Japan: Earthquake, Tsunami + Nuclear Disasters

[Snowangel-MK]

Sadly not such good news today...

The bodies of two workers have been found, three weeks after an earthquake and tsunami struck the facility

The announcement from Tokyo Electric Power Company's (Tepco) is the first confirmation of deaths at the Fukushima plant, where the workers had been missing since March 11.

Spokesman Naoki Tsunoda said the bodies - of a 21-year-old and a 24-year-old - were not found until March 31 and had to be decontaminated.

"It pains me that these two young workers were trying to protect the power plant while being hit by the earthquake and tsunami," Tepco chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata said in a statement.

The announcement of the death was delayed out of consideration for the families, the men sustained multiple external injuries and are believed to have died from blood loss, Mr Tsunoda said.

[Argyllcraig]

Hearing this morning that Tepco are planning to dump the radio active water they currently have in storage into the pacific to make room for more water they are pouring on the plant.

I've admittedly not read the whole story but find it a bit worrying that they may be about to dump the waste water. Maybe someone with a bit more knowledge can perhaps explain the negs or positives of this but i do recall outcries in the north of Scotland when Dounreay had accidental leaks and discharges into the sea.

What would normally happen with the coolant fresh water at such sites? is it not normally held in permanent storage too along with the fuel?

[Snowangel-MK]

Hearing this morning that Tepco are planning to dump the radio active water they currently have in storage into the pacific to make room for more water they are pouring on the plant.

I've admittedly not read the whole story but find it a bit worrying that they may be about to dump the waste water. Maybe someone with a bit more knowledge can perhaps explain the negs or positives of this but i do recall outcries in the north of Scotland when Dounreay had accidental leaks and discharges into the sea.

What would normally happen with the coolant fresh water at such sites? is it not normally held in permanent storage too along with the fuel?

Tokyo Electric Power Co. will dump radioactive water from its crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear station into the sea for the first time as it runs out of space to store fluids used to cool the plant’s six reactors. The government approved a to release water with low radioactive contamination into the sea to make room for liquids with higher radiation level. Tepco said it plans to discharge as early as tonight 11,500 tons of water containing radioactive iodine levels about 100 times the regulatory limit. Filtering radiation from the water would take too long and its release will help protect equipment in the buildings housing the reactors Tepco spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said today at a news conference.

http-~~-//www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11040403-e.html

[Iceberg]

IT a real shame IMO a rough food chain comparison for marine areas is that top predators could be 1000 times higher than the average sea content...

[Coast]

Does all sound a bit dodgy now:

The operators of Japan's stricken nuclear power plant have grown increasingly desperate in their search for a serious radiation leak. They tried dying highly radioactive water with bath salts Monday to help them trace it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/air-france-plane-crash-parts-bodies-found/2011/04/04/AFwIo7bC_video.html

[Snowangel-MK]

Does all sound a bit dodgy now:

'dodgy' indeed......workers using newspaper and sawdust to block pipes !!

http-~~-//www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8425719/Japan-nuclear-crisis-workers-using-newspaper-and-sawdust-to-block-pipes.html

[Beverley Lass]

Finally a happy tale (tail) from Japan..... Coastguards have rescued a dog from the top of a house washed out to sea by the tsunami three weeks ago !

And even better news, they have reunited the pooch with

her owner, awww.

My link

BL

[The PIT]

Roll up Roll up get your Japanese Kio here. They glow in the dark so you don't need any pond lights roll up roll up.

I thought they found a crack in one of the cores or was that mis reporting???

[Snowangel-MK]

I thought they found a crack in one of the cores or was that mis reporting???

As far as I am aware from the news reports I've read it's water from No 2 reactor that is leaking from a crack in the concrete shaft not from a crack in the core itself - most reports seem to agree there is a 20cm crack in the pit on the outside of the turbine building.

