Japan Earthquake

Japan Earthquake | Page 1654

Anyone have a clue on the possible thickness of the containment cap (yellow one)
by lillymunster 6/16/2011 1:57:24 PM

Fukushima No. 1 plant worker irradiated after taking off mask for smoke: mdn.mainichi.jp
by bo 6/16/2011 2:09:10 PM

@bo That aljazeera article is very good. Gundersen talks about the hot particles in Seattle, it's good to see the info about US radiation exposure getting out. We also had the study by Mangano about the excess infant deaths on the west coast.
by Bobby1 6/16/2011 2:11:18 PM

@Bobby1 I find Al Jezeera to be a very good news source. Granted they have dropped the ball on this story, but the stuff they do is pretty high quality. I agree, it is good to see this kind of data getting a wider audience.
by bo 6/16/2011 2:12:40 PM

Can that assertion about infant deaths on the west coast of the US be true? This quick? That far away? Shouldn't the same be true in Tohoku in spades?
by bo 6/16/2011 2:13:48 PM

@lillymunster Hard to tell the scale, but the yellow object in the video screenshot seems a bit thin and flimsy to be a part of the container cap. Could it be one of those symbolic yellow oil drums that are marked with rad symbols in all the cartoons? Looks kinda like a crumpled one of those to me.
by es 6/16/2011 2:14:12 PM

www.iasmirt.org @lilly check figure 2
by dean 6/16/2011 2:14:12 PM

@bo the data sampling was too small for a definitive answer.
by lillymunster 6/16/2011 2:14:13 PM

@lilly thanks
by bo 6/16/2011 2:15:16 PM

@dean thanks dean! any idea what number is actually the thickness? They have a bunch of numbers near the thickness mention but hard to sort what one they are referring to.
by lillymunster 6/16/2011 2:15:58 PM

wait.. that's for a mark II.. need to ge it for mark I
by dean 6/16/2011 2:16:27 PM

@bo I don't have a link to the original story anymore, it referenced the study itself and talked about the sampling in the study.
by lillymunster 6/16/2011 2:16:36 PM

@dean k
by lillymunster 6/16/2011 2:16:41 PM

well it says "t" but that says .024 meters.. that can't be right not that thick to me
by dean 6/16/2011 2:17:01 PM

@lillymunster @bo The infant deaths are apparently true, and the results were statistically significant. It is evidence, not proof, of radiation causing deaths in the US.
by Bobby1 6/16/2011 2:18:11 PM

@lilly and @Bobby1 here is the article I found: sfbayview.com
by bo 6/16/2011 2:18:56 PM

@all taking a short break, back soon
by bo 6/16/2011 2:21:52 PM

The "radiation protection agencies" tell us there is no such thing as subgroups more vulnerable to radiation than average, when we have known since Hiroshima that infants and the unborn are far more vulnerable than healthy adults.
by Bobby1 6/16/2011 2:25:13 PM

The group that did the study has a questionable track record and there are questions about the study itself en.wikipedia.org
"According to a 2003 article in The New York Times, the group's work has been controversial, and had little credibility with the scientific establishment."
It would be worth looking further into the data to see if it actually does represent a change.
"obvious bug in this dataset is that infant mortality over 4 weeks (the control sample) obviously could be more or less then the average."
I would wait until a more reliable agency or group corroborates their study
by lillymunster 6/16/2011 2:25:33 PM

@Bobby1 just because one group makes an unreliable statement doesn't automatically make another group's statement accurate. The info is worth more investigation but the short time period and size do raise questions. I would like to see some other group do a larger study on it.
by lillymunster 6/16/2011 2:27:16 PM

@lillymunster Mangano, like Busby, says things that the "scientific establishment" (nuclear cabal) doesn't like to hear.
by Bobby1 6/16/2011 2:27:33 PM

@all: The Mainichi article referring to the 300 cubic meter hole in the pressure suppression pool is a mistake. The Japanese states 300 cubic centimeters.
by dh 6/16/2011 2:27:37 PM

@dh Thanks! Surprised that mistake made it through their translation vs. google trans.
by lillymunster 6/16/2011 2:28:29 PM

@lillymunster It's just one small study. You generate accepted scientific truth with many repeated studies. Unfortunately, there is no time for that, if you are considering protecting 311 million people against radiation that is in the environment now.
by Bobby1 6/16/2011 2:29:34 PM

Asahi Shimbun is very supportive of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki hibakusha and keeps the anti-nuke message alive by publishing stories of the lives of those that suffered in the bombing.
by dh 6/16/2011 2:31:57 PM

@dh I have been really impressed with Asahi Shimbun's coverage. I wish they would put more content into their English version.
by lillymunster 6/16/2011 2:33:01 PM

Full-scale operation of key water treatment system may be delayed

TOKYO, June 16, Kyodo

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said Thursday that water was found leaking from a newly installed radioactive water treatment system during its trial run, hampering the firm's plan to fully operate it from Friday.

Optimal operation of the treatment system, which is designed to remove highly radioactive materials from a massive amount of water accumulating at the power station, is considered essential to containing the nuclear crisis as Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to eventually recycle the water to cool the plant's damaged reactors.

But the utility, known as TEPCO, will be forced to deal with the water leakage problem first, raising the possibility that full operation of the key facility to clean up contaminated water may be postponed until Saturday. english.kyodonews.jp
by Edano 6/16/2011 2:40:36 PM

TEPCO: Opening door of No.2 reactor is safe

Tokyo Electric Power Company plans to open the doors to the reactor Number 2 building at the Fukushima Daiichi plant for ventilation, to lower humidity and start restoration work.

