Nuclear Nightmare |

http://modernsurvivalblog.com/nuclear/west-coast-usa-danger-if-japan-nuclear-rea...

Update, 22-Mar-2011, 1500 UTC

Soil measurements, 5 cm below surface, 40 miles from Fukushima, 400 times higher than ‘normal’, iodine-131 and cesium-137.

TEPCO ready to restore power in control rooms 3 and 4, as soon as spraying operations are finished today.

Surface winds in Japan still blowing from north to south.

RadNet and Radiation Network measurements remain low.

Update, 23-Mar-2011, 0400 UTC

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will halt imports of dairy products and produce from the area of Japan where a nuclear reactor is leaking radiation. Other foods imported from Japan, including seafood, still will be sold to the public but screened first for radiation.

Although seemingly common-sense, the Japanese government is calling on consumers to refrain from eating leafy vegetables such as spinach and cabbage produced in Fukushima Prefecture.

Given that electrical power lines have been brought into Fukushima, and based on the lack of information or press-release that electrical cooling systems have been restored at any of the Fukushima reactors, we can logically assume that systems are damaged to sufficient degree, while they are likely attempting repairs.

Infrared temperature readings of Reactor 2 are reportedly around 260 F, well above boiling, indicating that there is no water inside.

Localities around Tokyo are now registering radiation levels of 100 – 300 nGy/h (not panic levels, but high), targetmap.com.

Surface winds are now southeast and southwest, from Fukushima partially towards Tokyo.

Main-Stream-Media is nearly entirely off the subject of the disaster in Japan, while fully engrossed in Libya. The short attention span is a sad thing.

Update, 23-Mar-2011, 1500 UTC

Rain water is believed to have caused radiation levels (iodinge-131) in Tokyo drinking water to have risen well above ‘safe’ levels for infants today in all 23 neighborhoods of Tokyo and 5 surrounding cities, a region of 30 Million people. Huge demand now for bottled water.

New smoke rising from Reactor 3 resulted in worker evacuation from No. 3 reactor, as well as firefighters preparing for a water-spraying operation, which was then abandoned for the day.

Reactor 1 is designed for temperatures up to 575 F. Reactor 1 is now registering 750F.

Workers are now receiving 1 year of maximum radiation in just 30 minutes, and are being constantly rotated.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/rethinking-how-to-cool-the-indian-poin...

Indian Point and Hope Creek nuclear plant, near the southern tip of New Jersey are both salt water plants and need to be shut down immediately.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/20/steven-chu-indian-point-nuclear-plant-n...

"Wallace followed up and asked, "But are you saying the issue of whether to keep Indian Point in operation is in doubt, is something you're going to review?"

Chu clarified that keeping Indian Point open is a decision that will be made by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will be reviewing it."

______________________________________________________________________

Indian Point is not safe. It is a salt water reactor. The NRC is an irresponsible agency that could care less about public safety or what the public wants. They just re-licensed Vermont Yankee against the will of the people of Vermont, the Vermont legislature and the Governor of Vermont. This was all done the day of the Japan earthquake. Vermont Yankee is the exact same General Electric reactor that just blew in Japan.

_______________________________________________________________________________
http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/246076/japanese-tragedy-is-too-close-for-c...

"I would like everyone to be aware of several facts.

The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is located on the Connecticut River. (We, of course, also have Seabrook Station on the other side, on our Seacoast.)

The Vermont Yankee reactor and the Fukushima reactor vessels are of the same type. They were both built by the same company, GE. They are both of the same age and were both commissioned at the same time, circa 1971. Vermont Yankee is now one of the oldest and perhaps the most obsolete plant in the United States.

In earlier official studies it was concluded that the Vermont Yankee "containment" structure is inadequate to actually contain radiation in a major event. It was shown it would fail and be destroyed unless deliberately "vented" to the atmosphere - exactly as the Fukushima operators were attempting, which actually caused the first explosion there. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission embraced this as an acceptable option in order to continue allowing the Yankee plant to operate.

Furthermore, Yankee's high level waste storage pools are outside the "containment." They are filled far beyond their design capacity with high-level radioactive used fuel rods.

These pools are, like Fukushima, dependent on active and perpetually uninterrupted water cooling pumps to prevent the radioactive rods from melting down and violently burning.

