Published: May 25th, 2011 at 2:40 am ET
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Fukushima Reactor Containment Vessels Are Leaking, Tepco Says, Bloomberg by By Yuji Okada and Tsuyoshi Inajima, May 25, 2011:
[...] The company known as Tepco said computer analysis of the meltdowns of three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant indicate the No. 1 [containment] chamber has one hole and the No. 2 unit has two breaches, according to a report filed a Japanese nuclear watchdog.
Containment chambers surround the reactor vessel, which holds the fuel rods, and are meant to stop radiation and coolant leaks in the case of overheating. [...]
Published: May 25th, 2011 at 2:40 am ET
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TEPCO Confirms Extra Partial Fuel Rod Meltdown
*** “Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has confirmed the meltdown of extra fuel rods in reactors at its damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, reports the BBc.
The company said that the rods were in its Number 2 and Number 3 reactors.
TEPCO has been trying to contain radiation from the plant, crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
The company said that it planned to stick to its timetable of getting the radiation under control by January.
TEPCO’s announcement came on the same day that a team from the United Nations’ atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), kicked off a visit in Japan.
Earlier this month, TEPCO had revealed that rods at its Number 1 reactor melted down. It was thought that a similar problem had occurred in the other reactors but it was difficult to confirm. … “***
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/tepco-confirms-extra-partial-fuel-rod-meltdown/91999/
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It seems that there are no ‘experts’ in the field of nuclear meltdowns, which explains why nobody in the industry really wants to discuss it. Gunderson said something to the effect that this was uncharted territory, and that even the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl incidents were still not fully understood, with Chernobyl of course still ongoing, and still being studied (at a distance).
Containment seems to be the key, and they’ve lost that. This appears to indicate an ongoing worse case scenario, until they re-establish it somehow.
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@ steven.
Good response. very well said
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Another occasion to watch this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2011/03/a_is_for_atom.html
The outer containment is not proven to contain at all circumstances. Who’d have thought!
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I feel many scientists would like to comment, but they’re saying reliable data isn’t forthcoming.
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Personally, I wouldn’t consider it “worst case” unless it blows up violently and releases huge amounts of radiation that are directly harmful even to people outside of Japan (more than a statistical rise in cancers a few decades later).
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More Melted Fuel At Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Plant Uncovered During UN Probe
MALCOLM FOSTER and MARI YAMAGUCHI 05/24/11 11:40 PM ET AP
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/24/more-melted-fuel-japan-fukushima-un-probe_n_866315.html
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Seems like information is starting to come faster now. Seeing more frequent references in MSM. And while the news is far from good, at least we’re starting to see signs that the disaster may be starting to receive the attention it demands. To what end? Is this bumping up the release of information only a thinly veiled last ditch attempt to save face? Or is it a sign that things are even worse than they are admitting?
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Remember we are ***used to it*** now……
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This is an indication that the event is far beyond worth telling the truth. You cant save face in the presence of the lies. Thus the Lies outweighed the conscious decisions.
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The latter-worse than they are admitting.
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Hmmm… some sort of comment rating system has been added here. There are some colourful little icons that have just mysteriously appeared out of nowhere. Surely this, is a sign that we’re all doomed?
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My guess is that there is a scissors icon and a rock icon coming soon also.
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Tepco, the Japanese government, and above all the United States government knew from day 1 what the score was. They knew it was a worse case scenario, that nothing could be done about it and all actions taken were simply different efforts to put forth smoke and mirrors until they gained some time before the truth had to be revealed.
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I didn’t get my emergency evacuation plan or bomb shelter key yet did you? I know we spent all that money building countermeasures in respects to the military?
It reminds me of the movie 2012. Each ticket on the arc’s cost 1billion euro. Take that with a dose of reality.
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My concerns are that with the containment breached, at what point are they going to have to evacuate the plant ?
Then what happens ?
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Yesterday, but they won’t tell anyone until next month. But by the math I did, they wont be able to use 10x lead lined, tyvek suits to save their asses at that point. Though everyone disputes my simple linear equation, they fail to acknowledge that the current reactor1 radiation release is 200+ ass kicking sievert’s an hr. take that into an accumulative 30 days left at 24 hours a day. so 200SVHR x30 x 24 = a bio accumulation of 144,000 svhr. thats only 14,400 times the death threshold.
