TEPCO has raised the occupational limit of radiation for its workers to 150mSv/hr. Some workers have already been exposed in excess the old limit of 100mSv/hr. Workers who have been exposed to the limit will not be sent back in. -NHK morning broadcast
Saturday:
Those in the 20-30km evacuation zone have been advised that if they need to move, they should do so in vehicles, rather than on foot, they should cover their mouths, cover their bodies, and stay out of the rain. This new advisory was issued when it was learned that people thought they could not leave their homes. – NHK
Kyodo news, breaking: Spinach near nuke plant found with high radiation levels: gov’t official 15:13 … Radiation-contaminated spinach poses no immediate health risk: official 15:20 … Edano to talk about contaminated food issue around 4 p.m.: vice minister 15:25 …
Notes on water-spraying: 100 additional firefighters have been brought into the rotation. As of today, 60 tons of water have been sprayed at reactor no.3 – much of it is assumed to have evaporated already. In order to beat the evaporation curve, a 7 hour shift must be completed. … The batteries of the water-cannon truck have been depleted – it is now drawing energy from the US pump truck which has “very strong batteries.” … A new vehicle, made in Germany and used for high-pressure concrete spraying, is on the way. It is the same type as was used at Chernobyl. … (all above from NHK midday broadcast)
Edano presser: “I should mention milk and spinach.” … n Fuk. Pref. at 5:30pm yesterday, emergency monitoring detected high levels of radiation in milk production. This morning, 11am, in Ibaraki Pref., enviro. monitoring center detected high radiation levels in 6 samples of spinach. In both cases, amounts exceed the limit stipulated in health safety law. … The ministry of health instructed that investigations should be conducted as to whether these products have been transported. … A task force will collect data and send it to ministries to decide if limitations are necessary. … If consumed for a year, total radiation taken into the body would be equal to a CT scan. If consumed for a lifetime, this may cause a health hazard. But only if consumed over a lifetime, “so I ask for your calm behaviors.” …
Details on contaminated food samples:
Milk samples were taken from Kawamata, just outside the 30km evacuation zone. All samples contained iodine 131, at 3-7.5 times the health standard of 300 becquerel.
Spinach samples were taken from 80-100km to the south of the Daiichi plant.
Cesium 137 was found in one of the samples.
TEPCO apologizes for high radiation levels in some food.
Also, traces of radioactive iodine were found in tap water in and around Tokyo.
Correction: Iodine 131 found 3-5 times over the limit in milk, 3-7.5 times the limit in spinach.
(NHK evening broadcast)
(Ana’s Feed is a collection of Analiese Miller’s facebook status entries posted as she takes in the news live in Japan.)
So that Japanese children can be traumatized by the Fukushima in a more appropriately Freudian way and never really learn to love properly:
Personally, I think this would be more accurate if Nuclear Boy was sitting next to three or four Diaper Genies on fire.
See also this post at Class:M … “At first glance, the cartoon does an exemplary job explaining the situation to Japanese schoolchildren too young to understand half-lives and the role of water as a coolant and moderator in boiling-water reactors. But there’s a gaping omission right at the beginning….”
One day I was walking along a path dedicated to philosophers in Kyoto, Japan, with my friend Hitomi. It was interesting that there even was a path dedicated to philosophers. It made me think deeply about paths, which at the time was the subject of my PhD Thesis. Suddenly, earning a Doctorate of Philosophy with a specialization in Paths made sense. But that feeling wore off quickly enough when we something rather unusual unexpectedly appeared in the sky. Continue reading This is not something you see every day→
Today’s chopper missions over Daiichi have been canceled.
