Re: Our offerings to refugees/migrants/people local + afar please see our thoughts + take part.. Oregon`s Octoberfish welcomes all, to stay in harmony in real time w/the issues of the times..

Posted by Peace is real! on Sep 28, 2015; 10:22pm
URL: http://i-come-to-talk-story-welcomes-all-as-we-appreciate-the-many-sk.22.s1.nabble.com/Our-offerings-to-refugees-migrants-people-local-afar-please-see-our-thoughts-take-part-Oregon-s-Octo-tp7560079p7560082.html

 States Professor from;  An Introduction to Radiation and Radioactivity by edX - online course. Regarding the Fukushima Accident in Japan. If interested go to the online course + download or review videos, etc. of this full Course. (Note i may not have information in order but i think you will find it interesting + this is a piece of it on Fukushima.)

Chuck Hindmen, has helped us sort out this Nuclear contamination issue. Please see his work at;

                                   Mid America Land Restoration.

                                      www.midamericalandrestore.com/

 i share this w/all for all to have empathy in coming together to resolve the many issues that many are bothered much more than others, as they live in highly Nuclear radiation  contaminated areas still in US, Japan + globally.. For this accident left global negative effects that continue to surround our northern hemisphere, via winds + currents, etc.

     As well Arnie Gundersen, states the many Nuclear plants in US are just as bad + if more accidents occur it will be all over for humanity. Fukushimia accident contributes to part + to see an overview go to our Google site; www.ictts.org + go to  the sun will set page + see the links on the sun will set, spreadsheet explaining a lot of this w/links from skilled people updating.

   Dr. Helen Caldicott, whom i respect highly, a very beautiful lady that is a pediatrician, devoting her life to helping us all understand this crisis we all face, especially in the northern hemisphere. Knowing first hand it is not nice for doctors to experience the many deformed babies/stillbirths, etc.

   Not to mention the Japanese government would not allow doctors to tell families why children were ill as they showed early on Nuclear radiation contamination illnesses, that require acting asap to heal. Which they are not doing.

     As well children here in Seattle also showed early signs, much earlier then Chernobyl.

Which Helen states that Fukushima is 3 times as worse + 1 million people died within 25 years of the Chernobyl accident + people still are without real needs to lessen ones suffering. So please do your homework + see their updates + mindfully take part.

    Chuck, yes you are right when scientists allow whomever to manipulate their truth, that is wrong. + It messes up our students + communities when one studies science, yet another manipulates it in a responsible role, this we will work at stopping.

  Science is being compartmentalized for profit over the health of humanity + the life that sustains us all, throughout our earth + beyond. Yet their are many good scientists working at stating what is. So we must weed thru this + not accept it.

    Working together, welcoming your students, networking can produce 1 working sound science that all tongues can relate to as each community does ones local `plan creating it`s enhanced sound science, in respect to all its life, working with neighbors.

Based on creating in time w/locals aware/ethnic traditional engineers that live local `boon w/creating a natural world, for it does not happen on it`s own. We must recycle our organic waste + interact with the natural world to create ones balanced environment.

         So all balance the genetic bio diversity fueling the bio cultural ways of living on earth + beyond, as a living species. + Link ones natural world, to truly sustain all life on the earth + beyond, sharing peacefully, as all take part..

CLASS notes on week 3 class 3;

Hello.

I am Naoko Watanabe. I am a member of Faculty of Engineering at Hokkaido University.
Today I am going to talk about the environmental radioactivity in Fukushima.

In September 2013, we took some students to Iitate Village in, Soma County, Fukushima Prefecture, and conducted a decontamination training program.

The location of Iitate Village is as shown on the map here, and the training camp was held at this place, here, in a big park, called Aino Sawa.

The focus of the training was to find out where radiocesium is present in the environment, measure its extent, make a plan for effective decontamination based on the measurement results, and to evaluate the effect of decontamination by actually carrying out the plan.

This is an aerial photograph of the park, where the decontamination training program was held.
The numbers in the photograph indicate the radiation dose rate in the air at that place measured 1 m above ground.

These are the values measured during the training in 2013.

In order to find where in the environment radiocesium is distributed, one of the things the students did was to collect the leaves of deciduous, or broadleaf and coniferous trees.

