Tepco has
gone all out to demonstrate to the global public that spent fuel pool #4 is
intact. I think the best photos can be found here: http://cryptome.org/2012-info/daiichi-12-0526/daiichi-12-0526.htm
Many
observers had believed spent fuel pool 4 was indeed intact (e.g., Sickputer & Joy) because the
incineration of the pool would have been undeniably visible in the form of
skyrocketing radiation readings in Tokyo and huge plumes of black smoke visible
in the Tepco webcam.
I admit to have
been uncertain about the status of the #4 pool for several reasons. http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/too-late-let-us-demand-full-disclosure.html
First, the
early reports indicated that there was a fire in unit 4 spent fuel
pool. This is documented in NRC minutes discussing zirconium fires in spent
fuel pool 4 and early media reports (see my posts here for source citations (http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/status-for-spent-fuel-pool-4-imminent.html
and http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/time-to-wake-up.html)
More
importantly, there have been (intermittently) considerable amounts of steam/smoke
arising from the area between units 3 and 4 visible on the Tepco webcam.
I have many
screen shots of these eruptions of steam and smoke. Quite a few videos documenting
these releases are available at You tube (see some sample links at bottom of
post).
Now that
Tepco has released enough photos to convince me that spent fuel pool 4 is still
there, I really wonder about the source of the very large steam /smoke releases
that have been visible on the Tepco webcam.
It is
possible that the #3 fuel pool or reactor (or both) may be the source of these
releases.
In its
recent photo debut of spent fuel pool 4, Tepco neglected to show us any photos
of the inside of unit 3, which has the largest explosion. We did not even get
any close-ups of the outside of the unit 3 building in Tepco’s most recent
photo releases.
The
mainstream media have been exceedingly quiet about this reactor, which was
using Mox fuel.
So, perhaps
unit 3 is the source.
[For
background data on 3 please see this post http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/post-3-unanswered-questions-and-some.html
]
An observer
named Tacomagroove has argued that the real danger is unit 1, which suffered a
melt-through of the reactor containment.
She contends that the melted corium is in “china syndrome” mode.
Joy, has
suggested that the corium could be moving toward the ocean and Tacomagroove
supports this thesis by noting that Tepco is building a wall between areas of
the plant and the ocean.
I’ve seen
taped segments of the Fukushima webcam by Nuckechen and others that depict vast amounts of emissions
coming from the top, right hand corner of the unit 1 building (as seen from the
Tepco webcam).
Unit 1 is
clearly the source of some emissions, but I don’t think it explains the
steam/smoke that erupts between buildings 3 and 4.
I wish I knew.
I suppose
that the bigger issue is that the plant is still emitting “trillions of
becquerels” each day and the fall out continues unabated (see
Gunderson excerpt end of this post).
I worry that
Tepco will use its latest photos of unit 4 to further promote its absurd claims
that the plant is in “cold shutdown.”
I guess the most
important questions are how to stop the emissions and what are the implications
of 15-plus months of continuous emissions?
Dr.
Chris Busby reported on the Russian television network RT on August 17 2011 that air filters from Tokyo showed levels of
Cesium-137 one thousand times higher than the levels of that radionuclide found
in the air at the peak of atmospheric atomic weapons testing in 1963 (see references for link).
He said that almost a year ago.
Fallout has
continued to bio-accumulate, shaped only by the vagaries of uncontained contained
melted fuel rods, wind, precipitation and other atmospheric variables.
Iodine-131
levels, indicative of fission, have been rising in Japan’s Gunma prefecture
(see sources in references)
How long can
that continue before people become demonstrably sickened?
How long
will the fantasy of ‘cold-shutdown’ be perpetuated, punctuated only by the occasional
warning of the collapse of a spent fuel pool. These punctuated moments of
crisis will simply be handled with more strategically designed press debuts and
the world will go back to sleep.
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES
Dr. Christopher Busby
interviewed by Russia Today (RT) and uploaded to YouTube “Christopher Busby:
Chernobyl-like radiation found in Tokyo,” [RussiaToday] YouTube
(uploaded 2011, August 17): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNzDg4O9dkw.
Helen Caldicott Interview with
Arnie Gunderson: If You Love This Planet Radio May 8, 2012
EXCERPT: I would say there are billions, actually trillions, of becquerels per day being released airborne, mainly from Units 2 and 3.
Actually on cold nights you can still the steam coming off those reactors, its not just steam its radioactive steam.
Something on the order of trillions of becquerels per day… trillions of disintegrations per second per day are being released even now.
Dr. Helen Caldicott: So what you’re really saying Arnie Gundersen is that the ocean will continue to be contaminated, kind of for the rest of time. Because there’s no foreseeable way to prevent water leaking out of containment vessels continuously into the ocean… We’re talking about continual contamination of the Pacific Ocean.
Arnie Gundersen: You’re right.
http://www.radio4all.net/files/jazzwilliams@gmail.com/3400-1-184IYLTP_20120508.mp3
EXCERPT: I would say there are billions, actually trillions, of becquerels per day being released airborne, mainly from Units 2 and 3.
Actually on cold nights you can still the steam coming off those reactors, its not just steam its radioactive steam.
Something on the order of trillions of becquerels per day… trillions of disintegrations per second per day are being released even now.
Dr. Helen Caldicott: So what you’re really saying Arnie Gundersen is that the ocean will continue to be contaminated, kind of for the rest of time. Because there’s no foreseeable way to prevent water leaking out of containment vessels continuously into the ocean… We’re talking about continual contamination of the Pacific Ocean.
Arnie Gundersen: You’re right.
http://www.radio4all.net/files/jazzwilliams@gmail.com/3400-1-184IYLTP_20120508.mp3
ON RISING IODINE 131
Bobby1, whose highly reliable work I've cited before, has
produced a graph representing rising Iodine-131 detections in the sewage sludge
from Gunma Prefecture
http://optimalprediction.com/wp/
The data for his graph comes from this Gunma Prefecture site: http://www.pref.gunma.jp/05/h6600049.html
http://optimalprediction.com/wp/
The data for his graph comes from this Gunma Prefecture site: http://www.pref.gunma.jp/05/h6600049.html
SAMPLE YOUTUBE VIDEOS
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