Japanese nuclear plant may only have a few hours....

[tangent4ronpaul]

http://www.voanews.com/english/news...eak-Now-Face-Hydrogen-Build-up-119311074.html

Crisis at Japan Nuclear Plant Shifts to New Blast Risk

Officials at TEPCO, which operates the Fukushima plant, said a dangerous hydrogen buildup is taking place at its number-one reactor. Japan's NHK television quoted officials saying hydrogen is accumulating inside the reactor's containment vessel - an indication that the reactor's core has been damaged.

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...-officials-say/2011/04/05/AFzoMflC_story.html

Japanese radioactive releases are no threat to American health, federal officials say

Americans have no reason to fear any health effects from the nuclear power plant accident in Japan, should take no protective measures and should avoid no foods, federal health officials said Tuesday.
...
The CDC director said the agency has heard that numerous poison control centers around the country have gotten calls from people who took potassium iodide, a pill that blocks the thyroid gland from absorbing radioactive iodine. He did not provide details about the calls but said: “I want to be unambiguous. There is no reason for anyone in the United States to take potassium iodide at the present time.”

[Now why do they always qualify this?]

There are no other medicines that protect against radiation exposure, [LIE!] and the public should be wary of substances advertised as able to do so, the experts said.
...
The agency has banned imports of Japanese leafy vegetables and some head vegetables (such as cauliflower) from Fukushima prefecture,

[umm shit for brains... Japan is a net importer of most of their food. They would not export something grown domestically here, but rather limited amounts of specialty items like tea. BANNED MY ASS! - "Hay look at me - I'm doing something to protect you!" (for a problem that does not exist...) ]

In other news, the NRC has banned the import of Kryptonite from planets outside our solar system...

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52659.html

Democrats slam NRC on nuclear safety

“Yet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission insists that our systems are safe, even before beginning, let alone completing, its review of our reactors and spent fuel pools.”

[You mean after Congress and Obama shut down the Yucca Mountain storage site project?]

Markey also complained that existing U.S. regulations don’t fully account for the risk of earthquakes

The same government regulators that OK'd building 20 (1/5th) of the nuke power plants in the US on top of fault lines?

"regulation is not a bad word"
- Rep Diana DeGette

Anyone else think that the governments uber-nannystate regulations were largely responsible for the BP spill? I mean with BP following a gvmt checklist and having to ask permission to wipe it's ass, from incompetent paper pushers - everything should be lollypops and rainbows - right?

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/03/201132911258214770.html

Many feel that the very continuance of Japan's culture and people are at risk, because in addition to the massive number of elderly who are vulnerable to the current conditions, Japan also has one of the world's lowest birth rates, a trend that has been going on for three decades.

If that sounds hyperbolic, consider this: For years, the Japanese government has offered its people incentives to have children. To put it bluntly, many feel that the population is slowly dying out.

According to the country's statistics bureau, more than a quarter of Japanese are 65 or older, while roughly 15 per cent are under the age of 15. By 2050, it is projected that nearly 40 per cent of the population will be seniors and just under nine per cent will be children.

The pressure on young women to have children is immense (in 2007 Hakuo Yanagisawa, the country's health minister, referred to women as "birth-giving machines") while it is common to hear those who choose to remain childless referred to as "parasites".

So, in this context, the possibility of a nuclear meltdown or contamination that might affect the lives of children or the fertility of adults has grave consequences.
...
"The government is telling us that we do not have enough children," says Kuniko Tomi, shopping at a market in Morioka in northern Japan. The mother of a toddler, she is worried about what to feed her daughter and if they are far away enough from the plant.

"They tell us not to be scared, but then they tell us not [to] give our children certain foods and drinks," she says, referring to the warnings on some produce and milk.

"But if something happens to all these children because of the contamination ... maybe Japan will not have a future."
...
Conflicting reports

Just as there are studies saying that even Chernobyl was not so bad, there is also no shortage of papers and articles showing the reverse - that Chernobyl's effects were dire and far-reaching.

the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organisation estimated that 9,000 would eventually die from being exposed to radiation and that 50 deaths were directly connected to the explosion.

Compare that to what the National Commission for Radiation Protection in Ukraine told The Guardian newspaper in 2006 - that in that country alone, "500,000 people - perhaps more - have already died out of the 2 million people who were officially classed as victims of Chernobyl".

The point here is that once contaminants such as Iodine 131 and Caesium 137 (I-131 and Cs-137) get into the air, water and soil, there is a certain element of the unknown in determining the damage - current and future - they do to the exposed population.

