Sarcophagus to be built over reactor; TEPCO not sure if it will limit radiation emissions — Concrete structure around reactors will take several years

Published: June 16th, 2011 at 7:29 am ET
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Japan: Tepco to build sarcophagus over Fukushima reactor, Telegraph, June 16, 2011:

The operator of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant has announced plans to construct a shroud over one of the reactor buildings, a stop-gap measure until a more permanent solution can be found, such as entombing the facility in concrete.

A similar concrete sarcophagus was built over the remains of the reactors at the Chernobyl power plant [...]

Eventually, Tepco plans to erect a concrete structure around the reactors, although it admits that will take several years to achieve.

Company officials admit they are not sure how effective the temporary cover may be in limiting emissions of radiation from the reactors and spent fuel pools, but it will at least prevent more rainwater entering the buildings and becoming contaminated with radiation, they said.

Published: June 16th, 2011 at 7:29 am ET
By
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109 comments

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  2. Japanese Experts: Effort is in danger of failing… and reactors too hot to cover in concrete — TEPCO admits there is no end in sight April 10, 2011
  3. Gundersen: I think they will get to point of throwing concrete on Fukushima reactors and coming back in 300 to 500 years (VIDEO) July 30, 2012
  4. Report: If fuel melted through reactor, it would react with concrete floor of primary containment — Could add significantly to total radiation release May 23, 2011
  5. LA Times: Fukushima reactors to be encased in concrete — “Critics say that continuing harm is being caused by the plant” December 16, 2011

109 comments to Sarcophagus to be built over reactor; TEPCO not sure if it will limit radiation emissions — Concrete structure around reactors will take several years

  • What a waste of three months…


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    • jump-ball

      What happened to the “cover it with a tent” plan?


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      • maaa

        A shroud is a tent.


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      • SteveMT

        Good question, jump-ball. As early as yesterday, the sarcophagus was “plastic” around a steel frame. Now it is concrete. Hmmm. I worry when the story keeps changing. Perhaps this one will be built first, then they will start pouring the concrete.

        TEPCO begins covering work for reactors
        Wednesday, June 15, 2011 19:35 +0900 (JST)

        The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has begun constructing giant frames to hold plastic sheets for covering the plant’s damaged reactor buildings in an effort to prevent the spread of radiation.

        The buildings of the No. 1, 3, and 4 reactors were severely damaged by explosions after an earthquake and tsunami hit the plant on March 11th. Radiation is still being released into the atmosphere.

        Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, on Monday started assembling the first frame at a port some 50 kilometers away from the power plant. The frame will support a huge polyester cover for the No.1 reactor building.

        TEPCO is prefabricating the frame to hold a sheet measuring more than 40 meters long, 40 meters wide, and 50 meters high. The goal is to minimize workers’ exposure to radiation.

        At Onahama port, workers were busy assembling the steel frame from gigantic pillars and beams with a 140-meter-tall crane.

        http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/15_24.html


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      • Anthony Anthony

        Fukushima entombed: Nuclear firm reveal how it plans to put a covering shield over reactor tostop leaks

        By Daily Mail Reporter

        The is the first picture of the giant polyester cover Japanese nuclear scientists hope will shield the doomed Fukushima reactor No.1.

        The giant construction will be built by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) as part of a bid to stem dangerous radiation being released into the atmosphere.

        TEPCO said that it would start to build a giant cover shield around the No.1 reactor building on June 27, as a temporary measure to prevent further release of radioactive substances into the atmosphere.

        Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2003901/Fukushima-entombed-Nuclear-firm-reveal-plans-covering-shield-reactor-stop-leaks.html#ixzz1PSlX0Tly


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        • arclight arclight

          surprised that the english press is able to cover it all! well done the daily mail!! ex tabloid…now real news outlet. lifes full of surprises
          peace


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    • alexa

      They should do something fast:
      Wednesday, June 15, 2011
      #Radiation in Japan: Nosebleed, Diarrhea, Lack of Energy in Children in Koriyama City, Fukushima

      http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/06/radiation-in-japan-nosebleed-diarrhea.html


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      • CaliMom

        Oh, this is just awful. When I scrolled down to see the Japanese children on her blog, it made my heart sink. These poor children and their worried families are living a nightmare. And, how can a doctor tell a mother whose child has a copius nosebleed since the meltdown that he just has allergies?? Am I living in another dimension here…??? One where everyone has lost their minds?!


