Radiation level spiked in western Japan, “0.14μSv/h in Ehime”

According to Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, radiation level spiked up in some prefectures of western Japan.

It might be te rain but the radiation level spiked unusually sharply. In Ehime prefecture, it jumped up from 0.07 μSv/h to over 0.14 μSv/h.

The significant increase was observed in Shimane, Ehime, Saga and Ohita prefecture.

Radiation level spiked in western Japan, "0.14μSv/h in Ehime"

2 Radiation level spiked in western Japan, "0.14μSv/h in Ehime"

3 Radiation level spiked in western Japan, "0.14μSv/h in Ehime"

4 Radiation level spiked in western Japan, "0.14μSv/h in Ehime"

Source

 

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Français :

Pic de radioactivité sur l’ouest du Japon : 0,14 μSv/h dans Ehime

Selon le ministère de l’Éducation, de la Culture, des Sports, de la Science et des Technologies, il y a eu un pic de radioactivité dans plusieurs préfectures de l’ouest du Japon.

Ce peut être la pluie mais le niveau de radioactivité est monté de façon inhabituellement violente. Dans la préfecture d’Ehime, on est passé de 0,07 μSv/h à plus de 0,14 μSv/h.

Cette augmentation conséquente a été observée dans les préfectures de Shimane, Ehime, Saga et Ohita.

Pic de radioactivité sur l'ouest du Japon : 0,14 μSv/h dans Ehime

2 Pic de radioactivité sur l'ouest du Japon : 0,14 μSv/h dans Ehime

3 Pic de radioactivité sur l'ouest du Japon : 0,14 μSv/h dans Ehime

4 Pic de radioactivité sur l'ouest du Japon : 0,14 μSv/h dans Ehime

Source

  1. Yes , it was raining , the area can be seen on the weather map here :

    accuweather.com/en/jp/niihama/217238/weather-forecast/217238

    Note on the graphs that after the event the radiation background returned to the previous readings : where exactely did the radioactive water go ?

    Also , the radiation graphs posted do not say what they measured , air or Soil ? How about soil readings before and after the rain , I bet the ‘after’ should be higher than the previous base line ( the end of agriculture in Japan within a decade of such rains ) .

  2. 0,14 micro sievert/h is a normal background radiation at bavaria,germany since chernobil. After Fukushima it went up at 0,20 to 0,40 micro sievert/h last year with raining and decreased to levels of 0,12 to 0,18 micro sievert/h this year.
    So to worry about 0,xx Microsievert increases doesn’t seem very impressive to me.
    My geiger counter is always exposed and when measurements reach let’s say 1,0 micro sieverts,it will show something really earnest might have happened.
    When Sfp 4 falls it will show more than 10 microsieverts/h after a week it will have happened. So just now it’s still quiet.
    We will see and we can’t change nothing than our behaviour.
    Meet you at stone age!

  3. @soern,
    Same here in the Netherlands.
    Average radiation levels between 0.08 and 0.18 mcSv/h with peek levels up to 0.46 and sometimes 0.50 mcSv/h.
    Highest level I measured was 0.79 mcSv/h.

  4. @John, @Soern: Yea, an external dose of ~.14-.20 are not really anything to go nuts worrying about. We just have to remember that it’s not really these external doseages to worry about but the specific radionuclides like strontium, cesium, iodine, etc. that we will be accumulating in our bodies. We can’t make much of a safety determination without knowing what exactly is emitting the radiation. As such, these readings are all but useless unless like you said the external dose was >1uSv/hr. Obviously, the lower the better.

    Concerning the article, I’m wondering what could have caused such a spike. Something added to these numbers. Are any incineration plants nearby that started burning nd spreading this crap? Were other areas in the path to Fukushima, from the city in the article, showing a spike in radiation? One should be able to correlate spikes from the city to Fukushima along the path of the plume to see if it came from the plant itself. Anyone know where to get that information? I can’t read Japanese. If there are no similar spikes anywhere else in the plume’s path, we can rule out the plant and look for activity from nearby incineration plants, reprocessing plants, etc. (If we can even trust the “data” in the first place.)

  5. http://ma-04x.net/all.html
    was the source. I think Iori traced it to the earliest spikes. It came through Osaka, Yamanashi (but not Kofu) Kanagawa, Tokyo, Chiba, and only Misato City of Saitama. Not seen in Tochigi. I thought it had stopped raining hours before that, but it may have rained again in the night. Where can you view historical weather data?

  6. @Nate: your observation about accumulated radionucleotides is correct in my opinion; whatever the background radiation is that an external monitor might pick up, the greater concern is the ingested radionucleotide, because of proximity to whatever cells it lodges against; the analogy of a camp fire has been used before: assume there is one joule of energy in the fire; if your whole body feels it, you feel comfortably warm. But take one joule of energy in the form of an ember and place it on your lip, and you have a painful, small blister at that point only; same goes for external/internal exposure concerns with radiation.

    As for local incineration that would have contributed to these measured spikes: Kitakyushu is the most likely culprit, as they have been steadily burning contaminated disaster debris, and there is speculation that Miyazaki/Miyakonojo are covertly burning the debris, which could be another source — this according to first hand reports of suspicious trucks with Fukushima license plates in Miyakonojo, and the city’s early offer to process said waste. The ferry port in Miyazaki has an incinerator next to it, which would facilitate easy disposal. . . It’s a terrible pity, as those areas are breathtakingly beautiful, pure and were renowned for their delicious, clean produce. . . I know that area well and it breaks my heart. Kyushu was the least contaminated from Fukushima — it had the real potential to be the new bread basket for the country in providing clean food.

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This website updates the latest news about the Fukushima nuclear plant and also archives the past news from 2011. Because it's always updated and added live, articles, categories and the tags are not necessarily fitted in the latest format.
I am the writer of this website. About page remains in 2014. This is because my memory about 311 was clearer than now, 2023, and I think it can have a historical value. Now I'm living in Romania with 3 cats as an independent data scientist.
Actually, nothing has progressed in the plant since 2011. We still don't even know what is going on inside. They must keep cooling the crippled reactors by water, but additionally groundwater keeps flowing into the reactor buildings from the broken parts. This is why highly contaminated water is always produced more than it can circulate. Tepco is planning to officially discharge this water to the Pacific but Tritium is still remaining in it. They dilute this with seawater so that it is legally safe, but scientifically the same amount of radioactive tritium is contained. They say it is safe to discharge, but none of them have drunk it.

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