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Tepco's motto: We may be small, but we're slow! And overly optimistic. ENENEWS:
Title: In Japan, a nuclear ghost town stirs to life
Source: NBC News
Author: Kyle Drubek
Date: July 26, 2012
[...]
Takahashi Kei, a former cooling system worker at the plant now working as a radiation survey volunteer, said [Tepco's] executives are portraying the situation in the best possible light.
“There are leaks everywhere, wreckage too. It’s not as simple as they portray,” he said.
[...]
TEPCO acknowledges that three reactors at the plant remain full of melted and re-solidified fuel that must be removed and that spent fuel pools elsewhere on the grounds must be kept cool to prevent them from releasing radiation again. It estimates it will take about 40 years to completely decommission the site.
[...]
40 years? Again with the optimism..
If we have yet to invent technologies that can effectively demolish, decontaminate, and contain nuclear disasters, shouldn't we admit that nuclear power is beyond our scope of control? Accordingly, shouldn't we be working on those technologies before we build any more reactors or utilize this Pandora's Box of death? Don't forget: It's all done to boil water. Terra Daily, via The Extinction Protocol:
June 28, 2012 – JAPAN – TEPCO, the operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, said Wednesday record amounts of radiation had been detected in the basement of reactor number 1, further hampering clean-up operations. TEPCO took samples from the basement after lowering a camera and surveying instruments through a drain hole in the basement ceiling. Radiation levels above radioactive water in the basement reached up to 10,300 millisievert an hour, a dose that will kill humans within a short time after making them sick within minutes. The annual allowed dose for workers at the stricken site is reached in only 20 seconds. “Workers cannot enter the site and we must use robots for the demolition,” said TEPCO. The Fukushima operator said that radiation levels were 10 times higher than those recorded at the plant’s two other crippled reactors, number two and three. This was due to the poor state of the nuclear fuel in the reactor compared to that in the two others. The meltdown at the core of three of Fukushima’s six reactors occurred after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and ensuing massive tsunami shut off the power supply and cooling system. Demolition of the three reactors as well as the plant’s number 4 unit is expected to take 40 years and will need the use of new technologies. (As yet un-invented technologies..)
40 years? Do you really think we have that much time? I doubt it.. All to boil water..
[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..
Reactor 2 seems to be in trouble; again.. E News (via Rense).. Excerpts:
[Masanori Naito, director in charge of nuclear safety analysis at the Institute of Applied Energy] presumes portion of the fuel which had been recorded before the board of the mesh condition which supports the fuel and dissolved fell to the bottom of the reactor, local like the hill, because accumulating, the calorific value (temperature) increased, with.
Bad Babelfish translation, but Big Picture? Problems. Nuclear Problems. Lots of 'em.
Integrity of Reactor No. 4 building a major concern among experts — Collapse of spent fuel pool could be even worse than 3 reactor meltdowns E News. Excerpts:
Again with the Babelfish translation, but you'll get it..
[...] TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto [...] said officials are investigating the cause of that leak, but that it was unlikely the pipe had been loosened by the many aftershocks that have hit the plant.
The structural integrity of the damaged Unit 4 reactor building has long been a major concern among experts because a collapse of its spent fuel cooling pool could cause a disaster worse than the three reactor meltdowns. [...]
Aside from the multiple meltdowns that have already happened..
Bird numbers plummet around stricken Fukushima plant Harbinger of The Future. The Independent. Excerpts:
Researchers working around Japan's disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant say bird populations there have begun to dwindle, in what may be a chilling harbinger of the impact of radioactive fallout on local life.
In the first major study of the impact of the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years, the researchers, from Japan, the US and Denmark, said their analysis of 14 species of bird common to Fukushima and Chernobyl, the Ukrainian city which suffered a similar nuclear meltdown, showed the effect on abundance is worse in the Japanese disaster zone.
..
Many species show "dramatically" elevated DNA mutation rates, developmental abnormalities and extinctions, they add, while insect life has been significantly reduced.
Thankfully, no one will notice until they get HUGE and start attacking humans.
