Meltdown Likely Under Way At Japan Nuclear Reactor

[Throatwobbler]

JetsetBKK.

Thanks for helping me answer some of these posters. I'm sure they don't realize where electricity comes from and the costs of other ways of generating electricity.

Before people go all crazy on me i totally believe that we should be looking at renewable options. But given fossil fuels against nuclear then I believe it's not a clear cut case. As another poster said the full impact of fossil fuels is still far from known and could possibly cause a much greater loss of life.

Edited May 2, 2011 by Throatwobbler

[Chopperboy]

JetsetBKK.

Thanks for helping me answer some of these posters. I'm sure they don't realize where electricity comes from and the costs of other ways of generating electricity.

Before people go all crazy on me i totally believe that we should be looking at renewable options. But given fossil fuels against nuclear then I believe it's not a clear cut case. As another poster said the full impact of fossil fuels is still far from known and could possibly cause a much greater loss of life.

And you are basing this on what statistics?

Or just some poster on this forum...

Unlike conventional power generation a nuclear power station creates radiactive isotopes that do not occur in nature and are among the most dangerous substances know to man. They remain radioactive for tens and hundreds of thousands of years. If they can't keep a nuclear power station from melting down and contaminating the environment how can they guarantee to keep these substances safe from humans for hunderds of thousands of years?

Carbon on the other hand is the second most common element in the human body and the chemical basis of all known life!

Edited May 3, 2011 by Chopperboy

[Chopperboy]

And another nuclear plant leaking

Radiation leaks from fuel rods suspected at Tsuruga plant

FUKUI (Kyodo) -- Leaks of radioactive substances from fuel rods are suspected to have occurred at a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, the Fukui prefectural government said Monday, citing a rise in the level of radioactive substances in coolant water.

According to Japan Atomic, 4.2 becquerels of iodine-133 and 3,900 becquerels of xenon gas were detected per cubic centimeter Monday, up from 2.1 and 5.2 becquerels, respectively, during previous measurements conducted last Tuesday.

The company said the planned shutdown is a precaution following the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power station caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Japan Atomic's regulations require a reactor to be halted when the amount of leaked iodine reaches 40,000 becquerels.

(Mainichi Japan) May 3, 2011

[Chopperboy]

Ties bind Japan nuke sector, regulators

Nearly 10 years after Japan's top utility first assured the government that its Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was safe from any tsunami, regulators were just getting around to checking out the claim. The move was too little, too late.

But even if there had been scrutiny years before the fury of an earthquake-powered wave swamped the six atomic reactors at Fukushima on March 11, it is almost certain the government wouldn't have challenged the unrealistic analysis that Tokyo Electric Power Co. had submitted in 2001. An Associated Press review of Japan's approach to nuclear plant safety shows how closely intertwined relationships between government regulators and industry have allowed a culture of complacency to prevail...

http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20110502/API/1105020602

Comprehensive article on the Japanese nuclear industry

[Chopperboy]

TEPCO faces uphill battle in filling nuclear reactor containment vessel with water

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) is struggling to carry out its plans to fill the containment vessel of the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant's No. 1 reactor with water to control radiation emissions, it has emerged.

Workers have already pumped in more than enough water to fill the containment vessel, but they have not actually seen a rise in the water level. Furthermore, when workers increased the amount of water pumped into the containment vessel, pressure inside the vessel fell, threatening a hydrogen explosion. As a result, workers had to once again reduce the amount of water. When pressure inside the containment vessel falls to a level near regular atmospheric pressure, oxygen can enter the container from outside and react with hydrogen inside to produce an explosion.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110502p2a00m0na012000c.html

(Mainichi Japan) May 2, 2011

[Chopperboy]

[Fukushima cancer risk calculation [/size]

417,000 cancers forecast for Fukushima 200 km contamination zone by 2061

Based on the different ways in which different radionuclides behave in biological systems. This predicts 191,986 extra cancers in the 0 - 100km circle and 224,623 in the outer ring.

