Fukushima’s Melted Reactors 500 Days On

The ongoing nuclear emergency continues to surpass Worst Case Scenarios.  Just what we need:  A relentless, overachieving catastrophe.  Veterans Today.  Excerpts:

Dr. Paolo Scampa, PhD, a well-known physicist in the European Union, has prepared a radioactive inventory of Fukushima Daiichi’s destroyed nuclear power plants 500 days after the meltdown of three disemboweled, mangled reactors.



The violent extinction level event occurred Mar 11, 2011. The deadly meltdown and dispersion of radioactive fuel throughout the world is on-going to this day.


Because of the nature of long-lived and short-lived radioactivity, this summation of the radioactive Fukushima inventory is valid for many years. Dr. Scampa’s inventory is current as of Friday, June 29, 2012.


There are 1,946 radioactive products produced by nuclear weapons and atomic reactors according to the Oak Ridge Nuclear Weapons Lab in America.


Fifty-five are considered to be long-lived; 898 are considered to be short-lived but last more than eight days. These nine hundred fifty-three radioactive isotopes are included in this analysis.


Nine hundred ninety-three (993) radioactive isotopes are considered dangerous and undergo radioactive decay within eight days; they are not included in this analysis.

Scampa's analysis is dry, and yet, terrifying.  Here ya go..

The three melted reactors combined in Fukushima Daichi contained 257 tons of nuclear fuel enriched to 3.7% Uranium 235 and divided into 1,496 assemblies, each about 172 kg.



Reactor No. 3 also housed 32 MOX assemblies, reportedly enriched to 6% or 330 kg of Pu239.


In addition, the storage pools of these reactors have at least 239 tonnes of fuel residing there for who knows how long (1,390 assemblies) and 31 tonnes of fresh fuel (180 assemblies).
..
The day of the earthquake their fuel was consumed according to the article cited at an average of 23.35 GWd/t at a rate of 24.07 kg/t for a total of 6.186 tonnes of fuel fissioned.

..
Overall, 9 tonnes of fuel was subjected to atomic fission or activation transformation occasioning a prodigious explosion of radioactivity and radiotoxicity which over time, is several times the amount needed to kill by internal contamination the whole human race.

..
The most remarkable of the volatile elements (elements of which the boiling point is inferior to 1,500 degrees Centigrade and escape above all the first coriums). 37,921 PBq; 1 billion Ci; 18 billion potential inhaled lethal doses.



The official report of the Japanese government to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Association] contains a hypothesis that the emanations of nuclear fuel from Fukushima Daiichi are equivalent to the ones observed at Chernobyl.

We can see by comparing the subsets of figures below that the radioactive particle emission through the air from Fukushima is not only 3.7 times higher than Chernobyl; but, more importantly, 28.3 times more radiotoxic with every breath you take.

So we got that goin' for us; which is nice..  I still can't believe no one talks about Fukushima.  The level of global denial is..  Beyond words.

Radiation reading on weather forecast of Fukushima

Nice..  Fukushima Diary:

This tweet grabbed my attention.
In Fukushima, NTV reports radiation level on weather forecast like precipitation.
Look at this carefully. It’s weather forecast, but not precipitation. This is how Fukushima is at this moment.

I'm sure this is nothing.  If it was, wouldn't American media be reporting this too, as opposed to what Brad Pitt's dumbass mom says?

Chin Up, Fukushima: At Least A Super-Typhoon Isn't Barreling Directly Towards You!

Models for Typhoon Guchol have tracked significantly west, so that's great news!  Now the only thing we have to worry about regarding Fukushima is..  Everything else.  Here's the roundup..

Report: Algae is bio-concentrating radioactive material in Japan cities — Sucking in radiation from walls and asphalt — Strontium may be absorbed most.

Local Official: Radiation dose is increasing with rainfall around Fukushima plant — “I don’t expect level of contamination will decrease this year”





“Oh, very high!!” NHK: Serious radioactivity accumulation causing hotspots in center of large city(Koriyama) up to 300,000 Bq/kg (VIDEO)

(Now They Tell Us) "Miscommunication" Prevented Radiation Monitoring on March 12 Last Year





Happy Summer, everyone!

Japanese have to rely on foreign media to know what’s going on in Japan

This really is a shame, isn't it?  Fukushima Diary.  Excerpts:

There was no media coverage about the demonstration, only NHK reported but it was told to be only 400 people, where it was 11,000 people.[LINK]



However, major foreign media covered the demonstration, they are the only source for Japanese to know what is happening in their own country.


