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Video from The Cruise Ship Jobs Guru Guy. This is him now. Rambling, intermittent weeping, anger.. It's all here, and it's sincere.. The evacuation notice is unofficial, of course--He's telling the world what his acquaintances are doing. This is now Life in Tokyo: Isolation, unreliable knowledge, massive Unknowns, not knowing What's Next, Helplessness, and palpable Tension and Fear. Those poor people..
Woes deepen over radioactive water at nuke plant, sea contamination From Kyodo News. Excerpts:
Japan on Sunday faced an increasing challenge of removing highly radioactive water found inside buildings near some troubled nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, with the radiation level of the surface of the pool in the basement of the No. 2 reactor's turbine building found to be more than 1,000 millisieverts per hour.
Exposure to such an environment for four hours would raise the risk of dying in 30 days. Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman for the government's nuclear safety agency, said the figure is ''quite high'' but authorities must find a way to pump out the water without sending workers too close to push ahead with the restoration work.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the concentration of radioactive substances of the puddle was 10 million times higher than that seen usually in water in a reactor core, but later decided to reanalyze the data because it found some errors. (Again with the vague bullshit..)
Meanwhile, Tokyo Electric, known as TEPCO, is studying whether highly toxic plutonium is contained in the soil of the plant. The No. 3 reactor was using plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel for so-called ''pluthermal'' power generation.
Fukushima crisis could stretch into ‘months, years’ From RawStory. Excerpts:
Japan appeared resigned on Monday to a long fight to contain the world's worst atomic crisis in 25 years after high radiation levels complicated work at its crippled nuclear plant.
Radiation at the plant has soared in recent days: latest readings at the weekend showed contamination 100,000 times normal in water at reactor No. 2 and 1,850 times normal in the nearby sea.
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"It's very worrying ... there is something seriously wrong (at No. 2)," said Rianne Teule, a nuclear expert for environmental group Greenpeace based in South Africa.
Under-pressure plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) conceded what experts have long been saying: that Japan now faces a protracted and uncertain operation to contain overheating fuel rods and prevent a meltdown.
Further afield, beyond the evacuation zone around Fukushima, there has been plenty of evidence of radiation -- from tap water in Tokyo 240 km (150 miles) south of the nuclear facility to particles found as far away as Iceland. This is not a fucking "local event." This is not a "local event." Do--You--Understand?
No, the Amount of Radiation Released from the Japanese Nuclear Reactors is NOT "Safe" From Washington's Blog. Excerpts, and his links, too:
Tyler Durden points out that - when you consider the fact that the amount of Caesium-137 released at Fukushima in the first 3-4 days of the crisis amounted to 50% that released by Chernobyl over 10 days - the real run rate of the radiation released at Fukushima is now about 120-150% the figure released by the Chernobyl explosion.
There are other signs of high levels radiation. See this and this. And it is important to remember that the amount of radioactive fuel at Fukushima dwarfs Chernobyl.
This Could Continue for a While..
Japan Nuclear crisis: Nuke plant radiation 10 million times high Video from Indian television.
10 Million Times Normal Level of Radioactivity in Water at Reactor #2, Fallout?
Woes deepen over radioactive waters at nuke plant, sea contamination Kyodo News. Excerpts:
Highly radioactive pools of water found inside buildings near some troubled nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant highlighted the deepening seriousness of the nuclear crisis in Japan on Sunday, with the radiation level of the surface of the water in the basement of the No. 2 reactor's turbine building found to be over 1,000 millisieverts per hour.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman for the government's nuclear safety agency, said, ''This is quite a high figure...and it is likely to be coming from the reactor.''
Adding to woes is the increasing level of contamination in the sea near the plant. Radioactive iodine-131 at a concentration 1,850 times the legal limit was detected from water extracted Saturday, compared with the 1,250.8 times the limit found Friday, the agency said.
IAEA chief warns Japan's nuke crisis 'far from the end': report Kyodo News. Excerpts:
Citing a telephone interview, the newspaper wrote that the world's chief nuclear inspector said his biggest concern now centered on spent fuel rods sitting in open cooling pools atop reactor buildings of the quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant, about 220 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.
More than two weeks after the March 11 massive quake-tsunami disaster, which crippled the plant, Amano cautioned that the nuclear emergency could still go on for weeks, if not months, given the enormous damage to the plant, the paper said.
Workers evacuated as reactor radioactivity soars From The Irish Times. Excerpts:
Japanese authorities evacuated workers today from a reactor building they were working in after radiation in water at the crippled nuclear power plant reached potentially lethal levels, the plant's operator said.
Tokyo Electric Power Co said radiation in the water of the No. 2 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant was measured at more than 1,000 millisieverts an hour. That compares with a national safety standard of 250 millisieverts over a year.
