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Author Topic: Fukushima - spent fuel building has bulge in wall!  (Read 1793 times)

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Offline Matthew

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Fukushima - spent fuel building has bulge in wall!
« on: May 27, 2012, 02:06:23 PM »
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  • Fukushima: Wall of Building Holding Spent Fuel Shows ‘Slight Bulge’

    May 27th, 2012
    Via: New York Times:
    What passes for normal at the Fukushima Daiichi plant today would have caused shudders among even the most sanguine of experts before an earthquake and tsunami set off the world’s second most serious nuclear crisis after Chernobyl.
    Fourteen months after the accident, a pool brimming with used fuel rods and filled with vast quantities of radioactive cesium still sits on the top floor of a heavily damaged reactor building, covered only with plastic.
    The public’s fears about the pool have grown in recent months as some scientists have warned that it has the most potential for setting off a new catastrophe, now that the three nuclear reactors that suffered meltdowns are in a more stable state, and as frequent quakes continue to rattle the region.
    The worries picked up new traction in recent days after the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, said it had found a slight bulge in one of the walls of the reactor building, stoking fears over the building’s safety.

    Some outside experts have also worked to allay fears, saying that the fuel in the pool is now so old that it cannot generate enough heat to start the kind of accident that would allow radioactive material to escape.
    But many Japanese scoff at those assurances and point out that even if the building is strong enough, which they question, the jury-rigged cooling system for the pool has already malfunctioned several times, including a 24-hour failure in April. Had the outages continued, they would have left the rods at risk of dangerous overheating. Government critics are especially concerned, since Tepco has said the soonest it could begin emptying the pool is late 2013, dashing hopes for earlier action.
    “The No. 4 reactor is visibly damaged and in a fragile state, down to the floor that holds the spent fuel pool,” said Hiroaki Koide, an assistant professor at Kyoto University’s Research Reactor Institute and one of the experts raising concerns. “Any radioactive release could be huge and go directly into the environment.”
    Related: Situation at Fukushima Has Potential to, “Destroy the World Environment and Our Civilization”
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    Offline Diego

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    Fukushima - spent fuel building has bulge in wall!
    « Reply #1 on: May 27, 2012, 07:01:52 PM »
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  • I am surprised how few people are paying attention to the fallout (pun intended) from Fukushima.  California produce, milk, cattle, seafood, and water are contaminated and the markets, Whole Foods and Sprouts included, are full of California food.


    Offline Diego

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    Fukushima - spent fuel building has bulge in wall!
    « Reply #2 on: May 27, 2012, 07:13:49 PM »
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  • Our Lady of Akita did warn us that the greater part of humanity would die in the chastisement, the good dying with the bad, and that the survivors would envy the dead.

    U.S. Army General: The Whole Northern Hemisphere is at Risk of Becoming Largely Uninhabitable

    http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/u-s-army-general-the-whole-northern-hemisphere-is-at-risk-of-becoming-largely-uninhabitable_05252012

    You may have entertained the idea of an improbable civilization ending events such as a ‘global killer’ asteroid, earth crust displacement or massive solar storms, but what if there existed a situation right now that was so serious that it literally threatened our very existence?

    According to a host of scientists, nuclear experts and researchers, were are facing exactly such a scenario – and current efforts may not be able to stop it.

    When the Fukushima nuclear plants sustained structural damage and a catastrophic failure of their spent fuel cooling systems in the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and Tsunami in 2011, it left the government of Japan, Tokyo Power and nuclear regulatory agencies around the world powerless to contain the release of deadly radiation. A year on, the battle for control of Fukushima continues to no avail.

    It’s estimated that tens of thousands of people in Japan and the whole of North America have been affected, with reports indicating that children in Japan and the U.S. are already being born with birth defects, as well as thousands who have already succuмbed to radiation related illness. As we initially followed the breaking news during the first thirty days of the accident, we suggested the Fukushima disaster would be worse than Chernobyl. Not even we could have imagined how much worse it would be.

