Radiation Traces Found in Japanese Baby Formula

TOKYO – Traces of radiation spilled from Japan's hobbled nuclear plant were detected in baby formula Tuesday in the latest case of contaminated food in the nation.

Major food and candy maker Meiji Co. said it was recalling canned powdered milk for infants, with expiration dates of October 2012, as a precaution.

The levels of radioactive cesium were well below government-set safety limits, and the company said the amounts were low enough not to have any affect on babies' health even if they drank the formula every day.

Experts say children are more at risk than are adults of getting cancer and other illnesses from radiation exposure.

"There is no problem because the levels are within the government limit," Kazuhiko Tsurumi, a Health Ministry official in charge of food safety, said of the radiation in Meiji milk.

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan sent three reactors into meltdown at Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, which have been spewing radiation into the air and ocean.

Some of that radiation has crept into food, such as rice, fish and beef. But this was the first time radiation was reported in baby formula.

Kyodo News said airborne radioactive cesium contaminated milk as it was being dried at a plant in Saitama prefecture in March, citing the company. The company was not immediately available for comment late Tuesday.

Meiji has about 40 percent of domestic baby formula sales, but the amount of recalled formula wasn't disclosed. The product is exported to Vietnam under a different name, Kyodo reported.
The levels of cesium-134 and cesium-137 in the milk were up to 31 becquerels per kilogram, which is below the government limit of 200 becquerels per kilogram set for milk.

The government has been reviewing its food safety and other radiation standards because some of them were not clearly defined before the nuclear crisis.

Not all food samples are monitored for radiation, and readings have been voluntarily reported by the manufacturers, including the latest by Tokyo-based Meiji.

Many consumers are worried. Some stores are labeling where the food was grown or caught, allowing shoppers to opt for imports or products from parts of the country deemed safe.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/12/06 ... z1fmXMqiap

Published on Thursday, March 1, 2012 by Common Dreams
Fukushima: Far More 'Chronic and Lasting' Cesium Contamination Than Previously Believed
- Common Dreams staff

A "mind-boggling" amount of radioactive cesium, or twice the amount previously thought, may have spewed from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant after the March 11, 2011 meltdown, Japanese scientists said Wednesday.

Workers begin pouring cement onto the seabed at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on Feb. 28. (Eiji Hori) Also, French scientists announced Tuesday that the amount of cesium released caused a chronic and lasting contamination of the environment. It was essential for Japan to maintain vigilant monitoring of fruit, milk, mushrooms, game and fish, they said.

According to the United States Geological Survey, it took only 18 days for the radioactive particles from Fukushima to circle the globe.

In Vermont, state officials have just confirmed finding trace amounts of Fukushima's cesium-134 and cesium-137. The state said they would continue the collection of samples from surface and drinking water, milk, vegetation and maple products.

* * *

The Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, reports:

A mind-boggling 40,000 trillion becquerels of radioactive cesium, or twice the amount previously thought, may have spewed from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant after the March 11 disaster, scientists say.

A mind-boggling 40,000 trillion becquerels of radioactive cesium, or twice the amount previously thought, may have spewed from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant after the March 11 disaster, scientists say.Michio Aoyama, a senior researcher at the Meteorological Research Institute, released the finding at a scientific symposium in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Feb. 28.

The figure, which represents about 20 percent of the discharge during the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, is twice as large as previous estimates by research institutions both in Japan and overseas.

It was calculated on the basis of radioactive content of seawater sampled at 79 locations in the north Pacific and is thought to more accurately reflect reality than previous simulation results.

Scientists believe that around 30 percent of the radioactive substances discharged during the crisis ended up on land, while the rest fell on the sea.

This makes it especially difficult to accurately evaluate the total amount of radioactive materials released. Thus, seaborne data is essential to the process.

The scientists measured cesium concentrations in seawater as of April and May last year. They then used a model of diffusion in the atmosphere and the oceans to evaluate the total amount of cesium released. The calculation produced estimates of 30-40 quadrillion becquerels.

