Nuclear Meltdown Watch

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Re: Nuclear Meltdown Watch

Postby Pele'sDaughter » Thu Aug 10, 2017 9:57 am

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1142521/world

TOKYO: A suspected World War II bomb was found Thursday on the premises of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, an official said, with police called in to investigate.

The 85-centimeter (2.9 foot) long object, believed to be an unexploded bomb dropped by the United States during the war, was discovered by workers constructing a parking lot close to the facility’s reactors, a spokesman for Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said.

TEPCO called police immediately upon finding the object, suspending construction work and roping off the area around one kilometer (0.62 mile) from the reactors, he added.

There was no impact on ongoing decommissioning operations at the nuclear plant, which suffered meltdowns in March 2011 after a powerful earthquake spawned a huge tsunami.

Japan’s Jiji Press reported that under such circumstances police call in bomb disposal experts from Japan’s military.

Unexploded US bombs and shells are still occasionally found in Japan more than 70 years after the conflict ended in 1945, particularly on the southern island of Okinawa where an extremely bloody battle took place in the war’s closing months.

A Japanese military airport existed in the area around the Fukushima site in northeastern Japan during the war, and the area was a target of US bombing raids.
The meltdowns at Fukushima in 2011 were the world’s worst such accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

TEPCO and the government are facing a four-decade task of cleaning up and decommissioning the facility, while tens of thousands of people remain displaced, the majority from Fukushima prefecture due to high radiation.
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Re: Nuclear Meltdown Watch

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Oct 03, 2017 4:15 pm

Fukushima’s Radioactive Waste Is Leaking From an Unexpected Source

George Dvorsky
Today 1:00pmFiled to: FUKUSHIMA

Wearing protective clothing and masks, a husband and wife walk along the coast damaged by the 2011 tsunami, with the Fukushima plant in the background. (Photo: AP)
A new and unexpected source of radioactive material left over from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster has been found up to 60 miles away along coastlines near the beleaguered plant. The discovery shows that damaged nuclear reactors are capable of spreading radiation far from the meltdown site, and in some surprising ways.

New research published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that radioactive cesium from the Fukushima nuclear power plant is collecting in the sands and groundwater along a 60-mile (100-km) stretch of coastline near the facility. Cesium-137 is a radioactive isotope of cesium (a soft, silvery-gold metal) that’s formed by nuclear fission and potentially fatal to humans when exposed to high concentrations. The scientists who led the study, Virginie Sanial of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Seiya Nagao of Kanazawa University, say the levels of radiation “are not of primary concern” to public health, but that this new and unanticipated source “should be taken into account in the management of coastal areas where nuclear power plants are situated.”

Indeed, approximately half of the 440 operational nuclear reactors in the world are situated on a coastline. After the 2011 accident, scientists monitored leaking radiation as it entered into the atmosphere or trickled into rivers, but the Fukushima plant—damaged by a devastating earthquake and tsunami—is the first major incident to happen along such a large water body, namely the Pacific Ocean. This new PNAS study is now the first to consider subterranean pathways for the storage and release of radioactive contaminants following a nuclear disaster.


The research team at work on one of eight beaches studied. (Image: Souichiro Teriyaki, Kanazawa University)
The researchers sampled eight beaches between 2013 and 2016, all within 60 miles of the plant. They plunged seven-foot-long tubes into the sand, pulling up sand and groundwater samples for analysis. The cesium levels in the brackish groundwater—a combination of fresh water and salt water—was ten times higher than what’s currently being detected in the waters swirling around Fukushima’s harbor, while cesium was tracked in the sand up to a depth of three feet.

Sanial and Nagao suspect that high levels of radioactive cesium-137 were released into the environment following the 2011 disaster, and then transported along the coast by ocean currents. In the days and weeks following the meltdown, waves and tides delivered this radioactive waste back onto the surrounding coastal beaches. The cesium attached itself to the surfaces of the sand grains, and some managed to trickle down to the groundwater below.
Image

Image: Natalie Renier, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
But here’s the thing—cesium loses its “stickiness” when it’s exposed to salt water. So with each passing wave and tide, the cesium is slowly getting released back into the ocean. The amount of radioactive waste detected by the researchers in the adjoining water is roughly equal to the amounts drifting in from the other two known sources: ongoing releases and runoff from the plant itself, and overflow from rivers that carry cesium from the fallout on land. Importantly, all three of these sources are releasing radiation at rates thousands of times smaller than what was experienced immediately after the 2011 disaster. Cesium has long half-life, so “only time will slowly remove the cesium from the sands as it naturally decays away and is washed out by seawater,” said Sanial in a release.

As noted, the amount of radioactive cesium observed doesn’t pose a public health risk, but this latest study indicates that radioactive material can be transported far from accident sites. At the same time, the discovery adds another layer of complexity when deciding how to best manage a plant—and where to put it.
https://gizmodo.com/fukushima-s-radioac ... 1819106249
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
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Re: Nuclear Meltdown Watch

Postby Pele'sDaughter » Wed Oct 04, 2017 2:10 pm

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... aki-kariwa

The operator of Japan’s stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been given initial approval to restart reactors at another atomic facility, marking the first step towards the firm’s return to nuclear power generation more than six years after the March 2011 triple meltdown.

Japan’s nuclear regulator on Wednesday approved an application from Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) to restart two reactors at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa – the world’s biggest nuclear power plant – even as the utility struggles to decommission Fukushima Daiichi.

