Japan Nuclear powerplant explosion and radiation crisis

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Japan Nuclear powerplant explosion and radiation crisis

#1 Unread post by totalmotorcycle »

Japanese nuclear plant hit by fire and third explosionRadiation around Fukushima Daiichi plant has reached levels damaging to health

Jonathan Watts in Ishinomaki and Tania Branigan in Beijing guardian.co.uk,

Tuesday 15 March 2011 14.13 GMT

Image
The explosion on Tuesday at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Photograph: Abc Tv/EPA

Japan is facing the world's biggest nuclear crisis for decades as engineers struggle to regain control of the Fukushima plant following another explosion and a fire that caused a spike in radiation to harmful levels.

Amid growing fears that the situation is heading for catastrophe, 70 technicians are still battling to cool reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi facility but non-essential personnel have been ordered to leave and the Kyodo news agency reported that radiation levels have become too high for staff to remain in control rooms. The government has already called in international help in tackling the spiralling crisis.

Early on Tuesday, the power plant in the country's stricken north-east was rocked by an explosion at the No 2 reactor, the third blast at the site in four days. That was followed by a fire that broke out at the No 4 reactor unit, which appeared to be the cause of today's radiation leaks. That reactor was shut down for maintenance before the earthquake, but its spent fuel rods are stored in a pool at the site. The fire was later extinguished but Kyodo reported that the pool was subsequently boiling, with the water level falling. If the water boils off there is a risk that the fuel could catch fire, sending a plume of radiation directly into the atmosphere.

Radiation levels at one location on the site reached 400 millisieverts (mSv) an hour after the fire - four times the level that can lead to cancer - the chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, said. But levels had lowered dramatically by the end of the day, according to the International Atomic Energy Authority.

The government ordered any inhabitants remaining within the 12-mile (20km) radius exclusion zone to leave immediately, told those between 12 miles and 19 miles away to stay indoors and imposed a 19-mile no-fly zone. Experts backed their assessment that health risks beyond that area were minimal at present.

The news was a fresh blow for a region already reeling from the impact of Friday's magnitude 8.9 earthquake and devastating tsunami.

At midday Tuesday, Japan's national police agency said 2,475 people were confirmed dead and 3,611 were missing, while NHK reported 3,000 dead with 15,000 unaccounted for. Emergency broadcasts on NHK television underscored the near-apocalyptic scenario that was unfolding at Fukushima.

"For those in the evacuation area, close your windows and doors. Switch off your air conditioners. If you are being evacuated, cover yourself as much as possible and wear a facemask. Stay calm."

Fears of fresh contamination are an extra concern for refugees across the region. Water, food and fuel are in desperately short supply in Ishinomaki, one of the cities worst affected by the disaster. According to the deputy mayor, Etsuro Kitamura, 40,000 refugees in evacuation centres are having to live on just one rice ball a day.

For Hiroko Kodo, news of the nuclear explosion was a rude return to the world of mass communications. Since Friday she had been cut off from television, internet and mobile phone networks. But the Red Cross provided her with a radio among an emergency kit it distributed to all the refugees. "When I turned it on, I heard about the radiation. It is terrifying. I'm afraid now to drink the water from the mountains in case it is contaminated."

Workers at the Fukushima plant have been struggling since Friday to avert a disaster after cooling systems failed in the aftermath of the quake. Hundreds of thousands of people have already been evacuated from areas within 12 miles of the facility as a precaution.

Readings in parts of the facility hit levels indicating an immediate risk of damage to people without protective gear, Edano said.

The prime minister, Naoto Kan, asked people to remain calm in a televised address but warned: "Radiation has spread from these reactors and the reading of the level seems high ... There's still a very high risk of further radioactive material coming out." He added that workers were "putting themselves in a very dangerous situation" to try to contain the problems.

With confidence diminishing in the ability of the plant owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), to handle the crisis, Kan had already said he would personally lead a new joint response headquarters.

According to Kyodo, the prime minister called executives at the power company to demand "what the hell is going on?"

Tokyo has asked the UN nuclear watchdog for expert help and the US nuclear regulatory commission for equipment. Officials have also begun to distribute potassium iodide, which can help inhibit the uptake of radioactive iodide by the thyroid, to evacuation centres.


