Japan Nuclear MeltDown?

[dee-luded 2,959]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/japan-ponders-what-to-do-with-nuke-waste/story-e6frf7jx-1226186214764

Japan ponders what to do with nuke waste

JAPAN has made big strides toward stabilising its tsunami-crippled nuclear plant but is now facing another crisis - what to do with all the radioactive waste the disaster created.

Goshi Hosono, the country's nuclear crisis minister, said today that Japan has yet to come up with a comprehensive plan for how to dispose of the irradiated waste that has been accumulating since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Hosono gave the assessment after the government announced an $11.5 billion allocation to help the cash-strapped plant operator cover the massive cost of recovery without collapsing.

Officials have rejected criticism that the allocation is a bail-out - stressing that the money comes from a joint fund of plant operators, with a government contribution in zero-interest bonds that must be paid back.

The disaster, which killed nearly 20,000 people along Japan's northeastern coastline, touched off the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, generating meltdowns, fires and radiation leaks at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station northeast of Tokyo.

Officials say that - almost eight months later - the plant has been restored to a relatively stable condition and is leaking far less radiation than it did in the early days of crisis. They hope to achieve a "cold shutdown" - with each reactor's temperature below 212 Fahrenheit (100 C) - by the end of the year.

But Hosono, in a response to a question from The AP, acknowledged today that the crisis has spawned a huge amount of irradiated waste that will require new technology and creative methods to dispose of safely.

"We still don't have a full picture of how to deal with the waste," he said. "It would require research and development that may take years. For instance, we still need to develop technology to compress the volume of the huge amounts of waste that we cannot move around."

Japan could be stuck with up to 45 million cubic meters of radioactive waste in Fukushima and several nearby prefectures (states), according to the environment ministry.

Hosono said Japan is not considering shipping out the waste for overseas processing.

The total amount of radiation released from the plant is still unknown, and the impact of chronic low-dose radiation exposures in and around Fukushima is a matter of scientific debate. More than 80,000 people evacuated from their homes, and a 12-mile (20-kilometer) no-go zone is still enforced around the plant.

Cleaning up the area and compensating residents is expected to cost trillions of yen (tens of billions of dollars). Hot spots of highly localized radiation have been reported hundreds of kilometers away, and Hosono said a task force has been set up to investigate them.

The fund payout of $11.5 billion (900 billion yen) announced Friday for Tokyo Electric Power Co. came after the plant operator agreed to a restructuring plan to cut more than 2.5 trillion yen ($32 billion) in costs over the next 10 years and reduce more than 7,000 employees.

TEPCO has been bitterly criticized for its lack of transparency and slow response to the crisis. The application process for residents and business owners to seek compensation has also been called extremely cumbersome.

The controversial fund is designed to help the operator meet its responsibilities without going bankrupt.

[dee-luded 2,959]

Nuclear pollution of sea from Fukushima was world's biggest

by Staff Writers

Paris (AFP) Oct 27, 2011

France's nuclear monitor said on Thursday that the amount of caesium 137 that leaked into the Pacific from the Fukushima disaster was the greatest single nuclear contamination of the sea ever seen.

But, confirming previous assessments, it said caesium levels had been hugely diluted by ocean currents and, except for near-shore species, posed no discernible threat.

From March 21 to mid-July, 27.1 peta becquerels of caesium 137 entered the sea, the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) said.

One peta becquerel is a million billion bequerels, or 10 to the power of 15.

Of the total, 82 percent entered the sea before April 8, through water that was pumped into the Fukushima's damaged reactor units in a bid to cool them down, it said.

"This is the biggest single outflow of man-made radionuclides to the marine environment ever observed," the agency said in a press release.

Caesium is a slow-decaying element, taking 30 years to lose half of its radioactivity.

The IRSN said large quantities of iodine 131 also entered the sea as a result of the disaster, caused by the March 11 9.0-magnitude quake that occurred off northeastern Japan.

But iodine 131 decays quickly, having a half-life of eight days, and the contamination "swiftly diminished," the report said.

