Japan: 9.0 Earthquake-Tsunami-Nuclear Reactor Status #4

[Allusonz]

Status report: Reactor-by-reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/25/japan.nuclear.status/


(I wish they'd give us the numbers, instead of generalities like "high"...)

Maybe they dont go that high and I totally agree!!!

 

[Allusonz]

TY.... What a movie that was. Those poor people working under those horrible conditions. And when the siren rang out, they knew one of their worker were contaminated.

there was another movie, this was to do with a water treatment plant but I am horrible with the names of movies, where all the people that had been drinking the water had become ill with a variety of illnesses and multiple ones. It was also based on a true story

 

[Quiche]

And of course, The China Syndrome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_China_Syndrome

 

[Quiche]

Exclusion zone around stricken Japanese nuclear plant widened over fears reactor core may be cracked

130,000 more urged to relocate beyond 19 miles
Japan's PM praises workers 'risking their lives'
Two Japanese travellers arriving in China found to be contaminated
Almost 10,000 now dead and 17,000 feared missing
Russia and Australia among countries halting food imports
Low-level radioactive particles detected in U.S.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-widened-reactor-fears.html?ito=feeds-newsxml


Huge article with interesting pics...

 

[Kat]

Kind of off topic but not exactly off topic:

Military families are having long waits to leave airport:

http://seattlest.com/2011/03/24/a_tipster_passed_along_a.php

 

[Kat]

From the link posted above there is a flicker account attributed to the photo.

Here are two interesting sets of photos uploaded to that account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/compacflt/sets/72157626119790243/
Operation Tomodachi
items are from between 23 Mar 2010 & 25 Mar 2011

(looks to be photos from a relief operation)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/compacflt/sets/72157626321900276/
Voluntary Departure (these are pictures of families departing)

 

[sorrell skye]

Reveal fallout data: ex-nuke chief
Evacuees must know radiation exposure risks, expert says

Excerpt:
SPEEDI — short for System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information — is the same system the NSC used to make its risk calculations. It divides the nation into a fine geographic grid of 250 × 250-meter squares to predict how radioactive substances spread.

He said the government should use SPEEDI to tell the public: 1) what the geographical distribution of nuclear substances released by Fukushima No. 1 has been, along with the radiation levels. 2) what the distribution of radioactive substances and radiation levels might be if the situation there gets further out of hand.

Tanaka said making this data public will help the public realize the need to evacuate.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110325f2.html

According to this article published on March 16, SPEEDI is not working.

A computer system that forecasts the spread of radioactivity has not been working due to malfunctioning monitoring posts around a troubled nuclear power plant in quake-hit Fukushima Prefecture.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says it does not know when the system will be back in operation.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/16_16.html

More @ link

 

[Quiche]

Radiation battle gets rougher

Excerpt:
The uncertainties currently focus on the leak, which exposed three workers wading through the water to so much radioactivity that they had to be hospitalized for radiation burns.

Some reports suggested that the skin radiation exposure amounted to 2,000 to 6,000 millisieverts. Exposure to that much full-body gamma radiation over the course of an hour would be deadly. However, in this case the burns were due to shorter-range beta radiation. The gamma radiation exposure was estimated at 170 to 180 millisieverts.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/25/6344788-radiation-battle-gets-rougher

 

[Daisyjane]

http://enenews.com/definite-fukushima-no-3-has-long-vertical-crack-down-side-reactor-vessel-nuclear-exec

New signs emerged on Friday that parts of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are so damaged and contaminated that it will be harder to bring the plant under control soon. …

Concerns about Reactor No. 3 have surfaced before. Japanese officials said nine days ago that the reactor vessel may have been damaged. …

A senior nuclear executive who insisted on anonymity but has broad contacts in Japan said that there was a long vertical crack running down the side of the reactor vessel itself. The crack runs down below the water level in the reactor and has been leaking fluids and gases, he said. The severity of the radiation burns to the injured workers are consistent with contamination by water that had been in contact with damaged fuel rods, the executive said. “There is a definite, definite crack in the vessel — it’s up and down and it’s large,” he said. “The problem with cracks is they do not get smaller.”

BBM

 

[Daisyjane]

Bad Boy #3 holds 170 tons of that lovely uranium/plutonium mix. As Nancy Grace would say: "Bombshell Tonight".

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42242762/ns/world_news-asiapacific

Damage could have been done to the core when a March 14 hydrogen explosion blew apart Unit 3's outer containment building.

This reactor, perhaps the most troubled at the six-unit site, holds 170 tons of radioactive fuel in its core. Previous radioactive emissions have come from intentional efforts to vent small amounts of steam through valves to prevent the core from bursting. However, releases from a breach could allow uncontrolled quantities of radioactive contaminants to escape into the surrounding ground or air.

Operators stopped work Friday at units 1 through 3 to check on radiation levels.

