Japan Earthquake

Japan Earthquake | Page 1750

Reuters backgounder on past safety problems at Fukushima and scandalous labor practices.
RPT-SPECIAL REPORT: Japan's 'throwaway' nuclear workers
uk.reuters.com
by bo 6/25/2011 1:02:15 AM

time for rest.. be back in a few hours...
by dean 6/25/2011 1:05:00 AM

Later dean
by bo 6/25/2011 1:05:33 AM

@bo great find I will see if anyone is around to do me a japanese tweet on it I will do the English are you around perchance @dh?
by elainekirk 6/25/2011 1:08:55 AM

This could be a bit suspicious, five Russian nuclear scientists working on the Bushehr reactor in Iran were among the dead in the plane that crashed in Russia two days ago: www.ynetnews.com
by bo 6/25/2011 1:09:20 AM

a fly on tepcocam
by Edano 6/25/2011 1:09:37 AM

and a crane
by Edano 6/25/2011 1:09:56 AM

"Help me!" (reference to the old sci-fi film The Fly)
by bo 6/25/2011 1:09:58 AM

@bo they have increased the amount of radiation allowed in sludge for fertilizer use but I cant find a figure
by elainekirk 6/25/2011 1:23:56 AM

They have a museum there www.amse.org that might have items of interest for your research in its collection. I just visited its website, very different appeal. The museum has been totally revamped into an energy use show. When I visited during the Cold War, it was quite small, more like a memorial, and right next to nuclear facilities that you cannot visit anymore. Among other artefacts and exhibits explaining radioactivity, the exhibit consisted of a life-size mockup of the Chicago graphite pile into which you could insert the control rods, a hotcell with mechanical manipulators which one could play with and, of course, pictures of the Enola Gay (which now resides in the Air and Space Museum in Reston, VA). Of course, there were pics. of where you are right now, and so on so forth. The other impressions I keep carrying in my mind are the roped of areas in the surroundings of Oak Ridge studded with radioactive warning signs (they might have disappeared over the years). A couple of miles down the road from these areas people lived in private residences, as if this was totally normal. Nobody seemed to mind. Such places complement the Yin to the Yang or vice versa.
by Peter Melzer 6/25/2011 1:25:44 AM

@Peter Melzer yes I have a lot of friends who have visited the museum. It is fascinating to note the differences between American museums dedicated to the bomb, and the one here in Hiroshima. Most notably is that the timelines only cross for one month, August 1945. The US museums start in 1938 and focus almost exclusively on Americans and technological development. Then in 8/45 boom. The museum here starts in August of 1945 and goes forward. Oak Ridge had a lot of involvement here because they ran the health physics lab.
by bo 6/25/2011 1:31:27 AM

@bo , the boss of the division where I worked was one of the physicians there I believe. His name was Clarence Lushbaugh (i may have misspelled).
by Peter Melzer 6/25/2011 1:34:40 AM

Problem has been detected radioactive materials from the sludge of sewage treatment facilities around the around the East, the Ministry of Agriculture for not less than 200 becquerels per kilogram of the concentration of radioactive cesium, the after management and distribution channels , and summarized the new criteria to be used as a fertilizer.
This issue is being detected in a series of radioactive material and sludge from sewage treatment plants around the center of the East. The government last week, and sludge handling of radioactive material was detected, as for fertilizer across the board "to refrain from shipping" policy and showed that, the Ministry of Agriculture, 24, and a new fertilizer summarized the criteria for using. Standards, the ash and sludge sludge below 200 becquerels per kilogram of the concentration of radioactive cesium was and can be used as fertilizer,http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=af&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww3.nhk.or.jp%2Fnews%2Fhtml%2F20110624%2Ft10013755421000.html
by Elaine Kirk 6/25/2011 1:35:57 AM

@Peter Melzer I am doing some research now into some folks at Oak Ridge for a piece that I am writing about the BREN experiments.

en.wikipedia.org
by bo 6/25/2011 1:41:17 AM

@bo that is the strangest experiment imaginable !
by Elaine Kirk 6/25/2011 1:45:53 AM

@elainekirk even stranger than you can imagine. I've been to the tower, and also to the former test site where the "Japanese style houses" now sit in a heap.
by bo 6/25/2011 1:46:55 AM

Democracy Now interview with the AP reporter who wrote the story on the NRC:
www.democracynow.org
by bo 6/25/2011 1:47:37 AM

The former ABCC (Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission) had a very hard time estimating the doses of survivors at Hiroshima, in part because the Hiroshima bomb was the only bomb of that design ever detonated. This (the BREN stuff) was part of a (very expensive) effort to "reconstruct" the conditions of the Hiroshima bomb at the Nevada Test Site.
by bo 6/25/2011 1:49:32 AM

Survey shows disappointment, anger among Fukushima evacuees www.asahi.com

"Whenever her son has health problems because of the unaccustomed evacuation life, the woman blames herself for giving birth at such a difficult time."
by Panserbjorne9 edited by bo 6/25/2011 1:54:51 AM

