Radiation "10 Million Times Normal" Or was it?

March 27th, 2011 6:41AM CST

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It is hard to know what to believe. TEPCO's history of dishonesty and increasingly contradictory releases of information do not help us parse the situation.


UPDATE 8:34AM CST from AP via Yahoo:
 
"Emergency workers struggling to pump contaminated water from Japan's stricken nuclear complex fled from one of the troubled reactors Sunday after reporting a huge increase in radioactivity — a spike that officials later apologetically said was inaccurate.
 
The apology came after employees fled the complex's Unit 2 reactor when a reading showed radiation levels had reached 10 million times higher than normal in the reactor's cooling system. Officials said they were so high that the worker taking the measurements had withdrawn before taking a second reading.
 
On Sunday night, though, plant operators said that while the water was contaminated with radiation, the extremely high reading was a mistake.
 
"The number is not credible," said Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Takashi Kurita. "We are very sorry."
 
He said officials were taking another sample to get accurate levels, but did not know when the results would be announced."
ORIGINAL POST - As most experts and advocates for "the peaceful atom" continue to assure us that there is no substatntial threat beyond Fukushima, this is being reported by Channel 4:

"Radiation in the water of the Number 2 reactor was measured at more than 1,000 millisieverts an hour, the highest reading since the massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan on March 11.
 
Officials said there was 10 million times the amount of radioactive iodine than is normal in the reactor at Fukushima, but noted the substance had a half-life of less than an hour, meaning it would disappear within a day.
 
The latest radiation scare is confined to inside the reactor. Radiation levels in the air beyond the evacuation zone and in Tokyo have been in normal ranges.
 
The Japanese government said that, overall, the situation was unchanged at the plant which lies 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, even if there were hitches from time to time.
 
"We did expect to run into unforeseen difficulties, and this accumulation of high radioactivity water is one such example," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news briefing.
 
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has warned the nuclear emergency could go on for weeks, if not months."

TOKYO (AP) reports: "There's been a huge jump in radioactivity in water at one unit of Japan's tsunami-crippled nuclear plant. The water has radiation levels 10 million times the norm and the air in the same unit is hot too -- four times the safety limit. It's a major setback to efforts to control and cool the leaking complex."

Radiation Near Reactor #3

Mar 14th, 2011 10:35pm CST

3rd Blast Confirmed, part 4

Mar 14th 2011 8:34pm CST
RED EMPHASES ARE OURS

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It should be assumed at this point that the Japanese energy corporation responsible for the Fukushima Dai-Ichi complex, TEPCO, is just plain covering their asses. The only recent official release at their site as of this posting doesn't reference reactor #2 in any meaningful way. Check out their public pronouncements HERE.

Linked via CRIEnglish:
"Hourly radiation was measured at 8, 217 micro sievert at the front door of Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said Tuesday.

 

A TEPCO official told a televised press conference that the figure was three times higher than the amount of radiation a person receives in his natural state within a year.

The rise in radiation was detected after an explosion was heard at the No. 2 reactor of Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant at 6:10 a.m. Tuesday (2110 GMT Monday).

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the suppression pool of the reactor might have been damaged at No. 2 reactor.

A rise in radiation was monitored near the nuclear plant shortly after the blast, said the agency. The radiation fell to 882 micro sievert after briefly rising as high as 965.5 micro sievert, topping the legal limit of 500.

But the agency said that the radiation will not immediately affect people's health at the levels of above figures."

3rd Blast Confirmed, part 3

Mar 14th, 2011 7:56pm CST
RED EMPHASES ARE OURS

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Okay. It does sound bad. But we are having a very hard time getting confirmations.

From Today Online:

"Tokyo Electric said late yesterday that a malfunctioning valve made it impossible to inject seawater into the reactor. The water levels inside its containment vessel fell and left its fuel rods exposed - perhaps completely exposed - for some hours. 

In reactor No 2, which is now the most damaged of the three at the Daiichi plant, at least parts of the fuel rods have been exposed for several hours, which also suggests that some of the fuel has begun to melt. Government and company officials said fuel melting has almost certainly occurred in that reactor, which can increase releases of radioactive material through the water and steam that escapes from the container vessel.

In a worst case scenario, the fuel pellets could also burn through the bottom of the containment vessel and radioactive material could pour out that way - often referred to as a full meltdown. 

