Fukushima Plutonium in Lithuania, Cesium and Iodine in Greece

Radionuclides from the Fukushima accident in the air over Lithuania: measurement and modelling approaches.
Authors
Lujanienė G, et al. J Environ Radioact. 2011 Dec 27. [Epub ahead of print]
Environmental Research Department, SRI Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Savanoriu 231, 02300 Vilnius, Lithuania.
Abstract

Analyses of (131)I, (137)Cs and (134)Cs in airborne aerosols were carried out in daily samples in Vilnius, Lithuania after the Fukushima accident during the period of March-April, 2011. The activity concentrations of (131)I and (137)Cs ranged from 12 μBq/m(3) and 1.4 μBq/m(3) to 3700 μBq/m(3) and 1040 μBq/m(3), respectively. The activity concentration of (239,240)Pu in one aerosol sample collected from 23 March to 15 April, 2011 was found to be 44.5 nBq/m(3). The two maxima found in radionuclide concentrations were related to complicated long-range air mass transport from Japan across the Pacific, the North America and the Atlantic Ocean to Central Europe as indicated by modelling. HYSPLIT backward trajectories and meteorological data were applied for interpretation of activity variations of measured radionuclides observed at the site of investigation. (7)Be and (212)Pb activity concentrations and their ratios were used as tracers of vertical transport of air masses. Fukushima data were compared with the data obtained during the Chernobyl accident and in the post Chernobyl period. The activity concentrations of (131)I and (137)Cs were found to be by 4 orders of magnitude lower as compared to the Chernobyl accident. The activity ratio of (134)Cs/(137)Cs was around 1 with small variations only. The activity ratio of (238)Pu/(239,240)Pu in the aerosol sample was 1.2, indicating a presence of the spent fuel of different origin than that of the Chernobyl accident.
Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22206700/

Fukushima Isotopes in Greece
Kritidis P, Florou H, Eleftheriadis K, Evangeliou N, Gini M, Sotiropoulou M, Diapouli E, Vratolis S.
Source
NCSR “Demokritos”, Institute of Nuclear Technology-Radiation Protection, Environmental Radioactivity Laboratory, 15310 Agia Paraskevi, Athens, Greece.

Abstract

As a result of the nuclear accident in Fukushima Daichi power plant, which started on March 11, 2011, radioactive pollutants were transferred by air masses to various regions of the Northern hemisphere, including Europe. Very low concentrations of (131)I, (137)Cs and (134)Cs in airborne particulate matter were measured in Athens, Greece during the period of March 24 to April 28, 2011. The maximum air concentration of (131)I was measured on April 6, 2011 and equaled 490 ± 35 μBq m(-3). The maximum values of the two cesium isotopes were measured on the same day and equaled 180 ± 40 μBq m(-3) for (137)Cs and 160 ± 30 μBq m(-3) for (134)Cs. The average activity ratio of (131)I/(137)Cs in air was 3.0 ± 0.5, while the corresponding ratio of (137)Cs/(134)Cs equaled 1.1 ± 0.3. No artificial radionuclides could be detected in air after April 28, 2011. Traces of (131)I as a result of radioactive deposition were measured in grass, soil, sheep milk and meat. The total deposition of (131)I (dry + wet) was 34 ± 4 Bq m(-2), and of (137)Cs was less than 10 Bq m(-2). The maximum concentration of (131)I in grass was 2.1 ± 0.4 Bg kg(-1), while (134)Cs was not detected. The maximum concentrations of (131)I and (137)Cs in sheep milk were 1.7 ± 0.16 Bq kg(-1) and 0.6 ± 0.12 Bq kg(-1) respectively. Concentrations of (131)I up to 1.3 ± 0.2 Bq kg(-1) were measured in sheep meat. Traces of (131)I were found in a number of soil samples. The radiological impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident in Athens region was practically negligible, especially as compared to that of the Chernobyl accident and also to that of natural radioactivity.

Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

http://fukushimaupdate.com/study-radioactive-pollution-in-athens-greece-due-to-the-fukushima-nuclear-accident/

 

3 New Reports from Canada: Radiation in Fish and Rainwater; “Safe” Levels of Radiation?

Canadian Fish Eaters Threatened by Fukushima Radiation: Anti-Nuclear Group
By Alex Roslin, For Postmedia News January 14, 2012

“After the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years, authorities in Canada said people living here were safe and faced no health risks from the fallout from Fukushima.

They said most of the radiation from the crippled Japanese nuclear power plant would fall into the ocean, where it would be diluted and not pose any danger.

Dr. Dale Dewar wasn’t convinced. Dewar, a family physician in Wynyard, Sask., doesn’t eat a lot of seafood herself, but when her grandchildren come to visit, she carefully checks seafood labels.

She wants to make sure she isn’t serving them anything that might come from the western Pacific Ocean.

Dewar, the executive director of Physicians for Global Survival, a Canadian anti-nuclear group, says the Canadian government has downplayed the radiation risks from Fukushima and is doing little to monitor them.

“We suspect we’re going to see more cancers, decreased fetal viability, decreased fertility, increased metabolic defects — and we expect them to be generational,” she said.

Evidence has emerged that the impacts of the disaster on the Pacific Ocean are worse than expected.” [...]

Read more at:
http://www.canada.com/news/Canadian+fish+eaters+threatened+Fukushima+radiation+anti+nuclear+group/5997414/story.html#ixzz1jV3eDA6J

Radioactive Iodine in Rainwater: Public Was in the Dark
By ALEX ROSLIN, The Gazette, Jan. 14, 2012

“After the Fukushima nuclear accident, Canadian health officials assured a nervous public that virtually no radioactive fallout had drifted to Canada.

But last March, a Health Canada monitoring station in Calgary detected an average of 8.18 becquerels per litre of radioactive iodine (an isotope released by the nuclear accident) in rainwater, the data shows.

The level easily exceeded the Canadian guideline of six becquerels of iodine per litre for drinking water, acknowledged Eric Pellerin, chief of Health Canada’s radiation-surveillance division.

“It’s above the recommended level (for drinking water),” he said in an interview. “At any time you sample it, it should not exceed the guideline.”

Canadian authorities didn’t disclose the high radiation reading at the time.” [...]

Read more at:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Radioactive+iodine+rainwater+Public+dark/5995357/story.html

The Debate in Canada: What Is a ‘Safe’ Level of Radiation?

By Alex Roslin, Special to The Gazette January 13, 2012

“The fallout from Fukushima has sparked debate about how Canada monitors radiation and how it decides what is a “safe” level of radiation.

Canadian authorities have insisted that Canadians are safe and that dangerous levels of radiation haven’t entered our food, air or water.

“The amount (of radiation) detected would not pose a health risk to Canadians,” Health Canada spokesman Stéphane Shank said.

“Canadians are safe. We are within the natural background radiation fluctuations that were typically seen prior to the nuclear event in Japan.”

But nuclear critics Dr. Dale Dewar and Gordon Edwards say Ottawa’s notion of what is a “safe” level of radiation can still cause serious health risks for some people.

In fact, Canada’s ceiling for radiation in food is set at a level that would lead to 5,000 to 8,000 cancers per million people over a 70-year lifetime of exposure, according to Health Canada’s models and those of a 2006 U.S. National Academy of Sciences report on cancer risk from radiation. (About half of the cancers would be fatal.)

That works out to 170,000 to 270,000 lifetime cancers if all 34 million Canadians were exposed at the “safe” level.” [...]