The process will involve reviews and consultations with the public, and the restart is also expected to encounter strong opposition from people living near the plant on the Japan Sea coast of Niigata prefecture.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) ruled that the No 6 and No 7 reactors, each with a capacity of 1,356 megawatts, met stringent new safety standards introduced after the Fukushima disaster. The authority’s five commissioners voted unanimously to approve the restarts at a meeting on Wednesday.

The decision drew criticism from anti-nuclear campaigners.

Shaun Burnie, a senior nuclear specialist with Greenpeace Germany, accused the NRA of being reckless.

He added: “It is the same disregard for nuclear risks that resulted in Tepco’s 2011 triple reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi site. Approving the safety of reactors at the world’s largest nuclear plant when it is at extreme risk from major earthquakes completely exposes the weakness of Japan’s nuclear regulator.”

Greenpeace said 23 seismic faultlines ran through the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa site.

Tepco said in a statement that it took the regulatory authority’s decision seriously and would continue making safety improvements at its plants while it attempted to decommission Fukushima Daiichi and compensate evacuees.

Despite the NRA’s approval, it could take years for the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactors to go back into operation.

The governor of Niigata, Ryuichi Yoneyama, has said he will not decide on whether to agree to the restarts until Tepco completes its review of the Fukushima accident – a process that is expected to take at least another three years.

Fukushima evacuees voiced anger at the regulator’s decision.

“It looks like things are moving forward as if the Fukushima nuclear crisis is over,” Hiroko Matsumoto, who lives in temporary housing, told Kyodo news. Matsumoto, whose home was close to Fukushima Daiichi, said Tepco should “never forget that a serious nuclear accident can cause enormous damage”.

Tepco has been seeking permission to restart the idled reactors to help it reduce spending on fossil fuel imports, which have soared since the disaster, triggered by a huge earthquake and tsunami, forced the closure of all of Japan’s nuclear reactors. Four have since gone back online after passing safety inspections.

The utility faces huge compensation claims from people who were evacuated after three of Fukushima Daiichi’s six reactors went into meltdown on 11 March 2011, as well as a rising decommissioning bill.

Earlier this year, the Japan Centre for Economic Research said the total cost of the Fukushima cleanup – which is expected to take up to 40 years – could soar to between 50-70tn yen (£330bn-£470bn). Earlier estimates put the cost at about 22tn yen.

Nuclear power is expected to become a key issue in the election later this month.

The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has argued that reactor restarts are necessary for economic growth and to enable Japan to meet its climate change commitments. The government wants nuclear to provide about 20% of Japan’s energy by 2030.

But the newly formed Party of Hope, which has emerged as the main opposition to Abe’s Liberal Democratic party, wants to phase out nuclear power by 2030.

Opinion polls show that most Japanese people oppose nuclear restarts.
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Re: Nuclear Meltdown Watch

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Oct 27, 2017 8:02 pm

Fukushima Court Finds Tepco and the Japanese Government Liable for the 2011 Disaster

Toru Hanai—Reuters
It is the largest class action lawsuit brought over the 2011 nuclear disaster.

By Reuters October 10, 2017
A district court in Fukushima prefecture on Tuesday ruled that Tokyo Electric Power (TKECY, +2.97%) and the Japanese government were liable for damages totaling about 500 million yen ($4.44 million) in the largest class action lawsuit brought over the 2011 nuclear disaster, Kyodo news agency said.

A group of about 3,800 people, mostly in Fukushima prefecture, filed the class action suit, marking the biggest number of plaintiffs out of about 30 similar class action lawsuits filed across the nation.

This is the second court ruling that fixed the government’s responsibility after a Maebashi district court decision in March.

All the three district court decisions so far have ordered Tepco to pay damages. Only the Chiba court decision last month did not find the government liable for compensation.

The plaintiffs in Fukushima case have called on defendants for reinstating the levels of radioactivity at their homes before the disaster, but the court rejected the request, Kyodo said.

Tepco has long been criticized for ignoring the threat posed by natural disasters to the Fukushima plant and the company and the government were lambasted for their handling of the crisis.



Fukushima evacuee to tell UN that Japan violated human rights
Mitsuko Sonoda will say evacuees face financial hardship and are being forced to return to homes they believe are unsafe
Mitsuko Sonoda’s aunt harvesting rice in her village, which is outside the mandatory evacuation zone, before the disaster.

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Wednesday 11 October 2017 06.27 EDT Last modified on Wednesday 11 October 2017 06.46 EDT
A nuclear evacuee from Fukushima will claim Japan’s government has violated the human rights of people who fled their homes after the 2011 nuclear disaster, in testimony before the UN in Geneva this week.

Mitsuko Sonoda, who voluntarily left her village with her husband and their 10-year-old son days after three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant went into meltdown, will tell the UN human rights council that evacuees face financial hardship and are being forced to return to neighbourhoods they believe are still unsafe almost seven years after the disaster.

“We feel abandoned by the Japanese government and society,” Sonoda, who will speak at the council’s pre-session review of Japan on Thursday, told the Guardian.

An estimated 27,000 evacuees who, like Sonoda, were living outside the mandatory evacuation zone when the meltdown occurred, had their housing assistance withdrawn this March, forcing some to consider returning to their former homes despite concerns over radiation levels.

In addition, as the government attempts to rebuild the Fukushima region by reopening decontaminated neighbourhoods that were once no-go areas, tens of thousands of evacuees who were ordered to leave will lose compensation payments and housing assistance in March next year.

The denial of financial aid has left many evacuees facing a near-impossible choice: move back to homes they fear are unsafe, or face more financial hardship as they struggle to build lives elsewhere without state help.