However there are some worrying new statements regarding the lack of dosimeters supplied to the Fukushima workers, clearly one per group rather than per person is not giving an accurate indication of how much radiation each worker has been exposed to.

Also there is a rather scary report of Blue Flashing lights having been seen over the plant this could be a sign of 'localized criticality' caused by a chain reaction - basically a burst of heat and radiation causing a etheral flashes of blue light, this is called Cherenkov radiation, hopefully this is not the case and it has been mis reported.

[Cherenkov radiation (also spelled Cerenkov or Čerenkov) iselectromagnetic radiation emitted when a charged particle (such as an electron)passes through a dielectric medium at a speed greater than the phase velocityof light in that medium. The charged particles polarize the molecules of thatmedium, which then turn back rapidly to their ground state, emitting radiationin the process. The characteristic blue glow of nuclear reactors is due to Cherenkov radiation From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

http-~~-//wn.com/Nuclear_Engineer_Explaining_Different_Types_of_Radiation

Edited April 5, 2011 by MKsnowangel

[Coast]

In desperation, engineers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant have turned to what are little more than home remedies to stem the flow of contaminated water. On Tuesday, they used "liquid glass" in the hope of plugging cracks in a leaking concrete pit. "We tried pouring sawdust, newspaper and concrete mixtures into the side of the pit (leading to tunnels outside reactor No.2), but the mixture does not seem to be entering the cracks," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA).

"We also still do not know how the highly contaminated water is seeping out of Reactor No.2," said Nishiyama. There is a total of 60,000 tonnes of highly contaminated water in the plant after workers frantically poured in seawater to cool down overheated fuel rods, which experienced partial meltdown after a tsunami hit northeast Japan on March 11. Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) was forced on Monday to start releasing 11,500 tonnes of low-level radioactive seawater after it ran out of storage capacity for more highly contaminated water. The release will continue until Friday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/05/japan-idUSL3E7F42CD20110405

[picog]

Also there is a rather scary report of Blue Flashing lights having been seen over the plant this could be a sign of 'localized criticality' caused by a chain reaction - basically a burst of heat and radiation causing a etheral flashes of blue light, this is called Cherenkov radiation, hopefully this is not the case and it has been mis reported.

http-~~-//wn.com/Nuclear_Engineer_Explaining_Different_Types_of_Radiation

What is the potential significance of localized criticality?

[Coast]

What is the potential significance of localized criticality?

[Snowangel-MK]

What is the potential significance of localized criticality?

.... not good news for the workers !

[A criticality accident, sometimes referred to as an excursion or a power excursion, is an accidental increase of nuclear chain reactions in a fissile material, such as enriched uranium or plutonium. This releases a surge of neutron radiation which is highly dangerous to humans and causes induced radioactivity in the surroundings.

Critical or supercritical nuclear fission (one that is sustained in power or increasing in power) generally occurs inside reactor cores and occasionally within test environments. A criticality accident occurs when a critical reaction is achieved unintentionally. Although dangerous, typical criticality accidents cannot reproduce the design conditions of a fission bomb, so nuclear explosions do not occur. The heat released by the nuclear reaction will typically cause the fissile material to expand, so that the nuclear reaction becomes subcritical again within a few seconds.

In the history of atomic power development, sixty criticality accidents have occurred in collections of fissile materials outside nuclear reactors and some of these have resulted in death, by radiation exposure, of the nearest person(s) to the event. However, none have resulted in explosions.

From Wikipedia ]

[Coast]

A bit of light at the end of the tunnel?

TOKYO, April 6 (Reuters) - The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant said it had reduced the flow of highly radioactive water out of a reactor, a possible sign of progress in an almost month-long battle to contain the world's biggest nuclear disaster in quarter of a century.

