Nuclear Meltdown Watch

[StarmanSkye]

More, recent Russia Today report on the Onagawa nuclear plant situation. VERY sparse information, apparently recent 7.1 Richter-scale earthquake damage causing more problems for that facility which has been basically isolated in the last month following the 9.0 earthquake & tsunami. Several of its back-up diesel generators are leaking. Mostly rehashing the desperate, frustrating dilemna of barely-managed catastrophe at Fukushima where the game plan in the absence of comprehensive contingency preparations are taking the form of necessary, least-awful actions responding to each dire emergency on an ad hoc basis.

To me this represents the more absurd, ludicrous and deceitful duplicity of the PTB who have screamed warnings of how terrible Iran's prospective nuclear energy program is while whitewashing the true horrors of Japan's actual & unfolding nuclear power disaster.

Hundreds of billions of taxpayer future debt-indenture to confound illusory, hypothetical 'dirty-bomb terrorists' while denying the reality of a multi-Chernobyl catastrophe spewing a hundred-thousand times the destructive legacy of dirty-bomb contamination around the world.

Every day the self-fulfilling madness of an out-of-control military-industrial boondoggle nightmare inflicts itself on the waking world, and we're supposed to shut-up and take it like loyal bent-over patriots.


Another short Euronews vid re: Onagawa Reactor


**********

Russia Today vid:



Fri Apr 8, 2011 2:36am EDT

* Aftershock splashes water from fuel pools at 3 reactors

* Small rise in radiation levels inside reactor buildings

* Power lines hit but backup generator available

TOKYO, April 8 (Reuters) - Water leaked out of spent fuel pools at the Onagawa nuclear plant in northeast Japan after a strong aftershock rocked the region late on Thursday, but there was no change in the radiation levels outside the plant, operator Tohoku Electric Power Co said on Friday.

It said water sloshed out of spent fuel pools in the plant's No.1, No.2 and No.3 reactors, which had been shut down after the 9.0 magnitude quake on March 11, and had also leaked in three other locations in the No.3 reactor complex.

The Onagawa plant, in Miyagi prefecture, was automatically shut and later cooled down safely after it was hit by a tsunami 13 metres (43 ft) higher than its base level triggered by the March 11 quake.

The operator had reported similar leakage of water from spent fuel pools and at other facilities at the plant after the March 11 quake. But engineers removed leaked water and cleaned up the contaminated area by March 31.

Tohoku Electric said on Friday two out of three lines supplying off-site power to the Onagawa site -- in so-called cold shutdown since the March 11 quake -- were lost last night in the strongest aftershock so far of the earlier quake.

Cooling operations of its spent pool fuels resumed after they stopped due to the quake, it said, and there was still an emergency backup generator to fall back on.

"We detected a small rise in radiation levels inside the reactor buildings, and are trying to find the locations of the leaks," a Tohoku Electric official said. "We see no change in radiation levels outside the reactor buildings."

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), citing information from Japanese authorities, said off-site power was lost at some other nuclear facilities in the country after Thursday evening's quake, and that emergency power supply was operating.

"The epicentre of the earthquake was 20 km (12 miles) from the Onagawa nuclear power plant and approximately 120 km (75 miles) from the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants," it said.

At the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which operator Tokyo Electric Power Co is struggling to stabilise after the March 11 quake and tsunami, the IAEA said it was confirmed that no changes had been observed at on-site radiation monitoring posts after Thursday's aftershock. (Reporting by Mayumi Negishi, Yoko Nishikawa and Risa Maeda; Editing by Michael Watson)

[anothershamus]

THE most comprehensive FUKUSHIMA links site I have found to date, period! From one of my new favorite sites:
ah, mephistophelis. http://femalefaust.blogspot.com/:

FUKUSHIMA CRISIS: More Really Useful Links


These links were born of attempts to talk me down out of the freaking-out tree in regards to radiation exposure. They worked at the time. Recent findings of Cesium in organic milk threaten to send me back to them, and not skimming like I was the first time. But before I master the information I thought I would make this list available - its too good.

http://femalefaust.blogspot.com/2011/04/fukushima-crisis-really-useful-links.html

[eyeno]

