Nuclear Meltdown Watch

[justdrew]

http://www.google.com/images?q=cherenkov+radiation

cherenkov radiation above the building. that's just incredible. amazing this wasn't going on weeks ago though.

CHERENKOV RADIATION - Radiation emitted by when a massive particle moves faster than the speed of light in the medium through which it is traveling. No particle can travel faster than light in vacuum, but the speed of light in other media (water, glass, etc.) is considerably lower. When any charged particle moves through water it tends to polarize the water molecules in a direction adjacent to its path, thus distorting the local electric charge distribution. After the particle has passed, the molecules realign themselves in their original, random charge distribution, emitting a pulse of electromagnetic radiation. When the speed of the particles is less than the speed of the light in water, the pulses tend to cancel due to destructive interference; however, when the speed of the particle is greater than the speed of light in water, the light pulses are amplified through constructive interference. The phenomenon is analogous to the acoustic "sonic boom" observed when an object exceeds the speed of sound in air.

Cherenkov radiation was first observed by Marie and Pierre Currie in the early part of the 20th century. The effect was named after Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, who won the 1958 Nobel Prize for being the first to rigorously characterize it. Cherenkov radiation is observed in nuclear reactors when fission products decay and produce high-energy β particles. The β particle velocities exceed the speed of light in water (2.3 × 108 m/s) producing blue Cherenkov radiation (below).

so if we're seeing CR in _AIR_ that must mean LOTS (as in shit loads) of high-energy β particles

[smoking since 1879]

on edit. **** sorry, wrong thread



on edit. **** sorry, wrong thread

[eyeno]

Arnie Gunderson's second March 31 update (at the fairewinf site eyeno linked above) is one I hadn't seen -- but he discusses photo interpretation of the ustream video released yesterday by Fukushima officials which is a short segment looking into reactor #4 from the concrete-pumper boom used to spray water into the 2 cooling ponds. It shows the pool basically empty with the fuel racks lying close to the top -- implying the fuel bundles are (and have been) exposed. This is terrible news, tho not exactly unexpected. Surprised I haven't seen anyone commenting on this detail -- I mean, I saw the ustream video but doidn't know what I was looking at.

This may also explain the ethereal blue light observed above the reactor site, many people suggesting its due to neutron excitation of the optic nerve or gamma ray ionization of air molecules. It appears it MAY be the latter, indicating localized criticality -- possibly from the #4 cooling pools (or #1, or #2 or #3 -- we simply aren't getting good info from the TEPCO and IAEC officials to really know what's going on).

But we know they're pumping some 200 tons of water a day on the damaged reactors and pools and they're no closer to repairing internal coolant systems let alone preparing for serious containment work by removing the wreckage which is clogging all of the reactor and pool access.

VERY bad implications.

And we find TEPCO is sending workers into hazardous areas without sufficient dosimeters, only 1/2 of what they need on an ongoing basis.

The TEPCO officials can't be excoriated enuff IMHO.

From the looks of these pools from the pictures The Consul provided via this link it appears that two spent fuel pools are so badly damaged they would never hold water, top to bottom. And that a third has the top knocked off. First pic at the top of the site. If those are the pools in the little squares at the top of the pic that is. But if so, that would also have to be the reactor housing because the pools are high in the reactor building.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011 ... unami.html

[eyeno]

http://cryptome.org/eyeball/daiichi-npp ... photos.zip



Photos taken march 24, 2011. 4,3 are toast. 1 may as well be. Recently 2 had problems so it may be in the same shape now. And, where are all these hundreds of thousands of tons of water they have been dumping daily? See no evidence of it from these photos.








In this March 24, 2011 aerial photo taken by a small unmanned drone and released by AIR PHOTO SERVICE, damaged Unit 3, left, and Unit 4 of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant are seen in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. (Air Photo Service Co. Ltd., Japan)




In this March 24, 2011 aerial photo taken by a small unmanned drone and released by AIR PHOTO SERVICE, Unit 4, left, and Unit 3 of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant are seen in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. (Air Photo Service Co. Ltd., Japan)




In this March 24, 2011 aerial photo taken by a small unmanned drone and released by AIR PHOTO SERVICE, damaged Unit 3 of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is seen in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. (Air Photo Service Co. Ltd., Japan)



This March 24, 2011 aerial photo taken by a small unmanned drone and released by AIR PHOTO SERVICE shows damaged Unit 3 of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. (Air Photo Service Co. Ltd., Japan)



This March 24, 2011 aerial photo taken by a small unmanned drone and released by AIR PHOTO SERVICE shows damaged Unit 4 of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. (Air Photo Service Co. Ltd., Japan)



In this March 20, 2011 aerial photo taken by a small unmanned drone and released by AIR PHOTO SERVICE, the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is seen in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. From top to bottom: Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3 and Unit 4. (Air Photo Service Co.




