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Japan Nuclear Crisis Part III


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I have a buddy of mine that works for an industrial rescue team. he's currently working up at limerick. Apparently, from what he's telling me, the current ongoing project up there has hit a snag due to "concentrated levels of iodine that can be traced to the japanese nuclear crisis" in some of the below surface concrete.

Now, don't be alarmed. this shouldn't come as any news due to the whole rainwater debacle/hype from a month ago. He said levels are safe, but special equipment due to regulations and osha and all that good stuff.

It's not a debacle. There are several different types of radioactive fallout that has been detected within the US. Several types (versions) of Radioactive Iodine, Cesium, Strontium, Tellurium.....and many of the 'official radiation detection stations' are not even recording those other types even though they are showing up on other's readings. Some stations are not reporting anything but iodine officially. Hell, only one element is being measured for milk in Phoenix and it's 1600% above standard acceptable radiation rates for CONSUMING milk - not for detection in the general atmosphere.

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For those that are still following. Here is a live feed of the plant as opposed to the hourly image by the TEPCO webcam. Even works during the evening.

http://www.youtube.com/user/tbsnewsi?feature=feedlss#p/l/-ZPYlazljME

From a quick look yesterday and today - #2 still has plenty of steam along with #4 (fuel pool.)

Radiation levels continue to decline though still high around the plant.....

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Ugh. Two months later and it's still a complete, out-of-control mess.

Yup. It's somewhat hard to gauge if it's getting worse or the truth is coming to light.

They may end up having to build a sarcophagus around at least two of the reactors (1,2) and possibly #3. They had another major leak into the ocean from the #3 reactor the other day.

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This can't be a surprise to anyone who has been following this disaster.....

NHK Reports Fukushima Reactor 1 Is Melting Down

Following up on earlier reports that the fuel rods in reactor 1 were truly exposed, NHK now reports another speculation from long ago, finally confirmed by official sources, namely that the reactor is now melting down. NHK reports that "Tokyo Electric Power Company says the No.1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is believed to be in a state of "meltdown". The utility company said on Thursday that most of the fuel rods are likely to have melted and fallen to the bottom of the reactor. Earlier in the day, it found that the coolant water in the reactor is at a level which would completely expose nuclear fuel rods if they were in their normal position." And from Reuters: "The finding makes it likely that at one point in the immediate wake of the disaster the 4-meter-high stack of uranium-rich rods at the core of the reactor had been entirely exposed to the air." Had been, or are? At this rate of admissions (we claimed precisely this happened in March) the next thing we might get a confirmation of from official sources is that there is actual recriticality going on.

http://www.zerohedge...-1-melting-down

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I'm aghast reading this stuff. My long-held impression of the Japanese as technologically superior has been dashed by this event. Their total lack of preparation for this sort of incident plus their inability to contain it from Day 1 is worse than what I'd expect from the most azz-backwards Soviet satellite state.

Yeah what ever happened to Kamakazi, dying for your country?

I consider the location that the plant was built the main preparation issue.

I will allow a paper mill in the tsunami zone to build a wall and call itself tsunami proof. However for me to call a Nuclear plant Tsunami proof it has to be located 100 FT + above sea level. I'm would not trust any alternatives.

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Yeah what ever happened to Kamakazi, dying for your country?

I consider the location that the plant was built the main preparation issue.

I will allow a paper mill in the tsunami zone to build a wall and call itself tsunami proof. However for me to call a Nuclear plant Tsunami proof it has to be located 100 FT + above sea level. I'm would not trust any alternatives.

However I am pretty confident a shapped similar to this but a mile wide built in front of the plant would stop it.

CRIP_MB_SnowPlow.jpg

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The U.S. Dept of Energy has a Presentation which includes ground measurement along the Tokyo-Sendai bullet train as well as aerial measurements showing the extent of contamination. It the slide is the one showing deposition of Cs-137 which is the most important. Green is 600,000 Bq/sq.m, yellow is 1,000,000, red 3,000,000. After Chernobyl, 555,000 Bq/hr was used to definite the temporary relocation area. Areas >1,500,000 Bq/hr were permanently relocated. Note that the bullet train is outside the areas of the significant Cs-137 deposition.

