Meltdown Likely Under Way At Japan Nuclear Reactor

[jfchandler]

I just got back in... so I need to check up on the latest developments...

But re the comment below, there have been remarks from the Japanese govt. officials in the past couple days about the people living in the 20 to 30 Km "stay indoors" zone, suggesting that they might be better off if they moved out.

Supposedly, not because the ambient radiation levels or general conditions are getting any worse (in fact radiation levels outside in that zone have been getting better generally the past couple days), but instead because lots of other Japanese people from elsewhere don't want to go there to deliver food and various kinds of necessities of life, because they don't want to be exposed to any radiation unnecessarily, if they have any choice... I'd probably feel the same way... So that's been creating living and supply problems.

And indeed, there's a news report on this today:

NHK

Edano: Voluntary evacuation from 20-30 km advised

The government is advising residents to voluntarily evacuate areas within 20 to 30 kilometers of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, in view of the severe living conditions in the zone.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters on Friday that business and distribution in these areas has been harshly disrupted, as an increasing number of people have voluntarily evacuated.

Edano also said he cannot deny the possibility that the government will expand the evacuation zone to a 30-kilometer radius from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, depending on radiation levels.

The government has instructed people living within 20 kilometers of the plant to evacuate, while advising those who are 20 to 30 kilometers away to stay indoors.

Edano said the government has asked municipalities within the 20 to 30 kilometer radius to call on residents to voluntarily evacuate, and to make preparations to evacuate those who remain.

He said he wants the municipalities to closely cooperate with the government, and to be ready when evacuation orders are issued.

Friday, March 25, 2011 13:17 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/25_20.html

Interesting... this article now says that Japan is urging people living within 18 miles (30km) to evacuate. http://www.latimes.c...0,5763742.story

Are things getting worse? Is it possible that Chicken Little was more right than wrong?

" safe to remain as long as they stay indoors. " <deleted> ?

How many hundreds of years is that ??

Edited March 25, 2011 by jfchandler

[Chopperboy]

5555... love it! And Alex's books, too! On another thread I'd love to know if you also enjoyed Japan Lost and Bangkok Found?

Alex is a great writer - For me the best bit of madness in the above is the drinking plutonium water childrens cartoon???

No, I haven't read JLBF yet but will soon.

[jfchandler]

This is a follow-on to yesterday's radiation exposure incident that injured 3 workers... The high level radiation in standing water that injured them was in the lower level of a building next to the No. 3 reactor. So the authorities are presuming that highly radioactive material is getting out of the No. 3 reactor somewhere/somehow.

NHK

Nuke safety agency: No.3 reactor likely be damaged

Japan's nuclear safety agency says it is highly likely that the Number 3 reactor of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been damaged, leading to the leak of high levels of radiation.

The agency was speaking to reporters about Thursday's accident in which 3 workers were exposed to radiation from water on the floor inside the turbine building of the No.3 reactor. The level of radioactivity was about 10,000 times higher than the water inside a normally operating nuclear reactor.

The agency said while the reactor appears to have partially retained its function to contain radiation leaks, there's a strong possibility that some part of the reactor is now damaged and the containment function is weakening.

Friday, March 25, 2011 12:48 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.j...lish/25_19.html

Edited March 25, 2011 by jfchandler

[jfchandler]

Here's the formal version of the "live" report I posted this morning.

NHK

Kitazawa: US to help avoid salt damage in reactors

Japan's defense minister says the government plans to switch from seawater to fresh water to cool the crippled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, with the support of US forces.

Toshimi Kitazawa told reporters on Friday that the United States urged Japan to quickly switch to fresh water, and offered to help do so.

Seawater has been used at the plant as an emergency measure, but salt in the water could lead to corrosion of the reactors' interiors.

The US forces and Japan's Self-Defense Forces have drawn up plans to anchor off the Fukushima coast US Navy barges capable of carrying large amounts of water, and send water via pipelines to the plant. The US military is also to provide a high-powered pump to send water through the pipelines, and Japanese SDF vessels are to be mobilized to refill the barges with water.

The US vessels have already left their base in Yokosuka, near Tokyo. The US forces and SDF hope to set up the pipelines and other systems for the operation as soon as next week.

