Sharp rise in radioactive material near Reactor No. 3 – Seawater concentration triples in a day (VIDEO)

Published: May 18th, 2011 at 11:50 pm ET
By
Email Article Email Article
65 comments


Radiation level at No.3 reactor water intake rises, NHK, May 18, 2011:

The operator of the damaged nuclear power plant in Fukushima has reported a sharp rise in the concentration of a radioactive material in samples of seawater near the Number 3 reactor.

Tokyo Electric Power Company says it detected 110 becquerels of radioactive cesium-134 per cubic centimeters in seawater samples taken on Wednesday morning.

The level is 1,800 times the national legal limit, compared to 550 times, which was reported the previous day. [...]

Watch the video here.

Published: May 18th, 2011 at 11:50 pm ET
By
Email Article Email Article
65 comments

Related Posts

  1. High levels of radioactive material has started to leak at No. 3 reactor — Gov’t says reactor may be damaged… MOX (VIDEO) March 24, 2011
  2. TEPCO says “sharp rise” in temperature at reactor No. 3, up 70ºF in a day — Japanese media: Is it due to the melting of nuclear fuel? May 8, 2011
  3. Highest yet: 3,355 times legal limit of radioactive iodine-131 found in seawater — Reactor cores may have been continuously leaking into Pacific March 30, 2011
  4. AP: Sharp rise in radioactivity levels signal possibility of new leaks April 16, 2011
  5. Tepco: Reactor No. 3 has “doors that should not be disclosed for the issue of nuclear material protection” (VIDEO) May 10, 2012

65 comments to Sharp rise in radioactive material near Reactor No. 3 – Seawater concentration triples in a day (VIDEO)

  • Kay

    Tripled overnight? Oh that’s nice. Still no risk to health though I’m sure.


    Report Comment

  • Manifest Irony

    So does any have any idea of when the entire site will need to be evacuated? 1-2Sv/hr can be lethal in short order and that’s what is reported closer to the cores. Think its just a matter of time before techs can’t approach and are forced to leave the plant to its own devices.


    Report Comment

    • SteveMT

      Read this posted by tacomagroove. Very grim if true. No one has presented alternative evidence to the contrary.

      http://enenews.com/melted-fuel-reactor-3-appears-burned-pressure-vessel#comment-57527

      tacomagroove
      May 18, 2011 at 3:12 am · Reply

      There are only 38 days or less until the fuel sustains a full-scale fission criticality. The boron, (which stops nuclear fission from occurring) will have exceeded its lifespan by this time…
      Tepco had already made a request as of march to evacuate the reactors. Though they are being forced to see it until the end by the Japanese government. God bless their souls. As it surely is a death mission.

      The first death was reported on Friday. Meaning, that the situation is already well beyond cataclysmic. In all reality, the worlds biggest dirty bomb will be released in no more than 38 days…

      Tepco will likely evacuate the site between the dates: June 16th – June 28th…

      “This is because boron is limited and can no longer sustain its self within the current settings”.

      Meaning: the fuel will release amounts of neutrons in such excess that the boron “in any quantity” will be now be unable to capture enough neutrons to stop a criticality.

      At this time neutrons will begin to react against atoms, leading to a spike in temperatures exceeding any known cooling process… The fuel will then go core through the floor, and reach the water table in no less than 1-6 hours…

      At that time the fuel will both be released in atmospheric and oceanic / form. Plaguing Japan first and foremost. I presume that over 100,000- 10,000,000 deaths will be attributed to the event alone. Japan will likely be forced to abandon the main island entirely within that time.

      The continental united states will see the radiation within 2 days. The radiation will sweep across the northwest, as far north as Vancouver canada, and as far south as new mexico. The main area’s to be astray from are seattle through sandiego. The radiation will likely be 350 – 800cmp. (fyi 200cpm is when you should run indoors)…

      This will continue as a global norm for at least two months, at that time reactors 5 and 6 will likely begin the path to china syndrome. If you are in a temporary fallout shelter, by august, you should be planning to find a more permanent location to settle…

      Come November, the situation will likely start over again, now reaching 1000cpm or more. It will be anywhere up to a century for the initial radiation plumes to settle… The 600,000 spent fuel rods, will likely contaminate the entire planet killing 45% or more, of life on earth…

      “Once the reaction from neutrons has dwindled to a 100-300 cpm internationally”; The biological life forms will begin to emerge from the now very few uncontaminated portions of the planet… Though human dna will likely be mutated, and lifespans will be lowered to 20 – 44 years old in adult males, and 25 – 50 years old in Adult females.


