Meltdown Likely Under Way At Japan Nuclear Reactor

[elcent]

IAEA on Facebook live

Japanese Earthquake Update (18 March 12:25 UTC)

by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday, March 18, 2011 at 7:34pmJapanese authorities have informed the IAEA that, prior to the earthquake of 12 March, the entire fuel core of reactor unit 4 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had been unloaded from the reactor and placed in the spent fuel pond located in the reactor’s building.

CLARIFICATION

Contrary to several news reports, the IAEA to date has NOT received any notification from the Japanese authorities of people sickened by radiation contamination.

In the report of 17 March 01:15 UTC, the cases described were of people who were reported to have had radioactive contamination detected on them when they were monitored.

[elcent]

Japan Earthquake Update (18 March 2011, 06:10 UTC)

by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday, March 18, 2011 at 12:57pmTemperature of Spent Fuel Pools at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant - UPDATED

Spent fuel removed from a nuclear reactor is highly radioactive and generates intense heat. Nuclear plant operators typically store this material in pools of water that cool the fuel and shield the radioactivity. Water in a spent fuel pool is continuously cooled to remove heat produced by spent fuel assemblies. According to IAEA experts, a typical spent fuel pool temperature is kept below 25 °C under normal operating conditions. The temperature of a spent fuel pool is maintained by constant cooling, which requires a constant power source.

Given the intense heat and radiation that spent fuel assemblies can generate, spent fuel pools must be constantly checked for water level and temperature. If fuel is no longer covered by water or temperatures reach a boiling point, fuel can become exposed and create a risk of radioactive release. The concern about the spent fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi is that sources of power to cool the pools have been compromised.

Concern about spent fuel storage conditions has led Japanese officials to drop and spray water from helicopters and trucks onto Unit 3 at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (See earlier update).

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has reported increasing temperatures in the spent fuel ponds at Units 5 and 6 since 14 March. An emergency diesel generator at Unit 6 is now powering water injection into the ponds at those Units, according to NISA.

The IAEA can confirm the following new information regarding the temperatures of the spent nuclear fuel pools at Units 4, 5 and 6 at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant:

Unit 4

13 March, 19:08 UTC: 84 °C

Unit 5

17 March, 03:00 UTC: 64.2 °C

17 March, 18:00 UTC: 65.5 °C

Unit 6

17 March, 03:00 UTC: 62.5 °C

17 March, 18:00 UTC: 62.0 °C

The IAEA is continuing to seek further information about the water levels, temperature and condition of all spent fuel pool facilities at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

[Panhandler007]

SCANDAL LOOMS FOR JPN GOVT!!!!!

So the Jpn GOVT, through their less than honest reporting, will cause the death of thousands of their citizens who are are living in the hot zone. The JPN govt tells their citizens 20 miles away from the reactors is SAFE, I dont think so..

This nightmare happened sooo fast....incredible....

[elcent]

Japanese Earthquake Update (18 March 10:15 UTC)

by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday, March 18, 2011 at 5:22pmJapanese authorities have informed the IAEA that new INES ratings have been issued for some of the events relating to the nuclear emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants.

Japanese authorities have assessed that the core damage at the Fukushima Daiichi 2 and 3 reactor units caused by loss of all cooling function has been rated as 5 on the INES scale.

Japanese authorities have assessed that the loss of cooling and water supplying functions in the spent fuel pool of the unit 4 reactor has been rated as 3.

Japanese authorities have assessed that the loss of cooling functions in the reactor units 1, 2 and 4 of the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant has also been rated as 3. All reactor units at Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant are now in a cold shut down condition.

Addition of 12:45 UTC

Japanese authorities have assessed that the core damage at the Fukushima Daiichi 1 reactor unit caused by the loss of all cooling function has been rated as 5 on the INES scale.

This is an upgrade from a previous rating of 12 March as 4 on the INES scale, which was based on an abnormal rise of radioactive dose rate at the site boundary.

Further information on the ratings and the INES scale at: http://www-ns.iaea.org/tech-areas/emergency/ines.asp

all of the above from FB live

[elcent]

TimRayx3: RT @foxnewsalert: Japan's radioactive fallout reaches southern Calif, but diplomat tells AP first readings are beneath levels that would be health threatening

[elcent]

MisterWebb: RT @W7VOA: NHK: Total dead, missing from quake/tsunami now above 20,000. #Japan less than 10 seconds ago via TweetDeck

[Crushdepth]

The lack of concrete information coming out of Tepco is truly pathetic. These Tepco guys are dead ducks - even if this mess gets sorted out with no further loss, nobody will ever trust them again.