    If current estimates are correct, Fukushima has already released as much radiation into the atmosphere and Pacific Ocean as Chernobyl, and the potential for a disaster at least ten times worse is highly probable in the event of another earthquake or accident that leads to a collapse of the cooling structures which are above ground and have already suffered significant damage.

    According to U.S. Army General Albert N. Stubblebine (ret.) of the Natural Solutions Foundation, the situation is extremely serious and poses a significant danger to our entire civilization. Since TEPCO and the Japanese government have refused the entombment option (as the Russians did with Chernobyl) the world is at the mercy of nature. A mistake here would cause the deaths of tens of millions of people across the globe.

    If there ever existed a threat that could cause the end of the world as we know it, it’s the ongoing and unresolved nuclear saga in Japan:

    Quote
    When the highly radioactive Spent Fuel Rods are exposed to air, there will be massive explosions releasing many times the amount or radiation released thus far. Bizarrely, they are stored three stories above ground in open concrete storage pools. Whether through evaporation of the water in the pools, or due to the inevitable further collapse of the structure, there is a severe risk. United States public health authorities agree that tens of thousands of North Americans have already died from the Fukushima calamity. When the final cataclysm occurs, sooner rather than later, the whole Northern Hemisphere is at risk of becoming largely uninhabitable.



    Fact. On March 11, 2011, Fukushima Daichi nuclear power station with six nuclear reactors suffered cataclysmic damage that some believe was a man made event,and the resulting Tsunami. Hydrogen explosions…at least one nuclear explosion… and then subsequent deterioration of the visible plants at five of those reactors have created a threat situation unparalleled in human history.

    Fact. Despite denial and cover-up, the reality has emerged, that enormous amounts of radioactive material has been spewing into the atmosphere, polluting the groundwater, and the food of Japan, and entering by the tens of millions of gallons the waters of the Pacific.



    There’s no way to sugarcoat these facts. Denying them, blocking them out, pretending that they are not real is of no help to you and your family, and it leaves you totally unprepared for a danger that the Natural Solutions Foundation has been warning about since the first day. As of three weeks ago the levels of radiation inside of the spent fuel pools of unit no. 2 are too high to measure. Get that… too high to measure. And, the water there is evaporating, meaning that heat and radiation could easily build to very high levels.



    Very simply put, if this much Cesium 137 is released, it will destroy the world environment and our civilization. This is not rocket science, nor does it connect to the pugulistic debate over nuclear power plants.

    This is an issue of human survival.


    We can play the denial game all day long and pretend that, because the mainstream media is not reporting on it, there is no threat, but the facts are quite clear.

    This is, without a doubt, the most immediate threat faced by the world. It’s so serious, in fact, that the Japanese government has considered and put into place evacuation plans for the whole of Tokyo – some 40 million people. Reports are also emerging that suggest a collapse of the spent fuel pools would be so serious that the entire country of Japan may have to be evacuated. The entire country – that’s 125 million refugees that will cause an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.

    Before you argue that these are the ravings of just alternative media conspiracy theorists and fearmongers, consider the assessment put forth by Robert Alvarez , a senior policy adviser to the Secretary for National Security and the Environment for the US Department of Energy:

    Quote
    The No. 4 pool is about 100 feet above ground, is structurally damaged and is exposed to the open elements. If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl accident.

    The infrastructure to safely remove this material was destroyed as it was at the other three reactors.  Spent reactor fuel cannot be simply lifted into the air by a crane as if it were routine cargo.  In order to prevent severe radiation exposures, fires and possible explosions, it must be transferred at all times in water and heavily shielded structures into dry casks.. As this has never been done before, the removal of the spent fuel from the pools at the damaged Fukushima-Dai-Ichi reactors will require a major and time-consuming re-construction effort and will be charting in unknown waters.



    The total spent reactor fuel inventory at the Fukushima-Daichi site contains nearly half of  the total amount of Cs-137 estimated by the NCRP to have been released by all atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, Chernobyl, and world-wide reprocessing plants (~270 million curies or ~9.9 E+18 Becquerel).

