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Fukushima Investigation: “Within one day complete meltdown and melt through occurred” — “There is no way that gov’t did not know this” (VIDEO)

Published: April 20th, 2012 at 9:18 am ET
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Follow-up to:

Title: Lessons Learned From Fukushima Dai-ichi (2. BWR & Interim Report. 2011. 10. 28)
Author: Kenichi Ohmae, Nuclear engineer
Date Uploaded: Mar 21, 2012
Uploaded by: by H2OProjectBBT

English Subtitles: Click ‘CC’ button in toolbar

At 59:48 in

Within one day complete meltdown and melt through occurred.

And that material fell into the containment vessel, and started a gas leak, where gas could escape.

Water also leaks. This is extremely contaminated, and it occurred within a day.

I believe this is an extremely important point.

Even after a month had passed, the government continued to say that meltdown, any meltdown has not occurred.

But as far as we have observed, Fukushima Dai-ichi reactor one has experienced meltdown as well as complete melt through within a day of the earthquake.

And another important issue is the damage to the containment vessel itself.

It was seriously damaged so that radioactively contaminated water and gas came out of the vessel.

There is no way that the government did not know this.

Even in this investigation we ourselves can see that this situation occurred within a day.

If this had not occurred, a hydrogen explosion would not have happened either.

So a complete meltdown has occurred.

Although they must have known that a melt through had occurred, the Chief Cabinet Secretary at the time insisted that it had not.

So, we are concerned if this important information was fully disclosed or not. If we walk through what had happened at reactor No 1, one by one, then what the central government said at the time seems to be much different from what we think had actually happened.

Naturally those on site knew what was occurring, so it is natural to assume that the government was also being notified.

However, both NISA and TEPCO kept saying “a meltdown has not occurred”.

So somewhere in between, the correct information could be shut off and was not being disclosed, at least to the television or press.

I believe that this point is extremely important.

Melt-down and melt-through occurred extremely early on at Fukushima Dai-ichi reactor one.

And later, reactors 2 and 3 experienced the same accidents.

Published: April 20th, 2012 at 9:18 am ET
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61 comments

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  1. More serious than a meltdown — Japan Gov’t now raising possibility that fuel had a “melt through” at all 3 reactors June 7, 2011
  2. Worse than a ‘melt through’ – a ‘melt out’? — See Graphic July 9, 2011
  3. AP Headline: “Japanese govt kept meltdown risk secret” — NISA spokesman replaced after letting it ‘slip out’ during press conference March 10, 2012
  4. Tokyo Prof. on NHK: Breach of containment at Reactor No. 2 “extremely grave”, calls for investigation — “Much more prominent” radiation spike after No. 2 trouble, yet Tepco now says NO explosion occurred (VIDEO) November 29, 2011
  5. Rapid meltdown happened at Reactors No. 2 and 3 — Indicated by black smoke at No. 3 May 17, 2011
April 20th, 2012 | Category: Audio/Video Clips, Coverups?, Reactor No. 1, Reactor No. 2, Reactor No. 3
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61 comments to Fukushima Investigation: “Within one day complete meltdown and melt through occurred” — “There is no way that gov’t did not know this” (VIDEO)

  • Arizonan Arizonan
    April 20, 2012 at 9:55 am

    OMG great video! I can't believe they had two days, two full days, according to the TEPCO spokesman here, in which they could have brought in back up batteries, between the explosion at #1 and those at 2, 3 and 4. Unbelievable. Two days! Could someone not have hooked up a big battery bank in two days??? WTF. They could have had a truck down to Tokyo and back with the biggest set of batteries money could buy in two days…right??


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  • Gotham
    April 20, 2012 at 9:57 am

    And… the NRC knew

    And… GE knew

    And… President Obama knew

    And… the EPA knew

    On and on like this…


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  • xdrfox
    April 20, 2012 at 10:05 am

    And our Goverments knew !!!!


