Nuke Crisis : Level 7 on overall impact

[DanCar]

The whales are the ocean's wolves, Dan - they're a keystone species for the ocean. We're already over fishing the oceans, destroying the sea floor habitats with drag nets, and creating dead zones with fertilizer run-off and oil spills.

Yep, it would be good if we did something about that.

... and I think it's pretty clear that if the oceans die we go along for the ride. And that's not a very fun thought at all.

I'm not that pessimistic, but just the thought of heavily stressing the system, rather than helping, is enough to get me going. I suspect most people would rather us be in harmony with nature rather than trying to kill it.

[AndyH]

Fukushima - Four Years Later

[AndyH]

[AndyH]

The gift that keeps on giving...

http://rt.com/news/253897-chernobyl-fires-rage-ukraine/

Forest fires heading for Chernobyl nuclear plant – Ukraine Interior Ministry
...
However, in comments to Russia’s Moscow Speaks radio, a representative of Greenpeace Russia said that the situation is much worse: “A very large, catastrophic forest fire is taking place in a 30-km zone around the Chernobyl power plant. We estimate the real area of the fire to be 10,000 hectares; this is based on satellite images. This hasn't been officially acknowledged yet.”

The potential danger in this fire comes from the radioactive contaminants the burning plants have absorbed, ecologist Christopher Busby told RT. “Some of the materials that were contaminating that area would ahve been incorporated into the woods. In other words, they land on the ground in 1986 and they get absorbed into the trees and all the biosphere. And when it burns, they just become re-suspended. It's like Chernobyl all over again. All of that material that fell on the ground will now be burned up into the air and will become available for people to breathe." Christopher Busby is the scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risks.

Ecologist Dmitry Shevchenko from the Environmental Watch on North Caucasus says it is difficult to predict where exactly the contaminants will go: “We don't have a real-time monitoring system for the Chernobyl area. We can hypothesize whether the radionuclides will go here or there, but there is no-one who can reliably predict the situation."

Climate change, things that break, no monitoring - what could possibly go wrong?

[cwerdna]

Thanks to a post from someone else on TiVocommunity.
-- begin quote --
NOVA on PBS this week is "Nuclear Meltdown Disaster." The description is:

"The minute-by-minute story of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which resulted from the earthquake and tsunami, and its aftermath."

I've got my recording set.
-- end quote --
I too have my TiVo set to record it.

[cwerdna]

^^^
I finally finished watching the above. Was pretty decent.

I was totally unaware of big problems that also unfolded at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima ... ower_Plant. But, they had some luck and were able to get it under control. Didn't know they had to lay about 5 mile of cable to get some pumps running, to avert disaster.

[cwerdna]

Thanks to a Google search that something else reminded me of, I stumbled across http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/decommision/index-e.html which led to http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/news/library/ ... atid=61795, which has an insightful video.

[Reddy]

I'm not sure if this is posted upthread, and I'm too busy to check (or even watch this PBS special):

U.S. PUBLIC TV PROGRAM "NOVA" PROVIDES IN-DEPTH LOOK AT FUKUSHIMA ACCIDENT

Program provides strong technical details and interviews with TEPCO workers

TOKYO, August 14 - An hour-long TV program aired by U.S. public broadcaster PBS on July 29 provides a detailed exploration of both technical and human factors that led to the emergency response in facing the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami at Fukushima Daiichi and Daini Nuclear Power Stations. Produced for the PBS science series "NOVA," the program is comprised of interviewing TEPCO workers who participated in the efforts to prevent a much more serious accident, including Naohiro Masuda, who was a plant chief of Daini at the time and who now, as TEPCO's Chief Decommissioning Officer, leads Fukushima Daiichi cleanup efforts.

In most regions of the world, the program can be watched on the PBS website;
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/nuclear-disaster.html

[AndyH]

http://www.japantoday.com/category/nati ... hima-plant

Regulators OK underground ice wall around Fukushima plant
By MARI YAMAGUCHI

NATIONAL MAR. 31, 2016 - 06:50AM JST ( 32 )

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

Sigh.

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS-Te ... 03164.html

I guess it's good that after more than two years the wall is finally in operation...even though it can't stop the flow of radioactive water into the Pacific. After all, it's only intended to save money since they can't properly process all the water they're already storing on site.

I wonder how the EROEI of nuclear looks when we consider remediation of mining sites and the cost to install and run underground freezers?

[cwerdna]

I'm a bit more than halfway thru this 25 minute video that I recently learned about: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101 ... 08827.html (Inside Fukushima's Time Bomb).

It does include a visit to the plant and standing near the reactor buildings.