Both over-aged plants were slated for permanent closing this year. The Fukushima plant had recently received a 10-year extension of its license.

Despite being well beyond its design age and having already experienced numerous equipment failures and leaks, on Friday, on the same day of the Japanese reactor explosion, the Yankee plant was granted a 20-year extension by the NRC. Its owner has immediately placed the plant up for sale. Questions about liability and site cleanup remain unanswered.

We in New Hampshire all live directly downwind from the Vermont Yankee plant on our border.

Can we rest assured that they have anticipated and adequately prepared for any possible event?"

________________________________________________________________________

http://www.necn.com/03/20/11/Vermont-vigil-supports-people-at-risk-in/landing.ht...

http://www.thenation.com/article/159234/fukushimas-spent-fuel-rods-pose-grave-da...

http://www.dcbureau.org/201103151304/Natural-Resources-News-Service/is-airborne-...

"The mixed oxide fuel rods used in the compromised number three reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi complex contain enough plutonium to threaten public health with the possibility of inhalation of airborne plutonium particles. The compromised fuel rods supplied to the Tokyo Electric Company by the French firm AREVA.

Plutonium is at its most dangerous when it is inhaled and gets into the lungs. The effect on the human body is to vastly increase the chance of developing fatal cancers.

Masashi Goto, a reactor researcher and designer for Toshiba, told the Foreign Correspondents Club in Toyko the mixed oxide (MOX) fuel used in unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility uses plutonium, which is “much more toxic than the fuel used in the other reactors.”

Goto said that the MOX also has a lower melting point than the other reactor fuels. The Fukushima facility began using MOX fuel in September 2010, becoming the third plant in Japan to do so, according to MOX supplier AREVA.

Part of the process of making MOX fuel is to grind plutonium into a fine power before it is robotically inserted into fuel rods. Experts agree these tiny plutonium particles once airborne are extremely dangerous to human health.
Workers observing material at the Shaw-AREVA Mixed-Oxide Plant at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Photo: Shaw-Areva

Workers observing material at the Shaw-AREVA Mixed-Oxide Plant at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Photo: Shaw-Areva

One of the unique characteristics of mixed oxide fuel is that relatively little of the plutonium in the fuel rods is used up in the fuel cycle in a reactor. “When the plutonium in the fuel rods goes into a reactor for commercial power, a very little of it is going to be consumed. I don’t know what percentage, maybe half percentage or something like that, but it’s going to generate an extraordinary amount of contamination throughout the fuel rods…,” says William Lawler, an expert on radioactive waste.

The damaged number three reactor was undergoing its first fuel cycle using MOX at Daiichi."

_____________________________________________________________________________

Remember, this was today's update from the MOX reactor:

Unit 3

Unit 3 experienced an explosion on 14 March that destroyed the outer shell of the building's upper floors. The blast may have damaged the primary containment vessel and the spent fuel pool. Concerned by possible loss of water in the pool, authorities began spraying water into the building in an effort to replenish water levels. First, helicopters dropped seawater on 17 March, and every day since then, including today, emergency workers have sprayed water from fire trucks and other vehicles.

http://www.mitchelcohen.com/?page_id=329

"The rapid rise of serious biological effects at very small doses followed by a levelling-off at higher doses explains the present underestimate of low-dose effects, which are based on a linear extrapolation from studies done at high doses. The new studies following Chernobyl and Three Mile Island not only point to the dangers from nuclear accidents but explain the unexpectedly large increases of infant and total mortality rates in areas near nuclear reactors observed in recent years.

These results imply that the effects of releases of radioactivity into the environment are thousands of times more serious than presently calculated on the basis of cancer risk to adults from short external X-rays and gamma radiation exposures.

In conclusion, serious damage to human immune systems and infant development occurs at much larger distances from the site of radioactive releases than presently admitted; the nuclear industry’s push for smaller evacuation zones around nuclear plants while still allowing for releases of iodine-131, in however small an amount, runs completely counter to the new evidence produced by the Chernobyl accident and other related studies of low dose radiation effects.

The medical and scientific community has long believed, on the basis of linear extrapolations from high doses, that low-level radiation from fallout and nuclear plant releases can be dismissed as posing a negligibly small danger. This is the principal assumption that scientists must now reevaluate. The new evidence cries out for an end to the manufacture and testing of nuclear weapons, and the immediate shutdown of all nuclear power plants."

http://www.infowars.com/alert-fukushima-coverup-40-years-of-spent-nuclear-rods-b...

