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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.
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Hubbs, it was likely a very rare event induced by nature but made possible by poor construction/design/planning of man (statistical odds of magnitude 9.0 earthquake, plus tsunami of that size, plus damage to the reactor are quite low I'm sure).
I do know that derivative products insuring and hedging on these events do exist, as we all do.
But to the other aspect you raise, as Rahm did say, "never let a good crisis go to waste!"
So, yes, there's a valid question, and legitimate speculation to be had, regarding who will benefit from this incredible and ongoing calamity, the degree of ultimate harm to people and the environment which we can't ascertain yet, and may not be able to for a long time.
My money is bet that this will be exploited heavily by the alternative energy/green crowd (whether for virtuous or unscrupulous reasons, I leave to others).
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed 66 years ago. Fukushima has 6 reactors. Yea, I know it's a stretch.
Oh suck it up Tyler, it's not like there's much going on out there these days... lol!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7-LPu_iEZM
Fuel rods may have been blown as far as 1 mile from site according to the NYT article from April 5th.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/world/asia/06nuclear.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&hp
So when I postulated that fuel rods were in the ocean and very likely the (a) source of high levels of a radiation in the sea water I was pretty much spot on. Basically a permanent source of radiation in the ocean unless someone can find Aquaman to clean that shit up.
spot on
cue in Trav trying to trash your assertion....4....3....2.....
"Fuel rods may have been blown as far as 1 mile from site according to the NYT article from April 5th"
Dat real bad.
What you say you, Trav?
Did TEPCO send in its managers in to load the fuel rods into mortier Brandt de 120 mm modèle 1935 ?
Kaboom !
That's further than the parts went off Timmy McVeigh's Ryder truck.
Eric Holder's Ryder truck bitchez, McVeigh was merely the valet.
Well, does that article specify the 'rods' reassembled themselves back into close proximity in a configuration resembling that found in the reactor under operational conditions?
If not, I wouldn't worry too much about it, after a few weeks the resultant/lingering heat production from previous fissioning will have diminished, and so will the direct radiation produced and disregarding any materials that can exist with lower levels of radioactivity ...
logical deduction not allowed on this topic
"after a few weeks the resultant/lingering heat production from previous fissioning will have diminished"
It takes 7-10 years after the spent fuel rods are removed from the reactor to cool down enough to take them out of the cooling ponds and put them in dry storage.
I'm speaking of what they call "cold shutdown" - it takes several weeks of 'cooling' in the reactor core before they can move them to the pool even ...
Oh - and it should be easy to 'find' one of these 'rods' if one were to follow one's Geiger counter like a bloodhound ...
I'm rockhound with a passion for heavy metals and their ores. That's one of the great things about radioactive rocks and other materials. You can never really lose them, just break out the Geiger counter.
Better than RFID tags!
Ed Markey is not what you'd call an ubiased commentator.
Take it from a People's Republic of Massachusetts citizen.
I had to check the Macondo timeline to refresh my recollection. Markey got us the ROV feeds. Comment aside, I doubt he's lying about the meltdown. NRC, on the other hand, has to fudge and obfuscate what they know. Big investment in nuclear power.
check out the latest from Reuters
NRC says not clear that Japan reactor has melted vesselhttp://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFWNA555120110406
Greenpeace FOIA request for what NRC really has
http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1108/ML11087A023.pdf
Different Union of Concerned Scientists FOIA request has already revealed internal debate at NRC about US reactor safety, and accuracy/completeness of representations to Congress from senior management....
http://allthingsnuclear.org/post/4391446094/internal-nrc-documents-reveal-doubts-about-safety
++++
I would GLADLY contribute to the airfare - as well as to the airfare of Mr. Bernanke & Mr. Geithner to assist in the evaluation!
The Scarlett Letter - "R"...
You have the best handle, or one of the best handles, on ZeroHedge.
Timmmay!
markey is usually filled with malarky regarding nuclear power, but he could finally be right on this one
even a broken clock is right twice a day
Little black swans are hatching each day.. cygnets they are called. Lil Black cygnets.
