A Series Of Unfortunate Events at Fukushima Daiichi

There have been a number of odd happenings recently at the plant. What they all mean right now is not totally clear.

On January 2nd, the day after the widespread new years quake, the radioactive fallout levels in Fukushima and also in Chiba spiked. A weird white ash was reported by some in Chiba, no word if this is related in any way.

On January 6th the cesium levels detected leaking out of unit 3′s intake canal tripled in one day.

We still have no explanation for the rush of police cars, fire engines and two buses of workers to Daiichi on January 6th (Japan time). Checks of TEPCO’s plant status reports say nothing of an incident at the plant and nothing has been reported out of those who watch the press conferences.

There have also been a series of shallow quakes in the region of the power plant since the first of the year.

Actually, it is far more humane to bypass emotion and colorful hyperbole, and just deal with facts and truth. Statistics and numbers are facts and truth—they are a descriptor of reality.

The FACT is that FAR FAR more people have died from the earthquake and tsunami than will EVER suffer and die from radiation exposure from Fukushima.

The FACT is that FAR FAR more people have died and will die from the use of energy sources other than nuclear.

The FACT is that nuclear energy, despite its’ drawbacks, has and will continue to be a great benefit to humanity.

We need more of it, not less.

BTW, I no longer work on a reactor—my current line of work has nothing to do the nuclear industry, and hasn’t for a long time.

...and just deal with facts and truth.

Do you realize what would happen if for example San Onofre melted down ? First, the US government would deny there is any significant problem. They would possess maps predicting where the fallout was headed and areas that were being contaminated, and they would sit on them. Because they would not want to cause a panic and they know it would be impossible to evacuate Southern California in a timely fashion. That is exactly what would happen. It is exactly what happened in Japan.

The Japanese government also had worse case scenario plans that Tokyo City would have been evacuated if the support structure for Spent Fuel Pool #4 collapsed. It did not collapse and was reinforced. Then they released the lie that cold shutdown of 3 melted reactors was achieved. Now we have a series of earthquakes that can only be weakening the support structure for #4 SFP. And we have a recent video showing workers being lifted by elevating platform into #4 building, working on areas around the spent fuel pool. All suited up and obviously taking great risks to work in that environment. If that support now collapses, according to their own plans, Tokyo City will have to be evacuated. Well how are they going to justify that after they promoted the BIG LIE that cold shutdown was achieved ?

Don't mean to be rude, but you and others on this thread have absolutely no concept of reactor design and containment in the US.

San Onofre has two Pressurized Water Reactors--a completely different design than Fukushima. They are surrounded and contained by concrete domes...the cross section of the concrete looks similar to this:

However the thinnest sections at S.O. are at least two feet thicker than the pic. Fukushima has no such containment.

We've already had a large meltdown incident in the US--Three Mile Island. TMI's core suffered a 95% meltdown, and the pressurized water reactor design (similar to San Onofre) completely contained the core within the reactor vessel itself--there was never any possibility of the release of fission products outside the reactor plant. After decades of study, there is absolutely no link from the TMI incident to any increased radiation exposure or health related issues to the public.

San Onofre could suffer a 100% meltdown, and the results would be the same. Of course, the likelihood a meltdown at San Onofre is almost ZERO. BTW, I live about 40 miles from S.O. as the crow flies, and I have absolutely no fear of it.

As far as the Fukushima incident, from the get-go we've been deluged with worst case scenario hype, and NONE of these predictions has come to pass. I'm not trying to minimize what has happened--it is very serious--but the sky will not fall and eventually this problem will be controlled.

In the mean time, it's just a shame that there is so much incredibly ignorant fear mongering going on. Ignorance and fear go hand in hand...people fear what they can't or won't comprehend and understand. Sometimes it's hard to believe this is Free Republic....

They said that Fukushima could not explode. It did. They said that Fukushima could not melt out of the RPV. It did. They said it could not escape the CV, it has. That is three strikes and they are out. Now you claim that San Onofre could not cause any problems. Yeah sure. Do you have any idea the size of the Tsunami that could hit that plant with just minutes of warning ? You ever been to Catalina Island or cruised by San Clemente Island ? Have you seen a map of the seafloor off the So Cal coast ? Do you know what an 8.0 quake here could do to that concrete ?

Update - They have two medium sized cranes working on reactor #4 today. Sun will be setting over there in a few hours. Looks like one crane is trying to dismantle whats left of the top floor in the rear area of the building. They must be trying to remove weight stress from the lower floors. There is a second crane or possible water injection crane that is aimed right into the #4 SFP from above. Dang. Video just got fogged over.

JNN福島第一原発情報カメラ（LIVE）

BTW - They was an incident reported by Tepco related to the big earthquake on New Years day. They stated that water flow had shifted in the #4 SFP from the spent fuel pool to the skimmer tank and that the water level in the SFP was lowering. Then they stated that water was lowering in the skimmer tank and not in the SFP. They stated that the problem would soon be fixed. That all did not make much sense to me. New second hand report state a pipe broke and water boiled in #4 SFP.

Reactor 4 : Spent fuel pool was boiling without water after 1/1/2012

Looks like #4 might be getting ready to saddle up.

Riders on the Storm

Now you claim that San Onofre could not cause any problems.

Did you even read my last post? You have absolutely no clue about reactor containment at San Onofre, or any other US nuclear plant. They are completely DIFFERENT than Fukushima. The Fukushima REACTOR did NOT explode...the building surrounding it did. The Fukushima building that exploded was NOT a concrete reinforced structure like the containment domes at San Onofre. THEY ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!