In this March 20, 2011 aerial photo taken by a small unmanned drone and released by AIR PHOTO SERVICE, damaged Unit 4, left, and Unit 3 of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant are seen in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. (Air Photo Service Co. Ltd., Japan)




n this March 20, 2011 aerial photo taken by a small unmanned drone and released by AIR PHOTO SERVICE, the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant are seen in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. From left: Unit 1, partially seen; Unit 2, Unit 3 and Unit 4. (Air Photo Service Co. Ltd., Japan)




In this March 20, 2011 aerial photo taken by a small unmanned drone and released by AIR PHOTO SERVICE, the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is seen in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. From right to left: Unit 1, Unit 2 and Unit 3. (Air Photo Service Co. Ltd., Japan)




In this March 20, 2011 aerial photo taken by a small unmanned drone and released by AIR PHOTO SERVICE, the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is seen in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. From right to left: Unit 1, Unit2, Unit 3 and Unit 4. (Air Photo Service Co. Ltd., Japan)

[MinM]

the devil resides in this carcass

Come on in Coulter, the water's fine.

Japan Finds Radioactive Water Leaking into Ocean

VOA News April 02, 2011

Photo: AP Photo/Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency

In this photo released by Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Tokyo Electric Power Co. workers collect data in the control room for Unit 1 and Unit 2 at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, March 23, 2011.

Nuclear safety officials say a newly-discovered crack in Japan's damaged nuclear plant could be the source of radioactive water that is leaking into the Pacific Ocean...

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Jap ... 12749.html

[anothershamus]

Lot's to like about this story, the Putzmeisters and the Antonov 225, (It's amazing that that airplane can lift that huge truck! Like in 2012 when Sasha says "Come on baby lift your big ass for Sasha!" and they clip the top of the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas.)

Giant pumps airlifted on Giant Planes to help with Giant Japan Nuke Crisis. Bonus: They're "Putzmeisters"

Via boingboing.net
Xeni Jardin at 9:30 AM Sat



The AP reports that two gigantic concrete pumps, the largest equipment of this type in the world, will be air-lifted to Japan to help pour water on damaged reactors at Fukushima.

The machines are designed to spray concrete for new skyscrapers, bridges and similarly large-scale construction projects, but they're being modified to spray water for this use.

"But if a decision is made to encase a reactor in concrete -- similar to a method used in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster -- the machines would be capable of doing that as well," explained an executive from the company that made them.

They'll be carried over on an Antonov 225, the world's heaviest aircraft. The company, and the devices: "Putzmeister."

[ninakat]

long article with a lot of information and analysis...

EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS: Latest Satellite Imagery From Fukushima Tells Sobering Tale
Friday, April 1, 2011
Chris Martenson

. . .



. . .

Conclusions

The efforts at Fukushima are probably weeks away from even basic stabilization and we are years away from any sort of a final resolution. This crisis is going to be with all of us for a very long time. Radioactive material will continue to escape from the complex into the environment for weeks at best, months or years at worst.

The chief concern here is that things might still take a turn for the worse whereby radiation spikes to levels that prevent humans from getting close enough to perform meaningful operations and work on the site. If the radiation spikes high enough it will force an evacuation from the vicinity complicating every part of what has to happen next from monitoring to remediation.

The general lack of staged materials anywhere in the vicinity indicates that authorities have not yet decided on a plan of action, feeding our assessment that they are still in 'react mode' and that we are weeks away from nominal stabilization.

On Thursday we learned from the Wall Street Journal that TEPCO only had one stretcher, a satellite phone, 50 protective suits, and only enough dosimeters to give a single one to each worker group. Given this woeful level of preparation it is not surprising to see that regular fire trucks, cement trucks, and a lack of staged materials comprise much of the current damage control mix.