Friday, March 25, 2011 15:22 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/25_22.html

[jfchandler]

NHK

EU to tighten restrictions on Japanese food

The European Union says it will ban imports of food products from areas of Japan that may have been contaminated by radiation, unless their safety is guaranteed by the Japanese government.

The European Commission, the EU's executive branch, made the announcement on Thursday. It says the EU will impose special import conditions on farm and marine products originating from 12 Japanese prefectures including Tokyo, the areas affected by radiation leaks from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The commission says all products from these prefectures will have to be tested before leaving Japan. The imported items will have to be accompanied by documents issued by Japanese authorities confirming that the amount of radiation does not exceed the level permitted by the EU.

The measure will take effect on Saturday.

The commission is also asking the Japanese government to ensure all food products from Japan correctly display their place of origin.

It says at least 20 percent of food imports from Japan will be subject to testing for radioactive contamination when they arrive in the EU.

The EU's previous recommendation was that member nations test food imports from Japan on a random basis.

But a series of discoveries of contaminated farm products in Japan has prompted the EU to toughen its controls on Japanese food imports.

Friday, March 25, 2011 09:59 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/25_11.html

[jfchandler]

Interesting comments coming from the folks who brought the world Chernobyl...

NHK

Russia calls for unified nuclear standard

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is calling for stronger international safety standards at nuclear power plants.

Medvedev posted a video blog supporting nuclear energy itself, saying it is economical and the most profitable way to generate electricity.

But he proposes restricting the construction of nuclear plants in regions that could be hit by strong earthquakes and tsunamis.

Medvedev said after the accident at the nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture in Japan, the role of the International Atomic Energy Agency must be expanded in order to measure and deliver more accurate information on nuclear power plants.

Medvedev's remarks are believed to be an effort to present a safer alternative to those who oppose nuclear energy in Western countries.

Friday, March 25, 2011 05:09 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/25_05.html

[jfchandler]

Tsuruga nuclear plant operator to take additional safety steps

FUKUI, Japan, March 25, Kyodo News

Japan Atomic Power Co. will take additional safety measures for multiplex cooling functions for reactors at its Tsuruga nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture in the wake of a crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, its vice president said Friday.

In a meeting with Fukui Vice Gov. Nobuaki Asahi at the Fukui prefectural government office, Susumu Kawashima said his firm plans to complete the measures for the plant's two reactors next year at a cost of about 20 billion yen.

As additional measures, the firm will lay more pipes to send water into the spent nuclear fuel pools and equipment to cool down the reactor cores, while studying a drill to supply water to the pools by using fire engines.

Kawashima said his firm would invest its resources to secure safety at the nuclear plant as a top priority.

The firm will continue preparatory work such as developing sites to build two more reactors at the plant, while operating the 41-year-old No. 1 reactor, the nation's oldest, until 2016 as scheduled, he said.

http://english.kyodo...1/03/81042.html

Edited March 25, 2011 by jfchandler

[jfchandler]

China bans imports of food from 5 Japanese prefectures

BEIJING, March 25, Kyodo News

China's quarantine authorities have by Friday banned imports of food produced in the five Japanese prefectures of Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba in the wake of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex.

http://english.kyodo...1/03/81038.html

Edited March 25, 2011 by jfchandler

[unblocktheplanet]

I found Alex Kerr's article to be informative and newsworthy. It also points out dangers that are likely happening elsewhere, too. This thread is for news about the Fukushima disaster. But I think it's very hard to weed out the political aspect to this crisis.

It's not conspiracy theory for citizens to want transparency and accountability not invisibility.

We've all become smart enough to question whether a dental x-ray is really necessary and routine chest x-rays are a relic today. Yet we don't often question nuclear power.

Most of us have been willing to ignore where our power comes from and its effects on the planet, whether from coal or nuclear or big dams. Among many other issues, most of us similarly never question where our food comes from: the effects of genetically-modified crops, poisonous chemical agriculture (Round-Up™ ready!) and factory farming.

It's high time we took some personal responsibility for these issues affecting our daily lives and not just expect govts to show civic responsibility and industry to demonstrate corporate responsibility, not least because the only times they seem to show some responsibility is when they get caught!

"The Nuclear Risk", Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, March 28, 2011 http://www.newyorker...co_talk_kolbert is an important read.

