Japanese Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Reactors

[Olympia]

Thanks, Doris. So there's been an improvement in at least some of the conditions, namely the fresh water and the ability to turn on the lighting. Funny how important lightbulbs can be in a situation like this!

 

[dorispulaski]

Yes, I picture them going through that place with flashlights. It's amazing they did as well as they did.

However, their spent fuel pool methods would definitely be against NRC regulations here in the US. Here's a case that eventually led to the sale of the Millstone Point power plants.

At Unit 4, all the reactor fuel rods were in its spent fuel pool, so it looks like at least for that reactor, that TEPCO was practicing "full core offloads"-and we have seen that Unit 4 was running way too hot, and had many more fuel rods in it, than, say, Unit 1. I still have my doubts about whether TEPCO has the rods in the spent fuel pools of Units 3 through 6 at too high a density for slow cooling:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/insp-gen/1996/96-05s.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Galatis

George Galatis was a senior nuclear engineer and whistleblower who reported safety problems at the Millstone 1 Nuclear Power Plant, relating to reactor refueling procedures, in 1996.[1][2] The unsafe procedures meant that spent fuel rod pools at Unit 1 had the potential to boil, possibly releasing radioactive steam throughout the plant.[3]

Every 18 months the Millstone 1 nuclear reactor was shut down so the fuel rods that make up its core could be replaced; the old rods, radioactive and burning hot, were moved into a 40-feet-deep body of water called the spent-fuel pool. One-third of the rods were moved into the pool under normal conditions. But in the 1990s Galatis realized that Millstone was routinely performing "full-core off-loads," dumping all the hot fuel into the spent-fuel pool.[1] In addition, the Millstone 1 routine ignored the mandated 250 hour cool-down period before a full core off-load, and sometimes the fuel was moved just 65 hours after shutdown, a violation that melted the boots of one worker. By sidestepping the safety requirements in this way, Millstone saved about two weeks of downtime for each reactor refueling—during which Northeast Utilities had to pay $500,000 a day for replacement power.[

 

[Olympia]

The amount of denial in precarious situations is always amazing. The attitude seems to be, "Nothing bad will happen, because it's me." It's the same thing that makes people get behind the wheel just a little buzzed: "hey, I can handle it." I think they ought to make a rule that industrial executives of all kinds, but especially in the nuclear, chemical, and coal-processing industries, should have to live on the premises--along with their families. If the business is owned by a conglomerate, all the conglomerateurs and the boards of directors should be subject to that rule. Can you imagine how much safer everything would instantly become?

 

[dorispulaski]

Yes, that's true, but in the case of nuclear stuff in the US, you have two NRC guys at the plant at all times, and you get fined if you don't tell them about every incident however small.

I am not sure that's what they did, but I find it very peculiar that all the fuel from Unit 4 was in the spent fuel pool.

Meanwhile, I hope they find where the water is leaking from. Now that they have lights, it should be easier to look.

Ultimately, provided they can dilute the water with enough clean water, (given the area is not one where aquaculture is practiced), they should be allowed to pump the stuff overboard so that they can get the reactors stabilized.

It wouldn't surprise me if there's a broken pipe somewhere, given the earthquake, and the explosions. Reactors have pipes every which way.

OTOH, it is not clear how much water is actually leaking, nor how fast.

It still could be all the aerial spraying in the spent fuel pool, especially since some of the pools seem to have been pretty nearly empty from time to time, washing down through the building over everything else. Another reason not to put the spent fuel pool on the roof.

 

[dorispulaski]

7.1 microSieverts per hour on March 27th at 12:00 noon at Daina MP4
134.6 microSieverts per hour on March 27th at noon at Daiichi West Gate

Radiation at the plant periphery still dropping.

However, no new news whatever today so far.

At some point, they are going to have to come forward with a plan to deal with the level of radiation (and loose radioactive material) inside the plant.

They have reported that it is difficult to recover cooling function to the reactor, due to the level of radioactive material (and radiation) in the plant, following the exposure to 3 men in the basement of the turbine building. And that they can't give a schedule for this work.