Samples of the water used to cool the damaged reactor No. 2 were 5 million times the legal limit of radioactivity, adding to fears that contaminants had spread far beyond the disaster zone. The government said it was considering imposing radioactivity restrictions on seafood for the first time in the crisis after contaminated fish were found. India also became the first country to ban food imports from all areas of Japan over radiation fears. Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said late on Tuesday that it had slowed the radioactive water flow from reactor No. 2 at its Fukushima Daiichi plant. Earlier, desperate engineers had used little more than home remedies, including a mixture of sawdust, newspaper and concrete, to stem the flow of contaminated water.

"We can't actually measure the amount but we have visually confirmed that the amount of water flowing out is decreasing, so we have reason to think our measures are working to a certain extent, a TEPCO official told reporters. Workers are still struggling to restart cooling pumps -- which recycle the water -- in four reactors damaged by last month's 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami. Until those are fixed, they must pump in water from outside to prevent overheating and meltdowns. In the process, that creates more contaminated water that has to be pumped out and stored somewhere else or released into the sea.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/05/japan-idUSL3E7F526520110405

[Coast]

Workers scored a key victory Wednesday in their struggle to gain the upper hand in the weeks-long crisis at the Fukishima Daiichi nuclear power facility, but a top Japanese official cautioned that the fight was far from over. At daybreak, authorities with the Tokyo Electric Power Company noticed that water was no longer gushing into the Pacific Ocean from the turbine building of the No. 2 reactor, one of six operated by the utility at its plant.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/04/06/japan.nuclear.reactors/?hpt=T1

[snowdog]

I wouldn't breather a sigh of relief yet the situation is still dire! my thoughts are with the international community

[NorthNorfolkWeather]

As time has gone by since the accident, I marvel at how inept the planning seems to be for a major disaster.

Yes, the Tsunami was bigger than expected. yes, the Earthquake was also bigger

BUT

We are almost a month in, and the Authorities seem to be floundering

[Coast]

We are almost a month in, and the Authorities seem to be floundering

I guess this is such a rare occurrence and the way that the disaster unfolded has been a real shock. I know we have the clear ups at 3-mile Island and Chernobyl as a reference, but have the relevant Nuclear authorities got a plan in place for the worst possible scenario?

Worst ever nuclear accidents:

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

Interesting to see how many of the recent accidents were in Japan.......

[Snowangel-MK]

I wouldn't breather a sigh of relief yet the situation is still dire! my thoughts are with the international community

Exactly, although they seem to have plugged the leak the plant itself is far from stabilized - it seems they are using injections of nitrogen to deter any new hydrogen explosions in Unit 1 where according to reports pressure and temperatures are highest.

Nuclear officials said there was no immediate threat of more explosions, but the nitrogen plans were an indication of the serious remaining challenges in stabilizing reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. Nitrogen normally is present inside the containment that surrounds the reactor core. Technicians will start pumping more in, said Junichi Matsumoto, a spokesman for the plant

"The nitrogen injection is being considered a precaution," said spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

http-~~-//online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704013604576246031636413412.html

[Rustynailer]

The Russians are still having problems keeping the Chernobyl reactor sealed. 25 years after it melted down and exploded.

The Japanese have 3 reactors partially melted down, various spent fuel ponds low on water. Plus I have seen video lots of steam and of a fuel rod uncovered and glowing red on the news.

The steam off of all this cooling is radio active too.

It will take years to get on top of this.

Arr well, just 5 years to go and the cesium contamination I/we got from Chernobyl will have reached its half life, gosh

Russ

[Coast]

http://youtu.be/fhBJEearylk

Talk of a breakthrough?

Japanese nuclear technicians were pumping nitrogen gas into a reactor at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station on Thursday, in an effort to prevent new radiation-releasing explosions at the crippled plant.

Tokyo Electric Power, the facility’s operator, said it planned to fill two more reactors with inert nitrogen after filling the No 1 unit.