For example, in 2004, a group of Swedish scientists blamed 849 cancer cases in their country on radiation from Chernobyl. While their findings were questioned by the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority, there is no real way of calculating how many cancer deaths are linked to Chernobyl
...

 

[devil21]

-in response to a Kludge post-
The ability to create earthquakes has been around for a while (though I'm assuming that was a very sarcastic comment). Nikoli Tesla experimented with this in the early 1900s. As far as the cancer and drinking blood..I'm assuming that's a huge joke. The bigger joke is that you think they're trying to spread Christianity and "Democracy" when in reality they are attacking every religion (except maybe Jews?) and promoting a Fascism / Plutarchy agenda globally.

While your whole statement seems like a joke, the poor choice of words leads me to think that you actually believe some of it. That or you are the master of sarcasm

You must be new around here.

 

[HOLLYWOOD]

7.4 Earthquake hits near previous quake off the coast of Miyagi

Water injection cooling continues on Reactors 1, 2, & 3.

Onagawa Nuclear Power Plants... 2 of the 3 external power grids have lost power. No release of radiation from the Onagawa Plant. One remaining power grid is being used to cool (Run Turbines, etc).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onagawa_Nuclear_Power_Plant

http://www.quakereports.com/?p=212

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

The three units remain in cold shutdown since the earthquake of 11 March. Two hundred people who lost their homes to the tsunami took refuge in the plant

Hell of a place to take shelter - esp if it looses cooling

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

http://abcnews.go.com/International...unami-warning-nuclear-plant/story?id=13318962

7.1 Magnitude Quake Shuts Down 2 Japanese Nuclear Plants

Two power plants are reportedly off line following the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck coastal Miyagi Prefecture at 11:32 p.m. local time Thursday. The quake is the largest aftershock since the 9.0 quake struck the Northeast city of Sendai on March 11.

...

Two plants in Oginawa and in Aomori Prefecture were knocked out in the latest tremor, but authorities said there was no threat of a radiation leak similar to that at the Fukushima plant.

The nuclear power plant in the fishing town Oginawa went offline following the aftershock. The plant served as a surprising ad hoc shelter in the wake of the March 11 quake but, authorities said, the reactor was intact.

The plant in Aomori is currently being cooled by an backup diesel generator, powering pumps to keep fuel rods there cool. All the rods are reportedly still fully submerged in a cooling pool.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company said there were "no anomalies detected" at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant, still on the verge of meltdown following March's historic 9.0 quake. All the workers at the Fukushima nuclear complex were evacuated today.

No elevated radiation levels were detected at the plant.

...


Some of these other plants seem to be in a bit more fragile of a state than thought. Might want to look into them some more.

 

[devil21]

Thought it couldn't get any worse?

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/water-leak-found-onagawa-nuclear-power-plant

Just out from Reuters:

•WATER LEAK FOUND AFTER LATEST QUAKE AT JAPAN'S ONAGAWA NUCLEAR PLANT BUT NO CHANGE IN RADIATION LEVELS-NHK
•WATER LEAKS AT ONAGAWA NPP FROM REACTOR 1,2 SPENT FUEL POOLS
Onagawa is the plant which as we disclosed earlier experienced an almost critical power failure following today's new earthquake off the Sendai coast. One wonders just how much "undisclosed" news will start leaking. Surely just as the shut down of America is sending futures surging, this news should levitate the Nikkei by a few percent.

A water leak found at a different nuclear plant caused by today's 7+ earthquake.



All this destruction and the stock market here doesn't so much as flinch. Jeez.

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42103936/ns/world_news-asia-pacific/

Really good article - worth the click!

What are the odds? US nuke plants ranked by quake risk

It turns out that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has calculated the odds of an earthquake causing catastrophic failure to a nuclear plant here. Each year, at the typical nuclear reactor in the U.S., there's a 1 in 74,176 chance of an earthquake strong enough to cause damage to the reactor's core, which could expose the public to radiation. No tsunami required. That's 10 times more likely than you winning $10,000 by buying a single ticket in the Powerball multistate lottery, where the chance is 1 in 723,145.

Based on 2008 data, a map of earthquake damage risk in the United States. The highest risk areas are purple, red and orange.

The top 10
Here are the 10 nuclear power sites with the highest risk of an earthquake causing core damage, showing their NRC risk estimates based on 2008 and 1989 geological data.

1. Indian Point 3, Buchanan, N.Y.: 1 in 10,000 chance each year. Old estimate: 1 in 17,241. Increase in risk: 72 percent.

