TEPCO to review "massive" radiation data due to improper measurement

[bananas]

Source: Kyodo

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday that it will review a "massive" amount of radiation data it has collected at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant because readings may be lower than actual figures due to improper measurement.

"We are very sorry, but we found cases in which beta radiation readings turned out to be wrong when the radioactivity concentration of a sample was high," TEPCO spokesman Masayuki Ono told a press conference. Beta ray-emitting radioactive materials include strontium-90.

The announcement follows TEPCO's finding released Thursday that a groundwater sample taken from a well at the plant last July contained a record-high 5 million becquerels per liter of radioactive strontium-90.

<snip>

Read more: http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2014/02/270302.html

[bananas]

1. TEPCO May Have Underestimated Radioactive Water Spill Impact

http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2014020700939

TEPCO May Have Underestimated Radioactive Water Spill Impact

Tokyo, Feb. 7 (Jiji Press)--Tokyo Electric Power Co. <9501> may have underestimated the amount of radioactive substances in 300 tons of contaminated water that spilled from a tank in summer last year at the Fukushima No. 1 power station, officials said Friday.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority may have to revise its provisional assessment of the spill, now put at Level 3 on the International Nuclear Event Scale of zero to 7, if the actual amount is far larger than has been announced, an official of the NRA Secretariat said.

TEPCO's measurement method is considered unreliable, the official added. "It will take time before our final assessment is made."

In the incident, which came to light in August last year, 300 tons of high-level radioactive water spilled from a tank in an area some 500 meters from the seawall at the nuclear disaster-stricken power station in northeastern Japan.

At that time, TEPCO said the total amount of strontium-90 and other radioactive materials emitting beta particles in the spilled water was estimated at 200 million becquerels.

[madokie]

2. Can anything TEPCO says be taken seriously

One would have had to have been here when PSO was trying to shove a nuclear power plant down our throats back in the '70s to know where I'm coming from when I say that the nuclear power industries MO is to lie first.

[Demeter]

6. and second, and third, and to infinity and beyond

Nuclear power is a lie. Nuclear death is more like it.

[Theyletmeeatcake2]

3. Well I'll be fucked!!!!! Amazing that data result errors always suit the guilty party!!!!

No shit Sherlock!!!!!

[Helen Borg]

4. Sorry folks

You all got lethal radiation doses and you are all doomed. Mistakes happen.

[Turbineguy]

5. Next we'll find out that TEPCO

is actually being run by George W Bush.

[Demeter]

7. Heck of a job, Brownie!

Seriously, though, I don't think Bush is capable of running an electric toothbrush, never mind anything more complex.

[Turbineguy]

15. My view is

if he's not capable of running the United States, he's not capable of running TEPCO.

One of his Professors opined that all he would amount to was somebody who would bankrupt a small company. He nearly bankrupted the U.S.

[NNadir]

8. Massive? Comparable to the 500 billion curies of potassium 40 in the ocean?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/06/991377/-How-Radioactive-Is-the-Ocean#

More people have been killed from dangerous fossil fuel waste the coal, oil, and gas released to run servers to post scare stories about Fukushima on the internet than have been killed by radiation released from the plant.

A curie, for the record, is 3.7 trillion Bequerels. One of the fun things about anti-nukes is that the constantly use the word "bequerel" without having any idea what the word means,. They also like to represent that any sample, no matter how rare, is the equivalent to ever sample everywhere. This is because they have always hated science and the scientific method, knowing nothing at all about it. Five million bequerel is equal to 0.1 microcuries. It's in one sample, not every sample, no matter how much anti-nukes wish it otherwise.

I note that no one gives a shit about all of the particulates and other pollutants now being released in Japan with the loss of their nuclear infrastructure, despite the fact that unlike radiation there air pollution is killing huge numbers of people there, and in fact, everywhere else on the planet, 6.8 million people per year for the last 20 years, according to the global survey of 67 risk factors leading to mortality - nuclear energy isn't even mentioned as a risk factor for human health and death.

The Lancet, Volume 380, Issue 9859, Pages 2224 - 2260

Nuclear power saves lives, including according to the most read publication of 2013 in Environmental Science and Technology, coauthored by one of the world's leading climate scientists, Jim Hansen.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es3051197 The paper is open access, any fool can read it, although I doubt that there is a single anti-nuke who can comprehend it; maybe they could look at the pictures.

It follows from the paper that anti-nuke fear and ignorance costs lives, since nuclear power need not be risk free to be vastly superior to everything else. It only needs to be vastly superior to everything else, which it unequivocally is.

Have a nice weekend.

[AndyTiedye]

9. Each Time TEPCO revises the numbers, they go up by Several Orders of Magnitude

If you trust TEPCO so much and think radiation is so safe, I'm sure you could pick up a bunch of Fukushima real estate real cheap now.

[FBaggins]

16. That's not the case.

It is interesting to watch however. If they revise a number downward... then they're accused of lying to cover up the real numbers. If they revise it upwards... then they're accused of hiding the truth but getting caught. If the numbers are unchanged... they're accused of making them up entirely and just reporting constant figures to avoid attention.

[cantbeserious]

10. Have You Considered Relocation To Prove Your Point Of View - Let Us Know How That Works Out

eom

[MyNameGoesHere]

11. I see our first happy shiny radiation apologist brigade member has arrived right on time.

I do hope you are backing that logic up with frequent swims in the waters near the disaster and some local seafood, followed by some lovely ground water to wash it down? No? Why?

[madokie]

13. And even linked to a screed that he wrote over at DKOs

back before he was canned from there.
Talk about hubris

Wonder what brought about the skull and bones?
http://www.dailykos.com/search?user_type=is_user_only&search_type=search_users&text_type=username&text_expand=exact&text=nnadir&time_type=time_last_story&time_begin=01%2F01%2F2011&time_end=02%2F02%2F2014&submit=Search

Would you like to elaborate on that nnadir. Inquiring minds would like to know what happened to you over there.

I kind of remember from when it happened but I don't want to be accused of misremembering

[Soundman]

18. Uh, that's billions not trillions,

Have a nice weekend Mr. Tepco guy, lol.

[GliderGuider]

19. "Massive" referred to the amount of DATA, not the amount of ratioactivity.

Until we have accurate, trustworthy readings, there is no way to realistically assess this clusterfuck.

[another_liberal]

12. As long as they say they're sorry . . .

I guess there's no need to actually punish anyone or even look into the matter further. They've clearly learned their lesson and will never ever give us false or misleading information again.

(sigh)

[kristopher]

14. With the new nuclear State Secrets Law who is going to contradict them?

They can now say anything they want and any scientist, activist or politician faces a certain 10 years in jail for "leaking" information that might show they are lying.

[bkanderson76]

17. "Don't Eat The Tuna" is The Only measurement I Need...Go Blow TEPCO

[defacto7]

20. Interesting this comes up

Just after announcing that all information concerning the disaster is now a state secret and information leaked to the press is a crime against the state. How convenient.