Ah what the hell...the French...Zey isss EVERYWHERE
According to a CGT Union official, French energy sector unions call for a 24 hour strike on Thursday over pay conditions
In my very humble opinion, every single one of the talking heads and swinging dicks who were trotted out to proclaim how "There is no danger.. harumph hummaw"... and "This level of radioactivity suggests all is contained...yammuh nammuh", need to have some "control rods" jammed up their butts and down their throats, shown on worldwide TV, Web, twittered, tweeted, RSS fed, etc,etc, right after every TEPCO exec and board member is publicly executed with a .38 to back of skull, while kneeling and weeping, China-style. Or am I just plutonium intolerant? Oh yeah, almost forgot, AFTER a fair and real speedy trial by their irradiated peers, of course.
I thought it melted last week? Or is this a different reactor number?
Updated event chart from the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum.
http://www.jaif.or.jp/english/news_images/pdf/ENGNEWS01_1302073450P.pdf
Too bad we couldn't resurrect Johnny Most to do a play by play on this fiasco.
"THE AUDACITY...!"
Like calorie/fat labels on every can, box, restaurant, happy meal. Will the progressive libs demand *RNDA labeling?
*Recommended Nuclear Daily Allowance
"Radiation Free" on the canned Tuna please!
Where's IQ -145?
He has gone for a retest.
I think I figured out what that hole in the roof of that one building is and I don't think anything fell in it. I think something (fuel assembly?) skipped off it.
Look in the water, 5th photo down.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1372589/First-clear-pictures-true-devastation-Fukushima-nuclear-plant-Japan-flies-unmanned-drone-stricken-reactor.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
look in the water. The shape of the hole literally points to it.
Would also explain radiation levels being 10,000,000 x's higher than normal in the sea water.
Bitchez.
nice find Bob ! The skipping would also explain the coping stone's being dislodged on that same building (outer perimeter of the parapet) Kinda look's like skid mark's across the roof also!. there also seem's to be an oilslick in the vicinity of that thing in the water (hydraulic fluid? ) Hmm
It's gotta be what that is.
Now can TEPCO please do their job and get that fuckin' thing outta there.
the fuel assembly is a rack or two with tall slender spent fuel rods in it no? this thing looks fairly intact, like a concrete coffin, at least from this view far above. If the fuel assembly went flying thru the roof, wouldn't it likely be flying apart in the process?
Hoping that it is another of the white boxes visible on the other docks. But we are long overdue for a solid assessment of the entire site. So...maybe....
by bob_dabolina , on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 13:18 #1141602
I think I figured out what that hole in the roof of that one building is and I don't think anything fell in it. I think something (fuel assembly?) skipped off it.
Look in the water, 5th photo down.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Right, fuel assembly ... from where?
That thing is as large or larger than one of those concrete wall sections blown out of reactor bldg #3 ... that does not look to be on a par with the size of the reactor, let alone able to fit within it or as a subcomponent ...
I see the oject in the water, but I don't think much of the 'skipped off the roof' theory. It's faintly possible, but nothing much to support it. And a few points against:
* Damage to the parapet of the turbine hall there isn't in the right place for the 'skip' theory. Instead the damage matches the 'rubble jets'.
* The object in the water is too close to the base of the seawall to fit with a trajectory off the turbine hall roof.
* If something did do that 'skip' it would have to be one of the concrete wall panels of #3. Why didn't any of the many other wall panels do anything similar?
* Where are the wall panels from #3 anyway? Can't see any of them in the hires images, only fine concrete rubble lying in jet-like swathes nearby. I think all the concrete panels actually got completely shattered to small bits and dust by the explosion shock wave and subsequent impacts. Concrete does do that under shock.
And so on.
Btw, the cryptome.org and dailymail photosets contain some identical photos, but each has some not in the other set. So where are the FULL set from Air Photo Service of Japan, and have they done more runs since their two fly-overs on March 20 and March 24?
