Radioactive Strontium Detected Outside 30km Zone

[DeSwiss]

Radioactive strontium detected outside 30km zone

NHK World
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 07:52 +0900 (JST)

Japan's science ministry says small amounts of radioactive strontium have been detected in soil and plants outside the 30-kilometer zone around the Fukushima plant where the government has advised people to stay indoors. Strontium could cause cancer.

The ministry has been monitoring the level of radioactive substances in soil and weeds in Fukushima Prefecture. It found 3.3 to 32 becquerels of strontium 90 per kilogram of soil in samples taken from 3 locations in Namie Town and Iitate Village, 30 kilometers from the plant.

An extremely small amount of strontium was also found in plants taken from Motomiya City, Ono Town and Otama and Nishigo Villages. The areas are 40 to 80 kilometers from the Fukushima plant. Strontium 90 has a half-life of 29 years. It tends to accumulate in bones and could cause cancer.

The ministry says the amount found is extremely low and will not have a negative health impact even if a person ingested one kilogram of the contaminated soil.

The samples were taken between March 16 and 19. A nuclear engineering expert says the fact that strontium was detected proves that the fuel in the reactor or the spent fuel in the pool was damaged at that point. He says a hydrogen explosion occurred at Reactor 3 around that time and the particles may have been carried by winds.


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- What a mess. Damn, we sure know how to fuck up a planet......
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DeSwiss

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

1. 3.3 to 32 becquerels of strontium 90 ... every smoke detector in your house has about 1000X that.

Just for reference so people can understand these numbers.

New smoke detectors use about 1 microcurie of americium-241.
That's about 37000 becquerels of radiation with a 450+ year half-life.

Having 3 ionizing smoke detectors in your house would have equivalent radioactivity to about 3 to 30 TONS of the Strontium-90 in Iitate Village soil.

[Newest Reality]

3. That doesn't phase me.

No amount of radioactivity is safe. Comparing amounts is not consoling in the light of that. A pin-prick or a gash makes no difference if you get sepsis from an infection.

You are entitled to your facts and opinions and methods of consolation to the rest of us. I don't buy it and I really don't want to increase my chances of cancer now or later, regardless of the number used to allay that concern. It is not acceptable, no matter how you want to slice it.

You may want to accept new additions of radioactivity, (and more radiation) into your environment and body, but I don't. Even it that becomes inevitable due to accidents or failures like these, why would I be comforted by comparisons when my odds of a earlier, and painful death are most certainly increased? Oh, but this is lower than that, you say? Governments and industries are telling me the same thing all the time in order to manage my response for various reasons including my perception and reaction as well as to protect the vested interests involved. I am used to it.

[madokie]

8. Thank you for putting it so plainly

I have a lung condition that can't be monitored like I'd like or my pulmonary doctor would like because of the fact I've already had too many X-rays, CT scans etc. already. Even at my advanced age of 63 I live with the fear of undetected lung cancer because the previous scans warrants it too dangerous to have more. So here I am waiting for some more months to pass before I can get another scan. if radiation wasn't capable of causing cancer they'd be giving me more scans to keep abreast of whats going on in there today.
to hell with a bunch of nuclear apologist is all I have to say to them.
+1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 for your reply.

[girl gone mad]

4. It's more dangerous in the soil than in a smoke detector..

due to strontium-90 being bio-similar to calcium, it gets absorbed into bones and bone marrow. This will need to be monitored since it is possible that levels are higher in other areas.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

9. Here's more of an apples to apples comparison:

If you really want an apples to apples comparison, take a look at Potassium-40. It is readily found in humans, has a much longer half than strontium, and undergoes beta decay as well (strontium-90 also undergoes beta decay). In fact, Potassium-40 beta emission is over 2X times more energetic than strontium-90 beta emission (1.31 MeV versus 0.546 MeV, respectively). Oh yeah, one medium to large banana has similar radioactivity due to potassium-40 (15-18 Bq) compared to 1kg of fukushima soil mentioned in the OP (3.3-30 Bq). And people actually EAT bananas - we don't ever directly eat the topsoil.

silimar emission type (and more powerful too)...
Can accumulate in the body...
Long half life...

That sounds like a VERY fair apples-apples comparison.

[suffragette]

11. The banana comparison is bogus. Here's the proof.

The body regulates potassium intake and rids itself of excess.
Strontium-90 mimics calcium and can cause bone cancer.


http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/consumer%20products/potassiumgeneralinfo.htm
Dose from Potassium-40

The dose to a typical member of the population is approximately 15-20 mrem/year due to the K-40 in the body and 10 mrem/year due to the gamma rays emitted by K-40 in the environment (primarily the soil).

The human body maintains relatively tight homeostatic control over potassium levels. This means that the consumption of foods containing large amounts of potassium will not increase the body’s potassium content. As such, eating foods like bananas does not increase your annual radiation dose. If someone ingested potassium that had been enriched in K-40, that would be another story.



http://boingboing.net/2010/08/27/bananas-are-radioact.html

The problem is that this system implies that all radioisotopes are created equal—That there's no difference between 520 picocuries of Potassium-40 and a similar intake of, say, radioactive iodine. And that simply isn't true. I contacted Geoff Meggitt—a retired health physicist, and former editor of the Journal of Radiological Protection—to find out more.

