i don't think it would help at all actually. nothing i've posted is about japan directly.

thank you for offering though.

the truth is out there

is it though?

GOD DAMNIT JAPAN!!!!!

I wonder how much radiation was released by the United States during atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, and the subsequent dual nuclear bombings of Japan. I bet it's more than this reactor mishap! Haha

~300-400 kCi of plutonium globally, megacuries of radioiodines for every megaton of fission, the c-14 in the upper atmosphere has been increased by about half at least according to ye olde notebook, but the internet told me the sky is falling too so i better sodayum idioide

posting about the history of the nuclear power industry is apparently akin to sensationalism and/or conspiracy.

noted.

no one knows what it's like to be the bad man, to be the sad man, to be husking time

THE JAPENESE, THEY HAVE NO IDEA!!

Tuna contaminated with Fukushima radiation found in California

Scientists amazed that bluefins swimming in Pacific five months after Japanese disaster contained caesium

Justin McCurry in Tokyo and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 May 2012

The Japanese government says it will look into international monitoring of fish products after low levels of radiation were found in bluefin tuna in Californian waters

Bluefin tuna contaminated with radiation believed to be from Fukushima Daiichi turned up off the coast of California just five months after the Japanese nuclear plant suffered meltdown last March, US scientists said.

Tiny amounts of caesium-137 and caesium-134 were detected in 15 bluefin caught near San Diego in August last year, according to a study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

The levels were 10 times higher than those found in tuna in the same area in previous years. Japan recently introduced a new safety limit of 100 becquerels per kilogram in food.

The timing of the discovery suggests that the fish, a prized but dangerously overfished delicacy in Japan, had carried the radioactive materials across the Pacific ocean faster than those conveyed by wind or water.

The researchers, led by Daniel Madigan at Stanford University, said they had found evidence that the fish had been contaminated at "modestly elevated" levels with caesium. The chemical was released into the ocean in the wake of the accident at Fukushima Daiichi on 11 March 2011.

Madigan told Reuters: "I wouldn't tell anyone what's safe to eat or what's not safe to eat. It's become clear that some people feel that any amount of radioactivity, in their minds, is bad and they'd like to avoid it."

The fish are thought to have been exposed to radiation for about a month before beginning their journey east across the Pacific. They were found to contain 4 becquerels per kilogram of caesium-134 and 6.3 becquerels per kilogram of caesium-137, the report said. A 2008 study of fish in the area found no evidence of caesium-134, which is produced only by nuclear power plants and weapons.

Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Osamu Fujimura, conceded that the findings suggested the monitoring of radiation levels in fish outside Japanese waters may have to be stepped up.

"We were frankly kind of startled," said Nicholas Fisher, an expert at Stony Brook University in New York who took part in the study. "That's a big ocean. To swim across it and still retain these radionuclides is pretty amazing."

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Tokyo Electric Power, estimates that 18,000 terabecquerels of radioactive materials flowed into the Pacific after the accident, either in the form of fallout, or through mixing with water that leaked from the facility. A terabecquerel is equal to 1trillion becquerels.

Mutated butterflies discovered near Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactors

One legacy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year has already become apparent through a study of butterflies in Japan: Their rate of genetic mutations and deformities has increased.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Japanese researchers studying adult pale grass blue (Zizeeria maha) butterflies have found a plethora of Fukushima specimens with mutations and abnormalities, according to BBC News. The BBC says their findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Professor Joji Otaki from the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa says, “It has been believed that insects are very resistant to radiation.” According to BBC and Prof. Otaki’s most recent research, that is not the case for this particular species of butterfly. “In that sense,” Prof. Otaki told the BBC, “our results were unexpected.”
    

The team of researchers began studying the species more than 10 years prior to the Fukushima accident in order to prove their value as environmental indicators. Prof. Otaki says, “…[because] this butterfly is found in artificial environments—such as gardens and public parks—this butterfly can monitor human environments.” In a study previously published in the open-access journal BioMed Central, the team’s research had shown the species’ unique sensitivity to environmental changes caused by global warming as reflected by mutations in wing color.

