This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Fukushima Reactor 2 Core Has Melted Through Reactor
This will not be news for most objective Zero Hedge readers as we indicated this is a distinct possibility on several occasions, but some of those more "skeptical" about reality would be interested to know that according to Reuters "the core at Japan's Fukushima nuclear reactor has melted through the reactor pressure vessel", Democratic Congressman Edward Markey told a hearing on the nuclear disaster on Wednesday. "I have been informed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the core of Unit Two has gotten so hot that part of it has probably melted through the reactor pressure vessel," said Markey, a prominent nuclear critic in the House of Representatives. Surely there is some bullish spin to this. We are too tired to look for it though.
And never one to not find the silver lining in the mushroom cloud, US nuclear regulator NRC promptly had to add its 2 cents:
A top official from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Wednesday it was not clear that Japan's Fukushima No. 2 nuclear reactor has melted through the reactor pressure vessel.
Earlier, Democratic lawmaker Edward Markey told a House of Representatives hearing on the nuclear disaster that the NRC had told him the core had melted through the vessel.
"That's not clear to us, nor is it clear to us that the reactor has penetrated the vessel," said Martin Virgilio, deputy executive director for reactor and preparedness programs at the NRC.
Perhaps in order to make it clear, Mr. Virgilio can go to Fukushima and find out first hand.
»
- 24619 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Clearly, the EPA's mission is to protect the environment, not us.
You're right Jim. First rule in civilian or military NBC training is to anticipate all food and water supplies are contaminated and compromised. Since we now have chemical and nuclear, a perfect trifecta with biological can't be far behind. When in doubt...
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php
ok, homey, the EPA has been working up to this, as we all know, from zH. you were there, too, as i recall, when it came up a few daze ago, bro, ok?
yer first link report this (PASTE): US GOV’T MAY RAISE RADIATION EXPOSURE LEVELS IN FOOD, DRINK, SOIL, and yer 2nd link, refering to the first link has this headline:
Group warns EPA ready to increase radioactive release guidelinesyou say (PASTE): Our EPA just made the following ahem.. changes in the acceptable standard levels of radiation.
so, thanx 4 the "heads up". you seem like a pretty cool person, but (and this is the 2nd time i have said this to you) if you are not able to think straight, you will not do well on this site.
we all make mistakes and many of those who respect this site do not mind a little taste of crow, and admit mistakes, right here. after all, we learn from our mistakes, and this site is one heluva "college" 4 us!!!
disinformation, uncorrected, remains, simply, dis-info.
We can sleep when we're dead.
Meanwhile TEPCO looks at getting into geothermal ..
They screwed with the crust. Why not get to the CORE of things?
geothermal the red hot sector right now
in a non-green kinda way...
Tis, still but a scratch.
I wonder if we shouldn't send some MENA veterans to Japan. It looks like Japanese government is making life impossible for more people (and other life) than all the dictators together.
Once the core hits the Nasdaq building the Russell should be @ 36,000
That happens after the hydrogen explosion around the water table which will promptly cause a 5,000 point Russell excursion at which point drinking water in Japan should be permanently poisoned (if it's not already)
Watch out in California today http://goo.gl/wHbZv
Judging by your name and goo.gl link im guessing this will take people to a viral chinese website...
Beware.
It's legit I checked it.
The website sites that Canada has suspended radiation monitoring and shows a video graphic of the radiation cloud.
California appears to be getting slammed.
http://www.doh.wa.gov/Topics/japan/monitor-history.htm
Look at the numbers for Richmond. Then they pulled the plug on the monitors.
also...
Vancouver seaweed almost 400% above international limit for iodine-131 in food… by March 28seaweed samples were still showing increasing iodine-131 as of March 28, according to data provided by [Krzystof Starosta, a nuclear chemist and physicist and associate professor at Simon Fraser University]. In samples of dehydrated seaweed taken on March 15 near the North Vancouver SeaBus terminal, the count was zero; on March 22 it was 310 Bq per kilogram; and by March 28 it was 380 Bq/kg.
So anywhere that reads high radiation levels, the govt pulls the plug on the monitors. Gee thanks govt youre really so helpful and benevolent, so concerned about the people and all!!
I think you mean "Richland," not "Richmond." Hanford project - produced the material for the bomb used on Nagasaki. The Richland high school mascot is a mushroom cloud -- they are the "Bombers." Richland folk know radiation.
Regarding the Washington air monitors: don't we have enough real conspiracies to not have to make them up?