[jfchandler]

Long report on the injured workers... Hard to believe...but true...

Radiation-exposed workers to be treated at Chiba hospital TOKYO, March 25, Kyodo

Three workers who were exposed to high-level radiation at a crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture arrived Friday at a radiation research center in Chiba city where they are scheduled to undergo specialized evaluation.

The accident highlighted the plant operator's lax procedures, with industry minister Banri Kaieda pointing to the absence of a person who should have been checking the on-site radiation level.

The three workers were exposed to radiation amounting to 173 to 180 millisieverts Thursday while laying cable underground at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant's No. 3 reactor, and two of them were taken to the Fukushima Medical University Hospital due to possible radiation burns to their feet.

The two were not wearing rubber boots as they stood in water that contained radioactive materials 10,000 times the normal level, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

Electrical engineering firm Kandenko Co., which employs the men, said its workers were not required to wear rubber boots as its safety manuals did not assume a scenario where its employees carry out work standing in water at a nuclear power plant. [<deleted>???]

MORE: http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/81035.html

[jfchandler]

Thai king, queen make donation to Japan tsunami victims

BANGKOK, March 25, Kyodo News

Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit on Friday donated 5 million baht (about $165,000) to the victims of the March 11 quake and tsunami in Japan.

Thai Ambassador to Japan Virasakdi Futrakul, representing the king and queen, handed over the donation to the Japanese Red Cross Society in Tokyo.

Several members of the royal family have already made separate donations and contributed to the relief efforts in Japan. Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn donated 20,000 blankets while Princess Ubol Ratana, the king's eldest daughter, donated survival kits valued at 10 million baht and an additional 2 million baht in cash and blankets.

As of Friday, various funds collecting donations from the Thai public have exceeded 247 million baht while the Thai government has pledged a total of 205 million baht for Japan's relief and rebuilding efforts.

http://english.kyodo...1/03/81027.html

Edited March 25, 2011 by jfchandler

[Crushdepth]

The agency said while the reactor appears to have partially retained its function to contain radiation leaks, there's a strong possibility that some part of the reactor is now damaged and the containment function is weakening.

And that's the one with plutonium in it.

[warfie]

When I was young I was probably lucky. I was able to spend a full day in a nuclear research center doing readings of radiation that time. My impression was as it is today. There's no way of safety that could be guaranteed. Radiation plumes can arise with the slightest change of works done on the reactor itself.

When even Canada admits that they don't need this energy but they do it to support the industry, I suppose they mean the nuclear industry, says it all. (read my previous post above #2152 elcent )Lots of checks must be changing hands for this nonsense. Pretty a telling activism going on in that industry.

You have again posted a misleading statement presenting your biased opinion as "fact".

Please cease and desist from posting from posting statements that are false and that are essentially lies.

Canada has never "admitted that it doesn't need nuclear power". Energy generation policy is a provincial responsibility. The Canadian Federal government does not have the authority to decide on provincial energy policy. Do you understand that it is a provincial responsibility and each province has its own specific energy policy? Therefore "Canada" would not make the statement.

Nuclear energy provides over 50% of the province of Ontario's electrical energy. Without nuclear power, the province wold collapse. It is a long standing public policy to support and promote nuclear power in Ontario. The Conservatives, the Liberals and the socialist NDP all supported nuclear energy when their respective parties were elected to lead. Ontario is the principal user of nuclear energy because it does not have sufficient hydro electricity generating abilities. Aside from the 2 plants in Quebec and one over the border in New Brunswick, all of the nuclear powered generating facilities are in Ontario.

That is why your statement is misleading and downright dishonest.

Is Canada an earthquake prone area?

[jfchandler]

I'm just seeing this today... somehow missed it a day ago... weird science....

Neutron beam observed 13 times at crippled Fukushima nuke plant

TOKYO, March 23, Kyodo News

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.

In the 1999 criticality accident at a nuclear fuel processing plant run by JCO Co. in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, uranium broke apart continually in nuclear fission, causing a massive amount of neutron beams.

In the latest case at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, such a criticality accident has yet to happen.

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.

http://english.kyodo...1/03/80539.html

Edited March 25, 2011 by jfchandler

[jfchandler]

Where's it coming from... They don't know...

