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Today's Top News
Groundwater at Nuclear Plant 'Highly' Radiation-Contaminated: TEPCO
More signs of serious radiation contamination in and near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were detected Thursday, with the latest data finding groundwater containing radioactive iodine 10,000 times the legal threshold and the concentration of radioactive iodine-131 in nearby seawater rising to the highest level yet.
Radioactive material was confirmed from groundwater for the first time since the March 11 quake and tsunami hit the nuclear power plant on the Pacific coast, knocking out the reactors' key cooling functions. An official of the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said, ''We're aware this is an extremely high figure.''
The contaminated groundwater was found from around the No. 1 reactor's turbine building, although the radiation level of groundwater is usually so low that it cannot be measured.
Japanese authorities were also urged to consider taking action over radioactive contamination outside the 20-kilometer evacuation zone around the plant, as the International Atomic Energy Agency said readings from soil samples collected in the village of Iitate, about 40 km from the plant, exceeded its criteria for evacuation.
The authorities denied that the seawater and soil contamination posed an immediate threat to human health, but the government said it plans to enhance radiation data monitoring around the plant on the Pacific coast, about 220 km northeast of Tokyo.
According to the government's nuclear safety agency, the radioactive iodine-131 at a concentration of 4,385 times the maximum level permitted under law has been detected in a seawater sample collected Wednesday afternoon near the plant, exceeding the previous high recorded the day before.
In Tuesday's sample, the concentration level was 3,355 times the maximum legal limit.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, acknowledged there is a possibility that radiation is continuing to leak into the sea, adding, ''We must check that (possibility) well.''
He reiterated that there are no immediate health concerns as fishing is not being conducted in the designated evacuation zone stretching 20 km from the plant and radioactive materials will be diluted by the time seafood is consumed by people.
Still, the nuclear regulatory body said it has decided to add another three areas located 15 km offshore for monitoring.
Tokyo Electric said it is likely that the high level of contamination in seawater has been caused by water that has been in contact with nuclear fuel or reactors, but how it flowed to the sea remains unknown.
The No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors at the plant are believed to have suffered damage to their cores, possibly releasing radioactive substances, while the fuel rods of the No. 4 reactor kept in a spent fuel pool are also believed to have been exposed at one point, as the reactors lost cooling functions after the March 11 quake and tsunami.
In Vienna on Wednesday, Denis Flory, IAEA deputy director general and head of the agency's nuclear safety and security department, said readings from soil samples collected in Iitate between March 18 and March 26 ''indicate that one of the IAEA operational criteria for evacuation is exceeded (there).''
In response to the IAEA, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Thursday the government may implement measures, if necessary, such as urging people living in the area to evacuate, if it is found that the contaminated soil will have a long-term effect on human health.
Nishiyama said at a press conference in the afternoon that the agency's rough estimates have shown there is no need for people in Iitate to evacuate immediately under criteria set by the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan.
''The radiation dose of a person who was indoors for 16 hours and outdoors for eight hours (and continued such a lifestyle) would be about 25 millisieverts, which is about half the level which requires evacuation based on the commission's criteria,'' he said.
The commission explained that domestic criteria are based on measurements at radiation in the air, and not the soil.
In another effort to prevent radioactive dust from being dispersed from the plant, where masses of debris are strewn as a result of explosions, Tokyo Electric initially planned to conduct a test spraying of a water-soluble resin on Thursday, but postponed the plan due to rain.
An official said rain would have slowed down the work and made it difficult to gauge the effects of the resin spraying.
The utility firm known as TEPCO is considering when to conduct the work, at the south and west sides of the No. 4 reactor. A total of 60,000 liters will be sprayed over a period of two weeks.
TEPCO also tried to remove contaminated water filling up some of the reactors' turbine buildings and tunnel-like trenches connected to them. But given the large amount of water, authorities are having difficulty finding places to store it.
TEPCO has been pouring massive amounts of water into the reactors and spent nuclear fuel pools at the plant as a stopgap measure to cool them down, because serious damage to fuel rods from overheating could lead to the release of enormous amounts of radioactive materials into the environment.
However, the measure is believed to be linked to the possible leak of radiation-contaminated water from the reactors, where fuel rods have partially melted.
Removal of the water at the turbine buildings is believed to be essential to restoring the vital functions to stably cool down the reactors and the spent nuclear fuel pools.
On Thursday afternoon, a ship provided by U.S. forces carrying fresh water to cool down the reactors docked on the coast of the plant site to help the mission of water injection.