"Backup" Tokyo (Capital of Japan) to Be Considered Somewhere in Japan to Preserve Government Functions in Case of Disaster Ex-SKF. Excerpts:
Democratic Party of Japan will hold the first meeting of "the working group for backing up the core functions of the capital" (headed by Sumio Mabuchi. It is to prepare for the case of Tokyo devastated by an epicentral earthquake. The focus will be whether the group designates a location to temporarily move the function of the Prime Minister's Official Residence and the central government ministries. The group will submit the report to the government by the end of March.
The expert committee at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation started the discussion on backup functions of the capital last December, in light of the March 11, 2011 earthquake/tsunami. The committee says it won't specify the location [to which the functions will be moved], but heated campaigns to become a "backup" capital have already started among locations including Hokkaido, Osaka, and Fukuoka City.
Well, even after the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident, they still do not (or cannot) say they should consider a potential nuclear disaster when planning a backup capital. If they do consider, there may be nowhere in Japan that's suitable.
Pardon my pessimism, but isn't this talk a bit late? Really late?
US ex-diplomat pulls no punches on Japan Google. Wait; Google? Excerpts:
..Maher's main thesis is that Japan -- which has had six new prime ministers since 2006 -- has been crippled by a failure of its politicians to accept responsibility and, hence, to make hard decisions.
Maher pointed to the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which was devastated by the March 11 tsunami, and dismissed the government's declaration last month that it had stabilized the leaking reactors.
"It's not stable," Maher said recently at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. "Tokyo is safe, but Fukushima Daiichi is in really bad shape."
And:
Maher said that the US government was privately terrified over the unfolding crisis. He accused Japan's then prime minister, Naoto Kan, of evading responsibility and trying to pass the problem over to the plant's operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Co.
"I remember sitting on a task force many a time thinking, 'Who the hell is in control in Japan?' The government's not doing anything. Kan made one trip and flew up and got in the way and came back," Maher said.
Maher said that he watched in horror as he saw television footage of a sole helicopter dropping water on the stricken plant.
"Is that the best Japan can do?" Maher said.
Japan's Tsunami: The First 24 Hours Worse than the conspiracy theorists imagined, goddamnit..
Japan trudges into power-save mode as summer looms
This is the First Televised Report of What's Happening at the Fukushima Plant that We've Seen in a While: Workers Apologizing! Video from Al-Jazeera via Before It's News.
Japanese Cancer Expert on the Fukushima Situatio Japan Focus via Rense. Excerpts:
Japan's leading business journal Toyo Keizai has published an article by Hokkaido Cancer Center director Nishio Masamichi, a radiation treatment specialist. The piece, entitled “The Problem of Radiation Exposure Countermeasures for the Fukushima Nuclear Accident: Concerns for the Present Situation”, was published on June 27 and is consistent with the critical coverage of the Fukushima crisis that has appeared in independent weekly magazines, notably Shukan Kinyobi, which have taken a strong anti-nuclear stance since the March 11 earthquake-tsunami-meltdown, and have repeatedly focused on the dangers of radiation exposure while calling for far-reaching measures to protect those at risk.
Nishio begins by asserting that the Fukushima crisis has caused Japan’s “myth of nuclear safety” to crumble. He has “grave concern” for the public health effects of the ongoing radiation leak.
Nishio originally called for “calm” in the days after the accident. Now, he argues, that as the gravity of the situation at the plant has become more clear, the specter of long-term radiation exposure must be reckoned with.
The Reckoning has already begun, and will continue to manifest, becoming clearer and more horrible, over the coming weeks and months. The Bombardment continues..
Fukushima - The End of the West as We Know It Jeff Rense and Tim Rifat via Alien Earth.
Magnitude 5.4 quake hits central Japan, 7 injured
Radiation in Our Food Fucking Fox News via Rense. Ugh..
Even as thousands of Japanese workers struggle to contain the ongoing nuclear disaster, low levels of radiation from those power plants have been detected in foods in the United States. Milk, fruits and vegetables show trace amounts of radioactive isotopes from the Fukushima Daichi power plants, and the media appears to be paying scant attention, if any attention at all. (Really? Poor little Number One Fox News is incapable of getting this story out.. It's as if Fox was only able to Critique other media, and had no power of Dissemination of their own. Poor, poor Rupert..) It is as if the problem only involves Japan, not the vast Pacific Ocean, into which highly radioactive water has poured by the dozens of tons, and not into air currents and rainwater that carry radiation to U.S. soil and to the rest of the world. And while both Switzerland and Germany have come out against any further nuclear development, the U.S. the nuclear power industry continues as usual, with aging and crumbling power plants receiving extended operating licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as though it can’t happen here. But it is happening here, on your dinner plate.
