Hope this email finds you well.
I
have been hosting weekly teleconferences to inform interested people on
the latest status of Fukushima Daiichi during my 4-year stint at the
Washington DC Office of TEPCO (see attached notification email.)
I
was transferred to TEPCO’s Tokyo HQ at the end of last month, but
intend to continue the teleconference (probably on a monthly basis.)
Please let me know if any of you would like to be added on the distribution list for the notification emails.
For
your information, you can find my latest interview on the online
Nuclear Plant Journal describing the current status of Fukushima
Daiichi.
Also,
you can download my 160-page presentation on the Fukushima accident
that I recently gave at Harvard University in June 2015.
Feel free to contact me should you have any questions.
All the best,
Kenji
--------------------------
Kenji Tateiwa
Safety Engineering Group Manager
Fukushima Daiichi D&D Engineering Company
Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc.
1-1-3 Uchisaiwai-cho, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo, Japan
office: +81-3-6373-4751
cell: +81-80-6847-2944
Fukushima 'Mutant Daisies'
Just keep calm and read this article.
07/23/2015
A photo
of deformed daisies reportedly found near Fukushima, Japan, has gone
viral. But don't panic -- they almost definitely aren't radioactive
mutants.
The picture was taken in May, 70 miles from Fukushima, where a 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Four years on, anxiety remains high about leaked radioactive materials affecting the people, animals and plants living near the site.
So it's hardly surprising this image of mutated-looking daisies went viral and garnered many hysterical write-ups.
It looks bad. But Beth Krizek, a biologist at the University of South Carolina, told The Huffington Post that the deformity you see here is called fasciation. It's fairly normal and probably not caused by radiation.
“I don’t think people should freak out," Krizek said. "They’re not that unusual.”
She explained that fasciation happens when something affects the way plant cells replicate, leading to the over-proliferation of some cells. It can be caused by naturally occurring mutation, hormonal changes or environmental stresses.
You'd have to plant the seeds of those particular daisies and observe their offspring to see if their deformity was genetically related, Krizek said.
Here are some more examples of fasciation, tweeted by environmental policy expert Mike Shellenberger.
Krizek acknowledged there is a very small chance that radiation caused the daisies' weird appearance. But given that fasciation occurs in nature all the time and that radiation levels are low where the photo was taken, it seems unlikely.
What's more, Global News Canada cited a study showing that reducing radiation increases the likelihood of fasciation.
"It might have happened if the accident had never happened there,” Krizek said. "You would never know if it was radiation from the Fukushima disaster."
The picture was taken in May, 70 miles from Fukushima, where a 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Four years on, anxiety remains high about leaked radioactive materials affecting the people, animals and plants living near the site.
So it's hardly surprising this image of mutated-looking daisies went viral and garnered many hysterical write-ups.
It looks bad. But Beth Krizek, a biologist at the University of South Carolina, told The Huffington Post that the deformity you see here is called fasciation. It's fairly normal and probably not caused by radiation.
“I don’t think people should freak out," Krizek said. "They’re not that unusual.”
She explained that fasciation happens when something affects the way plant cells replicate, leading to the over-proliferation of some cells. It can be caused by naturally occurring mutation, hormonal changes or environmental stresses.
You'd have to plant the seeds of those particular daisies and observe their offspring to see if their deformity was genetically related, Krizek said.
Here are some more examples of fasciation, tweeted by environmental policy expert Mike Shellenberger.
Krizek acknowledged there is a very small chance that radiation caused the daisies' weird appearance. But given that fasciation occurs in nature all the time and that radiation levels are low where the photo was taken, it seems unlikely.
What's more, Global News Canada cited a study showing that reducing radiation increases the likelihood of fasciation.
"It might have happened if the accident had never happened there,” Krizek said. "You would never know if it was radiation from the Fukushima disaster."
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