Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster!!!

[canman]

Great, so now they have to dump low level radiated water to make room for the more highly toxic water. But this low level water is still 100X greater than the permissible level. And reactors 5&6 are in danger of being flooded with water from the other reactors. Never a dull moment with the clowns running TEPCO.

[Yokohammer]

Great, so now they have to dump low level radiated water to make room for the more highly toxic water. But this low level water is still 100X greater than the permissible level. And reactors 5&6 are in danger of being flooded with water from the other reactors. Never a dull moment with the clowns running TEPCO.

I was just watching this on the news.
My face actually hurts from all the face-palming.

[canman]

What kills me about this 'hammer, is that they announced it at about 7:10pm, then at 7:33 they interrupt the news to give breaking news that they started this procedure at 7:03pm. Not much of a heads up on this story was there.
Then a little while later they announce that highly toxic fish have been caught off the coast of Ibaraki, just after the NHK expert says that the radiated water posses no risk to humans! WTF!
CS, where did you get that radiation detector again?

[Mulboyne]

The Foreign Ministry has been able to confirm that 19 foreigners lost their lives in the recent disaster. They are from Korea, China, Taiwan, Pakistan, America, Canada and the Philippines.

Source (Japanese)

Incidentally, the Yomiuri has published an image which it says comes from the German Meteorological Agency website showing how the tides will take the water from Fukushima:



Edano has apparently called upon the Japanese agency to make its own forecasts public.

[damn name]

I said before that early information during emergencies turns out to be wrong many times. I want to update some of what I said earlier.

Tepco installed the electrical switchgear in the basement of the control room. All control wiring was run through the basement switchgear and it's all flooded. It's likely that all instrumentation and control wiring for the cooling systems will have to be rewired and that will take months to finish, even under ideal conditions.

Units 5 and 6 reactors and containment were undamaged. The operational power is a parallel circuit to Units 1 through 4. The report of a fire in Unit 5 was false. Those units could actually be restarted after permanent control room functions are established if there is no further contamination to them from Units 2 and 4.

Units 1 and 3 are not the critical areas. The critical areas are Unit 2 and spent fuel rod pool of Unit 4.

Unit 2

We all know that Unit 2 is bleeding the cooling water being injected. We still don't know how much of Unit 2 fuel has melted, and we may not know for a long time. Melted debris from the internal structures of the reactor and some fuel will pool near the bottom of the reactor. That isn't the main problem. The cladding has certainly failed and released fission products. Those products are leaking from the reactor into the steel Reactor Pressure Vessel and subsequently into Primary Containment Vessel, then likely escaping from the suppression chamber and perhaps other locations damaged in the Hydrogen explosion. The explosion in Unit 2 was inside the containment, not outside the containment like Units 1 and 3. The Primary Containment Vessel was not designed to withstand an internal Hydrogen explosion.

Finding and containing the leak(s) will be an extraordinary technical challenge.

Unit 4

There is not one spent fuel pool, but two pools above the reactors. An upper one is a small, shallow pool for the fuel recently removed from the reactor, and the other is a deeper, larger pool for longer storage. The rods go from the reactor to the small pool, then are transferred months later to the larger pool. Unit 4 had a small amount of fuel rods in the upper small pool. The bottom pool seems to be intact and under control.

One wall of the upper pool in Unit 4 is gone, so that pool cannot contain water. Some fuel rods that were in there have been breached and small amounts of fuel are spread on the floor of the area. This will be a dangerous and difficult event to remedy. I think many people in the nuclear field might call this raw, exposed fuel their worst nightmare.

What's the long-term plan? I'm not sure anyone in the world could develop a comprehensive plan of action of where to be in a year at this point. It's unreasonable to expect one now. I would tune out anyone who thinks he's got it all figured out.

I'm reluctant to criticize the actions at the plant now. The people on the ground there are the operations people, not the business executives. Some circumspection is necessary.

[FG Lurker]

Incidentally, the Yomiuri has published an image which it says comes from the German Meteorological Agency website showing how the tides will take the water from Fukushima:



Edano has apparently called upon the Japanese agency to make its own forecasts public.

Interesting. I expected it would go the opposite direction due to the way Pacific ocean currents typically flow. When the Japanese used glass floats for their fishing nets floats that "escaped" regularly washed up on the west coast of Canada and the US. My father used to collect them as a boy. Today we don't get nice glass fishing floats but instead get garbage with Chinese, Korean, or Japanese writing on it. (The currents flow north along the coast of Japan then loop around and flow south along the west coast of North America.)