The researchers also estimated that 24-30 quadrillion becquerels of that cesium reached the sea.

That combines the roughly 70 percent of the total discharge, which is thought to have reached the ocean, and the cesium content of radioactive water that Tokyo Electric Power Co., the nuclear plant operator, released from the plant to the sea.

* * *

The Agence-France Presse reports:

French Agency Calls Contamination at Fukushima 'Chronic and Lasting'

[...] “The initial contamination linked to the accident has greatly declined,” Didier Champion, crisis manager at the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), told reporters almost a year after the disaster.

“Today, and for many years to come, we will have a situation of chronic and lasting contamination of the environment.”

It was essential for Japan to maintain vigilant monitoring of fruit, milk, mushrooms, game and fish, Champion said.

“There are risks of chronic exposure at low dosage, and without care this can build up over time,” he warned.

* * *

Meanwhile, across the globe in Vermont, the Brattleboro Reformer reports:

Fukushima Radioactivity Discovered in Samples Taken in Bennington

Measurements taken at the USGS’ Bennington National Atmospheric Deposition Program sampling station showed minute traces of radiological materials that were produced as a result of the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power complex in Japan. [...]

"Explosions led to a month-long discharge of radioactive material into the atmosphere, which has since spread around the globe." According to the USGS, it is estimated that it took 18 days for the radioactive particles from Fukushima to circle the earth. USGS scientists detected iodine -131, cesium-134, and cesium-137, the primary radioactive products released during an incident such as Fukushima.

In Vermont, Cesium-134 was measured at .86 picocuries per liter and cesium-137 was measured at 3 picocuries per liter. No iodine was discovered in samples taken in Vermont. [...]

In its own sampling, the Vermont Department of Health used monitoring stations around Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and an air sampling station in Burlington to measure the effects of Fukushima.

The reports are filed online at healthvermont.gov/enviro/rad/japan2011.aspx.

DOH, the Agency of Natural Resources and the Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets are continuing the collection of samples from surface and drinking water, milk, vegetation and maple products.

Mark Nilles, a hydrologist with the USGS, said the levels detected at the NADP sampling station were very low.

"When that goes into the surface water supply it’s going to be diluted even further," he said. [...]

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake centered off the Pacific Coast of Japan triggered a tsunami and a 14-meter tidal wave that inundated a large part of northern coastal Japan.

With the resulting massive flooding, the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station was left without primary or backup electric power and thus cooling water, leading to catastrophic failure among its six nuclear reactors.

Subsequent explosions led to a month-long discharge of radioactive material into the atmosphere, which has since spread around the globe. According to the USGS, it is estimated that it took 18 days for the radioactive particles from Fukushima to circle the earth.


Fukushima: Far More 'Chronic and Lasting' Cesium Contamination Than Previously Believed | Common Dreams

It’s Not Over: Government Plans for the Worst: Forced Evacuation of Tokyo
Mac Slavo
April 3rd, 2012
SHTFplan.com
Comments (16)

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While it has for the most part disappeared from mainstream view, the Fukushima nuclear disaster is anything but over. In fact, the situation in Japan has gone from bad to worse.

Bottom line: There is no way to contain the radiation.

Even more alarming is that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and other agencies have warned that the nuclear storage pools (the containment units that are being used to cool the nuclear fuel) have been damaged and may collapse under their own weight.

Such an event would cause widespread nuclear fallout throughout the region and force the government to evacuate the nearly 10 million residents of Tokyo and surrounding areas, a scenario which government emergency planners are now taking into serious consideration.

Leading Japanese newspaper The Mainichi Daily News reports:
In light of further nuclear risks, economic growth should not be priority - The Mainichi Daily News

One of the biggest issues that we face is the possibility that the spent nuclear fuel pool of the No. 4 reactor at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant will collapse. This is something that experts from both within and outside Japan have pointed out since the massive quake struck. TEPCO, meanwhile, says that the situation is under control. However, not only independent experts, but also sources within the government say that it’s a grave concern.

