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IAEA On Fukushima Plutonium
It appears the plutonium discovered earlier, which according to some Japanese reports was so safe it was borderline edible, may not be all that safe. Per the IAEA:
After taking soil samples at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Japanese authorities today confirmed finding traces of plutonium that most likely resulted from the nuclear accident there. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told the IAEA that the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) had found concentrations of plutonium in two of five soil samples.
Traces of plutonium are not uncommon in soil because they were deposited worldwide during the atmospheric nuclear testing era. However, the isotopic composition of the plutonium found at Fukushima Daiichi suggests the material came from the reactor site, according to TEPCO officials. Still, the quantity of plutonium found does not exceed background levels tracked by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology over the past 30 years.
Which update however must have come some hours ago, when the Plutonium was still concidered safe. The latest update from TEPCO, via Bloomberg, tells a slightly different story:
- AGENCY: PLUTONIUM SHOWS SERIOUSNESS OF CURRENT SITUATION
We only have one question: how can the situation be serious if the Plutonium is so safe Kan is preparing to eat it for breakfast with a side of three eyed tuna tomorrow on national TV.
Ironically refuting the IAEA optimism this time around is Japan itself:
But Japan's own nuclear safety agency was concerned at the plutonium samples, whose levels of radioactive decay ranged from 0.18 to 0.54 becquerels per kg.
"While it's not the level harmful to human health, I am not optimistic. This means the containment mechanism is being breached so I think the situation is worrisome," agency official Hidehiko Nishiyama was quoted as saying by Jiji news agency.
Workers at Fukushima are resigned to a struggle of weeks or months to re-start cooling systems vital to control the reactors and avert disaster. Their conditions are extremely dangerous, earning them sympathy and admiration round the world.
On Monday, highly contaminated water was found in concrete tunnels extending beyond one reactor, while at the weekend radiation hit 100,000 times over normal in water inside another.
That poses a major dilemma for TEPCO which wants to douse the reactors to cool them, but not worsen the radiation spread.
Fires, blasts, smoke and steam have posed other hazards.
Japan says a partial meltdown of fuel rods inside reactor No. 2 has contributed to the radiation levels.
The crisis, the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986, has contaminated vegetables and milk from the area, as well as the surrounding sea. U.S. experts said groundwater, reservoirs and the sea all faced "significant contamination."
With towns on the northeast coast reduced to apocalyptic landscapes of mud and debris, more than a quarter of a million people are homeless. The event may be the world's costliest natural disaster, with estimates of damage topping $300 billion.
The environmental group Greenpeace said its experts had confirmed dangerous radiation of up to 10 microsieverts per hour in Iitate village, 40 km (25 miles) northwest of the plant.
It called for the extension of a 20-km (12-mile) evacuation zone. "It is clearly not safe for people to remain in Iitate, especially children and pregnant women," Greenpeace said, urging Japan to "stop choosing politics over science".
In most countries the maximum permissible annual dose for radiation workers is 50 millisieverts, or 50,000 microsieverts, according to the World Nuclear Association Industry body.
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from a 20-km (12 mile) radius around the plant. Those within a further 10-km radius have been told by the government to stay indoors or, better still, leave too.
Beyond the evacuation zone, traces of radiation have been found in tap water in Tokyo and as far away as Iceland.
Japanese officials and international experts have generally said the levels away from the plant were not dangerous for human beings, who in any case face higher radiation doses on a daily basis from natural sources, X-rays or flying.
In downtown Tokyo, a Reuters reading on Tuesday showed 0.20-0.22 microsieverts per hour, within the global average of natural ambient radiation of 0.17-0.39 microsieverts per hour given by the World Nuclear Association.
And while we are enjoying the Plut-On, Plut-Off show, here is Kyodo with the latest update on US radioactivity.
Trace amounts of radioactive material believed to have come from Japan's quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been detected in the atmosphere in South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida, Reuters news service reported Monday, citing officials.
