Have They "Lost The Race" At Fukushima?

March 29th, 2011 BREAKING 11:58am CST
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The situation is increasingly disturbing at Fukushima. It seems likely that the entire Fukushima Dai-Ichi complex is a write off. From the reports of the last 30 minutes, it appears that the real question now is how bad the larger release of radioactivity is going to be when it eventually occurs.

From The Guardian:
 
"The radioactive core in a reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant appears to have melted through the bottom of its containment vessel and on to a concrete floor, experts say, raising fears of a major release of radiation at the site.

 
The warning follows an analysis by a leading US expert of radiation levels at the plant. Readings from reactor two at the site have been made public by the Japanese authorities and Tepco, the utility that operates it.
 
Richard Lahey, who was head of safety research for boiling-water reactors at General Electric when the company installed the units at Fukushima, told the Guardian workers at the site appeared to have "lost the race" to save the reactor, but said there was no danger of a Chernobyl-style catastrophe.
 
Workers have been pumping water into three reactors at the stricken plant in a desperate bid to keep the fuel rods from melting down, but the fuel is at least partially exposed in all the reactors.
 
At least part of the molten core, which includes melted fuel rods and zirconium alloy cladding, seemed to have sunk through the steel "lower head" of the pressure vessel around reactor two, Lahey said.
 
"The indications we have, from the reactor to radiation readings and the materials they are seeing, suggest that the core has melted through the bottom of the pressure vessel in unit two, and at least some of it is down on the floor of the drywell," Lahey said. "I hope I am wrong, but that is certainly what the evidence is pointing towards."
 
The major concern when molten fuel breaches a containment vessel is that it reacts with the concrete floor of the drywell underneath, releasing radioactive gases into the surrounding area. At Fukushima, the drywell has been flooded with seawater, which will cool any molten fuel that escapes from the reactor and reduce the amount of radioactive gas released.
 
Lahey said: "It won't come out as one big glob; it'll come out like lava, and that is good because it's easier to cool."
 
The drywell is surrounded by a secondary steel-and-concrete structure designed to keep radioactive material from escaping into the environment. But an earlier hydrogen explosion at the reactor may have damaged this.
 
"The reason we are concerned is that they are detecting water outside the containment area that is highly radioactive and it can only have come from the reactor core," Lahey added. "It's not going to be anything like Chernobyl, where it went up with a big fire and steam explosion, but it's not going to be good news for the environment."
 
The radiation level at a pool of water in the turbine room of reactor two was measured recently at 1,000 millisieverts per hour. At that level, workers could remain in the area for just 15 minutes, under current exposure guidelines."

Michio Kaku On Yesterday's Confusion

March 28th, 2011 12:39pm CST
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Michio Kaku, writing for Big Think, dissects yesterday's confusion at the Fukushima complex which we reported HERE and HERE.

"First, workers at Unit 2 were astonished to find that radiation levels in the water were extremely high. This prompted them to evacuate the site immediately. Second, they rushed out so fast that they did not do a second measurement of the water. Third, the first readings were slightly incorrect. The workers got iodine-134 (with a half-life of 53 minutes) confused with iodine-131 (with a half-life of 8 days). Also, cesium-137 was also found in the water (with a half - life of about 30 years). Fourth, by confusing the two, they also go the wrong level of radioactivity. They found more iodine-134 that was actually present in the water. The shorter the half-life, the more radioactive an isotope is - the longer the half-life, the less the radioactivity. So their calibration of iodine-134 was incorrect, yielding thefalse number of 10 million. Fifth, the utility did not send in another crew to check the measurements, so they got their calibration wrong, but they went public with this incorrect number."

The money quote from his piece comes next:

"The main point, however, from the workers perspective, is that radiation levels are 1,000 milliseverts/hour. That does not change at all with this new calibration. This means that workers will come down with radiation sickness with only 15 min. of exposure. Some workers will die after 6 hours of exposure."