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiap ... ar.crisis/
Japanese Experts: Effort is in danger of failing… and reactors too hot to cover in concrete — TEPCO admits there is no end in sight
April 10th, 2011 at 03:06 PM

Improvisation, frustration mark Japan’s nuclear crisis at 4 weeks, CNN, April 10, 2011:

[Emphasis Added]

… A month into the crisis, the utility acknowledges, there is no end in sight. …

Some Japanese experts now say the effort is in danger of failing unless Japan seeks more help from international experts to bring it to an end. Tetsunari Iida, an engineer-turned-industry critic, said the situation is “beyond the reach” of Japan’s closely knit nuclear establishment. …

[E]xperts say the overheated fuel rods are likely to have suffered extensive damage, and there is a complication for seemingly every advance. …

Tokyo Electric officials told CNN they can’t say when they’ll be able to restore those normal cooling. …

Satoshi Sato, a Japanese nuclear industry consultant, called the current line of attack a “waste of effort.” Plant instruments are likely damaged and unreliable because of the intense heat that was generated, and pumping more water into the reactors is only making the contamination problem worse, he said.

“There is no happy end with their approach,” Sato told CNN. “They must change the approach. That’s something I’m sure of 100 percent.”

After the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the world’s worst to date, the Soviet Union encased the plant’s damaged reactor in a massive concrete sarcophagus. Iida said Fukushima Daiichi’s reactors remain too hot to pour concrete, but he suggested pouring a slurry of minerals and sand over them to carry away heat before encasing them. …
----------------
http://blogs.forbes.com/jeffmcmahon/201 ... ing-water/
East Coast city’s tap water has highest radiation in US — Philadelphia only .8 pCi/L below EPA’s maximum contaminant level
April 10th, 2011 at 09:59 AM

EPA: New Radiation Highs in Little Rock Milk, Philadelphia Drinking Water, Jeff McMahon (Forbes blog), April 10 2011:

… [D]rinking water from Philadelphia contained the highest levels of Iodine-131 from Japan yet detected by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to data released by EPA Saturday. …

The EPA’s [maximum contaminant level] for iodine-131 is 3 picoCuries per liter. …

A sample from the city’s Queen Lane Treatment Plant showed 2.2 picoCuries per liter—the highest concentration in EPA’s drinking water data so far. … Belmont Treatment Plant contained 1.3 picocuries, and… Baxter Treatment Plant contained 0.46 picocuries. …

Read the report here.
--------------------
http://blogs.forbes.com/jeffmcmahon/201 ... ing-water/

Arkansas milk 300% above EPA’s maximum contaminant level for radioactive iodine-131… 11 days ago
April 10th, 2011 at 09:25 AM

EPA: New Radiation Highs in Little Rock Milk, Philadelphia Drinking Water, Jeff McMahon (Forbes blog), April 10 2011:

Milk from Little Rock… contained the highest levels of Iodine-131 from Japan yet detected by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to data released by EPA Saturday. …

[T]he Little Rock sample is [8.9 picoCuries per liter,] almost three times higher [than the EPA’s maximum contaminant level (MCL)].

Nonetheless, the EPA does not consider the milk dangerous because the MCL is set for long-term exposure…

The EPA’s MCL for iodine-131 is 3 picoCuries per liter. …

Read the report here.

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And Socrata. The stunning tool to create that needed transparency for government agencies and its stunning revelations of the released data The first 11 entries, the highest ranking ones most likely too since they are more recent, are missing for som reason.
Socrata social data calculator


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[Nordic]

Iida said Fukushima Daiichi’s reactors remain too hot to pour concrete, but he suggested pouring a slurry of minerals and sand over them to carry away heat before encasing them. …

If it carries away the heat, it will also carry away intense radiation. So ..... where is it supposed to carry this stuff TO? The ocean? The air? Spinach fields?

Why do they keep beating around the bush about how bad it is? It's been fucking obvious since day one that this was a major meltdown in process and that it was going to go on for a very long time, pretty much a worst-case scenario. Nobody wants to fucking admit that.

[seemslikeadream]

Japan set to extend nuclear evacuation zone

By Hayden Cooper and wires

The Japanese government is considering extending the evacuation zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant because of high radiation levels.

