My friend, Mike Kirk, is an executive at a Silicon Valley tech firm, and he recently returned from a business trip to Japan (less than 2 months after Fukushima).

One of his destinations was 50 miles from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. As a precaution, a colleague gave him a Geiger Counter so he could make sure it wasn’t getting dangerous as he approached the plant.

Maybe they assumed he would turn it on when he hit the ground… Instead, he logged the whole trip, and you can see the relative peaks of radioactivity.

The AFL-CIO has a nice primer on Cosmic and Solar Radiation: Facts for Flight Attendants, reminding us that higher altitudes and latitudes raise the exposure; radiation levels at the poles are ~2x those at the equator for example. So the shorter-hop flights might be lower altitude… and the night flight is better, but the long trans-Pacific flights look very different. I’ll add flight details in the notes above in case that helps as a clue.

I can hear it now…
Please turn off all electronic devices, anything with an on-off switch, especially Geiger counters, as the sound just makes us all a bit twitchy.

(PPT posted with permission. Do keep in mind that these are radiative exposures. Ingesting radioactive particles is a completely different risk and would not map on this chart)

54 responses to “Radiation in Japan”

  1. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Yes, it helps to keep it all in relative perspective. Here’s an infographic on various radiation levels, and keep in mind that down in the purplish-pink area on that chart, "people in Ramasar, India live with a background radiation of 13,000 millirems a year with no apparent health consequences." (Stewart Brand, Whole Earth Discipline, p.97)
    That’s 130,000 µSv/year or about 15 µSv/hr on the scale above, throughout their lives.

    "In some parts of the world, in India and Iran, the natural background radiation is huge. The life expectancy in those places is the same as anywhere else. There’s no evidence of anything nasty going on." (Jim Lovelock)

    Reply
  2. Pieces of Eye Avatar
    Pieces of Eye

    Maybe three night flights and one day flight?

    XKCD chart

    Just read the the entangled spin states quantum computer. I still have to read up on how finding the ground state of a frustrated spin system is used for useful computation. From what I gathered it is a very clever apparatus.

    *edit*

    Nope Guess not:
    UA 869 29,000 (Afternoon-Evening)
    UA 895 : 30,000 ft (Afternoon-Evening)
    ANA 152 : N/A (Evening-Morning)
    UA 838 : 41,000 ft (EarlyEvening-Morning)

    What device did he use btw? looks like a nice data logger.

    Reply
  3. solerena Avatar
    solerena

    Great information and XKCD chart helps to put things in perspective..

    Reply
  4. nhr Avatar
    nhr

    > The AFL-CIO has a nice primer on Cosmic and Solar Radiation: Facts for Flight Attendants, reminding us that higher altitudes and latitudes raise the exposure

     
    Do they have an addendum taking into account the special circumstances as regards the Space Shuttle and International Space Station crew ?

     
    As far as radiation doses are concerned, for normal aircraft, the elephant in the room might be lightning strikes. At 100mSv, a single lightning bolt might be equivalent to several thousand transpacific flights.

    Reply
  5. thepretenda Avatar
    thepretenda

    Nasty!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  6. Astrocatou Avatar
    Astrocatou

    I here that now that the humans have left…the Chernobyl area is a flourishing wildlife area.!
    I also wonder about the idea that building hundreds of smaller reactors (for electricity) is safer than dozens of huge ones…

    Reply
  7. obskura Avatar
    obskura

    Very interesting – it’s amazing how much the flights stand out.
    What one should keep in mind though is that actual radiation from external sources is one thing – one needs to be quite close to the emitter, and even then the exposure stops when moving away. A far worse problem is radioactive contaminants in the air or water that enter the body, or the food chain. Once they’re inside you (especially if they accumulate in bones or other places) they’ll be with you for a long time, constantly giving off minute doses of radiation, with potentially severe long term effects. Obviously alpha and beta radiation is not much of a problem, as it’s easily shielded by a piece of paper, your clothes (alpha) or a thin sheet of metal (beta). But having alpha emitters inside your body is a problem, and a geiger counter wouldn’t even warn you, as the radiation is not able to leave your body.
    You might recall the polonium poisening case
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko
    "Unlike most common radiation sources, polonium-210 emits only alpha particles that do not penetrate even a sheet of paper or the epidermis of human skin, thus being invisible to normal radiation detectors in this case."
    I am curious how close you would have to be to 10 micrograms of polonium to detect it with a geiger counter.