We don't yet know enough to conclude how much fission has spontaneously re-occurred, but we have strong suspicions that the number is higher than zero. Here we make our call for the release of more complete and timely radiation readouts and sampling results by TEPCO and Japan so that we can assess what the true risks are. The situation remains fluid and quite a lot depends now on chance and which way the wind blows.

And as I detailed in the Alert report I issued soonafter the tragic events of the Japan earthquake and tsunami on March 10th, the impact of Japan's tribulations on the global economy will be large and vast. World markets are simply unpreapared for the third-largest economy to suddenly and violently downshift. The persisting crisis at Fukushima simply worsens the picture.

. . .

[seemslikeadream]

World markets are simply unpreapared for the third-largest economy to suddenly and violently downshift. The persisting crisis at Fukushima simply worsens the picture.

[Iamwhomiam]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 2, 2011

EPA STATEMENT: Update on Ongoing (Radiation) Monitoring

WASHINGTON – As a result of the incident with the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, several EPA air monitors have detected very low levels of radioactive material in the United States consistent with estimates from the damaged nuclear reactors. These detections were expected and the levels detected are far below levels of public-health concern.

Elevated levels of radioactive material in rainwater have been expected as a result of the nuclear incident after the events in Japan since radiation is known to travel in the atmosphere - precipitation samples collected by EPA in the states of California, Idaho and Minnesota have seen very slightly elevated levels of radiation.

In addition to iodine-131, EPA monitors have also identified trace amounts of other isotopes, which we expected to see because they are consistent with releases from the damaged Japanese nuclear reactors.

To see results from these precipitation samples, please visit www.epa.gov/japan2011/docs/rert/radnet- ... -final.pdf.

[StarmanSkye]

[eyeno]

.


Links in article at source.

Nuclear's green cheerleaders forget Chernobyl at our peril

Pundits who downplay the risks of radiation are ignoring the casualities of the past. Fukushima's meltdown may be worse

#
#

* John Vidal
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 1 April 2011 20.00 BST
* Article history




Every day there are more setbacks to solving the Japanese nuclear crisis and it's pretty clear that the industry and governments are telling us little; have no idea how long it will take to control; or what the real risk of cumulative contamination may be.

The authorities reassure us by saying there is no immediate danger and a few absolutist environmentalists obsessed with nuclear power because of the urgency to limit emissions repeat the industry mantra that only a few people died at Chernobyl – the worst nuclear accident in history. Those who disagree are smeared and put in the same camp as climate change deniers.

I prefer the words of Alexey Yablokov, member of the Russian academy of sciences, and adviser to President Gorbachev at the time of Chernobyl: "When you hear 'no immediate danger' [from nuclear radiation] then you should run away as far and as fast as you can."

Five years ago I visited the still highly contaminated areas of Ukraine and the Belarus border where much of the radioactive plume from Chernobyl descended on 26 April 1986. I challenge chief scientist John Beddington and environmentalists like George Monbiot or any of the pundits now downplaying the risks of radiation to talk to the doctors, the scientists, the mothers, children and villagers who have been left with the consequences of a major nuclear accident.

It was grim. We went from hospital to hospital and from one contaminated village to another. We found deformed and genetically mutated babies in the wards; pitifully sick children in the homes; adolescents with stunted growth and dwarf torsos; foetuses without thighs or fingers and villagers who told us every member of their family was sick.

This was 20 years after the accident but we heard of many unusual clusters of people with rare bone cancers. One doctor, in tears, told us that one in three pregnancies in some places was malformed and that she was overwhelmed by people with immune and endocrine system disorders. Others said they still saw caesium and strontium in the breast milk of mothers living far from the areas thought to be most affected, and significant radiation still in the food chain. Villages testified that "the Chernobyl necklace" – thyroid cancer – was so common as to be unremarkable; many showed signs of accelerated ageing.

The doctors and scientists who have dealt directly with the catastrophe said that the UN International Atomic Energy Agency's "official" toll, through its Chernobyl Forum, of 50 dead and perhaps 4,000 eventual fatalities was insulting and grossly simplistic. The Ukrainian Scientific Centre for Radiation, which estimated that infant mortality increased 20 to 30% after the accident, said their data had not been accepted by the UN because it had not been published in a major scientific journal.