The leaves were pressed flat  on a special film known as Imaging Plate or IP.

The results of the measurements are shown here.

The black areas are the places where radioactivity was present.

If you look here, the broadleaves have turned blacker than the coniferous leaves, showing that their concentration was higher.

Furthermore, because the veins of the leaves are visible, it can be seen that radiocesium must have been absorbed from the roots and moved through the leaves.

Some other black spots can also be seen, which have resulted from the radioactive particles from the atmosphere getting attached to the surface of the leaves.

This is where radiocesium  is present on leaves.

We tested to check whether the radiocesium  attached to the surface could be removed by washing.

Here you see the concentration of radiocesium in both coniferous and deciduous before and after washing.

In both cases, it was reduced to about 60% of the concentrations before washing.

It may be inferred from this that, at that time in 2013, about 40% of the radiocesium  was attached to the surface and about 60% had been absorbed into the leaves.

We wanted to see where in forest radiocesium is distributed.

Forest floor is covered with a layer of humus and litter and we found that radiocesium was abundant in this layer.

We then tested to see how much radiocesium could be removed by clearing these out.
This is the change in surface count rate at that time.

Radiocesium was reduced by about 40% when the litter layer was removed.

During this exercise, it was very important to know where the radiocesium was distributed in the environment, and why it ends up there in order to discuss effective decontamination strategy.

Real decontamination, not a training for student, is still being carried out as we speak, and it is essential to understand such things as where radiocesium is present and why it is there, and if it is migrating, where it is going.

Here are our learning objectives of this lecture.

The first, is to list the differences between contamination by ordinary contaminants and contamination by radionuclides.

The second, is to identify where the  radiocesium that has been released into the atmosphere goes in the environment.

And third, is to describe how  radiocesium migrates in the environment.

We will now discuss the sink of radiocesium in the environment.

This table shows the amounts of cesium-137 released during the Fukushima accident, which is estimated to be roughly 10 ~ 37 PBq. 

   (Kara says; If look at chart TEPCO states the low figure + others the high. Arnie Gundersen states on his sight Fairewinds, that the US Nuclear plants would be just as bad if more accidents occur. Arnie has worked in this field as a whistleblower, experiencing first hand the US dysfunction in past accidents + in the plants that are mismanaged to date that should not continue, but do.)

The ‘peta’ in PBq is 10 to the power of 15.

Kilo, mega, giga, tera, then peta, so three orders of magnitude greater than hard disks these days.

It is a huge number.

About 1 ~ 5 PBq, corresponding to 10-25% of this quantity, is estimated to have been deposited on the land.

This figure shows the simplified pathways to humans from the radioactive material released into the atmosphere.

The path shown in red is important with regard to radiocesium from this accident.

Radionuclides that are released into the atmosphere often come down to the ground along with precipitation, which is called wet deposition.

Radiocesium is adsorbed onto the soil particles, and people receive external exposure from the soil if they approach the contaminated area.

Internal exposure is caused when radiocesium is transferred to the vegetables, fruits, and rice from soil, and if these crops are ingested.

What is meant by soil here?

You have probably not given much thought to this question, but here is the definition of soil.
Soil consists of inorganic or mineral content, which constitute the crust of the earth.

As shown in this figure, some clay minerals have a neat structure of silicate sheet, and aluminum sheet.

Soil also consists of organic matter, which is deposited from animals and plants.

Although the organic matter is mainly composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, it has a very complex structure, with a large molecular weight.

Mineral matter, and organic matter do not always independently exist, but often they occurs as complex, such as organic matter attached to the surface of minerals.

Further, there are gaps in these formations, where water or air may enter.

This makes it possible for microorganisms to live in the soil.

The combination of such components, being subjected to changes by the natural environment is what is known as soil.

The radiocesium that has fallen to the ground mainly attaches to the surfaces of some of the clay minerals.

Let us look at the interaction between the minerals and radiocesium.
The figure here shows adsorption and fixation of radiocesium.

One way of adsorption is what is known as ion exchange.

This happens because cesium, with a positive charge, is attracted to the surface of the clay, which is negatively charged, and attaches to it.

As the radiocesium cannot be distinguished from other positively charged ions, when other positively charged ion such as a sodium or potassium comes into the vicinity, it may get attracted to the surface of the clay and replace the radiocesium.

