TEPCO concealed radiation data before explosion at No. 3 reactor (FUKUSHIMA)

Tokyo Electric Power Co. concealed data showing spikes in radiation levels at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March, one day before a hydrogen explosion injured seven workers.

The Asahi Shimbun obtained a 100-page internal TEPCO report containing minute-to-minute data on radiation levels at the plant as well as pressure and water levels inside the No. 3 reactor from March 11 to April 30.

The data has never been released by the company that operates the stricken plant.

The unpublished information shows that at 1:17 p.m. on March 13, 300 millisieverts of radiation per hour was detected inside a double-entry door at the No. 3 reactor building. At 2:31 p.m., the radiation level was measured at 300 millisieverts or higher per hour to the north of the door.

Both levels were well above the upper limit of 250 millisieverts for an entire year under the plant's safety standards for workers. But the workers who were trying to bring the situation under control at the plant were not informed of the levels.

We continue to be deluged with this foolish campaign to frighten people about nuclear power.

How many people in Japan were killed by one of the largest earthquakes and tsunamis ever? The last numbers I saw were between thirty and forty thousand. How many were killed at the Fukushima Power Plant, on the coast, hit directly by the tsunami? None! The Fukushima facility may have been the safest place to be when the quake and Tsunami hit.

How many people were killed by the complete meltdown of Three Mile Island? None. Commercial nuclear power has killed not a single person, worker or civilian, as a result of its nuclear attributes. People have no doubt fallen off of loading docks delivering snacks or fallen from ladders replacing light fixtures.

Even the ancient weapon-fuel generating reactor at Chernobyl, with no pressure vessel or containment building, caused more injuries by being off line, since its coal replacement kills more each year from pulmonary diseases than died from the meltdown, fire, and radiation release - more than twice as many! The USSR was a failing economy. They didn't have the means to replace the graphite core reactors used for weapons grade material with boiling water or steam reactors. The energy produced was still critical to the economy of The Ukraine, and better than coal for people's health. Coal is still better than no electrical energy and the revolution which would result.

Fukushima is confirmation that there is currently no safer source of electrical energy than nuclear. The hysteria is generated, to a large extent, by people who don't like free enterprise, and are fellow travelers with Obama’s comrades.

You know when I heard a worker died I envisioned their lack of sleep, hours of work, duress and isolation from family etc and thought of it as ‘overwork’. However, since then, I have read that this was his second day of work at the plant. He was slated to work 3 hours. He collapsed after helping another worker carry a saw (pipe saw maybe) down a flight of stairs. Also - when they are dressed in all their protective gear they are now struggling with heat exhaustion inside the layers - another worker was said to have become ill from heat exhaustion the prior day. So I suspect if this information is correct, that a combination of factors may have contributed to his death heat, stress, exertion, possible hidden ailment. His exposure was said to be quite low. Hope he did not suffer but went quickly - wouldn’t want to be a person collapsing in that environment not knowing WHY you are going down. Prayers up.

You and I both knew..along with very few others on this site...that this was much worse than people there and here would admit.

It doesn’t surprise me that people on this site are still claiming that it isn’t all that bad.

Meanwhile, they have finally admitted there has been a core meltdown, (won’t admit that there has been any full meltdown) that there are likely holes in the containment vessel, there are likely leaks...

No end in site

And it just keeps getting worse.

Reactor 4 is leaning.

But very few on this site will admit how bad this situation is.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110512006539.htm

“TEPCO learned about the water level of the pressure vessel after workers who entered the reactor building beginning Tuesday adjusted a water-level gauge. Previously, the reading of the water level had remained almost unchanged at about 1.6 meters below the top of fuel rods since immediately after the outbreak of the crisis at the plant following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.”

Or, they were just lying .

Either way, you can’t trust the numbers for the other reactors since #1 was wrong and there has been a meltdown.

There is no real news outlets that think Reactor 4 is leaning. THere are no official pronouncements from Japan, or from U.S. sources, argreeing that Reactor 4 is leaning.

The whole "reactor 4 is leaning" story comes from a russian today story that showed a video that people watched and thought it looked like the reactor was leaning.

Dr Robert Jacobs and his colleagues at the Hiroshima Peace Institute observed what could fearfully prove to be the most serious crisis escalation since the March 11 catastrophe began. “This began for us as speculation, but on the web cam you can watch the four reactors. It began to get obvious that building Number Four was leaning to the right, just a little bit from the visual field of the webcam.”

The "reactor building" is a huge concrete block set solidly in the ground. It's not a high-rise waiting to tip over. The top structure of the building on top of the main concrete building was blown out, but it wouldn't indicate that the base was tipping.

Of course, #4 isn't even running a nuclear reactor; the vessel is empty. The only concern there is keeping water in a pool; so even if the optical illusion of "leaning" were real, it would make no difference. It's not like a solid concrete block is going to tip over, any more than an island might tip over if you get too many people on one side.

