[bratticus]

Fukushima: It's much worse than you think
Dahr Jamail / Al Jazeera / June 16, 2011

"We are discovering hot particles everywhere in Japan, even in Tokyo," [Gundersen, a licensed reactor operator with 39 years of nuclear power engineering experience, managing and coordinating projects at 70 nuclear power plants around the US] said. "Scientists are finding these everywhere. Over the last 90 days these hot particles have continued to fall and are being deposited in high concentrations. A lot of people are picking these up in car engine air filters."

Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo are now common, and Gundersen says his sources are finding radioactive air filters in the greater Seattle area of the US as well.

The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer.

"These get stuck in your lungs or GI tract, and they are a constant irritant," he explained, "One cigarette doesn't get you, but over time they do. These [hot particles] can cause cancer, but you can't measure them with a Geiger counter. Clearly people in Fukushima prefecture have breathed in a large amount of these particles. Clearly the upper West Coast of the US has people being affected. That area got hit pretty heavy in April." ...

Also http://youtu.be/de8jWmwqjfg

Do you live on the west coast of the US?
Is your car air filter radioactive?
Can you check?

[diemos]

Do you live on the west coast of the US?

Yes, I do.

Is your car air filter radioactive?

Yes, it is. Just like always after it's been run for a while.

Can you check?

Well, the boys at Berkeley have a sampling system set up on the roof of the Berkeley lab. They run it for a while and then take it down to a Germanium detector and look at the gamma energy spectrum and they see all sorts of radioactive isotopes in it. These days primarily naturally occuring radon decay daughters, potassium-40 and Beryllium-7. They've been monitoring since just after march 11 and you can look at the plot of the measured concentration of decay products from Fukushima over time.

Since plutonium is primarily an alpha emitter and only weakly emits gammas it's hard to see with this technique. You usually take a physical sample and run it through a mass spectrograph to look for atoms that have the right mass to be Pu. The RADNET boys have not seen any Pu and they're equipment is sensitive enough to have measured fallout from above ground nuclear testing in the 50's.

[bratticus]

. deleted .

[bratticus]

Is your car air filter radioactive?

Yes, it is. Just like always after it's been run for a while.

Thanks, can you please clarify what you meant by "just like always"?

[diemos]

Thanks, can you please clarify what you meant by "just like always"?

The air is full of naturally occuring radionuclides which will be trapped in your air filter. If you hold a Geiger counter up to an air filter it will go "clickety clickety click". People assume that if you had looked at air filters from March 2010 you would read nothing, this is not correct. You would pretty much have gotten the same amount of "clickety clickety click".

[bratticus]

You would pretty much have gotten the same amount of "clickety clickety click".

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22has+a ... ar+with%22

[bratticus]

Radioactive dust from Fukushima plant hit N. America soon after meltdown: researchers
Mainichi Japan (translated from Japanese original) / June 23, 2011

Radioactive materials spewed out from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant reached North America soon after the meltdown and were carried all the way to Europe, according to a simulation by university researchers.

The computer simulation by researchers at Kyushu University and the University of Tokyo, among other institutions, calculated dispersal of radioactive dust from the Fukushima plant beginning at 9 p.m. on March 14, when radiation levels around the plant spiked.

The team found that radioactive dust was likely caught by the jet stream and carried across the Pacific Ocean, its concentration dropping as it spread. According to the computer model, radioactive materials at a concentration just one-one hundred millionth of that found around the Fukushima plant hit the west coast of North America three days later, and reached the skies over much of Europe about a week later.

[DomusAlbion]

We're approximaty 350 miles from the Pacific Ocean and considered part of the Pacific Northwest.

This is good news in a bad sort of way. If I develop any cancer within the next 10 years I can sue the Japanese for cause and leave a bundle of money to my grandchildren.

[PrestonSturges]

Thanks, can you please clarify what you meant by "just like always"?

The air is full of naturally occuring radionuclides which will be trapped in your air filter. If you hold a Geiger counter up to an air filter it will go "clickety clickety click". People assume that if you had looked at air filters from March 2010 you would read nothing, this is not correct. You would pretty much have gotten the same amount of "clickety clickety click".

Probably a Delorean, they leak transuranium elements the way Triumphs leaked motor oil.

But eventually our cars will be able to suck the fissionable materials they need straight from the air.

[diemos]

Good news! The boys at Berkeley lab did an alpha spectrometry measurement of an air filter. No Plutonium from Fukushima detected. I guess it won't be necessary to dispose of your car air filters at Yucca Mountain after all.

http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/node/5137

[RedStateGreen]

Group monitoring for just such a thing: http://www.allvoices.com/s/event-848284 ... JrLmNvbS8=


So far the only incidents have been some radiation spikes in Kauai.

[highlander]

We have had reports of radioactive iodine showing up in milk. It has a short halflife, so time is our friend here. While concentrations are very low, I wouldn't want even one atom ingested by my grandkids. The gov'ts of the respective countries don't care. We are on our own.

[babystrangeloop]

Radioactive Sulfur Leaked From Japan Traveled to California: UCSD Scientists
IBTimes / August 15, 2011

... Initially, Thiemens stressed that harmful radiation will not reach the West Coast.

Initially, Japan stressed the disaster wasn't as bad as Three Mile Island.

[babystrangeloop]

Radiation from Japan spiked on West coast in March
By Randolph E. Schmid / AP Science Writer / August 15, 2011

WASHINGTON—A spike in radioactive sulfur from the damaged Japanese nuclear plant was detected in California in late March ...

[diemos]

http://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/201 ... fukushima/

[Frankyh]

Its so nice to see this good information in your post

[Outcast_Searcher]

Yes, let's always carry the "words of doom" to the U.S. in any form, no matter how distorted one must make any post. This helps this site so much.

The final pararagraph of the article BabyStrangeLoop cited about scary radiation in the Northwest US said that the radiation was harmless -- just like the link to the more detailed information Demios posted.

...

I WOULD be somewhat concerned if I lived in, say, Tokyo, and especially if I had young children. Acting like there is no difference between living in the Fukishima exclusion zone and half a PLANET away in the U.S., is just silly.

But then again, I'm looking for accurate information about energy usage and its real-world effect on the planet.

[babystrangeloop]

The final pararagraph of the article BabyStrangeLoop cited about scary radiation in the Northwest US said that the radiation was harmless -- just like the link to the more detailed information Demios posted.

You can't possibly know that, you would have had to read the article.

[diemos]

Thanks, can you please clarify what you meant by "just like always"?

http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/forum/218/r ... mment-8146