The aim is to dilute growing concentrations of combustible hydrogen inside the overheated reactors’ protective containment vessels. Hydrogen is believed to have caused several blasts that ripped through the plant in the days immediately after Japan’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3a8b0538-60d8-11e0-8899-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1Ioqa4Sya

[Snowangel-MK]

There is a danger that marine contamination could bring about serious consequences. The government says that the concentration is low and that it will disperse, but in actuality it is carried along in clumps and becomes concentrated when organisms ingests it. Already a higher than normal level of iodine (4080 becquerels/kg) and cesium (526 becquerels/kg) have been detected in small fish in Ibaraki Prefecture. Those standards (iodine = 2000 Bq/kg; cesium = 500 Bq/kg) were set in haste and are very lax. The impact of intentional emissions is yet to be seen as is the impact of concentration through the food chain. Iodine is said to be 10,000 times among seaweed such as kelp. Impacts of cesium and strontium are long lasting.

don't eat the sushi !

[Coast]

The 'neighbours' are particularly concerned:

The world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years is also raising concerns over safety in the United States, which has more atomic reactors than any other country, especially at one plant which is similar to the one in Fukushima wrecked by last month's 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami. Engineers, who sealed a leak this week that had allowed highly radioactive water into the sea, are now pumping nitrogen into one reactor to prevent the risk of a hydrogen gas explosion. Operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said the chances of a repeat of the gas explosions that ripped through two reactors in the first days of the disaster were "extremely small".

But as engineers battle multiple crises - some the result of efforts to try to cool reactors - officials admit it could take months to bring the reactors under control and years to clear up the toxic mess left behind at the plant 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo. "Data shows the reactors are in a stable condition, but we are not out of the woods yet," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters.

The government has already set up a 20 km (12 miles) exclusion zone around the plant, banned fishing along much of the northeast coast and set up evacuation centres for the tens of thousands forced to leave their homes following the crisis. An estimated 28,000 people were killed or are missing following the disaster. China's health ministry said traces of radioactivity in spinach had been found in three provinces. India earlier this week banned Japanese food imports for three months. In South Korea, some schools closed because parents were worried that rain across the country could be toxic.

"We've sent out an official communication today that schools should try to refrain from outdoor activities," an education official in South Korea said. South Korea's nuclear safety agency reported a small level of radioactive iodine and caesium particles in rain in the south but said it was not enough to be a public health concern. Nevertheless, many Koreans donned face masks, and streets near schools in Seoul were more congested than usual as parents drove children to work rather than let them walk. "We are geographically closer to Japan than others like the United States or Europe. We people are bound to be more worried," said President Lee Myung-bak, who has set up a ministerial task force to ensure public health and food safety.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/07/uk-japan-idUSLNE73601H20110407

[Snowangel-MK]

The 'neighbours' are particularly concerned:

probably with good reason, especially those on the west coast of the USA ..

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZhu1EAOXG8

Radiation Found In San Francisco Tap Water

http-~~-//www.infowars.com/radiation-found-in-san-francisco-ca-tap-water

[Pennine Ten Foot Drifts]

There is a danger that marine contamination could bring about serious consequences. The government says that the concentration is low and that it will disperse, but in actuality it is carried along in clumps and becomes concentrated when organisms ingests it. Already a higher than normal level of iodine (4080 becquerels/kg) and cesium (526 becquerels/kg) have been detected in small fish in Ibaraki Prefecture. Those standards (iodine = 2000 Bq/kg; cesium = 500 Bq/kg) were set in haste and are very lax. The impact of intentional emissions is yet to be seen as is the impact of concentration through the food chain. Iodine is said to be 10,000 times among seaweed such as kelp. Impacts of cesium and strontium are long lasting.

It is, frankly, an atrocious mess, and it's highly likely that as the fallout (pardon the expression) from this settles all sorts of unpleasant after-effects will be seen, and not necessarily confined to Japan. Does anyone remember the effect of Chernobyl on upland hill farms in the UK ? Incredibly, there are still 338 farms in this country which cannot slaughter, sell or move any sheep which have been pastured in upland areas of North Wales and Cumbria.