Published: December 16th, 2011 at 3:08 pm ET
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Japan marks nuclear reactors milestone, CNN reporter Paula Hancocks, Dec. 16, 2011:
Transcript Excerpts
At 1:20 in
- Tepco and the government are trying to pacify the Japanese public
- Still a huge amount of anger and resentment that this was allowed to happen in the first place
- This is obviously a political statement because they want to pacify the public mood
At 3:00 in
Experts say that the next step for Tepco [...] is that they have to try to remove these spent fuel rods. Now they are very damaged. And of course Tepco doesnt know how damaged they are at this point because workers have not been able to get close enough to give a first hand account of just how bad the damage really is.
Article Excerpts
[...] Officials could start removing spent fuel rods from the facility next year [... Michael Friedlander, a former senior operator at U.S. nuclear power plants] said. [...]
Fires believed caused by heat from the No. 4 spent fuel pool damaged that unit’s reactor building. [...]
Removing spent fuel rods is the next step, but officials need to further survey the area before that happens, [Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Toshio Nishizawa] said.
“We are considering sending a robot into the fuel tanks to really have a good idea (about) the situation. This will be necessary when we take out the fuel,” Nishizawa said. “But I don’t believe what we see will be 180 degrees different from our simulations. But as we say, seeing once is better than hearing 100 times, so we will have a good look at what’s happening inside.” [...]
h/t Rachel
Watch the video here
Published: December 16th, 2011 at 3:08 pm ET
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sending...
Over 9 months later and they haven’t a clue as to what is happening in their own plant. Shame.
Hey-9 months… It’s nuclear baby time! Where are the stats on infant mortality and Fuko related birth defects? It must be happening….
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Oh they know, and they can’t send a robot until they figure out how to rig the camera and giegers to show exactly what they want. Otherwise, they’d've done it long ago. I could’ve hand built a radiation hardened treaded rover to take some damn pics and rad readings if they’d've asked.
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Exactly, it is disgusting….oh golly gee, some day we will take a look, but we are not relying on “simulation” when our emergency response manual was a blatant farce, but you can believe our new computer simulations….
Some day we get to that robot thingy.
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The Russians tried using robots but they kept breaking down due to the radiation……..
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The Russians were preoccupied with containing the core, something that doesn’t even make priority list with TEPCO. Building a radiation hardened robot using redundant systems that could last long enough to transmit some visual and meter data is certainly within our technological grasp. They just don’t want to do it.
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With high radiation, they may need robo-[REMOVED]
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“.. because workers have not been able to get close enough ..”
If they just wait another 2,800,000 years they can start to walk up to it and look in. In the short term, they may still need to backup a bit.
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They are SO sure of cold shutdown, yet they do not have a clue as to what is really going on. The fuel could have leaked out and be dozens of feet underground by now, for all they know.
Saying something is easy. Anyone can do that. I can say that I am President of the United Nations, but that does not make it so.
Proving it is quite another.
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Ah, but you can say you are the president of the un if you define being president as sitting and the chair you are in is the UN. There, presto bingo. Just like cold shutdown means we’ve managed to cool the trace amounts of core left in the reactors! Hooray for doublespeak.
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Hail to the Chief!!
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@AGreenRoad
“Saying something is easy. Anyone can do that. I can say that I am President of the United Nations, but that does not make it so.”
Oh, but would that that were so!
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Child growth was reported earlier in a post being down some percentage points. If someone has the link it was posted here on ENENEWS. I would like to see new stats because that article was posted a while back and the data regarding specific prefectures would be nice to have. Not too sure if the research has even been started. I hope it has we need to know how this radiation will affect the population and the timeline we are looking at..
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Maybe some useful links here, idk
http://enenews.com/abc-childrens-growth-stunted-around-fukushima-meltdown
http://enenews.com/tokyo-shimbun-whats-happening-children-50-km-fukushima-plant-nosebleed-diarrhea-lack-energy
the ECRR documents what to expect
http://www.euradcom.org/
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You can’t really declare a ‘milestone’ if you can’t see the signpost and all signs indicate that this ‘news’ is coming out to coincide with the debris that is floating our way. That might jar quite a number of us out of our shop-till-you-drop stupor.
“What’s that floating out there, Mummy?”
“Why, it’s just flotsam, dear. Go play with your pod.”
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hmmm…interesting timing, indeed.
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The full video is pretty uncritical regarding the “cold shutdown” claim. She repeats several times that it is really a “major milestone.”
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Perhaps the teleprompter said “millstone” and she misread it.
