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Fukushima Smoking Gun Emerges: Founding Engineer Says Reactor 4 Has Always Been A "Time Bomb", Exposes Criminal Cover Up
It was only a matter of time before someone grew a conscience, and disclosed to the world that in addition to the massive cover up currently going on with respect to the true extent of the Fukushima catastrophe, the actual plant itself, in borrowing from the BP playbook, was built in a hurried way, using cost and labor-cutting shortcuts, and the end result was a true "time bomb." Bloomberg has just released a report that if and when confirmed should lead to the prompt engagement of harakiri by the Hitachi executives responsible for this unprecedented act of treason against Japan's citizens. Quote Bloomberg: "One of the reactors in the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant may have been relying on flawed steel to hold the radiation in its core, according to an engineer who helped build its containment vessel four decades ago. Mitsuhiko Tanaka says he helped conceal a manufacturing defect in the $250 million steel vessel installed at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi No. 4 reactor while working for a unit of Hitachi Ltd. in 1974. The reactor, which Tanaka has called a “time bomb,” was shut for maintenance when the March 11 earthquake triggered a 7-meter (23-foot) tsunami that disabled cooling systems at the plant, leading to explosions and radiation leaks....“Who knows what would have happened if that reactor had been running?” Tanaka, who turned his back on the nuclear industry after the Chernobyl disaster, said in an interview last week. “I have no idea if it could withstand an earthquake like this. It’s got a faulty reactor inside.” What follows is the harrowing tale of a criminal cover up at the only reactor that luckily was empty when the catastrophe occurred. We can only imagine what comparable horror stories will emerge in the next several days as other whistleblowers emerge and disclose that Reactors 1 through 3 (which unfortunately do have radioactive fuel in their reactors) passed the same "rigorous" quality control process that makes them the same time bombs just waiting or the signal to go off (and probably already have... but since the truth is the last thing the public will uncover one can only speculate).
More on this sad story of criminal corruption and incompetence from the bottom all the way to the top, from Bloomberg:
Tanaka’s allegations, which he says he brought to the attention of Japan’s Trade Ministry in 1988 and chronicled in a book two years later called “Why Nuclear Power is Dangerous,” have resurfaced after Japan’s worst nuclear accident on record. The No. 4 reactor was hit by explosions and a fire that spread from adjacent units as the crisis deepened.
Hitachi spokesman Yuichi Izumisawa said the company met with Tanaka in 1988 to discuss the work he did to fix a dent in the vessel and concluded there was no safety problem. “We have not revised our view since then,” Izumisawa said.
Kenta Takahashi, an official at the Trade Ministry’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said he couldn’t confirm whether the agency’s predecessor, the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, had conducted an investigation into Tanaka’s claims. Naoki Tsunoda, a spokesman at Tokyo Electric Power Co., which owns the plant, said he couldn’t immediately comment.
Tanaka, who said he led the team that built the steel vessel, was at his apartment on Tokyo’s outskirts when Japan’s biggest earthquake on record struck off the coast on March 11, shaking buildings in the nation’s capital.
“I grabbed my wife and we just hugged,” he said. “I thought this is it: we’re dead.”
For Tanaka, the nightmare intensified the next day when a series of explosions were triggered next to the reactor that he helped build. Since then, the risks of radioactive leaks increased as workers have struggled to bring the plant under control.
Here is why one should not trust anything coming out of the authorities out of TEPCO and out of all other pundits who now rely on what is certifiably faulty information:
Tanaka says the reactor pressure vessel inside Fukushima’s unit No. 4 was damaged at a Babcock-Hitachi foundry in Kure City, in Hiroshima prefecture, during the last step of a manufacturing process that took 2 1/2 years and cost tens of millions of dollars. If the mistake had been discovered, the company might have been bankrupted, he said.
Inside a blast furnace the size of a small airplane hanger the reactor pressure vessel was being treated one last time to remove welding stress. The cylinder, 20 meters tall and 6 meters in diameter, was heated to more than 600 degrees Celsius (1,112 degrees Fahrenheit), a temperature that softens metal.
Braces that were supposed to have been placed inside during the blasting were either forgotten or fell over when the cylinder was wheeled into the furnace. After the vessel cooled, workers found that its walls had warped, Tanaka said.
The vessel had sagged so that its height and width differed by more than 34 millimeters, meaning it should have been scrapped, according to nuclear regulations. Rather than sacrifice years of work and risk the company’s survival, Tanaka’s boss asked him to reshape the vessel so that no-one would know it had ever been damaged. Tanaka had been working as an engineer for the company’s nuclear reactor division and was known for his programming skills.
Saving Hitachi billions by putting millions at risk:
“I saved the company billions of yen,” said Tanaka, who says he was paid a 3 million yen bonus and presented with a certificate acknowledging his “extraordinary” effort. “At the time, I felt like a hero,” he said.
Over the course of a month, Tanaka said he made a dozen nighttime trips to an International Business Machines Corp. office 20 kilometers away in Hiroshima where he used a super- computer to devise a repair.
Covering up the lies with a sheet, and bribing with golf and hot springs:
Meanwhile, workers covered the damaged vessel with a sheet, Tanaka said. When Tokyo Electric sent a representative to check on their progress, Hitachi distracted him by wining and dining him, according to Tanaka. Rather than inspecting the part, they spent the day playing golf and soaking in a hot spring, he said.
