Meltdown Likely Under Way At Japan Nuclear Reactor

[elcent]

And for the conspiracy theory fans out there, the prefectural radiation reports are footnoted with an explanation of why the data from Fukushima and Miyagi is missing...

I don't see any conspiracy fans here but sure a few sooth sayers.

No wonder they have a budget for this.

Waiting for the complete translation of this article here http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/0,1518,751632,00.html

Title: Lobby Millions for Nuclear Power

... explaining the interference and networks in American politics and Economy.

Really as I expected. Huffingtonpost has some good articles about that too.

[StreetCowboy]

Six workers received a dose of more than 250mSV during their work at the plants. - Kyodo News - TEPCO.

Due to the catstrophy the Ministry of Health increased the limit to 250 mSv.

In comparation with German nuclear workers, the limit there's 20mSv/year. For all others who are exposed to radiation due to their jobs, the limit is 1mSv/year

+++Sechs Fukushima-Arbeiter haben zu viel Strahlung abbekommen+++

[17.21 Uhr] Bei sechs Männer, die am Atomkraftwerk Fukushima einsetzt waren, wurden mehr als 250 Millisievert gemessen, teilte die Nachrichtenagentur Kyodo mit Verweis auf den Kraftwerksbetreiber Tepco mit. Damit lag ihre Strahlenbelastung über dem Grenzwerte. Welche Aufgaben die Arbeiter hatten, teilte Tepco nicht mit.

Wegen der Katastrophe hatte das Gesundheitsministerium den Grenzwert für Arbeiter an dem zerstörten Kraftwerk von 100 auf 250 Millisievert hochgesetzt. In Deutschland gilt für Menschen, die beruflich etwa in einem Atomkraftwerk Strahlung ausgesetzt sind, ein Grenzwert von 20 Millisievert pro Jahr. Für alle anderen Menschen, die beruflich künstlicher Strahlenbelastung ausgesetzt sind, liegt die erlaubte Jahresdosis bei 1 Millisievert.

I think that there is no doubt this is the worst nuclear accident since the criticality incident at the Japanese reprocessing plant, or perhaps even Chernobyl, and some exceedances of normal and prudent radiation limits are to be expected; however, in the context of (I believe) the worst recorded earthquake and and tsunami to hit Japan, and the thousands killed and huge numbers made homeless, perhaps we should be commending the efforts and professionalism of the TEPCO personnel involved, and the support that the Japanese emergency services have given to a problem which, in the end, is going to blow out to sea in any case, when they have more urgent and, locally, more critical issues to deal with.

Anyway, on a more proactive note, it is a reminder to us all not to be limited by standards, and to consider the possibilities of beyond-design-basis incidents, as well as complying with the requirements of the standards.

SC

[jfchandler]

Six workers received a dose of more than 250mSV during their work at the plants. - Kyodo News - TEPCO.

Due to the catstrophy the Ministry of Health increased the limit to 250 mSv.

In comparation with German nuclear workers, the limit there's 20mSv/year. For all others who are exposed to radiation due to their jobs, the limit is 1mSv/year

Elcent, here's the actual Kyodo News report, which doesn't say what you're saying above.. It says they have been exposed to over 100 mSv... It doesn't say they've beeen exposed to over 250 mSv.

If you had bothered to go to the actual source, you would have seen that. Perhaps something is getting lost in the German translation.

6 workers exposed to excessive radiation at Fukushima plant

TOKYO, March 19, Kyodo

Six workers at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been exposed to radiation levels beyond the limit applied to an emergency operation, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday, without elaborating on the work that they were engaged in.