The IRSN said that, for the Pacific generally, caesium levels would ultimately stabilise at 0.004 becquerels per litre thanks to the diluting effect of powerful ocean currents.

This is twice the concentration that prevailed during atmospheric nuclear testing in the 1960s.

"These levels should not have an impact in terms of radiological safety," the IRSN said.

However, "significant pollution of seawater on the coast near the damaged plant could persist," because of continuing runoff of contaminated rainwater from the land, it said.

"Maintaining monitoring of marine species taken in Fukushima's coastal waters is justified," it said.

The IRSN cited deep-water fish, fish at the top of the marine food chain and molluscs and other filtrating organisms as "the species that are the most sensitive" to caesium pollution.

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Nuclear_pollution_of_sea_from_Fukushima_was_worlds_biggest_999.html

[Jack Jack 415]

I still find it quite incredibly that in the year or two lead up to this disaster that nuclear power was being pushed as a clean/green alternative.

I'm all for eliminating pollution and our degradation of the earth, but how anyone can believe that nuclear power is a viable alternative is just beyond me.

[dee-luded 2,959]

I still find it quite incredibly that in the year or two lead up to this disaster that nuclear power was being pushed as a clean/green alternative.

I'm all for eliminating pollution and our degradation of the earth, but how anyone can believe that nuclear power is a viable alternative is just beyond me.

Yep. Oils are Oils, & poison is poison.

The old 'Play with Fire' rings true.

[Jack Jack 415]

Here's an interesting article from the New York Times. Written back when the Japan disaster was in full swing.

Lessons From Chernobyl for Japan

"The death of a nuclear reactor has a beginning; the world is watching this unfold now on the coast of Japan. But it doesn’t have an end.

While some radioactive elements in nuclear fuel decay quickly, cesium’s half-life is 30 years and strontium’s is 29 years. Scientists estimate that it takes 10 to 13 half-lives before life and economic activity can return to an area. That means that the contaminated area — designated by Ukraine’s Parliament as 15,000 square miles, around the size of Switzerland — will be affected for more than 300 years."

[dee-luded 2,959]

Radiation traces found in baby formula

TRACES of radiation spilled from Japan's hobbled nuclear plant have been detected in baby formula in the latest case of contaminated food in the nation.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/radiation-traces-found-in-baby-formula/story-e6frf7jx-1226215687243

Major food maker Meiji Co said overnight it was recalling canned powdered milk for infants, with expiration dates of October 2012, as a precaution.

The levels of radioactive cesium were well below government-set safety limits, and the company said the amounts were low enough not to have any affect on babies' health even if they drank the formula every day.

Experts say children are more at risk than are adults of getting cancer and other illnesses from radiation exposure.

"There is no problem because the levels are within the government limit," Kazuhiko Tsurumi, a Health Ministry official in charge of food safety, said of the radiation in Meiji milk.

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan sent three reactors into meltdown at Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, which have been spewing radiation into the air and ocean.

Some of that radiation has crept into food, such as rice, fish and beef. But this was the first time radiation was reported in baby formula.

Kyodo News said airborne radioactive cesium contaminated milk as it was being dried at a plant in Saitama prefecture in March, citing the company. The company was not immediately available for comment overnight.

Meiji has about 40 per cent of domestic baby formula sales, but the amount of recalled formula wasn't disclosed. The product is exported to Vietnam under a different name, Kyodo reported.

The levels of cesium-134 and cesium-137 in the milk were up to 31 becquerels per kilogram, which is below the government limit of 200 becquerels per kilogram set for milk.

The government has been reviewing its food safety and other radiation standards because some of them were not clearly defined before the nuclear crisis.

Not all food samples are monitored for radiation, and readings have been voluntarily reported by the manufacturers, including the latest by Tokyo-based Meiji.

Many consumers are worried. Some stores are labelling where the food was grown or caught, allowing shoppers to opt for imports or products from parts of the country deemed safe.

[dee-luded 2,959]

Yet another 'Nuke' leak'.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/japan-plant-has-radioactive-water-leak/story-e6frf7jx-1226218856586

Japan plant 'has radioactive water leak'

A RADIOACTIVE water has leaked inside a nuclear power plant in southwestern Japan but did not escape into the environment, report says.