[SurfRider]

.

Rescue workers will receive protective suits made of Demron, a unique radiation-blocking material that offers protection against multiple threats

As Japan's nuclear crisis escalates, emergency workers are finding protection in a unique safety suit.

More than 200 full-body nuclear radiation protection suits manufactured in Florida have been donated to aid power plant workers and rescue teams in Japan. The manufacturer is working full-time to keep up with orders from Japan.

The suits are in high demand because of their unique material, called Demron, invented by a anesthesiologist and pain-management specialist. The radiation-blocking material offers protection against multiple threats, including infrared radiation, extreme heat, nuclear fallout, biological and chemical agents.

The all-black suits, valued at US$1,700 each, weigh nearly 10 pounds and can be put on by the wearer without outside assistance – which can't be done with other radiological suits

http://www.sun-senti...0,3504583.story

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[brahmburgers]

Japanese authorities have assessed that the core damage at the Fukushima Daiichi 1 reactor unit caused by the loss of all cooling function has been rated as 5 on the INES scale.

from: FB Live

Is that '5' rating the same as the rating for nuclear plant danger levels? If so, that indicates the highest, most dire rating of 5 out of 5. In other words, that indicates a core meltdown. I hope my interpretation of that is wrong.

Maybe my recollection of the chart is flawed. Upon further thought, it seems the chart goes up to 7 - which is what Chernobyl was rated.

Edited March 18, 2011 by brahmburgers

[unblocktheplanet]

I’ve been glued to this thread since it started, as a concerned world citizen, I hope, rather than an ambulance chaser. I have certainly never noticed a longer thread anywhere!

Thank you all for your knowledgable and informed commentary literally minute-by-minute and for those monitoring the news sources so we all don’t have to.

My political views—No Nukes!—remain just as solid. I won’t ever forget my time working in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb hospitals. Japan, of all countries, should have known better.

It’s esp interesting that these reactors are 40 years old and were imminently to be decommissioned. If these were newer reactors, I think there would be more interest in saving such an enormous investment. On the other hand, perhaps greater safeguards might have been built into newer plants.

A previous poster summed to up: ‘disposable people’.

[manarak]

Japan Earthquake Update (18 March 2011, 06:10 UTC)

by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday, March 18, 2011 at 12:57pmTemperature of Spent Fuel Pools at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant - UPDATED

Spent fuel removed from a nuclear reactor is highly radioactive and generates intense heat. Nuclear plant operators typically store this material in pools of water that cool the fuel and shield the radioactivity. Water in a spent fuel pool is continuously cooled to remove heat produced by spent fuel assemblies. According to IAEA experts, a typical spent fuel pool temperature is kept below 25 °C under normal operating conditions. The temperature of a spent fuel pool is maintained by constant cooling, which requires a constant power source.

Given the intense heat and radiation that spent fuel assemblies can generate, spent fuel pools must be constantly checked for water level and temperature. If fuel is no longer covered by water or temperatures reach a boiling point, fuel can become exposed and create a risk of radioactive release. The concern about the spent fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi is that sources of power to cool the pools have been compromised.

Concern about spent fuel storage conditions has led Japanese officials to drop and spray water from helicopters and trucks onto Unit 3 at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (See earlier update).

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has reported increasing temperatures in the spent fuel ponds at Units 5 and 6 since 14 March. An emergency diesel generator at Unit 6 is now powering water injection into the ponds at those Units, according to NISA.

The IAEA can confirm the following new information regarding the temperatures of the spent nuclear fuel pools at Units 4, 5 and 6 at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant:

Unit 4

13 March, 19:08 UTC: 84 °C

Unit 5

17 March, 03:00 UTC: 64.2 °C

17 March, 18:00 UTC: 65.5 °C

Unit 6

17 March, 03:00 UTC: 62.5 °C

17 March, 18:00 UTC: 62.0 °C

The IAEA is continuing to seek further information about the water levels, temperature and condition of all spent fuel pool facilities at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

that doesn't seem too bad

[elcent]

.

