Nuclear accident follows Japanese earthqauke

[2 As and a B]

Planned evacuation of rest home residents in Fukushima village called into question

IITATE, Fukushima -- Controversy has arisen over the planned relocation of patients at a rest home in the Fukushima Prefecture village of Iitate, which is part of an expanded evacuation zone that the government designated in its handling of the crisis at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.

The facility, Iitate Home, is the only special home for the elderly in the village. The village and facility have asked the government to exempt rest home residents from evacuations that are to be carried out by the end of May, saying that the evacuation would put the residents under great strain. However, opponents argue that people in the home should not only be evacuated, but given priority during evacuations.

Based on an evaluation of the accumulated amount of radiation in Iitate, the government has ordered that the village be evacuated by late May. However, authorities are still struggling to take care of the weak people who need comprehensive care. In a separate case, dozens of people at a hospital in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, died from physical deterioration after they were evacuated in the wake of the crisis at the nuclear power plant.

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Should we include those as fatalities of the nuclear industry?

[2 As and a B]

Chernobyl recovery officer criticises Japan's efforts at Fukushima

Soviet efforts to contain the Chernobyl nuclear disaster a quarter of a century ago were far better than Japan's "slow-motion" response to the disaster at Fukushima, a leading member of the 1986 recovery effort said.

In a rare interview on the eve of the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl on Monday, Col-Gen Nikolai Antoshkin said he was shocked at how poorly Japan had coped with its own nuclear disaster.

"Right at the start when there was not yet a big leak of radiation they (the Japanese) wasted time.

And then they acted in slow-motion," he said.

The Soviets had evacuated 44,600 people within two and a half hours and put them up in "normal comfortable conditions" on the same day, he recalled.

"Look at advanced Japan," he said. "People are housed in stadiums and are lying about on the floors of sports halls in unhygienic conditions."

Gen Antoshkin said he thought the Japanese were simply unable to cope on their own. "It is clear that they do not have enough strength or means. They need to ask the international community for help," he said. "I think the Japanese catastrophe is already more serious than Chernobyl. The main thing is that they do not allow it to become three, four or five times more serious."

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[2 As and a B]

Rainbow Warrior to conduct marine radiation monitoring off Fukushima

With two field trips into the area surrounding the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant now completed, our flagship the Rainbow Warrior has raised its anchor and set sail for Japan to undertake a third, focusing on the threatened marine ecosystem off Japan’s eastern coast.

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[kenneal - lagger]

In a separate case, dozens of people at a hospital in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, died from physical deterioration after they were evacuated in the wake of the crisis at the nuclear power plant.

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Should we include those as fatalities of the nuclear industry?[/quote]

Ooooh Noooo! That wouldn't be right. It's the tsunami and earthquake.

[kenneal - lagger]

Gen Antoshkin said he thought the Japanese were simply unable to cope on their own. "It is clear that they do not have enough strength or means. They need to ask the international community for help," he said. "I think the Japanese catastrophe is already more serious than Chernobyl. The main thing is that they do not allow it to become three, four or five times more serious."

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"Loss of face" won't allow that.

[raspberry-blower]

Another worker at Fukushima receives radiation dosage above the legal limit:

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday that one of its female employees was exposed to radiation doses far above the legal limit at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant -- the latest revelation of lax radiation management by the plant operator since the crisis erupted last month.
Kyodo News

[Ippoippo]

Gen Antoshkin said he thought the Japanese were simply unable to cope on their own. "It is clear that they do not have enough strength or means. They need to ask the international community for help," he said. "I think the Japanese catastrophe is already more serious than Chernobyl. The main thing is that they do not allow it to become three, four or five times more serious."

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"Loss of face" won't allow that.

Agree. Whilst somewhat lower down (in terms of actual/potential loss of human life), the same thing happened when JAL Flight 123 crashed. Japanese authorities were stubborn then about accepting US help, despite the fact that US forces were better placed to help quickly.

Pride can be admirable trait, but it can be a real PITA sometimes.

[Aurora]

How dare you call me a vacuous housewife.

[biffvernon]

A senior nuclear adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan submitted his resignation on Friday, saying the government had ignored his advice and failed to follow the law.

Toshiso Kosako, a Tokyo University professor who was named last month as an advisor to Kan, said the government had only taken ad hoc measures to contain the crisis at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.

http://climatecrocks.com/2011/04/29/par ... t-of-here/

Meanwhile,

Japan's prime minister Friday acknowledged the government must bear some responsibly for the Fukushima nuclear plant crisis.

In Diet deliberations on reconstruction of disaster-hit areas, Prime Minister Naoto Kan promised victims, as well as those in the farming and fishing industries, that the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. would compensate them, The Japan Times reported Friday.

"It goes without saying the primary responsibility lies with Tepco, but the government, which has been promoting nuclear power plants, cannot be exempt from responsibility," Kan said.

Tepco President Masataka Shimizu said Thursday the country's nuclear damage compensation law stipulates operators will be exempt from payment if "the damage is caused by a grave natural disaster of an exceptional character or by an insurrection."

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano firmly rejected the idea of an exemption, saying the possibility of a major tsunami seriously damaging power plants had been discussed in previous Diet deliberations.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/ ... 304109477/[/quote]

[kenneal - lagger]

The idea that analysis from a joiner, a brickie, a vacuous housewife, and some prat in Sussex is going to be worth reading, let alone commenting upon, is derisable.

You will have to add a PhD in Astro Physics to that list because one of the commentators here holds that qualification.

[biffvernon]

Sorry to butt in with a reality check:



There is more and more evidence, such as the I/Cs ratio increasing when it should be decreasing, that we still have a critical reactor or three.

[Mean Mr Mustard]

As that graph is expressed in E notation (powers of 10), it would look even scarier in actual numbers? Would be useful if the 'safe' boundary was indicated.

[An Inspector Calls]

The idea that analysis from a joiner, a brickie, a vacuous housewife, and some prat in Sussex is going to be worth reading, let alone commenting upon, is derisable.

You will have to add a PhD in Astro Physics to that list because one of the commentators here holds that qualification.

How do we know?

[biffvernon]

As that graph is expressed in E notation (powers of 10), it would look even scarier in actual numbers? Would be useful if the 'safe' boundary was indicated.

No, I don't think a 'safe' boundary indication is useful. The important thing is the I/Cs ratio. Both Iodine 131 and Caesium 137 are decay products of uranium fission but as I has a half life of 8 days and Cs of 30 years the ratio from a recently critical nuclear reactor should go down with time. It isn't. There are some theoretical chemical pathways of dilutions and differentiations that could perhaps produce such figures but the much simpler explanation is that at least one of the reactors' fuel assemblies has got itself into a condition where post shut down re-criticality has occurred.

The nine month TEPCO road map is looking increasingly like a wish list and the prospect of a large area of Japan being out of bounds for ever an increasingly likely reality.

[Mean Mr Mustard]

Could it be do do with the spent fuel? Plenty enough scattered around to cause problems?

Any indication what's going on with the MOX onsite? Pu has a halflife worth worrying about. Assuming we care for future generations - again best expressed in powers of 10.

Collapse of the Middle East and irradiation of Japan leading to another collapse, and yet all the papers report is the Royal Wedding.