Another way of adsorption is what is known as fixation.

As you can see in this figure, the edge of the sheet-like clay mineral becomes frayed and the radiocesium enters into the gap that has opened just wide enough for it to fit, thus, gets fixed to the clay mineral.

This site is called a frayed edge site and this manner of adsorption is known as fixation.
It is very difficult to remove the radiocesium in this case.

The number of such sites where radiocesium is attached to the soil is expressed as Cation Exchange Capacity or CEC, in the case of ion-exchangeable sites.

This is roughly in the range of 10 ~ 100 meq/100g of soil, which is equivalent to 10-100 mmol for monovalent cations per 100 g of soil.

Compared with this, FES sites, being more specific in nature, are much fewer in number and are said to be about 2% or less of the number of CEC sites.

Let’s compare the number of FES sites with the amount of radiocesium released during the accident and was deposited in the soil.

For example, 5,000 Bq per kg of radiocesium is found in places, which is a relatively high concentration, but this is equivalent to 10 to the minus 9th meq /100 g.

The amount of radiocesium is incomparably small compared to the number of FES site, which can be in the range of 0.2 to 2 meq/100g.

Thus, there usually are enough sites in typical soil where radiocesium can specifically and irreversibly attach to.

The distribution coefficient or the Kd value is a parameter that shows where the contaminant will be distributed at equilibrium when two phases are present.

We are now interested radiocesium in the mixture of soil and water.

As you can see in this schematic diagram, the radiocesium is attached to the soil surface and it is in contact with the water over here, and, the ratio of the concentration in soil to the concentration in water at equilibrium is the Kd value.

Since Kd is obtained by dividing the concentration in the soil by the concentration in the water, the higher the value, more radiocesium is found adsorbed on soil, and less is dissolved and freely moving along with water.

This graph is a representation of the Kd values in the soil.

The horizontal axis represents pH and the vertical axis the Kd value, and we can see that the Kd value of radiocesium in the soil is very high.

Concentrations of radiocesium in soil is more than 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the concentration in water.

Thus, when radiocesium falls on the ground, most of it firmly attaches to the surface of soil particles, and little exist dissolved in water, thus does not migrate with water.

This is a photograph representing the strong sorption of radiocesium on soil particles.

This shows the depth distribution profile of radiocesium concentration in soil.

The soil core was collected and the radiocesium concentration was determined for each slice.
Almost 90% of the concentration was found within a few centimeters from the top of the core, or land surface.

This shows that soil has a high selectivity for radiocesium, which is indicated by a high Kd value.
The radiocesium that has fallen onto the soil from the atmosphere does not migrate deeper or even if it does, it migrates very slowly even after so many rainfall events, and most of radiocesium remains at the top layer.

Decontamination is being carried out currently in Fukushima Prefecture and one of the methods used is the removal of surface layer of the soil.

This method utilizes the nature of strong sorption of radiocesium to the soil.

Now, we will discuss environmental pollution.

Environmental pollution refers to the state in which contaminants are released into the environment, air and water, rivers and seas, soil and groundwater, and degrade the quality of the environment, affecting human life and the natural lives.

Among the factors that determine where the contaminants go, is the form in which the contaminants are released.

The destination of a pollutant in the environment may depend on the form it was released, for example, whether it is released in the form of ions, attached to particles, or in the solid state.

Furthermore, the environmental media into which the pollutant is released, such as, for instance, whether it is discharged in wastewater, is piled up as waste, or is buried underground, or is released into the atmosphere, also has an impact on its destination.

The contaminants released into the environment undergo physical, chemical and biological changes.

Examples of physical processes include adsorption, or attachment to the surface of a substance, absorption, or being absorbed into another medium, and desorption from the solid phase.

Chemical processes include oxidation-reduction, photolysis, in which molecules break down into smaller units by absorbing light and  hydrolysis or decomposition involving water.

Biological changes include microbial, degradation, microorganisms break down molecules and sometimes change the form or chemical state of the contaminant, and bio-concentration, the concentration of pollutants in organisms higher in the food chain becomes higher.

These processes can change the properties of the contaminant, for example a contaminant that is tightly attached to the solid phase may dissolve in water, and they can  determine where the contaminants move and end up.