Officials said the explosion at the No 2 unit appeared to have damaged the reactor's containment structure, which prevents radioactive materials from leaking in the event of meltdown. That is of particular concern because the building housing the reactor was damaged by the hydrogen blast at neighbouring unit No 3, experts told the news agency.

Edano told reporters that workers were continuing to inject water to cool units 1 to 3. The No 2 reactor was not as stable as the others, but the water injection was working "to a certain level", he added.

Tepco admitted for the first time that there was a possibility of partial meltdown, Kyodo reported. Officials have already gauged that as a "high possibility".

Edano told reporters that beyond the 12-mile radius the level should be reduced to one where harm to human health would be minimal or non-existent, although that would depend on wind speed and direction. He said a "minimal amount" of radioactive material might spread to metropolitan areas, but not at harmful levels, adding: "We want you to keep calm. We can continue with our daily lives."

In Tokyo, the metropolitan government said radiation reached around 20 times normal levels in the capital on Tuesday morning but said governor Shintaro Ishihara said the levels would "not immediately cause health problems".

Prof David Hinde, head of the department of nuclear physics at the Australian National University, said it was the worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, but stressed it was on a far smaller scale.

The maximum radiation level was "very, very serious" for workers on site, who would only be able to remain there for the briefest periods. But the risk to those outside the exclusion zone was very small, particularly when seen in the context of their situation as a whole.

"Compared to the risk of being on a plain near the sea it's negligible ... no one is looking at the black smoke from the fires and wondering where those carcinogens are going," he said.

An expert told the broadcaster NHK that the situation was "very grave", warning that without protective gear a level of 100mSv could be enough to cause male infertility in a short time.

He also said those in the 12-mile to 19-mile zone should dust off their hair and clothes before entering their building, including brushing off the soles of their shoes. Once inside they should close windows and turn off air conditioning. Any laundry hanging out should be left outside.

Japan's central bank pumped billions more dollars into the economy as stocks plunged more than 10% on the back of the news, following a major injection on Monday.
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Re: Japan Nuclear powerplant explosion and radiation crisis

#2 Unread post by totalmotorcycle »

I have been following this pretty closely since it happened on Friday in Japan.

Some things I have heard thus far:


There has been 4 explosions at the Japanese nuclear powerplant since.

It turns out the Japanese nuclear powerplant isn't the common nuclear uranium only type but a rare mox-fuel type using 7% Plutonium, only a few of these plants exists worldwide due to their danger.

There is radiation danger, Japan has been evacuating people who are closer then 18 miles to the plant. There is a radiation danger in Japan and due to the jet stream radiation will arrive in North America in 6-10 days (from today 15th), unknown is how bad the radiation will be. Radiation in Tokyo is above normal background levels currently.

Some good news: Another Japanese nuclear powerplant 20km away from this one is experiencing unstable conditions but news is saying "The second plant, containing four reactors about a dozen or so kilometers from the one that has been the subject of all the reporting, has reached cold shutdown on all four reactors. The destroyed pump motors (from the tsunami) were replaced and the plant is stable. That part of the story, barring some sort of new issue, is over. Note that a couple of days ago this plant was on the verge of a full-scale disaster."

Nikki (Tokyo stock market) lost 10.55% yesterday alone.
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Re: Japan Nuclear powerplant explosion and radiation crisis

#3 Unread post by QuietMonkey »

yikes!

serious stuff - i better go do some more news digging.

and the asian homer simpson jokes will last forever...
"Zounds! Zorched by Zarches, Spaceman Spiff's crippled craft crashes on planet Plootarg!"

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Re: Japan Nuclear powerplant explosion and radiation crisis

#4 Unread post by totalmotorcycle »

QuietMonkey wrote:yikes!

serious stuff - i better go do some more news digging.

and the asian homer simpson jokes will last forever...
I am hoping things will get better, the Tsunami is a crisis enough for Japan to deal with, this is just beyond that for any country to deal with.

Globally stock markets are down 2% or more today.

