[ RadSafe ] Fwd: [New post] Tepco under-reported Fukushima release of plutonium - by 200 times!

Fri Aug 8 11:42:08 CDT 2014

I am always leery of "quotation" of another document that use ellipses with wild abandon.  Back when I played on a "Theory of Evolution vs. Intelligent Design" site, I encountered a number of people who thought using ellipses to leave out counter arguments, join phrases to make new sentences, even if the phrases were separated by several pages, or even replace the word "not" were all valid ways of convincing others of the validity of their position.  I have not seen any reason to believe that MacPherson would shrink from such tactics if she thought they would serve her "higher truth".

Did TEPCO report that less Pu was released than was actually the case?  Possibly.  Was it intentional or unintentional?  Either, maybe both.  Does it matter compared to what is completely obvious happened at Fukushima?  Not that I can see. 

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Roger Helbig
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2014 3:37 AM
To: RADSAFE
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Fwd: [New post] Tepco under-reported Fukushima release of plutonium - by 200 times!

Is there any fact in this assertion?  Since Plutonium does not boil off, how is it supposedly released from the crippled reactor?  The anti-nukes constantly focus on uranium and plutonium because those two elements trigger fear in large numbers of people and they are masters of the art of creating and manipulating fear.

Roger Helbig

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: nuclear-news <comment-reply at wordpress.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 12:05 AM
Subject: [New post] Tepco under-reported Fukushima release of plutonium - by 200 times!
To: rwhelbig at gmail.com

Christina MacPherson posted: "New report estimates 278 trillion Bq of plutonium released from Fukushima reactors -- Over 200 times higher than amount reported by Tepco -- "Highly radiotoxic when incorporated into human body" as it decays http://enenews.com/new-report-estimates-278-trill"
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New post on nuclear-news

Tepco under-reported Fukushima release of plutonium - by 200 times!

by Christina MacPherson

New report estimates 278 trillion Bq of plutonium released from Fukushima reactors -- Over 200 times higher than amount reported by Tepco -- "Highly radiotoxic when incorporated into human body" as it decays http://enenews.com/new-report-estimates-278-trillion-bq-of-plutonium-released-from-fukushima-reactors-over-200-times-higher-than-amount-reported-by-tepco?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29

Evaluation of the Fukushima Accident Source Term through the fast running code RASCAL 4.2(pdf),ENEA Bologna Research Centre, May 23,
2014: This Report presents the results of the application of the fast-running US-NRC direct code RASCAL 4.2 to the estimation of the Fukushima Source Term. [...] it is plausible that the ventings that TEPCO announced during the accident as being conducted from the wetwell were, as a matter of fact and because of the degraded conditions of the plants, conducted actually from the drywell. [...] wetwell properties imply releases which can be several oder of magnitudes lower than those from the drywell [...] it can clearly be seen that the most probable path is the combination of Drywell+Direct option [...] the true venting path, i.e. from Drywell instead of from Wetwell, is an extremely important issue. [...] in several instances when TEPCO tried to operate venting, in order to release pressure outside the building through the stack, it proved impossible [...] there are many indications that probably the radioactive material escaped from the drywell; this may have occurred without TEPCO's immediate knowledge and because of several factors; for example: structural damages to the pipings connecting drywell to torus room (vent piping bellows), due either to the earthquake, and/or to the too violent pressure and temperature increase in the D/W; leakages through the top head manhole, the top head flange, the piping penetrations, the electrical wiring penetrations, the personal airlocks, the S/C manholes, the machine hatches, etc. [...] The value of 1%/h was chosen by ENEA because of the possible highly damaged conditions of the Fukushima NPPs due to the BDB [Beyond Design Basis] earthquake.

> Table 7. Cumulative Source Term (Bq) TEPCO MELCOR

Pu-241 Total = 1.2E+12 (1,200,000,000,000 Bq)

> Table 7. Cumulative Source Term (Bq) ENEA RASCAL 4.2

Pu-241 Unit 1 = 6.52E+13 (65,200,000,000,000 Bq)
Pu-241 Unit 2 = 1.86E+14 (186,000,000,000,000 Bq)
Pu-241 Unit 3 = 2.67E+13 (26,700,000,000,000 Bq)
Pu-241 Total = 2.78E+14 (278,000,000,000,000 Bq)

Environmental Science & Technology (American Chemical Society), July 11, 2014: [S]tandard alpha spectrometry techniques [...] are not able [...] to measure 241Pu.

Boreal Environment Research (pdf), Feb. 28, 2014: The 241Pu isotope was introduced into the environment from [...] accidents that released nuclear reactor fuel, such as [...] the 2011 Fukushima catastrophe. As compared with other Pu isotopes in the environment that are alpha-emitting and long-lived, 241Pu is a short-lived isotope with a half-life of 14.35 years [...] 241Pu decays to the alpha emitter 241Am, that has a much longer half-life (432.2 years) and is highly radiotoxic when it is incorporated into either the human or animal body. [...] The 241Pu isotope has been studied less extensively than the α-emitting Pu isotopes for several reasons. Activity concentration of 241Pu cannot be determined from the same alpha spectrum as the Pu isotopes 238, 239, and 240, and extra effort is needed in order to analyze 241Pu concentration of a sample. Actually, 241Pu emits alpha particles, but they have so low probability (0.002%) that 241Pu cannot be measured directly by α-spectrometry [...]

See also: Japan TV: Radiation release during 'venting' was up to 500 times larger than thought for Fukushima reactor -- Surprising surge in radioactivity before explosions (VIDEO)

Christina MacPherson | August 8, 2014 at 7:05 am | Categories:
Fukushima 2014 | URL: http://wp.me/phgse-hQz

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