High-level radiation suspected to be leaking from No. 3 reactor's core

Highly radioactive water also found nearby No. 1 and 2 Reactors

TOKYO, March 25, Kyodo

High-level radiation detected Thursday in water at the No. 3 reactor's turbine building at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant appears to have originated from the reactor core, the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Friday.

But no data, such as on the pressure level, have suggested the reactor vessel has been cracked or damaged, agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama emphasized at an afternoon press conference, backing down from his previous remark that there is a good chance that the reactor has been damaged. It remains uncertain how the leakage happened, he added.

A day after three workers were exposed Thursday to water containing radioactive materials 10,000 times the normal level at the turbine building connected to the No. 3 reactor building, highly radioactive water was found also at the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors' turbine buildings.

The latest development in Japan's worst nuclear crisis raises the risk of more workers being exposed to radioactive elements, hampering their efforts to restore the plant's crippled cooling functions that are key to putting the crisis under control.

MORE: http://english.kyodo...1/03/81048.html

Edited March 25, 2011 by jfchandler

[jfchandler]

Popular Tokyo hotel to shelter up to 1,600 nuclear evacuees before demolition

TOKYO, March 25, Kyodo

Formerly a popular dating spot and venue for glitzy televised wedding receptions for celebrities, the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka in central Tokyo has been given a final mission before demolition -- serving as a shelter for people who have evacuated due to a crisis at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture.

The 40-story hotel, set to close at the end of this month, will accommodate up to 1,600 people from the prefecture who have been forced to leave due to the trouble at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant triggered by the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The Tokyo metropolitan government made the announcement Thursday after receiving an offer from the building's operator for the hotel to be used as a shelter for the evacuees after it stops business.

MORE: http://english.kyodo...1/03/81019.html

Edited March 25, 2011 by jfchandler

[jfchandler]

Gov't to set standards for resuming nuclear reactors now under checks

TOKYO, March 25, Kyodo

The government plans to set safety standards that nuclear plant operators should clear before restarting reactors after their regular checkups, industry minister Banri Kaieda said Friday, apparently heeding public concerns amid the ongoing nuclear crisis.

Kaieda made the remarks after Kyushu Electric Power Co. said Thursday it has decided to delay rebooting two nuclear reactors at its Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture that have been had suspended for servicing in view of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The company serving the Kyushu region in southwestern Japan originally planned to resume operations of the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors in late March and early April.

The economy, trade and industry minister said that Kyushu Electric's latest decision is ''reasonable'' and added that the government hopes to announce what he calls a safety guideline for the resumption of such reactors possibly next week.

''Just because the scheduled date (for resumption) had arrived, it wouldn't mean that the reactors would start operating without doing anything from the viewpoint of ensuring safety,'' he said.

The March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami that devastated the Pacific coast of northeastern Japan crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture and resulted in leaks of radioactive materials.

http://english.kyodo...1/03/81018.html

Edited March 25, 2011 by jfchandler

[Chopperboy]

Alex Kerr

“SPEEDI”, which is a system for measuring and predicting the spread of radioactive material. In America or Europe, SPEEDI information is routinely uploaded to government websites within hours or at least a day of an incident. In Japan, despite the fact that infrastructure for SPEEDI was already installed, the government failed to report SPEEDI results until March 24, almost two weeks after the onset of trouble at the Fukushima reactors! And now, having grudgingly made a report once, it’s not clear when we’ll hear about it again.

The SPEEDI results show clearly that the impact of the radiation does not follow the neat 20~30 kilometer radius drawn around the reactor site which the government has designated as an evacuation zone. The reality is that radioactive material is is deposited heavily in some areas outside the zone, and hardly at all in certain places inside the zone. It’s the natural result of mountains, rivers, rain, and wind patterns which are measurable and predictable based on SPEEDI.

One would have thought that now that it’s known where radioactive material has gathered, and we have predictive tools to estimate where it’s most likely to gather in the near future, the government would act on that knowledge. The first thing to do would be to evacuate people in places that have recorded dangerously high levels outside the 20~30 circle. At the same time, the government might consider relaxing restrictions on safer areas within the circle. In short, adjust policy to match the reality on the ground. But nothing of the sort has happened. The authorities cling to their artificially drawn circle as before.