By the way, I do like the way they are so precise with their calculations: "191,986 extra cancers in the 0 - 100km circle and 224,623 in the outer ring."

Is 191,986 any more precise than 200,000? Why not 199,999 or 200,001?

Perhaps they should have put in their range of estimates, but that becomes unwieldy

SC

The health outcome of the Fukushima catastrophe

Initial analysis from risk model of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, ECRR

Download the analysis here:

http://www.llrc.org/fukushima/subtopic/fukushimariskcalc.pdf

Edited May 3, 2011 by Chopperboy

[elcent]

JetsetBkk]

According to your Merkel drivel

sure you can explain how Siemens comes into the picture. They cancelled a contract for 400 nuke plants in Russia.

[Chopperboy]

Dying for TEPCO

By Paul Jobin

While Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) experiences difficulties in recruiting workers willing to go to Fukushima to clean up the damaged reactors, the World Health Organization (WHO) is planning to conduct an epidemiological survey on the catastrophe. This is the first of two reports offering a worker-centered analysis of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

In the titanic struggle to bring to closure the dangerous situation at Fukushima Nuclear Plant No1, there are many signs that TEPCO is facing great difficulties in finding workers. At present, there are nearly 700 people at the site. As in ordinary times, workers rotate so as to limit the cumulative dose of radiation inherent in maintenance and cleanup work at the nuclear site.

http://atimes.com/atimes/Japan/ME04Dh01.html

[Chopperboy]

Workers at Fukushima Daiichi reaching maximum exposure as culture of regulator and industry collusion is revealed

The new case of radiation overexposure comes as mounting evidence that nuclear regulators and the Japanese government operated in cahoots to cover up several fatal flaws at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which some experts say would have manifested themselves even without the cataclysmic earthquake and tsunami on March 11 that cut off all cooling to the plant – the main cause of the ongoing crisis.

The worker in question, who is in her 40s, was found to have suffered more internal than external radiation exposure, with the internal exposure reaching 6.71 millisieverts.

She was providing care to workers who had become sick at a building on site that was being used as the operation center for the crisis, TEPCO said.

TEPCO said the woman may have inhaled particles of radioactive substances that got on the clothing of the other workers in the early stages of the crisis because most of the staff in the building at the time weren't wearing masks. The woman left the plant on March 15, it added.

http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2011/fukushima_uncover

Edited May 3, 2011 by Chopperboy

[Chopperboy]

Pacific radiation levels keep rising

Wed May 4, 2011

A view of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant

The levels of highly radioactive water keep rising on the Pacific seabed in close proximity to Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), said on Tuesday that the seabed samples collected three kilometers from Minamisoma and another three kilometers from Naraha, both in Fukushima Prefecture, contained 98 to 190 becquerels of radioactive iodine per kilogram and 1,200 to 1,400 becquerels of radioactive cesium, Kyodo news agency reported.

The high levels of radioactive materials were detected from samples collected last Friday from the seabed at points 20-30 meters deep.

TEPCO said that the radioactive substances may have gone down into the sea after being released into the air from the plant, or may have been carried by contaminated water that seeped from the plant.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/178145.html

[Chopperboy]

Japanese nuclear plant a time bomb?

The crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan is seen in this March 24, 2011 aerial photo taken by small unmanned drone and released by AIR PHOTO SERVICE. UPI/Air Photo

TOKYO, May 3 (UPI) -- In the wake of Japan's nuclear crisis, fears are mounting that disaster could also strike the country's Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant.

"The Hamaoka plant is potentially even more dangerous than Fukushima," Mizuho Fukushima (no relation to the crippled nuclear plant), leader of the Social Democratic Party of Japan, was quoted by The Christian Science Monitor newspaper as saying.

Situated on the Pacific coast in Omaezaki, about 112 miles southwest of Tokyo, Hamaoka is in an area where a magnitude-8 earthquake is strongly projected to hit.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2011/05/03/Japanese-nuclear-plant-a-time-bomb/UPI-71681304450462/

Edited July 17, 2011 by Scott
edited for fair use policy

[Chopperboy]

Utilities employed 68 ex-bureaucrats

The past 50 years have seen 68 former elite bureaucrats parachuting into top positions at the nation's 12 electricity suppliers after retiring from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, including five who landed at Tokyo Electric Power Co.