Troubling radiation measurement results for residents near Fukushima From IO9. Excerpts:
Recent measurements on dosimeters and urine tests have indicated that it may be time for certain residents to make some difficult decisions about leaving the area.
Fifteen residents near Fukushima have had urine tests that have revealed traces of radioactive Iodine-131. This isotope of Iodine has a half-life of 8 days, so it does not pose a long-term threat as long as it is not ingested. Inside the body, the isotope accumulates in the thyroid. After Chernobyl, many nearby victims developed thyroid cancer as a result of drinking contaminated milk. Just after the emergency at Fukushima, the Japanese government distributed iodine tablets. The tablets were of a non-radioactive isotope of iodine that was meant to saturate the thyroid and prevent any more uptake of radioactive elements. It seems that, at least in a few cases, the radioactive isotopes were not entirely blocked.
Pacific concern over radiation spread Australia Network News. This and previous via Godlike Productions.
The Pacific Disaster Centre says the revelation that the contamination from Japan's earthquake crippled nuclear power plant will be more widespread than previously thought is a big concern.
It says nuclear monitoring should be set up across the region to assess the risk.
Japan's Atomic Energy Agency says radioactive caesium leaking from the Fukushima nuclear plant will spread 4,000 kilometres through the Pacific Ocean in the next year and reach Hawaii in three years.
And finally, some good news: Just kidding! Another reactor at another plant is still in serious trouble.. Japan's 'most dangerous reactor' severely damaged, could become worse than Fukushima Natural News via Before It's News. Excerpts:
The Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor, located directly over an earthquake fault line near Tsuruga, Japan, lies on the opposite coast of Japan's crippled Fukushima plant. Last August, a 3.3-ton fuel relay device broke and fell off into the reactor's inner core, which severed access to its plutonium and uranium fuel rods. Experts have repeatedly tried to remove the device and fix the damage, but all efforts thus far have failed.
The Monju plant had also been shut down for 14 years following a massive fire in 1995, a nuclear accident that was considered to be the worst one Japan had ever seen, that is until the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Fukushima back in March. Monju has basically been plagued with problems since it was first built, and because it is "fast-breeder" design, it has the potential to become far worse than Fukushima in the event of another major disaster.
According to Hideyuki Ban, co-director of the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (CNIC), a Japanese nuclear public interest group, the Monju reactor uses highly deadly plutonium fuel, and even if officials do even up effectively removing the lodged fuel device and fixing the damage, restarting the plant could be catastrophic.
"Let's say they make this fix, which is very complicated," said Ban to the NYT. "The rest of the reactor remains highly dangerous. And an accident at Monju would have catastrophic consequences beyond what we are seeing at Fukushima." The plant is also located right on a major fault line, which makes the situation even more precarious.
Special report: Japan's "throwaway" nuclear workers Reuters. Excerpts:
A decade and a half before it blew apart in a hydrogen blast that punctuated the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima nuclear power plant was the scene of an earlier safety crisis. Then, as now, a small army of transient workers was put to work to try to stem the damage at the oldest nuclear reactor run by Japan's largest utility.
At the time, workers were racing to finish an unprecedented repair to address a dangerous defect: cracks in the drum-like steel assembly known as the "shroud" surrounding the radioactive core of the reactor.
But in 1997, the effort to save the 21-year-old reactor from being scrapped at a large loss to its operator, Tokyo Electric, also included a quiet effort to skirt Japan's safety rules: foreign workers were brought in for the most dangerous jobs, a manager of the project said.
"It's not well known, but I know what happened," Kazunori Fujii, who managed part of the shroud replacement in 1997, told Reuters. "What we did would not have been allowed under Japanese safety standards."
Aww shit: Radioactive water leaks from Japan's damaged plant Reuters: Excerpts:
About 15 metric tons of water with a low level of radiation (How much radiation? "A. Low. Level.")leaked from a storage tank at the plant on the Pacific coast, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said it was investigating the cause of the leak which was later repaired. (Feel better now?)
