Breaking down the environmental radioactivity monitoring data from MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and whatnot)

As reported in the Asahi:

The science ministry has begun posting real-time radiation levels on its website at 2,700 locations across Fukushima Prefecture, including schools and parks.
To access radiation levels measured at 10-minute intervals, go to http://radiomap.mext.go.jp/ja/.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201202220028

A picture of the equipment:
https://dwqovw6qi0vie.cloudfront.net/article-imgs/en/2012/02/22/AJ201202220028/AJ201202220029M.jpg

Checking out today's data at
http://radioactivity.mext.go.jp/map/ja/area.html

Let's do some math...

Consider the maximum acceptable radiation dose for the public from any man-made facility: 1 mSv/year.
1 mSv/year is 1000 μSv/year.
1000 μSv/year is 0.114 μSv/h.
(Based on 8766 hours in a year (24×365.25) and 1000 microsieverts(μSv) in a millisievert (mSv).
Therefore any place with over 0.114 μSv/h is questionable.

Japan set a limit 20 times higher, 20mSv/year, for Fukushima residents.

Residents exposed at that level would reach the 350 mSv/lifetime limit which was used to determine evacuation areas after the Chernobyl disaster within 18 years.
Using the Chernobyl lifetime standard, calculating for a 10-year old child with an additional 70 years life expectancy, 350mSv/70years = 5mSv/year.

Recapping, the 1 mSv/year international standard is exceeded by the Chernobyl evacuation standard, which (if judged to be tolerable) could conceivably justify 5 mSv/year for kids (twice that for 35-year-olds, etc.), and that was exceeded by the 20 mSv/year Japanese Fukushima-only standard, which I believe was set at that level for political reasons only, to set a standard that would avoid the need to evacuate several large cities and partially sever northern Japan from the south and middle.

Some selected ranges of readings for locations today, Sunday, April 29, 2012:

Fukushima-ken locations:
MinamiSoma     0.080 - 5.036 μSv/h = 0.701 - 44.14 mSv/year
Fukushima City     0.092 - 1.764 μSv/h = 0.806 - 15.46 mSv/year
NihonMatsu     0.113 - 1.324 μSv/h = 0.990 - 11.60 mSv/year
Koriyama     0.067 - 1.379 μSv/h = 0.587 - 12.08 mSv/year
Sukagawa City     0.098 - 0.727 μSv/h = 0.859 - 6.372 mSv/year
Soma City     0.093 - 1.125 μSv/h = 0.815 - 9.862 mSv/year
Iwaki City     0.054 - 0.819 μSv/h = 0.473 - 7.179 mSv/year
Aizu-Wakamatsu     0.054 - 0.290 μSv/h = 0.473 - 2.542 mSv/year

Outside Fukushima-ken:
Tochigi-ken     0.036 - 0.593 μSv/h = 0.315 - 5.198 mSv/year
Miyagi-ken     0.033 - 0.367 μSv/h = 0.289 - 3.217 mSv/year
Ibaraki-ken     0.048 - 0.178 μSv/h = 0.420 - 1.560 mSv/year
Chiba-ken     0.037 - 0.172 μSv/h = 0.324 - 1.507 mSv/year
Gunma-ken     0.026 - 0.154 μSv/h = 0.228 - 1.349 mSv/year
Saitama-ken     0.027 - 0.154 μSv/h = 0.236 - 1.349 mSv/year
Tokyo-to     0.037 - 0.064 μSv/h = 0.324 - 0.561 mSv/year

If you use the lifetime-exposure evacuation standard for Chernobyl applied to children, all children should be evacuated from all of the cities measured in eastern Fukushima prefecture, with the exception of Aizu-Wakamatsu, which is more central, but which still exceeds the 1 mSv/year international standard for the nuclear power industry. Some sites in Tochigi prefecture also exceed the Chernobyl standard and should evacuate children.

All of these prefectures in the Kanto region have at least a few MEXT radiation measurement stations (which are very limited in number outside Fukushima, by the way, 5 stations in Tokyo, 7 in Chiba, etc) which record levels above the 1 mSv/year international standard. By that standard, Kanto is barely tolerable.

Numbers here in Chiba:
html at http://radioactivity.mext.go.jp/html/12/12000.html
2012年04月29日 20時00分時点

市原市　県環境研究センター  0.037μSv/h

柏市　市立田中小学校  0.116μSv/h

印西市　市立船穂中学校  0.170μSv/h

香取市　香取市役所小見川区事務所  0.082μSv/h

市川市　市立大柏小学校  0.104μSv/h

館山市　県安房農業普及センター跡地  0.059μSv/h

茂原市　県大気汚染常時監視測定局  0.051μSv/h

In Chiba, Kashiwa (柏市) and Inzai (印西市) both exceed the 1 milliSievert/year limit for added radiation from nuclear power.

