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Posts Tagged ‘Fukushima’

Inside Report From Fukushima Nuclear Reactor Evacuation Zone

04/09/2011 2 comments

“Fukushima, Japan – The Japanese government has issued the evacuation order on March 12 for the residents living within the 20 kilometer radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Since then, residents have left their homes, and the “no man land” has been out of touch with the rest of the world.

A Japanese journalist, Tetsuo Jimbo, ventured through the evacuation zone last Sunday, and filed the following video report.

He says that, inside the evacuation zone, homes,building, roads and bridges, which were torn down by Tsunami, are left completely untouched, and the herd of cattle and pet dogs, left behind by the owners, wonders around the town while the radiation level remains far beyond legal limits.

Watch the video report.”

‘Radiation Levels Are So High That Monitoring Devices Have Been Rendered Useless’

04/06/2011 Leave a comment

“A radiation monitor at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says workers there are exposed to immeasurable levels of radiation.

The monitor told NHK that no one can enter the plant’s No. 1 through 3 reactor buildings because radiation levels are so high that monitoring devices have been rendered useless. He said even levels outside the buildings exceed 100 millisieverts in some places.

Pools and streams of water contaminated by high-level radiation are being found throughout the facility.

The monitor said he takes measurements as soon as he finds water, because he can’t determine whether it’s contaminated just by looking at it. He said he’s very worried about the safety of workers there.”  Read more.

 

U.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan’s Nuclear Plant

04/05/2011 Leave a comment

By JAMES GLANZ and WILLIAM J. BROAD – “United States government engineers sent to help with the crisis in Japan are warning that the troubled nuclear plant there is facing a wide array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely, and that in some cases are expected to increase as a result of the very measures being taken to keep the plant stable, according to a confidential assessment prepared by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Among the new threats that were cited in the assessment, dated March 26, are the mounting stresses placed on the containment structures as they fill with radioactive cooling water, making them more vulnerable to rupture in one of the aftershocks rattling the site after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11. The document also cites the possibility of explosions inside the containment structures due to the release of hydrogen and oxygen from seawater pumped into the reactors, and offers new details on how semimolten fuel rods and salt buildup are impeding the flow of fresh water meant to cool the nuclear cores.”  Read more.

 

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Radioactive Fish Found in East Japan

04/05/2011 Leave a comment

“Japan’s Fisheries Ministry has found high levels of radioactive iodine and cesium in fish caught near the troubled Fukushima nuclear power plant, Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday.

One kilogram of young launce caught near the town of Kitaibaraki on the Ibaraki Prefecture on Monday contained 526 bequerels of radioactive cesium, 500 bequerels more than the legal limit, and 1,700 bequerels of iodine.

The Ibaraki authorities urged people to stop eating fish…”  Read more.

 

Fukushima ‘Much Bigger Than Chernobyl’, Says Russian Nuclear Activist

04/03/2011 Leave a comment

“JAPAN’S unfolding nuclear disaster is “much bigger than Chernobyl” and could rewrite the international scale used to measure the severity of atomic accidents, a Russian expert says.

‘Chernobyl was a dirty bomb explosion. The next dirty bomb is Fukushima and it will cost much more’ in economic and human terms, Natalia Mironova said.

Ms Mironova is thermodynamic engineer who became a leading anti-nuclear activist in Russia in the wake of the accident at the Soviet-built reactor in Ukraine in 1986.

‘Fukushima is much bigger than Chernobyl,’ she said, adding that the Japanese nuclear crisis was likely to eclipse Chernobyl on the seven-point international scale used to rate nuclear disasters.”  Read more.

 

Fukushima Could Lead To A Tragedy Far Beyond Chernobyl, Creating Permanent Dead-Zones in Japan

03/31/2011 Leave a comment

Dr Michio Kaku: “This is huge.  For the first time they’re [the Japanese government] using that dreaded word ‘breach’, meaning uncontrolled release of radiation into the environment.  And remember that unit 3, which is suspected to have the breach, contains plutonium.  Plutonium is the most toxic chemical known to science.  A spec of plutonium — a millionth of a gram — could cause cancer if it’s ingested, and so this has to be looked at very carefully because if there is a full abandonment of the reactor site, if they abandon ship, we could be in free fall.”