Vast amounts of water contaminated with varying levels of radiation have accumulated in storage tanks at the plant after being used to cool reactors damaged when their original cooling systems were knocked out by the March 11 disaster.
Dealing with that radioactive water has been a major problem for Tepco..
#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: New and Improved Reactor Cooling System Using Treated Water Shuts Down After 1.5 Hour of Operation From Ex-SKF, via Rense.
Yes, yes it is a big system, which should have been carefully prepared and tested for at least one or two years and they did it in 2 months.
A leak was found on a joint of PVC pipes that transport the treated water.In earlier Yomiuri article, 4 kilometer long PVC pipes feed the treated water to the reactors, and TEPCO people were worried about the leak all along.
I guess they were too preoccupied with Kurion's zeolite vessels (which require frequent change and system downtime) and didn't have time to test the 4 kilometer long network of PVC pipes.
#Radiation in Japan: Government Wants to Offer Japan's Seafood to Developing Nations Ex-SKF.
As part of the ODA (Official Development Assistance) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a host of aid programs for developing nations around the world, the Japanese national government is going to buy up processed seafood [canned fish, for example?] from the earthquake-affected areas and offered them to developing nations.
And:
Please keep in mind that this is what the national government (and probably the prefectural governments in Tohoku) wants, and not the fishermen themselves. I'm sure some fishermen will be all for it, but others won't be, as I've read about them who simply stopped fishing when they become aware that the fish were contaminated with radioactive materials.
Boric acid being added to No.3 reactor fuel pool Video/Article courtesy of NHKa via Rense. Excerpts:
Tokyo Electric Power Company has begun adding boric acid to the spent fuel storage pool of the No.3 reactor at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to prevent fuel racks from being corroded by alkaline water.
..
Last month, TEPCO found that the water in the pool had turned strongly alkaline, with its PH level reaching 11.2. The leaching of calcium hydrate from the debris is believed to be the cause.
I'm guessing that if more people were involved in the Fukushima cleanup operation, this project would have started last month sometime. It really is amazing(in the worst sort of way) that so few people, no matter their level of dedication, are charged with such a large, life-in-the-balance task, don't you think? Our collective personal, environmental, and planetary health and safety rests in the hands of less than 2000 people, working day and night, with no guarantee of success. To reiterate, there are no guarantees of success, and global catastrophe waits behind the Other Door..
TEPCO - Disaster in Slow Motion From Rense. Excerpts:
Earlier this week, TEPCO tried to fill the reactor 2 containment with water. That didn't work. So, they OPENED the containment and released BILLIONS of lethal doses of radiation. Now they are wondering whether there is any water left in the bottom of the containment. Let's help them. Since the bottom of the reactor is hot enough to melt concrete, and IS melting concrete, and no steam is coming out of the reactor, here's why:
The core of Reactor 2 is still in at least intermittent fission and has melted through the bottom of the containment. . So there is no water in the bottom of the reactor.
Now they are going to pump liquid nitrogen into the core of reactor 2.
Click the link. This would be funny if it weren't horrifying..
Coming to a Store Near You: Radioactive Fish?
Fukushima Prefecture Starts Long-Term Health Monitoring From Before It's News. Excerpts:
Ten residents from a town considered a radiation hot-spot were given internal body exams to see how much radiation they had absorbed, according to the Japan Times.
The prefecture plans to give the internal exams to a sampling of around 100 people from hot-spots as part of a preliminary study, which will be used to prepare for a wider study of Fukushima residents that could last up to 30 years, according to Asahi newspaper. Roughly 2 million people live in the prefecture.
The data gathered from the health checks is expected to help doctors better understand the long-term effects of radiation exposure on the human body, according to the Times.
Dilution of radioactive materials at sea is no solution to nuke-plant crisis Mainichi Daily News via Godlike Productions. Excerpts:
There is a feeling in the government that it is shoving the handling of the unprecedented nuclear crisis into the hands of TEPCO, a private company. The government therefore has a weak spot that forces it to listen when TEPCO comes crying about measures to prop up its share prices.
Why can the two sides only form a response marked by indecisiveness and reliance on each other as Japan faces this unprecedented crisis? I think it is because the problem is too big, and they can't grasp how far it is spreading and how serious it is..
