FUKUSHIMA earthquake and tsunami thread and aftermath

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/business/global/independent-panel-to-start-inquiry-into-japans-nuclear-crisis.html?_r=1&ref=business

TOKYO — A powerful and independent panel of specialists appointed by Japan’s Parliament is challenging the government’s account of the accident at a Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and will start its own investigation into the disaster — including an inquiry into how much the March earthquake may have damaged the plant’s reactors even before the tsunami.

The bipartisan panel with powers of subpoena is part of Japan’s efforts to investigate the nuclear calamity, which has displaced more than 100,000 people, rendered wide swaths of land unusable for decades and spurred public criticism that the government has been more interested in protecting vested industry interests than in discovering how three reactors were allowed to melt down and release huge amounts of radiation.

Several investigations — including inquiries by the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power, and the government — have blamed the scale of the tsunami that struck Japan’s northeastern coast in March, knocking out vital cooling systems at the plant.

..

Questions also linger as to the extent of damage to the plant caused by the earthquake even before the tsunami hit. Any evidence of serious quake damage at the plant would cast new doubt on the safety of other reactors in quake-prone Japan. Tsunamis are far less frequent.

Judging from past reports on here the reactors had possible been fatally compromised before the tsunami hit with works evacuating. Although when panic hits getting accurate eye witness accounts is almost impossible.

[SHERWICK]

HURRAH!!!

[Lepista]

Still getting high levels of radiation inside the buildings:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16644935

[interestrateripoff]

Still getting high levels of radiation inside the buildings:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16644935

It just looks like it's raining! Are they still cooling via dropping water onto the reactors?

The corrosion of the pipes etc... must be worrying at some point they'll rust through.

[SaintJay]

all fine here....nothing to see....move along please:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092139/Japanese-government-hid-worst-case-scenario-Fukushima-disaster-fact-40-MILLION-people-evacuate.html

Japanese government hid worst-case scenario on Fukushima disaster and fact 40 MILLION people may have had to evacuate

Secret report reveals everyone within 105 miles of plant would have had to be evacuated in event of full meltdown

Areas would have been contaminated with so much radiation they would not be safe for several decades

Japanese government insisted there was no need to make plans for widespread evacuation after tsunami damaged Fukushima plant

Entire population of Tokyo would have had to flee area if workers failed to control crippled reactors

[interestrateripoff]

all fine here....nothing to see....move along please:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092139/Japanese-government-hid-worst-case-scenario-Fukushima-disaster-fact-40-MILLION-people-evacuate.html

Japanese government hid worst-case scenario on Fukushima disaster and fact 40 MILLION people may have had to evacuate

Secret report reveals everyone within 105 miles of plant would have had to be evacuated in event of full meltdown

Areas would have been contaminated with so much radiation they would not be safe for several decades

Japanese government insisted there was no need to make plans for widespread evacuation after tsunami damaged Fukushima plant

Entire population of Tokyo would have had to flee area if workers failed to control crippled reactors

Good job it was only a partial meltdown....

[Buccaneer]

Radioactive leaks at crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant increase two months after it was declared safe

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096160/Radioactive-leaks-crippled-Fukushima-nuclear-power-plant-increase-months-declared-safe.html

Less than two months ago the crippled Japanese nuclear power plant at Fukushima was declared stable.

Yet now it has emerged that radioactive water is continuing to leak at the stricken site. These were spotted by workers at the reprocessing areas and were found to release enough beta rays that can lead to radiation sickness.

[newbonic]

If anyone's interested, and have sky, there's a channel 507 HD NHK World that's running reports on Fukushima right now.

[interestrateripoff]

Radioactive leaks at crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant increase two months after it was declared safe

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096160/Radioactive-leaks-crippled-Fukushima-nuclear-power-plant-increase-months-declared-safe.html

Less than two months ago the crippled Japanese nuclear power plant at Fukushima was declared stable.

Yet now it has emerged that radioactive water is continuing to leak at the stricken site. These were spotted by workers at the reprocessing areas and were found to release enough beta rays that can lead to radiation sickness.

