Published: February 8th, 2012 at 3:40 am ET
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Title: Rising temperatures at Fukushima raise questions over stability of nuclear plant
Source: Guardian
Author: Justin McCurry
Date: Feb 8, 2012
[...] The operator said the sudden rise in temperature did not call in to question the government’s declaration in December that all three damaged reactors had achieved cold shutdown.
“The temperature of the reactor pressure vessel seems to be close to peaking out,” Junichi Matsumoto, a Tepco spokesman, told reporters.
Late last year, however, the minister in charge of the response to the Fukushima disaster, Goshi Hosono, conceded that officials had no idea about the exact location of molten uranium fuel, but assumed that it had come to rest at the bottom of its containment vessels. [...]
Read the report here
Published: February 8th, 2012 at 3:40 am ET
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So they’re still holding on to “cold shutdown” – what for? They admit the fuel is no longer in the RPV – and that’s where they are claiming cold shutdown. They “assume” the fuel is at the bottom of the containment – but previously they have admitted it probably melted through the containment.
If the fuel is cool and no criticality is taking place then there would be no temperature rise.
And meanwhile the entire south end of the facility is having a massive fire!
Yet they will restart some reactors if they can “just get some understanding” from the Japanese people.
Methinks that understanding from the Japanese people is exactly what they do not want.
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Would the logical thing to do is drill to a depth under the sub-containment to measure the temperature there. Wouldn’t this tell them whether or not the containment had been breached as well as the approximate location of the corium puddle.
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nice to see the guardian leaving out the “human interest”
probably because of the “money interest”
300,000 children
“14 children of Fukushima, the plaintiffs of the lawsuit, go to school everyday where the contamination level of radiation is dangerously high.
The map below shows air dose levels of radiation based on the data of “On the analysis of the radionuclide in the soil (cesium 134 and 137)”, announced by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, August 30, in which we applied Chernobyl evacuation standard indicated as colored circles.”
http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=26981
the guardian office is under 3 miles fron the Child Rights International Network!! and the guardian knows!! you work it out!! nice technical piece.. worried about the temperature but not the emmissions?? worried about the advertising revenue more like!!
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looks like a can of worms, smells like a can of worms then it is indeed a can of worms!! have we covered worms?… chickens too maybe?
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alright justin.. your a career journalist.. thats cool! but readers like to read things like… WTF is going on.. let me expand a bit!
the “human interest” as opposed to the “corporate interest” (these are different even if a corporation is a person) is of vital concern here..
i like the human interest stories! for instance, you do a story on japan that is currently lofting cesium and god knows what that is being registered in new zealand! catchment water in the north of the island is double the norm… this burning waste stuff is also affecting the japanese.. i refer you to the ACRO report and house dust in the south of honsju island! not the stories you are doing..
29 december
Japan streets ahead in global plastic recycling race
At 77%, country’s plastic recycling rate is about twice that of the UK, and well above the 20% figure for the US
“”We are looking at ways to deal with what’s left over, but it’s difficult to imagine at this stage that we’ll get the recycling rate to 100%,” he said. “But I think we do very well compared with other countries.”"
notice the paragraph i pinched and think isotopes being burnt and you will be about right.. then think seriously contaminated children… consult the BEIR 7 report to find this out! this guy is a corporate muppet, unfortunately! … heres the link to the other crappy article he did!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/29/japan-leads-field-plastic-recycling
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you know that the guardian has the full story on different blogs.. there is a guardian news feed that gives you the whole article! now thats what i call spinning the bull!
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The Guardian – let’s not forget this classic piece!
“UK government and nuclear industry email correspondence after the Fukushima accident” from June 2011.
Emails released under the FOIA reveal the level of coordination between government departments and the nuclear industry during the Fukushima crisis – and it reads like this (from the “Department of Business, Innovation and Skills” (govmt.)):
“With regards to the nuclear events in Japan. We need to work together on this and have very strong coordinated messages. Therei s a risk here that this event could impact on the global industry. We need to ensure the anti-nuclear chaps and -chapesses do not gain ground on this. We need to occupy the territory and hold it.
(…)
Should also highlight and show that this is what has happened even with the 1960′s reactor in Japan, radiation released has been controlled – the reactor has been protected.