I expect they have to get clearance from the government to do a number of things that are ordinarily forbidden, particularly with respect to what doses nuclear workers are allowed to incur (by the way, as we have discussed before, the "liquidators" of whom there were nearly a million hired at Chernobyl for the cleanup, all got what would be excessive doses of radiation, when added up over a year. And it is difficult to demonstrate that they were harmed. However, life expectancy due to other reasons in Ukraine and Belarus for men is so low in general that it is difficult to demonstrate any lowering of it due to radiation. If someone dies due to an accident at 57, it is difficult to show that if he lived to 70, some effect of radiation would have happened. )

And they will have to get permission to pump the water accumulating in the basement, suitably diluted, somewhere.

And something is going to have to be done with all that fresh water in the Navy barges lying offshore, and they will have to determine how it is going to be done.

I am not at all sure how that water fits in, since injection of water to the reactor pressure vessel is already switched over to fresh water.

I wish they would get some advice from the people who directed the clean up of Three Mile Island and the people who cleaned up Chernobyl. Chernobyl was the much more daunting task, due to the sheer volume of radioactive material.

It is strange to think about, but the other reactor at Chernobyl was still producing electricity until the year 2000.

 

[dorispulaski]

It's morning in Europe, so there are new postings from IAEA.:

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident Update (27 March, 03:00 UTC)
As previously reported, three workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were exposed on 24 March to elevated levels of radiation. The IAEA has received additional information on the incident from the Japanese authorities.

For two of the three workers, significant skin contamination over their legs was confirmed. The Japanese authorities have stated that during medical examinations carried out at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in the Chiba Prefecture, the level of local exposure to the workers legs was estimated to be between 2 and 6 sieverts.

While the patients did not require medical treatment, doctors decided to keep them in hospital and monitor their progress over coming days.

That is a lot.

The unit of Sievert, as posted, is a unit of dose (i.e., the total radiation that a person received).

I hope they recover well.

IAEA is giving a reactor status:

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident Update (27 March, 01:15 UTC)
Brief Update on State of Fukushima Daiichi Reactors

AC Power-Units 1 to 4

The restoration work of off-site (i.e., grid) power is still in progress. Off-site power is now connected to Units 1 to 4.

Power distribution panels in the Power Centres of Units 2 and 4 have been connected to the off-site electricity supply, but individual components are still being checked prior to being energised.
The lighting in units 1, 2 and 3 control rooms has been restored. Some instrumentation was recovered for units 1, 2 and 4. However, due to the extent of damage inflicted by the earthquake and tsunami, at present it is not possible to estimate when the equipment may be returned to service.

AC Power-Units 5 and 6

Off-site power has been restored.

Unit 1

Fresh water continues to be injected into the reactor pressure vessel.
As of 23:00 UTC 25 March, white smoke was confirmed to be emanating continuously from the reactor building.
Water sample taken from the stagnant water on the basement floor of the turbine building shows the presence of iodine-131, cesium-137 and cesium-134 to a level comparable to that measured in the turbine building of unit 3 where three workers were exposed to elevated levels of radiation on 24 March.

Unit 2

Fresh water continues to be injected into the reactor pressure vessel.
As of 23:00 UTC 25 March, white smoke was confirmed to be emanating continuously from the reactor building.
The spent fuel pool temperature increased and then stabilized at 57 degrees Celsius as of 00:30 UTC 26 March.

Unit 3

Fresh water is being injected into the reactor pressure vessel.
The temperature at the bottom of reactor pressure vessel has decreased to 100.4 degrees Celsius at 13:00 UTC 26 March. Seawater injection to the spent fuel pool is on-going.
White smoke emanating from the reactor building was still being observed as of 23:00 UTC 25 March.
The dose rate in the reactor containment vessel and suppression chamber continued to decrease to 36.1 sieverts per hour and 1.4 sieverts per hour, respectively, as of 13:00 UTC 26 March.

Unit 4

From March 22 to March 25, 130 to 150 tonnes of seawater was poured into the spent fuel pool each day using a concrete pump. Sea water was also poured in through spent fuel cooling system from 21:05 UTC 24 March to 01:20 25 March.
White smoke was still being observed coming from the reactor building as of 23:00 UTC 25 March.

Unit 5

The reactor remains in cold shutdown. Off-site power has been restored. The reactor water temperature increased to 43.8 degrees Celsius.
The temperature in the spent fuel pool increased to 42.8 degrees Celsius as of 02:00 UTC 26 March.

