intensity that triggered the tsunami alert but it shook buildings in Tokyo, the second around Fukushima, of magnitude 6.3.
The NISA believes that most of the radioactive material released into the atmosphere from the reactor from Fukushima Daiichi 2, March 15 suffered an explosion of hydrogen near the suppression pool at the base of the reactor, which damaged the vessel containment that protects the core. That sparked a mass escape of radioactive materials in the reactor, which is believed to have experienced a partial meltdown of fuel rods, according to the nuclear agency, Efe reported.
Fukushima is not an "accident without significant impact," as stated by Tokyo for weeks, nor is it an "accident with off-site risk," as held for a month. Fukushima is a "major accident", a level seven. International experts insisted for weeks that the accident should be classified at least as a level 6 on the international INES scale.
Until yesterday, Japan still maintained the level 5, similar to the accident at Three Mile Island in Harrisburg (USA, 1979, in which there was little escape. Despite increasing gravity, NISA has insisted on separating the Chernobyl accident: "There are many differences," said spokesman NISA, including that you can still work with the nuclear issue or abroad is significantly reduced.
Estimating Fukushima issued it is 10% of Chernobyl and gave the French Institute of Radiology on 24 March. The Japanese watchdog also said that its preliminary estimates indicate that the amount of external exposure to radiation from Fukushima has reached the limits of a millisievert in areas over 60 kilometers northwest of the plant, about 40 miles southwest.
In the 20 km radius exclusion zone, extending yesterday by the Government, the amount of radiation varies from one to 100 mSv per hour, while in the area between 20 and 30 kilometers of the plant, the amount reduced to levels below 50 mSv. That Iitate, a town of 7,000 inhabitants 40 km northwest of the nuclear, there are high levels of contamination is no surprise.
March 25, two weeks after the tsunami, the Japanese government and cesium contamination detected in the soil -137 163 000 becquerels per kilo (500 times more than allowed in the EU). Cesium-137 takes about 300 years to disappear. Expansion of the exclusion zone Fukushima nuclear plant fell yesterday for 49 minutes starting point to the critical situation after the tsunami lived just a month earlier.
An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale 68 kilometers from the plant Fukushima left without power and no cooling between 17.16 and 18.05 (local time Japan). The loss of external power after the March 11 tsunami left four of six reactors at the plant in such bad shape that, after thirty working days, Japan is unable to control or adventure when you can take them to a cold shutdown.
Cooling is essential to cool the reactor and fuel pools and avoid the meltdown. According to TEPCO, when he took an injection of fresh water affected the four reactors were stable. The problem is that almost nobody knows exactly does that mean, because the central data are scarce. Democratic Congressman Edward J.
Markey was in Washington last week an email sent to him by the U.S. Nuclear Agency (NRC) under which feared that the reactor core and two were cast had left the vessel. That picture is worse than the present Japanese authorities, although the NRC hue after it was not clear if that had happened.
The situation reflects the uncertainty in which experts still move. Engineers around the world are watching the Japanese data to try to make public venture which may be the situation inside the reactors. The NRC has experts in Japan since the first day and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo encourages its citizens to remain at 80 km from center (to anger the Japanese government) and have been distributed potassium iodide tablets.
The high-dose potassium iodide saturates the thyroid and prevent absorption of radioactive iodine. On the other hand, the Government announced that will seriously with residents, ignoring the recommendation, still in the exclusion zone. Since 13 March, the Japanese authorities have measured the radiation 131,604 people.
Of these, 102 had contamination on clothing, but no body contamination above the limits. In Iitate and Kawamata measurements have been performed in 946 children to study the accumulation of radioactive iodine in the thyroid gland, without any detected levels above those set by Japan, according to the Nuclear Security Council.
"We agree with this decision, but should have taken it before," Greg McNevin said by telephone, the Greenpeace team in Japan. It is not the first time that reality forces to correct the optimistic forecasts of the Government of Tokyo. The organization says that people who still live around Fukushima could receive a radiation dose of five millisievert a year, "which was the threshold for evacuation in Chernobyl." The measurements show that the dispersion of radioactive particles is not uniform.
Although the prevailing winds are to the Pacific, is a tongue of pollution to the northwest, which is encompassing Iitate.
- How Fukushima is and isn't like Chernobyl (12/04/2011)
- Safe Fukushima produce get nod (08/04/2011)
- "Fukushima Daiichi: Magnitude 7 earthquake causes temporary evacuation Monday" and related posts (11/04/2011)
- NISA rebuked by Fukushima over late data (03/04/2011)
- Fukushima: Second Worst Nuclear Disaster Ever (12/04/2011)
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