There is no current threat to public safety, the report said, quoting Drew Elliot, a spokesman for the power generation and distribution company Progress Energy Inc., which operates some of the power plants in the southern states.
Monitors at several nuclear plants in the three states picked up low levels of radioactive iodine-131, the report said.
''If there were radiation coming from one of our own sites, we would be seeing other types of radiation than iodine-131,'' Elliot was quoted as saying.
In the United States, radioactive materials believed to have come from the Fukushima nuclear plant have also been detected in several other states, including Hawaii, California, Nevada and Massachusetts.
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wake me up with when reactor #3 hits water and blows sky high
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCbfMkh940Q
...and while we're at it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsx2vdn7gpY
Get it on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a45dXztokZM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElFL4CrDMIY
Well after reading all this tonight, my parting thought is to look into buying a small abandoned mine, with horizontal mineshaft, in the CA foothills, maybe around 1000 > MSL.
View to the west, so we can see the end coming.
"" I think the one thing everyone agrees on is that it is spiraling out of control, and TEPCO does not seem like they're capable of preventing a total meltdown, at this point.""
Makes sense. IF there was a quick fix, we would have seen it. If there was a good plan to be workable we would have heard about it. I dont think anyone has an answer, yet. Maybe there is too much being made of it. But, we dont know where this thing is going or going to end up. For those who are there, it seems criminal that they appear to be under/mis/informed. There is no question that we hope and pray for Japan. However, in the event that this takes on dark aspects, then we have a right to know. America has the right to know and the US Government has the obligation to inform us. I suggest that if all is swell, then at least Biden or Obama could take time off to give some real factual information.
This really is a lack of leadership that questions the ability to lead.
You have no right to know. And the government has already addressed your need to know: They've told us that most things are around normal here in the U.S., and are expected to stay that way. Why do you think the government is obligated to tell you more than that?
r.e. onlooker, there you have it. The US gubmint has already performed above expectations in the release of information, suggesting that your expectations are unrealistic. Seriously dude, if you think the US gubmint is gonna tell you the truth in a situation where Uncle Sam still has cum stains on his balls, you are deluded.
Because Richard, in theory, as a citizen I am the government. The real question should be; Why does the government feel it is obligated to keep secrets from me? Outside of certain military situations, aren't I entitled to know the truth. I know it doesn't work this way, hence all the corruption.
You're being sarcastic here, right?
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/03/29/general-as-japan-earthquake_83...
Associated Press Toxic plutonium seeping from Japan's nuclear plantBy YURI KAGEYAMA and MARI YAMAGUCHI , 03.29.11, 12:38 AM EDT
TOKYO -- Highly toxic plutonium is seeping from the damaged nuclear power plant in Japan's tsunami disaster zone into the soil outside, officials said Tuesday, further complicating the delicate operation to stabilize the overheated facility....
...
Breaking:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12889541
It is incomprehensible that there isn't more outrage over the all-around bullshit attempts tp spin Fuk-u-shima into anything but the complete disaster that history will reveal it to be.
The only trouble with history is it takes so damned long to cough up the truth.
Here's a datapoint from the Alfred E. Neuman "What? Me worry?" fle...I've heard through my grapevine that NASA has decided to move all spacecraft in process at the various NASA centers around the country into clean room environments (limited entry, bunny suites, air showers, sticky mats, laminar flow, filtered air, static and humidity control) to imit contamination from "minute" ammounts of airborne Fuk-u-shima fallout.
What problem? There isn't any problem. Pay no attention to Godzilla , Mothra, et al.
5 Reasons to Use Hallucinogens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv-EGWiRcSE
Before Fukushima, I was struggling with plutonium deficiency. But now that safe / background levels have been defined by TEPCO and the Japanese Government, it's much easier to manage my portions and stay within the normal range.
@ anti Trav / pro Trav crowd - I think you dudes are lost in the weeds. Fukushima is an ugly, awful outlier. It's not the main show. In and of itself it's just another pressure on an already unstable country in an unstable world. Those living through it will know the brunt and loss.