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        • Thursday, June 16, 2011 18:09
          Yokohama checks school lunches for radiation
          Yokohama City, located hundreds of kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, has begun radiation testing of vegetables for school lunches.
          The city started the tests on Thursday in response to parents’ concerns about whether food served in school is safe for their children, given the widespread fallout from the Fukushima plant.
          Yokohama plans to test one type of vegetable per day before using it the next day. The city also plans to release the test results on its website.
          On Thursday, technicians at a lab in the city cut up 2 kilograms of green peppers and put them in a machine for measuring radiation. A city official says all food purchased by the city is safe for children, but that it decided to conduct the tests to reassure parents.
          Several other municipalities in Tokyo and surrounding areas have already started or plan to soon start similar tests.
          http://japan-afterthebigearthquake.blogspot.com/2011/06/june-16-thursday.html


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      • A 39-year-old mother of two told the doctor that her 6-year-old daughter had nosebleed everyday for 3 weeks in April. For 1 week, the daughter bled copiously from both nostrils. The mother said their doctor told her it was just a seasonal allergy from pollen.

        Yellow cake pollen ?


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    • Zardoz

      We don’t have three months to play with anyway, Tacoma. Thus it might necessarily follow that we don’t have three years to construct your Olympic swimming pool either. Instead of “bombing the reactors” and busting the corium into “little blobs”, as she espoused earlier, surprise, surprise! Moret is now giving air to the concept introduced in Bob Nichols’ article which I flagged to you days ago, and which you were reportedly proceeding post haste to “do a paper on”. I thought perhaps you, more than anyone else here, might fully grasp the idea that there is really NO MORE TIME to write papers as well, but I’ll let it go this time. NO TIME to quibble, of course. http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/05/28/fukushima-how-many-chernobyls-is-it/
      (see “The Solution, Then and Now, Has Changed”)
      Leuren Morets’latest:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L3BHnI1A_Y&feature=uploademail
      (she makes mention of blowing it into the ocean somewhere around the middle)


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  • farawayfan farawayfan

    Truth starts to become unavoidable, huh, TEPCO. Can’t wait ’til the concrete starts cracking apart in 20 years.

    Ooooh, and 3-5 years more radiation leakage too!!!!


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    • jump-ball

      Chernobyl’s once-reinforced sarcophagus was estimated to last until 2011 and is now cracking.

      The Billion $ Chernobyl ‘dome’ center ‘arch’ now being built on rails away from the radiation will later be rolled over the reactor site, along with the remaining sides following, somehow then allowing work to proceed inside the dome on a new sarcophagus.


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      • Steven Steven

        I think you’ll find the new building for Chernobyl IS the new sarcphagus. It’s supposed to last 100 years, then presumably they’ll build a third one to surround that etc etc.

        This process will apparently continue for thousands of years, again presumably each new building bigger than the last.


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  • markww markww

    FIRST The Government better look at sealing the underside of the whole plant pump concrete so the fissionable material can’t get through the soft sandy type rock. There needs to be a buffer zone. Instead of building a dome just fill the thing with graphite,sand,medical grade charcoal,lead powder,zeolite, boron, and crushed shuttle tile carbon,under the reactors to soak up and stop the plunging of the radioactive materials,(SAFE ZONE) then fill the buildings with hardened (structural) concrete.


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    • sorry charlie

      Sounds like they aren’t doing anything to solve this difficult problem but at least it will appear as a solution has been reached….then all they have to do is not measure any radiation, change the data on illnesses in the area and the problem appears solved. It looks like a worst case atomic event has been taken care of…with easy. Then they can say “see nuclear energy isn’t so bad…no one even died from the radioactivity, we can handle it. Nothing to see here.
      BP is doing the same in the Gulf coast where I live….”everything is back to normal, there’a always a little oil spilling somewhere…doesn’t hurt anything….it’s a big ocean sweetie,,,eat some shrimp.”


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  • cossack55

    At this rate they better consider a shroud over the planet.