[elcent]

in contrast to this you can figure out what lies ahead.

>America's Atomic Time Bomb

Hanford Nuclear Waste Still Poses Serious Risks

By Marc Pitzke in New York

<

Photo Gallery: 12 Photos The disaster at Fukushima has raised questions around the world about nuclear safety. But contamination is much worse in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The former plutonium plant in Hanford, Washington is one of the most contaminated places on earth, and still decades from being cleaned up.

The lambs were born without eyes or mouths. Some had legs that had grotesquely grown together; others had no legs at all. Many were stillborn. Thirty-one were lost in a single night.

On a pasture nearby, a cow was found dead, stiff and with its hooves bizarrely stretched up into the whispering wind. Down by the river, men of the Yakama tribe pulled three-eyed salmon from the Columbia. Trout were covered in cancerous ulcers.

And then the babies started getting sick.

It was in the spring of 1962 that farmer Nels Allison first noticed something was ominously wrong. "Son of a bitch," he said to his wife. Sheep were always "the first to lie down and die" when something was amiss on Allison's farm near Basin City, a rural town near the Columbia River in the far northwestern corner of the continental United States. He started referring to that deadly night "the Night of the Little Demons."

Although the Allisons have long since passed away, the shock endures. As chronicled by journalist Michael D'Antonio in his 1993 book Atomic Harvest, their tale is one of thousands of horror stories that took place in the area surrounding Hanford, Washington, the site of America's first full-scale plutonium production facility. The site haunts the locals to this day -- and imperils them.

Hanford is America's original atomic sin. At this giant facility sprawled over 586 square miles (1,517 square kilometers), a four-hour drive southeast of Seattle into the vast emptiness of Eastern Washington, the United States once produced most of its nuclear raw materials for the Cold War. Though it was decommissioned in 1988, it remains the most contaminated location in the entire Western Hemisphere.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) recently revised its timetable for Hanford's decontamination, the biggest environmental cleanup in American history. The end date was moved back, once again. It now hopes to finally wrap up this Herculean task by September 2052 -- more than 108 years after Hanford was opened.

"Death Maps"

The nuclear catastrophe unfolding in faraway Fukushima has led many to raise questions about the safety of America's nuclear reactors. But one of the gravest threats lurks deep in the ground at Hanford, one of the final stubborn relics of the Cold War.

Even more worrisome is the fact that an active nuclear power plant -- the only one in the earthquake-prone Pacific Northwest -- sits on the edge of the polluted site. Indeed, Gerry Pollet, the executive director of the activist group Heart of America Northwest, says the combination of Hanford's legacy and potential seismic activity poses a "serious risk of harm."

These fresh worries are nothing new to the people of Richland, the closest town to Hanford, and the roughly 240,000 people living within the sparsely populated surrounding counties. Their grandparents already paid the price for permanent contamination and radiation: miscarriages, birth defects and rare childhood diseases.

Back in the 1960s, Juanita Andrewjewski, a farmer's wife, created a "death map" of the area near her house -- with crosses for heart disease and circles for cancer. Soon, the map was strewn with crosses and circles; at one point, there were 67 of them.

The Price of Peace?

Stewart Udall, who served as secretary of the interior under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, called Hanford the "most tragic chapter in American Cold War history."

Starting in 1943, an enormous building project created nine atomic reactors at Hanford, all of which still rise from the desert sand like fossilized dinosaurs. One of them, the B Reactor, was the first-ever of its kind.

This is where the United States, under conditions of utmost secrecy, obtained the plutonium used for the Manhattan Project. Hanford supplied the material for the first-ever explosion of an atomic bomb, the Trinity test at the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. It also supplied the 14.1 pounds (6.4 kilograms) of plutonium-239 for Fat Man, the bomb that detonated over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

In the decades to follow, Hanford provided the plutonium for the entire nuclear arsenal of the US military. The freedom of the Western world depended on Hanford, it was said. It had been instrumental in ending World War II and was now keeping the Cold War cold.

That was apparently more important than people's health.

The Deadly Legacy

America was proud of Hanford. As a way of thanking them for their daily sacrifice, the employees and contractors at Hanford got little lapel pins in the shape of a mushroom cloud. D'Antonia recounts how the mushroom cloud was also the mascot of Richland's high school football team, the Bombers, and how there were local businesses called Atomic Bowling, Atomic Foods and Atomic Lawn Care.

