A peer-reviewed study of actual measured Fukushima radiation releases disputes many media and junk science reports,putting Xenon at 2.5 times Chernobyl.

A peer-reviewed scientific study has reveals that the Fukushima nuclear power has released far more radiation than TEPCO and Japan even admit are on site at Fukushima.

The study also shows several alarming things:

• TEPCO’s estimates of the radioactive releases from Fukushima using “simulations” were many times off from actual observed levels of radioactivity released plant.
• “…Total Xenon-133 emissions are 16.7 EBz, 1/3 more than the estimated inventory of the site, and 2.5 times the estimated Chernobyl release of 6.5 EBq…” “which is the largest radioactive noble gas release in history not associated with nuclear bomb testing.”
• “The entire noble gas inventory of reactor units 1–3 was set free into the atmosphere between 11 and 15 March 2011…” which was covered up by TEPCO, Japan, and the US. To this day they still dispute “complete” meltdowns at some of the reactors.
• The Total cesium they could measured was “about 42 % of the estimated Chernobyl emission…” which clearly shows repeated “estimates” of cesium being  1/8th or less are entirely inaccurate.
• …  “emissions were not only coming from the damaged reactor cores, but also from the spent-fuel pool of unit 4…”
• “The plume covered large parts of central-eastern Honshu and crossed over Tokyo and other major population centers”,  then “the plume penetrated inland, and covered large areas of eastern Japan…”,  and the plume traveled “directly across Tokyo and even further south to Osaka, and Tokyo received an elevated Caesium 137 depositing”
• “The first radioactive cloud reached western North America on 15 March”, “that all of western North America was engulfed by the Fukushima plume, as well as parts of eastern North America” and by “22 March 2011, the plume had covered the entire Northern Hemisphere”.
• “Consequently, Caesium 137 deposits in March was considerable for large parts of eastern Japan” and the “Japanese main island received 5.0TBq of Caesium 137, or 19% of the total released, through 20 April”
• “…During the accident events, Xenon-133 and Caesium 137 were dispersed throughout the Northern Hemisphere” and “eventually also reached the Southern Hemisphere…”

From the Study Winston Smith comments on Forbes:  Should We Hide Low-Dose Radiation Exposures From The Public?

 

a. “…Regarding Xe (Xenon-133), we find a total release of 16.7 EBq released, which is the largest radioactive noble gas release in history not associated with nuclear bomb testing. There is strong evidence that the first strong release started very early, possibly immediately after the earthquake and the emergency shutdown on 11 March at 06:00 UTC. The entire noble gas inventory of reactor units 1–3 was set free into the atmosphere between 11 and 15 March 2011…”

b. “…Total Xenon-133 emissions are 16.7 EBz, 1/3 more than the estimated inventory of the site, and 2.5 times the estimated Chernobyl release of 6.5 EBq…”

c. “…The fact that more Xenon-133 was released than was supposed to be on-site can be explained by the possibility that recriticality has occured in one of the reactor units. Furthermore, noble gas releases may have occured at other Japanese Nuclear Power Plants other than Fukushima…”

d. “…On 15 March 2011, a smaller cyclone over Japan developed rapidly and the radioactive plume from Fukushima was caught up in it. The plume covered large parts of central-eastern Honshu and crossed over Tokyo and other major population centers before it left Japan towards the northeast around 18:00 UTC on 15 March…”

e. “…Consequently, Caesium 137 deposits in March was considerable for large parts of eastern Japan (Fig. 16, right panel)…”

f. “…Exactly during and following the period of the highest Caesium 137 emissions rates on 14/15 March, the plume was pushed towards Japan and affected large areas in the east of the island…”

Here’s is a nice except from the study, which is shown below:

Inconvenient Truth #21: The disturbing facts about Fukushima’s accident

On 28 Oct 2011, the Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions (ACPD) group released a paper titled “Radionuclide release from Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant”.  This paper details the release of two isotopes, Xenon-133 and Caesium-137 into the atmosphere following the earthquake/tsunami on 11 March 2011.

