Official MJJC Support Thread - Japanese Tsunami

[Margil]

My hearts is with the japanese

 

[Autumn II]

He SHOULD cry!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The Daily Mail has released a dramatic picture showing the emotional exhaustion of TEPCO managing director Akio Komori who is openly weeping as he leaves a conference to brief journalists on the true situation at Fukushima, following his acknowledgment that the radiation spewing from the over-heating reactors and fuel rods was enough to kill some citizens. "A senior Japanese minister also admitted that the country was overwhelmed by the scale of the tsunami and nuclear crisis. He said officials should have admitted earlier how serious the radiation leaks were."
A contrite Komiri crying after he discloses the truth:

 

[noirnoar]

Akio Komori should be inside the reactor with the workers who are on a suicide mission.

 

[bouee]

A Franch news channel is saying that power has been restored to reactors 5 & 6.

Tepco expects to be able to restore power to 3&4 today.

 

[bouee]

Sorry, I haven't been able to post much yesterday

The IRSN update , 18th march 2pm CET (17 hours ago)

http://www.irsn.fr/FR/Actualites_pr...Seisme-Japon_Point-situation-18032011-14h.pdf

Spent fuel pools:

Reactor 1 :
The power to be evacuated is very low. (0,07 MW). The water level has lowered, a leak is suspected. It seems that water hoses are going to be used.

Reactor 2 ;
the water is boiling. It seems that water hoses are going to be used, in site of the fact that the pool seems to be covered.

Reactor 3 :
The water is not boiling anymore. IRSN suspects the pool is damaged and it's not possible to keep the fuel completely under water anymore.

Reactor 4 :
The water seems to be boiling. There is steam above the reactor. If water is not efficiently added, the fuel will be partially out of water on 21st march.

Reactors 5 & 6 :
The water temperature and level are under control.

Reactors :
IRSN is worried about the amount of salt water in the tanks. Fresh water should be brought to the site.

 

[Milka]

He SHOULD cry!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The Daily Mail has released a dramatic picture showing the emotional exhaustion of TEPCO managing director Akio Komori who is openly weeping as he leaves a conference to brief journalists on the true situation at Fukushima, following his acknowledgment that the radiation spewing from the over-heating reactors and fuel rods was enough to kill some citizens. "A senior Japanese minister also admitted that the country was overwhelmed by the scale of the tsunami and nuclear crisis. He said officials should have admitted earlier how serious the radiation leaks were."
A contrite Komiri crying after he discloses the truth:

This is unbelievable. And they are still downplaying it - "some citizens"? What about the workers?

Spinach and milk in Fukushima are contaminated, high radiation was detected. 2/3 of all examinated agricultural products are contaminated. But there is no health risk for the population, said government spokesman Yukio Edano. Right ... I'm allergic to BS. He also said that if you drink the milk for one year and eat the spinach for one year, you get as much radiation as from an X-ray. Yeah, right, would YOU eat and drink it, Mr. Edano? In the province Ibaraki south of Fukushima they also found contaminated spinach. They raised the radiation limit for workers from 100 millisievert per shift to 150 millisievert. Like raising the limit makes it less of a health risk.

The IAEA recommended that the people who leave the area around Fukushima take iodine tablets. What the hell is that supposed to mean? This sounds like it's too late already, because you have to take them a certain amount of time BEFORE the radiation reaches you. So either they expect a lot of radiation within the next couple of hours or they are already too late and just say this to safe their butts.

Source: orf.at (not for my remarks of course)

English petition still not online yet. Maybe they thought that all the computer stuff is easier than it looks (uhm ... or the other way around). I'll email them again, but I'll wait a while longer, it's the weekend, so not sure if there even is someone at the office right now. Also, I don't want to "spam" them, they are probably very busy and get tons of emails, I'm sure they are working on it.

 

[bouee]

I've just heard on the news that ceasium was found in tap water in several cities including Tokyo.

They say the level is too low to be dangerous, but it confirms environmetal pollution.

 

[bouee]

What sounds clear to me, is that they are progressing in Fukushima, meaning things are not getting worse.

But at least 2 spent fuel pools are without a roof, directly sending radioactive stuff into the air. The hotter the water gets in these pools , the worse it's going to be. If the used fuel is out of the water, then it's also worse, because it gets hotter, and the water somehow holds some of the radioactive particles.
Irsn estimated yesterday that pool in 3 was damaged, and it was impossible to keep the fuel completely under water.
Now I've heard they found a system to pour water non stop on the pool of 3.

