Nuclear Meltdown Watch

[Iamwhomiam]

"I hope this will turn out to have been irresponsible scaremongering."

Not scare mongering at all. Just reporting the probability for disaster.

No evacuations anywhere will occur; evacuation is an impossibility.

There will be no escaping its radiation possible anywhere on earth.

By 2006 Chernobyl caused more than 170,000 radiation-related North American deaths. (Yablokov, et al, Chernobyl Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment, P.322)

Chernobyl’s radioactive contamination has adversely affected all biological as well as nonliving components of the environment: the atmosphere, surface and ground waters, the surface and the bottom soil layers, especially in the heavily contaminated areas of Belarus, Ukraine, and European Russia. Levels of Chernobyl’s radioactive contamination even in North America and eastern Asia are above the maximum levels that were found in the wake of weapons testing in the 1960s.

Anyone who is interested in this issue, the greatest danger ever faced by humanity, should read Yablokov's "book." A pdf is available:
http://www.strahlentelex.de/Yablokov%20Chernobyl%20book.pdf

While reading it keep in mind that Fukushima is much worse, very much worse than Chernobyl.

[seemslikeadream]

UN nuclear agency looking at Fukushima contamination
by Gregg Levine @GreggJLevine November 7, 2013 6:42AM ET
IAEA to examine radiation leaks as TEPCO again postpones transfer of spent fuel from damaged storage pool

The spent fuel pool at the top of the No. 4 reactor building of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture on Nov. 6, 2013.The Yomiuri Shimbun/AP
Inspectors from the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived in Japan this week to monitor the ongoing cleanup and look into the continued leaking of contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

This as the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the company nominally in control of the crippled facility, has again postponed the start of procedures to remove highly radioactive fuel rods from a severely damaged storage pool inside what used to be the Fukushima plant's reactor No. 4.

Three reactors at Fukushima suffered core meltdowns after a massive earthquake and tsunami compromised containment and damaged cooling systems in March 2011.

The three molten cores have now likely melted through the floors of their containment buildings and are somewhere underground, though plant and government officials have no clear picture as to exactly how deep.

At the time of the Tohoku quake, the reactor at unit 4 had been emptied for maintenance, but its active fuel and decades of older "spent" fuel rods were stored in pools of water suspended above the core, inside the reactor building.

Under normal operation, water must be kept constantly circulating through the spent fuel pools to keep the uranium and plutonium rods cool and away from contact with the air. The 2011 disaster, however, not only disabled the cooling systems, but also left the structure holding the pool dangerously weakened.

A team from the IAEA is expected to sample water from around the plant, including seawater off the Japanese coast in an attempt to better gage the level of radioactive contamination.

A series of admissions by TEPCO and the Japanese government over the summer revealed that groundwater seeping into the damaged reactor buildings and seawater being continuously dumped over the damaged reactors and spent fuel storage had been leaking into the surrounding grounds and eventually into the Pacific Ocean.

Plant officials also discovered that several of the hastily built tanks used to contain the radioactive effluent were also leaking. Leaks from the tanks were estimated at 300 metric tons in August, and an additional 300 metric tons of contaminated water were said to have been leaking from the plant into the sea every day.

In September, radiation readings around some tanks, which now number in the thousands and hold enough radioactive water to fill well over 130 Olympic-sized swimming pools, climbed to hazardous levels. All this as Japan pledged a full cleanup in advance of the 2020 Olympic Summer Games, which were awarded to Tokyo that same month.

The situation in reactor 4's spent fuel pool has troubled nuclear engineers and environmental activists since the earliest days of the crisis. Removing the large nuclear fuel rods is daunting task, as the assemblies need to remain properly spaced, cool and submerged in water to prevent the possibility of increased fission activity, overheating, melting, and possible fires — and the crane originally built for the task was destroyed in the 2011 quake.

A newly constructed gantry, built around unit 4 over the past two years, was supposed to start the slow process of transferring fuel rods out of the damaged pool on Friday, but TEPCO officials said earlier this week that the system needed more testing, and that the actual removal of spent fuel would not happen until next Friday at the earliest.

The activity around Fukushima comes as Chinese government officials appealed to the U.N. nuclear watchdog to compel Japan to provide better information on how it is handling the ongoing Fukushima disaster.

"We urge the Japanese side to spare no effort in minimizing the subsequent impact of the accident and provide timely, comprehensive and accurate information to the international community," said China's U.N. ambassador Wang Min in a debate before the IAEA.

China's criticism of Japan has grown as revelations about the leaks of contaminated water and TEPCO's inept management of the entire Fukushima crisis have mounted this year.

Al Jazeera

[Col Quisp]

RT Live Chat with Dr. Helen Caldicott, Nov. 6, 2013 (at 34:00 in): I’m very much afraid that radioactive water is going to flow into the Pacific at least for the next 50 years, if not longer. […] To the back of the reactors are mountain ranges and the water flows down from the mountains, underneath the reactors. […] There have been 3 meltdowns and we think that these meltdowns — about a hundred tons of radioactive fuel in each units 1, 2, and 3 — may have melted their way into the earth, it’s called a melt though to China Syndrome in nuclear terminology. Even if they haven’t, on the bottom of the containment vessel building which is made of concrete which is all cracked, so the water’s flowing down, huge amounts every day, across and bathing those reactor cores which are furiously radioactive and the water that’s coming out and going into the ocean is incredibly radioactive. […] I can’t tell you how radioactive this water is, and there’s no way to stop it.

[elfismiles]

We need some kind of GIANT CLAM SHELL ENCLOSURE to scoop this mess into and either leave it there "contained" or shoot it into the sun (praying it doesn't explode upon exiting the atmosphere).







I know I know ... insane pipe-dream but DAMN, we gotta try something!

RT Live Chat with Dr. Helen Caldicott, Nov. 6, 2013 (at 34:00 in): I’m very much afraid that radioactive water is going to flow into the Pacific at least for the next 50 years, if not longer. […] To the back of the reactors are mountain ranges and the water flows down from the mountains, underneath the reactors. […] There have been 3 meltdowns and we think that these meltdowns — about a hundred tons of radioactive fuel in each units 1, 2, and 3 — may have melted their way into the earth, it’s called a melt though to China Syndrome in nuclear terminology. Even if they haven’t, on the bottom of the containment vessel building which is made of concrete which is all cracked, so the water’s flowing down, huge amounts every day, across and bathing those reactor cores which are furiously radioactive and the water that’s coming out and going into the ocean is incredibly radioactive. […] I can’t tell you how radioactive this water is, and there’s no way to stop it.

[beeline]

More links at original site:

Link

U.S. Ambassador’s letter from former Japan Ambassador: “Worsening radioactive contamination of the sea will soon awaken whole world” — Problem at Fukushima is “beyond control”

Excerpt from former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland Mitsuhei Murata’s letter to U.S. Ambassador to Japan John V. Roos, published Aug. 6, 2013: [...] I will treasure the three encouraging letters you have so kindly addressed to me during your mission in Japan. The Japanese, going through the terrible tragedy, will never forget your invaluable support offered in time of need. I am convinced that you fully understand the historic role of Japan never to allow the horrific nuclear disaster to happen again on this planet. The worsening radioactive contamination of the sea will soon awaken the whole world to the nuclear dangers that cannot be endured by human society. [...]