The guy wouldn’t have known what he was looking at anyway,” Tanaka said. “The people at the utility have no idea how the parts are made.”
After a month of computer modeling, Tanaka came up with a way to use pumpjacks to pop out the sunken wall. While it would look like nothing had ever happened, no-one knew what the effect of the repair would have on the integrity of the vessel. Thirty- six years later, that reactor pressure vessel is the key defense protecting the core of Fukushima’s No. 4 reactor.
“These procedures, as they’re described, are far from ideal, especially for a component as critical as this,” Robert Ritchie, Professor of Materials Science & Engineering at the University of California of Berkeley, said in a phone interview. “Depending on the extent of vessel’s deformation, it could possibly lead to local cracking in some its welds.”
"The father of the Japanese Chernobyl":
After the meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986, Tanaka was asked to narrate a Russian movie documenting the disaster. A team of Soviet filmmakers had taken 30 hours of footage inside the plant, getting very close to the ruptured core. The movie’s director died of radiation poisoning about a year after the filming. While watching the footage, Tanaka had a breakdown.
“All of a sudden I was sobbing and I started to think about what I’d done,” Tanaka said. “I was thinking, ‘I could be the father of a Japanese Chernobyl.’”
Two years later Tanaka says he went to the Trade Ministry to report the cover-up he’d been involved in more than a decade earlier. The government refused to investigate and Hitachi denied his accusations, he said.
Everybody lies.
“They said, if Hitachi says they didn’t do it, then
there’s no problem,” Tanaka said. “Companies don’t always tell
the truth.”
So... is there still someone who believes anything coming out of Fukushima? And anyone who thinks that spraying water on overheating reactors from hopelessly irradiated firetrucks will actually do anything at all?
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the biggest liar, cheat, thief, crook, danger and taker of life in society is Government
yet it promises justice, safety, security and morality as it's core appeal to society
Government is the toilet of the nation State, it's people do a hell of a lot better without it
Couldn't agree more.
Throw the Bums OUT!
In America, douchebag, you are the government. Teabag that, asshole.
in America, douchebag, the Govt is a bunch of dysfunctional windbags (politicians) bankrolled by (are you ready?) ; Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, GE, Boeing, GM, Hughes, Exxon, Fannie and Freddie, Pfizer etc etc
Govt has fuk all to do with the people. It never was about the people, it's always been about the parasites
I guess I should just roll over and play dead. God save the Queen.
Selling pitchforks here!!! Who wants 'em! Get 'em while they're hot! Free torches with every purchase! (not those stupid british flashlights either...fool me once...) ...bring your PMs.
You actually think that the government represents us? Gosh, that is just so adorable!
I hope the Easter Bunny brings you lots of chocolate!!!
Oh yeah...the Easter Bunny will be looking for him...just like the government
(this clip never gets stale)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO-QqRJOi9U
I have a friend who was head of building inspections in a major city with significant earhquake threat. That person was railroaded out of a job after too many findings of sub-par concrete etc. Give some thought to who corrupts and intimidates those trying to perform essential services--corporations leaning of politicians who lean on inspectors. You hate government? Start with politicians -- but only after you watch The Corporation.
Written by my constitutional law professor. Great Guy. Great Book. Great Movie.
No kidding, Lizzy? Awesome! I was logged into the production website and getting bulletins for it seems a year prior to the release of the movie. It should be a requirement of every high school civics class. (If there is such a thing). You see that movie, and Century of The Self, and you've eaten the red pill.
Throwing out the bums won't do anything. Eliminate their habitat.
It's easier to convince people to be responsible if there's not a gigantic
parent-figure constantly repeating "chill out, we got this".
Throwing out the bums won't do anything. Eliminate their habitat.
It's easier to convince people to be responsible if there's not a gigantic
parent-figure constantly repeating "chill out, we got this".
Is Apr 1 here yet, because, fortunately, REACTOR 4 WAS COLD that day ... I suppose someone has already revealed that factoid, so, never mind ...
Power corrupts...
Absolutely..
nice, wb7, what do you call it? reactor awaiting torus? torus tourists? in-spectorz gadget?
Love the recent increase in the use of image repetition. It is like the visual equivalent of a Jimmy Page composition. Rock on.
I was going to say just the opposite. There is too much repetition. It diminishes the impact of the images and makes it look like windows' wallpaper.
I would go with irregular and asymmetrical melding of images to create a unified whole rather than a predictable pattern. But, that does take more time and effort to create.
But you've come a long ways from the early days!
there's a ringing endorsement of Warhol if I've ever heard one.
...and that TEPCO logo really looks like a mutated Mickey Mouse.
Someone's noticed..