Let us consider these factors relating to the fate and transport of radiocesium from the Fukushima accident.

In Fukushima, radiocesium was released from the plant into the atmosphere, and has fallen to the ground and into the ocean, mostly as wet deposition, or in rain, fog or snow.

Radiocesium that falls to the ground contaminates the soil, and people become subjected to external exposure as they approach this soil.

Furthermore, if the land is contaminated, the crops produced from such land may also get contaminated, and people who consume those crops may be subjected to internal exposure.

We will compare the contamination by this radiocesium with the contamination by non-radioactive pollutant, this time with mercury as an example, which was the cause of Minamata disease.

In the case of Minamata disease, mercury was discharged in a river, which flows into Minamata Bay. Mercury was biologically methylated to become methyl-mercury, and was bio-accumulated in fish in the bay.

People who ate the fish regularly was affected.

In the case of Fukushima, chemical forms of radiocesium released in the atmosphere is yet uncertain, but it is considered that it became aerosol after being emitted, and came down to the ground along with precipitation, and got adsorbed on the soil particles.

Both internal and external exposures may happen due to radiocesium adsorbed on the soil:

external exposure if you come to the contaminated area, and internal exposure if radiocesium is transferred to crops and if you consume them.

When you think about and compare the contaminations by mercury and radiocesium, they both go through physical, chemical, and biological processes according to their properties,
and these processes determine where they end up in the environment.

However, there are two characteristics of radioactive contamination, that non-radioactive pollutants do not have.

First, there is decay in contamination by radioactive substances.

Radioactive contaminants decay, although how long it takes depends on the half-life of the radionuclide, the concentration decreases with time.

Non-radioactive contaminants may be transformed chemically or biologically, sometimes to a less toxic compound, and other times to a more toxic compound, but the constituent atoms of the pollutant do not disappear.

The second difference is that in the case of non-radioactive pollutant, toxicity occurs when the pollutant enters the body either by ingestion, inhalation, or dermal absorption, while in the case of radioactive substance, there is the risk of external exposure and a person may be affected merely by approaching the area.

These figures show the change in  the radiation dose rate in the air  between April 2011 and September 2014.

There is a red area in the middle, which means high air dose rate, which became thinner as time passed.

Also, as you can see yellow regions have become gradually smaller.

This is mainly because of the decay of radiocesium.

So far, we have been talking about radiocesium as a whole; but there are two kinds of radiocesium released from the accident in Fukushima.

One is Cesium-137, and the other is Cesium-134.

The two have different half-lives: Cesium-137 has a half-life of about 30 years, while the half-life of Cesium-134 is about two years.

Thus, in two years since 2011, the amount of Cesium-134 halved, and the air dose rate has become smaller to that extent.

Furthermore, large amount of iodine-131 was also released during the Fukushima accident.

As the half-life of iodine-131 is about eight days, while some of its remnants might have been detected in the early days, there is no trace left now several years after the accident.

The half-life thus has a major impact on the change in the air dose rate.

We will now discuss the migration behavior of radiocesium. (Please note i did not upload photos she refers to.)

We have just learned that radiocesium does not migrate dissolved in water.

This figure shows the result of the radiation dose rate in the air, measured by an unmanned helicopter along the Abukuma River in January 2013.

You can see that the regions near the bend of the river have turned yellow.

These yellow regions are the places where the air dose rate is higher, and these are the places where the particles that have been transported from upstream by the flow of the river had been deposited.

River has carried particles that had sorbed radiocesium and deposited them at the bend, resulting in the higher air dose rate.

This figure shows the amount of radiocesium that has been discharged by soil erosion.

This figure here shows the amount of soil that has been eroded by rain in areas with various types of land uses.

Erosion has been extremely significant in farmlands and, when it was not cultivated for 14 months, about 1 kg of soil was eroded.

The amount of erosion in other places was about 10 ~ 100g.

If we look at the amount of radiocesium in the soil eroded, we see that it is roughly proportional to the amount of erosion in each land use.

We can also see that the contribution of small particles is quite significant, meaning small particles with greater surface area is carrying significant amount of radiocesium.

Similarly, this figure shows how much radiocesium has flowed into the river by rainfalls.

The top portion of the figure is the amount of rainfall.

