How Mushrooms Can Clean Up Radioactive Contamination

The mushroom cloud by Peter Kuran

Eight-step clean-up plan by Paul Stamets

Many people have written me and asked more or less the same question: "What would you do to help heal the Japanese landscape around the failing nuclear reactors?"

The enormity and unprecedented nature of this combined natural and human-made disaster will require a massive and completely novel approach to management and remediation. And with this comes a never before seen opportunity for collaboration, research and wisdom.

The nuclear fallout will make continued human habitation in close proximity to the reactors untenable. The earthquake and tsunami created enormous debris fields near the nuclear reactors. Since much of this debris is wood, and many fungi useful in mycoremediation are wood decomposers and build the foundation of forest ecosystems, I have the following suggestions:

• Evacuate the region around the reactors.
• Establish a high-level, diversified remediation team including foresters, mycologists, nuclear and radiation experts, government officials, and citizens.
• Establish a fenced off Nuclear Forest Recovery Zone.
• Chip the wood debris from the destroyed buildings and trees and spread throughout areas suffering from high levels of radioactive contamination.
• Mulch the landscape with the chipped wood debris to a minimum depth of 12-24 inches.
• Plant native deciduous and conifer trees, along with hyper-accumulating mycorrhizal mushrooms, particularly Gomphidius glutinosus, Craterellus tubaeformis, and Laccaria amethystina (all native to pines). G. glutinosus has been reported to absorb – via the mycelium – and concentrate radioactive Cesium 137 more than 10,000-fold over ambient background levels. Many other mycorrhizal mushroom species also hyper-accumulate.
• Wait until mushrooms form and then harvest them under Radioactive HAZMAT protocols.
• Continuously remove the mushrooms, which have now concentrated the radioactivity, particularly Cesium 137, to an incinerator. Burning the mushroom will result in radioactive ash. This ash can be further refined and the resulting concentrates vitrified (placed into glass) or stored using other state-of-the-art storage technologies.

By sampling other mushroom-forming fungi for their selective ability to hyper-accumulate radioactivity, we can learn a great deal while helping the ecosystem recover. Not only will some mushroom species hyper-accumulate radioactive compounds, but research has also shown that some mycorrhizal fungi bind and sequester radioactive elements so they remain immobilized for extended periods of time. Surprisingly, we learned from the Chernobyl disaster that many species of melanin-producing fungi have their growth stimulated by radiation.

The knowledge gained through this collaborative process would not only benefit the areas affected by the current crisis, but would also help with preparedness and future remediation responses.

How long would this remediation effort take? I have no clear idea but suggest this may require decades. However, a forested national park could emerge - The Nuclear Forest Recovery Zone - and eventually benefit future generations with its many ecological and cultural attributes.

I do not know of any other practical remedy. I do know that we have an unprecedented opportunity to work together toward solutions that make sense.

For references, please consult Paul's latest book, Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World or his website www.fungi.com. 

Unnecessary Suffering

 Buddhist monk among the rubble in Yamada, Japan

True freedom and the end of suffering is living in such a way as if you had completely chosen whatever you feel or experience at this moment. This inner alignment with Now is the end of suffering. Is suffering really necessary? Yes and no.If you had not suffered as you have, there would be no depth to you as a human being, no humility, no compassion. You would not be reading this now. Suffering cracks open the shell of ego, and then comes a point when it has served its purpose. Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary. - Eckhart Tolle

The tragedy of Japan is taking yet another, even more sinister dimension. As finally admitted by Japanese authorities, Fukushima is releasing massive quantities of radioactive material into the ocean on an ongoing basis.

This highly contaminated water (7.5 million times of the permitted level) being released is just the beginning: At least 200 tons of water are being poured onto Reactor No 2 every day, and that extremely radioactive water is, of course, ultimately getting dumped directly into the ocean.

If you do the math, that's 48,000 gallons of highly radioactive water being flushed into the Pacific Ocean each and every day...

