ScribbleLive

@Dean What did you think of the comments on that NPR article (about Baker's work, and conflicting information)?

@Nancy You are correct that they are not planning to allow TEPCO to resume operations whatsoever at this facility. mdn.mainichi.jp Is the most current reference I can find, however.

@Dean Yes, you would think...

@Rob in SF I guess technically the water they dumped from #5 and #6 was from some "sub-drain" or other (can't recall exact name or location), but (and I'm pretty sure this is correct, or at least reported) amazingly the water they dumped from #5 and #6 was because the foundation was cracked and radioactive groundwater was getting IN to the plant and threatening safe operations there.

@Nancy Daini is ready to restart though? No flooding? They just need permission?

@Nancy The "covers" are history? I thought they were part of the "9 month plan"??

Contrary to her colleague's declared wisdom, Hesse-Honegger said her research indicates true bugs are significantly affected by even low doses of artificial radiation. In areas around nuclear power plants and processing facilities in Switzerland, France and Germany, for example, more than 30 percent of the bugs collected and examined exhibited physical damage: missing antenna sections, malformed wings, asymmetric body segments, ulcers, black spots or altered pigmentation.

“Such a low but long-lasting dose of radiation can be far more damaging than a short-term high dose,” Hesse-Honegger writes. “In addition, hot alpha and beta particles are significantly more dangerous than gamma radiation because they are absorbed by the body and essentially irradiate it from within. True bugs seem to be particularly sensitive to this.”
legacy.signonsandiego.com

@General Armchair they have stopped mentioning them. Don't know if the plan was dropped as useless or is in process and just not being mentioned. TEPCO has a tendency to just stop mentioning things they realize won't work.

@Nancy Or they come up with a loopy idea, then it disappears and you think, well, makes sense it WAS loopy, and then two weeks later it's back.

The "covers" seem especially dumb. How would you rig them? I'd think the rad exposure workers would get trying to rig tarps over the reactors would make the exercise very counter-productive.

More on the resignation and a sort of non-answer response from the govt. on the child level dose limit online.wsj.com

I was having a look at radiation absorption for humans, plants, soil etc and came across this, a bit too scientific but might have some interesting information scattered in there jol.liljenzin.se

@General Armchair Also not sure how you keep said tarps or curtains in place if they get high winds or a hurricane. The area already has wind issues due to the seaside location. They have covered walkways with sides on them to block wind all over the plant. Just like the pillars under reactor 4. Someone is coming up with these ideas but the people on the ground who would actually do the work are saying there is no way to implement the idea.

@Nancy Not that I want to add support to the idea (I think tarps sound downright silly in this case), but have you seen DIA, Denver International Airport? en.wikipedia.org

@Nancy You have expressed reservations about how to do the pillars under #4 SFP. Compared to the "covers," that seems like child's play! Make some girders and jam 'em in there. But dealing with massive tarps (or whatever) when you can't get guys up there in harnesses and what not, how the heck do you do it? I have this vision of a thousand Packbots desperately trying to hold down guy ropes in the strengthening gale.....

@Nancy TY I'll take a look. Old url gave me a 403.

@General Armchair how do you get into the building to build the pillars, concrete into the area? They don't even know if they have safe entry into the building and the lower levels are full of water. According to the reporter I talked to the people who would be doing the work don't have a plan and no plan on how to was given to them.

Minute amount of radioactive substances found in breast milk of 7

TOKYO, April 30, Kyodo

A minute amount of radioactive substances have been found in breast milk of seven women in a survey covering 23 women in Tokyo and four other prefectures, including Fukushima and its neighboring Ibaraki, the health ministry said Saturday. english.kyodonews.jp

At the bottom of the METI data sheets there is a 5850mm figure and also 31ºC listed for #4. Are these the spent fuel pool water-level and temperature?

@Rob in SF what page, are you looking at the graphic of 4 with stats or the tables on the last page?

@Nancy The tables on the last page.

One more thought on the 'quality' of information being provided overall…

Just as with the 'missing' daily readings in various recent reports (would anyone really 'skip' taking measurements during this disaster?), there is no excuse for unintentional ambiguity in a situation of this magnitude. None. Not stating clearly what a given plan or lack thereof comprises is intentional and complicit, or it's a sustained failure that is incomprehensible in nature.

Do you have a plan?
Do you have alternate plans?
What are they, specifically?

Somehow, after almost daily press conferences, there are still no solid answers to those questions, let alone the lack of consistency in the radiation readings (locations, times, methods of measurement).

Humans are sloppy, but not that consistently sloppy -- day after day, and report and report. Whatever the specific motivations for withholding numbers and 'fuzzing' the facts, the longer it goes on, the more duplicitous it seems.

@Askwhy this has been my big complaint. If anyone thinks of things where we are getting no info, only sporadic reports or had data cut off at some point please let me know, trying to compile a list.