@bo strange :(
by Elaine Kirk 6/25/2011 1:54:52 AM

@bo , interesting. My vision was that Fukushima in seventy years may look like Oak Ridge today.
by Peter Melzer 6/25/2011 2:05:52 AM

@Peter Melzer agreed. But parts of Oak Ridge are still viable.
My fear is that they may look like Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands, completely abandoned and with the former residents all living as refugees for generations somewhere else, dependent on government subsidies and mired in depression.
by bo 6/25/2011 2:11:08 AM

@bo , perhaps I should have phrased this thought as a question: Will Fukushima in seventy years be like Oak Ridge today? Quite livable with some caveats. Perhaps a question that Japanese policy makers might wish to ponder. I share your fears.
by Peter Melzer 6/25/2011 2:31:05 AM

@Bo Hi! I posted this opinion piece from Kyodo a little earlier and I wasn't sure if you'd seen it. I think you might appreciate it if you haven't! english.kyodonews.jp
by LM 6/25/2011 2:34:10 AM

@Peter Melzer sorry for the heavy hearted reply! Having not been to Oak Ridge, I can't really say. But my sense is that it may be more like Chernobyl. I think that as time goes on it will be easier, and more publicly compelled, to extend the areas where people don't live. The areas downwind where there are scattered areas of contamination may have roped off areas and other parts with people living there. But I think there will be a (larger) exclusion zone near the plants like at Chernobyl.
by bo 6/25/2011 2:35:02 AM

@LM I did see it on the other list. Thanks. I'm glad to see Schell weigh in on this, he is so respected among those who oppose nuclear weapons (but maybe not nuclear power) that the piece may have some influence and help to bring these two communities together. ty
by bo 6/25/2011 2:36:03 AM

@Bo Most welcome! I need to find his other writings. It was so succinctly written and encapsulated all the feelings I've had for the last 3 months...I was too excited that I've probably over-shared it. LOL!
by LM 6/25/2011 2:39:05 AM

@LM Schell is a fellow at the Nation Institute. www.nationinstitute.org
by bo 6/25/2011 2:40:54 AM

@Bo Thanks! I've always been strongly against nuclear weapons but I was ambivalent about nuclear power before the Fukushima crisis. I have since awakened from the dust sprinkled upon us by the industry. I will definitely look up his writings!
by LM 6/25/2011 2:46:39 AM

@LM the classic is The Fate of the Earth, that helped to fuel the nuclear freeze movement in the mid-80s.
by bo 6/25/2011 2:47:48 AM

@Bo Thanks so much!
by LM 6/25/2011 2:48:32 AM

@all Hello!
by smoss 6/25/2011 2:59:53 AM

Hi @smoss
by bo 6/25/2011 3:02:12 AM

@all FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI ACCIDENT RECOVERY UPDATES... 6-24-11 atomicpowerreview.blogspot.com Further dampening any thoughts of spent fuel pool criticality ... or prompt criticality... is a sampling run done on the spent fuel pool water at No. 1 plant on June 22. Below are the isotopes measured, their half lives, and concentrations:

Cesium 134 / half life ~2 years / 12,000 Bq/cm³
Cesium 137 / half life 30 years / 14,000 Bq/cm³
Iodine 131 / half life ~8 days / 68 Bq/cm³

Note the tiny concentration of the short-lived I-131, and the high concentration of long-lived fission product isotopes. At the first take this seems quite out of proportion if spent fuel pool criticality had been achieved recently.
by smoss 6/25/2011 3:03:42 AM

@bo Hi
by smoss 6/25/2011 3:05:01 AM

@all The quote below, from the Atomic Power Review, becomes "interesting" considering that we don't have sfp temps for that date... atmc.jp
by smoss 6/25/2011 3:09:41 AM

@all On June 24, dust inhibitor that prevents the spread of radioactive
materials has been sprayed on the north side of the turbine building of
Unit 6 by a crawler dump truck. Workers are also spraying dust inhibitor
at around Main Anti-Earthquake Building. ***Unit 6?!*** www.tepco.co.jp
by smoss 6/25/2011 3:15:03 AM

@smoss Hi! Very interesting..I wonder why 6 as well. There is far too much we're not being told.
by LM 6/25/2011 3:16:31 AM

@LM Hi!
by smoss 6/25/2011 3:19:51 AM

@all Gotta go! Be Well!
by smoss 6/25/2011 3:26:26 AM

Bye smoss! Thanks for all your great posts!
by LM 6/25/2011 3:29:28 AM

@smoss ty
by bo 6/25/2011 3:36:26 AM

Reference to SimplyInfo Novel Temporary Water Storage article crisisjones.wordpress.com friendfeed.com blekko.com (More to come, i'm sure)
by Mid Valley 6/25/2011 3:50:34 AM