But what do I know. of course the boron is stopping the fission
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They need to dig under the reactor buildings, and inject freezing cold liquid nitrogen to determine the state of the Fuel. Anything besides this is a huge waste of time since there could be a huge explosion or radioactive release far worse than anything yet seen. Better hurry up boys times ticking, while Obama is pounding Guinnes beer in Ireland. Right on Obama, get drunk at a time like this, Your children will be sorry. I bet Obama has been informed of the consequences of Japans fallout on America, and I bet Obama would get shot for making a big deal of it. What happened to all the protests for Nuclear energy like the 60 s had, have the people of the world accepted nuclear death as the consequence of todays rapid development. The truth is, that the worlds energys demands are so great, the resources will not be able to provide, and there is no future. Im fine to live on a small farm like the good old days, what is the rush to live in an electric city, dont people know about…
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my idea was to completely cement in shipping containers, that are prefabricated to lock into one an other. Creating a huge cemented wall around the site. Like the great wall of china, but using the containers as gigantic megalithic legos, toweringin heights upto 20-40 feet above the reactors. Then send in teams to seal and reinforce the wall from the outside in, with a lead / rubber seal. Once the new outer containment wall is complete drive mark 1 fire pumps into the ocean filling the new containment with thousands upon thousands of tons of water. Once the water is leveling off at 10 feet above the reactors roofs, use chinooks to lower a circulation/cooling pump that filters the radioactive waste from th facility. In an international effort each country shipping 1000 plus containers and 1 crane, the project could be contained in a matter of days. While the wall would provide excellent protection on the site to workers, with a chimney effect… Once the wall is filled and the pumps / cooling is in place, tepco could insert a roof, and structurally enforce the newly built outer containment, so a 15.0 earthquake and a 500 ft tsunami couldn’t pop the top…
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How do you purpose to deal with the loss of water through the soil and underground reactor structure? Also what medium do you suggest for the filling of the cargo containers?
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what about a direct hit by comet?
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There is no solution.
It is a DOOMSDAY scenario.
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Means the “blob” is now fighting through concrete establishement in #1 and #2? It is some 5 meters as far as I remember. No longer cooled by water, only nitrogen? Anyone with facts on this? Thanks and gm
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Does anyone know if there are any recent thermal images which would be interesting to compare with the initial set. I was able to find some from 4/20 but since then nothing has been published and I know they are continuing to take thermal images of the reactor sites but I’ve heard they are now top secret? Things that make ya go hmmm.
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Holes feared in two Japan nuclear reactors
By Kyung Lah, CNN
May 25, 2011
Videos
TEPCO admits to more possible meltdowns
Raising funds to help Japan
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The holes may be as big as 7 to 10 centimeters
A hole in the reactor’s containment vessel means there is a high probability of leakage
The nuclear plant has suffered cooling problems and radiation leaks since March
Look to right for other stories
Inside evacuation ‘ghost town’
A photographer documents the ghost town left behind by the nuclear crisis in Japan. What he found was a “time stop.”
Toyota makes drastic production cuts
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/25/japan.nuclear.report/?hpt=T2
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Peter Goodspeed: The ‘myth of safety’ in Japan’s nuclear plants
May 21, 2011 – 8:00 AM ET | Last Updated: May 20, 2011 7:39 PM ET
**** But it is the continuing nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima, just 200 kilometres north of Tokyo, that really threatens Japan’s future.
As emergency workers still struggle to control four of the plant’s six nuclear reactors, the Japanese are only now learning just how serious the crisis has been.
Radioactive isotopes have spewed into the air, contaminated the soil and been flushed into the sea, but the threat of even more dangerous exposures remains as nuclear experts try to determine the full extent of the damage.
Radiation levels in the three damaged reactors are so high emergency crews can only spend a few minutes at a time near the buildings. They have been able to enter only two of the damaged structures to restart monitoring equipment.
TEPCO has announced a two-phase plan to resolve the crisis: it hopes to spend three months cooling the damaged reactors and plugging radiation leaks; and another six months putting the reactors into a stable state known as a “cold shutdown.”
If everything goes smoothly, the reactors could reach “cold shutdown” by early next year.
But that timetable depends on how badly damaged the reactors are and how well the company manages to contain thousands of tonnes of contaminated water.****
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/05/21/peter-goodspeed-the-myth-of-safety-in-japans-nuclear-plants/
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