Unit 6

The reactor remains in cold shutdown. Off-site power has been restored. The reactor pressure vessel water temperature decreased to 21.3 degrees Celsius.
The spent fuel pool water temperature has slightly increased to 30.0 degrees Celsius

 

[dorispulaski]

JAIF has posted the following translation:

Status of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station as of 17:00, March 27,
2011
Here is information regarding the status of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station from the News Releases by the Government Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters and Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) officials in the morning on March 27.

�� According to the News Releases, high radiation level in the water was also found in the basement of the turbine building of Unit 1, 2 and 3. The level of radiation on the surface of water was more than 1000 millisieverts (mSv) per hour in Unit-2, 60mSv in Unit-1, 750mSv in Unit-3. NISA officials believe the contaminated water likely came from the reactor rather than the spent fuel pool because the radionuclide detected contained in the fuel and some had short half-lives. TEPCO took immediate action to drain off the water because current situation would cause delay in recovery work. TEPCO already started draining off the water in Unit-1, and also preparing or considering drain off the water in Unit-2 and -3. The water would be sent to condensers in the turbine building.

Since the turbines haven't been running since March 11th, they're cold. It's a better place than most to put this contaminated water. It's better than pumping it overboard.

I presume they're starting with Unit 1 because the radiation level is lower there.

According to NISA

Here's what they found in the water at Unit1:
The radiation count at the water surface is 60 mSv/hr

http://www.nisa.meti.go.jp/english/files/en20110325-6.pdf
.
I 131 --- 210,000 Bq/cm3
Cs 137 --1,800,000 Bq/cm3
Cs 136 ---17,000 Bq/cm3
Cs 134 --- 160,000 Bq/cm3
Y 91 --- 52,000 Bq/cm3
Cl 38 --- 1,600,000 Bq/cm3
As 74 - 390 Bq/cm3
La 140 - 340 Bq/cm3

I presume the Chlorine is from the seawater going into the reactor? Apparently, Cl 38 has an extremely short half life, 37 minutes, and one of its daughters, when it decays, is As 74.

All things considered, it's a good thing they swapped to fresh water...

 

[dorispulaski]

Update on Air and Water quality at Daiichi & Daina

Radiation continues to decrease at Daiichi & Daina plant boundaries
7.0 microSieverts/hr at 3:00 PM Daina
132.5 microSieverts/hr at 4:00 PM Daiichi West Gate

There are some air and water analyses.

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11032703-e.html
Seawater graph

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11032704-e.html
Air data

Above Radiation data Collected at the Main Gate

 

[Olympia]

There was a scary report this morning of a huge spike in radiation at Reactor 2, but now the authorities are backtracking and saying the readings were erroneous. I hope that means "really, really erroneous." I hope that the floating decimal point floated way to the wrong side and got itself misinterpreted.

 

[dorispulaski]

Yes, I heard that. And it's not surprising with all the different units and scales and what-not on radiation equipment.

NEI has a report.

TEPCO has a report too.

West Gate Daiichi and MP4 and Daina radiation readings continue to decrease.
TEPCO has started reporting the Main Building and Main Gate values again.
Values at the Main Building are very high, and dose management for workers will be key, requiring rotating workers in and out, and doing whatever needs to be done to minimize dose for each worker.

129.9 microSieverts/hr West Gate Daiichi 9 PM March 27th
1.20 milliSieverts/hr Main Building Daiichi 9 PM March 27th (same at 7:00 PM)
196 micro Sieverts/hr Main Gate 9 PM Daiichi 9 PM March 27th
6.9 microSieverts/hr Measure Point 4 Daina 6 PM March 27th

Unit 3
-At approximately 0:34pm March 27th , Injection of water by concrete pump truck was started. At approximately 2:36 pm, March 27th, the operation was finished. [ETA, I think this is for the spent fuel pool]

UPDATE AS OF 9:30 A.M. EDT, MARCH 27:
Tokyo Electric Power Co. workers on Sunday were using pumps to remove highly contaminated water from the basement of the turbine building of reactors 1 and 2 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

TEPCO also was preparing to remove water from the turbine building of reactor 3. Removal of the contaminated water is necessary to continue power restoration to the plant.

By Sunday, water injection to the pressure vessels at reactors 1, 2 and 3 had been switched from seawater to freshwater.

Off-site power has been restored to all units and work to connect equipment is ongoing. Progress is being slowed by high radiation levels and wet equipment.

