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On The Ground Reports From Japan

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/27/2011 14:00 -0400

Following much ongoing confusion about a fact-based reality in Japan, leading many to express somewhat extremist opinions due to persistent scarcity of facts, here are three much needed clips showing the sentiment on the ground in Tokyo courtesy of the mostly impartial BBC News.

The operators of a stricken Japanese nuclear plant have apologised
for a "mistake" in reporting a radiation spike 10 million times above
normal. Tokyo Electric Power Company, which has previously been
criticised by officials for its handling of the crisis at the plant,
said it got the readings wrong. Despite the mistake, the radiation spike at reactor 2 was still very high and enough to evacuate workers.

Anti-nuclear protesters have held a large rally in Tokyo, calling for
change in Japan's nuclear industry. Meanwhile, efforts are continuing to
locate the exact source of a radioactive water leak at the stricken
Fukushima nuclear plant.

and:

Two weeks after an earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, the country's
prime minister, Naoto Kan, has said the situation at the Fukushima
nuclear plant remains ''grave and serious''. Fukushima's operators have
said water at one reactor was 10,000 times more radioactive than normal,
raising fears that its core is damaged. Anti-nuclear protests have been
taking place in Tokyo as an investigation is under way to establish the
source of the radiation leak.

And the latest video from a helicopter overflight:

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Sun, 03/27/2011 - 17:22 | 1106567 DNB-sore

the yellow dome is not part of the containment vessel, it is there to protect the vessel and tubing from dangers above and normally there is also a concrete structure above it and that's gone. But it does not matter, The shit that is coming out of this reactor is probably getting out through another way or the feed to the turbine space

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 17:24 | 1106572 Guarded Pessimist

For those wondering about worst case senario.

http://bigthink.com/ideas/31746

Now what I am thinking is that if the Russians could aviod an all out nuclear explosion ( the secendary explosion they were very worried about) then I should think 25 years later Japan should be able to prevent one. Right?

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 17:38 | 1106607 Herman Strandsc...

Well I love the ideas lent in the bigthink commentary. "I don't want any credit but filling those buildings with Popping Corn will at least show what we're dealing with"

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 18:17 | 1106740 snowball777

I seem to have misplaced my jiffy pop kernel to millisievert conversion table.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 18:13 | 1106728 flattrader

Kaku has been on ABC several times and Friday morning he was very clear that he thinks TEPCO should step aside and let an international consortium of nuclear experts and the Japanese military deal with this.

You can tell from his interviews that he knows just how bad this is and what can/will happen. He does not spew happy talk and has to stop himself from saying what he thinks.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 17:38 | 1106606 Bicycle Repairman

"mostly impartial BBC News"

ROTFLMAO!! Yes, compared to Faux News.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 17:43 | 1106622 whoopsing

Also like to point to a few other observation's,one,this video has been cropped,edited-why? Also when you look close at the #2 building it has protruding damage-from something inside,it also appear's twisted as if the top of the building was rotated(could be the camera angle though).This was for a damage survey(obviously) but it's targeted at specific thing's home office wanted to look at and some thing's in the original home office did not want us to see. IDK it's not the flowing scene from one building to another as in earlier vid's.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 17:44 | 1106635 foghorn longhorn

Any crazy thoughts running around our heads, such as, Japan is a technically superior country and this will be handled post haste and professionally, should be flushed down the drain.

I have been appalled at what i have seen the last two weeks. First, they trot out engineerrs with fucking crayons and Big Chief tablets to explain the reactors.

You fuckers ain't heard of Power point?

Then, where are all the fucking cameras? When I was a kid at Universal Studios a deer came out of the woods and I thought the flashbulbs would blind the damn thing. So they issue every tourist three cameras and the nuke parks, none?

An aside, YEEHAW, new calf on the ground.

This whole incompetence thing is totally unexpected and somewhat confusing.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 17:52 | 1106655 Herman Strandsc...

'Funny about the cameras. Congratulations on the new born calf. I hope it ain't a male as you have enough bullshit to put up with nowadays.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 18:07 | 1106709 foghorn longhorn

Thanks Herman.

It looks nice and healthy, haven't got to see the business end yet.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 18:04 | 1106702 whoopsing

Hey good new's about the calf Foghorn! You also bring up some good question's about camera's and incompetance.These guy's don't seem to be cutting it and time is of the essence.They bought some time with the seawater hail-mary,yet for what? This was the chance to get everybody out of harm's way,they missed it.The Japanese are gonna get spooged.They are not going to contain this thing anytime soon, no fucking way.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 18:28 | 1106763 foghorn longhorn

Thanks whoopsing

If the pictures were good news, they would on a 24/7 loop on every news station, in the WORLD.

