Video of new explosion at Fukushima nuclear plant

[Joe234]

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Japanese PM urges residents near exploded Fukushima reactor to stay 'indoors'

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has urged citizens residing within 30 kilometres of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station to stay indoors after an explosion took place in one of its most seriously troubled reactors, insisting that they might otherwise face the risk of suffering from radiation sickness.

Addressing a news conference immediately after the explosion, Kan said that radiation levels had risen considerably in the area around the damaged plant, but urged the Japanese people to remain calm, The Age reports.

Kan had earlier branded the current situation in Japan following an earthquake-cum-tsunami as the country's worst crisis since World War II.
The explosion at the reactor in Fukushima power plant on Tuesday morning had damaged its crucial steel containment structure.
Official statements and industry executives had earlier claimed that emergency workers were withdrawn from the plant, and much larger emissions of radioactive materials appeared imminent.

Although they had initially suggested that the damage was limited and that emergency operations aimed at cooling the nuclear fuel at three stricken reactors with seawater would continue, industry executives have claimed that the situation appears to be out of control. They also insisted that all plant workers should be brought out of the plant to avoid excessive exposure to radioactive leaks.

Japan's Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant had exploded on Saturday, a day after a massive earthquake damaged the facility's cooling system. The plant's cooling system was damaged in Friday's quake. (ANI)

http://www.sify.com/news/japanese-pm...plucbjcfd.html

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[Joe234]

Radiation levels fall at stricken Japan nuclear plant

3:36am EDT

TOKYO, March 15 (Reuters) - Radiation levels fell at Japan's quake-stricken nuclear power plant on the northeast coast, the Japanese government said on Tuesday, after an earlier spike in radiation.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters that radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi complex, more than 200 km north of Tokyo, had fallen dramatically to 596.4 microsieverts per hour as of 0630 GMT.

That level is almost 700 times less than the levels reported in the morning, after two fresh blasts at the complex.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...00668420110315

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Japan stocks plunge due to panic over nuclear plant blast

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english201...c_13779907.htm

[Joe234]

Japan PM to nuclear power firm: "What the hell's going on?" -Kyodo

6:29am EDT

TOKYO, March 15 (Reuters) - Japan's prime minister was furious with the power firm at the centre of the nuclear crisis for taking so long to inform his office about a blast at a stricken reactor plant, demanding "What the hell is going on?".

Kyodo news agency reported that Naoto Kan also ordered Tokyo Electric Power Co on Tuesday not to pull employees out of the Fukushima plant north of Tokyo, which was badly damaged by last week's earthquake and has been leaking radiation.

"The TV reported an explosion. But nothing was said to the the premier's office for about an hour," a Kyodo reporter quoted Kan telling power company executives. (Writing by Jonathan Thatcher; Editing by John Chalmers)

[Frosted]

thanks for the updates. I hate watching the news.

lol!!

[Joe234]

CREW AT NUCLEAR POWER PLANT BEING EVACUATED OVER RADIATION RISK


Latest nuclear plant explosion in Japan raises radiation fears





Latest nuclear plant explosion in Japan raises radiation fears

By Brian Vastag, Tuesday, March 15, 10:12 PM

New assessments of the explosion at Unit 2 of Japan’s stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant Tuesday heightened fears that it will begin spewing large amounts of radiation.

The explosion probably damaged the main protective shield around the uranium-filled core inside one of the plant’s six reactors. Such a breach would be the first at a nuclear power plant since the Chernobyl catastrophe in the Soviet Union 25 years ago.

The latest explosion — compounded by a fire in a different unit Wednesday morning — marked yet another setback in the five-day battle to stabilize the Daiichi facility, which suffered heavy damage to its cooling systems after Friday’s earthquake and tsunami. Other explosions occurred earlier at two of the plant’s reactors.

The blast Tuesday t Unit 2 was not outwardly visible, but potentially more dangerous because it may have created an escape route for radioactive material bottled up inside the thick steel-and-concrete reactor tube. Radiation-laced steam is probably building up between that tube and the building that houses it, experts said, triggering fears that the pressure would blow apart the structure, emitting radiation from the core.