Meggitt worked for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and its later commercial offshoots for 25 years. He says there's an enormous variation in the risks associated with swallowing the same amount of different radioactive materials—and even some difference between the same dose, of the same material, but in different chemical forms.

It all depends on two factors:
1)The physical characteristics of the radioactivity—i.e, What's its half-life? Is the radiation emitted alpha, beta or gamma?
2) The way the the radioactivity travels around and is taken up by the body—i.e., How much is absorbed by the blood stream? What tissues does this specific isotope tend to accumulate in?

The Potassium-40 in bananas is a particularly poor model isotope to use, Meggitt says, because the potassium content of our bodies seems to be under homeostatic control. When you eat a banana, your body's level of Potassium-40 doesn't increase. You just get rid of some excess Potassium-40. The net dose of a banana is zero.


http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/strontium.html

Health Effects of Strontium-90
How can strontium-90 affect people's health?

Strontium-90 is chemically similar to calcium, and tends to deposit in bone and blood-forming tissue (bone marrow). Thus, strontium-90 is referred to as a "bone seeker." Internal exposure to Sr-90 is linked to bone cancer, cancer of the soft tissue near the bone, and leukemia.

Risk of cancer increases with increased exposure to Sr-90. The risk depends on the concentration of Sr-90 in the environment, and on the exposure conditions.

[DCKit]

16. Well Done!

"Apples to Apples" my flabby ass.

You have, eloquently and concisely, destroyed that argument forever.

[suffragette]

17. Thanks. I was getting tired of that one

and went searching for more info.

It's clear that it is an absurd comparison.

Help me in posting this info when you see it raised again so we can get the facts out there more widely.

[DCKit]

19. I fought that fight for the first week after the accident, and then some.

The posts I made and replied to would make an excellent book.

I did use your argument (many times) but didn't put it nearly as well as you did. I am kind of proud of having said something about the difference between lying in a tanning bed and swallowing the lit UV bulb.

[suffragette]

22. It just keeps popping up, doesn't it?

Only the title and the 1st 2 sentences are mine. And they are just a summary of the linked and quoted info.

I think the way you put it is apt and well illustrated.

[upi402]

18. +1,000

Thank you!
:patriot:

[suffragette]

21. Please spread the info

Time to squash the banana meme.

[upi402]

23. Yep, I had saved it for a rainy day too

Thanks again

[suffragette]

24. You're welcome

:)

[Rex]

5. So? Do people eat smoke detectors?

You are trying to compare something that will never get inside you (a smoke detector) to something easily digested into your body. Just so people understand that the numbers don't add up to anything if you compare apples to oranges.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

7. Do people eat soil?

The direct answer is no. The element gets into our food chain. So while we don't ever eat smoke detectors, I'm sure nothing that's ever discarded or thrown away gets incinerated or works it's way into the water supply at a trash dump site. And a smoke detector would *never* get broken or curiously dismantled. :eyes: The half-life is long enough that it could into the water table too with bioaccumulation occurring in some seafood. But you're right... it's not really an apples to apples comparison. I mean, it's only about 1000X more radioactivity than the strontium in 1kg of fukushima soil. That's WAY different.

But if you really want an apples to apples comparison, take a look at Potassium-40. It readily bioaccumulates in humans, has a much longer half than strontium, and undergoes beta decay as well (strontium-90 also undergoes beta decay). In fact, Potassium-40 beta emission is over 2X times more energetic than strontium-90 beta emission (1.31 MeV versus 0.546 MeV, respectively). Oh yeah, one medium to large banana has similar radioactivity due to potassium-40 compared to 1kg of fukushima soil mentioned in the OP. And you actually EAT bananas - I don't ever directly eats the topsoil.

silimar emission type (and more powerful too)...
Bioaccumulates...
Long half life...

That sounds like a VERY fair apples-apples comparison. ;)

[Javaman]

10. Okay then, try this...

take those smoke detectors smash them, scatter the radioactive material around your house and live with it that way. Walking it all day long, kicking it up into your food and water supply and just for grins, lay down it while watching the tv machine.

Sheesh.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

12. But then they wouldn't work.

I have a feeling a smashed smoke detector wouldn't function well.

[Javaman]

13. you enjoy being obtuse, don't you.

as a result, you are now ignored.

have a nice day.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

14. excessively...

kepp stickin' your head in that hole, brah.
Just make sure it's not fukushima dirt.

[thereismore]

15. My own ignore list continues being populated by these radioactivists. nt

[flamingdem]

20. link? It should be Americum and less nt

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

25. It depends on the smoke detector...

Here's the first link that google returned:
http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/household-safety/fire/smoke2.htm
"Another way to talk about the amount of americium in the detector is to say that a typical detector contains 0.9 microcurie of americium-241."

Here's another link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_detector
"It includes about 37 kBq or 1 µCi of radioactive element americium-241 (241Am), corresponding to about 0.3 µg of the isotope."

[DCKit]

2. Single cucumbers that can feed a village, three foot beans... Monsatan has the patents.

Nothing to worry about here, they just need crop diversity.. all those giant vegetables are going to overwhelm and protect them.

Have you wactchhed NO Godzilla movies?

[Thunderstruck]

6. Ha, yea, I saw an article earlier today talking about "slight" amounts of Strontium some

distance from the plant. I had to "hmmmmph" because is a measure of uncontrolled Strontium in any amount too much? "Slight" is rather a lot from my layperson's understanding.