【BBC】Japan PM Noda orders nuclear reactors back online
And: (There's video at the link, too)
Japan approves two reactor restarts, more seen ahead

By Linda Sieg and Kiyoshi Takenaka


TOKYO
Sat Jun 16, 2012 5:52am EDT


(Reuters) – Japan on Saturday approved the resumption of nuclear power operations at two reactors despite mass public opposition, the first to come back on line after they were all shut down following the Fukushima crisis.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, his popularity ratings sagging, had backed the restarts for some time. He announced the government’s decision at a meeting with key ministers, giving the go-ahead to two reactors operated by Kansai Electric Power Co at Ohi in western Japan.

The decision, despite public concerns over safety after the big earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima plant, could open the door to more restarts among Japan’s 50 nuclear power reactors.


“There is no such thing as a perfect score when it comes to disaster prevention steps,” Trade Minister Yukio Edano told a news conference after the announcement.

“But, based on what we learned from the Fukushima accident, those measures that need to be taken urgently have been addressed, and the level of safety has been considerably enhanced (at the Ohi plant),” he said.

All's well, everyone's safe, so start those reactors back up, boys!  The latest models show Fukushima  is almost directly in Typhoon Guchol's path.  If Guchol's a direct hit, wouldn't that be a PR Nightmare /Radiological Catastrophe /Human Cataclysm?

Timing really is everything, right?

Uh-Oh: Former Japanese Industry Minister Admits Fukushima's Beyond Bad

All quotes from Banri Kaieda, Japan's Industry Minister during and after the Fukushima event.  Presented here these two stories from ENews regarding his recent testimony. Japan’s Ex-Industry Minister: Neutron radiation is degenerating reactors — Admits he was playing a role when saying nuclear plants were safe, and Former Top Official at Hearing: Told that all 6 Fukushima reactors would ‘explode’ if workers left plant — Entire eastern Japan might be lost.  Chilling.

[...]

In June, [Banri Kaieda, the industry minister during the early stages of the Fukushima nuclear accident,] declared that nuclear power plants were safe and said he would approve the restarts of nuclear power plants, with the exception of the Hamaoka nuclear plant in Shizuoka Prefecture.


But [yesterday May 17, 2012] he told the Diet investigation panel that he did not believe all plants were problem-free, partly because reactors degenerate due to neutron radiation.


Still, he defended his decision to allow operations to resume at nuclear plants, saying he had a “role to play as industry minister.”
[...]
Kaieda said on May 17 that [Tepco Chairman Tsunehisa] Shimizu told him on the phone that TEPCO would evacuate from the Fukushima No. 1 plant to the Fukushima No. 2 plant. [...]
Kaieda asked industry ministry officials what would happen if all TEPCO employees deserted the plant. Kaieda said he was told: “It would be disastrous because not only the No. 1 to No. 4 reactors but also the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors would explode.”


Kaieda then discussed the issue with other Cabinet ministers who were at the prime minister’s office. He said they reached the conclusion: “A (total) withdrawal would lead to a disaster, in which the entire eastern Japan might be lost. We have to ask workers at the plant to hang in there although we feel sorry for them.”
[...]
There.  He admitted he lied, and said TEPCO feels sorry for the workers.  Don't you feel better now?

Fukushima One Year Later: 1. Still Ain't Over 2. Only Getting Worse..

The Dangerous Myths of Fukushima  Counterpunch.  Excerpts:


The myth that Fukushima radiation levels were too low to harm humans persists, a year after the meltdown. A March 2, 2012 New York Times article quoted Vanderbilt University professor John Boice: “there’s no opportunity for conducting epidemiological studies that have any chance for success – the doses are just too low.” Wolfgang Weiss of the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation also recently said doses observed in screening of Japanese people “are very low.”



Views like these are political, not scientific, virtually identical to what the nuclear industry cheerleaders claim.
..
But just one year after Fukushima, the “no harm” mantra is now being crowded by evidence – evidence to the contrary.