But, today, that pride has turned into horror. The farmers in the area and people in Richland and the two neighboring towns, Pasco and Kennewick -- known collectively as the Tri-Cities -- are among the most highly radiated humans on earth.

It is a horrifying legacy. Fifty-two buildings at Hanford are contaminated, and 240 square miles are uninhabitable due to the radioactivity that has seeped into the soil and ground water: uranium, cesium, strontium, plutonium and other deadly radionuclides. Altogether, more than 204,000 cubic meters of highly radioactive waste remain on site -- two-thirds of the total for the entire US.

In one area, discharges of more than 216 million liters of radioactive, liquid waste and cooling water have flowed out of leaky tanks. More than 100,000 spent fuel rods -- 2,300 tons of them -- still sit in leaky basins close to the Columbia River.

The cooling water for the facilities came from that river. Until 1971, it was secretly pumped right back into it after only a minimum amount of treatment. High radiation levels were measured 250 miles (402 kilometers) further west, where the Columbia River flows into the Pacific. It was mostly Native Americans who ate the poisoned fish.

Radioactive Clouds

The plants also emitted radioactive clouds, which were carried by the wind all the way to Oregon, Idaho and Montana and even up into Canada. The people affected by the fallout, the so-called "downwinders," suffered the most during the initial phase, between 1945 and 1951, when they were irradiated with iodine-131, which slipped into the food chain through livestock, milk and eggs.

In addition, thousands upon thousands of workers, residents and farmers were deliberately contaminated -- for testing purposes.

On December 3, 1949, Hanford physicists released a highly radioactive cloud through the smokestack of the so-called T-Plant, the world's largest plutonium factory at the time. The radiation was almost 1,000 times more than what was released during the 1979 meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, the worst nuclear accident in American history. Fallout from the experiment, which was called "Green Run," drifted all the way to California. People wondered why they suddenly got sick.

Studies would eventually show that some babies at Hanford were radiated twice as much as the children of Chernobyl. Before the "Green Run," Tom Bailie, the 2-year-old son of a farmer loved to play in the fields. But then he suffered an inexplicable paralysis; later, he wouldn't be able to father children. His entire family died of cancer.

But it wasn't until 1986 that Bailie, with the help of a dogged reporter from the Spokesman Review, a regional newspaper, began to figure out why. It was the beginning of what would turn out to be a decades-long fight between the radiation victims and the US government. The victims sued the government and forced it to open its secret files. Some of the lawsuits have been consolidated into class-action suits and are still ongoing today.

'A Ticking Time Bomb'

When the Hanford site closed in 1988, the government launched a massive decontamination effort. The administration called it the "the largest civil works project in the history of mankind" -- as if that were something to be proud of.

Even today, the project still costs more than $2 billion (€1.4 billion) a year. For the 2013 fiscal year, $2.9 billion will be needed. The work is constantly interrupted by sloppiness, setbacks and accidents. In 2008, after two decades of cleanup, barely half of it had been completed. Only four of the nine reactors have been entombed. The outer zone is expected to be fully decontaminated by 2020, the tanks by the end of 2047.

And then, of course, there's still the active reactor. Online since 1984, it's considered one of the less safe nuclear reactors in the United States. After the catastrophe in Japan, its operator, the utility consortium Energy Northwest, claimed that the plant has several backup systems and could withstand a 6.9-magnituge earthquake.

Last year, there were 210 earthquakes in the Hanford area, the strongest measuring 3.0. But the fact that they aren't so severe does little to reassure environmentalists. "The leaking underground tanks and the contaminated groundwater moving toward the river mean a radioactive future for the river unless the mess can be cleaned up in time to avoid a serious radiological disaster," says Glen Spain, a regional director for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA). "The legacy of vast amounts of nuclear waste … is still a ticking time bomb."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,752944,00.html</H1></H1>

[jfchandler]

NHK just aired a report on their evening news on the radiation leak in Reactor No. 3:

Quoting NISA official as saying the radioactive water that injured three workers yesterday probably came from the reactor itself and not from the spent fuel cooling pool, based on the high levels of radioactivity in the water.

