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[LIVE] Tepco is removing the upper part of reactor4 Fukushima Diary seems caught off guard. He's got a live feed, if you're interested.. Demolition, or urgent deconstruction of the upper part of the Reactor building began without an announcement. This is important. Somethings happening.
After a year and a half of watching the severely understaffed workers try to stabilize three Reactors from criticality and clear debris, very little other has been done to stabilize the Reactor 4 building, until just a few weeks ago. You'd think 1551 fuel assemblies packed in a damaged Spent Fuel Pool 90 feet in the air that is a potential World-Ender would be a priority, but it has not. Again, until now.
So today TEPCO decides to bust ass on a project that was just a week ago moved up to this fall from the end of 2013, and was moved up today to.. Well, today. Ominous.
The wind is blowing directly into Tokyo, by the way..
And there's this..
Experts warn of nuclear fire at Fukushima Audio post from ABC News. Released earlier today, before deconstruction.
Holy shit! What the fuck is going on at Fukushima? Godlike Productions. The first page of this thread overstates the doom(for the moment), but the thread itself has some good sources. Like this one.
One note: During this thread, the appearance of demolition/construction men on the upper levels of 4 are called out as evidence that this whole thing is a hoax(As the radioactive threat is not real, and this all has been a cover up for Something Else..). Not quite. Reactors 1,2, and 3 had meltdowns, and 4 was damaged in an explosion, but the Reactor itself was shut down. The primary danger of Reactor 4 has always been the Spent Fuel Pool, not overwhelming radiation like the first three.
Any accident involving Reactor 4's Spent Fuel Pool could be catastrophic. I wish the men dismantling this potentially world ending time bomb nimble-ness, efficiency, and the utmost of safety! No pressure, fellas: The fate of the world's on your shoulders; that's all..
Fuel assembly removal was slated for late 2013. Now they're moving it up by one year? I wonder what factors changed their risk assessment and resulting actions? Japan Today. Excerpts:
Workers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will begin removing fuel rods from a damaged reactors a year ahead of schedule, a government minister said Thursday, a move to address concerns about the risk of a new quake that could cause a further accident and scatter more radioactive debris.
“We would like to start taking out undamaged fuel this year. Preparation is now under way,” Japan’s nuclear crisis minister, Goshi Hosono, told Reuters in an interview.
“Doing it quickly is important. But we also have to make sure those workers out there, who are struggling under harsh conditions, will not be endangered by trying to move things fast.” (Fast, like the earthquake happened 15 months ago and we're just now getting around to dealing with Reactor 4's Spent Fuel Pool fast? That fast?)
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), operator of the plant, had said in April it aimed to begin removing the fuel rods from the No. 4 reactor at the end of next year.
That would have left large quantities of radioactive fuel rods outside the protection of strong containment vessels for two and a half years after the accident.
Experts say the fuel rods, now covered only by water and a white plastic tarp, could present a risk of a knock-on accident if the reactor building collapsed or the water supply used to keep the rods cool were disrupted by another earthquake.
Some 1,535 fuel assemblies—enough uranium fuel rods to power three reactors—are being stored in a pool atop the mangled No. 4 reactor building. The reactor, which was shut down for maintenance at the time of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, was badly damaged by a series of powerful explosions that followed the disaster as power was cut off to the plant.
Hosono said last month during a visit to the Fukushima plant that he expected workers to begin removing fuel from the No. 4 reactor’s storage pool next year.
Work began in April to raise what amounts to a giant tent over the building to keep radioactive dust from scattering during the transport of the fuel rods.
TEPCO says its analysis shows the No.4 reactor building would hold up in a strong earthquake. But Japanese safety regulators ordered TEPCO to recheck its findings last month after measurements showed one of the walls of the reactor building was buckling out by about 3 centimeters.
This rescheduling and actual start of fuel assembly removal is really fast action coming from TEPCO. Alarmingly fast. This situation bears watching..
1. Mystery Continues: Professor theorizes black substance on roads is actually radioactive particles — “Phenomenon occurs even in regular soil containing no cyanobacteria” — All roadside dirt can have high radiation, regardless of color. Enenews Excerpts:
There are two major theories on why the cyanobacteria in the black soil has such high levels of radiation, but nothing has been confirmed.