Excerpt from former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland Mitsuhei Murata’s letter to U.S. Ambassador to Japan John V. Roos, published Aug. 9, 2013: [...] With the problem of contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi beyond control, the full assumption of responsibility by the Government is now unavoidable. I am attaching the exchange of mails with the Center for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany and with Reverend Gunnar Stalsett, member of the Norwegian Nobel committee. I am convinced that Fukushima has started changing the world. [...]

Response from the Center for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany: On behalf of Prof. Herzig I would like to thank you for forwarding the actual information on Fukushima contaminated water to us. We are currently examining whether our scientists will be able to provide an updated model simulation of contaminated water release into the Pacific and will come back to you as soon as possible.

Response from Reverend Gunnar Stalsett, member of the Norwegian Nobel committee: Thanks for sharing the important message with me. I have passed it on to the GS of the World Council of Churches as the nuclear issue will be an important issue at the upcoming Assembly in Busan. Please continue to keep me in the loop.

See also: Former Ambassador to President Obama: Fukushima Unit 4 can cause "major global catastrophe" -- This is the "most pressing global secu

[MacCruiskeen]

jesus christ

and meanwhile, not a million miles away from fukushima:

BBC, 8 November 2013 Last updated at 20:22 GMT

Monster storm roars into Philippines

One of the strongest typhoons ever to hit land has slammed the Philippines, forcing millions to take shelter.

Packing sustained winds of up to 320 km/h (199mph), Typhoon Haiyan left at least four people dead, but it may be days before the full damage is known.

[...]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24846813

(^^bold type in the original)

[seemslikeadream]

^^^^ thank you beeline

Problem at Fukushima is “beyond control"

“Worsening radioactive contamination of the sea will soon awaken whole world”

I am convinced that Fukushima has started changing the world


First the Quake, Then the Lies


3 - 9 - 11

One world, one soul


The sweet smell of a great sorrow lies over the land
plumes of smoke rise and merge into the leaden sky:
a man lies and dreams of green fields and rivers
but awakes to a morning with no reason for waking

He's haunted by the memory of a lost paradise
in his youth or a dream, he can't be precise
he's chained forever to a world that's departed
It's not enough, It's not enough

His blood has frozen & curled with fright
his knees have trembled & given way in the night
his hand has weakened at the moment of truth
his step has faltered

One world, one soul
Time pass, the river roll

And he talks to the river of lost love and dedication
and silent replies that swirl invitation
flow dark and troubled to any oily sea
a grim intimation of what is to be

There's an unceasing wind that blows through this night
and there's dust in my eyes, that blinds my sight
and silence that speaks so much louder than words
of promises broken.

[conniption]

link

Council Statement

This statement reflects the wisdom of the Spiritual People of the Earth, of North and South America, working in unity to restore peace, harmony and balance for our collective future and for all living beings.
This statement is written in black and white with a foreign language that is not our own and does not convey the full depth of our concerns.

The Creator created the People of the Earth into the Land at the beginning of Creation and gave us a way of life. This way of life has been passed down generation-to-generation since the beginning. We have not honored this way of life through our own actions and we must live these original instructions in order to restore universal balance and harmony. We are a part of Creation;
thus, if we break the Laws of Creation, we destroy ourselves.

We, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, have no choice but to follow and uphold the Original Instructions, which sustains the continuity of Life. We recognize our umbilical connection to Mother Earth and understand that she is the source of life, not a resource to be exploited. We speak on behalf of all Creation today, to communicate an urgent message that man has gone too far, placing us in the state of survival. We warned that one day you would not be able to control what you have created. That day is here. Not heeding warnings from both Nature and the People of the Earth keeps us on the path of self destruction. This self destructive path has led to the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Gulf oil spill, tar sands devastation, pipeline failures, impacts of carbon dioxide emissions and
the destruction of ground water through hydraulic fracking, just to name a few. In
addition, these activities and development continue to cause the deterioration and
destruction of sacred places and sacred waters that are vital for Life.

Powerful technologies are out of control
and are threatening the future of all life

The Fukushima nuclear crisis alone is a threat to the future of humanity. Yet, our concern goes far beyond this single threat. Our concern is with the cumulative and compounding devastation that is being wrought by the actions of human
beings around the world. It is the combination of resource extraction, genetically
modified organisms, moral failures, pollution, introduction of invasive species and
much much more that are threatening the future of life on Earth. The compounding of bad decisions and their corresponding actions are extremely short-sighted. They do not consider the future generations and they do not respect or honor the Creator’s Natural Law. We strongly urge for the
governmental authorities to respond with an open invitation to work and
consult with us to solve the world’s problems, without war. We must stop waging war against Mother Earth, and ourselves.

We acknowledge that all of these devastating actions originated in human beings who are living without regard for the Earth as the source of life. They have strayed from the Original Instructions by casting aside the Creator’s Natural Law. It is now critical for humanity to acknowledge that we have created a path to self
destruction. We must restore the Original Instructions in our lives to halt this devastation.

The sanctity of the Original Instructions has been violated. As a result, the Spiritual People of the Earth were called ceremonially to come together at the home of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe Bundle. These Spiritual Leaders and those that carry great responsibility for their people from both North and South America came together with the sacred fire for four days at the end of September 2013 to fulfill their sacred responsibilities. During this time it was revealed that the spirit of destruction gained its’strength by our spiritually
disconnected actions. We are all responsible in varying degrees for calling forth this spirit of destruction, thus we are all bound to begin restoring what we have damaged by helping one another recover our sacred responsibility to the Earth. We, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, offer our spiritual insight, wisdom and vision to the global community to help guide the actions needed to overcome the current threats to all life.

We only have to look at our own bodies to recognize the sacred purpose
of water on Mother Earth. We respect and honor our spiritual relationship with the lifeblood of Mother Earth. One does not sell or contaminate their mother’s blood. These capitalistic actions must stop and we must recover our sacred relationship with the Spirit of Water.

The People of the Earth understand that the Fukushima nuclear crisis continues to threaten the future of all life. We understand the full implications of this crisis even with the suppression of information and the filtering of truth by the corporate owned media and Nation States. We strongly urge the media, corporations and Nation States toacknowledge and convey the true facts that threaten us, so that the international community may work together to resolve this crisis, based on the foundation of Truth.

We urge the international community, government of Japan and TEPCO to unify efforts to stabilize and re-mediate the nuclear threat posed at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. To ensure that the Japanese government and TEPCO are supported with qualified personnel and information, we urge the inclusion of today’s nuclear experts from around the world to collaborate, advise
and provide technical assistance to prevent further radioactive contamination or worse, a nuclear explosion that may have apocalyptic consequences.

The foundation for peace will be strengthened by
restoring the Original Instructions in ourselves.

Prophecies have been shared and sacred instructions were given. We, the People of the Earth, were instructed that the original wisdom must be shared again when imbalance and disharmony are upon Mother Earth. In 1994
the sacred white buffalo, the giver of the sacred pipe, returned to the Lakota,
Dakota and Nakota people bringing forth the sacred message that the winds of change are here. Since that time many more messengers in the form of white animals have come, telling us to wake up my children. It is time. So listen for the sacred instruction.

