Radiation Concerns

[werzan]

Hi,

There hasn't been much coverage of Japan lately in my country so I don't really know how the situation is but recently I have been reading some other forums which seem to say the problem is a lot worse than has been reported. According to who you listen to the problem either seems to be nothing or disastrous with no middle ground.Does anyone have any more enlightened information on the subject, its my only major concern at the moment.

These are the stories that are worrying me.
http://vimeo.com/38995781
http://enenews.com/reports-radioactive-black-cyanobacteria-spreading-tokyo-photos
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=edb_1334434405
http://enenews.com/telegraph-govt-secretly-planning-evacuate-90000-citizens-japan-fukushima-50-forbidden-speaking-publicly-terrified-agonising-death-radiation-poisoning-new-bbc-doc-thursday


People tend to exaggerated these topics though so someone with greater insight would be appreciated.

[coop52]

Outside of the evacuation zone, there's nothing to be really concerned about. You'll probably get exposed to more radiation on the flight over anyway.

[AVN]

They've even reopened some of the evacuation zone.
Plus the vast majority of Japan is unaffected and always was by the radiation. It's only the small area near the plant and in the wind that was ever a concern.

[EricaHartmann]

What radiation?

[Namisuke]

Hi,

There hasn't been much coverage of Japan lately ...

The only region that worries about radiation is the one directly around the evacuation zone - not all of Japan. You won't get placed in the evacuation zone.

[lalie]

Please remember that many of the articles you linked to are designed to draw the biggest emotional reaction out of their readers. Fear is a very good way to do this. And radiation scares people easily. I think mainly because it is invisible, and difficult to understand. Also please remember that much of the content of the third article is talking about what happend directly after the earthquake, not what is happening today.

One upside of the radiation fears that spread across Japan last year (and the world really) was that many people bought their own radiation detectors. They found sources of radiation completely unrelated to Fukushima in their communities (one was old paint stored in a basement for 50 years). These unknown sources are being found and cleaned up. With more awareness, there is more monitoring and personally, I feel perfectly safe with the amount of monitoring being done right now.

[Musashi]

I guess the big thing now are the storage pools holding radioactive waste. Apparently if those get destroyed in another big quake they could blow up.

Dunno how big an issue it is though.

[word]

It's too late. Judging from the size of the insects around here, I think it's safe to assume that the entire country has been irradiated and is producing hideous mutant bugs of unimaginable proportions.

[Siyris]

It's too late. Judging from the size of the insects around here, I think it's safe to assume that the entire country has been irradiated and is producing hideous mutant bugs of unimaginable proportions.

Awesome.

But in all seriousness... it's like everyone has said. The radiation is only really a concern for the areas directly around the evacuation area. Honestly, my biggest issue with it (and that comes mostly from my mom being worried rather than myself), was with food supply.... however all Japanese supermarkets label what prefecture what bits of produce and meat come from and so you can simply avoid those that are from Fukushima and Miyagi..... but let your worries ease. I know how nerve-wracking the tales of radiation can be, especially while you're waiting to hear where your placement is.... just think how much all of us must have been worrying this time last year!

You'll be fine.
Most likely, wherever you get placed will have a lower base-radiation level than your home town does.

[Mark_KyotoPA]

OP, if you get placed in Tohoku, hit me up and I'll go instead. Don't worry, I got your back on this one.

[gordzilla]

I have been reading lots of articles and watching videos about radiation in Japan, must say it is a bit worrying
Not sure what to believe anymore because there are so many different opinions on the current situation...

[Kamden]

I wouldn't be too worried. While it is always smart to be informed and cognizant of radiation concerns, I'm sure they wouldn't be sending you somewhere that is deemed unsafe or hazardous. A JET participant getting ill from something like this wouldn't reflect well on the program, and I know that they have a deep concern for all of their participants on a personal side as well. JET's been around for a long time and is the largest language exchange program; I trust that they have the judgment and experience to do their due diligence and ensure the safety of the participants.

However, I should add that we all are exposed to radiation more often than you think. It's not an exact science, nor am I the most informed person on the matter, but I've heard that you'd be exposed to more radiation from an MRI or the airport body scanners than if you were to live in a safe area of Japan, and lifelong, excessive cellphone use likely will have a greater impact on your health than one year in Japan.

[Guiteau]

Yo, if you're worried, here's some measurements from Fukushima's Radiation Monitoring Center. Most of those numbers are from those directly around the plant, where you would not be placed. The only one that corresponds to a place where you would have even a remote chance of being placed is Fukushima City (福島市).

For comparison, here's Ibaraki's radiation; the units are different, so multiply the numbers on the Ibaraki page by 1000. The articles I read don't scare me because they really don't match up to reality.

It's too late. Judging from the size of the insects around here, I think it's safe to assume that the entire country has been irradiated and is producing hideous mutant bugs of unimaginable proportions.

This is factually correct.

[KIKKI.K]

Hi there!
Current Fukushima resident here (about 60km away from the power station in question).

You know, I was just thinking recently that one of us should start a thread like this for the new JETs, but I thought it was better to wait til placements have come out...

Anyways, some things about radiation...

Every school and park where children often play in Fukushima has been fitted with real-time geiger counters, with digtal displays so that concerned persons can see exactly what the level in that particular place is.

The worldwide average background radiation is 2.4 millisieverts per year. That's 2400 micro sieverts per year. That's about 274 micro sieverts per hour. Off the top of my head, I believe that only Koriyama, Fukushima city, and areas such as Nihonmatsu are still over that level. IIRC, some places within those areas are about twice that.
The lowest dose of radiation exposure scientifically linked to an increase in cancer (based, IIRC, off data from hiroshima, nagasaki, chernobyl, and various atomic explosion tests) is 100 MILLI sieverts' exposure, in one go. That will increase your cancer risk by about 5% or so.

HOWEVER, most of the prefecture (I can't speak for Miyagi, Ibaraki, or anywhere else), is BELOW or about the SAME as the world average.

A word about quoted radiation levels:
Those figures will only reflect your radiaition exposure if you were to stand outside, naked, for a year. Clothing and walls will cut your exposure quite drastically. Most classrooms in my schols have levels 10% or less than what the geiger counter on the field reads.

As for food: I personally don't buy anything from Fukushima. It is tested before it goes on the shelves, BUT I've heard that the testing is random, and that's not good enough for me. On top of that, food radiation amounts are given in becquerals, rather than sieverts, and I just haven't been able to get good enough information on the amount of becquerals certain foods naturally contain, for me to do a good comparision as to whether or not the food in Fukushima is actually radioactive to a dangerous level.

[KIKKI.K]

Here is the link to the site I use to check radiation levels (though I haven't used it lately as I can just look out the window and see the level at the school I'm working at that day)

http://www.rfc.co.jp/genshiryoku/details.php?id=18406

This is the text version, so you can copy and paste into google translate and it'll tell you the city names etc.

It's measured in micro sieverts per hour.

http://www.rfc.co.jp/genshiryoku/details.php?id=18406

They update the reading every hour, during the daytime.

When I get home, if I remember, I'll put up the link to the goverment page, where they take the readings that all the geiger counters at the schools send them (real time) and post them up on the web, linked to google maps, so you can see the locations of the radiation readings^^