    Of course most heavy metals cause poisening as well – long term exposure to non-radioactive mercury or lead is also not great…

    Reply
  8. Erik Zolan Avatar
    Erik Zolan

    I don’t understand what I’m seeing. Are you saying he was in the air for 222 hours?
    At what points on the graph was he in an airplane?

    Reply
  9. YankeeBastid Avatar
    YankeeBastid

    A mathematician and an engineer attend a lecture by a physicist. The topic concerns Kulza-Klein theories involving physical processes that occur inspaces with dimensions of 9, 12 and even higher. The mathematician is sitting, clearly enjoying the lecture, while the engineer is frowning and looking generally confused and puzzled. By the end the engineer has a terrible headache. At the end, the mathematician comments about thewonderful lecture.

    The engineer says "How do you understand this stuff?"
    Mathematician: "I just visualize the process."
    Engineer: "How can you visualize something that occurs in 9-dimensional space?"
    Mathematician: "Easy, first visualize it in N-dimensional space, then let N go to 9.

    Reply
  10. Wind Watcher Avatar
    Wind Watcher

    Nice data set. The Tokyo to SFO flght route goes into the high latitudes (near the pole) where the protective earth magnetic field is the weakest. The data is consistent with published information on this subject. Question: what is the radiation exposure for a) astronauts on the ISS? b) those who flew to the moon and c) projected human trip to Mars (understand major issues there)….seem to remember reading about a British outfit that designed a rotating magnetic field around a spaceship to protect the travelers…..same idea for planes?

    Reply
  11. vuphatt Avatar
    vuphatt

    Erik:

    All the chart shows is the relative radiation rates for various situations. For example, in a flight from Tokyo to San Francisco, you are getting 8 times more radiation than when you are 50 miles from the Fukushima nuclear plant. However, that is only the radiation rate. The other important aspect is cummulative radiation. That means how much radiation is built up over time.

    From other contributing posts, you have to live at 50 miles from Fukushima for 4.2 years before you get the same amount of radiation of a single CT scan. Now that is putting things into perspective. The words "nuclear" and "radiation" are like kriptonite to most layman until you look at the real numbers.

    Reply
  12. submandave Avatar
    submandave

    The internet has done for the Fukushima accident what the media never did for TMI: put it in perspective. As a former nuclear worker, I have always contended that nuclear power suffered from two of the biggest PR problems in history. First, the world’s introduction to the wonders of nuclear power was the complete anhilation of two cities. By any perspective a rather negative first impression. Second, the authorities tried to play the "it’s too complicated for you, just trust us" game just when that meme was loosing its power (late 50s – 60s).

    Reply
  13. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Stewart Brand agrees wholeheartedly…

    Nuclear Environmentalist

    From his book, regarding Chernobyl:
    "Fear of radiation is a far more important health threat than radiation itself. The zone’s evacuation put an end to industrialization, deforestation, cultivation and other human intrusions, making it one of Ukraine’s environmentally cleanest regions… The world’s worst nuclear power plant disaster is not as destructive to wildlife populations as are normal human activities. Even where the levels of radiation are highest, wildlife abounds. I predict there will be a Chernobyl National Park.

    Coal is now understood to be the long-term systemic horror we once thought nuclear was."

    @Wind Watcher – I am not sure of the latest data on ISS, but it has been running at 1mSv/day which is 42 µSv/hr comparing to the chart above.