Fukushima Radiation In The States

March 28th, 2011 11:55am CST
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Remember, there is absolutely, positively no reason whatsoever to worry at all. Not even a teensy weensy bit. After all, most experts and a wide variety of cartoons agree.



From Reuters:

"Low levels of radioactive iodine believed to be from Japan's disaster-stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant have been detected in the atmosphere in South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida, officials said on Monday.
 
"There is no current threat to public safety," said Progress Energy spokesman Drew Elliot.
 
Monitors at Progress Energy's nuclear plants in Hartsville, South Carolina, and Crystal River, Florida, picked up low levels of radioactive iodine-131. So did Duke Energy's monitors at its two nuclear facilities in South Carolina and the plant in Huntersville, North Carolina.
 
"If there were radiation coming from one our own sites, we would be seeing other types of radiation than iodine-131," Elliot said. "Other nuclear stations throughout the East Coast all started picking this up within the last week. It all points to something coming from overseas.
 
"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency both say it poses no threat to public safety," he said.
 
Trace amounts of radioactive iodine have also turned up in rainwater samples in Massachusetts, California, Pennsylvania and Washington state."

New Video Of The Damaged Reactors

March 28th, 2011 11:25AM CST
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This just in from CNN:

"Three types of plutonium have turned up amid the radioactive contamination on the grounds of the earthquake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, its owner reported Monday.
 
The plutonium is a byproduct of nuclear reactions that is also part of the fuel mix at the damaged No. 3 reactor.
 
It was found in soil at five different points inside the plant grounds, the Tokyo Electric Power Company said late Monday."

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."

"Nuclear Boy" - Explaining Fukushima To Children With "poop"

March 23rd, 2011
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This is going viral. Frankly, I don't have the words. Watch for yourselves.

The Fukushima Crisis Continues...

March 23rd, 2011 5:05am CST BREAKING
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The Fukushima Dai-Ichi facility has evacuated again as plumes of black smoke are pouring from the building that houses troubled reactor #3 itself. Radiation has reached Iceland and is expected in France soon. Japanese food products have been banned from export to the U.S. Fear continues to dominate the world’s reaction in spite of expert pronouncements that it's not the level of disaster it could have been.

Image © copyright 2011 WSJ - SOURCE

The number of dead and missing in Japan has now exceeded 24,000

Fukushima Continues...

March 21st, 2011 10:40am CST
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The catastrophe at Fukushima continues. From CNN:
"Gray smoke spewed Monday out of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's No. 3 reactor, a setback that came despite fervent efforts to prevent the further release of radioactive materials at the stricken facility. Those who had been working nearby were evacuated to safety shortly after the smoke was spotted around 4 p.m. Monday , a Tokyo Electric Power Company official told reporters. This is the same reactor that has been authorities' top priority -- and concern -- in recent days. Hidehiko Nishiyama, an official with Japan's nuclear and industrial safety, said measurements taken soon after the smoke was spotted did not indicate any spike in radiation. He said that there was no evident explosion, and no one was reported injured."

The Nuclear Question

March 21st, 2011
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By F. Grey Parker
I have received hundreds of e-mails over the last several days from readers wondering "where" I had gone and, more pointedly, why I had "stopped covering" the events at TEPCO's Fukishima Dai-Ichi and Dai-Ni facilities. I have been right here.

Let me start by saying this: I believe the concepts of nuclear power make perfect sense. Surprised? Don't be. We're dealing with provable physics. It's not subject to whim or ideology. Science does what it does.

Science is verifiable, it is repeatable and it is consistently obedient to elemental laws. What I don't believe in is man. The limits of each cannot achieve parity. Bottom line.

I oppose nuclear energy as an option more fervently now than ever before. My long-time, two-fold argument against it not only remains unchanged but has been utterly affirmed by the events in Japan. The question of workable spent fuel storage and the limits of human discipline render the pursuit of this thing we can do extremely unwise. The profit motive as we tend to demonstrate it also renders our species nearly unworthy of the knowledge itself.