Kyodo News agency said on Saturday that 1.8 tons of radioactive water leaked in a pump at Kyushu Electric Power Co's Genkai plant.

Yushu Electric issued a statement on Friday about a pump problem but did not mention a leak.

Also on Friday, Japan's Prime Minister said work to stabilise a tsunami-hit nuclear power plant in the northeast is on track.

Yoshihiko Noda said temperatures in three melted reactor cores at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant have fallen below the boiling point and radiation leaks have declined.

A March earthquake and tsunami destroyed the plant's power and cooling systems.

.............................................

Edited December 10, 2011 by dee-luded

[dee-luded 2,959]

Report slams Japan over nuclear disaster

• by: By Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo
  
• From: AP
  
• February 28, 2012 11:30PM
  

THE Japanese government withheld information about the full danger of last year's nuclear disaster from its own people and from the US, putting US-Japan relations at risk in the first days after the accident, according to an independent report.

The report, released today and compiled from interviews with more than 300 people, delivers a scathing view of how leaders played down the risks of the meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant that followed a massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The report by the private Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation also paints a picture of confusion during the days immediately after the accident. It says the US government was frustrated by the scattered information provided by Japan and was sceptical whether it was true.

The US advised Americans to leave an area within 80km of the plant, far bigger than the 20km Japanese evacuation area, because of concerns that the accident was worse than Japan was reporting.

The misunderstandings were gradually cleared up after a bilateral committee was set up on March 22 and began regular meetings, according to the 400-page report.

The report, compiled by scholars, lawyers and other experts, credits then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan for ordering Tokyo Electric Power Co, the utility running the plant, not to withdraw its staff and to keep fighting to bring it under control.

TEPCO's president at the time, Masataka Shimizu, called Kan on March 15 and said he wanted to abandon the plant and have all 600 TEPCO staff flee, the report said. That would have allowed the situation to spiral out of control, resulting in a much larger release of radiation.

A group of about 50 workers was eventually able to bring the plant under control.

TEPCO, which declined to take part in the investigation, has denied it planned to abandon Fukushima Dai-ichi. The report notes the denial, but says Kan and other officials had the clear understanding that TEPCO had asked to leave.

But the report criticises Kan for attempting to micromanage the disaster and for not releasing critical information on radiation leaks, thereby creating widespread distrust of the authorities among Japanese.

Kan's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

Kan acknowledged in a recent interview with The Associated Press that the release of information was sometimes slow and at times wrong. He blamed a lack of reliable data at the time and denied the government hid such information from the public.

It will take decades to fully decommission Fukushima Dai-ichi. Although one of the damaged reactor buildings has been repaired, others remain in shambles. A group of journalists, including a reporter from The Associated Press, were given a tour of the plant today.

Workers have used tape to mend cracks caused by freezing weather in plastic hoses on temporary equipment installed to cool the hobbled reactors.

"I have to acknowledge that they are still rather fragile," plant chief Takeshi Takahashi said of the safety measures.

The area is still contaminated with radiation, complicating the work. It already has involved hundreds of thousands of workers, who have to quit when they reach the maximum allowed radiation exposure of 100 millisieverts a year.

The report includes a document describing a worst-case scenario that Kan and the chief of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission secretly discussed two weeks after the disaster.

That scenario involved the possibility of more nuclear fuel rods burning, causing the release of more radiation and requiring the evacuation of a much wider region, including Tokyo.

The report also concludes that government oversight of nuclear plant safety had been inadequate, ignoring the risk of tsunami and the need for plant design renovations, and instead clinging to a "myth of safety".

"The idea of upgrading a plant was taboo," said Koichi Kitazawa, a scholar who heads the commission that prepared the report. "We were just lucky that Japan was able to avoid the worst-case scenario. But there is no guarantee this kind of luck will prevail next time."

http://www.heraldsun...x-1226284522535

Edited February 28, 2012 by dee-luded

[dee-luded 2,959]

Japanese government 'kept meltdown risk secret '

JUST four hours after a tsunami swept into the Fukushima nuclear power plant, Japan's leaders knew the damage was so severe that the reactors could melt down, but they kept their knowledge secret for months.