Did everyone see this? (Based in a report from the fantastic people at NIRS) PLEASE make sure you read the article. Vital Info.

One posted comment after the article is:
" CensoredBuyMSM says:
March 16, 2011 at 12:59 am

OK, I’m no mathmatician but I think there is something wrong with their math. The article states that there are 7 pools holding these spent rods. Six on top of each reactor buiding and one common pool. Each of the six pools holds 3450 rod assemblies…..this should translate to: 6×3450=20,700….correct? now, the seventh pool is a “common pool” that holds 6,291 Rod Assemblies…..so that makes this nukienukie plant stores 26,991 Rod ASSEMBLIES. EACH ROD ASSEMBLY holds 63 spent fuel rods. shouldn’t that translate to 26,991 X 63? So doesnt that actually mean this plant has 1,700,433 ?

THAT SHOULD READ ONE-MILLION-SEVEN-HUNDRED THOUSAND-FOUR-HUNDRED-THIRTY- THREE FUEL RODS? 1,700,433

“The Fukushima Daiichi plant has seven pools dedicated to spent fuel rods. These are located at the top of six reactor buildings – or were until explosions and fires ravaged the plant. On the ground level there is a common pool in a separate building that was critical damaged by the tsunami. Each reactor building pool holds 3,450 fuel rod assemblies and the common pool holds 6,291 fuel rod assemblies. Each assembly holds sixty-three fuel rods. In short, the Fukushima Daiichi plant contains over 600,000 spent fuel rods – a massive amount of radiation that will soon be released into the atmosphere”

More comments:

cooky says:
March 16, 2011 at 1:21 am

well.. 1 700 430 is over 600 000.. so it’s not realy lying..

man.. i thought those guys who build nuke plants are supose to be smart.. who on earth would think that it’s a good idea to place old rods over the reactor that potentialy can blow up in worst case scenario?. did they thought that if reactor blows, then tere would be such heall on earth that some extra radiation wouldn’t matter much?
Log in to Reply

*
CensoredBuyMSM says:
March 16, 2011 at 1:36 am

I was thinking the same….actually a little more on the “legal” or “justice” side…..the bastards who designed and built it appears to have done this to ASSURE massive death and maximum damage and SHOULD (in my humble opinion) be charged, tried and put to death …..of course upon conviction of gross neg causing massive damage and death at “best” and all out MURDER if it can be proven they did this intentionally.)
Log in to Reply
o
Sarah Conner says:
March 16, 2011 at 1:56 am

All I keep seeing is the mural from Denver National Airport…..wish I could post it. But I’m sure most of you know…….

http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html

"Here is a summary of spent fuel conditions at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, based on documents and confirmed by Japanese officials (new information in bold):

Unit 1

Unit 1 experienced an explosion on 12 March that destroyed the outer shell of the building's upper floors. No precise information has been available on the status of the spent fuel pool.

Unit 2

No precise information has been available on the status of the spent fuel pool. Authorities began adding 40 tonnes of seawater to the spent fuel pool on 20 March.

Unit 3

Unit 3 experienced an explosion on 14 March that destroyed the outer shell of the building's upper floors. The blast may have damaged the primary containment vessel and the spent fuel pool. Concerned by possible loss of water in the pool, authorities began spraying water into the building in an effort to replenish water levels. First, helicopters dropped seawater on 17 March, and every day since then, including today, emergency workers have sprayed water from fire trucks and other vehicles.

Unit 4

This reactor was shut down 30 November 2010 for routine maintenance, and all the fuel assemblies were transferred from the reactor to the spent fuel pool, before the 11 March earthquake. The heat load in this pool is therefore larger than the others.

On 14 March, the building's upper floors were severely damaged, possibly causing a reduction of cooling capability in the spent fuel pool. Emergency workers began spraying water into the building today.

Unit 5 and 6

Instrumentation at these reactors began to indicate rising temperatures at their spent fuel pools starting on 14 March. Three days later, Japanese technicians successfully started an emergency diesel generator at Unit 6, which they used to provide power to basic cooling and fresh-water replenishment systems. Workers created holes in the rooftops of both buildings to prevent any hydrogen accumulation, which is suspected of causing earlier explosions at Units 1 and 3.