2. Pilgrim 1, Plymouth, Mass.: 1 in 14,493. Old estimate: 1 in 125,000. Increase in risk: 763 percent.

3. Limerick 1 and 2, Limerick, Pa.: 1 in 18,868. Old estimate: 1 in 45,455. Increase in risk: 141 percent.

4. Sequoyah 1 and 2, Soddy-Daisy, Tenn.: 1 in 19,608. Old estimate: 1 in 102,041. Increase in risk: 420 percent.

5. Beaver Valley 1, Shippingport, Pa.: 1 in 20,833. Old estimate: 1 in 76,923. Increase in risk: 269 percent.

6. Saint Lucie 1 and 2, Jensen Beach, Fla.: 1 in 21,739. Old estimate: N/A.

7. North Anna 1 and 2, Louisa, Va.: 1 in 22,727. Old estimate: 1 in 31,250. Increase in risk: 38 percent.

8. Oconee 1, 2 and 3, Seneca, S.C.: 1 in 23,256. Old estimate: 1 in 100,000. Increase in risk: 330 percent.

9. Diablo Canyon 1 and 2, Avila Beach, Calif.: 1 in 23,810. Old estimate: N/A.

10. Three Mile Island, Middletown, Pa.: 1 in 25,000. Old estimate: 1 in 45,455. Increase in risk: 82 percent.

(This short list of the top 10 sites, or plants, groups together reactors at the same site if they have the same risk rating, such as Sequoyah 1 and 2. The full list of 104 separate reactors is below at the bottom of the text.)

====

Some things to ponder... This list is about the odds of a reactor breach caused by an earthquake that breaches the reactor containment core. The damage to the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was entirely, or almost entirely due to the tsunami.

Those odds are per year, so if it's 1:10,000 you have a 1:1,000 chance in 100 years.

It does not address possible damage and radiation release to spent fuel ponds which are much more vulnerable.

Sweet dreams!

ps: Got KI?

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/poll-few-confident-us-902928.html

Poll: Few confident US ready for nuclear emergency

WASHINGTON — Most Americans doubt the U.S. government is prepared to respond to a nuclear emergency like the one in Japan, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows. But it also shows few Americans believe such an emergency would occur.

Nevertheless, the disaster has turned more Americans against new nuclear power plants. The poll found that 60 percent of Americans oppose building more nuclear power plants. That's up from 48 percent who opposed it in an AP-Stanford University Poll in November 2009.

[...]

The poll finds that about a fourth of those surveyed were highly confident that the U.S. government is prepared to handle a nuclear emergency, while almost three-fourths were only somewhat or not confident.

But many people doubt such an emergency will happen in this country.

About three in 10 think such an emergency is extremely or very likely, compared with seven in 10 who think it is only somewhat or not likely. Among people who think a disaster is highly likely, almost eight in 10 lack confidence the government would be ready.

Even among those think it's not too likely or not at all likely to happen, almost two-thirds still lacked confidence the government would be ready.

[...]

====

So how confident should we be about our governments ability to handle a nuclear disaster? Well, we know their stocks of KI are whoa-fully inadequate, and much of it is approaching it's expiration date - meaning it will be illegal to dispense, even though it's perfectly good after that date. Gotta protect Pharma profits, ya know!

What about FEMA? You know, the disaster response people. The dirty little secret is that only 10% of FEMA does that. The rest does COG (Continuity of Government). You know, bunkers for big-wigs. As to the disaster part, they are good at getting supplies to a disaster area, but train their people to take charge and "manage" things. Like during Katrina - they became the problem. They also relocate people, provide porta potties and MRE's. They aren't so good at actual survival skills in a disaster. I called a FEMA librarian looking for some old or more current civil defence literature. Apparently they didn't keep any of it when they took over that program, but sent me a wild goose chase transferring me from bunker to bunker looking for it. Not to be too down on them, they do or at least did teach at least one practical skill. They run a sniper school.

DHS: really useless. They are still distributing survival information advising 3 days worth of supplies, a first aid kit and advocating "duck and cover" (something that will get you killed if the roof falls down on top of you)

Department of Energy: did really useful and practical research in this area during the 60's and 70's. They don't have publications other than research reports online if you can find them. Most of it was done at ORNL. The book Nuclear War Survival Skills which is a free download or can be cought hardcopy is based on some of this research.

Military: is up on this, but not for the public.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Distribute KI and evacuate to a relocation center. That's about it from them.