Mike
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Re: Japan Nuclear powerplant explosion and radiation crisis

#5 Unread post by JVRR »

Sounds like Iodine tablets are sold out everywhere here! Freaking crazy. I've been the Chornobyl before though, so I think that makes me immune or something? :wink:

I guess I am not so surprised they are all sold out, I, who thinks its ridiculous people are buying them like crazy, would probably buy some if I saw them on the shelf :roll:.
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Re: Japan Nuclear powerplant explosion and radiation crisis

#6 Unread post by totalmotorcycle »

JVRR wrote:Sounds like Iodine tablets are sold out everywhere here! Freaking crazy. I've been the Chornobyl before though, so I think that makes me immune or something? :wink:

I guess I am not so surprised they are all sold out, I, who thinks its ridiculous people are buying them like crazy, would probably buy some if I saw them on the shelf :roll:.
I have heard people in Europe are buying up the tablets as well and many places are sold out too. Europe will get this "radiation cloud" after it passes through Hawaii, USA/Canada.

You want something called:

Potasium Iodide 130mg (you can even get it in eating 3-5 grams of dried seaweed)

NOT

Potasium Idoate

BTW.
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Re: Japan Nuclear powerplant explosion and radiation crisis

#7 Unread post by totalmotorcycle »

Update:

1. Hundreds of expats are bring evacuated from Tokyo and parts of Japan due to radiation danger. Last night on CNN they interviewed Tokyo residents, showed emply stores and how ex-pat people are fleeing Tokyo.
: http://news.google.ca/news/search?aq=f& ... evacuation

2. Japanese start to evacuate Tokyo.

Radiation fears prompt Tokyo exodus
The Guardian

Passengers queuing at Haneda Airport in Tokyo as airlines in Europe and Asia said they were suspending flights to the Japanese capital. Photograph: EPA Airlines from Asia and Europe have halted flights into Tokyo, while multinational firms made plans ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ma ... -cancelled



A MASS exodus from Tokyo is under way as those left behind pray for the wind to save them from a new radiation nightmare.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... doned.html
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Re: Japan Nuclear powerplant explosion and radiation crisis

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Radiation fears prompt Tokyo exodus




Radiation fears prompt Tokyo exodus
International companies pulling staff out and airlines cancelling flights after two more explosions at Fukushima plant


Justin McCurry in Osaka
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 March 2011 19.39 GMT
Passengers queuing at Haneda Airport in Tokyo as airlines in Europe and Asia said they were suspending flights to the Japanese capital. Photograph: EPA
Airlines from Asia and Europe have halted flights into Tokyo, while multinational firms made plans to relocate employees as anxiety continued to grip Japan over the nuclear crisis.

Despite official reassurances that radiation levels in the capital posed no threat to health, a steady stream of tourists, residents and expatriates left the capital by plane and bullet train. Austria said it was moving its embassy out of Tokyo to the western city of Osaka.

Setbacks in the struggle to avert disaster at an atomic power plant in the north-east of the country also sparked a fresh round of panic-buying in the Japanese capital, where tiny amounts of radioactivity registered for the first time since last Friday's earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

People in Tokyo endured another day of anxiety as they heard that the plant had been rocked by two more explosions and evidence emerged that water in a pool storing spent fuel rods may be boiling.

Tokyo is already experiencing serious disruption to its transport network after Tepco, the city's electricity supplier, decided to implement rolling power cuts triggered by disruption to power generation by the disaster.

"I'm not that worried about another earthquake – it's the radiation that scares me," said Masashi Yoshida, who was waiting for a flight out of Haneda airport with his five-year-old daughter.

Those among Tokyo's 12 million people who decided to stay snapped up batteries, torches, candles and sleeping bags, and stripped shelves of bread, bottled water, instant noodles and canned food.

The hoarding, partly prompted by the prospect of regular power cuts over the next six weeks, threatens to hamper efforts to divert supplies to the quake zone, where millions are suffering food and water shortages.

Scientists said radiation levels near the Fukushima No 1 nuclear plant, where more than 200,000 people have been evacuated or told to stay inside, posed no immediate threat to the capital, which is 150 miles to the south.