Konstantin Tatuyan, one of the "liquidators" who had helped clean up the plant, told us that nearly all his colleagues had died or had cancers of one sort or another, but that no one had ever asked him for evidence. There was burning resentment at the way the UN, the industry and ill-informed pundits had played down the catastrophe.

While there have been thousands of east European studies into the health effects of radiation from Chernobyl, only a very few have been accepted by the UN, and there have been just a handful of international studies trying to gauge an overall figure. They range from the UN's Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation study (57 direct deaths and 4,000 cancers expected) to the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), who estimated that more than 10,000 people had been affected by thyroid cancer alone and a further 50,000 cases could be expected.

Moving up the scale, a 2006 report for Green MEPs suggested up to 60,000 possible deaths; Greenpeace took the evidence of 52 scientists and estimated the deaths and illnesses to be 93,000 terminal cancers already and perhaps 140,000 more in time. Using other data, the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences declared in 2006 that 212,000 people had died as a direct consequence of Chernobyl.

At the end of 2006, Yablokov and two colleagues, factoring in the worldwide drop in births and increase in cancers seen after the accident, estimated in a study published in the annals of the New York Academy of Sciences that 985,000 people had so far died and the environment had been devastated. Their findings were met with almost complete silence by the World Health Organisation and the industry.

So who can we trust when the estimates swing so wildly? Should we believe the empirical evidence of the doctors; or governments and industrialists backed by their PR companies? So politicised has nuclear energy become, that you can now pick and choose your data, rubbish your opponents, and ignore anything you do not like. The fact is we may never know the truth about Chernobyl because the records are lost, thousands of people from 24 countries who cleaned up the site have dispersed across the vast former Soviet Union, and many people have died.

Fukushima is not Chernobyl, but it is potentially worse. It is a multiple reactor catastrophe happening within 150 miles of a metropolis of 30 million people. If it happened at Sellafield, there would be panic in every major city in Britain. We still don't know the final outcome but to hear experts claiming that nuclear radiation is not that serious, or that this accident proves the need for nuclear power, is nothing short of disgraceful.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... -radiation

[seemslikeadream]

Concrete fails to plug leak at Fukushima nuclear plant
An operator at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says highly radioactive water from a pit near a reactor continues to leak into the ocean. Tepco officials plan to explore using a polymer in another attempt to stop the flow.

[eyeno]

FDA’s Comparison of Radiation in Milk to Everyday Exposures Called ‘Improper’


WASHINGTON, D.C.—A U.S. Food and Drug Administration statement regarding milk contaminated with radiation from Japan failed to accurately inform and educate the public, four watchdog groups and a former senior advisor in the U.S. Department of Energy said today, pointing to the fact that exposure to ingested iodine-131 is substantively different than everyday exposure to radiation in the environment.

On March 30, in response to reports that radioactive iodine-131 has been found in milk in Washington state, FDA senior scientist Patricia Hansen said, “Radiation is all around us in our daily lives, and these findings are a miniscule amount compared to what people experience every day. For example, a person would be exposed to low levels of radiation on a round trip cross country flight, watching television, and even from construction materials.”


This statement was called improper by experts at Beyond Nuclear, Food and Water Watch, Friends of the Earth and Nuclear Information and Resource Service, as well as by Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy during the Clinton Administration. Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy during the Clinton Administration, said: “No matter how small the dose might be, it is out of context to compare an exposure to a specific radioisotope that is released by a major nuclear accident with radiation exposures in everyday life. The FDA spokesperson should have informed the public that radioiodine provides a unique form of exposure in that it concentrates rapidly in dairy products and in the human thyroid. The dose received, based on official measurements, may be quite small, and pose an equally small risk.



However, making a conclusion on the basis of one measurement is fragmentary at best and unscientific at worst. As the accident in Fukushima continues to unfold, the public should be provided with all measurements made of radioactive fallout from the Fukushima reactors to allow for independent analyses.” Damon Moglen, Director of the Climate and Energy Project at Friends of the Earth, said:
“This is an apples-to-oranges comparison that lacks integrity. There is a big difference between ingesting radioactive material that accumulates in the thyroid and sitting on an airplane. You can’t drink a TV or eat an airplane.”

Cindy Folkers, Radiation and Health Specialist at Beyond Nuclear, said:
“It is important to remember that regardless of exposure level, as the National Academies of Science have reported, there is no safe dose of radiation. Children and pregnant mothers are particularly at risk from low-dose, long-term internal exposure.”

