Saturday, March 9, 2013

Media Revelations/Confirmations About Fukushima


Some data founded embedded in the news reports include:

Foundation of reactor buildings cracked allowing ground water into buildings

[Excerpted] As if the damage above ground isn’t enough to worry about, the 9 -magnitude earthquake apparently cracked the walls of the plant, allowing about 400 tons of groundwater to seep into the buildings and mix with the tainted coolant water. [end]

Nagata, K. (2013, March 9) 'Water is Both the Savior and the Bane at Fukushima No. 1' Japan Times,
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/03/09/national/water-is-both-the-savior-and-the-bane-at-fukushima-no-1/#.UToK7WfYGTc


[excerpted] "Every day, some 400 cubic meters of groundwater leaks into the reactor bildings, where it mixes with radioactive debris..." [end] cited in Obe, M. (2013 Mar 9-10 'Fukushima Digs in For Decades of Cleanup,' The WSJ, p. A8)


Corium (maybe) outside of containment
[Excerpted] Occassional spates of high readings have been noted at the plant, and Tepco says they could point to molten fuel outside the reactor" cited in Obe, M. (2013 Mar 9-10 'Fukushima Digs in For Decades of Cleanup,' The WSJ, p. A8)


Radioactive water at site overwhelming

[excerpted] Water is perpetually needed to keep the melted fuel cool, but the meltdowns burned holes in three of the six reactors, allowing water to leak into the basements of the containment buildings after being tainted with deadly amounts of radioactivity... While pumps are being used to drain and detoxify the water as much as possible, finding safe places to store it remains Tepco’s most pressing task.... [end] Nagata Japan Times


Tepco has no way of removing Tritium from contaminated water 

Reported by both the WSJ article and the Japan Times article


Unit 4 spent fuel pool did lose enough water so that 1000 fuel rods were exposed to air in March of 2011 and Plutonium was stored in that pool 

Plutonium in spent fuel pool was reported by Nagata in Japan Times

Reports of unit 4 boiling dry: "Unit three had exploded, three reactors were in meltdown and over 1000 fuel rods in the reactor four building, normally covered under 16 feet of water, had boiled dry, raising the spectre of a nuclear fission chain reaction.

cited in McNeill, D. (2013, March 2) 'I am one of the Fukushima fifty': One of the men who risked their lives to prevent a catastrophe shares his story,’ The Independent, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/i-am-one-of-the-fukushima-fifty-one-of-the-men-who-risked-their-lives-to-prevent-a-catastrophe-shares-his-story-8517394.html
 

Cesium Levels are Not Dropping in the Ocean


Kanda, J.: Continuing 137Cs release to the sea from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant through 2012, Biogeosciences Discuss., 10, 3577-3595, doi:10.5194/bgd-10-3577-2013, 2013J)
  

1 comment:

  1. No one can remove Tritium from water, it is indistinguishable from water except for that pesky radiation thing.

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