TEPCO said that earlier reports of extremely high radiation levels measured in the water in the basement of the reactor 2 turbine building were inaccurate, according to news reports.

NISA has graphs of radiation by prefecture.

http://mextrad.blob.core.windows.net/page/13_Tokyo_en.html

Tokyo's is pretty flat.

Meanwhile, here's a radiation map of Fukushima prefecture:

http://www.mext.go.jp/component/english/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2011/03/27/1304325_2719.pdf

Other than Daiichi itself and an area north and east of it, within the 10 km and 20 km ring, values are long term tolerable.

BTW, if the chart looked like this one, I can see how someone could misread it. At first I thought each reading was 100x the reading because there was a [blob]2 sign next to each reading, but it was a footnote about how the measurement was taken, not an exponent.

 

[Tonichelle]

dumb question - probably - but teh media keeps reporting that "Japanese Radiation" has been detected in Nevada, Hawaii, California and British Columbia... how do they know it's Japanese? did they do some sort of DNA testing or is this just "deductive reasoning" because their reactor is spewing?

 

[dorispulaski]

It's not a dumb question, and if the news folk actually were interested in news rather than scare mongering, they'd ask that question, too. But they are too dumb, IMO.

If you really want to know, it's anti-nuclear religion and / or sensationalism.

In BC, for example, they are claiming this because they found

n B.C., detectors measured 0.0000005 millisieverts of Xenon-133 -an isotope that, in addition to being a byproduct of nuclear fission, is used in some medical imaging. That level is significantly less than normal levels of background radiation, said the BCCDC.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Nu...ause+concern/4488277/story.html#ixzz1HooFRYcI

That is an infinitesimal dose, to start with.
They can tell they have seen Xenon 133, because the have detected a gamma ray with the characteristic energy seen in the decay of Xenon to Cesium.

On the other hand, if they were really seeing Daichi caused radiation, you'd expect them to find an elevated amount of Iodine 131 or Cesium 137, the radioactive isotopes most common in the Daiichi air samples close to the plant.

They infer it came from Japan, because Japan is there, and they want a story.

Now Xenon 133 is indeed a product of the fission of Uranium 235, the element used most commonly in commercial nuclear reactors-however, it has a half life of about 5 days, so if it's concentration was too small to be commonly measured at Daiichi, (at least negligible compared to Iodine 131), which has a half life of 8 days, how would you suddenly find it in Vancouver and not be finding Iodine 131 and Cesium 137? You could make some arguments that the Xenon 133 would travel faster on the wind than the other species, I suppose, but it sounds really specious to me, especially given that Daiichi has been "spewing" on and on since March 12th.


In fact, here's the air analysis from Daiichi, by the Main Gate

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/betu11_e/images/110327e9.pdf

What's in it?
Iodine 131
Iodine 132
Iodine 133
Cesium 134
Cesium 136
Cesium 137
Cobalt 58
Tellurium 129
Tellurium 132
Ruthenium 105

Now,

I'm going for someone didn't dispose of medical waste quite as carefully as they could have in the last week or two in B.C.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon#Medical

Imaging
Gamma emission from the radioisotope 133Xe of xenon can be used to image the heart, lungs, and brain, for example, by means of single photon emission computed tomography. 133Xe has also been used to measure blood flow.[132][133][134]

Xenon, particularly hyperpolarized 129Xe, is a useful contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the gas phase, it can be used to image empty space such as cavities in a porous sample or alveoli in lungs. Hyperpolarization renders 129Xe much more detectable via magnetic resonance imaging and has been used for studies of the lungs and other tissues. It can be used, for example, to trace the flow of gases within the lungs.[135][136] Because xenon is soluble in water and also in hydrophobic solvents, it can be used to image various soft living tissues.[137][138][139]

Xenon 133 is used to look at the capacity of people's lungs. Presumably they breath it out when they come back from the appointment, at least an infinitesimal amount. That's as likely a story for me as what the paper is selling.

So if the report you're seeing mentions Iodine & Cesium I might give it some credence. Otherwise, not so much.

 

[dorispulaski]

IAEA's report for the evening:

Their measurements of radiation, and of amounts of different radionuclides continue to drop, in air, in milk and in water.

In the case of the ocean, a drop in air concentration and fallout has not been cancelled out by leakage of radioactive materials into the sea from the north and south discharge canals.