Rescue workers will receive protective suits made of Demron, a unique radiation-blocking material that offers protection against multiple threats

As Japan's nuclear crisis escalates, emergency workers are finding protection in a unique safety suit.

More than 200 full-body nuclear radiation protection suits manufactured in Florida have been donated to aid power plant workers and rescue teams in Japan. The manufacturer is working full-time to keep up with orders from Japan.

The suits are in high demand because of their unique material, called Demron, invented by a anesthesiologist and pain-management specialist. The radiation-blocking material offers protection against multiple threats, including infrared radiation, extreme heat, nuclear fallout, biological and chemical agents.

The all-black suits, valued at US$1,700 each, weigh nearly 10 pounds and can be put on by the wearer without outside assistance – which can't be done with other radiological suits

http://www.sun-senti...0,3504583.story

.

Every cloud has a silver lining. I couldn't find any specs like how long does it protect. before it gets through the material. One thing I know for sure that there is no material that can keep the radiation away for a longer period of time. The strongest material I know is led, but that is poisonous itself.

[elcent]

Ladybyte: RT @prashantkandwal: YouTube Has Been Restricted In Japan. A Last Message Sent Out From Man In Japan. (repost) http://bit.ly/erioEe

If that is true, the govt will have amny question to answer

[manarak]

Der ARD-Korrespondent in Japan, Robert Hetkämper, ist hingegen der Überzeugung, dass hier Menschen verheizt werden. Für gefährliche Arbeiten würden von Tepco gerne Obdachlose, Gastarbeiter, Arbeitslose und sogar Minderjährige ausgebeutet werden. Sie würden als "Wegwerfarbeiter" bezeichnet, weil sie, wenn sie zu stark radioaktiv belastet sind, entlassen würden. Hetkämper habe mit einem Arzt gesprochen, der dies bestätigt habe. Diese "grausame Geschichte" passiere nicht nur jetzt, sondern schon seit Jahrzehnten. Und sie erinnert, wie die WDR-Kommentatorin sagt, an die Hunderttausende von Liquidatoren, die in der Sowjetunion für den Bau des Sarkophags um den Tschernobyl-Reaktor eingesetzt und geopfert wurden. Seltsam ist dies in Japan, wenn man dort Menschen verheizt, obgleich man sonst gerne auf Roboter setzt, die in Fukushima aber nicht vorhanden zu sein scheinen.

According to ARD (German TV) correspondent Robert Hetkaempfer in Japan. "The people that are used by TEPCO to do all the dangerous jobs are homeless, jobless, guest-workers and even many are under-aged and declared to heroes but in fact are being burned to death" In other words disposable workers. TEPCO has taken its own people out of the area.

Sad, sad and sad!!!

http://www.heise.de/tp/blogs/2/149483

Hetkämper habe mit einem Arzt gesprochen, der dies bestätigt habe. Diese "grausame Geschichte" passiere nicht nur jetzt, sondern schon seit Jahrzehnten

this was also confirmed by a doctor at the site and that this is common practice there since decades.

that's very Japanese and not new

[jfchandler]

This from the IAEA was posted in its entirety about two thread pages back...in response to another poster's comments about supposed leaking spent fuel pools in Reactors 5 and 6... This IAEA report makes no mention of such a problem.

Japan Earthquake Update (18 March 2011, 06:10 UTC)

by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday, March 18, 2011 at 12:57pmTemperature of Spent Fuel Pools at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant - UPDATED

[elcent]

a nuclear tomb was proposed by TEPCO engineers, like the one from Chernobyl. Well at least it's not a nuclear bomb. Will it solve the CORE problems?

[TheWalkingMan]

Ladybyte: RT @prashantkandwal: YouTube Has Been Restricted In Japan. A Last Message Sent Out From Man In Japan. (repost) http://bit.ly/erioEe

If that is true, the govt will have amny question to answer

Not true. I am in Tokyo right now and have been using youtube without any problems.

TheWalkingMan

[elcent]

Many embassies have already moved out of Tokyo to the South, including the German. http://www.abendblatt.de/vermischtes/article1822012/Deutsche-Botschaft-fluechtet-wegen-Strahlengefahr-aus-Tokio.html

[jfchandler]

RT @foxnewsalert: Japan's radioactive fallout reaches southern Calif, but diplomat tells AP first readings are beneath levels that would be health threatening

Here is the actual AP report that Fox is tweeting about...