Honestly, if the people running this system didn't want people to know about high radiation readings then wouldn't they just put false low numbers on the site rather than leaving them blank and causing more questions?
Isn't a better explanation really that they were having problems with the monitoring unit?
TPOG
Having been party to a few conspiracies, I think there are actually far fewer of them then those who have a tendency to believe in them would like to think.
However, since the government does not have a monopoly on survey meters- I think a dissemination of demonstrably false readings would create a political blow up/meltdown.
I would not rule out the possibility of an "ignorance is bliss" campaign by the social/pseudo science clowns who pass for management in the US.
If government officials pulled the monitor offline when the info is needed the most, the person(s) who directed this act must be prosecuted.
t.y., wngo ju; yer page-leading (?) junks may be b/c you posted the web address and not the link. others have admitted to not knowing how to get the links to post, but after hanging my ass out the window for a person whose ears attact me, recently, on this very question, i'll simply say if you don't know how, just ask a friend, ok?, and start putting up links, pls, b/c we can use this info, so +++.
here's where slewie goes for the local, ass-hammering info, uc berzerkely: UCB Rain Water Sampling Results | The Nuclear Engineering Department At UC Berkeley
let me take another minute to tell fellow zHz that this site now has graphs for 10-day levels of I-131, Cs-137, and Te-132, in becq's/L, as well as a 10-day data-chart which also includes, well, here:
Water Vol. (L) I131 I132 Cs134 Cs137 Te132 Beoh---noaa's 7-day forecast shows rain starting tonight, thru tomorrow, and maybe again, on sunday, esp that night. Arrrghhhhhghhhrrgh!!! more rain data, dammit! many years, the whole state has been "browned out" by the end of april/early may. not this year! looks like the freaking garden of eden on those hills, right now. serpents everywhere!
slewie is staying inside, except for necessary trips and an occaisional truncated sunset bike ride for mental health purposes. yest, i thoughtlessly stood on the porch and bull-shitted for 20 min. w/ my neighbor after hanging my wash in the radio-active air. i won't make that mistake, again! we seldom go more than a minute, anyhow, but we hadn't seen each other in 3-4 weeks. anyway, at least i learned from my mistake...
you people take care, too, please. i don't believe there is anywhere in the us or canada which has escaped this fallout wrath, thanks to the jet stream. the japan current, the size and strength of which is almost un-grasp-able, mentally, is giving us those mind-fuking sea readings from hell.
take a look at these ears. and you did teach me something. thanks!
now, i just need another tutorial in how to reply to the right comment.
You two need to get a room.
We need to use Banzai7's "Charting The Epistemology of Zero Hedge" flow chart to determine if this latest peice of Fukushima news is true or false. Paging GW, Hamy/Harry Wanger and Trav7777. Please report to this thread to render your opinions. :>)
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/charting-epistemology-zero-hedge
CD That is too funny!! WB7 deserves an award for his work. A pultizer perhaps?
I agree.
I am extremely lucky to be able to exchange several emails with Banzai7 on a daily basis and thus be in on the ground floor of witnessing the man and the mind behind his work. It's fascinating to watch how it/he ebbs and flows. What's very interesting to me is that Banzai7 was the epitome of corporate legal three piece suit for many years in the sense that he reached a very high level of "achievement" before bailing out at 35,000 feet in an effort to maintain his sanity and soul.
So he brings to the table a very unique mix of not only the perceived point of view of the "outsider", but one that comes directly from within the insanity as well. He has not only seen the belly of the beast, but he's fed off it as well and at a very high level to boot. He is the one in a million corporate defector who is willing to open his mouth and speak his mind using a very unconventional method.
This combination, along with a brain that's clearly wired in wonderfully strange ways, is the genius behind his work. At the risk of coming off as a fawning fool, I am in awe at times and have learned much from him about the art of effective expressive communication.
CD
I was not aware of any of that but I do know from his work he is VERY smart. I am always fascinated when I see his work which literally cant be described with a thousand words. I get him. He makes me smile. GL to you both.
get a hotel room, CD :-}
Well, if it has melted through the metal pressure vessel the concrete below it sure is not going to be much of a challenge.
there is a guy here called IQ-145 who said that that could never happen...I even heard a top physicist on TV say the same thing : Westinghouse BW reactor technology can NEVER allow melt down. We are NOT in Tchernobyl. Even TMI stayed self contained...
Now this...
Well, if it has melted through the metal pressure vessel the concrete below it
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
There is still the containment vessel to 'work' through.
