MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“Tokyo, Jan. 23 (Jiji Press)–Tokyo Electric Power Co. <9501> on Monday reported an increase in radioactive materials leaking from damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

The total amount of radioactive cesium that leaked from the containment vessels of the No. 1 to No. 3 reactors reached 70 million becquerels per hour, up 12 million becquerels from the December level, the power firm said.

It seems that radioactive dusts were stirred up because plant workers went inside reactor buildings and removed rubble, TEPCO officials said.

The outcome was reported to the second meeting on medium- to long-term measures toward decommissioning of the damaged reactors held between the firm and the government on Monday.

Last month, the leaked amount was put at 10 million becquerels each for the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors and 40 million becquerels for the No. 3 reactor.” Source – Jiji Press.

Report: Concern raised that Reactor 2 disintegration means it will not last long enough to begin removing melted fuel – “Actual Fukushima worker Happy20790 concerns reactor can not last until they manage to take out the fuel debris. He tweeted about it on 1/20/2012. Happy20790 ‘From the video of endoscope, SUS pipes were not so corroded but carbon pipes have gone so corroded. We are supposed to start taking out the fuel debris in 10 years from now but I bet it does not last so long… The coating of the PCV wall is also being ripped off and the wall itself is very corroded though it’s better spec than system7. It must have been such a heat. Hatch of the operation control or airlock are even thinner so I’m worried about that too. I suppose rubber packing is also damaged.” Read more.

Worker: Radiation so high at Reactor 2 it broke endoscope camera – “The coating inside of the reactor was damaged and ripped off like squama. From the gap of the pressure between inside of the reactor and suppression chamber, Tepco assumed the water level could be above the grating cover, but they could not see the water at least above the cover… Actual Fukushima worker analyzes the main problem is the extremely high level of radiation… ‘The camera we used today can resist for 1000Sv, but even the camera got so much noise (the white spots), the radiation level is really high. At usual reactor test, we put water-resistant camera into the reactor but it gets too much noise when the camera goes close to the highly radioactive place called top guide… If you put the camera at too radioactive place for too long, the camera gets broken. Today the endoscope became like that. To get more detailed image, we would need a more protective camera.” Read more.

Full Video of Inside the Reactor 2 Containment Vessel