Naoto Kan, the prime minister, urged 140,000 people living within 19 miles of the plant to remain indoors. About 70,000 people living within 12 miles have already been evacuated. "I know that people are very worried, but I would like to ask you to stay calm," Kan said.

"Radioactive material will reach Tokyo but it is not harmful to humans, because it will be dissipated by the time it gets there," said Koji Yamazaki, a professor of environmental science at Hokkaido University on Japan's main north island.

Prolonged fears of a serious accident could weaken Tokyo's role as an international financial hub. Several firms said they were pulling staff out, including 350 Indian employees of the software services exporter Infosys Systems.

But big financial firms in Japan were going about their "business as usual", said the International Bankers Association, which represents firms such as Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.

The French embassy advised its citizens to leave and the German embassy advised people with families to do the same. China is poised to evacuate its nationals from badly affected areas of north-east Japan.

Several international airlines said they would avoid Tokyo until they were certain the danger had passed. Lufthansa became the first European airline to announce its daily flights to Tokyo would switch to Osaka and Nagoya at least until the weekend, and Air China cancelled flights from Beijing and Shanghai.

Taiwan's EVA Airways said it would not fly to Tokyo and Sapporo for the rest of the month. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic said services to Narita and Haneda, Tokyo's main airports, were not affected.

Causes of concern
The Fukushima engineers' main priorities now are to cool the three overheating reactors by pumping seawater into them and to ensure that water levels in the storage pools do not fall low enough to expose the spent fuel rods.

In the best-case scenario, the storage pools do not overheat and engineers manage to pump cold seawater into the damaged reactors over the coming days and gradually bring them down to a safe temperature, when they can be put into cold storage.

In a more worrying scenario, cooling at any or all of the reactors fails to prevent the nuclear cores from going into a meltdown. At very high temperatures, the core could melt through the containment system and cause an explosion inside the building. If that explosion damaged the outer containment structure, which is made of steel-lined reinforced concrete, radiation from the reactor could escape into the environment. In this scenario, one option would be to seal the whole reactor with lead and concrete.

Another scenario causing concern involves the storage pools, because they do not have containment systems to stop radiation leaking from them. Because the cooling systems have failed, the storage pools have started to heat up. If they boil dry, the fuel rods will be exposed and could potentially release vast amounts of radiation directly into the environment.Ian Sample
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Re: Japan Nuclear powerplant explosion and radiation crisis

#9 Unread post by totalmotorcycle »

From worse to worse...


“What the hell is going on?” - Japan PM




Peter Goodspeed: Livid Japanese PM takes personal control of crisis management

Peter Goodspeed Mar 16, 2011 – 7:00 AM ET | Last Updated: Mar 16, 2011 11:18 AM ET


As dangerous levels of radiation leaked from four crippled nuclear reactors in Japan’s earthquake-ravaged northeast Tuesday, Naoto Kan, the Prime Minister, stormed into an executive meeting of Tokyo Electric Power Co. and demanded to know, “What the hell is going on?”

According to the Kyodo news agency, whose reporter overheard the angry exchange, he was livid over hearing of Japan’s latest brush with nuclear catastrophe at the same time a panicked public was being told a third explosion at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had led to a dangerous leak spreading radioactive clouds as far south as Tokyo.

“The TV reported an explosion. But nothing was said to the Premier’s office for about an hour,” Mr. Kan fumed.

“What the hell is going on?”


Japan scrambles to pull nuclear plant back from the brink

Emperor's appearance signals magnitude of Japanese disaster

Graphic: Inside Fukushima Daiichi's most worrisome reactor

Map: Evacuation zones around Japanese nuclear plant expands

.Within hours, the Japanese PM had announced he was personally taking control of crisis management at Fukushima. He appointed a committee of government and TEPCO officials to report directly to him; had the transport ministry impose a no-fly zone for 30 kilometres around the badly damaged plant; and ordered Japan’s Self-Defence Forces to shift their attention to relief, instead of rescue.

Later, at a nationally televised news conference, where he spoke to reporters while dressed in a powder-blue emergency services jump-suit, Mr. Kan acknowledged the radiation peril and called for calm.

“There is a danger of even higher radiation levels,” he said.