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96 Comments so far
Show All" Tokyo Electric initially planned to conduct a test spraying of a water-soluble resin on Thursday, but postponed the plan due to rain."
Maybe they should try Jello mix.
Spread enough radiation around to the point that things glow in the dark and Japan won't need as many power plants in the future.
Dmetry Orlov was on the Keiser Report today and summed things up pretty well. He said, and Im paraphrasing here: "Don't live closer than 50 kilometers to a Nuclear power plant because as we know know, one mistake and we go from people in smocks with clip boards, to the three stooges running around in radioactive brine with plastic bags over their shoes."
OMFG. Thanks for the head's up NC-Tom. I hadn't caught that episode yet. Orlov rocks. His "Reinventing Collapse" has a new edition coming out soon. Required reading for those trying not to become roadkill.
10,000 times the legal threshold? Time for a second opinion...
When they first started dumping sea water on the spent rods, I asked; where was that water going.
DUH!
They haven't figured this out yet?
Today's Special: Low radiation sushi with just a trace of mercury.
The don't mention the underground water table possibility but it seems that should be a reasonable consideration. I suspect they know how the radioactive particles got into the ocean whether it's above or below ground.
TEPCO scientists suspect seawater pumped into damaged cooling pools is draining out of the damaged areas and flowing downhill into the ocean but results won't be known for certain for several more days or possibly weeks.
They are also studying their CSR (collective surprise reaction) to having discovered that the large maintenance trenches filled with such water caused the electrical devices needed to drive the pumps to get wet (assuming such pumps could be repaired), and that even if the water didn't make them wet, they still couldn't reach the systems to work on and stuff because they don't have a SRDRRT (Scuba Radioactive Emergency Rapid Response Team).
Next, they shall move on to CSR2 (collective surprise reaction 2) relative to the radiation levels discovered in that water the guys waded into without galoshes.
Next, they shall move on to CSR3 relative to the gravity enhanced downhill motion of radioactive water into the sea.
Next, tired of studying their surprise reactions, they shall move on, with the help of the INDUSTRY (that SaboCat believes has nothing do do with it) to try to figure out why working with substances to boil water that have lethal radioactive half lives of thousands and millions of years is such a bitch.
hue_sir_name,
Well said. It seems that peculiar trait of water to flow downhill applies to nuclear shit too. What a surprise. Maybe they don't teach that in nuclear physics courses anymore.
I just read they are NOT expanding the evacuation zone even though they found a cesium-137 hot spot 25 miles (40 km) from the nuke plant. The cesium level is above the standard used for Chernobyl area population evacuation. They are, most "prudently", however, studying the matter. Cesium-137 behaves just like potassium in nature.
Reality is such a bitch for these nuclear weenies.
Yes, They'll be using their Water Table Fathometer readings (WTF Readings) to analyze this developing situation. And in the spirit of Corporate and Bureaucratic acronyms, this operation will be called the Fukoshima Urgent Containment and Kinetic Utilization Procedure (FUCKUP)
Damn funny, such that I have AE (acronym envy).
I realized that i screwed up one of mine
SRDRRT (Scuba Radioactive Emergency Rapid Response Team).
correction…SRERRT
The island is only so big, where are they gonna go.. Especially considering they have made a national tradition out of insulting and killing their neighbors for thousands of years!
>^^<
TacoBell scientists suspect cesspoolwater pumped into damaged deepfryers is draining out of the damaged areas and flowing downhill into the parking lot but results won't be known for certain for several more days or possibly weeks.
Let's hope TacoBell can recover and post 3Q profits.
Funny! A great break from the dire.
Iodine-131 has been found in milk on the US west coast. -- msnbc, 3/31
Don't worry its japanese radiation, most americans bodies won't be able to interpret it.
Update: The levels detected are 5000 times below any dangerous amount.
The air is safe to breathe at ground zero.
Milk that glows in the dark could be a new profit center for the struggling dairy industry.
Isn't the source of this reassuring message (msnbc) owned by GE ?
From now on we'll not need to worry over the answer to the question; 'does the fridge light really go off when you close the door?' We'll now know that it no longer matters with the special milk soon available near you! (if it's not already there...) grin
Kind of puts a whole new spin on the term "hot milk".
I may no longer have to "nuke" my latte cup in the microwave to heat it up. ;>/
The real question is: what is a healthy amount?
Given that gov't policy is largely effected by the industries they are suppose to regulate I'd be very skeptical of this statement.
(And the answer is 'none'.)
Radiation, like an X-Ray, doesn't persist, it's like a radio wave.