Suicides upping casualties from Tohoku catastrophe Japan Times, via Rense. Excerpts:
The link between depression and suicide is well documented, particularly in Japan, where depression has been shown to be a major suicide trigger.
Concerns about the possibility of survivors turning to such extreme measures is based partly on Japan's overall suicide rate, which according to the World Health Organization is the highest among developed nations. Suicides in May for the whole nation were 20 percent higher than a year before, according to National Police Agency figures, and experts believe the total for 2011 could surpass 30,000 for the 14th straight year.
..
"Survivors, especially those in shelters and temporary accommodations, are at risk of becoming exhausted and depressed, and over time this could lead to clinical depression brought about by the perceived hopelessness of their situation," said Cho, author of the book "Hito wa Naze Jisatsusuru no ka" ("Why Do People Commit Suicide?"). "This would further increase the risk of suicide."
This is especially true of residents in Fukushima Prefecture who have been severely affected by the radiation scare, he added. "Many farmers have lost everything and while the radiation issue remains unresolved they can't predict what the future holds."
Radioactive Dust From Japan Hit North America Days After Disaster ... But Governments "Lied" About Meltdowns and Radiation
Thrust Faulting Of North America And Pacific Plates Rock Japan With 6.7 Earthquake From Before It's News. Excerpts:
A magnitude 6.7earthquake rocked Japan today, the 75th aftershock of at least magnitude 6.0 from the devastating magnitude 9.0 quake on March 11, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The earthquake data is preliminary and subject to revision.
Japan has been rocked by hundreds of aftershocks since the deadly Tohoku earthquake, the biggest in Japan's recorded history. The aftershocks have been so plentiful that the world's premier earthquake-measurement service has since modified its alert system to filter out the smaller aftershocks. The largest aftershock was a magnitude 7.9 quake that struck less than an hour after the main shock. A magnitude 7.7 also struck that day. A magnitude 7.1 aftershock struck on April 7.
..
Since the main quake off Japan's northeastern coast, hundreds aftershocks have shaken the island of Honshu, Japan's largest and home to 100 million people. Today's aftershock was caused by thrust faulting near the Japan Trench, the boundary between the Pacific and North America tectonic plates (the huge, moving slabs of the Earth's crust). Thrust faulting happens when one tectonic plate dives under another. In this case, the Pacific plate is diving under the North America plate.
Before the magnitude 9.0 earthquake, only nine magnitude 7.0 or greater earthquakes had ruptured in this subduction zone since 1973.
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant building land on the roof of Unit 2 is a small unmanned helicopter Asahi, via Google Translate via Godlike Productions. Awkward excerpts:
US-made helicopter was flying unmanned for collecting samples for analysis of radioactive material in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (reconnaissance) has become impossible to steer, and land on the roof of the Unit 2 reactor building, and announced. Smoke is not recognized, the impact on the building is unknown. Consider using a collection of such cranes.
Unmanned helicopter is 50 cm in diameter, weighs 8 kg. Off from the power plant south of the observatory at 6:00 am May 24 at 2:34. Hover by remote control and was planning to collect air and dust near the Unit 2. It has become impossible to pilot crash-landed at about 7:00 am.
Sampling and unmanned helicopters were used to shoot in the building exploded.
Still no good news..
Tokyo area parents' radiation worries grow with discovery of local 'hotspots' The Mainichi Daily News via Rense. Excerpts:
More than three months after the Great East Japan Earthquake and the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, Tokyo region residents are becoming increasingly worried over radiation exposure as a number of radioactive "hotspots" have been discovered in and around the capital.
Local governments are calling for calm, as annual doses of radiation at the hotspots -- sites where radiation levels are significantly higher than their surroundings -- would not exceed 20 millisieverts as they do in parts of Fukushima Prefecture. Residents are nevertheless calling on their local governments to take some kind of action.
..
However, even as radiation hotspot worries mount, there continues to be only one site in all of Chiba Prefecture where radiation levels are being formally monitored, drawing criticism. Local radiation tests performed at primary schools and other public spaces at the end of May revealed a 0.54 microsievert per hour radioactive hotspot at a Kashiwa park. The prefectural monitoring post some 50 kilometers south southeast of the park, meanwhile, has recorded radiation doses of only 0.08 microsieverts per hour -- a discrepancy which has stoked the fears of parents.
