Radiation and fear spikes

When will we know all there is to know about the real risks posed by the Japanese nuclear disaster?

Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com

Radiation levels at Japan nuclear plant reach new highs

TOKYO — As radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant reached a new high Sunday, workers contended with dark, steamy conditions in their efforts to repair the facility’s cooling system and stave off a full-blown nuclear meltdown. Wearing respirators, face masks and bulky suits, they fought to reconnect cables and restore power to motor pumps the size of automobiles.

Leaked water sampled from one unit Sunday had 100,000 times the radioactivity of normal background levels, although the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the plant, first calculated an even higher, erroneous, figure it didn’t correct for hours.

Tepco apologized Sunday night when it realized the mistake; it had initially reported radiation levels in the leaked water from the unit 2 reactor as being 10 million times the norm, which prompted an evacuation of the building.

After the levels were correctly measured, airborne radioactivity in the unit 2 turbine building still remained so high — 1,000 milli­sieverts per hour — that a worker there would reach his yearly occupational exposure limit in 15 minutes. A dose of 4,000 to 5,000 millisieverts absorbed fairly rapidly will eventually kill about half of those exposed.

The latest confusion in the operation to stave off a full-scale nuclear meltdown at the crippled facility underscores the immense challenges for the several hundred workers in a desperate battle to restart the critical cooling systems. Seventeen workers have been exposed to high levels of radiation, including three who were hospitalized last week, as technicians conducted highly nuanced electrical work in dark conditions that one nuclear industry expert termed “hellish.” Read more at www.washingtonpost.com

 

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Just won't go away: nuke fears persist

The disaster that keeps on ticking ...

Amplify’d from www.reuters.com

WRAPUP 3 - Disaster-hit Japan faces protracted nuclear crisis

Sun Mar 27, 2011 7:06pm EDT * Battle to control Fukushima plant seen far from over * Japan crisis helps tip Germany poll against Merkel * More than 27,000 dead or missing from quake and tsunami * Magnitude 6.5 quake in north Japan triggers small tsunami * Low-level radiation found in Massachusetts rainwater (Adds Massachusetts rainwater contaminated) By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Yoko Kubota TOKYO, March 28 (Reuters) - Japan appeared resigned on Monday to a long fight to contain the world's most dangerous atomic crisis in 25 years after high radiation levels complicated work at its crippled nuclear plant. Engineers have been battling to control the six-reactor Fukushima complex since it was damaged by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that also left more than 27,000 people dead or missing across Japan's devastated northeast. A magnitude 6.5 earthquake rocked the region on Monday, the latest in a series of aftershocks, and officials warned it would trigger a 50-cm (two feet) tsunami wave. Radiation at the nuclear plant has soared in recent days. Latest readings on Sunday showed contamination 100,000 times normal in water at reactor No. 2 and 1,850 times normal in the nearby sea. Those were the most alarming levels since the crisis began. "I think maybe the situation is much more serious than we were led to believe," said one expert, Najmedin Meshkati, of the University of Southern California, adding it may take weeks to stabilise the situation and the United Nations should step in. "This is far beyond what one nation can handle - it needs to be bumped up to the U.N. Security Council. In my humble opinion, this is more important than the Libya no fly zone." Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. has conceded it faces a protracted and uncertain operation to contain overheating fuel rods and avert a meltdown. "Regrettably, we don't have a concrete schedule at the moment to enable us to say in how many months or years (the crisis will be over)," TEPCO vice-president Sakae Muto said in the latest of round-the-clock briefings the company holds.

world's

TOKYO, March 28 (Reuters) - Japan appeared resigned on Monday to a long fight to contain the world's most dangerous atomic crisis in 25 years after high radiation levels complicated work at its crippled nuclear plant. Engineers have been battling to control the six-reactor Fukushima complex since it was damaged by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that also left more than 27,000 people dead or missing across Japan's devastated northeast. A magnitude 6.5 earthquake rocked the region on Monday, the latest in a series of aftershocks, and officials warned it would trigger a 50-cm (two feet) tsunami wave. Radiation at the nuclear plant has soared in recent days. Latest readings on Sunday showed contamination 100,000 times normal in water at reactor No. 2 and 1,850 times normal in the nearby sea. Those were the most alarming levels since the crisis began. "I think maybe the situation is much more serious than we were led to believe," said one expert, Najmedin Meshkati, of the University of Southern California, adding it may take weeks to stabilise the situation and the United Nations should step in. Read more at www.reuters.com

 

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Crisis Mapping: a valuable tool

More and more acceptance of the fantastically positive role played by digital volunteers in emergencies.

