Published: July 30th, 2012 at 12:08 pm ET
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Title: Arnold Gundersen with the latest on Fukushima: its effects on Japan, and the global risks posed by the No. 4 reactor
Source: If You Love This Planet Radio
Author: Dr. Helen Caldicott
Date: July 27, 2012
This week, Dr. Caldicott has a new conversation with nuclear engineer Arnold Gundersen about the ongoing nuclear disaster at the Fukushima plant and its effects on Japan and the rest of the world. [...]
At ~18:30 in
Arnold Gundersen, Nuclear Engineer: You’ll see those reactors steaming, still — they’re giving off gas. Unit 1 has a cover on it, so most of the gas is captured — Units 2 and 3 don’t. So whatever steam is coming out of the building is carrying some radiation, no where near what happened in the first weeks, months, etc. — but there is some radiation going out airborne.
The biggest problem is what’s in the water. The buildings continue to leak into the groundwater.
Published: July 30th, 2012 at 12:08 pm ET
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sending...
And they will continue to leak into the groundwater for decades, if not centuries.
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Total Fukushima Radiation Released Into Ocean, Air, Groundwater, Storage Tanks; via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/02/total-fukushima-radiation-released-into.html
Comparing Contaminated Zones Around Chernobyl And Fukushima Ocean Radiation Released; via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/05/comparing-contaminated-zones-around.html
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I believe Mr. Gundersen is referring to those first few weeks and months of outright lies from TEPgov.
"…whatever steam is coming out of the building is carrying some radiation, no where near what happened in the first weeks, months, etc…"
– A. Gundersen
So, is that statement supposed to make me feel better? It doesn't.
Why even make a comparison? Making a comparison to the initial meltdowns seems intentionally misleading and has no bearing on where we are or where we are headed.
I would state that the continuous radioactive 'steam' contamination in unknown quantities has been 'spewing', 'gushing', spreading and accumulating for over 500 days with no end in site. Isn't that what really matters now?
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Because he is going to describe all the conditions he is aware of or a make his best guess at, not such the most dire, so that we can make what considered judgments we can. That's called being informative instead of having an agenda.
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thank God someone pays attention to WHAT Mr. Gunderson is actually saying!!
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I don't agree with Arnie's statement, I think that what has been released from the plant since the first couple of months is much worse than the initial release.
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Only if you consider that it has a much longer half-life, therefore emits less radiation per unit of time, but may be more CMEMICALLY toxic.
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Only if more and more radioactive materials are being dissolved, which they aren't since the temperature has gone down, and they are using fresh water instead of salty seawater.
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Yes it is true that the salt water had the unfortunate effects of worsening releases and increasing travel capacities because of the resulting buckeyball formations.
However, I'm not sure the temperature of much of anything at Fukushima has gone down since the early days of the disaster; except for (maybe) unit 4.
We have seen evidence of many fires. There have also been strange blue-green glows and purple lightning like flares at the plant as well.
These "disturbances" indicate ongoing criticalities. The detections of Iodine-131 and noble gasses are additional evidence of ongoing HOT activity at the plant.
So, I'm not convinced the plant is any cooler than it was in March of 2011.
The main difference is that we cannot view the main action since it seems to be underground….
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but how radioactive is that everyday steam
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Less and less every day. Get a book and calculate the half-lives and figure out what amount of radiation, gamma, x-ray, electrons, is being emitted now. FARRR less than at the beginning. another few months and they will be cleaning the inside up.
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Fury see my comment above please
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Emissions are also being seen outside the reactors…indicating groundwater involvement.
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Arnie's point since just after 3/11.
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"Unit 1 has a cover on it, so most of the gas is captured…"
Is he referring to that square tent that blows in the wind? There's no 'radiation capture' there. If he thinks that tent is a vacuum-sealed airtight container, he's smokin' crack.
Just when you think Arnie finally grew a pair, he continues to gloss over the obvious. It's clear he's not talking to anyone that's been following this since the beginning.
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Yes… That comment by Arnie about the gas from unit 1 didn't seem logical:
"Unit 1 has a cover on it, so most of the gas is captured"
SP: Captured? By what? I just see massive radiation billowing out of what we guess is a huge hole (unseen by video) on the top right of the roof. Good example here just one week ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIBMiBKiCnk&sns=em
Watch about 58 seconds into the clip and on the roof of Unit 1
I'll do a video capture filter later that will highlight that area. Nuck does it much better than me.
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I remember, when the unit 1 cover was being built, Arnie saying that they were going to pump out the gases from the stacks. His handlers need to pay more attention to what he has been saying.
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Even drug dealers in South America won't sell crack in their own neighborhoods:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/brazilian-drugs-lords-show-more-integrity-central-bankers-refuse-sell-crack-their-people
Those bad mofo's have more integrity than our own elected leaders.
Go figure.
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You are not only insulting a person that is doing more to protect us from nuclear radiation than most will ever do, but you are misinforming and confusing people who need to make decisions to protect themselves.
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+1
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Agreed VFO! Even if we don't totally believe what is being said, it is not helpful to shoot our best messengers.
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Yes.. Unit 1..it's evident to see the emissions within and without…it's a tent..a flippin tent!
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A micro thin sheet of plastic can actually stop radioactive steam and nearly all the ionized particles, just as our skin stops many radioisotopes. Go figure.
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And will be for the unforeseen future, until mankind developers the technology to rectify and dispose off radioactive elements, not in the near future.
Best get used to living with it and get prepared and protect yourself as best you can, but you will be exposed no matter what you do.
Madness.
People of Japan fight the good fight, you are well within your civil liberties to demand a safe environment to raise a family and prosper, fundamental right. Power to the people.
