Radiation from Japan detected in European Cities

[Evastar]

heard on the news yesterday that they detected radiation from Japan in Dublin and Glasgow. they are saying the levels aren't serious.

EUobserver / Radiation from Japan reaches Europe

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Small amounts of radiation thought to come from Japan's crisis-stricken ~~~ushima nuclear power plant have been detected across Europe.
On Tuesday (29 March), Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) said "the minutest" levels of radioactive iodine had been detected at its air monitoring stations in Oxfordshire and Glasgow over the past nine days.

It stressed however that the levels were too low to cause any risk to human health, peaking at 300 micro-becquerels per cubic metre but averaging a much lower 11 micro-becquerels over the nine-day period.
"Levels may rise in the coming days and weeks but they will be significantly below any level that could cause harm to public health," the HPA said in a statement.
Similar amounts of radioactive material have been detected in Germany and Switzerland, as workers in Japan continue their struggle to prevent radioactive water from seeping into the sea.
It emerged on Tuesday that seawater near the damaged ~~~ushima nuclear reactors is more contaminated that previously reported, with water near reactor 1 containing radioactive iodine at 3,355 times the legal limit, according to Japan's nuclear safety agency.
Iodine 131's relatively short half-life of eight days, the time it takes to halve the radiation through natural decay, reduces the likelihood of risk to humans said an official.
"Even considering its concentration in marine life, it will have deteriorated considerably by the time it reaches people," Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of Japan's nuclear safety agency said.
In the Ukraine, Iodine 131 was blamed for the high occurrence of thyroid cancer among children exposed to radioactivity after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Japanese officials are also fighting to prevent more dangerous radioactive liquid seeping into the sea, after small amounts of plutonium were detected in soil at the plant.
Shipping companies are currently working on contingency plans to prevent boats passing near Japan from carrying contaminated materials across the globe.
The 'MOL Presence' was turned away from a Chinese port this week after Geiger counters detected higher-than-normal radiation levels, reports Financial Times Deutschland. Earlier it had passed within 120 miles of Japan's ~~~ushima plant.
As the global fallout continues to spread, EU leaders meeting in Brussels last week asked the European Commission and the European Nuclear Safety Regulatory Group (Ensreg) to develop the scope and criteria of safety tests to be conducted on European nuclear power plants.
EU energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger earlier this month suggested the tests were likely to look at the risks posed by earthquakes, tsunamis, terrorist attacks and electricity power cuts, among other variables.
It now appears however that France is unwilling to include the risk from terrorist attacks or planes crashing into nuclear power plants.
"If they are included then this can't be called 'lessons learned from Japan,'" Andre-Claude Lacoste, head of the Autorite de Surete Nucleaire, said on Monday. "I will do what I can to keep risks from planes and terrorism out of the audits."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to become the first leader to visit Japan on Thursday since the country experienced a 9.0-magnitude earthquake on 11 March.

[chroma]

Tells you what radiation levels actually mean in real terms.

[oneman]

Why is the HPA report in different units to all the other reports and the chart ?

Just as a comparison, annual radiation dose in Cornwall is 10mSv per year.

[AbsoluteFire]

Why is the HPA report in different units to all the other reports and the chart ?

Just as a comparison, annual radiation dose in Cornwall is 10mSv per year.

This is something i've seen in the media. Lets make it sound a whole lot scarier than it is.

Like using 10000 micro-becquerels, would make it 0.01 becquerels.

Don't get me started on the whole water in Tokyo and babies thing, arrrgghhhh

[chroma]

Why is the HPA report in different units to all the other reports and the chart ?

Just as a comparison, annual radiation dose in Cornwall is 10mSv per year.

Because there's a difference.
Sieverts (equal to 100REM)
RAD (Radiation Absorbed Dose)
REM (Roentgen Equivalent in Mammals)
Gray (Si standard to compete with the American RAD 1 Gy = 100 RAD))
all deal with deal with absorption levels in mammals.

It all started with RADS this figures out how much radiation can be absorbed by a kilogram of body and cause damage, it multiplies the dose by a "quality factor" cause there are different types of radiation, xrays are multiplied by 1 for instance because they're not too harmful to people unless there's a LOT of xrays getting slung about, gamma rays on the other hand multiply the rads by 15? I cant remember exactly but its a lot because gamma rays are very harmful.

Rems are fairly similar but they factor in the source radiation.
Sv is just a standard universal form, the same with Gy's just think like kilometres relate to miles.