Draw your own inferences.

At some point doesn't gross incompetence become the plan?

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 17:56 | 1106675 Guarded Pessimist

Has this been posted here yet?

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/80539.html

Can anyone comment on this?

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 18:11 | 1106726 whoopsing

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/japan-nuclear-agency-radiation-level-fukushima-reactor-no-2-its-highest-level-recorded-so-fa

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 19:13 | 1106867 Guarded Pessimist

Thanks. Apparently no big deal as it has had little news coverage.

Nothing to be alarmed about.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 18:36 | 1106788 FranSix

Here's a good scrib document from Areva on their reasoning behind Fukushima, which goes a long way to explaining the disaster from the point of view of at least one reactor, but not all.

Article is in French, which you could use google translate, but the scribd document embedded is in english:

http://sciencepourvousetmoi.blogs.nouvelobs.com/archive/2011/03/27/fukus...

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 18:56 | 1106835 JackES

all of sudden many so called nuke 'experts' came out of their caves.

ouuch.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 19:01 | 1106844 Colonel Sun

Phantasy nuclear physics and engineering is phun.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 19:24 | 1106889 foghorn longhorn

No, the 'experts' were claiming 10 million X radiation levels and then coming back and saying, "No, No, not 10 million, 100 thousand."

What the fuck chuck, why not just keep your fucking piehole shut?

If you can't read a fucking meter, don't say ANYTHING.

Don't know what your views are and don't really give a shit, but when the 'experts' are so fucking wrong, what is one to think?

A little water and a little power and this puppy is back up and running.

Look a golden unicorn just came out of my ass. I'm rich.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 19:04 | 1106849 Roger Knights

Bloomberg:

Tepco Chief Shimizu Pressured to Quit After Costing Investors $26 Billion

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 20:10 | 1106982 whoopsing

The only pressure need to apply is a push on his upper shoulder's as he fall's on a samuri sword.Though after reading the artical one get's a sense of other thing's going through this guy's head-mainly how does this affect the bottom line.Tepco just barely managed to squeak out a win (against disaster) in '79 and'07,but it was a costly win for the company.Ironically,it was Shimizu who replaced the other chief in '07 due to his tenure being too 'costly'. This fact was not lost on Shimizu-he learned his corporate lesson's well and dammit he's not spending one extra dime of the shareholder's money then what need's to be spent! yes,send the Japanese equivalent of America's Mexican's with plastic bag's on their feet to clean the shit up. OOP'S

Anyway,Thank's Roger Knight's

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 19:07 | 1106854 surfsup

http://library.lanl.gov/cgi-bin/getfile?23-01.pdf

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 19:07 | 1106859 Lapri

In the reality-based world one day later, SDF releases vid of steam rising from Reactor 3 where the Containment Vessel is located.

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/03/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-reactor-3-stea...

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 20:15 | 1106994 Selah

Steam is good news!

That means there is still water.

Smoke would be better news, since that would mean that it's not radioactive steam from a decreasing pool of water.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 19:45 | 1106938 Silversinner

Just wondering how much people will

eat radioactive fish.Whole planet in

danger,waiting for the next disaster.

Think I should start eating my incredible

supply of non radioactive fish to begin

with.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 20:09 | 1106983 Tsunami Effect

At 3:05 many have pointed out the ring/containment structure.

Look closely at the video time on the camera. It jumps forward from 12:11 to 13:21.

There is over a FULL minute of raw footage edited out just when the helicopter pilot is focusing in on this structure!

Maybe there's nothing else to see in that min. But give us the raw footage tepco. This is just more and more bizarre.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 20:17 | 1106997 whoopsing

Nice find Tsunami-it was staring me in the face the whole time,yup something they don't want us to see,but how much worse can it possibly be?

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 20:46 | 1107062 foghorn longhorn

If you look even closer there is over a minute edited out the first 1:28 min of footage.

Not sure if matters, maybe just swinging the camera around or whatever, but it is there.

-13 @ :38

-14 @ :56

-21 @ 1:02

-49 @ 1:28

How 'bout that Dancing with the Stars?

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 21:00 | 1107091 whoopsing

Yup,I'd like to see that footage,TY Foggy!

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 21:44 | 1107181 Tsunami Effect

There is no legitimate reason to edit raw footage of an accident scene this important.

None.

Earth to Tepco? Your crying administrators have a lot to be shameful for.

It's time to start, I repeat, start giving the public actual data, recordings and information real-time and UNCENSORED!

