Nuclear Meltdown Watch

[eyeno]

Tepco’s Reactors May Take 30 Years, $12 Billion to Scrap
March 30, 2011, 4:41 AM EDT

By Shigeru Sato, Yuji Okada and Tsuyoshi Inajima

(Updates with Edano’s comments in third paragraph. See EXT2 <GO> for news on the nuclear crisis.)

March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Damaged reactors at the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant may take three decades to decommission and cost operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. more than 1 trillion yen ($12 billion), engineers and analysts said.

Four of the plant’s six reactors became useless when sea water was used to cool them after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out generators running its cooling systems. The reactors need to be be decommissioned, Tepco Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata said today. He couldn’t give a time frame.

All the reactors, including Units 5 and 6, will be shut down, and the government hasn’t ruled out sealing the plant in concrete, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters today in Tokyo.

The damaged reactors need to be demolished after they have cooled and radioactive materials are removed and stored, said Tomoko Murakami, a nuclear researcher at the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan. The process will take longer than the 12 years needed to decommission the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania following a partial meltdown, said Hironobu Unesaki, a nuclear engineering professor at Kyoto University.

“Lack of public support may force the decommissioning of all six reactors,” said Daniel Aldrich, a political science professor at Purdue University in Indiana. Tepco “will try to salvage two if it can find public support, which may be unlikely.”

The damaged reactors will take more than a few weeks to stabilize, Katsumata, who took charge of Tepco’s response after President Masataka Shimizu was hospitalized, told reporters.

Kan’s Criticism

Prime Minister Naoto Kan yesterday blamed inadequate tsunami defenses at the plant for the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986, saying that the safety standards set by the utility known as Tepco were too low. Efforts to cool fuel rods at the four reactors have been hindered by detection of radiation levels that can prove fatal for a person exposed for several hours.

The utility is focusing on bringing the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant under control and can’t comment on the power station’s future, Naoyuki Matsumoto, a spokesman for Tepco, said by telephone yesterday.

Japan is studying various ways to cool water at the plant’s reactors and fuel-rod ponds, Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano said. It will take “considerable time” until the temperature drops and is stable, he said.

Covering the plant with fabric and removing contaminated water to a tanker are among options under consideration for reducing the threat from radiation, Edano said.

‘Considering Possibilities’

“Specialists are considering various possibilities and means to contain the nuclear power plant situation and minimize radiation effects in surrounding areas and harm to health,” he said. “We haven’t reached a conclusion about what means are possible or effective.”

Japanese authorities rated the Fukushima accident a 5 on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 7-step scale for nuclear incidents, under which each extra point represents a 10- fold increase in seriousness.

At Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island in 1979, one reactor partially melted in the worst U.S. accident, earning a 5 rating. Its $973 million repair and cleanup took almost 12 years to complete, according to a report on the World Nuclear Association’s website. More than 1,000 workers were involved in designing and conducting the cleanup operation, the report said.

Chernobyl Sarcophagus

Ukraine is unable to fund alone the cost of a new sarcophagus to cover the burned out reactor at Chernobyl, due to be in place by 2014. The 110 meter-high arched containment structure has a 1.55 billion euro ($2.2 billion) total price tag and the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has so far raised about 65 percent of that.

The Fukushima reactors may take about three decades to decommission, based on Japan’s sole attempt to dismantle a commercial reactor, said Murakami of the Institute of Energy Economics.

Japan Atomic Power Co. began decommissioning a 166-megawatt reactor at Tokai in Ibaraki Prefecture near Tokyo in 1998 after the unit had completed 32 years of operations, according to documents posted on the company’s website. The project will be completed by March 2021, or after 23 years of work, and cost 88.5 billion yen, the documents show.

Japan Atomic took three years through June 2001 to stabilize and remove nuclear fuels from the reactor core.

