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by 23 » Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:57 am
TOKYO — Japan’s earthquake-hit nuclear complex is still emitting radiation but the source is unclear, a senior UN atomic agency official said, as workers faced another day of struggle on Wednesday to cool damaged reactor cores.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also raised concerns about a lack of information from Japanese authorities, as rising temperatures around the core of one reactor threatened to delay work.
“We continue to see radiation coming from the site ... and the question is where exactly is that coming from?” James Lyons, a senior official of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told a news conference in Vienna on Tuesday.
Despite hopes of progress in the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a quarter of a century, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami that left at least 21,000 people dead or missing, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it needed more time before it could say the reactors were stabilised.
Senior IAEA official Graham Andrew said that the overall situation remained “very serious” and that the U.N. atomic watchdog was concerned it had not received some information from Japan about the Fukushima nuclear plant.
“We have not received validated information for some time related to the containment integrity of unit 1. So we are concerned that we do not know its exact status,” he said.
The IAEA also lacks data on the temperatures of the spent fuel pools of reactors 1, 3 and 4, he said, though Japan was supplying other updates.
Technicians working inside an evacuation zone around the plant on Japan’s northeast Pacific coast, 250 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, have attached power cables to all six reactors and started a pump at one to cool overheating nuclear fuel rods.
Local media reported late on Tuesday that lighting had been restored at one of the control rooms, bringing the operators a step closer to reviving the plant’s cooling systems.
Earlier smoke and steam were seen rising from two of the most threatening reactors, No.2 and No.3, stoking new fears of radiation. Officials later said smoke at reactor No.3 had stopped and there was only a small amount at No.2.
There have been several blasts of steam from the reactors during the crisis, which experts say probably released a small amount of radioactive particles.
Concern has also grown over the core of reactor No. 1 after its temperature rose to 380-390 Celsius (715-735 Fahrenheit), TEPCO executive vice president Sakae Muto said. The reactor was built to run at a temperature of 302 C (575 F).
Reuters earlier reported that the Fukushima plant was storing more uranium than it was originally designed to hold, and that it had repeatedly missed mandatory safety checks over the past decade, according to company documents and outside experts.
Questions have also been raised about whether TEPCO officials waited too long to pump sea water into the reactors and abandon hope of saving the equipment in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami.
RADIATION FEARS
Away from the plant, mounting evidence of radiation in vegetables, water and milk stirred concerns in Japan and abroad despite officials’ assurances that the levels were not dangerous.
Kyodo news agency said on Wednesday broccoli and a leafy vegetable called Japanese mustard spinach from Fukushima were detected with radioactive contamination above safety limits.
TEPCO said radiation was found in the Pacific Ocean nearby , not surprising given rain and the hosing of reactors with sea-water. TEPCO officials have said some of the water from the hosing was spilling into the sea.
Radioactive iodine in the sea samples was 126.7 times the allowed limit, while caesium was 24.8 times over, the Kyodo news agency said. That still posed no immediate danger, TEPCO said.
“It would have to be drunk for a whole year in order to accumulate to 1 millisievert,” a TEPCO official said, referring to the standard radiation measurement unit.
People are generally exposed to 1-10 millisieverts a year from background radiation caused by substances in the air and soil.
The Health Ministry said residents of five municipalities in Fukushima should not use tap water for baby powder milk after the water was found to have more than the standard level of radioactive iodine allowed for babies. Authorities have also stopped shipments of milk and some vegetables from the area.
Despite the warnings, experts say readings are much lower than around Chernobyl after the 1986 accident in Ukraine.
Japan’s neighbours including China, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand, are monitoring Japanese food imports. Australia’s food regulator said the risk was negligible and no extra restrictions on Japanese food were in place.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday he was concerned about radioactive fallout affecting the 55,000 troops in and around Japan, many involved in a massive relief operation for Washington’s close ally.
“We’re watching it very carefully. We’re very concerned about the health of our men and women in uniform,” he said.
“But we’re also deeply concerned about the well being of our Japanese allies,” Gates told reporters in Moscow. He gave no indication the Pentagon was rethinking its massive aid effort.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the Japanese embassy in Washington on Tuesday and vowed “We will be with Japan and the people of Japan as you recover and rebuild, and we will stand with you in the months and years ahead.”
Miniscule numbers of radioactive particles believed to have come from the crippled nuclear power plant have been detected as far away as Iceland, diplomatic sources said.
They stressed the tiny traces, measured by a network of international monitoring stations as they spread eastwards from Japan across the Pacific, North America, the Atlantic and to Europe, were far too low to cause any harm to humans.
