Nuclear Meltdown Watch

[Nordic]

This seems to show that the map I posted above is very likely a hoax.

http://www.blogotariat.com/node/211958

[Project Willow]

NBC news: "Difficulty injecting coolant into all unit 3 reactor s at Fukushima one."

#bbc
0202: More on the higher radioactivity level at the nuclear plant. The Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) has informed the government of an "emergency situation" but this does not mean an immediate threat to human health, the company adds. A similar rise in radiation levels occurred after the company released radioactive steam from another reactor to let go of pressure. On that occasion too, the company was obliged to inform the government of an "emergency situation".

edited to change possible mishearing and add:

0232: The plant operator says the top of the fuel rods is 3 metres above water - AFP, quoting Kyodo.

0228: Just a reminder: cooling systems failed at the No 3 reactor hours after the explosion at the No 1 reactor.

[JackRiddler]

.

This should teach you not to fall for things (me, too: I fall for things). If you see a claim that one nuclear reactor meltdown is going to kill everyone on the West Coast in two weeks, it's easy nowadays to look up whether there's any plausibility to the scenario.

http://www.blogotariat.com/node/211958

Millions Of Americans Will Not Be Killed By Nuclear Fallout In Two Weeks...

The Orstrahyun - March 13, 2011 - 4:01am

Millions Of Americans Will Not Be Killed By Nuclear Fallout In Two Weeks, It's Just A Fake Map


By Darryl Mason


Australian Radiation Services finds itself inadvertently caught up in a fast spreading online hoax, following the unnerving explosion at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, after yesterday's 8.9 earthquake and 10 metre tsunami.


This is the hoax :

[that map, you know it]


The authorative looking logo was stolen from here :




The Nuclear Fallout Map is fake simply because Australian Radiation Services don't issue such maps. It was likely chosen before ARS offices are closed until Monday, as they are most weekends.


This unsourced and likely dodgy chart (nausia?) is being heavily circulated, on social networking sites, forums and email, along with the fake Nuclear Fallout Map :

0-50 rads - No obvious short-term effects

80-120 rads - You have a 10% chance of vomiting and experiencing nausia for a few days

130 -170 rads - You have a 25% chance of vomiting and contracting other symptoms

180-220 rads - You have a 50% chance of vomiting and having other severe physical effects

270-330 rads - 20% chance of death in 6 weeks, or you will recover in a few months.

400-500 rads - 50% chance of death

550-750 rads - Nausia within a few hours ; no survivors

[JR SAYS: "Nausia" should have done it for anyone who can spell.]

The fake map shows a huge nuclear fallout cloud of 750 rads engulfing millions of Americans by March 22. So, if you were a West Coast living American, the fake map and the above numbers might lead you to believe you and all your family and neighbours will be dying within 6 to 10 days.

But there are some interesting things happening on social networking sites and public online forums about that map.

First off, there are thousands of people on Twitter and Facebook shouting down claims this Nuclear Fallout Map is the real deal and pointing out exposure to 750 rads will not "cause nausia within a few hours; no survivors".

Also, discussion pages, linked in Google search to 'Nuclear Fallout Map, claiming the map is very, very real and The Truth Is Being Suppressed By The Media are disappearing or turning up blank. Google also appears to be jigging their search results so searches for the map will expose users to sites pointing out its utter fakeness.

But at the same time, at least a few dozen Twitter spam accounts (fake accounts pumping exact same tweet & link) are busily flogging the Nuclear Fallout Map, also claiming it's very, very real, and the truth is being suppressed, presumably aiming to spread panic in the United States. Most of these fake accounts only became active shortly after the fake Nuclear Fallout Map started circulating online.

It would seem that someone more powerful than a fukwit photoshopping hoaxer and his friends want the Nuclear Fallout Map to be viewed as a horrifying reality.

Goes on from there to making silly jokes about Al Gore (not a nuclear opponent, afaik).

But yeah, someone's making an effort but a busy lone asshole with good skills (or persona management!) might be able to do it.

Now here's something that's horrifying enough, and we're looking potentially at something several times worse:

[Jeff]

SATURDAY Mar 12, 2011 22:22 ET
Japan says partial meltdown likely at 2nd reactor
By Associated Press

Japan's top government spokesman says a partial meltdown is likely under way at second reactor affected by Friday's massive earthquake.

http://www.salon.com/wires/allwires/201 ... arthquake/

[seemslikeadream]

I kinda knew this when I started this thread

Japan: Fukushima operator built nuclear plants to withstand only up to 7.9

Documents from Tokyo Electric, the operator of the Japanese nuclear plants in crisis after Friday's devastating quake and tsunami, reveal that the company tested the Fukushima plant to withstand a quake up to magnitude 7.9. That threshold is well below the force of Friday's quake, recently upgraded to 9.0.

