No need to worry about Tokyo tap water, officials say

Tokyo tap water is again within acceptable drinking limits for infants, after briefly testing too radioactive. Meanwhile, three workers at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant were injured Thursday.

The radioactivity of Tokyo tap water came within acceptable drinking limits for infants on Thursday, prompting Japanese officials to drop restrictions that had been raised a day earlier. But that positive news came as officials also announced that more three workers at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant were injured.

Tests on Thursday at the Kanamichi Water Purification Plant, which provides water to Tokyo, showed 79 becquerels of radioactive iodine per kilogram of water – bringing it under the 100 becquerels per liter limit for infants. The acceptable limit for adults it is 300. Yesterday officials measured it at 210.

Yet even at that above-normal level, scientists said there was no need for alarm. Otsura Niwa, a Kyoto University professor emeritus of radiation biology, told the Mainichi Daily News that "Japan's standards are too strict in the first place. Even if babies are given tap water, their parents don't have to worry too much about it."

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2011/0324/Japan-nuclear-update-No-need-to-worry-about-Tokyo-tap-water-officials-say

How much should they worry? I hope this is a true reading on the levels since they don't have much choice on whether to use the water or not.

When will their power be on or off? Will their place of employment be open, or closed because of a lack of power or materials? Will the logistics of supplying food to a large city be able to keep up with fuel shortages and trains that lack power?

Plenty to worry about. This incredibly tiny level of radiation in drinking water for a few days isn't one of them.

I don't think I'd take the chance.

..safety and various hazards..

And it's a fission product.

It's possible that levels will flutuate depending on when the plume was over the watershed for Tokyo... they could certainly go higher.

But they wouldn't be higher for long.

until it isn't.

scare the hell out of us!

The radioactive water was flowing through and sitting in the pipes and other plumbing infrastructure for some time. So what is their condition now and how does that affect any less radioactive water flowing through them later? Have fluctuating levels of radioactivity affected the status of the pipes, and will they continue to do so over time? Is there a cumulative effect as radiation levels rise and fall? Is this this a type of radiation that can be flushed out with clean water, and how much does it take before the pipes are clean? I'm not trying to make more out of this than there is -- it's bad enough already. I'm genuinely curious.

edit: spelling

There wouldn't be any damage at all to equipment or distribution infrastructure. Not even at levels thousands of times as high.

Yes, radioiodine can be flushed away with water, but it also goes away entirely on it's own over time.