Nuke Crisis : Level 7 on overall impact

[LakeLeaf]

Japanese Earthquake Update (17 March 01:15 UTC)

Injuries or Contamination at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Based on a press release from the Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary dated 16 March 2011, the IAEA can confirm the following information about human injuries or contamination at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Please note that this list provides a snapshot of the latest information made available to the IAEA by Japanese authorities. Given the fluid situation at the plant, this information is subject to change.

Injuries

* 2 TEPCO employees have minor injuries
* 2 subcontractor employees are injured, one person suffered broken legs and one person whose condition is unknown was transported to the hospital
* 2 people are missing
* 2 people were 'suddenly taken ill'
* 2 TEPCO employees were transported to hospital during the time of donning respiratory protection in the control centre
* 4 people (2 TEPCO employees, 2 subcontractor employees) sustained minor injuries due to the explosion at unit 1 on 11 March and were transported to the hospital
* 11 people (4 TEPCO employees, 3 subcontractor employees and 4 Japanese civil defense workers) were injured due to the explosion at unit 3 on 14 March

Radiological Contamination

* 17 people (9 TEPCO employees, 8 subcontractor employees) suffered from deposition of radioactive material to their faces, but were not taken to the hospital because of low levels of exposure
* One worker suffered from significant exposure during 'vent work,' and was transported to an offsite center
* 2 policemen who were exposed to radiation were decontaminated
* Firemen who were exposed to radiation are under investigation

The IAEA continues to seek information from Japanese authorities about all aspects of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

 

[LakeLeaf]

The information above, I believe, is what TEPCO has stated to the IAEA. How factual TEPCO has been through all of this continues to be strongly questioned.

 

[Jimmydreams]

The information above, I believe, is what TEPCO has stated to the IAEA. How factual TEPCO has been through all of this continues to be strongly questioned.

WHAT? You think TEPCO would lie to everyone?? (cough cough BP OIL SPILL cough cough)

We can TRUST these big companies...after all, that's what outsourcing and contracting is all about; better job, more reliable, less money! That has ALWAYS worked well in the past, right? (cough cough UNION CARBIDE Bhopal India cough cough)
:evil:

 

[evnow]

WHAT? You think TEPCO would lie to everyone?? (cough cough BP OIL SPILL cough cough)

I was listening to BBC America news a while back. Looks like people there don't believe either the government - esp. not TEPCO. Unfortunately they have been less than transparent about the situation - that is a big problem.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

my dad was a nuclear power plant operator and he pretty much said that the seawater option pretty much meant that all real options had been exhausted and the only thing now is to reduce the long term danger zone.

seawater will destroy the pumps. it may take a few days or a few months, but the pumps will fail. the only hope is to deluge the containment domes flooding them. the first onslaught will cause a geyser of steam that may rise several thousand feet spewing radioactive material around the area. this will happen until they can get enough water on the reactor to cool it enough to where it will stop vaporizing the water. this may not be possible. the amount of water would have to be enormous. we are talking pipe several feet in diameter.

the winds will be favorable as they will be in a circular pattern minimizing the spread of fallout. if the core can be flooded, this should reduce the radiation levels enough to get some heavy equipment in for some remote control operations that will take weeks as each rod would have to be packed into a portable container for transportation off the site.

all of this has a very very remote chance of working, coupled by the fact that when the steam starting shooting out like old faithful, the exposure window will most likely drop to 15 minute. there will most likely need to be several hundred workers working in shifts to complete the task, most will still receive dangerously high levels of radiation that may even be lethal

 

[evnow]

the only hope is to deluge the containment domes flooding them. the first onslaught will cause a geyser of steam that may rise several thousand feet spewing radioactive material around the area.

I don't think it's that bad since the reactors are sub-critical. As long as the steel containment vessels are not blown off it is ok.

 

[LakeLeaf]

I don't think it's that bad since the reactors are sub-critical. As long as the steel containment vessels are not blown off it is ok.