Mouse + radiation = Tepco logo
we're not supposed to know this y'know
+1 love your anti-propaganda (what do you call it?)
on wires now:
*reactor 2 HIGH radiation workers evacuated
By HIROSE TAKASHI
http://www.counterpunch.org/takashi03222011.html
Thanks for the url. A very important point that is made is the difference between ingesting a radioactive particle versus receiving a dose of radiation from a source outside the body. So even the weakest particle ingested dose is a trillion times more deadly than radiation received from outside the body:
"Hirose: For example, yesterday. Around Fukushima Daiichi Station they measured 400 millisieverts – that’s per hour. With this measurement (Chief Cabinet Secretary) Edano admitted for the first time that there was a danger to health, but he didn’t explain what this means. All of the information media are at fault here I think. They are saying stupid things like, why, we are exposed to radiation all the time in our daily life, we get radiation from outer space. But that’s one millisievert per year. A year has 365 days, a day has 24 hours; multiply 365 by 24, you get 8760. Multiply the 400 millisieverts by that, you get 3,500,000 the normal dose. You call that safe? And what media have reported this? None. They compare it to a CT scan, which is over in an instant; that has nothing to do with it. The reason radioactivity can be measured is that radioactive material is escaping. What is dangerous is when that material enters your body and irradiates it from inside. These industry-mouthpiece scholars come on TV and what to they say? They say as you move away the radiation is reduced in inverse ratio to the square of the distance. I want to say the reverse. Internal irradiation happens when radioactive material is ingested into the body. What happens? Say there is a nuclear particle one meter away from you. You breathe it in, it sticks inside your body; the distance between you and it is now at the micron level. One meter is 1000 millimeters, one micron is one thousandth of a millimeter. That’s a thousand times a thousand: a thousand squared. That’s the real meaning of “inverse ratio of the square of the distance.” Radiation exposure is increased by a factor of a trillion. Inhaling even the tiniest particle, that’s the danger."
I remember the Litvenenko case when he was exposed to polonium. As long as the polonium stays outside the body, there is virtually no danger, but the instant the smallest trace is absorbed by the body it is lethal. They even found polonium on the British Airways jet that flew from Moscow with the polonium that was used against Litvenenko. I don't know if they had to scrap that jet. If so, I hope they were able to get Putin to pay for it.
They don't want to admit it, but it's well known: safe nuc power generation is a high art form. It's way more involved than simple combustion as in oil, coal and gas. At Chernobyl and Three Mile Island there was no earthquake. Things went wrong because of deficient management of a contained fission reaction. And that will happen whenever something unexpected or extreme occurs like an earthquake or a lightning strike like at Indian Point in New York in 1977. A near miss.
Judging by some of the characters I knew at a large U.S. nuclear power plant engineering company this isn't just a Japan problem.
Reminds me of stories I heard about construction of a nuke plant near my home town. Early in the construction welds were done over and over, xrayed, and redone, even if perfect, in order to milk the job out. At the end work was hurried to finish up the over deadline and over budget project and inferior work passed inspection.
Oh bushwa. Some guy looking to get rich off a major catastrophe.
Aw hell why not pile on:
WHO Spokesman Favors Radiation Checks on FishGeneva, March 22 (Jiji Press)--A World Health Organization spokesman on Tuesday favored the idea of checking fish given the fact that waters near a quake-damaged nuclear plant in northeastern Japan are contaminated by radioactive materials.
The spokesman, Gregory Hartl, said that "it will probably be good to do some radiation checks on fish," though the WHO has "no expertise measuring fish."
In Japan earlier in the day, Tokyo Electric Power Co. <9501> said it detected high levels of radioactive substances from seawater near its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, now at the center of the nation's nuclear crisis caused by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami on March 11.
Fish that were already exported from Japan are safe because the exports were made before the disaster, Hartl said.
But the situation "will change," he said, adding that fish such as tuna will go far from Japanese waters.
(2011/03/23-09:37)
A fine documentary on how these companies were all in too deep financially speaking to be concerned about safety issues: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2011/03/a_is_for_atom.html
From the page linked above:
As one of the AEC scientists says in the film: "We discovered that our theoretical calculations didn't have a strong correlation with reality. But we just couldn't admit to the public that all these safety systems we told you about might not do any good"
Sounds like the Bernank:
"We discovered that our theoretical calculations didn't have a strong correlation with reality. But we just couldn't admit to the public that all these safety systems we told you about might not do any good"
It's becoming clearer that workers are not actually up close to the reactors even now. They spray things from a distance and even the choppers don't get too close. That's a tell
Japan's Nikkei will now rest, please enjoy the music while they reset/spin the lies for the 2nd half of their trading day.
Link to Nikkei Ponzi valuation via bloomberg, so it's a bit delayed.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=NKY:IND
Music to pass the time while they eat lunch-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyggY_R3jU8
i feel free indeed as the truth is wont to do for the soul....we spend trillions on education, credentials, and qualifications and it all leads to criminal fraud because mammon trumps truth....
the japanese leadership for as long as i can see in history is villainous...lies, lies, and more goddamned lies...and usa leaders are exactly the same....george "katrina" bush and the bp crisis management team are in charge of japan....hari kari would be way to nice to those criminal assholes....
just like the 9/11 commissioner-bitch said, "we have to maintain the insitution regardless of the truth."
While McMurphy laughs. Rocking farther and farther backward against the cabin top, spreading his laugh out across the water—laughing at the girl, at the guys, at George, at me sucking my bleeding thumb, at the captain back at the pier and the bicycle rider and the service-station guys and the five thousand houses and the Big Nurse and all of it. Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
$
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
¥€$ We Can
What do ya mean Citibank knew 80% of its loans in 2007 did not meet internal underwriting guidlines?
In our capitalistic hour of greed we should all turn and pray to the one true God, Warren Buffet, who controls all in all countries including Wall Street and the President.