Yes yes, I know, they presumably want money for their effort. So someone pay them already.
I can't even find their website.
Incidentally there are now a lot more photos at http://cryptome.org/eyeball/daiichi-npp/daiichi-photos.htm
And it's the same scientists, doctorates in physics, engineers and the like who can neither properly build, run or contain a disaster at an engineering marvel such as this, of literally biblical proportions, that claim to prove shortly that there is no God.
Amazing, the hubris of the human condition.
Ho-hum...
Gov't task force rewrites Fukushima crisis logTOKYO, April 7, Kyodo
A government task force on the Fukushima nuclear crisis was found Wednesday to have rewritten the starting time of venting radioactive vapor from a troubled reactor the day after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami without any clear explanation.
The change was made March 27 on the website of the prime minister's office to ''10:17 a.m.'' from ''2:30 p.m.''
Hironombu Unesaki, professor at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, said the change, without any adequate explanation to the public, poses a problem as information on venting is ''important in connection with residents' exposure to radiation.''
A spokesperson for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the agency had maintained from the beginning that venting work started at 10:17 a.m. at the No. 1 reactor of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.
As the prime minister's office posted the time at 2:30 p.m. on its website, ''We pointed it out and the office changed it,'' said the spokesperson of the agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
While the revised information on the website mentions 10:17 a.m. as the time when ''venting procedures started'' instead of ''venting started,'' the official said the agency will ask the office to clarify the difference.
Actual venting to lower pressure in the No. 1 reactor is believed to have started after the second valve of the containment vessel was opened at 2 p.m.
According to the agency, the first valve of the vessel was manually opened shortly after 9 a.m. and work to open the second valve started at 10:17 a.m. But as mechanical problems made it impossible to confirm that the second valve had been opened, a hastily procured air compressor was used and the release of vapor was confirmed at 2:30 p.m.
Although pressure in the No. 1 reactor dropped, the building housing it was subsequently damaged by a hydrogen explosion.
==Kyodo
The automatic decompresion (VENTING) system is ... well, automatic. Doesn't require an operator, it's designed to work when the operators can't get to it to do it manually in an emergency situation.
Like when the power fails in the control rooms for more than a week (after backup batteries fail). How do they precisely log when auto venting started in that situation? You'd expect technicians were immediately tasked with doing manual reactor readings, but in that chaos maybe not. They were probally very focused on why the freckle the backup power did not kick in, and especially why the high pressure cooling system was NOT WORKING either (imagine what is going through their mind at that point, with a MOX reactor in No.3, ... so probably just left the ADC system to do its thing, prevent an over-pressure while the controllers were busy getting other systems to work.
stupid question:
what happens when the core melts through the reactor?
what does this mean?
where does the core go? Into the ground?
tia
I thought the Reuters' writers were hilarious. They tell us the entire nuke reactor melted into the pressure vessel. That would have been nice. These girls don't know and don't care what they write.
I don't see any way they can begin to fix this until the people in control admit it's going to take an army of "liquidators" a la Chernobyl. Until they do, they're playing with it.
Once they do admit it we'll know. We'll see several hundred acres of ground taken over five or ten kilometers drive from the plant. A staging area and a tent city capable of feeding and sleeping several thousand men will be constructed with helipads and decontamination facilities nearby. A nice flat stretch of road capable of landing a C-130 would be nice.
They've got to get that super-hot water out of the reactor/turbine buildings and even then the buildings may be too hot to work in. They've got to get in those buildings and assess what it's going to take to get reliable, closed loop cooling on those reactors and spent fuel pools....and start making it happen.
We should already be seeing an army of jumpers with cutting torches climbing all over the tops of those damaged buildings with rigging crews hooking up the cut away debris and helicopters or cranes lifting it away. Aerial bombardment with boron/concrete is not likely to get anything done except make a bigger mess if the debris from the explosions is not removed first.
No matter what the most sensible order of operations really is, it's going to take an army of men and equipment to git 'er done.