Amplify’d from chronicle.com

Academics Join Relief Efforts Around the World as Crisis Mappers

Jen Ziemke can't feed the needy in Libya. But, like many academics, the political scientist in Cleveland can pitch in on relief efforts with a different skill: map making. And as agencies look to exploit new-media tools during crises, they're turning to volunteers like her for help.

From her office at John Carroll University, Ms. Ziemke joins hundreds of citizen cartographers who scour blogs, social-media sites, and news outlets for information about Libya. They then label that data—security threats, health needs, refugee movements—and plug it into a United Nations-requested Web site called Libya Crisis Map.

"We're taking a big leap," says Andrej Verity of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "We're diving into collaboration with the volunteer community in a first effort to try to make the response better." Read more at chronicle.com

 

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Learnings from the Social Media and Emergency Management Camp 2011

The SMEM11 was a key achievement in furthering our collective agenda of integrating social media in all aspects of emergency management and business continuity planning. The very fact that the FEMA Administor (Craig Fugate) and his deputy ( Richard Serina) both attended is a revealing indication that people at the very top share our views. I was also heartened to see representatives from the BCP side of things who are interested in social media as continuity of operations tools.

On a personal note, I must say that I have rarely met a group of such dedicated and committed individuals as the main players and apostles behind the SMEM community and who meet via twitter chat every Friday at smemchat.

Some of them met on the eve of the camp in Alexandria, VA.

From the left: Heather Blanchard, Joel Arnwine, Christine Thompson, Sara Estes Cohen, Jeff Phillips, Kim Stevens and         Pascal Schuback

These people put the social into social media. They were friendly, informed and more importantly, willing to share. And share we did.

Over a 100 participants attended the camp and many of those had been at the NEMA meeting and wanted to find out more about this "social media thing" or just desired to learn how to enhance their own emergency management practices using SM.

This post by Kim Stephens gives a great summary of the day's key lessons learned. For my part, the camp's activities provided a good opportunity to learned about how social media is integrated into emergency management practices across the US and what obstacles remain from experienced EM practitioners. 


Some observations/lessons then:

1. Those of us who are self-professed "champions" of SMEM ... should always be careful not too appear to be preaching. We need to convince EM officials based on solid empirical evidence, case studies and lessons learned from recent disasters: Japan, New Zealand, Australia and the Boulder fires, for examples.
2. The increasing use of social media in emergency management, first as an emergency information tool, and then as sources of actionable info for situational awareness/common operating picture purposes is synonymous with community participation in all aspects of EM: from preparedness to recovery. If we're going to ask citizens to be prepared and informed ... in the age of social convergence, we should also be able to broaden public and volunteer participation in emergencies.
3. Finally, I will be revising my equation to define the "age of social convergence" and what it means for emergency managers 

from this version: mobile devices and tech + social media platforms = empowered citizenry + volunteers 

to this new version: mobile devices and tech + social media = mobilization tools for empowered citizens and data acquisition.

Let me explain this a bit further. It's time that the SMEM community push the acceptance of data supplied through social media and volunteer-based platforms (crisis mapping in particular) to get better SitA/COP. There have been enough instances of extremely valuable information shared to first responders and emergency managers in this fashion, to promote its inclusion in the EM process.

So, events such as the SMEM camp at NEMA are key forums for the spreading of this new outlook on EM. The more we can showcase the benefits of social media, the more generalized its acceptance from EM will follow. And since, this seems to be the case with the most senior people from FEMA, the path should be straightforward. 