Differing from previous maps and projections based upon hypothesis of wind direction and atmospheric conditions, this study looks BACK and can definitively determine the amount of release.  The results are extremely disturbing, not just for Japan, but for Hawaii, Alaska, Canada, the U.S. and really, the entire world.

Especially disconcerting is the fact that the largest amount of radiation reached the United States within 1 week of the accident.  Do you remember anything about that being told to you by the main-stream press or Government?  And what about the decisions, early on, not to monitor radiation levels in fish, vegetables, and meat in the U.S.?

Note:  This paper only determined the dispersal of Xenon-133 and Caesium-137.  Other products (such as Iodine) have not been released by governments so they were not included…again…why?

Below, I have extracted some key data points, and you can view the entire paper HERE

1.  “…In this paper, we determine the emissions of two important radionuclides, the 133 noble gas xenon-133 ( Xe, lifetime of 5.25 days) and the aerosol-bound caesium-137
137 ( Cs, lifetime of 30 yr)…”

2.  “…Regarding Xe (Xenon-133), we find a total release of 16.7 EBq released, which is the largest radioactive noble gas release in history not associated with nuclear bomb testing.  There is strong evidence that the first strong release started very early, possibly immediately after the earthquake and the emergency shutdown on 11 March at 06:00 UTC. The entire noble gas inventory of reactor units 1–3 was set free into the atmosphere between 11 and 15 March 2011…”

3.  “…regarding Caesium 137 (Cs), the inversion results give a total emission of 35.8 (23.3–50.1) PBq, or about 42 % of the estimated Chernobyl emission…”

4.  “…indicates that emissions were not only coming from the damaged reactor cores, but also from the spent-fuel pool of unit 4…”

5.  “…While at first sight it seemed fortunate that westerly winds prevailed most of the time during the accident, a different picture emerges from our detailed analysis. Exactly during and following the period of the strongest Cs emissions on 14 and 15 March as well as after another period with strong emissions on 19 March, the radioactive plume was advected over Eastern Honshu Island (Honshu is another name for Japan), where precipitation deposited a large fraction of 137 Cs on land surfaces. The plume was also dispersed quickly over the entire Northern Hemisphere, first reaching North America on 15 March and Europe on 22 March…”

6.  “…There is a larger common spent fuel pool at the site, on ground level. Spent fuel is transferred to this pool after at least 19 months, but the decay heat is large enough to still require active cooling. This pond contained 6375 fuel assemblies.

7.  “…The earthquake triggered the automatic shutdown of the chain reaction in the units 1 to 3 at 05:46 UTC (that is 14:46 Japan Standard Time) on 11 March. Outside power supply was lost and the emergency diesel generators started up. However, when the tsunami arrived 50 minutes later, it inundated the sites of the reactors and their auxiliary buildings and caused the total loss of AC power, except for one of the three diesel generators of unit 6…”

8.  “…Although at different rates, cooling of the reactor cores was lost, water levels in the reactor pressure vessels could not be maintained, and in all three units that had been under operation, the cores degraded and, as has been reported, partially melted…”

9.  “…The hydrogen produced in this process caused major explosions which massively damaged the upper parts of the reactor buildings of units 1 and 3. Damage to the upper parts of the reactor building could be prevented in unit 2, however, a hydrogen explosion there presumably damaged the suppression chamber…”

10.  “…Cooling was lost as well for the spent fuel ponds, leading to heating up of the water and raising concerns about fuel rods also becoming uncovered there. The information concerning these ponds and possible releases from them is much less clear….”

11.  “…However, it is obvious that the most dangerous situation was in the pond of unit 4, into which the whole core had been unloaded for maintenance work in the reactor. The decay heat for this pool was about 2 MW. A massive hydrogen explosion occurred there which may have been caused by degraded fuel from this pond…”

12.  “…Total Xenon-133 emissions are 16.7 EBz, 1/3 more than the estimated inventory of the site, and 2.5 times the estimated Chernobyl release of 6.5 EBq…”

13.  “The fact that more Xenon-133 was released than was supposed to be on-site can be explained by the possibility that recriticality has occured in one of the reactor units.  Furthermore, noble gas releases may have occured at other Japanese Nuclear Power Plants other than Fukushima…”