All Life is sacred. We come into Life as sacred beings. When we abuse the

sacredness of Life we affect all Creation.

We urge all Nations and human beings around the world to work with us, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, to restore the Original Instructions and uphold the Creator’s Natural Law as a foundation for all decision making, from this point forward. Our collective future as human beings is in our hands, we must address the Fukushima nuclear crisis and all actions that may violate the Creator’s Natural Law. We have reached the crossroads of life and the end of
our existence. We will avert this potentially catastrophic nuclear disaster by coming together with good minds and prayer as a global community of all faiths.

We are the People of the Earth united under the Creator’s Law with a sacred covenant to protect and a responsibility to extend Life for all future generations. We are expressing deep concern for our shared future and urge everyone to awaken spiritually. We must work in unity to help Mother Earth heal so that she can bring back balance and harmony for all her children.

Representatives of the Council

Chief Arvol Looking Horse
19th Generation Keeper of theSacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe
Spiritual Leader
The Great Sioux Nation

Bobby C. Billie
Clan Leader and Spiritual Leader
Council of the Original Miccosukee
Simanolee Nation Aboriginal Peoples

Faith Spotted Eagle, Tunkan Inajin Win
Brave Heart Society Grandmother/Headswoman & Ihanktonwan Treaty Council
Ihanktonwan Dakota from the Oceti Sakowin
7 Council Fires

- ADDITIONAL SIGNATURES TO FOLLOW -

[seemslikeadream]

The Fukushima Crisis Comes To The States
By Charles P. Pierce at 10:00am

Kimimasa Mayama/AFP via Getty Images
Tepco officials and journalists stand at the H4 tank area at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, where radioactive water leaked from storage tank in August.
The catastrophe at the Fukushima nuclear power plant -- aka Yesterday's Tragedy -- appears to be ongoing, and Alaska now has become part of the story.
Some radiation has arrived in northern Alaska and along the west coast. That's raised concern over contamination of fish and wildlife. More may be heading toward coastal communities like Haines and Skagway. Douglas Dasher, a researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, says radiation levels in Alaskan waters could reach Cold War levels. "The levels they are projecting in some of the models are in the ballpark of what they saw in the North Pacific in the 1960s," he said.
That was when we were blowing up nuclear bombs all over the ocean because Communism. This resulted in an extended game of genetic roulette for the local populations. This was in no way a good thing. Meanwhile, back on site, it appears that local quality control may not have been what it should have been (h/t the C&L gang).
When tons of radioactive water leaked from a storage tank at Fukushima's crippled nuclear power plant and other containers hurriedly put up by the operator encountered problems, Yoshitatsu Uechi was not surprised. He wonders if one of the tanks he built will be next. He's an auto mechanic. He was a tour-bus driver for a while. He had no experience building tanks or working at a nuclear plant, but for six months last year, he was part of the team frantically trying to create new places for contaminated water to go.
What the fk? I mean, seriously, what the fkity fk fk? A tour-bus driver is helping throw together the response to the worst nuclear disaster in 30 years? Was the sous-chef at the local Applebee's busy that day?
Uechi and co-workers were under such pressure to build tanks quickly that they did not wait for dry conditions to apply anti-rust coating over bolts and around seams as they were supposed to; they did the work even in rain or snow. Sometimes the concrete foundation they laid for the tanks came out bumpy. Sometimes the workers saw tanks being used to store water before they were even finished.
Lovely.
It's past time for the world to step in because this problem now is riding on the wind and the tides to places far from Fukushima. Japan has had its chance to manage this disaster, and, despite the best efforts of its tour-bus operators, Japan has failed miserably. For example, there are 1,500 spent fuel rods that the company running the plant doesn't know what to do with. Lovely, again.
Tepco hopes that a smooth start to the removals will help it regain at least some of the credibility it lost in its response to the quake and tsunami that overwhelmed the plant and in the cleanup. A string of blunders by Tepco, including underestimating the potential for large amounts of groundwater to become contaminated and reach the ocean, has some experts wondering whether the company is up to the task. Even minor problems with the fuel removal could strengthen calls for the decommissioning work to be taken out of Tepco's hands. "All I can do is pray that nothing goes wrong," said Yasuro Kawai, a former plant engineer who now heads a group that is independently monitoring the decommissioning process.
Me, too. Also, Alaska.


Read more: Fukushima Radiation Arrives In Alaska - The Fukushima Crisis Comes To The States - Esquire
Follow us: @Esquiremag on Twitter | Esquire on Facebook
Visit us at Esquire.com

[Nordic]

"And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men" -- the book of Revelations




Back when I was a kid and was studying the Bible and trying to make sense out of it, I always thought that perhaps the Antichrist and/or The False Prophet would be: Technology.

It will create miracles, but ultimately destroy us, or else literally create a hell on earth.

[seemslikeadream]

"Chernobyl Was Transparent Compared to Fukushima": Harvey Wasserman on Ongoing Crisis
Tuesday, 19 November 2013 13:26
By Laura Flanders, Truthout | Q&A


An handout photo of Japan Nuclear Regulation Authority members inspecting makeshift storage tanks for water contaminated from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant damages in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, August 23, 2013. (Photo: Japan Nuclear Regulation Authority via The New York Times)