Five days into the crisis, then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan voiced his fears that it could turn worse than Chernobyl.

The revelations were in documents released Friday, almost a year after the disaster.

The minutes of the government's crisis management meetings from March 11 - the day the earthquake and tsunami struck - until late December were not recorded and had to be reconstructed retroactively.

They illustrate the confusion, lack of information, delayed response and miscommunication among government, affected towns and plant officials, as some ministers expressed the sense that nobody was in charge when the plant conditions quickly deteriorated.

The minutes quoted an unidentified official explaining that cooling functions of the reactors were kept running only by batteries that would last just eight hours.

"If temperatures in the reactor cores keep rising beyond eight hours, there is a possibility of meltdown," the official said during the first meeting, which started about four hours after the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami hit the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, setting off the crisis.

Apparently the government tried to play down the severity of the damage.

A spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency was replaced after he slipped out a possibility of meltdown during a news conference March 12.

The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., acknowledged a partial meltdown much later, in May.

Top government spokesman Yukio Edano, who is now trade minister, urged other ministers to watch what they said to the public.

"We must provide information fast, but it must be accurate," Edano said on March 14.

"We must be clear about all our evaluations and judgment, and announce them only after we reach a decision."

While then-trade minister Banri Kaieda suggested on March 11 that residents within a 10km radius might have to be evacuated, the government ordered 1800-plus residents within a 2km zone to leave.

Then that expanded to 3km, then 10km within two hours, and finally to 20km the next day.

Kan said a 20km zone would suffice.

After seeing a series of explosions and fires at reactor buildings, Kan on March 16 cautioned his Cabinet about the possibility that the Fukushima crisis could be worse than the Chernobyl accident in 1986.

Kan was particularly concerned about a spent fuel pool inside the No. 4 reactor building, which had the largest number of fuel rods and rising water temperatures.

"We should worry about the Unit 4 pool, whose temperature has been on the rise," he said, adding that other spent fuel pools at Fukushima Dai-ichi, as well as four others at the neighbouring Dai-ni plant, could also deteriorate.

"The amount of radiation that could be released from those reactors could be larger than Chernobyl. We must keep cooling the reactors, whatever it takes. It's going to be a long battle," he said, according to the minutes dated March 16.

It was nearly 10 days before one of his top nuclear advisers produced a worst-case scenario at his request.

The March 25 paper, produced by the head of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission, warned that a disaster of that scale would require evacuating 30 million people from the greater Tokyo area. Fearing panic, the government kept the report a secret, but The Associated Press obtained it in January.

The failure to properly record the minutes of the government's crisis management meetings has added to sharp public criticism about how the nuclear crisis was handled, deepening distrust of politicians and bureaucrats.

"Who is the leader of the actual operation? I get too many requests and appeals that are incoherent," Yoshihiro Katayama, internal affairs minister at the time, said at a March 15 meeting.

"Nobody seems to be in charge."

The minutes also showed top crisis managers were confused, causing miscommunication that left local officials and residents without crucial information needed for evacuation.

http://www.heraldsun...f-1226295832848

Edited March 10, 2012 by dee-luded

[dee-luded 2,959]

Radioactive water from Fukushima power plant may have flowed into the Pacific Ocean

ABOUT 12 tonnes of radioactive water has leaked at Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, with the facility's operator saying some may have flowed into the Pacific Ocean.

Tokyo Electric Power Company said the leak was found early today from a pipe attached to a temporary decontamination system.

The water had already gone through part of the cleansing process.

After the water is used to cool the reactors it contains significant amounts of radioactive substances.

It is then put into the water-processing facility so it can be recycled for use as coolant.

"Our officials confirmed that cooling water leaked at a joint in the pipes," a TEPCO spokesman said, adding "it is possible that part of the water may have flowed outside the facility and poured into the ocean."

