Since it’s simpler to keep an open thread for the fast moving story of Japan’s crisis, I’m starting the third open news thread on the subject for everyone to add their thoughts and updates to. Since the event has happened, major networks have sent multiple teams for “on the scene” hyperbolic coverage and fear mongering, while also draining Japan’s precious few resources of food, water and fuel. Meanwhile the Congressional Dems, painfully conscious of their traditional anti-drilling and anti-nuclear plant platform, have begun making hiccups about addressing oil prices. In this moment, you won’t find a Democrat in the halls of Congress who’s willing put advocate for nuclear power.
Meanwhile, demonstrating the power of propaganda, sales of geiger counters to fear laden west coast Americans has spiked. Driving this point home was a geiger counter manufacturer who was almost late to his interview on Cavuto’s World today because he was furiously working, getting out a backlog of orders. According to him? Most purchasers are individuals, living on the west coast.
One nation’s desperate crises is another man’s economic boost. Amazing, when you think of it.
But in this third edition, I want to showcase those we’ve not heard much from directly… the TEPCO employees on the front line, battling multiple hardships trying to keep the reactors under control. As foreign national and corporations flee the nation, the Japanese have mounted a quiet and respectful rally around those they call the Fukishima Fifty. UK’s Daily Mail has more info on their on site conditions, stellar photos from the site, and brave tweets and messages from the TEPCO workers to their families.
Japan was today rallying behind the anonymous nuclear emergency workers at the stricken Fukushima power plant – as heartbreaking details of their plight emerged.
The 180 workers face soaring radiation levels as they make ever more desperate attempts to stop overheating reactors and spent fuel rods leaking more radiation into the atmosphere.~~~National television has interviewed relatives of the workers, who the plant operators insist on keeping anonymous, with one woman saying her father had accepted his fate ‘like a death sentence’.
A woman said her husband continued to work while fully aware he was being bombarded with radiation. He sent her an email saying: ‘Please continue to live well, I cannot be home for a while.’ The workers are known as the Fukushima Fifty because they rotate into contaminated areas in teams of that number.
Another email shown by newsreaders said: ‘My father is still working at the plant … they are running out of food…we think conditions are really tough. He says he has accepted his fate much like a death sentence.’
One girl tweeted in a message translated by ABC: ‘My dad went to the nuclear plant, I’ve never seen my mother cry so hard. People at the plant are struggling, sacrificing themselves to protect you. Please dad come back alive.’
According to the Daily Mail, the workers are exposed to radiation levels of 40 milisieverts per hour, and removed from duty after being exposed to 250 milisieverts.
One of the surprising things is that the workers are painfully aware of the demonization of TEPCO by media and blogs … something that those on the front line find offensive and hurtful. So I leave you with the comments of the lone woman worker of the Fukushima Fifty…
One lone woman worker, Michiko Otsuki, this week spoke up for her ‘silent’ colleagues on a Japanese social networking site to insist that they were ‘not running away’ as the crisis intensified.
She wrote in a blog translated by The Straits Times: ‘People have been flaming [plant operators] Tepco, But the staff of Tepco have refused to flee, and continue to work even at the peril of their own lives. Please stop attacking us.’
‘As a worker at Tepco and a member of the Fukushima No. 2 reactor team, I was dealing with the crisis at the scene until yesterday (Monday).’
‘In the midst of the tsunami alarm (last Friday), at 3am in the night when we couldn’t even see where we going, we carried on working to restore the reactors from where we were, right by the sea, with the realisation that this could be certain death,’ she said.
‘The machine that cools the reactor is just by the ocean, and it was wrecked by the tsunami. Everyone worked desperately to try and restore it.
‘Fighting fatigue and empty stomachs, we dragged ourselves back to work.’
‘There are many who haven’t gotten in touch with their family members, but are facing the present situation and working hard.’
