Posted on 03/18/2011 9:30:46 AM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Spraying of spent fuel pools at Units 3 and 4 is still underway. Visual inspection of Unit 4’s pool showed water in the pool, and so efforts have been temporarily focused upon Unit 3. While efforts at using helicopters to dump water onto the pools had been largely unsuccessful , army firetrucks used in putting out aircraft fires have been employed with some success. The elite Tokyo Hyper Rescue component of the Tokyo fire department has arrived on scene and is conducting missions of roughly two hours in length, during which they spray the pools for 7-8 minutes, wait for steam to dissipate, and spray again.
A cable has been laid from a TEPCO power line 1.5 km from the facility, which will be used to supply power to emergency cooling systems of the reactors at Units 1 and 2.
Backup diesel generators have been connected to cool the spent fuel pools at Units 5 and 6. As of 4 PM JST, temperatures in those pools have reached 65.5 and and 62 degrees Celsius.
Visual inspections have been conducted of both the central spent fuel pool, which contains 60% of the facility’s fuel, and the dry cask storage area. Water levels at the central pool have been described as “secured”, and the dry casks show “no signs of an abnormal situation”. More detailed checks of these areas are planned for the future.
A Japanese government agency has released the results of radiation measurements at dozens of monitoring posts. See the data here: http://www.mext.go.jp/component/a_menu/other/detail/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2011/03/18/1303727_1716.pdf
These measurements give doses in excess of background radiation, which is why some may appear low. High measurements at reading point 32 are thought to be the result of a controlled containment venting and a simultaneous fire which carried radioactive particles inland. Over the course of the incident, the general trend has been for weather patterns to sweep radioactive particles out to sea.
As a result of these radiation measurements and the ongoing work, the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency upgraded the event to a 5 on the INES scale. This is the same level as the Three Mile Island accident, and two steps below Chernobyl.
More on the confusion of What Is An Isotope?
First off, http://en.akihabaranews.com/88158/environment/fukushima-dai-ichi-how-a-nuclear-power-plant-works, the akihabranews site's, Ike Leus, posted the following story because he said:
"A major number of high end press agencies was already touting on about Japan’s Fukushima prefecture becoming a refurbished edition of Chernobyl":
Fukushima Dai-Ichi: How a nuclear power plant works. The akihabranews blog was immediately placed into the hands of MIT NSE [March 14.11]
The akihabranews link was thus forwarded [but still has sidebar comment] to http://mitnse.com/ :: To be maintained by the students of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT
3.14-15.11:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2688915/posts
3.17.11:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2690058/posts
Also UPDATE AS OF 10:20 A.M. EDT, FRIDAY, MARCH 18, Reads:
NEI has updated its fact sheet, Perspective on Radiation Releases and Emergency Planning at U.S. Nuclear Power Plants.
Sounds like they are making headway. I sure hope so.
Thanks for the info. I try to not pay attention to the TV news, cause they raise my Blood Pressure, cause I don’t believe them!!
Things are looking better, slowly but surely.
I hope they continue to get better.
One good thing Japan has going for it is the large amount of rainfall they get, this will help sweep any radiactive particles out to sea, where they will become a literal drop in the ocean and dissipate along side all of the radiactive Thorium that is already naturaslly occuring in seawater.
Looks like they are making progress on getting the situation with the spent fuel under control. Good news.
I hadn’t heard that. That is good news.
Lost all credibility with the above statement.
The Presidents' new press secretary, JayC, even says to the frantic media dig up what you need on your own. Then the government can't be blamed for any misinformation, like they first saddled the thoroughly P$$ed off Sec.Clinton after with sending her out to make a prepared statement on how the US was assisting Japan.
Mrs. Clinton, drawing from flashbacks, has been saddled with 2 suave male Presidents who could not make a decision when it came to a crisis. Clinton not taking action by taking the urgent calls that pivotal day on the removal of BinLaden [Buzz Patterson who carried the nuclear suitcase wrote] who told Mrs. Clinton what had gone down after they picked her up in the limo riding back from her husband's golf game. She in a fury directed Patterson to take action if it took all night--but Buzz said it was too late. The window had closed.
Now President Obama who sends Sec.of State Clinton here and there but gives her no teeth with which to bite.
John Kerry is lusting over her job. Did he not just happen to be "flying in the neighborhood" in Afghanistan or someplace similar etc and played a stand-in Sec of State duty at the beginning of her term?
I have conservative friends that have recently shocked me by saying they would vote for Hillary Clinton now and before would never considered to do so. Even Donald Trump supporters are coming out of the closet.
Initially, if you go over the rankings [back per other updates] Japan ranked it at a 4.
mark
Not sure what you mean here. My thoughts are that knowing what we know now about TMI, a rating equal to it is pretty low.
Who are you saying "lost all credibility"? The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency? Or the MIT NSE Nuclear Information Hub?
The statement itself appears to be a statement of fact, whether you agree with the level 5 rating or not...
“Not sure what you mean here. My thoughts are that knowing what we know now about TMI, a rating equal to it is pretty low.”
Correct. Nobody died at TMI, and nobody will die from this nuclear power plant meltdown either.
Everything is pretty well under control.
At Fukushima we have buildings blowing up, three or four reactors melting down, primary containment breached and large amounts of radiation being released. To claim the two events are equal is to lose credibility. IMHO.
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