ScribbleLive

@George Gibb Japan: this morning the SG convened a meeting of heads of agencies, funds and programs (including IAEA DG, UNDP Administrator, etc.), on the international response to the developments resulting from the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In his remarks, he encouraged States to adopt innovative measures to strengthen the nuclear safety regime, and expressed his support for calls to reassess the international emergency response framework and the nuclear safety regime. These issues are likely to be taken up at the 5th Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety, being convened by IAEA in April, and the High-Level Meeting on Safety and Innovative Uses of Nuclear Energy in Kiev April 19.

@Jo Linden: I have to give TEPCO a little more credit than that. Problem-solving isn't easy when there is no precedent established and the situation remains critical and fluid.

@Karen Warren I have had that site open since you posted it the first time.. Is good stuff for sure.

Some good stuff there. George. This jumped out at me:

"I apologize for making people worried," Sakae Muto, vice-president of under-pressure TEPCO, said at a briefing around midnight in Tokyo.

Yet he stressed the traces of plutonium 238, 239 and 240 were not dangerous and work would not be stopped.

"It's not at the level that's harmful to human health."

@

@Joe: What do you know about EDF other than the MOX 'experience?' Can you eloborate a bit? TIA

@All: large.stanford.edu "Japan was expected to start burning MOX fuel in 16 to 18 commercial reactors by 2010. However, that plan also went off course when a scandal exposed in 1999 that British Nuclear Fuels had fabricated quality assurance data for MOX fuel exported to Japan."

"Tokyo Electric Power Co., which had planned to load MOX fuel into its commercial reactors, also spread distrust of nuclear energy among Japanese citizens in 2002 when it was discovered to have covered up a series of technical problems. So far, only seven reactors are ready to begin burning the fuel, including the Genkai plant."

@sims Finally an admission, what a strange article though, does it seem to anyone else out there that even with the scant details in the article the conclusion is obvious? There has been a corem melt and subsequent vessel breach. The remaining corem is now cool enough to seal the reactor (maintaining pressure) and at the same time the bottom of the melt that was cooled suddenly by water injection is porous and letting the water straight out. Ok so this is opinion but is in line with corem behavior in TMI, Chernobyl, Sandia Labs corem investigations and several papers published on actual experimental simulated corem melt scenarios. Comments would be appreciated.

@All: large.stanford.edu "The Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant in the northern region of Aomori, which was the first commercial plant in a nonnuclear-weapon state, has also experienced troubles. Last year scientists said the plant was located above an active geological fault, sparking fears that an earthquake could damage the plant and release radiation."

@Gordon That would explain the frantic use of helicopters.

@Karen: I know that the situation isn't easy for Tepco guys. They seem to act as in the fog; they're not helped by the fact they lost most of measuring instruments. From my feeling of this story, everytime they announced a bad new we soon discovered that a bigger problem was arising.

*serious concern* I've been watching the temp and pressure in #1 and worrying that more trouble might happen. Now, NISA hasn't posted plant parameters, when all the 'other guys' posted thiers. If anyone sees thatnew data before I do, please let me know?

@George Gibb No nisa reports either

@All: large.stanford.edu "Such fears are not unfounded in an earthquake-prone country that has 54 nuclear reactors in all. In July 2007 a 6.8-magnitude earthquake shook the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station north of Tokyo, which was the world's largest nuclear power plant in terms of electricity generation. The plant was damaged by the tremors and all seven of its reactors still remain inactive."

@Karen: about EDF, I live in France. There have been numerous incidents that have leaked radioactivity and CRIIRAD (an independent associationthat started to figure how much the government lied French people about Chernobyl) measures that show spots of radioactivity near some EDF / Areva plant while no warning were reported to the public

Sorry was

@Tenzing: It appears that they have been conditioned.

For those who read French, here's a link to CRIIRAD

@PETER @ALL the site Tenzing sent Dean is amazing... is this the same type of SFP????... I think we are all assuming that these plant are built to standards that are NOT true.... Please read the second assumtion (pg 1) is a bit scarey.. as we have found out NOT TRUE... very interesting article