The Bodhisattvas of Fukushima

The Fukushima Fifty are the brave individuals who have stayed behind at Japan's troubled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, where, working in shifts of fifty, they are desperately trying to contain the situation in an attempt to avert a national disaster. By continuously exposing themselves to high levels of radiation, they are knowingly jeopardizing their health and lives. The Fukushima Fifty may feel they are just doing their jobs, but to everyone else they are already heroes.

Japan has eighteen nuclear power plants, which together house a total of fifty four reactors. These plants generate about 29% of the country's electricity. The Fukushima Daiichi plant is situated on Japan’s east coast, near the town of Okuma. It is one of the twenty five biggest nuclear power stations worldwide and contains six reactors.

REACTOR UNIT 1

There was an explosion in Unit 1 on Saturday, March 12. The blast tore off the wall and roof of the outer containment vessel, but reportedly left the reactor intact. Four people were injured in the blast and locals were subsequently ordered to leave the area. The reactor has since been filled with seawater to cool it down.

REACTOR UNIT 2

Late Monday night, workers noted that the unit was unstable. They injected seawater to avoid further damage to the reactor, but it didn’t work: an explosion occurred the following morning at 6 a.m. The blast damaged the inner steel containment vessel and the cores of both reactors may have partially melted. It was then that Japanese officials acknowledged that radiation levels were becoming dangerous. The bulk of the plant’s staff were asked to leave, though a crew, now called the Fukushima Fifty, stayed back. Those workers were then asked to evacuate because of a spike in radiation levels. According to some sources, they have now returned.

REACTOR UNIT 3

Right after the explosion at Unit 1, a hydrogen explosion occurred at the third reactor, tearing away the outer frame of the building. Currently, the third unit is under inspection and not operational.

REACTOR UNIT 4

Reported to be offline at the time of the tsunami, Unit 4 caught fire on Tuesday morning. That occurred shortly after the explosion at Unit 2. The reactor erupted as a result of pressure build-up within the structure again on Wednesday, setting the outer walls ablaze. Fire and smoke can no longer be seen, but Japanese nuclear agency officials were unable to confirm if the fire has been put out. In order to contain the incident, they are spraying seawater and boric acid over the structure.

REACTOR UNITS 5 & 6

Nothing has occurred at the fifth and sixth reactors. Both units were not operating when the earthquake hit.

 ***

They are an anonymous band of lower and mid-level managers who are risking their lives at the very heart of Japan’s nuclear crisis.

But as the stricken reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant appears to stabilize, plant owners are still remaining tight-lipped about the so-called 'Fukushima Fifty' - the heroes fighting to save Japan from nuclear catastrophe.

Fifty essential workers stayed behind to stop a catastrophic meltdown at the plant, as 750 of their colleagues were evacuated earlier this week when the over-heating seemed to be getting out of control.

Five are now believed to have died, fifteen are injured and others have said they know the radiation will kill them as they battle to cool overheating reactors and spent fuel rods.

Article source here & here

Image "Narita Shinshoji Temple in Japan" by Beata Bernina

Quote of the Day

Nuclear power plants are really dangerous facilities put

in practical use on stipulation that they can “completely seal

in radiation,” while radioactive weapons commit an impermissible

crime scattering radioactive materials in the environment.

Professor Katsuma Yagasaki

Image by David Wasserman

Image source here

Natural Treatments for Radiation Exposure

Nascent iodine

Even relatively modest doses of radiation can increase the risk that a person will develop thyroid cancer at some point in life. There's a delay between exposure and cancer that can run 10 to 20 years. - Dr. Rigual

Nuclear power plant disasters like the Chernobyl reactor explosion in 1986 or the most recent disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant make us aware about the dangers of radioactive exposure.

Radiation is colorless, odorless, tasteless and chemically inert and can only be detected with a Geiger counter. Any amount of radiation is potentially dangerous because of its effect on the living cells. Radiation can disrupt normal chemical processes within the cells and cause abnormal growth or cell death. Cells that are affected by the radiation divide and produce more abnormal cells. This pathological division may eventually lead to cancer.