First, estimates of releases have soared. The first reports issued by the Japanese government stated that emissions equaled 10% of 1986 Chernobyl emissions. A few weeks later, they doubled that estimate to 20%. By October 2011, an article in the journal Nature estimated Fukushima emissions to be more than double that of Chernobyl.
..
Where did the radioactive particles and gases go? Officials from national meteorological agencies in countries like France and Austria followed the plume, and made colorful maps available on the Internet. Within six days of the meltdowns, the plume had reached the U.S., and within 18 days, it had circled the Northern Hemisphere.



How much radiation entered the U.S. environment? A July 2011 journal article by officials at Pacific Northwest National Lab in eastern Washington State measured airborne radioactive Xenon-133 up to 40,000 times greater than normal in the weeks following the fallout. Xenon-133 is a gas that travels rapidly and does not enter the body, but signals that other, more dangerous types of radioactive chemicals will follow.
A February 2012 journal article by the U.S. Geological Survey looked at radioactive Iodine-131 that entered soil from rainfall, and found levels hundreds of times above normal in places like Portland OR, Fresno CA, and Denver CO. The same places also had the highest levels of Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 in the U.S. While elevated radiation levels were found in all parts of the country, it appears that the West Coast and Rocky Mountain states received the greatest amounts of Fukushima fallout.


L.A. Times: Speculation that “supercritical fission event” occurred at Fukushima reactor irradiating plutonium, says nuclear expert — Explosion so massive investigators found fuel rod fragments a mile away  ENews.  Excerpts:


Robert Alvarez, a former senior policy adviser in the U.S. Energy Department
"They were irradiating plutonium in Unit 3, which experienced the biggest explosion"



The explosion was so massive that investigators found fuel rod fragments a mile away, leading to speculation that a supercritical fission event may have also occurred.


Much remains unknown one year after the disaster.


Authorities can't say exactly where breaches occurred in the reactor vessels and spent fuel pools that caused contaminated water to flood the plant's lower levels.


The last two excerpts within the article might be misinformation..  The commentors in the following section seem to think so!  Plutonium 241 release at 1/10,000 of Chernobyl?  Uh-huh..  Uh-huh.. 


"Planetary Genocide": Fukushima One Year Later : The Poisoning of Planet Earth  Global Research via Before It's News.  Excerpts:


Early on, even essential radioactive monitoring was shut down. In May 2011, the prestigious Norsk Institute’s online site was blocked from the US. They had been monitoring on a daily basis the worldwide radioactive contamination to which we were all –and continue to be– exposed. Conveniently, any early radiation monitoring in the US was inconsistent, with numerous sites supposedly not working for one or another reason. Then the so-called “acceptable” radiation levels in food were raised in the US and EU:

..
So, what is not monitored, or where the radiation rates are manipulated, then no one –government officials and corporations– can ever be held accountable, nor can increased death rates, diabetes, stillbirths, birth defects ever be attributed to this catastrophic planetary event.



When have we ever been told the truth about our life-long systemic radiation poisoning? For decades, we have been uninformed experimental laboratory rats since before the Manhattan Project. There never were any ethical or precautionary considerations. Greed and secret agendas trumped everything else.


With various half-lives –some eons-long– of numerous radioactive components, the human race and every other living creature on our planet is on its way to extinction, due to the known sterilization effects of radiation. Here is a short list of the half-life of five of the radioactive isotopes that are and will continue to poison all of our children, and us, ad infinitum, in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink and in which we bathe:
Cesium 137: 30 years
Plutonium 239: 24,000 years
Strontium 90: 29 years [mimics calcium in the body]
Uranium 235: 700-million years
Iodine 131: 8 days [absorbed into the thyroid and gives heavy radiation dose. Also goes into the soil, passed onto us through cow’s milk.]
..
Any reasonable safety precautions or realistic evacuations never took place at Fukushima or elsewhere. In addition, a collection of 40-years worth of 600,000 spent fuel rods posed an immediate HazMat threat that never went away. The water poured over them evaporated into radioactive steam to go directly into our planet’s atmosphere and the tons of sea water sprayed on the entire nuclear conflagration were criminally dumped into the Pacific Ocean. Again, because it was not monitored, we will never know how many millions of tons of radioactive water were dumped into the Pacific Ocean. The entire web of ocean life then was irreversibly contaminated with radioactive nuclear waste and detritus, as the ocean currents carried this nightmare to the west coast shores of North America (California, Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver).
..
While hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions?) will develop various radiation-related illnesses (cancers and diabetes, as well as radiation-induced miscarriages, stillbirths and birth deformities) over the next decades, the coffers of the medical profession, pharmaceutical companies, and nuclear industry will be bursting with profits. The 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl continues its deathly impact –and that was only one reactor.(2) Fukushima had six reactors.



