No way to find hot spots with dosimeter at 1m from the ground

We have published several articles in this blog saying that to protect the population the Japanese goverment should take into account the soil contamination as well as the radiation dose in the air.  The policy to open the evacuation zones and encourage the population to return to live there (with the end of financial compensation and relocation aid) is based only on the airborn radiation dose measurements (the evacuation order is lifted when the radiation dose is under 20mSv/year).  We have been saying that this is very dangerous, even  criminal, for the air radiation dose rate (indicating the amount of radioactive dose received by a person within a certin period time) is useful with a well-identfied fixed source of radiation, but is not adequate to reveal the overall environmental contamination after a nuclear accident. It doesn’t account for the internal radiation exposure induced health hazards (note 1).

Now we would like to point out another problem related to hotspots: it is nearly impossible to find hotspots by the usual measuring practice of the airborn radiation dose rate (in sieverts per unit of time).  To illustrate this difficulty, we are translating here a Facebook post of Mr Yoichi Ozawa of the citizen’s measurement group named the “Fukuichi Area Environmental Radiation Monitoring Project“.

私たちはこのブログで何度か日本政府は、日本の住民を護るために空間線量率だけでなく土壌汚染も考慮に入れるべきだと書いてきました。避難指示を解除し、住民をそこに戻そうとする帰還政策（賠償打ち切りと住宅支援停止を伴う）は、空間線量率のみに基づいています（年間20ミリシーベルト以下であれば避難指示解除）。私たちはこれは大変危険で、国家の犯罪だと言ってきました。なぜならば、線源が明確で、固定されている場合に有効な空間線量率だけをみることは、原発事故後の環境の全体的放射能汚染の実態を把握するには不適切で、内部被ばくによる健康被害リスクを隠蔽することになるからです（注1）。

今回はホットスポットに関する問題を指摘したいと考えます。通常の空間線量率（分、時間、年あたりのシーベルト）の測定ではホットスポットを発見するのはほぼ不可能なのです。
この難しさがよくわかる、ふくいち周辺環境放射線モニタリングプロジェクトの小澤洋一さんのフェイスブックの投稿を訳させていただきます。

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Testimony of a mother who evacuated from Tokyo

Listen to her testimony (in English).
She evacuated from Tokyo to Kobe in west Japan to protect her daughter.
The contamination does not stop at the Fukushima department border. Tokyo is also contaminated.

Transcription (note 1):

I am standing here to tell you that the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe is not over.
I evacuated to Kansai (note2), three years after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident.

Where do you think I evacuated from?
I evacuated from Tokyo!

Do you know that Tokyo has serious radioactive contamination？
Tens of millions of people in east Japan live with radioactive contamination now.

I have a daughter who was 5 years old at the time of the accident.
She became very sick one year after the accident.
In fact, my daughter became so sick that she could not live a normal life at all.
However, when she stayed in a place where there was no radioactive contamination, my daughter became so well. But when we returned to Tokyo, my daughter became sick again.
We did not have the option to stay in Tokyo, we just fled from Tokyo and came here.

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Newspaper changes an “annoying” photo

新聞が「迷惑な」写真を差し替え

Facts are disappearing from the media  報道から消えていくファクト

When we are outside of Fukushima, or of Japan, it is difficult for us to realize to what extent it has become difficult to speak of radio-contamination and the risk of exposure.

福島の、いや日本の外にいると放射能汚染や被ばくリスクについて語ることがどれだけ難しくなっているかがわかりません。

To illustrate this, we are reporting on the case of a photo replacement in the Mainichi Shimbun. This took place only in the Japanese edition. The original photo seems to have remained in the English edition.

その例を示すために、毎日新聞の写真差し替えの件をレポートしたいと思います。なお、写真差し替えは日本語版だけのようです。

On October 21, the Mainichi Shimbun reported the reopening of a part of the JR East line under the title: “JR East partially reopens line halted since 2011 nuclear disaster“. In this article, the Mainichi published a photo of a train leaving the newly opened Tomioka station. (If it is impossible to open the article, here is the web archive).

毎日新聞は10月21日付でJR常磐線富岡ー竜田間の再開を報じました。この中に富岡駅を出る電車の写真が掲載されています。(リンクが切れている時にはこちらのウェブアーカイブをごらんください。)

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New study says Minami-soma as safe as Western Japan cities – do they really expect us to believe this?

新しい調査によると、南相馬市は西日本の都市と同じくらい安全だそうです。こんな調査結果が信じられるでしょうか？

On September 5, 2017, Minami-soma city made a statement on the city’s radiation levels compared to 3 cities in West Japan, which has been reported in several newspapers. It’s important to comment on this study because the statement is intended to persuade the population to return to live there.

We are publishing comments on the articles below after having discussed with M. Ozawa of the citizen’s measurement group named the “Fukuichi Area Environmental Radiation Monitoring Project“. For English speaking readers, please refer to the article of Asahi Shimbun in English. For our arguments we refer to other articles published in other newspapers – Fukushima Minyu and Fukushima Minpo – which are only in Japanese.

2017年9月5日、南相馬市は同市と西日本の３市の外部被曝ばく線量を測定し、その結果について発表しました。いくつかの新聞が報道しています。この発表は住民帰還を促す意図を持っていますので、コメントすることが重要かと思われます。

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Olympic games in Fukushima: Is it safe?