NISA official also said they have no indication that the reactor itself is cracked/damaged; rather, speculating that the radioactive water may have come from pipes or valves associated with the reactor. The radiation probably got into the cooling water due to damaged fuel rods within the reactor that are immersed in the cooling seawater.

Regarding the three injured workers, NHK reported that the prior shift of workers in the same area had indicated no problem with radiation in the Reactor No. 3 turbine building, and the three workers thought their radiation dose meters, which sounded when they had received above 20 millisievert in radiation, were sounding alarms by mistake.

Officials say the workers were standing in about 15 centimeters deep water on the first floor of the turbine building that is adjacent to the No. 3 reactor.

NHK graphic shows the Reactor No. 3 building and the turbine building to the right.

NISA official discusses the radiation exposure incident yesterday involving three workers.

[atsiii]

I found Alex Kerr's article to be informative and newsworthy. It also points out dangers that are likely happening elsewhere, too. This thread is for news about the Fukushima disaster. But I think it's very hard to weed out the political aspect to this crisis.

It's not conspiracy theory for citizens to want transparency and accountability not invisibility.

We've all become smart enough to question whether a dental x-ray is really necessary and routine chest x-rays are a relic today. Yet we don't often question nuclear power.

Most of us have been willing to ignore where our power comes from and its effects on the planet, whether from coal or nuclear or big dams. Among many other issues, most of us similarly never question where our food comes from: the effects of genetically-modified crops, poisonous chemical agriculture (Round-Up™ ready!) and factory farming.

It's high time we took some personal responsibility for these issues affecting our daily lives and not just expect govts to show civic responsibility and industry to demonstrate corporate responsibility, not least because the only times they seem to show some responsibility is when they get caught!

"The Nuclear Risk", Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, March 28, 2011 http://www.newyorker...co_talk_kolbert is an important read.

FYI: Alex lives in BKK... Sukumvit Soi 16. Runs Origins on Lat Prao Soi 48.

[Crushdepth]

Quoting NISA official as saying the radioactive water that injured three workers yesterday probably came from the reactor itself and not from the spent fuel cooling pool, based on the high levels of radioactivity in the water.

NISA official also said they have no indication that the reactor itself is cracked/damaged; rather, speculating that the radioactive water may have come from pipes or valves associated with the reactor. The radiation probably got into the cooling water due to damaged fuel rods within the reactor that are immersed in the cooling seawater.

Some of the statements coming out seem blatantly contradictory. The reactor may be cracked but there's no evidence. There's leakage and radioactivity but that doesn't mean its cracked. There are neutron beams associated with chain reaction but that doesn't mean there's reaction going on. These guys are doing a marvelous job of confusing the issues. I hope they will be sacked and publicly hung out to dry, and soon.

My own speculation is that the last thing NISA officials want is the truth to be known. They really still have no idea, after all this time?

[brahmburgers]

When I was young I was probably lucky. I was able to spend a full day in a nuclear research center doing readings of radiation that time. My impression was as it is today. There's no way of safety that could be guaranteed. Radiation plumes can arise with the slightest change of works done on the reactor itself.

When even Canada admits that they don't need this energy but they do it to support the industry, I suppose they mean the nuclear industry, says it all. (read my previous post above #2152 elcent )Lots of checks must be changing hands for this nonsense. Pretty a telling activism going on in that industry.

Canada has never "admitted that it doesn't need nuclear power". Energy generation policy is a provincial responsibility.

Speaking of Canadian nuclear reactors, here's a little tidbit I found on /wiki/Nuclear_decommissioning'>Wikipedia: The Gentilly nuclear reactor ran in Quebec for 180 days, and cost $25 million to decommission. That's works out to the operators having to sock away nearly $140,000 per day of operation - just to cover the decommissioning! And there are still people among us who claim nuclear is the cheaper way to provide for future energy needs.

[brahmburgers]

Quoting NISA official as saying the radioactive water that injured three workers yesterday probably came from the reactor itself and not from the spent fuel cooling pool, based on the high levels of radioactivity in the water.

NISA official also said they have no indication that the reactor itself is cracked/damaged; rather, speculating that the radioactive water may have come from pipes or valves associated with the reactor. The radiation probably got into the cooling water due to damaged fuel rods within the reactor that are immersed in the cooling seawater.