Most Important Video of the Year? Asahi TV: “Unbelievable” — If Unit 4 pool gets a crack from quake and leaks, it would be end for Tokyo -Expert — Doesn’t have to be large tremor, already shaken many times  You don't really need to watch the video or even read the excerpts from ENews.  Just re-read the previous three sentences.


All of Western US and most of East Coast, Midwest, Canada covered with airborne particles at various altitudes on March 20, Fukushima plume model shows — Based solely on Reactor No. 1 explosion (PHOTO)




Look at the plume simulations for March 20th.  March 22nd was the first day I can remember a Metallic taste to the air.  I was jogging, and in SW Missouri, it was drizzling.  I knew, just knew my imagination was getting the best of me.  Again, I second guessed my intuition.  I guess it really doesn't matter now, does it?  The damage continues to be done, and it continues to be Too Late.  Happy Anniversary, everyone!

Fukushima at Increased Earthquake Risk, Scientists Report

An old fault line reactivates almost right underneath Fukushima?  Not awesome.  Really Not Awesome, considering Reactors 2 and 4 seem to be much worse than thought.  The only ingredient missing for Catastrophe is a 7.0 or greater quake.  According to the article, there's a 70 percent chance of that happening this year, and a 98 percent chance of that happening in the next three years.

Not If.  Only When.

Japan Update, August 19, 2011

Fukushima radiation alarms doctors  Al-Jazeera  Found it on Godlike Productions.  Excerpts:

Scientists and doctors are calling for a new national policy in Japan that mandates the testing of food, soil, water, and the air for radioactivity still being emitted from Fukushima's heavily damaged Daiichi nuclear power plant.

"How much radioactive materials have been released from the plant?" asked Dr Tatsuhiko Kodama, a professor at the Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology and Director of the University of Tokyo's Radioisotope Centre, in a July 27 speech to the Committee of Health, Labour and Welfare at Japan's House of Representatives.

"The government and TEPCO have not reported the total amount of the released radioactivity yet," said Kodama, who believes things are far worse than even the recent detection of extremely high radiation levels at the plant.

There is widespread concern in Japan about a general lack of government monitoring for radiation, which has caused people to begin their own independent monitoring, which are also finding disturbingly high levels of radiation.

And:

Recent readings taken at the plant are alarming.

When on August 2nd readings of 10,000 millisieverts (10 sieverts) of radioactivity per hour were detected at the plant, Japan's science ministry said that level of dose is fatal to humans, and is enough radiation to kill a person within one to two weeks after the exposure.

10,000 millisieverts (mSv) is the equivalent of approximately 100,000 chest x-rays.

It is an amount 250 per cent higher than levels recorded at the plant in March after it was heavily damaged by the earthquake and ensuing tsunami.

The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), that took the reading, used equipment to measure radiation from a distance, and was unable to ascertain the exact level because the device's maximum reading is only 10,000 mSv.

TEPCO also detected 1,000 millisieverts (mSv) per hour in debris outside the plant, as well as finding 4,000 mSv per hour inside one of the reactor buildings.

And:

Jyunichi Tokuyama, an expert with the Iwate Prefecture Agricultural and Fisheries Department, told Al Jazeera he did not know how to deal with the crisis. He was surprised because he did not expect radioactive hot spots in his prefecture, 300km from the Fukushima nuclear plant.

"The biggest cause of this contamination is the rice straw being fed to the cows, which was highly radioactive," Tokuyama told Al Jazeera.

Kamada feels the Japanese government is acting too slowly in response to the Fukushima disaster, and that the government needs to check radiation exposure levels "in each town and village" in Fukushima prefecture.

And:

More than 11,000 tonnes of radioactive water has been released into the ocean from the stricken plant.

"Those radioactive elements bio-concentrate in the algae, then the crustaceans eat that, which are eaten by small then big fish," Caldicott said. "That's why big fish have high concentrations of radioactivity and humans are at the top of the food chain, so we get the most radiation, ultimately."

Magnitude 6.3 - NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN  USGS.

Twi from Ex-SKF..

Radioactive Beef Conundrum: High Level Cesium Detected from Beef Not Fed with Radioactive Rice Hay

Oops. There goes the lifting of the shipping ban for Fukushima.