Trouble in the Gulf of Mexico

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/04/guest-post-the-gulf-ecosystem-is-being-decimated.html

Career Opportunities

 自分にしか
出来ない仕事
ここにある

You want something done right 

you gotta do it yourself.

-or-

Here's a job 

that nobody but yourself 

can do. 

 http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201204110005

I'm not lichen it so rad

http://kiikochan.blog136.fc2.com/blog-entry-1556.html
A blogger's summary of a TV report (Feb 24, 2012): Black lichens of 1,000,000 becqerel/kg. They have these at Chernobyl, too. It seems to get energy from radiation.
If you google the term 黒い物質 (black substance) it tends to come up. 

The Naoto Matsumura Experience (Take a walk on the wild side)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOvLIf39xO0

I respect his decision to live free, but i think his call to decontaminate such a large area is hopeless and wasted effort. Time will deal with it. People should leave. Farmers should be compensated with new farms elsewhere, as the population is falling and the countryside is being abandoned. Then they can farm without compromised produce or stigma. (As it is now, the government buys contaminated rice grown anywhere outside the prohibited zone and charges TEPCO, so all consumers pay the cost of continued attempts to farm in Fukushima prefecture.) Contaminated soil should be covered with less contaminated soil brought in from elsewhere. Cover 120μSv/hr soil with 37μSv/hr soil brought in from less contaminated areas, and so on. 

Hamaoka, the world's most dangerous nuclear power plant

https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo/45405527 I cycled near it once on this Pacific Tokai Cycling Road (but that's not my picture).

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2012/0310/Japan-s-Hamaoka-nuclear-plant-sees-tsunami-defense-in-very-big-wall This article from a few weeks ago has been superceded by new estimates of a magnitude 9 quake and a 30-meter wave. Hopefully it will never reopen.

Japan's controversial Hamaoka nuclear plant, shut down after Fukushima, wants to reopen once a 54-ft.-high, mile-long wall is finished. But the plant also sits on a seismic fault line, raising more than a few doubts.

 WSJ, 2011 http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/05/06/hamaoka-japans-most-infamous-nuclear-plant/

Since a tsunami wrecked the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant a year ago, leading to meltdown in three of its reactors, all eyes in Japan have been on the Hamaoka plant, 300 miles down the coast and similarly located right on the seashore. It has been branded the most dangerous nuclear power station in the world by some seismologists.

Its operator, Chubu Electric, is determined to reopen the plant as soon as its workers have finished building a six-ft.-thick anti-tsunami wall that will stand 54 feet above sea level and stretch a mile; the manmade hills now being constructed are a first step in the yearlong project.

But many local residents are not so sure.

“I was always a little worried before last March,” says Fumio Takahashi, a real estate agent who lives in the town of Omaezaki, hard by the Hamaoka plant. “Now I realize that it is dangerous to have a nuclear plant near your home. I absolutely do not want it to reopen.”

Hamaoka is particularly dangerous, explains Yoshika Shiratori, because it is built on a seismic fault line where Japanese government experts have estimated that there is an 87 percent chance of a magnitude 8 earthquake within the next 30 years.

dharma power

Buddhist federation speaks out against nuclear power
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/people/AJ201203210053
The Japan Buddhist Federation has called for a society that does not depend on nuclear power not to repeat the mistake Buddhist organizations made…

Port of Morrow, Ashes to Ashes

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/17/148596469/on-port-of-morrow-the-shins-sail-back-to-the-1970s 

Singer, songwriter and driving creative force James Mercer discusses changing lineups and embracing vintage sounds on a long-awaited new album.

I got on my physical bicycle tonight and physically rode down to the physical Tower Records in my physical neighborhood and physically bought (with physical money) the physical CD (also Pink Martini & Saori Yuki '1969' which is also an Oregon band BTW), brought the music back home and ripped it the old fashioned way like it was 1999.

James Mercer of The Shins perform LIVE acoustic, in the KEXP studios!