“It looks indisputable that Tepco will go ahead and dismantle the four reactors, and costs may exceed 1 trillion yen,” said Murakami, who worked at Japan Atomic for 13 years and was involved in the decommissioning of the Tokai plant. “Removing damaged fuels from the reactors may take more than two years, and any delays would further increase the cost.”

--With assistance from Sachiko Sakamaki in Tokyo. Editors: John Viljoen, Alex Devine

To contact the reporters on this story: Shigeru Sato in Tokyo at ssato10@bloomberg.net; Yuji Okada in Tokyo at yokada6@bloomberg.net; Tsuyoshi Inajima in Tokyo at tinajima@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net; Clyde Russell at crussell7@bloomberg.net

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-0 ... scrap.html

[JackRiddler]

The only way we survive is if we learn to live with less and go local and outgrow our brainwashed need to fill leisure time with entertainment

The corrupting effects of the entertainment are at the heart of our discussions here but it is the least of the problem in terms of the energy and resource consumption pie, a very narrow slice. Buildings (heating and climate control), urban design (sprawl, distance between work, shops and residences), transport (cars, trucks and planes), agriculture (fertilizers, pesticides, feed for meat, transport) are the big items that together represent most of the energy used and can't just be eliminated. Those are where the giant complex conversions and infrastructural changes are required. The rest of the consumer goods are theoretically easier to cut back, but also represent far less energy consumption. I put everything that goes into the war and national security machinery as the worst item of all, because in addition to being the single largest consumer, it's the most superfluous and destructive. I'd rather everyone looked in the mirror and thought they were Brad Pitt than that anyone participated in that.

.

[eyeno]

Greenpeace radiation team pinpoints need to extend Fukushima evacuation zone
Need to protect pregnant women and children
On this page
Press release - March 27, 2011
Fukushima, March 27, 2011: Greenpeace radiation experts have confirmed radiation levels of up to ten micro Sieverts per hour (1) in Iitate village, 40km northwest of the crisis-stricken Fukushima/Daiichi nuclear plant, and 20km (2) beyond the official evacuation zone. These levels are high enough to require evacuation.

“The Japanese authorities are fully aware (3) that high levels of radiation from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have spread far beyond the official evacuation zone to places like Iitate, yet are still not taking action to properly protect people or keep them informed them about the risks to their health”, said Greenpeace radiation safety expert Jan van de Putte.

“It is clearly not safe for people to remain in Iitate, especially children and pregnant women, when it could mean receiving the maximum allowed annual dose of radiation in only a few days. When further contamination from possible ingestion or inhalation of radioactive particles is factored in, the risks are even higher.”

“The authorities must stop choosing politics over science and determine evacuation zones around the Fukushima nuclear plant that reflect the radiation levels being found in the environment. In addition to coming clean on the true dangers of the current nuclear crisis, the smartest move for Japan and governments around the world is heavily invest in energy efficiency, and redouble their efforts to harness safe and secure renewable energy sources.”

ENDS



Contacts:

For more information about Greenpeace radioactivity monitoring work in Fukushima please contact:

Greenpeace International Press Desk Hotline (Amsterdam): +31 (0) 20 7182470

Photography and video from the radiation monitoring are available:

Greenpeace Picture Desk (Amsterdam): pdeskint@greenpeace.org +31 624 941 965

Greenpeace International Video Desk (Amsterdam): +31 6 46 16 2015



Notes:

(1) The team measured radiation of between 7 and 10 micro Sievert per hour in the town of Iitate, on Sunday March 27th. The levels detected refer to external radiation, and do not take into account the further risks such of ingestion or inhalation. The annual limit for accumulated dose is 1000 micro Sieverts.

(2) The current official evacuation zone is 20km around Fukushima, while between 20km and 30km is an area where people are advised to stay indoors.