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  • Whoopie Whoopie
    April 20, 2012 at 10:15 am

    A Must Read:

    Hello World! US SENATOR ON SUICIDE MISSION TO JAPAN! OPEN LETTER!!
    FUKUSHIMA OPEN LETTER TO UNITED STATES SENATOR(S)
    with Copies to DOE, DOS, NRC and the President of the United States of America, Friends and Bloggers on Facebook, et al
    http://askaboutfukushimanow.com/2012/04/18/hello-world-us-senator-on-suicide-mission-to-japan-open-letter/
    See No Evil Hear No Evil Speak No Evil
    http://askaboutfukushimanow.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/3-skeletons.jpg


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    • Whoopie Whoopie
      April 20, 2012 at 10:27 am

      "Your letter really, on deeper study, appears to be part of the mega-dollars bail out plan for TEPCO and further appears to be fully supportive of the pro-nuker industry. Your letter is quite ‘politically correct’ in a killer nuke-era world and discusses the ‘lessons learned’ from the multiple reactor meltdowns"
      Oh man Linda NAILS IT, HIM AND ALL OTHER POLITICOS!


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  • Toadmac
    April 20, 2012 at 10:36 am

    I hate to say it……..
    I had all the info here for all to see within a month or two after the Earthquake.
    Q:How fast do these reactors melt through the reactor vessel once cooling has completely stopped?
    A: 10-60 minutes and it is on the concrete floor.

    Q:How fast can it eat its way through the concrete containment?
    A:During the interaction between corium and concrete, very high temperatures can be achieved. The decomposition temperature of concrete is about 1100 °C. The corium can reach temps of 2800 °C (some scientists and researchers suggest the possibility of much higher temps 4000°C+). At this temp decomposition of concrete can reach 1m an hour. The possibility of total melt through in hours and days, not weeks or months is very likely.
    Masao Yoshida, general manager of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, believed the worst-case scenario — the “China syndrome” — might be near and he braced for death during the late-night hours of March 14, three days after the crisis started.
    It is of my opinion that the explosions witnessed were the coriums reaching ground water deep under the plant.
    Read the biggest fears of the Chernobyl accident in the following days to get a better understanding of this concept.
    I bet all who thought (back then) I was just scaremongering and told me I had no idea of what I was talking about still have this fantasy that the containment is still holding in there.
    I did my homework shills and still do!


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    • Whoopie Whoopie
      April 20, 2012 at 10:43 am

      They KNEW all this! From Day one! Thank you Toad. It's all so horrific. :( AND a pisser.


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    • Toadmac
      April 20, 2012 at 10:53 am

      "Cold War history and the nuclear industry should not neglect the long-held secret at Chernobyl of the potentially disastrous second explosion had the radioactive magma penetrated man-made containment to reach the ground water".
      Welcome to Fukushima my friends!!!!


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    • SnorkY2K
      April 20, 2012 at 11:02 am

      ground water explosions probably would have been smaller and would have occurred in a series of puffs. As a mass of reactive material gets large enough to support a chain reaction, the heat gain can be rapid enough to change each liter of water into 1500 liters of water vapor in a flash explosion.

      They knew this right off which is why the prime minister was so devastated when he saw that the first cloud was dark.


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      • Toadmac
        April 20, 2012 at 11:23 am

        I know it seems hard to believe that it could happen so fast?
        They have known for decades that this time frame outlined above is a very possible scenario of this reactor design. Read older scientific papers and you will find these time frames,temperatures and outcome was of great concern for many engineers and scientists long before this happened. The industry would never admit it for obvious reasons. They will still claim in any way they can that it cannot happen that quick and cover up any evidence that will prove it did. Take it how you see it but, at least check for yourself.
        No water equals a minimum 2800°C. Let me know when you find something that can hold that in place?
        Peace.


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        • SnorkY2K
          April 21, 2012 at 9:58 pm

          Iridium could handle up to 2700. But, over 1800C it would probably need an incorporated cooling jacket of tin. It is expensive and difficult to manufacture. Most of it on earth is found at the KT boundary. It can handle both the temperature and corrosive properties. But, cost should not have been an issue over safety. If they could not afford the right materials, then the system should not have been built.

          Large amounts of iridium could have been mined from asteroids. But, we really cut back on the space program in 1972 and the space shuttle was a compromise show peace.