“People should be allowed to choose whether or not to go back to their old homes, and be given the financial means to make that choice,” said Kendra Ulrich, senior global energy campaigner for Greenpeace Japan.

Sonoda’s son and a friend drinking from a mountain stream before the disaster.

Sonoda’s son and a friend drinking from a mountain stream before the disaster. Photograph: Mitsuko Sonoda
“If they are being put under economic pressure to return, then they are not in a position to make an informed decision. This UN session is about pressuring the Japanese government to do the right thing.”

Evacuees are being encouraged to return to villages and towns near the Fukushima plant despite evidence that some still contain radiation “hot spots”.

In Iitate village, where the evacuation order was lifted this March, much of the surrounding forests remain highly radioactive, although homes, schools and other public buildings have been declared safe as part of an unprecedented decontamination effort.

“You could call places like Iitate an open-air prison,” said Ulrich. “The impact on people’s quality of life will be severe if they move back. Their lives are embedded in forests, yet the environment means they will not be allowed to enter them. Forests are impossible to decontaminate.”

After months of moving around, Sonoda and her family settled in Kyoto for two years, where local authorities provided them with a rent-free apartment. They have been living in her husband’s native England for the past four years.

“We’ve effectively had to evacuate twice,” said Sonoda, who works as a freelance translator and Japanese calligraphy tutor. “My son and I really struggled at first … we didn’t want to leave Japan.”

Sonoda and her family near her home in Fukushima before the disaster.

Sonoda and her family near her home in Fukushima before the disaster. Photograph: Mitsuko Sonoda
Concern over food safety and internal radiation exposure convinced her that she could never return to Fukushima, aside from making short visits to see relatives. “It’s really sad, because my village is such a beautiful place,” she said. “We had a house and had planned to retire there.”

The evacuations have forced families to live apart, while parents struggle to earn enough money to fund their new accommodation and keep up mortgage payments on their abandoned homes.

“Stopping housing support earlier this year was an act of cruelty,” Sonoda said. “Some of my friends had to go back to Fukushima even though they didn’t want to.”

Greenpeace Japan, which is assisting Sonoda, hopes her testimony will be the first step in building international pressure on Japan’s government to continue offering financial help to evacuees and to reconsider its resettlement plan.

It has called on the government to declare Fukushima neighbourhoods unsafe until atmospheric radiation is brought to below one millisievert (mSv) a year, the maximum public exposure limit recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection.

While 1 mSv a year remains the government’s long-term target, it is encouraging people to return to areas where radiation levels are below 20 mSv a year, an annual exposure limit that, internationally, applies to nuclear power plant workers.

“Why should people, especially women and children, have to live in places where the radiation level is 20 times the international limit?” Sonoda said. “The government hasn’t given us an answer.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... man-rights
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Nuclear Meltdown Watch

Postby Grizzly » Fri Oct 27, 2017 9:40 pm

^^^
How many years and deaths later?? Not to mention the ecological, etc...
“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.”

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Re: Nuclear Meltdown Watch

Postby chump » Tue Oct 31, 2017 10:45 am


https://therearenosunglasses.wordpress. ... -200-dead/

As many as 200 N. Koreans killed in tunnel collapse at nuclear test site: report
By Yonhap


As many as 200 N. Koreans killed in tunnel collapse at nuclear test stie: reportA tunnel under construction at North Korea’s nuclear test site collapsed and as many as 200 workers could have been killed, a Japanese news report said Tuesday.

About 100 people were trapped inside when the unfinished tunnel at the North’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site collapsed, and an additional 100 people could have been killed while trying to rescue those trapped as a second collapse occurred, Japan’s TV Asahi reported.

The report didn’t provide further details, such as when the accident happened.

Experts have warned that the North’s nuclear test site must have become fatigued and unstable from six nuclear tests, including last month’s latest and most powerful one, that a collapse could happen at any time.

Image

On Monday, the chief of South Korea’s weather agency Korea Meteorological Administration, Nam Jae-cheol, said during a parliamentary meeting that another nuclear blast could trigger a collapse of the North’s mountainous test site and a leak of radioactive materials.
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Re: Nuclear Meltdown Watch

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:24 am

Filmmakers document Fukushima six years after nuclear disaster
DOCUMENTARY makers entered the no-go zone to capture eerie images of the abandoned city of Fukushima, six years after its nuclear plant melted down.

James MacSmith
News Corp Australia NetworkNOVEMBER 9, 201710:42AM

EERIE footage of the abandoned city of Fukushima has emerged six years after its nuclear plant endured three meltdowns and hundreds of thousands fled for their lives.
European documentary makers Bob Thissen and Sempels Frederik visited the devastated Japanese city that was showered with radiation after a tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on March 11, 2011.
The pair, who own the filmmaking company Exploring the Unbeaten Path, travelled to Fukushima to document the aftermath of the disaster in a series of short movies.
Image
A schoolroom left abandoned. Picture: Abandoned Fukushima/Exploring The Unbeaten Path

Nature has taken over in Fukushima’s red zone. Picture: Abandoned Fukushima/Exploring The Unbeaten Path.
Image
An abandoned supermarket. Picture: Abandoned Fukushima/Exploring The Unbeaten Path.
Image
The duo travel inside the no-go zone and their footage starkly illustrates the fear evacuees must have felt as they literally dropped everything and ran for their lives.
They enter school classrooms with books and pens still on desks and bags left lying on the floor. In many houses they enter they are confronted by calendars that still mark the day of the disaster, March 11, as time appears to stand still.