      Report Comment

      • SteveMT

        Here is the rest of it. Does someone have an alternative scenario to this nightmare? Is he correct?

        http://enenews.com/melted-fuel-reactor-3-appears-burned-pressure-vessel#comment-58021

        tacomagroove
        May 18, 2011 at 12:55 pm · Reply

        So in short uncontrolled fission taking place inside the zirconium cells, lead to a temperature spike inside the core fuel cells to reactor 1. Once the heat reached beyond boiling point the tops of the fuel rods were exposed to the now present oxygen. Creating a violent reaction damaging the rods… This allowed the nuclear fuel pellets to escape their containment, dropping to the bottom of the reactor core. At that point Tepco then had no choice but to induce nitrogen into the reactor (as the melting of zirconium creates vast amounts of hydrogen)… While the nitrogen settled the hydrogen the remaining fuel collected in the bottom of the reactor, creating so much fission the fuel melted through 6 feet of metal and concrete landing in the reactors basement. Now were playing a dangerous waiting game. The GE reactor design has an emergency platform designed under the reactors containment in the event a meltdown was to occur, that feature was built to not only prolong a meltdown but also prevent fission as best it can… However, with the fuel heating up, you must consider that the water being implored with high levels of boron are doing little to nothing to prevent the fission from occuring… That being said, Its only going to be a short amount of time before the fuel likely surpasses the emergency system, and makes its way into the water table. After that happens, soil and water will produce steam clouds that will contaminate vast areas of the planet… =ing the evacuation of the site… Game Over.

        I assume this will be more like a nuclear fountain… Think of a geyser of radiation spewing into the atmosphere for the next 10 – 1000 years Like they are now except 20 times worse… One that will create temperatures that are unbearable to work near, rising to 120f. or greater… It will contaminate everything its stream touches. Fukushima would become a wasteland, of contamination and japan would need to extend the evacuation zone to at least 300km likely much much more area. though A china syndrome has never happened thus the math is beyond me… The contamination would spread in any nation internationally and nationally. (as it has now). but in much higher doses. likely 150 -350cpm… Note this is on the premiss that only one reactor has reached criticality… However: In the event there is an explosion, Well thats just bad… We would witness at least 3 – 300000 tons of metric nuclear waste, instantly turned into particle form… The release would do either one of three possible things… 1. a really bad case scenario: Assist reactors 2-6 in achieving a full fusion criticality, leading to an apocalyptic amount of radiation in such high density that anyone that is in its path would perish by suffocation; 2. The better, and yet less likely scenario: achieve a level of detonation, while completely staying within a safe proximity of the other troubled reactors on site, (which is very unlikely)… somehow redirecting most of the initial mass over and into the ocean… Thus spreading only minute levels of radiation globally… Then there is the worst case scenario… 3. (fyi, This is also a product of result #1)… If the fusion some how took the full site (all 6 reactor) in one big kaboom (meaning a full fusion criticality) … In lamen terms: There will be absolutely nothing left; Ever witness a: coronal mass ejection??? Now, have you ever heard of the earth creating one??? If there were an explosion leading to a full fusion criticality, You wouldn’t need to worry about flights or planning… That would register as an ELE. (extinction level event)… The explosion would likely blow the entire atmosphere off the planet.


        Report Comment

      • Dbug

        Wild unsupported conclusions??? Naw….

        “The 600,000 spent fuel rods, will likely contaminate the entire planet killing 45% or more, of life on earth…”


        Report Comment

        • xdrfox

          @ mark V

          If someone would like to go back to a posting, the list for each reactor and spent fuel pool and all awaiting new fuel is listed some time back toward the beginning of this website, I don’t think it was posted on FOSL the prior site !
          Think it was copied from the New York Times !


          Report Comment

        • xdrfox

          Also a posting of how many rods are in each bundle, it was a bit over 600,000 spent fuel rods !