We really need to show the safety of nuclear. We need to quash any strories trying to compare this to Chernobyl. (…)”
*want to see more? Look here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2011/jun/30/email-nuclear-uk-government-fukushima
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AHH! b and b! the good old days! freedom in the guardian offices.. just before they got a good kicking!!
thanks for the reminder.. i used to read it all the time you know! but alas no more!!
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Hola arclight – I bookmarked that one to never forget…..
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hi did a bit on nordea that is quite amusing
on the thyroid thread!
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so why has eurdep been shut down? the guardian could have covered this?? or did it make it to the sports page??
“France declares level 2 nuclear event at Cattenom Feb 6, 2012
* Reactors not shut down after the fault was found
* EDF given 10 days on Jan. 24 to make repairs
“* There were four level two events in 2011
PARIS, Feb 6 (Reuters) – France’s nuclear safety authority (ASN) said on Monday it had identified a problem with water pipes at one of EDF’s nuclear plants and rated it a level two event out of a maximum seven on the international nuclear event scale (INES).
Level two ratings occur relatively rarely, but the watchdog said there was no impact on plant workers or the environment from the event. In 2011, the ASN gave four incidents a level two rating. Japan’s Fukushima disaster was rated a level seven event.”
http://nuclear-news.net/2012/02/07/level-2-nuclear-incidents-in-france/
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if one of those incidents was mercoule.. we got soaked in the stuff!
gieger on!!
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@arc, “funny” thing is that the now INES 2 declared event was only declared so after repairs….it was a INES 1 originally when the emergency shutdown happened in January!
“Pipes used to pump water into fuel rod cooling pools at reactors 2 and 3 at EDF’s Cattenom nuclear plant were not equipped with a mechanism to prevent them from accidentally pumping water OUT of the basins.”
Insane.
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was wondering about that. theres alot of different isotopes flying around.. did you see the finnish and norwegian list i put up?
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and the timing of the switch off is classic… hide the evidence.. so much for the pretence of transparency!! we dont have to put up with iaea ladies bullshit answers!! phew! weight of my mind…
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True. Wonder what we’ll get to see if we switch to “week” data if it’s back online. I feel like calling them, actually.
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thats my b and b!!
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and be gentle with the eurdep boys and girls as theyve been told like criirad gets told!! criirad still has not released a full report for december.. and no notes on anything this year… tell eurdep i love them very much and hope nasty iaea will leave them alone to do an excellent job!!
danke!
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@ arclight… do you know how we can get a password for EURDEP? then we can look at the readings….
meanwhile, this site still works…
http://you-measure.com/index.php?v_ort=Englischer+Garten
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weve got another spewer! they are wise to my ways and have turned it off! at least 3 reactor problems in europe! wowzer! and a catagory 2 again!! but it will not effect anyone.. young, ill or old!! grrr!
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…and all this happening 20 km from my office..and 20 km from the European offices (court etc.). Guess I’ll have a huge “I told you so” moment in the not-so-distant future
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head south for a day trip!! winds are north west possibly! have a glass of wine and a good meal, book into a hotel.. chill!! or stay in an air conditioned area… i should get a reading in the next 24 hours! or hg if the wind changes!
wot a year!
didnt the director of the iaea say that one more accisent will end nuclear!! did he mean 1 dozen, hundred or thousand? cos even a thousand will soon be here at this rate!!
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breaking (again) nuclear scandal rocks scandanavia!!! READ ALL ABOUT IT!!!!
http://enenews.com/govt-kept-worst-case-fukushima-scenario-secret-public-possibility-radiation-exceeding-safe-levels-thyroid-doses-alaska/comment-page-1#comment-200591
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LOL! we start of with a completely shite (as my dear sweet granny used to say) article and end up with a pullitzer prize winner!!
how good is enenews??
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Well.. they could scientifically deduce..that after explosions…and a swift look at the after photos… and figure out really quickly..that some portion was propelled in the air…at a tremendous velocity and the rest fell back down..into the reactors and all around the general area.
What is the stuff?..why ..it’s nuclear material…
And guess what? it burns on its own.
The Guardian is the UK version of CNN…the Telegraph has always been “stodgy”.
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0.37 mcSv/h spikes in LONDON 8 feb 2012 …
heres a video to highlight the pollution hitting london from france!! that was quick!
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When they say that #2 temp is close to peaking out do they mean that the temperature has reached the gauges limit?
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