Ignorance is one thing, but willful ignorance is just plain stupidity.

No. I do not need to read your post, because that exact post was put up early on in the Fukushima disaster. Why should I read it twice ? Would you like me to point out where someone posted that exact same picture and shilled that exact same none sense ? You guys are a broken record now. Same none sense over and over again. Stop wasting our times and our lives.

Let me explain my point in details for you. Major earthquake cracks your vaunted concrete shell. Tremendous Tsunmai follows 5 minutes later and floods the entire plant and eventually caused a reactor meltdown. Meltdown escapes internal reactor vessel and gases and particulates escape through the cracks in the shell. And while that is all occurring, you would be all over Freerepublic claiming there is no problem.

Been there. Done that. Tell me something new.

FYI - If anyone is interested, there was two small earthquakes off the coast of Fukushima earlier today. Now the JNN camera feed has been off, since they started working extensively on Reactor #4. Probably just a coincidence. Radiation levels around Fukushima #1 and #2 have not changed much. With the main camera down recommend these two sites to monitor any possible problems with #4 SFP. Keep track of the radiation levels.

Fukushima 1

Fukushima 2

Have actually identified some of these monitoring locations with Google translate. Can also explain the readings if anyone needs the help. Current highest reading equates to basically 1 chest xray exposure every 2 hours (location close to Fukushima 1 plant).

Now getting back to the two small earthquakes off the coast near Fukushima today. The question is, did they cause ground movement at Fukushima #1. Answer - Yes they did. You can see the ground movement on the video archives for the Tepco live camera. Both earthquakes and the video with time location of ground movement are listed below. This is a intuitive way to see the amount of ground motion that the plant experiences.

First Quake.

Magnitude 4.7 - NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

Local time was about 4:10 pm. You can see the resulting ground movement via the camera shaking at the 32 to 33 second mark. Basically archive video is fast forward of 1 hour crammed into 3 minutes of video time. So 30 seconds of video is about 10 minutes of real time.

2012.01.09 16:00-17:00 / Live Fukushima Nuclear Plant Cam)

Second Quake.

Magnitude 4.7 - NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

Local time was about 5:50 pm. You can see the resulting ground movement via the camera shaking at the 2:30 to 2:31 minute mark. Basically archive video is fast forward of 1 hour crammed into 3 minutes of video time. So 2:30 minutes of video is about 50 minutes of real time.

2012.01.09 17:00-18:00 / (Live Fukushima Nuclear Plant Cam)

Note to Japan - Please do not turn off the Tepco live video feed or the updated radiation monitoring in Fukushima.

Last update to this thread. There is a new JNN Camera feed. Link is below. Looks like they knocked down two more sections of wall in the Reactor #4 building. As you look at the JNN feed, the left wall of #4 is light up very bright at night. The front or right end sections of that wall are no longer there. They are apparently continuing with the demolition of the building. Probably at least somewhat related to the support of #4 SFP.

JNN LIVE

This video shows the work crew that arrived and walked around the #4 building on January 6. Stop the video at 1 second and you will see the #4 reactor building with the two left front wall panel sections still intact. Looks like they have really accelerated the demolition efforts.

2012-01-06 TBS/JNN/

Still no deaths, and no report on the condition of the 5 individuals...people who receive truly fatal doses of radiation usually die in a matter of days. It’s been many months since those exposures.

Not saying some or all to the 5 persons won’t die of radiation exposure, but none are dead yet. There are many documented cases of people receiving acute ‘lethal’ doses of radiation and not dying.

Not to minimize it, but that’s 5 ‘lethal’ doses out of how many hundreds of exposed workers?

Who’s fooling who?

Tell me specifically what I said that was wrong?

I know quite a bit about radiation and its’ biological effects, specifically as it relates to working around nuclear reactors. Been there, done that. I know of which I speak.

Just my 2 cents, but your mistake is that you only believe official sources and you never consider that those official sources have a motive to conceal some information. The Japanese government itself has admitted that they did not release SPEEDI information early on and they did not release Iodine tablets early on because they did not want to cause a panic. It turns out that because they did not release the SPEEDI information, some evacuees from near Fukushima ended up evacuating to an area that had more radiation then the area they evacuated from. Those residents found out about that when a story appeared in the US MSM about 5 months later.

Doctors unsure why thyroid cancer cases on the rise

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/story/2012-01-15/Doctors-unsure-why-thyroid-cancer-cases-on-the-rise/52582694/1

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“In October, a U.S. study – co-authored by oceanographer Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the non-profit Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass., – reported Fukushima caused history’s biggest-ever release of radiation into the ocean – 10 to 100 times more than the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.”

“It meant the ocean wasn’t diluting the radiation as expected. If it had been, cesium levels would have kept falling. The finding suggested radiation was still being released into the ocean long after the accident in March, Buesseler said in an interview.

“It implies the groundwater is contaminated or the facility is still leaking radiation.””

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/After+Fukushima+fish+tales/5994237/story.html

From the link...

National Cancer Institute statistics suggest that in recent years the number of cases of this often curable cancer has increased by about 6.5%. Over a decade, that has added up to make thyroid cancer the fastest-increasing cancer,...

And how exactly is this related to Fukushima?

...– reported Fukushima caused history’s biggest-ever release of radiation into the ocean – 10 to 100 times more than the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.”

Apples and oranges...Chernobyl is LANDLOCKED...Fukushima is right on the ocean. Also, at Chernobyl the reactor fuel literally BURNED in the open atmosphere...as bad as Fukushima has been, it's still nowhere near the scale of the release of radioactive fission products that resulted at Chernobyl.

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