The operators of Japan's devastated Fukushima nuclear plant have announced plans to remove 400 tons of highly irradiated spent fuel from the site, in an unprecedented operation that began Monday November 18. Nuclear researcher Harvey Wasserman believes that the highly risky procedure, in fact, the entire plant needs to be taken out of the hands of the operators- Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO).
In this interview with GRITtv, Wasserman explains how the fuel rods at Reactor Number Four have been stored since the earthquake and tsunami that hit the Fukushima Daiichi Plant in March of 2011. They can't heat up, be exposed to air or break without releasing deadly gas, but the cooling pool they've been resting in is leaky and potentially corroded by seawater and could never withstand another tremor or quake. The cooling pool is also 100 feet up.
"These rods have to be brought to the ground. It's never been done under these kinds of circumstances," says Wasserman. But as a 40-year activist in the field, Wasserman is especially concerned about the operators, TEPCO.
"I believe we got better information from the Soviet Union about Chernobyl than we're getting from TEPCO and the Japanese about Fukushima," he told GRITtv.
A petition with more than 150,000 signatures was delivered to the United Nations earlier this November, calling for the world to take action. But who? As he points out, the International Atomic Energy Agency" has a mandate to promote nuclear power."
What does all of this say about the prospect of safe nuclear power and the "new generation of plants" the Obama administration endorses? And what about the Tokyo Olympics? Wasserman's answers aren't reassuring.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
Laura Flanders: We saw you there in a little clip of video [delivering your petition to the United Nations]. How long did that petition take to get together?
Harvey Wasserman: Just a matter of weeks. I put it up, and within less than a month we had 115,000 at MoveOn, 40,000 at Roots Action; the Green Shadow Cabinet pulled in a couple hundred organizations. It just flew.
LF: The exciting thing about your petition was, it got me at least, to start paying attention to what was happening at Fukushima! When I went back and looked, not at the US press but the international press, I was terrified.
HW: You should be terrified. It's a mind-boggling situation at Fukushima. This is my 40th year fighting nuclear power, I hate to say it, back when [we] coined the phrase "No Nukes" in 1973. All the years we've been dealing with nuclear power, no one ever talked about three simultaneous meltdowns and four explosions at a single reactor site.
This is not a Soviet reactor situation, these are General Electric reactors. There are two dozen in the United States virtually identical to Fukushima.
LF: What is the situation at Fukushima, and how is it affecting world waters and food?
HW: Part of the problem with the situation at Fukushima is that we don't know everything. The site is controlled by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), which is a private corporation. The infamous TEPCO, and the government of Japan is on top of that, and the government of Japan is very unforthcoming about information from the Fukushima site.
LF: Well I'm sure they've been very busy applying for the Olympic.
HW: Yes, well they won that, unfortunately. They may have to rescind that at some point in time, but the Japanese government right now has a very pro-nuclear administration, and they're causing us a lot of problems. I believe we got better information from the Soviet Union about Chernobyl than we're getting from TEPCO and the Japanese about Fukushima.
LF: The information we were getting this summer included revelations that 300 tons of toxic water leaked in one week, and then in other news, the fact that 300 tons are leaking into the Pacific daily.
HW: Every day, and this is for two and half years now, and there is no end in sight. It could go on, as Dr. Helen Caldicott said, for 50 years. We've already detected radiation from Fukushima off of the coast of Alaska. There was a study of 15 tuna caught off the coast of California; out of the 15 tuna caught, 15 had radiation from Fukushima.
LF: Radiation enough to be dangerous?
HW: Yes, you wouldn't want to eat this tuna. This is really, really serious, Laura. I look through the internet everyday; I'm getting reports from the Pacific that I can only refer to as apocalyptic: Major dead zones, radiation being detected all over the place. Radiation in even small doses, cesium, strontium, iodine, will bio-accumulate. If you get a relatively small dose into some seaweed, fish will come; they will eat enough seaweed that it will be significant; they will be eaten up the food chain; we're at the top of the food chain: this is very, very serious.
LF: When I looked into it further, it turns out this month the government of Japan is responding to this crisis of the summer saying, we're going to take action. One of the actions that they seem to be taking is this complicated-looking spent fuel replacement procedure . . .
HW: Well, this is a major crisis. We finally got an article in The New York Times that has been blacked out in American major media ["Removing Fuel Rods Poses New Risks at Crippled Nuclear Plant"] Thank God for your show and for the internet.
There is a spent fuel pool 100 feet in the air, brilliant design. John King at CNN called it a "bathtub on the roof." It has no containment over it, and when the earthquake-tsunami hit, unit 4 had the fuel out. They were doing inspections in this pool, and a lot of it is very, very radioactive, and the stuff has been suspended 100 feet in the air since the accident. It actually caught on fire at one point, and they had to pour in seawater, which is corrosive. There is debris in the pool; we don't know the status of the fuel rods; and it has to come out of there because if, God forbid, [there's] another earthquake . . . If one is strong enough to knock these fuel rods to the ground, they are clad in zirconium alloy, which will catch fire if it's exposed to air, spontaneously. Zirconium is the stuff that was in flashcubes that burn very brightly very quickly. If there is a fire of this stuff, there has been shown to be enough radioactive cesium in these rods to exceed the releases at Hiroshima by a factor of 14,000. We're talking about huge radiation leaks. So these rods have to be brought to the ground. It's never been done under these kinds of circumstances.
LF: The TEPCO company released this video, of the operation. Are you really saying that the UN could do this better and should step in and do this instead?
HW: The problem is that we are not only between a rock and a hard place, a rock has fallen on us. You have more than 1,300 fuel rods that are radioactive in there. In order to get them out properly they have to be in decent shape because you have to pull them out of an array. If they're bent, if they're warped, if they're brittle, if they're swollen, we don't know if they're going to come out, and they have to come out.
LF: My question remains: is in the UN better equipped to do this than TEPCO?
HW: Yes. Well, TEPCO is a private corporation, they're still in it for the money. Arne Gunderson, a great nuclear engineer, wrote them and said you have got to dig a trench between the mountain where the water is rushing through at the rate of 300 tons a day, and the plant, so you can divert the water. They wrote him back and said you know what? We don't have enough money. So we have to have a situation where there is unlimited funds. That's not TEPCO, that's not even the Japanese government.
LF: So who is it?
HW: It has to be the world community, this vague entity. We have to have all of the best scientists, all of the best engineers and unlimited money to deal with this. This is an apocalyptic event.
LF: You gathered 150,000 signatories on a petition asking for exactly that, but concretely, what do you want in terms of action and by whom?
HW: We have to figure out how to get the fuel rods out of Unit 4; we have to decommission units 3, 2 and 1. I never thought I would hear myself saying this, but we have to find out where the melted cores from units 1, 2 and 3 actually are - we have three missing cores.
LF: But who's the "we" here?
HW: The world community. You know the Pacific Ocean is at stake here. I know that sounds - look, we've already lost the Gulf of Mexico. So we have little training in this. The Pacific Ocean is at risk. That radiation will be in California within a year.
LF: So who?
HW: There is an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the UN. This is the problem we have, if we petition the United Nations to take action, they're going to refer us to the International Atomic Energy Agency, but the IAEA has a mandate to promote nuclear power, and this is why all of the studies by the UN and the World Health Organization don't show the correct health impacts of atomic radiation. They're not an objective source.
LF: I am getting increasingly discouraged here, Harvey.
HW: We've been dealing with this for a long time, and we knew something like this was going to happen, and this isn't even the worst case scenario. If the earthquake that hit that caused the tsunami 120 km off the coast of Japan had been 20 miles or two miles [closer], the Fukushima site could have been turned to rubble.
LF: Like we've seen in the Philippines after the typhoon?
HW: I wrote an article in 1979 mocking the proposed nuclear plant that they were going to build. They didn't build it, but it would have been right in the path of this particular typhoon.
LF: This is all taking place against the continuing discussion around climate change, and it also has to be said that there are some very high-placed scientists - some of the people who have helped alert the world to the perils of climate change - I'm thinking of James Hansen of NASA and others from around the world - who recently petitioned environmental organizations to reconsider nuclear power because wind and solar just can't meet our needs.
HW: They have not done their homework. What I call Solartopia, the mix of green energies, can in fact meet our energy needs. They just haven't looked at Germany . . . The renewables' rise in efficiency and plummeting in costs. It's all right there.
They also have not assessed the true global-warming impacts of nuclear power, which are considerable. [There's plenty of] carbon emissions in the mining and milling, enrichment and waste management process, and the cost of the reactors is out of control; they cannot get insurance; it is not a viable option. I'd like to see an assessment of the global-warming impacts of Fukushima, those four explosions, the ongoing process of dealing with the situation, and I hate to say it, but the next accident. That's what's really terrifying to me.
LF: What about the next generation of nuclear power plants? Obama tells us there are two new ones in the works that will be better, safer, smaller, a whole different generation.
HW: It's a myth. They are saying the same stuff about those nuclear plants that they said about the original ones, 50 years ago. It's not going to happen. The money isn't there; we've seen those technologies; they've failed. You know Bill Gates and Paul Allen from Microsoft put in a few 100 million dollars, pocket change to them; they will write it off of their taxes; they'll spend and spend and spend public money; it'll fail, and we'll have to clean up the mess. The reality is that renewables do work; nuclear power is a disaster, and it will continue to be a disaster, and thankfully we have the Solartopian options in hand.
LF: Do you have a message to the athletes; should they go to Tokyo?
HW: I was in Japan in the mid-70s. I actually wrote an article about Fukushima in 1977 in the progressive magazine, and everyone in Japan was saying, why are you building a nuclear plant in an earthquake-tsunami zone? TEPCO and the Japanese said, don't worry it won't happen, we can handle it. Now they are saying the same thing about a new generation of reactors. There is every reason not to believe them. We do have the options. I won't go back to Japan; I loved Japan. I would not go there. If I had relatives there, I would tell them to leave. It's only going to get worse. This is two and half years in. The situation at Fukushima is worse than it was when the accident first started. We have a serious situation, Laura.
LF: Harvey, thanks for frightening me even more.
HW: There's always a solution: I am optimistic. This is a tough one.

