Nuclear Safety Commission Underestimated Airborne Radiation Severalfold (Correct Estimate 154tBq Per Day)
Yomiuri Shimbun: 放射能の大気放出続く…１日１５４兆ベクレル
April 23, 2011
On the 23rd, the government’s Nuclear Safety Commission announced that even on April 5, a calm day, 154 terabecquerels of radiation escaped from Fukushima I Reactor into the atmosphere.
Fukushima I released an estimated 0.69 terabecquerels of iodine-131 and 0.14 terabecquerels of cesium-137 into the atmosphere each hour on the 5th. After using the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES)’s cesium-to-iodine conversion standard, the Commission recalculated that hourly radiation was 6.4 terabequerels, which amounts to 154 terabecquerels in 24 hours. The commission had simply added the iodine and cesium totals together before; hence it erroneously estimated there was less than one terabecquerel of radiation per hour.
Two Anonymous Men Hand Out Cash at Refugee Centers (Over ¥50 Million in All?)
Yomiuri Shimbun: 全部で５千万円以上？避難所で現金配る２人組
April 23, 2011
Two men who identified themselves as members of the “Western Japan Volunteer Association” and the “Western Japan Retail Cooperative” appeared at a disaster relief center in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture and handed cash directly to refugees.
The city’s Disaster Response Headquarters announced the occurrence on the 23rd.
According to the city, the two appeared at six of the city’s refugee centers on the 21st and 22nd and passed out envelopes containing ¥30,000 ($375) each. They handed 170 such envelopes at the Oshika town hall, over 5 million yen ($62,500) in all, and continued passing out money over staff objections until leaving.
When refugees of other cities heard the news, they called Ishinomaki City to complain about unfairness. City Hall said, “We appreciate our benefactors’ sentiment, but we would have liked them to distribute their donation more evenly.”
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Taiwan, Japan, Spain, and I 