I think reality is bad enough. You have a nuclear power plant where 4 of the 6 units have been destroyed, billions of dollars of investment lost. You have 3 units that had partial meltdowns of the core because they lost water coolant -- this was a fact known from the day it happened, not something that was kept secret.

There was major radiation releases on two units, also well-known at the time, which included hydrogen gas and led to exposions. There was the inexplicable at the time loss of water coolant in unit 4's spent pool leading to unexpected hydrogen release and explosion -- of course we've known about that since the explosion as well.

"isn't all that bad" is relative. I've got a public presentation from late march which has proven accurate in most of the problems that they are still dealing with -- once your fuel melts, the task of cooling and shutting down is going to take a long long time.

I don't know what your definition of "full meltdown" is, but it appears to be the kind of hyperbole that makes it harder to discuss the serious problems that DO exist, along with other hysterical claims like that all the fuel got blown out of the #3 pool, that they opened the double-doors on one reactor to implement a secret plan in the dead of night to flush all the radiation of the building, or the "reactor four is leaning (clearly meant to imply that it might fall over and spill out it's spent fuel pool -- otherwise who would care that it was leaning?).

This was a serious accident from the time they lost backup power. You can't really take people arguing against fanciful doomsday scenarios and accuse them of downplaying the real problems.

I completely agree with you that there is no end in sight, although in the real world the risk of new serious problems has dropped to the point that the news has moved on.

TEPCO is now admitting what I suspected was happening all along.

CORIUM...radioactive lava...

And they are also admitting there are holes in Reactor 1 and likely Reactor 2 and 3 have similar situations.

Whatever TEPCO admits..you can assume it isn’t the whole truth.

Meanwhile, Japan is censoring the media.

Reactor 4 looks like is is leaning to me..but perhaps not.
http://www.houseoffoust.com/fukushima/r4sinking.html

It doesn’t matter.

You have got radioactive lava..and holes..and I suspect..that that lava is going to breach the containments.

Time will tell.

So far, I have been right. It is far worse than they were letting on..It just takes awhile for the info to get out.

http://criticality.org/2011/05/whistleblower-shutdown-17-nuclear-reactors/

Corruption at it’s finest...

“But in August 1989 things changed for Sugaoka, during an inspection of one of the reactors in Fukushima he noticed a structural misplacement in one of the reactors and severe damaging in one of the steam dryers. For his surprise when reporting the anomalies to the people in Tepco he is told by them to cover up the damage and erase all the evidence he recorded, including forging video footage. He even reports Tepco’s irregular demands to his superior at GE, but they turn a deaf ear and order him to do as the Japanese requested him to do.”

So far, I have been right. It is far worse than they were letting on..It just takes awhile for the info to get out.

I know this is a complicated thought, but no, you were not right. Even if you happened to guess exactly what was going to happen, that doesn't make you "right".

One can believe all sorts of things that have no evidence, and in the end, turn out to have been right.

The people who were right were the people who didn't jump to conclusions when there wasn't enough evidence, that kept an open mind to the different possibilities, and that weighed all the evidence for accuracy and application.

It's words like "admit" that show the fallacy of the "I was right" argument. Someone doesn't "admit" something they just learned, even if others might have guessed what they would find.

I think the best "fictitious" illustration of the fallacy of confusing a correct guess for being "right" is the show "House". Most of the time he figures out what was wrong by examining the evidence -- he is "right" in the end; before then, he keeps getting it "wrong", but based on the best evidence he has available. He never "admits" that the real problem was the last one he figures out, because there is nothing to "admit", just better decisions based on more evidence.

But sometimes, he just "thinks" he might know the answer. And once in a while, he's correct. But his friends still point out that he was not "right". He was just lucky.

So, when you might have said a month ago that the core was melted, a few people might have said "you are wrong", and they would not have been "right". But most people would say "we don't have the evidence to claim that it's melted down -- the facts are not there to reach that conclusion.

THOSE are the people who were right.

What does TEPCO gain if it knows the core has melted, but waits a month to reveal that? The core is still melted, and they have the same job to do. You could argue the first few days that they might have been trying to hold up their stock shares while they sold out -- but that time has long gone.

It would be foolish to not act on the best evidence they have at this point, because that is the best way to fix the problem.

BTW, I'm not agreeing with your assessment here of what they have "admitted". There are so many blogs saying "Japan says this" and "TEPCO admits that" where i can't find any actual evidence to back up the claims, that I simply won't express an opinion unless I actually see a TEPCO press release.

There was and IS plenty of evidence to show there was a meltdown.

I am not going to argue this..I think anyone and I mean ANYONE who thinks TEPCO hasn’t been lying is a flat out fool.

They have shown over and over and over and over again that they have a history of cover up. There is also a history of dubious activity by the government.