One theory posits that the radiation becomes concentrated in the cyanobacteria. There is scientific evidence that cyanobacteria absorbs cesium, but confirmation has yet to be made on whether such radiation concentration has occurred in the cyanobacteria found in the black soil samples.
Hayakawa’s theory is that the high radiation levels are due to radioactive cesium from the Fukushima nuclear accident that was pushed by rain and wind and accumulated along roads. He believes that the phenomenon occurs even in regular soil containing no cyanobacteria.
According to Hayakawa’s theory, all dirt along roads is capable of recording high radiation levels, regardless of the color of the soil.
2. Good news/Bad news: Tepco: New 60-ton cover on top of Unit No. 4 fuel pool installed (PHOTOS) /[JNN live camera] Red light between reactor 4 and 3
3. BREAKING: Typhoon Guchol to cross Tokyo and then on to Fukushima - this could be it! Maybe.. This is a good thread to refer back to, as they'll keep up with the typhoon's direction until it hits Tokyo and Fukushima, or veers off onto another course in real time. Remember, this is a model, but couple the storm's potential with this little nugget: Fukushima worker “Tepco is having difficulty to increase tanks because of poor ground” Fukushima Diary. Excerpts:
Related to this article..Possible uneven settlement of reactor 4
Tepco postponed the construction to increase tanks for the contaminated water.
They were planning to start the construction in July but it will be postponed to August.
Tepco explains it is for the construction scheduling and there is still enough capacity of the tank, but actual Fukushima worker, Happy11311 tweeted like this below
I think the construction of the new tanks is behind the schedule and it’s not for what Tepco explained. I think that’s because of the ground. They are taking time to build the base of the tanks.
Typhoon-style rain on already unstable ground will make the ground more or less stable?
Subtitled: A Local Problem for Japan or a Global Mega Crisis? Holophi. Just The Abstract as excerpt, as this is a long read:
Extreme opinions are being voiced about the risk of global catastrophe resulting from a possible collapse of the Fukushima Daiichi unit 4 spent fuel pool. These claims are appearing mostly among the public through Internet media and other non-‐official channels. Officials sources remain largely mute on the subject or downplay the risks. This report provides an approximate bounding of the risks using available data. The results of this analysis suggest that a nominal release of 10% of the SFP 4 inventory of cesium and strontium would represent 3-‐10 times the March 2011 release amounts, substantially increasing risk levels in Japan and impacting marine life. Release of 100% of the SFP 4 inventory, or 30-‐100 times the March 2011 release amounts, could result in significant global impact.
Holophi's analysis is not necessarily a doomsday scenario globally, but even in the best of Reactor 4 collapse scenarios, even if the Spent Fuel has cooled to prevent a radiological fire as opposed to a major heat release, any event spells massive contamination for the great majority of Japan, and possibly globally. Holophi's modeling is based on quantity approximations of SFP 4's fuel assemblies and their relative remaining heat. They also note there's no accurate way to approximate a collapse scenario of the pool and how these 1331 to 1535 fuel assemblies will fall the 30 meters to the ground. Yeah, our Best and Brightest were so sure nothing bad would ever happen to their precious Reactors that they built the highly dangerous Spent Fuel Pool 90 feet above the ground. Nice..
The absolute best case scenario is that SFP 4's fuel assembly removal will take place (Starting in Late 2013) before another earthquake, explosion, or another variant event completely destroys Reactor 4. Remember, this analysis doesn't include data regarding Reactors 1, 2, 3, or any combination event thereof. The overall outlook for Fukushima is still bleak/dire to catastrophic.
New photos show what remains of No. 4 reactor building’s eastern wall The top photo shows how much progress TEPCO's cleanup has made. Cleaner? Yes. Sturdy? For now..
The fact Spent Fuel Pool/Reactor 4 remains standing is the only thing standing between us and global catastrophe. Earthquakes happen almost daily. There's enough material here to contaminate.. Everything, eventually. And there's a good chance a quake will come along sooner rather than later, thereby causing civilization to effectively end.
I, for one, are doing things I will miss when they become unavailable. Went to a movie tonight. I haven't been in a theater in two years. Small crowd, no one talked.. It was really nice!
I will be, in the very near future, doing more items on my Fukushima Bucket List. Small, accessible activities I love. Up next, Thai or Indian, and frozen custard. Jogging outdoors. A day of photography. Asking ______ out. This really is the time, friends. There might not be any more. Don't say no one ever told you..
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