At present, 13 retired career-track METI bureaucrats hold senior positions at electric power companies under the practice of "amakudari" (descent from heaven).

METI, which oversees 10 electric utilities and two electricity wholesalers, investigated the matter after the crisis at Tepco's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant fueled criticism of the practice.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/rss/nn20110504a1.html

Edited July 17, 2011 by Scott
edited for fair use policy

[Chopperboy]

Dying for TEPCO (Part 2)

By Paul Jobin

As in ordinary times, workers rotate so as to limit the cumulative dose of radiation inherent in maintenance and cleanup work at the nuclear site. But

this time, the risks are greater, and the method of recruitment unusual.

Job offers come not from TEPCO but from Mizukami Kogyo, a company whose business is construction and cleaning maintenance. The description indicates only that the work is at a nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture. The job is specified as three hours per day at an hourly wage of 10,000 yen (about US$122). There is no information about danger, only the suggestion to ask the employer for further details on food, lodging, transportation and insurance.

http://www.thailandoutlook.tv/tan/ViewData.aspx?DataID=1043397

Edited July 17, 2011 by Scott
edited for fair use policy

[Chopperboy]

Where is all that Fukushima radiation going, and why does it matter?

Fairewinds' founder Maggie Gundersen interviews environmental scientist and professional engineer Marco Kaltofen about his ongoing analysis of radioactive fallout from Fukushima.

[Chopperboy]

Visual Tour of Fukushima Daiichi before the quake.

http://www.houseoffoust.com/fukushima/phototour.html

[JetsetBkk]

JetsetBkk]

According to your Merkel drivel

sure you can explain how Siemens comes into the picture. They cancelled a contract for 400 nuke plants in Russia.

It's not my Merkel drivel - it's Merkel's Merkel drivel.

- which I posted to counter the idea that decisions made by her are purely for the safety of the German people... and not about her election chances.

You'd better explain this stuff about Siemens and maybe even give a link if you want a retort.

[pomeloseed]

Situated on the Pacific coast in Omaezaki, about 112 miles southwest of Tokyo, (Dai-Ichi N Plant) in Hamaoka is in an area where a magnitude-8 earthquake is strongly projected to hit.

"It should be closed down now," Mr. Fukushima said. "Scientists say the region in which Hamaoka is located is due for a major earthquake. If we wait until that happens, it will be too late."

There's no way it will be closed down as long as it's functional. Indeed, most N plants are kept active long after their expiration date. Billions are spent to plan/build/maintain them, so no vested interests want to close them down, regardless of possible impending dangers.

JetsetBKK.

Thanks for helping me answer some of these posters. I'm sure they don't realize where electricity comes from and the costs of other ways of generating electricity.

Before people go all crazy on me i totally believe that we should be looking at renewable options. But given fossil fuels against nuclear then I believe it's not a clear cut case. As another poster said the full impact of fossil fuels is still far from known and could possibly cause a much greater loss of life.

Fossil fuels are a drag, but nevertheless are comparatively better than nuclear. Nuclear is like man-made poison put in bottles. One day those bottles can break, and no person nor entity can put the poison back in the bottles. That's essentially what's happening just NW or Tokyo as we speak.

[Chopperboy]

No 'suicide squad' as workers enter reactor

As Japanese workers entered the No.1 reactor building at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the company is adamant that safety precautions have been taken.

Workers entered the building for the first time since a hydrogen explosion ripped off its roof a day after a devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

High radiation levels inside the building have prevented staff from entering to start installing a new cooling system to finally bring the plant under control, a process plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has said may take all year.

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/no-suicide-squad-workers-enter-reactor-4158581?ref=rss

Edited July 17, 2011 by Scott
edited for fair use policy

[Chopperboy]

Reactor 3 temperature still rising, increasing water flow rate has no effect.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the damaged nuclear power plant in Fukushima, says it has increased the cooling water flowing into the Number 3 reactor after an increase in temperature occurred over the past week.