Our bodies have the amazing capability to heal themselves. When we are exposed to low doses of radiation, healthy cells are able to repair the damage rapidly. Cells that died due to exposure are replaced by the body. If we, however, are exposed to very high doses of radiation, the body may not be able to replace the damaged cells fast enough and tissues or organs may fail to function properly. This is when the radiation sickness sets in.

More than sixty radioactive elements are found in nature, but most people are unaware that they are exposed to radiation on a daily basis. Radiation is present everywhere and there is no way to escape it. There are three different types of radiation:

• terrestrial radiation - emitted by the rocks, soil, oceans, and plants. Radioactive elements enter our bodies when we drink water, breath air, or eat foods which contain them. The naturally occurring radioisotopes such as carbon-14, potassium-40, thorium-223, polonium-218, uranium-238 and its decay product radon-222, are the elements that cause exposure to radiation from within our bodies.
• cosmic radiation - is the results from the interaction of cosmic rays with the upper atmosphere of our planet. Cosmic rays permeate the entire Space and are composed of highly energized, positively charged particles and high energy photons. They approach the earth at the speed that almost equals the speed of light. Most of these particles are blocked by the earth's atmosphere and the magnetic field, but many are able to penetrate and form radioactive isotopes that affect us daily. The exposure grows with the altitude. High mountain peaks and high altitude intercontinental flights receive the highest dose of cosmic radiation.
• man-made radiation - is the radiation caused by human activities and is found in many areas of our daily lives, often where we do not even expect it: our building materials such as bricks and cement may contain uranium ores and are sources of the deadly radon gas; tobacco products contain radioactive polonium-210 which naturally occurs in tobacco plants; commercial food irradiation; radiation from computers and television screens, cell phones, medical diagnostic technology such as X-rays and CAT scans, and the full body scanners at the airports, contributes to the daily cumulative exposure; fission products from weapons testing; nuclear waste from fission reactors; nuclear power plants disasters that add another dimension to our daily lives as fallout is highly radioactive and has immediate cell damaging potential. 

The dangers of radiation are well understood by the medical and the scientific communities. In order to determine the damage caused by radiation, a total dose resulting from repeated exposures to ionizing radiation over a period of time has to be established.

Radiation has a cumulative effect which means that even if we were never exposed to a radioactive fallout from a nuclear power plant, the damage results from our exposure to different forms of radiation over longer periods of time. This is the reason why people who, for instance, work at nuclear facilities or who operate x-ray machines have to be constantly monitored.

Since we are naturally exposed to radiation, additional exposure should be limited to an absolutely necessary minimum.

Nuclear fallout, however, comes unannounced and carries far more deadlier radiation than any other source, with the exception of an atomic bomb, of course. Cesium-137 and iodine-131 are the radioactive particles that contaminate the environment after a nuclear fallout. As these particles are carried by the winds, they can contaminate vast areas thus affecting people who do not live in the immediate vicinity of a nuclear disaster.

Fortunately, the atomic incidents are rather rare, but since they occurred in the past, we have gathered enough experience in the field of treatment and prevention. Traditionally few very effective supplements and herbs were used to prevent the body from the possible effects of radiation or to "detox" the body after exposure. They offer simple and natural solution and are quite effective and rather inexpensive.

Natural treatments for radiation exposure:

