Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster!!!

[yanpa]

Wasn't a lot of used Japanese nuclear fuel sent for reprocessing in the UK and then sent back to Japan for re-use. I seem to remember a row when some of it arrived back in Japan not fully reprocessed.

The reprocessing facility is usually "La Hague" in France. Don't know if the english have one... There is only a couple of them on this planet.

THORP. Due to close in a few years. Spent some of my childhood living some way to the south of it.

[wagyl]

Hence the eight legs.

(a better joke than my initial thought: most of England is to the south of it, so living south of it is no achievement)

[yanpa]

Very observant. Anyway it was close enough to be home for a lot of people who worked at the Sellafield complex.

[Coligny]

Very observant. Anyway it was close enough to be home for a lot of people who worked at the Sellafield complex.

quote from the wiki:

The British Nuclear Group was convicted for breaches of health and safety regulations following the accident, and fined £500,000.[5]

For a leak from a pipe inside a safety stainless steel containment without any external release...

Nanny state no be joking...

[Mike Oxlong]

[Mike Oxlong]

Fukushima operator TEPCO books $4.3 billion annual profit

The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant said Wednesday it booked a $4.3 billion annual net profit owing to an electricity rate hike and a massive government bailout following the 2011 disaster.

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) was teetering on the brink as cleanup and compensation costs stoked huge losses and threatened to collapse the sprawling utility until Tokyo stepped with a multi-billion dollar rescue.

The company at the centre of the worst nuclear accident in a generation said it earned 438.65 billion yen ($4.3 billion) in the fiscal year to March, compared with a net loss of 685.3 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.

Sales rose 11.0 percent to 6.63 trillion yen, it said.

The company's results got a boost from a rate hike, and helped offset a decline in the amount of electricity TEPCO sold owing to warmer-than-usual winter weather, it said.

It also booked a special gain of 1.8 trillion yen based on funds the company received from a government-backed bailout fund as well as asset sales.

But it added that rising fossil fuel costs after Japan switched off its nuclear reactors were pressuring its bottom line.

"The business environment that surrounds us remains very serious," TEPCO president Naomi Hirose told a news conference...

[matsuki]

"The business environment that surrounds us remains very serious," TEPCO president Naomi Hirose told a news conference...

[Yokohammer]

How ... In the fuck ... do these guys get off making a profit?
I would have thought all profits would have to be used for reparations. And nuclear cleanup.
A 4+ billion dollar profit? I do not get it.

[yanpa]

Does. Not. Compute.

[Russell]

TEPCO started to charge the people in Fukushima for disinfecting their water...

[Coligny]

Does. Not. Compute.

You suck at kapitalism...

[Mike Oxlong]

[Russell]

Government silent on report Fukushima No. 1 workers fled during crisis

The government on Tuesday refused to comment on a media report that Masao Yoshida, the now-deceased chief of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant at the time of the meltdowns, was quoted as saying most of the plant’s workers evacuated in spite of his order to remain.

The daily Asahi Shimbun, which claims to have obtained a copy of an interview with Yoshida carried out by the government panel investigating the Fukushima crisis, started running excerpts of the interview Tuesday. No record of the exchange has been officially disclosed.

Yoshida allegedly told the panel that about 90 percent of the plant’s 720 workers left the premises during the meltdown crisis despite having been ordered by him to stay.

On March 15, 2011, with the plant’s No. 2 reactor out of control, Yoshida and the workers feared its core could melt through the containment vessel, releasing massive amounts of radioactive materials into the environment.

Yoshida, who stepped down as plant chief in December 2011, died of esophageal cancer on July 9 last year.

The latest report has also revived a lingering question about who should stay behind in the event of a nuclear crisis.

At a news conference Tuesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga declined to comment on the Asahi report. The interview, he said, was conducted on condition that it not be publicized, and is kept under wraps by the Cabinet.

“We don’t know what the Asahi Shimbun has obtained and we can’t say its contents are identical to those the government has,” Suga said.

According to the morning edition of the Asahi, four days after the meltdown crisis erupted, Yoshida ordered about 720 plant workers to evacuate within the plant’s compound as radiation levels from the damaged reactors rose significantly.