The storage pool in the No. 4 reactor building has a total of 1,535 fuel rods, or 460 tons of nuclear fuel, in it. The 7-story building itself has suffered great damage, with the storage pool barely intact on the building’s third and fourth floors. The roof has been blown away. If the storage pool breaks and runs dry, the nuclear fuel inside will overheat and explode, causing a massive amount of radioactive substances to spread over a wide area. Both the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and French nuclear energy company Areva have warned about this risk.

A report released in February by the Independent Investigation Commission on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident stated that the storage pool of the plant’s No. 4 reactor has clearly been shown to be “the weakest link” in the parallel, chain-reaction crises of the nuclear disaster. The worse-case scenario drawn up by the government includes not only the collapse of the No. 4 reactor pool, but the disintegration of spent fuel rods from all the plant’s other reactors. If this were to happen, residents in the Tokyo metropolitan area would be forced to evacuate.

Former Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Sumio Mabuchi, who was appointed to the post of then Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s advisor on the nuclear disaster immediately after its outbreak, proposed the injection of concrete from below the No. 4 reactor to the bottom of the storage pool, Chernobyl-style. An inspection of the pool floor, however, led TEPCO to conclude that the pool was strong enough without additional concrete. The plans were scrapped, and antiseismic reinforcements were made to the reactor building instead.

There was a chance early on that a storage pool collapse could be prevented, but according to the report Tokyo Electric Power Co. refused to take the necessary steps as a cost-cutting measure.

Now, as radiation fallout envelops the entire northern hemisphere, The Radiation Warnings You Won't Get from the Mainstream Propaganda Machine there is a distinct possibility that the crisis will move into an even more critical and dangerous phase.

When news of the disaster first emerged we warned, UPDATE: Operations at Plant Suspended Amid Radiation Surge; Officials Say Possibility of Meltdown contrary to mainstream experts, that it could be much worse than the Chernobyl accident of the 1980′s, that no containment would be possible for at least a few years, and radiation levels across North America would sky rocket. A year on, we are seeing adverse impacts on ocean water throughout the Pacific, and ground levels of radioactive contaminants are well beyond safety thresholds for potable water, food, and soil.

With the Japanese economy already on the brink of meltdown and the rest of the world drowning in debt, an escalation in the severity of the disaster in Japan could be the last nail in the coffin for world financial markets and economic growth.

Even worse, if storage pools in the No. 4 reactor collapse and disintegrate as the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has warned could happen, we will see a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale as millions of refugees will have no choice but to flee Tokyo. They’ll have no possessions, no money, no food, no water, no shelter, and a very fragile safety net.

This is what SHTF looks like. http://www.shtfplan.com/The government lies. The corporate cover ups. Downplaying of the severity of the crisis. And then… panic.

Fukushima reactor No. 4 vulnerable to catastrophic collapse; could unleash 85 times Cesium-137 radiation of Chernobyl; human civilization on the brink

Sunday, May 06, 2012
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)


(NaturalNews) The news you are about to read puts everything else in the category of "insignificant" by comparison. Concerned about the 2012 U.S. presidential election? Worried about GMOs? Fluoride? Vaccines? Secret prisons? None of that even matters if we don't solve the problem of Fukushima reactor No. 4, which is on the verge of a catastrophic failure that could unleash enough radiation to end human civilization on our planet. (See the numbers below.)

The resulting releasing of radiation would turn North America into a "dead zone" for humans... mutated (and failed) crops, radioactive groundwater, skyrocketing infant mortality, an explosion in cancer and infertility... this is what could be unleashed at any moment from an earthquake in Japan. Such an event could result in the release of 85 times the Cesium-137 released by the Chernobyl catastrophe, say experts (see below). And the Chernobyl catastrophe made its surrounding regions uninhabitable by humans for centuries.