Once we see construction begin on the basecamp/logisitcal preps for taking care of that army, it'll be a strong indication that someone, somewhere has started to deal with reality.
Until then....they're playing. With fire.
Just wait for the anticipated magnitude 8 aftershock to hit sometime soon. The resulting tsunami will help "dilute" the radioactive debris.
No worries.
That would sure allow for a massive blame-shifting exercise....and I bet there is a substantial subset of the decision makers that are secretly praying for it to happen. And it's a very real part of the landscape. The chances of a new earthquake and tsunami are certainly far greater than zero.
And wash away much of the contaminated state and media spin.
Saw a vid of Russian workers atop Chernobyl each assigned to take just 2 small shovelfuls of nuclear debris and drop it over the side, and they were done. For life.
I beleive that was ONE shovel full of radioactive waste....500 000 people died from that accident
Completely agree. Entombment is NOT possible while there are still so many separate caches of nuclear material in different places and unknown states. Four SFPs, three reactor vessels.
The only way to stabilize those Seven Hells, is to do some sort of structural triage - figure out what sub-buildings and rubble *have* to be cleared away to gain visuals and work access, and just do it, whatever it takes.
The only methods I can think of to do the work, are either giant 100 foot high mech-warrior-like robots, or suicide workers. Which pretty much means it's down to suicide workers.
Crap. I shouln't have googled 'seven hells'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naraka_(Jainism)
Japanese schoolgirl:
please sir, we don't want Atomic power in Japan.
GE private equity hedge-fund boss:
don't worry ,we built you 55 Nuclear Power Plants for next to nothing.
Japanese schoolgirl:
please sir, I am scared, I heard about Hiroshima, Nagasaki and then Chernobyl, 3 mile ...
GE private equity hedge-fund boss: Now, now !
You should not believe everything you hear,little girl !
Hiroshima and Nagasaki was just another big bad Tsunami .
Japanese schoolgirl: ???
GE private equity hedge-fund boss: look -
The sun is a nuclear reactor and people sun-bake, so don't you see ?
~ Nuclear Power is actually very very very good for you ~
Nuclear Power will cost next to nothing, it is a green power, very good for the environment and you will be able to achieve a 20% reduction of carbon emission by 2020 as you promised when you signed the Kyoto contract.
Japanese schoolgirl: but sir, all the trees are dying and the fish in the sea are poisoned and people are getting sick and they had to leave their home because our ground-water and the soil and our food is now contaminated for decades with nuclear waste.
GE private equity hedge-fund boss:
Don't believe everything you hear or see, little girl.
The Sun is Nuclear and God created the Atom.
Man learned to split the Atom to unleash the universal power of Nucleus,
Man learned to harness and recreate the power of the sun,
Man became all powerful, until finally at last :
~ Man became God ~ and God is telling you :
Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Chernobyl never happened !
God is telling you: Nuclear Power is good for you .
~ Nuclear Power is the ultimate Power of God ~
~ Now we are God and your Life is in our hands ~
~ Yield to that nuclear power of GOD and obey ! ~
STFU
avonaltendorf,
how are your TEPCO shares ?
STFU ( Sell The Fucking Uranium )
before you get nuked stupid (;p)
You're not funny, you're not clever, keep the stupid made up bullshit to yourself.
Wrong site; suggest perhaps God Like Productions
Good article from the Guardian comparing this clusterfuck to the financial crisis.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/06/japan-nuclearpower
The Reuters link has been taken down.
NHK reporting Plutonium detected again:
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/06_40.html
"Plutonium detected again in Fukushima plant soil
Tokyo Electric Power Company has again detected a very small volume of plutonium in soil samples from the disaster-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The operator of the plant collected samples from 4 locations at the compound of the plant on March 25th and 28th for analysis by an outside organization.
The utility says the radioactive substance was detected on the soil about 500 meters west-northwest of the No.1 reactor and a site near a solid waste storage facility 500 meters north of the reactor.