福島でオリンピックゲーム。安全なのか？

Fukushima city is going to host Olympic baseball and softball games in 2020.
What is the level of radio-contamination there? This is the question on everybody’s mind, spectators and players from all over the world. Is it really safe?

2020年のオリンピックで硬式野球と軟式野球のゲームは福島市で開催することになっています。
この場所での放射線汚染のレベルはどれくらいなのでしょうか？世界中からやってくる選手や応援団、観客など、そこに行く予定の人たちにとって、この疑問は当然のことです。
この場所に行っても本当に安全なのだろうか？

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No human rights in terrifyingly contaminated Namie in Fukushima

想像を絶する汚染地帯の浪江町には人権は存在しないのでしょうか？

The evacuation orders of the most populated areas of Namie, Fukushima were lifted on March 31, 2017.
We are publishing the most recent soil surface density map of Namie created by a citizen’s measurement group named the “Fukuichi Area Environmental Radiation Monitoring Project“. Their members are mainly from Tokyo metropolitan region.

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Insoluble radioactive particles (part 3)

We are presenting here a transcription of an NHK TV documentary (note1) on insoluble radioactive particles found in Fukushima and in the Tokyo metropolitan region. This is the 3rd part of the 3 parts.
Here is the 1st part.
Here is the 2nd part.

6月6日に放映されたNHKクローズアップ現代「原発事故から６年　未知の放射性粒子に迫る」の書き起こしの英訳を投稿いたします。画像が多く、重くなりますので、３部に分けて投稿させていただきます。これは第3部です。
第１部はこちらです。
こちらが第２部です。

As you can see below, small insoluble radioactive particles are dispersed in the Tokyo metropolitan area. We believe that this represents serious health problems for the population in terms of internal irradiation, since the insoluble radioactive particles remain in the body for a long time. For anybody who would stay in this metropolitan area, further radioprotection against internal irradiation would be required.

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Insoluble radioactive particles (part 2)

We are presenting here a transcription of an NHK TV documentary (note1) on insoluble radioactive particles found in Fukushima and in the Tokyo metropolitan region. This is the 2nd part of the 3 parts.
Here is the 1st part.

6月6日に放映されたNHKクローズアップ現代「原発事故から６年　未知の放射性粒子に迫る」の書き起こしの英訳を投稿いたします。画像が多く、重くなりますので、３部に分けて投稿させていただきます。これは第２部です。
第一部はこちらです。

 

水に溶けない不溶性放射性粒子。
この性質が健康影響を考える際に大きな違いをもたらすといいます。
これまで、原発事故で放出された放射性セシウムは大気中のエアロゾルと呼ばれる水溶性の粒子に付着し運ばれていると考えられてきました。水に触れると粒子は溶けセシウムは拡散、薄くなります。呼吸によって肺に入った場合も同様で、水溶性のセシウムは体液に溶け全身に薄く広がります。その後、代謝活動によって徐々に排出され、成人の場合80日から100日ほどで半分に減ると考えられています。

Insoluble radioactive particles that do not dissolve in water.
This characteristic is supposed to make a big difference when considering health effects.
In the past, radioactive cesium emitted in the nuclear accident was thought to be carried away adhering to water-soluble particles called aerosols in the atmosphere. When it touches the water the particle melts and the cesium diffuses and gets diluted. The same is true when it is inhaled in the lungs; the water-soluble cesium melts into the body fluid and spreads thinly throughout the body. Then it is supposed to be discharged gradually by the metabolic activity, and decreases by half from 80 to 100 days in the case of adults.

 

Continue reading “Insoluble radioactive particles (part 2)”

Insoluble radioactive particles (part 1)

We are presenting here a transcription of an NHK TV documentary (note1) on insoluble radioactive particles found in Fukushima and in the Tokyo metropolitan region. Since it is quite heavy with images, it will be uploaded in 3 parts.

These particles contain cesium, which has the property to dissolve in water. However, in the case of these particles, the cesium was taken into glass-like particles during the Fukushima Daiichi NPP accident before it was blown away by the explosion. These particles do not dissolve in water, and as a consequence the cesium will remain longer both in the environment and in the human body, which will modify the impact of radioactive materials on the environment and on health.

6月6日に放映されたNHKクローズアップ現代「原発事故から６年　未知の放射性粒子に迫る」の書き起こしの英訳を投稿いたします。画像が多く、重くなりますので、３部に分けて投稿させていただきます。

福島県や関東地方で発見されているこれらの微粒子はセシウムを含んでします。もともとセシウムは水に溶ける性質を持っています。ところがこの微粒子は福島第一原発事故の過程でガラスと結びついたため、不溶性になっています。従って、これらの放射性粒子は環境や人体に長期間留まります。この変化によって、環境や健康上の影響にどのような変化がもたらされるのでしょうか。

 

Continue reading “Insoluble radioactive particles (part 1)”

Government Reporting on Nuclear Risks: Examining the Recent Forest Fires in Fukushima No-Go Zone

The forest fires in the exclusion zone in Fukushima, near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (FDNPP), were extinguished on May 10 after having burnt 75 hectares in 12 days, spreading from Namie to Futaba.

福島県の帰還困難区域に発生した山林火災は、浪江町と双葉町にわたって75ヘクタールを焼失。12日間燃え続けた後、5月10日に鎮火されました。

The wildfires raised a number of questions about the radiation related health hazards and the ways the information was treated by the Fukushima prefectural government and the mass media.

この山林火災は放射能による健康被害の問題と、政府およびマスコミによる情報提供のあり方について様々な問題を提起しています。

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