U.S. radiation experts try to decipher reports from Japan

[nadinbrzezinski]

The Japanese government's radiation report for the country's 47 prefectures Wednesday had a notable omission: Fukushima, ground zero in Japan's nuclear crisis. Measurements from Ibaraki, just south of Fukushima, were also blanked out.

Radiation experts in the USA say that the lack of information about radioactivity released from the smoldering reactors makes it impossible to gauge the current danger, project how bad a potential meltdown might be or calculate how much fallout might reach the USA.

Japanese nuclear experts are hard at work gathering information, said Fred Mettler, the U.S. representative for the United Nation's committee on the health effects of radiation. "They're monitoring and evaluating and watching the meteorology," he said. "They need to know what the dose rates are in various places, what direction the (radiation is) moving in and what's causing it."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-03-17-japanradiate17_ST_N.htm

*************

I need a fucking break from this place but fuck, this is too important to NOT share...

So this is what this means. THEY DO NOT have the metrics at origin so telling what is coming is a tad hard.

So the AF or the NAVY better start flying sniffer planes

[Poll_Blind]

1. "So the AF or the NAVY better start flying sniffer planes " <--THIS

Or do we need absolutely fucking every dollar to go to hellfire missiles and the predator drones that fire them, reorganizing all the goddamned rocks in Afghanistan one explosion at a time.

PB

[Lucinda]

2. I'd be surprised if we weren't monitoring already - as much as possible anyway

Once they started making public statements about the lack of information I thought they might be stepping up measures. I just don't know what they can send in to get any readings that wouldn't be suspect due to the conditions.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. The Navy is flying sniffer planes around the Reagan and US Bases

and they said drones will fly over the main plume.

NO I mean for the West Coast... And that is a hell of a flying mission... since you have to find it, not something you can see. And no, they cannot be tracked by satellite

[kristopher]

6. YOu don't think we have a satellite with the ability to detect the radiation aimed at that spot?

I'm completely sure we do, that's why they created a 50 mile buffer zone for Americans in spite of the fact that the Japanese zone is 12 miles, IMO. They had to know that would cause a backlash directed at Kan but obviously felt it was necessary.

I doubt they did that with no data to support the decision.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. No we don't we can track thermal, and a few others

but not nuclear.

The 80 km exclusion is based on normal spread patterns and time\distance

[Vinnie From Indy]

21. That is not correct

I believe we do have satellites that can monitor gamma radiation and other forms of radiation from space.

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. No we don't...

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. No we don't...

[flamingdem]

16. How can they get that data from a plane? Or is it a drone? nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. They got sniffers on them

They are pods on the wings.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Here

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10471&page=54
Historically nuclear explosion detection monitoring equipment was deployed from 1963 to 1984 as part of the VELA satellite program. Twelve VELA satellites were launched between 1963 and 1970.33 Currently nuclear explosion monitoring is a secondary mission assigned to the DSP early warning satellite systems. One sensor on the DSP is provided by the Air Force and several detectors are provided by the Department of Energy. Since 1970, 18 DSP satellites have been so equipped and the lifetime of the detectors has exceeded their design span of five years. Coverage by the DSP satellites has been incomplete. The polar regions of the Earth are not covered and most other areas of the Earth are monitored by only one satellite at any one time. In 1975 nuclear-explosion monitors were added to the GPS navigational system. Currently such detectors are flown on 33 GPS satellites. Because of the orbits of the GPS satellites, the detectors fly in a rather harsh radiation environment. Current payloads include optical detectors (bhangmeters), neutron detectors, five X-ray detectors, and two gamma ray sensors.

Over the next decade an extensive replacement program has been proposed for the sensors to be carried by the follow-on satellite system planned to replace the current satellites beginning in the year 2006. This program includes:

*

enhanced optical sensors (providing five times greater sensitivity than the current system)
*

autonomous EMP sensors incorporating improved background discrimination
*

gamma-ray and neutron detectors
*

infrared sensors
*

x-ray sensors
*

on-board data processing

Which and how many of these improvements will be incorporated in the future is still a matter of extensive discussion because of the conflicting budgetary and other priorities assigned to the DSP and GPS payloads, and those of still other satellites.