Haven't had the time, but I will bet you every video since the start of this has the same kind of "soft" editing.

Where the hell is the media on this censored, redacted and edited footage? I mean 15 damn min. for me to figgure this shit out! A couple of guys on a blog site to see inside the footage and conclude something is seriously wrong with reactor #3 in videos like this?

It's time to start hammering away at two parties. TEPCO and Japanese Govt. It's time to give the media unedited, real-time access to data and information. Raw footage will get out eventually. Do it now. Period.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 21:22 | 1107139 Youri Carma

Good find. I've been suspecting them all along cutting out important Unit-3 footage especially what's directly next to Unit-3 on the secondary building roof . If my hypotheses is right there somtin important to see there.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 20:19 | 1107000 Youri Carma

Today, workers reported a huge spike in radiation levels in water inside Unit 2, which has been reported variously at 10 million times normal and/or 100 rems/hour. And 100 rems/hour would be consistent with the levels encountered by the injured workers. http://nirs.org/reactorwatch/accidents/Fukushimafactsheet.pdf

“… airborne radiation in No.2 measured 1,000 millisieverts per hour, four times the limit deemed safe.” http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=203916.msg1222546#msg1222546

“… four times the limit deemed safe.” ???

So in 15 minutes you recieve 250 mSV allowed for a Year!

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 20:38 | 1107046 malikai

NIRS and Prison planet.

That's all I needed to see, but I went ahead and read further just to give the benefit of the doubt.

I don't recall Alex Jones being so anti-nuclear in the years past. Maybe I've missed something.

As for NIRS, what a joke. You can't honestly expect to get unbiased data from them, can you? That's about the same as asking the IPCC to write laws. Oh, nevermind.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 20:33 | 1107031 PulauHantu29

"Radiation in Mass. rainwater likely from Japan"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110327/ap_on_re_us/us_japan_us_radiation;_y...

Yes, but "it;s only a tiny leak" the officials had said.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 21:06 | 1107108 Fearless Rick

MOTHERFUCKERS - every last one of them - the .govs, the media, corporations, banks. Fuck them all.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 21:34 | 1107163 whoopsing

looking at this footage all day and taking note's,and going back and watching the explosion of #1 and #3 on youtube,there is some striking difference's between 1 and 3,how can this be with the same exact reactor's,such different looking explosion's,such different result's.Only difference is the fuel,did we witness a nuclear explosion in #3? Did that MOX go critical? I'm not talking steam or hydrogen.Somebody,please correct me

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 23:02 | 1107369 foghorn longhorn

On the farm, #1 explosion about like getting kicked by a yearling bull. Ouch!

#3 explosion about like getting run over and gored by a 2000 pound bull. Call the fucking Medic!

Steam, smoke, some genius come on here and tell me any of the shit wafting from that plant is NOT radioactive.

We can quibble about the degree of radiation and type of fuel, but that shit is radioactive.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 21:39 | 1107175 Kina

Frankly the actions, management and advisories out of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant have been so confusing, incomplete and odd that you can only believe that 1. they are totally incompetent or 2. desperately covering up.

There seems to have been no disaster monitoring and management plan established from the begining and it seems they are still making it up as they are going along (ie testing soild for plutonium now? after seeing those 'hydrogen' explosions?)

It is never even clear what they are actually doing, or what their longer term plan is.

Trying to reestablish the cooling systems of the reactors, fine, give it ago, but those explosions and the massive shock waves sent into the structure probably damaged a lot of stuff, but the contingency if that is not possible. And what if successful, whats the plan then.

You would think there is almost no plan at all with regard to the reactors, environmental monitoring, risk management for the population and so forth.

BUT I cannot believe this level of incompetence exists among professionals who would have instant access to experts all around the world if needed. The level of crap we are seeing is deliberate confusion mongering.

I wonder if these guys are all playing for time in order to help their mates get out of the market via trillions of Govt yen being pumped in.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 21:50 | 1107196 Rusty Shorts

Meanwhile, this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DocdrgnrDns&NR=1

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 22:40 | 1107313 Plumplechook

The footage from today's recognizance flyover clearly shows steam still rising from reactor buildings 1 thru 4 - in some cases a lot of it.

My question is, does this steam contain radioactive material - and if so how dangerous is it? No one seems to be talking about this anymore.

This time last week it was considered a big deal when one or other of the reactors periodically started belching steam and/or smoke. But now that the reactors are apparently constantly spewing stuff into the atmosphere no one in the MSM or blogoshpere seems to consider it worth mentioning. I'm confused.

Sun, 03/27/2011 - 23:17 | 1107413 10kby2k