The IAEA has asked Japan to cooperate with the international community. Kan says he will do the utmost to overcome the crisis – vows to disclose more info to the int’l community. -kyodo news
The new electrical cables are on site, but radiation may prevent the workers from connecting them. Readings of 20mSv/hr. are regular. – NHK
2 more fire trucks and 1 borrowed US pump truck have cycled through . -NHK
4AM March 18th
“High radiation detected 30km from nuke plant” – NHK
“Japan has raised the accident level at a stricken nuclear plant from four to five on a seven-point international danger scale for atomic accidents.” -BBC
â??”renewed nuclear chain reaction feared”
5PM March 18th
TEPCO is very sorry about this disaster of mother nature.
The situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant in Japan, badly damaged during the extremely severe earthquake and tsunami there a week ago, continues to stabilise. It is becoming more probable by the day that public health consequences will be zero and radiation health effects among workers at the site will be so minor as to be hard to measure. Nuclear experts are beginning to condemn the international hysteria which has followed the incident in increasingly blunt terms.
Nine of ten nuclear reactors at two locations at Fukushima, Japan, have problems ranging from damaged cooling systems to partial meltdowns, and spent fuel storage facilities at several of these reactors are severely damaged. In some cases, facilities seem to have been shut down safely. In other cases, there is a strong suspicion of serious damage but the degree of damage is uncertain. Continue reading Current Status of the Nine Nuclear Reactors Damaged in Japan’s Earthquake and Tsunami→
Good news and bad news, mostly just uncertain news. A cable needed to power equipment has been installed. It turns out that one of the reactors uses Plutonium. Ooops.
The story of the quake- and tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant continues to unfold, with reports suggesting that the situation with respect to the three damaged reactors at the plant may soon be stabilised without serious consequences. The focus of attention has now moved to problems at a pool used to keep spent fuel rods cool. There remain no indications that anyone has yet suffered any radiation health effects, and the prospect is growing that this will remain the case.
Engineers at Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant have successfully connected a power line to reactor 2, the UN’s nuclear watchdog reports.
Restoring power should enable engineers to restart the pumps which send coolant over the reactor.
emergency workers focused their efforts on the storage pool at reactor 3, the only unit at the site that runs on mixed oxide fuel, which contains reclaimed plutonium. The strategy appeared to conflict with comments made by US nuclear officials and Sir John Beddington, the UK government’s chief science adviser, who are most concerned about the storage pool at reactor 4, which they say is now completely empty.
“The water is pretty much gone,” Beddington said, adding that storage pools at reactors 5 and 6 were leaking. “We are extremely worried about that. The reason we are worried is that there is a substantial volume of material there and this, once it’s open to the air and starting to heat up, can start to emit significant amounts of radiation.”
All of the fuel rods in all of the other reactors are made essentially of uranium with a zirconium cladding to seal in radioactive emissions. Reactor 4 uses something different. Its fuel rod are only 94% uranium, with 6% plutonium stirred in and then the same zirconium shell. This mixed oxide (hence the MOX moniker) formulation has one advantage–and a number of disadvantages.
The advantage–no surprise–is money. Plutonium is a natural byproduct of radioactive decay and spent fuel rods are thus full of the stuff. You can always put them into long term storage for a few dozen millennia–which is where most spent rods have to go-but you can also reprocess some of the waste and combine it with pricier uranium for a cheaper and still energy-intensive rod. With nuclear power still more expensive than fossil fuels like coal, manufacturers need to save where they can to remain competitive, and MOX is a good budget cutter.
But MOX is also temperamental. Physicist Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takma Park, MD., spoke to TIME earlier in the week and heaped scorn on the Mark 1 reactors used at the Daiichi site. His criticism in that conversation was the comparatively flimsy (by nuclear reactor standards at least) containment vessels used in the Mark 1s. But he’s no fan of the use of MOX either.
The quake, which was centered under the sea, did considerable damage to undersea communications cables. Originally the damage was thought to be minimal but it is apparently rather significant. At least five major cables have been damaged. Details here. Meanwhile, the US military has blocked several websites that are eating up bandwidth that is needed to facilitate Japan recovery efforts. These blockages affect users accessing the Internet from military facilities. “The sites — including YouTube, ESPN, Amazon, eBay and MTV — were chosen not because of the content but because their popularity among users of military computers account for significant bandwidth, according to Strategic Command spokesman Rodney Ellison.” Details here.
