More F*cked News about Fukushima

[BigInJapan]

Tokyo (CNN) -- Japanese officials unveiled a decades-long plan Wednesday to decommission the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where reactor cooling systems failed after the country's devastating earthquake and tsunami in March.

The Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the work schedule would proceed over three or four decades to scrap the four crippled reactors at the site.
There are three phases, according to the plan.

It will begin with the removal of nuclear fuel in spent fuel pools within two years. That task is scheduled to be completed within 10 years. The plan also calls for commencing the removal of fuel debris within 10 years with the goal of completing that work in 20 to 25 years.

The reactors will be completely decommissioned in 30 to 40 years, according to the plan.
The plume of radioactive particles that spewed from Fukushima Daiichi displaced about 80,000 people who live within a 20-kilometers (12.5 mile) radius of the plant, as well as residents of one village as far as 40 kilometers to the northwest.

The earthquake and tsunami killed more than 15,000 people in northeastern Japan.

[Coligny]

I think they should start with a proper assesment of the damage before publishing even more roadmaps... because if they start believing their own cold shutdown bull and extend their planning based on their previous lies, it might get really ugly with a lot of money spent for no work accomplished...

Meanwhile... as long as the spend fuel is not safe... I recommend to avoid misplacing the car keys taking sleeping pills or letting the car low on fuel overnight...

[2triky]

Japan Fukushima Disaster: Probe Finds Response Failed

By YURI KAGEYAMA 12/26/11 AP


TOKYO -- Japan's response to the nuclear crisis that followed the March 11 tsunami was confused and riddled with problems, including an erroneous assumption an emergency cooling system was working and a delay in disclosing dangerous radiation leaks, a report revealed Monday.

The disturbing picture of harried and bumbling workers and government officials scrambling to respond to the problems at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was depicted in the report detailing a government investigation.

The 507-page interim report, compiled by interviewing more than 400 people, including utility workers and government officials, found authorities had grossly underestimated tsunami risks, assuming the highest wave would be 6 meters (20 feet). The tsunami hit at more than double those levels.

The report criticized the use of the term "soteigai," meaning "outside our imagination," which it said implied authorities were shirking responsibility for what had happened. It said by labeling the events as beyond what could have been expected, officials had invited public distrust.

"This accident has taught us an important lesson on how we must be ready for soteigai," it said.

The report, set to be finished by mid-2012, found workers at Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that ran Fukushima Dai-ichi, were untrained to handle emergencies like the power shutdown that struck when the tsunami destroyed backup generators – setting off the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

There was no clear manual to follow, and the workers failed to communicate, not only with the government but also among themselves, it said.

Finding alternative ways to bring sorely needed water to the reactors was delayed for hours because of the mishandling of an emergency cooling system, the report said. Workers assumed the system was working, despite several warning signs it had failed and was sending the nuclear core into meltdown.

The report acknowledged that even if the system had kicked in properly, the tsunami damage may have been so great that meltdowns would have happened anyway.

But a better response might have reduced the core damage, radiation leaks and the hydrogen explosions that followed at two reactors and sent plumes of radiation into the air, according to the report.

Sadder still was how the government dallied in relaying information to the public, such as using evasive language to avoid admitting serious meltdowns at the reactors, the report said.

The government also delayed disclosure of radiation data in the area, unnecessarily exposing entire towns to radiation when they could have evacuated, the report found.

The government recommended changes so utilities will respond properly to serious accidents.

It recommended separating the nuclear regulators from the unit that promotes atomic energy, echoing frequent criticism since the disaster.

Japan's nuclear regulators were in the same ministry that promotes the industry, but they will be moved to the environment ministry next year to ensure more independence.

The report acknowledged people were still living in fear of radiation spewed into the air and water, as well as radiation in the food they eat. Thousands have been forced to evacuate and have suffered monetary damage from radiation contamination, it said.

"The nuclear disaster is far from over," the report said.

The earthquake and tsunami left 20,000 people dead or missing.

Source

[Coligny]

Where is the 'like' button...

From slashdot:

"in another era:

... there would have been less "soteigai" and more "seppuku".

[Coligny]

Th3 governement will bring the possibility of moar new Enron scandalz to Japan:
Deregulamating th3 energy industrie... BECAUSE !

[Samurai_Jerk]

What's most striking about Japan's nuclear exclusion zone, is what you don't see. There are no people, few cars, no sign of life, aside from the occasional livestock wandering empty roads.
Areas once home to 80,000 people are now ghost towns, frozen in time. Homes ravaged from the powerful earthquake that shook this region nearly a year ago, remain virtually untouched. Collapsed roofs still block narrow streets. Cracked roads, make for a bumpy ride.
In seaside communities, large fishing boats line the side of the road, next to piles of debris. Abandoned cars, dot otherwise empty fields. It's a scene reminiscent of tsunami-battered prefectures Miyagi and Iwate, last March – except those communities have cleaned up a significant amount of the debris since ....

While workers of the Fukushima plant are bused in daily, the government has maintained a 12-mile no-go zone around the area for everyone else, only allowing for brief, supervised visits home for residents who still have homes here. ...

"There are police cars patrolling every corner," we were warned. "As soon as they spot your camera, you will be arrested."
On Saturday, a local driver with a special permit agreed to sneak my cameraman and I in, so long as we didn't reveal his identity.
We put on thin, white hazmat suits and masks as a precaution, grabbed a Geiger counter and dosimeter to monitor radiation levels, then slipped past police guarding the exclusion zone entrance, onto the main road running through Japan's nuclear wasteland. ... (more)

[Coligny]

Aaaa think that:

"There are police cars patrolling every corner," we were warned. "As soon as they spot your camera, you will be arrested."

Should in fact read:

"There are police cars patrolling every corner," we were warned. "As soon as they spot SOMEONE WITHOUT AUTORISATION, you will be arrested."

Also... If you really want to take picture inside the zone... there is nothing that a 1000-1500USD long range FPV RC plane can't do for you. And the result usually put the Cuban missile crisis U2 shots to shame...

[Mike Oxlong]

OK, let's go back to square one. The root of the problem: Start teaching initiative, creativity, and problem solving from the earliest possible age rather than just obedience and conformity!! The latter makes for a malleable, docile populace, but if you manage to blow yourselves up (gee, that'd be stupid, wouldn't it ...) you're fucked.

It still truly amazes me that this is all accomplished without heroin.