    Reply
  14. mdsicignano Avatar
    mdsicignano

    I like the little bumps right before the flights. I assume that’s the scanning equipment that made those little pre-flight blips?

    Reply
  15. BrianFH Avatar
    BrianFH

    @Steve Jurvetson
    Do you know the difference between a µSv and a mSv? 1000X. All these numbers are trivial compared to actual danger levels.

    Reply
  16. BrianFH Avatar
    BrianFH

    @submandave Which was when people started on the long slide to lower education standards, too. That’s "losing", not "loosing". >:(

    Reply
  17. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Oh, I think we should be sensitive too…. but keep it all in perspective. More people die each year from coal energy (mining and air pollution) than have ever died from nuclear energy.

    BrianFH – whoa… settle down a bit…. I had to know the math to do the math in my prior comments above. [i see you have now edited your comment to remove the slur on my math skills] . So let me just say that it is self-evident from my comments.

    As for sentiment, we are saying the same thing, yes?

    And as for your comment to submandave, well, typos happen.

    Reply
  18. Astrocatou Avatar
    Astrocatou

    Hot topic…..

    Reply
  19. solerena Avatar
    solerena

    yep, i also heard about some fears after the accident in Japan about radiation in Hawaii… or on the west coast… i guess it is all overdone by media as usual…

    although it is true about food in contaminated areas like after Chernobyl some people were not so fortunate to eat mushrooms or berries from a future Chernobyl National Park…and areas around… when wind blew it with the rain…

    Reply
  20. daen Avatar
    daen

    I’m confused as to how you can do the conversion to Sieverts without knowing the component radiation sources, which have different Q factors. The detector itself can’t do this.

    Reply
  21. narita44 Avatar
    narita44

    These are atmospheric readings which is not threatening, The issue is that the damn reactors are still releasing radioactive material in the air which when inhaled fry your organs. nobody is talking about that and there is plenty of it coming from the damn reactors.

    Reply
  22. liminalists Avatar
    liminalists

    50 miles is very different than 2 miles. This is not science, and it doesn’t add anything to the discussion other than to [effectively] diffuse fears that the Fukushima radiation might be bad for people far away from Fukushima. In the meantime, there are hundreds of thousands of homeless, and tens of thousands of people who will probably never be able to go home.

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evacuations_and_Japanese_reaction_t…

    Reply
  23. exajar Avatar
    exajar

    That Tokyo-SFO flight is normally a overnight flight.
    SFO-Hong Kong a daytime flight.

    Reply
  24. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Daen: Here is the link to the product Mike used:
    http://www.Gamma-scout.com

    Liminalist: but, again, let’s set in context… The tsunami was much worse. We should have even more sympathy there. There is a township where 70% of the children are missing. It hit before school pickup time so they could not let the children flee to higher ground.

    Reply
  25. Homeopathic Avatar
    Homeopathic

    I choose to play it safe and not be infected by radiation poisoning at all. It is harmful and leads to cancers. Zeolite (Clinoptilolite) is Natural Radiation Exposure and Sickness Protection Nutrient that is safe and will protect and detox against radiation sickness including, Cesium 137, I-131 – Iodide 131, Iodine 131 plutonium, and also heavy metals. . Liquid Zeolite or Powdered Zeolite can save and restore your health instantly in an emergency. In a nuclear radiation disaster, radioactive isotopes (radiation poisoning and exposure) will spread through sea water, rain and end up in the food supply and drinking water of people thousands of miles away. Zeolite can help protect you. Potassium iodine (or potassium iodide) is not a safe supplement, and really does not work.

    Please see Water Purification Systems for more in formation on keeping your family safe and protected from radiation poisoning, sickness and exposure.

    Reply
  26. solerena Avatar
    solerena

    yep, i feel like buying this zeolite already… hm, where do you buy it, i wonder?:D lol

    Reply
  27. Pieces of Eye Avatar
    Pieces of Eye

    Awww, Everybody is freaking out! All the Gamma-scout’s are on back-ordered until June 30th.