Becquerel is a measurement of radioactivity, technically 1 Becquerel is equal to the disintegration of one nucleus per second. Its a measurement of how much radiation there is present in one place over time instead of how much is absorbed by a person.

Head numb yet?
Radiation on the whole is a fairly difficult concept to wrap your head around and measure with any certainty, its why "Half-lifes" are used.
Take a radioactive isotope, like a plutonium, americium or uranium atom, there's no way of telling when it will decay, its completely and entirely random. A single atom can take anywhere between instant decay and several billion years.

But if you take a billion atoms and watch measure them you can average the randomness out and measure how long it takes for half of the atoms to decay therefore working out its half-life...
To make matters worse the periodic table plays a factor, as an atom decays it changes to different elements depending on the particle emitted and its atomic weight, different elements have different half-lifes and emit different particles this has to be taken into account on top of everything else.

Yeah radiation is a pain in the ass

[true grit]

When we where young we used to wear wrist watches and the dials and watch face where coated with radium paint.

They got banned, I can feel a claim coming on!!!

[AbsoluteFire]

Because there's a difference.
over time instead of how much is absorbed by a person.

Head numb yet?
Radiation on the whole is a fairly difficult concept to wrap your head around and measure with any certainty, its why "Half-lifes" are used.
Take a radioactive isotope, like a plutonium, americium or uranium atom, there's no way of telling when it will decay, its completely and entirely random. A single atom can take anywhere between instant decay and several billion years.

But if you take a billion atoms and watch measure them you can average the randomness out and measure how long it takes for half of the atoms to decay therefore working out its half-life...
To make matters worse the periodic table plays a factor, as an atom decays it changes to different elements depending on the particle emitted and its atomic weight, different elements have different half-lifes and emit different particles this has to be taken into account on top of everything else.

Yeah radiation is a pain in the ass

This is the part I couldn't remember from A-level Physics when i was trying to explain radiation to a friend the other day.

Thanks very much

When we where young we used to wear wrist watches and the dials and watch face where coated with radium paint.

They got banned, I can feel a claim coming on!!!

Hehe I do remember learning about that though! I think people also used to put in on their teeth.

Just as a comparison, annual radiation dose in Cornwall is 10mSv per year.

I presume thats an average. I remember radon detectors being a big thing? Is that related
Being an estranged cornishman I presume it may be higher in Cornwall because of all the Granite? Then they go and build houses out of it.

[oneman]

Continental site but yes radioactive toothpaste was sold in this country,

10 Radioactive Products That People Actually Used

[Sirus]

Bananas are radioactive too... and Apple seeds help dampen radioactivity within the body, but also contain cyanide which can poison you... weird facts

Radiation is easy to explain because there is only 3 types, Alpha, Beta and Gamma....

Natural radiation from elements is just particles emitting from the atoms nucleus and electrons surrouinding the nucleus shooting out of the atom when the nucleus changes, as they are dictated by the nucleus structure(that is Alpha, Beta radiation).... and very high energy light particles/rays being emitted from the greater atomic energy release is photon rays (which are Gamma Rays) which usually shoot out along side Alpha or Beta emissions.. X rays are not natural radiation, just reproduced very high elecromagnetic rays which asserts radiation

Nuclear reactors use "fission" to bombard very dense atoms like uranium and split them, inturn releasing lots of energy and all sorts or particles, and high gamma energy rays.. especially when they get out of control

I'm no expert, but I did a good deal of studying atomic physics... on and off for a few years

[chroma]

Bananas are radioactive too... and Apple seeds help dampen radioactivity within the body, but also contain cyanide which can poison you... weird facts

Radiation is easy to explain because there is only 3 types, Alpha, Beta and Gamma....

Natural radiation from elements is just particles emitting from the atoms nucleus and electrons surrouinding the nucleus shooting out of the atom when the nucleus changes, as they are dictated by the nucleus structure(that is Alpha, Beta radiation).... and very high energy light particles/rays being emitted from the greater atomic energy release is photon rays (which are Gamma Rays) which usually shoot out along side Alpha or Beta emissions.. X rays are not natural radiation, just reproduced very high elecromagnetic rays which asserts radiation

Nuclear reactors use "fission" to bombard very dense atoms like uranium and split them, inturn releasing lots of energy and all sorts or particles, and high gamma energy rays.. especially when they get out of control

I'm no expert, but I did a good deal of studying atomic physics... on and off for a few years

There are more than three types.
Alpha is just a helium nucleus being emitted, its slow and dense and doesn't penetrate material all that well, skin, clothing and even dust is enough to stop it getting anywhere.