Drone footage shows rebuilding work on Japanese coastline devastated by 2011 Tsunami

Police guard the entry to the red zone but the pair work their way beyond that and document the dangerous levels of radiation that continue to have an impact on the area.
Cigarettes still sit on the shelves of supermarkets, books still sit on the shelves of stores, cars sit parked on the street surrounded by weeds and a golf range is overcome by the elements. And there is no human activity anywhere.
It is a bizarre look into an oft-imagined post-apocalyptic world.
Image
One of the filmmakers inside the red zone. Picture: Abandoned Fukushima/Exploring The Unbeaten Path.
Image
A calendar forever marking the date of the disaster. Picture: Abandoned Fukushima/Exploring The Unbeaten Path.
Image
More than 300,000 people fled the city. Picture: Abandoned Fukushima/Exploring The Unbeaten Path.

After the 9.0 Tohoku earthquake hit the region the nuclear reactors on the Fukushima plant automatically shut down. However the tsunami that resulted from the earthquake disabled the emergency generators that were meant to provide power to cool those reactors.

As a result inadequate cooling led to three nuclear meltdowns and the release of radioactive material for four days.
Around 300,000 people fled the surrounding area, most of them have never returned. Approximately 1600 deaths were attributed to the subsequent evacuation conditions.
No deaths have been directly linked to radiation due to the accident, however as many as 640 people are expected to die from cancer deaths due to radiation exposure after the event.
It was the biggest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl catastrophe in 1986.
Image
Smoke rises from Unit 1 of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture immediately after the meltdown. Picture: AP

FUKUSHIMA’S ‘RADIOACTIVE’ BOARS
Earlier this year Fukushima authorities were forced to cull countless “radioactive” boars after the feral creatures moved into towns deserted after the 2011 disaster.
Image
Hundreds of wild boars were roaming across northern Japan since the meltdown incident.
Unit 1 after the explosion. Picture: AP

Wild boar meat is a delicacy in the region but animals slaughtered since the disaster are too contaminated to eat. According to tests conducted by the Japanese government, some of the boars have shown levels of radioactive element caesium-137 that are 300 times higher than safety standards, the New York Times reported.
One of the most affected areas is the seaside town of Namie, where scores of the toxic beasts descended from surrounding hills and forests to forage for food in empty streets and overgrown backyards.
But their reign will soon be over as former residents prepare to return at the end of this month, when Japan is expected to lift evacuation orders for parts of the town, which is located just four kilometres from the wrecked nuclear plant.
Image
Repair work undertaken on No. 3 reactor building last year. Picture: AFP

Fearing attacks on returnees, officials have started to cull the animals, some of which have settled comfortably in abandoned homes and have reportedly lost their shyness to humans.
“It is not really clear now which is the master of the town — people or wild boars,” Namie Mayor Tamotsu Baba told Reuters.
“If we don’t get rid of them and turn this into a human-led town, the situation will get even wilder and uninhabitable.”
http://www.news.com.au/world/filmmakers ... 46c42a1330



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FewZ1NM8kVA


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1lGUW_8Le8

Image


so what do you guys think of John Lear? :shock:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=podu0cLkxqQ
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Nuclear Meltdown Watch

Postby norton ash » Fri Nov 10, 2017 2:36 pm

http://www.irsn.fr/EN/newsroom/News/Pag ... tions.aspx

09/11/2017
Detection of Ruthenium 106 in France and in Europe: Results of IRSN’s investigations

Ruthenium 106 has been detected in late September by several European networks involved in the monitoring of atmospheric radioactive contamination, at levels of a few milliBecquerels per cubic meter of air. IRSN's investigations make it possible to provide information on the possible location of the source of the release as well as the order of magnitude of the quantities released.

As soon as it became aware of the first detections of Ruthenium 106 in the atmosphere in Europe, IRSN mobilized all its means of radiological monitoring of the atmosphere and conducted regular analysis of the filters from its monitoring stations. For the period from September 27 to October 13, 2017, only the stations of Seyne-sur-Mer, Nice and Ajaccio revealed the presence of Ruthenium 106 in trace amounts. Since October 13, 2017, Ruthenium 106 is no longer detected in France.
Measurement results from European stations communicated to the Institute since October 3, 2017, have confirmed the presence of Ruthenium 106 in the atmosphere of the majority of European countries. The results obtained for sampling periods later than October 6, 2017, showed a steady decrease in Ruthenium 106 levels, which is currently no longer detected in Europe.

The concentration levels of Ruthenium 106 in the air that have been recorded in Europe and especially in France are of no consequence for human health and for the environment.

Based on the meteorological conditions provided by Météo France and the measurement results available in European countries, IRSN carried out simulations to locate the release zone, to assess the quantity of ruthenium released, as well as the period and the duration of the release.
The map below summarizes the results obtained and confirms that the most plausible zone of release lies between the Volga and the Urals without it being possible, with the available data, to specify the exact location of the point of release. Indeed, it is in this geographical area that the simulation of a ruthenium release makes it possible to better reproduce the measurements obtained in Europe.

Map showing the plausibility of the origin of the release:


Looks like Kazakhstan region as the source.
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Re: Nuclear Meltdown Watch

Postby Pele'sDaughter » Fri Nov 10, 2017 4:14 pm

http://www.king5.com/news/local/hanford ... /490669989

RICHLAND, Wash. - Inspectors at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation have found seven leaks in the site's oldest double-walled radioactive waste storage tank.

Tank AY-102 was known since 2012 to have a slow leak from its inner shell into the space between its inner and outer walls.

The Tri-City Herald reports that the tank, which once held 744,000 gallons of waste, had been emptied of all but 19,000 gallons by February.

Then an inspection was done with video cameras.

