Japan - 9.0 Earthquake-Tsunami -Reactor Status, 2011 #6

[Quiche]

Japanese Premier Reaffirms Nuclear Energy Use

TOKYO — Japan remains committed to nuclear power despite the continuing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Sunday,...

and

Mr. Kan told reporters on Sunday that he would not seek the closure of any more of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/world/asia/09japan.html?_r=1

The people of Japan must be so pleased... and on top of it, I saw a headline that indicated hikes in utility rates. Very American of them, imo.

 

[essies]

Nuclear plant workers release unknown amount of radioactive tritium into Mississippi River:banghead:
Friday, May 06, 2011
snip-

(NaturalNews) Workers at the Grand Gulf Nuclear Plant in Port Gibson, Miss., last Thursday released a large amount of radioactive tritium directly into the Mississippi River, according to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and experts are currently trying to sort out the situation.

According to reports, alarms began to go off as workers were releasing the radioactive storm water into the river, which engaged the stop flow on the release pump. Neither NRC nor plant officials know how much tritium was released into the river during this release.

"Although concentrations of tritium exceeded EPA drinking water limits, the release should not represent a hazard to public health because of its dilution in the river," insisted Lara Uselding, public affairs officer at NRC Region IV, to reporters.

Such a statement, of course, is a health concern because precise levels of released tritium are unknown. Just because the radioactive substance has been diluted does not necessarily mean it is harmless, nor does it verify the substance's source or whether or not it is still being unknowingly released. Without this crucial information, there is no telling where else tritium might be lurking around the plant and river.


http://www.naturalnews.com/032303_tritium_nuclear_power_plant.html#ixzz1LhsldSEI

 

[coastal]

For the rest of us, FYI, from Wikipedia, here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium

>>>snip

...While tritium has several different experimentally determined values of its half-life, the National Institute of Standards and Technology lists 4,500±8 days (approximately 12.32 years).[1] It decays into helium-3 by beta decay...

and

...Beta particles from tritium can penetrate only about 6.0 mm of air, and they are incapable of passing through the dead outermost layer of human skin.
Tritium is potentially dangerous if inhaled or ingested. It can combine with oxygen to form tritiated water molecules, and those can be absorbed through pores in the skin...

and

...Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen, which allows it to readily bind to hydroxyl radicals, forming tritiated water (HTO), and to carbon atoms. Since tritium is a low energy beta emitter, it is not dangerous externally (its beta particles are unable to penetrate the skin), but it is a radiation hazard when inhaled, ingested via food or water, or absorbed through the skin.HTO has a short biological half life in the human body of seven to 14 days, which both reduces the total effects of single-incident ingestion and precludes long-term bioaccumulation of HTO from the environment...


<<<snip
>>>snip

Also, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritiated_water

Tritiated water

Tritiated water is a form of water where the usual hydrogen atoms are replaced with tritium. In its pure form it may be called tritium oxide (T2O or 3H2O) or super-heavy water or really heavy water. Pure T2O is corrosive due to self-radiolysis. Diluted, tritiated water is mainly H2O plus some HTO (3HOH).

<<<snip

 

[Dark Knight]

Quake shifted Japan; towns now flood at high tide

ISHINOMAKI, Japan – When water begins to trickle down the streets of her coastal neighborhood, Yoshiko Takahashi knows it is time to hurry home.

Twice a day, the flow steadily increases until it is knee-deep, carrying fish and debris by her front door and trapping people in their homes. Those still on the streets slosh through the sea water in rubber boots or on bicycle.


"I look out the window, and it's like our houses are in the middle of the ocean," says Takahashi, who moved in three years ago.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110509/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake_changing_terrain

Wow, this is just unreal. Lord be with all of them!

 

[Daisyjane]

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/05/89922.html

Fukushima's No. 1 reactor building radiation up to 700 millisieverts
TOKYO, May 9, Kyodo

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant found that the radiation level of the building housing the troubled No. 1 reactor stood at up to 700 millisieverts per hour, the government's nuclear agency said Monday, citing the need for radiation shielding to proceed with work to bring an end to the nuclear crisis.