So where did the cow get the dose of radioactive cesium? Air? Water? No one knows, because everyone in the government and the producers have been looking only at radioactive rice hay.


From NHK News Japanese

 

According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, radioactive cesium in the amount exceeding the national provisional limit has been detected from the beef from a cow raised in Fukushima Prefecture. This meat has been stored at a meat processing facility, and according to the investigation so far the cow was never fed the radioactive rice hay. The national government was going to lift the shipping ban on meat cows in Fukushima Prefecture today (August 19) but instead has instructed the Fukushima prefectural government to continue to halt shipping for the time being and conduct further investigation.

Now that they can't blame radioactive hay, what will they do?  What will those still in denial cling to?  People are starting to realize this monster is much, much bigger than they wanted to believe..

 

Another "Baseless Rumor": Cicadas in Japan This Summer Have Been Awfully Quiet

 

This is one of those bits of information that people in Japan have been exchanging on the social media since the beginning of summer: "I don't hear cicadas this year".

A typical summer in Japan is hot and humid (except in a few lucky places like Hokkaido), and the air is filled with the "singing" of cicadas.

But this year, people report that cicadas are either extremely quiet or totally silent in large part of Japan. The exception seems to be the Kansai area, but almost everywhere else people say they don't hear cicadas, and it's been a strangely quiet summer.

It is quite possible that it's been like that every year and people have started to pay heightened and nervous attention to the nature around them after the nuclear accident.

But some people have started to post the photos of cicadas they've found this summer. No wonder they don't "sing". Again, it is quite possible that cicadas in Japan have been malformed for a long time and people have just started to notice, and it's nothing to do with radiation.

Maybe, but they're probably related.

Hiroshima to Fukushima, Finishing the Job  Veterans Today via Rense.  Excerpts:

What’s more: the atomic reactors spilled their burning guts into the basements and there is evidence the melted reactor cores are still “reacting” 160 days out. Shutting them down is mostly just plain impossible. The burning, radioactive gates of hell are still open wide. Breathe deep everyone. Breathe your own poisoned Fuku tainted air.

I like articles like this as they make me feel less hyperbolic.  Good morning!

Japan Update, August 18, 2011

Cracked Fukushima: Radioactive steam escapes danger zone  Found it on Godlike Productions.  Video from Russia Today via You Tube.  Scary.

Fukushima I Nuke Plant Worker: No Steam Gushing From Cracks, But There Are Many 10-Plus Sieverts/Hr Locations  Ex-SKF.  Excerpts:

The anonymous Fukushima I Nuke Plant worker whom I featured before several times tweets on the information, yet to be substantiated, related by an independent journalist Kota Kinoshita on his blog on August 15. Mr. Kinoshita related the information only because he had heard the similar information from his government source.

What is that information? That there is steam gushing out of cracks on the ground, and that there are 6 locations that exceed 10 sieverts/hr radiation.

..

About locations that exceed 10 sieverts/hr:

In Mr. Kinoshita's blog:

[The same worker] also told [his contact] that there are 6 locations that exceed 10,000 millisievert/hr [10 sieverts/hr], unlike what TEPCO has announced.

Fukushima worker's tweet:

I think that is true. But those are the locations that have been measured. I think there are many more.

Mr. Kinoshita's blog has this bit of "rumor" from his worker at the plant

There are several cracks on the ground near the Containment Vessel, and the steam is coming out from them, not on a regular basis but sporadically.

Wait, does that mean the floor of the reactor building is cracked? He doesn't say which reactor.

And Fukushima worker has another tweet that says:

 

In the reactor buildings of Reactors 1, 2 and 3, there are many spots that measure even higher [than 10 sieverts/hr] and we can't go near them.

 

Now granted, this is speculation and hasn't been confirmed.  Keeping with TEPCO's previous information dribs and drabs, we should have confirmation when the Southern Hemisphere is thoroughly contaminated three to six months from now, long after the Upcoming Event..

Japan Update, August 12, 2011

Clusterfukushima  Washington's Blog.  Excerpts:

Arnie Gundersen notes that there are currently lethal radiation levels at Fukushima, that even higher measurements are to still come, and that the nuclear core has leaked out and is on floor like a pancake working its way down.

