Japan Update july 10, 2011

Japan: Strong earthquake rattles tsunami-weary Japan  From Before It's News. 


A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 hit Japan‘s northeastern coast on Sunday, prompting a brief tsunami warning for the area still recovering from a devastating quake and killer wave four months ago.


Residents in coastal areas were warned to evacuate for about two hours after the quake, but there were no immediate reports of damage.
And:
Sunday’s quake registered 4 on the Japanese scale of 7, meaning it was felt as moderately strong. Because of the damage from the March quake and tsunami, however, many buildings in the area are structurally weak and seawalls have been destroyed, making the region more vulnerable to relatively weaker quakes.


Scandal: Japan Arrests People For Collecting Radioactive Rubble While Claiming No Radiation In The Area
Before It's News.  Excerpts:


As Japan insisted Fukushima was not leaking radiation into the surrounding environment in March, the government was arresting people over 60 kilometers from Fukushima for collecting radioactive rubble without a license, claiming the collection of radioactive material violated the Waste Disposal and Public Cleansing Law.


According to the Government of Japan and TEPCO, as of March 26th they official story was there was the pressure vessels at the Fukushima nuclear reactor were still intact and radiation was not leaking into the environment.
..
Yet while assuring the public radiation was not leaking into the environment, the Government of Japan was busy arresting citizens who were collecting radioactive rubble over 60 kilometer from the Fukushima Nuclear plant.


It would have been nice had they used all that energy towards a dumb ass cover up and directed it towards containment and cleanup.  But they were trying to protect their Bottom Line, which has since gone away.  TEPCO has to stay alive to pay damages to..  essentially everyone in Japan(By the time this bullshit wraps up!), but how can it stay afloat without nationalization?


If anyone is left to read them, there's like.. twenty thousand books about The Earthquake and Nuclear Nightmare just dying to be written..


#Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 3: Humans Entered Reactor Bldg and Did What Bots Couldn't Do  From Ex-SKF via Rense.  Does this sound like anything close to "contained" to you?


TEPCO seems to be in a great hurry to start the nitrogen injection into the Containment Vessel of the Reactor 3. At first I thought it was just a window-dressing effort for the national government who had decided, on some inexplicable reason or unreason, it would be safe enough for people to come back to their homes in the planned evacuation zone as long as the nitrogen gas was pumped into the Reactor 3 Containment Vessel, just so that the government could tell the citizens "See what we've done for you? It's now so much safer you can go back!"


Or, the Reactor 3 is actually in danger of blowing up in a hydrogen explosion.


They have hardly done any work on other reactors. The Reactor 1's basement water, last seen as gushing out 4 sieverts/hour steam through to the 1st floor, hasn't been touched. That water doesn't even go to the water treatment system. I haven't heard any news of TEPCO sampling the water for analysis. There's hardly any news on the Reactor 2, after they opened the double door and supposedly drove out the radioactive materials and moisture inside. They still don't know the water level (if any) inside the Reactor 2's Pressure Vessel, because the pressure gauge and water gauge don't work. As for the Reactor 4, they've been injecting water into the Reactor well and the equipment pool from the bottom of the Reactor Pressure Vessel, which seems peculiar. Other than that, and the photo of a hot-spring-like Spent Fuel Pool on the 5th floor, there's not much information coming out.


Govt., TEPCO draw roadmap to reactor decommission  Story/Video courtesy of NHK World...


A roadmap toward decommissioning of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant indicates that the removal of melted nuclear fuel rods at the plant may begin in 10 years.


NHK has obtained the mid- and long-term roadmap which was presented when officials from the operator of the Fukushima plant, government officials in charge of nuclear safety, and manufacturers of nuclear reactors met last week.
..
The work is considered to be the most important phase in the decommissioning process. The roadmap indicates that removal will start in 2021 if technology essential for the work has been developed before that.


If not, then the timeline pushes back.  At the earliest, the containment process ends in ten years.