The structural integrity of the damaged Unit 4 reactor building has long been a major concern among experts because a collapse of its spent fuel cooling pool could cause a disaster worse than the three reactor meltdowns.

Cold winter weather has also caused water inside pipes to freeze elsewhere at the plant, resulting in leaks in at least 30 locations since late January, Matsumoto said.

So Spring might prove rather interesting...

If the building collapse is it possible the spent fuel rods could reach re-criticality?

I wonder what the engineer reports of the buildings read like!

[interestrateripoff]

http://enenews.com/fukushima-whistleblower-container-vessel-melting-like-honeycomb-can-you-believe-its-outside-of-container-vessel-photos

Breaking News: Whistle-blower talks, container vessel is melting like honeycomb, Fukushima Diary, Jan. 3, 2011 [Emphasis Added]:

A whistle-blower of Tepco leaked the actual situation of Fukushima plant.

He left his comments on a Japanese forum. Here are the messages. [...]

2011/12/20 (Tue) 01:52 [Translation]

Taking a part of the concrete slag sample. Put it into the lead case (Chiyoda technol) and take it to a lab. I don’t know if it’s because they gave sea water to cool down or because it’s brackish area, if natrium (sodium salt) of sea water made a chemical reaction with calcium carbonate in the concrete to become diuranate natrium (sodium diuranate) or not, it looks yellow as yellow cake.

Probably the iron part of the core is uranium pellet unreacted – not sure yet because it’s still before the analysis.

It’s beyond the max reading of 500X100 CPM. These yellow concrete slags come out from under the building one after one. It means that the container vessel is melting like honeycomb at least – doesn’t it? Otherwise why would metal uranium comes out of there ?

2011/12/28 (Wed) 04:37 [Translation]

Made up my mind to take out the slags from the shelter to take pictures of them.

Wore protective clothing. When it’s taken out, it was over 400 ℃ but now it’s cooled down to 100 ℃.

Can you see this big metal crystal (extremely radioactive) and the oxidized concrete looking like yellow cake? Can you believe it is out of the container vessel. It’s over 500 mSv/h, my geiger counter went over the limit.

Was scared so put it back to the shelter soon as I took a couple of the pictures.

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/02/us-japan-nuclear-leak-idUSTRE8110CV20120202

Fukushima reactor leaks, radiation tiny: Tepco

Feb 2, 2012 12:52am EST

(Reuters) - More than 8 tonnes of radioactive water leaked from a reactor at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant but none reached outside the reactor building, Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Thursday as it strives to ensure damaged reactors are stable enough for work to start on dismantling them.

Experts said the incident, which follows smaller leaks last weekend, is not a big setback to getting the plant under control...

And yesterday this was the headline.

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.economist.com/node/21542437

Negligence forms the backdrop for the first government-commissioned report into the Fukushima nuclear disaster, released in late December. Although only an interim assessment (the complete report is due in the summer), it is already 500 pages long and the product of hundreds of interviews. A casual reader might be put off by the technical detail and the dearth of personal narrative. Yet by Japanese standards it is gripping. It spares neither the government nor Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the operator of the nuclear plant. It reveals at times an almost cartoon-like level of incompetence. Whether it is enough to reassure an insecure public that lessons will be learnt is another matter.

Looks like that report could be an interesting read in the summer, I wonder if it will get translated into English?

[interestrateripoff]

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=201517

Chinese Material and/or Fabrication Fail?

Hmmmm.

The two reactors at the San Onofre nuclear-power station near San Clemente, Calif., will remain shut down this weekend while federal safety officials investigate why critical—and relatively new—equipment is showing signs of premature wear.

The problem surfaced Jan. 31, when one of the units sprang a leak in a pipe called a steam tube, releasing small amounts of radioactive steam and tripping radiation alarms. Operators shut down the reactor four hours later.

