June 20th: est. 1.6 billion Becquerels of Radioactive Materials Released !

Japan pumps water into reactor to contain radioactivity

Tokyo - Japanese authorities pumped water into a damaged nuclear reactor over the weekend to contain high radiation, news reports said Monday. Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), which runs the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, started Sunday to pour water into a pool on the top floor of reactor 4 of the six-reactor plant after it discovered the water level had dropped to about one-third of its capacity, public broadcaster NHK reported. The drop caused equipment in the pool to be exposed, releasing high levels of radiation, officials said.
The plant has been leaking radioactive substances since it was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The radiation levels at reactor 4 have been preventing workers from entering the structure to conduct repairs. TEPCO also began late Sunday to release air containing radioactive substances from the building of reactor 2 by opening its doors.

And NOW the BAD news ...

An estimated 1.6 billion becquerels of radioactive materials were released, compared with 500 million becquerels when the double doors of the building of reactor 1 were opened in May, the Jiji Press agency reported, citing TEPCO.

MORE DENIALS from the peanut gallery !

The operator denied that the releases would have an impact on the environment.

I guess they don't KNOW about air conditioned suits with air tanks !?!?!?

The move was aimed at lowering the 99-per-cent humidity inside the reactors, which was further hindering repair work.

IT GETS STRAAAANGER BY THE DAY !!!

I will be watching my sources for the radiation cloud to see what hits the USA and the WORLD -- and posting updates !

PLEASE, FEEL FREE TO JOIN IN ...

OK, it looks like it may already be showing up in Japan, Sunday 1:00 AM pacific time.

On the Blackcat systems map which displays background levels from 0 - 28, a 28 in far south Japan, 26 Tokyo, (21, 22, 23 all just North of Tokyo), and 24 a little further North.

I have been watching this for a long time and after the 13th Tokyo went up a bit to having usually 4 locations in the low 20s. This is the first time I have seen a 28 and 26, the average is now MUCH higher, still with in normal background ranges though.

I believe that these measurements are artificially low, as this is an amateur network. The sensors are certainly indoors sitting near a computer, maybe at BEST a couple are on a window sill, but still a real measurement would be outside on a tree limb facing the sky with NO leaf cover, I DOUBT very much that any of these give that kind of measurement.

And while we at ATS have been reporting on better measurements that were MUCH HIGHER AND DANGEROUS, this network has reported mostly in Tokyo and North of Tokyo as the highest radiation in Japan in the mid teens, at the WORST !

SO WHAT I AM SEEING HERE IS QUITE BAD -- I think I will close my windows tonight !!!!!!

HOLY CRAPPOLY !

Now there are 2, 22 measurements on the map in the USA, a few minutes ago there was only 1 -- 1:30 AM pacific on 6/20 !

In Eugene Oregon and Stockton, CA.

Updated the map a couple times and the stockton goes to 15 and then 20, the 20 above normal. Two 18s in the SF area, that is a little above normal.

Anchorage has gone to 25 from the teens a few minutes ago, refresh 20, and Eugene remains stuck on 22.

These are UNUSUAL the jet stream is moving it over quickly but news from Japan has been VERY STRANGE since the 13th, I will cover that in a post later.

Very disturbing news.. I would hate to be close to the jet stream right now..

Thanks OP and others for following this and keeping everyone up to date and informed.

Excuse my ignorance - could you explain what the safe limits are?

What are the safe and dangerous ranges?

Well...last time I checked....there really wasn't such a thing as 'safe levels' of Plutonium, unless that level is 'none' or very close to it...

Plutonium 239 has a half-life of 24,110 years, which means that it would take 240,000 years to decay to a safe amount.

Originally posted by Sarahko
Excuse my ignorance - could you explain what the safe limits are?

What are the safe and dangerous ranges?

Here is an article which answers that question. Actually we have evolved to deal with background radiation. But we haven't evolved to deal with inhaling a lot of "hot particles" suspended in the air which is quite different than what we get from background radiation.

How Dangerous Is Radiation?

How dangerous is 1 mrem of radiation? The answer can be given in quantitative terms, with some qualifications to be discussed later, but in most situations, for each millirem of radiation we receive, our risk of dying from cancer is increased by about 1 chance in 4 million. ...

This risk corresponds to a reduction in our life expectancy by 2 minutes. A similar reduction in our life expectancy is caused by13

* crossing streets 5 times (based on the average probability of being killed while crossing a street)
* taking a few puffs on a cigarette (each cigarette smoked reduces life expectancy by l0 minutes)
* an overweight person eating 20 extra calories (e.g., a quarter of a slice of bread and butter)
* driving an extra 5 miles in an automobile

These examples should put the risk of 1 mrem of radiation into proper perspective. Many more examples will be given in Chapter 8.

So if 4 million people each get 1 mrem of extra radiation, one will die. If 4 million people each get 2 mrem of extra radiation, two will die, and so on.

How many mrem you get from this and previous releases depends on weather patterns and other factors. Some people will get more mrem than others, the highest doses occur to those downwind from and closest to the plant, though atomic bomb testing also showed that certain weather patterns have the ability to drop large amounts of radiation far from the source, like say for example the radiation is blowing along with the wind while a storm is brewing, then all the sudden it starts raining, that rain can wash the radiation to the ground in a concentrated area where the rain falls, which may be thousands of miles from the source.

OK, here we go because of all these ongoing releases of radiation Tokyo is starting to show higher radiation readings EVEN by amateur radiation networks which most likely have their sensors sitting indoors nearby the computer that it is attached to !

WE HAVE NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME IN TOKYO CRACKED BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS



Tonight's radiation readings from the Blackcat network shows a 33, 32, and 28, 28 is the TOP of background radiation readings with the scale that they use !!!

AND if you are consistently reading that high it should be because it is a high altitude location, not next to sea level like Tokyo is, and any score in Tokyo consistently above 20 is MUCH higher then anything that I saw in Tokyo when I first started watching Japan from this network about a month ago.

How does the USA compare, well, California was ALL in the teens, normally there would be many below 10 and two or three in the teens. And in the East I have noticed since I started this thread that strangely New York is often at 29 or 30 and almost every time I check some one place in the East scores that high.

So these HOT RADIOACTIVE PARTICLES are being moved around the World quite readily by the jet stream.