Right about now is when we hear the obligatory news report that the earthquake “may have shifted Earth’s axis” (or whatever). Sneezing shifts Earth’s axis. But obviously big energy events can do so in a way that is measurable. The earth is now spinning a little bit faster because of the 9.0 quake.
Using a United States Geological Survey estimate for how the fault responsible for the earthquake slipped, research scientist Richard Gross of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., applied a complex model to perform a preliminary theoretical calculation of how the Japan earthquake-the fifth largest since 1900-affected Earth’s rotation. His calculations indicate that by changing the distribution of Earth’s mass, the Japanese earthquake should have caused Earth to rotate a bit faster, shortening the length of the day by about 1.8 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second).
The calculations also show the Japan quake should have shifted the position of Earth’s figure axis (the axis about which Earth’s mass is balanced) by about 17 centimeters (6.5 inches), towards 133 degrees east longitude. Earth’s figure axis should not be confused with its north-south axis; they are offset by about 10 meters (about 33 feet). This shift in Earth’s figure axis will cause Earth to wobble a bit differently as it rotates, but it will not cause a shift of Earth’s axis in space-only external forces such as the gravitational attraction of the sun, moon and planets can do that.
Both calculations will likely change as data on the quake are further refined.
Japan needs your help after the earthquake, tsunami, and complex nuclear accident.
George Takei on the Japan Quake and Tsunami. Hat tip: Claudia Sawyer
I don’t think the amount of heart makes as much difference as the amount of the donation, but it’s a nice sentiment.
The truth is, Haiti needs your help more. A very large percentage of the people of Haiti who were rendered homeless from the earthquake there are still homeless, and the situation in that region is probably worse in many ways than it was the day after the quake. Missionaries are in there picking up the slack, which of course a very bad idea. So give something for Haiti, please.
But right now, it is appropriate and necessary to help Japan. Here’s a small selection of secular organizations that are mediating the transfer of funds to places where money can help:
Over the next few days you’ll see a lot of appeals on Scienceblogs.com to help Japan. I’m sure there will be many other excellent options from which you may chose.
The steam observed rising above No.3 for hours is radioactive. It is now presumed that the containment vessel has cracked. SDF had prepared to drop water from helicopter, but could not do so safely.
March 16, 6AM
“Tests revealed traces of radiation in tap water in Fukushima city, 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Daiichi nuclear plant, the local government said Wednesday. The Fukushima prefecture’s nuclear department said amounts of radioactive cesium and iodine that are not harmful to the human body were found in water samples taken at 8 a.m. Wednesday (7 p.m. ET Tuesday)…
Government officials said the traces found are connected with the nuclear plant. A measurement of the tap water supply taken later in the day found no traces of iodine or cesium.” -cnn live blog
March 16, 7PM
conditions at the Daiichi plant have continued to deteriorate. The greatest concern at this time is over exposed spent fuel rods at the no. 3 and 4 reactors. As of now, radiation has prohibited workers from adding water to the pools…
A road has been built to allow a water cannon truck to approach what remains of the structures. Police hope to shoot water through the holes in a last ditch effort to prevent the rods from reaching recriticality. The chance that heat being generated from these hundreds of rods (many reactors worth) will lead to nuclear reactions is very real.
March 16 9PM
SDF helicopter has dropped some water on reactor no. 3.
Radiation readings after the water-drop remain the same as before.
March 17 1AM
Tired. But staying up to watch what happens with the trucks. The Defense Secretary says this is the last effort for his forces – that after today, radiation levels in the area will be too high for them to participate. However…it is possible that the President will order their return, under law that says when other lives are at risk, occupational limits do not hold.
