Japan: 9.0 Earthquake-Tsunami-Nuclear Reactor Status #5

[Quiche]

Japan nuclear crisis: entire town nearest to stricken plant is moved to new 'temporary' quarters
Hundreds of evacuees from Futuba, the town nearest to Japan's Fukushima nuclear reactor, have been moved again - to a school which may be home for months or years.

Excerpt:
Last week, its evacuated residents were all gathered together from their temporary shelter and moved, to what may be the closest place they can call home for some time: an abandoned high school in Kazo, Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo.

Within its concrete confines, officials are now painstakingly setting about recreating Futaba's original community. The mayor has relocated his municipal office into the headteacher's study, while residents are grouped together in classrooms according to the geography of the town.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...plant-is-moved-to-new-temporary-quarters.html


There is much sweetness and hope in this article. jmo

 

[essies]

SRS pump will head to Japan
Thursday, March 31, 2011
snip-
The world's largest concrete pump, deployed at the construction site of the U.S. government's $4.86 billion mixed oxide fuel plant at Savannah River Site, is being moved to Japan in a series of emergency measures to help stabilize the Fukushima reactors
"Our understanding is, they are preparing to go to next phase and it will require a lot of concrete," Ashmore said, noting that the 70-meter pump can move 210 cubic yards of concrete per hour.

Ashmore said officials have already notified Shaw AREVA MOX Services, which is building the MOX plant for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, that the pump was being moved and will not be returned because it will become contaminated by radiation.

"It will be too hot to come back," Ashmore said.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2011-03-31/srs-pump-will-head-japan?v=1301653174

 

[buffetoflies]

So if they do entombed this thing,it sounds like it will take months for them to do it. Will it stop the leak that is pouring into the soil and the Pacific?

Most likely not. Underneath Japan isn't a solid mass of rock. There are vent (holes the sea can flow into) and the cores are melting down through the ground. If it melts into one of the holes, it probably won't be able to be filled, and the core will flow into the ocean. This isn't a good thing though, because the intense heat of the core can cause an explosion if it mixes with the water. That's how I understood what I read at ATS anyway. There are some very smart people there. The 480+ thread there really isn't conspiracy theory, it is news and people speculation on what everything could mean.

I also read in that thread a theory on why the evacuation area wasn't extended. It's a horrible reason: because the Nissan (car) assembly plant is right outside of it, and if it were to be extended that whole plant would no longer be able to operate... which is gay because it's so close it wouldn't be able to operate anyway b/c the parts would be forever saturated w/ radiation, and any humans that work there will probably end up dying in a few hours. WTF TEPCO. HUMAN LIFE IS FAR MORE VALUABLE.

Also, I don't think that concrete pumper is going to do any good. If you look at pictures of reactor 3's outer house over as time passes it looks like it getting worse... kind of like it melting. So the concrete would be entombing it would just melt around it. The temperature is 5,000 degrees at the core. FIVE THOUSAND degrees. I start getting witching around 85 degrees.

Where's the US MOX plant going to to be located? Not near a earthquake/hurricane zone I hope!

Nice. It's in SC where there is a fault line. At least I live west of it so the PJS can blow it away from me.

Ugh. Guess what?
There are only 2 plants in the US that have not received an Enforcement Action from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Happily for me, I am in a 50 mile radius of 1 of them. The other is in VA.

 

[tehcloser]

TEPCO has begun pouring concrete into the pit to stop the leak, he said.
Public broadcaster NHK said late on Saturday that water was preventing the concrete from hardening and the pit was still leaking.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/japan-pm-v...-village-enters-nuke-20110401-200148-890.html

 

[essies]

April 01, 2011 MSNBC
[video=youtube;y-JFyT_P5j0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-JFyT_P5j0[/video]

 

[not_my_kids]

So if they do entombed this thing,it sounds like it will take months for them to do it. Will it stop the leak that is pouring into the soil and the Pacific?
I have to say,at least this is starting to get more coverage again.I think the world community is relizing what a global catastophe this is,despite Tepco's best effort to hid it.

The way I understand it (from what they did with Chernobyl) is it will stop it from pouring into the air and the water, but not so much the soil. I guess it depends on what the reactors sit on top of, whether or not the ground will be protected, but I doubt it.