And nuclear regulators only thought about worst case scenarios only involving a single nuclear plant. They totally ignored the fact that power loss to complexes of nuclear reactors - like the cluster of 6 reactors at Fukushima - could lead to multiple simultaneous meltdowns.

And then there's a cluster of cover ups.

As the New York Times reports:

In interviews and public statements, some current and former government officials have admitted that Japanese authorities engaged in a pattern of withholding damaging information and denying facts of the nuclear disaster — in order, some of them said, to limit the size of costly and disruptive evacuations in land-scarce Japan and to avoid public questioning of the politically powerful nuclear industry. As the nuclear plant continues to release radiation, some of which has slipped into the nation’s food supply, public anger is growing at what many here see as an official campaign to play down the scope of the accident and the potential health risks.

And:

Meltdowns at three of Fukushima Daiichi’s six reactors went officially unacknowledged for months. In one of the most damning admissions, nuclear regulators said in early June that inspectors had found tellurium 132, which experts call telltale evidence of reactor meltdowns, a day after the tsunami — but did not tell the public for nearly three months. For months after the disaster, the government flip-flopped on the level of radiation permissible on school grounds, causing continuing confusion and anguish about the safety of schoolchildren here in Fukushima.

And:

The timing of many admissions ... suggested to critics that Japan’s nuclear establishment was coming clean only because it could no longer hide the scope of the accident.

Japan government prepares plan to flee Tokyo  ABC News (Australia) via Rense.  Excerpts:

Japan is considering the possibility of creating a back-up capital city in case a major natural disaster, like the March 11 earthquake, strikes Tokyo.

A new panel from Japan's Ministry of Land and Infrastructure will consider the possibility of moving some of Tokyo's capital functions to another big city, like Osaka.

Osaka it is, then.

Radioactive Beef Consumed in School Lunches in 296 Schools in 12 Prefectures in Japan  Ex-SKF.  Excerpts:

According to the ministry, as of August 9, the meat from the cows that may have eaten radioactive rice hay was used in school lunches in 278 elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools, and special education schools, and 18 kindergartens, in 20 cities and towns in Japan. 127 schools in Yokohama City used it, so did 53 schools and kindergartens in Gifu City [in Gifu Prefecture], and 30 schools and kindergartens in 4 cities in Miyagi Prefecture. The schools are mostly located in eastern Japan, but 40 schools in 4 cities in Mie, Shimane, Kagawa Prefectures also used the meat.

30 schools were able to test the remaining meat, and radioactive materials were detected at 8 schools. Of the 8 schools, two schools - a special education school for students with disabilities in Miyagi Prefecture and an elementary school in Chiba, had the meat that exceeded the provisional safety limit (500 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium), testing 1,293 to 649 becquerels/kg. The municipalities say the amount of contaminated beef per person is small, and it won't affect the health.

Japan's Foreign Minister: Stop Claiming Food is Safe  Japan Times via Before It's News.  Excerpts:

Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto has committed an about-face on policy by telling his ministry to refrain from vouching for the safety of Japanese food.

The ministry stance changed after radiation-tainted beef was found to have been sold to consumers nationwide, sources said.

The contaminated meat is coming from cattle that were fed rice straw contaminated with cesium isotopes ejected by the disaster-crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Japanese Utilities Select Nuclear Power As Energy Of Future - Questions About The Integrity Of Japanese Officials - Safety is important but the advancement of nuclear power must not be slowed  Lucas Whitfield Hixson.  Comprehensive. 

Strong 5.9 quake jolts Japan disaster zone  Raw Story.  Excerpts:

A 5.9-magnitude earthquake shook northeast Japan Friday, jolting the area devastated by a quake and tsunami in March, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties and no tsunami warning.

The quake hit at 3:22 am (1822 GMT Thursday) at a depth of 38 kilometres (24 miles), with its epicentre 18 kilometres from Iwaki city in Fukushima prefecture, the United States Geological Survey said.

..

Tokyo Electric Power Company, operator of the crippled plant, said it had noticed no additional problems resulting from the latest quake, which also shook buildings in Tokyo.

Study says nuclear fuel at Fukushima reactor possibly melted twice  Mainichi Daily News.  Excerpts:

Fuel inside one of the reactors at the crippled nuclear complex in Fukushima Prefecture, which was believed to have been kept cool at the bottom of the pressure vessel after its core suffered a meltdown, has possibly breached the vessel after melting again at the bottom of the vessel, an expert's study showed Monday.