The atom doesn't lie. Industrialists seeking the shortest path to the largest treasure do.

Akio Komori Director of TEPCO in Japan

TEPCO did. For decades, they institutionalized a predictable culture of venal greed that mars most huge industrial energy initiatives. Reports were altered. Corners were cut. Decisions were made to enhance profit over sustainability.

At times, immediate safety was secondary to the steady flow of favorable quips about "growth" by the CEO. These are the obvious risks when unbridled greed is improperly regulated in capital driven systems. We have dealt with this flaw in our nature in arguably every endeavor where a few sought to enhance their wealth by enticing the many.

Sometimes, though, the stakes really are just too high.

Meet "the spent fuel rod":



There is no question that the energy demands of world society are at the breaking point. But know this. The disaster of failing to meet the future has already happened. What I have described before in this space as "Hoover Dam Thinking" is no longer possible as the global economy is presently defined.

There's no easy money in it.

San Onofre Nuclear Plant, West Coast U.S.A

More to come...

Sleep tight...

Updated: Is Anyone There?

March 15th, 2011 10:00pm CST
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UPDATED 3/16/11 12:47am CST From The Guardian

"The government's chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, said Japan was considering seeking help from the US military.

All six of the plants reactors are experiencing problems following last Friday's earthquake and tsunami, in which an estimated 10,000 people have died.

The workers were ordered to leave the facility after the level of radiation at the plant soared to 10 millisievert per hour - above the level considered harmful to human health – possibly as a result of radioactive substances being emitted from the No. 2 reactor. The reading later fell to around 6 millisievert per hour, reports said."

UPDATED 3/16/11 12:11am CST From The Australian:

"All the workers there have suspended their operations. We have urged them to evacuate, and they have,'' according to a translation by NHK television."

 

"Mr Edano also said a reactor containment vessel may have suffered damage, with steam appearing to be coming from reactor no.3.

He told the briefing that the likeliest explanation for a white cloud seen above the plant was that steam came from part of the containment vessel."

UPDATED 11:41pm CST

UPDATED 11:33pm CST: From WaPo: "Radiation readings from troubles throughout the plant spiked so high that the remaining skeleton crew of workers was at least temporarily ordered to abandon their posts, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said at a press conference Wednesday.

The draw-down 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,” said nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen".

UPDATED 10:34pm CST: (this post was originally headlined "No One Is There) It is unclear whether all containment workers, the "Fukushima 50" have actually been fully evacuated or are somewhere in the complex. Our source tells us they may still be onsite but that the efforts to battle the situation are on hold.

There is no one at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Complex at this time. Following a second round of fires at reactor number 4, radiation surged to severe levels.

From AP:
 "Japan suspended operations to prevent a stricken nuclear plant from melting down Wednesday after a surge in radiation made it too dangerous for workers to remain at the facility.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said work on dousing reactors with water was disrupted by the need to withdraw.

Earlier officials said 70 percent of fuel rods at one of the six reactors at the plant were significantly damaged in the aftermath of Friday's calamitous earthquake and tsunami.

News reports said 33 percent of fuel rods were also damaged at another reactor. Officials said they would use helicopters and fire trucks to spray water in a desperate effort to prevent further radiation leaks and to cool down the reactors."

Scientists are now discussing this in terms of it's plausible worst case scenario. 

From Reuters:

"Several experts said that Japanese authorities were underplaying the severity of the incident, particular on a scale called INES used to rank nuclear incidents. The Japanese have so far rated the accident a four on a one-to-seven scale, but that rating was issued on Saturday and since then the situation has worsened dramatically.

"This is a slow-moving nightmare," said Dr Thomas Neff, a research affiliate at the Center for International Studies, which is part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "This could be a five or a six -- it's premature to say since this event is not over yet."

France's nuclear safety authority ASN said Tuesday it should be classed as a level-six incident."

From Kyodo News:

 

"The situation at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in northeastern Japan ''has worsened considerably,'' the Institute for Science and International Security said in a statement released Tuesday.