Snip from Wall Street Journal:

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.
Thousands of evacuees from areas around Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant were scanned for radiation exposure, though the Japanese government insists radiation levels are low. Video courtesy of Reuters

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.

things are looking a bit different now

Partial meltdown likely underway at reactor: Japanese official

Japan nuclear threat 'far worse' than Three Mile Island

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - Mike Wereschagin - ‎5 minutes ago‎
Workers at a nuclear power plant in northern Japan battered by twin catastrophes appear to have given up on saving one reactor, as their efforts seemed to shift to preventing a nuclear meltdown, one US expert said. ...

Japan nuclear blast could be more deadly than Chernobyl, experts fear Ha'aretz

Nuclear reactors at the Fukushima I and II plants lost their cooling functions after power and backup generators were cut off by a magnitude-8.9 earthquake on Friday, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said.

Engineers were in the process on Sunday of releasing another dose of radioactive steam from a second reactor into the atmosphere, Edano said.

The technicians were working to prevent a meltdown of the reactor. According to Japanese news reports, the cooling water in the reactor has decreased so much that up to three metres of the fuel rods were exposed.

Fresh water has been injected into the cooling system of the number 3 reactor, Edano said. Radiation levels at that reactor were 'very small and under control', he said.

TEPCO notified Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency early Sunday that reactor number 3 had lost its cooling functions, making it the sixth reactor to do so since the quake hit.

On Saturday, an explosion destroyed part of the containment structure around reactor number 1 at the plant. TEPCO said the explosion was caused by water vapour. Technicians had begun to use seawater and boron to reduce pressure, releasing a cloud of steam containing radioactive elements such as caesium-137.

TEPCO said earlier Sunday on its website that the government had instructed it to reduce the pressure in the containment vessels of both reactors number 2 and 3 at the Fukushima I plant.

Some 200,000 people have been evacuated from a 20-km safety zone around the two plants, located 240 km north of Tokyo.

At least 19 people have been exposed to radiation, Kyodo said.

[alwyn]

prayer, at its finest, is the intelligent direction of quantum energy. May I suggest that this would be a good time to devote some quantuum observation to effect the observed...'SEE' containment, and the nuclear engineers effecting timely solutions.

[seemslikeadream]

Japan nuclear plant faces new threat
....
Japan is struggling to contain a growing crisis at two nuclear power plants damaged in Friday's huge earthquake and tsunami, as officials revealed that the emergency cooling system at another reactor had failed, raising fears of a serious accident.
....

Tepco said radioation levels at the plant had exceeded the legal limit on Sunday morning. Hourly radiation at the site was measured at 882 micro sievert, in excess of the allowable level of 500, Japan's nuclear safety agency said. The government's chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, said the level had briefly risen 1,204 micro sievert.

.....

As authorities released steam to relieve pressure from the second overheating reactor, efforts were under way to evacuate 210,000 people living within 20 kilometres of the two plants.

.....

The complete failure of more cooling systems has added an additional level of danger to what was already one of the worst nuclear accidents in Japan's history. The government has classed the accident as level four on an international scale of zero to seven.
....

Nineteen people were found to have been exposed to radioactivity on Sunday; three more were exposed when the roof of a building housing the No. 1 reactor exploded the previous day.

Tepco said the No. 1 reactor had partially melted – the first time this has happened in Japan – and was continuing effort to cool the reactor with seawater, a procedure a British nuclear expert described as "an act of desperation".

The company notified the government on Sunday morning that the No. 3 reactor had lost the ability to cool the reactor core, and that radiactive steam was being released. Kyodo News quoted Tepco as saying that the up to three metres of MOX fuel rods were exposed above water at the Fukushima plant.

Shaun Burnie, an independent nuclear energy consultant and forner head of nuclear campaigns at Greenpeace, said the presence of a percentage of fuel core loaded with plutonium MOX fuel in the No. 3 reactor posed a grave threat to the surrounding area.

"Plutonium MOX fuel increases the risk of nuclear accident due the neutronic effects of plutonium on the reactor," Burnie told the Guardian. "In the event of an accident - in particular loss of coolant - the reactor core is more difficult to control due to both neutronics and higher risk of fuel cladding failure.

"In the event of the fuel melting and the release of plutonium fuel into the environment, the health hazards are greater, including higher levels of latent cancer."

The MOX fuel was delivered in 1999 and was loaded into the reactor by Tepco only last year after sitting in Fukushima storage ponds amid opposition and delays from the prefecture's governor, Burnie said.

The No. 3 reactor is the sixth facing risks because of loss of cooling water since Friday's devastating quake and tsunami.

Tepco last night filled the No. 1 reactor with seawater and boric acid to prevent criticality - or an uncontrolled nuclear reaction – hours after an explosion blew away the roof and walls of a building housing the rector.

The blast is thought to have occurred when hydrogen being released from the reactor mixed with oxygen either in the air or in cooling water.

