Pu-238,239,240
Posted on 03/28/2011 8:34:07 AM PDT by RummyChick
Exclusive: in their own words, members of the Fukushima Fifty - the emergency crew tackling Japan’s nuclear crisis - tell of the dangers and fears they face
Read the article
"Courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s going on, even though you are terrified"
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
U will find this interesting at least.
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/81589.html
URGENT: Plutonium detected in soil at Fukushima nuke plant: TEPCO
TOKYO, March 28, Kyodo
Plutonium has been detected in soil at five locations at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday.
The operator of the nuclear complex said that the plutonium is believed to have been discharged from nuclear fuel at the plant, which was damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Why hasn’t someone...anyone...sent them the suits they should have
“Like the firefighters, these workers have only the most basic protection. Everyone has a respirator, but the full, lead-lined “Noddy suit” is worn by only a few dozen senior people who spend virtually all their time at the plant. There aren’t enough for anyone else. “
Like the firefighters, these workers have only the most basic protection. Everyone has a respirator, but the full, lead-lined “Noddy suit” is worn by only a few dozen senior people who spend virtually all their time at the plant. There aren’t enough for anyone else.
The majority wear simple white disposable overalls made of Tyvek, an artificial, non-rip fibre – the same garments used in Britain by spraypainters and industrial cleaners. These prevent radioactive substances touching the skin or entering the body, but do not shield against most types of radiation. Each suit is worn only once to avoid radioactivity building up on its surface, with hundreds of discarded white suits building up at the plant, the workers said.
- - - -
Wow, not enough suits available.
Yes, that is what I have been saying from the very beginning about that MOX fuel reactor and why I thought MOX fuel was such a big deal.
Reactor 3 is the one with the crack according to the NYT times article that was scrubbed.
“Soil near the Fukushima plant will be tested for plutonium contamination, the government said. The radioactive metal was part of the fuel mix in reactor No. 3 and its presence outside the plant would suggest fuel rods were damaged.
Plutonium is an especially toxic and long-lasting radioactive material, Tokuhiro said. One plutonium isotope has a half-life of 1 million years.
One plutonium isotope has a half-life of 1 million years.
Prayers up for these brave guys.
Radioactive water spilling into tunnels beneath Japan’s quake-damaged nuclear plant
Update: 3/28/11, 8:40 A.M. Here is follow up on the Radiation Alert from this morning. The Monitoring Station in question is located in Huntsville, Alabama. It triggered alerts based on radiation levels averaging in the 100 to 150 CPM range. We tried to reach the station through a number of different means, including via the Chat forum available from within the Radiation Network, but to no avail. So after a half hour or so, we contacted the Huntsville Fire Department and recommended they take independent radiation readings in the vicinity of the Monitoring Station. After all, Huntsville, AL is located about 30 miles from two different nuclear power plants, so we had to take this alert seriously. Fortunately, their readings showed no elevated radiation levels above normal background. After some time, radiation levels from the Monitoring Station in question dropped first to 0, then resumed at normal levels. But still receiving no response from the station, we disabled it, essentially removing it from the Radiation Network. We want to thank the Huntsville Fire Department for their timely support in this matter. I will write more on this incident later.
Update: 3/28/11, 6:05 A.M. Something triggered a Radiation Alert this morning at a Monitoring Station in northern Alabama. We are trying to track down the reason behind it.
http://www.radiationnetwork.com/Message.htm
TEPCO officials told reporters Monday morning that despite the continuous pumping in of water to cool down the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactor cores, water levels were not rising as expected, meaning the pressure containers may not be completely sealed off.
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201103280144.html
I would imagine that most of the radioactivity is on the ground, in the water, limited, and with short lived half life.
The reason the temp workers were in the turbine buildings was that laying cable was thought to be less dangerous in the turbine buildings than out in the open (so I heard through the grapevine, may or may not have been in the news).
Apparently they lowered their guard and a couple of the workers got some exposure on their feet from the contaminated water running off the surface into the turbine buildings and forming puddles in the recessed trenches inside.
It would be nice if the expensive lead-lined suits could be given to everyone, even if the risk is minimal. Maybe they do not have enough suits to do that and the day-to-day situation for the temp workers (in contrast to the permanent worker operators) does not in fact actually warrant it, if modest precautions are communicated to the temp workers and taken by the temp workers...
It seems as if the puddle accumulation and moderate radioactivity in the turbine rooms was not forecast in advance by the TEPCO site management. Unfortunate, but apparently no significant long term ill effects(?).
I have heard that the cables were laid from the plant entrance (to the east of the site), along the north border of the site, to the beachfront area, and then to the south through turbine buildings for 1F1, 1F2, 1F3, and 1F4.
From the turbine buildings, four power cables were extended into the adjacent reactor containment buildings to the west of each turbine building.
From a distance, the strategy would seem to make sense.
However, I also read that the workers sometimes did not have a separate worker whose sole job it was to monitor radiation at the immediate area. Had they had that radiation-monitoring separate worker, they might have evacuated the area immediately instead of proceeding in the presence of the moderately radioactive water. Perhaps it was the case that there was just general mayhem and that in the mayhem, some of the more onerous restrictive rules were not always followed in every single instance. I think this type of lapse has a good chance of happening in almost every situation in which there is a dire emergency, time is of the essence, and workers get fatigued.
Professor says that crane fell on the MOX fuel rods
http://www.picassodreams.com/picasso_dreams/2011/03/crane-collapses-on-fuel-rods-at-fukushima.html
I remember reading last week, where Japan had been purchasing some 10,000 suits from France. I don’t know which version.
new footage of the tsunami as it hit
stunning
http://nation.foxnews.com/culture/2011/03/28/most-insane-tsunami-footage-yet
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.