The study by Fumiya Tanabe, an expert in nuclear safety, said most of the fuel at the No. 3 reactor may have fallen into the containment vessel underneath, and if so, the current method used to cool the reactor would need reviewing, which could force the plant operator to revise its schedule to contain the five-month-old disaster.  (My how time flies when you're doomed!)

The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. earlier said the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors' cores are assumed to have suffered meltdowns, although the melted fuel is believed to be kept cool and solidified at the bottom of each reactor pressure vessel after water was injected into the vessel as an emergency measure.

Fukushima Radiation Highest Ever, Exceeding Capacity of Measuring Device ... Fuel Likely Leaking Out Of Containment Vessel

Washington's Blog has the full roundup.  A few scary headlines..

Tepco Says Highest Radiation Yet Is Detected at Fukushima Dai-Ichi

Tepco: Ultra-high radiation levels may be from melted fuel that leaked out of containment vessel

Experts: Melt-through scenario means even higher radiation readings to come — Likely many more reports of deadly radiation in future

Japan gov’t: Agency funding project to monitor online info about Fukushima crisis — Around the clock monitoring of “blogs on nuclear power” and “Twitter accounts”

Ticktick glow..  Earth's radioactive monster continues to grow..

Japan Update, August 3, 2011

5+ Sieverts An Hour Found On Reactor 1 Second Floor  From Ex-SKF via Rense.  Excerpts:

TEPCO announced on August 2 that the radiation level in the air conditioning room on the 2nd floor of the reactor building of Reactor 1 was over 5 sieverts/hr (or 5,000 millisieverts/hr). It is the highest indoor radiation ever recorded at the plant, higher than 4 sieverts/hr recorded also in the Reactor 1 reactor building on June 3. TEPCO closed off the room.

The vent duct that releases pressure inside the Containment vessel and the emergency gas processing pipe meet inside the room, which is upstream from the main exhaust stack where over 10 sieverts/hr radiation was measured on August 1. According to TEPCO, it is possible that the high concentration of radioactive materials got stuck inside the pipes when the venting was done on the next day after the March 11 earthquake.

Fatal Radiation Level Found at Japanese Plant  New York Times via Godlike Productions.  Excerpts:

The operator, Tokyo Electric Power, said that workers on Monday afternoon had found an area near Reactors No. 1 and 2, where radiation levels exceeded their measuring device’s maximum reading of 10 sieverts per hour — a fatal dose for humans.

..

The company said the workers who found the reading were safely protected by antiradiation clothing. Tokyo Electric said it has closed off an area of several yards around where the lethal radiation level was found. The company said this would not hamper efforts to build a new cooling system and remove contaminated water.

The plant has continued to spew radiation since the disaster, though levels have been dropping. The operator is working to install a new makeshift cooling system by early next year that will allow it to finally shut down the plant’s three damaged reactors.

Fukushima Catastrophe - Disaster Beyond Imagining  You Tube via Before It's News. 

Japan Update, July 23, 2011

Fukushima: Still Dire For Japan ... Still Threatening the U.S. and Canada  Washington's Blog does the heavy lifting here.  Excerpts:

Things are not getting better in Japan.

As a nuclear expert said recently, the "reactors are almost in the same situation they were in the early days of the accident":

Click the link, then just scan the selected headlines. It becomes apparent this contamination event continues to spread radioactivity, a growing ominous-ness born of growing awareness, and fear, of a deadly and unsure, yet glowing, near-and-long-term future..

Japan Update, July 14, 2011

The Conspiracy Theorists Were Right!  or:  Validation!  We're Dead..  The End!


Contaminated Water System: Leak Was from the Same Joint  It really seems like they're just flailing and reacting, creating more chaos.  I didn't know that ferric sulfates could corrode cast iron, but I'm not paid to know things like these, either.  Amazing..


"During April, The People In Seattle Could Have Just As Easily Been In Tokyo For The Amount Of Hot Particles That Were There"   Washington's Blog.


Arnie Gundersen: What the Nuclear Industry Doesn't Want You to Know - July 10, 2011  New video.


Radiation in Japan: As It Is Being Spread Almost Willfully, The Country Is Getting Unhinged  Ex-SKF.  Wow..