But this should be a snap for fully-activated corium (hot, molten Uranium-based fissile material) ...
Only speaking 'truth to power', junkers ...
dude/tte 7777: methinks the "containment vessel" IS the metal pressure vessel, proof of the demise of which i still don't think we have, here, yet.
yes, the structure of the building holding the "containment vessel" also provides some containment, but, as you say, no problemo for coriumo...
oh----tyler had piece a while back about the steel vessels having "weak spots" at the very bottom, to allow for instrumentation into them, and that they may be "leaking". also if the 9.0 quake, which shook these units beyond their design strength(s), or the susequent explosions have resulted in spent fuel rods [which are also extremely radioactive and take 19 months to just cool, temperature-wise, b/c they generate their own heat due to radioactive decay], piling up at the bottom of the buildings, "houston, (and so on)..."
add to this our ongoing discussions about "re-criticality" possibilities in the 'indoor' SFR pools,...,... oh wait! we've lost all contact w/ houston, here!!! scotty! you can beam slewie up now, ok?
methinks the "containment vessel" IS the metal pressure vessel, proof
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Negatory, rat.
Reactor vessel resides within the Containment vessel.
The Containment vessel is vented into that strange 'torus' that contains water into which 'vapors' exiting the reactor vessel within the confines of the containment vessel are routed for safe 'dissipation'.
Weren't you paying attention here in class a week or two back - we ALL went over this ...
You have to love the paper gold market -- any news that hits (real or not) sell the shit out of the paper and try and get the other algos to chase it lower.... absolutely same shit, different day.
Anti-nuke people are acting in a despicable manner durin this crisis and I believe NOTHING that ANY of them say.
You don't believe they have a right too? Maybe if there were a little more disclosure out of the Japanese ministry of truth instead of the lies some of this would be a little easier to swallow. But hey they saved the stock market......for now.
amen! lets go swimming shall we?
Bullish. Sushi craze abates. Market moves to eating overpriced Chinese food at PF Changs. Increased ass size justifies airline capacity curtailment. Bullish.
I wonder which super power I'll get. I hope it's flying.
I'll probably get stuck with flamethrower farts superpowers. Wouldnt surprise me.
Hold on now... If you are able to control that, I can see an upside to it.. Think of all the invites you'd get to gatherings on those cold January nights.. :)
I want to be able to mark all my assets to acquisition value, then use them as collateral at the discount window.
It's just like King Midas' mythical power, but without any downside.
lol! sounds like some of yer assets have had their "ass-hats" handed to them, h_h! my sincere condolences, richie rich! gold & silver us mint-prodeced coins and cash. really.
perhaps b/c i do not share yer capitalist fantasies, i can easily see the fallacy in yer "midas touch" analogy, too. i value you as a fellow zero who is truthful and about the cardz he holds and the table and cards he sees, h_h. it is in that spirit that i say unto you: dude! get a grip!
FROM GOD! You get Spider Web shooters!
Just adds urgency to TEPCO's request to build two more nuclear reactors on the site that were submitted to the Fukushima Prefecture authorities last week for their approval!
Buy the ES and Godzilla based companies...
And what I want to know is when this happened?
Did this happen today, yesterday, a week ago, 3 weeks ago?
your gettting warmer
+1 LOL!
Already priced in,so obviously the market goes up on reconstruction boost etc etc.
Stocks up due to collapsing radioactive waste dollar. Remember in Zimbabwe they'd have 100% market up days. Very short supply of reserved musical chairs seats though.
Just let the MFer melt....who gives a shit. By the time we get the truth of the matter, we'll be dead or close to it.
It may have crack, probably, could be, we are checking, readings are not clear, within a week we should know, it shows signs of a crack, we are testing, rads are up but no crack at this time, its cooling, its heating up, experts are checking, politicians’ are now giving us a little truth,,,,,,,my ass
WTF,,run
so theres a "doomday clock", wonder where thats at now. I propose we start a ...."Sunrise clock" for these incidents?
About 1/2 past MIDNIGHT.
unfortunatly this is the only option
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCbfMkh940Q
Thus hoisting tonnes of vaporized, toxic radioactive waste high into the atmosphere, from whence it will gently settle down on us all, over the coming weeks?
No thanks.
small yield air burst 100 meters above site would vaporize the reactors and not yeild much radioactive uplift. It would be over and the knowns would be known.
Blow up the radiation with more radiation, its all totaly harmless now and flowers will sprout within days I bet! Hooray.
