Quote:
Originally Posted by CraigS
More not-so-good news:
"The substances were detected in seawater which was sampled Monday about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the Fukushima No.1 plant, a TEPCO official said."
Radioactive substances in seawater near Japan nuke plant
Its probably authentic information, given the quantitative nature of the information. |
Hi Craig,
Thanks for the link to the story.
When I read
the same syndicated AFP story in this morning's Sydney Morning
Herald, the numbers reported at that distance at sea were so high compared to
equivalent reported readings at similar distances on the land, that it gave me
reason to wonder if the AFP story had made an error.
Googling about, as best as I can ascertain so far, many news outlets sourced a
story from the Kyodo News Agency in Japan.
See
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/80024.html
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Kyodo News Agency, Tokyo, March 22 2011
According to TEPCO, radioactive iodine at levels 126.7 times higher than the legal concentration limit and radioactive cesium 24.8 times higher were detected in seawater near the water discharging outlets of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Since no radioactive substances had been recently detected in seawater before the disaster, the latest detection is believed to have been caused by the nuclear accident, company officials said.
The iodine and cesium could have leaked into seawater after being washed out by rain or seeped into underground as a result of water-dousing operations to cool down the stricken reactors at the plant, the officials said.
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So perhaps the 100km is a typo error made by a journalist somewhere in the chain
and perhaps it was meant to be, say, 100m?
The best source might be the original TEPCO briefing itself which was probably
broadcast on NHK TV this morning but I have not had the opportunity to watch yet.
When watching the broadcasts over the past week or so, it has often given
me reason to pause to ponder the skill of professional translators who can listen
to a conversation, translate and speak themselves in real time. But in this instance,
another possibility is perhaps something may have got Lost In Translation somewhere?
I am confident one of us will be able to find the original source soon to verify the
numbers.
Nevertheless, irrespective of the distance from the plant, for a nation that can readily
consume fish for breakfast, sushi for lunch and sea slug for dinner, any radioactive
poisoning of the food chain in the surrounding waters is bad news.
As we witnessed on television, many of the worse affected areas in the tsunami
were fishing villages.
Postscript:
Found this -
Press Release on TEPCO web site here -
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp...1032201-e.html
Quote:
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Originally Posted by TEPCO News
Press Release (Mar 22,2011)
Detection of radioactive materials from the seawater around the discharge canal of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station
On March 21st 2011, radioactive materials were detected from the seawater
around the discharge canal (south) of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power
Station which was damaged by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku
earthquake as a result of the sampling survey of radioactive materials in
the seawater which was implemented as a part of monitoring of surrounding
environment.
TEPCO had informed the result to Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency
(NISA) and Fukushima prefecture.
Details are as follows;
Re-sampling survey is scheduled tomorrow in the morning.
Same kind of sampling survey is scheduled at Fukushima Daini Nuclear
Power Station to examine radioactive materials spread into the sea in the
future.
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Here is a link to a PDF of the TEPCO analysis -
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp...s/110322e1.pdf
Dated 14:39 March 21st 2011 it shows the place as "southern discharge canal (about 100 meters south
from 1_4u discharge canal)."