"There is a possibility that the fuel rods are heating up and starting to melt," said a Tokyo Electric spokesman late last night, in a news conference televised on public broadcaster NHK. "It is our understanding that we have possible damage to the fuel rods."

The extreme challenge of managing reactor No 2 came as officials were still struggling to keep the cores of two other reactors, No 1 and No 3, covered with seawater. There was no immediate indication that either of those two reactors had experienced a crisis as serious as that at No 2.

By last night, officials said that radiation readings around the plant reached 3,130 micro Sievert - the highest yet detected at the Daiichi facility since the quake and six times the legal limit.

A Tokyo Electric official had then described the situation as improving. "We do not feel that a critical event is imminent," he told a press conference.

Industry executives in America who were in touch with their counterparts in Japan last night grew increasingly alarmed about the risks posed by the No 2 reactor. 

"They're basically in a full-scale panic" among Japanese power industry managers, said a senior nuclear industry executive. "They're in total disarray, they don't know what to do."

3rd Blast Confirmed, Cont...

Mar 14th, 2011 7:45pm CST
RED EMPHASES ARE OURS

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The London Telegraph is reporting this more frightening detail:

"The government also reported apparent damage to part of the container shielding the same reactor at Fukushima 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo, although it was unclear whether this resulted from the blast. 

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters the suppression pool of the number-two nuclear reactor appeared to have been damaged.

This is the bottom part of the container, which holds water used to cool it down and control air pressure inside."

3rd Blast Confirmed

Mar 14th, 2011 7:38pm CST
RED EMPHASES ARE OURS

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As we were beginning to fear earlier, the attempts to fully stabilize reactor #2 at Fukushima Dai-Ichi have been unsuccessful.

From The Age:

 "A third explosion in four days has rocked the earthquake-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan. The blast on Tuesday at Dai-ichi Unit 2 follows two hydrogen explosions at the plant - at Unit 1 and Unit 3 - as authorities struggle to prevent the catastrophic release of radiation in the area devastated by a tsunami.Water levels have dropped precipitously inside Unit 2, twice leaving the uranium fuel rods completely exposed and raising the threat of a meltdown, hours after a hydrogen explosion tore through the building housing Unit 3.

The latest explosion was heard at 6.10am on Tuesday (8.10am AEDT), a spokesman for the Nuclear Safety Agency said at a news conference.

The plant's owner, Tokyo Electric Power, said the explosion occurred near the suppression pool in the reactor's containment vessel. The pool was later found to have a defect.

International scientists have said there are serious dangers but not at the level of the 1986 blast in Chernobyl."

First Coast via USA Today reports:

"At a news conference Monday afternoon, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, John Roos, said U.S. experts are working closely with Japan and that staff from the Department of Energy and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission are consulting with the nation. The staff includes experts in boiling-water nuclear plants, the type used at Fukushima.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said there is no danger of radiation drifting as far as the West Coast of the United States.Four nuclear plants in northeastern Japan have reported damage. Operators lost the ability to cool the three reactors at Dai-ichi and three more at another nearby complex using usual procedures, after the quake knocked out power and the tsunami swamped backup generators."

BREAKING - Reactor #2 Fuel Rods "Fully Exposed"

March 14th, 2011 6:18am CST
UPDATE 3/14/11 7:10am CST Please CLICK HERE to find information to donate to Japanese relief efforts.

UPDATE: 8:03am CST 
From Wexford:
 "The fuel rods in one of Japan's damaged nuclear reactors have been temporarily fully exposed from their coolant, raising the risk of overheating and a meltdown.

A spokesman at the Fukushima plant said that Unit 2's rods were briefly exposed.

Sea water has been channelled into the reactor to cover the rods again.

Unit 2 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant is the latest reactor to lose its ability to cool down. The other two reactors at the plant are facing a meltdown and authorities are racing to cool them with sea water."

JUST IN from Reuters:
"Nuclear fuel rods at a quake-stricken Japanese nuclear reactor are now fully exposed, Jiji news agency said, quoting the plant's operator, Tokyo Eletcric Power Co. 

The report referred to the Fukushima Daiichi complex's No.2 reactor, where levels of water coolant around the reactor core had been reported as falling earlier in the day. 

The Jiji report said a meltdown of the fuel rods could not be ruled out. A meltdown raises the risk of damage to the reactor vessel and a possible radioactive leak, experts say."