In general, I'd certainly suggest that the actual news reports in question tend to be more informative than 2nd or 3rd hand tweets alone.

Mar 18, 10:12 AM EDT

Diplomat says minuscule fallout reaches Calif.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The first radioactive fallout from Japan's crippled nuclear plant reached Southern California early Friday, but the readings indicate levels far below a level that could endanger people, according to a diplomat.

The ambassador, who has access to United Nations radiation tracking of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, cited data from a California-based measuring station of the CTBTO.

Initial readings are "about a billion times beneath levels that would be health threatening," the diplomat told The Associated Press. He asked for anonymity because the CTBO does not make its findings public.

U.S. government experts also insist there's no threat to public health from the plume.

"Radiation is one of those words that get everybody scared, like `plague,'" said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of public health for Los Angeles County. "But we're 5,000 miles away."

MORE: http://staging.hoste...-03-18-10-12-43

[elcent]

Ladybyte: RT @prashantkandwal: YouTube Has Been Restricted In Japan. A Last Message Sent Out From Man In Japan. (repost) http://bit.ly/erioEe

If that is true, the govt will have amny question to answer

Not true. I am in Tokyo right now and have been using youtube without any problems.

TheWalkingMan

good to hear that. Thanks and keep on walking

[elcent]

RT @foxnewsalert: Japan's radioactive fallout reaches southern Calif, but diplomat tells AP first readings are beneath levels that would be health threatening

Here is the actual AP report that Fox is tweeting about...

In general, I'd certainly suggest that the actual news reports in question tend to be more informative than 2nd or 3rd hand tweets alone.

That's nonsense. Many leads are available through tweets you wouldn't get otherwise.

Of course they need to be filtered.

[elcent]

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/ not accessable at the moment here, anybody else?

oops, up again, was doen for about 20 minutes.

Edited March 18, 2011 by elcent

[Lite Beer]

Exposed: Nuclear fuel rods inside wrecked reactor as experts predict radioactive plume will reach Britain in two weeks

The wrecked shell of reactor number four at the Fukushima nuclear plant reveals the room where spent fuel rods are leaking radioactivity into the atmosphere. A fuel storage pool below the green crane, circled, has boiled dry allowing rods inside to release radioactivity. The pool is shown left before the disaster. Radiation is expected to hit the U.S. today before being swept towards Europe - as officials admit they may have to encase the reactors in concrete.

Mail Online--2011--03--18

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1367524/Japanese-tsunami-earthquake-Nuclear-fuel-rods-exposed.html

[jfchandler]

Yes, the Japanese raised their self rating to 5 on the international scale of 7... They had reported the incident as 4 originally..

At 5, they're now on the same rating level as the Three Mile Island incident.

Japanese authorities have assessed that the core damage at the Fukushima Daiichi 1 reactor unit caused by the loss of all cooling function has been rated as 5 on the INES scale.

from: FB Live

Is that '5' rating the same as the rating for nuclear plant danger levels? If so, that indicates the highest, most dire rating of 5 out of 5. In other words, that indicates a core meltdown. I hope my interpretation of that is wrong.

Maybe my recollection of the chart is flawed. Upon further thought, it seems the chart goes up to 7 - which is what Chernobyl was rated.

[JulianLS]

Expert: No immediate riskbut figure is high

Associate Professor Keiichi Nakagawa of the University ofTokyo has suggested that 150 microsieverts per hour would not pose an immediatedanger to humans, but the figure is still high.

The specialist in radiology says exposure to 150microsieverts of radiation every day for up to a month would add up to around100,000 microsieverts. He says human health could be affected at this level.

However, Nakagawa says people should not worry too much,since the amount of radiation would fall to about 10 percent indoors.

But he adds that the release of radioactive substances fromthe nuclear plant should be contained as soon as possible, from the viewpointof preventing unnecessary long-term exposure.

Friday, March 18, 2011 22:02 +0900 (JST)

(from NHK Website)

[eyeofskye]

Something I don't understand is why there seems to be no monitoring of radiation in the atmosphere out at sea, at least none we seem to be privy to.

We see a lot of mention of radiation measured at the main gate but I assume this is at the west of the plant and has been almost continuously upwind of the reactors. Most of the reading there is going to be the direct radiation from the reactors taking no account of material being ejected. What are we going to see when the wind comes from the NE or E?

