Fukushima updates

First from yesterday's news and topics re: ongoing disaster:

Cabinet's nuclear safety chief totally confused after TEPCO reversal on water injection

The head of the Cabinet Office's Nuclear Safety Commission is at a loss following Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO)'s sudden denial that a seawater injection operation to cool an overheating reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant was ever stopped.
"My head is full of question marks. I'm totally confused now," Haruki Madarame told reporters on May 26.

TEPCO had claimed that the injection operation to cool the Fukushima plant's No. 1 reactor was halted by a government order before reversing itself on May 26. Madarame's name had been attached to the supposed halt order due to comments he allegedly made on March 12 warning the operation could reignite nuclear reactions in the core. The comments were included in news conference materials used by the joint government-TEPCO nuclear crisis response office.

Madarame consistently denied any connection to a halt order, and the crisis response office later amended his comments to read, "A return to criticality cannot be ruled out."
"Right now, all I want is someone to tell me what is really going on," Madarame said. "So the operation was never halted. So how did I get dragged into this mess?"

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110527p2a00m0na005000c.html


No shit, Madarame, my feelings exactly. Wait, hasn't he heard what the shills say? Nothing to worry about, trust your utility, trust your government, trust your international regulatory bodies, trust the UN.....



U.S. regulator saw serious Fukushima fuel damage soon after disaster

NEW YORK (Kyodo) -- A senior official of the U.S. nuclear regulatory agency said Thursday he had believed there was a "strong likelihood" of serious core damage and core melt in reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant in the days after the March disaster in Japan.

"There were numerous indications of high radiation levels that can only come from damaged fuel at those kinds of levels, so we felt pretty confident that there was significant fuel damage at the site a few days into the event," said Bill Borchardt, executive director for operations of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

His agency also had "suspicions" about the spent fuel pool conditions, Borchardt told reporters after a speech at the Japan Society in New York.

Based on that assumption, he said, the commission recommended U.S. residents in Japan remain outside an 80-kilometer radius of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, as opposed to the Japanese government's directives for people living in a 20-km radius to evacuate...

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110527p2g00m0dm018000c.html


I know, I know, it was just my Extreme Enviroweenie Biased Claptrap mind that ever thought that was the case.



Nuclear power opponents increase in 7 countries
2011/05/27

More people are opposed to nuclear power since the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, according to an Asahi Shimbun poll survey of seven nations…

…Those who favored the use of nuclear power outnumbered those against in the United States and France, whereas pros and cons were about even in South Korea and China. Opponents outnumbered proponents in Japan, Germany and Russia…

…There was a marked increase in opposition from before the accident in four countries: from 56 percent to 81 percent in Germany, from 18 percent to 42 percent in Japan, from 27 percent to 45 percent in South Korea and from 36 percent to 48 percent in China. Opposition in Germany, which was already off the charts before the accident, grew…

…Amid criticism that the Japanese government is concealing information on the nuclear plant accident, a larger number of respondents in all countries surveyed said they thought the Japanese government was not supplying accurate and sufficient information on the accident than those who said otherwise. In South Korea, 89 percent of respondents said the Japanese government was withholding information…

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201105260164.html



TEPCO may need to plug leak at Fukushima plant

The operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant says highly radioactive water continues to leak from a waste disposal facility in the complex.

Tokyo Electric Power Company said on Friday that the water level had dropped by around 3 centimeters as of 7 AM from the level observed at 5 PM on Thursday.

TEPCO had transferred to the facility some of the highly radioactive water flooding the basement of the No.3 reactor's turbine building and nearby tunnel, before it suspended the work earlier this week.

On Thursday, the transferred water was found to be leaking into an underground passage to another building...

Friday, May 27, 2011 12:16 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/27_12.html




Workers check contaminated water in No.1 reactor

Workers have entered one of the damaged Fukushima reactor buildings to survey a pool of radioactive water that the plant operator plans to recycle as a coolant. The No.1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is thought to have suffered a meltdown after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.

Highly contaminated water is apparently leaking from holes created in the pressure and containment vessels, flooding the building's basement.

Workers entered the reactor building on Friday, preparing to pump out the leaked water before cooling it and sending it back to the reactor...

...However, water from the No.3 reactor building is apparently leaking from the storage site into a passage leading to another building. Workers are monitoring the flow of water, and aim to prevent it seeping into the ground.

Friday, May 27, 2011 19:45 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/27_33.html


IAEA team inspects Fukushima nuclear plant

A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency has inspected the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to see damage caused by the March 11th quake and tsunami.

The 18 experts from Britain, France and other countries have been in Japan since Tuesday to investigate the accident at the plant.

On Friday, the team, headed by Mike Weightman, first visited nuclear facilities at the Fukushima Daini plant, which is south of the Daiichi plant.

The head of the Daiichi plant briefed the members on how a series of problems has developed and how the plant's operator has responded...