It has rained in the area, and they are using water (because they have to), but the consequence is that the ground is contaminated.

I haven't seen any evaluation yet about that.

 

[Milka]

I've just heard on the news that ceasium was found in tap water in several cities including Tokyo.

They say the level is too low to be dangerous, but it confirms environmetal pollution.

Just saw that on orf.at, only that they are saying it's radioactive iodine. So I guess it's probably both and more?

IAEA says that the Japanese government put a halt on sales of food products from the prefacture Fukushima, because radioactive iodine can be a health risk in the short term. Tepco apologized for the radioactivity in food.

Unusually high amounts of radioactive iodine have also been found in the water of the prefactures Gunma, Tochigi, Saitama, Chiba and Niigata. No health risk though, OF COURSE.

That's, of course, not the whole truth, in my humble opinion.

 

[bouee]

I've heard caesium fisrt and now iodine, so I guess it must be iodine ..

What we need to know now is the environmental damage. They just say nothing about it.

Obviously if tap water as far as Tokyo has iodine in it , then groundwater is contaminated. And what else ?

 

[Autumn II]

Obviously if tap water as far as Tokyo has iodine in it , then groundwater is contaminated. And what else ?

Snow? Rain? The ocean off of Japan's northern coast? And therefore: fish, shellfish, whales, dolphins, sea-birds? Hasn't the wind been blowing out to sea for several days? And what about groundwater run-off, from all that water being sprayed?

If they are telling fleeing residents to take the iodine tablets, that means they must think they had significant exposure. TEPCO continues to lie. . .

 

[Milka]

http://orf.at/stories/2048505/2048208/

 

[Milka]

Michael Atkinson, director of the Institute for Radiobiology (hope I got that right) in Munich/Germany says that the ground in a radius of 30 km around Fukushima I is contaminated. But the activity of radioactive iodine in the ground seems to decrease. That's a hint that nothing is leaking from the reactors right now.

(derstandard.at)

 

[princessleia]

Spinach and milk in Fukushima are contaminated, high radiation was detected. 2/3 of all examinated agricultural products are contaminated. But there is no health risk for the population, said government spokesman Yukio Edano. Right ... I'm allergic to BS. He also said that if you drink the milk for one year and eat the spinach for one year, you get as much radiation as from an X-ray. Yeah, right, would YOU eat and drink it, Mr. Edano? In the province Ibaraki south of Fukushima they also found contaminated spinach.

This is the real tragedy here. And all this only after one week...
those plants will keep contaminating everything for a long time even if they remain "stable" like now and nothing worse happens.

They raised the radiation limit for workers from 100 millisievert per shift to 150 millisievert. Like raising the limit makes it less of a health risk.

Actually I think it is 250 millisievert but more importantly that's a lifetime (!) limit in case of emergency, and you're supposed to retire after that. (The normal yearly limit is only 20 mSv, and the usual limit for a lifetime -over many years - is 400 millisievert.)
For context, at some parts of the plant the have measured above 1000 mSv per hour. NHK reported that yesterday the values 1 km from plant 3 were between 300-800 millisievert/hour yesterday. So even with protective gear I don't think anyone can work there more than a few hours at most. Of course the values are much lower at many parts, but even with say 10 mSv one could work only 25 hours and that's it.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/e...g-on-without-running-away-20110318-1bztj.html

A normal dose for a radiation worker is 20 millisieverts (mSv) a year, averaged over five years, with a maximum of 50 millisieverts in any one year, visiting lecturer in nuclear technology at the Australian National University and the University of Sydney, Tony Irwin, said.

"In an emergency, most authorities permit doses up to 100mSv," he said in a statement issued by the Australian Science Media Centre.

The Japanese Health Ministry has raised the legal limit of radiation that each worker can be exposed to from 100 to 250 millisieverts - five times the limit allowed for US workers.

Dr John Price, a former member of the Safety Policy Unit of the National Nuclear Corporation in Britain, told ABC Radio's AM program this morning that, once the limit was reached, the staff member would have to be withdrawn from the operation.

"They are allowed to work until they see 100 millisieverts and possibly up to 250 millisieverts if they are potentially saving life. So after they get over 100 millisieverts they are supposed to be retired. That is they never work in a nuclear power station again. That's the way it happens," he said.

"So that that means that once you've used your worker, since we've had some measurements inside the plant up to about 10 millisieverts an hour, that means the workers can work for about 10 to 25 hours before they have to leave."