They are continuing to work on different tasks because they have not shown any abnormal signs since being exposed to over 100 millisieverts of radiation, the utility said. The limit has been raised to 250 millisieverts for the ongoing crisis, the worst in Japan's history, by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

The government's Fire and Disaster Management Agency said separately that readings of up to 27 millisieverts of radiation were detected as of noon on around 50 employees of the Tokyo Fire Department who were decontaminated after spraying water earlier in the day at the plant's highly dangerous No. 3 reactor.

http://english.kyodo...1/03/79675.html

Edited March 19, 2011 by jfchandler

[Alphonso]

I believe I've finally come across the real and official radiation readings for areas around the Fukushima Site, including the readings that document the NHK report earlier today about the town of Namie...

Seems that 20km and 30km area in red is the diameter! So anything in the 30km zone is at most 15km from the reactors.

[elcent]

Six workers received a dose of more than 250mSV during their work at the plants. - Kyodo News - TEPCO.

Due to the catstrophy the Ministry of Health increased the limit to 250 mSv.

In comparation with German nuclear workers, the limit there's 20mSv/year. For all others who are exposed to radiation due to their jobs, the limit is 1mSv/year

Elcent, here's the actual Kyodo News report, which doesn't say what you're saying above.. It says they have been exposed to over 100 mSv... It doesn't say they've beeen exposed to over 250 mSv.

If you had bothered to go to the actual source, you would have seen that. Perhaps something is getting lost in the German translation.

6 workers exposed to excessive radiation at Fukushima plant

TOKYO, March 19, Kyodo

Six workers at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been exposed to radiation levels beyond the limit applied to an emergency operation, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday, without elaborating on the work that they were engaged in.

They are continuing to work on different tasks because they have not shown any abnormal signs since being exposed to over 100 millisieverts of radiation, the utility said. The limit has been raised to 250 millisieverts for the ongoing crisis, the worst in Japan's history, by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

The government's Fire and Disaster Management Agency said separately that readings of up to 27 millisieverts of radiation were detected as of noon on around 50 employees of the Tokyo Fire Department who were decontaminated after spraying water earlier in the day at the plant's highly dangerous No. 3 reactor.

http://english.kyodo...1/03/79675.html

Der Spiegel has good connections and I think it is in the Japanese section of Kyodo News and Spiegel took it from there or an interpretor. Unfortunately, News are not always in English. I'm sure it's verified with the right sources. You're welcome to contact them directly. Quite an open Forum there as well.

[Tywais]

I don't see any conspiracy fans here but sure a few sooth sayers.

From a previous comment by you.

Not surprisingly, Miyagi and Fukushima are completely N/A, as every single reading is Under Survey, also known as censored.nGy/h (nano- Grays per hour)Ishikawa is reported also as Under Survey.

Let's be careful about interjecting un-substantiated comments within news posts.

Note:

From now on, no posts in a language other then English is allowed as has been forum policy. As this is World News I brought it up in the mods meeting for clarification and it is agreed as such. If you can not find the same news in English, than a Google Translate of a portion of the news (fair use) cleaned up for better understandability can be posted. A link to the Google Translate must be supplied. Within Google Translate there is an option to View Original Article for those who know the specific language being referenced.

In addition, any quotes from the English language media must reference them with a link to the article.

Thanks - Admin

[elcent]

I don't see any conspiracy fans here but sure a few sooth sayers.

From a previous comment by you.

Not surprisingly, Miyagi and Fukushima are completely N/A, as every single reading is Under Survey, also known as censored.nGy/h (nano- Grays per hour)Ishikawa is reported also as Under Survey.

Let's be careful about interjecting un-substantiated comments within news posts.

Note:

From now on, no posts in a language other then English is allowed as has been forum policy. As this is World News I brought it up in the mods meeting for clarification and it is agreed as such. If you can not find the same news in English, than a Google Translate of a portion of the news (fair use) cleaned up for better understandability can be posted. A link to the Google Translate must be supplied. Within Google Translate there is an option to View Original Article for those who know the specific language being referenced.

In addition, any quotes from the English language media must reference them with a link to the article.