“We are doing everything we can to contain the leakage. I know that people are very worried, but I would like to ask you to act calmly.”

For a brief moment there was a flash of explosive temper that brought Mr. Kan to political prominence nearly 20 years ago. He earned the nickname “Ira-Kan” (Irritable Kan) as a crusading health minister who blamed bureaucrats in his ministry for failing to prevent, then covering up, the use of HIV-tainted blood products in an AIDS scandal.

Over the years, however, he morphed into an uninspiring and relatively ineffective prime minister as he struggled unsuccessfully to unite a divided parliament and tackle the country’s economic stagnation.

Just hours before the 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit last Friday, changing the face of Japan, Mr. Kan was fighting for his political life.

Opposition parties were pressing for him to resign or call a new election by refusing to pass a vital budget bill; 16 rebellious MPs in his party were lobbying for his removal as party leader; and a parliamentary committee was investigating claims he had committed a criminal offence by taking election donations from a non-Japanese.

On Friday morning, Mr. Kan told the committee he wasn’t about to resign, but admitted he had accepted $12,000 from a Korean businessman he thought was Japanese.

His Foreign Minister, Seiji Maehara, was forced to resign on March 6 for accepting a similar $3,000 donation from a Korean-barbecue-shop owner in Kyoto.

Mr. Kan appeared poised for ignominious failure. His public approval rating stood at a record low 20%.

That was before the earthquake and tsunami killed thousands, caused US$180-billion of destruction, pummeled the world’s third-largest economy, and threatened a major environmental and health crisis.

Now the Prime Minister has a chance to redeem himself by leading a people who have shown nothing but calm, quiet courage throughout their ordeal.

Despite some confusion and conflicting statements surrounding government attempts to control the rapidly evolving crisis, Mr. Kan has adopted a workman-like approach to trying to resolve Japan’s calamities.

Mr. Kan urged opposition MP to join him to “save the country;” ordered troops to conduct a massive rescue effort; and shut down high-risk nuclear plants and transport systems.

He also ordered the country’s central bank to pump more than US$184-billion into international money markets to cushion the economic fallout that still stripped Japan’s stock market of nearly 14% of its value.

After touring the tsunami- and earthquake-ravaged northeast by helicopter Saturday, Mr. Kan appeared on national television, promising “to save as many lives as we can, especially today, tomorrow and the day after.”

“We have to hang tough,” he said. “The earthquake, tsunami and nuclear incident have been the biggest crisis Japan has encountered in 65 years since the end of World War Two.”

“We are under scrutiny on whether we, the Japanese people, can overcome this crisis,” he went on. “I promise that I will risk my life on this job.”

The note of stubborn defiance might not rally a naturally stoic and conservative people, but it could still salvage the Prime Minister’s career.

“I don’t think people are necessarily looking for inspiration or charisma, but competence. Someone who can do what needs to be done to rescue people and come up with a plan for reconstruction, and contain the nuclear situation,” Koichi Nakano, a professor at Tokyo’s Sophia University, told Reuters.

Mr. Kan knows, if he can bring relief to his troubled nation, he can emerge as a hero.

But then he already believes in redemption.

In 2004, while leader of the opposition, he was exposed as an adulterer and became ensnared in a pension fund scandal, after failing to pay required contributions while he was health minister.

Disgraced and desperate, he resigned as party leader, shaved his head, donned traditional Buddhist garb and went on a pilgrimage to 88 Buddhist temples on the island of Shikoku.

Before long, he had returned to politics, became finance minister and ultimately, last June, Prime Minister.
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Re: Japan Nuclear powerplant explosion and radiation crisis

#10 Unread post by totalmotorcycle »

FYI: I have been hearing on the news stories of people here in Europe trying to get Potasium Iodide but it's all sold out everywhere, so I tried today to see if I could get some in the UK... here are the results:

1. Zero immediately available from any pharamacy either over the counter, via perscription or on the shelf.

2. Only 1 pharmacy we spoke to is taking orders for it, 72 hour wait time.

3. In the UK a perscription is required to buy it and only with recommendation from the British Foreign Office or BA Travel Advisory Centre.

Amazing hard to get if you actually needed it in an emergency.
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