There is a lot of historical evidence in Nevada that would contradict that statement..!!
extension cord failure
OH-FUK-U-SHIT-MAN
Some don't like the truth and that is why TD and ZH are VERY upsetting to .gov
March 12th Obama should have DEMANDED that the reactors were entombed Chernobyl style.
He didn't he went off to Brazil and started a war with Libya.
Watch the 1959 film ON THE BEACH stars Gregory Peck, Anthony Perkins, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire.
Great movie.
I often wish I had a few of those pills they used at the end.
hey, laddie: nevil schute had already left GB for australia when he wrote the novel. he was propably thoroughly pissed @ the "nuclear energy scientists" blowing the fuking shit outa the South Pacific and may have just, uhh,...over-reactored?
btw, yer comment about what prez milk dud "shoulda" done reveals you to be a compleat fuking moron!!!
Umm...Japan isn't owned by the US and Obama has no authority to "demand" anything of Japan or it's people.
The Japanese citizens should be the ones making demands of their government.
MOX is what nobody is talking about. Just keep spraying the busted and melted fuel rods to keep them cool and as the water breaches the core and makes its way into the groundwater and ocean, the plutonium will make it there as well. Probably one of the worst scenarios one could ever imagine. With a half life of 24,100 years there will surely be just a few long term consequences...Now that the fishing industry is pretty much toast in Japan and the agriculture in also in jeprody, what happens when the third largest economy suddenly gets taken out of the global food supply link? With food shortages going on already in much of the world this is going to have a significant impact.
Maresk is forcing them to buy the shipping containers delivered because it doesn't want to take back aboard radiated steel boxes. The company won't enter some ports.
Yesterday India (second largest populated country) banned food imported from Japan.
I wonder what it will take to spook the global market.
I doubt another explosion will do it.
Any SERIOUS speculation?
nothing short of mass panic in Tokyo I'm afraid or until this becomes a headline story on MSM here (not likely) and folks begin to panic. Until a certain percentage of the population either here or in Japan lose confidence in their institutions such as gov't and its agencies and the stock market, I don't think anything less related to Fukushima will stop it.
Yep, you are probably right. Mass panic in Tokyo broadcast live should do the trick.
With the change in wind direction, it may not be that far off.
I would have gotten outta Dodge weeks ago.
You can't spook the markets at the moment.
Institutions are freebasing money supplied by The Bernanke. They just want to keep on doing what has made them money in the past.
If BB stops giving money away everything will go batshit crazy. And that's before you consider traditional market affecting factors like war, oil prices, earthquakes, nuclears disasters, unemployment, soverign debts....
Remember last summer when they attempted their junk shots using shredded tires to stop the leak at the Horizon? Now they are trying sawdust and glue instead. The difference this time is the contamination is exposed to the population verses being submerged by chemicals to hide the truth. What we have here is a full blown attack on humanity. If the entire facility goes into meltdown mode and all the cores are breached, then there will be no way to bury the terd because nobody will be able to get near it. I would say that within a few weeks we will reach this point if nothing changes, they simply have not come up with a containment solution thus far. When it does the evacuation radius will be extended further to Tokyo. The significance of this disaster puts Chernobyl to shame. They have already contaminated the ocean in a mere 3 weeks and are destroying the ground as the contamination spreads a little further day by day. Think about what the chaos inside Japan will be like when the contamination stretches across the entire Island? They have been fortunate to have had the winds in their favor thus far but that will not last much longer. If another explosion happens and this facility goes into full runaway mode the GDP expectations of rebuilding Japan will become a dream because there won't be any safe, uncontaminated places to rebuild on. And in other good news, with the rain and radioactive plume coming to California tommorow, expect iodine readings in the rainwater to be back in the 180+ above Government safety recommendation levels again. In the past few weeks we have had our share of radioactive isotope watering for the largest producer of Americas vegetables as well. However don't be alarmed because in the past three weeks as you can see from the MSM they have made startling discoveries as to how radiation is actually good for you...
A meltdown of the Nikkei.
Loving MSNBC's headline:
Children return to school near nuke zone | Leak pluggedWith what? Their bodies?
that was lulzy
Junked for sarcasm. Now that's love.
A little gene therepy might be in order for residents of the Land of the Rising Sun ...
http://www.dotmed.com/news/story/10571/
Speaking of things starting with 'nit,' they are in the process of making preparations to pump nitrogen into the reactor containment vessels (whatever is left of them).