Other space-based detectors are also deployed, some of which provide limited additional nuclear-explosion detection capability, and some of which provide technical signatures of nuclear weapon-related activities. Extensive and successful efforts are made to track all objects launched into space. All objects in orbit around the Earth that are large enough to have any role in execution of a nuclear test are also tracked.

[flamingdem]

4. The Japanese govt no doubt will hide the info

A mixture of saving face and their sense of what is practical ie: keeping the calm.

[flamingdem]

5. They don't have metrics for the plant area! Insane. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. They do, they are just not sharing

[flamingdem]

10. Embarrassing for them, or like BP they are thinking financial triage nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. National pride

[SpoonFed]

25. yeah, brilliant, we need to admire Japan...

for it's need for national pride and face-saving at a time when
40+ millions health and well-being are in some indeterminate
amount of jeopardy.

They are either saving face, incompetent, or lying, or all of the above.

I'm starting to lose interest in exactly what, and just want somebody
to step up and get something accomplished be they TEPCO, NISA, government
or some international group or military force.

I fail to believe a country as supposedly technologically advanced as
Japan has no means of heli-dropping or air-dropping remote radiological
measurement equipment anywhere in it's own country of 55 operational
reactors on short notice.

They have no part of their military trained to do this, either?

It seems too coincidental that every sensor station in their SPEEDI
network has failed in the two prefectures where this accident is
happening.

Nope. I don't buy it.

[jtuck004]

7. Interesting. I was watching Erdano earlier on one of their press

briefings, and someone in the audience asked him what the reading for radiation levels were at Fukushima. The conference had been going on for a few minutes just fine, but just as he started to answer that question it cut away to someone completely different, also a spokesman, who was describing something completely different.

I was thinking it was just a coincidence, but it has seemed to be very hard info to gather. Numbers I am getting from more than one source, posted elsewhere, suggest surges to around 1000 mSv/hr, and maybe sustained 800 mSv/hr. I am guessing they are afraid people will freak out.

They must know they can't keep it quiet. I wonder if this gives them some weird deniability.

[flamingdem]

12. Radiation reading via Kyodo news, above reactor No. 3

girtabaix‎ Kyodo reports 87,7 millisieverts radiation per h above reactor No. 3 at a height of 300 ft. falling at 4,13 millisieverts per h at 1000 ft

So normal is say 50 microseverts and this is 87 millisieverts.... hmmm

[flamingdem]

13. I must sleep but I hope you see this N.

Straight off the twitter, but the news agency is mainstream.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. They said that it was falling all day

so it might... (i hope)

[flamingdem]

15. Did you see those numbers I posted above?

Wondering it that looks hugely high.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. It is, if these blow it will get down to lethal

[readmoreoften]

20. No wonder why I'm so confused.

[mia]

24. Fukushima nuclear plant owner has a history of dishonesty

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/fukushima-nuclear-plant-owner-falsified-inspection-records/story-fn84naht-1226023073141

THE Japanese owner of the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant falsified safety data and "dishonestly" tried to cover up problems there.
Tokyo Electric Power Co injected air into the containment vessel of Fukushima reactor No 1 to artificially “lower the leak rate”. When caught, the company expressed its “sincere apologies for conducting dishonest practices”.

The misconduct came to light in 2002 after whistleblowers working for General Electric, which designed the reactor, complained to the Japanese government. Another GE employee later confessed that he had falsified records of inspections of reactor No1 in 1989 - at the request of TEPCO officials. He also admitted to falsifying other inspection reports, also on request of the client. After that incident TEPCO was forced to shut down 17 reactors, albeit temporarily....


In 2007, TEPCO ran into trouble again after misinforming government officials about breakdowns at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, which had been damaged after a magnitude 6.8 quake. In a cable released by WikiLeaks, a US official said: “TEPCO issued a corrected statement on July 18 in which it admitted it miscalculated the amount of radiation leakage.”

WikiLeaks cables also reveal that Japan was warned in 2009 that its power plants could not withstand powerful earthquakes....

[felix_numinous]

26. Amazing there is no robot that can go in and gather data-

maybe I watch too much sci fi, but it seems the logical choice. send in a shielded drone to do what humans can not.