Prof. Otaki was quoted as saying, “Color-pattern changes of this butterfly in Aomori, Japan was [previously] observed only in the recent northern range of margins during a limited period of time. Most importantly, the range-margin in population did not show any ‘abnormality’ per se.” The fact that serious abnormalities have occurred is, according to BBC, a serious environmental indicator for how dangerous the radiation levels are in Fukushima. Researchers have found butterflies with severe mutations in the shape and size of the species wings, legs, antennae, and eyes.

According to the BBC, 144 adult butterflies were collected from 10 different locations in Japan two months after the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident. The butterflies would have been overwintering as larvae during this time. These specimens traveled 1,750 km (1,090 miles) to Prof. Otaki’s laboratory, where the BBC says the team bred the samples and uncovered the catastrophic effects of the accident on the butterfly population. Six months later, the team went back and collected another round of samples from the same 10 sites. The team found double the mutations this time around.







Prof. Otaki’s team attributed the higher rate of mutation to contaminated food and the heredity of genetic material that, although it didn’t show up in the parent’s generation, created mutations in their children. Therefore, the BBC says the findings proved that radionuclides released to the environment had caused “novel, severely abnormal developments” with long-lasting effects, even after the residual radiation had decayed. This research leaves scientists pondering the implications for other species living in the Fukushima area, especially humans.

Infants in Fukushima face greater risk of cancer: World Health Organization

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA | Thu Feb 28, 2013

(Reuters) - People in the area worst affected by Japan's Fukushima nuclear accident two years ago have a higher risk of developing certain cancers, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

A magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, killed nearly 19,000 people and devastated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, spewing radiation and forcing about 160,000 people to flee their homes.

It was the worst nuclear accident since a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine in 1986.

"A breakdown of data, based on age, gender and proximity to the plant, does show a higher cancer risk for those located in the most contaminated parts," Dr. Maria Neira, WHO director for public health and environment, said of the Fukushima report.

The United Nations agency said for the general population in Japan the predicted health risks were low. But it was not able to say how many people were exposed in the area where the highest amount of radioactive material was released.

In the most contaminated area, the WHO estimated that there was a 70 percent higher risk of females exposed as infants developing thyroid cancer over their lifetime. The thyroid is the most exposed organ as radioactive iodine concentrates there and children are deemed especially vulnerable.

Thyroid cancer takes a minimum of three years to develop, according to WHO report co-author Dr. Roy Shore of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Japan.

LEUKEMIA, BREAST CANCER

The WHO report estimated that in the most contaminated area there was a 7 percent higher risk of leukemia in males exposed as infants, and a 6 percent higher risk of breast cancer in females exposed as infants. Overall, girls had a 4 percent increased risk of developing solid cancers.

One-third of emergency workers were estimated to have increased cancer risks, it said.

"The risk among emergency workers would be increased for thyroid cancer particularly, and some circulatory disorders," Neira told a news briefing.

Jim Smith, Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Portsmouth in England, said: "Apart from emergency workers, the most affected people were those who remained in some highly contaminated towns and villages to the northwest of the power station for up to four months before evacuation."

Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) earlier this month received approval to tap the Japanese government for 697 billion yen ($7.5 billion) to compensate those harmed by the disaster, taking the total fund to 3.24 trillion yen.

This is how much greater. Risk increase (relative to normal risk) to those exposed as infants in the absolute highest contaminated area:

all solid cancers - around 4% in females exposed as infants;
breast cancer - around 6% in females exposed as infants;
leukaemia - around 7% in males exposed as infants;
thyroid cancer - up to 70% in females exposed as infants (the normally expected risk of thyroid cancer in females over lifetime is 0.75% and the additional lifetime risk assessed for females exposed as infants in the most affected location is 0.50%)

They Fuck on you big boi.