Thanks - Admin

May I add a suggestion. We need to digg deeper into the matter. Everybody who wants to read content from different language can download google chrome browser. When you open a website like a Japanese, German, French it asks you if you want to trnslate the content into the language you have set (Englsih) Convenient and fast. You don't have to go to google translate all the time. I'm not using it now since I'm not using my comp but use it at home and it works like charm.

[jfchandler]

That's a lot of radiation for the TEPCO staff members, very sorry to hear... But, we don't know over exactly how long a period of actual direct exposure working there post-quake it took those individuals to reach those levels..

As concerning or moreso is the Fire Department exposures, because we do know they've only been actively engaged at the site for a day or so after their arrival, as of the time of the reporting... So in that case, we can clearly know they reached those levels in a pretty short period of time... Suggesting the proximity of the reactors remains hot... Recall that earlier in the day, NHK was reporting the readings directly around the reactors were 10 to 15 millisievert per hour. At that rate, the totals can add up pretty fast.

6 workers exposed to excessive radiation at Fukushima plant

TOKYO, March 19, Kyodo

Six workers at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been exposed to radiation levels beyond the limit applied to an emergency operation, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday, without elaborating on the work that they were engaged in.

They are continuing to work on different tasks because they have not shown any abnormal signs since being exposed to over 100 millisieverts of radiation, the utility said. The limit has been raised to 250 millisieverts for the ongoing crisis, the worst in Japan's history, by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

The government's Fire and Disaster Management Agency said separately that readings of up to 27 millisieverts of radiation were detected as of noon on around 50 employees of the Tokyo Fire Department who were decontaminated after spraying water earlier in the day at the plant's highly dangerous No. 3 reactor.

http://english.kyodo...1/03/79675.html

[jfchandler]

But..never fear... it's perfectly safe to fly...

Keep in mind, although the article below doesn't mention it, I believe the Japanese govt. is still enforcing a 30 Km no fly zone around the Fukushima site for commercial aircraft that they announced earlier in the week... That's why the NHK camera helicopter shots are from so far away...

NHK:

ICAO: No medical grounds for flight restrictions

A United Nations agency says there are no medical grounds for restricting international flights to and from Japan after the massive earthquake and subsequent accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The International Civil Aviation Organization said in a statement on Saturday that international flights to and from Japan can operate normally, except for airports that were directly hit by tsunami.

The organization said there is no need for overseas airports to check radioactivity levels in passengers arriving from Japan. It said that although rising radiation levels have been observed at several Japanese airports, they pose no danger to human health.

A growing number of foreign carriers have cancelled flights to Japan or altered flight routes to allow their crews to stay clear of the country.

The Transport Ministry will convey the ICAO statement to foreign carriers and diplomatic missions in Tokyo and call on them to respond calmly.

Saturday, March 19, 2011 20:08 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.j...lish/19_26.html

Edited March 19, 2011 by jfchandler

[jfchandler]

That's an interesting point/question below, Alphonso... I hadn't considered that before...

But in looking at the maps and the way they're noted, how can you tell which way it's being measured? Radius or diameter?

If they're doing it the way you suggest, I think since the plant is basically right at the ocean, the 20 Km evacuation area in practical terms ends up being only about 10 Km. inland from the plant..

I'm not a mapmaker or geographer... How can we tell? It's too late.. My brain is sleeping.

I do note, however, that the PDF file of the report data for site 32 says it's "about 30 Km North/West" from the reactor site...which would seem to suggest a radius map.

Here's a prior map graphic from NHK, and it seems equally vague on the point.

I believe I've finally come across the real and official radiation readings for areas around the Fukushima Site, including the readings that document the NHK report earlier today about the town of Namie...

Seems that 20km and 30km area in red is the diameter! So anything in the 30km zone is at most 15km from the reactors.

Edited March 19, 2011 by jfchandler

[jfchandler]

Thanks for putting up that link and the hosting of the radiation reading data files.