These workers, to me, are the equivalent of our US military… those that place themselves in the line of fire for family and country. Unlike our soldiers, who know that war is part of their job, I doubt these workers envisioned this as part of their job description. Their rise to to the challenge is beyond commendable.
There is a powerline laid to the power plant, which at latest news has been successfully completed. This should aid in stabilization of water pumps and stop the fluctuating water levels that affect the radiation levels. For these brave souls and their families, my prayers it works, and that their exposure will not affect a long and happy life post this event.
Yo… blast. Where was the water in question but in Tokyo?
third duh for you… three strikes, you are out.
I didn’t say you were in Texas. What part of “southern Cal” in my comment misses your reading comprehension? I know where you are (and chose not to reveal to others, BTW). And I’ve read what you said about radiation and safety. The “bunker” is where you live mentally… not physically.
You’re on a “duh” roll, blast
If you haven’t a clue what’s going on about your “radiation cloud” that you mentioned would come to the damage if in the “jet stream”… sigh…, then why the heck do you think you’re qualified to comment about radiation levels reaching California? As you did in Thread II.
Backpeddling furiously, along with your high count of “duh” rates, blast? Ya know, they may have an “I Owe Dina” pill treatment for that “gullible” gene.
I don’t think I could play with you two, you are too sharp for me to follow,
but It’s very intertaining,to follow!!! the tone is too cool
Mata,
First, you never delineated that you were speaking about Tokyo… and the source article spoke about Tokyo (naturally) AND OTHER PARTS OF THE COUNTRY. Your statement did not differentiate. You cannot speak as an authority for “the tap water is not enough to be concerned about:” because you have no idea what you are talking about.
Actually prior to this disaster I did not know that radioactive materials that contained enough energy to heat up and burn were store in this manner. I bet most people in this country did not know fuel rods were stored in pools and not in some form of secondary containment (and nearly on top of the reactor). I don’t feel that is being stupid. Of course during this event we all have learned more about these plants.
We really have to go slow for you, eh blast?
The *only* news was about Tokyo water supply. There is no news about others. I’d wager a guess that they aren’t testing the water in at risk contamination areas within the power plants. And that certainly they would be at higher levels if coming via land that could experience contamination from the radius noted around the power plants. Have you not yet figured out that the damage is really confined to a very defined radius yet?
Or do you figure that radius travels on the jet stream still? LOL
How many “duhs” are you willing to rack up tonight? And I’ll stop with the bozo when you stop behaving like one. Get off your butt and start reading and learning from someone other than TV news.
If you didn’t know about common fuel pools prior to this disaster, welcome to the club. If you don’t know about them now, almost a week after, in the week of media hyperbole, shame on you. You’re intellectually lazy.
for the record Mata… here is the exchange you are blowing out of proportion as it relates to the radiation cloud coming here…
Unlike you, I said i was not sure. and then I indicated what the thought was from what was gleaned from the news. And as you have pointed out, the news was correct, the radiation did make it here.
Now if there is something inaccurate in my comment to ilovebeeswarzone please point it out.
blast… oh one of limited world view… I am NOT talking about Flopping Aces perspective of hyperbole, but CNN, FOX, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, etal. As I pointed out at the onset in this thread, the media spread of disinformation and bogus technology – leading to the boost in geiger counter sales on the western side of the US in a panic – was irresponsible. I assure you, that irresponsibility was not by a blog the size of Flopping Aces, or a political pundit of the magnitude of Ms. Bees.
Your comments, as I lift/pasted from Thread II, indicates that you were uneducated enough to accept… from the media… that any Japanese emissions from steam or explosions would make their way to the US on “the jet stream” and be dangerous. There may be a pill for that gullibility disease… or not.
Sixth duh. I’ve played too many innings with you this eve, and now I’m bored. Sorry.
I already linked to that comment #38 as well as others. If you’d like a full recap of your attitude, check out your ensuing comments in #71, 76, 86 and 112 of that same thread.