Instead, about 650 workers evacuated to the Fukushima No. 2 power plant, about 10 km south, Yoshida reportedly told the panel, leaving about 70 workers behind.

Overseas media outlets then erroneously reported that about 50 workers — dubbed the “Fukushima Fifty” — bravely stayed on to battle the crisis.

“In fact, I didn’t tell (workers) to go to 2F,” the Asahi quoted Yoshida as saying, referring to the still-functioning Fukushima No. 2 power plant.

“I meant to tell (them) to evacuate somewhere within the premises of No. 1 where radiation was low and wait for further instructions,” he told the panel, according to the Asahi.

Yoichi Funabashi, a former senior Asahi writer and now chairman of the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation think tank, says that the government has yet to lay out contingency plans for a catastrophe at a nuclear power plant.

“This country operated nuclear plants without such systems. And the situation still hasn’t changed yet,” Funabashi told The Japan Times.

“(Japan) is still unable to draw up a (contingency) plan to deal with the worst-case scenario,” he said.

More

I wonder what the legal requirements were for those workers to stay. They tend to be underpaid, but still were asked to put their lives at risk. Some reforms in recruitment policies, like labor conditions on par with the military, may also be needed...

[wagyl]

What does "underpaid" mean? Were they being paid less than the minimum hourly rate as regulated by Fukushima Prefecture? Or does it just mean that they agreed to work for an hourly rate less than you would have accepted, even though they were fully informed of what that rate would be prior to accepting the job offer?

[matsuki]

Does that ever really work here though? Legalities aside, if they agreed to 300000 a month and 40 hour weeks, we all know most J-companies will have them pressured into working 60 hours a week and feeling selfish if they dare use any vacation time other than when the place is closed.

[wagyl]

Well, in that case, everyone is underpaid. The power plant workers are not more underpaid than anyone else. And I don't know what word we use to describe those Bangladeshis hunched over their Singer sewing machines on the outskirts of Dhaka in buildings which collapse because they are three storeys taller than they were designed for.

[matsuki]

Well, in that case, everyone is underpaid

Maybe not everyone but many....

The power plant workers are not more underpaid than anyone else.

That really depends on if they're legally required (or even just expected by the employer) to stay in place in the event of emergency or whatnot. Pay tends to reflect the level of risk of the work.

And I don't know what word we use to describe those Bangladeshis hunched over their Singer sewing machines on the outskirts of Dhaka in buildings which collapse because they are three storeys taller than they were designed for.

The unfortunate workers of a 4th world country?

[wagyl]

The power plant workers are not more underpaid than anyone else.

That really depends on if they're legally required (or even just expected by the employer) to stay in place in the event of emergency or whatnot. Pay tends to reflect the level of risk of the work.

I suppose what I am saying is that the word "underpaid" is all very easy to bandy about, and Russell used it as though is was a largely indisputable fact, but I ask, is that really so?

Are these workers being entrapped with false promises? Forced to to work against their will? If so, say as much, in so many words, because if so, this is major news.

If they were underpaid, that is, receiving less pay than the level of the work deserves, then the workers would leave for other work that is either less severe but for the same pay, or with greater pay but with equal severity. Replacement workers would be difficult to find, and in order to attract the necessary manpower the employer would find it necessary to increase the wage offer. The invisible hand guiding the market, and all that. I am not saying that there is a perfect market in labour, but I am also saying that it is not virtual slavery or compulsion of the workforce either. I really do think that the word "underpaid," in most of the instances it is used, means "you wouldn't find me doing that work for that wage." It is subjective to the speaker, and a relative term, not an absolute one.

[matsuki]

I totally get what you're saying and that's what you or I would do...but TIJ...have you ever asked some of these drones why they don't leave? I've heard everything from "They won't let me quit" and "It's the same everywhere else" to "that would be selfish" and "other companies won't hire me if I quit here." Some of it is willful ignorance (lazy) but I'm always surprised how many of the population here is so self depreciating and lacking the confidence. Call it culture or blame it on the system that takes the hand off and takes over for their parents...but that kind of "boldness" seems unfathomable to many people here. Legality aside, don't you think many companies take advantage of their employees apparent inability to pack up and go somewhere else?

