What "might happen" with the Japanese Nuclear plants?

[woodsmoke]

Re: What "might happen" with the Japanese Nuclear plants?

This is all just very sad.

woodsmoke

[GreyGeek]

Re: What "might happen" with the Japanese Nuclear plants?

Helen Caldicott, MD
world-renowned anti-nuclear advocate, author and pediatrician. She has spent decades warning of the medical hazards posed by nuclear technologies. She is the co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility.

http://www.helencaldicott.com/

A Medical Problem of Vast Dimensions

As I write this on 25 March from Ottawa , two weeks since the earthquake and tsunami and the calamity that has befallen the Fukushima Nuclear Plant No 1, the situation has grown increasingly grave.

Despite the heroic efforts of the “Nuclear Samurai” – the TEPCO employees who have selflessly and heroically fought to stabilize the reactors and restore power – there are worrying signs that signal dangerous instability continues to reign.

Among them, the announcement today that one of the reactor cores may have suffered a break that could have released large amounts of radiation at the plant; the widening of the exclusion zone to 30 kilometers ; and the US government ban on certain milk and vegetables from that area from importation.

In truth, as I say in this just-published CNN Opinion piece, nuclear power and its deleterious effects are a medical problem of vast dimensions — the greatest public health hazard the world will ever see.

Tragically, the “Nuclear Samurai” work for a company — TEPCO –that has been exposed as having ignored mandatory safety checks at Fukushima; as allowing spent fuel rods far in excess of the number that was deemed prudent to be stored on site; and as being evasive and unforthcoming about the real facts of the unfolding emergency

What we have also seen is a second tsunami of a different kind – a tidal wave of blow-back from the nuclear industry around the world, which has been rocked back on its heels by Fukushima but is now regrouping. There are claims that radiation is good for you; that nuclear power is still the only answer to global warming; and that fears about the safety of nuclear power are unwarranted and panic-stricken.

Let us be clear: there are billions and billions of dollars at stake for the nuclear industry, which has, as I’ve written earlier, managed to bamboozle governments around the world , much of the press, and many ordinary citizens into believing that nuclear power is green and clean. Nothing could be further from the truth. The industry will not walk away from that money without a fight.

It has gotten much worse since March 25th. What she feared, a meltdown, as occurred in at least one of the six reactors, and possible in three of them.

Today, a video]video was released showing that at 35Km from the Fukushima a radiation detector maxes out at 9,999 cps.

And this from Berkeley, showing that Iodine-131 in rain water is 18,100% greater than what is legally permissible in drinking water:

UCB Rain Water Sampling Results, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Nuclear Engineering:

Iodine-131 level in rainwater sample taken on the roof of Etcheverry Hall on UC Berkeley campus, March 23, 2011 from 9:06-18:00 PDT

20.1 Becquerel per liter (Bq/L) = 543 Picocuries per liter (pCi/L)

The federal drinking water standard for Iodine-131 is 3 pCi/L.

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry for Iodine, CDC, April 2004:

EPA has set an average annual drinking water limit of 3 pCi/L for Iodine-131
so the public radiation dose will not exceed 4 millirem

A video modeling Iodine-131 migration across the USA through April 6 is here.

It comes from here.

18,000% here in America. A Japanese bureacrate said A WEEK AGO that Fukushima "probably exceeds Three Mile Island and Chernolby and it will only get worse."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CIgA...eature=related

[GreyGeek]

Re: What "might happen" with the Japanese Nuclear plants?

Chlorine-138 detected in Reactor #1

What does it mean? The reactor is turning itself off and on and while on is flooding the area with NEUTRONS, which are NOT detected by the detectors they are using and workers there are being exposed to higher levels of radiation than is admitted by TEPCO. It is explained here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn27_YeRawc

He gives background info here.

Fairewinds Energy Education Corporation is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to educating the public on issues of nuclear safety and reliability. The fellow speaking in the videos had 35 years experience in the Nuclear industry before safety concerns led him to what he is doing now. http://fairewinds.com/

[Detonate]

Re: What "might happen" with the Japanese Nuclear plants?

Scared is not a word that ever applies to me. But I admit to a degree of raised apprehension.

[GreyGeek]

Re: What "might happen" with the Japanese Nuclear plants?