The US Environmental Protection Agency says a dose of 1,000 millisieverts is enough to cause haemorrhaging. Japanese nuclear regulators said the water contained 10 million times the amount of radioactive iodine than is normal in the reactor, but noted the substance had a half life of less than an hour, meaning it would disappear within a day.
I'm sure the damage isn't already done.. Fresh water cooling Japan nuclear plant From Adelaide Now. Excerpts:
JAPANESE emergency teams are using fresh water instead of seawater to try to cool reactors at Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear plant.
They had switched to using fresh water at the Fukushima nuclear power facility because it was less corrosive than seawater, the UN atomic watchdog said in a statement.
"The IAEA has been informed by Japanese authorities that fresh water is now being used in place of seawater to cool the reactor pressure vessels at units 1, 2 and 3 at the Fukushima nuclear plant," it said.
encouraging. hooray.
This will be the week when everything changes. Get ready, then hang on.
Lack of data from Japan distresses nuclear experts. From The Los Angeles Times/found it on Rense. Excerpts:
How did Japanese workers at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant jury-rig fire hoses to cool damaged reactors? Is contaminated water from waste pools overflowing into the Pacific Ocean? Exactly who is the national incident commander?
The answers to these and many other questions are unclear to U.S. nuclear scientists and policy experts, who say the quality and quantity of information coming out of Japan has left gaping holes in their understanding of the disaster nearly two weeks after it began.
At the same time, they say, the depth of the crisis has clearly been growing, judging by releases of radioactivity that by some measures have reached half the level of those released in the Chernobyl accident of 1986, according to new analysis by European and American scientists.
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"Information sharing has not been in the culture of Tepco or the Japanese government," said Najmedin Meshkati, a USC engineering professor who has advised federal agencies on nuclear safety issues. "This issue is larger than one utility and one country. It is an international crisis."
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Masaru Tamamoto, a professor of Asian and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Cambridge in Britain, said the handling of the crisis by Japanese government and corporate authorities is consistent with a culture that carefully guards information from the public and leaves decisions in the hands of anonymous bureaucrats.
Japan, Tamamoto said, lacks a nonprofit sector of government watchdog organizations that work closely with the news media to investigate and publicize government coverups. It leaves the public comfortably reliant on official pronouncements, he said.
"The public lives this way every day, and that's the way things are," Tamamoto said. "Even if you demanded the information, nobody has the information. Even the prime minister blurted out at one point that he didn't have information."
Tamamoto said that even significant nuclear contamination in the country might not be enough to prompt a change in this highly controlled and guarded bureaucracy, adding, "If this doesn't do it, I can't imagine what else would do it."
A crisis of leadership, too: The many-headed catastrophe points to deeper-seated problems in governing Japan From The Economist. Excerpts:
Yet, this month’s disasters underscore how much more the system still needs to change—along with the politicians guiding it. For one, the fiasco at Fukushima Dai-ichi has revealed, again, the cosy ties between the nuclear industry and government. Together, they have stifled debate, covered up bungles and made assumptions about risks that were too optimistic. The crisis management at TEPCO, the plant’s owner, has laid bare an astounding lack of leadership. “What the hell’s going on?” (Prime Minister)Mr Kan demanded at one point.
The same might be asked of the operation to get help to the tsunami victims. For all that Mr Kan has attempted to be seen at the front, in Tokyo the sense of a looming humanitarian crisis in the north has been slow to sink in. That is partly because nuclear worries have absorbed much of the government’s attention. Few politicians in a centralised system have bothered to travel north themselves. The media, taking their cue from the Tokyo establishment, have not thought properly to report the unfolding struggle for food and fuel.
Level of radioactive iodine in Tokyo water supply falls (For now..) From Boston.com. Excerpts:
Levels of a radioactive isotope found in Tokyo’s water supply fell by more than half yesterday, testing below the country’s stringent maximum for infants, even as three workers at the stricken nuclear plant to the north suffered radiation burns as they struggled to make emergency repairs.
The lowered readings in Tokyo’s water came hours after Yukio Edano, the chief Cabinet secretary, said the isotope, iodine 131, had been detected in the water supply of Kawaguchi City, just north of Tokyo, as well as those of two of Tokyo’s neighboring prefectures, Chiba and Saitama. On Wednesday, authorities cautioned those in the affected area not to give infants tap water.
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The warning Wednesday over the heightened levels of iodine 131, which can accumulate in the thyroid and cause cancer, set off widespread anxiety and a run on bottled water emptied store shelves in Tokyo. Yesterday morning, the authorities were distributing water for the estimated 80,000 children less than 1 year old in the area and considering importing bottled water. The authorities said frequent rains might have washed radiation into Tokyo’s watershed, which lies mostly north and northeast of the city.
Emissions from the plant have largely blown east; elevated levels of iodine 131 and another dangerous isotope, cesium 137, were found 18 miles off the coast, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Japan nuclear plant to take a month to fix From SBS.com (With Video) Excerpt:
The death toll from Japan's worst post-war disaster topped 10,000 as the operator of a radiation-belching nuclear plant warned that work to stabilise it may take another month.