“They’re putting water into the core and generating steam, and that steam has to go somewhere,” said Arnie Gunderson, a nuclear engineer with 40 years of experience overseeing the Vermont Yankee nuclear facility, whose reactors are of the same vintage and design as those at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. “It has to be carrying radiation.” Nuclear experts have repeatedly stressed that radiation releases on the scale of Chernobyl are unlikely or even impossible, given the Japanese plant’s heavier engineering and additional layers of containment.

Still, Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the Daiichi facility, said radiation briefly rose to dangerous levels at the plant Tuesday morning.
On Wednesday morning, the Japanese government raised the permitted radiation exposure for plant workers by 2.5 times to allow them to work longer, according to NHK TV.

Crews noted a drop in pressure inside the reactor and also within a doughnut-shaped structure below, called a suppression pool. The simultaneous loss of pressure in those two places indicates serious damage, nuclear experts said.

The explosion probably happened after the streams of seawater that crews have been pumping into the reactor faltered. The fuel rods were left completely exposed to the air for some time, Tepco said in a statement. Without water, the rods grew white-hot and possibly melted through the steel-and-concrete tube.

Tepco said a skeleton crew of 50 to 70 employees — far fewer than the 1,400 or more at the plant during normal operations — were working in shifts to keep seawater flowing to the three reactors now in trouble.

The removal of most of the plant’s workers “is a sign to me that they have given up trying to prevent a disaster and gone into the mode of trying to clean up afterward,” Gunderson said.

Also on Tuesday, and again on Wednesday morning, fires temporarily flared up in Unit 4, causing fear that spent uranium fuel sitting in a pool above the reactor was burning. Such a conflagration would generate intense concentrations of cesium-137 and other dangerous radioactive isotopes.

A spokesperson for the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry lobbying group, said that Tepco concluded that the first fire in Unit 4 was not in the spent fuel pool, “but rather in a corner of the reactor building’s fourth floor.” The company briefly considered spraying water into holes in the Unit 4 building — caused by the previous explosions at the site — with helicopters. The company abandoned that plan, but still may use fire trucks to shoot water into the building.
Such a measure would be a last-ditch effort to prevent the spent fuel from burning and to keep cesium-137 and other radioactive isotopes from being released into the air.

“This is scary,” said Lake Barrett, a nuclear engineer who directed the cleanup of the Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Pennsylvania. “The plans in a severe accident are to just get a fire hose in there, get any kind of water to keep water in the pool above the fuel. ” With the outer containment building at Unit 2 primed for a possible explosion, any fire crews would be in grave peril.

During normal plant operations, uranium fuel rods that can no longer produce enough heat for generating electricity are periodically removed from a reactor and placed into the spent fuel pools above the reactors. These rods continue to generate heat and radioactive isotopes for many years.

Keeping this material covered with water is sufficient to cool it. But water levels may have dropped dramatically during the crisis, exposing fuel rods to the air.

Robert Alvarez, an analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies who has long warned of the dangers of spent fuel pools, said that — unlike the reactors themselves — the fuel pools typically do not have backup pumps to maintain water flow. “They were so overwhelmed,” he said of the workers straining to contain the disaster, that they were unable to maintain enough water in the pool to prevent boiling.

If the fuel pools are exposed to the air, the radiation doses coming from them could be life-threatening up to 50 yards, Alvarez said.

Concerns about the dangers of storing used uranium fuel in relatively poorly shielded pools above reactors increased with the fear of terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, causing industry experts to dispute the design. In 2006, the National Research Council issued a report saying in part that a uranium fuel fire “could result in the release of large amounts of radioactive material.” The NRC report also recommended that nuclear power plants build “redundant and diverse” coolant systems to keep the fuel underwater during a crisis.

Late Tuesday, Tepco said water levels were “low” in Unit 4’s used fuel pool. Japanese officials said Wednesday that the water level in Unit 5 was slightly low but that they plan to use a generator to add more.

Satellite photos show steam rising from the facility. The amount of radioactivity carried by the plume is unknown, but small increases in radiation — not enough to affect human health — were reported in Tokyo, about 150 miles to the southwest of the facility, and in other parts of Japan.

In response, NHK television reported that the Japanese government had ordered the country’s 47 prefectures to publicly report recorded radiation levels twice a day.