The first sample measured 0.26 becquerels of plutonium-238 per 1 kilogram of soil, down about 50 percent from the volume found earlier."
time to get reaquainted with my yoga practice
Ahem. The email from NRC staff to Markey's office. Core on the floor it is.
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 08:16 AM To:
Cc: < nrc.gov> Subject: NRC: Question regarding Fukushima
Unit 2 You had asked if the core of Unit 2 had melted into the torus. Here is the view from the NRC
Emergency Operations Center:
Based on radiation readings in the drywell and the torus (3340 rem/hour and 91 rem/hour, respectively), the NRC staff speculates that part of the Unit 2 core may be out of the reactor pressure vessel and may be in the lower space of the drywell. Lower radiation readings in the torus suggest that there is not core material in the torus.
Please let me know if I can provide additional information,
Congressional Affairs Officer
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Office of Congressional Affairs
http://markey.house.gov/docs/4-6-11.markey_e-mail_1_-_nrc_question_regarding_fukushima_unit_2.pdf
From the diagrams we've been shown it appears there is direct communication between the drywell and the torus, so the big difference between the two radiation readings implies that the drywell has some very radioactive solid stuff sitting in it but the torus doesn't.
I'm guessing that if it were only radioactive gasses involved the torus would likely have higher readings too. Just noodling....but if the noodling translates to anything real it implies support for the idea that something has leaked out of the pressure vessel and is now sitting in the bottom of the drywell.
33.4 Sieverts in the drywell and 910 milliSieverts in the torus...pretty big difference.
3340 rem/hour and 91 rem/hour
So much for that "immeasurable radiation levels" crapola.
According to
http://metricsystemconversion.info/rem-rem-to-sievert-Sv.html?func=detail
3340 rem/hr is 33.4 Sv/hr (which is of course 33,400 milli Sv)
And...the reactors did have hardened vents or so they think.
Subject: RE: NRC: Question regarding Fukushima Unit 2
Sent: Apr 5, 2011 8:43 AM
It is our understanding that:
Fukushima Daiichi reactors did have hardened vents.
Congressional Affairs Officer
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
http://markey.house.gov/docs/4-6-11markey_e-mail_2_-nrc_question_regarding_fukushima_unit_2.pdf
A Japanese researcher admits there may be "recriticality" in Fukushima Reactor 1. Not all of the researchers there lick the boots of pols and bureaucrats.
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/04/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-kyoto-universi...
"recriticality"
Another triumph of Perceptions Management.
When was it never critical?
Now before the poo-pooers go on about how you'll get more radiation flying etc. they might consider months or years of exposure to this--and the risk of continous internal exposure through food and water. And, of course this is what is already happening--what happens if this sucker really cuts loose?
A little home grown test on rainwater in St. Loius, Missouri:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBcXIEYq9vg&NR=1
Then again, here's some red Fiestaware for comparison!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox44iisCVJU&NR=1
Hmmm ... notice he is over the vehicle with those up-scale readings - is it the paint or the steel? Or the rain water?
I believe it was the rain but the reading was very low--it's hard to tell because the LCD on the instrument isn't quite in focus so you can't tell the scale.
I'll see your 'radioactive rain' and raise you one "RadioActive Chick":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj0HDN82Pfo
Reuters has pulled the article linked by Tyler.
I'm a former Naval Nuke and I keep an eye out here. Tyler sometimes gets his facts garbled but his point of view IMO is the correct one. This is a big deal for the Pacific Ocean and Japan. The Pacific Ocean is a concern because of the food supply.
The threat to the food supply is not immediate (as long as you don't buy stuff from Japan) but as the radioactives work their way up the food chain in the next year or three the problems will increase.
Reuters has pulled this story.
Someone name of Congressman Markey is the source. Apparently an American. Exceptional, indeed.
NRC issued a statement that this melt through was the worst case. No statement from # 2 by NRC to Markey had use of a measured temperature inside # 2. Temperatures off infrared meters at the point of the hydrogen explosions are not relevant to the fuel cell's physical condition.