To.. Stabilize.. May take.. Another.. Month.
2 nuclear plant workers hospitalized. From NHK. Excerpts:
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says the workers were standing on a flooded basement floor while working to reconnect power lines in the turbine building adjacent to the reactor. As a result, their feet were exposed to 170 to 180 millisieverts of radiation.
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The maximum level of radiation exposure allowed for nuclear plant workers in Japan is normally 100 millisieverts. But the health and labor ministry has recently raised that limit to 250 millisieverts for emergency crews at the Fukushima plant.
Japan Nuclear Plant Reactor Core May Be Breached, Reactor #3 From The Intel Hub via Godlike Productions. Excerpts:
Japanese nuclear safety officials said Friday that they suspect that the reactor core at one unit of the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant may have breached, raising the possibility of more severe contamination to the environment.
Tap water crisis spreads to Chiba, Saitama From The Japan Times via Godlike. Excerpts:
The scope of radiation-contaminated tap water expanded Thursday, with radioactive iodine detected in tap water in Chiba and Saitama prefectures, while the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which said the day before its drinking water was contaminated, scurried to distribute 240,000 bottles of water to households with babies.
Chiba authorities urged parents not to give tap water to infants less than 1 year old. Saitama refrained, at least initially, from taking similar measures after the level of iodine fell below the regulated limit later Thursday.
The moves followed the Tokyo government's finding Wednesday that the level of radioactive iodine in tap water from samples taken Tuesday exceeded the central government's recommended limit for infants.
On Thursday, however, the metropolitan government lifted the alert after radioactive iodine in tap water at the purification plant in Katsushika Ward dropped below the alert level for infants, officials said. Depending on the course of events, however, the alert could be reinstated, they said.
Pressure rises inside No.1 reactor container From NHK World. Excerpts:
Tokyo Electric Power Company is taking measures to reduce pressure inside the No.1 reactor containment vessel at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The power company began injecting more water into the No.1 reactor on Wednesday, after temperatures on the reactor surface reached about 400 degrees Celsius, exceeding the safety limit of 302 degrees.
First pictures emerge of the Fukushima Fifty as steam starts pouring from all four reactors at the stricken nuclear power plant From The Daily Mail/found it on Rense. Excerpts:
The darkness is broken only by the flashing torchlight of the heroes who stayed behind.
These first images of inside the stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant reveal the terrifying conditions under which the brave men work to save their nation from full nuclear meltdown.
The Fukushima Fifty - an anonymous band of lower and mid-level managers - have battled around the clock to cool overheating reactors and spent fuel rods since the disaster on March 11.
Neutron beam observed 13 times at crippled Fukushima nuke plant From Japan Today/from Rense.
Tokyo Electric Power Co said Wednesday it has observed a neutron beam, a kind of radioactive ray, 13 times on the premises of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after it was crippled by the massive March 11 quake-tsunami disaster.
TEPCO, the operator of the nuclear plant, said the neutron beam measured about 1.5 kilometers southwest of the plant’s No. 1 and 2 reactors over three days from March 13 and is equivalent to 0.01 to 0.02 microsieverts per hour and that this is not a dangerous level.
The utility firm said it will measure uranium and plutonium, which could emit a neutron beam, as well.
But the measured neutron beam may be evidence that uranium and plutonium leaked from the plant’s nuclear reactors and spent nuclear fuels have discharged a small amount of neutron beams through nuclear fission.
What price do you put on nuclear power and who is lying? - Part 6 From Eyre International. Excerpts:
I guess the other issue here, from my perspective, is the fact that we observed a huge explosion that certainly went high into the atmosphere and that explosion carried radioactive particles that contained Alpha rays that could not be detected, not forgetting the spent fuel rods that also went up in the air to a height of around 3000 feet!!! The very fact that such a large amount of spent fuel rods were kept on site and next to the reactors is in itself a crime.
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This catastrophic ongoing disaster continues to emit vast amount of radioactive contamination into our atmosphere and the authorities and the IAEA continue to play along this game of “Can we fix it or not”……the answer is clearly “No they cannot.” It has already gone beyond meltdown and cannot be neutralized to any safe level.
I think this in actual fact is far worse that Chernobyl in that at least after some time they entombed the entire plant. However, at Fukushima they continue to leave the plant exposed to the outside environment to contaminate no only the atmosphere but also the sea that surrounds Japan.
If this is correct, well.. That's it.
NEWS ADVISORY: Repair work halted at reactor No. 2 after 500 millisieverts detected — Temp rising at No. 1 From Energy News. Short, and to the point.