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  • farawayfan farawayfan

    cnn, foxnews, nothing about this new admission. Unbelievable. No, correct that, believable, but terrifying.


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    • sorry charlie

      If a tree falls in the woods and no one reported on it…did it really fall….this event has proved it didn’t!
      Most of the world does not belive the tree fell, so….that to me is scary!


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      • Heart of the Rose Heart of the Rose

        Exactly….the tree fell..MSM.. part of the corporatacracy….will be given the heads up by their bosses whether or not they can cover the story.
        If mainstream media does not cover it…it basically did not happen in the eyes of the average citizen.
        Welcome to America..where truth is a conspiracy.


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  • fireguyjeff fireguyjeff

    “but it will at least prevent more rainwater entering the buildings and becoming contaminated with radiation”

    I am so relieved to know they care about the rain water getting contaminated. This ought to go a long way toward a solution.
    RAINWATER CONTAMINATION???
    This is WTF? FACTORIAL!!!!!

    Now all they need to do is to visualize no radioactivity and problem solved.
    And we used to think “my dog ate my homework” was lame.

    This is all so 1st stage sleep dream like. It has all the look and feel of being real, but I keep thinking I am going to wake up astonished at how crazy the dream was.

    Yet this is exactly what I have dreaded nearly all of my life. Only this is in slow motion instead of a bunch of megaton detonations. And this may actually be worse. Most warheads were likely never meant to ground burst. This is all of them ground burst.

    Now I am speechless.


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    • CaliMom

      I’m speechless as well. Even my husband thinks I’m worrying too much about this, and so the only people I’ve really communicated with on this topic are you all. I’ve posted a few particularly disturbing articles on my facebook page, and not one person has remarked. Not one. ??? Where is the outrage? Where is the interest? And where are all the pleas for assistance for the poor citizens of Japan?? You would think, as with any other mega disaster, there would be red cross commercials, and celebrity relations, and public outreach, but alas there is nothing. These people need some serious HELP!!! Their entire country is being decimated before their eyes. What are they to do? How can we help them?? This is all so terrible. :(


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      • CaliMom

        Oops, I meant ‘celebrity TELETHONS’. And, just where are all the stupid celebrities and their fundraisers? You’d think they’d be all over this, it’d be great ‘PR’. Ugg.


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        • jump-ball

          It has become a “third rail” issue.

          I think the political rats and media and celebs are perhaps staying away from or deserting what they perceive to be a sinking ship.


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        • Au

          A friend told me yesterday, “You can’t let things (nuclear fallout) like that affect your life.”

          Oh, OK. Gee, thanks for that enlightenment. I would consider myself of average intelligence but I am starting to think that I might be super smart. Anyway, now my neighbor won’t talk to me because I told her about chemtrails. I told her, “Look up. Do you see that?” And then I told her what the grid in the sky was and now she won’t talk to me. I don’t get it. If someone told me that I would say, “Really?! No way! Serious? I am going to go google that.” I am thinking that most people are brain dead. Seriously- just cerebral ganglions like worms (no cortexes or midbrains (emotion center). Just the reptilian brain that allows thoughtless breathing and heart beating.


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          • anne anne

            People are in denial. One of the stages of the grieving process. Just give them compassion and time to adjust.


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          • CaliMom

            Oh my gosh!! Cracking UP here! :) . You’re absolutely right about people telling you not to worry. My neighbors have ALL done the same thing. And we live in San Diego! I don’t even speak about Japan anymore, because I would at least like to have some friends around me as I choke on the nuclear fallout here. I seriously have to make up ‘happy’ things to talk about, and bite my tongue when people talk about such silly things as the ‘future’. (unfortunately, I’m only halfway joking here)


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        • alasanon

          I totally agree, CaliMom. This is such a nightmare for Japan–it deserves far more coverage! Your description of happy talk while choking on particles in SoCal…that’s eerily must be so much like what’s happening in Tokyo! Going about their busy lives…in the middle of a deadly disaster??? Good luck & keep your options open!


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      • Makes one wonder what response the Gov. would have to the public if we were to have a real nuke missile attack, try to find a fallout shelter folks, they are gone, not funded, you are on your own !
        Nuclear Fallout does not count as a EMERGENCY of Life Threating Threshold for our People by Gov. these days !