The rod pools have no containment vessels and contain 40 years of spent nuclear waste. And it appears the rod pools in 3 and 4 have both drained and the rods are burning, putting most of the radiation into the air. If they can't stop those fires and get those rods covered again, the radiation levels will be too high to do anything to save the three reactors. Meanwhile the other 4 rod storage pools will continue to evaporate water, eventually also igniting. It still has quite a bit of potential to be extremely bad. They have to come up with some way to get and keep water in the rod pools, and to inject it into the reactors. The helicopter thing is quite a long shot.

TEPCO has a different picture of things then the outside observers do. (Also just found a headline on an obscure Japanese site that claims power has been partially restored to the site.) The WSJ thinks it will be Thursday afternoon before the plant will have external power. TEPCO says in the AM.

UPDATE AS OF 9:00 P.M. EDT, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16:

Crews began aerial water spraying operations from helicopters to cool reactor 3 at Fukushima Daiichi shortly before 9 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 16. The operation was planned for the previous day, but was postponed because of high radiation levels at the plant. News sources said temperatures at reactor 3 were rising. Each helicopter is capable of releasing 7.5 tons of water.

Spokesmen for TEPCO and Japan's regulatory agency, Nuclear and Industry Safety Agency, on March 17 Japan time refuted reports that there was a complete loss of cooling water in the used fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi reactor 4.

The spokesmen said the situation at reactor 4 has changed little during the day today and water remained in the fuel pool. However, both officials said that the reactor had not been inspected in recent hours.

"We can't get inside to check, but we've been carefully watching the building's environs, and there has not been any particular problem," said TEPCO spokesman Hajime Motojuku.

At about 7 p.m. EDT, NISA spokesman Takumi Koyamada said the temperature reading from the used fuel pool on Wednesday was 84 degrees Celsius and that no change had been reported since then. Typically, used uranium fuel rods are stored in deep water pools at temperatures of about 30 degrees Celsius.

Recent radiation levels measured at the boundary of the Fukushima Daiichi plant have been dropping steadily over the past 12 hours, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said on Wednesday night (U.S. time).

At 4 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, a radiation level of 75 millirem per hour was recorded at the plant's main gate. At 4 p.m. EDT, the reading at one plant site gate was 34 millirem per hour. By comparison, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's annual radiation dose limit for the public is 100 millirem. Radiation readings are being taken every 30 minutes.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yukio Edano, said earlier today a radiation level of 33 millirem per hour was measured about 20 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi plant earlier this morning. He said that level does not pose an immediate health risk.

Edano said that TEPCO has resumed efforts to spray water into the used fuel pool at the damaged reactor 4.

TEPCO also continues efforts to restore offsite power to the plant, with up to 40 workers seeking to restore electricity to essential plant systems by Thursday morning, March 17.

 

[evnow]

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/16/japan-japan-official.html

Japan: Gov. officials and TEPCO update on emergency water drop operations at Fukushima

Immediately after the first phase of aerial water drop operations concluded, Japan's Defense Minister and government spokesman Yukio Edano gave press conferences, followed by a TEPCO press conference. Notes here are hastily transcribed from live broadcast on Japan's NHK TV.

 

[Herm]

This will limit the practice of having a nearly full storage pool, and speed up the removal of spent fuel to dry storage.

 

[evnow]

This will limit the practice of having a nearly full storage pool, and speed up the removal of spent fuel to dry storage.

Can't remove to dry storage until the rods cool enough.

 

[evnow]

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Attempts_to_refill_fuel_ponds_1703111.html

Radiation at ground level near units 3 and 4 is high: peaking at 400 millisieverts per hour on the inland side of unit 3, and 100 millisieverts per hour on the inland side of unit 4. At the highest exposure rate, a nuclear worker or soldier could remain in the area for less than 40 minutes before leaving the site, unable to return.
...
Despite high levels of radiation close to the units, levels detected at the edge of the power plant site have been steadily decreasing.