Congress also passed a law that would draft emergency medical personel in case of such a disaster. They are expected to go into a disaster area, but there is not protective equipment available for most of them. They are not really trained that much in these areas and not at all in disaster medicine, nor are they supplied for it. The focus disposable everything, one time use, minimal stock at hand and not trained at all in patient care after an hour. Basically stabilize and transport.

Then there are DMAT teams and urban search and rescue teams, but these are too few and far apart. They are also more civilian than government.

Perhaps after this, interest in educating the public in these areas will pick up, but it will probably be given to DHS, so anything coming from them will be about as practically useful as a copy of the anarchist cookbook.

-t

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110407006089.htm

TEPCO is considering installing additional cooling systems as part of a new plan to stabilize the reactors damaged by the March 11 disaster.

According to estimates released by the utility Wednesday, 70 percent of fuel rods at the No. 1 reactor have been damaged. At the Nos. 2 and 3 reactors, 25 percent to 30 percent of fuel rods have been damaged, the utility said.

The company based the damage assessment on levels of radioactive xenon and krypton detected in gas near the reactors' containment vessels.

...

On March 14, radiation levels at the containment vessel of the No. 3 reactor, where a large portion of the fuel rods was believed to have been exposed, were measured at 167 sieverts per hour. This figure is roughly equivalent to radiation levels 400 meters from ground zero after the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

...

Radiation levels at the No. 1 reactor peaked at 162 sieverts per hour on March 14, and the No. 2 reactor saw radiation levels peak at 138 sieverts per hour on March 15.

Those highs were measured after those reactors lost significant volumes of cooling water around their fuel rods, leaving large parts of them exposed to the air. This has also happened at the No. 3 reactor.

Injection of water has caused radiation levels at all the three reactors to fall. Current levels are between 20 and 31 sieverts, or just 11 percent to 22 percent of their peaks.

However, the current radiation levels are still far from safe. Two workers were killed in a 1999 nuclear accident in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, after being exposed radiation levels of between six and 18 sieverts.

...

 

[MozoVote]

Whoa. That is not a misprint, I assume? Over 100 Sievert per hour? Hopefully those spikes were short duration.

Basically 1 Sievert an hour is: "You better run, every minute you stay, is shortening your life".

 

[armstrong]

bump for interest

 

[ronpaulhawaii]

These guys drove into the evac zone with a dosimeter and walked to within 1.5km of the plant...

 

[Fox McCloud]

It's not 100 Sv an hour, it's 100 µSv an hour.

For reference, that's 0.0001 Sv per hour, or, if you prefer, 0.1 mSV per hour.

50 mSv is the USA NRC occupational limit.

Radiation sickness typically begins at 0.5-1 Sv (500-1000 mSv).

No idea what Chernobyl was, as a distance, but the highest dose the Chernobyl workers were exposed to was 200 sv per hour.

The highest found at this Japanese nuclear reactor was 1 Sv per hour (workers were not necessarily exposed to these levels).

So, while this still isn't something good, by any measure, comparing it to Chernobyl, at this point, seems to be a huge exaggeration; namely on the order of 20,000%.

 

[MozoVote]

Egads. Driving over that earthquake damaged bridge at the 4:25 mark looked like an invitation to a "Darwin award". It did not look like there is much help available in the exclusion zone!

 

[Carson]

These guys drove into the evac zone with a dosimeter and walked to within 1.5km of the plant...

Wow. That was a trip...

and a long twelve minutes for me. It must have been much longer for them AND the real deal.

Everything they came across still looked pretty healthy.

I wonder what they were able to extrapolate from the readings?

 

[Carson]

Egads. Driving over that earthquake damaged bridge at the 4:25 mark looked like an invitation to a "Darwin award". It did not look like there is much help available in the exclusion zone!

That looked bad and so did the hungry pit bull. I wouldn't want to mix one of them with any protective clothing your life depended on. Also my other favorite parts.

 

[tangent4ronpaul]

It's not 100 Sv an hour, it's 100 µSv an hour.

For reference, that's 0.0001 Sv per hour, or, if you prefer, 0.1 mSV per hour.

0.1mSV per hour is slightly less than double the USA NRC occupational limit.

Radiation sickness typically begins at 0.5-1 Sv.

No idea what Chernobyl was, as a distance, but the highest dose the Chernobyl workers were exposed to was 20 sv per hour.

The highest found at this Japanese nuclear reactor was 1 Sv per hour (workers were not necessarily exposed to these levels).

So, while this still isn't something good, by any measure, comparing it to Chernobyl, at this point, seems to be a huge exaggeration; namely on the order of 2000%.

Can you back up your claim with a ref or two?
For now, I'm going with the article you are rebutting.