          Report Comment

          • extra knight

            63 or 64 fuel rods per bundle, some may be more. so that’s what i believe, upwards of 600,000 fuel rods total at fukushima dai-ichi.


            Report Comment

          • Dbug

            It is easy to inflate numbers to make them sound even scarier by counting the same thing a different way. Each fuel assembly in a reactor or pond is actually made of many thin rods full of pellets. It is each full assembly that (until damaged) has cladding around it.
            So someone wants to scare people with a bigger number. How about talking about the amount of fuel in grams or moles instead of tons? Think of how big that number would be.

            What matters it what was and what is now and what may be released into the environment. If people want to cook up unrealistic gloom and doom that’s easy to do. If all of the fuel assemblies in the world were equally divided up among all the people and we each ate our share we’d all die. Fine. (Like other arguments using inflated figures thrown around here, that example is also a straw man argument. When reality isn’t bad enough just make up a nonsense example and point at that as somehow proving something.) It’s drama. (Examples of drama are everywhere, like RT claiming to report from Hiroshima when nearly everyone else is in Tokyo? Showing no landmarks and sitting in a room with a PC, there is reason to doubt that the “reporter” is even in Japan.)

            If we try to look at real-world exposure and risks, we should realize that these other nonsense numbers are just a distraction. That suggests that some people are lacking relevant facts to support their conclusions or they lack the skills to know how to reach valid conclusions.


            Report Comment

        • extra knight

          oh jiminy crickets!

          stay in your bananas/ariplanes/speedboats world of delusion and disinformation please. your gradeschool analyses are shameful and deficient.


          Report Comment

  • LeafyBitz

    I guess the concrete plug-up job in the trench did not work.

    The fact is, that if the ground water is now contaminated, and quake/shock is going to tned towards liquifaction, and liquifaction is infamous for mobilizing and remobilizing and migrating ground water.

    So I expect that any aftershock swarms are rapidly propagating the ground water contamination around and beyond the site (as well as opening cracks in concrete).

    Such contamination is unstopable, and if its long-lived isotopes, it will keep moving around for years, decades and centuries, with each new regional earthquake and aftershock sequence.

    Burying it can’t fix it.


    Report Comment

  • mark V

    Personal lie detector at 50%. Was I to release news like this, only natural would be to add “there was no contaminated water dumping into the ocean recently” or “there was..” or something, cause listeners will be wondering, no? Who are kids, us or them?


    Report Comment

    • mark V

      Maybe the site is long abandoned and the detector readings are taken at Tokyo HQ? Seriously, what was the last announcement of some specific operation at the plant? “Everything under control, we have new plan” doesn’t count. Tacomagroove please say this was a joke.


      Report Comment

      • SteveMT

        mark V,

        That is why I re-posted tacomagroove’s information. There is a great silence from Fukushima of really 2+ months. Remember the helicopters fiasco?…The saw dust, shredded newspapers, and diaper chemicals? The seawater corroding everything that it came in contact with? Are we idiots or what?
        These idiots opened Pandora’s death box, and we are the unwilling participants in the game of who gets metamorphically challenged first, next, and last.


        Report Comment

        • Info

          On TV Now:

          CNBC is replaying “Nuclear Meltdown” at 1:00 a.m., for those still up. It’s about Fukushima.

          It’s actually very good!


          Report Comment

          • Jack

            I watched it, warning my sweetie at the moments they
            laid off the harshest facts, and repeated statements NOW
            known to be either intentionally false or erroneous.
            CNBC I think did not mention GE in the show?


            Report Comment

          • Dbug

            Do they have much of their news or segments available on the web, maybe youtube if not their own site? Most U.S. coverage is so bad it gets me angry. PBS has their newscasts online, but it seems like in general access is better for foreign sources. I don’t really like Flash video (and like MS silverlight even less, so I see NHK video on livestation.com instead of their own site), but I do like that youtube also has h.264 video (.mp4 files that play in VLC). The DownloadHelper Firefox plugin allows getting the h.264 versions onto ones own computer. It also allows getting them without using Flash, which many may want disabled due to the security/malware danger it exposes from many sites.

