Meltdown.

[Capt Bringdown]

Fukushima: It's much worse than you think

"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera.

"The fuels are now a molten blob at the bottom of the reactor," Gundersen added. "That blob is incredibly radioactive, and now you have water on top of it. The water picks up enormous amounts of radiation, so you add more water and you are generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive water."

Hot particles:
"We are discovering hot particles everywhere in Japan, even in Tokyo," he said. "Scientists are finding these everywhere. Over the last 90 days these hot particles have continued to fall and are being deposited in high concentrations. A lot of people are picking these up in car engine air filters."

Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo are now common, and Gundersen says his sources are finding radioactive air filters in the greater Seattle area of the US as well.

The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer. "These get stuck in your lungs or GI tract, and they are a constant irritant," he explained. arly people in Fukushima prefecture have breathed in a large amount of these particles. Clearly the upper West Coast of the US has people being affected. That area got hit pretty heavy in April."

A problem of infinite proportions

Gundersen's assessment of solving this crisis is grim.

"Units one through three have nuclear waste on the floor, the melted core, that has plutonium in it, and that has to be removed from the environment for hundreds of thousands of years," he said. "Somehow, robotically, they will have to go in there and manage to put it in a container and store it for infinity, and that technology doesn't exist. Nobody knows how to pick up the molten core from the floor, there is no solution available now for picking that up from the floor."

- more -

[cheguevara]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/0...ia=blog_676110

Assistant Professor Hiroaki Koide, Kyoto University Research Reactor Ins ute:

As far as I can tell from the announcements made by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the nuclear fuel that has melted down inside reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant has gone through the bottom of the containers, which are like pressure cookers, and is lying on the concrete foundations, sinking into the ground below. We have to install a barrier deep in the soil and build a subterranean dam as soon as possible to prevent groundwater contaminated with radioactive materials from leaking into the ocean.
(my emphasis)

Estimates are on the order of $1B dollars to construct a subterranean dam -- that much money would destroy TEPCO and there is no reason to believe the Japanese government would pay for it. (Political realities aside, there is no choice -- it has to be done.)

So TEPCO's prepared answer to the obvious question, why hasn't this construction already started?

Underground water flows at a speed of about 5 to 10 centimeters a day, so we have more than a year before it reaches the shore.

The linked article (in both English and Japanese) goes on to speculate that the reason the Japanese government is so slow to react, just as with the end of WWII -- "common sense was lost, and the government was slow to reach a decision."

And there you have it. TEPCO wishes to make the Japanese government foot the bill, and the Japanese government reacts at the speed of frozen sludge moving uphill in winter. (IMHO)

But the key point in the article is that should such a dam be announced after June 28, it will confirm what is already strongly suspected, that one or more cores are presently resting on concrete below their containers and are eating their way down to the water table.

[cheguevara]

damn. so entombing the entire plant has been decided. Now they are fighting and stalling about who will pay for it. goddam!

[boutons_deux]

Corporate cost-cutting and ass-covering

Fukushima engineers knew of critical design flaw years in advance

An electric switching station the size of a kitchen table was the major component to fail when the facility was swamped by seawater in the tsunami following the March 11 earthquake. In older reactors, the switching station is housed in a vulnerable outbuilding rather than in the building that houses the reactor.

When the switching stations went offline, operation of the reactors' cooling systems became impossible, leading to the meltdowns in the unstable fuel cores. The reactors based on the newer design successfully shut down when the plant was inundated.

Dozens of former officials and workers told the Journal that Tepco failed to avail itself of opportunities to retrofit the reactors in the decades since their construction. They blame a combination of "complacency, cost-cutting measures and lax regulation".

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/0...e+Raw+Story%29

[mouse]

LOL...

He knows far more than you!

So did this guy.......

[Agloco]

So did this guy.......

He got caught though.

[Agloco]

Corporate cost-cutting and ass-covering

Fukushima engineers knew of critical design flaw years in advance

An electric switching station the size of a kitchen table was the major component to fail when the facility was swamped by seawater in the tsunami following the March 11 earthquake. In older reactors, the switching station is housed in a vulnerable outbuilding rather than in the building that houses the reactor.

When the switching stations went offline, operation of the reactors' cooling systems became impossible, leading to the meltdowns in the unstable fuel cores. The reactors based on the newer design successfully shut down when the plant was inundated.