Two sets of readings 24 hours apart

On Wednesday, TEPCO increased the flow of cooling water from 7 tons to 9 tons per hour for the Number 3 reactor. The temperature at the bottom of the reactor was 143.5 degrees Celsius at 11 AM on Thursday, about 33 degrees higher than Wednesday last week.

TEPCO has been using temporary pumps to inject cooling water into reactors Number 1, 2 and 3. Their fuel rods are believed to have partially melted down after the tsunami disrupted normal cooling functions.

The operator says the temperature rise was apparently caused by a temporary decline in the amount of cooling water flowing into the Number 3 reactor.

TEPCO increased the amount of water of flowing into the Number 1 reactor for 2 days starting on Wednesday last week, the day when the temperature of the Number 3 reactor began to rise. The company says it continues to carefully monitor temperature changes.

NHK Friday, May 06, 2011

Edited July 17, 2011 by Scott
edited for fair use policy

[Chopperboy]

From Taro Kono Blog, who is in the house of representatives (LDP, opposition to current government).

Minutes of meeting between TEPCO and the government on the 1st May.

"If the current situation continues, high density radiation will be released on the 8th May."

"Mr Hosono said: It is very important to go to the next step regarding the installation of the heat exchanger machine. For the concerned parties, be careful of the sharing of information with high sensitivity so that the same mistakes aren't made again, as happened previously with the release of radiated water [story].

http://www.taro.org/2011/05/post-996.php

Edited May 6, 2011 by Chopperboy

[think_too_mut]

I live in Japan, have not left like 240,000 other foreigners had. (fly-jin)

To put this radiation in a perspective, if one put up a tent next to the Fukushima plant fence, for his lifetime he would absorb the same amount of radioation flight attendants/pilots get in 6 months.

The whole nonsense from the press is just that: scaremongering rubbish.

[Chopperboy]

Interesting slide presentation by Prof. Joseph Shepherd of the California Institute of Technology

Includes observations on the explosion at Unit 3

http://www.galcit.caltech.edu/~jeshep/fukushima/ShepherdFukushima30April2011.pdf

[Chopperboy]

I live in Japan, have not left like 240,000 other foreigners had. (fly-jin)

To put this radiation in a perspective, if one put up a tent next to the Fukushima plant fence, for his lifetime he would absorb the same amount of radioation flight attendants/pilots get in 6 months.

The whole nonsense from the press is just that: scaremongering rubbish.

Why do you think everyone on site is wearing radiological protection gear?

Have you seen the radiation maps for Fukushima recently??

Please provide evidence that supports your claim...

Edited May 6, 2011 by Chopperboy

[Chopperboy]

West and South faces of building #4 with concrete pump injecting water into the spent fuel pool 4

[think_too_mut]

I live in Japan, have not left like 240,000 other foreigners had. (fly-jin)

To put this radiation in a perspective, if one put up a tent next to the Fukushima plant fence, for his lifetime he would absorb the same amount of radioation flight attendants/pilots get in 6 months.

The whole nonsense from the press is just that: scaremongering rubbish.

Why do you think everyone on site is wearing radiological protection gear?

Have you seen the radiation maps for Fukushima recently??

Please provide evidence that supports your claim...

From where I am I can not access that site (company has blocked many sites includuing yahoo, gmail..) and that radiation map is available online.

Whole wold + dog can see the rubbish that is being made of it, the trouble is that few understand what it is about, including all the junk articles that are dragged into this 110 pages topic.

the site is

japan.failedrobot.com

and note - it is in micro sieverts, thousand times less than milisieverts. Have not been there for days, should be even less now, you will see that the only place where radiation is high are the reactors themselves. What a surprise?

Edited May 6, 2011 by think_too_mut

[Chopperboy]

Please provide evidence that supports your claim...

the site is japan.failedrobot.com

and note - it is in micro sieverts, thousand times less than milisieverts. Have not been there for days, should be even less now, you will see that the only place where radiation is high are the reactors themselves. What a surprise?