How’s your bunker stocked, blast? LOL What a wuss…
@ mata,
Again, you mischaracterize my comment and my follow ups. I never said that dangerous levels would make their way here.
Get your facts straight.
LOL! Really… going for your seventh duh in a row? That’s the entire point of the hyperbole of the press, bozo… er, blast. That yes, I was entirely sure that whatever wafted over from Japan was NOT GOING TO BE AMAGGEDAON!
sigh…
Now you tell me “the news is correct” because the “radioactive cloud” the news was hyping actually arrived.
Well, blast, with a nor’easter, your Texas fart would do the same to Mexico…..
OMG! Let’s get gas masks and geiger counters! It’s a national story!
Desperate….
another desperate attempt at a back peddle, blast. First, it’s important. Now you talk about how you mention radiation that arrives here, but it has no consequence. Why not discuss the import of your fart on the wind instead?
ass hat..
Done for the evening. You’re simply not worth my time. I’m sure there’s a really bad movie I can watch instead. ta ta
@ mata,
I actually left. Can you let me know the rules as it relates to insults. Since you are becoming like Mike’s America and less like the mata I knew before, I just want to know how I can respond to all of your ridiculous comments. This coming on the heals of you asking me to be more respectful. Geez.
blast, don’t try to fool MATA she had you figured out, you where more than insulting on dr john’s POST with Mr Irons who has shown to be far more knowledgeble than you, your attitude is obvious to attack the group of CONSERVATIVES,
WHAT IS IT WITH YOU ALL ? YOU LACK OF CLASS, YOU SEEMS TO EMERGE FROM THE GUTTER EVERYONE OF YOU,
@ilovebeeswarzone: you look at that thread, and look for who ramped up any form of insult. I certainly did not use anything near the jackwagon crap etc he was using. I disagree with him. He claims his set of facts are right. I disagree. Same with mata with “ass hat” and other bs. I think people resort to diminishing others when they have no real facts and want to silence debate. People disagree on many sides of issues without the type of crap pushed out on here. I will react to people on how they treat me. if they come at me… I will return in kind.
Some of this came from your question to me, I answered it and was not putting you down or casting aspersions on your character. Do you think I was being over wrought in what I said to you in the previous thread (about the weather bring radiation here – see comment #55) we shared information and the exchange was done. Mata tried to recast my statements in an incorrect fashion.
not to me but to my friends as I start to follow yor comments also to one hero of many wars, that require an appology for sure, and more of it, I realy did not appreciate anyone treating my friends
with an arrogance that you showed, some of those have done many tours in the warzone they deserve the respect due to their sacrifices, no matter if they address your comment , beside you are not of the same politic mind , so don’t come here to protect your side by insulting them, they know a lot more of what is going on than you do,
@blast: again, whatever. You showed up on this thread, ignoring and making apologies for a hyperbolic media. Whether that was because you conveniently ignore the days of chicken little “radioactive cloud headed to the US” nonsense, or the constant “meltdown” promises every segment, or you bought into it, I don’t care. But you began with your comment #3, challenging me just what media I would be watching that would make me say that. And, of course, that it was I who was hyperbolic.
When you put yourself in the unenviable position of defending a hyped up, uneducated media, you also stretch for desperate “facts”… like the but-Mata-the-cloud-did-arrive. As I said, so would your fart on a nor’ester. Is that worthy of breathless fear mongering, which was proven by the surge in sales of geiger counters by terrified west coast residents?
As for insulting you, what are you… Mr. innocent with your own commentary? Go whine to someone who cares.
@Mata, I am not interested in repeating myself. I just want to know if it is fair game to call you names, ass hat, stupid, and of the usual stuff you spin out. Is that allowable here?
@blast:
Could someone get this person a crying towel?
It has been my observation that when Mata uses colorful metaphors, the person on the receiving end has almost always earned them.