    It is important for the public to understand that reactors that have been operating for decades, such as those at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site, have generated some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet.


    Regulatory agencies all over the world are warning of the potentiality of a further degradation of the Fukushima nuclear reactors and spent fuel pools, and the subsequent nuclear fallout that would follow.

    If these reactors go – and they could at any moment for any number of reasons – we’re looking at a situation for which you simply cannot stock enough food, or water, or supplies. Radiation would spread across the entire northern hemisphere and would be impossible to contain.

    While we’ve argued in the past that there is no place we’d rather be than in the United States of America in the event of a socio-economic collapse or global conflict, if these spent fuel pools collapse, then an international exit strategy may be the only option.

    Because details are sparse and research limited, it is difficult to predict what nuclear fall out from Japan may look like. The following map may be of some help, as it details the estimated fallout pattern resulting from a nuclear war between Russia and the United States. You’ll note that, while most of the world would be irradiated, the southern hemisphere would be your best bet to avoid the brunt of it:



    (via Where Do I Go If Fukushima Blows?)

    Beachfront property in Antarctica sounds quite appealing right about now.

    Offline SeanJohnson

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    Fukushima - spent fuel building has bulge in wall!
    « Reply #3 on: May 30, 2012, 06:50:17 AM »
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  • Quote from: Diego
    I am surprised how few people are paying attention to the fallout (pun intended) from Fukushima.  California produce, milk, cattle, seafood, and water are contaminated and the markets, Whole Foods and Sprouts included, are full of California food.


       I just saw a story in the mainstream news yesterday that said Tuna caught by Japanese fishermen show a 10x increase in Cesium......but that amount is still safe to eat. :scratchchin:
    Rom 5: 20 - "But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more."

    Offline Diego

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    Fukushima - spent fuel building has bulge in wall!
    « Reply #4 on: May 30, 2012, 11:07:41 AM »
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  • http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE84R0MF20120528?irpc=932

    Compared to a typical Iodine-123 thyroid scan dose of 10 MBq (Megabequerel), the 5 Bq (Becquerel) tuna exposure is an extremely low dose, 1/2,000,000th of the scan dose, BUT there are important differences:

    (1) Iodine-123 is a low-energy (0.16 MeV) gamma emitter (essentially equivalent to an uncharged "X-ray") and the Cesium isotopes are primarily beta (electron) emitters, hence, having both charge and mass, the Cesium isotopes are much more mutagenic
    (2) Iodine-123 has a half-life of 13.2 hours and the Cesium isotopes of greatest concern are Cesium-134 (0.16 MeV; half life 2.0 years) and Cesium-137 (0.19 MeV; half life 30.2 years) Cesium-135 is a low energy (0.07 MeV) beta emitter present in smaller percentage, but has a half-life of 2.3 million years. Other cesium isotopes are of less biological significance.
    (3) Iodine-123 is not a bone seeking radionuclide, Cesium isotopes are bone seekers. Similarly Strontium-90, a high-energy (0.6 MeV) beta-emitter with a half life 28.8 years, is a bone seeker. Strontium-90 also decays to a very-high energy (2.3 MeV) though shorter half-life (64 hours) beta-emitter, Yttrium-90.

    The relatively slow metabolic turnover of bone means that, once incorporated into teeth and bones, these radionuclides essentially stay in place bombarding the same neighboring cells. Result? Higher rates of cancer, especially of bone cancers (and leukemias).

    Iodine-131 is also of concern because, unlike Iodine-123 which is a short half life gamma emitter, Iodine-131 has a longer 8 day half life and is both a a gamma (0.38 MeV) and beta-emitter (0.19 MeV).  All the iodine isotopes are sequestered very efficiently by the thyroid but it is the Iodine-131 that is responsible for the increase in thyroid cancers seen after Chernobyl.  This is why it is important to use high doses of potassium iodide after a radiation exposure to overwhelm, "saturate," the iodine uptake of the thyroid, diluting out the amount of I-131 sequestered by the thyroid and while the I-131 decays and is excreted by the body.