Also Tuesday, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that his department was dispatching a team of 34 experts and 17,000 pounds of equipment to help with the crisis. The team also will help the Obama administration decide what to tell Americans in Japan and at home about the crisis, White House spokesman Jay Carney said. In response to questions about whether Japanese officials were providing complete information, Carney said American teams on the ground will make independent assessments of the situation.

When the teams arrive, they will find plenty of work to do. The plant’s reactor cores take about two weeks to lose half of their intense heat, Gundersen said, meaning that the battle between the radioactive cores and Fukushima Daiichi’s badly damaged cooling system will play out for days or weeks to come.

vastagb@washpost.com Correspondent Akiko Yamamoto in Tokyo contributed to this report.

© 2011 The Washington Post Company

[Bigblue1]

This is bad my friends, Even if it doesn't effect "us" it will effect all of us one way or another, Say some prayers, not that i believe in that shit, but at a time like this it seems to help.............. settle the mind...

[texastorm]

I was listening to Neil Boortz yesterday and he made a huge point about how the chance the reactor would have any effect on human life is near impossibly slim even if it blew up completely. However the news media doesn't make any money unless you watch the news. Since the sunami and earthquake do not effect us in the USA and the sunamis effect on California and Hawaii were minimal, the only way to keep people glued to the news networks was to create some drama were there is really none. That means leading you to believe that Japans nuclear reactor will blow up and a giant cloud of radioactive dust will cover the United States and all your children will be born with two heads.

I am much more interested in the earthquake and the sunami, and the devastation it caused, and seeing the people come together to help each other than hearing about a ho hum incident like a nuclear reactor with so many safeguards its not even funny blowing up.

And our newer reactors would not even have any problems that this one is having anyway as the newest design doesn't even need generators as a failsafe.

Lets face it, the news media needs to make a buck or two, but these scare tactics are starting to piss me off. We are afraid of sleeping in our houses without locking the doors, afraid of letting our children play on the very streets we played on as kids, and afraid of diseases that we have a near impossible chance of catching, all because the news leads us to believe we are in a crisis. Now we will be more afraid of the future of power... we have enough coal and oil for a few hundred years... we have enough fuel for nuclear power for 20,000 years. Nuclear is here to stay,get over it already.

[Bigblue1]

I was listening to Neil Boortz yesterday and he made a huge point about how the chance the reactor would have any effect on human life is near impossibly slim even if it blew up completely. However the news media doesn't make any money unless you watch the news. Since the sunami and earthquake do not effect us in the USA and the sunamis effect on California and Hawaii were minimal, the only way to keep people glued to the news networks was to create some drama were there is really none. That means leading you to believe that Japans nuclear reactor will blow up and a giant cloud of radioactive dust will cover the United States and all your children will be born with two heads.

I am much more interested in the earthquake and the sunami, and the devastation it caused, and seeing the people come together to help each other than hearing about a ho hum incident like a nuclear reactor with so many safeguards its not even funny blowing up.

And our newer reactors would not even have any problems that this one is having anyway as the newest design doesn't even need generators as a failsafe.

Lets face it, the news media needs to make a buck or two, but these scare tactics are starting to piss me off. We are afraid of sleeping in our houses without locking the doors, afraid of letting our children play on the very streets we played on as kids, and afraid of diseases that we have a near impossible chance of catching, all because the news leads us to believe we are in a crisis. Now we will be more afraid of the future of power... we have enough coal and oil for a few hundred years... we have enough fuel for nuclear power for 20,000 years. Nuclear is here to stay,get over it already.

Neil Boortz is a fool! This thing isn't being over reported but underreported and if that tool thinks this shit will not effect human life it just proves it. Who's neil Boortz anyway? I Think it's already being proven this thing is detrimental to "life". WTF? Like I said in another post we have a reactor that is fueled by a plutonium and uranium mix called mox and it is burning as we speak. These are 2 very heavy and dangerous nuclear isotopes. It will kill people and any of it get's over the pacific ocean and in to the food chain it will be deadly for years to come. Why is it most of the media even such alternative media like Boortz trying to downplay this? I cannot fathom that answer, but I know better than to believe it.....