@anticsrocks I was directing my message at mata. If the rules here are anything goes, I will address you with the same derision. As for crying towel. I can take care of myself. I just want to know the rules. Tired of all of the stupid name calling on this site, if someone brings it on, I am happy to respond. They kicked me off here before for my conduct… so if there is no rule for name calling, I am game.
blast, you’r not in a position to make rules here just be polite with the conservatives and dont shoot the lines to make them angry, because they are more tolerants than who ever you give allegence to, we just have to look around to see it clear as crystal, there is none of your name calling here unless you post a negative against the SMART CONSERVATIVES HERE, AS YOU CANNOT FOOL THEM A BIT, AS MUCH AS YOU TRY,
You are suffering from revisionist history, blast. And you know better because you and I exchanged emails off forum about this. Your banning, which turned out to be temporary, was for thread spamming, and posting under a different name. At that point, you were extremely frustrated with Mike’sA’s approach to debate.
Now you suggest I am doing the same. And you complain that I “mischaracterized” your comments. Yet that is what you have done from your first entry on this thread, suggesting that I didn’t consider the situation “grave”, again repeating the blame game assaults on TEPCO, and finally… what really got my craw, you demeaning those TEPCO employees at the reactor site by saying:
It was with that statement that I called you an ass… and followed it with an apology but saying unfortunately, it fits your dialogue. I shall repeat:
Instead of acknowledging that the media built the radioactive cloud up to fear frenzy mode, that they were totally uneducated to the events and round robin problems of keeping a coolant operation going without power, and then had the chutzpah to suggest the dangers of the TEPCO workers “feels a bit like propaganda”, you just kept on and in the next comment suggested that it was I who was being hyperbolic.
I respond in kind, blast. You know that. You stretched for desperate measures to defend an irresponsible media… i.e. grasping that a “cloud” of radiation with neglible effects did indeed reach the US. Well duh… even a middle school student learning about weather patterns would figure that out. But the amount of radiation that WWII bombing thru in the air didn’t have effects in the US. Nor did the test bombs one state away from the US west coast. It was headline grabbing fear mongering, and beyond any logic or science to start the fear they did.
As for rules… I don’t care what you call me. Apparently my hide is thicker than yours. I start out civil. When you behave like an ass, I will be pointing it out… as I did politely at first.
That it escalated to my utter disrespect for you on this issue – defending the indefensible media, and labeling the conditions of the TEPCO workers as “propaganda” – is an onus on you.
Did all of the TEPCO workers get evacuated overnight?
I am hearing conflicting reports.
Nan G, Per TEPCO’s updates,
I suspect this is, and will continue to be, a step forward and pull back routine as they assess events. From what I understand, the makeshift connection to the power grid is available, and they’ve been busy attempting to hook up the coolant systems… hoping they haven’t suffered permanent damage. Keeping the units cool with powered water injection gives them some relief so they can concentrate on assessing damage and repairs more thoroughly, and not constantly paying reaction/defense.
I heard one report that 3 of the 4 units were hooked up to the power grid, but not that the pumps had been successfully put back in action. At this point, I generally rely mostly on the IAEA site and TEPCO site for the real information, and ignore the media’s kneejerk reactions to each event.
mata:
It DOES feel like propaganda. Yes, I am very sympathetic to the individuals, but the “narrative” being put out there is quite sympathetic… but, when there are conflicting stories to how long individuals are actually being exposed, and the limits to their exposure and the actual number of people etc, it seems something does not add up. So far they have not identified the “Casey Jones’” of this event. Thus I showed skepticism of the story… if I am an ass for not believing a story that has conflicting details, then fine. But I have NEVER called you an ass even when I have though your have played your hand heavy handedly.
We have kicked this one around way too much Mata, really. I did not defend the position of the the media on this. You had to go to another thread and misconstrue a conversation I had with another poster and then mock me in a juvenile manner. If you had a disagreement with that comment at the time, all you needed to do is either ask for a clarification or make your point.