Reactor temperatures are dropping--all good

Reactor pressures are elevated above atmospheric pressures-perhaps the pressure vessel is not damaged.

Meanwhile, TEPCO is working to get rid of the contaminated water in the turbine building.

The workers who were contaminated by the contaminated water are still under observation in the hospital, but did not require medical treatment up till this time.

IAEA Briefing on Fukushima Nuclear Accident (27 March 2011, 13:30 UTC)
1. Current Situation

The situation at the Fukushima Daiichi plant remains very serious.

The restoration of off-site power continues and lighting is now available in the central control rooms of Units 1, 2 and 3. Also, fresh water is now being injected into the Reactor Pressure Vessels (RPVs) of all three Units.

Radiation measurements in the containment vessels and suppression chambers of Units 1, 2 and 3 continued to decrease. White "smoke" continued to be emitted from Units 1 to 4.

Pressure in the RPV showed a slight increase at Unit 1 and was stable at Units 2 and 3, possibly indicating that there has been no major breach in the pressure vessels.

At Unit 1, the temperature measured at the bottom of the RPV fell slightly to 142 °C. At Unit 2, the temperature at the bottom of the RPV fell to 97 °C from 100 °C reported in the Update provided yesterday. Pumping of water from the turbine hall basement to the condenser is in progress with a view to allowing power restoration activities to continue.

At Unit 3, plans are being made to pump water from the turbine building to the main condenser but the method has not yet been decided. This should reduce the radiation levels in the turbine building and reduce the risk of contamination of workers in the turbine building restoring equipment.

No notable change has been reported in the condition of Unit 4.

Water is still being added to the spent fuel pools of Units 1 to 4 and efforts continue to restore normal cooling functions.

Units 5 and 6 remain in cold shutdown.

We understand that three workers who suffered contamination are still under observation in hospital.

2. Radiation Monitoring

Dose rates at the Fukushima site continue to trend downwards.

In 28 of the 45 prefectures for which data are available, no deposition of radionuclides was detected in the period 18 to 25 March. In seven of the other 17 prefectures, the estimated daily deposition was less than 500 becquerel per square metre for iodine-131 and less that 100 becquerel per square metre for caesium-137.

On 26 March, the highest values were observed in the prefecture of Yamagata: 7 500 becquerel per square metre for iodine-131 and 1200 becquerel per square metre for caesium-137. In the other prefectures where deposition of iodine-131 was reported, the daily range was from 28 to 860 becquerel per square metre. For caesium-137, the range was from 2.5 to 86 becquerel per square metre.

In the Shinjyuku district of Tokyo, the daily deposition of iodine-131 on 27 March was 220 becquerel per square metre, while for caesium-137 it was 12 becquerel per square metre.

No significant changes were reported in the 45 prefectures in gamma dose rates compared to yesterday. In general, gamma dose-rates tend to decrease due to the decay of short-lived radionuclides such as iodine-131.

Two IAEA teams are currently monitoring in Japan. One team made gamma dose-rate measurements in the Tokyo region at 8 locations. Gamma dose-rates measured ranged from 0.08 to 0.15 microsievert per hour, which is within or slightly above the normal background. The second team made additional measurements at distances of 30 to 41 km from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. At these locations, the dose-rates ranged from 0.9 to 17 microsievert per hour. At the same locations, results of beta-gamma contamination measurements ranged from 0.03 to 3.1 Megabecquerel per square metre.

The first results of aerial surveys of gamma dose-rates by the Japanese authorities have been received by the Incident and Emergency Centre. These are being analysed and will be presented when more detailed data have been received.

New data from monitoring of the marine environment, carried out from 24 March, 22:55 UTC to 25 March, 03:32 UTC about 30 km offshore, show a decrease in both caesium-137 and iodine 131. The contamination at these locations is influenced by aerial deposition of fallout as well as by the migration of contaminated seawater from the discharge points at the reactor. The measured radiation doses rates above the sea remain consistently low (between 0.04 and 0.1 microsievert per hour). The first results of model predictions received from the SIROCCO Group at the University of Toulouse are being assessed.

Recommendations relating to the restriction of drinking water consumption, based on measured concentrations of iodine-131, remain in place in seven locations (in one location for both adults and infants, and in six locations for infants).