[charmando]

I was listening to Neil Boortz yesterday and he made a huge point about how the chance the reactor would have any effect on human life is near impossibly slim even if it blew up completely. However the news media doesn't make any money unless you watch the news. Since the sunami and earthquake do not effect us in the USA and the sunamis effect on California and Hawaii were minimal, the only way to keep people glued to the news networks was to create some drama were there is really none. That means leading you to believe that Japans nuclear reactor will blow up and a giant cloud of radioactive dust will cover the United States and all your children will be born with two heads.

I am much more interested in the earthquake and the sunami, and the devastation it caused, and seeing the people come together to help each other than hearing about a ho hum incident like a nuclear reactor with so many safeguards its not even funny blowing up.

And our newer reactors would not even have any problems that this one is having anyway as the newest design doesn't even need generators as a failsafe.

Lets face it, the news media needs to make a buck or two, but these scare tactics are starting to piss me off. We are afraid of sleeping in our houses without locking the doors, afraid of letting our children play on the very streets we played on as kids, and afraid of diseases that we have a near impossible chance of catching, all because the news leads us to believe we are in a crisis. Now we will be more afraid of the future of power... we have enough coal and oil for a few hundred years... we have enough fuel for nuclear power for 20,000 years. Nuclear is here to stay,get over it already.

Solid post, but do you really sleep with your door unlocked. Rather know my butthole is protected in baltimore.

[Joe234]

U.S. Calls Radiation ‘Extremely High’ and Urges Deeper Caution in Japan

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/wo...er=rss&emc=rss


More governments advising citizens to leave Tokyo

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/finan.../D9M0CJTO0.htm


Radiation fears prompt Tokyo exodus

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...ghts-cancelled

[sgreger1]

I was listening to Neil Boortz yesterday and he made a huge point about how the chance the reactor would have any effect on human life is near impossibly slim even if it blew up completely. However the news media doesn't make any money unless you watch the news. Since the sunami and earthquake do not effect us in the USA and the sunamis effect on California and Hawaii were minimal, the only way to keep people glued to the news networks was to create some drama were there is really none. That means leading you to believe that Japans nuclear reactor will blow up and a giant cloud of radioactive dust will cover the United States and all your children will be born with two heads.

I am much more interested in the earthquake and the sunami, and the devastation it caused, and seeing the people come together to help each other than hearing about a ho hum incident like a nuclear reactor with so many safeguards its not even funny blowing up.

And our newer reactors would not even have any problems that this one is having anyway as the newest design doesn't even need generators as a failsafe.

Lets face it, the news media needs to make a buck or two, but these scare tactics are starting to piss me off. We are afraid of sleeping in our houses without locking the doors, afraid of letting our children play on the very streets we played on as kids, and afraid of diseases that we have a near impossible chance of catching, all because the news leads us to believe we are in a crisis. Now we will be more afraid of the future of power... we have enough coal and oil for a few hundred years... we have enough fuel for nuclear power for 20,000 years. Nuclear is here to stay,get over it already.

I agree that the media likes to overplay things to create crisis where there is none, but honestly I don't think this is being overplayed bur rather underplayed. It won't blow up (the core) and we won't see a Chernobyle, but the damage already has been placed at higher than the 3 mile island incident here in America. They have piles of spent rods burning into open air and radiation already beign detected as far as Tokyo. By tomorrow they will probably start evacuating people out of Tokyo and some have already suggested they start. I think this is for real, I don't think there is any danger to us in the US, but the radiation around the reactor has gotten so bad that even the workers can't really do much to stop it.

Regardless of what inevitably happens, this is already a tragedy and the fact that they just suffered a nearly 9.0 earthquake and 23 foot tsunami just adds makes it even mroe sad.



For real though, I am afraid to lock my doors because of the number of times i've been robbed. Trust me, the locks don't stop em! lololo

[Joe234]

For real though, I am afraid to lock my doors because of the number of times i've been robbed. Trust me, the locks don't stop em! lololo

The locks keep people from walking in. If the doors are unlocked it's trespassing. If they are locked
it's burglary. In some states breaking and entering is a justification to shoot to kill.

The nuclear disaster is not being overblown. If anything it's being underplayed and information
is being withheld.

------------------


'Extremely high' radiation at Japanese plant: U.S. official


A U.S. official says all of the water is gone from one of the spent fuel rod pools at Japan's stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, meaning there is nothing to stop the fuel rods from getting hotter and eventually melting down, but Japan denies the claim.