A manager for the U.S. Department of Energy told the Hanford Advisory Board on Wednesday that a total of seven leaks were found.

The Energy Department says no waste is believed to have breached the outer shell to contaminate the environment.

Hanford for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons and the wastes are left over.
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Re: Nuclear Meltdown Watch

Postby smoking since 1879 » Tue Nov 14, 2017 8:36 am

norton ash » Fri Nov 10, 2017 7:36 pm wrote:http://www.irsn.fr/EN/newsroom/News/Pages/20171109_Detection-of-Ruthenium-106-in-France-and-in-Europe-Results-of-IRSN-investigations.aspx

09/11/2017
Detection of Ruthenium 106 in France and in Europe: Results of IRSN’s investigations

Ruthenium 106 has been detected in late September by several European networks involved in the monitoring of atmospheric radioactive contamination, at levels of a few milliBecquerels per cubic meter of air. IRSN's investigations make it possible to provide information on the possible location of the source of the release as well as the order of magnitude of the quantities released.

As soon as it became aware of the first detections of Ruthenium 106 in the atmosphere in Europe, IRSN mobilized all its means of radiological monitoring of the atmosphere and conducted regular analysis of the filters from its monitoring stations. For the period from September 27 to October 13, 2017, only the stations of Seyne-sur-Mer, Nice and Ajaccio revealed the presence of Ruthenium 106 in trace amounts. Since October 13, 2017, Ruthenium 106 is no longer detected in France.
Measurement results from European stations communicated to the Institute since October 3, 2017, have confirmed the presence of Ruthenium 106 in the atmosphere of the majority of European countries. The results obtained for sampling periods later than October 6, 2017, showed a steady decrease in Ruthenium 106 levels, which is currently no longer detected in Europe.

The concentration levels of Ruthenium 106 in the air that have been recorded in Europe and especially in France are of no consequence for human health and for the environment.

Based on the meteorological conditions provided by Météo France and the measurement results available in European countries, IRSN carried out simulations to locate the release zone, to assess the quantity of ruthenium released, as well as the period and the duration of the release.
The map below summarizes the results obtained and confirms that the most plausible zone of release lies between the Volga and the Urals without it being possible, with the available data, to specify the exact location of the point of release. Indeed, it is in this geographical area that the simulation of a ruthenium release makes it possible to better reproduce the measurements obtained in Europe.

Map showing the plausibility of the origin of the release:


Looks like Kazakhstan region as the source.


Wow, this is the first i heard about this :ohwh

Such a limited hangout going on here. No other radio isotopes are mentioned (lying by omission) and "Kazakhstan region as the source." (let's blame russia).

Michaël Van Broekhoven has been following this for a while (i now find out), here's his latest post, still digesting it...
A Lot More than Ruthenium-106 in that Radioactive Cloud (DATA)

thanks Norton o>
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Re: Nuclear Meltdown Watch

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Nov 17, 2017 9:01 pm


Clues In That Mysterious Radioactive Cloud Point Toward Russia

November 17, 201711:34 AM ET
GEOFF BRUMFIEL

The core of the RBT-3 reactor at the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dimitrovgrad, Russia. Some scientists suspect the institute's work on medical isotopes might explain radioactivity detected over Europe.

Sovfoto/UIG via Getty Images
The tiny nation of Denmark has just three stations for monitoring atmospheric radiation. Each week, scientists change out air filters in the detectors and take the used ones to a technical university near Copenhagen.

There, Sven Poul Nielsen and other researchers analyze the filters. They often snag small amounts of naturally occurring radioactivity, radon for example.

Then about a month ago, Nielsen was startled to find something far stranger: a radioactive isotope known as ruthenium-106.


THE TWO-WAY

Mysterious Radioactive Cloud Over Europe Hints At Accident Farther East

Ruthenium-106 has a half-life of just one year, which means that it isn't naturally found on Earth. It is, however, created in the glowing cores of nuclear reactors — and usually only detected in the atmosphere when something goes terribly wrong.

The ruthenium was detected far beyond Denmark. It showed up all across Europe, from Cyprus to Spain. The levels seen in dozens of nations were far too low to pose a health risk. Within weeks, the thin cloud had vanished.

So far, no nation has announced a recent nuclear incident or accident involving ruthenium-106. But some Western scientists say they suspect the source might have been a Russian research institute near the city of Dimitrovgrad, west of the Ural Mountains. The reason for their suspicion comes down to atmospheric calculations and the type of work being done at the facility, known as the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors.

Asked about activity at RIAR in the past six months, spokeswoman Anna Volkova told NPR by email that no incidents had occurred at the facility and that "ruthenium was not produced in that period." Russian atomic energy officials have previously said there has been nothing unusual detected at any of their nation's nuclear facilities.

Nielsen acknowledges that the theory of a Russian origin is an educated guess. "We don't know for sure," he says. But in the absence of more information, this is perhaps the most complete explanation for the radioactive haze he picked up in his filters.


A map from French authorities suggests that the release came from the east, near the border of Russia and Kazakhstan.

IRSN
Clue No. 1

Ruthenium-106 has been detected in the atmosphere before. After the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, the isotope was a part of the radioactive soot that blanketed Europe. The Chernobyl meltdown happened inside the secretive Soviet Union, and some of the first signs there had been an accident were the detection of ruthenium along with other radioactive isotopes.

This time is different. Starting in late September, detectors throughout Europe began picking up trace amounts of ruthenium — but they didn't pick up other radioactive elements associated with a nuclear power accident.

"We've never seen ruthenium-106 alone," Nielsen says. "This is the strange thing we see now."