No where in what I said to ilovebeeswarzone constitutes the “desperate measures” you are speaking of. What part of NOT SURE in my comment did you not understand. What part of POTENTIAL in my comment did you not understand. What part of SPECULATION in my comment did you not understand. Desperate measures? Over reacting? I never raised a comment about needing a Geiger counter or iodine pills, I never said it would be a threat to health in the US…. that is you adding histrionics and disinformation, trying to shape a fight and use things I NEVER BROUGHT INTO THE ARGUMENT.
Funny you have been linking to these carnivorous consumers of Japanese foods and resources. I have attempted to use local Japanese sources for here, or an analyst who wrote a bit in Time (from the US). I am not here to defend or deride them media. .
I realize your goat has been gotten on this, but if you follow my statements:
I read that as ‘don’t criticize the company’… which is ridiculous, the people in Japan and those around the world do deserve the facts. The company needs to be on the record with what it knows as this incident affects more than just Japan. The people in Japan have been very angry with TEPCO and they actually knew about the long history of the company not being forthcoming (or even being deceptive).
I don’t know if they are presently misleading the public. Maybe it is the confusion of the event, damaged instrumentation or whatever. I would say that the information coming out has from time to time contradicted itself. With that being said, the history of the company obfuscating, delaying and falsifying information is well documented. Therefore I look at what they say with a very healthy dose of skepticism.
If you care to read about some of TEPCO’s history, here are some links to an English language Japanese paper.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070719a2.html
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070321a2.html
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070323a3.html
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070331a4.html
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090414a3.html
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20020901a1.html
Here are some more, from more conventional sources (here in USA)
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/BUSINESS/asia/09/02/japan.tepco/index.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&refer=energy&sid=a1d4vmhfe1D4
Here are a bunch of Industry friendly reports which detail much of the same.
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=13270
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=13124
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=13734
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=13152
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=12998
Again. I started out commending those responding to the emergency, I said I was skeptical about the “Fukushima Fifty” (based upon the inconsistencies and the narrative). I said i was waiting for the real facts. Maybe we may learn about specific heroic Casey Jones’, but at this time we know there are people there, working in terrible conditions, but if they are being limited by law (which we are hearing) to 250 millisieverts. We hear they are all evacuated, we here there are 200+, we hear a lot of things.
Given the gravity of the situation there may need to be some sacrifice of lives. It would be a sad fact, just like in Chernobyl. Time will tell, like I said before.
Good heavens, blast… you do like to pile on to your original and offensive “propaganda” comment INRE the TEPCO workers.
Thank you for the link to the Japan Times, which from Thread I, I have used as some source of stories. /sarc That’s like telling the baker where the oven in his kitchen is located. duh… click on a few links, would ya?
Considering this entire original post had two thrusts… to condemn an irresponsible media for hyperbolic and uneducated speculative coverage, and to note the conditions of the TEPCO workers on site… why the heck *are* you here then save to argue those two points? Yet argue them both, you did.
The reason the reports are “conflicting” is because the “reports” they were using were coming out from reporters who are clueless to the technology, and giving knee jerk responses to each event in a moment in time with breathless omens of doom and gloom. To date, I have to wonder how many of them have figured out that the mainstay of problems has been related to no power to the coolant systems…. as even your your own linked source, World Nuclear News notes.
Considering the magnitude of damage, the loss of monitoring equipment, it makes it a bit difficult for TEPCO to give detailed information of the events, don’t you think? Not to mention they were quite busy in response mode to keep the out of control, under control. That, however, didn’t stop the press from forming their own speculative opinions, and claiming “cover up”.
Idiot journalists didn’t bother to get to know the basics. They just responded with “radiation rising, steam rising, explosions” and constant parroting of “meltdowns”. They do not differentiate between degrees of meltdown, designs of containment units, nor even bother to put the expected levels of radiation into context. They simply drove the story into hysteria until, finally, even Obama had to come out and note that the US was not at risk.