What They're Covering Up at Fukushima From Counterpunch. Doom. Doom. Excerpts:
Hirose Takashi has written a whole shelf full of books, mostly on the nuclear power industry and the military-industrial complex. Probably his best known book is Nuclear Power Plants for Tokyo in which he took the logic of the nuke promoters to its logical conclusion: if you are so sure that they're safe, why not build them in the center of the city, instead of hundreds of miles away where you lose half the electricity in the wires?
..while it made sense to oppose nuclear power back then, now that the disaster has begun he would just as soon remain silent, but the lies they are telling on the radio and TV are so gross that he cannot remain silent.
After reading his account, you will wonder, why do they keep on sprinkling water on the reactors, rather than accept the sarcophagus solution [ie., entombing the reactors in concrete. Editors.] I think there are a couple of answers. One, those reactors were expensive, and they just can't bear the idea of that huge a financial loss. But more importantly, accepting the sarcophagus solution means admitting that they were wrong, and that they couldn't fix the things.
Excerpts from television interview:
Yo: Today many people saw water being sprayed on the reactors from the air and from the ground, but is this effective?
Hirose: . . . If you want to cool a reactor down with water, you have to circulate the water inside and carry the heat away, otherwise it has no meaning. So the only solution is to reconnect the electricity. Otherwise it’s like pouring water on lava.
Yo: It will take 1300 tons of water to fill the pools that contain the spent fuel rods in reactors 3 and 4. This morning 30 tons. Then the Self Defense Forces are to hose in another 30 tons from five trucks. That’s nowhere near enough, they have to keep it up. Is this squirting of water from hoses going to change the situation?
Hirose: In principle, it can’t. Because even when a reactor is in good shape, it requires constant control to keep the temperature down to where it is barely safe. Now it’s a complete mess inside, and when I think of the 50 remaining operators, it brings tears to my eyes. I assume they have been exposed to very large amounts of radiation, and that they have accepted that they face death by staying there.
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If I were Prime Minister Kan, I would order them to do what the Soviet Union did when the Chernobyl reactor blew up, the sarcophagus solution, bury the whole thing under cement, put every cement company in Japan to work, and dump cement over it from the sky. Because you have to assume the worst case. Why? Because in Fukushima there is the Daiichi Plant with six reactors and the Daini Plant with four for a total of ten reactors. If even one of them develops the worst case, then the workers there must either evacuate the site or stay on and collapse. So if, for example, one of the reactors at Daiichi goes down, the other five are only a matter of time. We can’t know in what order they will go, but certainly all of them will go. And if that happens, Daini isn’t so far away, so probably the reactors there will also go down. Because I assume that workers will not be able to stay there.
I’m speaking of the worst case, but the probability is not low..
Tokyo says radiation in tap water above limit From Chron.com/found it on Godlike Productions.. Excerpts:
Tokyo Water Bureau officials say levels of radioactive iodine in some city tap water is two times the recommended limit for infants.
The officials told reporters Wednesday that a water treatment center in downtown Tokyo that supplies much of the city's tap water found that some water contained 210 becquerels per liter of iodine 131.
They said the limit for consumption of iodine 131 for infants is 100 becquerels per liter. They recommended that babies not be given tap water, although they said the water is not an immediate health risk for adults.
US bars some Japan foods over radiation fears From Raw Story. Excerpts:
The United States has announced it was barring some food imports from Japan due to fears of radiation and nuclear contamination in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami disaster.
The US Food and Drug Administration said it had placed an import alert on all milk, milk products, fresh vegetables and fruits from certain regions.
This means that no products of these types from the prefectures of Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma can enter the United States without first being shown to be safe.
Asian Stocks Retreat on Iodine in Tokyo Tap Water, Reactor Woes From Bloomberg/Found it on Rense.com
Asian stocks fell, with the regional benchmark index set for its first loss in four days, after levels of iodine unsafe for infants were reported in Tokyo tap water as worked struggled to reconnect power to a damaged nuclear reactor.
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“Investor focus has moved to the medium-term consequences of the natural disaster to the Japanese and global economies,” said Tim Schroeders, a money manager in Melbourne at Sydney- based Pengana Capital Ltd., which manages about $1 billion.
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“There are still a lot of uncertainties surrounding the nuclear fallout, as well as aftershocks, and we won’t be seeing a stable market for a while,” said Yoshinori Nagano, a senior strategist in Tokyo at Daiwa Asset Management Co., which oversees about $104 billion. “No one thinks the nuclear crisis has ended completely.”
File Under: Logical, in a World Gone Mad.. Japan's mafia among the first to organise and deliver aid From Asia News Network/found it on Rense. Excerpts:
The worst of times sometimes brings out the best in people - even in Japan's mafia, the yakuza.
The Daily Beast news website said that hours after the first shock waves hit, two of the largest crime groups went into action, opening their offices to those stranded in Tokyo and shipping food, water and blankets to the devastated areas.
The website reported that the day after the earthquake, the Inagawa-kai (the third-largest organised crime group in Japan) sent 25 trucks filled with paper diapers, instant ramen, batteries, torches, drinks and other essentials to the Tohoku region.