Nothing could go wrong except that there's the risk of massive explosions, which American Advisory Teams have warned about, but I trust TEPCO to do the prudent thing.
hopefully there is no earthquakes while they do it
Just the usual mag 5s
http://www.iris.edu/seismon/zoom/?view=eveday&lon=145&lat=35
If they are going to do it to cool it with liquid N2, this will be a disaster.
If they are just cutting the vessel atmosphere with N2 gas to keep the H2 concentration down it might be okay.
But if the H2 concentration is still rising, that means it is hot enough to split water, which means they are in trouble still.
If they are warning about explosions from adding the N2, it must be the liquid. Which means all hell is breaking loose, and nothing is even in cold shutdown.
This is not going to end well.
pods
hey, pods. beg to disagree, ok? with this: "...and nothing is even in cold shutdown."
it's certainly possible, and also imv the best "conservative" assumptive application of the knowledge we have, to say that these conditions [yes, the heat producing H2, ok?], are being caused not by an ongoing criticality and chain reaction, but that the cores are shut down and the heat is going ape-shit b/c of ongoing lack of sustained proper coolant temp control to the reactors and spent fuel pools, both. yes, there IS criticality & chain, but, so for, at least, i think we can only know that it is intermittent. regards.
Yes, I think it would be great if the whole of the NRC just went to Japan and stuck their heads inside reactor 2 to see what situation actually is.
Problem is that when these people deny having said something or deny that certain conditions exist they're never taken to task later after it's been found that the situation that they refuted actually existed. There are no consequences for lying.
Too bad Japan isn't a major exporter of oil. If they were, the US would have taken over and fixed it - 'to save the Democratic people of Japan'
+1 exactly
why not send everyone on death row to work on these reactors! what's the diff?
Very Bullish for the stock market.
Is this what dropped gold and silver on the charts just now? Or is it the cartel using it as a chance to step on it, even if a little?
Yeah, that's the ticket... Blythe throws massive shorts at the Comex Silver market every time a reactor melts down. It's in her contract... if she misses one she has to do the drunken, 'naked caddie' thing for Jamie (again)!
lol. i think blythe is the hottest woman on the planet, since i "got" her the nite we all went gonzero over tyler's "backwardiZation" test...
in the fire of his lust for her, slewie is hallucinating the possibility of a corner on silver [yes, for the longs!] by jpmorgue in the next few months! due to the ungodly number of contracts involved [which the CFTC or whatever tf it is has refused to diddle, for, now, for some unknown "reason"], the backwardization may have been a signal for her to "take the discount" and go long in those months. big time.
what about the "(lehman) shorts"??? some, judiciously closed over the months; others moved past the "corner-call" date; still others, perhaps "transferred" a "badbank" which is already zombified, anyhow, and cannot declare "force majeure" on da crimex. or will not, perhaps...
under this scenario, blythe has an upcoming month, prev. "backward" where she holds a mind-boggling handful of longs. maybe many of these are shorted by some elmer fudd-type gamblers in 1-3 contract trades or parts of really smart hedges. anyhow, blythe tells whoever is holding the bag that she wants the silver. all of it. for her new vault! there will be a $1/2 mill. paper loss per contract in the first hour, as every available ounce of silver on the planet, anywhere, is instantly "accounted for" and, boom! $100/oz uptick! corner. none available. all gonzo. you, me (ok--?), max k., plus wwbullion.phys.whee!, plus freaking blythe = corner on silver!!! no shit. corner on silver, just like in "Pit"!!!
now, depending on whether she used another bank, her "judicious" use of call options for bank or "friends" [well, i'd buy as many as i felt like, without raising flags, wldn't you?], and/or the ability of the bad bank itself to call the farce major at some point in time (the little shorts do not have this right), i think she is smart enuf to grab whatever she can and stand back upon her mountain of silver, next to the piles of cash. there are other plays (g/s ratio, e.g.), too. near-countless ways to "help allies cover" where needed.
she's gonna get some press for inadvertantly forcing the little turds into bankruptcy. these are 5,000 oz. contracts. doubt if she's into the local 1,000 oz mini's. with a bad bank + some "cheap" calls to the bank as part of the "play" which blythe will graciously accept, as a favor to the FED...
the fact that this hasn't happened, might not happen, or doesn't happen does not mean that can't happen. it could. it can. really. if it does, phys. holders will gleefully trot to their nearest local "cash for silver" outlets where rivers of silver [at a handful = $1,000!!!] will begin to flow to help out these poor bastards, pay for everyhthing, and get baby some new shoes, too! t.y. blythe! at which point the CFTC will be forced to do something---about the longs probably... other than that, i hope it's an entertaining story...
since, of course, only an insane woman could cause these thoughts in me, i can only say: that's my kinda woman! c'mere! hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
radioactive iodine 129, which is the byproduct of Plutonium and Uranium fission and which has a half life of 15 million years has leaked into the oceans surrounding the plants.