NHK also reported measurements of 0,15 mSv/h in a town just outside the 30 km evacuation zone... which doesn't sound so much at first, but that would make 3,6 mSv per day and about 100 mSv in a month if it stays that way. Although to be fair, you can escape most of that by staying inside... but that won't reall work long term.

If someone is interested here's an article detailing decades of cover-ups:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...ecades-of-faked-safety-reports-accidents.html

and another interesting one: Idiotic Placement Of Fuel Tanks Doomed Fukushima http://blogs.forbes.com/bruceupbin/2011/03/16/idiotic-placement-of-back-up-power-doomed-fukushima/

Btw, The Telegraph and Al Jazeera have moved on to a new "story" and stopped doing daily blogs, so this seems to be a good place for updates at the moment (in German): http://www.n-tv.de/Spezial/Spinat-massiv-verstrahlt-article2810866.html.

 

[Milka]

Actually I think it is 250 millisievert but more importantly that's a lifetime (!) limit in case of emergency, and you're supposed to retire after that.

Yes, now it says 250 millisievert on derstandard.at as well. Maybe it was a typo, wherever I got that from.

6 workers got too much radioactivity. More than 250 millisievert were detected, said Tepco according to Kyodo. Tepco didn't say what assignment the 6 workers had.

 

[Autumn II]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/science/13radiation.html

Danger Posed by Radioactivity in Japan Hard to Assess

Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

By WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: March 12, 2011

The different radioactive materials being reported at the nuclear accidents in Japan range from relatively benign to extremely worrisome.

The central problem in assessing the degree of danger is that the amounts of various radioactive releases into the environment are now unknown, as are the winds and other atmospheric factors that determine how radioactivity will disperse around the stricken plants.

Still, the properties of the materials and their typical interactions with the human body give some indication of the threat.

“The situation is pretty bad,” said Frank N. von Hippel, a nuclear physicist who advised the Clinton White House and now teaches international affairs at Princeton. “But it could get a lot worse.”

In Vienna on Saturday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Japanese authorities had informed it that iodine pills would be distributed to residents around the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini plants in northeast Japan. Both have experienced multiple failures in the wake of the huge earthquake and tsunami that struck Friday.

In the types of reactors involved, water is used to cool the reactor core and produce steam to turn the turbines that make electricity. The water contains two of the least dangerous radioactive materials now in the news — radioactive nitrogen and tritium. Normal plant operations produce both of them in the cooling water, and they are even released routinely in small amounts into the environment, usually through tall chimneys.

Nitrogen is the most common gas in the earth’s atmosphere, and at a nuclear plant the main radioactive form is known as nitrogen-16. It is made when speeding neutrons from the reactor’s core hit oxygen in the surrounding cooling water. This radioactive form of nitrogen does not occur in nature.

The danger of nitrogen-16 is an issue only for plant workers and operators because its half-life is only seven seconds. A half-life is the time it takes half the atoms of a radioactive substance to disintegrate.

The other radioactive material often in the cooling water of a nuclear reactor is tritium. It is a naturally occurring radioactive form of hydrogen, sometimes known as heavy hydrogen. It is found in trace amounts in groundwater throughout the world. Tritium emits a weak form of radiation that does not travel very far in the air and cannot penetrate the skin.

It accumulates in the cooling water of nuclear reactors and is often vented in small amounts to the environment. Its half-life is 12 years.

The big worries on the reported releases of radioactive material in Japan center on radioactive iodine and cesium.

“They imply some kind of core problem,” said Thomas B. Cochran, a senior scientist in the nuclear program of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a private group in Washington.

The active core of a nuclear reactor splits atoms in two to produce bursts of energy and, as a byproduct, large masses of highly radioactive particles. The many safety mechanisms of a nuclear plant focus mainly on keeping these so-called fission products out of the environment.

Iodine-131 has a half-life of eight days and is quite dangerous to human health. If absorbed through contaminated food, especially milk and milk products, it will accumulate in the thyroid and cause cancer. Located near the base of the neck, the thyroid is a large endocrine gland that produces hormones that help control growth and metabolism.

Dr. von Hippel of Princeton said the thyroid danger was gravest in children. “The thyroid is more sensitive to damage when the cells are dividing and the gland is growing,” he said.

Fortunately, an easy form of protection is potassium iodide, a simple compound typically added to table salt to prevent goiter and a form of mental retardation caused by a dietary lack of iodine.

If ingested promptly after a nuclear accident, potassium iodide, in concentrated form, can help reduce the dose of radiation to the thyroid and thus the risk of cancer. In the United States, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission recommends that people living within a 10-mile emergency planning zone around a nuclear plant have access to potassium iodide tablets.