Tokyo Electric said on Thursday that an air purification device, which has been working since last Saturday, has reduced radioactive concentration inside the building to levels that have little impact on the nearby environment.

The utility said the concentration of radioactive iodine in the air has been reduced to about one-10th of former levels and radioactive cesium to about a quarter, as of Wednesday night.

Tokyo Electric assesses that the impact of the door-opening on the environment around the plant will be sufficiently below the permissible annual limit for ordinary people of one millisievert.

The utility plans to open the doors after obtaining approval from the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and local governments.

An initial stage of the planned restoration work will include staff surveying radiation levels and adjusting gauges.

Inside the reactor Number 2 building, the humidity has been extremely high, due to moisture apparently from the containment vessel and spent-fuel storage pool, and is hampering restoration work.

Thursday, June 16, 2011 18:13 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp
by Edano 6/16/2011 2:44:24 PM

sounds like blank chaos...

Radioactive water still threatens to overflow

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is under pressure to ensure the flawless operation of a system to decontaminate radioactive water, which threatens to overflow.

More than 110,000 tons of the highly radioactive water has accumulated in the nuclear complex.

The amount is growing by 500 tons a day as fresh water is injected into reactors to cool them down.

Tokyo Electric Power Company says it's vital to put the water treatment system into full operation on Friday, as scheduled.

Any delay in launching the system could cause contaminated water to overflow within 2 weeks.

TEPCO admits, however, that water may leak from pipes connecting devices, even if the system works as planned.

To block leaks, preparations are under way to build more storage tanks and to install a US-made back-up filtering device.

But the tanks will not be installed until next month at the earliest and the back-up device is unlikely to be mounted before August.

TEPCO has also yet to decide how to dispose of radioactive waste generated during the decontamination process.

Thursday, June 16, 2011 20:24 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp
by Edano 6/16/2011 2:46:43 PM

@edano, there was an article last night that was explaining how much the contamination was reduced. It was some very small fraction but wasn't clear if it only removed that small amount or that small amount was all that would be left after cleaning. If it only removes a small percentage then we have a huge problem with water still.
by lillymunster 6/16/2011 2:49:45 PM

@lillymunster additionally, the magic filters only remove cesium !
by Edano 6/16/2011 2:50:41 PM

Radioactive material detected in Iwate pastures

The Iwate Prefectural Government has again detected a radioactive substance above the state limit in pasture grass in several areas in the prefecture. The prefecture asked farmers in the areas to refrain from feeding the grass to their livestock.

The prefectural government found on Tuesday radioactive cesium exceeding the limit of 300 becquerels per kilogram in grass collected from pastures in four areas, including Tono and Otsuchi. The areas are located about 150 to 200 kilometers north of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The Iwate government plans to conduct more detailed examinations in the four affected municipalities.

The testing comes after cesium exceeding government standards was measured in pasture grass collected in two areas in the southern part of the prefecture earlier this month.

The Iwate government also took closer measurements of radiation levels in grass harvested in nine districts of the two areas. The government found the levels of radioactive cesium exceeded the criteria in six districts.

High levels of radiation in pasture grass have also been reported in Fukushima Prefecture, which hosts the troubled nuclear plant, and neighboring prefectures.

Thursday, June 16, 2011 12:07 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp
by Edano 6/16/2011 2:52:25 PM

TEPCO testing water decontamination system

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is carrying out a final test run on a system to decontaminate highly radioactive water that is building up at the plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Company began testing the system just past Wednesday midnight ahead of putting it into full operation on Friday.

TEPCO sees the water treatment system, which combines 4 different devices, as key to dealing with the huge volume of radioactive water that is hampering work to bring the plant under control.

On Wednesday, TEPCO tested a French-made device that uses a special chemical agent to remove radioactive substances.

TEPCO says the test using relatively low-level radioactive water showed cesium dropped to about one-10,000th of initial levels. TEPCO says a trial run of a different US-made device on Tuesday found that cesium dropped to about one-3000th of original levels.

More than 110,000 tons of radioactive water has accumulated at the plant as a result of continuous water injections to cool the overheating reactors. With water building up at the plant at a pace of 500 tons per day, TEPCO is running out of storage.

The main facility that is being used to store the radioactive water is expected to become full on Thursday.

The plant operator plans to reduce radiation in the water to between one-1,000th and one-10,000th current levels using the new treatment system before transferring the water to makeshift tanks at the plant.

Thursday, June 16, 2011 13:28 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp
by Edano 6/16/2011 2:54:40 PM

@Edano The cesium buildup in Iwate is news to me. We have cesium spreading north as well as to the south and west. The eastern part of Hokkaido also is getting higher radiation readings, but some of that is due to the polluted water offshore to it evaporating and making rainfall.
by Bobby1 6/16/2011 3:01:49 PM

lilly are you still here?
by dean 6/16/2011 3:01:53 PM

yes
by lillymunster 6/16/2011 3:03:29 PM

the info that I've gleaned would indicate that the dome of the containment has a steel shell with a concrete layer on top.. overall width approx 2 1/2 thick
by dean 6/16/2011 3:05:57 PM

www.krrao.com @lilly.. search for dome
by dean 6/16/2011 3:07:12 PM

@dean 2 1/2 inches or feet? :-)
by lillymunster 6/16/2011 3:09:10 PM

@you answered my own question. 2.5 feet. The shard is not containment cap then. Now I have to wonder what other things are that yellow. There were other yellow bits like that found. Maybe a tank? But have not seen one painted yellow.
by lillymunster 6/16/2011 3:11:10 PM