Michael Mariotte, Executive Director of Nuclear Information and Resource Service, said:
“No mother should ever have to wonder if the milk she feeds her child might be harmful. Having worked on nuclear issues for 25 years, I know the difference between internal exposures and background radiation. But lots of people don’t. As the father of an 11-month old daughter, I’m personally furious at the government for this misleading information.”

Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food and Water Watch, said:
“FDA is doing a disservice to the public by comparing radiation released from a nuclear reactor accident to exposures from everyday life. FDA should be providing consumers with accurate information about risks and designing a program to try to protect the public from additional radiation exposures.” The joint FDA/EPA statement from March 30 is available here: http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/ ... 249146.htm
###



For Immediate Release April 1, 2011 Contact: Kelly Trout, Friends of the Earth, 202-222-0722, ktrout@foe.org
Linda Gunter, Beyond Nuclear, 301-270-2209 x 2, linda@beyondnuclear.org FDA’s Comparison of Radiation in Milk to Everyday Exposures Called ‘Improper’

http://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2011/ ... res-c.html

[eyeno]

Russian Chernobyl Expert Warns of Dire Consequences for Health Around Fukushima
Dense populations and risk of plutonium releases could mean Fukushima accident worse than Chernobyl, prominent Russian scientists says

TAKOMA PARK, MD - March 25 - Dr. Alexey Yablokov, co-author of “Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment," and a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, warned today that the consequences of the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan could be comparable to or potentially greater than the health and environmental consequences of the Chernobyl reactor explosion on April 26, 1986 in Ukraine.

Speaking at a press conference in Washington, DC, Dr. Yablokov said: “We are seeing something that has never happened – a multiple reactor catastrophe including one using plutonium fuel as well as spent fuel pool accidents, all happening within 200 kilometers of a metropolis of 30 million people. Because the area is far more densely populated than around Chernobyl, the human toll could eventually be far worse in Japan."

Dr. Yablokov’s book calculated that as many as one million people had likely died as a result of the Chernobyl accident, figures far higher than other “official” reports. He said the book had been met “mostly with silence” from bodies like the World Health Organization who have “avoided discussion” about the findings.

Dr. Yablokov was joined at the press conference by Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth and Cindy Folkers, radiation and health specialist at Beyond Nuclear.

“I am not optimistic about the situation at Fukushima,” Dr. Yablolov said. “It’s especially dangerous if plutonium is released as inhalation of plutonium results in a high probability of cancer. A release of plutonium will contaminate that area forever and it is impossible to clean up.”

Plutonium is deadly for 240,000 years. Fears persist today that Unit 3 at Fukushima-Daiichi, which uses mixed plutonium, or MOX, fuel may have had a breach of containment after three workers there were contaminated at levels 10,000 times normal.

“The public in Japan and internationally are not getting the data they need to make a well-educated decision and to get the right advice,” said Pica. “That is why Friends of the Earth and other organizations have filed a Freedom of Information Act Request to U.S. agencies asking that they release the monitoring data they are getting from their staff in the U.S. and in Japan.”

The speakers pointed out that inhalation and ingestion of even low levels of radiation today could have long-term effects, manifesting illnesses even decades later.

“At Fukushima, our concern is not just the immediate exposures, but exposures that occur over the long term, from radioactive particles that are inhaled or ingested,” said Folkers. “These particles can fall on soil and in water and end up in the food supply for many years. We are worried that officials are measuring only the radiation that is the easiest to detect – gamma rays. Testing people for radiation on their skin or clothing is necessary, but it tells us little or nothing about what they could have breathed in or eaten—which results in internal exposure and long-term risk.”

Dr. Yablokov cautioned against the downplaying of the seriousness of the radiation releases at Fukushima. “When you hear ‘no immediate danger’ then you should run away as far and as fast as you can,” he said. He pointed out that the area around Chernobyl is as contaminated today as it was almost 25 years ago when the accident occurred. Cesium, americium, strontium and plutonium that deposited in soil have reached the roots of plants which then propel the radioactivity back to the surface. “The contamination there last year is the same as 20 years ago,” he said.

Coverage of the press conference can be viewed on C-Span at: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Chernob
###
Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic.

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/03/25-4

[ninakat]