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EPA’s Response to Fukushima Japan Nuclear Emergency. Mike Boyd, Senior Health Physicist EPA/Office of Radiation & Indoor Air Presented at 2011 OAS Annual Meeting Richmond, VA August 24, 2011. Impact of Earthquake and Tsunami. Damage to the Reactors - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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EPA’s Response to Fukushima Japan Nuclear Emergency
Mike Boyd, Senior Health PhysicistEPA/Office of Radiation & Indoor AirPresented at 2011 OAS Annual MeetingRichmond, VAAugust 24, 2011
2
Impact of Earthquake and TsunamiDamage to the Reactors• Level 7 - "Major Accident" on International Nuclear Event Scale
– "A major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects requiring implementation of planned and extended countermeasures"
– Loss of Cooling– Damage to Secondary Containment Vessels– Fuel Meltdown
Releases of Radiation to the Environment
• “More than several tens of thousands of terabequerels of I-131” – Air releases – Intentional Venting & Hydrogen Explosions– Ocean Releases – Intentional release of Cooling water & Leakage
http://www.dae.gov.in/daiichi/japan130411.pdf
3
EPA Response• Emergency Operations Center
• Radiological Emergency Response Team
• Regional Response
• RadNet
– Fixed Network– Deployable Monitors– Precipitation Sampling– Milk Sampling– Drinking Water Sampling– Laboratory Analysis
• EPA Japan Incident Website: http://www.epa.gov/japan2011/
4
National Radiation Monitoring System• EPA's RadNet monitors across the
US showed typical fluctuations in background radiation levels.
• Additional Deployable Monitors were sent to the Aleutian islands, Hawaii, Guam and Saipan to improve monitoring coverage for this event.
• The levels detected to date are far below levels of concern
5
Air Monitoring Stations
6
RadNet Deployable Monitors:
Fukushima Response
Nome
Juneau Nome
Saipan Guam
7
Deployable Monitors
8
Monitoring Results
• Why focus on Iodine-131?– Primary Component of Fukushima release
– Gaseous Phase• Transported Great Distance in Atmosphere
– Sensitivity• Easily detected and measured
– Clearly Illustrates impacts and trends
– Primary Source of Potential Exposure• Concern for uptake in child thyroid
9
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Iodine – 131 in Precipitation – Post March 11, 2011All Locations
Date Collected
pCi/
L
10
18-Mar-
11
19-Mar-
11
20-Mar-
11
21-Mar-
11
22-Mar-
11
23-Mar-
11
24-Mar-
11
25-Mar-
11
26-Mar-
11
27-Mar-
11
28-Mar-
11
29-Mar-
11
30-Mar-
11
31-Mar-
11
1-Apr-11
2-Apr-11
3-Apr-11
4-Apr-11
5-Apr-11
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3Charcoal Filters: Iodine-131 – Post March 11, 2011
(All Locations)
Date Sampled
Iodi
ne -1
31:
pCi/
L
11
January
-05
April-05
July-05
October-0
5
January
-06
May-06
August-
06
November-0
6
February
-07
June-07
September-0
7
December-0
7
March-08
June-08
October-0
8
January
-09
April-09
July-09
November-0
9
February
-10
May-10
August-
10-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
Iodine in Drinking Water: Pre-March 11, 2011(All Locations: 2005-2011 in pCi/L)
12
21-Mar-
11
23-Mar-
11
25-Mar-
11
27-Mar-
11
29-Mar-
11
31-Mar-
11
2-Apr-11
4-Apr-11
6-Apr-11
8-Apr-11
10-Apr-11
12-Apr-11
14-Apr-11
16-Apr-11
18-Apr-11
20-Apr-11
0
5
10
15
20
I-131 in Milk Post-March 11, 2011(All Locations)
Date Collected
pCi/
L
FDA DIL: 4,700 pCi/L
13
14
15
16
17
18
Comparing Chernobyl Data to Current Event Data
Highest I-131 in milk
Highest I-131 in air Highest I-131 in rain
Chernobyl 1986
136 pCi/L Spokane
1.6 pCi/m3 Boise & Phoenix
6,620 pCi/L Spokane
Japan 2011
18 pCi/L Hilo, HI
0.84 pCi/m3 Boise
390 pCi/L Boise
19
What is Additional Risk from Fukushima?
• Trace levels of radioactive isotopes measured are consistent with the Japanese nuclear incident and far below levels of public health concern.
• Additional exposure from well below 1 mrem for individuals in US and Territories
• Measured levels hundreds to thousands of times lower than FDA Derived Intervention Levels (DILS)
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/understand/perspective.html