Fukushima updates - May 25th items of interest

http://enenews.com/unexplained-tepco-could-measure-amount-radiation-released-when-unit-4-exploded

TEPCO puts radiation release early in Fukushima crisis at 900,000 TBq
Kyodo
May 25, 2012

An estimated 900,000 terabecquerels of radioactive substances were released into the atmosphere in March last year alone due to the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday. 

[...]

TEPCO said that 4,600 TBq of radioactive substances were emitted when an explosion occurred at the No. 1 reactor building on March 12, and 1,060 TBq when an explosion occurred at the No. 3 reactor on March 14.

It could not measure the amount released when an explosion occurred at the No. 4 unit on March 15, where all of the reactor’s nuclear fuel was stored in the spent fuel pool.

and......

http://enenews.com/impossibly-high-whos-initial-report-estimated-tokyo-osaka-infants-thyroid-dose-between-10-100-millisieverts-1-full-sievert-namie
 Tokyo says WHO overestimated Fukushima disaster radiation doses

Asahi AJW
By YURI OIWA
May 24, 2012

[...]

In its report, the WHO [World Health Organization] said residents living near the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant northeast of Tokyo were exposed to whole-body doses of between 10 and 50 millisieverts

[...]

“The WHO estimates deviate considerably from reality,” said one anxious Japanese government source. “If those figures are taken at face value, that may spread disquiet and confusion among the Japanese public.”

[...]

“Overall, (the latest WHO figures) are overestimates,” said Yoshio Hosoi, a professor of radiology at Hiroshima University’s Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine. “In particular, they have sharply overestimated the doses of external exposure and food-derived exposure,” he said.

But the Japanese government’s System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information (SPEEDI), which is designed to forecast the spread of radioactive substances, did produce larger thyroid gland dose estimates for 1-year-old infants in some districts of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture.

In that case, the WHO estimates “probably mostly reflect reality,” Hosoi said.

Initial Estimate

The WHO began compiling the dose estimation report last summer. Its first draft, which appeared last November, startled one Japanese government official.

The draft report estimated the whole-body doses for 1-year-old infants at 10-100 millisieverts in Namie and 1-10 millisieverts in Tokyo and Osaka.

The thyroid gland dose estimates for 1-year-old infants were 300-1,000 millisieverts in Namie and elsewhere and 10-100 millisieverts in Tokyo and Osaka.

Tokyo sent health ministry officials to the WHO headquarters and went through diplomatic channels to call for revisions.

“The figures are just impossibly high,” a government official said at the time. “If they are released, that will not only arouse unnecessary anxiety among the Japanese public but also serve as negative publicity.”

and......

http://enenews.com/fukushima-amounts-to-four-chernobyls-worth-of-cesium-137-contamination-it-still-seems-to-be-just-an-effort-to-downplay-the-real-scale-of-the-event

Follow-up to: Tepco estimates total cesium-137 release from Fukushima at 360,000 terabecquerels -- 4 times higher than Chernobyl's 85,000 terabecquerels

Cesium-137 contamination: Fukushima amounts to four Chernobyls
Russia Today
May 24, 2012

TEPCO’s new estimates suggest that its Fukushima reactor has released more than quadruple the amount of radioactive cesium-137 leaked during the Chernobyl disaster. But the method used to measure the damage may undervalue the hazard even further.

[...] it still seems to be just an effort to downplay the real scale of the event.

The report goes on to compare Fukushima with the Chernobyl accident of 1986, where it says 5,200,000 TBq of “radioactive substances” were leaked into the atmosphere.

The problem is that TEPCO only counts the amount of iodine-131 and cesium-137 leaked from the Fukushima reactor, and compares them to the whole range of isotopes that were discharged at Chernobyl.

And if compared properly, the numbers tell a different story.

[...]

Regarding the emission of cesium-137, Fukushima is far ahead its rival. Post-Fukushima estimations suggest that Chernobyl put out a total of 85,000 TBq of caesium-137 over the course of the disaster. The Fukushima reactor, however, has so far released 360,000 TBq of cesium-137, according to TEPCO.