Friday, March 28, 2014

Fukushima Plant Conditions


Today the cam views appear relatively ordinary, although heat can be seen streaming up from the remains of unit 2.


Webcam imagery is always challenging to decode. That said, the following data points are clear:
 
1. Unit three continues to heave heat and radionuclides into the environment. The emissions are visible on both the TBS and TEPCO cams.

2. Unit 2 had a definite steam and/or smoke emission event and has had ephemeral red staining in the emissions: 
Emission Event here Thanks to Gomekwins, who posted the video and shared the link at the Enenews webcam discussion forum. https://www.dropbox.com/s/exldt96jzrg87h8/vlc-record-2014-03-26-14h01m23s-1%20http___mfile.akamai.com_267499_live_reflector_52538.asx-.asf
Red Staining Visible in this Video from Nuckelchen posted at Enenews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUOlV0-HQE8&feature=youtu.be
 

3. Steam emissions have been very visible from the common spent fuel pool

4. Episodic radiation events occurred through Dec 2013-March 2014, characterized by sudden high pixilation and pink staining emanating from the buildings (see my post http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/frankenstein.html):

5. Multiple sightings of the phenomenon we webcam watchers call ‘(spider)webs’ coupled with high radiation readings on netc and in the US among the few radnet sites still reporting beta levels

TEPCO reported the following:


1.        Tritium levels are rising in groundwater (perhaps indicating ongoing fission activity?)
Tritium density in groundwater spiking up 60m east from the overflowed tank. Posted by Mochizuki on March 26th, 2014, http://fukushima-diary.com/2014/03/100m3-overflow-tritium-density-in-groundwater-spiking-up-60m-east-from-the-overflowed-tank/
Following up this article.. [100m3 overflow] All β detected 60m east from the tank / Contamination already penetrating to groundwater [URL] Tritium density is rapidly increasing in groundwater taken from the same point. Since they started sampling from this boring hole on 3/17/2014, Tritium density had been under detectable level for the first 2 days. They measured 140,000 Bq/m3 of Tritium on the 3rd day. It became 7,000,000 Bq/m3 on 3/24/2014, which is already 50 times much.
2.        Radiation spike in unit 2: confirmed by TEPCO (reported by Fukushima Dairy)
Reactor2 alarm went off on 3/20/2014 / Radioactive density in air spiked over 2,200 times much Posted by Mochizuki on March 22nd, 2014 ·

A monitoring alarm of reactor2 went off on 3/20/2014. The alarm is the dust monitoring system. It stopped 2 minutes later, but it indicated the radioactive density of dust jumped up over 2,200 times much. Another dust monitoring system also indicated the spike of the radioactive density at once. The systems are to monitor the radioactive density of dust in the exhausted air from reactor2 building. At the moment of 3/20/2014, Tepco had not identified the cause.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/cc/press/2014/1234898_5851.html

http://www.tepco.co.jp/cc/press/2014/1234906_5851.html

http://www.tepco.co.jp/cc/press/2014/1234925_5851.html
3. Radiation alarm in unit 4 approximately 3 days later: Reported by TEPCO with claim that there were no elevated radiation readings despite the alarm.
Trouble stops fuel removal at nuclear plant. (26 March 2014), NHK, http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140326_33.html
Work has been suspended to remove spent nuclear fuel from a storage pool at a reactor building in the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Tokyo Electric Power Company said an accident occurred at around 9:30 AM on Wednesday when workers started removing fuel units at the No. 4 reactor building….
The single kernel of truth that can be derived from these reports and webcam observations is that Fukushima continues to deteriorate and is still contaminating the atmosphere and ocean. One could extrapolate from these events that fission activity may possibly be occurring in unit 2, based on the very visible emissions from this unit in March and because of the spiking tritium levels.