March 17th 8 AM
“[7:37 a.m. ET Thursday, 8:37 p.m. Thursday in Tokyo] An operation to spray water on the No. 3 nuclear reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has ended after 40 minutes, Japan’s Defense Ministry says. Five fire trucks took turns spraying water for two minutes each, officials said, and there was no further spraying planned.” -cnn live blog
…
TEPCO reports that radiation levels rose after the operation (exact rates were not given.)
…
“The level around the plant’s administration building rose to 4,000 microsievert per hour from 3,700 after the trucks joined an unprecedented attempt to cool down the reactor’s apparently overheating fuel pool, after SDF helicopters dropped tons of water earlier in the day.” -kyodo news
…
The Defense Ministry says that choppers and trucks will be used again on Friday.
1For those of you wondering what “Ana’s feed” is … this is Analiese Miller’s facebook feed. Ana has been observing live news feeds from Japan and elsewhere and jotting notes on her facebook wall. Thank you Ana.
For more information and essays about the Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Reactor problems in Japan CLICK HERE.
As I write this, I’m told that there are eleven water cannon vehicles heading to the disaster-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, to attempt to cool down nuclear material that is exposed and exuding (I dare not use the word “leaking” lest I be thought an alarmist) radiation at a rate that seems to be as alarming to the engineers and nuclear experts on the scene as it is assuaging to the arm-chair nuclear engineers in the US and elsewhere who are telling us that Fukushima is no more dangerous than eating a seedless grape.
The following conversation was heard in the Japanese Police Department’s motor vehilce shop where the water cannon vehicles are kept.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m arming these water cannon vehicles.”
“What for?”
“The police have been ordered to take these 11 vehicles out. They need to be ready immediately.”
“What are they use for?”
“This:”
“We use the water cannon on protestors. Government bought several new water cannons during the big protests here several years ago.”
“What were the protestors protesting?”
“The New Nuclear Power Plants”
“Good thing there were a LOT of protesters!”
“Why?”
“So that they bought a lot of water cannons. They’re going to need them all to keep this nuclear power plant from Going Chernobyl!”
For more information and essays about the Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Reactor problems in Japan CLICK HERE.
I repeat, there was and will *not* be any significant release of radioactivity from the damaged Japanese reactors.
By “significant” I mean a level of radiation of more than what you would receive on – say – a long distance flight, or drinking a glass of beer that comes from certain areas with high levels of natural background radiation….
I’m so glad to hear the situation is under control. And that Business Insider, an online journal, is getting us this important information in a timely manner.
Have you also seen this article, debunking the above cited item? If you have, let me know, because it seems to have been removed from it’s resting place on the intertubes.
For more information and essays about the Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Reactor problems in Japan CLICK HERE.
The story of the three quake- and tsunami-hit reactors at Japan’s Fukushima plant continues, with indications that one of the three worst-hit reactors has sustained further damage. A fire also broke out at another reactor, shut down at the time of the quake and not previously thought to be a problem, but this has now been put out. None of this suggests that the reactors’ crucial containment vessels could be breached, however.
Japan’s nuclear powerplants have performed magnificently in the face of a disaster hugely greater than they were designed to withstand, remaining entirely safe throughout and sustaining only minor damage.
Japan is facing the world’s biggest nuclear crisis for decades as engineers struggle to regain control of the Fukushima plant following another explosion and a fire that caused a spike in radiation to harmful levels.
Amid growing fears that the situation is heading for catastrophe, 70 technicians are still battling to cool reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi facility but non-essential personnel have been ordered to leave and the Kyodo news agency reported that radiation levels have become too high for staff to remain in control rooms. The government has already called in international help in tackling the spiralling crisis.
Dangerous levels of radiation began leaking from a crippled nuclear plant Tuesday, forcing Japan to order 140,000 people to stay indoors. Japan’s prime minister also warned that more leaks could occur.
In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average is down 240 points, or 2 percent, to 11,752 in early trading.
Ahead of the opening bell, First Solar, a strong gainer yesterday, is indicated sharply higher. JA Solar, Yingli Green Energy, Trina Solar, Sunpower Corp., Canadian Solar, LDK Solar and Suntech Power are all indicated higher.