They downloaded and extracted from the zip file just fine...quick quick. :jap:

I'm still trying to get the full report in pdf file off the web site link you posted... Very slow to download... Perhaps many people interested in it.

Here are some of the reports I've placed on a file server.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/7el03e

[Maestro]

From now on, no posts in a language other then English is allowed as has been forum policy...If you can not find the same news in English, than a Google Translate of a portion of the news (fair use) cleaned up for better understandability can be posted. A link to the Google Translate must be supplied.

It is good to have this option, as sometimes an important update is published in a non-English publication hours before it shows up in English. Trying to see how one can make this work I experimented with a post that was made about two hours ago and I saw that the URL of a web page is the same before and after translation in Google Chrome. So this is how it can most conveniently be done, using the example of that earlier post (the Google translation was awful and I cleaned it up):

**********

With reference to TEPCO, Kyodo reported that over 250 mSV was measured on six men who had been on duty at the Fukushima plant. Therefore, their exposure was over the limit. The company did not say what tasks the workers had carried out.

Source (in German): http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,751914,00.html

**********

This way, if a reader wants to see the German text he can click on the link and, if he is using Chrome, click on "Translate" to have the whole page translated. As Tywais has indicated, this is an ideal solution for a special World News topic like this one, and the publication being quoted is given due credit.

Of course, a link to the source must also be given if text from an English-language page is quoted and in this case the reference to the language is omitted. These links to the source are essential to avoid accusations of plagiarism.

[jfchandler]

So as best as I can decipher this, Kyodo is saying the iodine level in the water in Kawamata was measured above the govt's limit on Thurs, but then below the limit on Fri. and Sat...

They list the levels for other areas below, but don't seem to list the actual levels for Kawamata at all, for any of the three days.

Between this, the city by city radiation reports posted above, and the earlier news today about spinach and milk, it would appear the Japanese government, amid all their other burdens, is doing a pretty good job of both monitoring and promptly and publicly reporting the results when they're problematic. If the same things had happened in the U.S., I doubt we'd be doing and seeing such comprehensive monitoring.

NHK:

Radioactive iodine beyond limit detected in tap water in Fukushima

TOKYO, March 20, Kyodo News

Radioactive iodine beyond Japan's regulated standard was detected in tap water in a town in Fukushima Prefecture on Thursday, apparently due to the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the government said Saturday.

The health ministry said levels on Friday and Saturday in the town of Kawamata were below the limit but milk there has been found to contain radioactive iodine above the country's standard, raising concern about radioactive contamination in the region.

Kawamata is located around 45 kilometers northwest of the nuclear power plant.

Meanwhile, slight amounts of radioactive iodine have been detected in tap water in Tokyo, its vicinity and most prefectures neighboring Fukushima, the government said the same day.

While the substance was found in Tochigi, Gunma, Niigata, Chiba and Saitama prefectures as well as Tokyo, traces of cesium have been also found in tap water in Tochigi and Gunma, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said, adding the levels would not affect human health even if ingested.

Tochigi, Gunma and Niigata prefectures border Fukushima Prefecture.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry notified local governments that if levels of radioactive materials in tap water rise above regulated standards, people should refrain from drinking tap water, but added there is no problem at the moment with using it as usual and there is no danger to human health.

The education ministry said 77 becquerels of iodine was found per kilogram of water in Tochigi, 2.5 becquerels in Gunma, 0.62 becquerels in Saitama, 0.79 becquerels in Chiba, 1.5 becquerels in Tokyo and 0.27 becquerels in Niigata, against an intake limit of 300 becquerels.

The amount of cesium per kilogram of water was 1.6 becquerels in Tochigi and 0.22 in Gunma, against the limit of 200 becquerels set by the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan.

The Gunma prefectural government said it had detected the substances for the first time since it began testing tap water for radioactive materials in 1990.