Radioactive Contamination in Groundwater Under Fukushima Reactor 10,000 Times Government Standard

03/31/2011 Leave a comment

“FUKUSHIMA, Japan — Officials with the company that operates Japan’s tsunami-stricken nuclear plant say radioactive contamination in groundwater underneath a reactor has been measured at 10,000 times the government health standard.

A spokesman for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. says the company doesn’t believe any drinking water supply is affected.

Contaminated water has been pooling at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power complex since it was damaged by the devastating earthquake and tsunami. It has already leaked into the ocean.”  Read more.

 

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Japan’s Nuclear Rescuers: ‘Inevitable Some of Them May Die Within Weeks’

03/31/2011 Leave a comment

By Dominic Di-Natale – “Workers at the disaster-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan say they expect to die from radiation sickness as a result of their efforts to bring the reactors under control, the mother of one of the men tells Fox News.

The so-called Fukushima 50, the team of brave plant workers struggling to prevent a meltdown to four reactors critically damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, are being repeatedly exposed to dangerously high radioactive levels as they attempt to bring vital cooling systems back online.

Speaking tearfully through an interpreter by phone, the mother of a 32-year-old worker said: “My son and his colleagues have discussed it at length and they have committed themselves to die if necessary to save the nation.”  Read more.

 

‘Fukushima Plutonium Leak Comparable to Chernobyl Disaster’

03/30/2011 Leave a comment

Nuclear energy expert Lars Polmeier:  ‘Plutonium is a very, very dangerous and harmful substance, even in very small quantities the plutonium, if it is ingested by a human body, almost certainly leads to the development of cancer.  There’s no concept how to monitor and how to store the radioactive fuel which will radiate for many, many, many thousands of years.’

Japan on ‘Maximum’ Radiation Alert as Poison Particles from Nuke Plant are Found in OXFORDSHIRE

03/29/2011 Leave a comment

By Richard Shears

  • Traces of radioactive iodide from Fukushima leak also found in Glasgow
  • Pool of radioactive water found outside stricken power station complex
  • Workers battle to remove contaminated water but source of leak is unknown
  • True readings are 100,000 times above normal – but not 10m as earlier stated
  • Crews find traces of plutonium in soil outside stricken complex
  • Protesters warn of ‘another Fukushima’ at Hamaoka plant in quake hotspot
  • Final death toll from earthquake and tsunami expected to top 18,000

Radiation from the Fukushima leak has also been detected across Britain, it was confirmed today as Japan was put on ‘maximum’ alert.

The Health Protection Agency revealed that radioactive iodine had already been discovered 5,500 miles from the stricken plant in Oxfordshire and Glasgow.

Air samples are being tested elsewhere in Britain over fears that much of the country could be hit by the radioactive plume.

Dr Michael Clark of the HPA said: ‘Very low levels of radioactivity, traceable to Fukushima, have been detected at monitoring stations in the UK including Chilton, in Oxfordshire, and Glasgow, in Scotland.”  Read more.

Reactor No. 3 Core May Be Leaking at Damaged Fukushima Plant

03/28/2011 Leave a comment

“By Go Onomitsu and Takashi Hirokawa – (Bloomberg) – Japan’s nuclear regulator said a reactor core at the quake-damaged Fukushima power plant may be leaking after workers were injured by radioactive water.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said yesterday there may be some kind of leak from the reactor, causing high levels of radiation found in water in the basement of the reactor No. 3’s turbine building.

‘We’re trying to prevent a deterioration of the situation,” Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in a public address in Tokyo yesterday. ‘We must continue to work with a high sense of alertness.’

Repair work at the site of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl has been plagued by explosions, fires and leaks of toxic material. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said pools of radioactive water had accumulated at other reactors, Kyodo News reported.”  Read more.

Nuclear Expert: ‘Fukushima Probably Exceeds Chernobyl and There is No End in Sight’

03/28/2011 Leave a comment

Japanese Nuclear Expert (via translator):  “This situation is very serious … This accident probably exceeds [the 3 Mile Island accident] or Chernobyl accidents and there is no end is sight yet … we have to immediately make accurate information disclosure and, based on the information disclosed, we have to analyze the health hazard and then we have to brief that to the residents …”