Late yesterday, Morgan Stanley cut its price target for JA Solar and Canadian Solar and It raised its target for LDK Solar. Earlier Monday, Piper Jaffray warned that solar companies may suffer because of the Japan disaster and downgraded JA Solar, Yingli Green Energy, Trina Solar, Sunpower and Suntech. It seems that market has its own ideas about these stocks.
In Europe, alternative energy stocks, including solar, also are trading higher.
After Japan’s earthquake and tsunami led to a second nuclear reactor explosion, tests showed low levels of radioactivity on 17 U.S. Navy helicopter crew members after they returned to the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan.
“They probably had particle radiation from the plume that’s coming from the reactors and typically by movement that going away moving the aircraft through the air will move the large particles,” says Bill Caton from the Marine Corps Logistics Base who is an expert in explosive matter.
The nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan is continuing to deteriorate. Multiple explosions have blown roofs and outer walls off reactor buildings, and a dire struggle is under way to prevent the worst.
For several days, authorities have attempted to reassure the public. Now, they are pleading for help.
To get independent answers about the risks faced by people, GlobalPost turned to Arnold Gundersen, a 39-year veteran of the nuclear industry. Now chief engineer at Fairwinds Associates, he has worked as a nuclear plant operator and he served as an expert witness in the investigation into the Three Mile Island accident.
Pressure has dropped significantly – cracks likely, radioactive seepage likely. TEPCO workers have been evacuated.
8PM CT:
TEPCO is now reporting that the fuel rods at No. 2 are covered to 1.2meters. (That was quick!) The safety agency is apologizing for the alarm – saying concrete details are not known.
9PM CT:
TEPCO now admits, as stated earlier by the safety agency, that the container vessel at Daiichi No. 2 reactor has been damaged. Radioactive materials are “feared to leak.”
10PM CT:
“Please listen to my message calmly.” – PM Kan
The radiation readings are being described in millisieverts now. VERY HIGH!
The Fukushima Daiichi complex was due to be decommissioned in February but was given a new 10-year lease of life. -msnbc
4AM CT:
From TEPCO, through Edano: Daiichi plant reactor No.1: water is being pumped, pressure is stable. No.2: water is being pumped, condition unknown. No.3: pumping and stable. No.4: fire is out as far as can be seen from outside – radioactive material of 100millisieverts/he had been spewing – workers are investigating the interior for small fire, but must be very careful.
Greed in the nuclear industry and corporate influence over the U.N. watchdog for atomic energy may doom Japan to a spreading nuclear disaster, one of the men brought in to clean up Chernobyl said on Tuesday.
Slamming the Japanese response at Fukushima, Russian nuclear accident specialist Iouli Andreev accused corporations and the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of wilfully ignoring lessons from the world’s worst nuclear accident 25 years ago to protect the industry’s expansion.
Chernobyl clean-up expert slams Japan, IAEA
march 15th PM:
Kyodo news: 70% of fuel rods have been damaged at Daiichi reactor No.1.
march 16 AM
The occupational limit for radiation exposure has been raised in order to allow the workers to return to the site.
March 16, 6am:
The steam observed rising above No.3 for hours is radioactive. It is now presumed that the containment vessel has cracked. SDF had prepared to drop water from helicopter, but could not do so safely.
7am: “Tests revealed traces of radiation in tap water in Fukushima city, 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Daiichi nuclear plant, the local government said Wednesday. The Fukushima prefecture’s nuclear department said amounts of radioactive cesium and iodine that are not harmful to the human body were found in water samples taken at 8 a.m. Wednesday (7 p.m. ET Tuesday)…
A second hydrogen explosion rocked a crippled Japanese nuclear reactor Monday, spewing a giant cloud of smoke into the air and injuring 11 workers, officials said.
The blast was so large it could be felt 25 miles away.
The plant’s operator, however, insisted that radiation levels around the facility remained within legal limits.
