Mar 25 2011

Reactor Core May Have Breached, Serious Poisoning Extends 200 Miles

(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/1…

Japanese officials have expressed alarm over a possible fracture of a reactor core at one unit of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Okay! That’s the (extremely) bad news! Now for the good news!

“Our data suggest the reactor retains certain containment functions,” says  Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the nuclear safety agency.

“Certain containment functions!” You could say the same thing about a sieve!

But the worst news was buried way way down in the article from PressTV, and never even mentioned by the NY Times.

“Reports indicate that a number of Japanese people who lived between 200 and 350 kilometers away from the plant have been hospitalized for exposure to radioactive materials.”

HOSPITALIZED for radiation! 200 MILES AWAY FROM FUKUSHIMA!

And Tokyo, that enormous city, is only 130 miles away from Fukushima.

31 comments

Skip to comment form

  1. And NOW it’s time for a…

    REACTOR FRACTURE FREAK-OUT!

    And no fucking joke about it!

    • RiaD on March 25, 2011 at 18:10
    • #

    over this. my daughter-in-laws family live near tokyo

    (& mishima does too)

    we are all distraught. & helpless.

  3. universe that is conducive to our kind of life; clean, immense bodies of salt water, the life blood, fresh water and an atmosphere to breathe and support the growth of things like fruits and vegetables and grains.

    Now we sit strapped to the electric chair with radioactive

    material and goop threatening the lithosphere and hydrosphere, an atmosphere and stratosphere full of waste material and a human population time bomb waiting to detonate.

    And on top of this, banks, can you believe it banks, somehow playing the critical role in resource and technology allocation despite their primary interest  being only in making more money.

    And listen to this. I know a few teabaggers who I often have dealings with.  Yesterday, one told me that there are communists, yes communists, embedded in the Obama administration. COMMUMISTS! He knows I don’t watch TV news, but he nevertheless asked me if I ever heard of Glen Beck. I said no. I can go on about how corporations are the driving force of the American Dream, but my synapses will just catch fire and burn out.  

  4. 4 month wait time

    NDS geiger counter

    not available at this time

  5. Sunday, here, on my Pique the Geek series, we shall explore it more.  Please join us at 9:00 PM Eastern.

    Warmest regards,

    Doc

  6. … guest was describing in more detail might illuminate what “some containment functions” means ~ how low down the crack helps determine how much water the containment vessel can contain to cover already fuel spilled from already deteriorated fuel rods, which is needed to help prevent it from going critical.

    The discussion of a vertical crack makes it sound like its on the side of the reactor containment.

    It would still mean the loss of control of the timing of the release of steam, but it seemed like they would have to release steam in any event, in a devil’s choice between bad and worse.

  7. The Japan Times (online), Saturday, March 26. 2011:

    .Level of iodine-131 in seawater off chart

    Contamination 1,250 times above maximum limit

    By KANAKO TAKAHARA and KAZUAKI NAGATA

    Staff writers

    The level of radioactive iodine detected in seawater near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was 1,250 times above the maximum level allowable, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Saturday, in a development that indicates contamination from the ruined reactors is spreading.

    Tokyo Electric Power Co. meanwhile admitted it neglected to alert workers when it detected high radiation in a reactor building nine days ago.

    The iodine-131 in the seawater was detected at 8:30 a.m. Friday, about 330 meters south of the plant’s drain outlets. Previously, the highest amount recorded was about 100 times above the permitted level.

    Read the article here.

    For other goodies, like this:

    “It is a substantial amount,” Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the agency, told a news conference.

    But he also stressed there is “no immediate risk to public health,” as the changing tides will dilute the iodine-131, and its half-life, or the amount of time it takes for it to lose half its radioactivity, is only eight days.

    Hidehiko Nishiyama is a spokesman for NISA, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency!

    I have no comment!!!~~~

  8. …that seems to be the way I’m using this.  

    Anyway, another “it could happen here” clue:

    Researcher warned 2 yrs ago of massive tsunami striking nuke plant

    TOKYO, March 27, Kyodo

    A researcher said Saturday he had warned two years ago about the possible risk of a massive tsunami hitting a nuclear power plant in Japan, but Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami, had brushed off the warning.

    According to the researcher, Yukinobu Okamura, and the records of a government council where he made the warning, TEPCO asserted that there was flexibility in the quake resistance design of its plants and expressed reluctance to raise the assumption of possible quake damage citing a lack of sufficient information…

    From: Kyodo News.   —emphasis mine.

  9. Oh boy.  Prayers in order for these poor folks.

    March 26, 2011

    Fukushima Japan – 30km zone: radiation levels in some towns higher than annual maximum amount

    NHK World :: The Japanese Science Ministry monitored the levels at 6 locations 30 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. 1.4 milliSv (milisieverts/24h) were detected at one spot in Namie Town, 30 kilometers northwest of the power plant. Measurements over 50 hours detected a cumulative level of 2.8 milliSv/2d (d=day). 1 milliSv is the maximum annual (not daily!) amount of radiation not damaging to human health.

    [Professor Masaharu Hoshi of Hiroshima University said] that he thinks the plant will continue to disperse radioactive substances into the air for some time and that he hopes people will carry on their daily life while paying sufficient attention to changing radiation levels.

    Additional instruments have been installed to gauge the levels at some spots outside the 30-kilometer zone.

    Continue to read NHK World, www3.nhk.or.jp

    1.0 mSv/y (per year) is the maximum annual amount allowable for workers in the nuclear industry.  

    04:25 PM in Japan

    Link: right here

Comments have been disabled.