 

[sorrell skye]

April 6 Fukushima forecast shows Northwest US under threat

[video=youtube;4wJninXiYIM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wJninXiYIM&feature=player_detailpage[/video]


Fukushima Forecast: Radioactive particles to be concentrated over Midwest on April 1, 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW3JMPsQb0w&feature=player_detailpage

 

[not_my_kids]

April 6 Fukushima forecast shows Northwest US under threat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wJninXiYIM&feature=player_detailpage


Fukushima Forecast: Radioactive particles to be concentrated over Midwest on April 1, 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW3JMPsQb0w&feature=player_detailpage

It's raining here in MidMichigan...and I sent my son out for a bus ride with his dad to get him out of the house. I refuse to let myself panic over any of this, but there is a part of me that is screaming at me that I just sent my three year old out into radioactive rain.

 

[not_my_kids]

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday that a cracked storage pit at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant was the source of a radioactive water leak contaminating the ocean and that it is attempting to fill it with concrete.



According to the utility and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, the square, concrete-covered pit is situated near an intake used to pump seawater into reactor No. 2.

Although the pit is small, it contains highly contaminated water with a radioactivity exceeding 1,000 millisieverts per hour that is leaking into the ocean from a 20-cm crack, Tepco said.

The pit, which is 1.2 meters x 1.9 meters and 2 meters deep, is usually used to store cables. But it is also connected directly to the reactor building through a cable trench, raising the possibility that the source of the contaminated water is the reactor itself, a NISA official said.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110403a1.html

There's a lovely picture of the pit and the crack and a suited worker standing right next it.

 

[memeanabby]

It's raining here in MidMichigan...and I sent my son out for a bus ride with his dad to get him out of the house. I refuse to let myself panic over any of this, but there is a part of me that is screaming at me that I just sent my three year old out into radioactive rain

I thought and felt the same yesterday when my husband took our 2 1/2year old grandaughter out for a walk after it rained all day.I actually felt a sick pang in my stomach.
Thanks to all who have kept us informed!

 

[crystalgenie]

Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Reinhold Niebuhr

I am not an overly relgious person but I think this prayer always applies.

I am not going to keep my ten year old inside unless directed to do so.

I am not going to unnecessarily freak her out.

I am not going to give my child potassium or KI unless directed by a doctor to do so.

I am going to live each day not in a panic of what might, what could, or what may.

The one thing I am going to do is to donate to Japan and continue to pray for them. I am not the one trapped on an island with 4 damaged nuclear reactors.

I am returning to sitting on my hands...

 

[Nova]

...I also read in that thread a theory on why the evacuation area wasn't extended. It's a horrible reason: because the Nissan (car) assembly plant is right outside of it, and if it were to be extended that whole plant would no longer be able to operate... which is gay because it's so close it wouldn't be able to operate anyway b/c the parts would be forever saturated w/ radiation, and any humans that work there will probably end up dying in a few hours. WTF TEPCO. HUMAN LIFE IS FAR MORE VALUABLE....

Welcome to Websleuths, buffetoflies!

BBM: One request: would you please not use the word "gay" to mean bad or bogus?

I'm sure you meant no harm, but it's incredibly offensive, especially to those of us who are gay in the more common usage of the word.

 

[hockeymom]

Most likely not. Underneath Japan isn't a solid mass of rock. There are vent (holes the sea can flow into) and the cores are melting down through the ground. If it melts into one of the holes, it probably won't be able to be filled, and the core will flow into the ocean. This isn't a good thing though, because the intense heat of the core can cause an explosion if it mixes with the water. That's how I understood what I read at ATS anyway. There are some very smart people there. The 480+ thread there really isn't conspiracy theory, it is news and people speculation on what everything could mean.

I also read in that thread a theory on why the evacuation area wasn't extended. It's a horrible reason: because the Nissan (car) assembly plant is right outside of it, and if it were to be extended that whole plant would no longer be able to operate... which is gay because it's so close it wouldn't be able to operate anyway b/c the parts would be forever saturated w/ radiation, and any humans that work there will probably end up dying in a few hours. WTF TEPCO. HUMAN LIFE IS FAR MORE VALUABLE.

Also, I don't think that concrete pumper is going to do any good. If you look at pictures of reactor 3's outer house over as time passes it looks like it getting worse... kind of like it melting. So the concrete would be entombing it would just melt around it. The temperature is 5,000 degrees at the core. FIVE THOUSAND degrees. I start getting witching around 85 degrees.

Where's the US MOX plant going to to be located? Not near a earthquake/hurricane zone I hope!

Nice. It's in SC where there is a fault line. At least I live west of it so the PJS can blow it away from me.