Quick update on the morning's activities at the SMEM camp in D.C.

First, I must say that the brain power here is fabulour, It was also great to have the FEMA administrator and his deputy here this morning. Really demonstrates the importance that they think social media has for the future of emergency management.

Some quick notes from the breakout sessions:

1. first session on "getting started" in SM: key observations from James (@disasterguy) and Jim (@jgarrow on twitter) ... key is listening and monitoring first ,,, the old equation: Listen. Learn, Engage and then add Mobilize (for volunteers management for example, or for gathering/integrated date into your situational awareness/conmon operating picture ... a great example of the power of Twitter provided by @disasterguy re: tornado which was tracked by tweets and info shared ... and made available to EM agency ,,, even though nothing was yet available form 9-1-1 centre ...\
2. second was on return on investment ... in the use of SM ,,, both for BCP and EM purposes ...there are different levels of use among agencies/jurisdictions but there's lots of evidence that the use of SM provides a very good ROI for organizations to contact key stakeholders during a crisis: employeesm clients and the public
3. third ,,, a discussion on policy re: use of SM by agencies ,,, issues such as access throughout the organization ... one key debate: do you use a twitter account in routine situations to inform your audiences on emergency preparednessm training and the such ,,, and then switch to a different account when a disaster occurs ? or do you build an audience by using your account regularly so people will go there for info when a crisis erupts?
4. a fourth session was on the value of volunteer-based social media endeavours that can support the EM community: crisis mapping and media monitoring for example ... some good recent examples on how a cloud-based collective can help monitor humanitarian disaster to help channel aid, develop crisis maps to better SitA/COP ... very good
5. finally, a discussion on what opportunities and obstacles are brought by SM for improving SitA/COP ... lots of comments on validating info and ensuring a common approach among multiple jurisdiction on how SM is used and also integrated into EOCs

All very good stuff

More to come later

Social media and emergency management: where's the next frontier?

I'm leaving for Washington D.C. in a few hours to take part in the SMEM (social media and emergency management) camp at the mid-year conference of the National Emergency Management Association.

I'm really looking forward to this occasion to share best practices and experiences with peers who are as enthusiastic as I am about the place of SM in all aspects of EM. I had a very interesting conversation today to help me prepare, with Heather Blanchard, the dynamo that seems to be behind so many things: from CrisisCommons to SMEM and much more !

Let me posit this first (and I could be wrong): notwithstanding the occasional dinosaur among EM practitioners, it's pretty much fait accompli nowadays that any EMO/agency should use social media as an emergency management tool.

Second, the value of SM as channels of information,. whether it originates from authorities toward their stakeholdersm or whether it comes from a more diffuse source (such as crisis or crowdmapping) was clearly established again with the devastating disaster in Japan. There has been story after story touting the role of SM in informing people and keeping in touch with families and loved ones,

Now, I'm hoping that my trip to DC will help me explore a third key function of SM in emergencies: that of enabler of data production, sharing, analysis, aggregation, filtering, all resulting in better situational awareness and a crisper common operational picture,

So, think of it this way: with social media and mobile technologies (go back to my earlier post here) you have empowered citizens and volunteers who can become data nodes and sensors by the hundreds, if not thousands.

If it's good enough for the USGS and its European counterpart, it's a pretty good indication that it has value for EM, in the EOC and elsewhere.

More to come in the next couple of days.

Full fledged radioactive contamination

So, after all this, what's an appropriate risk assessment and risk management program in defining what's acceptable when planning the construction of a nuclear power plant?

Amplify’d from www.bloomberg.com

Nuclear Plant's Fuel Rods Damaged, Leaking Into Sea

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said fuel rods at its Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant have been damaged, releasing five kinds of radioactive material and contaminating seawater nearby.

The acknowledgements from the utility indicate poisons emanating from the plant may be spreading through the air and sea, raising concern over the safety of seafood from the coast of northeastern Japan and agriculture in the region.

The decay of radioactive fuel rods, composed of uranium and plutonium, was suspected by company officials five days after the March 11 magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami off the main island of Honshu.