[seemslikeadream]

Fukushima: High-Risk TEPCO Work at Reactor 4 Has Started
Wednesday, 20 November 2013 10:57
By Gaius Publius, America Blog | Report

Fukushima.
(Photo: Toshifumi Kitamura / Pool via The New York Times)
UPDATE: The process of removing the fuel rods at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan has so far been successful. The first of the 22 rod assemblies planned for removal (which contain unspent fuel) have been removed. See this Bloomberg News article for more. Also in the same article, a description of what “criticality” would mean for Reactor 4, if the spent rods go critical.
________
It’s difficult to get consistent news out of Japan about the Fukushima nuclear plant, but it appears, after a rumored delay on Friday, work at Reactor 4 is now under way.
There are actually several short items in this post, starting with the headline. The other items relate to rods previously damaged — damage which was not previously announced by TEPCO, the risk presented by the debris in the Reactor 4 spent fuel pool, and the risk of a “criticality” or nuclear reaction (it’s not zero).
(All links via ENENEWS.com; if you have a better source for Fukushima news, please let me know in the comments.)
Work on Removing the Fuel Rods has Started
NHK World (my emphasis, paragraphing and notes throughout):
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant [TEPCO] has begun removing nuclear fuel from a storage pool at a damaged reactor building. Workers placed a special fuel transport container ["cask"] in the storage pool of the Number 4 reactor building.
The pool holds 1,533 units of nuclear fuel, of which 1,331 are highly radioactive spent fuel. The rest [202] are unused ["unspent" or "reactor-ready"].
At around 3PM on Monday, the workers started to hoist the unused ["unspent"] fuel units into the steel container ["cask"], which can store 22 units of fuel. The utility decided to remove these units first as they do not release high levels of radiation and heat. A TEPCO official said that the first fuel unit was moved into the container by 4PM, and that the workers had encountered no problems.
The first 22 units will be transferred into the container through Monday night.
There is some variance in the reports of the count of rods, so I added some numbers above. Considering the source (NHK), I will take these counts as authoritative until shown otherwise.
To see what is meant by “steel container” or “cask,” see the first video in this reference post. It shows the idealized process in a nice TEPCO-produced animation. The steel container, or cask, holding 22 units is taken to the common spent fuel pool, about 50 meters away, to be added to the more than 6,000 fuel rods already there.
Note: Fifty meters is not far — half a football field. The site has been criticized for being too compact, with reactors and the common spent fuel pool too close together. Getting the fuel rods out of Reactor 4 is a very high priority, given the condition of the building. But taking care of the common fuel pool is also important.
The article also notes that:
▪ Debris in the pool could complicate the procedure, but doesn’t say how (see below for more).
▪ The removal from Reactor 4 could take through the end of next year.
▪ The entire decommissioning process will take up to 40 years.
NHK is Japan’s public broadcasting network. There’s a video at the news site, which I can’t embed, but you can watch it there. It’s worth viewing, especially at 2:40 and following. If you do though, listen carefully. All of the calming is sourced to “officials” — fair enough — but then presented uncontested.
And in other Fuku news …
Eighty Fuel Rods in Four Reactors Were Damaged Before the 2011 Earthquake
There are up to 80 damaged fuel rods in Reactors 1 through 4, three of them in Reactor 4, where current work has started. RT.com:
Three of the spent fuel assemblies that will be pulled from the Fukushima nuclear plant during a year-long operation were damaged before the 2011 earthquake and tsunami crippled the Japanese facility.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which operates the plant, said the damaged assemblies – 4.5 meter high racks with 50 to 70 rods of highly irradiated used fuel – won’t be lifted from the plant’s Reactor No. 4 when a large steel chamber, or cask, is employed to move over 1,500 assemblies to safe storage, Reuters reports.
In an 11-page information sheet released in August, TEPCO said one of the assemblies was even damaged as long ago as 1982, when it was bent out of shape during a transfer. … The damaged racks were first reported by a Fukushima area newspaper on Wednesday, as TEPCO is preparing to decommission the plant and remove the spent fuel assemblies from Reactor No. 4.
I believe this is references that local Fukushima newspaper report. Note the additional information about damaged rods in the other three reactors. EX-SKF:
TEPCO Admits Total 80 Spent Fuel Assemblies Had Damages Before the Nuclear Accident, 70 of Them in Reactor 1 Spent Fuel Pool
Move over, three fuel assemblies with damaged/deformed fuel rods inside in the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool! You’re nothing.
According to Kahoku Shinpo, a Fukushima local paper, TEPCO admitted on November 15, 2013 that there are 70 fuel assemblies with damaged fuel rods in the Reactor 1 Spent Fuel Pool, located on the operating floor (top floor) of the reactor building whose air radiation levels are measured in millisievert/hour and sievert/hour (first floor). There are also three such fuel assemblies in the Reactor 2 SFP, and four of them in the Reactor 3 SFP.
Total 80 spent fuel assemblies in the SFPs in Reactors 1 – 4 are damaged. The damages had been there long before the March 11, 2011 accident, and TEPCO claims it properly notified the national government as they discovered the damages. But the company has come clean in public only now.
About that “debris” in Reactor 4 …
Has Debris Damaged the Rods in Reactor 4?
There’s clearly debris in the Reactor 4 spent fuel pool. How much, and what kind is the question. First, watch that video in the NHK news report at 2:40. The engineer is concerned that “there could be fragments of debris stuck between the [rod] assemblies and their holding racks.” Seems likely, given that debris comes in many sizes.
The article quoted just above says this:
In 2010, TEPCO said that another two spent fuel racks in the reactor’s cooling pool possibly contained wire trapped in them. Rods in the assemblies have small cracks and are leaking low-level radioactive gases, TEPCO spokesman Yoshikazu Nagai told Reuters on Thursday.
The AP is concerned that not only the rods (here called “assemblies”) but the handles at the top used to lift them could have been damaged during the disaster:
Q: What are the potential risks?
A: Fuel assemblies or the rods inside them may be damaged or break open if dropped or shaken violently. They may not come out of the rack smoothly. The fuel assemblies and their handles may have been damaged when big pieces of debris fell on them during explosions early in the crisis. A crane may drop a cask on the ground. Some fuel rods [meaning the zirconium alloy cladding] may be corroded because seawater was used to keep them cool during the emergency.
As a safety measure, the crane is equipped with a system that will stop pulling on the assemblies if it encounters a certain level of resistance to prevent any rods from getting damaged or broken. An underwater camera will monitor the work, and an underwater vacuum cleaner will collect small debris. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator, removed two unused fuel assemblies last year, and an examination suggests the assemblies have generally remained intact.
The rest of the AP article has good information. Do read if you’re following this story.
What’s the Risk of a Nuclear Reaction?
About that, no one knows, but it’s not zero. The WSJ:
Each 550-lb [fuel rod] assembly unit holds 60 to 74 of the metal-clad [thin] rods filled with fuel pellets that power nuclear reactors. The units are kept in a pool of cool water to prevent exposure to air, which can cause the radioactive material to heat up and could trigger a sustained nuclear reaction.
A “sustained nuclear reaction” is also called a “criticality,” though not necessarily of the atomic bomb type. There are many kinds of criticality. What happens inside a nuclear reactor is a controlled criticality, the control being the control rods that are moved into and out of the reaction to absorb more or less atomic particles released.
[Update: The shape of that criticality would be similar to the meltdowns at Reactors 1, 2 and 3, according to Bloomberg News.]
The problem with this situation, according to Arnie Gundersen, is that there are no control rods in any of the spent fuel pools anywhere on the site, including in Reactor 4:
Arnie Gunderson, a veteran US nuclear engineer and director of Fairewinds Energy Education, told Reuters that ”they are going to have difficulty in removing a significant number of the rods,” especially given their close proximity to each other, which risks breakage and the release of radiation.
Gundersen told Reuters of an incredibly dangerous “criticality” that would result if a chain reaction takes place at any point, if the rods break or even so much as collide with each other in the wrong way. The resulting radiation is too great for the cooling pool to absorb – it simply has not been designed to do so.
“The problem with a fuel pool criticality is that you can’t stop it. There are no control rods to control it,”Gundsersen said. “The spent fuel pool cooling system is designed only to remove decay heat, not heat from an ongoing nuclear reaction.”
Agence France-Presse has the same concern, as do others.
The WSJ piece above linked editorially calls the article with the Gundersen quote “hyperventilation.” Feel free to decide for yourself.
But as you do, ask first — How much billionaire money is at stake in the nuclear industry, and would the Journal be sensitive and protective of that? I do mean for you to decide for yourself; this isn’t an indictment of the Journal. But the question has to be asked. Part of the damage of Fukushima is to the billion-dollar nuclear industry in the U.S.
You may want to go back to this reference post and watch that TEPCO animation again, just to get these pictures in your head. The thin rods are called “rods,” and the square packages are sometimes also called “rods” and sometimes “assemblies.” The thin rods are clad in zirconium alloy, and it appears the assemblies are as well. I haven’t discussed zirconium in this space, but Gundersen has, in the second video here. It’s highly ignitable; it’s the stuff that flares bright in flash cubes. (See the zirconium comment above.)
And that’s what we know as of this writing. Please stay tuned.