“It’s only a matter of days before it disperses in the entire northern hemisphere,” Andreas Stohl, a senior scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, said. “Over Europe there would be no concern about human health.”
Nevertheless, Italy’s Industry Minister Paolo Romani said on Tuesday the government will announce a one-year moratorium on site selection and building of nuclear power plants.
MORATORIUM
A poll of 814 Americans conducted last week by ORC International for the Civil Society Institute think tank and released on Tuesday found 53% would support a moratorium on new nuclear reactor construction if the country was able to meet its energy demand through increased efficiency and renewable sources such as wind and solar.
The prospects of a nuclear meltdown in the world’s third-biggest economy — and its key position in global supply chains, especially for the automobile and technology sectors — rattled investors worldwide last week and prompted rare joint currency intervention by the G7 group of rich nations.
Damage from the earthquake and tsunami is estimated at $250 billion, making it the world’s costliest natural disaster.
The official death toll exceeded 9,000, but with 12,654 people reported missing, it is certain to rise. Police say more than 15,000 people probably died in Miyagi prefecture, one of four that took the brunt of the tsunami.
The quake and tsunami obliterated towns and left more than 350,000 people homeless.
by Ben D » Thu Mar 24, 2011 3:42 am
Two workers at Japan plant taken to hospital
AFP – 19 mins ago
OSAKA (AFP) – Three workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant's reactor number three were exposed to high radiation, Japan's nuclear safety agency said Thursday.
Two of the workers were hospitalised "after being exposed to radiation ranging from 170 to 180 milli-sieverts, " NISA spokesman Hideyuki Nishiyama said.
They were working in a building where the turbine is located.
An exposure of 100 milli-sieverts per year is considered the lowest level at which any increase in cancer risk is evident.
by 82_28 » Thu Mar 24, 2011 6:05 am
by vanlose kid » Thu Mar 24, 2011 7:00 am
The "Fukushima Fifty"
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/23/2011 16:48 -0400
Whatever one thinks about the near-criminal strategy taking place behind the scenes as to how Japan is handling the bailout, one thing is certain: the 50 Tepco workers who are currently laboring at Fukushima, doing all they can to restore the plant back to life, even at the cost of their own lives, are doing a tremendous service to their fellow citizens (futile or otherwise), and deserve to be called heroes. The Mail has compiled what little information is available about these impromptu martyrs, of whom five are believed to have already died and 15 are injured while others have said they know the radiation will kill them, in a piece that everyone should read, especially those who are wondering just who it is that is doing everything in their power to offset Hitachi's criminal conduct in the construction of the power plant as disclosed earlier. "The darkness is broken only by the flashing torchlight of the heroes who stayed behind. These first images of inside the stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant reveal the terrifying conditions under which the brave men work to save their nation from full nuclear meltdown. The Fukushima Fifty - an anonymous band of lower and mid-level managers - have battled around the clock to cool overheating reactors and spent fuel rods since the disaster on March 11."
Conundrum: Two of the Fukushima Fifty pour over plans as they try to work out how to fix the stricken plant
More from the Mail:
Despite sweltering heat from the damaged reactors, they must work in protective bodysuits to protect their skin from the poisonous radioactive particles that fill the air around them.
But as more radiation seeps into the atmosphere minute by minute, they know this job will be their last.
Five are believed to have already died and 15 are injured while others have said they know the radiation will kill them.
The original 50 brave souls were later joined by 150 colleagues and rotated in teams to limit their exposure to the radiation spewing from over-heating spent fuel rods after a series of explosions at the site. They were today joined by scores more workers.
Japan has rallied behind the workers with relatives telling of heart-breaking messages sent at the height of the crisis.
A woman said her husband continued to work while fully aware he was being bombarded with radiation. In a heartbreaking email, he told his wife: 'Please continue to live well, I cannot be home for a while.'
One girl tweeted in a message translated by ABC: 'My dad went to the nuclear plant, I've never seen my mother cry so hard. People at the plant are struggling, sacrificing themselves to protect you. Please dad come back alive.'
But it is becoming even more pressing that the Fukushima succeed after it was revealed today that Tokyo's tap water has been contaminated by unusual levels of radiation.
While only praise can be showered on these 50 or so volunteers for the true greater good, the biggest punishment possible should be doled out for those who knowingly let this catastrophe occur, if indeed corners were cut in the design of the NPP, and also for those who continue to lie to the population in an attempt to prevent a panic (yes, we have all heard the Mutual Assured Destruction lies of a government that does "what is best for everyone") while simply allowing an ever greater number of people to succumb to radiation poisoning or worse.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/fukushima-fifty
by seemslikeadream » Thu Mar 24, 2011 9:26 am
Neutron beam observed 13 times at crippled Fukushima nuke plant
TOKYO, March 23, Kyodo
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it has observed a neutron beam, a kind of radioactive ray, 13 times on the premises of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after it was crippled by the massive March 11 quake-tsunami disaster.