The disclosures on the spread of radiation were made in a press briefing after midnight Tokyo time and in a press release this morning.

Iodine-131 was detected at 127 times normal levels from sample water taken at 2:30 p.m. yesterday, while cesium-134 levels were 25 times normal and cesium-137 was at 17 times normal, Tepco said on its website. Read more at www.bloomberg.com

 

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UN agency chief says: time for change

IAEA says it's time to communicate using 21st century tools in nuclear emergencies. That means social media too.

Amplify’d from www.cnn.com

Rethink playbook for nuclear accidents, IAEA chief urges

(CNN) -- International regulators need to rethink their procedures for handling nuclear accidents in the wake of the crisis in Japan, the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency said Monday.

The current framework for responding to emergencies dates back to the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident in 1986 and "reflects the realities of the 1980s, not of the 21st century," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano said.

"The speed at which information now travels and the huge volume of information in public circulation are among the most significant changes since then," Amano said. "Live television and the internet provide constant updates on a crisis situation -- not always accurately -- to a global audience. The responsibility of the IAEA is to provide authoritative and validated information as quickly as possible, but doing this under the current arrangements inevitably takes time and has limitations."

Amano said the first priority remains cooling down the damaged reactors at the earthquake- and tsunami-battered Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. But he said authorities should move to revise their playbooks for similar crises "in a reasonable amount of time," and an April conference on nuclear safety would be a good opportunity to start.

Japan's government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which owns the damaged plant, have been criticized for failing to share information about conditions there fully and promptly. In Washington, the head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said information coming out of Japan "is sometimes conflicting, and certainly isn't at the level that any engineer would like to have to do a thorough analysis."

"I don't believe we have anywhere near a clear understanding of what the plant conditions are like within the reactor building -- what kinds of electrical cabling has been damaged, what kinds of pumps and valves remain operable is a significant unknown right now, " NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko, whose agency has sent specialists to Japan to assist with the effort, said Monday. Read more at www.cnn.com

 

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Who uses social media?

Who's leading the way in the use of social media in Canada? The answer might surprise you.

Amplify’d from www.theglobeandmail.com

Immigrants are on the digital vanguard

The revolution in social media is changing the way ideas are transmitted, and unseating traditional power brokers. A comprehensive new study, from Environics Analytics and the digital strategy firm Delvinia, shows older, affluent well-educated Canadians, the very people who usually embrace new technology, are not leading the social media conversation on blogs, Facebook and Twitter. They are following it.

In contrast, the creators of social media content are more likely to be young, upwardly mobile immigrants living in Canada’s largest and most diverse cities – Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.

Social media is not only an innovative form of communication, but a more democratic one. Education and wealth are no longer guarantees of currency and innovation. If Canada’s traditional elites want to retain their position as savvy consumers, early adapters and captains of industry, they cannot just eavesdrop on the conversation, but must gain the confidence to participate in it.

The online study of 23,144 people, being released on Tuesday, measured the frequency of use of 10 social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, podcasts, Wikis, Flickr and LinkedIn, as well as respondents’ comfort level with social media. Read more at www.theglobeandmail.com

 

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SM in crises?

How people use social media. Some good stats.

Amplify’d from officer.com

Social crisis response Integrating social networks into the incident command system From the February 2011 Issue By Christa Miller    What do more than 600 million Facebook users, 145 million Twitter users, and 488 million YouTube users mean for the incident command system? Plenty. An August 2009 survey of 1,058 adults, commissioned by the Red Cross, suggested that more people turn to social media even before 911. Asked what they'd do if they knew of someone else who needed help: 44 percent would ask other people in their online social network to contact authorities. 35 percent would post a direct request for help on a response agency's Facebook page. 28 percent would send a direct Twitter message to responders. 69 percent said that emergency responders should monitor social media sites in order to send help quickly. 50 percent believe agencies are already responding to social calls for assistance. 74 percent expected help to come less than an hour after their tweet or Facebook post. Read more at officer.com

 

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