*4,320 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium found from the beef from Minami Soma City, Fukushima: the cattle farm that shipped cows found with radioactive cesium far exceeding the already loose provisional safety limit of 500 becquerels/kg is located in the "emergency evacuation-ready zone" - not even "the planned evacuation zone" or plain "evacuation zone", both of which do exist in Minami Soma City.


*Fukushima Prefecture has announced it will shut down the official shelters within Fukushima, which will force the evacuees to go back to their own homes.


*Minami-Soma City has issued a notice to all 32,000 city residents who have been living in the shelters, temporary housing outside Fukushima Prefecture that they must return to Minami-Soma, high radiation or not.


*The national government will spend 100 billion yen (US$1.26 billion) to observe the health of 2 million Fukushima residents for 30 years, instead of evacuating them ASAP. About 1600 yen (US$20) per year per resident. Life is cheap. Since the national government is utterly broke, it will be ultimately paid for by the taxpayers of Japan.




Fast and furious. Shock and awe. I think most people in Japan still cannot fathom how their elected officials and government workers with high education from distinguished schools (Tokyo University, Kyoto University, Oxford University...) could do such things to them. Better wake up really, very quickly.


People say that the Japanese are law-abiding citizens. The Japanese say that to themselves. The truth, as has been slowly revealed over the past 4 months, is that they are followers of the arbitrary and capricious orders, as long as the orders are given to them from the government sources. Never mind if those orders are very much counter to the law itself or the natural law or the common sense.


52,547 Bq/Kg Off Cesium Radiation Found In Soil Just Outside Tokyo  Alexander Higgins/Examiner.  Excerpts:


52,547 Bq/Kg of of Cesium radiation measured in soil samples collected just outside of Tokyo over 135 miles south of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.


A reader from Japan has sent me a copy of his official Lab results for nuclear radiation soil samples collected in Kashiwa, Japan, which is on the outskirts of Tokyo and over 135 miles south of the Fukushima nuclear reactor. The lab results show that 52,547 Becquerels Per Kilogram Of Cesium Radiation was found in the sample. 23,663 Bq/Kg of Cesium 134 radiation was found. 28,884 Bq/Kg of Cesium 137 was detected.
And:
During Chernobyl the threshold for declaring an area a permanent dead zone and issuing a mandatory evacuation was 500,000 Bq/kg so this test, which is by far the highest result for soil yet that I am aware of outside of the area already evacuated around Fukushima, comes in about 1/10th of the permanent Chernobyl "dead zone" threshold.  (And we're only four months into this multiple year marathon..)


Nuclear scientists working at the University of Berkeley in California, who are doing their own radiation testing in the United States, have also pointed out radioactive substances accumulate in broad green leafy plants at a factor of 5-6 times above the surrounding soil. That would indicate the grass or other green plants growing in this soil may have radioactive contamination up to 250,000 Bq/Kg which is extremely high and approaching over half of the 500,000 kilogram permanent "dead-zone"threshold.


This soil sample is also over 50 times higher than the 2,000 Bq/Kg threshold for international nuclear waste.
..
This reading is also startling because as shown in the official nuclear fallout readings from the Government of Japan, as shown on the map on this page, show the highest levels of radiation to the northwest of the Fukushima power plant. The reason for that is most of the prevailing winds have blown to the northwest, north and to the northeast out over the pacific. So far that has spared Tokyo and central Japan as the radiation has been blowing away from these locations. This high of a reading so close to Tokyo makes the situation much more dire as we can clearly see radiation levels very close to Tokyo now building up to permanent "dead-zone" levels.


This high of a level of contamination so close to Tokyo also directly contradicts all official government tests done in the area so far. Those tests so far have shown no "levels of concern" in anything except for sewage slag.

Radioactive Beef from Fukushima Update: Already Been Sold in At Least 9 (not 5) Prefectures  Ex-SKF.  Excerpts:

Beef from 6 cows from the same cattle farmer in Minami Soma City in Fukushima Prefecture have already been sold at least in 9 (not 5) prefectures, according to Mainichi Shinbun Japanese latest update (1:28AM, 7/12/2011).

Unlike the 11 cows whose meat all tested cesium exceeding the provisional limit of 500 becquerels/kg, the meat from these 6 cows had never been tested and allowed to circulate in the market.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is in charge of testing live cattle, and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is in charge of testing meat. They do not talk with each other.

No one in power here is learning anything constructive or applicable.  And even if they are, they are not behaving as such..