I also wonder what the different colors mean and how marine life will be impacted. Obviously marine life closest to the damaged reactor will have the greatest doses of radiation and as the polluted water gets diluted by increasing ratios of ocean water vs polluted water the levels will drop. How far away until the measurable radiation is negligible?

[FG Lurker]

I said before that early information during emergencies turns out to be wrong many times. I want to update some of what I said earlier.

Thank you very much for your continued informative and balanced posts.

Tepco installed the electrical switchgear in the basement of the control room. All control wiring was run through the basement switchgear and it's all flooded. It's likely that all instrumentation and control wiring for the cooling systems will have to be rewired and that will take months to finish, even under ideal conditions.

I wonder if this went against the original GE design of the reactors or if this was something that was part of the original design. Either way it could be done the same way in other similar reactors and is a clear weakness in the event of any flooding.

Units 5 and 6 reactors and containment were undamaged. The operational power is a parallel circuit to Units 1 through 4. The report of a fire in Unit 5 was false. Those units could actually be restarted after permanent control room functions are established if there is no further contamination to them from Units 2 and 4.

Much like the remaining reactor at TMI is still in use. I wonder if Japan will restart 5 & 6 or if outcry from the general population will make this impossible... With the ongoing power shortages in eastern Japan the power from 5 & 6 would make a big difference to people's lives.

The explosion in Unit 2 was inside the containment, not outside the containment like Units 1 and 3. The Primary Containment Vessel was not designed to withstand an internal Hydrogen explosion.

Wow. A hydrogen explosion inside the containment is about the worst thing that could have happened AFAIK. This is terrible news.

Finding and containing the leak(s) will be an extraordinary technical challenge.

Any thoughts on their current efforts? I think they have tried injecting concrete and are now injecting polymers (?) to try to plug the leak.

One wall of the upper pool in Unit 4 is gone, so that pool cannot contain water. Some fuel rods that were in there have been breached and small amounts of fuel are spread on the floor of the area. This will be a dangerous and difficult event to remedy. I think many people in the nuclear field might call this raw, exposed fuel their worst nightmare.

I guess this is what they have been pumping water onto to try and keep cool...? Would it be possible to remove the exposed fuel with some sort of large crane, or is it too dangerous to try and move fuel that hasn't been kept cool enough?

I'm reluctant to criticize the actions at the plant now. The people on the ground there are the operations people, not the business executives. Some circumspection is necessary.

I can't imagine a more difficult job than what they are doing.

[omae mona]

I also wonder what the different colors mean and how marine life will be impacted. Obviously marine life closest to the damaged reactor will have the greatest doses of radiation and as the polluted water gets diluted by increasing ratios of ocean water vs polluted water the levels will drop. How far away until the measurable radiation is negligible?

As usual, the media has stripped out all those confusing numbers, leaving us looking at a blob of radiation that has unpleasant looking colors. Therefore, we must all be doomed. If radiation is that sickly looking brown and yellow, would you want to drink it?

I found what I think might be the legend explaining these colors on the German meteorological service's website. However, they've decided the numbers don't matter too much and have just labeled the colors "slightly diluted", "considerably diluted", and "strongly diluted".

Message to the reader: we're not going to give you easily available, well-researched, specific, and well-understood information about the risk to your health. Instead, we're going to leave it up to your wild imagination to decide whether or not "slightly diluted" sounds like it's going to make you get cancer or not.

[FG Lurker]

I found what I think might be the legend explaining these colors on the German meteorological service's website. However, they've decided the numbers don't matter too much and have just labeled the colors "slightly diluted", "considerably diluted", and "strongly diluted".

That's definitely the same map that Mulboyne posted but I'm pretty sure it is predicting spread via wind and not water. I can't read the German to be sure but it shows the "water" covering most of Japan's land mass towards the end of the animation... I guess the Yomiuri couldn't read the German either and just assumed it was water.

[dimwit]

Okay so like where is the expected Godzilla spawn site on the map. Just curious.

[omae mona]

I'm pretty sure it is predicting spread via wind and not water. I can't read the German to be sure but it shows the "water" covering most of Japan's land mass towards the end of the animation...

Uh-oh. The alternative is that they have simultaneously predicted the spread via water AND the next tsunami. Time to buy a radiation-proof life vest...

[Iraira]

I guess the Yomiuri couldn't read the German either and just assumed it was water.

Maybe it's beer?

[Doctor Stop]

Maybe it's beer?

Or scheisse.

[Mulboyne]

[FG Lurker]

Okay so like where is the expected Godzilla spawn site on the map. Just curious.

I'm guessing Yokohama.

