Posted on 03/18/2011 10:40:08 AM PDT by tentmaker
UPDATE AS OF 11:20 A.M. EDT, FRIDAY, MARCH 18:
Reactors 1, 2 and 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant are in stable condition, with workers continuing to provide seawater cooling into the reactors. Containment integrity is believed to be intact on reactors 1, 2 and 3, and containment building pressures are elevated but are within design limits.
Site radiation doses have been decreasing since March 16. Radiation dose rates are fluctuating based on some of the relief operations, such as adding cooling water to the used fuel pools. Recent readings at the plant boundary are about 2 millirem per hour. Radiation dose rates at reactor 3 range between 2,500 and 5,000 millirem per hour.
The Japanese Self-Defense Force restarted cooling water spray into the Unit 3 reactor building and spent fuel pool at around 1 a.m. EDT on March 18. Plans are to spray 50 tons of water on the reactor 3 reactor building/spent fuel pool using seven fire-fighting trucks.
A diesel generator is supplying power to reactors 5 and 6. TEPCO is installing high voltage cables from a nearby transmission line to reactors 1 and 2. Once electricity supply is re-established, priority will be given to restoring power to reactor heat removal systems and cooling water pumps. Workers are seeking to install electrical cables to reactors 3 and 4 components in about two days.
(Excerpt) Read more at nei.org ...
2.5 to 5 Rem/Hr.
You’d only be able to work for a couple of hours at most in that kind of field before you’d have your dose for the year.
Kinda like ‘jumpers’ during an outage. You’d go through a lot of people.
How unexciting.
I prefer the headless chicken hysteria of Drudge and Fox News (not even CNN is crapping themselves like Fox).
Waiting for the comments about how hysterical you are for posting facts....
FOX News has suffered a major loss of credibility from their coverage of this.
Facts is facts.
Working in a high radiation field is something that sometimes has to be done. The risk management strategy is limit the time to limit the overall dose.
It’s just that once someone has reached his/her dose limit, they have to be rotated out and can’t go back in a radiation field for at least a year. If it’s a labor-intensive operation like this, they will go through a lot of people.
Indeed. The opening show by Cavuto last Saturday was shameful.
Thanks for the updates... good job.
How much longer would a Demron suit extend that couple of hours, days.... weeks...
Are you telling me that I could take a walk around the facility for a couple of hours without even reaching the yearly dose?
I though I would become a zombie in a matter of seconds!
>>I prefer the headless chicken hysteria of Drudge and Fox News (not even CNN is crapping themselves like Fox).
And not a few FReepers, sad to say.
I don’t know how much attentuation these suits offer. I haven’t looked them up.
It depends on a lot of things. The gamma energy of the isotopes involved, whether it’s a point source rather than groundshine, etc. The suits are probably better than nothing. From what little I’ve seen, they could at least help reduce the danger of beta burns. Cesium is dominant in the contamination, and it is a huge beta emitter. (Beta burns are like a really bad, deep sunburn).
Risk management consists of four things to limit exposure. One, respiratory protection to keep the radionuclides out of the body. Two, three and four are Time, Distance and Shielding. The Demron suit is shielding.
I was kind of wondering if they needed any jumpers to run in and position a fire hose or rig up a remote camera. I’m over 55 and won’t be having any more kids. Might make for a nice week-long vacation and I’ll bet the pay would be great. As long as I report the dose to my current employers everything should be fine.
From what I read Demron provides a LOT of Beta emitter protection and can help against low energy Gamma Rays, High energy Gamma, not so much.
New International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) ratings have been issued for the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
Reactor core damage at the Daiichi reactors 2 and 3 caused by a loss of cooling function has resulted in a rating of 5 on the seven-point scale.
The loss of cooling and water supply functions in the spent fuel pool of reactor 4 was rated a 3, or “serious” incident. The loss of cooling functions in the reactors 1, 2 and 4 of the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant has led to a rating of 3.
Interesting. IAEA clarifies that it's the core damage in #2 and #3 that caused raising the rating to a 5. The spent fuel pool in #4, which has been the focus of most "sky is falling" media reports the past few days, is rated a 3.
Consider: Fox took a great pile of cash from a Saudi princeling.
The Saudis sell oil and are terrified that the U.S. might decide to figure out this atomic energy thing, making oil less attractive.
Fox is bought and paid for in this matter, and it shows.
Yes, there was an post earlier about the 200 people that are doing the 50 man shifts (Fukushima 50?), they are apparently a suicide squad, and they know it.
Yes.
Just horrible.
I prefer the headless chicken hysteria of Drudge and Fox News (not even CNN is crapping themselves like Fox).
I agree.....It’s amusing to watch the media pee all over themselves.
Good call. Follow the $$$
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