There is PLENTY of evidence that shows TEPCO has not been forthright.

Just keep being a fool and trusting everything they say.

I was right..and will continue to be right about this.

Well, let’s see the next bombshell to drop...

“Data taken at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on the night of March 11 showing a high level of radiation at a reactor building suggest the possibility that key facilities there may have been damaged by the quake itself that day rather than tsunami-caused power loss that failed the reactor’s cooling function, a utility source said Saturday.”

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/05/91122.html

Surely TEPCO would have told everyone if this was true..since this data was taken March 11th!!!!!!!

I’ve noticed that TEPCO tends to respond to queries with “We cannot deny ...” when it confirms a negative piece of news. So apparently, where information is lacking (either the public doesn’t have information or that TEPCO doesn’t have it), TEPCO states the most optimistic interpretation (’all is well’) because they CAN DENY the worse scenarios technically. By that I mean ‘Hey, you can’t prove otherwise so we are ALL going to proceed if all is well! Next question!”. I think we’ve seen some of that on FR as well over the past weeks.
Normally, if information is unavailable, the default position is not set on ‘optimism’ when developing plans to deal with disasters because baseless optimism can cause you to respond to little, too late, or flat out choose the worst possible course of action if the situation is not in fact as well as proposed. It seems like that is happening right about now - they planned water entombment and now have to ‘reexamine the roadmap for recovery’ because their optimistic plan may trigger a catastrophic explosion. Or most painfully - when the backup generators first went down the day of the tsunami - TEPCO could choose the most optimistic scenario (’we will defnitely be able to restore power without outside assistance) or the most cautious (notify foreign nations offering assistance that if we are unable to get power back up ourselves by 8 we will ask them to fly theirs in and we would need them here by 10 at the latest). TEPCO seems to have relied strictly on ‘best case scenario planning’ and there are those who post on FR and other websites often seem to reason the same way - unless proven otherwise, the best of all possible outcomes is in progress and any diversion from this party line is ‘fear mongering’.

OOOPs..so much for TEPCO revealing the seriousness of the situation...

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201105130370.html

TEPCO concealed radiation data before explosion at No. 3 reactor

Posters here think TEPCO is an honorable company???Get a load of this:

“At 2:31 p.m., the radiation level was measured at 300 millisieverts or higher per hour to the north of the door. “

“Both levels were well above the upper limit of 250 millisieverts for an entire year under the plant’s safety standards for workers. But the workers who were trying to bring the situation under control at the plant were not informed of the levels. “

I realise that you are not accepting much of what is coming out officially. But here is an example how the same facts that you have are interpreted much differently by others within the nuclear power industry:

Japan's nuclear safety agency has suggested that significant damage to fuel at Fukushima Daiichi 1 means that filling the reactor containment vessel with water may be meaningless. The agency's Hidehiko Nishiyama said on Friday that melted fuel rods at the bottom of reactor 1 are being cooled by a small amount of water. He said he doubts that it is necessary to flood the containment vessel entirely, as workers have been trying to do. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said on Thursday that most of the fuel rods in the reactor are believed to be damaged and are at the bottom of the reactor's pressure vessel. Based on the temperature of the reactor vessel surface temperature, the company says the fuel apparently has cooled.

In other words, the fact the the rods all melted down to the bottom of the containment isn't seen as a horrible thing -- it just means the procedure to handle it is different. No need filling up the reactor, if all the fuel is at the bottom. There isn't any indication that the fuel being melted to the bottom is a catastrophe, or causing new problems, or indicates a risk of further melting.

Is it true? Well, now we have to argue over sources. I'm not going to argue sources with you. I am going to just say that if you assume one thing, or another, and argue it as fact, you won't be "right", because the truth is not known yet.

Remember my words FULL MELTDOWN...

read this article CAREFULLY..and think about what you just wrote. You seem to think all is well because they claim it is cool right now.

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201105130192.html

Now, what might be happening...

and what will happen if they stop the water...because OBVIOUSLY there is a leak. Some of the water they are putting in is missing?

READ THIS AGAIN

“TEPCO officials have also not denied the possibility that melted fuel has leaked out of the pressure container. That would mean the volume of contaminated water will likely increase, making work in the reactor buildings much more difficult. “

Now, if you still believe that all is well and that everything is fine because Hidehiko Nishiyama said a small pool of water is cooling the rods...well then..come back and see me in 30 days...and we will AGAIN see that I am right and all is not okay with Reactor 1.

It’s not hot at the moment so all is well. NO WAY

“TEPCO’s latest measurements found the temperature of the pressure container was about 100 degrees. If the fuel rods had been exposed because of the low water level, the temperature should have been much higher. The only explanation is that the fuel rods melted, accumulated at the bottom of the pressure container and the melted fuel was cooled by the small volume of water at the bottom. “

Oh by the way, they just had a 2 Sievert reading at Reactor 1 on Friday.

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