The biggest danger is inhaling radioactive particles, radiation exposure and secondary contamination - hence the exclusion zone by your government.

For a real map try this one!

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=h&msa=0&msid=216097317933419817421.00049f79dd8efb50bf317&ll=37.62946,140.581055&spn=0.761327,1.647949&z=9&source=embed

Edited May 6, 2011 by Chopperboy

[think_too_mut]

The biggest danger is inhaling radioactive particles and secondary contamination - hence the exclusion zone by your government.

For a real map try this one!

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?

The real map is under my feet, I am standing on the Japanese soil and the sky above me is Japanese too.

Exclusion zone: in EU it would not have been declared (at least in some developed countries), allowed radiation level is 20-100 milisieverta per year. Japanese law is 1 milisievert, most restrictive on the planet.

The zone is not in reaction to an event that has endangered people, it is as a precaution. Until Fukushima is either dead or under control government must do what they have done - remove the people from the area.

Finally, not a single person has received radiation that would risk their health, not even those working at the plant.

Not a single person has been killed by Fukushima.

All hype and media hysteria.

Edited May 6, 2011 by think_too_mut

[Chopperboy]

(at least in some developed countries), allowed radiation level is 20-100 milisieverta per year. Japanese law is 1 milisievert, most restrictive on the planet.

Finally, not a single person has received radiation that would risk their health, not even those working at the plant. Not a single person has been killed by Fukushima

The legal limit for radiation exposure from sources such as nuclear plants for members of the public is 1mSv a year, based on recommendations from the International Commission on Radiological Protection.

Several workers were killed in the explosions!

Many workers at Fukushima have been exposed to high levels of radiation - levels which can cause cancer. Local people have also been exposed to higher levels of radiation - try reading some of the articles here!

A comprehensive 2005 report from the National Academy of Sciences found there is no safe dose of low-level radiation, with no threshold of exposure below which radiation can be shown to be harmless.

"The health risks -- particularly the development of solid cancers in organs -- rise proportionally with exposure," said epidemiologist Richard R. Monson, chair of the NAS committee.

Edited May 6, 2011 by Chopperboy

[think_too_mut]

(at least in some developed countries), allowed radiation level is 20-100 milisieverta per year. Japanese law is 1 milisievert, most restrictive on the planet.

Finally, not a single person has received radiation that would risk their health, not even those working at the plant. Not a single person has been killed by Fukushima

The legal limit for radiation exposure from sources such as nuclear plants for members of the public is 1mSv a year, based on recommendations from the International Commission on Radiological Protection.

Several workers were killed in the explosions!

Many workers at Fukushima have been exposed to high levels of radiation - levels which can cause cancer. Local people have also been exposed to high levels of radiation - try reading some of the articles here.

Reading what? Hysteria?

None of the workers were killed by radiation. One fell off while climbing into a crane cabin when the earthquake struck and that was at Fukushima Dai-ni (8km distant sister plant orderly shutdown). Two workers at Dai-ichi were killed by the tsunami, their bodies found with severe limb fractures.

Not a single person was exposed to radiation that poses health risk. Those few that had their feet soaked in radioactive water were dismissed from hospital next morning.

Nobody has even came close to the reactors until yesterday - first batch of workers, wearing protective gear, eneter the building of the reactor 1, installed 8 pipes, connected to a turbine that will vent out radiation from the reactor housing (one that spectacularly blew it's top off when (intentionaly released) steam expoloded. That will finish by Sunday and next batch of workers will the enter to install new colling system.

Those workers received from 0.8 to 2.8 milisieverts in 1 hour (1 miliseivert per year is acceptable by Japanese rules) and will not come back to work to Fukushima.

[Chopperboy]

READINGS FOR REACTORS - SOURCE TEPCO

Shows radiation reading from reactor 2 is 12.4 Sv/h

12 times more than is required to give a worker immediate radiation sickness.

http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/f1/images/00_05061300.pdf

Edited May 6, 2011 by Chopperboy