"Warren Buffet: tear down this reactor!"
Warren here is some 'rope'.
Please do with it as you see fit.
And please don't tie up your nutsack trying to have one last F'nO.
Ol' Ironside might have done that or possibly Carradine. The Winner probably has but he's got the Godesses with him unless they borrow your rope first.
Please help yourself out the door!
In our capitalistic hour of greed we should all turn and pray to the one true God, Warren Buffet, who controls all in all countries including Wall Street and the President
Funny. He doesn't look Jewish. Maybe it rubbed off from old lady Bloomkin.
Reactor 1's core is over 400-degree Celsius.
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/03/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-reactor-no1.html
Japan Gov upgrades warning to Fukushima residents from "don't eat leafy vegetables" to "don't eat".
Hitachi spokesman Yuichi Izumisawa said the company met with Tanaka in 1988 to discuss the work he did to fix a dent in the vessel
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Bzzzt!
BS Alert!
Not buying it ! Not given what I think is the thickness and make-up (material) of said reactor vessel!
Ya they bumped it with an aircraft carrier or something. You know, a little.
That's what body shops are for, innit?
Besides, these things are hydro-pressure tested ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrostatic_test
A hydrostatic test is a way in which leaks can be found in pressure vessels such as pipelines and plumbing. The test involves placing water, which is often dyed for visibility, in the pipe or vessel at the required pressure to ensure that it will not leak or be damaged. It is the most common method employed for testing pipes and vessels. Using this test helps maintain safety standards and durability of a vessel over time. Newly manufactured pieces are initially qualified using the hydrostatic test.
Apparently, it passed hydro-tests after that too ...
Start simple.
Google Ball bearings. Now learn the process and understand how they first harden the metal and then temper it.
Or even go back to Sword Making or Iron Blacksmithing of earlier times. Then the basic facts of heat versus metals come up.
They can bamboozle the Sheep with mounds of bull and all kinds of mumbo jumbo... but when you keep it simple then you see.
Add metal fatique such as Iron swords against Bronze sword technology to the mix.
In trucking I have seen brake pads get very hot (Ceramic) and then line the steel drums of the wheels that they work on to pure glass like layer. Then the drum is cracked all around and is no good.
There were times I have had to get down a mountain several miles downhill with all wheels rolling thermal and smoke without touching my brakes once for the next 100 miles or so to cool them off. To simply park means instant fire and loss of rig.
Aluminum burns first before steel. Think that our Navy likes to use Aluminum to build ships. That is nice, but not from a damage control point of view.
that our Navy likes to use Aluminum to build ships. That is nice, but not from a damage control point of view
Just ask the Brits. Google the sheffield, see what happens when an Aluminum ship is hit by an exocet missle...
Not Pretty.
Wanna' get wierd?
I don't like bullshit. I trust my experience before I trust well meaning folks that don't have enough knowledge to comment on situations that require technical experience. There are several comments that followed my last from some that do actually know what stress relief of weldments is about.
Likewise, I read, but do not comment on real estate sites because I haven't the experience, but they were the ones back in 2005 that gave me enough information that convinced me on the forthcoming RE bubble collapse.
My practical experience with metals and heat treatment makes me laugh at the "official" explanation of the WTC building collapses. I find the stories to be preposterous on physical grounds and on political grounds. The same fables about strength of steel were pushed by the MSM that we are getting here. One must be careful to sort the agenda from physical science. I only ask all of you to be careful about how you are being guided to an opinion.
Can you do a couple of quick back-of-the-envelope calculations for me?
I need to know:
1) The structural strength of the under-floor support trusses at elevated temperatures ... such that at what point might a floor, under static load, begin to sag from the trusses deforming or their pinning deforms to the point where failure of some element (truss or pinning or welds) would occur ...
2) The kinetic energy of one loaded (fully furnished) floor in the WTC 1 or 2 buildings falling a distance of about one floor.
3) Is one floor falling upon another sufficient to cause the one below to 'cut loose', shear it's pinning or break enough truss welds to cause it to fall ... add in the variable elevated temperatures of the steel members ...
Can you do that?
Can the junker do that (I take it the answer is a resounding 'no' otherwise I would be seeing something 'in print')?
So, all you've got to go on is that 'Loose Change' thing fabricated by high schoolers (effectively), a semi-technical Blair Witch project (which I'm sure the teacher gave them more than a passing grade for!) ...
Which "strength" do you want to know? There are several physical properties associated with metals, which can be defined and quantified. Hardness, is one of the most commonly used, and can be measured by a Rockwell tester. There is also elasticity, plasticity, shear strength, tensile strength, compressive strength, brittleness, etc.
Metals are polycrystalline materials. Some of the different strengths can be changed by changing the crystalline pattern of the metal, usually through heat treatments (hardening, softening, tempering). In some cases, thanks to GE, a metal can be "grown" into a single crystal. Once a certain temperature is reached, all bets are off. Heat, and the cooling process, changes the molecular structure of steel. This occurs at about 760 deg C. IIRC, blacksmiths used to believe that to get the hardest possible steel, it needed to be quenched in the urine from a red-haired Swede.
FAIL; Did not answer the questions posed.
(Please, if you want to 'teach' a 101 course on metallurgy, find a community college and do it ...)