(3) The Fukushima Prefectural Government has been measuring the radiation levels in the same village and confirming even higher range of radiation level during the past two weeks.

http://www.pref.fukushima.jp/j/20-30km18.pdf

On March 20th, around 10% of the residents of Iitate voluntarily evacuated:

http://www.news24.jp/articles/2011/03/20/07178944.html#



Scope of the monitoring:

This preliminary monitoring work sees the Greenpeace team spend several days documenting radioactive contamination and dose rate levels in the areas north-west of the Fukushima evacuation zone (20km radius from nuclear plant) that have been most affected by the radioactive releases.

The team is lead by Jan van de Putte (Netherlands) an experienced radiation expert who qualified at the Technical University of Delft, and has participated in environmental surveys of radioactive contamination in Russia, Ukraine, Spain, Belgium and France.

Also in the team is radiation expert Jacob Namminga (Netherlands), who also qualified at the Technical University of Delft, and has taken part in environmental surveys of radioactive contamination in Ukraine, Spain, and France.

As part of the monitoring work, the team will be using a selection of standard radiation monitoring equipment:

- Gamma spectrometer: GEORADIS Identifier RT-30 (Super Ident)

- Geiger counter: Radex RD 1503

- Contamination monitor: RADOS MicroCont

http://www.greenpeace.org/international ... children-/

[anothershamus]

Japan Prepares To "Bury The Problem" Following News Of Uncontrolled Reactor 1 Chain Reactions

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/30/2011 18:19 -0400


And once again our prediction about Fukushima (namely the inevitable entombment of the entire facility in thousands of tons of concrete) is about to be realized. Bloomberg reports that Japan will consider pouring concrete into its crippled Fukushima atomic plant to reduce radiation and contain the worst nuclear disaster in 25 years. The reason for the admission of total defeat is the gradual comprehension that the worst case scenario has come to pass: "The risk to workers might be greater than previously thought because melted fuel in the No. 1 reactor building may be causing isolated, uncontrolled nuclear chain reactions, Denis Flory, nuclear safety director for the International Atomic Energy Agency, said at a press conference in Vienna." Not one to cover up the worst case outcome for a week, TEPCO only did so... for five days: "Radioactive chlorine found March 25 in the Unit 1 turbine building suggests chain reactions continued after the reactor shut down, physicist Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, wrote in a March 28 paper." It's good thought" Radioactive chlorine has a half-life of 37 minutes, according to the report." It appears Japan is willing to give up, and write off a several hundred square kilometer area, as nobody in their right mind will ever agree to move in next to a territory that, contrary to lies, er, promises, will not seep radioactivity in the soil and in the water. This is an unprecedented admission of defeat by the Japanese which unfortunately may be the only solution, which will certainly have major implications for the Japanese economy.

[eyeno]

Chernobyl radioactive cloud simulation by IRSN

[ninakat]

To follow up, here's an article from Chris Busby (interviewed in the video) from 3 days ago:

Some May be More Dangerous Than Radiation
Deconstructing Nuclear Experts
By CHRIS BUSBY
March 28, 2011

Since the Fukushima accident we have seen a stream of experts on radiation telling us not to worry, that the doses are too low, that the accident is nothing like Chernobyl and so forth. They appear on television and we read their articles in the newspapers and online. Fortunately the majority of the public don’t believe them. I myself have appeared on television and radio with these people; one example was Ian Fells of the University of Newcastle who, after telling us all on BBC News that the accident was nothing like Chernobyl (wrong), and the radiation levels of no consequence (wrong), that the main problem was that there was no electricity and that the lifts didn’t work. “ If you have been in a situation when the lifts don’t work, as I have” he burbled on, “you will know what I mean.” You can see this interview on youtube and decide for yourself.

What these people have in common is ignorance. You may think a professor at a university must actually know something about their subject. But this is not so. Nearly all of these experts who appear and pontificate have not actually done any research on the issue of radiation and health. Or if they have, they seem to have missed all the key studies and references. I leave out the real baddies, who are closely attached to the nuclear industry, like Richard Wakeford, or Richard D as he calls himself on the anonymous website he has set up to attack me, “chrisbusbyexposed”.

