Florida Hit with Highest Level of Radioactive Material from Fukushima Outside Japan
Analysis
of data from sensitive U.S. monitoring stations for the Fukushima
Dai-ichi nuclear reactor accident, Journal of Environmental
Radioactivity: [A] major nuclear event at the Fukushima Dai-ichi
nuclear power station… resulted in a breach of the nuclear fuel
integrity and release of radioactive fission products to the
environment. Fission products started to arrive in the United States via
atmospheric transport on March 15, 2011… Atmospheric activity
concentrations of 131I reached levels of 3 x 10^- 2 Bq/m ³ [30,592
microBq/m³] in Melbourne, FL. The noble gas 133Xe reached atmospheric
activity concentrations in Ashland, KS of 17 Bq/m³… [These levels] were
well above the detection capability of the radionuclide monitoring
systems within the International Monitoring System [IMS] of the
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty [CTBTO]… it should be noted that
non-IMS stations located in Richland, WA detected the event one day
earlier than any other systems within the US IMS network… The iodine
detections reported in this manuscript are solely representative of the
particulate iodine atmospheric activity concentration. It is recognized
that the gas phase iodine was not collected via aerosol filtration
[which] would be useful to assess the event and to quantify the total
radioiodine atmospheric activity concentration.
According to remarks included with CTBTO data recently released by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, the total iodine-131 in the air was up to 500% of the amount shown.
CTBTO Particulate air monitoring data (.xls
file), July 2014: The PTS [Provisional Technical Secretariat] itself
issued a number of comments and caveats on the data:… “Since the IMS
stations use paper filters to collect the particulate radionuclides in
the air, part of the iodine in gaseous form passes through the filter
easily. It is estimated that only 20-50% of total iodine (from all
forms) was collected in the samples.”
Of the more than 1,500 measurements in the CTBTO data taken since
Fukushima began, iodine-131 levels detected in Florida were the highest
of anywhere in the world outside of Japan. Florida also recorded 4 of
the top 10 daily measurements.
Before the U.N. made this data public, an ENENews report from
April 2011 noted that for the specific date of March 22, Florida
recorded the highest I-131 level of any CTBTO monitoring station in the
world. See: Melbourne, Florida had highest iodine-131 reading of any CTBTO monitoring station in the world from March 22-23 (CHART)
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