            I have much criticism for GE and what happened recently with the FCC (thedailyshow.com may 16 covers it), but the problems aren’t just with GE’s oldest and creakiest reactors. They even deserve a little credit once in a rare while. Their manuals for the Mark I reactors (unit 1 and 2) say that the fuel ponds are to be used for loading ONLY. So storing fuel in them, and the dangerous re-racking (changing the fuel holders so that more can be stacked in closer together) are some major blunders that are NOT GE’s fault. But I poke at them too, even their 1960′s cut-corner color tv sets that gave off Xrays, a funny coincidence. (as a kid I repaired sets as a hobby so I know what they did wrong)


            Report Comment

  • Steven

    Live feed looks very smoggy/hazy right now, can’t see much detail….

    http://www.youtube.com/user/tbsnewsi?feature=feedlss#p/l/-ZPYlazljME

    …the local weather implies no fog or low cloud so I’m curious where this stuff is coming from…

    http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/47557.html

    Wind 13kph from the south west, possibly smog from the area around Tokyo?


    Report Comment

  • Where do you get your sources ene?


    Report Comment

    • mark V

      there’s reference link above the quote, in this case NHK News Japan


      Report Comment

    • SteveMT

      This source is NHK above. Just click on the link above.


      Report Comment

    • Dbug

      The sources here seem to be from all over the place. There’s not much coming from the U.S. (I think mostly because less is happening, there’s a feeling that over-reacting harms Japans recovery and the global economy, and there’s been Libya, Syria, Gov Arnolds’ maid…, but they should say much more than they do)

      Various sources in Japan, including NHK (seen on livestation.com or http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/ ) translated local papers, international agencies and monitoring sites, and the releases from Japanese agencies and even Tepco daily press releases are all good sources. Germany, which was already shifting away from nuclear power isn’t shy about revealing anything (DW Deutch Welle tv). Many good reports of fuel processing and such have come from France (France 24 tv), but they’ve backed away from the harder news (between it impacting their international business, and their being other major events it is no surprise). In general cross-check sources and give facts the sniff test. wikipedia.org has a wealth of technical information and following cited sources there will often inform and amaze.

      Articles from various other papers and blogs are mixed. Some are editorials just promoting authors existing opinions (or with some like the WSJ, agendas), and a few have gone off the fanatical deep end. The most misleading major outlet I’ve seen is RT (Russia Today) with a heavy anti-western bias (they’re also in a conflict with Japan over possession of several islands), but in spite of being short on facts and heavy on biased conclusions, they occasionally bring up stories others aren’t covering. It’s a mixed bag of wisdom and nonsense here and from many of the sources so trust your gut feelings. This site is a good resource and many people have linked to interesting things. (Thank you!!!) Look for analysis that is based on facts from credible sources, and avoids flawed logic. Keep some boots for when it gets thick.
      This link may help teach some to spot flawed or deceptive reasoning:

      https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Logical_fallacy


      Report Comment

  • SteveMT

    While we ponder the end of life on this planet, a tour group will visit Japan. I hope that they have a pleasant journey. Stuff like this cannot be made up.

    Japan tour sells out fast despite radiation fears
    2011-05-19 08:25

    IT seems as though radiation is no match for low prices.

    Despite the fear of radiation, a cheap package tour to Japan sold out in just one day.

    The four-day trip was priced at about 3,000 yuan (US$428) and included a stop in Osaka, which is about 600 kilometers from the area hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March. A nuclear plant was damaged in the disaster, leading to radiation contamination in parts of northeastern Japan.

    The first group of travelers will set out from Shanghai tomorrow.

    Another group of 180 Chinese tourists will take a chartered plane from Shanghai to Japan on June 2. They will stop in Osaka, Kobe and Kagawa, according to a spokesperson with the Spring and Autumn International Travel Agency.

    http://english.eastday.com/e/110519/u1a5897279.html


    Report Comment

    • LeafyBitz

      The show must go on …

      And so must the tourism industry … so little else is functoning.

      Hope they bough some candles and flashlights.


      Report Comment

    • mark V

      Radiation levels are not that high for single exposure, even 30km from the plant. But if I knew I will be receiving the remaining 99% to grant cancer during coming years, I would go to local bar instead.


      Report Comment

      • tony wilson

        Radiation levels are not that high for single exposure..

        fella are you what they call a doped up cracker?
        you should offer your services.
        tepco need a kamakazi tracking crew for the mox fuel reactor,the core seems to have left the building and they cannot find it..
        really the doses are well below the new limits.


