Maps - Crowd-Sourced Realtime Radiation Monitoring

Sun, 2011-04-03 22:27 — Kathy Gilbeaux

There are now hundreds of radiation-related feeds from Japan on Pachube, monitoring conditions in realtime and underpinning more than half a dozen incredibly valuable applications built by people around the world. They combine 'official' data, 'unofficial' official data, and, most importantly to us, realtime networked geiger counter measurements contributed by concerned citizens.   Now we're even seeing some tracking radiation measurements of tap water.

Google Earth powered by Pachube.com

rdtn.org

Japan Geigermap


Japan Nuclear Crisis: Radiation Spike Detected Outside Evacuation Zone

Thu, 2011-03-31 09:19 — Katie Rast

March 31, 2011

Japanese officials are testing the soil contaminated by radiation from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to try to determine whether spring farming can begin as alarmingly high radiation levels were detected outside the evacuation zone today.

"As a ratio, it was about two times higher" than levels at which the agency recommends evacuations," International Atomic Energy Agency Official Elena Buglova said at a news conference.

Separately, the amount of iodine found in seawater near the plant has reached a new high; 4,385 times the legal limit. Officials said earlier this week that dangerous plutonium was found in soil near the reactors.

Residents within 12 miles of the nuclear plant were evacuated after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami knocked out the reactor's cooling system March 11.

Read more...

Japan Disaster Sparks Social Media Innovation

Thu, 2011-03-31 09:15 — Katie Rast

TOKYO March 31, 2011, 08:47

As Japan grapples with an unprecedented triple disaster — earthquake, tsunami, nuclear crisis — the Web has spawned creativity and innovation online amid a collective desire to ease suffering.

Once the magnitude of the March 11 disaster became clear, the online world began asking, "How can we help?"

And for that, social media offered the ideal platform for good ideas to spread quickly, supplementing efforts launched by giants like Google and Facebook.

A British teacher living in Abiko city, just east of Tokyo, is leading a volunteer team of bloggers, writers and editors producing "Quakebook," a collection of reflections, essays and images of the earthquake that will be sold in the coming days as a digital publication. Proceeds from the project will go to the Japanese Red Cross, said the 40-year-old, who goes by the pseudonym "Our Man in Abiko."

Read more...

TUFS-Multilingual Disaster Information Service

Mon, 2011-03-28 20:31 — Bea Alvarez

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies providing info for disaster victims in 16 languages, click here to access the english language page.

Source: http://www.tufs.ac.jp/blog/ts/g/tufs_disaster_information/

Highly radioactive water leaks from Japanese nuclear plant

Mon, 2011-03-28 15:01 — Katie Rast

 Mon Mar 28, 2011 11:10am EDT

 TOKYO (Reuters) - Highly radioactive water has leaked from a reactor at Japan's crippled nuclear complex, the plant's operator said on Monday, while environmental group Greenpeace said it had detected high levels of radiation outside an exclusion zone.

 Reflecting growing unease about efforts to control the six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi complex, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (9501.T) (TEPCO) had appealed to French companies for help, the Kyodo news agency said.

The plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was damaged in a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 28,000 people dead or missing across northeastern Japan.

Fires, explosions and radiation leaks have repeatedly forced engineers to suspend efforts to stabilize the plant, including on Sunday when radiation levels spiked to 100,000 times above normal in water inside reactor No. 2.

BBC: Radiation Leak Found Outside of Fukushima Plant

Mon, 2011-03-28 07:25 — mdmcdonald

 

Highly radioactive water has been found for the first time outside one of the reactor buildings at Japan's quake-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, officials say.

Radiation Levels at Japan Nuclear Plant Reach New Highs

Sun, 2011-03-27 20:52 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The Washington Post: Chico Harlan and Brian Vastag, Sunday, March 27, 

TOKYO — Already-grave conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant worsened Sunday with the highest radiation readings yet, compounding both the risks and challenges for workers trying to repair the facility’s cooling system.

Leaked water sampled from one unit Sunday was 100,000 times more radioactive than normal background levels — though the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the plant, first calculated an even higher, erroneous, figure that it didn’t correct for several hours.

Tepco apologized Sunday night when it realized the mistake; it had initially reported radiation levels in the leaked water from the unit 2 reactor as being 10 million times higher than normal, which prompted an evacuation of the building.