Friday, May 27, 2011 19:45 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/27_36.html



Super Typhoon Songda Projected To Pass Over Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
May 27, 2011

So far the only good news to accompany the Fukushima catastrophe has been that for all the fallout, the radiation has been mostly contained due to Northwesterly winds which have been blowing any radioactivity mostly out and into the Pacific (coupled with relatively little rainfall), as well as the dispersion of irradiated cooling water which promptly enters the Pacific after which it is never heard of or seen again (there is at least a several year period before 3 eyed tuna fish feature prominently in restaurants across the country). This may be changing soon now that Super Typhoon Songda, which according to Weather Underground will form shortly as a Category 5 storm with 156+ mph winds, will take a northeasterly direction and 2 days later will pass right above Fukushima. The good news: by the time it passes over Fukushima, Songda will be merely a Tropical storm. The bad news: by the time it passes over Fukushima, Songda will be a Tropical storm. As the latest dispersion projection from ZAMG shows, over the next two days the I-131 plume will be covering all of the mainland. Although judging by how prominent this whole topic is in the MSM lately, it seems that conventional wisdom now agrees with Ann Coulter that radioactivity is actually quite good for you.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/super-typhoon-songda-projected-to-pass-over-fukushima-nuclear-power-plant.html



Hi ho!

At every link in the chain of events, TEPCO has acted the corrupt corporation -- from the ignored expert warnings years ago to getting the government and ratepayers to foot the bill to the current crop of experts finding that things are worse than they first believed.

Thank you for the important updates, robdogbucky. You are doing the job the professional news media have failed to perform in covering these life-and-death issues. We are the beneficiaries of your diligence.

:thumbsup:

...says now that, "Oh, we knew there was core damage just a few days after the disaster". But they didn't bother informing the public, not the Japanese public nor the United States public nor anyone else. No, mere citizens needn't worry themselves with factual information. It will only confuse them. The higher-ups will share factual information with the rest of us if and when they deem it necessary to do so. In this case, it became obvious that if they did not know there was core damage early on, one must conclude they were grossly incompetent. So they had to dispel that notion.

And remember: those who were trying to get the reality out there in front of us all (Arnie Gundersen cough cough) were routinely maligned. Even here on DU, we had at least one poster who went into great detail about how Mr. Gundersen wasn't a "real" nuclear expert, did not have suitable credentials, was nothing but a fear monger. Funnily enough, when challenged, he retorted that he was the victim of an ad hominem attack.

We now know who are the truth tellers and who are not. Our own NRC did not think it worthwhile to share what they knew with the rest of us rubes. Because, you know, we can't handle the truth. Only the elites can handle the truth. The rest of us might panic or something.

Way to cover yourselves with glory, assholes.

It's as if this pesky, little nuclear meltdown never happened. WTF?
We're ALL down-winders.
TEPCO and the government of Japan are criminal liars and ecological terrorists.

and every day brings news of further cock-ups by those that designed, promoted, and continue to promote an outdated, expensive, dangerous technology. We can certainly do better, but the capitalists control everything and will have their way, unless and until Mother Nature intervenes one of these times and they won't have an answer for it. The bride will be laid bare for all the world to see, so to speak. Until then, meet the enemy:


Business lobby chief: Nuclear power is vital to the global economy

2011/05/27

The head of Japan's largest business association believes nuclear power is essential to ensuring adequate global energy supplies but admits the industry will have to thoroughly review its safety procedures following the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), told journalists that solar power was far from being efficient enough to be a credible alternative.

The association, which held its general meeting on May 26, argues that nuclear power is needed to ensure stable energy supplies and to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

But Yonekura said a thorough review of nuclear power safety measures and standards would have to be conducted, following an investigation into the causes of the Fukushima accident, to re-establish trust in the industry...

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201105260182.html




U.N. body to probe Fukushima radiation impact

By Fredrik Dahl | Reuters – Mon, May 23, 2011

VIENNA (Reuters) - A U.N. scientific body said on Monday it would study the radiation impact of Japan's nuclear disaster on people and the environment, but it did not expect to detect any major health effects...

..."So far what we have seen in the population, what we have seen in children with thyroid screening, what we have seen in workers ... we wouldn't expect to see health effects," he said.

The U.N. committee groups scientists from 21 countries...

...Weiss said the number of people affected by the Fukushima disaster was much smaller than at Chernobyl. People living within a 20 km (12 mile) radius of the plant have been evacuated.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/u-n-body-probe-fukushima-radiation-impact-153118541.html


Anyone want to take a stab at what those results will show? That is of course, if no more of the seemingly daily setbacks occur. Worst case scenarios bring all this rehabilitation and damage control by media and TPTB down to earth in a hurry.




"Me, I'm waiting so patiently
Lying on the floor
I'm just trying to do my jig-saw puzzle
Before it rains anymore..."

Jagger/Richard

by the time it nears Fukushima.
The projected radiation plume models show winds enveloping most of Japan. Up until recently, prevailing winds have been offshore, taking the radiation out to sea and to the east. That is going to change with this storm. Any radiation spewing out of the crippled reactors will be spread over most of the country with wind and heavy rain.
They're not likely to release much info or radiation readings because there could be mass fucking panic.
The plastic tarp idea to cover the reactors is laughable if it wasn't so catastrophic. They will be ripped to shreds and this is just the FIRST of many storms to come.