[coffin_dodger]

Why TEPCO is Risking the Removal of Fukushima Fuel Rods. The Dangers of Uncontrolled Global Nuclear Radiation
Global Research, November 24, 2013

After repeated delays since the summer of 2011, the Tokyo Electric Power Company has launched a high-risk operation to empty the spent-fuel pool atop Reactor 4 at the Dai-ichi (No.1) Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

The urgency attached to this particular site, as compared with reactors damaged in meltdowns, arises from several factors:

- over 400 tons of nuclear material in the pool could reignite

- the fire-damaged tank is tilting badly and may topple over sooner than later

- collapse of the structure could trigger a chain reaction and nuclear blast, and

- consequent radioactive releases would heavily contaminate much of the world.

The potential for disaster at the Unit 4 SFP is probably of a higher magnitude than suspected due to the presence of fresh fuel rods, which were delivered during the technical upgrade of Reactor 4 under completion at the time of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The details of that reactor overhaul by GE and Hitachi have yet to be disclosed by TEPCO and the Economy Ministry and continue to be treated as a national-security matter. Here, the few clues from whistleblowers will be pieced together to decipher the nature of the clandestine activity at Fukushima No.1.

Accidents happen

The delicate rod-removal procedure requires the lowering of a steel cylinder, called a transfer cask, into a corner of the pool and then using the crane to lift the 300-kilogram fuel assemblies (4..5-meter-tall bundle of fuel rods held inside a metal cage) one at a time from the vertical array of rods up and then down into the cask. The container can hold 22 assemblies for transfer to a temporary cooling unit built next to Reactor 4 before these are moved to a storage building.(1)

Lifting the 1,533 fuel bundles out of the pool is fraught with danger. If an assembly breaks away and falls, the impact could shatter other rods below, triggering an uncontrolled nuclear reaction. Compounding the threat, many rods are not intact but were fragmented into loose shards by a collapsing crane. In addition, many of the rods likely lost their protective cladding during the two fires that engulfed the spent-fuel pool on March 14 and 15, 2011.

The urgency of this transfer operation is prompted by the warping of the supporting steel frame by the twin fires that followed the March 11 quake. The pool is also tilting. If the unbalanced structure topples, the collapse would trigger nuclear reactions. A cascade of neutrons could then ignite the nearby common fuel pool for Reactors 1 through 6. The common pool contains 6,735 used assemblies.(2)

The Reactor 4 spent fuel pool contains an estimated 400 tons of uranium and plutonium oxide, compared with just 6.2 kilograms of plutonium inside Fat Man, the hydrogen bomb that obliterated Nagasaki in 1945. (While predictions are bandied about by experts and bloggers, there exists no reliable method for calculating the potential sum or flow rate of radiation releases, measured in becquerel or sievert units, after an accident. The tonnage involved, however, indicates only that a large-scale event is likely and a cataclysm cannot be ruled out.)

More than 1,700 tons of nuclear materials are reported to be on site inside Fukushima No.1 plant. (My investigative visits into the exclusion zone indicate the existence of undocumented and illegal large-scale storage sites in the Fukushima nuclear complex of undetermined tonnage.) By comparison Chernobyl ’s reactors contained 180 tons of fuel not all of which melted down.

Despite the looming threat to residents in Fukushima , surrounding provinces and the capital Tokyo , the office of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe along with TEPCO hews to the tradition of risk denial and blackout of vital information. No contingency plan has been issued to Fukushima residents or to the municipalities of the Tohoku and Kanto region in event of a nuclear disaster during the SFP clearance effort. A concurrent drive to impose a draconian law against whistleblowers on grounds of national security is reinforcing the cover-up of data and testimony related to nuclear power plants, including the Fukushima complex.

