Radiation levels hit new high at Fukushima Daiichi

Nuclear Engineering International ^ | 03/16/11 | staff

[winoneforthegipper]

Tokyo Electric Power Company temporarily evacuated workers from the Fukushima nuclear power station early on 16 March as radiation levels hit a new high at reactor 3. White fumes have been seen coming from reactor 3 and the operator fears that there has been damage to the suppression chamber. A fire also occurred overnight at reactor 4.

[winoneforthegipper]

Has link to Reactor by Reactor status update for today.

[winoneforthegipper]

Here is the PDF file of the report.

http://www.neimagazine.com/journals/Power/NEI/April_2011/attachments/ENGNEWS01_1300252224P.pdf

[RaceBannon]

Anyone watch Glen Beck last week? I was liking him, but he is going to have to eat crow on this one!

[winoneforthegipper]

The anti-chicken littles....have a strong will!

Here is a new pic of the plant....

http://www.digitalglobe.com/downloads/featured_images/japan_earthquaketsu_fukushima_daiichi1_march16_2011_dg.jpg

[RaceBannon]

Is there video of the 3rd explosion??

[winoneforthegipper]

I saw one but it was poor quality and did not show a force that produce the end result, judging how the building looks now.

I will try to find it for you.

[RaceBannon]

http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/japan-third-blast-strikes-nuclear-plant/193665

you have to click on after the mcdonalds ad, then it shows

[winoneforthegipper]

Yeah that for sure was not the one I saw. Thank you.

[ex-Texan]

Helicopters Unable to Drop Water Over Japan’s Nuclear Reactor

[newzjunkey]

If you read the whole thing it says: Press reports indicate that workers have now returned.

The only levels given are for the prior day's high of 400 mSv, less than half required for symptoms of nausea. It suggests this high was greater but not to what extent.

[palmer]

The anti-chicken littles....have a strong will

The chicken littles have counted a lot of eggs before they have hatched. How many new fires? One. New radiation readings from new fire? Not specified. Highest reading specified is from yesterday, 400mS/hr. Highest reading at gate is from yesterday: 10 mS/hr (3.4 today) # meltdowns so far: zero.

[MsLady]

That eerily looks like Chernobyl. Am I looking at it right? Are those the nuke plants with the tops blown off? I read last night that people were beginning to leave Tokyo. The radiation levels there were had increased slightly. I thought I heard yesterday that 38 million people live in Tokyo?

[thackney]

Radiation levels reached 400 mSv/hr between unit 3 and unit 4 and 30 mSv/hr between unit 2 and unit 3.

In terms we can compare, spending a minute between 3&4 is about a chest x-ray. Spending 14 minutes between 2&3 was the same dosage.

http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/pdf/sfty_xray.pdf

[palmer]

The containment is cracked and will spew radioactive steam. It could split open, but I suspect not. A meltdown will destroy containment however. In contrast, Chernobyl had no containment and a flammable moderator underneath the fuel.

[winoneforthegipper]

Yeah i must have read 10 articles on this latest release. Conflicting information to be sure. Also NHK’s panel is questioning why TEPCO is not releasing the information on the plant’s reading level(evidently very high at reactor 3) and what type of radiation it is.

Weird.

I posted that article mainly for the Status report though.

[GonzoGOP]

The only levels given are for the prior day's high of 400 mSv, less than half required for symptoms of nausea. It suggests this high was greater but not to what extent.

One important thing to remember is that the 1000 mSv to cause nausea is per year while the radiation at the plant is 400 mSv per hour. Radiation is cumulative. If you take 400 mSv for more that a couple of hours you are going to get seriously ill. They will need to rotate crews more rapidly to avoid casualties.

The good news is that the 400 mSv was only immediately between plants 2 and 3. The rest of the plant was considerably lower. So they will be able to keep crews on site longer if they are careful about where they put them. In addition yesterday the Japanese government upped the acceptable dose for workers from 100 mSv per year to 250 mSv per year. Still very conservative but even at that they could only take just over half an hour in a 400 mSv environment. So they will need to avoid the hot spots.

Again I'm not going chicken little. It isn't that everyone is going to die. The doses the workers are receiving are being monitored and they will be pulled when their annual dose is exceeded. It is just that it is going to be royally inconvenient keeping a crew there as the radiation levels build up as they will constantly need to find new crew members as the existing ones are rotated out to safety.

[thackney]

The tops of the outbuildings have been damaged from the hydrogen gas explosions. Hydrogen was released from the containment vessel (reactor) to relieve pressure, knowing an explosion was likely before it could dissipate.

It is not the same as a breach in the containment system. For a simple comparison, a hole in your car fender is far different than a hole in your engine.

[tcrlaf]

KYODO NEWS-NEWS ADVISORY: Radiation of 1,500 microsievert per hour as of 4 p.m. near nuke plant: Edano

This was posted at 18:12 JST

[thackney]

The containment is cracked

Where was that stated?

[thackney]

1,500 microsievert - 1.5 mSv