• iodine - is one of the most important natural antidotes to radiation. Our bodies need iodine for the optimally functioning thyroid gland which utilizes it to produce metabolism regulating hormones. Unfortunately, the thyroid cannot tell the difference between the radioactive iodine-131 and the beneficial form of iodine that is normally found in natural sea salt and in sea vegetables. This is most unfortunate as the radioactive iodine attaches itself to iodine receptors in the thyroid causing mutation and cell death and, eventually, cancer. Supplemental iodine, which usually comes in a strongly bound form of potassium iodide, is usually administered to prevent the damage from exposure to the radioactive iodine. The bound forms of iodine, however, are biologically inefficient as the body is able to absorb only about 20 percent of this nutrient. For a better protection nascent iodine is the preferred choice. Nascent iodine supplements deliver iodine in its atomic form which is easily absorbed and utilized by the thyroid gland. It is important to understand that supplemental iodine can only protect against radioactive iodine, but does not protect against other radioactive particles such as cesium and strontium.
• sodium bicarbonate - a substance also known as baking soda, is the best means to minimize the kidney damage caused by the uranium exposure. Oral doses or infusions of sodium bicarbonate help alkalize the urine and render uranium ions less toxic to the kidneys. Sodium bicarbonate binds with uranium and promotes its excretion from the body thus reducing the severity of the damage caused by radiation. Sodium bicarbonate can also be added to bath water for a full body detoxifying effect. The suggested amount is one pound for a low grade exposure and up to five  pounds for an acute radiation exposure. Sodium bicarbonate is also very effective in removing uranium from contaminated surfaces and from the soil.
• sweet water algae - micro-algae such as spirulina and chlorella have been used with great success by the Russian doctors to treat patients after the nuclear reactor explosion in Chernobyl. Micro-algae are very rich in nutrients and have the capability to bind to toxins and sweep them out of the body. They alkalize and purify the blood and restore its chemistry. The algae also enhance the immune system that is normally compromised by radiation.
• seaweeds - especially kelp, are rich in sodium alginate - a polysaccharide which binds to radioactive strontium and removes it from the body. Sea vegetables are also rich in iodine and help prevent uptake of the radioactive iodine. Other nutrients such as vitamin B 12, iron, sulfur, and zinc, inhibit the absorption of radioactive cobalt, plutonium, sulfur and zinc particles. 
• medicinal mushrooms - mushrooms such as reishi and maitake enhance the immune system after the exposure to radiation and prevent tumors from forming in the body. They also protect the DNA from the damage caused by ionizing radiation. Mushrooms are rich in beta-glucans that are known to protect and restore the skin from the damage caused exposure to radiation. 
• Korean ginseng - is an herb that increases mental and physical endurance. It has the capability to inhibit tumor growth and prevent hemorrhage after exposure to radiation. It prevents the degeneration of bone marrow and stimulates formation of new white blood cells.
• organic sulfur - inhibits the uptake of radioactive sulfur. It also enables transport of oxygen across the cell membranes thus contributing to a fast regeneration of the damaged cells. The mineral has the ability to detoxify heavy metals and neutralize free radicals. It is a building block of many amino-acids that are necessary to restore the damaged body tissues.  
• liquid zeolite - especially the clinoptilolite which can absorb all kinds of toxins and help remove radiation not only from the human or animal bodies, but also from the affected environment. Clinoptilolite was successfully used to clean up the radioactive damage after the Three Mile Island incident and in Chernobyl. Because of their molecular structure and the negative charge, zeolites are able to absorb positively charged mercury, aluminum, cadmium, lead, arsenic, and radioactive ions of uranium and plutonium. Zeolites trap these and other substances like a sponge and carry them out of the body without causing any additional damage to the body.

As I mentioned above, our bodies can heal themselves. A healthy body with a strong immune system is capable of correcting any damage. We can support our bodies with balanced nutrition, regular detoxification, proper relaxation and stress management. Daily diet should be supplemented with vitamins and antioxidants to protect the body from free radicals that are generated by the radiation.

We cannot escape radiation, but we can protect our genetic substance from the damage caused by it at least to some degree. People working in nuclear power plants, miners, submarine personnel, flight crews, and those who are in daily contact with medical diagnostic technology should take extra care and undergo regular detoxification.

By Dominique Allmon 

P.S.

Some foods are naturally radioactive. Bananas, for instance, contain natural potassium, which includes the naturally radioactive isotope potassium-40. The same is true of the human body. What physicists miss, but no biologist would, is that potassium in the human body is homeostatically regulated, so regardless of how many bananas you eat, the amount of potassium-40 in your body is constant. Therefore, your radiation dose is constant regardless of your banana intake. Things change when we are exposed to radioactivity from a nuclear plant fallout. No dose can be considered harmless.

*This information is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to diagnose, treat or cure a disease.

Natural Treatments for Radiations Exposure by Dominique Allmon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.