Mystery of MOX super-fuel

A Mainichi Shimbun editorial mentions in passing that the Reactor 4 pool contains 202 fresh fuel assemblies.(3) The presence of new fuel rods was confirmed in the TEPCO press release, which described the first assembly lifted into the transfer cask as an “un-irradiated fuel rod.” Why were new rods being stored inside a spent-fuel pool, which is designed to hold expended rods? What threat of criticality do these fresh rods pose if the steel frame collapses or if crane operators drop one by accident onto other assemblies, as opposed to a spent rod?

Against the official silence and disinformation, a few whistleblowers have come forward with clues to answer these questions. Former GE nuclear worker Kei Sugaoka disclosed in a video interview that a joint team from Hitachi and General Electric was inside Reactor 4 at the time of the March 11, 2011 earthquake. By that fateful afternoon, the GE contractors were finishing the job of installing a new shroud, the heat-resistant metal shield lining the reactor interior.(4)

TEPCO inadvertently admitted to the presence of foreign contractors at Fukushima No.1 up until March 12, 2012, when the management ordered their evacuation in event of a massive explosion during the rapid meltdown of Reactor 2. So far, leaks indicate the presence of the GE team and of a Israeli nuclear security team with Magna BSP, a company based in Dimona.(5)

Another break came in April 2012, when a Japanese humor magazine published a brief interview of a Fukushima worker who disclosed that radioactive pieces of a broken shroud were left inside a device-storage pool at rooftop level behind the Reactor 4 spent-fuel pool.(6) This undoubtedly is the used shroud removed by the GE-H workers in February-March 2011.

A curious point here is that the previous shroud had been in use for only 15 months. Why would TEPCO and the Japanese government expend an enormous sum on a new lining when the existing one was still good for many years of service?

Obviously, the installation of a new shroud was not a mere replacement of a worn predecessor. It was an upgrade. The refit of Reactor 4 was, therefore, similar to the 2010 conversion of Reactor 3 to pluthermal or MOX fuel. The same model of GE Mark 1 reactor was being revamped to burn MOX fuel (mixed oxide of uranium and plutonium).

The un-irradiated rods inside the Unit 4 spent-fuel pool are, in all probability, made of a new type of MOX fuel containing highly enriched plutonium. If the frame collapses, triggering fire or explosion inside the spent-fuel pool, the plutonium would pulse powerful neutron bursts that may well possibly ignite distant nuclear power plants, starting with the Fukushima No.2 plant, 10 kilometers to the south.

The scenario of a serial chain reaction blasting apart nuclear plants along the Pacific Coast, is what compelled Naoto Kan, prime minister at the time of the 311 disaster, to contemplate the mass evacuation of 50 million residents (a third of the national population) from the Tohoku region and the Greater Tokyo metropolitan region to distant points southwest.(7) Evacuation would be impeded by the scale and intensity of multiple reactor explosions, which would shut down all transport systems, telecommunications and trap most residents. Tens of millions would die horribly in numbers topping all disasters of history combined.

Fires last time

The rod-transfer operation from Unit 4 is scheduled for completion by the end of 2014. That estimate is optimistic since it does not take into account the obstruction posed by fragments of shattered fuel rods that were overheated in the two fires that swept through Unit 4 spent-fuel pool on March 13 and 15, 2011, according to NHK television news.(8) Another factor for uncertainty is the impact of the explosion that rocked the roofline of the reactor building.

Basing its analysis on corporate information releases thus far, the Simply Info website states:

“TEPCO has changed their story on Unit 4 multiple times but eventually admitted to a very obvious explosion occurring at Unit 4 (on March 15). No video of Unit 4 exploding exists to date and it is assumed the explosion took place before dawn. One of TEPCO’s later admissions regarding unit 4 is that they think hydrogen leaked into unit 4 from unit 3 via the venting pipes and a faulty valve. No reason was given as to why unit 4 did not then ignite when Unit 3 exploded.”(9)

Soon after the Reactor 3 blast, an explosion occurred on the roofline of Reactor 4, blowing two 8-meter-wide holes through the outer wall. Although tattered, the spent-fuel pool survived the nearby explosion along with the device-storage pool containing the shroud. Photos of the building show holes and damage to a large section of walls and roof slabs on the northeast side of the upper structure (opposite the spent-fuel pool. Hydrogen gas, despite its high combustive energy per kilogram, lacks sufficient density to inflict such damage to reinforced concrete, as would a carbon-bonded gas like acetylene. A logical deduction then is that a cask of new fuel rods left on the roof during the GE-H refit was ignited by neutrons emitted from the SPF fire.

As for the spent-fuel pool, the first blaze broke out on March 14 and died down after several hours. On the following day, the pool reignited and had to be extinguished by firefighters. The nagging question is why the raging fires burned so long, since much of the hydrogen was dissolved in the remaining water at the bottom of the pool or would have burned off within a few seconds. While TEPCO conjectured that hydrogen gas pumped from Reactor 3 to 4, that scenario is a long stretch since most of the volatile gas would dissipated before arrival or ignited along the way.

An alternative possibility is of a tritium-plutonium reaction creating gas plasma inside the spent fuel pool. The condition of the cladding on the rods, which would have been melted by plasma, can indicate the heat source during those two fires. None dare mention are tritium-plutonium inter-reaction because that is the formula for a thermonuclear bomb, that is, the H-bomb. MOX fuel does have the potential to generate sufficient tritium for a thermonuclear, and that is what so rattled Naoto Kan by March 12, 2011.

A Puzzled Civil Engineer

In July 2012, inside the exclusion zone about 14 kilometers south of Fukushima No.1 plant, I had a discussion with a manager with a major construction contractor, whose large team was working at the damaged nuclear facilities. The civil engineer said that the Reactor 4 building was of serious concern because the structure was split, with the halves leaning onto each other. He added that the tilt indicates “structural damage” to the ferroconcrete foundation. Even a 9.0 earthquake could not cleave the strong footing, he stressed.

When asked about what then could crack the foundation, the manager responded: “I am a civil engineer, not a nuclear expert.” Nudged a bit more, he implied that a meltdown of nuclear fuel may have seared through the concrete. The intense heat can reconvert concrete into loose hydrated lime powder and sand, while cutting through rebar steel like a hot knife through butter.

The upgrade of the Reactor 4 shroud may well have involved the test-fitting of some MOX rods, which abandoned on the floor next to the reactor when the tsunami reached shore. In other words, in early March 2011 crane operators completely filled space inside the spent-fuel pool with new MOX rods and then simply left casks of assemblies on the roof and lowered more into the basement. That is the simplest explanation for the damage to the structural integrity of the reactor building. GE is not about to disclose its role in this disaster.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/why-tepco-is-risking-the-removal-of-fukushima-fuel-rods-the-dangers-of-uncontrolled-global-nuclear-radiation/5359188

[Iamwhomiam]

Thanks for keeping this thread updated. The last two articles posted by slad and c_d are the most accurate I've read about the situation inside Unit 4 and the dangers posed by its precarious condition.

In other news, the General Electric-designed reactors in Fukushima have 23 sisters in U.S.

General Electric-designed reactors in Fukushima have 23 sisters in U.S.

By Bill DedmanInvestigative Reporter, NBC News

The General Electric-designed nuclear reactors involved in the Japanese emergency are very similar to 23 reactors in use in the United States, according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission records.


GE's Mark I containment system.