Yet, astonishingly, the usual suspects of deception are saying absolutely nothing about this problem. The mainstream media (the dying dinosaur media, actually) pretends there's no problem with Fukushima. President Obama says nothing about it. Federal regulators, including the NRC, are all but silent. It's as if they think their silence on the issue somehow makes it go away.

Perhaps these professional liars in the media and government have become so used to idea that they can simply spin their own reality (and get the public suckers to believe almost anything) that they now believe they can ignore the laws of physics. That's why they have refused to cover the low-level radiation plume that continues to be emitted from Fukushima.

The fate of the world now rests on reactor No. 4
"It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on No.4 reactor." - Mitsuhei Murata, Former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland and Senegal, Executive Director, the Japan Society for Global System and Ethics

Mr. Murata's stunning statement should be front-page news everywhere around the world. Why? Because he's right. If reactor No. 4 suffers even a minor earthquake, it could set off a chain reaction of events that quickly lead to North America becoming uninhabitable by humans for centuries to come. Imagine California, Oregon and Washington states being inundated with radiation -- up to 85 times the radiation release from Chernobyl. We're talking about the end of human life on the scale of continents.

Here's how this could happen, according to Mr. Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Energy:

"The No. 4 pool is about 100 feet above ground, is structurally damaged and is exposed to the open elements. If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl accident. The infrastructure to safely remove this material was destroyed as it was at the other three reactors. Spent reactor fuel cannot be simply lifted into the air by a crane as if it were routine cargo. In order to prevent severe radiation exposures, fires and possible explosions, it must be transferred at all times in water and heavily shielded structures into dry casks. As this has never been done before, the removal of the spent fuel from the pools at the damaged Fukushima-Dai-Ichi reactors will require a major and time-consuming re-construction effort and will be charting in unknown waters." (Berkeley Radiological Air and Water Monitoring Forum | Department of Nuclear Engineering...)

Note: He says "10 times" the Cesium-137 of Chernobyl. Others say up to 85 times. Nobody is 100% certain of what would actually occur because this has never happened before. We are in uncharted territory as a civilization, facing a unique and imminent threat to our continued survival. And both governments and the corporations that assured us nuclear power was safe are playing their "cover my ass" games while the world waits in the crosshairs of a nuclear apocalypse.

Fukushima Facts
To better understand the severity of this situation, read these facts about Fukushima reactor No. 4 which I have assembled from available news sources:

• Reactor #4 contains 1,535 spent fuel rods which remain highly radioactive.

• These fuel rods currently hold the potential to emit 37 million curies of radiation.

• Those fuel rods are stored in a concrete pool located 100 feet above the ground, inside the structurally compromised reactor building, effectively making the pool open to the air.

• The pool holding these fuel rods is "structurally damaged."

• "If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl accident." - Mr. Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Energy.

• "The infrastructure to safely remove this material was destroyed as it was at the other three reactors." - Mr. Alvarez.

• Just 50 meters from reactor No. 4, a much larger pool of spent fuel rods contains 6,375 fuel rods, all of which remain highly radioactive.

• All these fuel rods are, astonishingly, exposed to the open air. They are not held inside any containment vessel.

• The total number of spent fuel rods across all six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi site is 11,421.

• If reactor No. 4 suffers a structural failure, the release of radiation from the 1,535 spent fuel rods would make it virtually impossible for work to continue on the site, potentially resulting in an inability to halt a massive radiation release from all the other rods.

• In all, the 11,421 fuel rods held at the Fukushima Daiichi facility contain roughly 336 million curies of "long-lived radioactivity." Roughly 134 million curies of that is Cesium-137.

• "Reactors that have been operating for decades, such as those at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site have generated some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet." - Mr. Robert Alvarez, U.S. Dept. of Energy

• This amount of Cesium-137 radioactivity held in the full collection of fuel rods at Fukushima is 85 times the amount released at Chernobyl.

