Japan Earthquake

Japan Earthquake | Page 2283

@Peter, thanks! That filter from a study is very informative!
@es, I wonder by they need a corrosion inhibitor, and why it seems only in SFP3?
by Ian 8/31/2011 1:18:49 AM

Fyi, here's the cesium-vapor-color study : www-pub.iaea.org
by Ian 8/31/2011 1:21:59 AM

Google hydrazine and plutonium. Lots of things come up.
by lillymunster 8/31/2011 1:24:37 AM

not sure if this means something sti.srs.gov
by lillymunster 8/31/2011 1:28:33 AM

hydrazine extracts plutonium from uranium. www.osti.gov
by lillymunster 8/31/2011 1:36:35 AM

do dosimeters measure all radiation?
by elainekirk 8/31/2011 1:38:38 AM

@elainekirk I think they measure total of all together.
by lillymunster 8/31/2011 1:41:10 AM

@lillymunster www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov this is a full study
by elainekirk 8/31/2011 1:47:25 AM

Hydrazine is used within both nuclear and conventional electrical power plant steam cycles to control concentrations of dissolved oxygen in an effort to reduce corrosion. en.wikipedia.org

Thus, it is used as an antioxidant, an oxygen scavenger, and a corrosion inhibitor in water boilers and heating systems. It is also used to reduce metal salts and oxides to the pure metals in electroless nickel plating and plutonium extraction from nuclear reactor waste.
by lillymunster 8/31/2011 1:47:45 AM

@elainekirk , the ones worn on the body commonly do not measure alpha-radiation.
by Peter Melzer 8/31/2011 1:47:51 AM

Sodium may act with plutonium also. Not sure of the actual relevance. www.ecsdl.org
by lillymunster 8/31/2011 1:48:11 AM

@Peter Melzer that .5 is irrelevant isnt it? there is no way they can say what he was exposed to without the proper autopsy
by elainekirk 8/31/2011 2:02:35 AM

@elainekirk , the proof is in the man's corpse, and not what the dosimeter says. Sounds a bit disrespectful, but that is the way it is. Only a detailed study of his tissue would provide definitive answers on his illness and the cause of death. Probably, the corpse was cremated. No evidence is left other than his dosimeter that shows that everything was just fine. Hercule Poirot comes to mind.
by Peter Melzer 8/31/2011 2:11:41 AM

@Peter Melzer the only thing I saw was vague mentions from TEPCO that he had no internal radiation. They provided no evidence or details such as he had a body scan. I don't know if Japanese law would require an autopsy or not.
by lillymunster 8/31/2011 2:16:07 AM

@lillymunster Legally speaking, TEPCO would like it not to be the case that this guy received a fatally high-rad dose while he was working for them. They need this to fall outside the definition of a work-related accident, otherwise presumably they're required to provide detailed reports of the event to relevant authorities as well as compensation to the worker and his family as necessary.
by es 8/31/2011 2:23:30 AM

@es I think this is at the core of all of this. It is really textbook employer denial. BTW, they are fighting the widow of the guy who died of heat stroke tooth and nail.
by lillymunster 8/31/2011 2:25:52 AM

@lillymunster , they sure did not announce that the cause of death was determined with an autopsy. The government should have stepped in. We could ask ikrockhopper what the legal situation is, that is whether an ambiguous cause of death does not require an autopsy.
by Peter Melzer 8/31/2011 2:26:30 AM

@Peter Melzer Not sure when she might pop in, sounded like she had a busy day but yes, we need to ask what the situation normally is by law.
by lillymunster 8/31/2011 2:28:12 AM

Dosimeters may malfunction. That alone cannot be acceptable proof for a cause of death.
by Peter Melzer 8/31/2011 2:28:55 AM

Here's a very curious statement in a March 13th Tepco press release (bold added to the statement):

"Afterwards, in Unit 3, High Pressure Core Injection System has been
automatically shut down. Re-activation of Reactor Core Isolation Cooling
System was attempted but failed, and as we were unable to confirm the
level of water injection to the reactor by the Emergency Core Cooling
System, at 5:10 on March 13th, it was determined that a specific incident
(Emergency Core Cooling System water injection inability) stipulated in
article 15, clause 1 has occurred." www.tepco.co.jp
by Ian 8/31/2011 2:29:35 AM

What is article 15, clause 1? Obviously sounds like Japanese law.
by Ian 8/31/2011 2:31:13 AM

@lillymunster Yes. Thing that bothers me is if it wasn't work related why were TEPCO notified of his death?
by es 8/31/2011 2:31:38 AM

@Ian various levels of incident just like the NRC has levels of incidents that require reporting.
by lillymunster 8/31/2011 2:32:11 AM

@Ian , they are required by law report to the government when they find clear indications that coolant systems fail to restore the water levels in the rpv.
by Peter Melzer 8/31/2011 2:32:26 AM

@es Good point. Sort of thou doth protest too much.
by lillymunster 8/31/2011 2:32:40 AM

Other things that were certain levels of incident: generator failures, quake, etc.
by lillymunster 8/31/2011 2:33:24 AM