(more)

[ninakat]

"Prescription for Survival": A Debate on the Future of Nuclear Energy Between Anti-Coal Advocate George Monbiot and Anti-Nuclear Activist Dr. Helen Caldicott
DemocracyNow!
March 30, 2011

The crisis in Japan has refueled the rigorous global debate about the viability of nuclear power. Japan remains in a "state of maximum alert" as the experts scramble to contain radiation that is leaking from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. Nuclear energy remains a controversial topic in climate change discourse, as environmental activists argue how to best reduce the amount of greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere—often the debate pits one non-renewable energy against another as renewable energy technology and research remains underfunded. Democracy Now! hosts a debate today about the future of nuclear energy between British journalist George Monbiot and Dr. Helen Caldicott. Monbiot has written extensively about the environmental and health dangers caused by burning coal for energy, and despite the Fukushima catastrophe, stands behind nuclear power. Caldicott is a world-renowned anti-nuclear advocate who has spent decades warning of the medical hazards posed by nuclear technologies, and while agreeing about the dangers of burning coal, insists the best option is to ban nuclear power.

[eyeno]

Fukushima Workers Threatened by Heat Bursts; Sea Radiation Rises
March 31, 2011, 2:04 AM EDT
More From Businessweek

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* Reactor Core May Be Leaking at Damaged Fukushima Plant

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By Jonathan Tirone, Sachiko Sakamaki and Yuriy Humber

(For more on Japan’s nuclear crisis, see EXT2 <GO>.)

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s damaged nuclear plant may be in danger of emitting sudden bursts of heat and radiation, undermining efforts to cool the reactors and contain fallout.

The potential for limited, uncontrolled chain reactions, voiced yesterday by the International Atomic Energy Agency, is among the phenomena that might occur, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters in Tokyo today. The IAEA "emphasized that the nuclear reactors won’t explode," he said.

Three workers at a separate Japanese plant received high doses of radiation in 1999 from a similar nuclear reaction, known as ‘criticality.’ Two of them died within seven months.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant’s operator, and Japan’s nuclear watchdog, dismissed the threatof renewed nuclear reactions, three weeks after an earthquake and tsunami triggered an automatic shutdown. Tokyo Electric has been spraying water on the reactors since the March 11 disaster in an effort to cool nuclear fuel rods.

"The reactors are stopped, so it’s hard to imagine re- criticality," occurring, Tsuyoshi Makigami, a spokesman for the utility, told a news conference today.


A partial meltdown of fuel in the No. 1 reactor building may be causing isolated reactions, Denis Flory, nuclear safety director for the IAEA, said at a press conference in Vienna. This might increase the danger to workers at the site.

‘Ethereal Blue Flash’

Nuclear experts call such reactions "localized criticality." They consist of a burst of heat, radiation and sometimes an "ethereal blue flash," according to the U.S. Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory website. Twenty-one workers worldwide have been killed by “criticality accidents” since 1945, the site said.

The IAEA acknowledged "they don’t have clear signs that show such a phenomenon is happening," Edano said.

Radioactive chlorine found March 25 in the No. 1 turbine building suggests chain reactions continued after the reactor shut down, physicist Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, wrote in a March 28 paper. Radioactive chlorine has a half-life of 37 minutes, according to the report.

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said there’s no possibility of uncontrolled chain reactions. Boron, an element that absorbs neutrons and hinders nuclear fission, has been mixed with cooling water to prevent this, Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the agency, told reporters today.

Ocean Contamination

Contamination of seawater found near the plant has increased. Radioactive iodine rose to 4,385 times the regulated safety limit yesterday from 2,572 times on Tuesday, Nishiyama said. No fishing is occurring nearby and the sea is dispersing the iodine so there is no threat, he said.