    On a related note I just received Introduction to Elementary Particles by David Griffiths in the mail. I highly recommend it for anyone looking to broaden there understanding of the physical process involved in this ‘discussion’. David Griffiths is my favorite (so far) text book author.

    Reply
  28. Pricilla Chang Avatar
    Pricilla Chang

    The dispersion is nonuniform in nature, so just being 50km from Fukushima doesn’t mean a lot. Some of the most heavily affected areas like Iitate are more than 30km away while Odaka is just 15.6km north-north-west. It’s dependent on many factors like the direction and strength of the wind during release events and geography of the region.

    Page 2 shows a forecast of accumulated exposure readings for the next year:
    http://www.mext.go.jp/component/a_menu/other/detail/__icsFiles/a...

    fyi I spent 3 days in the exclusion zone, and rode my bike across its 40km diameter:
    maxhodges.photoshelter.com/

    Reply
  29. liminalists Avatar
    liminalists

    jurvetson: it’s not a zero-sum game. My argument is that the "evidence" presented here is akin to someone coming back from Japan and saying: "I visited a town 50 miles from the one where the school children died, and I couldn’t find anyone who’d lost a relative for friend."

    Reply
  30. Drift Words Avatar
    Drift Words

    Chernobyl: yes lots of wildlife there in the ad hoc national park, but ingesting all sorts things they shouldn’t. Stillbirths, deformities, (and a bit of scientific controversy) : http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/04/ff_chernobyl

    Reply
  31. flickerinoooo Avatar
    flickerinoooo

    Who cares about this. INGESTING radioactive particles is the real problem, not background radiation. When will people understand this and stop comparing LA-Tokyo flights to environmental levels in Japan. That means absolutely nothing to a child who’s drinking contaminated milk and inhaling radioactive dust in his/her school yard daily.

    Reply
  32. Astrocatou Avatar
    Astrocatou

    Interesting article…split decision it seems.
    i don’t think anyone is suggesting exposure is anything but harmful…
    But surely the US has (slyly) done all sorts of study on long term low dose radiation exposure.
    Not to mention the longitudinal data after Hiroshima etc..

    Reply
  33. SpeedyRacer Avatar
    SpeedyRacer

    Thank you for posting this. I knew from the official data that background radiation was at the high end of normal, but this helps put it in perspective with the flight data. Thank you.

    Reply
  34. kamba_taku Avatar
    kamba_taku

    kamba_taku
    Nearly everybody in Japan loves "onsen" — hot springs. Since hundreds of years ago hotels have been built around onsen and people healthy and sick came for periods of stay. Besides being comfortably warm and fit for bathing, many of these onsen’s spring water contains radioactive matters, considered to be beneficial to health. "Arriving carried in a palanquin, going home on foot," they used to say. Today, the practice of onsen bathing prospers ever more in Japan. Besides feeling good, you do feel healthier — afterwards.
    On a different tack, I have seen results of a survey where they’ve found that commercial airline pilots and flight attendants are much healthier and live longer than people in other professions, in a meaningful manner.

    Reply
  35. RalfLippold Avatar
    RalfLippold

    Amazing and eye-opening! Thanks a lot Steve. Transparency is all it needs to understand the current reality.

    Reply
  36. Len Radin Avatar
    Len Radin


    I saw this in the 50+ Faves group and Faved it.
    http://www.drurydrama.com

    Reply
  37. Pricilla Chang Avatar
    Pricilla Chang

    @flickerinoooo

    Tokyo, May 12–The government has instructed Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato to put down cattle and other farm animals in the exclusion zone around the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant after gaining approval from cattle farmers, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Thursday.
    Agriculture ministry officials said that the exclusion zone houses some 3,500 cows, 30,000 pigs, 680,000 chickens and 100 horses. According to recent reports, at least 1,300 cows and 200 pigs are still alive.
    Work to put the animals down is expected to begin next week.