A 20-kilometre exclusion zone has been in place around the plant since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit Japan one month ago today.

But Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, says changes are being considered.

"From the perspective of cumulative radiation, we need to take measures to secure people's safety," he said.

No decision has been announced, but local media reports say the zone could be extended to 30km and authorities will stop anyone trying to return to their homes.

Engineers at the damaged plant north of Tokyo said on Sunday they were no closer to restoring the plant's cooling system, which is critical if overheated fuel rods are to be cooled and the six reactors brought under control.

They are hoping to stop pumping radioactive water into the ocean today, days later than planned.

The government has so far refused to widen the evacuation zone despite being urged by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to do so.

Both Australia and the United States recommend citizens stay 80km away from the plant.

Fukushima governor Yuhei Sato criticised the evacuation policy, saying residents in a 20- to 30km radius were initially told to stay indoors and then advised to evacuate voluntarily.

"Residents in the 20- to 30km radius were really confused about what to do," he told NHK television yesterday.

The earthquake and tsunami is the worst crisis in Japan since World War II, leaving nearly 28,000 dead or missing and rocking the world's third-largest economy.

At precisely 2:46pm (local time) Japan fell silent to remember the dead and missing.

In ruined villages along the north-east coast, survivors put their hands together in prayer and bowed their heads as once again an emergency siren sounded.

Japan's prime minister used the occasion to thank the world for offering help during the past month.

[StarmanSkye]

This is already pretty-much a worst-case scenario, a 'perfect-storm' catastrophe that was allowed to happen because of a combination of corporate greed, political corruption, official misfeasance and scientific arrogance. TEPCO officials bobbled in the crucial hours and days -- My GAWD they were so far behind the 8-ball they didn't even recognize the inevitable consequences in not keeping the fuel bundles in cores but especially cooling pools cool and covered with water -- there is zircalloy degradation and oxidation which releases high volumes of extremely-combustable hydrogen. They couldn't even recharge or replace the 2nd back-up system batteries! Which apparently did work as intended for most reactors until they were depleted, except for Reactor 4 which one or both pools seems to have been severely damaged in the quake causing a large crack thru which much or most of the crucial water leaked.

The biggest public and biological hazard in nuclear power is the corporate and technical culture itself which simply is incapable of not betraying the public trust.

Arnie Gunderson's latest update in which he demonstrates what happens to zircalloy fuel rods when subjected to intense heat:



I've just seen that Japanese officials have extended the evacuation zone to 30 km, with five cities in the surrounding area especially at-risk and localized hot-spots. Apparently the intrepid journalist who ventured into the exclusion-zone area with geiger-counters screaming really hit a live nerve, public response now forcing officials to actively monitor and chart the radioactive contamination.

God-DAMN corporate greed and political betrayal.

I'd like to see the GE engineers and pro-nuke officials who endorsed these reactors and their extremely at-risk siting & design be forced to live within 10 km of Fukushima. Drink the water and eat the locally-produced food. Radiation is good for you!

[ninakat]

Fallout Risks in Europe No Longer ‘Negligible’
April 11th, 2011

The concern is with pregnant women and infants.

For whatever it’s worth, here is Google’s French to English translation of the document, Contamination de la France par les rejets de la centrale de Fukushima Daiichi: QUELS SONT LES RISQUES?

Via: EurActiv:

The risks associated with iodine-131 contamination in Europe are no longer “negligible,” according to CRIIRAD, a French research body on radioactivity. The NGO is advising pregnant women and infants against “risky behaviour,” such as consuming fresh milk or vegetables with large leaves.

In response to thousands of inquiries from citizens concerned about fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Europe, CRIIRAD has compiled an information package on the risks of radioactive iodine-131 contamination in Europe.

The document, published on 7 April, advises against consuming rainwater and says vulnerable groups such as children and pregnant or breastfeeding women should avoid consuming vegetables with large leaves, fresh milk and creamy cheese.

The risks related to prolonged contamination among vulnerable groups of the population can no longer be considered “negligible” and it is now necessary to avoid “risky behaviour,” CRIIRAD claimed.

However, the institute underlines that there is absolutely no need to lock oneself indoors or take iodine tablets.

CRIIRAD says its information note is not limited to the situation in France and is applicable to other European countries, as the level of air contamination is currently the same in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, for instance.