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    • Plan Nine
      April 20, 2012 at 11:21 am

      Not intending to argue, but merely a layman wanting to discuss – Are you saying the explosions were from steam created by corium contacting subterranean water, not from ignited hydrogen/oxygen created as corium heated up whatever water remained within pressure vessels? I can now see why many concrete reactor containment shells are OPEN at the top – to prevent the buildup of pressurized hydrogen/oxygen in a runaway reactor. The ignition of this H/O mixture might then have spawned nuclear detonations in the SFPs, imho…


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      • Toadmac
        April 20, 2012 at 12:23 pm

        In basic terms yes. I will say this before I start: I am not an expert, nor am I in any way qualified in this field.
        The water changes from a liquid to a gas with extreme speed, increasing dramatically in volume. A steam explosion sprays steam and boiling-hot water and the hot medium that heated it in all directions. For example, zirconium and superheated graphite react with steam and air respectively to give off hydrogen, which burns violently in air) so that chemical explosions and fires may follow (black smoke?). The fuel and fuel elements vaporized from instantaneous overheating. Such explosions are known as fuel-coolant interactions (FCI).


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      • Toadmac
        April 20, 2012 at 12:48 pm

        The GE mark 1 BWR has a vent system in place with high smoke stacks to vent pressure build up in the pressure vessel (after design safety feature modification). To my knowledge these were open when the explosions occurred? This would tell us it either failed to do its job or the fuel and coolant was not where it should have been so was unable to do its job? The time frame these explosions occurred IMO would correspond to literature submitted on concerns by engineers and designers many years before. I think the worst happened before anyone could do anything about it? This is why we did not see much in the way of a big fix from the world. It happened, not much we can do as nothing can stop it, lets play dumb, hope the public wont figure it out, only small leaks, containment done its job, nuclear power is safe with no short term side effects.


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        • Plan Nine
          April 20, 2012 at 1:33 pm

          May I offer a clarification –

          Converting water to steam is part of the normal power generating cycle in a NPP. In this conversion, water ABSORBS heat from the nuclear fuel, which creates the steam which drives a turbine. In a runaway, the fuel heats the water to the point where it breaks into hydrogen and oxygen, and the zirc fuel cladding liberates hydrogen from the water also. If this explosive gas mixture ignites, it will combine again into water, releasing the energy it took to break the H and O apart in the first place. If properly confined, the energy could run an internal combustion engine. I'm aware of a few imbeciles who have been killed or maimed trying to harness this process improperly. In either event, white water vapor is produced. If, however, this were to cause a nuclear detonation in the SFP, black smoke would be produced – hence the Japanese Prime Minister's fearful concern.


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          • Toadmac
            April 20, 2012 at 2:28 pm

            Masao Yoshida, general manager of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, believed the worst-case scenario — the “China syndrome” — might be near and he braced for death during the late-night hours of March 14, three days after the crisis started.
            Monday, 14 March
            11:01: The unit 3 reactor building explodes
            Tuesday, 15 March
            11:00: A second explosion of reactor 3
            "It is of my opinion that the explosions witnessed were the coriums reaching ground water deep under the plant".
            "Witnessed" No public video footage available. I also believe there have been other explosions with no public video footage released.


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        • JoyB
          April 20, 2012 at 5:12 pm

          It was my understanding that the 'new' hardened vent system installed some years ago (in all GE BWRs) requires electrical power to operate. There was no off-site power supply at Daiichi, and EDGs are only tasked with residual heat removal and instrumentation – NOT with circulation or makeup pumps in spent fuel pools or with operation of extraneous valves and such apart from the isolation valves. Which operate like the control rods on hydraulic back-pressure.

          IOW, they couldn't open the valves in order to vent to the stacks. Instead, the head bolts on the containment wetwell stretched on high pressure and vented to the reactor building atmosphere. Nuclear plants – by design – are NEVER supposed to vent containment to auxiliary building atmospheres. They do know that much.

          The situation was no doubt complicated by broken feed-piping to the reactor vessels. What we have here is a compounded point-failure. Identification years prior of a serious weakness, with the 'fix' making things worse.


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          • Plan Nine
            April 20, 2012 at 8:21 pm

            Hello JoyB –

            If I were to summarize the exchange Toadmac and I had above, it seems there are THREE explosion possibilities:
            1 – Steam
            2 – Hydrogen/Oxygen
            3 – Nuclear fission

            Would you care to offer your opinion on which one(s) occurred at Fukushima?