 

[sorrell skye]

Japan death toll now surpasses 10,000; likely to keep climbing


The official death toll from Japan’s devastating earthquake-tsunami has now surpassed 10,000, while almost a quarter-million people are sheltered in about 1,900 evacuation centers as of Friday evening, according to the National Police Agency (NPA).

More than 17,000 people are listed as officially missing.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/127083/20110325/japan.htm

 

[Quiche]

Oh man...

 

[cluciano63]

I'm not sure the planet will ever be the same, say nothing of Japan. And it is not as though other disasters won't keep happening in the meantime...Japan's horror will be lost in the shuffle of news, until, of course, it affects the United States...

 

[hollyblue]

Oh man...

And that's not including the hundreds of thousands w/o homes or even w/o electricity.

Also wanted to say TY for this previous link. kbman has not posted since Friday...as far as I can see, but very informative.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/25/960090/-Fukushima-Status-Update-3-25


ETA: Here's a newsreel from a 1933 earthquake/tsunami that stuck northern Japan. Below that an article talking of the man who survived both this one and the lastest one:

http://www.criticalpast.com/video/6...ble-on-ground_people-gather_damaged-buildings

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/24/959733/-The-94-foot-NE-Japan-Tsunami-of-1933,-Forgotten

 

[Quiche]

I've been running into a lot of concerns about this "yellow rain" in Tokyo yesterday-- the article says:

Suspected Pollen Fall Stokes Radiation Jitters

Quote: The JMA believes the yellow patches are pollen, but has yet to confirm this.

“Pollen is something people see all the time and ignore, said a JMA official. “But people are extra vigilant now because they are scared of radiation exposure” due to the caustic Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/...ollen-fall-stokes-radiation-jitters-in-kanto/


comparing to this:

Chernobyl-Style Yellow Rain Causes Panic In Japan

Quote: A University of California Daily Bruin article entitled “Remembering Chernobyl,” documents how children in Belarus happily splashed around in puddles of yellow rain having been assured by Russian authorities that it was merely pollen, when in fact it was a toxic mixture of radioactivity that had been blasted from the Chernobyl plant 80 miles away.

http://www.infowars.com/chernobyl-style-yellow-rain-causes-panic-in-japan/

 

[Quiche]

FOCUS: Nuclear plant workers have option to quit but not many doing so

Quote: Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator and the nation's biggest utility, says it is ''up to each individual to decide whether or not to continue'' working at the plant.

But an expert familiar with working conditions said that in the case of subcontractors, ''The reality is that they are not in a position to decline job offers that they may not like, because they know that would affect orders in the future.''

and

Nuclear plant workers are typically allowed radiation exposure of up to 100 millisieverts per year but the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare raised the limit for workers handling the crisis at Fukushima Daiichi to 250 millisieverts.

If a human absorbs 500 millisieverts, experts say its impact will start manifesting in such forms as a reduction in the lymphocyte count. Tokyo Electric says if a worker's exposure exceeds 100 millisieverts, he will be asked if he still wants to continue working so long as his exposure does not top the designated 250 millisieverts.

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/81152.html

 

[Quiche]

AP News in Brief
Setback at Fukushima nuclear plant as Japanese officials find radioactive water

TOKYO — A possible breach at Japan’s troubled nuclear plant escalated the crisis anew Friday, two full weeks after an earthquake and tsunami first compromised the facility. The development suggested radioactive contamination may be worse than first thought, with tainted groundwater the most likely consequence.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ap-news-in-brief/2011/03/25/AFquSyXB_story.html

 

[Quiche]

Groups Demand Data on Radiation Release

Quote: The American groups — Friends of the Earth, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service and Physicians for Social Responsibility — said on Friday that they were filing a Freedom of Information Act request with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy. They are seeking access to all information about radiation levels gathered by American radiological monitoring equipment and helicopter overflights.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011...ata-on-radiation-release/?partner=rss&emc=rss

 

[sorrell skye]

I hope the yellow rain is truly pollen, and not radioactive fall-out. Strontium-90 turns yellow when exposed to air.

Health Effects of Strontium-90
How can strontium-90 affect people's health?

Strontium-90 is chemically similar to calcium, and tends to deposit in bone and blood-forming tissue (bone marrow). Thus, strontium-90 is referred to as a "bone seeker." Internal exposure to Sr-90 is linked to bone cancer, cancer of the soft tissue near the bone, and leukemia.

Risk of cancer increases with increased exposure to Sr-90. The risk depends on the concentration of Sr-90 in the environment, and on the exposure conditions.

http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/strontium.html#environment

 

[Quiche]

NEWS ADVISORY: Radioactive iodine 1,250.8 times above legal limit in sea near plant Note

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/

(I'll watch for a full article...)

eta: Here's a blurb, but full analysis will take a while.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-f...iodine-1250-times-legal-limit-sea-japan-plant