As far as food contamination is concerned, samples taken from 23 to 25 March in five prefectures showed iodine-131 in unprocessed raw milk, but the levels were far below the regulation values set by the Japanese authorities. Caesium-137 was also detected in samples of unprocessed raw milk taken on 23 March in Chiba prefecture, but at levels far below the Japanese regulation values. Caesium-137 was not detected in any of the samples taken from 24-25 March in the other four prefectures.

Based on samples taken on 22 and 24-25 March, three prefectures (Chiba, Ibaraki and Tochigi) reported iodine-131 in celery, parsley, spinach and other leafy vegetables above the regulation values set by the Japanese authorities. Caesium-137 was also detected above the regulation values in one sample of spinach taken on 24 March in Tochigi prefecture, but in the remaining two prefectures, the results were below regulation values.

The Joint FAO/IAEA Food Safety Assessment Team arrived in Tokyo on Saturday. It will meet regulatory officials in various prefectures where food contamination has been detected. The team left for Fukushima early today. The Mission will assist and provide advice on sampling protocols, analytical procedures, data collected to date and actions taken by the Japanese authorities for the control of contaminated foods.

 

[dorispulaski]

Radiation measurements from Daiichi and Daina:

3:00 AM March 28th Daina Measuring point 4, 6.8 microSieverts/hour
6:00 AM March 28th Daiichi West Gate 125.8 microSieverts/hour
6:00 AM March 28th Daiichi Main Gate 190 microSieverts/hour
6:00 AM March 28th Main Building 1.18 milleSieverts/hour


Some words from NIE earlier today:

UPDATE AS OF 1:30 P.M. EDT, MARCH 27:
U.S. Navy barges carrying 500,000 gallons of fresh water were nearing the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant Sunday as workers continued to pump cooling water into reactors and spent fuel pools.

Beginning Friday, workers began to switch from sea water to fresh water to cool reactors 1, 2 and 3. The arrival of the barges will maintain the fresh water supply. Engineers are concerned that continued use of sea water will cause corrosion inside the reactors and hinder the cooling process.

Dose rates at the site boundary continued to range from 1 to 3 millirem per hour.

 

[Tonichelle]

I'm not a believer in media sensationalism (I quit school because I was disgusted with the journalism prof's pushing that this was "true" journalism. However, this has ALWAYS been how journalism does business in this country (hello, the journalists of the day pushed for the revolution just as much as any of the founding fathers -and really they did more to see her through!)). I was just curious as to where they were even coming up with this information lol

 

[dorispulaski]

Toni, Certainly it has always been true that we have had sensationalist journalists in this country from the inception. However, from time to time, there have been papers that knew how to keep the separation between the editorial page and the front page. Reporting of nuclear events has always been skewed, most especially by the New York Times.

Here's an example:

August 16, 1994, the New York Times reported the seizure of 10 ounces of plutonium at the Munich Airport. They then said:

A tiny speck of the fine powder can cause lung cancer in anyone who inhales it and a small amount in the water supply of a large city like Munich could kill hundreds of thousands of people.

This prompted six scientists from Lawrence Livermore Labs to write an article saying the statement about cancer was misleading and the statement about the water supply was false. They had technical reasons for saying so, but the clearest demonstration of the falsity of the experiment is that 26 men at Los Alamos in 1951 were severely exposed to plutonium, some so much so that routinely plutonium was found in their urine. They are studied as a "cohort" every five years. Average exposure was over 1000 millirem (a lot). By the time the average age of the group was 72, fifty years after their exposure, 19 of the original 26 were in reasonably good health, and most lived into their eighties. One man developed osteosarcoma (bone cancer), which might have been related to the plutonium or not. If plutonium were all that lethal, these guys should have died back in the 1950's.

Bernard Cohen, professor emeritus at U Pitt, went back over the New York Times' stories prior to Three Mile Island, between 1974 and 1978, and looked at reports of accidents that they reported. In the case of asphyxiation (as by CO2 problems with furnaces), auto accidents, and industrial accidents, the number of reports was the same or higher than the number of deaths. In the case of nuclear or radiation accidents, there were 200 articles per year, and no deaths. None. New York Times subscribers get at least a couple scare-mongering nuclear articles per week.

By contrast, there were only 50 articles per year on industrial accidents, and they killed (at that time) about 12,000 per year.

The professor argued that this constant stream of stuff contributed to the panic that surrounded the Three Mile Island accident.

