Nuke Crisis : Level 7 on overall impact

[evnow]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/from-the-inside-looking-out-reactor-horror-tales/story-fn84naht-1226024326360

From the inside looking out: reactor horror tales
....
He ran back upstairs to the roof to get a closer look and 30 minutes later saw a white wall of water -- a tsunami more than six metres high surging in.

The area around reactors 1 to 6 was submerged in an instant. The pumps that supply cooling water to the power facilities adjoining each of the reactors were washed away in quick succession.

With the pumps gone, there was no way of cooling the steam passing through the plants.

 

[TomT]

This is also quite interesting:

http://www.itworld.com/business/140626/legacy-1800s-leaves-tokyo-facing-blackouts

 

[evnow]

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201103180201.html

Relatives say Fukushima workers are toiling in desperate conditions

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

latest reports looks like we should know whether the cooling system can control the cores

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12793925

crossing fingers here. hopefully the initial water deluge will be enough to minimize the vaporization threat

 

[evnow]

http://gakuranman.com/great-tohoku-earthquake-3/

 

[evnow]

http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/20/why-i-stay-in-tokyo/#more-4193

Fukushima Nuclear Accident – Why I stay in Tokyo

Active and passive smoking, driving a car or motorcycle, getting a chest x-ray, jay-walking, or snowboarding down a snowy mountain are all much more risky activities than simply sitting on a sunny roof terrace in Tokyo.

 

[DaveEV]

Handy reference on radiation exposures from xkcd.com: http://xkcd.com/radiation/

Eating one banana is good for 0.1 micro sievert.

 

[evnow]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12872707

Leaking water at reactor 2 has been measured at 1,000 millisieverts/hour - 10 million times higher than when the plant is operating normally.

"We are examining the cause of this, but no work is being done there because of the high level of radiation," said a spokesman for the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco).

"High levels of caesium and other substances are being detected, which usually should not be found in reactor water. There is a high possibility that fuel rods are being damaged," the spokesman added.

Tepco has been criticised for a lack of transparency and failing to provide information more promptly.

The nation's nuclear agency said the operator of the Fukushima plant had made a number of mistakes, including worker clothing.

 

[thankyouOB]

i am not searching up the story--i believe you can find in yesterday's NYTimes--but some very large shippers are NO LONGER going to tokyo yokohama port complex because of fear of radiation contamination of ships. also, ports of LA and LB around my hood are cking every ship from Japan rigorously for radiation.
I am thinking this will affect auto industry parts and cars.

 

[garygid]

How about packages, aircraft, and people coming from, or over-flying Japan?

 

[garygid]

I think the recent huge spike in a radiation reading was determined to be due to a faulty sensor or wire connection.

 

[evnow]

I think the recent huge spike in a radiation reading was determined to be due to a faulty sensor or wire connection.

Link ?

 

[evnow]

i am not searching up the story--i believe you can find in yesterday's NYTimes--but some very large shippers are NO LONGER going to tokyo yokohama port complex because of fear of radiation contamination of ships. also, ports of LA and LB around my hood are cking every ship from Japan rigorously for radiation.

Just normal scare mongering.

 

[AndyH]

I think the recent huge spike in a radiation reading was determined to be due to a faulty sensor or wire connection.

Link ?

It's on-line as well as today's NPR - TEPCO apologized for the bad readings and is retesting all the radiation levels.

 

[evnow]

I think the recent huge spike in a radiation reading was determined to be due to a faulty sensor or wire connection.

Link ?

It's on-line as well as today's NPR - TEPCO apologized for the bad readings and is retesting all the radiation levels.

This ?

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Contaminated_pools_to_the_drained_2703111.html

Media coverage of the pools has been complicated by a mistake in Tepco's reporting which put the level of radioactivity in the water at 'ten million times' the normal level for reactor coolant. The company has retracted this, explaining that the level it reported for iodine-134 was actually for another radionuclide with a longer half-life and therefore a lower activity rate.

 

[Smidge204]

Just one of the reasons why I keep an eye on this page for my Fukushima updates:

http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html

They tend to be somewhat less reactionary than the media outlets...
=Smidge=

 

[evnow]

Let us compare what npr writes and what WNN says ... I don't know whether the NPR sourece didn't understand what "radionuclide" was and thus left out that portion or something else. What WNN says and what NPR says are quite different. NPR says new tests were done - WNN says Tepco corrected a mistake in the original report. What Gary said above is even more interesting ... Are we playing "Telephone" ?

Media coverage of the pools has been complicated by a mistake in Tepco's reporting which put the level of radioactivity in the water at 'ten million times' the normal level for reactor coolant. The company has retracted this, explaining that the level it reported for iodine-134 was actually for another radionuclide with a longer half-life and therefore a lower activity rate.

A few hours later, TEPCO Vice President Sakae Muto said a new test had found radiation levels 100,000 times above normal, far better than the first results, though still very high. But he ruled out having an independent monitor oversee the various checks despite the errors.

I think the recent huge spike in a radiation reading was determined to be due to a faulty sensor or wire connection.

 

[garygid]

My info was pehaps a 3rd or 4th generation guess, I expect,
so not very likely to be correct.

However, their stories do not really seem like the "whole" story either.

 

[evnow]

However, their stories do not really seem like the "whole" story either.

There is definitley a "fog of war" kind of thing here. I'd just say WNN is likely to be the most correct as far as reporting what TEPCO really says. Others might change some things if TEPCO releases technical information that mainstream audience won't understand. Not different from what happenned during the Gulf drilling disaster - the mainstream press and TOD were saying different things.

 

[AndyH]

CNN's reporting a possible containment leak. IAEA reports for the 28th don't appear to reflect this problem.

http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/28/japan.nuclear.reactors/index.html?hpt=T2

Yukio Edano, Japan's chief Cabinet secretary, told reporters Monday afternoon that "there may be a leak" from the containment vessel surrounding the No. 2 reactor. He said experts were still trying to determine the condition of the reactor's pressure vessel, which sits inside the containment vessel and immediately surrounds the radioactive fuel rods at the reactor's core.

The plant's owner disclosed that small amounts of plutonium had been found among contaminants around the facility late Monday as Japanese authorities struggled to explain how radioactive water was leaking into maintenance tunnels and possibly, into the Pacific Ocean.