The isotope particles no matter how small, keep emitting these rays for however long they remain radioactive. (half-life,etc.)
As the particles travel on dust and water they attach themselves to matter, organic and otherwise where they remain active and are passed on as "big fish eat little fish". This is what is referred to as dilution. (except it concentrates at the top of the food chain.)
All the fallout from testing and dumping drums of spent fuel into the ocean is still in the ocean and the environment. It's just diluted.
Loose particles looking for a home is the biggest danger! The radiation level is a deceptive decoy!
And don't forget as the actual levels go up, so will the levels that are considered safe. As mentioned below, the air at ground zero was considered "safe" right after the twin towers collapsed.
''The radiation dose of a person who was indoors for 16 hours and outdoors for eight hours (and continued such a lifestyle) would be about 25 millisieverts, which is about half the level which requires evacuation based on the commission's criteria,'' he said."
So if being indoors for 16 hours and outdoors for 8 is about 25 mSv and that's half the level required to evacuate, they should evacuate in 48 hours when people have been exposed to the full level required to evacuate. (I have no idea why they wrote "and continued such a lifestyle" because this stuff keeps adding up, it doesn't stop)
-----------------
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/28-10
"First, the total dose is the most important factor, not the dose per hour. When you get an X-ray, you're exposed to a one-time burst of radiation. If you work for 10 hours in a spot where the radiation level is 1 millisievert per hour, your dose is 10 millisieverts, and the dose goes up the longer you stand there."
And extending the math for longer brings us to this:
At around 1000 mSv, radiation sickness symptoms begin. Your white blood cells are being massively destroyed and you are sterile (totally for women -temporarily for men).
1,000 divided by 25 = 40 days.
Then, if they are not evacuated and hospitalized, they will be dead in about another 80 days.
I wanted to add that our resident alleged physicist Mark Abram gave incorrect information on radiation protection. He claimed it was futile to protect from I-131 and cesium-137 because their particulate size is too small to filter from their gaseous state.
I checked. Filtering of these gases is done, as I had initially guessed, with HEPA filtration according to the US Government.
1) Inhalation of respirable alpha or beta/gamma-emitting radioactive particles
2) Close proximity to building materials covered with significant amounts of gamma-emitting contaminated dust and debris
3) Proximity to a fragment of a large gamma-source for a long period until rescued.
Protection against radioactive aerosols produced outdoors is not very different from chemical or biological toxin defense. Air filtration of intake air is key. Traditionally, HEPA filters are employed because of their high air-cleaning capacity. However, these filters create significant pressure drops that will require powerful fans and motors to overcome.
The sorbent method of charcoal filtration has long been used to capture radioiodine. It is possible to filter heating,ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) intake air using this technique. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health(NIOSH) recommends sorbent filtration installation down line from particulate filters to collect vapors formed on the filters from capture of the radioactive aerosol. Adsorbent capacity must be determined with consideration for the effects of humidity,temperature, and iodine buildup on the sorbent. The breakthrough point of the iodine vs. charcoal bed size will give some idea of the period of protection that charcoal filtration will afford.
At least one charcoal filtration supply-company manufactures a HVAC filtration system for chemical, biological and nuclear attack. The system uses a prefilter, a first stage high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter, a first stage carbon filter(V-bed arrangement using salt/metal impregnated "whetlerite" charcoalfor reactivity with chlorine, phosgene and mustard gases; 12 x 30mesh), a second stage carbon bed and finally a second stage HEPAfilter. This system is self-contained, uses a "bag in/bag out" system for filter change-out and is provided with test ports for determining breakthrough from the 1st carbon stage. It can pull 9,000 ft3 per minute. Considering the installation costs and maintenance of such a system, it may be more efficient to stockpile potassium iodide pills for distribution to building occupants when radioiodine is released and sheltering in place is enforced or recommended by governmental authorities. Potassium iodide blocks the uptake of radioactive iodine but does not protect against other types of radiation or other toxic materials (seewww.fda.gov/cder/guidance/4825fnl.htm for guidance about use).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
That fda link is goes there and says it's not available anymore. I'm sure that a guide to the use of KI tablets can found elsewhere, though.
I question "Doctor" Mark Abram's reliabilty as a credible source. He's a pro-nuke troll, period.
Hey Mark, if you are out there, read the operative sentence:
"Protection against radioactive aerosols produced outdoors is not very different from chemical or biological toxin defense. Air filtration of intake air is key."
Good post!
No one is in immediate danger. No but their unborn children probably are. But hey thats their problem.