[IparryU]

This is complete bullshit.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... chernobyl/

Sent from my SC-03E using Tapatalk

[Coligny]

This is complete bullshit.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... chernobyl/

Sent from my SC-03E using Tapatalk

Some journalist deserve to be shot in the stomach...

Why were those children exposed to so much radiation?

One of the great failures of Chernobyl was that the government of the Soviet Union did not immediately take steps to protect the public, especially the vulnerable—children and pregnant mothers—from potential radioactive fallout

They evacuated and closed a whole town few days after the accident... Which remain closed as of today...

Compare this with Japan... purposefully ignoring wind patterns prediction to avoid "stress" in the population at risk to be exposed...

Fuck these assholes... seriously...

And don't get me started on their Schroedinger logic for the cluster of cancer...

Little further:

Is three years after a nuclear accident a reasonable time to test for thyroid cancer?

In Chernobyl, the earliest cases were found about four years after the accident. That's not where the peak was but where they started noticing a small increase, started saying, "Uh-oh, something's going on." Based on Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors, we would expect this kind of solid [thyroid] tumor to appear somewhere in the four- to six-year range [after an event].

In Chernobyl, did the children with thyroid cancer recover?

I think the mortality was less than one percent.

ok, the article was written by a complete moron... No need to even get upset, Darwin will catch up on his backlog soon...

[matsuki]

Compare this with Japan... purposefully ignoring wind patterns prediction to avoid "stress" in the population at risk to be exposed...

I still can't believe how many people were still hanging their laundry/futons outside right after the meltdown/explosion and there were no warnings against they type of shit.

[Coligny]

People were GOING OUTSIDE... And you worry about... the laundry... Sure wedlock did change you aplenty...

[Mike Oxlong]

Hey, Where’s the Fukushima Plume?

After I started writing about the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, it quickly became clear that there was a huge amount of fearmongering about it. Garbage anti-science pieces like “At the very least your days of eating Pacific Ocean fish are over” and “28 Signs the West Coast is Being Absolutely Fried by Fukushima Radiation” were needlessly scaring the crap out of those who didn’t have the training, knowledge or common sense filter needed to see through them.

The result was that people became afraid that radiation was melting all life in the Pacific Ocean, that cancer was slamming the West Coast, that fish was inedible, that the beach was a death zone, that Japan would be obliterated, that half of America would have to be evacuated, that giant marine animals were washing ashore, that the ocean was broken, that life as we knew it was over, and on and on.

And all of that horror was before “the plume” reached the West Coast.

The radiation leak from Fukushima actually has two components. One was the initial leak from the incident itself, which hit the US fairly quickly. The other was the much slower moving “plume” of radioactive water, the extent of which only became clear last year after TEPCO admitted that 300 tons of runoff was leaking into the Pacific every day, with no way to stop it.

There were generally two reactions to the news that a plume of radioactive water was heading straight toward the West Coast:

Scientists did science. They researched, they set up studies, they developed computer models, they wrote papers, they disseminated their findings, they adjusted their theories accordingly. The aim was to determine when the plume would arrive, what danger it carried and what the next steps should be.

Panicmongers mongered panic. They wrote long blog posts trumping up the unknown dangers, they spread false stories, they relied on dubious sources, they sold anti-nuclear products, they accused researchers and government officials of covering up the “real story” of how bad it was. The aim was to make money, abolish nuclear power and spread fear.

What the researchers looking into the plume found was, at least to me, fairly comforting.

1. Traces of Fukushima radioactivity would reach the west coast sometime in early 2014.
2. Because of the natural dilution of a relatively small amount of water in the hugeness of the ocean, they would be just that – traces.
3. However, there was no way to tell exactly when the radiation would arrive.
4. Therefore, monitoring of the radiation levels in sea life and water should continue.
5. While that’s happening, go about your business safe in the knowledge that you aren’t being fried.

So here we are, past early 2014. Almost halfway through the year, really. What’s the status of the plume?