The radiation level, which was around 10 millisieverts per hour at its lowest, was measured as Tokyo Electric Power Co. workers and agency officials entered into the No. 1 reactor building early Monday as part of preparations to start full-scale work to create a system to stably cool the damaged nuclear fuel inside.

''An area with a double-digit millisievert level, let alone three-digit figures, is quite tough as a working environment. So we have to do the work by using some shielding,'' Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told a press conference.

 

[anneinchicago]

With the flourish of a bureaucratic pen, the Japanese government has raised the allowable level for radiation exposure of children from 1 millisievert per year to 20 millisieverts per year, which is equivalent to the annual maximum dose allowed for German nuclear workers.


This was done because some 75% of the school grounds in Fukushima are believed to be registering radiation levels above 1 millisievert. The government says that the increased levels are necessary in order to guarantee the education of the children in the prefecture.


The new level is not being received very well by parents who recently delivered a bag of playground earth registering a geiger counter reading of 38 milliseiverts to Fukushima education officials in protest.

http://japundit.com/2011/05/05/j-go...japundit+(Japundit)&utm_content=Google+Reader

 

[Daisyjane]

http://enenews.com/very-very-serious-reactor-no-4-leaning-in-danger-of-falling-govt-confirms-stabilization-efforts-underway-video

“Very, Very Serious”: Unit No. 4 leaning, in danger of falling — Gov’t confirms stabilization efforts underway. Video included.

 

[sorrell skye]

Bill Gates Puts His Money and Mouth Behind Nuclear Power

Quote: Speaking today at the Wired business conference in New York City, Gates, who has invested plenty of money in his friend Nathan Myrhvold's Terrapower, argued that the level of concern we've seen post-Fukushima is an overreaction.

and

While he supports many forms of energy production, Gates dismissed energy ideas that involve individual homes generating their own power and then feeding excess back into a grid. "Not gonna happen," he said. "If you are going for cuteness, go after those things at the home. If you want to solve the energy problems go after the big things in the desert."

http://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...-money-and-mouth-behind-nuclear-power/238300/

:waitasec: The desert? Huh? Did they put this quote in to make him sound loony, because it makes no sense within the context of the paragraph, to me anyway.

bbm

Of course he would say that (the bolded text). His priority is his financial investment. Geez - how much financial wealth does one man need?!

I guess he didn't get the memo that those who are "overreacting" (as Gates put it) are also interesting in protecting our investments, i.e. our families, our health, our futures, etc. Ya know - things more important than money.

 

[Quiche]

bbm

Of course he would say that (the bolded text). His priority is his financial investment. Geez - how much financial wealth does one man need?!

I guess he didn't get the memo that those who are "overreacting" (as Gates put it) are also interesting in protecting our investments, i.e. our families, our health, our futures, etc. Ya know - things more important than money.

I was really disappointed.

 

[Daisyjane]

http://www.myweathertech.com/2011/05/11/massive-cloud-of-radiation-heading-for-the-us/

Massive Cloud of Radiation Heading for the US

New forecasts show a very predominate cloud of radiation that seems to blanket most of the United states in the next few days. Looking at the map you can see that the brunt of this cloud will hit the Western United States as well as Canada very hard. With steady winds flowing from Japan and heading east ,we will continue to see this happen.

 

[hockeymom]

http://www.myweathertech.com/2011/05/11/massive-cloud-of-radiation-heading-for-the-us/

Massive Cloud of Radiation Heading for the US

New forecasts show a very predominate cloud of radiation that seems to blanket most of the United states in the next few days. Looking at the map you can see that the brunt of this cloud will hit the Western United States as well as Canada very hard. With steady winds flowing from Japan and heading east ,we will continue to see this happen.