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      • farawayfan farawayfan

        Exactly the same situation here. I have managed to get the people at work to slowly realize some of what’s happening, even so, they just sort of laugh and forget about it 5 minutes later. Family refers to me as a Fuk-head, LOL.

        But you’re right, no signs of worry, anger, or even questioning by 99%.

        Guess we’re crazy.


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      • sorry charlie

        “are you still worried about the radiation?” a friend asked with a smirk. I said yes I am in a matter of fact tone. Then she confessed that it was a laughing matter among many of my cohorts…” These are intellegent people with careers and families. I guess they have to see people walking around with lesions on their faces before they can connect the dots….
        a. three way nuclear melt down
        b. radiation and fallout released
        c. atmosphere and water, vehicles to transport radiation around the globe.
        d. Chernobyl this has already happened and has been documented…BUT
        then they somehow skip to x. Nothing to see here no problem, don’t worry be happy!
        I think I hear Rod Sterlings’ voice from another dimension, ..”You are entering a time and place where man has forgotten how to think for himself where reality is manufactured on the nightly news…next stop…the twilight zone…


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        • alasanon

          It demonstrates how effective the mainstream media is in controlling public opinion!! I’ve seen the effects for several years now. The public should have been up in arms some time ago. Now, letting the damage go down quietly is the objective. And the American public has been effectively conditioned to accept being lied to, ripped off, and even having our lives physically threatened….it’s all good on TV! Mind control. :(


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      • Steven Steven

        You mostly seem like good caring people; I have a deeply felt instinct that those who are disturbed by these events, especially those concerned for others, will be ok… at least on the fundamental ‘grand scheme of things’ level.

        Strange days indeed.


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      • We went through the same here during and after the Gusher in the GOM !


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      • aldo aldo

        I feel the same CaliMom. Jet stream and oceanic radiation aside how can the media just drop the Japan crisis to page 23 and nobody blinks? What have we come to?


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    • maaa

      Tepco is making impact reduction statements again. Notice how they make everything sound much better by using rainwater instead of people being contaminated.


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      • Anthony Anthony

        You are right maaa – Google shows over 500 *news reports* of the water decontamination project in Japan today. There are definitely in damage control mode today – beware!


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  • CaliMom

    Just watch them put the shroud over reactor 4 first, so no one will know when it fnally disintegrates and topples over.

    How do these guys sleep at nigt????


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  • Anthony Anthony

    Signature of radiation induced thyroid cancer
    K.S. Parthasarathy June 16, 2011

    ***It is now possible to discriminate between cancers caused by intake of a radioactive material and those that arise spontaneously

    Recently, scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen have identified a genetic change in thyroid cancer as a signature or fingerprint that points to a previous exposure of the thyroid to ionizing radiation. They discovered the gene marker in papillary thyroid cancer cases from the victims of Chernobyl; this marker was absent in the thyroid cancers in patients with no history of radiation exposure.

    This breakthrough has profound biological significance. Now, for the first time, scientists have been able to discriminate between the cancers caused by the intake of a radioactive material and those that arise spontaneously.

    Cancer occurence

    Most cancers occur spontaneously or when cells get exposed to certain viruses or chemicals or a physical agent such as ionizing radiation. So far, there was no way to identify uniquely a radiation cancer from a naturally occurring cancer.

    The researchers led by Prof Horast Zitzelsberger and Dr Kristian Unger from the Radiation Genetics Unit of the Helmholtz Zentrums Munchen in collaboration with Prof. Geraldine Thomas, Imperial College London, examined the thyroid cancers from children exposed to the radioiodine fallout from the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station. ***

    http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/article2107090.ece


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    • Darth

      Fuku gets a clean bill of health…

      “Thyroid cancers will not occur in Fukushima because as per emergency plan the management at Fukushima promptly evacuated the population from the affected regions and supplied stable iodine to the evacuees. ”

      Is this more cover-up???


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    • glenn

      Doesn’t sound good. I can see it now…“Your application for compensation for radiation induced thyroid cancer has been rejected on the grounds that we have scientifically determined the cancer is of natural origin. Here are our test results [here follow 50 pages of numbers, formulae, and jargon defined an appendix in terms of other jargon] that scientifically prove it. Have a nice day.”
      Just like the identification of terrorists by DNA…‘scientific verification’ these days boils down to ‘take our word for it otherwise you’re an anti-scientific paranoid nutjob’.