        Report Comment

    • Cassie

      A travel group to Japan.
      For the love of God have they lost their minds?
      This is the mentality we are up against.
      Total denial.


      Report Comment

      • Jack

        The Chinese tour operator, travel agent needs to make money,
        the Japanese need the business, and I would think that there are
        cynical managers of the Chinese people to see to it that this tour group is composed of expendable, low potential, excess population-types.
        Fulfilling the Chinese Illuminati De-pop plan as well as our own.


        Report Comment

      • Anna

        Ok, I am smacking my forehead on this one. Sheesh. For an extra 5$ each this could do a side tour to Chernobyl.

        This is a true story also: We have a family friend who has a friend(American) doing student exchange in Japan. The friend in Japan says everything is fine and, in fact, the parents of her bff are sending their daughter to go visit her in Japan.


        Report Comment

        • SteveMT

          I read your post pondering the extent to which humans will avoid and/or deny reality. Would they also buy tickets on an ocean liner named Titanic II? How to wake up people is the quintessential question of our [limited] time.


          Report Comment

          • Anna

            They probably would buy a ticket if the tickets were cheap enough.

            I said for years, while living in Chernobyl fallout, that if radioactivity was lime green people would not be eating hardly anything in the grocery store. If you can’t see it then in many people’s minds it does not exist.


            Report Comment

          • Cassie

            Anna: I was thinking the same thing.
            If people could see the radiation, we
            might get them out of their denial.


            Report Comment

          • Anna

            Cassie, It looks like they turned HAARP down a little bit or changed it’s settings from dark gray skies to something more suiting to the season. It is still there in MI, though. I saw scalar indications over Lake Erie last night. I hope you are getting a bit of sunshine. : )


            Report Comment

          • Cassie

            Anna, it is still eerie and gloomy here, cold and wet.
            But we did get about 15 minutes of some weak sunlight
            through the gloom. It was nice. But it is gone now and quite dark here even though it is mid afternoon. Everyone is talking about the weather, how cold, forbidding and dark it is. Reports of sore throat, coughing, and bad taste in mouth. We live in a large valley with poor air quality as it is.
            Heart posted a map of radioactivity and it is as high here in Ohio as parts of the west coast.
            Many thanks Anna for this information.
            Can you tell me what HAARP is and why they are doing this to us? They need to stop it, people here getting more and more upset with the freaky weather.
            Cassie


            Report Comment

          • Anna

            Cassie, The History Channel has done a few episodes on HAARP and chemtrails:

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMjPhHVIOKk&feature=related

            Here is a good one on Chemtrails:
            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf0khstYDLA

            I hope you get some sunshine soon!


            Report Comment

          • Cassie

            Many thanks Anna, I will look at the link and google.
            And I think you may be correct, forecasting sun tomorrow!
            Cassie


            Report Comment

        • misitu

          Similar concern here, but parents of said have asked one to not express opinion on young adult female spending 12 mths at university in Japan.


          Report Comment

  • Heart of the Rose

    Posted here somewhere ..I suppose..although I haven’t seen it.
    http://www.radiationnetwork.com/


    Report Comment

  • Cindy

    I just ‘Googled’ Cesium 134… OMG !!

    Caesium-134 has a half-life of 2.0652 years


    Report Comment

  • But if I knew I will be receiving the remaining 99% to grant cancer during coming years, I would go to local bar instead.


    Report Comment

  • Urban

    Good that someone care for reporting about this!
    Strange that anyone believes reactor three still exists. After two months and so many photos it is clear that the explosion at reactor three – was a full blow of the reactor vessel itself.
    To me at least it is clear the entire building blow up, and left is just the lowest part and upon that the debries from the upper part of the building. If there would be any reactor vessel – it would stand up visible among the debries.


    Report Comment

  • Like one of our wittier posters said last week, you are correct Urban,..”A one eyed dyslexic monkey,…figured that one out too”! Not a slam on you–and I do not mean to be so demeaning to ‘one-eyed dyslexic monkeys” either!


    Report Comment

  • Is it always a ‘sign’ of a shill, when they BARGE IN and tell everyone what the hell to do?


    Report Comment