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            • JoyB
              April 20, 2012 at 10:47 pm

              All three, Plan Nine. All three. Fukushima is our last warning – everything that can go wrong, went wrong. As someone who actually spent some time inside the gates of these beasties (PWR and BWR), it's the Worst Of The Worst. Don't get worse that even I can imagine. And I can imagine quite a lot when it comes to nukes.

              We could break that down by unit and incident over months if you want, but I don't want. Boring and terminally pointless. No one can follow.

              Shut 'em down. That's the bottom line, might as well jump to that and save effort.


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              • Plan Nine
                April 21, 2012 at 9:08 am

                Well, you reduced FUKU down to two words! If all three explosion types occurred there, is not NUCLEAR FISSION far, far worse than the other two? Is it not relevant WHY the spent fuel was so near and vulnerable to catastrophic failure of the reactors? And if, in the end, the magnitude of this disaster is DIRECTLY DUE TO US IMPERIAL HYPOCRISY, is this not worthy of discussion?


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    • Toadmac
      April 20, 2012 at 1:45 pm

      One more off/on topic thing I would like to throw out there.
      The Tōhoku earthquake and many before and after in recent times (2001-present) are increasing by many times what was considered the average! I have noticed a trend amongst small/large earthquakes around the world and the gaps between large earthquakes are getting shorter and shorter? I predicted the latest 8's in Sumatra within 24hrs with my patern(luck maybe?) I am predicting another large one between 21st-23rd April.I cannot give specific locations though :(
      Once again I am not qualified in this area so take it with a pinch of salt. The on topic bit is because these dangerous life killer machines we call nuclear power plants, can so easily get out of control very rapidly in such an event!!!! Yet they are still rolling the dice?????????????????????


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    • Bone Idle
      April 21, 2012 at 4:35 am

      Engineer manager Yoshida certainly knew that meltdown had started occurring a few hours after the tsunami. I believe he communicated this fact up the Tepco hierarchical chain. I suspect that somewhere in the upper managerial ranks communications to top Tepco officials was delayed.
      The Tepco officials certainly didn't tell the Prime Minister and government.
      The Prime Minister himself was certainly very skeptical of what he was being told by the Tepco officials.
      The Prime Minister broke with established Japanese protocol and flew by Helicopter to Fukushima himself and interviewed the local engineering staff. The Tepco officials were furious with him for overriding their authority. The Prime Minister also spoke directly to the onsite Tepco staff and told them the situation must be controlled whatever cost. Failure was not an option (His very words).


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  • entropy
    April 20, 2012 at 11:36 am

    All the people on enenews are a shining example of how mankind should treat each other in this dark hour. With intelligents and dignity. Thanks.

    I watched the end of the world
    On the Internet.
    I watched the decline of man in retrospect.
    I listened and read,
    lies and played scifi movies in my head,
    Watched streamed video
    Of the melting presidio.
    My heart did leap,
    As people like sheep
    Were led to bed.
    With that said,
    I am at peace
    With everyone
    'Cause the Internet
    Is just another rerun.


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  • entropy
    April 20, 2012 at 11:38 am

    Ha. Ironic I'd spell intelligence wrong.


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  • StillJill StillJill
    April 20, 2012 at 11:45 am

    I liked it! Made me think of, 'the intellegencia'! :-)


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  • AGreenRoad AGreenRoad
    April 20, 2012 at 11:50 am

    And then we are left to deal with the after effects of secrecy, cover ups, denials, spin and lies.

    Fukushima; Today's Titantic and Costa Concordia; via A Green Road Blog
    http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/fukushima-todays-titantic-and-costa.html


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  • norbu norbu
    April 20, 2012 at 11:51 am

    time to form a community of nuclear free people.


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  • AFTERSHOCK AFTERSHOCK
    April 20, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    Hell…if – we – knew, they – all – must've known!

    I'm curious if human history has ever had such an array of whores at the helm? By now it should be obvious to all, there is no leadership within the world community. They've – all – sold their 'professional' integrity to the highest bidder.

    What's really neat is sooner-or-later, they'll be sitting down to a bottle of wine and contaminated lobster. And while they'll delude themselves into a false sense of security, thinking they can have their daily sustenance scanned for radioactive contaminants, they'll only be putting-off the inevitable. So much for selling out scumbags! ENJOY YOUR EFF-ING MEAL…


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    • JoyB
      April 20, 2012 at 3:51 pm

      Of course they knew, AFTERSHOCK. It's their job (and their lives) to know. Whenever you hear a nuke (or nuclear regulator) say "gee, we don't know" you can safely presume they're lying their little tushies off and just don't want to tell you what's really going on.