Holy sheepdip Batman
The damage done by a given amount of radioactive material is inversely proportional to its half life. It's just when extremely large amounts of long-lived radioactive material are concentrated in a given area that they are really dangerous. Of course, the type of decay it undergoes is important too.
That is not to say it isn't dangerous or important, but the 20-100 year half life materials are much more dangerous on a weight released basis.
The spin puts out that "you won't die right away", somehow that's disconcerting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/business/06food.html
This is the China Syndrone correct?
No, because China is beside them. It would have to puddle along sideways to reach China.
It's possibly the "Uruguay Syndrome".
Josef Oehmen, MIT Professor and world's most foremost nuclear expert, just sent me a message titled 'Fukushima is perfectly safe, completely stable, will cause no contamination, and I am not worried about it, and neither should you be."
So, I'm feeling much better now.
I heard he was now a janitor there .
Long cancer therapy, short medical insurers. My hatred for TPTB is unquantifable.
What time is Dancing with the Stars on?
Markey? the guy is obsessed with melting
http://globalwarming.house.gov/tools/2q08materials/files/0014.pdf
Disaster porn is Markey's secret vice
they just discovered that radiation is better for wrinkles than botox!
Better to look good than to feel good!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldzND9er6eE
Why not send all the CNBC presenters who keep telling us the situation is improving to the site for a bit of "on the ground reporting"?.I personally would pay for Erin Burnetts' ticket and all expenses.
Hey! I for one think Erin would be swell for Earth repop duty.
"That's not clear to us, nor is it clear to us that the reactor has penetrated the vessel," said Martin Virgilio, deputy executive director for reactor and preparedness programs at the NRC.- Who said anything about the reactor penetrating the vessel? Hmmm
People are evacuating the Falkland Islands, fearing the Falkland Syndrome may appear at any moment.
If I didn't laugh, I'd cry.
By the way, the reason they're in panic mode, trying to stop full blown meltdown now, is because Gundersen was right about Number 1, and I'm looking forward to his next update.
Here was his last one, on April 3rd, where he spoke of the fact that isotopes being released into the water and air established criticality had occurred in Reactor 1:
Newly Released TEPCO Data Provides Evidence of Periodic Chain Reaction at Fukushima Unit 1
Yep.
Google "blue light seen at Fukushima" for more meltdown info.
Isn't this a good thing if they want to start burying this thing? I mean they should be adding boron and sand ala Chernobyl and hopefully the core melts into slag and 'diffuses' into a hot mass but an immobile one. Or is the fuel storage still too big an issue with re-criticality hanging over their heads? Based on reading the last few weeks, if the core is not prevented from reaching a water table, then the potential for blowing itself and the covering of fuel stores straight to Pluto is just icing on the radioactive cake(candles for lighting not required)? And no telling about the adjacent reactors should that occur because I don't envision this going skyward like a roman candle but up and outward like a GBU...
just put the Fukushima Dachi Facility on the banks books... all the propery turbines you know the nuclear plant stuff
.
this whole thing just needs a $$ value the US taxpayer can stand behind
So, let's get into the air and water flows around the plant and north/east Honshu Island. Here are some information resources.
Wind rose (April-Sept only) for 40 km off Fukushima coast (indicates wind direction and speed in one graphic) figure 6 page 3 http://www.dcpower-systems.com/documents/ZephyrAirDolphinWhitePaper.pdf
Wind rose (annual, summer less NW wind) for Tokyo fig.3 http://www.isprs.org/proceedings/XXXIV/part4/pdfpapers/401.pdf
Description of ocean mixing in Sagami Bay, which fronts Tokyo Bay, indicating that coldwater Oyashio Current flows that far
http://www.terrapub.co.jp/journals/JO/JOSJ/pdf/2104/21040174.pdf
Awesome graphic of the warm Kuroshio and cold Oyashio currents from the US Army
http://www.agc.army.mil/publications/elnino/Fig14.gif
One example of urban airshed and pollution analysis for Kanto/Tokyo
http://www.ide.titech.ac.jp/~icuc7/extended_abstracts/pdf/375666-1-090513144428-002.pdf
Damn. You're good.