There was 180 becquerel per cubic centimeter of radioactive iodine-131 found in the ocean 330 meters (1,082 feet) south of the plant. Drinking one liter of fresh water with that level would be equivalent to getting double the annual dose of radiation a person typically receives.

Workers have averted the threat of a total meltdown by injecting water into the damaged reactors. The complex’s six units have been reconnected with the power grid and two are using temporary motor-driven pumps. Work to repair the plant’s monitoring and cooling systems has been hampered by discoveries of hazardous radioactive water.

Dismantling the plant and decontaminating the site may take 30 years and cost Tokyo Electric more than 1 trillion yen ($12 billion), engineers and analysts said. The government hasn’t ruled out pouring concrete over the whole facility as one way to shut it down, Edano said.

Dumping Concrete

Dumping concrete on the plant would serve a second purpose: it would trap contaminated water, said Tony Roulstone, an atomic engineer who directs the University of Cambridge’s masters program in nuclear energy.

“They need to immobilize this water and they need something to soak it up,” he said. “You don’t want to create another hazard, but you need to get it away from the reactors.”

The process will take longer than the 12 years needed to decommission the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania following a partial meltdown in 1979, said Hironobu Unesaki, a nuclear engineering professor at Kyoto University.

Tokyo Electric’s shareholders may be wiped out by clean-up costs and liabilities stemming from the nuclear accident, the worst since Chernobyl. The company faces claims of as much as 11 trillion yen if the crisis lasts two years and potential takeover by the government, according to a March 29 Bank of America Merrill Lynch report.

Radiation “far below” levels that pose a risk to humans was found in milk from California and Washington, the first signs Japan’s nuclear accident is affecting U.S. food, state and Obama administration officials said.

The U.S. is stepping up monitoring of radiation in milk, rain and drinking water, the Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration said yesterday in a statement.

The number of dead and missing from the earthquake and tsunami had reached 27,690 as of 10 a.m. today, Japan’s National Police Agency said.

--With assistance from Shigeru Sato, Yuji Okada, Tsuyoshi Inajima, Michio Nakayama, John Brinsley and Go Onomitsu in Tokyo, Tara Patel in Paris, Kari Lundgren in London, Jim Snyder and Simon Lomax in Washington, Jim Polson in New York and Simeon Bennett in Singapore. Editors: Patrick Chu, Bill Austin

To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at jtirone@bloomberg.net; Sachiko Sakamaki in Tokyo at ssakamaki1@bloomberg.net; Yuriy Humber in Tokyo at yhumber@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Patrick Chu at pachu@bloomberg.net
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-0 ... rises.html

Its on. The "ethereal blue flash" is showing up at reactor #1. Gone critical. This sounds similar to when #3 went to 500 severts and the neutron beam showed up. The core is trying to burn its way through that containment right now.

"The reactors are stopped, so it’s hard to imagine re- criticality," occurring, Tsuyoshi Makigami, a spokesman for the utility, told a news conference today.

[tazmic]

2 injured by bomb at Swiss nuclear industry office

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7499024.html

"The explosion happened shortly after 8 a.m. (0600GMT) as staff were opening the morning's post in the fourth-floor office of Swissnuclear, said police spokeswoman Thalia Schweizer."

[wintler2]

2 injured by bomb at Swiss nuclear industry office
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7499024.html
"The explosion happened shortly after 8 a.m. (0600GMT) as staff were opening the morning's post in the fourth-floor office of Swissnuclear, said police spokeswoman Thalia Schweizer."

Ok, now thats weird, can i be first to call 'false flag'.


Re criticality, it does seem like that has been and will continue to happen, and it is bad bad news .. but we're not going to see any mushroom clouds as the energy released disperses the constituents such that reaction cannot immediately escalate. It does make encasing reactors in concrete anytime soon a stupid idea, but that wont stop them from trying it.