Based on this information, communities like Minamisoma should be able to be repopulated assuming no further major radiation releases occur. Anywhere NW of the plant all the way to Iidate where the major radiation plume occurred will likely have to be abandoned for a long period of time like is the case with Chernobyl.

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http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110516a1.html

Core of reactor 1 melted 16 hours after quake

New analysis shows damage to fuel rods was surprisingly quick

The meltdown at reactor No. 1 in Fukushima happened more quickly than feared, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday in a new analysis.

The core of the heavily damaged reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant is believed to have melted 16 hours after the March 11 mega-quake and tsunami rocked the complex in northeastern Japan.

Preliminary analysis shows that No. 1 had already entered a critical state by 6:50 a.m. on March 12, with most of its fuel having melted and fallen to the bottom of the pressure vessel, the plant operator said. Tepco released data Thursday showing some of the fuel rods had melted.

The reactor automatically halted operations immediately after the 2:46 p.m. quake, but the water level in the reactor dropped and the temperature began rising at around 6 p.m. The damage to the fuel rods had begun by 7:30 p.m., with most of them having melted by 6:50 a.m. the following day, the utility said.

While the utility had planned to bring the nation's worst nuclear accident under control in around six to nine months from mid-April, it now has no choice but to abandon a plan to flood the containment vessel of reactor 1 because holes have been created by the melted fuel, an adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan said earlier Sunday.

Nevertheless, Goshi Hosono, the top official tasked with handling the nuclear crisis, told TV programs the government had yet to revise the timetable for bringing the crisis to an end.

Asked about initial plans to completely submerge the 4-meter-tall fuel rods by entombing the vessel in water, Hosono said, "We should not cause the (radioactive) water to flow into the sea by taking such a measure."

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Gee I could have sworn some people here were saying we shouldn't take what the Japanese were telling us at face value and that things could indeed be more serious than they seemed. :rolleyes:

Well, it was pretty apparent that Tepco was lying and the only ones who didn't believe it were the same naive people who think that authority is always right.

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Incidentally, it's Kamikaze and the act of ritual suicide is variously known as seppuku or hara-kiri. Could possibly see some of the latter. The Fukushima 50 were the Kamikazes in the true spirit of bushido.

Steve

Some of the TEPCO leadership, management and a few people involved with the government should seriously be thinking about doing this also.

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Yea I know. Pretty dumb. But that's why we have tin foil hats right?:rolleyes:

You're not paranoid if everyone's out to get you and it's not a conspiracy if a utility company, which stands to lose billions of dollars, is acting kind of fishy and the amount of information being released in drips and drabs completely conflicts with one another.

This is PRECISELY why a corporation that can have potentially harmful effects on other human beings should be regulated. Safety should trump profit 100% of the time.

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I'm aghast reading this stuff. My long-held impression of the Japanese as technologically superior has been dashed by this event. Their total lack of preparation for this sort of incident plus their inability to contain it from Day 1 is worse than what I'd expect from the most azz-backwards Soviet satellite state.

i think in the beginning that's what stunned me the most also.. i really didn't pay much mind to it for a couple days because i thought "they got this."

when things really started to unravel, i was kind of taken aback.. but, it's easy to be critical from here..

i don't know that it was so much lack of intelligence, it seemed to be more of a pride issue.. they refused help and said they had it handled until the French showed up and blew their spot.. then they started asking for help.. no one wants to admit they are defeated so early in the game..

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You're not paranoid if everyone's out to get you and it's not a conspiracy if a utility company, which stands to lose billions of dollars, is acting kind of fishy and the amount of information being released in drips and drabs completely conflicts with one another.

This is PRECISELY why a corporation that can have potentially harmful effects on other human beings should be regulated. Safety should trump profit 100% of the time.

This is an uninformed view. There is no way to mitigate all risk.

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