To see ruthenium-106 without the other isotopes seen inside a reactor suggests that it might have been isolated chemically.

There is one very particular process that makes ruthenium-106, says Kenneth Czerwinski, a radiochemist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Ruthenium-106 is created as a byproduct during the production of a medical isotope known as molybdenum-99.

The world needs molybdenum-99. It's an important ingredient used in some medical scans of the heart and other organs. But very few locations actually make it. "There aren't many facilities," Czerwinski says. "There are some reactors in Canada, Belgium, South Africa, Australia."

And in Russia. In 2013, the state atomic energy corporation ROSATOM announced that RIAR in Dimitrovgrad had successfully begun producing and purifying molybdenum-99. There is a global shortage of the isotope, and Russia has ambitions of becoming a supplier to hospitals all over the world. According to a report by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, it eventually hopes to snag a 20 percent share of the international market.

To meet Russia's ambitions, RIAR researchers must learn how to make molybdenum-99 according to international standards. It's conceivable they might have made a mistake in that process and released some ruthenium, says Thomas Ruth, an emeritus nuclear chemist at TRIUMF, in British Columbia, Canada. "There is a learning curve," he says.

But Ruth isn't certain that RIAR was the source. He thinks that other radioactive isotopes might be present if such an accident had occurred. For that reason he thinks an accident involving old nuclear fuel, perhaps at another facility, might be to blame.

Clue No. 2

The second clue pointing to Dimotrovgrad has to do with where the ruthenium was found. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, 43 nations reported detecting ruthenium-106. Scientists with various governments have collected that data, along with weather information, to try to work backward and find the cloud's origin.

A French analysis released last week suggested the most likely region for the release was somewhere in between the Volga River and the southern Ural Mountains, the precise region where Dimitrovgrad is located. A German statement also pointed to the southern Urals, though it said other areas in the south of Russia could also be candidates.

Scientists speak in probabilities, and none are prepared to say they know what happened for sure. But many now believe the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors is the "obvious candidate," Nielsen says. "That institute has a number of reactors that do interesting things including isotope production," Czerwinski agrees.

That being said, RIAR isn't the only nuclear facility in the region. This stretch of Russia is dotted with nuclear facilities. Among them is the Mayak Production Association, once a major nuclear weapons plant that now does things like recycling vast quantities of old nuclear fuel. Mayak has had a spotty safety record over the decades.

In the end, it's educated speculation. The IAEA has issued a brief statement saying that all member states that detected the ruthenium have also said there were no nuclear incidents in their territory, including in Russia.

Russia's ROSATOM did not respond to NPR's inquiry, but it issued a statement on Oct. 11 broadly calling the Russian-origin theory untenable. The organization cited radiation monitoring that had showed no ruthenium-106 over Russia itself, except in minute quantities over St. Petersburg.

Without confirmation of an incident or accident, Nielsen says the true story may never be known. "We're waiting for somebody to step forward and say, 'Yes, we did it.’ "

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way ... ard-russia
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Re: Nuclear Meltdown Watch

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Nov 20, 2017 3:35 pm

Six Years After Fukushima, Robots Finally Find Reactors’ Melted Uranium Fuel

The Japanese government and companies used radiation-hardened machines to search for the fuel that escaped the plant’s ruined reactors.

By MARTIN FACKLERNOV. 19, 2017

Daisuke Hirose, a Tepco spokesman, inside the Unit 5 reactor at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Tepco used underwater robots that finally found the melted uranium fuel inside Unit 3, another reactor that was destroyed. Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR POWER PLANT, Japan — Four engineers hunched before a bank of monitors, one holding what looked like a game controller. They had spent a month training for what they were about to do: pilot a small robot into the contaminated heart of the ruined Fukushima nuclear plant.

Earlier robots had failed, getting caught on debris or suffering circuit malfunctions from excess radiation. But the newer version, called the Mini-Manbo, or “little sunfish,” was made of radiation-hardened materials with a sensor to help it avoid dangerous hot spots in the plant’s flooded reactor buildings.

The size of a shoe box, the Manbo used tiny propellers to hover and glide through water in a manner similar to an aerial drone.

After three days of carefully navigating through a shattered reactor building, the Manbo finally reached the heavily damaged Unit 3 reactor. There, the robot beamed back video of a gaping hole at the bottom of the reactor and, on the floor beneath it, clumps of what looked like solidified lava: the first images ever taken of the plant’s melted uranium fuel.



The Mini-Manbo, at a demonstration in Yokosuka, Japan, is an underwater robot fitted with radiation-hardened materials and sensors. It succeeded where previous robots had failed, maneuvering around debris and avoiding excess radiation to locate the Fukushima plant’s spent, and highly dangerous, uranium fuel. Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
The discovery in July at Unit 3, and similar successes this year in locating the fuel of the plant’s other two ruined reactors, mark what Japanese officials hope will prove to be a turning point in the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl.

The fate of the fuel had been one of the most enduring mysteries of the catastrophe, which occurred on March 11, 2011, when an earthquake and 50-foot tsunami knocked out vital cooling systems here at the plant.

Left to overheat, three of the six reactors melted down. Their uranium fuel rods liquefied like candle wax, dripping to the bottom of the reactor vessels in a molten mass hot enough to burn through the steel walls and even penetrate the concrete floors below.


Robot finds potential fuel debris in reactor 3 at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant Video by International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning, via The Japan Times
No one knew for sure exactly how far those molten fuel cores had traveled before desperate plant workers — later celebrated as the “Fukushima Fifty” — were able to cool them again by pumping water into the reactor buildings. With radiation levels so high, the fate of the fuel remained unknown.