I've been worrying about radioactive seafood, but apparently that wont be a problem (and yes i trust TOD, as much as i trust the swarm here but in diff fields)

There will definitely be biological uptake, but probably not bioaccumulation (in the sense that initially non-harmful levels of a toxin can be concentrated to dangerous levels at the top of the food chain). Cesium replaces potassium in organisms, and potassium is taken in and flushed out of organisms fairly quickly, so that the residence time of Cs is about 110 days in humans (probably much less for smaller organisms).

For bioaccumulation to happen, this biological residence time must be long compared to the organism's lifetime.

[eyeno]

one tenth? i've seen projections that say it has already released 73 percent of chernobyl in just two weeks.

Japan's Creeping Meltdown: Optimism Evaporates

by Gavriel Queenann
Follow Israel news on Twitter and Facebook.

The Fukushima reactors have been releasing radiation for weeks, Der Spiegel reports.

According to some computer projections, the nuclear plant has released one-tenth of the radiation released during the Chernobyl disaster. Technicians worked for days to restore electricity to the stricken plant, but on Thursday two employees were hospitalized after just forty-five minutes in the No. 3 reactor turbine room. The men, working with cables while wading in water, sustained radiation burns and absorbed 180 millisievert of radiation - nine times the dose of a normal plant employee. This despite wearing helmets, masks, overcoats, and rubber boots and gloves over their radiation suits.

The incident underscores the very real question occupying the minds of health officials and radiological scientists: just how bad is it? No one expected radiation levels in the basement water to reach the levels it did. Yet, the radiation levels in the water in the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 reactors have set new records. The water in No. 2 measures 1,000 millisieverts per hour due to the partial core melt that reactor sustained. Japanese officials have also concluded that the containment vessel for the third reactor was breached. Last week's talk of hopeful progress and cautious optimism seems to have evaporated. Engineers have begun to accept that they are making no headway.

"We are experiencing an ongoing, massive release of radioactivity," Wolfram Koenig, head of Germany's Federal Office for Radiation Protection, told Der Spiegel.

"And everyone should know by now that this isn't over by a long shot," nuclear expert Helmut Hirsch, says, "All I hear is that people are wondering whether this will turn into a meltdown. But the thing is, it already is a partial meltdown."

The only difference is that Fukushima is a creeping disaster. The cooling system is not online, pumps are not working, and as much as forty-five tons of sea-salt has accumulated as a result of the desperate decision to flood the reactors with sea-water in the hopes of avoiding a worst-case scenario. The salts are crystallizing at hot-spots and forming a layer of insulation. There are also 3,450 still-fervid spent fuel rods sitting in half-empty pools and therefore exposed to the air. Compounding the issue, the wind changed on Friday.

Radioactive particles over the Pacific have drifted westward across Japan. High levels of radiation have been detected in produce, water and soil near the Fukushima plant. Japanese authorities have only evacuated a zone within 20 kilometers (12.4 miles ) of the plant, but risks of radiation are growing for people outside the zone. "It is high time Japanese authorities extend the 20- kilometer evacuation zone around the crippled nuclear-power plant at Fukushima," writes nuclear critic Mycle Schneider, lead author of the World Nuclear Industry Status Reports, adding that "...pregnant women and small children should immediately be evacuated from a progressively increasing area."

Embryos, fetuses, and infants are especially vulnerable because radiation targets cells that divide quickly. There are 77,000 people in ad hoc emergency shelters. Another 62,000 live within the 30-kilometer zone. The United States Regulatory Agency (NRC) had advised extending the evacuation zone to 80 kilometers, which would require relocating 2 million. This, in addition to hundreds of thousands of Japanese earthquake and tsunami victims. Japanese authorities, to date, have asked people to voluntarily evacuate the area.

