According to Mr. Murata, former Japanese ambassador in Switzerland, the coolant system of SFP of reactor4 was stopped from 12/8 to 12/11, and the concrete base is terribly damaged already.
Knowing this trouble, mass media did not report it at all.
That's the big tank full of spent fuel rods in the wrecked No4 reactor building that they're taking about. If it fails it would be the biggest catastrophe, but of course they've got it all under control, haven't they?
Let me just summarize: (1) Huge quantities if intensely-toxic spent nuclear fuel are being stored on-site at our nation’s 100+ nuclear reactors. (2) Most of the spent fuel is stored in large above-ground ‘swimming pools’, designed to hold about one-fifth of present amounts, packed tightly on submerged racks within buildings “no more secure than a car dealership.” (3) Because the spent-fuel still generates large amounts of heat – enough to ignite itself -- the ‘swimming pools’ require constant active-cooling by water pumps to prevent catastrophic fires that would spew the radioactive toxins over large areas downwind of the plant.
Flooding is a major problem at the stricken nuke...
Groundwater flooding has become a major problem for Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), with hundreds of tons of water seeping daily into the damaged reactor buildings. Experts predict overall clean-up works at the site could take up to 40 years.
Stopping the groundwater is crucial, says Tepco's general manager for research and development of Fukushima Daiichi decommissioning, Shunichi Suzuki, adding that "Every day we have approximately 400 metric tons of groundwater." Article continues
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools - Douglas Adams.
overall clean-up works at the site could take up to 40 years.
So in 40 years the messes under what were the reactors will have been excavated, put into ultimate deep geological storage and the site cleared of radioactive residues? Dream on.
A few days ago power was lost to the pumps to the cooling ponds at 3 of the reactors. It was restored before the ponds overheated and the cause was tracked to a 'bug' in the wiring, or rather a fried rat.
Nice to know how secure this site is after 2 years of recovery work.
This is a truly remarkable film, telling the story of one woman from Namie, a town of 20000 people, now abandoned as the government, after attempts at decontamination, have decided it is too radioactive to live in. Her story might be multiplied twenty thousand times.
Marking the second anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, this documentary tells an insightful and surprisingly funny story of a family adjusting to life after the tsunami.
Director Kyoko Miyake revisits her Aunt Kuniko, who was forced to abandon her businesses and home following the disaster. Now living aimlessly in temporary accommodation on the edge of the contaminated zone, Aunt Kuniko is determined to return home as soon as possible. Miyake is puzzled as to why she and the family are not angry. As the first year after the disaster unfolds, she unearths the uncomfortable past that prevents things being so clear cut.
Through the attempts of the warm and indefatigable Aunt Kuniko to adapt at her ripe age, this deeply personal film explores notions of homeland, nuclear power and family love.
With all the reports of raised levels of radiation, not only in Japan, but in the US as well, one would do well to steer clear of vegetables and fruits sourced from Japan. Reports out of Japan are showing some freakish floral and plant reactions to the radiation leakage spawned from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster that occurred in early 2011.
We have endless releases into the Pacific Ocean that will be ongoing for not only our lifetimes, but our children’s' lifetimes. We have 40 million people living in the Tokyo area nearby. We have continued releases from the underground corium that reminds us it is there occasionally with steam events and huge increases in radiation levels. Across the Pacific, we have at least two peer-reviewed scientific studies so far that have already provided evidence of increased mortality in North America, and thyroid problems in infants on the west coast states from our initial exposures.
And all this collateral damage will continue for decades, if not centuries, even if things stay exactly the way they are now. But that is unlikely, as bad things happen like natural disasters and deterioration with time...earthquakes, subsidence, and corrosion, to name a few. Every day that goes by, the statistical risk increases for this apocalyptic scenario. No one can say or know how this will play out, except that millions of people will probably die even if things stay exactly as they are, and billions could die if things get any worse.
A large number of people are doooomed................well, perhaps; but maybe not so bad if you read the comments
To become an extremist, hang around with people you agree with. Cass Sunstein
Japan's nuclear agency wants to raise the severity level of a radioactive water leak at the Fukushima plant from one to three on an international scale.
Highly radioactive water was found to be leaking from a storage tank into the ground at the plant on Monday.
It was first classified as a level one incident on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (Ines).
But Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority proposes elevating it to level three on the seven-point scale.
This week is the first time that Japan has declared an event on the Ines scale since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Masayuki Ono, general manager of Tepco, told Reuters news agency: "One hundred millisieverts per hour is equivalent to the limit for accumulated exposure over five years for nuclear workers; so it can be said that we found a radiation level strong enough to give someone a five-year dose of radiation within one hour."
Similar confusion to kW and kWh. Should this have read "One hundred millisieverts is equivalent to the limit etc......"?
To become an extremist, hang around with people you agree with. Cass Sunstein