WOW,so here we have some proof that metal(highly engeneered) might actually sag before it is liquid(during manufacture) and that it may cause concern for it's integrity.Valid point,as critical to the ongoing situation as this suggest's(very critical) I believe this may be an abject lesson to a simmering arguement about an event that is nearly 10 yr's old(those building's never had a chance).I'm really hoping for a solution here,sorry if the connect offended anybody. This testimony show's what transpire's when unforseen circumstance's happen during a profit motivated endevour. We are way over our head's (human's)
Metal might sag while it's liquid, before it's solid. Yep, we are able to engineer complex machinery, but manufacturing to specs is another issue. Does profit motivate? Only if held ACCOUNTABLE. Can we find someone who made good money working on a project that did shitty work and penalize them? Probably not.
So should we push the limits of technology? Maybe not, especially when the economy was better than it ever was before. What if later we can't afford to maintain all these technological marvels?
It's exactly what he's doing. I can see the movie "The Telltale Part". He saw the blunders and the attempts at minimizing the tragedy and in his heart knew the truth. If this went unnoticed for this long I'm sure the trend is true through today. The rest of the story is yet to be told. The next story is why Obama started this attention distraction with Libya and then left the country. He's more calculated than that and there is a story there I can assure you.
WOW,so here we have some proof that metal(highly engeneered) might actually sag before it is liquid(during manufacture) and that it may cause concern for it's integrity.
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I would worry if the so-called 'dent' was made when the vessel was cold (that's when cracking can occur) ... stress cracks don't form when the material is made to deform at an 'annealing' temperature ...
That story is a little overboard. 34mm change in diameter of 6m diameter vessel during heat treatment is nothing, I think is not bad actually.
It's nuclear disaster and lets not go to look for guilty parties in manufacturing or materials. Lets look at design and location. Is the guy looking for some fame or compensation?
I realize that the following concept may seem far fetched to you but here it goes: Have you considered that perhaps he's just trying to do the right thing by coming clean? Might he (gasp at the horror) have a conscience that is troubling him? I realize that in America, such things as "conscience" and "doing the right thing" are viewed as signs of weakness or in conflict with the moral superiority and right of might that is capitalism...But America, contrary to popular delusion...is not the world.
Yes, this concept is familiar to me, so what?
The change in diameter during heat treatment should have been accounted for in the manufacturing calcs. The article clearly said that by the regulations this vessel should have been refused and the company hid that fact. No this one didn't cause the problem but how many other things have they hidden?
Maybe I'm mistaken but we don't deal with material failure in containment vessels which seem to hold as for now. The problem is somewhere else, don't you think? I'm not trying to defend them in any way.
You are correct. I am not sure even if it was a total of 34mm in change of height and diameter. This story is a minor point that might be of no consequence in the greater scheme of why there was a government licensed series of reactors on the lowest shore of the country that gave us the word "tsunami".
karma or something spared that guy
he told the truth and when the big test came his iffy reactor wasn't put to it
I think he's looking to capitalize on it; look, his book has just been reprinted!
The guy quit his job back in the day. Not one in an hundred have that kind of integrity. This type of comment can bite me.
Landed a better gig? Wait - is that when he wrote the book?
Profiteer- not that there is anything wrong with that (he's kinda in the same boat as Hitachi then isn't he, a bit of an opportunist? He took the million Yen back in the day too.)
"Let him who is without blemish cast the first aspersion" or something like that ...
Makes me wonder if these idiot GE designers got their blueprints from an episode of SCTV...with the part of today's pathetic MSM in this insane tragedy to be played by Guy Caballero in The Top of the Reactor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OacYCQ6KB58
"Maybe you didn't hear me. I SAID TOWERING INFERNO!" I wonder who will play Martin Short's character in this real-life drama.
SCTV, only on ZH.
If you have not done so, watch "The China Syndrome" on Netflix ... it is not fiction, it was prophetic and virutally foretold what has transpired in Japan.
The China Syndrome was released to theaters two weeks before Three Mile Island.
If you have not done so, watch "The China Syndrome" on Netflix ... it is not fiction, it was prophetic and virutally foretold what has transpired in Japan.
Asian cultures suck big time. Call me racist.
Japanese culture has been corrupted by usa maggot culture.
I gather you've never lived and worked in Asia? Dumb racist!
All cultures have their strong and weak points. Witness: America.
I heard many Asians are racists. So I am one of them too.
Fair comment. You were told right ... they are (in general) far more racist than we could ever be. But, two wongs don't make a white.
PS. I didn't junk you, so I can't unjunk you.
Hey, maybe we should....c'mon they just thought of this too?
NEWS ADVISORY: Gov't asks 6 prefectures to check radiation levels in farm products
By Jason Clenfield -
Mar 22, 2011 7:54 PM CT ---
This is the time and date stamp of the Bloomberg article. Lets see if any “news outlet” is gonna give it any play
Great, they'll need all iodine they can get, to help them thru this difficult time.
"this sad story of criminal corruption and incompetence from the bottom all the way to the top"
This statement resonated with me.
found a cheesy old link about radiactive safety. just to put things into perspective about all these numbers being thrown around about permissible exposure limits.
http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Booklets/Radiation/radsafe.html
apparently, the average human experiences around 1-2 millisieverts a year from all sources, depending on occupation and location.
from the counterpunch article below, that majia linked, the interviewee asserts that the raditions levels around the reactor are reading around 400 millisieverts an hour.
http://www.counterpunch.org/takashi03222011.html
Buy the dip (on nuclear stocks), bitchez!