The leak has been plugged and the utility was investigating the cause of the accident and how much, if any, water flowed into the Pacific, the spokesman said.

The accident was the latest of several leaks of radioactive water at the troubled plant, undermining the government's claim made in December that the shuttered Fukushima reactors were now under control.

In one incident last month, about 120 tonnes of radioactive water leaked at the plant's water decontamination system and about 80 litres seeped into the ocean, according to TEPCO.

The plant about 220km northeast of Tokyo was crippled by meltdowns and explosions caused by Japan's massive earthquake and tsunami in March last year.

Radiation was scattered over a large area and made its way into the sea, air and food chain in the weeks and months after the disaster.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes around the plant and swathes of this zone remain badly polluted.

The clean-up is proceeding slowly, amid warnings that some towns could be uninhabitable for three decades.

Edited April 5, 2012 by dee-luded

[dee-luded 2,959]

Japan warns of nuclear safety 'myth'

THE Japanese Prime Minister warned a nuclear security summit yesterday that the world must not be lulled into a ''myth of safety'', following lessons learnt from the tsunami and nuclear meltdown at Fukushima.

Addressing more than 40 world leaders gathered in South Korea to tighten the global nuclear security regime, Yoshihiko Noda said a ''man-caused act of sabotage will test our imaginations far more than any natural disaster''.

The Japanese tsunami last year killed close to 20,000 people and swamped Fukushima's nuclear power plant, causing national economic dislocation and severe nuclear contamination north-east of Tokyo.

US President Barack Obama, who convened the first Nuclear Security Summit two years ago, yesterday underscored the risks of nuclear material falling into the hands of ''bad actors''.

''It would not take much - just a handful or so of these materials - to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people,'' he said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard pushed for the International Atomic Energy Agency to be given greater powers to contain the illicit trade of nuclear materials to non-state actors, following the third and probably final summit due in the Netherlands in 2014.

She told leaders that Australia would open the Lucas Heights nuclear facility to inspectors from the IAEA next year.

Australia would ratify the Nuclear Terrorism Convention, enabling terrorists to be brought to justice across jurisdictions, and host a regional nuclear security workshop, she said.

The Seoul summit closed last night with all attending nations agreeing to a communique that outlined measures to minimise stockpiles of enriched uranium and plutonium, safeguard nuclear facilities and prevent illicit trafficking of nuclear and radioactive materials.

Former Cold War adversaries have co-operated to lock down weapons-grade uranium and plutonium.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/japan-warns-of-nuclear-safety-myth-20120327-1vwgt.html#ixzz1rnrd3Z7x

[Jack Jack 415]

Fukushima spent fuel has 85 times more cesium than released at Chernobyl

In recent times, more information about the spent fuel situation at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site has become known. It is my understanding that of the 1,532 spent fuel assemblies in reactor No. 304 assemblies are fresh and unirradiated. This then leaves 1,231 irradiated spent fuel rods in pool No. 4, which contain roughly 37 million curies (~1.4E+18 Becquerel) of long-lived radioactivity. The No. 4 pool is about 100 feet above ground, is structurally damaged and is exposed to the open elements. If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl accident.

The infrastructure to safely remove this material was destroyed as it was at the other three reactors. Spent reactor fuel cannot be simply lifted into the air by a crane as if it were routine cargo. In order to prevent severe radiation exposures, fires and possible explosions, it must be transferred at all times in water and heavily shielded structures into dry casks.. As this has never been done before, the removal of the spent fuel from the pools at the damaged Fukushima-Dai-Ichi reactors will require a major and time-consuming re-construction effort and will be charting in unknown waters. Despite the enormous destruction cased at the Da–Ichi site, dry casks holding a smaller amount of spent fuel appear to be unscathed.

Based on U.S. Energy Department data, assuming a total of 11,138 spent fuel assemblies are being stored at the Dai-Ichi site, nearly all, which is in pools. They contain roughly 336 million curies (~1.2 E+19 Bq) of long-lived radioactivity. About 134 million curies is Cesium-137 — roughly 85 times the amount of Cs-137 released at the Chernobyl accident as estimated by the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP). The total spent reactor fuel inventory at the Fukushima-Daichi site contains nearly half of the total amount of Cs-137 estimated by the NCRP to have been released by all atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, Chernobyl, and world-wide reprocessing plants (~270 million curies or ~9.9 E+18 Becquerel).