Over the long term, the big threat to human health is cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years. At that rate of disintegration, John Emsley wrote in “Nature’s Building Blocks” (Oxford, 2001), “it takes over 200 years to reduce it to 1 percent of its former level.”

It is cesium-137 that still contaminates much of the land in Ukraine around the Chernobyl reactor. In 1986, the plant suffered what is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history.

Cesium-137 mixes easily with water and is chemically similar to potassium. It thus mimics how potassium gets metabolized in the body and can enter through many foods, including milk. After entering, cesium gets widely distributed, its concentrations said to be higher in muscle tissues and lower in bones.

The radiation from cesium-137 can throw cellular machinery out of order, including the chromosomes, leading to an increased risk of cancer.

The Environmental Protection Agency says that everyone in the United States is exposed to very small amounts of cesium-137 in soil and water because of atmospheric fallout from the nuclear detonations of the cold war.

The agency says that very high exposures can result in serious burns and even death, but that such cases are extremely rare. Once dispersed in the environment, it says, cesium-137 “is impossible to avoid.”

 

[Milka]

Rain is expected for the northeast of Japan for Sunday and Monday. People are asked to only leave their houses in an emergency. Wind direction will turn inland. Radioactive rain ... But OF COURSE there is no health risk if people leave their houses.

(orf.at)

Demonstration against nuclear power in Turkey. (derstandard.at)

 

[Autumn II]

Rain is expected for the northeast of Japan for Sunday and Monday. People are asked to only leave their houses in an emergency. Wind direction will turn inland. Radioactive rain ... But OF COURSE there is no health risk if people leave their houses.

(orf.at)

Demonstration against nuclear power in Turkey. (derstandard.at)

Because of current developments in Libya, also incredibly important! there is little or no new U.S. news. We can assume that the crisis in Japan is not OVER?

Do you have a link for European news, but in English? What is your news source? We're not getting this in the U.S., that I'm aware of.

 

[bouee]

Because of current developments in Libya, also incredibly important! there is little or no new U.S. news. We can assume that the crisis in Japan is not OVER?

Do you have a link for European news, but in English? What is your news source? We're not getting this in the U.S., that I'm aware of.

The risk of total meltdown seems to be over, but as long as the spent fuel are in open air and hot , there is a lot of radioactivity coming from the plant, and certainly going somewhere.

News frm the BBC : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698

 

[bouee]

Rain is expected for the northeast of Japan for Sunday and Monday. People are asked to only leave their houses in an emergency. Wind direction will turn inland. Radioactive rain ... But OF COURSE there is no health risk if people leave their houses.

(orf.at)

Demonstration against nuclear power in Turkey. (derstandard.at)

that's very bad news....:angel:

 

[Milka]

http://www.shutdownnukes.org/ is online now.

Sign it and spread the link.

 

[Beccabubbles]

My thoughts and prayers are with everybody affected everyday :angel:
xxx

 

[Ashtanga]

Petition For The Release Of Michael Jackson's "Keep Your Head Up" As A Single, With All Proceeds Going To Help Victims Of The Japanese Earthquake 2011


http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/keepyourheadup/

Signed!

Thanks for posting!

http://orf.at/stories/2048505/2048208/

:heart:

 

[Milka]

Pressure in reactor 3 increasing again. That's the most dangerous one with the plutonium rods.

The petition in English switched between German and English a couple of times yesterday and now the page seems to be in German. I guess they are still working on it.

Edit: English version of "Spiegel Online":

http://www.spiegel.de/international/

Edit II:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,751752,00.html

Anti-Nuclear Children's Author
'I Hope the Japanese Will Be Spared'

What would happen if a German nuclear reactor exploded? German author Gudrun Pausewang's novel "Die Wolke" ("Fall-Out"), tackled the issue in 1987. In this guest contribution, Pausewang explains how the crisis in Japan has affected her and why her popular novel remains relevant today.

More at link.

There is a movie too, I watched it a couple of years ago.

 

[bouee]

There are very few updates from the news, due to the situation in Lybia :

From the Irsn , 19th march 6 am (over 24 hours ago- they don't post their updates immediately, 6 am is the time when they wrote it)
in french : http://www.irsn.fr/FR/Actualites_pr...Seisme-Japon_Point-situation-19032011-06h.pdf

not much from their previous update :
Spent fuel pools : they suspect a leak in pool of nr 3

they think that there are no more depressurisations done in the reactors.