After this, it's time for a word for our sponsor, General Electric-- "radioactive and ready."
Well they were recently complaining about overpopulation in Japan, causing them to import too much of their food, and what to do about it.
>^^<
MEANWHILE BACK AT VERMONT:
Sale Of Vermont Yankee Falls Through, Derailing Power Deals
Wednesday, 03/30/11 5:04pm
Ross Sneyd- Montpelier, Vt.
AP/Jason R. Henske
The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon.
(Host) Vermont Yankee's parent corporation says a company that was interested in buying the plant in Vernon has pulled out.
Entergy Nuclear won't disclose who the other company was. But Entergy executive Rick Smith says the potential buyer was put off by the state's attitude toward Yankee.
(Smith) "They and their board had a lot of concern about really the political uncertainty up here around the approval process on the state side and they eventually decided not to pursue the plant."
(Host) Smith says the collapse of that deal has also led to the failure of talks with Vermont's largest electric utilities.
Central Vermont Public Service and Green Mountain Power have been in negotiations to buy power from Yankee if it's relicensed.
But Smith says the utilities weren't interested in a contract without a sale of the plant.
(Smith) "It was subject to a sale. I can say that since there is no sale. But we had all the price terms, megawatts, all that was agreed to."
(Host) Entergy won a license from the federal government earlier this month to continue operating the Yankee plant until 2032.
But Vermont is the only state in the country whose Legislature has a role in relicensing. And legislators have so far refused to approve.
Smith says the company faces a deadline for deciding how to proceed by the middle of the summer.
That's when Entergy must decide whether to refuel the plant, an expensive step that's necessary for the plant to operate beyond March of 2012.
(Smith) "It'll come up more in that June timeframe because in that June timeframe we're going to have make some large investments. So we'll have to decide in that June timeframe what our next step will be."
(Host) Because the NRC has given its approval to a license extension for Vermont Yankee, Smith says one of Entergy's options is to continue to operate the plant without approval from the state of Vermont.
----------------------------------------------------------------
So Entergy thinks ignoring the state of Vermont's approval is an option?
These corporations have a lot of gall. By the time they get to their alleged "decision point", nuclear power will be so rightfully demonized in this country that all the corporate PR in the world won't aid them in putting more lives at risk despite the corrupt federal government's criminal and irresponsible license extension.
Thanks, Agelbert...
And for those who live in or near VT, here is a link to the Northeast group that's trying to shut down Vermont Yankee --
http://www.nukebusters.org/
esabi,
Thanks for the nukebusters link.
I read yesterday that the rain water in Pennsylvania was found to have 25 times the "normal" amount of I-131 but is still considerd safe by the Governor because "People don't normally drink rain water".
This is really getting bizzare.
We are being swallowed up by a tsunami of water from that river in Egypt (denial).
"People don't normally drink rain water".
Wow. Apparently, Pennsylvania is unique in that all of its reservoirs are indoors where they are not exposed to rain.
The quote fits in with the nonsense coming from the likes of Rendell, who actually said with a straight face that no one was killed by Three Mile Island. I guess cancer doesn't count.
Update on Entergy's corporate bag of sneaky tricks. It seems they have successfully "lobbied" some weak sisters in the Vermont legislature.
March 12, 2011 by The Brattleboro Reformer
Supporters of two collaborating bills in the House and Senate hope to remove their own power regarding Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in an effort to receive a clear response from the Public Service Board. Lawmakers supportive of Yankee's relicensing have introduced Senate Bill No. 84 and House Bill No. 331 this week to remove the legislative approval requirements for the continued operations of Vermont's only nuclear plant beyond the date of its current certificate of public good.
ALSO:
http://vtdigger.org/2011/03/14/hebert-introduces-bill-to-remove-legislature’s-power-to-vote-on-vy’s-certificate-of-public-good/
March 15, 2011 by VT Digger
Freshman Rep. Mike Hebert, R-Vernon, stands by his position that the more qualified Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Vermont Public Service Board, not the Vermont Legislature, should determine whether the nuclear power station should be allowed to run for another 20 years.
---------------------------------------------------------
Mike Herbert seems to have a lot in common with Scott Walker...
And I'm sure Rick Smith is great palsy walsy with that parragon of integrity that is Mike Herbert...
What's wrong with you people in Vernon? Are jobs in Vernon more imortant than the health of Vermonters in particular and the world in general? Stop being so selfish. Call off this corporate tool. Keeping Yankee open is a Faustian bargain. It's a death sentence for your children.
