JAPAN: That Black Dust Collecting Everywhere Is Alive... ...and EATING radiation?

I had a hunch: & indeed, I may have been right.

Just last night I provided, in the Fukushima-Diary chat room, a potential alternate explanation for the plague of radioactive black dust in North East Japan:

3 Jun 12, 08:56 PM anyone: can anyone explains me what is this black substance which is often found? no one gave some possibilities? 3 Jun 12, 09:20 PM ufs76: black *****? 3 Jun 12, 09:34 PM ufs76: not that easy to find 3 Jun 12, 09:35 PM ufs76: anyway, I heard it is biological in nature and very radioactive 3 Jun 12, 09:37 PM ufs76: I personally believe it is vaporised MOX fuel from the reactor 3 nuclear explosion 3 Jun 12, 09:38 PM ufs76: rads should be along soon to disagree and possibly offer an alternative explanation ~SNIP~ 4 Jun 12, 12:42 AM BlackSubstance: The black substance is the oxide ashes formed when they make a cheap plutonium bomb that uses lots of uranium in proportion to Plutonium. You can see a reference to it here as the black substance rained down on australia duirng the maralinga tests. Go to about 13 minutes into the video and listen for about 1 1/2 minutes. You will be shocked. The out of control reactors in fukushima are burning cores made up of weapons mixes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4ei_pypCF8 katze: no word about black substance 4 Jun 12, 12:42 AM ~SNIP~ femalefaust: have heard algae populations explode when in presence of caesium 4 Jun 12, 06:19 AM 4 Jun 12, 11:58 AM femalefaust: that makes it both biological and as a cosequence of radiation

Where had I 'heard' it?  At the University of California at Berkeley Department of Nuclear Engineering Forum:

Another Strange Occurence Submitted by Garden Gal (not verified) on Thu, 2011-06-30 23:37. In January, I purchased a lemon tree in a 5 gallon container with large holes at the bottom. I placed it under our covered deck with a large saucer under the container. At the beginning of March, my husband moved the container with the saucer out onto the open part of our deck. There it remained through all the rain storms of March and April...soaking up rain water. In May, the lemon tree needed water. So I watered it, letting the saucer fill up. I did this a couple of times...and this inch thick green scum began growing in the saucer...and up the outside of the container - algae. The Cesium was feeding the algae! It had to be. Needless to say, I threw the lemon tree out! ~SNIP~ Algae loves Strontium-90. Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 2011-07-02 03:24. Algae loves Strontium-90. Really. Expect a lot this summer, and avoid it. I don't know about them feeding on Cesium though. Cesium is taken up similar to potassium Submitted by Gardening Gal (not verified) on Tue, 2011-07-05 21:08. Plants that like potassium also will uptake cesium. Well, something was fueling Submitted by Garden Gal (not verified) on Fri, 2011-07-01 00:10. Well, something was fueling that algae growth. You had to see it. It didn't look like anything I've ever seen before. Maybe it had nothing to do with all that rain water... Who knows. Algae Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 2011-09-03 19:13. Hmmm... maybe a sunny spring after a grayer winter? NCBI has done some lab work Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 2011-09-03 22:38. NCBI has done some lab work with correlation between algae growth and radiation. And someone on this forum posted some great info about the same... wish I could find it via search feature but can't. ugh.

I backed up the cesium-chomping allegation. See here, and here, and here.... I was thinking, where have I heard of black radiation-eating microorganisms before?

23 May 2007 Chernobyl Fungus Feeds On Radiation by Kate Melville ...a robot sent into the still-highly-radioactive Chernobyl reactor had returned with samples of black, melanin-rich fungi that were growing on the ruined reactor's walls. ...  Two types - one that was induced to make melanin (Crytococcus neoformans) and another that naturally contains it (Wangiella dermatitidis) - were exposed to levels of ionizing radiation approximately 500 times higher than background levels. Both of these melanin-containing species grew significantly faster than when exposed to standard background radiation.... ...Until now, melanin's biological role in fungi - if any - had been a mystery. Interestingly, the melanin in fungi is no different chemically from the melanin in our skin, leading Casadevall to speculate that melanin could be providing energy to skin cells. Read more See also

& lo and behold, FINALLY, a positive ID on the stuff, from Dissensus:

The informations of city center detected by Minamisoma City Total value of cesium 134 and 137       Bq/kg-dry     Place of extraction                             Sample ① 1,320,000   Haramachi District, Ushigoe         algae types  ② 1,960,000   Kashimaku District, Jisabara         algae types  ⑥ 5,570,000   Odaka District, Kanaya                   algae types  ⑧ 16,200       Haramachi District, Kunimi              soil ⑪ 793,000     Odata District, Kamimachi               algae types ⑫ 430,000     Odata District, Motomachi               algae types ⑬ 583,000     Odata District, Motomachi               algae types ⑭ 2,970,000　Odata District, Kanaya                     algae types / soil  ⑰ 522,000　   Odata District, Kanaya                     cattle dung I wonder how many plutonium and strontium are inside those highly radioactive substances? They are trodden and they are blown off in the residential area but The Ministry of Environmental and Minamisoma City and the police and the healthcare center are all ignoring it. I asked to the section leader of the emergency operations center about the question of the recorded account of the analysis center for example about the amount of water. It was in the meeting organized by the city, so they called me. It was not noticed. I told about my question but there was no answer for three weeks. And the public security of police started to ignore my phone calls. I think i will collect the "Black substances and algae types" but there's nobody who can receive them. Should i go to see the room of the mayor after the repossess all the more? When the rainy season will begin they will start to grow thickly. When the rainy season will finish, they will release spores.

Now, if I could put this together from over here,

well....

Not conclusive yet.  

Oh, well, whatever, never mind.

Be seeing you.