Japan - 9.0 Earthquake-Tsunami -Reactor Status, 2011 #6

[dsntslp]

http://www.wftv.com/slideshow/news/27573286/detail.html

Pic 36 of 46.

How strange that an auto repair shop has something that looks so similar to a Nuclear reactor. Well, anyway, my mind captured it and kept going back to it and I just would not be settled until I found it. G'night all.

It was NOT the High Point Reactor.

 

[Daisyjane]

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/86266.html


TOKYO, April 18, Kyodo

The radiation level inside the Nos. 1 and 3 reactor buildings at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was up to about 57 millisieverts per hour as of Sunday, the government's nuclear safety agency said Monday, acknowledging that it is a level that puts time constraints on any restoration work that must be done there. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency also said that it has found the No. 4 reactor building flooded with water 5 meters high, besides some 60,000 tons of contaminated water already found to be filling up the Nos. 1 to 3 reactor turbine buildings and nearby areas.

Many of the pools of water containing radioactive substances are believed to be a side effect of an emergency measure of pouring massive amounts of water into the reactors and their spent nuclear fuel pools from outside to keep them cool, given that they have lost their key cooling functions following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

 

[Daisyjane]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_EARTHQUAKE?SITE=WBNSTV&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-04-18-00-34-04

Tidbits:

TOKYO (AP) -- Readings Monday from robots that entered two crippled buildings at Japan's tsunami-flooded nuclear plant for the first time in more than a month revealed a harsh environment still too radioactive for workers to enter.

Nuclear officials said the radiation data for Unit 1 and Unit 3 at the tsunami-flooded Fukushima Dai-ichi plant - collected by U.S.-made robots that look like drafting lamps on treads - do not alter plans for stabilizing the complex by year's end under a "road map" released by the plant operator Sunday.

Meanwhile, readings from a water tank in Unit 2 showed a severe spike in radiation that indicates likely damage to the fuel rods inside the spent fuel pool there, TEPCO officials said. That was the first indication of damage to those rods. The radiation was far higher than that measured in the spent fuel pool of Unit 4, suggesting the damage to the fuel in Unit 2 is greater.

Traveling on miniature tank-like treads, the devices opened closed doors and explored the insides of the reactor buildings, coming back with radioactivity readings of up to 49 millisieverts per hour inside Unit 1 and up to 57 millisieverts per hour inside Unit 3.

The legal limit for nuclear workers was more than doubled since the crisis began to 250 millisieverts. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends an evacuation after an incident releases 10 millisieverts of radiation, and workers in the U.S. nuclear industry are allowed an upper limit of 50 millisieverts per year. Doctors say radiation sickness sets in at 1,000 millisieverts and includes nausea and vomiting.

 

[Quiche]

Robots venture inside Fukushima

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13114310

Slideshow of robots. Pretty darn cool.

 

[coastal]

Any word on the High Point Reactor in NC?
I was looking at pics of damage in NC due to tornadoes and I swear one of those pics has that reactor looking like it is sitting slanted...

Looking for the pic to link so what I am saying can be seen, I tried to screen shot and it was protected.

Looks like you were right to be concerned about nuclear power plants in the southeast, dsntslp (if not exactly in High Point). I found the following paragraph in a Winston-Salem Journal article, here:

http://www2.journalnow.com/news/201...down-davie-county-weather-service--ar-958230/

>>>snip

...An apparent tornado passed near a Virginia nuclear power plant, knocking down power lines. Dominion Virginia Power said backup sources including diesel generators kept electricity going to maintain both units at its Surry Power Station. The tornado didn't hit the two nuclear units, which are designed to withstand weather, earthquakes and hurricanes, the company said...

(article continues)

<<<snip

It sounds like at least Dominion Power has thought about and planned for safety in the face of natural disasters like the awful storms just past...