The problem rests in the steam generators in these plants (they're pressurized water reactors.) These are sort of like a car radiator, except that both sides are in water (if you have a boat with an inboard engine you've probably got a heat exchanger that is much like this in the cooling system.) The steam generator has primary water under very high pressure that takes the heat off the nuclear reaction and uses it to boil water in the secondary side, which turn turns the generating turbines. The advantage of this design is that the water on the primary side never boils and it is physically isolated from the steam turbine equipment. Since the primary side water becomes activated over time (that is, it is somewhat radioactive) this prevents the turbine equipment from being contaminated -- at least in theory. A boiling-water reactor (such as in Fukushima) on the other hand has only one loop; there are advantages and disadvantages to both designs.

More at the link.

[newbonic]

A synopsis of the NHK World special on Fukushima:

Emerging Radioactive Pollution - Urgent Report from the Sea

The report was from a fishing port called Hisanohama just south of the 20km no-go zone that surrounds the crippled nuke.

Basically, they've been banned from fishing due to radioactivity. The programme makers got permission for some fisherman to sail into the no go zone in Nov 2011 to take samples and do tests -

• airbourne radiation in the no go zone was 0.07 micro sieverts (ms)/hr (was 0.04 before the disaster)
• >100 quadrillion bequerels (Bq) were released into the sea as a result of the disaster they sent a remote controlled mini sub to the harbour in front of the nuke, and the rad were 0.06 ms/hr
• 13m down it was 0.18 ms/hr but fluctuated up to 2.5 ms/hr as radioactive mud got churned up near the sea floor
• sediment analysis indicated 4520 Bq/kg sediment - 15,000 x more than the seawater in front of the plant
• Within 1km of the nuke the contamination was 2000 Bq/kg and there were many similar hot spots in places within the 20km no go zone

They conclude that most of the radioactive waste has sunk to the sea floor and not dispersed into the Pacific as originally hoped.

• Some fish within the no go zone (rock fish and greenlings) scored 2300 Bq/kg, mostly 'caesium 137 & 134' (caesium 137 has a half life of 30 years) - there was plenty of fish, all unfit for human consumption
• Bottom living sandworms scored 130 Bq/kg, mud 300 Bq/kg, but flounders that fed on sandworms scored 316 Bq/kg

100 Bq/kg seems to be the max level that will be set by the Japanese govt in April 2012, the programme was a hazy on this and suggested that 500 Bq/kg was previously considered safe.

The fishermen were told that it will be 2014 before another survey can be run to see if levels have fallen enough for safe fishing.

Is marine contamination spreading?

• Measurements 30 km south of Fukushima scored 300 Bq/kg
• 80 km south it was 38 Bq/kg (a rocky sea bed)
• 120 km south it was a muddy sea bed and 380 Bq/kg
• 180 km south it had gone up from a Oct 2011 level of 38 Bq/kg to 112 Bq/kg in Dec 2011
• the contamination will need to be repeatedly monitored as it will move with the sediment

Inland lakes and ponds also concentrate radioactive caesium to, and Tokyo Bay is a place where they will migrate and concentrate because lots of inland rivers and lakes drain into it. They predict they will peak in hot spots in Tokyo Bay in the 700-1000 Bq/kg range in March 2014 and will stay hot for 10 years.

[ChumpusRex]

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=201517

[Discussion about premature leaks at San Onofre]

I've discussed this with some people who know about this. Apparently, it's so common, that it's almost "normal" for there to be a few leaks when new steam generators are installed.

The steam generators contain so many thousands of pipes, each with many welds, that there's a good chance that there will be cracks or fissures undetectable during normal QA. Only once they are placed in the high temperature, high corrosion, high vibration environemnt of a working plant do they actually become detectable.

To cover this, the generators are deliberately over-engineered, with more pipes than required for normal operation. If a leaky pipe is detected during operation, then it is packed with sealant.

The investigation is a routine matter to discover whether this was all due to an undetected failed pipe, or something more serious has occurred.