A second generator came online on 18 March, and the next day, the higher-capability Residual Heat Removal system recovered full function. Temperatures in the spent fuel pools of Units 5 and 6 have gradually returned to significantly lower temperatures. (See graph at left.)

Common Use Spent Fuel Pool

In addition to pools in each of the plant's reactor buildings, there is another facility -- the Common Use Spent Fuel Pool -- where spent fuel is stored after cooling at least 18 months in the reactor buildings. This fuel is much cooler than the assemblies stored in the reactor buildings. Japanese authorities have confirmed that fuel assemblies there are fully covered by water, and the temperature was 57 ˚C as of 20 March, 00:00 UTC."

I love you Ralph Nader! Close them down!

"RALPH NADER: The Japanese disaster has ended whatever nuclear renaissance is being considered here in the United States. The problem is that people have got to get more involved, because the government and the industry will defend nuclear power in the United States to the last mutation. They are representing a closed, monetized mind that does not have options for revision, which true science should provide for. Secretary Chu, Energy Secretary, has refused for two years to meet with the leading critics of nuclear power, such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, Friends of the Earth and other groups. He has met with nuclear business interests regularly, and he has written articles touting nuclear power.

What we’re seeing here is 110 or so operating nuclear plants in the United States, many of them aging, many of them infected with corrosion, faulty pipes, leaky pumps and combustible materials. These have been documented by data from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission assembled by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Indian Point, for example, is a plant that presents undue risks, in the opinion of the Union of Concerned Scientists, to millions of people in the New York City greater area. And it is unevacuable if there’s an accident. You’re never going to evacuate a population of millions of people, whether it’s around San Onofre or Diablo Canyon in Southern California or Indian Point or Davis-Besse near Toledo and Detroit or any of the other endangered nuclear plants.

Why are we playing Russian roulette with the American people for nuclear plants whose principal objective is simply to boil water and produce steam? This is technological insanity. It presents national security problems, for every nuclear plant is a prime target. It affects our civil liberties. It endangers our workers. It is an industry that cannot be financed by Wall Street because it’s too risky. Wall Street demands 100 percent taxpayer guarantees for any nuclear plant.

So I suggest that people listening and watching this program to pick up the phone and dial the White House comment number, which is (202) 456-1111, (202) 456-1111, and demand the following: that there be public hearings in every area where there’s a nuclear plant, so the people can see for themselves what the hazards are, what the risks are, how farcical the evacuation plans are, how costly nuclear power is, and how it can be replaced by energy efficiency, by solar energy, different kinds of solar energy, by cogeneration, as Amory Lovins and many others, Peter Bradford, have pointed out.

We must no longer license any new nuclear plants. We should shut down the ones like Indian Point. How many people know that Hillary Clinton, as senator, and Andrew Cuomo, as attorney general, demanded that Indian Point be shut down? That doesn’t matter to the monetized minds in Washington, D.C. We also should prepare a plan where, apart from the aging plants, which should be shut down, and apart from the earthquake-risk plants—should be shut down—for the phase-out of the entire industry. We’re going to be left with radioactive waste for hundreds of thousands of years, for which there is no permanent repository. This is institutional insanity, and I urge the people in this country to wake up before they experience what is now going on in northern Japan: uninhabitable territory, thousands dead, hundreds of thousands at risk of cancer, enormous economic loss. And for what?"

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/18/why_are_we_playing_russian_roulette

http://guardian.co.uk

Republicans fund Nader as decisive electoral weapon
Share16 Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington The Guardian, Tuesday 10 August 2004 01.51 BST Article historyRalph Nader, the consumers' champion who became the scourge of Democrats for his determination to run for US president, faced a concerted challenge yesterday to his candidacy in a battleground state.
In two separate lawsuits, Democratic activists in Pennsylvania sought to keep Mr Nader off November's ballot.

The move intensifies the war between Republicans and Democrats over Mr Nader's candidacy, a conflict fuelled by the maverick's willingness to accept funds and help from some of George Bush's most ardent supporters.