 

[essies]

[video=youtube;O7DHjrhQ9-g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7DHjrhQ9-g[/video]
http://www.fairewinds.com
I love this man and his down to earth explanations of this disaster. I hope he keeps them up as the year passes cause we need information that I feel we can trust and understand.:twocents:

 

[Quiche]

I wish Arnie G. would have gone into the cause of that iodine without taking Tepco's word-- hopefully that will be his next installment.

Thanks for turning us on to him, Essies, he's refreshing!

 

[Quiche]

Areva to set up Japan nuclear clean-up site

Quote: The decontamination plant, which uses a process called "co-precipitation" to isolate and remove radioactive elements, will be delivered after Areva specialists studied the crippled reactor at close range over the last three weeks.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/19/us-areva-japan-idUSTRE73I2FF20110419

 

[Daisyjane]

Radiation at No. 2 spent fuel pool 30,000,000 times above normal & 15,000 times more than troubled No. 4 pool April 19th, 2011 at 12:33 PM



Lots of stats and links on here

http://enenews.com/radiation-skyrockets-2-spent-fuel-pool-30000000-times-above-normal-15000-times-troubled-4-pool

 

[peeples]

just saw this from this morning

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/04/19/japan.nuclear.reactors/index.html?hpt=T2

A robot probe found sauna-like conditions inside the No. 2 reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant but lower levels of radiation than in other damaged units, the plant's owner reported Tuesday.

 

[Quiche]

Radiation at No. 2 spent fuel pool 30,000,000 times above normal & 15,000 times more than troubled No. 4 pool April 19th, 2011 at 12:33 PM



Lots of stats and links on here

http://enenews.com/radiation-skyrockets-2-spent-fuel-pool-30000000-times-above-normal-15000-times-troubled-4-pool

According to Arnie G., these would be Chernobyl type numbers. :banghead:

 

[lkhns]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7DHjrhQ9-g
http://www.fairewinds.com
I love this man and his down to earth explanations of this disaster. I hope he keeps them up as the year passes cause we need information that I feel we can trust and understand.:twocents:

I agree, Essies---he seems to be the only person who is giving us forthright information. I have to applaud how he dances around the TEPCO claim of the iodine "falling into Reactor 4 from the explosions that happened in Reactors 1, 2, and 3." Anyone with half a brain knows that that is horse dung. As Arnie says, the roof on Reactor 4 was still intact when those explosions happened. I think Arnie has pretty much called them liars without actually saying those words. I fervently hope that Arnie has some protective detail around him b/c I feel he may be putting his life on the line by telling us the things he is. No question, the gov'ts Of Japan and US are not truthful. All they care about is money. Say whatever you need to, keep spreading the manure, don't let the people know how bad this is and how much worse it is going to be. Shame on them. Shame!!

 

[Daisyjane]

just saw this from this morning

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/04/19/japan.nuclear.reactors/index.html?hpt=T2

A robot probe found sauna-like conditions inside the No. 2 reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant but lower levels of radiation than in other damaged units, the plant's owner reported Tuesday.

Yeah, so much conflicting info on whether 2 is really in more trouble than 4. And sometimes they come back a day later and say the readings were mistaken anyway. So how do we know that's really going on?

 

[essies]

[video=youtube;f3qi4HwV0g8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3qi4HwV0g8[/video]
Transcript at the end of video-
AMY GOODMAN: You were an expert witness during the investigation of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. You never actually worked at Vermont Yankee, is that right? But what was your relationship with it?

ARNIE GUNDERSEN: I was a senior vice president of a company that provided services throughout the industry, including Vermont Yankee, and actually provided the nuclear fuel racks that were used in this design. So, that&#8217;s one of the problems at Fukushima, is this Mark I design has its nuclear fuel racks way up in the very top of the building. And it creates an earthquake problem and also a fire and terrorist hazard. And all of those can occur, as well, at Vermont Yankee.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about TEPCO saying that they were optimistic that they could bring down radiation at the damaged plant and go to a cold shutdown of the facility in six to nine months? That&#8217;s in Japan.