Truth comes out. Whomever built those reactors better start setting aside funds for a rainy day...maybe?
Ummm Buhler. This isn't a report. The guy wrote a BOOK about it about 10 years ago..
How many other reactors were damaged during the big one? I'll bet they all have bent johnson rods and pimpled nipples. More problems ahead imo.
Ya glad to see that headlined here. Read and stored the story last Friday I think. I either spotted it or GW or somebody linked to it.
Goes on all the time. No surprise really. Lack of responsible behavior and lack of enforcement is the new world order.
Funny thing today: at the store the man on the radio (CBS I think) said Toyota Electric Power Company.
Missing link, here is the 3/18 story with the same guy mentioned
See my comment above, there is a whole string of articles quoting Tanaka- he was initially interviewed by (Western) media on 3/12. Why did everyone wait a week to share the news on a potential fundamental flaw in containment integrity?
The editors probably were exercising respect for the dead and the dying and the need not to cause a panic. (You know public policy 101 - do not cause a panic until it is too late.) After all, there will be plenty of time for blame, discovery, and enforcement.
Same kind of follow up things that happened with the financial freeze.
Contain this -- oh never mind, I'll leave the nasty rants to others.
Unit 3 is the problem because the reactor core is lying in the parking lot. Watch the video of unit 1 blowing up, and then watch unit 3 really carefully. Why did unit 3 send everything 1000 feet straight up? Because the explosion was in the containment unit, which is designed like a cannon.
Hopefully most of the nuclear material had already melted down and is laying at the bottom of the containment unit.
amazing that people are able to survive a minute in that lot then.
Maybe they're photoshopped in
The health effects of radiation may be divided into those that occur early and those that occur late.
Short term: It has long been recognized that exposure to high levels of radiation can harm exposed tissues of the human body. Such radiation effects can be clinically diagnosed in the exposed individual; they are called deterministic effects because once a radiation dose above the relevant threshold has been received, they will occur and the severity depends on the dose.
Long-term: Studies of populations exposed to radiation, especially of the survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have shown that exposure to radiation can also lead to the delayed induction of cancer and, possibly, of hereditary damage. Effects such as these cannot usually be confirmed in any particular individual exposed but can be inferred from statistical studies of large populations: they appear to occur at random in the irradiated population.
"OK, Lou, fire that puppy up":
No.3 reactor's pump to undergo test run
The Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, plans to test-run a cooling pump at the No. 3 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Wednesday, in the latest bid to restore cooling functions at the plant.
TEPCO said the electricity supply for the control room of the reactor was restored on Tuesday night for the first time since the devastating quake and tsunami on March 11th, allowing lights in the room to be turned on again.
The reactor is the first among the troubled No. 1 through 4 reactors to have external power restored at its control room.
On Wednesday morning, a local TEPCO branch told reporters that it will check whether the pump can supply water to the reactor from its tank.
Meanwhile, work to inject water into the spent fuel storage pool of the No. 4 reactor resumed shortly after 10 AM.
TEPCO plans to inject water for about 3 hours using a vehicle with an arm that can be extended more than 50 meters to spray water with great accuracy.
The Tokyo Fire Department plans to spray water into the No. 3 reactor for about 2 hours on Wednesday afternoon.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 11:42 +0900 (JST)
Ripples....
Sony Suspends LCD TV Output in JapanTokyo, March 22 (Jiji Press)--Sony Corp. <6758> said Tuesday that it has suspended operations at its central Japan plant for liquid crystal display television sets due to difficulties procuring parts following the March 11 earthquake in northeastern Japan.
The production halt at the plant in Inazawa, Aichi Prefecture, will continue until March 31. But production could resume earlier if parts procurement is restored, Sony officials said.
(2011/03/22-16:15)
Perhaps Tyler posted a scoop, however I am hesitate to give accolades and pile on...even if it is on corporations.
There's just too much destruction to twist the knife and gloat.
My heart goes out to the people of Japan.
I've been there... seen old men/women in back alleys diligently sweeping it clean for whatever small salary and their own sense of self worth.
No doubt the corporate ninjas got caught up in their hubris, but the regular folk are quite solid.
I feel for them.
There is no amount of benefit that outweighs this kind of risk. The math needs to be readjusted.
Indian Point needs to be put into cold shutdown ASAP. Rise up New Yorkers and do something NOW for a change, PlaNYC2030 ain't gonna mean much if the Big Apple turns into an uninhabitable brown spot.
Bruce's oh well I'm toast is the kind of thinking that breeds inaction, lax enforcement, and irresponsible behavior.
There are enough of you here that if you got your act together you could be a force. Just for grins get after Indian Point and then move on to things like TPTB.
Indian Point needs to be put into cold shutdown ASAP. Rise up New Yorkers and do something NOW for a change, PlaNYC2030 ain't gonna mean much if the Big Apple turns into an uninhabitable brown spot.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Do you like having your lights on?
The engineers will just "think up something" to keep them on.
And they will think up something to replace oil the MINUTE we need it. that's how engineers work...fuckin by MAGIC
that's how engineers work...fuckin by MAGIC
The first mate prefers that I use the usual eqpt.