The blue line at the bottom is the flow rate of the river.

There is a sudden increase in the flow rate of the river when it rains and the discharge of radiocesium is also seen to increase at the same time.

The soil that is eroded by rain flows into the river carrying the particulate matter to which the radiocesium is attached.

This is a similar figure showing the effect of rainfalls in the amount of radiocesium discharge into the river every month.

The discharge is significantly larger during some months when there were typhoons.

These data show that radiocesium released by the accident is migrating in the environment with particulate matter when the land is eroded with heavy rainfalls.

As discussed earlier, radiocesium does not migrate as radiocesium ion dissolved in water, but because the adsorption of radiocesium to clay minerals is very strong.

Radiocesium migrates in the environment in the form of adsorbed particles.

The amount of radiocesium migrates with particulate matter from forests, farmlands, and agricultural land is small compared to the amount of radiocesium that exist in the contaminated area, and the migration overall does not change the radiocesium distribution in a big picture.

However, radiocesium migrating with the particles may accumulate at a different location, such as a bend of a river, may create a new, localized area that the contamination is significant.

To summarize today’s lecture.

Radionuclides that are released into the environment get dispersed among different environmental media according to the chemical and physical characteristics of the pollutants.

They undergo physical, chemical and biological transitions which will affect the fate and transport of the pollutants as well.

In order to deal with the environmental contamination, you need to know where the contaminant is distributed, and how and to where it is migrating.

This is true in the case of contamination with radioactive substances.

The two main differences between radionuclides and non-radioactive pollutants are (number 1) that radionuclides have a half-life and they decay and the concentration will decrease with time, and (number 2) that there is external exposure to radioactive substances so people can be effected without the pollutant entering the body by ingestion, inhalation, or dermal absorption.

Radiocesium released into the atmosphere by the accident was later mainly adsorbed by clay minerals in the soil.

Certain types of clay minerals are major sinks of radiocesium.

Radiocesium usually does not exist in the environment as radiocesium ion dissolved in water.

Because radiocesium strongly adsorbs to soil particles, the way radiocesium migrates in the environment is with particulate matter discharged into river by soil erosion due to heavy rainfalls.

Chemical forms of Radiocesium released into atmospheres is yet uncertain, but it is considered it became aerosol after being emitted + came down to the ground.

Externally effected by approaching the area.  Is mainly sorbed by clay minerals in the soil 0-2cm. Radiocesium migrates when the soil particals containing cesium (Cs) is eroded. Absorbed highly into soil particles carried into river by heavy rainfalls.

 Industrial emissions of 10-37 PBq Radiocesium 137 30 year half life/134 2 year half life, iodide 131 8 days halflife. Halflife thus has a major impact on  the change in the air dose rate. mostly as wet deposition, from rain, fog or snow.

Radiocesium  released from plant into atmosphere + falls to ground + people get exposed as they approach the land, as well internal exposure thru crops on that soil, + in ocean via in stream processes, run off, discharge to stream to ocean, at location + transfered to crops from soil contaminated, dropping from sky. most stay in soil + does not migrate in water. 0-2 cm in soil + does not migrate deeper, if does is very slowly.

Removal of surface layer of soil in Fuk Permafecture.

Radionuclides get disbursed according to the properties of the pollutants + undergo biological,
chemical + physical transitions. Radionuclides decrease in time w/halflife. Ingestion, inhalation or dermal absorption. Mainly clay materials absorbed in soil. Cesium clings to clay in soil.

End professor.

Thank you Naoko + all the professors/students of last class, where the discussion notes are still available + i look forward to learning more + raising questions that i hope to get answered, for i continue to study class material even though class is over + they will post when another is happening. Meanwhile they offer all material to all as long as it is not commercialized.

Thank you edX on line course for such good offerings!

Note if go to our - the sun will set, spreadsheet, you will see documentation/video links on how researcher discovered dust in homes in Nagaya/Tokyo area that was contaminated + people live in it. On children`s shoes as they tie their shoe strings, ingesting it as they put fingers in mouth.

So please let`s all open to this bigger picture of researching how to end radiation contamination, warning people/ridding waste/stopping Nuclear weapons of war + plants that are damaged globally, the use of Nuclear.

            Most important set us clear if notice error + we will make changes or debate if in question. Thank you!