The Daily Beast said an executive in Sumiyoshi-kai, the second-largest crime group, even offered refuge to members of the foreign community - something unheard-of in a still slightly xenophobic nation, especially among the right-wing yakuza, the website said.
The Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest crime group, has also opened its offices across the country to the public and has been sending truckloads of supplies, but very quietly and without any fanfare, the website said.
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But this is not the first time the yakuza have displayed a humanitarian impulse. In 1995, after the Kobe earthquake, the Yamaguchi-gumi was one of the most responsive forces on the ground, quickly getting supplies to the affected areas and distributing them to the local people.
The Daily Beast said that, admittedly, much of those supplies were paid for with money from years of shaking down the people in the area, and that the yakuza are certainly not unaware of the public relations factor.
And yet, they're actually doing something.
Toyota and Honda extend auto shutdowns From The Detroit Free Press. Short answer: Saturday at the very earliest for Toyota, Sunday for Honda, but really, probably much later..
Japan quake: 9,300 dead, 13,786 missing From Sify news.com Excerpts:
The devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11 have left 9,301 people dead, while at least 13,786 were still unaccounted for till Wednesday morning, Xinhua reported citing the National Police Agency.
Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update Log
Japan quake loaded stress on fault closer to Tokyo From myway.com/Found it on Rense..
The recent monster quake that hit northeastern Japan altered the earth's surface, geologists say, loading stress onto a different segment of the fault line much closer to Tokyo.
Experts are quick to point out that this doesn't mean a powerful earthquake is necessarily about to strike the Japanese capital. Even if it did, the structure of the tectonic plates and fault lines around the city makes it unlikely that Tokyo would be hit by a quake anywhere near the intensity of the 9.0-magnitude one that struck March 11, said Roger Musson of the British Geological Survey
But, given the vast population - Tokyo and its surroundings are home to 39 million people - any strong temblor could be devastating.
"Even if you've got, let's say, a 7.5, that would be serious," the seismologist said.
Contractors Rush in as Kan Pledges to Rebuild After Japan Quake From Bloomberg, on Rense..
Japanese contractors have rushed workers, generators and equipment to areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that damaged or destroyed more than 110,000 buildings and may have killed 20,000 people.
“We’ve had many, many requests” for floodlights, power equipment and construction gear since the temblor, said Takashi Yamada, a spokesman for Osaka-based Nishio Rent All Co. “We’re just sorry we don’t have enough stock for everyone.”
The government has asked companies such as Daiwa House Industry Co. to supply more than 30,000 temporary houses within two months to help shelter the 350,000 people now in evacuation centers. Prime Minister Naoto Kan has also pledged to “rebuild from scratch” following the magnitude-9 quake and tsunami that damaged about 1,500 roads, 48 bridges and 15 railways, according to the National Police Agency.
Smoke spews from 2 reactors at stricken Japanese nuclear plant From CNN/found on Rense. Excerpts:
What appeared to be smoke was rising Tuesday from two adjacent reactors in the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a nuclear safety official said.
Smoke spewed Monday from the same reactors, setbacks that came despite fervent efforts to prevent the further release of radioactive materials at the stricken facility.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, an official with Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said smoke was rising from the plant's No. 2 and No. 3 reactors. It was not immediately clear why.
Japan Tsunami Delaying Chevy Volt Production
Japan’s “gusher”: A world crisis? From the PPJ Gazette/found on Before It's News. Excerpts:
We are watching what will be a slow death for many Japanese as radiation continues to escape from the nuclear reactors. The question on everyone’s mind is, “Why aren’t they sealing the reactors like they did in Chernobyl?” Who in their right mind tries to shower an increasingly unstable nuclear reactor with sea water in an attempt to cool the core when millions of lives are at stake not only in Japan, but also around the world as leaked radiation is carried into the jet stream? And what if efforts to cool the reactors aren’t successful? This is a question almost too unbearable to contemplate.
Walkom: Forget meltdowns. The real nuclear problem is waste From The Star.com.
For Canada, the danger of nuclear power lies not in a Japanese-style meltdown. When industry boosters say such an event is unlikely here, they are right.
But what the boosters don’t talk about is radioactive waste. That’s the main hazard, the part of the nuclear question that has never been properly addressed. No one knows what to do with nuclear fuel rods that remain highly radioactive for thousands of years.
The industry talks of burying them. But this is not a real solution. Sealed containers leak. Ground shifts. Over decades, unforeseen events occur.
Fukushima Status Update Monday PM Edition Loong, but detailed piece. Good, but be warned..
Japan fears food contamination as battle to cool nuclear plant continues From The Guardian UK. Excerpts:
The operation to cool the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has suffered a minor setback after smoke and vapour was seen rising from two reactors, as anxiety grew over the safety of food produced in the area.