Great stuff Jim. I suspected the Tokyo heat island effect would pull the radiation in. This confirms it. I suppose this is another crisis not to be wasted?
not good for our japanese friends. not unexpected, as per your recent forecasts, which may have been the ones mentioning the incresing frequency of this pattern, now, seasonally. less getting in to jet stream, seems logical...
But...."it's just a tiny leak," the Japanese officials told us.....
Bullish for the retail apparel industry. As the Japanese start to develop extra limbs, there will be new clothing lines that need to be developed and purchased.
Again I say, WTF are they going to do when a typhon takes aim at Japan? Where is that Devine Wind gonna blow all that radioactive debris? Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock...
Exactly, what do people assume that all this radioactive waste so high they cant even measure it just stays right around Japan forever? Where do the currents go, California within a month? Surfs up, putas!
Tyler, you must be running out of editorial material if you have to use unsubstantiated second-hand hearsay from an "unbiased" US democrat politician on something that is happening on the other side of the planet. Sorry, didn't get the zh memo, so we're now taking at face value what politicians tell us?
Yea I wouldnt trust anything Markey or any of the rest of them say normally, but in this case what he says is likely a big understatement.
Perhaps on the ground in-your-face investigative reporting would help provide some basis of factual information.
Huh? Where'd they all go?
Lead story and no one around. Too hot?
Hey Sock Puppet, don't you have some SEC paid-for Porn to masturbate to?
Oh my god. Who do you work for? You are the worst disinfo agent I've ever seen. You are doing a disservice to your fellow human beings by always denying the obvious, especially when peoples lives depend on it.
Useless people like you always bury the heads in the sand when the moment of truth comes. Don't come crying when the radiation starts coming to the US. Will you believe then, fool?
Thank you... Never believe anything a politician or other government representative says, unless he says there's a nuclear meltdown.
Let's wait to publish these articles until we are certain that this is in fact happening.
Not so interesting that Markey said it, but interesting that parts of the NRC may be going rogue here to route info around their compromised management.
Did whoever gave the NRC report to the NYTimes also talk to Markey?
Does Markey have the source doc?
If he does, can we have it too?
Please?
good point
one also wonders what kind of 'office politics' may be going on between NRC and Japanese authorities. So NRC staffer could let hair down and be more forthright in behind scenes briefing to Congressman, while having to keep J authorities molly coddled via public announcements after said Congressman blabs.
don't think so, jim. is the NRC report the "source doc"? this may be true; the core meltdown. we shall see.
the idea that somebody lied or that some "authority is compromised" is, really, pretty funny when ya think about it, at this point...,...,...eh?
and now according to Reuters
NRC says not clear that Japan reactor has melted vesselhttp://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFWNA555120110406
imagine that a credible source such as Ed Markey being contradicted, next thing you know someone might challenge Markey's views on the imminent extinction of the polar bear and the Arctic becoming a tropical paradise
Right, because Reuters is gospel, chief.
TD posted a Reuters link in the original post, so apparently it is.
This site is getting beyond ridiculous... A Reuters post with hearsay from a random Congressman who likely has no clue what is going on is 100% fact that the plant has melted down and the world is ending... then someone else posts another article from Reuters and it's false information. Give me a break.
You guys have such a raging hardon from negative information... next time, take a deep breath and think about what you are posting before you post it. I'm not saying to believe all the hopium and buy AAPL... just think about things subjectively and base your posts on fact. Nobody here would believe a damn thing Obama says, but if Obama came out and said "the reactor may have melted" everyone would instantly buy into it.
well put!
I love this site, for the most part you'll find lively informed debate, but on this topic, Fukushima nuclear Armageddon = Gospel Truth, and any contrarian dissent is visiously attacked as heresy, what a drama pagent this has been for over 3 weeks and counting, I mean the Gospel according to Tyler said the world was supposed to be radiated out of existence two weeks ago last Tuesday
I can’t wait until 6 months from now, when there is no mention of Fukushima on ZH to come back and attempt to revive the hysteria!
You seem to have difficulty grasping the severity of this festering catastrophe.
There 3 are runaway cores - completely out of control.
At this time, if one of the 3 cores does not hit the water table or touch a compressed hydrogen pocket under the pad / sub-floor, I will be surprised.
Epic Kaboom !
