Hawaii Monitoring Stations Detect Spike in Fukushima Radiation

[Poll_Blind]

Source: Hawaii News Daily

Early Friday morning (June 10, 2011), at about 3:00 A.M. local time, one of our new Monitoring Stations in Hawaii broadcast a Radiation Alert over the network, reaching a sustained level of over 100 CPM (Counts per Minute) for a period of about 15 minutes, peaking as high as 141 CPM at one point. The readings then subsided to normal background levels of about 37 CPM for that station, but within less than 2 hours, trended quickly up again to over 100 CPM for another 5 minutes or so. The graph at right depicts this activity.

For context, this is the Kauai station, and within the Hawaiian archipelago, Kauai is the main island at the far northwest end of the chain, actually 300 miles from the Big Island of Hawaii, placing it closest to Japan about 3,500 miles away. And to boot, the Kauai station is located on the north shore of the island, in Princeville. You can see the station on the map – the yellow, numbered circle at top left.

Read more: http://hawaiinewsdaily.com/2011/06/hawaii-monitoring-stations-detect-spike-in-fukushima-radiation/

---

Please read the whole article, it's just about one page. It appears to be the result of an actual reading of radioactive particles from Fukushima and not of an anomaly, malfunction or anything else. While the CPM (Count Per Minute, one count being one radioactive decay) may be seem fairly low, recall that depending on the radioactive isotope, the particle can continue to emit radiation (of varying types and dangers) from a week to half a billion years.

The elements of the isotopes is unknown.

PB

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jimlup]

2. This is bad news indeed

That situation is so far out of control... one really wonders if Japan will in the end be able to contain any of it.

[AtheistCrusader]

3. A fifteen minute spike?

What were the corresponding wind condtions? Did it even come from Fukushima? How did it pass so quickly?

Isotope data would tell more.

[wxgeek7]

4. Weather system over the area at the time

My guess, the jet stream (associated with fronts passing through japan, moving eastward), dipped down over hawaii and dumped the fallout. Here's a few sat images at that time, about 12-1300 GMT this past Friday. Hawaii is on the lower-left side of pics:




I bet the west coast is getting hit similarly, but mostly north of nor cal. Troubling, to say the least.

[AtheistCrusader]

5. For 15 minutes?

[sofa king]

6. Probably 15 minutes of rain.

The fallout is trapped in the water droplets and falls to the detectors--and on anything outside at the time.

[femrap]

7. And this crap will keep circling the

Earth over and over.

[AtheistCrusader]

8. It rains almost continuously on or around Kauai station.

This is a suspiciously localized temporal event.

Edit: It is most unfortunate the other Hawaiian monitoring stations were offline at the time. That would be something, at least, if more than one station recorded it.

Also, need isotope data.

[sofa king]

10. I suppose one explanation could be...

...A massive emission some days or hours in the past at Fukushima which was not publicly reported.

But they wouldn't do that, would they?

[AtheistCrusader]

11. If they did we should see it in Berkeley and a few other places

in a few days.

[sofa king]

49. Or maybe we won't.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1297347

Maybe the "anomaly" is that the fellow at this particular station was sleeping and didn't get the message to shut down, as the others did. But I am a naturally suspicious person.

[MrMickeysMom]

45. The writer considered that in the article here...

I asked the Kauai station if the elevated radiation detection correlated with any rainfall at that time? Well, Kauai being the “Garden Isle“, the predictable response was, “Hard to say, it rains all the time here”. And besides, he was sleeping at 3:00 in the morning. We know that rainfall can contain naturally occurring radioactive contaminants, as even my own tests have confirmed. But my detection was slight, and the Kauai readings were quite significant. And if his radiation hit was rainfall related, why was this the first time his station triggered an alert, given frequent rainfall during the last week he has been monitoring?

[Poll_Blind]

9. Much thanks. I live in Eugene, Oregon and it is very troubling.

Thank you for the information.

PB

[defendandprotect]

31. Indeed -- Additionally I think that the recent news from Australia about

their scientists who have been warning about Global Warming being under threat

for their lives is something which we have to focus on -- the overall silence

of our scientists on all of these issues --

We saw how scientists were restrained by W and the EPA administration -- how

removing scientific information from government documents gave the public false

information about NYC and about Global Warming.

We pretty much have a black hole of silence verus what we should be seeing --

free and open interaction by our world scientists with citizens.


We are all "downwind'ers" -- and the planet should be our most serious concern --


Indeed, this info is sad for all of us --

[Joe Bacon]

12. SCARY!

And not a peep from the local news about this here in Los Angeles. I wonder why?

[AtheistCrusader]

15. Several reason.

1. Tiny amount.
2. Transient reading that only lasted 15 minutes. (x2 times)
3. Localized reading. No other public or private station has reported it.