Meanwhile, a radiation monitoring committee formed by six cities in the northwest of Chiba Prefecture -- including Kashiwa -- also discovered a 0.65 microsievert per hour radioactive hotspot in a park in the city of Nagareyama.
Stonewalling, denial, and falsehoods. Standard Operating Procedure, right?
And now, we are done.
Japan pumps water into reactor to contain radioactivity Monsters and Critics, via Rense. Excerpts:
The radiation levels at reactor 4 have been preventing workers from entering the structure to conduct repairs.
TEPCO also began late Sunday to release air containing radioactive substances from the building of reactor 2 by opening its doors.
An estimated 1.6 billion becquerels of radioactive materials were released, compared with 500 million becquerels when the double doors of the building of reactor 1 were opened in May, the Jiji Press agency reported, citing TEPCO.
The operator denied that the releases would have an impact on the environment.
Contaminated Water Processing at #Fukushima: The Water Was Simply Too "Hot" From Ex-SKF, via Rense. Excerpts:
If Kurion's vessel absorbed enough radioactive materials in 5 hours and it should have taken 30 days, as I wrote in my previous post, the water was 144 times as radioactive as the system had anticipated.
If the water actually turns out to be 144 times as radioactive, the Fukushima accident would need a new INES category and should not be placed in the same category (Level 7) as the Chernobyl accident which released only 5.6 million terabecquerels of radioactive materials. Maybe it should be simply called "Level Fukushima".
Fukushima - The Greatest Nuclear, Environmental Disaster In History Global Research via Rense. Excerpts:
By way of comparison, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that occurred in 1986 in the Ukraine, Russia- heretofore the worst nuclear disaster on record- burned for 10 days and cumulatively killed an estimated 1 million people worldwide. The Fukushima, Japan nuclear disaster has 5 nuclear reactors burning, 2 in partial meltdown and 3 in full meltdown- and they've ALL been uncontrollably burning since March 11th. Its been over 3 months and this nuclear disaster remains completely out of control. In fact, some industry estimates cite the possibility that these meltdowns will be contained (optimistically) in 1-3 years, at the very earliest.
The amount and intensity of the radioactive fallout from this particular nuclear disaster will assuredly kill hundreds of millions of people worldwide over time. Japan itself is, of course, the epicenter of this radioactive contamination that has spread out from these reactors.
However, the Korean peninsula, China and nations immediately surrounding the Japanese archipelago will also bear the brunt of a significant amount of radioactive fallout from this disaster. Immediately downwind of this radioactive release, though, is the United States of America and the entire northern hemisphere, comprising the majority of the world's industrialized nations on Earth. Significant amounts of plutonium, strontium, cesium, uranium and a whole plethora of other highly radioactive particles have already fallen on the continental land mass of the USA and have already entered the food chains and water tables of the nation.
In a nutshell, Fukushima represents a literal catastrophe for the human species, plain and simple, there's no other way to put it..
It certainly feels as if we will all find out just how gigantic and tragic the folly of "Safe Nuclear Power" really is, really soon..
#Radiation in Japan: Nosebleed, Diarrhea, Lack of Energy in Children in Koriyama City, Fukushima Ex-SKF via Godlike Productions.
Once a malicious "baseless rumor" on the net, now it is written up in a regional newspaper with readership in Tokyo and Kanto area.
Tokyo Shinbun (paper edition only, 6/16/2011) reports that many children in Koriyama City in Fukushima Prefecture, 50 kilometers from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, are suffering inexplicable nosebleed, diarrhea, and lack of energy since the nuke plant accident.
Fukushima: It's much worse than you think Al Jazeera, via Godlike Productions.
"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera.
..
"Fukushima has three nuclear reactors exposed and four fuel cores exposed," he said, "You probably have the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate need of being cooled, and there is no means to cool them effectively."
..
Independent scientists have been monitoring the locations of radioactive "hot spots" around Japan, and their findings are disconcerting.