As officials became more confident about managing the disaster, they began a search for the missing fuel. Scientists and engineers built radiation-resistant robots like the Manbo and a device like a huge X-ray machine that uses exotic space particles called muons to see the reactors’ innards.

Now that engineers say they have found the fuel, officials of the government and the utility that runs the plant hope to sway public opinion. Six and a half years after the accident spewed radiation over northern Japan, and at one point seemed to endanger Tokyo, the officials hope to persuade a skeptical world that the plant has moved out of post-disaster crisis mode and into something much less threatening: cleanup.

“Until now, we didn’t know exactly where the fuel was, or what it looked like,” said Takahiro Kimoto, a general manager in the nuclear power division of the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco. “Now that we have seen it, we can make plans to retrieve it.”

Tepco is keen to portray the plant as one big industrial cleanup site. About 7,000 people work here, building new water storage tanks, moving radioactive debris to a new disposal site, and erecting enormous scaffoldings over reactor buildings torn apart by the huge hydrogen explosions that occurred during the accident.

Access to the plant is easier than it was just a year ago, when visitors still had to change into special protective clothing. These days, workers and visitors can move about all but the most dangerous areas in street clothes.



The Unit 1 reactor at the Fukushima plant, whose top was blown away when it melted down on March 11, 2011. Ko Sasaki for The New York Times


From left, Unit 2, damage to Unit 1, and a tank at the Naraha technology center, situated in the evacuation zone around the Fukushima plant, where the Mini-Manbo was tested. Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
A Tepco guide explained this was because the central plant grounds had been deforested and paved over, sealing in contaminated soil.

During a recent visit, the mood within the plant was noticeably more relaxed, though movements were still tightly controlled and everyone was required to wear radiation-measuring badges. Inside a “resting building,” workers ate in a large cafeteria and bought snacks in a convenience store.

At the plant’s entrance, a sign warned: “Games like Pokemon GO are forbidden within the facility.”

“We have finished the debris cleanup and gotten the plant under control,” said the guide, Daisuke Hirose, a spokesman for Tepco’s subsidiary in charge of decommissioning the plant. “Now, we are finally preparing for decommissioning.”

In September, the prime minister’s office set a target date of 2021 — the 10th anniversary of the disaster — for the next significant stage, when workers begin extracting the melted fuel from at least one of the three destroyed reactors, though they have yet to choose which one.

The government admits that cleaning up the plant will take at least another three to four decades and tens of billions of dollars. A $100 million research center has been built nearby to help scientists and engineers develop a new generation of robots to enter the reactor buildings and scoop up the melted fuel.

At Chernobyl, the Soviets simply entombed the charred reactor in concrete after the deadly 1986 accident. But Japan has pledged to dismantle the Fukushima plant and decontaminate the surrounding countryside, which was home to about 160,000 people who were evacuated after accident.

Many of them have been allowed to return as the rural towns around the plant have been decontaminated. But without at least starting a cleanup of the plant itself, officials admit they will find it difficult to convince the public that the accident is truly over.

They also hope that beginning the cleanup will help them win the public’s consent to restart Japan’s undamaged nuclear plants, most of which remain shut down since the disaster.

Tepco and the government are treading cautiously to avoid further mishaps that could raise doubts that the plant is under control.

“They are being very methodical — too slow, some would say — in making a careful effort to avoid any missteps or nasty surprises,” said David Lochbaum, director of the nuclear safety project at the Union of Concerned Scientists, who was a co-author of a book on the disaster.

“They want to regain trust. They have learned that trust can be lost much quicker than it can be recovered.”



A robot in a tank at the Naraha technology center, where engineers are testing new devices to explore the ruined Fukushima nuclear plant. Ko Sasaki for The New York Times


Other projects at the Naraha technology center. “This is a divine mission for Japan’s robot engineers,” said its director of research and development, Shinji Kawatsuma. Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
To show the course followed by the Manbo, Tepco’s Mr. Hirose guided me inside the building containing the undamaged Unit 5 reactor, which is structurally the same as two of the destroyed reactors.

Mr. Hirose pointed toward the spot on a narrow access ramp where two robots, including one that looked like a scorpion, got tangled in February by debris inside the ruined Unit 2.

Before engineers could free the scorpion, its monitoring screen faded to black as its electronic components were overcome by radiation, which Tepco said reached levels of 70 sieverts per hour. (A dose of one sievert is enough to cause radiation sickness in a human.)

Mr. Hirose then led me underneath the reactor, onto what is called the pedestal.

The bottom of the reactor looked like a collection of huge bolts — the access points for control rods used to speed up and slow down the nuclear reaction inside a healthy reactor. The pedestal was just a metal grating, with the building’s concrete floor visible below.

“The overheated fuel would have dropped from here, and melted through the grating around here,” Mr. Hirose said, as we squatted to avoid banging our heads on the reactor bottom. The entire area around the reactor was dark, and cluttered with pipes and machinery.



Mr. Hirose entering the reactor of the undamaged Unit 5. The Japanese government has set a target date of 2021 to begin extracting the melted fuel from at least one of the three destroyed reactors. Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
To avoid getting entangled, the Manbo took three days to travel some 20 feet to the bottom of Unit 3.

To examine the other two reactors, engineers built a “snake” robot that could thread its way through wreckage, and the imaging device using muons, which can pass through most matter. The muon device has produced crude, ghostly images of the reactors’ interiors.

Extracting the melted fuel will present its own set of technical challenges, and risks.