The outer shell of the rods could also explode with enough force to propel radioactive fuel over a wide area, if Gregory Jaczko, chief of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is correct.

He said the problem is at the complex's Unit 4 reactor.

Jaczko did not say how the information was obtained but the organization and the U.S. Department of Energy have experts on the site.

"We believe that radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures," he said.

The U.S. is also calling on Americans in Japan to stay at least 80 kilometres away from the plant. Japan's official evacuation zone is only about 20 km.

Japanese nuclear officials and Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the facility, have denied water is gone from the pool.

If the water at the fuel pool is dry, it severely limits what workers can do, because radiation levels will be so high. When operating correctly, the water not only cools the fuel rods, but protects workers from gamma radiation.

A plan to dump water into the pool from helicopters was scuttled, because the pilots would be flying above a radioactive plume.

However, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said they were close to completing a new power line that could power cooling systems to end the crisis at the nuclear plant.

The new line could get electric-powered pumps back online, creating a steady water supply to the six troubled reactors and spent fuel storage ponds, keeping them cool.

Government officials said Wednesday that they were going to use police water cannons –- the type normally used on rioters – to spray water on the fuel storage pond at the Unit 4 reactor.

Earlier Wednesday, emergency crews working at the plant were ordered to temporarily stop efforts to cool the facility's overheating reactors amid a surge in radiation levels.

At a news conference, Japan's top government spokesperson Yukio Edano said the containment vessel of one of the reactors at the plant may have been damaged, possibly sending radioactive steam into the atmosphere.

"A part of the containment vessel is broken and it seems like the vapour is coming out from there. (It) appears to be that vapour is coming out from the broken part," Edano said, explaining that the ongoing effort to spray sea water onto the reactors was disrupted by the approximately hour-long withdrawal.

Radiation levels spiked to 1,000 millisieverts per hour before coming down to the 600-800 range later in the day Wednesday.

An official with the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power later said workers were preparing to return to their perilous work. Since 750 workers were evacuated from the plant on Tuesday, a core team of 50 workers had been rotating in and out of the facility to minimize their radiation exposure.

That number was boosted to 180 on Wednesday, the same day Japan's Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare announced it was raising the allowable radiation exposure limit for the country's nuclear workers. Describing the change as "unavoidable due to the circumstances," the ministry increased the limit from 100 millisieverts to 250.
http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/lo...b=MontrealHome

[Bigblue1]

sgregor there is more than a better chance Cali will take on some radiation. Is it gonna melt you all? No, but could it effect you and your families health over time? Yes. At least get some Iodine for your little girl whilst you still can...... Oh and by the by, this is gonna be way worst than chernobyl. Contrary to popular belief, It doesn't take an explosion to put isotopes in th air......

[Joe234]

I'm not too worried about the radiation reaching the US in substantial levels.

Just be prepared.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jap...tor-2011-03-16

March 16, 2011, 9:03 p.m. EDT
Japan helicopters spray water on damaged reactor


HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Japanese military helicopters were seen dropping water Thursday morning to cool the damaged No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility. The helicopters, belonging to the Self-Defense Forces, were conducting the operations as it was feared the reactor may have released radioactive steam due to damage to its containment vessel, according to a Kyodo news report. Each helicopter can drop about 7.5 tons of water, according to a report on NHK World news channel.

[Joe234]

China freezes nuclear plant approvals

Beijing (CNN) -- China has suspended approvals of nuclear plants so safety standards can be revised while Japan grapples with its nuclear crisis, Chinese state-run media reported Wednesday.

Safety standards will be revised in China following the explosions and fires at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant in the wake of a 9.0-magnitude quake and resulting tsunami, Xinhua reported.

The decision was made at a Chinese cabinet meeting Wednesday, the news agency reported.

The state council, or cabinet, "has required relevant departments to do safety checks at existing plants, according to a statement released after the meeting, which was presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao," the report said.

Reactors at China's six nuclear power plants already in operation are safe, the report said. But, "Before the revised safety standards are approved, all new nuclear power plants, including pre-construction works, should be suspended, according to the statement."

The country is not affected by radioactive leakage from the Japanese plant, the report said.


Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/as...uclear/?hpt=T2