I really hate to point out the obvious here, but severe nuclear accidents, with the repercussions the media constantly predicted, cannot be “covered up”. And as a real laugh, you don’t have “healthy skepticism” with the media, but you do with TEPCO. Backasswards, blast. There were reasons they couldn’t be what the press would consider forthcoming because they were in adverse conditions, working without power and usual failsafe back ups and monitoring equipment.
What’s the excuse for the media?
Until these coolant systems and pumps can be brought back online.. which requires power which has only now been rigged from a distance grid source.. it was going to be a constant defense of predictable events. i.e. pressure building, venting, varying water levels.
Oh yes, and in your desperate bit about the radiation in the water… again answered by your own linked WNN today.
You did not “commend” the responders because you negated that commendation with a “but” and an accusation of propaganda. While I found your pass to the media’s irresponsibility reporting irritating, your casual dismissal of the TEPCO workers Herculean efforts against the obvious risk… which has nothing to do with TEPCO’s past… offensive and unacceptable.
Now, blast. I’m quite done with you. You’ve spun your blame game on the wrong folks into the ground here, and I’m really no longer interested in your opines.
The Los Angeles Times:
World Health Organization officials told reporters Monday that Japan should act quickly to ban food sales from areas around the damaged nuclear plant, saying radiation in food is more dangerous than radioactive particles in the air because of accumulation in the human body.
The FDA.
Altogether, FDA electronically screens all import entries and performs multiple analyses on about 31,000 import product samples annually.
Foods imported from Japan make up less than 4 percent of foods imported from all sources.
Almost 60 percent of all products imported from Japan are foods.
The most common food products imported include seafood, snack foods and processed fruits and vegetables.
The UK’s Financial Times:
Continuing tests reported high levels of radioactive iodine-131 and caesium isotopes in some samples of spinach grown on the fertile plains between Tokyo and the Fukushima nuclear plant.
Some tests find almost no radioactivity, some find levels that are double the legal limit, and the most extreme sample from Ibaraki prefecture had radioactivity 27 times the legal limit.
~~~~
Same article (UK’s FT) says that even that high an amount is still not life threatening.
I guess you would have to eat it and keep eating it over a long time before enough might accumulate in you to become a problem.
Yup… more of the same, Nan G. Hype, hype and more hype. Fact is we don’t import that many foods from Japan, and what we do, the amount ingested is unlikely to make much of a difference for US citizens. In Japan, they have been busy monitoring their own food, and already banning it from distribution in their own country.
Guess they aren’t getting their quota of hype only from Libya, eh? Desperate measures call for creative headlines to accommodate.
@ mata –
>> I don’t believe there is a “Fukushima Fifty”
A lone crew of 50, hand on the break (Casey Jones), giving their lives in some heroic battle to save the plant. – It is either a creation of the news or the company spin masters. Everything on that score has been contradicted; number of people, total radiation allowed (250 millisieverts and out) , and the frequency they evacuated.
(which I have repeated over and over again)!
Questioning the validity of the FF story does not minimize the people there. I question the form of story is all. Just like you question the hyperbolic stories on other elements in this event, I question the same hype about the narrative of the FF.
>>I just said that in my previous comment. Guess you missed that.
>> That is what I had synthesized about the coverage I was watching and had used in my first comment here. I did not comment one way or another about the coverage as I did not see ALL of the coverage. I saw some, some was good and thoughtful and some was totally ignorable, and some ridiculous (Ann Coulter on the Factor saying radiation is good for you, Bill O’Reilly asked why people were not then moving toward the power plant) .
You have conflated so much into this thread argument, things I never said, things you inferred to my comments. I never claimed a dangerous cloud was coming here, that is just a lie, I never brought up Geiger counter – another conflated lie, I never raised the need for iodine here – another conflated lie.