Engineers are developing the new radiation-resistant robots at the Naraha Remote Technology Development Center. It includes a hangar-sized building to hold full-scale mock-ups of the plant and a virtual-reality room that simulates the interiors of the reactor buildings, including locations of known debris.

“I’ve been a robotic engineer for 30 years, and we’ve never faced anything as hard as this,” said Shinji Kawatsuma, director of research and development at the center. “This is a divine mission for Japan’s robot engineers.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/19/scie ... -fuel.html



GE faces lawsuit over role in Fukushima nuclear disaster

November 18, 2017
A group of Japanese businesses and doctors sued General Electric Co. in Boston federal court on Friday, claiming the industrial giant was reckless and negligent in its design of the reactors and related systems at the core of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.

The plaintiffs claim Boston-based GE knowingly used a reactor design at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that would fail to protect against the possible threat of earthquakes and tsunamis, a natural risk in that area.

The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status for businesses in the area that suffered economic damage as a result of the disaster, which displaced as many as 150,000 people.

Among other things, the lawsuit claims GE and its partners lowered a protective cliff by more than 60 feet, placing the plant and all six of its GE-designed reactors closer to the Pacific Ocean and in the path of the severe tsunami that struck on March 11, 2011.

Afte the tsunami hit, three GE-designed reactors suffered from “entirely foreseeable flooding and resulting nuclear meltdowns,” causing the release of radioactive matter into the area surrounding the plant, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs are essentially blaming GE for defective reactor design as well as for not putting in place enough safeguards to prevent the spread of radiation once the Fukushima plant was breached.

A GE spokesman said the company continues to offer sympathy for those affected by the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.

“The Japanese government and other investigative bodies long ago concluded that the Fukushima nuclear accident was caused by the tsunami, and the resulting loss of seawater pumps and all electrical power, not reactor design,” he said. “We believe these claims can and should be addressed under Japan’s nuclear compensation law, which provides relief for persons impacted by these events.”
https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/20 ... story.html


Three Ways Radiation Has Changed The Monkeys Of Fukushima

Japanese monkeys in Fukushima Prefecture show the effects of radiation from the meltdown of the Fukushima-Daichi Nuclear Power Plant. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)


This year the evacuated residents of Japan's Fukushima Prefecture began returning home, and as they resume their lives, the monkeys who have lived there all along have some cautions for them—in the form of medical records.

The Japanese macaques show effects associated with radiation exposure—especially youngsters born since the March 2011 meltdowns at the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, according to a wildlife veterinarian who has studied the population since 2008.

Dr. Shin-ichi Hayama detailed his findings Saturday in Chicago as part of the University of Chicago's commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the first man-made controlled nuclear reaction, which took place under the university's football stadium in 1942 and birthed the technologies of nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

Hayama appeared alongside documentary filmmaker Masanori Iwasaki, who has featured Hayama's work in a series of annual documentaries exploring the impact of fallout from the reactor meltdowns on wildlife. The fallout led the Japanese government to evacuate residents from a highly contaminated area surrounding the plant and extending to the northwest. The plume crossed the Pacific Ocean and left much diluted quantities of fallout across the United States, an event closely monitored on this page.

Since 2008, Hayama has studied the bodies of monkeys killed in Fukushima City's effort to control the monkey population and protect agricultural crops (about 20,000 monkeys are "culled" annually in Japan). Because he was already studying the monkeys, he was ideally positioned to notice changes affected by radiation exposure.

"I’m not a radiation specialist," Hayama said Saturday in Chicago, "but because I’ve been gathering data since 2008—remember, the disaster took place in 2011—it seems obvious to me that this is very important research. I’ve asked radiation specialists to take on this research, but they have never been willing to take this on because they say we don’t have any resources or time to spare because humans are much more important.

“So I had to conclude that there was no choice but for me to take this on, even though I’m not a specialist in radiation," Hayama said, his remarks translated by University of Chicago Professor Norma Field. "If we don’t keep records, there will be no evidence and it will be as if nothing happened. That’s why I’m hoping to continue this research and create a record.”

Fukushima City is 50 miles northeast of the Fukushima-Daiichi Power Plant, so the radiation levels have been lower there than in the restricted areas, now reopening, that are closer to the plant. Hayama was unable to test monkeys in the most-contaminated areas, but even 50 miles from the plant, he has documented effects in monkeys that are associated with radiation. He compared his findings to monkeys in the same area before 2011 and to a control population of monkeys in Shimokita Peninsula, 500 miles to the north.

Hayama's findings have been published in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports, published by Nature. Among his findings:

https://www.nature.com/search?order=dat ... all&sp-m=1

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/ ... ent=safari
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Re: Nuclear Meltdown Watch

Postby smoking since 1879 » Mon Nov 20, 2017 4:41 pm

SLAD Dumps More Than Nuclear Industry - SHOCK REPORT AT 10
"Now that the assertive, the self-aggrandising, the arrogant and the self-opinionated have allowed their obnoxious foolishness to beggar us all I see no reason in listening to their drivelling nonsense any more." Stanilic
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Re: Nuclear Meltdown Watch

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Nov 20, 2017 5:28 pm

:)
Last edited by seemslikeadream on Tue Nov 21, 2017 12:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Nuclear Meltdown Watch

Postby identity » Mon Nov 20, 2017 6:17 pm

Thanks for keeping us updated on Fukushima, slad! :)
We should never forget Galileo being put before the Inquisition.
It would be even worse if we allowed scientific orthodoxy to become the Inquisition.

Richard Smith, Editor in Chief of the British Medical Journal 1991-2004,
in a published letter to Nature
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