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  • Anthony Anthony

    Tepco Monitoring Panel Plans to Issue Report in September
    By Pavel Alpeyev and Yuji Okada – Jun 16, 2011 2:36 AM PT

    The committee set up to monitor Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s finances will issue a report to Japan’s government in September, including a possible recommendation to break up the company’s distribution and generation operations.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-16/tepco-monitoring-panel-plans-to-issue-report-in-september-1-.html


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  • Anthony Anthony

    UPDATE: Oversight Panel To Look Into Tepco’s Investment, Procurement Activities
    JUNE 16, 2011, 4:00 A.M. ET

    http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110616-702916.html


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  • Anthony Anthony

    Nuclear future still glowing, despite Japan meltdown

    Eleanor Hall reported this story on Thursday, June 16, 2011 12:33:00

    http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2011/s3245625.htm


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  • JAPANESE SENIORS FORCED TO BECOME NUCLEAR KAMIKAZES AT CRIPPLED PLANT
    “We have to work instead of them. Elders have less sensitivity to radiation. Therefore, we have to work. There is no thought of not doing this thing, this is our duty and our honour, this is what we do for the community and for the people of Japan,” said one volunteer. “We do not like these terms ‘suicide corps’ or ‘kamikaze’. We do this
    humbly, we walk into these reactors because it what must be done not because it is something for which we are seeking glory. When we were younger, we never thought of death. But death becomes familiar as we get older. We have a feeling that death is waiting for us. This doesn’t mean I want to die. But we become less afraid of death, as we get older.”
    Approximately 250 of the 1000 workers in the region are over the age of sixty.
    “The truth is that cellular reconstitution happens at a far slower pace as we get older which gives older people a higher level of resistance to radiation poisoning which makes them better equipped for such an operation, …
    http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Health/pages-2/Japanese-seniors-forced-to-become-nuclear-Kamikazes-at-crippled-plant-Scrape-TV-The-World-on-your-side.html


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    • Misitu

      “cellular reconstitution happens at a far slower pace as we get older which gives older people a higher level of resistance to radiation poisoning which makes them better equipped for such an operation”

      Self seeking garbage! Old people wear out a lot quicker.

      More like, less pension/annuity to pay out.

      GRRRRrrrrrrrrrrr


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  • egkanek

    So Dr. Michio Kaku was totally right at the beginning of the accident back in March 18!! that he urged for “Chernobyl Option” entombing all 4 reactors with borate and sand bags and concrete. And will it need Japanese Air Force to help? Is the temperature above the Reactors as hot as Chernobyl? How hot is the Corium now? and how long will it cool down? and will it stop at the basement for hundred years?


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  • I filmed a proof that Tepco cam is rigged!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYuzgn2RSss

    huge crane visible on tbs while no crane on tepco cam?


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    • BlackRain

      Did you look at a map?

      I suppose there’s not a chance in hell that the crain was delivered by sea and:

      was on a moving barge?
      was traveling on the causeway (a road surrounded by ocean — or surrounded by pond) after being unloaded from a barge?

      A crain that size cannot be delivered by land, especially not after the roads were damaged so badly.

      I WANT to believe TEPCO has been “caught in the act” — again. But I don’t, in truth, though others do, and I’m just one opinion.


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      • jump-ball

        The 2 60 foot plus Putzmeister cranes there now fold down onto large trucks and were driven, one from a Sacramento CA concrete plant to LAX airport, the other from a SC MOX plant to the Atlanta airport, where they were each driven into a Soviet Antonov transport jet and both flown to Tokyo, and then driven to the Fuku site.

        TepidCo never mentioned the logistics of doing it, or the cost of buying the cranes, paying the owners for new cranes and lost production, and renting the Antonov’s.


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    • BlackRain

      Thanks for all the time you invested by making the movie and posting to YouTube.
      Not just everybody is dedicated and talented enough to pull off a project like yours.


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    • They wouldn’t mess with the cams, neither would the the tapes from Pentagon plane strike ?, or BP wellhead cams !