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      • AFTERSHOCK AFTERSHOCK
        April 20, 2012 at 4:00 pm

        @JoyB: reminds of a congressman who signed-off on a homeland security bill, which had a section that indemnified the pharmaceutical companies from any thimerisol liability. He discovers a few weeks later, his grandson is diagnosed with neurological disorders that are suspected as being caused by MMR vaccines! I love how the snake just seems to find its tail…


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  • norbu norbu
    April 20, 2012 at 12:11 pm

    Can they really be that ignorant? Maybe this is a planned event to decrease the population of the Earth? It is very sad that this is happening to all of us. The Mayan calendar said there would be a change in 2012. could they really have known all this was going to happen? I still tell everyone I can about the on-going problem we all have. What to do…………..


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  • StillJill StillJill
    April 20, 2012 at 12:17 pm

    It is written, "Vengeance is MINE, saith the Lord",…..but I'm pretty sure He implied that front row seats WILL BE set aside for the downtrodden.

    Popcorn, anyone?? :-)

    StillJill lovin' life!
    In her head,…'UTOPIA!'

    Warm, gentle summer breezes, the soft scent of the ocean and flowers, waffling in the air amid the soft music from the cabana!

    An Old AA saying,…"Don't give-up five minutes before THE MIRACLE!"

    I love you all!
    (Just wait 'til you see what HE has in store FOR YOU!) :-)


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  • razzz razzz
    April 21, 2012 at 12:14 am

    The Great Quake strikes, then they have an hour before the tsunami arrives. What was going on in that hour? Was any attempts made to start the back generators? Did the quake bring everything to a halt there? Or did the battery backups kick on for that short time period.

    How many of the country's nuke plants SCRAMed when the Great Quake struck?


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  • sunpower
    April 21, 2012 at 4:31 am

    In order to have the kind of explosion skyhigh as no. three, the pressure had to still be contained in the pressure vessel. This kind of explosion is typical also of SL-1 and Chernobyl. It would be the hydrogen shearing off and igniting and there being a great deal of steam pressure as well. The history of steam boiler explosions in the nineteenth century is full of big disastrous explosions sometimes killing hundreds of people.


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  • sunpower
    April 21, 2012 at 4:34 am

    Certainly the meltdown moved within a day or so. The same thing happened in Chernobyl where the melted fuel combined with sand insulation and vitrified into the corium matrix. That is the only thing stopping the corium from burning further. The Russians found the corium elephants' feet a year or so later, sitting in a pahoehoe slumps on top of the basement floor. Please refer to the actual videos of this discovery. Thanks.


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  • sunpower
    April 21, 2012 at 4:45 am

    So we know that Tepco, the NRC, Stephen Chu, and GE have learned absolutely nothing from not only Chernobyl but now the much more disastrous fiasco, Fukushima. For example, they have steadfastly maintained the meltdowns wide open, spewing condition. The site, strewn with blown up plutonium pellets, must be maintained wide open. Attempts to bury the site, or build nuclear reactors underground where they could be buried if they messed up, are not allowed. The site must be sited right in the middle of dense populations and have no contingency plans for a meltdown. Now many have seen those sandboxes at some industrial sites, or fire extinguishers, to stop emergencies, but nuclear plants are designed to meltdown without any sand allowed to be poured on the big bubu. If you have a six sigma reactor, it means you bought a load from Satan and have been hexed! It was a setup from the gitgo. The reason the world leadership is so daft, is the money pulling their strings, made up out of thin air is controlled by a mafia that its leaders, the Rothschilds, have said relies on the Talmud for guidance. So there you have it, the main shop manual for the six sigma reactors that came out of the jewish bomb probram, is the frikkin Talmud counseling death to the heathen, apparently one huge necrotic zone at a time. But, because the obedient gentiles will have none of this awful disclosure of the rigged game against them they turn in all desperation to the same political whores same


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  • sunpower
    April 21, 2012 at 4:48 am

    This is a good group here and I commend you all. Nuke free. Sun comes up every morning and tops us off.


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