nuclear-news

NHK News (Translation by SysTran), Aug 9, 2014: Scattering of uranium fuel in a nuclear reactor damage […] in the Ibaraki prefecture immediately after the accident of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has occurred, the material of the structure of other nuclear reactor of uranium is detected […] it’s a result that confirms that damage to the reactor massive had progressed […] Research group of Izumi Nakai professors from Tokyo University of Science […] the dust in the atmosphere […] collected at Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture […] 130 km from the nuclear power plant over the next morning from the night of March 14 […] It is a result, in addition to the radioactive cesium, zirconium material of the fuel rods and uranium, and iron of the material of the pressure vessel, material that matches the structure of the nuclear reactor and nuclear fuel has been detected. It is that dust that these shows feature when it is cold suddenly you have to be in the ball-shaped of about 2 micrometers in diameter, and is released after external melted at high temperatures. […]

American Chemical Society Publication, Analytical Chemistry — Detection of uranium and chemical state analysis of individual radioactive microparticles emitted from the Fukushima nuclear accident using multiple synchrotron radiation X-ray analyses, Yoshinari Abe , Yushin Iizawa , Yasuko Terada , Kouji Adachi , Yasuhito Igarashi , and Izumi Nakai (Tokyo University, Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute, Meteorological Research Institute), August 1, 2014 (emphasis added): […] analyses revealed the detailed chemical nature of radioactive aerosol microparticles emitted during the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident, resulting in better understanding of what occurred in the plant during the early stages of the accident. Three spherical microparticles (~2 μm Φ) containing radioactive Cs were found in aerosol samples collected on March 14th and 15th, 2011, in Tsukuba, 172 km southwest of the FDNPP […] 10 heavy elements [were] in all three particles: Fe, Zn, Rb, Zr, Mo, Sn, Sb, Te, Cs, and Ba. In addition, U was found for the first time in two of the [three] particles […]implying that U fuel and its fission products were contained in these particles […] These results strongly suggest that the FDNPP was damaged to emit U fuel and fission productsoutside the containment vessel as aerosol particles. […] individual particles revealed that they were present at high oxidation states, i.e., Fe3+, Zn2+, Mo6+, and Sn4+ in the glass matrix […] These radioactive materials in a glassy state possibly remain in the environment longer than those emitted as water soluble radioactive Cs aerosol particles.

See also: Study: Plutonium found 120 km from plant; “Pu and non-natural uranium certainly increased in environment”

And: Journal: Unprecedented phenomenon from using saltwater in Fukushima reactors — Forming new uranium compounds able to travel long distances… “like carbon buckyballs”