Japan's Nuclear Migraine: A Never-Ending Disaster at Fukushima

SPIEGEL ONLINE / ABC News ^ | September 14, 2013 | Von Marco Evers

[ransomnote]

I’m guessing they wouldn’t be asking for help if they weren’t concerned about the Olympics.

[ransomnote]

from the article:
“Accordingly, the situation at Fukushima two and a half years after the nuclear meltdown can at best be described as tenuous. Rather than implementing a clearly thought-out disaster management plan, TEPCO’s approach has been a haphazard patchwork.”

I wonder how many Olympians will be surprised to learn the true state of affairs in Japan. They’ve been told it was wrapped up and stable years ago - the MSM told them so!

[justa-hairyape]

There was no mention in the article about the plutonium core/fuel rods that are perched precariously over reactor 4. The crane used to move the rods was destroyed.

Similar rods are also found in the spent fuel pools of #1, #2 and #3. Everything out of Japan is Kabuki theater. The 1,000 tanks that are holding the filtered highly radioactive water are starting to leak. The Japanese knew this was going to happen because the tanks are constructed of SS400 steel with non-welded joints. They have installed a ditch/moat around the tanks and the leaking water is being directed straight into the ocean. The ground under the reactor buildings subsided tremendously during the quake and continues to subside during the aftershocks. Worse case scenario, one of the buildings collapses into the honeycombed and liquified ground that the melted core ate through. Then they abandon the site. More collapses and it is time to cue up Jim Morrison. Pretty much inevitable at this point in time. When will it occur ? Well the CDC has an Emergency Order to ramp up Medical Stations & EMERGENCY Stockpile Supply Deliveries to the Pacific Rim by October 21st. The cover is the bird flu.

UNUSUAL URGENT ACTIVITY: CDC Readies MULTIPLE Medical Stations & EMERGENCY Stockpile Supply Deliveries to the Pacific Rim

[justa-hairyape]

I’m guessing they wouldn’t be asking for help if they weren’t concerned about the Olympics.

They just wanted that Olympic seed money. Dishonest Abe flat out lied when he told the Olympic committee that the radioactive water leaks were 100 % confined to the harbor.

[sefarkas]

It is disingenuous to repeat the speculation of Richard Lahey (the Dean of my Nuclear Engineering program at Rensselaer back in the day) as it were fact. You serve no one but the anti-nuclear / enviro-wackos (and their oil industry sponsors) with your postings. How did you infer "corium" from the following description?

On 15 June 2012 TEPCO reported that a robot that was sent into the No. 2 reactor building on 13 June 2012 to take video images and radiation measurements, detected a reading of 880mSv (millisieverts) per hour of radiation on the fifth floor, which one floor (4.5 meters) directly above the reactor containment vessel. TEPCO suspects that during initial accident in March 2011, that radioactive substances leaked from the No. 2 reactor moved through the building, but after analyzing the images taken by the robot it could not find the exact route the radioactive substances traveled, and images taken by the robot found no major damage on the fifth floor. During the March 2011 nuclear accident the No. 2 reactor is believed to have released the largest amount of radioactive substances. But the overall route the radioactive material traveled has yet to be determined. TEPCO needs to find and repair the damaged parts of the reactor to recover melted nuclear fuel before TEPCO can begin the process of decommissioning the reactor. However high radiation often stops workers from entering the building. This scenario means it will take a long time to find the problems in the containment vessel.

Recall that the ECCS at TMI-2 was pumping UO2 pellets around the system. Those were quite radioactive; however, pellets are different than chunks of "corium". The "corium" at TMI-2 stayed in the reactor vessel.

Your friendly environmental control robot has had no access to the interior of the reactor pressure vessel at any of the four damaged units Fukushima.

[married21]

Wow. I wasn’t thinking about any hostility toward America. I’m a proud patriot, thank you. I was thinking about the embarrassment of Obama’s Syria fiasco, and how incompetent people in charge can make it look like the country is incompetent, when it is really just the current leadership that is.

America is better than Obama and Japan is better than TEPCO.

Does that clarify things?

[ansel12]

America again, you know that this is about Japan and it’s enduring nightmare related to the failings at Fukushima that are destroying any hopes for us that were hoping for a nuclear revival?

[married21]

I have no intelligent comments to make about the extent of the Fukushima disaster or how to solve it and get nuclear power development revived. I’m sorry to have distracted you.

[justa-hairyape]

...that are destroying any hopes for us that were hoping for a nuclear revival?

Nope. It was a lack of listening to the three whistle blower resigning engineers who pointed out design flaws within these reactors. If you had not built them in the first place, they never would have failed.

[ansel12]

Yeah, that was part of what I was saying. This entire thing is a mess.

[justa-hairyape]

It is disingenuous to repeat the speculation of Richard Lahey (the Dean of my Nuclear Engineering program at Rensselaer back in the day) as it were fact. You serve no one but the anti-nuclear / enviro-wackos (and their oil industry sponsors) with your postings.