Dozens of former officials and workers told the Journal that Tepco failed to avail itself of opportunities to retrofit the reactors in the decades since their construction. They blame a combination of "complacency, cost-cutting measures and lax regulation".

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/0...e+Raw+Story%29

Imagine that. All of this can be traced back to money and complacency.

[boutons_deux]

Highly Radioactive Soil Outside the Evacuation Zone in Japan Raises Alarm

Soil radiation in a city 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Japan's stricken nuclear plant is above levels that prompted resettlement after the Chernobyl disaster,

http://www.alternet.org/environment/...paign=alternet

[Agloco]

Highly Radioactive Soil Outside the Evacuation Zone in Japan Raises Alarm

Soil radiation in a city 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Japan's stricken nuclear plant is above levels that prompted resettlement after the Chernobyl disaster,

http://www.alternet.org/environment/...paign=alternet

Can't load the article. Does it detail how much soil is affected?

[mouse]

He got caught though.

Just as you will!

[boutons_deux]

Can't load the article. Does it detail how much soil is affected?

The survey of four locations in Fukushima city, outside the nuclear evacuation zone, showed that all soil samples contained caesium exceeding Japan's legal limit of 10,000 becquerels per kilogram (4,500 per pound), they said.

The highest level was 46,540 becquerels per kilogram, and the three other readings were between 16,290 and 19,220 becquerels per kilogram, they said.

The citizens' groups -- the Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation and five other non-governmental organisations -- have called for the evacuation of pregnant women and children from the town.

The highest reading in the city of 290,000 people far exceeded the level that triggered compulsory resettlement ordered by Soviet authorities following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, they said.

[mouse]

Can't load the article. Does it detail how much soil is affected?

Not nearly enough to effect your Garden.

[Winehole23]

Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, said it detected the highest radiation to date at the site.



Geiger counters, used to detect radioactivity, registered more than 10 sieverts an hour, the highest reading the devices are able to record, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility, said today. The measurements were taken at the base of the main ventilation stack for reactors No. 1 and No. 2.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...-dai-ichi.html

[RandomGuy]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...-dai-ichi.html

Saw that.

"fatal to humans" in some places, and they are just getting in to some of the areas.

"It is now looking more likely that this area has been this radioactive since the earthquake and tsunami but no one realised until now."

[RandomGuy]

Imagine that. All of this can be traced back to money and complacency.

Nuclear power plants don't kill people.

People kill people.



The only good thing about this is that nuclear power is finally getting a hard look in terms of safety at all levels, and many are deciding that it is just not worth the cost.

[cheguevara]

"safe" and "half life of 300 years" do not go together. Never did, never will.

[ElNono]

Swede held for building nuclear reactor in his kitchen

[Wild Cobra]

Swede held for building nuclear reactor in his kitchen

LOL...

We have an industrialist who needs investors...

[Agloco]

Nuclear power plants don't kill people.

People kill people.



The only good thing about this is that nuclear power is finally getting a hard look in terms of safety at all levels, and many are deciding that it is just not worth the cost.

Yeah, my point exactly. It probably didn't come across as such though.

"safe" and "half life of 300 years" do not go together. Never did, never will.

Well, now we're over-generalizing.......

Swede held for building nuclear reactor in his kitchen

Where'd he get the raw materials?

[Winehole23]

"It is now looking more likely that this area has been this radioactive since the earthquake and tsunami but no one realised until now."

Holy . Why the not?

[mouse]

Nuclear power plants don't kill people.

People kill people.

So the Nuclear plants built themselves?

[Agloco]

"It is now looking more likely that this area has been this radioactive since the earthquake and tsunami but no one realised until now."

Holy . Why the not?

Depending on the area, it may not have been feasible to get close up readings until now. Detection of highly radioactive patches requires close inspection unfortunately.

[Agloco]

So the Nuclear plants built themselves?

What RG and I were getting at is that neglect on the part of the authorities involved will cause an incident which might cost lives. Proper upkeep and inspection goes a long way to averting disasters.

It all came back to money and complacency. Go figure.

[Winehole23]

Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto has instructed his ministry to refrain from claiming the safety of Japanese foods, changing its stance after radiation-contamination beef was found to have been sold to consumers in Japan, sources close to the matter said Sunday.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/...dm003000c.html

[Winehole23]

...