Meanwhile the highest background measurement outside the FNPP evacuation area is 438 nanoGrays/hour in Ibaraki Prefecture and the highest near Tokyo is 95 nanoGrays/hour.
5,700 nGy/hr = 35,000,000 nGy/year = 5 REM, the IAEA safety limit. That's 438/5,700 in Ibaraki. The Tokyo area is, just barely, inside the normal range for a port city.
TEPCO's engineers face one helluva difficult problem. Let us hope and/or pray that they succeed at containing these risks. There have been two deaths at FNPP so far. That's enough.
Someone name of Congressman Markey is the source. Apparently an American. Exceptional, indeed.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Markey: Not exceptional.
A congressman from our Taxachussets IIRC ... Representative Ed Markey (D - MA).
U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 7th congressional district, serving since 1976.
IOW, a 'lifer' as we call them.
yeah buddy,
thats what they said after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What were in those nukes anyway, Ipods?
Ok, I'll ask one last time and maybe someone here who knows something about nuclear reactors will answer.
What happens when the core melts through the reactor?
tia
(thanks in advance)
Big release of radioactives.
Fmr. Naval Nuke.
Big release of radioactives.
Fmr. Naval Nuke.
This was almost definitely known by people on-site very shortly after 6:14AM on Mar 15th.
Loud
strange noises
from No.2, then a
very strong impulse or explosion
which was almost, but not quite, fully contained within the building.
Then pressure falls immediately from extremely high, to near atmospheric
And a large pulse of radioactivity in steam exited new hole punched in the east-side roof cavity, from a steam-jet coming out the top of the reactor (probably as the Automatic decompression system did an Elvis, and left the building at supersonic speed, to end up several kms off-shore).
At that very point the words Highly Radioactive were first used to describe resulting radiation levels.
It's got worse every day since.
--
The media just can't accept that it HAD ALREADY melted down weeks ago. The lame-arsed public broadcaster in Aust even just yesterday kept describing it in terms as though TEPCO were STILL trying desperately to PREVENT a meltdown ... rather than trying (and totally failing) to cope with the meltdown(s) that already occurred.
As long as the dumb-shit media (public and private - I dont know which is worse, the ones you know are idiots, or the ones who pretend to provide greater insight) keep this relentless denial up, then the Japanese GOVT (not TEPCO) will NOT act to get the currently inaccessible spent fuel-rod pool in Unit No.2 topped up again.
And when N.2's SFP pool dries out, they wont be able to get water back into it.
Then the serial meltdown(s) that have already occurred will fade to insignificance, given the regional mayhem that will then ensue.
But relax, there is no immediate threat to human health or the environment - TEPCO said so just yesterday.
Those bastards are lying to destruction.
As long as the dumb-shit media (public and private - I dont know which is worse, the ones you know are idiots, or the ones who pretend to provide greater insight)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
You know, we were in the dark on TMI for the time it was taking place - I don't think they know for sure what is taking place, so, how do you convey that to the press ... who conveys it to the public?
Hindsight is always 20-20; we know now what was involved at TMI, just how bad it got.
The thing is, the facts and statements I posted above WERE conveyed to the media.
The media should have STUCK to these things.
Instead, TEPCO made sure the situation was never made absolutely clear, nor left clear.
However, there were several statements, made by Govt officials, on several occasions, in which it was repeatedly stated that the evidence available indicated a meltdown and primary containment failure had almost surely occurred at No.2.
So if I concluded;
As long as the dumb-shit media (public and private - I dont know which is worse, the ones you know are idiots, or the ones who pretend to provide greater insight)
Then I'd say I'm on pretty safe ground to point that out.
This is not mere 20:20 hindsight - this is not over.
The media's role in this situation is to hold people's feet to the fire to get things done most correctly and efficiently, and if you dont even stick to what is understood from the facts on hand, then don;t expect a govt or a dysfuctional corporate onion of liars and spin to stop No.2 SFP turning into smoke.