• The release of this amount of Cesium-137 would "destroy the world environment and our civilization. This is an issue of human survival." (Fukushima Daiichi Site: Cesium-137 is 85 times greater than at Chernobyl Accident » Akio Matsumura)

• The mainstream media operates in a total blackout of this news, refusing to even acknowledge the existence of this immediate threat to human civilization.

• The mainstream media is, in large part, owned by General Electric, the very company that designed the Fukushima reactors in the first place. It is clear that GE is diligently running a total media blackout on this news in order to cover its own ass and prevent people from asking questions about the faulty engineering and nuclear facility site selection that led to this catastrophe.

18,000 dead so far and hundreds of millions at risk: The media cover-up
"The executive branch and multiple federal agencies, agencies tasked with keeping the American public safe, did their best to hide and to cover-up information about a deadly radioactive plume and ensuing fallout that was headed for the West Coast of the United States from Japan," says Alexander Higgins. (http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/201...edia-silent-fe...)

He goes on to state "The evidence obtained in the FOIA request indicates that right from the start, the NRC had a clear idea of the significance of the disaster that was unfolding, but concealed the truth from the American public. The results of the plume and fallout can be measured in the rise of infant mortality rates: cells of unborn and newborn children are dividing at a much higher rate than those of a mature adult, thus the amount of damage is greatly increased and hence more detectable. Conservative estimates place the number of stillborn following the Fukushima accident at over 18,000."

See the FOIA documents here:
http://www.houseoffoust.com/NRC/ML11269A172.pdf

and here:
http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1205/ML12052A106.pdf

The conspiracy cover-up of the radioactive plumes still being emitted from Fukushima is now being called "Plume-Gate." This issue needs to be front and center on all our radar screens. There may quite literally be nothing more important for the survival of the human race than dealing with this runaway issue of Fukushima radiation in the immediate term, and the larger issue of the scientific fraud of nuclear power "safety" thereafter.

As Higgins explains, "It is this author's opinion that any media source not shouting about Plume-Gate as loud as they can are likely controlled by the powers-that-be." He's got a point. This should be our No. 1 issue, and NaturalNews is re-shifting priorities right now to help raise the alarm on the impeding Fukushima disaster for the obvious reason that everything else pales in comparison to the importance of dealing with this.

Take action now
Although I hate to call for the UN to do anything at all, as it is a criminal globalist organization engaged in widespread sex slave trafficking, child abuse and mass murder, the UN definitely has some pull with governments around the world. The petition linked below calls for the UN to take immediate, decisive action to deal with Fukushima reactor No. 4 before it's too late and we all get "Fuk'ed" beyond repair.

Urgent Request to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon | Fukushima Update...

This petition calls for two actions:

1. The United Nations should organize a Nuclear Security Summit to take up the crucial problem of the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel pool.

2. The United Nations should establish an independent assessment team on Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 and coordinate international assistance in order to stabilize the unit's spent nuclear fuel and prevent radiological consequences with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Here at NaturalNews, although we hold the UN in contempt for its globalist actions and crimes against humanity, we nevertheless support this particular petition and the urgent effort for the UN to actually do something positive for a change. In fact, if the UN ignores this issue, that itself would be the greatest crime of all against humanity, for failure to solve this reactor No. 4 situation could mean the end of human civilization as we know it.

NaturalNews will continue to cover this issue, especially focusing on reactor No. 4. We are reaching out to Higgins and Gunderson to conduct more interviews on this subject. Watch for more coverage here at NaturalNews.com.

Sources include:
Japanese letter:
http://akiomatsumura.com/wp-content/...ter-to-Prime-M...

Fukushima Update
Fukushima Update | Tracking Japan's nuclear crisis

Arnie Gunderson - one of the most important scientific voices of truth and reason on this issue
Fairewinds Energy Education |

Alexander Higgins:
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/201...edia-silent-fe...

Learn more: Fukushima reactor No. 4 vulnerable to catastrophic collapse; could unleash 85 times Cesium-137 radiation of Chernobyl; human civilization on the brink