Days after authorities reported abnormal levels of radiation in milk, some vegetables and tap water, the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco] said high levels of radioactivity had been found in seawater near the facility, raising fears that seafood has also been contaminated.
The power company said seawater samples contained levels of radioactive iodine 126.7 times the allowed limit, and caesium 24.8 times over. The firm said the quantities posed no immediate threat to health.
As with most radiation contamination, quantities usually don't pose An Immediate Threat To Health. Mostly, Later..
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The source of the contamination has yet to be established, but officials believe it probably came from the tonnes of seawater that have been sprayed over overheating reactors and fuel rod pools in recent days.
Japan's catastrophe and the disaster that awaits From 60 Minutes. Excerpts:
Scott Pelley and a "60 Minutes" team have been in Japan for over a week, travelling from Tokyo to the port city Sendai to the once-beautiful resort of Matsushima and into the zone surrounding the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant. There, emergency crews are currently struggling to restore cooling and stabilize pressure inside the reactors.
What we have found in Japan is a catastrophe that reveals both the power of nature and the fragility of human technology.
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The Fukushima Daiichi crisis is not "one" nuclear emergency - it is four potentially catastrophic events standing side-by-side. In all, there are six reactor stations. Numbers one through four are in peril. Last week, crews risked their lives to get water onto melting uranium fuel. Through explosions and blasts of radioactive steam, a few hundred Japanese joined battle with the most powerful force known to man.
Top experts disagree on fundamental questions such as whether melting fuel rods would cause an explosion or just a fire. Answers are critical to planning for a bigger emergency.
"It's just so uncertain. This is unprecedented, you know, uncharted territory that the consequences could be greater than we expect," Nesheiwat said.
And:
The moment that altered the course of Japanese history was when the tsunami inundated about 400 miles of the northern coast.
You can't picture the enormity of it, so "60 Minutes" stopped in one small town called Matsushima. It was said to be among the most beautiful places in Japan, a famous vacation spot. The name has the same ring to a Japanese as Big Sur or Cape Cod does to an American. Matsushima means "Pine Tree Island" - the trees are about all that's left.
Japan Radiation Maximum by Prefecture
Officials Expect 'Ups and Downs' in Reactor Fight From The Wall Street Journal/Asia, and I found it on Rense. Excerpts:
Until Tokyo Electric Power Co. fully restores power at the reactors and turns on cooling systems knocked out after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, it faces continued radiation leakage from spent fuel rods stored at the two reactors. Those fuel rods are stored in pools of water that have been depleted, although Tokyo Electric Power, known as Tepco, says the water hasn't completely disappeared, contrary to some reports. (So little volume of water could fit that description, right?)
Repeated spraying of water by military and fire-department personnel appears to have raised the water level, but without a permanent solution the rods still could overheat and possibly break apart, spewing more radiation into the air.
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The operation to connect power to the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors and turn on the standard cooling systems is expected to last at least several days. Until then, some experts believe the rods are at risk of full meltdown, which could damage the containment vessel and cause a radiation release that would dwarf those so far.
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A separate storage pool for spent fuel rods also is drawing the attention of some Tepco and safety officials. The area, which takes fuel rods from all six reactors, is located near the No. 4 reactor. The pool is nearly full with 6,375 units of fuel, according to Tepco.
Death toll from Japan’s disasters over 8,000; more than 13,000 missing. From The Washington Post/Found on Rense. Excerpts:
The combined toll of those dead and missing after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami surpassed 21,000 Sunday, and new food-contamination reports surfaced as workers continued to try to tame the radiation-spewing Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
And:
With each day there are new recriminations and doubts about the Japanese government’s and Tepco’s response to the March 11 disaster. News reports have raised questions about whether Tepco hesitated to dump seawater on the overheating nuclear reactors because the use of seawater will corrode and ruin these valuable corporate assets. And the government acknowledged that it had been slow in distributing potassium iodide pills to people vulnerable to the invisible atomic clouds emerging from the nuclear plant.
Japan's Refugees Crowd Shelters And Wait From npr.org. Excerpt:
As many as 400,000 people in Japan are now displaced due to the earthquake, tsunami and subsequent crisis at the nuclear power plant. Doualy Xaykaothao reports for NPR from Fukushima prefecture, in one of the largest shelters in Koriyama City.
Rich Japan's descent into misery stuns From The News Herald. Excerpts:
SHIZUGAWA, Japan (AP) — Bodies are strewn among the knotted skeletons of entire towns. Military helicopters clatter overhead. Survivors who lost everything huddle under blankets in schools-turned-shelters as foreign governments dispatch aid and urge their citizens to flee.
After years spent reporting from desperate and war-torn corners of the world, the scenes I've witnessed here are unsettlingly familiar.
It's the setting that's not.
Here, in one of the richest and most advanced nations on earth, I've found one of most challenging assignments of my career.