Links here:
http://www.nukebusters.org/
An excellent comment in regard to Mike Herbert's pro-nuke position:
Al Salzman
March 30, 2011 at 10:11 pm
Representative Mike Hebert, like so many of his colleagues, shoots from the lip and does not do his homework. I guess it’s human to support jobs for your constituents no matter how catastrophic the consequences or, at least, another twenty years of tritium leaks into the ground water. Rep. Hebert thinks we should rely on scientists and not his colleagues to determine a Certificate of Public Good for VY. Here’s a scientist of exceptional qualifications – Frank N. von Hippel in a NYT Op-Ed of March 23: “The nuclear industry is a text book example of “regulatory capture” in which an industry gains control of an agency meant to regulate it!” Professor Hippel is a nuclear physicist, professor of Public and International Affairs at Princeton, Co-chair of the International Panel on Fissle Material and a former member of The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Would Rep. Hebert consider that qualification enough? So, Rep. Hebert would like the ‘captured’ NRC to decide Vermont fate! As an act of faith in his position I would respectively ask Rep. Hebert to drink a bottle of water drawn from a well within a hundred yards of Vermont Yankee. That would be most convincing of his sincerity.
Wow, these people are sickening. They really should be in jail.
ag,
One of the reasons for the legislation to permit the PSC to make the decision rather than the legislature is that the agreement that gave Vermont control over license renewal specifically mentions a decision by the PSC. If the PSC is not authorized to make the decision, Entergy can argue in court that the agreement has been voided by the legislature. (It is a stretch but most legal arguments are).
In the game of bluff between Vermont and Entergy the utility has another chess piece. They can order the reload for the reactor and take delivery even if they don't think they are going to install it. Reload fuel is fungible and can be resold for costs.
Bill
Bill,
Ah yes, the reload. I've been studying the massive amount of bucks it takes to fuel that new reactor you gave me figures on. And then the MTBF for fuel rods of 4.5 years goes by. It's insanity, Bill.
I won't pay for it. You don't want to pay for it. You, as they say in Vermont, just want to make a little money, right?
Refuel, indeed.
ag,
You use the term MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures). The useful life of the fuel rod is 4.5 years but not the MTBF. Occasionally there are leakers in a reactor but the MTBF is much greater than 4.5 years.
The reason for removal of the rods after 4.5 years is that the fuel is pretty much exhausted for use in that reactor. When you car gets low on gas, you buy more gas-that doesn't mean that the gas tank has failed.
Bill
Easily corrected: just declare 10,000 millisieverts safe.
What's all the complaining for? Don't we already irradiate food?
Nothing makes sense anymore. The world is run by drug-addled circus clowns.
No Sir! Be damned! I won't have it! That's not fair on drug-addled circus clowns.
The radiation is 10,000x the previous level of radiation because "normal" took a hike a long time ago. The people in Japan should leave while they still can.
Go where? This sh*t is spreading everywhere.
There is a window of opportunity for evacuation when conditions change and with the reluctance or incompetence for public safety I would consider all this infornation an indication it is time to move. If you read the Union of Concerned Scientists teleconference report (address posted on this thread) or just google it, they discuss this issue with some clarity. Basically, you have two choices stay in place and prevent cross-contamination or find a less contaminated place. (they explain that too).
My own experience is that unless you are trained and practiced in preventing cross-contamination it is pretty difficult to protect yourself.
While no one wants a panic, I don't think being lied to is the best approach either. The pattern of reporting seems to be releasing the bad news in a trickle, upping the horror one notch every day to acclimate people to it. Or frog in boiling water if you prefer.
Remember, with the jet stream, we have a week's delay in feeling the effects from Fukushima here in North America. If radiation is being detected in milk now, imagine what next week will bring. And we're the "lucky" ones. With luck, you may only know a few family members that come down with cancer in the next few years. And if you're really lucky, you might even have health insurance to cover some of the painful and expensive treatment.
The people of Japan, not so lucky I'm afraid. 1700 TONS of radioactive fuel onsite at Fukushima, 4 reactors (as of right now) declared "lost", 2 meltdowns in progress. Half of Honshu will be a radioactive no man's land before this finishes playing out. Tokyo, I'm betting will face evacuations before much longer.
All of this, to boil water by using nuclear fission. INSANE.
"And if you're really lucky, you might even have health insurance to cover some of the painful and expensive treatment."
This could be a windfall for the insurance industry. Now they can put everyone in a high risk pool.
Hopefully they don't forget to include themselves in that pool....:) I suppose that there's always a perversity to justice in the end.