More videos are online now at the KEXP Blog: http://blog.kexp.org/2012/02/29/live-video-james-mercer-of-the-shins/

One Spent Fuel Pool Has More Radioactive Cesium-137 Than Every Nuclear Bomb Ever Exploded In The Atmosphere

Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gundersen: Fukushima Meltdown Could Result in 1 Million Cases of Cancer

The Obama administration is backing an expansion of nuclear power plants, but…

"I’m on record as saying that we should close the 23 reactors with the Mark I design. … These containment vents prove to fail three times out of three. …

In addition, the fuel is stored on the roof, essentially, in unshielded, unprotected areas. And there’s more nuclear cesium-137 in the fuel pool at the plant in Pilgrim, Massachusetts, than was ever released by every nuclear bomb ever exploded in the atmosphere. So we have an enormous inventory of nuclear material way up on the roofs of these buildings, and I think it’s time to close these Mark 1s down, because of those two design features."

https://www.democracynow.org/2012/3/12/nuclear_engineer_arnie_gundersen_fukushima_meltdown
☢

Triple Disaster × 7

 Video isn't very good at capturing an earthquake, but in some cases you get an expressive imprint.

70th floor of the Landmark Tower in Yokohama. Hundreds of miles from the epicenter, but still...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n--60WNpKXU
3.11に横浜ランドマーク展望レストラン

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26cDWmeSH-s
Miyagi. Since I was underground⇒outside I sometimes wonder what people inside felt. This building makes a surflike sound as it accelerates and you hear the crowd responding to the rollercoaster sensations (2-3g in some places).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8W3AqfOlwk
It's never a good idea to head down to the river to watch the tsunami come in, but our videographer seems to get just enough time to react to each escalation (with accompanying nonverbal grunts) and ends up OK atop maybe some playground equipment (?) at Minami Kessennuma Elementary School.
津波を見に行ったら流されそうになったので近くの学校へ退避

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIR7MvPjY9s
Going back home to the seaside in Namie where she was born and raised, 5K from the plant, 7 months after.
【東日本震災から7ヵ月】福島県浪江町の海岸沿い＊私の生まれ育った海
震災7ヵ月後の福島県浪江町請戸地区。福島県第一原発からおよそ5キロ地点です。

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cv5c66osXY
Cows inside the 20K perimeter in October '11.
福島第一原発から２０ｋｍ圏内の牛達が道路を闊歩 2011/10/2
一時帰宅した時に撮影した野良と化した牛達です。

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPnVglzxg8g
He finds the hottest spot at his house in Fukushima City is the rainwater drain at 14.5μSv/h (alarm goes off above 10μSv/h) and he wonders if that will be OK when it only falls to half that after 30 years...
放射線量測定器のアラームが鳴り止まない～　福島市渡利
撮影2011年6月8日　 福島市渡利の自宅庭の雨水の溜まり場所では、最高放射線量が14.5μSv/hに達し、放射線量測定器の10μSv/hオーバーを注意

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu69Q0suq0Y
Asphalt is bad but moss is worse -- in Namie.
放射能汚染浪江町津島
原発利権屋が許せないですね。山奥の農民に何の罪があるのでしょうか？

"Grass-eaters"

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111126b2.html
The remarkable decline of dating in the "herbivore" age:

 Sexes set record in dating disinterest | The Japan Times Online

A record-high 61.4 percent of unmarried Japanese males aged between 18 and 34 have no girlfriend, up 9.2 percentage points from 2005, a June 2010 survey by a research body showed Friday.

Who moved my climate?

Climate warming accelerates Arctic migration for some species
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/climate-warming-accelerates-arctic-migration-some-species?page=full
"These changes are equivalent to animals and plants shifting away from the Equator at around 20 cm per hour,” added Thomas, Prof of Conservation Biology. “This has been going on for the last 40 years and is set to continue for at least the rest of this century.”
Call it the Goldilocks syndrome. Animals and plants are moving both higher in latitude and elevation much faster than previously thought in response to climate warming. They're chasing that "just right" sweet spot, but it keeps moving.

Rapid Range Shifts of Species Associated with High Levels of Climate Warming
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6045/1024.abstract
The distributions of many terrestrial organisms are currently shifting in latitu...de or elevation in response to changing climate. Using a meta-analysis, we estimated that the distributions of species have recently shifted to higher elevations…

Too hot to burn

Fire festival bans radioactive wood
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110813002954.htm
The Kyoto municipal government has announced that firewood from disaster-hit Rikuzen-Takata, Iwate Prefecture, will not be used in an annual bonfire festival in Kyoto, due to the detection of radioactive cesium in its bark. Rikuzen-Takata is located about 200 km north of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Sunflowers (Asahi Shimbun)

Sunflowers in full bloom in Kyoto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4TTHa50JGQ
About 150,000 sunflowers grown in resting rice fields are in full bloom in the town of Yosano, Kyoto Prefecture, attracting many tourists.