[Tsuru]

Fukushima Daiichi hi-res UAV pictures released

[L S]

Fukushima Daiichi hi-res UAV pictures released

Thanks Tsuru. The April 3rd link shows some good interior shots that I hadn't seen before related to one of the leaks and the post shot with the concrete poured in.

[Mulboyne]

Here's some good news: TEPCO confirms it will abandon plans to construct reactors 7 and 8 at Fukushima.

Source (Japanese)

[Yokohammer]

Here's some good news: TEPCO confirms it will abandon plans to construct reactors 7 and 8 at Fukushima.

Source (Japanese)

To add a bit of perspective to this, TEPCO presented a proposal to the government that included expanding the Fukushima Dai-ichi facility with two new reactors: numbers 7 and 8. That proposal was presented at the end of March, with the current crisis in full swing!!!

The government's (and public's) immediate reaction to TEPCO was "what the fuck are you thinking"? And rightly so.

This is just one more example of how completely out of touch and dysfunctional TEPCO is.
TEPCO's response is something like "yeah, we didn't think you'd approve but we thought we'd ask anyway."

I can't even think of an expletive strong enough to describe how I feel about this.

[cstaylor]

I'm guessing Yokohama.

I've got my Godzilla-sized saddle ready, and we're ready to head inland towards Kansai...

[cstaylor]

The Fukushima prefectural government on Tuesday started radiation measurements at schoolyards in the prefecture in the wake of the nuclear emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/83143.html

[cstaylor]

CS, where did you get that radiation detector again?

I got it from blackcat systems, but they're not taking any more orders for the moment. Some of the other posters found better hand-held devices that would serve you better IMHO since the blackcat isn't usable without a computer.

[Samurai_Jerk]

NEW YORK – Releases of radioactive water into the ocean near Japan's stricken nuclear complex shouldn't pose a widespread danger to sea animals or people who might eat them, experts say.

That's basically because of dilution.

"It's a very large ocean," noted William Burnett of Florida State University.

Very close to the nuclear plant — less than half a mile or so — sea creatures might be in danger of problems like genetic mutations if the dumping goes on a long time, he said. But there shouldn't be any serious hazard farther away "unless this escalates into something much, much larger than it has so far," he said.

Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass., said readings for radioactive iodine and cesium show a thousand-fold drop from the shore to monitors about 19 miles offshore.

He said radioactive doses in seafood may turn out to be detectable but probably won't be a significant health hazard. They'd probably be less of a concern than what people could get from land-based sources like drinking water or eating produce, he said. .....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110404/ap_on_sc/us_sci_japan_radioactive_water

[FG Lurker]

we're ready to head inland towards Kansai...

With that understanding of Japanese geography I'm not too worried...

[cstaylor]

With that understanding of Japanese geography I'm not too worried...

We'll just keep walking west until we find tarty looking girls. That's Osaka. From there I'll use Godzilla's excellent vision to search for BBQ'n foreigners living near water.

Wish we had a marauding Godzilla emoticon...

[Mike Oxlong]

TEPCO_CEO Twitter Account Mocks Tokyo Electric Power Company

[Kanchou]

Two dead Tepco employees (both early 20s) were found in the basement. Cause of death was tsunami-related though. Very unfortunate.

[cstaylor]

Fukushima gov. rebukes nuclear agency for late radioactivity data

''Can't you increase the number of examiners? The lives of farmers are at stake. It's a matter of whether they can live tomorrow,'' the governor said during a meeting of the prefectural disaster relief task force attended by an official of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Sato said the results should be released in about a day and criticized the central government for being late in lifting restrictions, saying, ''I wonder if our sense of urgency is being conveyed to the government...It is irritating.''

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/82837.html

[Catoneinutica]

:puke:

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/82837.html

The sense of entitlement of Japan's farmers never fails to astonish. They think nothing of pouring rice and milk down the sewer as a means of preventing "price destruction," work like olde-fart Tasmanian devils to keep out price-destroying imports, and really think of urban Japanese as their vassals. I have a feeling they'll be by far the best recompensed for any radiation damage. The ones in the "exclusion zone" will probably be resettled in Denenchofu.

[Taro Toporific]

The sense of entitlement of Japan's farmers never fails to astonish.

Cull the herds in a 100km radius and then pay those welfare collecting tax-cheaters for their livestock only if they leave farming for good.

Speaking of culling: How about the worthlessness of Japan's rape-the-ocean fisherman?
Now is the perfect time to cull their ranks and let Japan's fish stocks to finally recover from decades of overfishing.

/Has anybody tried to go fishing here?
//The only fish you can catch is the size of bait.