Quake hits eastern Japan, nuclear plant stable

ChannelNewsAsia.com ^

[justa-hairyape]

TOKYO: A 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Japan on Thursday near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, but did not cause any further problems at the power station, officials said.

The quake hit in the Pacific, 22 kilometres (14 miles) east of Iwaki in southern Fukushima, at 12:20 pm (0320 GMT) at a depth of nine kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.

A tsunami was not expected, said the Japan Meteorological Agency, and there were no immediate reports of damage.

Nuclear plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant remained stable.

[justa-hairyape]

Japan is rocking today. There have been 4 quakes with some significant shaking to Fukushima.

M 4.8 10:43 AM JST
M 5.7 12:20 AM JST
M 3.8 12:31 AM JST
M 5.4 14:37 AM JST

[justa-hairyape]

Looks like the ground movement at Fukushima from the 5.7 was stronger then the ground movement from the 6.8 that occurred on New Years day. In the video link below you can see the TEPCO camera shaking from this new 5.7 quake. The video is a 3 minute time lapse of the 12:00-13:00 time frame in Japan. The shaking occurs at the 1:02 to 1:04 time frames on the video.

2012.01.12 12:00-13:00 (Live Fukushima Nuclear Plant Cam)

Now this ground movement appears stronger then from the 6.8 on New Years and there was a mysterious spike in cesium fallout form the plant the day after that previous quake.

Mysterious Spike in Cesium Fallout in Fukushima on Jan 2, 2012 (Updated with Chiba Information)

[justa-hairyape]

Magnitude 5.7 - NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

Magnitude 5.2 - NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

[gunsequalfreedom]

Quake hits eastern Japan, nuclear plant stable...

...after having multiple melt downs of unprecedented proportions. Oh wait, it was no worse than the radiation from the sun. Nothing to see here. Those pictures we saw of the building (of nuclear power plant containment buildings) blowing up were nothing really significant.

[justa-hairyape]

Perhaps you are not aware of the situation over there. Reactor #4 SFP is holding the entire new core that is normally supposed to be inside the reactor #4 CV. It is also holding numerous spent fuel rods (total of 1,535 nuclear fuel rods). Japan planned to evacuate Tokyo if that spent fuel pool structure collapsed. They reinforced the pool from below. This is what the top of that pool looks like right now.

Note how they have been removing sections of the building to lesson the weight load on the structure.

They will begin removing the fuel rods in 2013. Wonder what the odds in Vegas are that this pool will collapse first ? Will see if I can find an image of that reinforcement column they installed to support the pool from below. You also need to separate exposure from contamination. If you inhale cesium particulates, you have acquired internal contamination.

[justa-hairyape]

And BTW - the current Japanese thinking is that two small Japanese towns close to Fukushima will never be inhabited again in our life times. Wiped off the map due to contamination.

[PalinPlease]

So, are the Chicken Littles going to blame this on Global Warming again? Or will they blame it on fracking, the new concern of the month?

[justa-hairyape]

This video shows more detail on the #4 SFP. Also shows two of the supposed 32 support pillars that TEPCO added to prevent collapse.

Fukushima Disaster Installation of Support Pillars Under Spent Fuel Pool Reactor Unit 4 08 June 11

[Revel]

There is an automatic alert that comes out whenever there is an earth quake in Japan. It says the Fukushima nuclear plant is just fine.

[justa-hairyape]

No idea. Been fighting the Global Warming is going to kill us all crowd for over 10 years. Kinda interesting that nuclear power was promoted as not affecting global warming when the entire function of these particular Japanese plants is to generate heat. Think about that one for awhile.

[justa-hairyape]

It says the Fukushima nuclear plant is just fine.

Yes. But of course. Everything is fine. Cold shutdown has been achieved and the crisis is over. Right now there is no visible smoke coming from the plant, wait let me check, correct no smoke right now. Very clear. However, there was a measurable Cesium spike after the New Years earthquake. A Japanese government official explained that as being due to strong wind. So everything is fine and American Idol should be starting soon.

[gleeaikin]

We are just past the full moon, which along with just past the new moon are ripe times for lots of quakes.

[Razzz42]

Those supports for Spent Fuel Pool #4 are more substantial than shown. Video was of early temporary supports, more supports were placed and concrete placed around them and some type of temporary umbrella/tarp was place over the pool to keep debris from falling in.

SOP is to announce elevated level of contamination and fallout after a shaking of the plant site but 2 or 3 months after the event so not to alarm the locals as the (3) melted cores have not been capped with concrete yet and any agitation will cause a reaction leading to more radioactive emissions.

The good news is that SFP #4 is still intact, SFP #3 supposedly had 88 tons of spent fuel including some MOX fuel in it but SFP #3 blew up leaving behind only a few intact fuel assemblies, the rest ejected around the plant during the blast so many in fact that they don’t have to worry much about cooling #3 pool because there is not much spent fuel left to keep cool.

The TEPCO shills will try and convince people that dirty bombs are harmless so as to prove nuclear meltdowns are harmless.

Nuclear power, the gift that keeps on giving.

[justa-hairyape]

So at new moon, we have the suns tidal forces combined with the moons tidal forces. At full moon, the moons tidal forces are counter to the suns tidal forces. Definitely the extremes.

[justa-hairyape]

Thanks for the info. Glad to read that we have better supports then those long extended steel bar support assemblies. Would love to see what they have done down there. And yes, the shaking does release more fine particulates into the air along with more gases. About the same one would expect when you stir the pot. And reactor #3 SFP has suffered tremendous damage as you state. Here is a picture of reactor 3. Hopefully we wont get the dreaded red x on this image link. From a person who has acquired a bunch of info from the NRC via a FOIA request last summer (enformable.com). Looks like the top 2 floors are pretty much gone. Since this image it has gotten worse.

[gunsequalfreedom]

what has happened to the workers that were on the scene early on?

[justa-hairyape]

Should also add that at the time of the big quake today, wind was very strong and blowing out to sea. You can see flaps near the top of the tent around reactor #1 flapping after the quake hits in the first video link at the top of this thread. Was kinda strange cause the wind speed appears to pick up after the quake ? At any rate, here is the current wind map.

Wind Map around Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (Google Maps Tiling Version)

[justa-hairyape]

Ask Karl Feintuch. From a FOIA request.

Quote - Japan reports 5 persons have received lethal radiation doses

From the following

March 16th 2011 - Japan Reports 5 persons have received lethal radiation doses.

Here is Karl's business address.

Karl Feintuch
Project Manager
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
11555 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD 20852-2746
United States

[lefty-lie-spy]

The lite quake was pretty insignificant in Tokyo.
The new years tremblor was much a little more exciting.
We’ve also had at least one 7.0 earlier in the summer too. These 5.x quakes happen every day. I believe that a quake wont cause addition damage.

[Razzz42]

That would be the Fukushima 50. You will have to do a search to keep current on them, if that is possible. I believe 3 have past already.