Fukushima Daichi: How did I miss this?!

I've been following the Japan tragedy closely, and somehow I missed big news on the U.S. impact of the disaster. Did I miss it, or is the news media not reporting it?

In the US, physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant.

The eight cities included in the report are San Jose, Berkeley, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, and Boise, and the time frame of the report included the ten weeks immediately following the disaster. [Emphasis mine.]

This disaster is starting to look Biblical in its proportions.

UPDATE 10:42 PM EST: Here is the essay It is merely suggestive, not definitive. No study has been done, merely an overview of infant mortality rates before and after the Fukushima Daichi disaster.

How would YOU respond to a Fukushima-type disaster

As we look at Japan with pity as they try to deal with the Fukushima Diachi nuclear disaster, it raises a very important question: HOW WOULD I REACT TO SUCH A DISASTER? Living in the New York Metropolitan area, there are a number of nuclear reactors within a few hours drive. And most of them could throw fallout my way in the case of a major accident. So what do I do? Luckily, some websites have posted maps showing the likely evacuation areas around NYC, Chicago, and LA for various nuclear plants.

This is useful info to have. If nothing else, it tells me that my best bet is to head NORTH in case of a disaster, as heading South might simply take me deeper into another reactor's radioactive shadow.

Fukushima now on par with Chernobyl

On the "International Nuclear Event Scale", Japan's Fukushima Daichi plant is now officially on par with Chernobyl. International agencies had been arguing for this classification for weeks, but the Japanese government had been stubbornly classifying the event on par with Three Mile Island instead. Now that radiation is leaking into the Pacific Ocean, it appears Japan's reservoir of denial has run out.

Japan's nuclear crisis may be even worse than we think

In the weeks since the tsunami, Japan has continued to battle adverse conditions at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant. But as the American attention span wanes, most news agencies are ready to move on. But it appears that the danger at the plant is not decreasing, and may actually be on the rise. A new NRC report paints a dire picture of plant perhaps only a few steps away from another major leak or meltdown risk.

The document also suggests that fragments or particles of nuclear fuel from spent fuel pools above the reactors were blown “up to one mile from the units,” and that pieces of highly radioactive material fell between two units and had to be “bulldozed over,” presumably to protect workers at the site. The ejection of nuclear material, which may have occurred during one of the earlier hydrogen explosions, may indicate more extensive damage to the extremely radioactive pools than previously disclosed...

The assessment provides graphic new detail on the conditions of the damaged cores in reactors 1, 2 and 3. Because slumping fuel and salt from seawater that had been used as a coolant is probably blocking circulation pathways, the water flow in No. 1 “is severely restricted and likely blocked.” Inside the core itself, “there is likely no water level,” the assessment says, adding that as a result, “it is difficult to determine how much cooling is getting to the fuel.” Similar problems exist in No. 2 and No. 3, although the blockage is probably less severe, the assessment says.

What can the air in Seattle tell us about the Fukushima nuclear reactors?

Science is a wonderful thing. Not only does it give us fun gadgets and fascinating theories, but it also allows us to draw highly-accurate conclusions about events happening far, far away. Since the earthquake in Japan, a team at the University of Washington at Seattle has been testing air filters from university buildings for radioactive particles. Their results have allowed them to gauge exactly where the real threat comes from Fukushima Diachi. Even though, they are approximately 4800 miles apart.

The first comes from the amount of iodine-131 and tellurium-132 which are both short-lived with half lives of 8 and 3 days respectively. That indicates that they must have come from fuel rods that were recently active rather than from spent fuel...

Finally, there are a huge number of possible breakdown products from nuclear fission in a reactor and yet the Seattle team found evidence of only three fission product elements--iodine, cesium and tellurium. "This points to a specifific process of release into the atmosphere," they say.

Cesium Iodide is highly soluble in water. So these guys speculate that what they're seeing is the result of contaminated steam being released into the atmosphere.