Plus they are unable to type the word "nuclear" without using the adjective "deadly" or "lethal" or a synonym for the same at the New York Times. This isn't uncommon, by the way. The Englewood, FL, Sun Times is just the same.

But I wish you hadn't have given up journalism, in this day and age of self-publishing. The world could use some anti-sensationalist journalists, in my opinion.

 

[dorispulaski]

Ever since the Japanese government slapped the hand of the TEPCO president for not being "open" and "transparent" even less info is in TEPCO reports, it seems. I take this to mean that the Japanese government wants to be strictly in control of the information flow about Daiichi. When the IAEA has more info than anyone else, when they typically were reporting about 12 to 24 hours later than other sources, it says something.

Of course, they have a large number of operatives on the ground in Japan at this time.

None the less:

JAIF reports:

●Cooling the spent fuel pool
Steam like substance rose from the reactor building at unit 1, 2, 3 and 4 is being observed. Operation of spraying water to the spent fuel pool is being conducted. The operation was conducted 12:34-14:36 in Unit 3 and 16:55-19:25 in Unit 4 on March 27th.

...

<March 27th>
07:30 TEPCO had already started draining off the water in the base of turbine building in Unit-1 to condensers, also preparing in Unit-2, considering in Unit-3 and Unit 4. 12:34-14:36(Unit 3), 16:55-19:25(Unit 4) TEPCO conducted seawater spray to Spent Fuel Pools.

JAIF lists the status of each major component of the reactor

Updates in the last day or so:

Unit 2's Containment is listed as Damaged, and suspected leaking. Other 5 units listed as Undamaged

Unit 3's spent fuel is listed as having suspected damaged (Units 1, 2, listed as unknown) Unit 3 as possibly damaged, Units 5 & 6 as safe

140.4 microSieverts at the West Gate (this is a small rise) 9 AM

JAIF reports that the two workers who weren't wearing boots and stepped in the water in the basement of the turbine building were discharged from hospital on March 28th. This is the only place I've seen that, and I hope it is true (good news).

TEPCO issued a report with very little in it. Radiation readings at Daina continued to drop.

Daina 9:00 AM 6.6 microSieverts per hour

However, at Daiichi, the wind changed direction to the east, where we have not often seen it (from the plant to the West Gate)

9:00 AM 140.4 microSieverts per hour (up) West Gate
9:00 AM 1.17 milliSieverts per hour (down) Main Building
9:00 AM 216 microSieverts per hour (up) Main Gate

TEPCO remeasured the Unit 2 Basement water, and a new sample of Unit 2 basement water and it matched their reassement of their original data at a factor of more than 100 less than the original (erroneous) measurment.

-
Unit2's status had this statement updated:

From 10:10 am on March 26th, freshwater (with boric acid) injection was initiated. (switched from the seawater injection) At 06:31PM, Mar 27th, transfer from the fire fighting pump to a temporary motor driven pump was made.

The boric acid "poisons" the nuclear reaction; a good thing.

And at the Unit 4 spent fuel pool:

-From 4:55 pm on March 27th, water spray by the concrete pumping vehicle was started and finished at 7:25 pm on March 27th.

 

[dorispulaski]

JAIF translations of NHK reports:

It looks like they might finally be on their way to finding the source of the water in the basement. Messy now, but necessary.

Meanwhile, we see the crane at the Unit 3 spent fuel pool collapsed and fell into the pool during the hydrogen explosion there.

As to the huge values of radiation in the water, versus a reactor in normal operation, I'm postulating that part of that might be due to all the radioactive chlorine they found in the water, which I'm guessing came from the sea water, something that is not in a reactor in normal operation. It has a half life in minutes, so it is very radioactive--if I'm right, and I'm not an expert, this should get better over time, because the stuff disappears, and they've changed to fresh water in the last couple days. However, an additional effect has to be that they boiled down a lot of water when the reactor was running all too hot, so that impurities in the remaining water are very concentrated (Like evaporating slightly sweet sap to make maple syrup)

Again, the reactors are all a lot colder now. And no one is making the foolish suggestion to stop cooling them, even the government.

Do not confuse "high" in the seawater with "HIGH" in the basement and piping runs. The seawater is high compared to regulations, the stuff in the basement is HIGH as is in Dangerous.

No. 34
Status of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station as of 20:00, March 28,
2011
Here is information regarding the status of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station from the news reports aired by NHK Today.