As I stated in the opening post of another thread.. I am concerned. That concern was heightened today when I read a Fairewinds report on the NRC and their inability to regulate Nuclear reactors.

Nuclear Containment Failures - Ramifications for the AP1000 Containment Design

Some of the pictures in that report are scarey. So is the news that the NRC ( ) tried to silence employees who knew that the power plants were violating regulations.

Japan has asked us for our 70 meter concrete pumps. The Fairewinds videos explain why -- neutron radiation making it too hot for humans to be in the vicinity. I suspect, because TECPO tried for at least two weeks to salvage the plants, that the escape of Plutonium will create a "no man's land" across Japan at least 100-150 miles wide, lasting for centuries, and perhaps a similar zone reaching into China. To the East the radiation will land in the ocean, if it is not carried by the winds. But, that is also serious if what lands is radioactive Plutonium and daughter products.

[GreyGeek]

Re: What "might happen" with the Japanese Nuclear plants?

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/05_27.html

Sea water around the plant has more than 5 million times the legal limit for Iodine-131, which is 0.04 becquerels per cm^3, or 40,000 beq per m^3. So, 200,000 beq is radiating from each cubic cm of sea water. That water is now beginning its migration around the Pacific, and will take 10 months for it to decay away to background levels. But, as long as the Fukushima plant continues to pour radioactive water into the sea the contamination will continue to spread. The latest word is that it may be MONTHS (YEARS) before they can contain the radiation. Currently, gamma ray sky shine is so great that it has raised the radiation level in and around the plant to lethal levels. ALL of the 128 workers who volunteered will probably be dead before the year is out.

[GreyGeek]

Re: What "might happen" with the Japanese Nuclear plants?

The April 6th update from Fairewinds Associates talks about the TEPCO & NRC putting the lid on information from Fukushima following the discovery of neutron beam radiation, Iodine-138 and the likelihood that Plutonium was scattered in all directions when the reactor in one building reached 5,000C and blew up (the explosion that looked like an A-Bomb blast). He also mentioned info from an AREVA and the statement one of its executives made on March 21st: "Clearly, we are witnessing one off the greatest disasters in modern times."

A story about the report is here. It was reported that after the initial comments were published the report was modified to remove all comments made by AREVA.

The latest AREVA report is here.

[GreyGeek]

Re: What "might happen" with the Japanese Nuclear plants?

Fairewinds Associates posted a video showing nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen demonstrate how Fukushima's fuel rods melted and shattered.

The video is also here:
http://vimeo.com/22209827

[GreyGeek]

Re: What "might happen" with the Japanese Nuclear plants?

Japan has raised the danger level of the Fukushima disaster to 7, the maximum. They now rank it on par with the Chernobyl disaster. It is most certainly that, and it was that three weeks ago. TEPCO is "thinking" about extending the radius of contamination from 12 miles to 18 miles. Chernobyl was set at 19 miles (30 km), but some areas having 37 kBq/m^2 were 200 and 500 km North-NorthEast! Chernobyl blew up in 1986, 25 years ago. The half-life of Cesium 137 is 30 years, and Strontium-90 is 28.8 years, so the radiation due to those two isotopes have been reduced by only half, to 1/2 Curie per Km^2.

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/de...erms=chernobyl

The three main contaminated areas, defined as those with 137Cs deposition density greater than 37 kBq m-2 (1 Ci km-2), are in Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine; they have been designated the Central, Gomel-Mogilev-Bryansk and Kaluga-Tula-Orel areas. The Central area is within about 100 km of the reactor, predominantly to the west and northwest. The Gomel-Mogilev-Bryansk contaminated area is centred 200 km north-northeast of the reactor at the boundary of the Gomel and Mogilev regions of Belarus and of the Bryansk region of the Russian Federation. The Kaluga-Tula-Orel area is in the Russian Federation, about 500 km to the northeast of the reactor. All together, territories from the former Soviet Union with an area of about 150,000 km2 were contaminated with 137Cs deposition density greater than 37 kBq m-2. About five million people reside in those territories.

A supposed trip on a motorcycle through the exclusion zone turned out to be a hoax. There are trips through the zone but they are in enclosed vehicles and in limited areas of the zone.

A couple weeks ago a Japanese couple who never got closer to Fukushima than 250 miles traveled to China. They were tested at the airport and were so hot the Chinese put them into isolation and began administering radiation treatment.