Ugh. Guess what?
There are only 2 plants in the US that have not received an Enforcement Action from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Happily for me, I am in a 50 mile radius of 1 of them. The other is in VA.

As for Nissan,this does not surprise me. I was emailed a huge newsletter today in regard to the world economy. A big chunk of it dealt with the crisis and Japan,and how the government and the corporations have dealt with it. It says in the article that after WW2,Japan was so driven to recover,they became an,"economy" and ceased being a "nation". It cited statistics on birthrate and amount of unmarried women,etc.. but I thought this was interesting, Karoshi,which is basically working ones self to death.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karōshi
I don't know much about individuals in Japan,but it certainly sounds like corporations believe $$$ is far more important than human life.

I wish I could find a way to copy this newsletter as it is very interesting,and basically says Japan is "dieing", and will never fully recover, unless they return to a nation,not an economy. This guy feels they could abe taken over by China.

I find it ironic that what led Japan into WW2,was their strong nationalism,so in going the complete opposite instead of somewhere in the middle,they may have destroyed them selves.

 

[Nova]

As for Nissan,this does not surprise me....

hm, your link sends me to a Wiki page that seems to have nothing to do with Japan. Am I not reading it correctly?

FWIW, as I understand Japanese culture, it has long tended to emphasize the well-being of the group over the individual. (This is also true of China and many other Asian countries. It is partly how they are able to support such large populations.) When the Japanese turned to capitalism beginning in the 1860s, it was only natural that they tended to be very loyal to corporations.

Of course corporations aim to make money, so the end result is much the same. But I don't believe the Japanese think of it as valuing money over people, but of the group over the individual.

 

[sorrell skye]

It's raining here in MidMichigan...and I sent my son out for a bus ride with his dad to get him out of the house. I refuse to let myself panic over any of this, but there is a part of me that is screaming at me that I just sent my three year old out into radioactive rain.

I'm sorry NMK - I didn't mean to cause you undue stress by posting the radiation forecast videos. (((hugs)))

I have a precious 5 month old granddaughter - and I'm trying not to panic, as well.

I've been avoiding following the situation for a couple of days, hoping that when I check in, I'll read some good news. Unfortunately, I've discovered that the situation has only gotten much worse.

 

[Quiche]

Japan's nuclear clean-up
Jimmy Carter and Fukushima

Regarding the workers at Fukushima-- Quote: The fear and danger is beyond comprehension for most people, and in particular the political leaders who must order men in to danger. But interestingly, it is not unfamiliar to former American president Jimmy Carter. Nearly half a century ago, as a young naval officer, he led a 23-man team to dismantle a reactor that, like Fukushima, had partially melted down.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2011/04/japans_nuclear_clean-up

Interesting article-- I didn't know this about J. Carter (I didn't read the book). It's heartening to know he's lived such a long a full life.

 

[Daisyjane]

http://enenews.com/fukushima-forecast-radioactive-particles-concentrated-northwest-april-6-video

From the article accompanying the map: "Note the radiation cloud is the same blue color in the Pacific Northwest as it is just off the coast of Japan, indicating similar concentrations."

 

[not_my_kids]

I'm sorry NMK - I didn't mean to cause you undue stress by posting the radiation forecast videos. (((hugs)))

I have a precious 5 month old granddaughter - and I'm trying not to panic, as well.

I've been avoiding following the situation for a couple of days, hoping that when I check in, I'll read some good news. Unfortunately, I've discovered that the situation has only gotten much worse.

Oh don't feel bad, I would have seen it eventually myself, and I know it's out there, it's still scary to see it. But I guess it's a part of our lives now.

 

[Daisyjane]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/04/02/japan.nuclear.reactors/index.html

Tokyo (CNN) -- A first attempt to plug a cracked concrete shaft that is leaking highly radioactive water into the ocean off Japan failed Saturday, so officials are now exploring alternatives, said spokesmen for Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant's owner. Workers had been trying to fill the shaft with fresh concrete, but that did not change the amount of water coming out of the crack, the spokesmen said at a news conference that ran late into the night Saturday. Their Plan B is to use polymers to stop the leak, the spokesmen said. A Tokyo Electric expert will visit the site Sunday morning and decide what polymer to use before the work begins. Workers will then break the shaft's ceiling and insert the polymer in a different spot from where they tried to place the concrete, they said. More at link above

 

[not_my_kids]

I'm having a hard time seeing any kind of positive outcome even being possible. Japan will essentially be a third world company, and the entire world will be living with the effects for quite some time. I don't even want to consider the global economy right now.