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    • BlackRain

      I misspelled “crane,” so what do I know, anyhow?


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    • Steven Steven

      The top of reactor 2 turbine building is just visible and it obscures the lower part of the crane. This indicates that the crane is situated either on the opposite side of the R2 turbine building (to the camera) or beyond.

      The TEPCO camera angle is quite oblique to the line of reactor buildings, so it’s not all that suprising that the crane doesn’t appear in that view.


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  • The video is from today… i have filmed more than an hour of footage but no crane ever on tepco webcam. Explained in an article on my homepage.


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    • suzie-Q

      I think you might be right about this, I saw this myself and kept going between the 2 camera views to see what was going on and was wondering how the huge red & white crane could be constantly hidden in the Tepco camera view…


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  • Tanuki San

    Several years to achieve? That’s ridiculous! The structure around Chernobyl was built in 206 days. It sounds like Tepco isn’t even trying to solve this problem quickly. The government should just seize Tepco’s remaining assets and organize an international effort to solve this problem. I can’t believe they’re depending on a proven incompetent company to solve this crisis.


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    • BlackRain

      !!!!!! What you said!!!!!


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    • alasanon

      Amen! Has the radiation already stunted their minds? Call in the fearless Russians! Cut the sissy stuff and get dead serious, Japan!


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    • Heart of the Rose Heart of the Rose

      The only thing that even slightly rattles TPTB is litigation..
      Being found responsible..and losing money.
      We have no international body to address this judicially.
      The UN being the embodimant of TPTB.
      The Japanese people.. people around the world will now suffer due to the greed and cowardice of a few.

      INEPT..breathtakingly so…
      Volunteer opinions and help will be turned away.
      There must be minimal admission to a problem.
      They have no concept of morality just legality and those legalities are made to be broke..as it is condoned and often rewarded by modern culture.
      How cruel….


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      • alasanon

        Actually, as China and Russia intimated, international law does apply in the case of lethal contamination of marine waters…They likely can sue effectively in their home jurisdictions and there is an international criminal court at The Hague!…I think serving TEPCO and then filing an emergency injunction demanding action would be useful! (Environmental groups filing as citizen plaintiffs did this quickly & successfully to enforce applicable law during the BP disaster. It was some of the best action/response to date. U.S. Fed. courts followed the law.)
        At this time, basic Human Rights and Children’s charities have a stake and should be able to get involved as well!!! There are many treaties on the books…


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  • U.S. Calls Radiation ‘Extremely High;’ Sees Japan Nuclear Crisis Worsening
    …American officials believed that the damage to at least one crippled reactor was much more serious than Tokyo had acknowledged, and he advised Americans to stay much farther away from the plant than the perimeter established by Japanese authorities…
    The announcement opened a new and ominous chapter in the five-day-long effort by Japanese engineers to bring the six side-by-side reactors under control…

    Congressional testimony by Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the commission, was the first time the Obama administration had given its own assessment of the condition of the plant, apparently mixing information it had received from Japan with data it had collected independently…

    “We believe that radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures.”
    His statement was…

    If the American analysis is accurate and emergency crews at the plant have been unable to keep the spent fuel at that inoperative reactor properly cooled — it needs to remain covered with water at all times — radiation levels could make it difficult not only to fix the problem at reactor No. 4, but to keep servicing any of the other problem reactors at the plant. In the worst case, experts say, workers could be forced to vacate the plant altogether, and the fuel rods in reactors and spent fuel pools would be left to meltdown, leading to much larger releases of radioactive materials….
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/world/asia/17nuclear.html?_r=1


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  • Anthony Anthony

    TEPCO to put giant polyester shield over Fukushima nuke plant reactor to stop leaks
    From ANI

    Tokyo, June 16(ANI): The Tokyo Electric Power Corporation (TEPCO), the operator of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan, has said that it would start building a giant cover shield around reactor building No.1 of the plant on June 27.

    It would be a temporary measure to prevent further release of radioactive substances into the atmosphere.

    According to The Daily Mail, a radio-controlled crane will be used to build the polyester cover around the shattered reactor.