"We have 20 nuclear cores exposed, the fuel pools have several cores each, that is 20 times the potential to be released than Chernobyl," said Gundersen. "The data I'm seeing shows that we are finding hot spots further away than we had from Chernobyl, and the amount of radiation in many of them was the amount that caused areas to be declared no-man's-land for Chernobyl. We are seeing square kilometres being found 60 to 70 kilometres away from the reactor. You can't clean all this up. We still have radioactive wild boar in Germany, 30 years after Chernobyl."
Radiation detected in Massachusetts rainwater as Fukushima crisis worsens From The Jackz and Alexander Higgins. Excerpts:
The Fukushima crisis continues to worsen by the day, with nuclear experts around the world finally realizing and admitting we’ve all been lied to. “I think maybe the situation is much more serious than we were led to believe,” said Najmedin Meshkati of the University of Southern California, in a Reuters report (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011…). That same article revealed that recent radiation readings at Fukushima show “contamination 100,000 times normal in water at reactor No. 2 and 1,850 times normal in the nearby sea.”
Massachusetts rainwater has also been found to be contaminated with low levels of radiation from Fukushima, indicating just how widespread the radioactive fallout has become. It’s not just the West Coast of North America that’s vulnerable, in other words: even the East Coast could receive dangerous levels of fallout if Fukushima suffers a larger release of radioactive material into the air.
Japan: Tepco to build sarcophagus over Fukushima reactor The Telegraph via Rense. Excerpts:
The operator of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant has announced plans to construct a shroud over one of the reactor buildings, a stop-gap measure until a more permanent solution can be found, such as entombing the facility in concrete.
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Tokyo Electric Power Co. will start the construction of a rigid steel frame over the No. 1 reactor on June 27, Yoshikazu Nagai, a spokesman for the company, said.
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The frame, which is being put together off-site, will support polyester fibre panels that have been coated with a resin designed to prevent further radiation leaking into the atmosphere.
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Eventually, Tepco plans to erect a concrete structure around the reactors, although it admits that will take several years to achieve.
Fukushima In Apocalyptic Spiral Downward From Before It's News. Excerpts:
Fukushima may be in an apocalyptic downward spiral.
Forget the corporate-induced media coma that says otherwise ... or nothing at all.
Lethal radiation is spewing unabated. Emission levels could seriously escalate. There is no end in
sight. The potential is many times worse than Chernobyl.
Containing this disaster may be beyond the abilities of Tokyo Electric or the Japanese government.
There is no reason to incur further unnecessary risk. With all needed resources, it's time for the world's best scientists and engineers to take charge.
Even then the outcome is unclear.
For a brief but terrifying overview, consult Dr. Chris Busby as interviewed by RT/TV
David McNeill: Who's telling the truth on the Fukushima meltdown? CNN via Rense. Excerpts:
A string of autopsies -- political, regulatory and technological -- loom over the corpse of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The media, however, has already begun its self-examination and it’s not a pretty picture.
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One of the more striking aspects of the local media coverage of Fukushima was the missing word -- “meltdown.” It seemed reasonable to speculate, from March 11-15, that this is precisely what happened.
One reason was the repeated news of cesium dispersed in the atmosphere on March 12.
Haruki Madarame, the Chair of the Nuclear Safety Commission now says he concluded very early on that meltdown had happened, and informed the government. Former Washington TBS Bureau Chief Toyohiro Akiyama, who has a farm in Fukushima, made a similar assessment and fled in his car to Gunma.
“There was a blackout in the media of the word,” he says in an interview this month with the Foreign Correspondents’ Club magazine, “No.1 Shimbun.” In April the head of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan, Takashi Sawada, also said that fuel rods in reactors 1 and 3 had melted. Yet, it took over two months for newspapers and TV here to begin using the word. Why?
Japan’s press club system means the big newspapers and TV companies channel and amplify information directly from the government, TEPCO and The Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency. That meant they were admirably disciplined, descriptive, somber and focused on the facts.
They were also discouraged from speculating on what might be going on inside the stricken plant, although many reporters must have privately concluded the worst.
Some will argue that Japanese reporters had a heavy responsibility to avoid creating panic in the world’s most populated metropolis. Twenty-eight million people rushing for the highways, airports and train stations might have caused more deaths than radiation.
But does this responsibility mean simply not exaggerating, or does it also include concealing or delaying information or even outright deception?
