Tepco: No Need To Release Steam From No. 3 Reactor, Pressure Stabilized

Nikkei ^ | 03/20/11

[TigerLikesRooster]

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Tepco: No Need To Release Steam From No. 3 Reactor, Pressure Stabilized

OSAKA (Dow Jones)--Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) confirmed Sunday that pressure levels inside the containment vessel of the No. 3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have stabilized, and there is currently no need to release possibly radioactive steam.

The company said at a news conference in Tokyo that pressure inside containment vessel began rising on Saturday evening, then stabilized at elevated levels.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[Freeper Fanatic]

Does “heard that before apply here”?

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Wait a minute ... I thought we were all supposed to die.

[dennisw]

The Japanese are on the world stage and have a great incentive to solve this a lot better than the Russians. They are smarter and now have to prove it now. Or be subject to ridicule for decades. With limited land they cannot afford to have a few hundred square miles made uninhabitable the way the Russkies did.

Many Japanese are going to sacrifice for this solution with high and low level radiation sickness, death and sterility.

[J Aguilar]

Those are free statements not founded in scientific knowlegde.

[AmericanInTokyo]

CNN is GREATLY dissapointed. Guess they will have to shift to Libya to shore up their ratings. /sarc

[RightFighter]

CNN is GREATLY dissapointed. Guess they will have to shift to Libya to shore up their Obama's ratings.

There. Fixed it for you.

[dennisw]

Many Japanese are going to sacrifice for this solution with high and low level radiation sickness, death and sterility.

I should make that more accurate. More than a few Japanese who are working frantically to fix this nuclear reactor and fuel rod storage situation are going to sacrifice themselves with high and low level radiation sickness, death and sterility.

[Western Phil]

More than a few Japanese who are working frantically to fix this nuclear reactor and fuel rod storage situation are going to sacrifice themselves with high and low level radiation sickness, death and sterility.

That remains to be seen. While there is reason for much concern, the media and the anti-nukes tend to vastly overstate nuclear radiation effects to foster their own agenda.

[newzjunkey]

Good news. Go Japan!

I'm waiting for the radioactive rain the news promised me here in CA.

[J Aguilar]

Again, there are no scientific reasons to state that. Works in areas with moderate levels of radiactivity are performed regularly in nuclear plants, with no effects on death, sickness or sterility rates.

[cripplecreek]

That remains to be seen. While there is reason for much concern, the media and the anti-nukes tend to vastly overstate nuclear radiation effects to foster their own agenda.

One of the "experts" on with Geraldo last night declared that rational energy policy in America means no nuclear power ever. Its a little hard to take people like that seriously.

[dennisw]

You will not bet against my updated post. Or if you will let me know how much

[aumrl]

ahhhh.....you’re BETTING on people’s lives ?

[MEG33]

God bless those trying to keep the rest of Japan safe...they are heroes.

[dennisw]

.... just saying and saying is for free

[dynoman]

I can' believe how irrational and out of perspective some of the media coverage has been. For instance if any want to compare Chernobyl’s radiation to Fukushima Daiichi there is really nothing even close to bad enough at Fukushima Daiichi to compare to, not even the spent fuel pools let alone the reactors themselves. Chernobyl’s *reactor* had less protection than any of the spent fuel pools in Fukushima Daiichi, even before it blew up. The fact that it blew up proves that point. The operating standards were worlds apart. All that is why Chernobyl at seven seconds was many multiples worse than Fukushima Daiichi at seven days.

Think about it; even a 9.x earthquake, tsunami, and many aftershocks couldn’t damage Fukushima Daiichi enough to where it was anywhere close to a fraction of Chernobyl. In stark contrast Chernobyl blew up all by itself, no earthquake or tsaunmi needed. Fukushima Daiichi stands as a great testament to western nuclear powerplant design and operating standards, very impressive difference in my opinion.

I wonder if there will be even one radiation fatality in the next few months from Fukushima Daiichi. I read about one worker being exposed enough to require hospitalization, and the dose was a tiny fraction of what it would have been at Chernobyl.