    The project is estimated to cost tens of millions of pounds.

    http://www.dailyindia.com/show/445692.php


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  • Anthony Anthony

    Tepco to enshroud Fukushima Daiichi reactor 1 in plastic

    Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) has announced plans to construct a polyester shroud over its Fukushima Daiichi unit 1 to limit radiation emissions.

    Tepco will start the construction of a rigid steel frame over the No. 1 reactor on June 27, Yoshikazu Nagai, a spokesman for the company, said, reports The Daily Telegraph. The frame, which is being put together off-site, will support polyester fibre panels that have been coated with a resin designed to prevent further radiation leaking into the atmosphere.

    The entire structure will be put together by remotely controlled cranes and other vehicles in order to minimize the amount of radiation the company’s emergency repair crews are exposed to, Nagai said.

    The cover will stand 177 feet high and be 154 long with a roof that can be opened to give cranes access to the interior. It will also be fitted with filters that will gradually scrub the air inside the building of radioactivity, enabling workers to enter the plant.

    http://www.pennenergy.com/index/power/display/5609136920/articles/powergenworldwide/nuclear/reactors/2011/06/tepco-to_enshroud.html


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  • Anthony Anthony

    TEPCO starts up water treatment system, but massive radioactive waste feared

    Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) began a trial run of a radioactive water treatment system at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant on June 15 in a desperate effort to break away from the vicious cycle of injecting water into reactors to cool them and ending up with more contaminated water.

    But even if the system, developed by France’s Areva SA, were to operate smoothly, it would produce a massive amount of high-level radioactive waste that could affect TEPCO’s roadmap to bring the troubled nuclear reactors under control by early next year.

    http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110616p2a00m0na015000c.html


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  • Anthony Anthony

    TEPCO to Use ‘Hefty Trash Bag’ Option to Contain Fukushima Radiation
    June 15, 2011
    By LBG1

    ‘Roughly 1 inch polyester sheets’ to cover damaged Fukushima nuclear reactor Unit One

    http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2011/06/tepco-to-use-hefty-trash-bag-option-to-contain-fukushima-radiation/


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    • jump-ball

      With heavy-duty drawstrings?

      The Unbelievium reading has just reached new highs.


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    • alasanon

      I’ll take that option as fast as possible…during Chernobyl, even the “little things” like slapping on some Bentonite clay helped a great deal. The big difference is that the Russians were on fire–lightening fast in their response. They threw EVERYTHING at it, including the kitchen sink. And all the top scientists and engineers were on board from start to finish. As it should be!


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  • jump-ball

    Now here is an example from Nebraska’s FORT CALHOUN nuclear reactor operators of how TempCo could better manage mass public hallucinations:

    http://www.oppd.com/AboutUs/22_007105


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  • So that may or may not be a good solution for reactor 1. What about 3 and 4, which are the most damaged and releasing visible amounts of smoke and/or steam several nights a week? They aren’t being addressed at all, are they?


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  • Anthony Anthony

    Nuclear is part of the future

    Ziggy Switkowski
    From: The Australian
    June 17, 2011 12:00AM

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    THE reviews of the Japanese nuclear system are beginning to appear three months after the devastating earthquake and tsunami. While still incomplete, the analyses provide ammunition for each side of the nuclear energy debate. First the facts.

    In a natural disaster in which more than 20,000 people have been killed or are unaccounted for, there have been no casualties from the operations of those nuclear reactors in the path of the tsunami or from subsequent uncontrolled leaks of radiation.

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/commentary/nuclear-is-part-of-the-future/story-e6frgd0x-1226076661421


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    • Anthony Anthony

      ***All 11 operating reactors in northeast Japan, built upon solid rock, responded automatically to the first shaking of the ground and shut down safely according to established protocols. But the tsunami that followed exposed grievous shortcomings in plant design as diesel generators, switchgears, water pumps, holding tanks and plumbing were damaged or washed away.

      Almost 200,000 people in the Fukushima prefecture have been routinely checked for radiation exposure without any evidence yet of adverse health effects (including more than 1000 children monitored for elevated radioactive iodine in their thyroids, with no case detected).***


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  • ☢ Take a look ☢

    Fukushima Japan TEPCO to Encase reactors, etc 6/15/11
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCrSPPOtozI


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