Irsn published a global map of the contamination in the northern hemisphere :
in french : http://www.irsn.fr/FR/Actualites_pr...simulation_dispersion_panache_radioactif.aspx

they base it on the radioactivity measures at the Fukushima plant (the only measures they have) and on weather reports. They say it's an estimation based on previous incidents, they would need more info to confirm this estimation.

Comparison to Chernobyl in 86 :

immediate surroundings of the Chernobyl plant : 100 000 Bq/m3
Ukraine, Belarus : 100 to 1000 Bq/m3
Eastern France, 1st may 86 : 1 to 10 Bq/m3

the colors are not very clear, and the scale is not easy to understand in the video, so I'ill post the picture on their website that shows a scale that's easier to understand:



the video :
http://www.irsn.fr/FR/popup/Pages/irsn-meteo-france_19mars.aspx

From the above estimation, my understanding is that north america and europe are not going to be very much affected, but I would be careful with fish and sea food from the northern pacific.

From the news :
Tepco has not been able to restore electrical power in reactor 2 yet, there are risks of shortcuts due to the amount of water in the reactor.

 

[bouee]

Another update from IRSN , today 6am

in french : http://www.irsn.fr/FR/Actualites_pr...Seisme-Japon_Point-situation-20032011-06h.pdf

Restoration of power :
A cable has been connected to reactor 2, but the power has not been "switched on" yet.
Power to reactor 1 could be restored today.

Spent fuel pools :
reactor 3 :
2000 tons of water were sprayed last night on reactor 3, during 9 hours. Irsn suspects the pool is damaged, and that it is not possible to maintain the water level.

reactor 4 :
80 tons of water were sprayed during 1 hour.

IRSN says what is coming from those pools (the "power" ) is very strong. (peronal note : I don't understand what they mean, probably that highly radioactive stuff is coming from these pools. They already confirmed that these 2 pools were not covered anymore, at least partially).

reactors 5 and 6 :
the water temperature is lowering, the water level is maintained. They had to make holes in the roof of the buildings, to avoid a hydrogen explosion, as it happened in 4.

Reactors :

Irsn think that there haven't been depressurisation for some time in 1 2 3. They now think it has to be confirmed since the shells are not being cooled. The reactors are still being cooled with sea water.

reactor 3 : pressure is going up, it is likely that depressurisation will be done soon, this will release radioactive stuff in the air.

reactor 5 and 6 :
they are now cooled via a normal cooling system, power has been restored, they have 2 generators. the temperature is rising slowly.

 

[bouee]

Do you have a link for European news, but in English? What is your news source? We're not getting this in the U.S., that I'm aware of.

another source in English : Greenpeace

http://www.greenpeace.org/internati.../safety/accidents/Fukushima-nuclear-disaster/

 

[Milka]

reactor 5 and 6 :
they are now cooled via a normal cooling system, power has been restored, they have 2 generators. the temperature is rising slowly.

I think you mean the temperature is falling, not rising?

 

[ukutan]

Petition For The Release Of Michael Jackson's "Keep Your Head Up" As A Single, With All Proceeds Going To Help Victims Of The Japanese Earthquake 2011


http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/keepyourheadup/

signed.

I introduce one of my favourite japanese song " Ue wo muite arukou"



????????
???????????????????????
Translation for meaning of Japanese Lyrics.




?????????
???????????
???????????????

I look up when I walk
So the tears won't fall
Remembering those happy spring days
But tonight I'm all alone


????????
???????????
???????????????

I look up when I walk
Counting the stars with tearful eyes
Remembering those happy summer days
But tonight I'm all alone


????????
????????

?????????
???????????
???????????????


??????????




Happiness lies beyond the clouds
Happiness lies above the sky

I look up when I walk
So the tears won't fall
Though my heart is filled with sorrow
For tonight I'm all alone

(whistling)

???????????????


??????????
??????????

?????????
???????????
???????????????

Remembering those happy autumn days

Sadness hides in the shadow of the stars
Sadness lurks in the shadow of the moon

I look up when I walk
So the tears won't fall
Though my heart is filled with sorrow
For tonight I'm all alone


???????
???????

For tonight I'm all alone
For tonight I'm all alone

source http://www.fujiura.com/fgod/songs/zsukiyaki.htm

please watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtXQ31F1A-k

sukiyaki song
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukiyaki_(song)

 

[bouee]

I think you mean the temperature is falling, not rising?

Hi Milka,
I read it again, they said "rising" , slowly rising. ???