After the levels were correctly measured, airborne radioactivity in the unit 2 turbine building still remained so high — 1,000 millisieverts per hour — that a worker there would reach his yearly occupational exposure limit in 15 minutes. A dose of 4,000 to 5,000 millisieverts absorbed fairly rapidly will eventually kill about half of those exposed.

(Full story in links below)

Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) - Higher Levels of Radioactive Iodine in Seawater Detected - March 26, 2011

Sat, 2011-03-26 16:48 — Kathy Gilbeaux

UPDATE AS OF 9:30 A.M. EDT, MARCH 26, 2011

Japanese scientists yesterday detected higher levels of radioactive iodine in seawater at water outlets near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

"Iodine 131 was detected at a level 1,250 times the national safety limit," Hidehiko Nishiyama of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said during a news conference. Officials said there is no immediate danger to residents near the plant from these levels.

Samples taken on Friday were significantly higher than those taken on Wednesday, which had 147 times the legal concentration of I-131. Authorities said the concentration of radioactive materials in the water will decrease as the water is diluted by ocean currents. Indeed, a sample taken at 8:50 a.m. on Friday had one-fifth the concentration of I-131 as the earlier measurement. Three subsequent measurements that morning showed fluctuation. All were below the highest level found at 8:30 a.m. on Friday.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Thu, 2011-03-24 14:38 — Patrick Young

Excellent resource for environmental information regarding radiation

http://www.epa.gov/radiation/

Japanese Nuclear Emergency:  Radiation Monitoring - from the EPA

http://www.epa.gov/radiation/rert/radnet-sampling-data.html

RadNet Laboratory Analysis - from the EPA

http://opendata.socrata.com/Government/RadNet-Laboratory-Analysis/cf4r-dfwe

References - Documents

Thu, 2011-03-24 12:22 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Share Your Knowledge and Experience at the World Reconstruction Conference Discussion Forum

Wed, 2011-03-23 23:26 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The World Reconstruction Conference (WRC) is the first large-scale global conference focused on natural disaster recovery and reconstruction. Organized by the World Bank and the United Nations, the Conference will be held from May 10-13, 2011 within the Third Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva.
Share your knowledge and experience at the WRC Discussion Forum  www.wrc-2011.org

Visit Understanding Risk at: http://community.understandrisk.org/?xg_source=msg_mes_network 

Radiation risk is only within the evacuation zones, says WHO, as of March 19

Wed, 2011-03-23 23:08 — AlMac99

According to The World Health Organization (WHO), as of March 19 info sharing, it seems unlikely that significant amounts of radiation will affect areas outside of Japan. Rumours are circulating about radiation drifting to other countries. Based on available information, this does not appear to be the case. Exposure to radioactive material released from the affected facilities will be largely limited to the evacuation zone within Japan.

There is therefore currently very little risk for Pacific island countries and territories due to the considerable distances involved, even for the Pacific countries and territories nearest to Japan.

 

As such, WHO does not currently recommend any measures for persons outside of Japan (including the Pacific island countries and territories) where residents should continue with their normal activities.

CSM: "Japan says high seawater radiation levels are no cause for alarm"

Wed, 2011-03-23 11:39 — mdmcdonald

Japanese authorities began testing for radiation in seawater near the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Tuesday, but officials stressed that the elevated levels are no cause for worry

Within this article:

"...Jun Misono of Tokyo’s Marine Ecology Research Institute said that while radioactive iodine breaks down relatively quickly, cesium is more persistent and can accumulate in marine animals, such as fish. “We need to carefully monitor the amount of radiation that continues to be emitted and evaluate the impacts,” he told national broadcaster NHK."

 

For More Information:

LA Times: "Tokyo tap water not safe for infants, officials warn"

Wed, 2011-03-23 08:31 — mdmcdonald

Levels of radioactive iodine are found to be about double the safe levels for children under age of 1. Black smoke billows from a reactor at the stricken Japanese nuclear plant.

For More Information:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-tokyo-water-20110324,0,7951826.story

Bad wintry weather for areas impacted by earthquakes and tsunamis

Wed, 2011-03-23 00:53 — AlMac99

Bad weather returns to the worst affected areas affecting the distribution of goods.  See  United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Relief Web 

Summary Link to March 21 # 10 update attached.

The report also quotes World Bank saying it will take Japan 5 years to rebuild what was destroyed by the big quakes and tsunamis.

It also adds to our growing directory of useful links:

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