 

Referring to fresh explosions that occurred earlier in the day at the site and problems in a pool storing spent nuclear fuel rods, the Washington-based think tank said, ''This accident can no longer be viewed as a level 4 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Events scale that ranks events from 1 to 7.''

Noting that a level 4 incident involves ''only local radiological consequences,'' it said the ongoing crisis is ''now closer to a level 6, and it may unfortunately reach a level 7'' -- a worst case scenario with extensive health and environmental consequences."

All we can do is watch and wait.

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."

Is Containment Holding?

Mar 14th, 2011 2:32pm CST

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While many experts continue to reassure us that the critical core containment structures involved in the Fukushima Dai-Ichi complex are not breached, the latest pronouncements from NISA don't make me feel any better. From The Guardian:

"On Monday evening, Ryohei Shiomi, an official at Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (Nisa), said reactors 1 and 3 appeared stable for the time being, but that reactor two, where fuel rods were most exposed, was still a concern. "Unit 2 now requires all our effort and attention," he said.

 

The day began with an orange flash and a violent blast that destroyed most of the containment building around reactor 3, with debris falling back inside and onto the structure housing the reactor. The blast was caused by a buildup of hydrogen that was produced when superheated steam in the core reacted with the zirconium alloy cladding that surrounds the reactor's fuel rods.

 

Tepco said 11 people were injured in the accident, one seriously. A similar explosion blew the top off the reactor 1 building on Saturday morning.

 

Despite earlier assurances from Tepco that the steel containment vessels surrounding the reactors were undamaged in both explosions, Naoki Kumagai, a Nisa official, said "It's impossible to say whether there has or has not been damage."

"Hail Mary Pass"

Mar 14th 2011 10:42am CST
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From The NY Times:

"Experts called the injection of seawater and neutron-absorbing boron into the site's three crippled reactors units a desperation move never attempted before in the industry. 


It amounted to sacrificing the reactors in an attempt to maintain the structural integrity of the reactor and its encasing concrete containment structure and prevent a potential uncontrolled major radiological release. Three other Fukushima Daiichi reactors had been shut down for planned work before Friday's 8.9 earthquake and were not part of the crisis.

"I would describe this measure as a Hail Mary Pass but if they succeed, there is plenty of water in the ocean and if they have the capability to pump this water in the necessary volume and at the necessary rates ... then they can stabilize the reactor," said former Energy Department official Robert Alvarez, according to press accounts of his press conference Saturday."

Reactor 3 - Latest Video

Mar 14th, 2011
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This is very frightening stuff. But bear in mind that a lot of very bright people are arguing against fear and that the IAEA is doing everything that they can.

Fuel Rods May Have Partially Melted In 3 Reactors

Mar 14th, 2011 9:58am CST
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From Bloomberg:

"Fuel rods at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant may have melted when water levels fell, Japan’s top government spokesman said.

 

Rods in the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 reactors may have melted, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said to reporters in a briefing today. Molten rods would increase the risk of a meltdown.

 

Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the nuclear power plant, stopped pumping seawater into its Nos. 1 and 3 reactors earlier today because it needed to use the one working water pump on the No. 2 reactor to cool it down, said Nishiyama Hidehiko, director general at Japan’s trade ministry."

IAEA Updates On Fukushima Dai-Ichi

Mar 14th, 2011 9:50am CST

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From the IAEA:
"At the IAEA's Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC) and at its International Seismological Safety Centre (ISSC), IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano received a briefing at 0930 CET 14 March 2011.

 

The IAEA emergency management experts detailed the status of emergency communications with Japanese authorities, as well as with emergency management counterparts in other IAEA Member States and among international organizations.

 

Director General Amano was briefed as well on nuclear safety, seismological activity, and the on-going disaster recovery efforts in Japan. The video of the briefing is available here."

The latest press releases from Tokyo Electric Power Company are available HERE.

BREAKING - Reactor #2 Fuel Rods "Fully Exposed"

March 14th, 2011 6:18am CST
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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."