It is important for the public to understand that reactors that have been operating for decades, such as those at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site have generated some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet.

Many of our readers might find it difficult to appreciate the actual meaning of the figure, yet we can grasp what 85 times more Cesium-137 than the Chernobyl would mean. It would destroy the world environment and our civilization. This is not rocket science, nor does it connect to the pugilistic debate over nuclear power plants. This is an issue of human survival.

[Hannibal 5,814]

Deaths caused by earthquake and tsunami ? Approaching 20,000.

Deaths caused by meltdown of nuclear reactors ? Nil.

Serious cases of radiation sickness caused by nuclear reactors ? Nil.

[dee-luded 2,959]

Cesium from the Japan Nuclear Disaster, found in Tuna caught off the United States West Coast.

[Jack Jack 415]

Truth About Fukushima Radiation Emerges

The Japanese news source Asahi Shimbun (AS) reports that a senior official working for Build-Up, a subcontractor hired during the Fukushima clean-up efforts, has admitted to instructing his workers to wear lead coverings over their dosimeters in order to shield accurate radiation readings. Dosimeters measure an individual's exposure to radiation, and indicate when it is no longer safe to be in the presence of a radiation source.

Recordings uncovered from a December 2 conversation between the official and his employees reveals that he coaxed them to use the lead coverings by claiming that he had used them many times before without issue. He also apparently told them that they would have to use them in future clean-up efforts as well, and implied that they should get used to using them now.

According to AS, the senior official also came up with an alibi that the workers could use to explain the coverings, should anyone inquire about the unusual presence of tape on their torn radiation protection suits. All the bases were covered, in other words, which was enough to convince four of the workers to go along with the plan.

[dee-luded 2,959]

Fukushima radiation causes insect mutations: researchers

Mutations ... an adult pale grass blue butterfly found near the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is shown with dented eyes and stunted wings at the university laboratory in Nishihara, Okinawa, Japan. Photo: AP/Chiyo Nohara of University of the Ryukyus

Radiation from Japan's leaking Fukushima nuclear plant has caused mutations in some butterflies and damaged the local environment, though humans seem relatively unaffected, researchers say.

The mutations - including dented eyes and stunted wings - are the first evidence the radiation following last year's tsunami has caused genetic changes in living organisms.

The catastrophic meltdowns in three reactors of Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant after it was damaged by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 prompted a public backlash against nuclear power, and forced the government to reassess resource-scarce Japan's entire energy strategy.

A normal adult pale grass blue butterfly suckles nectar from a flower. Photo: AP/Masaki Iwata of University of the Ryukyus

But the most visible example of the radiation's effect was claimed by a group of Japanese researchers who found radical physical changes in successive generations of a type of butterfly.

They said the threat to humans was unclear.

"Our findings suggest that the contaminants are causing ecological damage. I do not know its implication to humans," said Joji Otaki of the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, a member of the team that conducted the research.

A separate study, released this week, found very low levels of radioactivity in people who were living near the Fukushima plant when it suffered the meltdowns.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, measured caesium levels in 8066 adults and 1432 children and found average doses of less than 1 millisievert, a level considered safe.

It was the first such study measuring internal exposures to caesium in a large number of people.

The research shows contamination decreased over time, particularly among children, in part because more precautions were taken with their food, water and outdoor activity.

"No case of acute health problems has been reported so far. However, assessments of the long-term effect of radiation requires ongoing monitoring of exposure and the health conditions of the affected communities," the report said.

So far, the actual radiation doses inflicted just after the accident are not exactly known, though exposure is thought to be very small, said David Brenner, a radiation physicist at Columbia University, who was not part of the research.

"We do need improved estimates of the radiation dose that people in and near Fukushima prefecture actually received," he said.

"Right now our estimates are based on very, very rough calculations."