Beta is just an electron being emitted these are lighter and penetrate more than helium nuclei and depending on the element depends on the depth of penetration, a sheet of thick cardboard is usually enough to shield someone.

Gamma is electromagnetic waves, these are rapid and densely penetrating, a thick sheet of lead plating will block most of it depending on the element emitting the wave sometimes more serious measures are needed like a few feet of concrete steel and lead.

X-Rays similar in most respects to gamma rays lower frequency though and more prone to reflection and refraction, also lower powered, doesnt need as much shielding to prevent penetration, lead does the job for the most part.

Neutron radiation is another they're a side effect of both fission and fusion reactions where the entire neutron is emitted and is fairly rare, its also the worst type, if gamma radiation is like getting shot with a handgun neutron is like getting shot with .50caliber rounds.
They strip the bonds of DNA/RNA and cause heavy mutation to occur.

Cosmic rays this covers a variety of phenomenon and particles right down to sub atomic quantum levels like mesons and the like. these tend to be of stupidly high power and seriously high penetration values, some go right through the earth and back out the other side, thankfully they're a rarity in large doses. unless there's a super nova or neutron stars.

Cherenkov this isn't actually all that harmful and is a by-product, when radioactive particles travel through certain mediums like water they can go faster than the speed of light through that medium (but not faster than the speed of light in a vacuum) this emits photons and causes a visible blue glow.

Then you have non ionising radiation like high power microwaves which are fairly similar to x-rays only lower power and again lower frequency, still fatal in large doses and still cause mutation and tumours.

[Lainie]

chroma your posts are fab but i dont understand wtf they are all about and mean!!!

[AbsoluteFire]

chroma your posts are fab but i dont understand wtf they are all about and mean!!!

I agree fab posts, I understand it though. I just will have forgotten it by tomorrow.

[Sirus]

There are more than three types.

You're getting way mixed up in Terminalogy mate.. which is different from natural form... I'm only stating atoms natural radiation.. you're talking about outcomes caused by radiaiton and their different forms(form being termimalogy)

X-Rays similar in most respects to gamma rays lower frequency though and more prone to reflection and refraction, also lower powered, doesnt need as much shielding to prevent penetration, lead does the job for the most part

X Rays are reproduced electromagnectic radiation.. again used to our benefit, but designed and discovered their benefits to be used.. not natural mate, just a terminmalogy

Neutron radiation is another they're a side effect of both fission and fusion reactions where the entire neutron is emitted and is fairly rare, its also the worst type, if gamma radiation is like getting shot with a handgun neutron is like getting shot with .50caliber rounds.
They strip the bonds of DNA/RNA and cause heavy mutation to occur.

Neutron Radiation is a terminalogy used, it's still is not natural radiation.. mainly a by product from fission, when you end up with lots of different sub atomic particles after many collisions, usually they are used in acceleraters to split elements to try and form new elements of try to fuse elements forcefully to see an outcome of maybe a new element

Cosmic rays this covers a variety of phenomenon and particles right down to sub atomic quantum levels like mesons and the like. these tend to be of stupidly high power and seriously high penetration values, some go right through the earth and back out the other side, thankfully they're a rarity in large doses. unless there's a super nova or neutron stars.

Terminalogy again mate, not natural radiaiton... a lot of different sub atomic particles floating in space caused by big bangs or stars exploding and what ever else.... not natural, caused by something, then dubbed as a cosmic ray when they come our way

Cherenkov this isn't actually all that harmful and is a by-product, when radioactive particles travel through certain mediums like water they can go faster than the speed of light through that medium (but not faster than the speed of light in a vacuum) this emits photons and causes a visible blue glow.

Like you say mate, if its a by product then its not natural.. and is caused forcefully... so is more terminalogy used to decribe a process that natural radiation may cause to its surroundings

Then you have non ionising radiation like high power microwaves which are fairly similar to x-rays only lower power and again lower frequency, still fatal in large doses and still cause mutation and tumours.

Mircowaves are reproduced electromagnetic energy. They are just very high frequencies that travel very short distances(hence microwaves).. hence terminology again... discovered by accident and reproduced as in "micowave oven " by man for our benefit to cause vibrations and heat things up very very quickly, so not natural radiaiton

There IS only 3 types of natural radiaiton.. you are still right, all other by-products, processes, and collective terminalogies are still forms of radiaition but not natural...either man made forcefully caused