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That first night, it took 14 hours on backroads to cover 180 miles (300 kilometers). When we finally reached the ruined port of Sendai the next morning, we found survivors wearing surgical masks picking through the wrecked junkyard of their annihilated city.
In a tech-savvy society better known for hosting robot marathons, the crisis has produced surreal images, some more apt to appear in a novel about life after a nuclear holocaust: Cut off with no electricity and no phone reception, the hungry and isolated braving long lines outside near-empty grocery stores just to get food; the desperate homeless warming frigid hands in heavy snow above fires fueled by the wooden planks of their own pulverized homes.
In Kesennuma, I saw the hull of a behemoth ship parked inland on a sea of burnt debris beside a wrecked 7-Eleven.
In Shizugawa, a lone Japanese soldier relentlessly swept a small strip of pavement that somehow survived, a futile and slightly bizarre effort considering the entire city surrounding it was reduced to a mashed heap of garbage. (It the only thing he can control in an uncontrollable nightmare..)
And:
We have survived mostly on snack food — peanuts and potato chips and canned coffee scavenged from mostly empty street-side vending machines. When we found one small food store open, it's dwindling stocks already plundered, we bought everything left that we could fit in our car — raw sausages, dried squid, bread.
Japanese restraint is steeped in a culture of tested resilience From The Los Angeles Times. Excerpts:
First a massive earthquake and a devastating tsunami. Now a battle with an out-of-control nuclear reactor facility. How much can one people take?
Though there's obviously a limit to what anyone can bear, cultural features of a society can clearly influence psychological resilience, experts say. As the tragedy drags into a second week, they warn that prolonged stress will lead to heightened trauma for many Japanese people and that levels of sadness and depression will grow.
But right now, as they witness workers risking their lives to bring a crippled nuclear power plant under control or the calm and orderly refugee centers, those who know the culture well says Japan appears to be living up to its reputation for strength and stoicism — a quality they refer to as gaman.
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The stoicism is deeply rooted in the country's history, says Roland Kelts, a lecturer at the University of Tokyo and author of the 2006 book "Japanamerica." Japan, he notes, has been plagued throughout history by volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and invasions. Disaster and calamities feature commonly in its stories and folk tales. "There is a great deal of pride in the idea that Japan is a long-suffering nation," Kelts says.
And:
"People sometimes make some fun about the rigid societal structures of Japan and how there is so much emphasis on appearance and 'face,' and that you don't show your inner feelings. That is the stereotypical picture," Schaede says. But in times like this, she adds, "that is where they get their strength. This is a helpful feature right now."
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Though the Japanese have coped remarkably in the early days of the disaster, what happens to their spirit as the weeks and months unfold remains to be seen, Kelts said.
"There is restraint and grace, but there is a certain degree of shellshock," he says. "I think people are still stunned that their world changed in a single afternoon."
Operator of Fukushima nuke plant admitted to faking repair records From The Herald Sun/found it on Godlike Productions. Excerpts:
DAYS before Japan plunged into an atomic crisis after a giant earthquake and tsunami knocked out power at the ageing Fukushima nuclear plant, its operator had admitted faking repair records.
The revelation raises fresh questions about both Tokyo, the scandal-tainted past of the Electric Power Co (TEPCO), and the Japanese government's perceived soft regulation of a key industry.
The operator of the Fukushima No 1 plant submitted a report to the country's nuclear watchdog 10 days before the quake hit on March 11, admitting it had failed to inspect 33 pieces of equipment in its six reactors there.
A power board distributing electricity to a reactor's temperature control valves was not examined for 11 years, and inspectors faked records, pretending to make thorough inspections when in fact they were only cursory, TEPCO said.
Look at the results of Limited Government Response. Little or no Regulations? Anything goes! And then..
Americans: You sure you want this shit?
Live blog: Japan earthquake From Al Jazeera, from the beginning.
Officials: Pressure rises again in Japan reactor From Forbes. Excerpts:
Japan's nuclear safety agency says pressure is again rising in one of reactors at the country's tsunami-damaged nuclear complex - a setback that means operators will have to vent more radioactive gas into the environment.
Safety agency official Hidehiko Nishiyama said Sunday that efforts to put water in the Unit 3 reactor at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex might not have been working.
World food supply threatened by Japan nuclear radiation From Natural News. Excerpts:
Fallout from the current meltdown occurring at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which was hit by the 9.0+ mega earthquake and tsunami last Friday, could contaminate the world's food supply with toxic radiation, say experts. If the plant's radioactive particles get caught in the jet stream and travel the world over, they will end up contaminating crops and grazing fields.
"The explosions could expose the population to longer-term radiation, which can raise the risk of cancer. These are thyroid cancer, bone cancer and leukemia. Children and fetuses are especially vulnerable," said Lam Ching-wan, a chemical pathologist at the University of Hong Kong. "For some individuals even a small amount of radiation can raise the risk of cancer. The higher the radiation, the higher the risk of cancer."