---

Here’s some perspective on the current radiation levels at Fukushima Daiichi;

First from -> http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031905-e.html

“From now on, if the measured figure fluctuates and goes above and below 500 micro Sv/h" (.5 m/Sv);

and

” - The radiation exposure of 1 TEPCO employee, who was working inside the reactor building, exceeded 100mSv and he was transported to the hospital.”

In morning hours after Chernobyl 134 workers received an exposure of 0.8-16 Gy which is 800-16000 m/sv ( 1Gy = 1Sv, 1Sv = 1000 m/Sv)

What this means is 134 workers in the first few hours at Chernobyl recieved 800m/Sv-16000m/sv. That stands in very stark contrast to the one Fukushima worker who recieved 100 m/sv.

For more perspective on radiation exposure; Symptom Benchmarks and Dose Examples

---

If any want to monitor the current and actual radiation levels across Japan check this link; http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/saigaijohou/syousai/1303726.htm

[New Jersey Realist]

It is the media that keeps humanity believing myths and existing in the darks ages. They should be ashamed that they are complicit in oppressing the human race due to their complete and utter lack of intellectual curiosity and childlike fear of something they obviously have no knowledge of.

They act as if radiation is a horrible man made poison, it’s not. The media and every single person on this planet are struck by a million particles of radiation (Alpha, Beta, and Gamma) every single minute of their lives from natural sources. (NES) The natural radiation in our environment is hundreds of times greater than our exposure to anthropogenic radiation from fissile electricity production. If you include radiation from medical procedures (X-rays, CT Scans, etc.) the radiation exposure level over fissile reactors increase exponentially.

Everyone will die; you cannot insulate yourself from death, you can minimize risks, but it will happen. Following is an assessment I put together of the risk associated with anthropogenic irradiation:
1. The chances of a single radio-isotopic particle (atom/molecule) causing cancer are 1/ 30 quadrillion. (AMA)
2. The million particles that strike us each minute have a 1/30 billion chance of causing cancer.
3. Human lifespan is around 40 million minutes.
4. 1-3 boils down to a 1/700 chance of getting cancer from NATURAL (non-anthropogenic) irradiation.
5. Once you have cancer your chance of dying is 1/5. (AMA)
6. This means that 1/140 of all cancer deaths are due to NATURAL irradiation.
7. The exposure to irradiated isotopes for those that live in close proximity to a fission reactor are 1% that of natural irradiation. (NRC)
8. This means that in your lifetime there is a 1/70,000 chance of you dying from cancer from irradiated isotopes (1/100 the chance from natural radiation and 1/14,000 the chance from all causes.)

Contrast this to the three hundred people killed daily in automobile accidents which gives you a 1/100 chance of dying in a car accident in your lifetime

Similar estimates show that particulates from burning carbon as an energy source will reduce your life expectancy by 15 days while anthropogenic radiation from fissile reactors will reduce your lifespan by only 0.018 days. (Extrapolated AMA data)

Fission reactors are absolutely the safest, cleanest, and most economical form of large scale energy production the human race has access to, yet in their abysmal ignorance, the media chooses to reject it out of a childlike fear of the boogy man. Their ignorance is a determent to the entire human race.

[kidd]

More than a few Japanese who are working frantically to fix this nuclear reactor and fuel rod storage situation are going to sacrifice themselves with high and low level radiation sickness, death and sterility.

I know the image of heroism, sacrafice and human carnage from an unseen "force" are hard to resist and would make a wonderful Hollywood production. But none of that is applicable to the situation in Japan.

I am an occasional radworker and I an familiar with exposure effects.

The biggest risk to the Japanese radworkers are the hydrogen explosions, sharp objects in the debris from the earthquake/tsunami and falls from high places. The maximum radiation dose received by the Japanese radworkers (25 Rem) has raised their probability of getting cancer (sometime in their life) by 2% (0.08% per rem for an acute dose). They are at greater risk of cancer from the cigarettes they smoke. No radiation sickness. No sterility. No death.