Republicans are eager to see Mr Nader do well - not because of his stand on the environment or Iraq - but in the hope that he will tip the balance towards Mr Bush in the race against John Kerry, the Democratic challenger. But the Democrats have stood their ground, with activists harrying Mr Nader's effort to get on the ballot in several states.

In the Pennsylvania lawsuits Democrats accused the Nader campaign of falsifying thousands of names on petitions endorsing his candidacy in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas. His campaign was also accused of failing to pay the contractors who organised the petition and who allegedly paid homeless people a dollar for each signature.

A spokesman for Mr Nader said only petition gatherers who turned in fraudulent signatures were unpaid.

The Democrats took Pennsylvania by a relatively slim margin during the last election and party activists defended the law suits against Mr Nader yesterday.

"The bottom line for us is that we are partisan Democrats, and we are very much interested in getting John Kerry elected," said Michael Manzo, aide to a Democratic state legislator. "We view Mr Nader's candidacy as a threat. Will it be a large threat? We hope not, but we are not willing to take any chances."

Similar scenarios are unfolding in other states with Democrats fighting a rearguard action to keep Mr Nader out of the presidential race.

In the battleground state of Arizona he was knocked off the ballot on a technicality, and the party is raising funds for legal challenges in Florida, Michigan, West Virginia and Nevada.

Mr Nader dismissed the challenges as a display of insecurity. "It shows the lack of confidence Democrats have in their own candidate," he told Businessweek magazine.

However, among Mr Nader's new supporters this election is the billionaire Richard Egan, who was appointed ambassador to Ireland after raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for President Bush. Campaign monitors say other big Republican donors have contributed as well. In Oregon, also poised for a tight contest, two conservative groups admitted telephoning supporters to help put Mr Nader on the ticket.

But even with the new-found patrons, he has made slow progress in his effort to get on state ballots. He missed a chance to get on the ballot in California at the weekend when supporters raised only half the 153,000 signatures required.

But Democrats say that was Mr Nader's due when he decided to contest these elections, reopening the feud on the American left begun when Mr Nader drained off crucial support for Al Gore in the 2000 elections, handing Mr Bush his victory.

With memories of that defeat still rankling, even some of Mr Nader's closest associates were outraged when he announced his candidacy earlier this year.

That anger grew further when Mr Nader rebuffed a request from Mr Kerry to stay out of the race in key states.

That is when the Democratic machine stepped in with Howard Dean, a hero to the party's left wing for his anti-war stance, deployed to herd wayward Democrats.

One of Mr Dean's aides from his failed campaign for the Democratic leadership founded a website called the Nader Factor which documents Republican support for Mr Nader.

Mr Nader is not expected to match the 2.8m votes he won last time. But some like John Zogby, the Democratic pollster, say that hardly matters.

He said Mr Nader could hold the balance in several states - should he succeed in getting on the ballot.

But his candidacy presents another challenge for the Democrats.

"He is the ghost of the left, he is the one who rallies the anti-war sentiment and Democratic populism, and so his presence in the race is casting a shadow on Kerry," Mr Zogby said.

"It's not going to be enough for him just not to be George Bush."

States of flux

A poll last week had Kerry on 48%, Bush 43%, and Nader 3%. If Nader gets on the ballots, and taking into account polls' margins of error, he can turn several states, including:

Florida
Kerry 1% up on Bush
Nader 1.5%

Minnesota
Kerry 1% up on Bush
Nader 2%

New Hampshire
Kerry 4% up on Bush
Nader 4%

Pennsylvania
Kerry 5% up on Bush
Nader 5%

· Source: Zogby International, Mason Dixon, the University of New Hampshire
Printable versionSend to a friendShareClipContact us larger | smaller World news
US elections 2004 · United States · Ralph Nader · US politics
Related

15 Sep 2004

Bush's brother at centre of row over Nader nomination on Florida ballot

25 Feb 2004

What they said about ...

6 Apr 2004

Left standing

23 Feb 2004

One-man awkward squad returns to the fray
Printable versionSend to a friendShareClipContact usArticle history

As I said earlier Ralph Nader is a traitor. I take no prisoners and I call people on thier actions not there words. Nader has both hands out because he sold out.

The Nuclear Forest Recovery Zone by Paul Stamets:

http://current.com/shows/upstream/93086765_the-nuclear-forest-recovery-zone-by-p...