The research on the butterflies was published in Scientific Reports, an open-access online journal by the Nature publication group, which provides faster publication and peer review by at least one scientist.

It says pale grass blue butterflies, a common species in Japan, collected from several areas near the Fukushima plant showed signs of genetic mutations.

Other experts said they viewed the research as significant.

To study the genetic changes, the scientists raised the new generations of the butterflies in Okinawa, which has not been affected by the radiation releases, mating each abnormal butterfly with one unaffected by such changes.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/fukushima-radiation-causes-insect-mutations-researchers-20120817-24cy2.html#ixzz23o1WhqMT

[Hannibal 5,814]

Meanwhile, still no deaths or health problems from nuclear "catastrophe".

Deaths from earthquake and tsunami ? Tens of thousands. Recent coverage of said deaths in our newspapers ? Nil.

[Kumamoto_Ken 1,531]

Fukushima radiation causes insect mutations: researchers

The Japanese 3-eyed archers will be unbeatable in the 2032 Olympics.

[dee-luded 2,959]

Meanwhile, still no deaths or health problems from nuclear "catastrophe".

Deaths from earthquake and tsunami ? Tens of thousands. Recent coverage of said deaths in our newspapers ? Nil.

Your still carrying on like a off pork chop.

You don't know your facts either. People died inside the reactors, & others are extremely sick, the ones who entered to try to fix the water issues.

Time will show just how foolish you have been.

[Hannibal 5,814]

Your still carrying on like a off pork chop.

You don't know your facts either. People died inside the reactors, & others are extremely sick, the ones who entered to try to fix the water issues.

Time will show just how foolish you have been.

No-one has died, or become "extremely sick" from the radiation.

And "time" is already showing your scare mongering for what it is.

[Biffen 12,943]

No-one has died, or become "extremely sick" from the radiation.

And "time" is already showing your scare mongering for what it is.

Yes Ben Hur-radiation is awesome!We should just suck it up.

All those greenies and their lust to survive just irritate us all.

They should just get a job

I hear the wages are pretty high in Fukushima.

[Jack Jack 415]

Fukushima's Nuclear Casualties

Conspicuously absent are reports on effects of radiation exposure on the health of the Japanese people. Have any health officials publicly announced post-March 2011 numbers on fetal deaths, infant deaths, premature births, birth defects, cancer, or other health conditions? The answer so far is an emphatic “no.”

The Japanese government health ministry has posted monthly estimated deaths for the 12 months before and after Fukushima, for the entire nation of Japan. These are preliminary figures, but they have historically been very good estimates of final numbers. A further look is in order.

Total deaths increased 4.8%, compared to the normal 1.5% annual rise. Since about 1.2 million Japanese people die each year, this computes to an excess of 57,900 deaths. The rise in deaths from accidents is given as 19,200, close to estimates of those killed directly by the earthquake and tsunami. But this still leaves an excess of 38,700 Japanese deaths, with no obvious cause.

The reports provide mortality numbers for 12 common causes, making up about 80% of all deaths in Japan, including heart disease, stroke, cancer, and pneumonia. Each increased in the past year, with the exception of homicide and suicide. The category “other,” which is a collection of all other causes, rose 5.9%. The sharpest increases occurred immediately after the meltdowns, in March-June 2011 (vs. the same period 2010), a finding consistent with that found in preliminary mortality in the U.S. in a December 2011 article I co-authored with Dr. Janette Sherman in the International Journal of Health Services.

[Hannibal 5,814]

Yes Ben Hur-radiation is awesome!We should just suck it up.

All those greenies and their lust to survive just irritate us all.

They should just get a job

I hear the wages are pretty high in Fukushima.

Just dealing with facts, dolt. Try it sometime.

[Biffen 12,943]

Just dealing with facts, dolt. Try it sometime.

Wth your fact checking abilities you could get a job for MX.

[ding 5,126]

The hysteria from lefties and bed wetters has been a hoot. Mother nature 20,000 or so... man nil.

Yet some are still trying to focus on the "nil" as the worse number.

Come out from under the bed guys and gals... its safe out here.

*insert riotous laughter*