The education ministry plans to compile data on levels of radioactive materials in tap water from all prefectures once a day in principle. In addition, the ministry will start to announce levels in atmospheric fallout such as rain and dust.

http://english.kyodo...1/03/79683.html

Edited March 19, 2011 by jfchandler

[vont]

So as best as I can decipher this, Kyodo is saying the iodine level in the water in Kawamata was measured above the govt's limit on Thurs, but then below the limit on Fri. and Sat...

They list the levels for other areas below, but don't seem to list the actual levels for Kawamata at all, for any of the three days.

Between this, the city by city radiation reports posted above, and the earlier news today about spinach and milk, it would appear the Japanese government, amid all their other burdens, is doing a pretty good job of both monitoring and promptly and publicly reporting the results when they're problematic. If the same things had happened in the U.S., I doubt we'd be doing and seeing such comprehensive monitoring.

NHK:

Radioactive iodine beyond limit detected in tap water in Fukushima

TOKYO, March 20, Kyodo News

Radioactive iodine beyond Japan's regulated standard was detected in tap water in a town in Fukushima Prefecture on Thursday, apparently due to the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the government said Saturday.

The health ministry said levels on Friday and Saturday in the town of Kawamata were below the limit but milk there has been found to contain radioactive iodine above the country's standard, raising concern about radioactive contamination in the region.

Kawamata is located around 45 kilometers northwest of the nuclear power plant.

Meanwhile, slight amounts of radioactive iodine have been detected in tap water in Tokyo, its vicinity and most prefectures neighboring Fukushima, the government said the same day.

While the substance was found in Tochigi, Gunma, Niigata, Chiba and Saitama prefectures as well as Tokyo, traces of cesium have been also found in tap water in Tochigi and Gunma, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said, adding the levels would not affect human health even if ingested.

Tochigi, Gunma and Niigata prefectures border Fukushima Prefecture.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry notified local governments that if levels of radioactive materials in tap water rise above regulated standards, people should refrain from drinking tap water, but added there is no problem at the moment with using it as usual and there is no danger to human health.

The education ministry said 77 becquerels of iodine was found per kilogram of water in Tochigi, 2.5 becquerels in Gunma, 0.62 becquerels in Saitama, 0.79 becquerels in Chiba, 1.5 becquerels in Tokyo and 0.27 becquerels in Niigata, against an intake limit of 300 becquerels.

The amount of cesium per kilogram of water was 1.6 becquerels in Tochigi and 0.22 in Gunma, against the limit of 200 becquerels set by the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan.

The Gunma prefectural government said it had detected the substances for the first time since it began testing tap water for radioactive materials in 1990.

The education ministry plans to compile data on levels of radioactive materials in tap water from all prefectures once a day in principle. In addition, the ministry will start to announce levels in atmospheric fallout such as rain and dust.

http://english.kyodo...1/03/79683.html

How personally responsible are these data gatherers, analysts and reporters?

Most Japanese that I know from the very top to the very bottom, particularly those at the street level, are mostly YES men and women?

Practically none would dare to break the rank and say what is on his/her mind! Conforming to the expectations and paying respect to the seniority are strictly followed day and night.

So, how much factual and accurate info can we expect from these subsequent reports?

[Alphonso]

That's an interesting point/question below, Alphonso... I hadn't considered that before...

Sorry, I was going by the red dots as being the 2 stations which seem about 10km apart. After some google measuring center to center of reactors at stations 1 & 2 appear to be 12km. The circles look right, 20km & 30km radius, my bad.

[lopburi3]

Off topic troll of old news and reply removed.

[Lite Beer]

Japan's Miyagi police estimates death toll in prefecture alone to exceed 15,000 - Kyodo/RT@REUTERSFLASH

[Lite Beer]

TEPCO: Water temperature in temporary storage pools for spent fuel rods at reactors 5 & 6 had dropped, as of 7am Sun., to 37.1C and 41C./RT@DailyYomiuri

[brahmburgers]

As this is going on, several related things are happening:

>>>> Script writers are busy framing this for one or more movies. Agents for Asian-looking actors are probably already getting calls.