[JackRiddler]

prayer, at its finest, is the intelligent direction of quantum energy. May I suggest that this would be a good time to devote some quantuum observation to effect the observed...'SEE' containment, and the nuclear engineers effecting timely solutions.

Some will be surprised to see me agreeing. If you're posting or reading here, you're definitely useless to Japan, so you may as well pray, and then pray it works.

.

[Ben D]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-03/13/c_13775509.htm

6th reactor at Fukushima Nuke plant loses cooling functions: TEPOC

English.news.cn

TOKYO, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A sixth reactor at the Fukushima nuclear power plants has lost its ability to cool the reactor core since the massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami struck Japan Friday, said Tokyo Electric Power Co.(TEPOC), operator and owner of the plants, early on Sunday.

The No. 3 reactor at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant lost the function after No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at the No. 1 plant and No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 at the No. 2 plant had suffered the same trouble.

At an emergency press conference early Sunday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that the reactor is releasing radioactive steam after the malfunction occurred.

An explosion occurred at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant Saturday, destroying the roof and the walls of the building of the No. 1 reactor's outer container.

[Nordic]

.

This should teach you not to fall for things (me, too: I fall for things). If you see a claim that one nuclear reactor meltdown is going to kill everyone on the West Coast in two weeks, it's easy nowadays to look up whether there's any plausibility to the scenario.

I didn't "fall for it". I just found it, and was sharing it. In fact, I was just looking at the direction of the plume, I actually didn't even notice that it was claiming to kill everybody on the West Coast in two weeks. Actually had I noticed that, I would have had the old red flag go up.

I don't present things here when I'm certain, or convinced, by them. I share stuff here that I find, often as I find it. You know, throwing it out there for other people to refute, comment on, whatever.

I don't pretend to be a journalist.

[Nordic]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/12/c ... lear-leak/

California ‘closely monitoring’ Japan nuclear leak

LOS ANGELES — California is closely monitoring efforts to contain leaks from a quake-damaged Japanese nuclear plant, a spokesman said Saturday, as experts said radiation could be blown out across the Pacific.

While officials downplayed any immediate danger, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission deployed two experts to Japan, where the Fukushima plant, which was rocked by a large explosion earlier in the day in the aftermath of Japan's strongest-ever earthquake.

"At present there is no danger to California. However we are monitoring the situation closely in conjunction with our federal partners," Michael Sicilia, spokesman for California Department of Public Health, told AFP.

"California does have radioactivity monitoring systems in place for air, water and the food supply and can enhance that monitoring if a danger exists," he added.

He was speaking as Japanese authorities moved to calm fears of a meltdown and said a huge explosion Saturday had not ruptured the container surrounding the reactor, although there had already been some radiation leakage prior to the explosion.

Experts have suggested that, if there were a reactor meltdown or major leak at Fukushima, the radioactive cloud would likely be blown out east across the Pacific, towards the US West Coast.

"The wind direction for the time being seems to point the (nuclear) pollution towards the Pacific," said Andre-Claude Lacoste of the French Nuclear Safety Authority, briefing journalists in Paris on the Japanese crisis.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission meanwhile said it has sent two experts to Japan, and has been in regular contact with Japanese officials about the crisis.

"We have some of the most expert people in this field in the world working for the NRC and we stand ready to assist in any way possible," commission chairman Gregory Jaczko said in a statement announcing the deployment.

He said the pair were experts in boiling water nuclear reactors and are part of a broader US aid team sent to the disaster zone.

Earlier the NRC said it was "examining all available information as part of the effort to analyze the event and understand its implications both for Japan and the United States."

While US nuclear experts acknowledged the seriousness of Japan's reactor crisis, some stressed that taking steps in the United States such as distributing iodine tablets -- which prevent iodine 131 from being absorbed into the body -- would be "vastly premature."

"It's a big ocean. These (radiation) releases are essentially going to be at ground level," said Ken Bergeron, a physicist who has worked on nuclear reactor accident simulation.

"We should not confuse it with health issues in the United States."

Japan is roughly 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) from the US West Coast.

[crikkett]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/12/california-closely-monitoring-japan-nuclear-leak/

California ‘closely monitoring’ Japan nuclear leak

"At present there is no danger to California. However we are monitoring the situation closely in conjunction with our federal partners," Michael Sicilia, spokesman for California Department of Public Health, told AFP.

That's right, trust The System...

"California does have radioactivity monitoring systems in place for air, water and the food supply and can enhance that monitoring if a danger exists," he added.

...when California can't even test its beef for Mad Cow.

[23]

"There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots. What is it? Distrust." - Demosthenes,

[norton ash]

From Dreams, Akira Kurosawa, 1990.

[Jeff]

The six atomic reactors. They're exploding one after another.

Thanks, norton.