Data for the west coast of the United States, which received the Fukushima radioactive fallout 6-10 days before France, reveals that levels of radioactive iodine-131 concentration are 8-10 times higher there, the institute says.

[Nordic]

I'd like to see the GE engineers and pro-nuke officials who endorsed these reactors and their extremely at-risk siting & design be forced to live within 10 km of Fukushima. Drink the water and eat the locally-produced food. Radiation is good for you!

They should be the ones on the front lines, wading around in the radioactive water, wearing those nearly-useless suits. Where the hell are they? A safe distance that's where.

In my line of work, I never ask anyone who works for me to do something I wouldn't do myself. Where's that ethos?

[Jeff]

I don't know that any mood-altering world event has altered my mood like this one. And that's saying something.

[crikkett]

And Socrata. The stunning tool to create that needed transparency for government agencies and its stunning revelations of the released data The first 11 entries, the highest ranking ones most likely too since they are more recent, are missing for som reason.
Socrata social data calculator

May have been only temporary, or perhaps you're running something to block the sites serving up the data (peerblock or some other security software?)

[Nordic]

I don't know that any mood-altering world event has altered my mood like this one. And that's saying something.

Yeah. Especially today, with the link right above this one that Ninakat provided. Living here in California I'm getting 8 to 10 times the radiation that they're getting in France, where they're telling people to stay away from tap water, leafy veggies, grass fed beef, creamy cheeses, and fresh milk.

I eat all of those things. So do my kids.

Great. What the fuck are we supposed to do, huh?

[justdrew]

I have no idea what we're getting. I think the EPA RADNET is useless. We need counts of dust deposition not raw gieger counter readings.

[WakeUpAndLive]

I don't know that any mood-altering world event has altered my mood like this one. And that's saying something.

Yeah. Especially today, with the link right above this one that Ninakat provided. Living here in California I'm getting 8 to 10 times the radiation that they're getting in France, where they're telling people to stay away from tap water, leafy veggies, grass fed beef, creamy cheeses, and fresh milk.

I eat all of those things. So do my kids.

Great. What the fuck are we supposed to do, huh?

change diet??

If you think about it...isn't drinking milk meant for baby cows a little strange?

[StarmanSkye]

Jeff wrote:

"I don't know that any mood-altering world event has altered my mood like this one. And that's saying something."

*****
Oh MaN, that's sayin it alright! I haven't stepped far-back enough to put it in perspective, but nothing else really grabs or HAS grabbed my attention as much as this does. It feels like a major paradigm-shifting game-changer with dire, long-lasting implications that have only begun to be percieved, in small & tiny parts, just around the vague knife-edged boundaries on the edge of nightmares and reality. Premonitions of awful forebodings, not the really troublesome stuff just yet. It totally freaks me out. A movie I'd rather not even know has been made. Like a nuclear war gone awry, the biggest ever terror dirty-nuke brought to life by the 'good things' people at GE.

[seemslikeadream]

Fire seen at Fukushima nuclear plant; flames no longer visible
Mon Apr 11, 2011 7:48pm EDT

(Reuters) - A fire broke out at Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, operator Tokyo Electric and Power (TEPCO) said on Tuesday, although flames and smoke were no longer visible.

A worker saw fire at a building near the No.4 reactor at around 6:38 a.m. (21:38 GMT) and a fire fighting unit of the Self Defence Forces was sent to fight the blaze, a TEPCO spokesman said.

"Flames and smoke are no longer visible but we are awaiting further details regarding whether the fire has been extinguished completely," he said.

Japan has been battling to bring under control the plant damaged severely by last month's devastating earthquake and tsunami. (Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro

Japan may assess nuclear crisis at Chernobyl level

By Michael Kitchen

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Japanese nuclear-safety authorities may raise their assessment of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant to the same level as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster later Tuesday, according to reports from the region. Separate reports from Kyodo News and broadcaster NHK said Japan's nuclear safety regulators would put the crisis at level 7, the highest possible rating which had so far only been assigned to the Chernobyl incident. The situation was currently rated at level 5, on par with the U.S. nuclear accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in 1979. On Monday, Japan widened the evacuation area around Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s