(and then they all go up)
Regarding the coverage of this incident, perhaps you might enjoy a more staid site such as the Oil Drum, http://www.theoildrum.com/node/7765#more,
you will find that many of the comments on TOD are from experienced industry power generation/oil/gas patch people and the post are very well cited, furthermore they mirror what is said here, just in a engineering geek format and if you do not have an engineering background, you may find it tough reading. Just so you are aware tenor of your post would not be tolerated on TOD.
From the IAEA,
"In Unit 2 the indicated temperature at the feed water nozzle of the RPV is stable at 141 °C. The temperature at the bottom of RPV was not reported."
http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html
This is the update report from the IAEA as of today. All the other reactors report the temp at the bottom of the RPV. Something real bad happened to "knock out the temp readings" and/or it is so "hot" (radiation and temperature) they can not get close to the instrumentation to fix/read it. Just the fact that they are unable to confirm or MORE IN IMPORTANTLY DENY that it has "melted though" after almost a month, is a strong indicators that the good politician assertions are accurate.
Furthermore, from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
United States government engineers sent to help with the crisis in Japan are warning that the troubled nuclear plant there is facing a wide array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely, and that in some cases are expected to increase as a result of the very measures being taken to keep the plant stable...
My translation, this is about to get a "whole lot worse"!!!!
And this article from the Nuclear Power Industry News (an industry advocate!!!!)
"Contaminated Water at Fukushima Daiichi Drained into Ocean to Free Space for Highly Irradiated Water from Unit 2"
http://nuclearstreet.com/nuclear_power_industry_news/b/nuclear_power_news/archive/2011/04/05/contaminated-water-at-fukushima-daiichi-drained-into-ocean-to-free-space-for-highly-irradiated-water-from-unit-2040504.aspx
Now why is the cooling water from Unit 2 so highly irradiated?????
And I could go on, but I think that should be enough to point out that the logical conclusion is that #2 has indeed "shit the bed" and the RPV is severely compromised and most likely "melted though".
I believe that the good politician (I know an oxymoron) from Mass will be proven right at the end of the day.
So, next time, before you call Tyler's work ridiculous do your homework......
I'll stop my rant now.......
Thanks for the link. Great forum! Something else posted from the report released today is pretty interesting-
Update: The NRC analysis has been made available. See the end of the keypost up top.
Referring to reactor 3 or 4 (they aren't sure which)
Fuel particles may have been ejected from the pool (based on information of neutron emitters found up to one mile from the units, and very high dose rate material that had to be bulldozed over between units 3 and 4...)
I appreciate your post which gives a wide variety of information without immediately calling for the end of the world.
However, the fact is that we do not know for sure whether or not the core has completely melted through the reactor. It may have at this point, but what I am saying is we don't know for sure. And TD posting such a weak source of information (random comment by Congressman who says he heard something from the NRC who heard something from somewhere else) doesn't lead me to believe that this is legitimate at this point in time.
Basically, we don't know until we know. But will we ever know? I don't know... most people commenting on this topic on ZH seem to think all information is false or a cover-up, until something "worse" comes out that hasn't been mentioned yet, and all of a sudden it becomes 100% fact. That is all. Otherwise carry on.
Berlusconi volunteers to go to Fukushima when he found out that radiation enhanced penises had a ten year half life and a 200% increase in ejaculation rates. Its better than being junked by a criminal court case in Milan.
I really would be interested to know if any derivative products have been sold insuring 'events' at nuclear reactor sites, and if so, who are the counterparties.
I'm either incredibly cynical or a stark realist to suggest that they exist, and to not be the least bit surprised if I saw Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan in 'the deal' somewhere.
I know those are unregulated and private transactions, so I'm sure we'll never know, unless AIG blows up again, Fukushima style, in which case, taxpayers will bail it out again so that it can pay off the Vampire Squid 100 cents on the dollar.
Are you suggesting the SQuid caused a level 9 earthquake-tsunami using Haarp and Mozart, like Abacus used Frenchy fries, to ...win on insurance in Fukushima? That would one-up the 9/11 conspiracy deal, on the spooks n gooks hit parade list!
Not that they caused it, just that they have cheap puts, in rough fashion, guaranteeing massive payouts on just about any type of calamity that could befall man anywhere in the world.
You know...because they do god's work (money being their god).
*It's really telling how cynical I am that I can see a Goldman/JPM paid sapper team slinking in the shadows of the night, compromising Fukushima, though.
GS could have a life insurance policy on Godzilla.
no doubt
Well? TIS asks a simple question to follow up on Tyler's statement re who benefits from this disaster? And, what other squid induced disaster follow-ups are lurking in the shadows?