>>>> Nefarious people are calculating what size bomb can cause these sorts of problems.

Political note: So even if a country's nuclear program considers maximum safeguards for all the types of natural disasters that might affect their nuke plants (hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, etc) - they can still never do enough to allay a determined terrorist attack or, as in the case of Thailand, a popular uprising targeting an important target (recent take-overs of airports or downtown Bangkok come to mind).

Something good to say about where the plant is sited:

>>>> Considering winds most often blow from the west or southwest, it's good Japan built it on their eastern shore - as there is virtually no landmass to its east and northeast. Similarly, Thailand is about as safe a place to be in that regard, as we're SW of Japan.

[Lite Beer]

First water sprayed on quake-crippled Fukushima nuclear reactor No. 4 since cooling system failed - Kyodo/RT@BreakingNews

[JulianLS]

Water spraying at No.4 reactor ends

Japan's Self-Defense Forces have finished spraying water to cool the storage pool for spent nuclear fuel in the No.4 reactor at the quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

The operation started at 8:20 AM local time on Sunday and continued for more than an hour.

Using 11 fire trucks, including one borrowed from the US military in Japan, the workers sprayed 80 tons of water during the operation.

Employees of Tokyo Electric Power Company will try to repair equipment to supply outside electricity to the No.4 reactor.

Fire fighters of the Tokyo Fire Department are to start spraying water at the No.4 reactor at around 6 PM and continue spraying until Monday morning.

Cooling systems haven't worked since the initial March 11 quake, raising concern about leakage of radioactive materials.

Sunday, March 20, 2011 10:38 +0900 (JST)

Source: NHK Website

Edited March 20, 2011 by JulianLS

[JulianLS]

Temperatures rising in reactors 5 and 6. This may be because available power has been used to cool water in the storage pools of units 5 and 6, rather than the reactors themselves (which in any case, were shut down before the earthquake). Let's hope it is that, and not low water levels and/or exposed rods in the reactors. It seems these reactors have not been severely affected by explosions (being somewhat separated from units 1 to 4), we very much want it to stay that way! Under current circumstances, reactors 5 and 6 cannot be classed as being in "cold shutdown" (as the temperature has to be below 100 degrees C to be considered as cold shutdown).

Article from NHK below.

Water temperature drops in fuel rod pools

The water temperature is dropping in the spent fuel rod pools of the No.5 and No.6 reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company restored a power generator at the No.6 reactor on Saturday morning.

A backup generator at the reactor had been used since the quake to cool the spent fuel rod pools at both the No.5 and No.6 reactors.

But as water temperatures rose, a single generator was unable to supply enough power for the two reactors.

The newly restored generator is being used to activate a cooling pump in the No.5 reactor.

The power company measured the water temperature of the spent fuel pool in the No.5 reactor and found it had decreased from 68.8 degrees Celsius at 5 AM Saturday to 43.1 degrees at 3 AM Sunday.

After the cooling pump at the No. 6 reactor was restored, the water temperature dropped more than 15 degrees, from 67.5 degrees Celsius at 11PM Saturday to 52 degrees at 3 AM Sunday.

On the other hand, the water temperature of the reactor vessels is rising.

The water temperature was 194.5 degrees Celsius in the No.5 reactor and 152.4 degrees in the No. 6 reactor at 6 PM Saturday.

Those temperatures are lower than when the reactors are in operation, but they are increasing.

The power company says it will begin cooling the reactor water as soon as the spent fuel rod pools are cooled down.

It hopes to restore connections to external power sources to cool down the reactors in a stable manner.