Japan cites radiation in milk, spinach near plant From MSNBC. Excerpts:
Japan announced the first signs that contamination from its tsunami-crippled nuclear complex have seeped into the food chain, saying that radiation levels in spinach and milk from farms near the facility exceeded government safety limits.
Japanese officials insisted that the small amounts of radiation — with traces also found in tap water in Tokyo — posed no immediate health threat, and said the situation at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, while still unpredictable, appeared to be coming under control after near-constant dousing of water to prevent spent fuel rods from burning up.\
Radiation from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant reaches California; experts: no health risk From The New York Daily News. Excerpts:
Trace amounts of radiation from Japan's nuclear crisis have reportedly reached California - but they're nowhere near hazardous levels.
"(They're) about a billion times beneath levels that would be health threatening," a diplomat with access to radiation tracking by the U.N.'s Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization told the Associated Press.
Experts agree that any fallout wafting 5,500 miles across the Pacific to California will be too diluted to pose a health risk.
You see? Everything's fine. Keep shopping.
Taiwan finds radiation on imported Japanese beans From Mercury News.
Radiation was detected on fava beans imported from Japan to Taiwan, Taiwanese officials said Sunday in what appears to be the first case of contamination in Japanese imports.
Taiwan's Cabinet-level Atomic Energy Council Radiation Monitoring Center said in a statement that a small amount of iodine and cesium had been found on a batch of Japanese fava beans imported to the island on Friday. The center said 11 becquerels of iodine and 1 becquerel of cesium were detected.
The amount of radiation was well below Taiwan's legal limit and not harmful to human health, an official from the center told The Associated Press.
Japan tolls tops 20,000 amid nuclear plant crisis From Al Arabiya. Excerpts:
Crews fighting to cool reactors at Japan's stricken nuclear plant struggled Sunday to switch partial power back on after a natural disaster that has left more than 20,000 people dead or missing.
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In Miyagi prefecture on the devastated northeast coast, the confirmed death toll was 4,882.
But Miyagi police chief Naoto Takeuchi told a task force meeting that his prefecture alone "will need to secure facilities to keep the bodies of more than 15,000 people", Jiji Press reported.
According to the charity Save the Children, around 100,000 children were displaced by the disaster, and signs of trauma are evident among survivors as the nuclear emergency and countless aftershocks heighten their terror.
Scientists lack complete answers on radiation risk. From The Guardian UK. Excerpts:
The Associated Press= Thyroid cancer for sure. Leukemia, probably. Too much radiation can raise the risk of developing cancer years down the road, scientists agree, and the young are most vulnerable. But just how much or how long an exposure is risky is not clear.
Those are among the unknowns scientists are contemplating as the crisis unfolds at Japan's stricken nuclear power plant.
In Japan, the Science Ministry said radiation levels about 19 miles northwest of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant rose at one point Friday to 0.15 millisieverts per hour, about the amount absorbed in a chest X-ray. But levels have been fluctuating, and radiation at most sites that distance from the facility have been far below that.
Threat from Japanese nuclear emergency widens From World Socialist Web Site. Excerpts:
Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the NRC, told a Washington news conference on Friday that he expected the struggle to bring down the temperatures at the Fukushima to be a long one. “This is something that will take some time to work through, possibly weeks, as you eventually remove the majority of the heat from the reactors and then the spent fuel pools,” he said. When asked whether the Japanese authorities could avoid a “worst case scenario” he refused to offer an opinion. “I really don't want to speculate on where this could go,” he said.
Gunther Oettinger, the European Union energy head, said, “We are somewhere between a disaster and a major disaster. There could be further catastrophic events, which could pose a threat to the lives of people on the island.”
It was wrong, Oettinger said to “exclude the worst.” He continued “There is talk of an apocalypse, and I think the word is particularly well chosen.”
John Large, who has carried out risk analyses in both military and civil nuclear situations, said that the response to the Fukushima crisis had been “shambolic”. The nuclear industry, he said, did not plan for the one in a million accident. “They are taking a chance, a risk with the helicopters and water,” he added.
“What this means is, accidents like we are seeing now where there are two breaches--one involving the reactors, and one involving fuel ponds outside the reactors--they don’t have any plans for it. They don't have a procedure in a book to turn to—that’s why there is some turmoil. Taking a water cannon and spraying it in may not work. This shows the fundamental omission in nuclear safety culture. What this shows is the basic confidence of nuclear engineers and operators is flawed.”
The concern is that with the situation still unstable at Fukushima, one or more of the steel containment vessels could rupture or the spent-fuel rods may begin to melt down, producing an even more serious nuclear emergency. Some experts have suggested that the fuel rods stored in pool 4 may have already gone critical on Wednesday. That would mean that a nuclear reaction–nuclear fission–is taking place, without any of the usual means to control it.
Still, no encouraging developments.
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