Friday, August 15, 2014

Spiderwebs at Fukushima Daiichi August 2014


Yesterday appeared calm at Daiichi. Not today. Spiderwebs are back.

 

 


I don’t know the nature of the spider-webs. I know they are most likely to occur during rain but I’ve also seen them on clear, sunny days at Daiichi (SEE Pink and Purple Spiderwebs and Spiderweb Phenomenon Visible in Day Light - Majia's Blog)

They coincide with heavy steam emissions. They often arc out from the new construction area on unit 4 and from the emissions out of the decimated unit 3. Sometimes they seem to emanate from the common spent fuel pool.

I’ve also noticed that the Futaba cam view of Daiichi lights up during spiderweb events, despite the precipitation and/or emissions. The Futaba cam is located some kilometers east of the Fukushima Daiichi plant at a street intersection:

There have been many hypotheses as to their nature:

·         Cam lens phenomenon caused by precipitation
o   Sometimes the movement of the webs seems to suggest droplet like behavior on a lens in the wind
o   But I have seen spiderwebs in the absence of precipitation, during the day, giving me pause
·         Raindrops with radionuclides in them on cam lens
o   Could be but same question about non-rainy day sightings
·         Charged electrons?
·         Plasma?
o   This hypothesis has been well argued by commentators here and at Enenews. Strong similarities have been described between the spiderwebs and plasma behavior in a cloud chamber.
o   I find this hypothesis to be very interesting but lack the expertise to assess. A cloud chamber is contained. Daiichi is not. Could high enough rads produce the cloud chamber phenomenon in an open environment?
·         Deuterium
o   I found an image of deuterium in an old science journal. The image resembled the fat spiderwebs but I have no idea if that is a coincidence.  Majia's Blog: Spiderwebs and Deuterium

In truth, I don’t know what they are. Sometimes I think I'm wasting my limited time watching the cams. But I was recently heartened when Japanese scientists' air monitoring results found peaks in radioactivity that coincided with webcam watchers' observations and analyses. Perhaps someday the data collected by webcam watchers will be used to understand what really happened....

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3 comments:

  1. Majia,

    “There are three distinctly different steady state modes in which a plasma can operate:
    Dark Current Mode - The strength of the electrical current (flow of charged particles) within the plasma is very low. The plasma does not glow. It is essentially invisible. We would not know a plasma was there at all unless we measured its electrical activity with sensitive instruments. The present day magnetospheres of the planets are examples of plasmas operating in the dark current mode.
    Normal Glow Mode - The strength of the electrical current (flow of charged particles) is significant. The entire plasma glows. The brightness of the glow depends on the intensity of the current in the plasma. Examples: Any neon sign. Emission nebulae. The Sun's corona.
    Arc Mode - The strength of the electrical current in the plasma is very high. The plasma radiates brilliantly over a wide spectrum. Current tends to form twisting filaments. Examples of this mode of operation are: An electric arc welding machine. Lightning. The Sun's photosphere.”
    http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/electric_universe/electric_sky02.htm

    Ionizing radiation from space is blocked by our thick atmosphere but its effects can be seen in auroras, sprites above large storms, and as lightening as the charge reaches ground.

    What happens when increased electrical activity during storms follows the conductive radioactive plume and reaches the ‘out of containment’ fuel melts? Could the fuel melts act as a radioactive enhanced cathode and an electrical storm act as the anode, the gases between ionizing into glow mode and/or arc mode plasma as the current flow varies in the storm.

    “The purpose of the radioactive source is to ionize the fill gas so that the application of a high voltage across the tube results in an instantaneous current.”
    http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/consumer%20products/electrontubes.htm

    Earth’s thick atmosphere protects humanity from the effects of ionizing radiation coming from the Solar wind. The upper atmosphere is ionized by solar radiation. The aurora borealis are visible when charged particles from the sun collide with gaseous particles in the ionosphere. Nuclear power has unleashed ionizing radiation into the troposphere where we live. Are the lights we are seeing on camera during storms an ‘aurora borealis’ occurring at sea level over the Fukushima plant? Plasma in glow mode?

    Fukushima has been emitting ionizing radiation for over three years, but we may only be seeing it when conditions permit. Most of the time the danger of Fukushima emissions are not seen and people can be lulled into thinking the danger is over.
    “Our bodies simply do not have sensors that can detect alpha-particles, or beta-particles, or gamma rays. Radioactivity is invisible to us — it's not green, or any other colour, it's totally invisible.”
    “…But the radium itself did not give off a green glow. The radium was mixed with a chemical called a phosphor (made from silver and zinc sulphide).,,,”
    “Also, in some very uncommon cases, radioactive materials can give off charged particles traveling at very high velocities. These particles can interact with the immediate environment, to create a glow.
    This environment can include the oxygen, nitrogen and water molecules in the air immediately around them, or water in nuclear storage tanks, or water molecules that the radioactive materials absorb.”
    http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/05/20/2249925.htm

    Radiation measurements of this or that radionuclide and various calculations convey some information about the risk. The radionuclides not measured or mentioned still exist in the radioactive smog spewing from Fukushima’s ‘out of containment’ nuclear fuel melts. If we can’t adequately convey the danger with documented evidence then we can’t convince others that the danger still exists.

    Horse

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much for your thoughts Horse. Very interesting.

      Delete
  2. St. Elmos' fire. Or something similar cause by ionization and the ongoing Corium reactions deep underground.

    Just a random thought.

    ReplyDelete

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