The next nearest station that can be relied upon to report it, near you, would be UC Berkeley. They should see a 'blip' as well, if it exists.

[valerief]

29. Free Market Media protects free markets only. nt

[chervilant]

41. Plus,

the EPA has stopped 'monitoring' radiation levels. I translate this to, "monitor where this shit is going, but don't tell the hoi polloi!"

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Trades are bringing it in

Not surprising

[AtheistCrusader]

16. Tradewinds are fairly steady.

Odd timing/duration of the event, if it occurred.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Trades are bringing it in

Not surprising

[AtheistCrusader]

17. I'm going to take issue with the headline, by the way.

#1 Not stations. ONE station.
#2 two spikes, not one.
#3 Without isotope data, we have no way of determining if this spike originated at Fukushima.

[Poll_Blind]

18. Agree, Agree (but sort of a weird technicality to get hung up on), Disagree

I'm only going to address the third point because I don't think we really disagree all that much about the first two.

While you're technically correct that without isotope data, it cannot be traced to Fukushima you'd also be technically correct to say even if we did have isotope data that the origin could not be pinned on Fukushima.

Point being, is it a reasonable assumption that such an unusual and prolonged spike in CPM would have been caused by releases from 3 melted down nuclear reactors at Fukushima? Yes, I think it's uncontroversial to say that it is a reasonable conclusion, given the massive release of radiation which has taken place and which continues at the site.

PB

[AtheistCrusader]

19. I would agree that it COULD be.

But if points 1 and 2 become a faulty sensor, what becomes of point 3?

And the single data point of counts per minute leaves a lot of unanswered questions around the origin even if the sensor was functioning properly.

[Poll_Blind]

27. So then it becomes a question as to whether or not any evidence supports a faulty sensor.

I haven't seen anything which would make me think that and also, if you've read the full article you'll know the gentleman goes through some pains to explain the setup of the detection equipment and so on in order to give evidence about why he does not consider it like to be a false detection.

I would encourage you to read the whole article, if you didn't get a chance to last night.

Assuming otherwise normally functioning equipment, the non-detection on at other stations (I would assert) does not necessarily call this detection into question. The following is a fallout map from the Ukraine which was created by Russian soldiers and shows areas of high fallout adjacent to areas with lower radiation or no higher-than-background (expected) radiation at all.



PB

[FBaggins]

26. That's circular reasoning though

We can't say that some activity has been detected from Fukushima and then dismiss other possible causes of the reading by saying that we know that what's going on a Fukushima would cause such readings.

A few-minute spike to a mere 100 cpm isn't something that requires an explanation. There are plenty of things that cause short-term spikes. If it is neither sustained nor identified at other monitoring stations... why on earth would we try to draw conclusions from it?

Point being, is it a reasonable assumption that such an unusual and prolonged spike in CPM would have been caused by releases from 3 melted down nuclear reactors at Fukushima?

At just one monitor for just a few minutes?

[Sirveri]

39. Could also be a temperature inversion.

Either way, alert is 100CPM > bkgd, which it hit at peak (141 - 37 = 104CPM>bkgd), but just being above 100CPM isn't enough technically. So this could be fukushima, or it could be trapped alphas due to temperature inversion. Or it could be a naval discharge (unlikely). Or it could be a momentary increase in solar neutron flux or a solar flare (unlikely). It could even be the result of maintenance, a short paper jam, some guy painting nearby, or even a failed detector.

[Yo_Mama]

20. Looks like something local, or instrument error

Radnet Honolulu didn't show anything.
http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/rert/radnet-honolulu-bg.html#gamma

Oahu isn't showing anything.
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/rert/radnet-oahu-exp-rate.html#dose-rate

Kauai doesn't show any spike:
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/rert/radnet-kauai-exp-rate.html#dose-rate

[jimlup]

21. Instrument error like this would be unusual...

I'd be more likely to suspect the environment even given the null readings of the nearby detectors...

[Poll_Blind]

22. Here is a map of fallout in the Ukraine, comissioned by Russian Col. Grebeniouk:

There is a "leopard spot" pattern to fallout which is not the smooth gradation which one would be intuitive. Areas of high radioactivity (red) might border closely on entirely uncontaminated areas.

The entire documentary from which the still image is from can be watched HERE, on YouTube.

PB

[jimlup]

23. Yes, the same appears to be true of the 3mile island fallout

though I don't know how they know I saw Gunderson talking about this.

Thanks, excellent point

[Yo_Mama]

48. Well, I originally wondered about the SA volcano

But the winds weren't right.