    Reply
  38. Pricilla Chang Avatar
    Pricilla Chang

    @SpeedyRacer

    >Thank you for posting this. I knew from the official data that background radiation was at the high end of normal, but this helps put it in perspective with the flight data. Thank you.

    bad conclusion

    see my post above "The dispersion is nonuniform in nature…"

    Reply
  39. alphad2011 Avatar
    alphad2011

    Thanks a lot for this post. Have you noticed how having a somewhat nuanced approach on the problem immediately makes some bark that you are a pro-nuclear activist, probably paid by the atom maffia? Guys! Show some common sense. Yes it is a catastrophe, and yes nuclear energy is extremely dangerous and should not be used unless proven safe. No, this is not the apocalypse. And for Christ’s sake could we stop the stupid planetary hypochondria and just think of helping those who need it in Japan?

    Reply
  40. liminalists Avatar
    liminalists

    alphad2011: The xkcd illustration of relative radiation amounts is useful. This is not; there are plenty of comments in this thread that amount to "phew, I’m glad the radiation from Fukushima clearly isn’t that bad. Thanks for providing this information", which is a harmful and misguided opinion.

    Reply
  41. Astrocatou Avatar
    Astrocatou

    Nuclear power is one of these polarizing topics…( like trace chemical exposures causing cancer…etc,etc.)
    But even an ardent Luddite like myself knows that these risks and exposures are not going to go away…
    Until we get a better alternative, we are going to use nuclear energy…
    We are better to discuss and quantify the risks.

    Not a lobbyist.

    Reply
  42. liminalists Avatar
    liminalists

    dave: I have no problem with discussing these things. I think nuclear power, properly implemented, is fine.

    I don’t think that this image is in any way representative of radiation levels, nor does it in any way quantify the risks. If we’re going to discuss them, we should do so using real data, not fairy tale data.

    Reply
  43. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    While generally true, it is good to keep in mind that the nuclear energy topic has been bathed for decades with a background bias of overblown fear. While the details are important, the big picture should not be lost. The tsunami is a bigger health threat than the nuclear accident. Shifting energy generation away from nuclear is a much bigger health threat than shifting more energy toward it. 10x as many people die in Asia alone from coal, every year, than have ever died from all nuclear energy activities globally. And perhaps, most topically to the issue of the "marketing message" around nuclear risks, Brand summarizes the World Health Organization study: "Fear of radiation is a far more important health threat than radiation itself." Dwell on that for a moment… The human dialog on nuclear energy has killed more people than nuclear energy.

    Reply
  44. solerena Avatar
    solerena

    proves that "we have nothing to fear but fear itself" to sj comment…

    Reply
  45. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    No, no… give me a nuclear sustainer stage, and we’ll launch it. It’s just been hard to acquire. =)

    Every day I see, perched on my desk, a scale model of a Lockheed Nuclear C-5 rocket…. begging for funding… from 1961.

    I have not added the photo yet to my space collection, but here is the diagram:

    You’ll notice the peculiar narrow nozzle on the third stage.

    Reply
  46. Pieces of Eye Avatar
    Pieces of Eye

    That thing must weigh.. well.. a lot more then a ton. It needs to survive a launch abort without scattering nuclear waste?

    Reply
  47. solerena Avatar
    solerena

    @vennettaj
    even if somebody could acquire something like it… national security would be very concerned:D wonder if there are new developments in terms of fusion nuclear reaction which were mentioned in some of sj posts… i am also blissfully ignorant in this area, just curious;)
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_power

    Reply
  48. solerena Avatar
    solerena

    Ha, Vennetaj…and somebody should ask you also to fly on a rocket with a peculiar narrow nozzle:D

    Reply
  49. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    wait a minute here… what are we talking about?

    Reply
  50. solerena Avatar
    solerena

    😀
    i was teasing vennetaj since she was asking why she was invited here to talk about both "peculiar narrow nozzle" and nuclear fusion…

    Reply

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