Neutron radiation, along with flashing blue lights seen at night, and the appearance of Chlorine-138 establish that fission is still taking place. A small percentage of plutonium-239 can be deliberately added to fresh nuclear fuel. Such fuel is called MOX (mixed oxide) fuel, as it contains a mixture of uranium oxide (UO2) and plutonium oxide (PuO2). The addition of plutonium-239 reduces or eliminates the need to enrich the uranium in the fuel. That is, one can use U-238 and a small amount of Pu-239. (This is probably how American is getting rid of all the nuclear warheads they purchased from Russia and why the MOX plant is being built at Savannah River.) Plutonium wasn't part of Chernobyl's deadly brew. There is more than enough Pu-239 in the reactors to form more than one ball of melted Pu with a diameter of only 4", but apparently it is being blown apart by microfission reactions, which accounts for the Neutrons, blue flashing night lights and Chlorine-138 daughter products.

Pu-239's half life is 24,200 years. It will be in Japan's soil for thousands of years, and when it decays it produces U-235 !! There is more than enough Pu-239 in the reactors to form more than one ball of melted Pu with a diameter of only 4", enough for a critical mass and explosion.

[woodsmoke]

Re: What "might happen" with the Japanese Nuclear plants?

I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I had a student at the college two sememsters ago who does Christian "help trips". These aren't to "proselytize" but to "help people", doing things like building stuff etc.

Anyhow, they went on such a trip to modern day Russia and were in the general area of Chernobyl because of the devastation there and so they also went on "a tour" near the Chernobyl reactor and she had pictures which showed the very tippy tops of the buildings in the very far distance.

They had all the monitoring gear and U.S. people that worked there year round so there was no danger of contamination to them but...

....she also had pictures of women with kids that had "deformed arms" "legs" etc.

The people and these women, particularly, had been abandoned by the government both the Communist and the new "whatever it is" government and the people are reduced to selling pictures of their kids to get some small scrap of food or whatever.

we just can't imagine what has happened there...

It might be possible that the whole island of Japan would fit within the radius of what happened at Chernobyl. And even if that did not happen, the island might be "cut in half" and it could be "cut in half" for thirty years. .... also they harvest a LOT of algae/molluscs etc. for food from the nearby seas in "floating farm" operations.. If that water becomes sufficiently contaminated it could massively reduce the food supply... And of course if it is high concentration there it will be lower but still toxic concentration elsewhere...

woodsmoke

[GreyGeek]

Re: What "might happen" with the Japanese Nuclear plants?

Japan's economy has been slow for a couple decades. They must IMPORT ALL of the oil they consume, hence their dependence on nuclear power. With a radiation zone that makes a swath of land 60 to 100 miles wide, stretching across Japan (and into North Korea and China), along with contamination of the ocean on the North East shores of Japan, this disaster could move Japan out of 1st World status and into 2nd world status. Most of the potentially radioactive land is mountainous, not flat agricultural land like in the South. It remains to be seen if they will be able to grow enough crops and harvest enough fish to feed themselves.

[Snowhog]

Re: What "might happen" with the Japanese Nuclear plants?

The nuclear disaster has now been classified as bad as Chernobyl, which was the *worst* nuclear disaster on record. It's more than bad for Japan, and it's going to have lasting effects on the rest of the world.

[GreyGeek]

Re: What "might happen" with the Japanese Nuclear plants?

Fairewind report for 4/13/11 here
and
here.

[GreyGeek]

Re: What "might happen" with the Japanese Nuclear plants?

The Fairewinds report is here.

Arnie Gundersen explains the TEPCO data which establishes that Fucushima was a Chernobyl class event, and the strong likelihood that the Fuel pool on top of Reactor #4 has (or did have) a chain reaction. He also establishes that about all of the leaking radiation comes from Reactor #2, which shows no pressure in the vessel.

[MoonRise]

Re: What "might happen" with the Japanese Nuclear plants?

Thanks GG! That's the first I've watched on of those. Since no news from the media I was wondering where everything was with that. He's good at explaining. Love the math involved. Doesn't sound as though they really have a good idea of what happened and React. #2 really sounds scary if they can't get that sealed, not that it isn't already very bad. My hat's off and prayers to those men who stayed to clean and repair for their country and people. I know what is in store for them later down the road.