The rest at skeptoid.com

[Coligny]

Nothing says scientific science quite as well as "relative level of radiation (in arbitrary unit)" thanks NYT...

Albacore tuna caught off the coast of Oregon have shown trace amounts of radioactivity, though in such small quantities that you’d have to eat 700,000 pounds of it to equal the amount of radiation you’re normally exposed to

Exposed to while doing what ? I'm sold some warm and fuzzy "I'm safe because i'll never eat 700000 pounds of tuna" but it just don't seems to mean anything...

The writer sounds like a patronizing jerk... But hey, he's saying the opposite of infowars so he's mandatorily right and there can't be any other approach or viewpoints. Also, focusing on the plume leave an americanocentrist taste of trying to hide the forrest behind the tree, not that there is a real forrest to speak of anyway, just a cheap shot on a detail. "The plume didn't kill everyone, therefore everything is fine, i was right on everything from the start, nothing to see here, move along and buy my tshirt"

[Coligny]

Digging a bit deeper at skeptoid... It sound like a website designed for the antagonist readership of weekly world news. The people who buy it to comfort themselves in their superiority by not believing batboy married the eight legged woman... But could not go more than a week without buying it for fear of missing on the update of their marital status... A snopes that would make its own urban legends to debunk them more easily...

[Isle of View]

Nothing says scientific science quite as well as "relative level of radiation (in arbitrary unit)" thanks NYT...

Albacore tuna caught off the coast of Oregon have shown trace amounts of radioactivity, though in such small quantities that you’d have to eat 700,000 pounds of it to equal the amount of radiation you’re normally exposed to

Exposed to while doing what ? I'm sold some warm and fuzzy "I'm safe because i'll never eat 700000 pounds of tuna" but it just don't seems to mean anything...

The writer sounds like a patronizing jerk... But hey, he's saying the opposite of infowars so he's mandatorily right and there can't be any other approach or viewpoints. Also, focusing on the plume leave an americanocentrist taste of trying to hide the forrest behind the tree, not that there is a real forrest to speak of anyway, just a cheap shot on a detail. "The plume didn't kill everyone, therefore everything is fine, i was right on everything from the start, nothing to see here, move along and buy my tshirt"

Try the plume did not and will not kill anyone. So, yes, there is nothing to see here, you can move along, and buy your t-shirt.

I thought that the Frog school system was better than the Merkin one, especially when it came to basic numeracy, logic, and scientific literacy.

However, I suppose it's still possible for someone to slip through the cracks . . . or have it all wiped out after several years of grad school postmodernist deconstructionism.

[Coligny]

Your point was ?

Quick memo: 1 thing you learn in math at French Schools is that reaching a good conclusion from a bad reasoning is worth jack shit.

So yea, a plume that we don't even really know the position of or if it's still exist in a concentration allowing to call it plume is not known to have killed anyone as of today. Such a great victory that it pulls Isle of View our favorite sock puppet out of hiding for a bold celebration... YAY !!!! Nukular Power for everyone !!!

Also using fringe viewpoint from sensationalists to shutdown legitimate concerns or observations is usually a good tell tale of the quality of the source.

And once again, let's play the "industrial accident" swap, had the plume been an oil spill, the direct risk of killing someone would have been minimal. But the sheer visibility would have made impossible for clowns to say thaat it's a harmless non existing threat that can be safely ignored.

[wagyl]

I'm ripe (over ripe in your view) for education: please explain the connection between "visibility" and "harm."

[Coligny]

If the source can be seen, the effect can't be ignored. (Seagulls oiled up)
If the source can't be seen, it can be blamed on anything else. (Thyroid cancer in Tchernobyl)(or even funkier here: we are looking too hard)
When the source can't be seen and the effect to look for are not known or time delayed: party's on!

So here... The plume... Didn't kill anyone ...
So what...
Does that imply that any amount of radioactive waste can be dumped freely and safely in the ocean ?
Or just that some are holding onto the negation of a scenario (that was mostly shaped to maximize shock value over more realistic concerns ) to score a mostly irrelevant "victory" missing that it don't make the rest of the problem and concern go away.