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Plutonium is an especially toxic and long-lasting radioactive material,said Akira Tokuhiro, professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering at the University of Idaho. . One plutonium isotope has a half-life of 1 million years.

@Jo Lindien I am Baffled as to what would cause that strange mix of symptoms...we need Dean.

two things: eye witness report of earthwuake at plant. one question is geology of the plant site, I assume it was a man made site, a embankment or platform created by bulldozers at a certain level above shore. www.peopleforum.cn

I thoiught half life was 211,000 years

@CaraBnr Pu is difficult to diffuse widely.

I'm having trouble following the layers of subtext here. First they announce huge radioactivity, then oops, we were wrong, then they test Pu in the soil, and have 100% success, then they admit a release from the core, then they say it's no worse than background from testing in the 50s and 60s. Talk about a mixed message.

It's never been clear to me what the A and B pressure numbers are, and whether they are absolute pressure or difference above/below atmospheric. The guy who put together the graphs pinned in the header to this page seems to have figured it out though, don't you think?

@RadioGuy or we all should have been a lot more nervous in the 50's and 60's...oops...I'm probably one of few who was here then......lol

@Jo Lindien What about the temp at the nozzle falling though?

Be back in in a bit.

@sims: pressure was not so low in #2 reactor. Was about -.2 MPa. Now it's reported as -.3 MPa. It's not so easy to drop the pressure below athmospheric pressure ...

@Jo Lindien @sims There's been speculation about one of the meters being blown enough to give false readings. It was days back, but it could be that.

Soooooooooo, we now have an american Doctor "how convinient" that is advising the Japanese GOVT. due to his experience @Chernobyl, ..to which to this date, NO OFFICIAL statistics are available.
That really helps.....

Second thing is who are the players directly involved? Tepco, local firemen, sub contractors? online.wsj.com mentions Tokyo-based Tokai Toso Co. and nuclear-site construction specialist Hokuto Kogyo Co.

@ MaryMary: make that *should* ever have children!

@gabe: the temp at nozzle falling may be due to the fact they now inject water through the feedwater cooling line instead of the fire extinguish line; then the temperature sensor may be just in the cool water flood.

@MaryMary -- just realized my comment could be taken as me wishing you had never been born -- NOT what I meant!

Fukushima, Japan – The water in a trench outside the Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant reactor No. 2 building was found to have high level of radiation, according to Kyodo News on Monday, March 28, 2011.

As noted in the report, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) discovered on Sunday afternoon that the radiation level is now more than 1,000 millisieverts per hour, or was said to be about 100,000 times than the normal level.

The concrete trench, which is around 3 meters wide and 4 meters high, is located in the compound of the Fukushima nuclear plant but outside the control of radiation area.

Meanwhile, TEPCO stressed out that the contaminated water is not flowing to the sea, as the affected trench is about 55 meters away from the sea shore.

On the other hand, the company said that the similar trench for the reactor No. 1 has a radiation level of 0.4 millisievert per hour only.

Apparently, the radiation level for reactor No. 3 was not measured due to the difficulty in going near the area, as it is being covered by debris.
www.batangastoday.com

@openmind Good sequence of shots. Thanks. So that was the SFP?

@es Hydrogen explosion after venting.

@sims: you're right; I did not remember having seen the pressure so low before. And you're right: what's going on inside is going for more than a week. Or the pressure sensors give false values all this time, which would be a good news.