Blame game? LOL. YOU HAVE BEEN ON THE VENDETTA mata. You have spun all kinds of half truths and totally misrepresented my position. You are very clever mata, you wrap yourself is self indignation over my” affront” to the hypothetical FF (a hyperbolic media story perhaps?). Now, since we will probably disagree about the FF, why not go after the facts I posted in my comment…
Were there not multiple reactors with varying degrees meltdown?
A potential cracked reactor containment?
Spent fuel rods in ponds where temperature was raising?
Was the situation not grave?
These were all things I learned through media reports.
Here’s an UPDATE with qualifiers.
NOTE the qualifiers.
Danielle Demetriou and Julian Ryall in Tokyo
The core at reactor two of the Fukushima plant may have melted on to a concrete floor, according to experts, running the risk of radioactive gases being released into the surrounding area.
Richard Lahey, who was a head of reactor safety research at General Electric when the company installed the units at Fukushima, said the workers, who have been pumping water into the three reactors in an attempt to keep the fuel rods from melting, appeared to have “lost the race” to save the reactor.
“The indications we have … 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,” he told a newspaper.
“I hope I am wrong, but that is certainly what the evidence is pointing towards.” ….
…..
…..
(Tepco), the operators of the Fukushima plant, confirmed that plutonium had been detected, for the first time, in two out of five soil samples. Tepco said the levels of plutonium were not harmful to human health, but experts said the discovery suggested the reactor’s containment mechanism had been breached.
“Plutonium is a substance that’s emitted when the temperature is high, and it’s also heavy and so does not leak out easily,” said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
“So if plutonium has emerged from the reactor, that tells us something about the damage to the fuel. And if it has breached the original containment system, it underlines the gravity and seriousness of this accident.”
whole article here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8414554/Japan-nuclear-crisis-workers-losing-race-to-save-reactor.html
Not alarmist at all!
Just supposing and ”maying” and ”mighting” and assuming.
No where does the article say, RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!!
LOL.
But it is interesting.
Yes, Nan… it is interesting. I’ve been watching for news of the source of the plutonium, which they only started to measure last week, since yesterday when the first soil samples disclosures hit the news. Plutonium, of course, would mean reactor three. CNN on that was somewhat balanced, and Michael Friedlander did the explanation that it’s presence could be due to factors that wasn’t necesssarily part of a breach of the containment vessel, but part of the high pressure venting, and the particles falling to the surroundings soils. Since, at this first reading, the levels are low… tho present… this might have validity.
Time will tell if it’s a core breach. Obviously if it is from venting, which has been minimalized in the past days to week… and power restored to the units (still don’t know if the coolant pumps are working tho), then the levels won’t be ratcheting up. If it’s a core breach, the levels will be increasing consistently, and unrelentlessly.
Not sure the procedure of clean up and containment, but suspect it’s similar to Chernobyl with encasement, and then disposing of the contaminated soil. But I haven’t seen what they suggest the solutions are because it appears they haven’t figured out the source and the extent of the contamination yet.
And thanks for the news without the alarm. We’ll leave that to Ivan and blast to manufacture, and keep and eye on the developments.
BTW, to bring the subject to a thread more pertinent, I saw your comment INRE the TEPCO CEO. I had heard this AM about them not knowing his whereabouts, status. Also they were floating the rumors of a nationalization of the TEPCO plant. Not sure if that only mean Daichi, or all their locations. Personally, I think the man’s in big emotional trouble, based on his fragile condition at the interview. It’s a very hefty load, watching your employees go into such conditions. I don’t think anything about that plant could have survived both the earthquake and following tsunami. But that does not eliminate a human emotion of feeling responsible for what could be ill health or death of his employees. Such bearing of responsiblity is a very Japanese thing. I would hope he did not take his own life. Mother Nature has a habit of making mincemeat out of man’s most sturdy creations.