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I remember very clearly Arnie saying the tent over unit one would encourage the emmisions in the area to move upward and away from the ground where workers could then work in a better enviroment. He then stated that in no way would it capture emissions, it would simply channel them.
If he was a real scientist he wouldn't make such contary remarks without explaining himself.
Is there anything (besides water in a container)that can contain radioactive emmissions? And if a tent can do all that why don't they cover all the units ??????
SHHHHHHHHHHH
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Please take a moment to relisten or reread his statements before disparaging Arnie. He said there is a vent stack that captures and scrubs ionized radiation above unit 1 working in conjunction with the tent that decreases water from entering the reactor and ionized radiation from entering the atmosphere before it is scrubbed.
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Exactly. Details are important.
Though this is interesting:
http://enenews.com/cover-over-reactor-1-building-is-only-cosmetic-built-to-keep-webcam-from-filming-badly-damaged-building-has-nothing-to-do-with-preventing-radioactive-materials-from-escaping
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As steam comes in contact with the cooled plastic or whatever cover it condenses and runs back down inside. Most all of the steam is coming from the water in the basements from what leaaked out of the reactors through cracked pipes, had lots of dissolved radionuclides in it. AS time goes by much of these will decay into less radioactive and less toxic, and less soluble, and into NON-radioactive materials. as the material in the basements becomes less radioactive the heat produced will go down and less steam produced and les radioactive gases will be emitted. then they can go in and vacuum up, pump out, and clean up the inside. First though they will clean up the outside so that they can get pumps and pipes to the inside.
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I think the 'biggest problem' is the extinction of all life on Earth.
But that's just me.
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For all the Arnie bashers today, please reread or relisten to his statements. Are you actually informing us of what he said or are you demonstrating that you didn't understand what he said. If you really want to paint the person who helped bring international attention to the level of danger at Fukushima as stupid, a liar, not a scientist, etc. then perhaps you fail to see that you are defeating your own goals of ending nuclear power production by trying to get people to stop listening to him. If you would like to take the time to offer a rebuttal to his remarks, that would be great. Help us all see your argument of why this nuclear whistleblower doesn't know what he's talking about.
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I posted this on the wrong thread.
My retort:
It's a mixed bag..isn't it?
We have someone that has the public attention…yet is underplaying the situation.
And so it goes…
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"Unit 1 has a cover on it, so most of the gas is captured — Units 2 and 3 don’t. So whatever steam is coming out of the building is carrying some radiation, no where near what happened in the first weeks, months, etc. — but there is some radiation going out airborne"
I'm wondering who is testing the gas that is flowing out of the reactors and reporting on the amount of radiation that it contains? Is it TEPCO? By their own admission, not a reliable source.
What has changed so much from the first couple of weeks that has decreased the amount of radioactive substances?
From what I have seen watching the webcam, at times there seems to be a lot of emmisions and at other times very few.
I'm not questioning Arnie, i just repeating what he has said.
Why doesn't Tepco cover all the reactors with tents???
If it helps in capturing gas, then TEPCO might want to cover all the reactors.
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many moons: When you are watching the webcam at night, look at the far right corner of the tent over Reactor1. Can you see the hole, the tear in the tent on this corner? Watch closely! Can you see the vapors spewing out this hole? There is a lot of radiation pouring out of Building1, 24/7, no matter how pretty the tent is. TEP.gov built the tent to cover up the destruction of Building1. Do you really want TEP.gov to cover up what is coming out of Buildings2,3,&4 with pretty tents too?
My guess is that TEPCO made this hole in the tent in order to vent the gasses that continue to exit Containment1. (Or else an explosion in Building1 tore this hole.) My guess is that TEPCO might want to build tents over Buildings2,3,&4.
But no workers go into Tent1. Why? The answer spills out through the holes of Tent1 both day and night. Tent1 is a "coverup", plain and simple. (Thanks to nuckelchen, for all of your brilliant webcam work.)
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Philip, my point was..if the tent is capturing gas as Arnie mentioned why wouldn't they be placed over all of the reators. I don't know what material that tent is made out of but I can't image it would have the capability of capturing gas….just my opinion.
I believe Arnie as a human and as nuclear scientist that had the priveledge to study many reactors and their problems surely has a responsibility to try to limit suffering if at all possible. We all as human beings living on this earth have the responsibility to help others. It's sad to think that some don't feel that way.
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Give Arnie a break, he is the dark like the rest of us, its not like he is privy to information, nobody knows what will happen in the future or how to a least mitigate, the only card he has is he knows how they operate both corporate and machine. Go Arnie go.
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He may be "in the dark"..but he is also supposedly a specialist and should be able to scientifically deduce the status of the reactors…much closer than he has expressed.
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HOTR Arnie does NOT have a responsibility to personally deduce any damn thing, JAPAN DOES. He has been harassed from day one for helping out and if it were me I'd retire right this minute, enjoy the rest of my time on Earth in peace, and allow all of the shit talkers to figure it out on their own. You KNOW he and has wife were getting threats from day one but he kept on. If everyone hates Arnie so damn much then you can all go and PAY for a nuclear scientist to fly to Japan to work it all out for you.
Ungrateful f*ckers. This is why we're all dying now.
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I understand that…I also don't have a lot of tolerance for "riding the fence".
The SOS… calls for immediate evacuation.
And.. we are nowhere with it…
No…he has no responsibility…as I have heard a thousand times here..we pick our own battles.
Like I said… so be it.
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It's like that Texas politician said, "there's nothing in the middle of the road except dead armadillos"…
Or like Robin Williams said in "Dead Again"… "you're either a smoker or a non-smoker, choose one and be that."
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PS..Where is his data?
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