TEPCO, the operator of the nuclear plant, said the neutron beam measured about 1.5 kilometers southwest of the plant's No. 1 and 2 reactors over three days from March 13 and is equivalent to 0.01 to 0.02 microsieverts per hour and that this is not a dangerous level.
The utility firm said it will measure uranium and plutonium, which could emit a neutron beam, as well.
In the 1999 criticality accident at a nuclear fuel processing plant run by JCO Co. in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, uranium broke apart continually in nuclear fission, causing a massive amount of neutron beams.
In the latest case at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, such a criticality accident has yet to happen.
But the measured neutron beam may be evidence that uranium and plutonium leaked from the plant's nuclear reactors and spent nuclear fuels have discharged a small amount of neutron beams through nuclear fission.
by eyeno » Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:42 am
The activity released during venting operations of reactor containment for radionuclides released most rapidly at a significant degradation of fuels (rare gases, iodine, cesium, tellurium ...). For purposes of simplification at this stage, only the radionuclides were considered with a majority contribution to the radiological consequences retaining proportions usually encountered in spent fuel and the activity is evaluated as follows (heart composed of 400 fuel assemblies the reactor 1 and 548 for each of the reactors 2 and 3):
Unlike the other five reactor units, reactor 3 runs on mixed uranium and plutonium oxide, or MOX fuel, making it potentially more dangerous in an incident due to the neutronic effects of plutonium on the reactor, the very long half-life of plutonium's radioactivity, and the carcinogenic effects[149] in the event of release to the environment.[100][150][151] Units 3 and 4 have a shared control room.[152]
Each "fuel assembly," roughly 15 feet long, is a unit containing 82 fuel rods full of the reactor's fuel: uranium oxide pellets. During periodic refueling shutdowns, workers typically replace 20 to 30 percent of the fuel assemblies.
Hydrogen is generated in a nuclear reactor if the fuel in the reactor loses its cover of cooling water. The tubes that contain the fuel pellets are made of a zirconium alloy. Zirconium reacts with steam to produce zirconium oxide and hydrogen gas. Moreover, the reaction is exothermic – that is, it releases a great deal of heat, and hence creates a positive feedback that aggravates the problem and raises the temperature. The same phenomenon can occur in a spent fuel pool in case of a loss of cooling water
Michio Kaku, a nuclear physics professor at City University of New York, warns that a rocket malfunction within the Earth’s atmosphere could cause the “most toxic chemical known to science” to “shower down with a tremendous tragedy for the people of the Earth.” Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, notes that plutonium “is so toxic that less than one-millionth of a gram, an invisible particle, is a carcinogenic dose.
That’s because “fine particles less than a micron in diameter” of the plutonium “could be transported beyond 62 miles and become well mixed in the troposphere, and have been assumed to potentially affect persons living within a latitude band from approximately 20-degrees North to 30-degrees North,” says NASA.
by eyeno » Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:16 am
Meltdowns Grow More Likely at the Fukushima Reactors
Submitted by anonymous on March 13, 2011 - 4:26pm
by Robert Alvarez
Japan's government and nuclear industry, with assistance from the U.S. military, is in a desperate race to stave off multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns — as well as potential fires in pools of spent fuel.
As of Sunday afternoon, more than 170,000 people have been evacuated near the reactor sites as radioactive releases have increased. The number of military emergency responders has jumped from 51,000 to 100,000. Officials now report a partial meltdown at Fukushima's Unit 1. Japanese media outlets are reporting that there may be a second one underway at Unit 3. People living nearby have been exposed to unknown levels of radiation, with some requiring medical attention.
Meanwhile, Unit 2 of the Tokai nuclear complex, which is near Kyodo and just 75 miles north of Tokyo, is reported to have a coolant pump failure. And Japan's nuclear safety agency has declared a state of emergency at the Onagawa nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan because of high radiation levels. Authorities are saying its three reactors are "under control."
The damage from the massive earthquake and the tsunamis that followed have profoundly damaged the reactor sites' infrastructure, leaving them without power and their electrical and piping systems destroyed. A hydrogen explosion yesterday at Unit 1 severely damaged the reactor building, blowing apart its roof.
The results of desperate efforts to divert seawater into the Unit 1 reactor are uncertain. A Japanese official reported that gauges don't appear to show the water level rising in the reactor vessel.