[JulianLS]

Outside power source won't be available soon

The government says an outside power source is unlikely to be available at theFukushima Daiichi nuclear plant for some time, although electricity is urgentlyneeded to cool the reactors.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said on Friday that the installation ofpower cables at the Number One and Number 2 reactors is expected to becompleted on Saturday. The operation to add power cables at the Number 3 andNumber 4 reactors is likely to end on Sunday.

The agency said, however, that it will take some time to confirm the safety of thedamaged facilities.

Friday, March 18, 2011 21:24 +0900 (JST)

Edited March 18, 2011 by JulianLS

[animatic]

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/ working fine here on Samui.

It does look like entombment in a giant cement mountain is the only future solution for this place. I suspect they will have to robotically remove or spread apart some of the rods first, but who knows if they can with the structural damage.

The TEPCO head can cry all he likes, a bit too little too late, and he will be the 1st head to roll, and not the last.

If the story about homeless and poor being used as disposable radiation workers, then the directors of TEPCO need to join the guy from Aum Shinriko, in hell.

Level 5 and no end in sight, no electric supply and no proper cooling, just dribs and drabs. Pathetic job, face may have been saved in the past, but now face is totally scrapped off, right to the bone. Sepeku has been mentioned in other places for the people who have screwed this up and the shame is only starting boys only starting.

Edited March 18, 2011 by animatic

[jfchandler]

I can't speak to monitoring sources that may or may not exist/cover areas off the coast of Japan.

But as for the land around the plant, because of the power outages and tsunami damage, some of the Japanese govt. monitoring stations in areas surrounding the Fukushima plant haven't been in service and thus have been coming up blank in radiation data reporting.

Something I don't understand is why there seems to be no monitoring of radiation in the atmosphere out at sea, at least none we seem to be privy to.

We see a lot of mention of radiation measured at the main gate but I assume this is at the west of the plant and has been almost continuously upwind of the reactors. Most of the reading there is going to be the direct radiation from the reactors taking no account of material being ejected. What are we going to see when the wind comes from the NE or E?

[jfchandler]

Well, I see that the news reports today have gotten around to raising the issue of a future "concrete tomb" for the Fukushima reactors, ala the Chernobyl reactor...

In considering those news reports, I'd suggest it's important to consider the context in which the issue was raised:

Is TEPCO and/or the Japanese govt. actually considering or has considered that as a serious plan?

Or did some reporter at today's news conference ask the TEPCO officials was it "possible" that they'd have to resort to a Chernobyl solution, and they responded, yes, it's possible (like many things are possible, but we're not planning that, which is what they were quoted as saying.

I haven't seen a transcript of the press conference pertaining to that... So I don't know the answer to the question above. But I would suggest that there's a fair amount of difference between the first and the second scenarios.... If anyone has any better context for the comment, it would be interesting to see it.

---------------------------

March 18, 2011 10:07 AM

Nuclear tomb: Japan may bury stricken plant

(CBS/AP) -- Japanese engineers conceded on Friday that they may have to bury the crippled Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear plant in sand or encase it in concrete to try to contain the radiation. However, entombing the facility is considered a last resort and engineers are still hoping to restore power and restart water pumps in order to cool the overheating nuclear rods, Reuters reports.

"It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete. But our priority right now is to try and cool them down first," an official from the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, said at a news conference, according to Reuters.

MORE: http://www.cbsnews.c...648-503543.html

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Fri Mar 18, 2011 11:47am EDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese engineers conceded on Friday that burying a crippled nuclear plant in sand and concrete may be a last resort to prevent a catastrophic radiation release, the method used to seal huge leakages from Chernobyl in 1986.

But they still hoped to solve the crisis by fixing a power cable to two reactors by Saturday to restart water pumps needed to cool overheating nuclear fuel rods. Workers also sprayed water on the No.3 reactor, the most critical of the plant's six.

It was the first time the facility operator had acknowledged burying the sprawling 40-year-old complex was possible, a sign that piecemeal actions such as dumping water from military helicopters or scrambling to restart cooling pumps may not work.

"It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete. But our priority right now is to try and cool them down first," an official from the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, told a news conference.

MORE: http://www.reuters.c...E72A0SS20110318

Edited March 18, 2011 by jfchandler