The set-upon Japanese are also being bombarded with advice, demands, and speculation from United States, Russia, Finland, and Germany. Even France's nuclear agency IRSN, not known for its caution, issued disturbing projections last week. According to the French, the Fukushima plant has released 1/10th the radiation of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), however, believes that the French are engaging in Gallic exaggeration. According to the IAEA, its calculations, based on readings at the site, is only a fraction of French estimates.

French projections were based on their knowledge of fissile material stored in the reactors, independent research on the condition of hot fuel rods, and readings taken in the vicinity of Fukushima. There are more than 2,500 tons of uranium and plutonium in Fukushima. And Japanese emergency release valves for radioactive steam generated for active fuel rods do not have filters like plants in Germany and the United States. The Japanese, due to radiation levels, have not released the steam in a week, but that can't go on forever.

"This is not an exaggeration," German nuclear expert Helmut Hirsch says. "There is a gigantic radioactive inventory at Fukushima. At least 20 times as much as there was at Chernobyl."

But while French experts believe the worst radiation leaks may be behind the Japanese, other experts have gloomier theories. US expert Bill Borchart of the NRC blames high radiation levels around Fukushima on the spent fuel rods in the holding pools. These rods, normally kept underwater while shielded by the reactor roof, are now emitting radiation into the open air. Only cooling water prevents the rods from igniting, but the water is constantly being converted to radioactive steam. And it remains unclear whether the pools can be refilled at all as earthquake damage has not been assessed.

After the Three Mile Island meltdown 1979 it took six years before engineers could re-open the core to determine how far the meltdown progressed. The site remains closed today. And, even 25 years after the Chernobyl meltdown, which also resulted in a sealed plant, boar hunters in the affected region still have to discard meat because it is contaminated by radiation. The long-term effects of a radioactive core open to the atmosphere remain a worrisome enigma. In Japan, which endured the aftermath and health-consequences of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that enigma is a nerve-jarring specter.

Borchart summed up Japan's crisis, "We don't have the slightest idea of what conditions are like in the reactor buildings."

(IsraelNationalNews.com)

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143242









the nuts and guts of it for those that don't want to wade it

“We are experiencing an ongoing, massive release of radioactivity,” Wolfram Koenig, head of Germany’s Federal Office for Radiation Protection, told Der Spiegel. …

Fukushima has at least 20 times more radioactive inventory than Chernobyl — Ongoing, massive release of radioactivity and not over by a long shot

“And everyone should know by now that this isn’t over by a long shot,” nuclear expert Helmut Hirsch, says, “All I hear is that people are wondering whether this will turn into a meltdown. But the thing is, it already is a partial meltdown.” …

“This is not an exaggeration,” German nuclear expert Helmut Hirsch says. “There is a gigantic radioactive inventory at Fukushima. At least 20 times as much as there was at Chernobyl.” …

[wintler2]

"Prescription for Survival": A Debate on the Future of Nuclear Energy Between Anti-Coal Advocate George Monbiot and Anti-Nuclear Activist Dr. Helen Caldicott

Includes gross use of the conspiracy theory smear by Monbiot against Caldicot, 'by their works shall ye know them'.

[23]

It's time to stop being anti-X and anti-Y... and start being pro-hydrothermal... which removes the need to debate X versus Y.

[eyeno]

goodmanj on Theoildrum wrote:
There will definitely be biological uptake, but probably not bioaccumulation (in the sense that initially non-harmful levels of a toxin can be concentrated to dangerous levels at the top of the food chain). Cesium replaces potassium in organisms, and potassium is taken in and flushed out of organisms fairly quickly, so that the residence time of Cs is about 110 days in humans (probably much less for smaller organisms).

For bioaccumulation to happen, this biological residence time must be long compared to the organism's lifetime.

But if this contamination is to persist for perhaps years as is suspected, which would mean chronic exposure, would that not constitute a means for accumulation?

[tazmic]

Includes gross use of the conspiracy theory smear by Monbiot against Caldicot

I haven't listened to this yet:

http://www.corbettreport.com/interview-306-helen-caldicott-md/