Japan Earthquake

Japan Earthquake | Page 1944

@RadioGuy my bag of bonito just became really valuable. Is that another product that is done in a harvest once a year or all year long?
by lillymunster 7/16/2011 7:28:44 PM

Yes, and unfortunately they did the annual seaweed harvest on March 20 IIR.
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 7:29:30 PM

The bonito is harvested over a longer haul as it runs from the Phillipines up past Japan toward the Kurils, I believe.
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 7:31:06 PM

Tehachapi CA geiger at 38cpm, getting back up into the high numbers again.
by lillymunster 7/16/2011 7:32:26 PM

Nuclear reactor in Fukui Pref. halted over glitch

FUKUI, Japan, July 17, Kyodo

A reactor at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture has been halted due to a problem with its cooling system and an investigation will be conducted to determine the cause of the glitch, prefectural government officials and the plant's operator said Saturday.

The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the problem with the No. 1 reactor at the plant will not have an adverse effect on the environment. The reactor has been undergoing adjustment procedures prior to commercial operations for an unusually long period of around four months.

According to the agency and Kansai Electric, the pressure inside the accumulator in the reactor's emergency core cooling system temporarily fell around 10:45 p.m. Friday, setting off an alarm. The accumulator holds coolant to be injected into the reactor in an emergency. The pressure has stabilized since, but the utility began reducing the power of the reactor at 1 p.m. Saturday and halted it after 8:50 p.m. to determine what caused the problem. english.kyodonews.jp
by Edano 7/16/2011 7:34:39 PM

i'm sure you knew that already :)
back in germany :(
by Edano 7/16/2011 7:35:27 PM

Another 84 cows in Fukushima found to have been fed contaminated straw

TOKYO, July 17, Kyodo

Authorities in Fukushima Prefecture, where the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is located, said Saturday they have discovered that another 84 cows shipped from five beef cattle farms in the prefecture were fed with straw contaminated with high levels of radioactive cesium.

The latest finding showed that a total of 143 cows exposed or suspected of having been exposed to radioactive cesium were already shipped to at least 35 of Japan's 47 prefectures, according to a calculation by Kyodo News.

The 84 cows were shipped to eight prefectures -- Miyagi, Fukushima, Yamagata, Tochigi, Saitama, Tokyo, Osaka and Ehime -- and the nation's farm ministry and the Fukushima prefectural government have asked related municipalities to check where the meat was distributed. english.kyodonews.jp
by Edano 7/16/2011 7:36:43 PM

so now the radiation affects the entire state .... because they didn't check the most obvious things.
by Edano 7/16/2011 7:39:20 PM

Can I ask the obvious question I have yet to see? What happened to the rice from that rice straw? Or was it last season's and contaminated as it sat. And if so, was the rice out of prefecture by then?
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 7:42:02 PM

Fukushima reactors 1-3 stabilized

The Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company say they have stabilized the crippled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

But problems continue with the system for purifying contaminated water.

In a joint assessment, the government and TEPCO say they have completed the first step of a plan outlined in mid-April for a complete cold shutdown of the reactors. They say they completed the first step within the original 3-month deadline.

The assessment adds that reactors 1, 2 and 3 have been stably cooled down, and that nitrogen has been injected into their containment vessels to prevent hydrogen explosions.

Pools of spent nuclear fuel are also stable.

The government and TEPCO say radiation levels in the surrounding air and seawater have been declining, and the goal of reducing the amount of radiation leaking outside the plant has been achieved.

But the crisis is far from over. The assessment admits that contaminated water has leaked out of storage tanks, and that water level settings at its water purification facilities were incorrect.

Saturday, July 16, 2011 08:04 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp
by Edano 7/16/2011 7:42:47 PM

@Edano Criminal, isn't it?
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 7:42:51 PM

and what about the corium ? - ? - ? no word
by Edano 7/16/2011 7:43:29 PM

vanished.
by Edano 7/16/2011 7:43:45 PM

Criminal neglect would be the classification, though it's probably financially-inspired criminal neglect.
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 7:43:45 PM

"TEPCO stable" is it's own animal completely.
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 7:44:57 PM

@Edano corium, what corium? The melt down was just a rumor. /snark
by lillymunster 7/16/2011 7:45:26 PM

Well, at least all that steam we keep seeing on the cams isn't radioactive, since that would seem to negate their whole "radiation is contained" line.
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 7:46:35 PM

@RadioGuy it is a CRIME against humanity. But who has interest is poke the finger in IT
by Majj 7/16/2011 7:47:01 PM

@RadioGuy : tepco itself stated that the steam is radioactive.
by Edano 7/16/2011 7:47:58 PM

@Edano They don't have to tell the truth, just make sure nobody sees it when they spout obvious balderdash (a nicer word than they deserve.)
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 7:49:43 PM

I am looking at least hourly through tepco docs and as yet there has been nothing to say they have reached cold shut down, if they had tepco would publish, the fact that they havent means their legal advisors have told them that if there is evidence that they misled .....
by elainekirk 7/16/2011 7:50:11 PM

@elainekirk METI can't be held liable so they spew the propaganda. TEPCO keeps their corporate mouth shut like good defendants.
by lillymunster 7/16/2011 7:51:37 PM

@elainekirk No, "stable" is as far as they go, and remember, they used that word for the R3 temperature levels as it was stably climbing to dangerous heights.
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 7:52:16 PM