You probably do not even realize I have had freepers accuse me of being in the pocket of the oil companies because I did not believe AGW. Well, I still do not believe AGW. But I do live in Texas now. So maybe they were right about the oil connection after all. Would not mind working the oil platforms around here. Good money. Just a little too dangerous for me. My business is one that gets hurt with higher cost electrical generation. So I am going against my best interests. The exact opposite of what you infer. And no, I do not run a casino.

How did you infer "corium" from the following description?

On 15 June 2012 TEPCO reported that a robot that was sent into the No. 2 reactor building on 13 June 2012 to take video images and radiation measurements, detected a reading of 880mSv (millisieverts) per hour of radiation on the fifth floor, which one floor (4.5 meters) directly above the reactor containment vessel. TEPCO suspects that during initial accident in March 2011, that radioactive substances leaked from the No. 2 reactor moved through the building, but after analyzing the images taken by the robot it could not find the exact route the radioactive substances traveled, and images taken by the robot found no major damage on the fifth floor. During the March 2011 nuclear accident the No. 2 reactor is believed to have released the largest amount of radioactive substances. But the overall route the radioactive material traveled has yet to be determined. TEPCO needs to find and repair the damaged parts of the reactor to recover melted nuclear fuel before TEPCO can begin the process of decommissioning the reactor. However high radiation often stops workers from entering the building. This scenario means it will take a long time to find the problems in the containment vessel.

Well, first of all, Tepco has just now admitted to reporting fake lower radiation levels for a 2 year period. So their previous radiation readings are now all suspect.

Second of all, radiation levels have been increasing phenomenally just the past few days. The situation is in a massive state of flux with conditions sometimes changing hourly.

Third of all, we are talking four different reactor buildings with four different and unique problems and core compositions.

Reactor 2 suffered what Michio Kaku called complete liquefaction of its core. He was referencing a secret briefing he got as one of Obamas security advisers. Most people did not realize what that meant. Unfortunately it meant Elvis squeezed down and went out the piping. Very little damage. That liquid corium probably flew into #4 via undergound conduits between all the reactors. That is what caused the #4 wall to melt before a witnesses eyes. The situation is deteriorating. The past two weeks there has been a systematic data dump on Fukushima realities. There are prepping everyone for something major. IMHO.

Recall that the ECCS at TMI-2 was pumping UO2 pellets around the system. Those were quite radioactive; however, pellets are different than chunks of "corium". The "corium" at TMI-2 stayed in the reactor vessel.

Nope. Broke one seal and entered a control rod assembly. Did not break out though. Had one more seal left to break.

Your friendly environmental control robot has had no access to the interior of the reactor pressure vessel at any of the four damaged units Fukushima.

There have been drilling holes into the RPV to reinsert new temperature sensors as the old ones are all failing. Especially in unit #2. Odd that.

[sefarkas]

Your ability to cite speculators is astounding. An anti-nuke verbally relaying the content of a "secret briefing" hardly constitutes a fact. In case you missed it, the corium is still in each of the four reactor vessels.

Kaku has publicly stated his concerns over matters including the anthropogenic cause of global warming, nuclear armament, nuclear power and the general misuse of science. He was critical of the Cassini–Huygens space probe because of the 72 pounds (33 kg) of plutonium contained in the craft for use by its radioisotope thermoelectric generator. Conscious of the possibility of casualties if the probe's fuel were dispersed into the environment during a malfunction and crash as the probe was making a 'sling-shot' maneuver around Earth, Kaku publicly criticized NASA's risk assessment. He has also spoken on the dangers of space junk and called for more and better monitoring. ...

Kaku credits his anti-nuclear war position to programs he heard on the Pacifica Radio network, during his student years in California. .... Kaku joined with others such as Helen Caldicott, Jonathan Schell and Peace Action, and was instrumental in building a global anti-nuclear weapons movement that arose in the 1980s, during the administration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

Kaku was a board member of Peace Action and of radio station WBAI-FM in New York City, where he originated his long-running program, Explorations, that focused on the issues of science, war, peace and the environment.

[justa-hairyape]

Kaku misspoke. He said something that was not supposed to be said in public. The truth as President Obama knew it. And in case you do not know who you are debating, been anti-AGW from day one. Fought that good fight and won. And publicly was against the CFC ban due to the faulty Ozone Hole science. Lost that debate, but in the end science and truth won. We now know the UV light emitted by the sun controls the ozone layer thickness. Not stupid apes.

In case you missed it, the corium is still in each of the four reactor vessels.

Absolutely impossible. Reactor #4 had no nuclear fuel loaded in its core at the time of the accident. Perhaps you meant to say that some of Reactors #2's core can now be found in Reactor #4 ? According to the NRC Emergency manual. loss of containment had to occur due to the circumstances. If it did not, perhaps you would like to explain the miracles that stopped basic physics from occurring.