Sunday, March 20, 2011 09:19 +0900 (JST)

[Lite Beer]

Japan finds radioactive dust and particles in Greater Tokyo area, no risk to human health - Kyodo/RT@BreakingNews

[jfchandler]

That's good news, and to be expected, since they've now restored better power to those two reactors, so presumably their cooling systems are working better, and keeping the fuel rods stored there from overheating as they had been headed toward doing.

TEPCO: Water temperature in temporary storage pools for spent fuel rods at reactors 5 & 6 had dropped, as of 7am Sun., to 37.1C and 41C./RT@DailyYomiuri

[jfchandler]

Folks, good morning... Nice to start the day with a few bits of good news, for a change...

BTW, please remember to include web links to the original source for news reports when we copy and post them here.

[jfchandler]

For the math challenged, this is still 2.6 millisieverts per hour... Note that they're not reporting the radiation figures directly at the reactors themselves, which yesterday were said to be in the 10 to 15 mSv per hour range.

NHK

TEPCO says radiation levels continue to decline

Tokyo Electric Power Company says radiation levels around the compound at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are on the decline since water-spraying began in earnest on Saturday afternoon.

The company told reporters that the radiation level at the plant's headquarters building, located some 500 meters northeast of the No. 3 reactor, dropped to 2,625 microsieverts per hour at 8:30 on Sunday morning.

The reading shows a drop of more than 800 microsieverts from 18 hours ago--about the time the water-spraying at the No.3 reactor began.

Sunday, March 20, 2011 11:49 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.j...lish/20_15.html

Edited March 20, 2011 by jfchandler

[jfchandler]

NHK:

13-hour water spraying operation ends

Firefighters ended their 13-hour water spraying operation to cool the No.3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant at 03:40 AM on Sunday.

The Tokyo Fire Department started the operation shortly after 2 PM on Saturday.

The firefighters had set up an unmanned vehicle in front of the reactor building. The vehicle can spray seawater from a height of 22 meters directly into a pool containing spent fuel rods. A pump vehicle supplied seawater through an 800-meter hose.

After adjusting the position of the unmanned vehicle and the direction of its spray, the firefighters left.

The unmanned operation was originally planned to continue for 7 hours. But the fire department extended it by more than 6 hours after a government taskforce asked that water be sprayed for as long as possible.

The firefighters sprayed nearly double the capacity of the spent fuel rod pool.

The fire department will discuss with the government taskforce whether to spray more water.

Sunday, March 20, 2011 07:40 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20_01.html

[sirchai]

Japan is a "hi-tech" well organised country, that has spent a lot of time, thought and money on dealing with earthquakes....

Imagine if this happened in another country with nuclear power plants!

There's a movie on you tube, where a German camera team was in a nuclear power plant to watch an emergency exercise. But a real alarm went on while the team was still there. Nobody had a plan what to do.

Finally the alarm was gone, but came back after 15 minutes. The scary thing is that people were discussing if it could be a valve.

None of them knew what to do. This went on until they had to switch off their camera. :jap:

Edited March 20, 2011 by sirchai

[jfchandler]

NHK:

IAEA team begins measuring radiation levels

A team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency has begun measuring radiation levels in Japan.

The IAEA sent the team to Japan at the request of the government. The experts will assess the impact of radiation leakage from the disaster-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The team took their first measurements around the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Saturday afternoon. They used special equipment that can detect trace amounts of radiation in the air or soil.

The experts then measured levels in Saitama and Tochigi prefectures on their way to Fukushima. They will gauge radiation levels around the nuclear plant after coordinating with the government and the power company.

The results will be analyzed at the IAEA headquarters, and then immediately reported to member countries.

The IAEA plans to use the data to further assist Japan following the emergency at the plant damaged by last week's massive earthquake and tsunami.

Sunday, March 20, 2011 07:42 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.j...lish/20_05.html

Edited March 20, 2011 by jfchandler

[Lite Beer]

Fresh concerns for the stricken Japanese nuclear plant as official says reactor pressure is rising - AP/RT@SkyNewsBreak