(Declaration of a Nuclear Emergency Situation, etc.) Article 15 (1) In the case of falling under any of the following items, the competent
minister shall, when he/she finds that a nuclear emergency situation has occurred, immediately report necessary information concerning the situation to
the Prime Minister, and submit a draft of a public notice under the provisions of the next paragraph and a draft of an instruction under the provisions of paragraph 3 to the Prime Minister:
(i) where the detected radiation dose pertaining to a notification which the competent minister has received pursuant to the provisions of the first sentence
of Article 10, paragraph 1 or the radiation dose detected at a radiation measurement facility and by a measuring method, both of which are specified
by a Cabinet Order, exceeds the radiation dose specified by a Cabinet Order as the condition of an abnormal level of a radiation dose;
(ii) in addition to what is listed in the preceding item, where an event specified by a Cabinet Order as an event that indicates the occurrence of a nuclear
emergency situation has occurred. www.nisa.meti.go.jp
by Ian 8/31/2011 2:33:32 AM

@Ian That was when the LOCA was declared for Unit 3.
by es 8/31/2011 2:33:48 AM

@lillymunster , es , one might think the family was smart enough to insist on an autopsy.
by Peter Melzer 8/31/2011 2:33:50 AM

@Peter Melzer we can hope. That is how a worker that died from plutonium poisoning was discovered at Hanford. The govt officials and local doctor that did the autopsy declared no radiation related harm. The wife had the body shipped back to Chicago. The undertaker saw strange burns on the guys arms and called the local coronor who determined the guy died of plutonium poisoning. He worked in one of the PU factories.
by lillymunster 8/31/2011 2:36:02 AM

Ah! So at that moment on Mar 13 Unit 3 went 'legal'. So that adds weight to our legalese reading of the statement that appears thereafter in repeated Mar 13 press releases : "Currently, we do not believe there is any reactor coolant leakage inside the reactor containment vessel."
by Ian 8/31/2011 2:38:18 AM

@es, the conventional chain would be the hospital informs the next of kin, and they inform the employer which was a subcontractor and not tepco.
by Peter Melzer 8/31/2011 2:42:04 AM

I have a feeling that Nothing further will be done. I simply can't comprehend how this can be acceptable.
by Panserbjorne9 8/31/2011 2:43:19 AM

@Peter Melzer Tepco made big talk of the dr saying this that and the t'other that coincidentally exonerated them ... though as he was subcontracted and etc etc like you say why were tepco given information by the dr when they had no legal right to it ? (assuming Japan has data protection laws but they are signed up to human rights so we can assume so)
by elainekirk 8/31/2011 2:43:35 AM

@elainekirk TEPCO made such a huge deal about this guy's privacy claiming they can't say any more due to it. But they had knowledge of his medical status before death.

PB, it isn't going over well on twitter. Last night people were pretty angry. As the official TEPCO story came out it was universally called BS. I worry nothing more will happen too. :-(
by lillymunster 8/31/2011 2:45:58 AM

@Lilly it needs to get picked up by msm; doctors need to speak out that it's bull. ARGH
by Panserbjorne9 8/31/2011 2:47:19 AM

Well, two weeks went by in which they were able to sort things out. Clearly, tepco wants to send two messages to the public and the workers, first don't panic his death is unrelated to our job here at Fukushima, and second, because of first don't even think of claiming money from us.
by Peter Melzer 8/31/2011 2:47:43 AM

@Peter Melzer and please forget about the other guy that died working here because his death was a complete coincidence too.
by lillymunster 8/31/2011 2:53:19 AM

One thought before I sleep
we akatsubu warriors need to bear in mind that if tepco are allowed to self determine whether a worker died as a result of their radiation the prospect of civilians making claims is dire indeed - better the fight is fought now than have a child as the test of their unilateral powers
by elainekirk 8/31/2011 2:55:50 AM

Daini had off-site power from early on www.tepco.co.jp . They're so close to each other.
by Ian 8/31/2011 2:56:57 AM

I can't help thinking that TEPCO would have reported a work related incident as per usual procedures on the day it happened and only later made up this fanciful story with the help of their lawyers. If that's the case then there should be an entry in their daily reports suggesting something untoward with a workers health around the time in question. The one suspect entry I found for the 10th August was this: www.tepco.co.jp
"Injured
-Arund 12:05 pm on August 10, one partner company worker who was mowing for curing of water treatment hose at west side of Centralized Radiation Waste Treatment Facility (outside) was injured by sickle and was transferred to the Fukushima Rosai Hospital by the ambulance."
by es 8/31/2011 3:03:39 AM

by lillymunster via I224.photobucket 8/31/2011 3:05:36 AM

@lilly loving it and stealing it. :)
by Panserbjorne9 8/31/2011 3:27:24 AM

A likely shortfall in my Ott et al. analysis of yesterday is that it seems cooling was maintained to Unit-3core until March 13 @ 5:10 am when the Reactor Core Isolation Cooling
System was announced to've failed www.tepco.co.jp Now, a lot depends on how efficient it was. But if we assume it was as efficient as normal core cooling (which is probably not likely), a melt-through by 9:10 am when core pressure collapsed is much faster than the timeline in Ott et al. to which U3 pressure data is mapped. However, chances are the Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System is not as effective as normal cooling
.
by Ian 8/31/2011 3:34:41 AM

Bo or anyone who understands Japanese here? This women is alleged in the translation to say that doctors in Japan routinely kill deformed babies at birth and they don't get recorded in statistics. Probably and hopefully that's bunk. She also allegedly says this mea
ns radiation-induced deformaties will be suppressed : www.youtube.com
by Ian 8/31/2011 4:56:17 AM