Update....yuck
Restoration work at Fukushima nuke plant faces challengesTOKYO, March 23, Kyodo
Work to restore power and vital cooling functions at the troubled reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant stricken by the March 11 powerful quake and tsunami has encountered difficulties, such as a rise in a reactor's temperature and detection of high-level radiation, the government's nuclear agency said Wednesday.
All six reactors at the crisis-hit plant were reconnected to external power as of Tuesday night. Despite the positive move, the temperature in the No. 1 reactor vessel briefly topped 400 C degrees, requiring large amounts of seawater injected into the reactor to cool it down, according to the agency.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said high-level radiation amounting to 500 millisievert per hour was detected at the No. 2 reactor's turbine building a couple of days ago, which is preventing workers from trying to restore electricity at a control room.
The plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. also said two workers who had been installing a makeshift power source from Tuesday night were injured and taken to hospital, but they were not exposed to radiation.
Meanwhile, water-spraying operations to cool down a spent nuclear fuel pool at the No. 4 reactor continued, using trucks with a concrete squeeze pump and a 50-meter arm capable of pouring water from a higher point. Firefighters will shoot massive amounts of water at the No. 3 reactor's fuel pool in the afternoon, the agency said.
Now that the reactors are reconnected to an external power grid and lighting in the No. 3 reactor's control room is restored, workers are focusing on transmitting power to each piece of equipment, such as data measuring instruments and feed-water pumps, after carefully examining its condition.
Regaining functions in the control rooms are thought to allow for more intensive work to help bring the crisis under control, as operators at present cannot remain in the rooms for long hours due to high radiation levels and power outages.
The nuclear agency said the utility firm aims to restore a pump by Thursday to inject freshwater into the core of the No. 3 reactor, instead of seawater that has currently been poured using fire pumps.
As of 10 a.m. Wednesday, the temperature of the No. 1 reactor vessel dropped to 390 C degrees, but it was still above the maximum temperature of 302 C degrees set by its designer. To deal with the situation, the utility known as TEPCO had increased the amount of water injected into the reactor by 9 times.
Nishiyama said the reactor vessel is not expected to start melting at these temperatures, and that TEPCO will carefully continue to inject massive amounts of water into the No. 1 reactor so as not to raise the pressure in the reactor.
High pressure in the reactor increases the risk of damage to the facility, and workers would be required to release radioactive steam from the reactor to lower the pressure.
As part of routine monitoring activities, helicopters of the Self-Defense Forces examined temperatures at the Fukushima nuclear power station Wednesday morning.
After the March 11 earthquake and massive tsunami knocked out power at the plant, the cooling functions failed at the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors, while the pools storing spent nuclear fuel at the No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 units have also lost all their cooling functions.
==Kyodo
Eh, Wikileaks has to show up....I'm going to bed
U.S. Diplomat Concerned about Japan Nuke Plant Safety in 2006: PaperParis, March 22 (Jiji Press)--A U.S. diplomat in Japan in 2006 had doubt about safety of Japanese nuclear power plants, French evening daily Le Monde reported Tuesday.
Citing confidential U.S. diplomatic cables obtained and disclosed by WikiLeaks recently, the paper said the then embassy official in Tokyo was concerned about the Japanese government giving priority to cutting costs over securing safety of nuclear plants.
The author of the documents pointed out it was Japan's electricity market liberalization policy that was forcing power firms to cut costs.
In the cables, the diplomat also quoted a Japanese official involved as saying that power firms had to obey the government's decision to push forward the so-called "plu-thermal" power generation to use plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel, though the project was put on hold after Tokyo Electric Power Co. <9501> was found to have concealed accidents at its nuclear plants.
The official told Washington that there have been so many instances of safety being sacrificed by cost reduction and productivity improvement, the paper said.
(2011/03/23-12:05)
a THIRTY SIX YEAR OLD "timebomb"?
It didn't BLOW UP on its own, a fuckin tsunami cut its power.
I mean, on a long enough timeframe....
What I find amazing is that the crowd of doomer vultures sets in on EVERY disaster as if they could have seen it coming. The only person prophesying around here was ORI moonbat with his march 20 full moon shit. That mfer came and went.
Where the fuck were all you people 30 years ago or even last year pointing out this plant's problems? ZH comments are a veritable triumph of hindsight analysis by people who don't even bother to try to conceal how badly they want an apocalypse.
The salient point really is that a true Black Swan has emerged from a precipitating Black Swan event.
I could say much more, but your manners don't warrant the effort.
Besides, the apocalypse will not be televised.
Off topic. I get kind of annoyed when people talk about black swans. That's the only kind of swans we have in Perth. Not a single white swan. All black. Quite beautiful.
Ah. I see your point. Don't get wobbly over semantics though, brother. It's just shorthand for an idea that holds water.
Let me restate the case then:
A true unforeseen-clusterfuck-of-the-worst-possible-kind-at-the-worst-possible-moment has emerged from an unforeseen-clusterfuck-of-the-worst-possible-kind-at-the-worst-possible-moment event.
I've never seen an actual black swan. I bet they are beautiful, and I can understand how you feel about the phrase. I guess for me it would be equally annoying if it was called a chocolate shi-tzu. I have five of them, and I love them as though they were my own children.