@elainekirk : the only speak about the first step to a cold shutdown, omitting how many steps will be necessary for it ......
by Edano 7/16/2011 7:52:38 PM

Nitrogen is the first step to it, so if the first step is all complete the roadmap is working. Move along.
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 7:53:30 PM

@RadioGuy : yes, you are right, it is criminal. ( i had to refresh the page, i did not see any other posts than mine before :) )
by Edano 7/16/2011 7:53:44 PM

what's the second step ? find the corium ?
by Edano 7/16/2011 7:54:24 PM

@lillymunster "good little defendant" Perfect.
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 7:54:34 PM

@Edano LOL....Where in the World is Corium McPepper???
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 7:55:07 PM

@lillymunster : in fact, there is no evidence for a meltdown. maybe ......
by Edano 7/16/2011 7:55:51 PM

No...wait... The character should be Corium Daiichi. :)
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 7:55:52 PM

i remember another case when an entire airplane just vanished ... the pentagon said, it had "vaporized" ... different story ....
by Edano 7/16/2011 7:58:35 PM

Though they're generous sorts, so they'll just give you that one as a freebie.

I just love this: "the goal of reducing the amount of radiation leaking outside the plant has been achieved."

Lower it one picocurie and you've met that goal. Pathetically lame word parsing.
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 7:58:36 PM

heh...yup
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 7:58:58 PM

new roadmap : (?)

Removing fuel from Fukushima Nos. 3, 4 reactors to be given priority

TOKYO, July 16, Kyodo

The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. will place priority on removing fuel from the spent fuel pools of the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at the utility's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the next phase of efforts to contain the crisis there, sources close to the matter said Saturday.

In a new road map for restoring the plant ravaged by the March earthquake and tsunami, the two parties will also specify for the first time that it will take up to three years to handle medium-term issues such as the completion of treating highly radioactive water that has accumulated, the sources said.

Work to set up covers around reactor buildings to prevent the dispersal of radioactive substances will be delayed, the sources said.

The updated version of the road map containing these measures is set to be announced Tuesday, after the first phase, including injecting nitrogen into the No. 3 reactor to prevent a hydrogen explosion, has been completed.

As the government sees the possibility of further radioactive materials being released as extremely low, it is planning to begin talks with related local governments in Fukushima Prefecture to reduce areas subject to evacuation due to the nuclear disaster.

In the second phase of work to contain the crisis, major issues include achieving stable cooling of damaged reactors and reducing the amount of water contaminated with radioactive substances.

Work to construct an underground shield to a depth of 30 meters to avoid leakage of contaminated water from reactor buildings and nearby turbine buildings through groundwater will begin ahead of an earlier plan, the sources said.

The second phase is aimed for completion in three to six months, with several government sources saying the step ''can be achieved at an early time,'' suggesting that it could be completed by the end of this year.

But even after the crisis at the plant is brought under control, the process of fully dismantling the plant, including removing nuclear fuel and tearing down reactors and the buildings housing them, is expected to take several decades.

==Kyodo
english.kyodonews.jp
by Edano 7/16/2011 8:04:02 PM

@Edano And people are so clueless about such obvious things as the mass, momentum and density of those humongous engines, and will believe that stuff. "Yup, that plane broke the basic laws of physics. Damn those terr-ists are good!"
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 8:04:27 PM

@RadioGuy : i agree completely. we will never know what happened. sigh.
by Edano 7/16/2011 8:06:03 PM

This is simply ridiculous: "As the government sees the possibility of further radioactive materials being released as extremely low, it is planning to begin talks with related local governments in Fukushima Prefecture to reduce areas subject to evacuation due to the nuclear disaster."
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 8:06:34 PM

@RadioGuy lol, almost every sentence in these last two articles is ridiculous.
by Edano 7/16/2011 8:07:48 PM

@Edano LOL true. :)
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 8:08:06 PM

So the next step is to remove the fuel from SFP3 and SFP4? What about all the other steps that come before they can even manage to even get close to R3, or keep R4 from just flat-out falling over?
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 8:10:11 PM

"Radiation in Japan: Professor Kosako: "Come the harvest season in the fall, there will be a chaos"
Professor Toshiso Kosako of Tokyo University, who resigned in protest against the Kan Administration's policy to allow 20 millisieverts/year external radiation exposure for children which he called unacceptable and unconscionable. "The government's decision-making mechanism is opaque," he said. "It's never clear what reasons are driving what decisions. This doesn't look like a democratic society. Japan is increasingly looking like a developing nation in East Asia." Mr. Kosako, a 61-year-old Tokyo University professor who has served on a number government and industrial panels, stepped down from Mr. Kan's nuclear-advisory panel on April 30, fueling concerns about the government's handling of the accident. Saying that many of his recommendations were ignored, the scientist described the government's ceiling on schoolyard radiation levels as "unacceptable." The image of him wiping tears at a press conference as he said he wouldn't subject his own children to such an environment was widely broadcast. " This is a very Brave Man
by Majj 7/16/2011 8:10:32 PM

@Majj No joke, Majj. Chaos.
by RadioGuy 7/16/2011 8:10:54 PM

@RadioGuy no word how or when the intend to do this. I think it should be a priority to get the fuel out of those two. I am hoping some of the workers can leak some hints. I worry about how they would do so at #4 without making it more unstable.
by lillymunster 7/16/2011 8:11:38 PM