14.  “The total amount of Caesium-137 released was 35.8PBq, 34% MORE THAN THE FIRST GUESS, and about 42% of the estimated total Chernobyl emission of 85 PBq…”

15.  “…There were 3 monitoring sites primarily used to collect data on the emissions:  Richland  (Washington), Oahu (Hawaii), and Stockholm (Sweden).  At Richland, the plume of Xenon-133 released from Fukushima arrived on 16 March…”

16.  On 12 March, a high pressure system forced winds at Fukushima to shift from WNW to SW.  “…For a few hours around 18:00 UTC on 12 March the coastal areas north of FD-NPP were affected by the radioactive plume but deposition of radioactive material was limited because no precipitation fell at that time…”

17.  “This plume of Caesum 137 eventually “… produced higher 137 Cs concentrations over North America and Europe than the previous simulations suggested….”

18.  On 15 March 2011, a smaller cyclone over Japan developed rapidly and the radioactive plume from Fukushima was caught up in it.  The plume covered large parts of central-eastern Honshu and crossed over Tokyo and other major population centers before it left Japan towards the northeast around 18:00 UTC on 15 March.

19.  “…Between 16 and 19 March, an anticyclone passed from west to east over southern Japan…Westerly winds pushed the radioactive cloud out over the Pacific ocean…”

20.  ”’…However, on 19 March, winds veered from westerly back to easterly, pushing the cloud back to Japan.  Consequently, the plume penetrated inland, and covered large areas of eastern Japan…”

21.  “On 21 March, northeasterly windows transported the radioactive plume directly across Tokyo and even further south to Osaka, and Tokyo received an elevated Caesium 137 depositing on 21 March…”

22.  “…Consequently, Caesium 137 deposits in March was considerable for large parts of eastern Japan (Fig. 16, right panel)…”

23.  “…During the accident events, Xenon-133 and Caesium 137 were dispersed througout the Northern Hemisphere and eventually also reached the Southern Hemisphere…”

24.  “…The first radioactive cloud reached western North America on 15 March…containing Xenon 133…this cloud was detected at the Richland, WA monitoring station…”

25.  “…The heaviest concentration reached western North American 17-18 March.  This cloud was also heavy in Caesium 137.  At the same time, the plume pentrated the subtropics and arrived at Hawaii 19 March…”

26.  “… A map of the simulated surface concentrations of Xenon-133 (Fig. 18) for 22 March shows that all of western North America was engulfed by the Fukushima plume, as well as parts of eastern North America…”

27.  “…By 22 March 2011, the plume had covered the entire Northern Hemisphere and had reached both the tropics and polar regions…”

28.  “…We find that the Japanese main island received 5.0TBq of Caesium 137, or 19% of the total released, through 20 April…”

29.  “…Regarding Xenon-133, it is very likely that the accumulated inventory of Reactor Units 1 thru 3 was completely set free into the atmosphere between 11 and 15 March.  The study indicates a total release of 16.7 EBq, which is the largest release in history and 2.5 times higher than Chernobyl.

30.  “…Regarding Caesium 137, a total emission of 35.8 PBq, or about 42% of the total estimated Chernobyl emission was released…”

31.  “…Exactly during and following the period of the highest Caesium 137 emissions rates on 14/15 March, the plume was pushed towards Japan and affected large areas in the east of the island…”

32.  “…During a second episode from 20-22 March, even larger areas of Japan were covered, from Osaka in the south, Tokyo, and areas north of Fukushima…”

33.  A MAP showing the dispersion of Xenon 133 from Japan thru North America and the entire world, from 12 March thru 22 March…

34.  A MAP showing the dispersion of Caesium 137 from Japan thru North America and the entire world, from 12 March thru 22 March…

35.  A MAP showing the GROUND concentrations of XENON-133 on 22 March 2011…

36.  A MAP showing the world wide total dispersion of Caseium 137 thru April 20 2011…

Source: Sleep But Awhile

Xenon-133 and caesium-137 releases into the atmosphere from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant: determination of the source term, atmospheric dispersion, and deposition

A. Stohl¹, P. Seibert², G. Wotawa³, D. Arnold^2,4, J. F. Burkhart¹, S. Eckhardt¹, C. Tapia⁵, A. Vargas⁴, and T. J. Yasunari⁶

¹NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Kjeller, Norway
²Institute of Meteorology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
³Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, Vienna, Austria
⁴Institute of Energy Technologies (INTE), Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona, Spain
⁵Department of Physics and Nucelar Engineering (FEN),Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona, Spain
⁶Universities Space Research Association, Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology and Research, Columbia, MD 21044, USA

Abstract

On 11 March 2011, an earthquake occurred about 130 km off the Pacific coast of Japan’s main island Honshu, followed by a large tsunami.