They know a great deal more than they're telling. If the NRC can place specific radiation readings from both the torus and the drywell in an email to Congressman Malarky (see Jim in MN's posts)...then they have access to info most of us didn't even know was being gathered with such precision. We're told nothing about the plans or the execution on anything that really matters. We don't know what info is being gathered or how.
We get half-baked stories of sawdust and liquid glass but nothing about the mechanics of injecting nitrogen or what comes after that. No word on specific radiation levels just "over 1000 milliSieverts" or crap like "too hot to enter the building".
I'm assuming they've got to have men inside in order to inject nitrogen into a drywell...but who knows..maybe they have a way to hook up to something from outside? LOL...mushrooms we be....
Edit: And it's pretty obvious it's not just TEPCO and the Japanese government. Apparently people in our own government don't believe we need to hear the truth either.
Apparently people in our own government don't believe we need to hear the truth either.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Apparently, you want to see 'blood' from somebody ... I just don't get it.
Where has the truth been squashed?
Personally, I'm not seeing it ... I've seen a lot of docs linked off ZH here (and I think we, here, have done a pretty good job of making sense of what intel makes its way out from various organizations including news orgs) and other sites going into some level of detail, so it's not like they are trying to keep this stuff hidden ...
Do you want Diane Sawyer to lead each night's ABC News broadcast with - what exactly?
What would 'full disclosure' look like if it took place? Describe what you would like to see/hear specific people say - because I cannot using my sixth sense fill in that blank ...
Full disclosure would report:
1. Exactly what they have instrumentation to "see" and what they don't.
2. How they plan to proceed in gaining measurements critical to decision making that they don't currently have.
3. What they do and don't know about the Spent Fuel Pool integrity in each reactor.
4. What challenges they face in attempting to gain info they don't have and how they plan to attack them.
5. An open discussion of long term solutions and how they're going to attempt to implement them. (And no....I don't see the big sheet idea as a serious one...even their own politicians admitted that one was more about blocking public view of the ghastly images coming out of this.)
6. Coherent discussions of evacuation philosophy/parameters for those stuck in their interminable "stay indoors" zone.
7. Full discussion of what they know and don't know about restoring closed loop cooling function to the reactors and spent fuel pools.
8. Revelation of how they intend to cram 60,000 tonnes of highly radioactive water into 21,500 tonnes worth of storage and exactly what their plans for the remaining 40,000 tonnes or so (and by all accounts likely growing with each day they spray water into spent fuel pools and sprinkle reactors)
9. What they plan to do once they've pumped all that radioactive water out of those basements.
10. How they're managing the radiation doses workers are getting and who they plan to rotate in as the current workers doses get too high. Where are new workers coming from? How are they being prepared (briefed) so that they can pick up the work efficiently?
I could keep going for quite awhile.
You are 100% CORRECT sir ... !
Thanks for putting it together, Element. I agree. They have no access to the spent fuel. That's why I advocated ripping the roof off and air dropping boron, tin, water.
Ýeah, its heart-breaking to watch this because I'm getting the distinct impression they are going to do nothing effective or relevant to this matter ... quickly followed by;
who-cuda-node?
They must not have that option, after the fact.
So let's make sure they did node, before the fact.
Sometimes I think it would be best for USG to declare war and kick the Japs out of Fukushima. They'd probably surrender gladly.
avonaltendorf -
This problem is intended to determine if you are a machine -
or not sufficiently intelligent enough to even talk to humans:
question:
how are your TEPCO shares doing ?
answer:
STFU ( Sell The Fucking Uranium )
- sorry avonaltendorf, but you failed all your answers
and you are not sufficiently intelligent enough to even talk to humans.
-1 and junked, particularly for style
I think they already did. On about March 12th.
Deaths from Chernobyl greatly underestimated.
http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2011/04/lies-of-chernobyl.html
Guys, the radiation is headed for us and it's not going to dissipate. For real, in about a month or two everyone's going to see how bad this lead really is. Get your potassium iodide now, and save it for when the time comes.
www.forecastfortomorrow.com