There remain a number of major uncertainties about the situation's stability and many questions about what might happen next. Along with the struggle to cool the reactors is the potential danger from an inability to cool Fukushima's spent nuclear fuel pools. They contain very large concentrations of radioactivity, can catch fire, and are in much more vulnerable buildings. The ponds, typically rectangular basins about 40 feet deep, are made of reinforced concrete walls four to five feet thick lined with stainless steel.
The boiling-water reactors at Fukushima — 40 years old and designed by General Electric — have spent fuel pools several stories above ground adjacent to the top of the reactor. The hydrogen explosion may have blown off the roof covering the pool, as it's not under containment. The pool requires water circulation to remove decay heat. If this doesn't happen, the water will evaporate and possibly boil off. If a pool wall or support is compromised, then drainage is a concern. Once the water drops to around 5-6 feet above the assemblies, dose rates could be life-threatening near the reactor building. If significant drainage occurs, after several hours the zirconium cladding around the irradiated uranium could ignite.
Then all bets are off.
On average, spent fuel ponds hold five-to-ten times more long-lived radioactivity than a reactor core. Particularly worrisome is the large amount of cesium-137 in fuel ponds, which contain anywhere from 20 to 50 million curies of this dangerous radioactive isotope. With a half-life of 30 years, cesium-137 gives off highly penetrating radiation and is absorbed in the food chain as if it were potassium.
In comparison, the 1986 Chernobyl accident released about 40 percent of the reactor core’s 6 million curies. A 1997 report for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by Brookhaven National Laboratory also found that a severe pool fire could render about 188 square miles uninhabitable, cause as many as 28,000 cancer fatalities, and cost $59 billion in damage. A single spent fuel pond holds more cesium-137 than was deposited by all atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in the Northern Hemisphere combined. Earthquakes and acts of malice are considered to be the primary events that can cause a major loss of pool water.
In 2003, my colleagues and I published a study that indicated if a spent fuel pool were drained in the United States, a major release of cesium-137 from a pool fire could render an area uninhabitable greater than created by the Chernobyl accident. We recommended that spent fuel older than five years, about 75 percent of what's in U.S. spent fuel pools, be placed in dry hardened casks — something Germany did 25 years ago. The NRC challenged our recommendation, which prompted Congress to request a review of this controversy by the National Academy of Sciences. In 2004, the Academy reported that a "partially or completely drained a spent fuel pool could lead to a propagating zirconium cladding fire and release large quantities of radioactive materials to the environment."
Given what's happening at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, it's time for a serious review of what our nuclear safety authorities consider to be improbable, especially when it comes to reactors operating in earthquake zones.
by Peachtree Pam » Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:41 am
by StarmanSkye » Fri Mar 25, 2011 3:51 am
by Peachtree Pam » Fri Mar 25, 2011 4:49 am
by Peachtree Pam » Fri Mar 25, 2011 8:22 am
High-level radiation suspected to be leaking from No. 3 reactor's core
TOKYO, March 25, Kyodo
High-level radiation detected Thursday in water at the No. 3 reactor's turbine building at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant appears to have originated from the reactor core, the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Friday.
But no data, such as on the pressure level, have suggested the reactor vessel has been cracked or damaged, agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama emphasized at an afternoon press conference, backing down from his previous remark that there is a good chance that the reactor has been damaged. It remains uncertain how the leakage happened, he added.
A day after three workers were exposed Thursday to water containing radioactive materials 10,000 times the normal level at the turbine building connected to the No. 3 reactor building, highly radioactive water was found also at the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors' turbine buildings.
by DoYouEverWonder » Fri Mar 25, 2011 8:56 am
by Peachtree Pam » Fri Mar 25, 2011 9:23 am
Kan gives no answer about when Japan's nuclear crisis may end
TOKYO, March 25, Kyodo
Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday left open what the Japanese people and the international community most want to know -- whether the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant would be brought under control anytime soon -- effectively saying only that the government is putting all its efforts into preventing the situation from worsening.
In a news conference two weeks after the deadly quake and tsunami in northeastern Japan, Kan explained that the government is now concentrating its efforts on the nuclear crisis, caused by the twin natural disasters, and relief and reconstruction measures.
But he said the situation at the nuclear plant, experiencing radiation leaks and other serious problems, ''still does not warrant optimism.''
As of Friday, the death toll in the largest natural catastrophe in postwar Japan topped 10,000, and more than 17,000 remain missing, according to the National Police Agency.
by justdrew » Fri Mar 25, 2011 10:08 am
DoYouEverWonder wrote:When are they going to send in all the high level execs to sacrifice themselves to stop the meltdown?
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