ARNIE GUNDERSEN: It&#8217;s a really optimistic schedule. It&#8217;s a really optimistic schedule. The cold shutdown means that there&#8217;s no more boiling in the reactor, and it&#8217;s at atmospheric pressure. And in order to do that&#8212;there are cooling systems that are in those buildings that have exploded, so they&#8217;re actually trying to build a new system outside of those buildings, and they&#8217;re frantically trying to procure heat exchangers and pipes and pumps and valves&#8212;this in the middle of many seismic aftershocks. I think the biggest concern with their schedule is twofold. One is aftershocks are likely, and these buildings are damaged, so a severe aftershock could really set them back or, more importantly, release a lot of radiation. And the second problem is their&#8212;

AMY GOODMAN: Will radiation be leaking for the six to nine months?

ARNIE GUNDERSEN: Radiation is leaking every day now, both liquid into the ocean and also airborne. When you see those clouds of smoke coming out of the unit, that&#8217;s not steam, that&#8217;s radioactive steam. So, they&#8217;re releasing radioactivity as a airborne, and also, probably more important right now is Unit 2, the reactor has a hole in it, and the containment has a hole in it. So they&#8217;re pouring water in the top, and it&#8217;s running out the bottom. And it&#8217;s what&#8217;s causing all of this enormous amount of high-level radioactive waste.

AMY GOODMAN: Arnie Gundersen, we&#8217;re going to have to leave it there. I thank you very much for being with us, nuclear whistleblower speaking to us from Burlington, Vermont

 

[essies]

[video=youtube;Xrsxdhuh-8Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrsxdhuh-8Y[/video]
April 19, 2011 NHK News

 

[Quiche]

Water Pumping Begins at Japan Nuclear Reactor

Quote: At the plant itself, the Tokyo Electric Power Company said that it planned to pump 10,000 metric tons of water into a storage building at a rate of 480 tons a day, which would take nearly three weeks. The company is still working on ways to remove an additional 57,500 tons of heavily contaminated water at the same building, next to Reactor No. 2, and at other nearby buildings.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/20/w...son8.nytimes.com/pages/world/asia/index.jsonp


And regarding Essie's link above-- 20 crackers and 1 1/2 liters of water?!!? Good lord, I wouldn't try it for a week!

 

[Quiche]

Small amounts of radioactive iodine found in breast milk

Quote: A citizen's group concerned about the impact on mothers and babies of the radioactive leaks from a crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture said Wednesday that small amounts of radioactive iodine have been found in the breast milk of four women living east or northeast of Tokyo.

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/86719.html

 

[Daisyjane]

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/86750.html

TOKYO, April 21, Kyodo

An official at Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, admitted Wednesday that fuel of the plant's No. 1 reactor could be melting.

 

[Daisyjane]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j5S211rWswSNiPdsQ55K-BXulv_g?docId=CNG.8f3978944ced6ecb647abe0245a4b1df.1b1


(AFP) – 2 hours ago
TOKYO — Japan is to begin enforcing the exclusion zone around its crippled nuclear plant after midnight on Friday, a report said Wednesday, as worries mounted over the effects of long-term radiation exposure.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan will announce the decision to designate the 20-kilometre (12-mile) area around the Fukushima complex legally out-of-bounds when he visits the area on Thursday, the Kyodo news agency reported, citing unnamed sources.

The government will allow one member of each family forced into shelters outside the zone to return home under supervision to pick up belongings, Kyodo said.

People living within a 20-kilometre (12-mile) radius of the plant were ordered to leave, while those living up to 10 kilometres beyond that have been told to stay indoors.

Of 3,378 households visited by police in the 20-km ring from March 29 to April 18, 63 families remained, Kyodo said.

 

[Dr.Fessel]

The company says water levels are also rising in the Number 5 and 6 turbine buildings.

Haven't we been led to believe there was nothing wrong with 5 and 6?

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/21_03.html