Some of the statements coming out seem blatantly contradictory. The reactor may be cracked but there's no evidence. There's leakage and radioactivity but that doesn't mean its cracked. There are neutron beams associated with chain reaction but that doesn't mean there's reaction going on. These guys are doing a marvelous job of confusing the issues. I hope they will be sacked and publicly hung out to dry, and soon.

My own speculation is that the last thing NISA officials want is the truth to be known. They really still have no idea, after all this time?

It appears like a combo of A. not knowing much of the actual damage. And it's understandable, to some extent, because of radiation risks all over the site, plus wreckage - both seen and unseen.

So they're having to make some of their assessments on dial readings and assumptions.

However, they're trying to downplay damage as much as possible every step of the way. It's like the parents coming home to find their house trashed, and the kids and the babysitter try one excuse after another, each successive time getting a bit closer to the grim truth of what happened.

[atsiii]

http://www.reuters.c...E72O36D20110325

Does this mean that when it's all said and done (which clearly it is not!), the people who get hurt the most will also have to pay for everything?

"From looking at the process and the current situation, it is impossible that Tokyo Electric would easily be exempted from liability for this accident," Edano told a regular briefing on the nuclear crisis on Friday.

Insurers of the stricken nuclear plant have already cited Japan's 1961 Act on Compensation for Nuclear Damage to signal that claims would be unlikely.

Chaucer, one of the world's leading nuclear-risk insurers, has said it expected the act to absolve the operator of liability.

Nuclear Risk Insurers, the underwriting agent for all UK nuclear insurers, has also cited the 1961 act in stating that it did not "anticipate significant losses from this event."

Edited March 25, 2011 by atsiii

[Crushdepth]

Insurers of the stricken nuclear plant have already cited Japan's 1961 Act on Compensation for Nuclear Damage to signal that claims would be unlikely.

They'll pay or be lynched IMHO. And they won't be doing business in Japan again.

Edited March 25, 2011 by Crushdepth

[elcent]

unique footage

SDF shows aerial images of Fukushima nuclear plant

Japan's Self-Defense Forces have released the latest aerial images of the disaster-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The footage was shot from a Ground Self-Defense Force helicopter about mid-day Wednesday. Roughly one hour of video was edited into a 5-minute clip showing reactors No. 1 to No. 4.

Footage of the No. 3 reactor building shows its roof and the upper section of the building's southern wall blown away by a hydrogen blast.

Vapor can be seen wafting from gaps in the wreckage near a pool for spent nuclear fuel rods. Faint steam can be seen rising from twisted steel framework over what could be the upper part of the containment vessel.

The footage shows the No. 4 reactor building, which has been reduced to steel framework near the top, with a wall on the upper part of the building's southern side torn away.

Light apparently reflected by water can be seen from openings in the roof's frame. An inside view from the southern side shows a green object that is most likely a fallen crane.

The interior of the No. 1 reactor cannot be seen, as its roof has caved in.

At the No. 2 reactor, steam can be seen rising from what appears to be a window on the eastern or coastal side and from a hole in the roof.

Since the disaster, the Self-Defense Forces have been shooting aerial images of the plant using reconnaissance aircraft and helicopters.

The footage is the first of its kind to be made public. Self-Defense Forces will continue recording images to confirm conditions at the plant.

Friday, March 25, 2011 19:10 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/25_30.html

[Crushdepth]

The Australian ABC investigative journalism programme 4 Corners has released a documentary about the Fukushima situation. Japan's Nuclear Nightmare.

Edit: This has some unbelievable ground-level footage of the incoming tsunami waves. Well worth a look.

Edited March 25, 2011 by Crushdepth

[warfie]

would someone tell me about the safety of nuclear power... oh and the wisdom behind building a reactor in a known earthquake area?

[Organicpete]

Hey! Here's another idea... how about jfchandler posting links (L-I-N-K-S) to the news stories that he is Googling from the web rather than the whole text?

Then there might be room for other people to get a word in edgeways.

What a load of rubbish. I find jfchandlers posts are what I look for in this thread.

Perhaps people could prune the huge quotes they include with their one line comments...

that would tidy the thread.

Pete in NZ