Asahi: Education Ministry's radiation map

Weather, deteriorating reactors exacerbated disaster
By HIROSHI ISHIZUKA
Staff Writer of the vernacular Asahi Shimbun
The education ministry measured the accumulated amount of radioactive cesium in areas within a 160-kilometer radius from the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant through the use of aircraft in late July.
Details of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan panel's findings will be published on the society's website.

All Things Nuclear (Union of Concerned Scientists)

http://allthingsnuclear.org/post/5173479472/fukushima-7-week-update

While details of the damage to the nuclear fuel at the site are not known, it appears that more total fuel damage has occurred during this accident than all previous reactor accidents combined.

Currently all of these reactors and pools are being cooled, although normal cooling systems have not been restored. They will require active cooling for many months or years because of the high levels of radioactivity in the fuel they contain.

Links with information about the situation at Fukushima Dai-Ichi:

UCS website and allthingsnuclear.org blog posts on the Japan crisis

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) press releases (in English)

TEPCO videos and photos of Fukushima Dai-Ichi

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) website

New York Times reactor status

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists updates by Tatsujiro Suzuki

Japan Atomic Industrial Forum updates

Real-world ecological half-life longer than expected

I think it's gonna be a long long time...
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/chernobyl-soil/

Reinhabiting the large exclusion zone around the accident site may have to wait longer than expected. Radioactive cesium isn’t disappearing from the environment as quickly as predicted, according to new research presented here Monday at the... meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Cesium 137’s half-life — the time it takes for half of a given amount of material to decay — is 30 years. In addition to that, cesium-137’s total ecological half-life — the time for half the cesium to disappear from the local environment through processes such as migration, weathering, and removal by organisms is also typically 30 years or less, but the amount of cesium in soil near Chernobyl isn’t decreasing nearly that fast. And scientists don’t know why.

It stands to reason that at some point the Ukrainian government would like to be able to use that land again, but the scientists have calculated that what they call cesium’s “ecological half-life” — the time for half the cesium to disappear from the local environment — is between 180 and 320 years.

“Normally you’d say that every 30 years, it’s half as bad as it was. But it’s not,” said Tim Jannik, nuclear scientist at Savannah River National Laboratory and a collaborator on the work. “It’s going to be longer before they repopulate the area.”

The original research pdf is existing here, written in the language English: http://sti.srs.gov/fulltext/SRNL-STI-2009-00770.pdf

Hot Schools in Fukushima

http://atmc.jp/ has added a national radiation map to their existing database which includes air, soil, rain, food. They have also added a map of radiation at Fukushima Prefecture schools, http://atmc.jp/school/ as measured by the Fukushima Prefecture Disaster Office over three days, at present.

Bad news in this map is that schools in Fukushima City and elsewhere with numbers up around 4 to 6 microsieverts per hour are far above the 20 MILLIsieverts per year the govt is setting as an evacuation threshold. Do the math: Anything over 2.3 MICROsieverts an hour will accumulate to more than 20 MILLIsieverts a year. They should err on the side of caution considering: the intl standard for added dose is 1 millisievert annually, not 20; these are children, not adults; there is a possibility of ingesting and inhaling radioactive particles; and emissions and deposition levels are continuing and accumulating. They should evacuate.

One argument against evacuation is that these levels may be temporary, and go down soon, but that is doubtful. Even if so, I think they should temporarily evacuate the cities of Fukushima (290,000ppl), Nihonmatsu (61,000ppl), and Sukagawa (80,000ppl), or, if that is impossible, evacuate at least the children. Note that our levels down here in Chiba are 0.055 microsieverts per hour today, only 1% of what is measured at some of those schools. (compare to 5.5)

If the govt keep to their stated standard of evacuating places with a risk of accumulating over 20millisieverts/year, then they will announce an evacuation. If they keep to their established precedent of moving slowly (and erring on the side of radiation), the announcement will come in about 2 weeks (and allow another month to take effect).

Using the slider on the school map also reveals wider investigations done on previous days. I guess they are not cumulatively added to the map because yesterday's measurements may have changed by today. There are 2 measurements: at 1cm (above the soil, I assume), and 1 meter.

Measurements of the known VERY radioactive areas were done mostly on the first day.

TEPCO 3.0

Final (?) edition, with the transparency, 3 colors, and png quality you expect.

TEPCO 2.0

The PNG and the web edition (GIF).