As the Nuclear Safety Agency warned on March 12 that metal containers of uranium fuel inside Reactor 1 had probably started melting, University of Tokyo Professor Naoto Sekimura repeatedly popped up on TV to wave away our concerns.
“Only a small part of the fuel may have melted and leaked outside,” he said. Residents near the power station should “stay calm,” because “most of the fuel remains inside the reactor, which has stopped operating and is being cooled.”
How could Professor Sekimura have possibly known what he was saying, and shouldn’t that broadcaster have balanced his (clearly wrong) assessment with an opposite view. Or was that risking panic?
Readers will have to ask themselves how they feel about being kept in the dark “for their own good.”
Dr Iven Mareels - "Engineers Likely Understood Containment Breached Immediately" - "Why is Spent Fuel Still In Reactor 4 SFP?" From Before It's News
Over thirty-five years ago, three engineers working at General Electric resigned from their positions after reviewing the designs for the Mark 1 Reactor, and realizing it was so flawed that disaster was sure to follow. Five of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant are GE Mark 1s.
In an interview with ABC News, Dale Bridenbaugh, one of the GE engineers who resigned talked about the Mark 1 design. “The problems we identified in 1975 were that, in doing the design of the containment, they did not take into account the dynamic loads that could be experienced with a loss of coolant. The impact loads the containment would receive by this very rapid release of energy could tear the containment apart and create an uncontrolled release.”
Footage of Fukushima No.3 reactor released Video from NHK, via Rense.
Tokyo Electric Power Company has released video footage taken last week of Number 3 reactor at its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The video shows workers wearing protective suits enter the building through a cargo entrance. The roof of the facility was missing with the sky in view because of a hydrogen explosion on March 14th.
Hot Particles From Japan to Seattle Virtually Undetectable when Inhaled or Swallowed Fairewinds via Rense. Video at link.
Original estimates of xenon and krypton releases remain the same, but a TEPCO recalculation shows dramatic increases in the release of hot particles. This confirms the results of air filter monitoring by independent scientists. Fairewinds' Arnie Gundersen explains how hot particles may react in mammals while escaping traditional detection. Reports of a metallic taste in the mouth, such as those now being reported in Japan and on the west coast, are a telltale sign of radiation exposure.
This is not limited to Japan or the West Coast. It started here in Missouri on March 22. It was still cold, or cooler, and almost no one else was outdoors, outside. I was jogging three to five times a week, and March 22nd was the first day I remember tasting the metallic.. edge to the air. This taste lingered in the air until mid April, and has happened infrequently since. Between the running and the yard work, I have tasted metallic for quite a few days. I got a little freaked out when I became aware of the taste, but then I figured I was over-reacting.
This is a little disconcerting.
TEPCO reprimanded over 2 workers' high radiation
Japan’s nuclear safety officials reprimanded the operator of Japan’s tsunami-damaged power plant Friday and demanded an investigation of how two workers were exposed to radiation more than twice a government-set limit.
The government also ordered the utility to reduce workers’ risks of heat-related illnesses as concerns grow about the health risks faced by the people toiling to get the Fukushima Daiichi plant under control.
'Fukushima media cover-up - PR success, public health disaster' Video from Russia Today via You Tube.
TEPCO releases photo showing damage to No. 4 reactor building Mainichi Daily News via Rense.
Earlier the company had released footage showing work to remotely measure the temperature of the pool for spent fuel at the No. 4 reactor, but the latest photo marks the first time since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami for the company to release a picture showing the inside of the reactor building.
The No. 4 reactor was hit by a hydrogen explosion on March 15, as well as fires on two occasions. The generator in the structure was used for a reactor recirculation pump and is thought to be the source of the fires.
Link includes "It's just a little COMPLETELY DESTROYED! It's still good! It's still good!" Picture.
Japanese back nuke free future - poll
ALMOST three-quarters of Japanese respondents to a newspaper poll favour a gradual phase-out of nuclear energy in the wake of the Fukushima atomic accident.
The Asahi Shimbun daily said in its weekend opinion poll that only 14 per cent were against such a gradual reduction.
The poll also showed 64 per cent of respondents believed "natural energy" such as wind and solar power would replace nuclear power in the future, while 24 percent said they did not think so.
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