The thing is that no other instrumentation is showing it, and whatever is in the atmosphere from Fukushima is very diffuse by the time it gets to Hawaii. So you would have to see something on other monitors.

Some volcanic emissions can be radioactive - at least enough to register at this level, but my (highly limited) understanding is that the local volcanoes shouldn't be.

This is an aside, and I am not implying that it has anything to do with this incident, but after 9/11 when the mobile rad detectors were set up, one of them on the West Coast registered something. After a hunt, it turned out to be improperly handled medical waste. Cesium, if I remember correctly.

[Botany]

24. Well Homeland Security is working on some warning signs

From somebody who looked into the risks of nuclear power some years ago I just can't follow the Fukushima Daiichi reactors / spent fuel rod
accidents too closely because I am scared shitless about the outcomes. The number of deaths this will cause will be staggering.

[oldbanjo]

25. There have been many warnings to the World that Nuclear Reactors

are unsafe and will always be a problem to humans, all Nuclear Plants should be shut down (World wide). An accident in the USA could cause 50 million people to have to be relocated. If the ground water in any US city gets contaminated where will they get water? Many States have water shortages today. THIS IS A TIME BOMB waiting on an attack from someone.

[defendandprotect]

32. Some of the nuclear reactors are built on faults -- but all near water resources ....

because nuclear reactors need water for cooling --

Agree -- they should all be shut down and as I understand it it, it would take

6 months to properly shut down the type of nuclear reactors we have in US --


but up to a year to shut down the type they have at Fukushima!


We also have two nuclear reactors built on Lake Erie -- a source of drinking water.


Another US reactors is along the area where the Mississippi has flooded tho I haven't

seen any updates on that one.

[Generic Other]

28. Well, accurate or not, I would be holding my breath

[Avalux]

34. Holding one's breath means nothing to radiation.

After I heard there were three meltdowns and one of them was actually a "melt through" at the plant, I realized that we were not and never will be told the actual severity of what occurred. The long term impact is still unnknown.

[defendandprotect]

30. How could we not think that the atomic era would be harmful to the planet and humans?

[Safetykitten]

36. Because when kids, we we were bombarded with shit like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByZ1AyDEGSk

[Atman]

33. There go my plans of travelling to Kauai.

I've always wanted to visit Hawaii, but not the big tourist strips with giant condos. I can get that anywhere. We have friends on Kauai, I thought that would be cool...now I'm afraid to travel anywhere near there...without a lead bathing suit.

.

[Poll_Blind]

37. The debris washed out to sea from the tsunami will be hitting...

...Hawaii sometime within a year or so, then hitting the West Coast of the US, then coming back to hit the Eastern side of the Hawaiian islands in about a year and a half or two. I have no idea how much of that material has become a substrate for fallout, but I'm not looking forward to landfall by any of it.

That is, of course, along with all the airborne fallout.

PB

[FBaggins]

42. Take a look at the radioactivity of the Pacific ocean as a whole

By the time it mixes through a journey half way across the ocean... there won't be much left to detect.

Even now, the areas off of Fukushima have seen pretty dramatic decreases in contamination levels. Add a few thousands miles to the dilution and what's left?

Of course... if you get excited about a few minute jump of 100CPM... there's bound to be something worth posting. :)

[Poll_Blind]

46. Depends on what element is doing the decaying.

PB

[FBaggins]

47. Not so much.

Alpha particles are alpha particles... no matter what element is doing the decaying.

Some particles are more biologically efficient (strontium/plutonium/etc), but there hasn't been much of that detected.

The bulk of the release has been iodine (now almost entirely gone) and cesium.

[Safetykitten]

35. In unrelated news, giant crabs have been seen at several resort bars.

[suffragette]

38. I noticed when I went to look at EPA RadNet for Honolulu

that the "Gross beta counts are temporarily unavailable due to mechanical issues."


It does show Gross Gamma Air Monitoring Data and shows no spike there.

General explanatory text from the site:
Two types of results from the RadNet near-real-time air monitor are presented below: gamma gross count rate and beta gross count rate. Gamma monitoring results are presented first, because they are a more useful indicator of the radionuclides associated with a nuclear power incident. Beta monitoring results indicate when there is a substantial spike in beta activity at this location.

http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/rert/radnet-honolulu-bg.html#beta


Not sure what this means, if anything.

[fascisthunter]

40. Nuclear Power Plants: Science Fiction should be in books and in movies

it should not be used for energy consumption. See the sun in the sky? That's the only nuclear power we should be seeing and using, and it should be THAT far away from us.

[gratuitous]

43. Well, there's only one thing to do

Dismantle those monitoring stations pronto, and claim the "savings" as part of the balancing of the federal budget. Charlie Sheen's income is saved!

[defendandprotect]

44. kickey