 It is found that there is water accumulated in the tunnel where pipes go through at unit-2 around 15:30 on March 27. It has high radiation that is more than 1000 Sv/hr on the surface. Since the water discovered in the turbine building of unit-2 has same high level radiation, TEPCO is investigating relationship of these 2 cases. (18:40, March 28)

 Nuclear Safety Commission expressed the opinion that radioactive material from nuclear fuel once melded possibly have reached outside the containment vessel with water leaked from inside to outside the containment vessel trough unidentified pathway at unit-2. This opinion is based on the fact that water accumulated in the turbine building contain high amount of radioactive material, which is 100,000 times as much as radioactive material contained in water in the reactor at normal operation. Also Nuclear Safety Commission mentioned that operation to inject water to the reactor of unit-2 can be continued even in this situation. (13:25, March 28)

 The chief cabinet secretary strongly required not to enter the area to be evacuated in light of the fact that there are some cases in which evacuating persons temporally came back home. (13:25, March 28)

 High amount of radioactive material was detected in sea on the northern side of nuclear power station. The seawater contains radioactive iodine-131 in excess of the legal standard by 1150 times. High amount of radioactive iodine was detected also in sea on the southern side of nuclear power station few days ago. Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told that radioactive material possibly have moved with the sea current. (13:25, March 28)

 Ministry of Defense released movies of the power station taken around 10:00 on March 27 from the helicopter of the self defense force. This movie captured these following scenes.
・The roof of the reactor building collapsed after hydrogen explosion at unit-1.
・Some holes are observed on the roof and steam like white smoke is rising
from these holes at unit-2.
・There is only steal beam upper part of the reactor building and steam is rising at unit-3.
・The wall of the reactor building was blown off and some structure and equipment can be observed at unit-4. Steam is rising from some spots at unit-4.

Dr. Sekimura of Tokyo university pointed out the possibility of damage to the fuel in the spent fuel pool of unit-3 since it would appear that the heavy crane have dropped into the fuel pool in this movie. (05:40, March 28)

 It becomes difficult to discharge water accumulated in the turbine building and it would possibly delay the work to restore cooling capability. High amount of radioactive material was detected in water accumulated in the turbine building at unit-1, 2 and 3. Water found in the turbine building of unit-2 contains radioactive material 100000 times as much as radioactive
material contained in water in the reactor at normal operation and radioactivity of water surface is more than 1000mSv/hr. Also water found in the turbine building of unit-1 and unit-3 contains radioactive material, which is 1000 times as much. (04:20, March 28)
End

 

[dorispulaski]

Meanwhile TEPCO is getting customers back on line slowly.

< Expected Rolling Blackout on March 29th >
March 29, Rolling blackout will not be implemented.


Daina 3:00 PM March 28, 2011 6.4 microSieverts/hour, which has been steadily lower

Daichi 3:30 PM West Gate 122.8 microSieverts/hour (down to a level before the puff at 9 AM)

The question is how much of the highly contaminated water there is, how it got there, and how to fix it. This is what TEPCO says that dovetails with the NHK report. Apparently trenches = "piping runs".

- At 3:30PM, March 27th, we found that there was water in the trenches of Units 1 to 3. The radioactive emission at the surface of the water was
0.4mSv/h for Unit 1 and over 1,000mSv/h for Unit 2. As for Unit 3, we couldn't have access to the surface because of rubbles. We will continue to monitor water in the trenches.

Recent seawater data for March 27th is graphed here. Values are less than yesterday. Maybe a little bit higher for iodine up the coast, but the wind shifted direction, possibly affecting the currents.

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11032804-e.html

JAIF 8PM March 28, 2011
<March 27th>
07:30 TEPCO is working to send highly radioactive water accumulated in the basement of turbine building to the condenser at unit-1. Same work is to be done at unit-2 and 3.

PM: TEPCO conducted sparing sea water to the spent Fuel Pools at unit-3 and unit-4.

 

[Tonichelle]

But I wish you hadn't have given up journalism, in this day and age of self-publishing. The world could use some anti-sensationalist journalists, in my opinion.

I didn't want to actually be ajournalist, I just had to take those courses so I could get into sports broadcasting (I want to be behind the scenes). If I didn't write sensational enough I didn't make the grade. It was a no win situation.