17 March, 4.00pm : 0.64 millisieverts per hour
17 March, 9.00am : 1.47 millisieverts per hour
16 March, 7.00pm : 1.93 millisieverts per hour
16 March, 12.30pm : 3.39 millisieverts per hour

 

[evnow]

http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/17/fukushima-17-march-summary/#more-4112

In sum, this accident is now significantly more severe than Three Mile Island in 1979. It resulted from a unique combination of failures to plant systems caused by the tsunami, and the broad destruction of infrastructure for water and electricity supply which would normally be reestablished within a day or two following a reactor accident. My initial estimates of the extent of the problem, on March 12, did not anticipate the cascading problems that arose from the extended loss of externally sourced AC power to the site, and my prediction that ‘there is no credible risk of a serious accident‘ has been proven quite wrong as a result. It remains to be seen whether my forecast on the possibility of containment breaches and the very low level of danger to the public as a result of this tragic chain of circumstances will be proven correct. For the sake of the people there, I sure hope it does stand the test of time.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

the cooling operations have been suspended...surprise surprise.

when the water gets dumped on overheated rods, it creates steam in an explosive manner throwing radioactive waste into the air. it took less than 40 minute for the radioactivity above the plant to go to dangerously high levels.

i cannot believe at this point that they are trying to control the situation safely. it is way too late for that.

 

[evnow]

Just like the gulf oil disaster where the big question was hot to cap the leak - something that sounds easy in other circumstances - here, the question is how to pour water into the pools with radiation at high levels. Can a democratic society compel anyone to go on suicide missions .... where are all those robots when you need them.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Japan has a culture where sacrifice for family, friends, etc. is honorable and common.

keep in mind that they are so much different than us, we cannot really comprehend the differences.

remember Katrina? there were two types of people primarily. ones who sat helplessly waiting for someone to help them making zero efforts to help themselves or people who looted their neighbors out of self-centered greed. that in a nutshell describes most of us...

i was born in Okinawa and have a lot of relatives that i have never met but one i did correspond with briefly during a "international pen-pal" project when i was in grade school. here is a letter from the daughter of my cousin. i regret that i have not kept up contact with the relatives on my Mothers side, but my Dad has and forwarded this letter to me. unfortunately, the letter is a bit old and long and recent information is not forth coming. we only hope that she is still well.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/blog.php?u=291&b=56

 

[Kataphn]

Japan has a culture where sacrifice for family, friends, etc. is honorable and common.

keep in mind that they are so much different than us, we cannot really comprehend the differences.

remember Katrina? there were two types of people primarily. ones who sat helplessly waiting for someone to help them making zero efforts to help themselves or people who looted their neighbors out of self-centered greed. that in a nutshell describes most of us...

i was born in Okinawa and have a lot of relatives that i have never met but one i did correspond with briefly during a "international pen-pal" project when i was in grade school. here is a letter from the daughter of my cousin. i regret that i have not kept up contact with the relatives on my Mothers side, but my Dad has and forwarded this letter to me. unfortunately, the letter is a bit old and long and recent information is not forth coming. we only hope that she is still well.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/blog.php?u=291&b=56

What an amazing and beautiful letter! Thank you for sharing it.

 

[LEAFfan]

The helicopters had to leave because of the radiation above the reactors, but just like the Kamikaze (suicide) pilots, there are kamikaze nuke workers on the ground that are willing to sacrifice their lives in order to contain the problem and prevent a major catastrophe. Japan has a 'pool' of these waiting in the wings.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Reports of radiation headed our way expected to hit CA coast by tomorrow AM. supposedly not a threat.

Do u beleieve?

 

[AndyH]

Reports of radiation headed our way expected to hit CA coast by tomorrow AM. supposedly not a threat.

Do u beleieve?

So far, yes. I'm much more concerned about the 24/7 release of radioactive fallout, mercury, and arsenic from every coal power plant in the country. Not such a big deal where you are, though.

 

[LakeLeaf]

Reports of radiation headed our way expected to hit CA coast by tomorrow AM. supposedly not a threat.

Do u beleieve?

Since there has been a relatively small amount of radiation released, I don't suspect a threat here.

You can monitor it a little here.

The nightmare scenario is that the radiation continues to be too high to get close enough to the rod pools to get water on them, the rod pools catch fire and casings on the rods burn off, exposing all of the iodine, cesium, and strontium to the atmosphere. Once this starts to release, it will be pretty much impossible to get close to the plant, and a possibility of the other pools evaporating their water and also catching fire exists. This could lead to a massive release of radiation and it's hard to believe that we won't see it on the West Coast - we'd see it over the entire globe. Will the weather concentrate it and dump significant amounts in any locations?
It's going to be interesting watching how this all plays out.