[Errol]

Fukushima Reactors Heating Up Again … Water Fails to Cool Them Down - http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/fukushima-reactors-heating-again-%E2%80%A6-water-fails-cool-them-down

there is almost 24 times more nuclear fuel at Fukushima than Chernobyl

[interestrateripoff]

Fukushima Reactors Heating Up Again … Water Fails to Cool Them Down - http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/fukushima-reactors-heating-again-%E2%80%A6-water-fails-cool-them-down

there is almost 24 times more nuclear fuel at Fukushima than Chernobyl

So being in stable cool shutdown means they are heating up again?

[interestrateripoff]

Fukushima Reactors Heating Up Again … Water Fails to Cool Them Down - http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/fukushima-reactors-heating-again-%E2%80%A6-water-fails-cool-them-down

there is almost 24 times more nuclear fuel at Fukushima than Chernobyl

http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/02/sfp-of-reactor-3-and-reactor-5-are-heated-as-well/

From the zerohedge link, reactor 5??? 5 and 6 where undamaged weren't they?

I wonder how long the spent fuel pool in number 4 is going to remain contained, it seems that more and more people are getting alarmed by the structural state of it.

[interestrateripoff]

Massive smoke from between reactor 2 and 3

It was from 10:52 ~ 11:58. The smoke reached over the reactor buildings.

http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/02/massive-smoke-from-between-reactor-2-and-3/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RrcoPNvd20&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=94jcjN5uK5M

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-BN_Wyz1uQ&feature=player_embedded

tepco vs tbs/ALERT FUKUSHIMA 2012 02 28

[interestrateripoff]

http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/02/220-msvh-in-reactor2-human-cant-work/

Tepco announced they investigated the inside of reactor2 by using a remote controlling robot called Quince 2 on 2/27/2012.

It measured 127~220 mSv/h near the container vessel in the operation room of the fifth floor.

Tepco states it’s impossible to work in this level of radiation.

It found pool on the floor, Tepco says that is because they can’t change air, steam makes pool. The steam is assumed to be from container vessel, very radioactive.

Tepco explains it was 11~30 mSv in the stairways from the first floor to forth floor.

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/9112500/Fukushima-remains-fragile-nearly-a-year-after-meltdown.html

An independent report, meanwhile, revealed that the Japanese government downplayed the full danger in the days after the March 11 disaster and secretly considered evacuating Tokyo.

Journalists given a tour of the Fukushima Daiichi plant on Tuesday, including a reporter from The Associated Press, saw crumpled trucks and equipment still lying on the ground. A power pylon that collapsed in the tsunami, cutting electricity to the plant's vital cooling system and setting off the crisis, remained a mangled mess.

Officials said the worst is over but the plant remains vulnerable.

"I have to admit that it's still rather fragile,"

Another strong earthquake clearly might prove challenging.

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17192215

For almost a year, it had been the focus of the fears of the Japanese people.

Now the Fukushima Daiichi plant was right up ahead, glimpsed between the pine trees that surround it through the windscreen of our bus.

We were being driven right to the plant, the first group of foreign journalists allowed in since the nuclear crisis began.

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-28/europe-not-ready-to-deal-with-disaster-like-fukushima-irsn-says.html

Europe is ill-prepared for a nuclear accident on the scale of Japan’s Fukushima disaster, a French safety authority said.

“There are doubts about the ability of some European countries to manage this type of situation,” Jacques Repussard, director of the Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire, or IRSN, said at a press conference in Paris today. “It’s extremely problematic. We need to progress in crisis management in many regions.”

Some European countries lack sufficient atomic crisis centers while health authorities across the region don’t agree on what instructions to give local populations in case of accidents, he said. “There isn’t enough coordination.”

As the next failure won't happen for hundreds of years, there is very little risk.

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/world/asia/japanese-official-says-nations-atomic-rules-are-flawed.html?_r=1

TOKYO — In surprisingly frank public testimony on Wednesday, Japan’s nuclear safety chief said the country’s regulations were fundamentally flawed and laid out a somber picture of a nuclear industry shaped by freewheeling power companies, toothless regulators and a government more interested in promoting nuclear energy than in safeguarding the health of its citizens.