And why aren't we hearing about this? If I didn't come here on a regular basis,I'd be just going about my merry way!!! :banghead:

 

[Redbird]

Thanks so much to everyone providing this information. If it weren't for you guys I would not be able to understand what is going on at all. I only check every few days because we are totally helpless and powerless to do anything about this.

 

[Daisyjane]

Mind you, this is Bad Boy #3, full of MOX

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/11_29.html

Radioactive water found in No.3 reactor pit

Tokyo Electric Power Company says water containing radioactive material has been found flowing into a pit outside of the No.3 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The flow was confirmed on Wednesday afternoon at a pit linked to a utility tunnel near the reactor's water intake. Workers could not confirm whether the water was leaking out into the sea, but they reported seeing froth near the water intake. TEPCO says the concentration of radioactive Cesium in water sampled from the pit was 620,000 times higher than the safety limit set by the government. The utility also says it detected 1.5 milli-sieverts per hour of radiation on the surface of water in the pit, which indicates contaminated water may be leaking into the sea.

 

[sirensong]

OMG, makes me wanna cry. Serious contamination of our whole earth. Why don't they do something to stop it all?

 

[essies]

Every day, the world over, large amounts of high-level radioactive waste created by nuclear power plants is placed in interim storage, which is vulnerable to natural disasters, man-made disasters, and to societal changes. In Finland the world's first permanent repository is being hewn out of solid rock -- a huge system of underground tunnels - that must last 100,000 years as this is how long the waste remains hazardous.:banghead:
This is a Danish Documentary in English-quite disturbing but sadly there is no avoiding the truth-what are we doing to this world?:truce:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7vwrXV1JiE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYdlVI4LMVI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWZN-0zhf7A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIPOakFW9Uo
[video=youtube;OG1ucD0DVfo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG1ucD0DVfo[/video]

 

[mister happy]

A couple of weeks ago, I thought the death toll could very well reach 30,000-plus with the huge number missing persons factored in. But now I see that the tally of both dead & missing persons has dropped to 24,771. A lot of the missing were actually already included in the death toll -- "overlapped" as the statisticians would say. Hope the number drop some more!

 

[coastal]

Not sure how we missed this one, from the Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vivian-norris-de-montaigu/deadly-silence-on-fukushi_b_859241.html

>>>snip

Deadly Silence on Fukushima
Posted: 05/ 9/11 05:05 AM ET
Vivian NorrisPhd, Based in Paris-Globalization Studies


I have been following the Fukushima story very closely since the earthquake and devastating tsunami. I have asked scientists I know, nuclear physicists and others about where they find real information. I have also watched as the news has virtually disappeared. There is something extremely disturbing going on, and having lived through the media blackout in France back in April and early May 1986, and speaking to doctors who are deeply concerned by the dramatic increase in cancers appearing at very young ages, it is obvious that information is being held back. We are still told not to eat mushrooms and truffles from parts of Europe, not wild boar and reindeer from Germany and Finland 25 years later...


(article continues)

<<<snip

 

[coastal]

This is from an alternative-news type website I like:


Norwegian Institute for Air Research Stops Monitoring Radiation Fallout from Fukushima
2011 05 12
By Henrik Palmgren | redicecreations.com

>>>snip

The vital and important static map based on real time tabulations of the Norwegian Institute of Air Research pertaining to potential releases of radiation from the Fukushima plant have been closed down.

The Atmospheric and Climate Change Department at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) has given no reason why the vital monitoring service has been discontinued.

<<<.>>>

...The last I can remember from the service today around 5pm (GMT+1 my time zone) was a massive "cloud" getting close to the north west of the States and the west of Canada all the way up to Alaska...


(article continues)

<<<snip

 

[Trident]

OMG, makes me wanna cry. Serious contamination of our whole earth. Why don't they do something to stop it all?

Because they can't - the genie is out of the bottle.

A very long time ago, I read Atlantis did itself in by messing with something they couldn't control.

My opinion only

 

[hockeymom]

Seems like there is at least some coverage again in the media. Not much,but this today from associated press.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-12-08-28-30