The resulting loss of electric power at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant (FD-NPP) developed into a disaster causing massive release of radioactivity into the atmosphere.

In this study, we determine the emissions of two isotopes, the noble gas xenon-133 (¹³³Xe) and the aerosol-bound caesium-137 (¹³⁷Cs), which have very different release characteristics as well as behavior in the atmosphere.

To determine radionuclide emissions as a function of height and time until 20 April, we made a first guess of release rates based on fuel inventories and documented accident events at the site.

This first guess was subsequently improved by inverse modeling, which combined the first guess with the results of an atmospheric transport model, FLEXPART, and measurement data from several dozen stations in Japan, North America and other regions.

We used both atmospheric activity concentration measurements as well as, for ¹³⁷Cs, measurements of bulk deposition.

Regarding ¹³³Xe, we find a total release of 16.7 (uncertainty range 13.4–20.0) EBq, which is the largest radioactive noble gas release in history not associated with nuclear bomb testing.

There is strong evidence that the first strong ¹³³Xe release started very early, possibly immediately after the earthquake and the emergency shutdown on 11 March at 06:00 UTC.

The entire noble gas inventory of reactor units 1–3 was set free into the atmosphere between 11 and 15 March 2011. For ¹³⁷Cs, the inversion results give a total emission of 35.8 (23.3–50.1) PBq, or about 42% of the estimated Chernobyl emission.

Our results indicate that ¹³⁷Cs emissions peaked on 14–15 March but were generally high from 12 until 19 March, when they suddenly dropped by orders of magnitude exactly when spraying of water on the spent-fuel pool of unit 4 started.

This indicates that emissions were not only coming from the damaged reactor cores, but also from the spent-fuel pool of unit 4 and confirms that the spraying was an effective countermeasure.

We also explore the main dispersion and deposition patterns of the radioactive cloud, both regionally for Japan as well as for the entire Northern Hemisphere.

While at first sight it seemed fortunate that westerly winds prevailed most of the time during the accident, a different picture emerges from our detailed analysis.

Exactly during and following the period of the strongest ¹³⁷Cs emissions on 14 and 15 March as well as after another period with strong emissions on 19 March, the radioactive plume was advected over Eastern Honshu Island, where precipitation deposited a large fraction of ¹³⁷Cs on land surfaces.

The plume was also dispersed quickly over the entire Northern Hemisphere, first reaching North America on 15 March and Europe on 22 March.

In general, simulated and observed concentrations of ¹³³Xe and ¹³⁷Cs both at Japanese as well as at remote sites were in good quantitative agreement with each other.

Altogether, we estimate that 6.4 TBq of ¹³⁷Cs, or 19% of the total fallout until 20 April, were deposited over Japanese land areas, while most of the rest fell over the North Pacific Ocean.

Only 0.7 TBq, or 2% of the total fallout were deposited on land areas other than Japan.

Discussion Paper (PDF, 6457 KB)   Supplement (13 KB)   Interactive Discussion (Closed, 21 Comments)   Final Revised Paper (ACP)

Citation: Stohl, A., Seibert, P., Wotawa, G., Arnold, D., Burkhart, J. F., Eckhardt, S., Tapia, C., Vargas, A., and Yasunari, T. J.: Xenon-133 and caesium-137 releases into the atmosphere from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant: determination of the source term, atmospheric dispersion, and deposition, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 11, 28319-28394, doi:10.5194/acpd-11-28319-2011, 2011.

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Source: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Journal

Source: Peer-Reviewed Study: Fukushima Xenon Radiation 2.5 times Chernobyl ©
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