The NRC database of nuclear power plants shows that 23 of the 104 nuclear plants in the U.S. are GE boiling-water reactors with GE's Mark I systems for containing radioactivity, the same containment system used by the reactors in trouble at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. The U.S. reactors are in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

In addition, 12 reactors in the U.S. have the later Mark II or Mark III containment system from GE. These 12 are in Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington state. See the full list below.

(General Electric is a parent company of msnbc.com through GE's 49 percent stake in NBCUniversal. NBCUniversal and Microsoft are equal partners in msnbc.com.)

Msnbc.com sent questions Saturday to GE, asking whether the Japanese reactors differed from those of the same general design used in the U.S.

A GE spokesman, Michael Tetuan, referred all questions to the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade and lobbying group. Tetuan said GE nuclear staff members in Wilmington, N.C., are focused on assisting GE employees in Japan and standing by to help the Japanese authorities if asked to help. The NEI on Sunday confirmed that the figure of 23 is correct.

Updates:

* On Monday, GE Hitachi Nuclear sent the following statement, in full: "The BWR Mark 1 reactor is the industry’s workhorse with a proven track record of safety and reliability for more than 40 years. Today, there are 32 BWR Mark 1 reactors operating as designed worldwide. There has never been a breach of a Mark 1 containment system."
* On Friday, GE posted rebuttals to the most common criticisms of the Mark I containment system.

The six reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, which had explosions on Saturday and Monday, are all GE-designed boiling-water reactors, known in the industry as BWRs. Five have containment systems of GE's Mark I design, and the sixth is of the Mark II type. They were placed in operation between 1971 and 1979.

A fact sheet from the anti-nuclear advocacy group Nuclear Information and Resource Service contends that the Mark I design has design problems, and that in 1972 an Atomic Energy Commission member, Dr. Stephen Hanuaer, recommended that this type of system be discontinued.

"Some modifications have been made to U.S. Mark I reactors since 1986, although the fundamental design deficiencies remain," NIRS said. The group has a commentary online describing what it says are hazards of boiling-water reactors: human invervention needed to vent radioactive steam in the case of a core meltdown, and problems with aging.

Since the earthquake struck Japan on Friday, the early statements by the industry's Nuclear Industry Institute have emphasized that only six plants in the U.S. have precisely the same generation of reactor design (GE boiling-water reactor model 3) as the first reactor to have trouble in Fukushima Daiichi. Problems then developed at different reactors of GE model 4.

But aside from the generation of reactor design, the following 23 U.S. plants have GE boiling-water reactors (GE models 2, 3 or 4) with the same Mark I containment design used at Fukushima, according to the NRC's online database:

• Browns Ferry 1, Athens, Alabama, operating license since 1973, reactor type GE 4.

• Browns Ferry 2, Athens, Alabama, 1974, GE 4.

• Browns Ferry 3, Athens, Alabama, 1976, GE 4.

• Brunswick 1, Southport, North Carolina, 1976, GE 4.

• Brunswick 2, Southport, North Carolina, 1974, GE 4.

• Cooper, Brownville, Nebraska, 1974, GE 4.

• Dresden 2, Morris, Illinois, 1970, GE 3.

• Dresden 3, Morris, Illinois, 1971, GE 3.

• Duane Arnold, Palo, Iowa, 1974, GE 4.

• Fermi 2, Monroe, Michigan, 1985, GE 4.

• FitzPatrick, Scriba, New York, 1974, GE 4.

• Hatch 1, Baxley, Georgia, 1974, GE 4.

• Hatch 2, Baxley, Georgia, 1978, GE 4.

• Hope Creek, Hancock's Bridge, New Jersey, 1986, GE 4.

• Monticello, Monticello, Minnesota, 1970, GE 3.

• Nine Mile Point 1, Scriba, New York, 1969, GE 2.

• Oyster Creek, Forked River, New Jersey, 1969, GE 2.

• Peach Bottom 2, Delta, Pennsylvania, 1973, GE 4.

• Peach Bottom 3, Delta, Pennsylvania, 1974, GE 4.

• Pilgrim, Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1972, GE 3.

• Quad Cities 1, Cordova, Illinois, 1972, GE 3.

• Quad Cities 2, Moline, Illinois, 1972, GE 3.

• Vermont Yankee, Vernon, Vermont, 1972, GE 4.

And these 12 newer GE boiling-water reactors have a Mark II or Mark III design:

• Clinton, Clinton, Illinois, 1987, GE 6, Mark III.

• Columbia Generating Station, Richland, Washington, 1984, GE 5, Mark II.

• Grand Gulf, Port Gibson, Mississippi, 1984, GE 6, Mark III.

• LaSalle 1, Marseilles, Illinois, 1982, GE 5, Mark II.

• LaSalle 2, Marseilles, Illinois, 1983, GE 5, Mark II.

• Limerick 1, Limerick, Pennsylvania, 1985, GE 4, Mark II.

• Limerick 2, Limerick, Pennsylvania, 1989, GE 4, Mark II.

• Nine Mile Point 2, Scriba, New York, 1987, GE 5, Mark II.

• Perry, Perry, Ohio, 1986, GE 6, Mark III.

• River Bend, St. Francisville, Louisiana, 1985, GE 6, Mark III.

• Susquehanna 1, Salem Township, Pennsylvania, 1982, GE 4, Mark II.

• Susquehanna 2, Salem Township, Pennsylvania, 1984, GE 4, Mark II.

Other resources:

Details on each U.S. reactor are in the NRC list.

The NRC has an explainer on boiling-water reactors and the various GE containment designs.

Here's an earthquake hazard map of the lower 48 United States from the U.S. Geological Survey showing the areas with the greatest risks. More detailed state-by-state maps from the USGS are here.

Scientific American looks at the technical situation facing the engineers in Japan. And The Wall Street Journal describes how this emergency calls into question the redundancies that nuclear plant designers rely on.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Tokyo Electric tested the Fukushima plant to withstand an earthquake less severe than the one that struck last week:

Separately, company documents show that Tokyo Electric tested the Fukushima plant to withstand a maximum seismic jolt lower than Friday's 8.9 earthquake. Tepco's last safety test of nuclear power plant Number 1—one that is currently in danger of meltdown—was done at a seismic magnitude the company considered the highest possible, but in fact turned out to be lower than Friday's quake. The information comes from the company's "Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 Updated Safety Measures" documents written in Japanese in 2010 and 2009. The documents were reviewed by Dow Jones.

The company said in the documents that 7.9 was the highest magnitude for which they tested the safety for their No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear power plants in Fukushima.

Simultaneous seismic activity along the three tectonic plates in the sea east of the plants—the epicenter of Friday's quake—wouldn't surpass 7.9, according to the company's presentation.

The company based its models partly on previous seismic activity in the area, including a 7.0 earthquake in May 1938 and two simultaneous earthquakes of 7.3 and 7.5 on November 5 of the same year.

[Nordic]

Anybody know about this site? Is it for real?

http://www.netc.com/

If it is, things aren't looking so great for the west coast of the US where I live.

And it's raining today. What exactly is raining down on us?


On edit: nevermind, the site seems to be pretty bogus. Even at the reddit/conspiracy site it's being universally slammed