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Good one. If only Obama’s teleprompter would admit that too …
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@lam335
He’s busy learning the difference between bow (as in archery) and bow (as in boat). :>)
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XD Millstone indeed.
I swear, there are days when I don’t know whether to cry or laugh hysterically until I cry.
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the fire damaged spaghetti cannot be put back in the box.
it has entered pancake stage and the robotic spatula used to pick it up has not been invented yet.
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Alright everyone! I’m cracking up here tonight.
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http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20111216_05.html
Old Russian Nuclear Icebreaker Ships, now that leaves me all warm and fuzzy feeling.
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24 minutes ago:
NRC Denies Petitioners Request to Shutdown Fukushima-Style Nuclear Plants – Patch.com
petition, headed by Beyond Nuclear, an anti-nuclear organization, called for the immediate suspension of 17 nuclear facilities with General Electric (GE) Boiling Water Reactors Mark 1 units
http://barnegat.patch.com/articles/nrc-denies-petitioners-request-to-shutdown-fukushima-style-nuclear-plants
What is wrong with this picture!?!
One natural disaster away…and they SAY NO.
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Why should it be their decision in the first place. This issue affects the citizens of that area and I thought this was a democracy. That decision, to close the plants, should be voted on by US not some unelected board.
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@Bones
Spot on!
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They need to drop the idea of trying to shut the nuke plants down. They need to Force them all to buy a prepaid insurance policy that will pay for all health, property and environmental damages associated with any release of radiation from the facility.
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Your right. Instead of IMPOSSIBLE, make ‘em PAY.
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If the risk is as low as they say, then it should be cheap to get the insurance.
And the government would want it, because it takes the cleanup risk off their plate.
And if they can’t get insurance, it makes a nice case for them not being in business.
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BTW – no legitimate company would ever insure a nuke plant – ever.
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They don’t need a company to insure them, they get taxpayers to do it. Irradiated taxpayers paying for the plutonium they get poisoned with. Nice scam, huh?
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The taxpayers picked up the bill for the Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya now all contaminated from enriched uranium. Small scale nuclear weapons have been used for the last 10 years I doubt the pro-nuke persons have any qualms about dying to radiation.
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Don’t forget to add the medical bills as well, when you come down with that nasty bout of radiation induced cancer.
The MIC has a good thing going, and we’re the chumps paying.
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Depends how it’s underwritten…….
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@James2
But that would imply that someone in government is engaging in critical thinking.
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Ode to CNN
24/7 & 365, AC 360 & talkinghead jive-
DEATH and DISASTER,SCANDAL and TERROR !
The less facts we give you…
The less room for error !
Be glad you’re alive and safe in TV-land,
A drone in the hive, well spun & rinsed-
DONT TOUCH THAT DIAL !
until you’re convinced
all you need is a smile.
(Or so goes our ditty
Remote control pretty
With 60 inch Precious)
Don’t trouble your Kiddies,
It’s THEM that are bad,
“IT” can’t happen here
And over there it’s just sad.
Send us a tweet if you think we are full
of journalistic impurity.
We’ll pass it along –
To HOMELAND SECURITY !
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Brilliant, entertaining and a very bitter truth pill.
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yep.
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Scary good poetry. Right on.
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@or-well
Orwell, I nominate you as the poet of 2011 at enenews.
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Wow, if you can get that all on a hoody, I’d wear it.
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Where would I be without the wonderful insight and wisdom of CNN to warn me that “Spent fuel rods are “very damaged” (Cooling pumps quit… how long ago, was it now?)
CNN’s statement that the fires “have damaged reactor building” is a bit incomplete in that, they have failed to state which part of the building the fires have “damaged.” Is it the part of the building that is still standing or the part that is scattered all over the entire complex?
I wonder if they will ever get this story straight?
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probably 5-10 more errors in the TV segment
was going to point them out but they need to do their own fact checking… it’s CNN right?
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Thank you for the comment Admin. My comments and questions were purely sarcasm. To state that fire damaged the building, at this stage of the game, is absurd. And of course they will never get the story straight as long as they serve the psycho’s who sign their paycheck.
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@ZombiePlanet
Let’s see now, where did those CNN journalists graduate? We need to contact that Dean.
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I just want to add some old video facts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unvcryGXNv4&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSbIh1-AdBM&feature=related
You tell me why it was possible then, and not now!
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Well, now, that’s a good question. The best of all answers would be TEPCO greed and cover-up. Hoping enough people forgot the video you remembered and no plans to make another one. The worst reason would be that it has gotten so bad in there that they really can’t get a camera back in, even on a boom or a drone.
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