Please consider that an apology for something over which I had no input or control, for I surely would have considered your feeling for such a magnificent thing as a black swan.
I guess we're all living in a suburb of Perth now :)
Slewi The Pi Rat, I would love to take a bat to your face and beat you senseless. The nonsensical drivel that you spew out consistently on this site is nothing short of pure diarrhea. Considering your atrocious grammar I would say you are probably a government troll that earns $14.25 an hour and you work at your local DMV, you probably weigh 385 pounds and swallow down 6 boxes of twinkies everyday, you have not smiled since 1987 and your fat ass has not been touched since 1990, and your hero is none other than Michelle "Mike Tyson with a wig" Obama. Fuck off
Yeah, but why the hate bro? lol...
For the Devoted Skeptics of TEPCO club, of which I am a card-carrying member these past couple of decades, the Tanaka story is somewhat old news. The 'fortunate' thing is that it is getting new press now (when if it had not gotten press, it could be restarted (and may still be restarted).
However, as regards the current situation, it is relatively meaningless because there is no fuel in the reactor.
Warren Buffett in a lighter mood as he says his greatest challege was public speaking but he overcame and proposed to his wife
http://dawnwires.com/investment-news/warren-buffett-says-the-greatest-challenge-of-my-life-was-public-speaking-but-i-overcame-and-proposed-to-my-wife/
Kinsley's Law of Scandal: The scandal is not what is illegal. The scandal is what's legal.
Should they be building a cofferdam around the plant?
Seems like a lot of the radioactive runoff into the ocean occuring might be avoidable with a big-ass coffer/dry-dam. I guess that would keep it closer to shore, which the Japanese wouldn't like much.
This article from Japan Times was writtent in 2004 anq quite
premonitory:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20040523x2.html
Sunday, May 23, 2004
Japan's deadly game of nuclear roulette
By LEUREN MORET
Special to The Japan Times
Of all the places in all the world where no one in their right mind would build scores of nuclear power plants, Japan would be pretty near the top of the list.
News photo
An aerial view of the Hamaoka plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, "the most dangerous nuclear power plant in Japan"
The Japanese archipelago is located on the so-called Pacific Rim of Fire, a large active volcanic and tectonic zone ringing North and South America, Asia and island arcs in Southeast Asia. The major earthquakes and active volcanoes occurring there are caused by the westward movement of the Pacific tectonic plate and other plates leading to subduction under Asia.
Japan sits on top of four tectonic plates, at the edge of the subduction zone, and is in one of the most tectonically active regions of the world. It was extreme pressures and temperatures, resulting from the violent plate movements beneath the seafloor, that created the beautiful islands and volcanoes of Japan.
Water purification plant in Tokyo has radioactive iodine twice the limit to feed babies.
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/03/radioactive-iodine-in-water-plant-in....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110323/ap_on_bi_ge/us_japan_quake_us_spent_fuel
Comforting to know that we (The USA) have tons of spent fuel rods waiting in cooling pools that continue to have less and less room because there is no place to put it, apparently.
Howdya like them mushroom clouds, bitchez?
Wow, just got some huge spikes here in Oregon. 375 CPM peak, and since that run-up in the last few hours, it has settled around 75 CPM.
This is a bit disconcerting. I know all the pro-nuke folks say "be happy, don't worry," but with these kind of numbers - I have to wonder if Pandora's box has been opened.
For those interested, I post hourly averaged counts per minute on Twitter at AlseaORGeiger.
I've always been non-committal pro or con on nukes, but with what has been happening now and with the level of lieing out of most all of our administrations I think that its time I go Anti-Nuke big time. Until we can come up with a worldwide plan on how to safely and securely dispose of the tons and tons of spent fuel there needs to be a freeze on all nuke plant building. IMO
for reference, what's the 'normal' background? I've read around the web that the PELs are around 15-40 CPM.
Thx for the update.
OK, it took me a while, but I have tracked down the problem with my hardware. Now that I've fixed the problem numbers are more reasonable. (less than 50CPM).
Sorry for the false alarm. My bad.
From wikipedia a generic overview of all that happened...... Reactor 4 building had a hydrogen gas build-up and explosion due to overheating of the Stored Fuel..... details in the below link with much other info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_I_nuclear_accidents#Reactor_unit_4
hye, meanwhile in more importante news, Mad Lib-ya might be about more than spreading democracy and squashing evil tyrant-trannies.....
http://cryptogon.com/?p=21383
we had to stop Daffy from becoming a tyrant-farmer....maybe he was positioning to surpass AfPak in the opium/dragon market?
Well, we certainly are lucky that the benign explosions that rocked the facility only disabled components that were completely extraneous to the safe operation of the nuclear plan, only the "fluff" got blown away - my, what good fortune!
Blah blah whatever.
It's all our trun now .. Costumes and lies immaterial as we must deal with the situation as it now presents. Hard times. Hard choices. Tragic as there is no institution of justice left to address these massive acts of collective sedition & outright treason since it is the state itself and those that operate outside of what was once nominally known as the law that are the perpetrators of these heinous acts. Again, finance, and those that serve it are at the core of this societal meltdown.
Good thing there is only uranium and not jet fuel heating up those reactors. Everyone knows jet fuel melts steel in 45 minutes or less.