For the rest of us, it's just another fubar event. Throttle back. Bigger question is if Japan can survive this? If yes, how? Print? Print more?? Become net importer of rice? Food?? Forced to import more energy in a WWII kickoff redux? Will the dominoes start to tumble? Will the cohesive Japanese become the aggressive Japanese once again? Toward who? Over radiation free land, food, and energy? Who's the weakling in the neighborhood? Who will nobody care if Japan starts brawling? N. Korea? Seems unlikely (so probably true).
Seems you gentlemen are more interesting in parsing your differences than finding the big fat commonalities? Is this transferrance from our enemy out of our reach?
Dunno but sucks to see how before we ever even get started fighting our TBTF overlords we instead self destruct, ripping ourselves apart at the seams and collapsing.
If this was really about something - we would truly be forming "fight" clubs in every city. Portland, Sacramento, Philadelphia, Tuscon, Boston, Dallas...Clubs would be focused on a simple manifesto. Educate. Educate the people. Once they know the truth, it will set them free. Shock. Awe. Educate. A purpose to all this fucking knowledge. A commonality among those who care. Turn Americas colleges and high schools into radical free thinking zones.
Just think of it...An organization to be junked and avoided by those who wish to hide and pretend they can avoid and profit from the collapse by caressing sweet PM's. An organization that is so simple it doesn't care what happens just so long as it consciously happens.
Stupid fucking dream.
Does that mean I could beat bob and cliff's asses instead of having to argue with them?
I'm not sold that you can lead people to the truth...most people hate the truth.
Seems much of this shit would be better handled in your local fight club over beers or stronger spirits. If it makes you feel better, please beat the shit out of one another.
More importantly, imagine if you will young, open minds being educated in America. Ability to understand basic math. Compounding. Context to our problems. Young open minds can handle the truth. It's the rare old fart who can find his way around his own needs and normalcy biases to learn a new trick. Just make it personal for the young and they'll become very interested. Definitely needs to come in the right style...but if they realize how fucked the politicians plan to make them and how they can end the current game and force the reboot...fuck me.
Still don't know zactly how to get here to there but at least it's a proactive, positive dream. No more fucking gloom and no action doom.
If you three were in a room it should be televised on jerry springer.
Again, no one is making you argue and you don't 'have' to. Unless you are bound by some obligations the rest of us posters are unaware of.
No, they and I hate YOU, personally. It is hard to accept something, even the truth, from someone you hate. Like Hitler telling you smoking is bad for you. Most people who heard something like that would smoke MORE, not less.
You can guide someone to the truth, but you can't beat it into them with a lead brick.
I like trav. I like you too. In the market place of ideas, it takes all kinds. I do wish it was not this hostile. I have already had my words with him on that a long time ago. Meanwhile, in diversity is strength. I would never ask either one of you to leave.
I do wish trav was not so racist. I sent a black friend to this blog and was not happy with the result. My black friend is down with silver and looking into the sovereign man movement. There is more for him to see and know but he won't get it here most likely.
I don't agree with you about peak oil, it shocks me you are as smart as you are and are not at least OPEN to the idea. I am sure I don't thrill you either. It is about what we have in common we have to focus on.
trav can be reasonable and actually a gentleman. I do not feel a "shill" or "psyops" guy under his posts. He does have a big ego. So do you. So do I. Mines probably a lot bigger than yours. I have this compulsion to write crap like this, see, so I know the truth of it.
Probably a waste of finger motion typing this, this late in the thread.
Something worth striving for even if the chance for success is vanishinly small.
Not a dream. I am done with Trav's stupid LD50 distractions. This is exactly my point, and what I have wanted to talk about since the beginning. The ECONOMIC impact.
A fight club would be nice, but I would prefer a build club, or something like that. Self destruction is foolish. Self improvement is NOT masturbation.
@Tyler Durden,
Where's the link to the Bloomberg article?
P.S. Why do you like using negative numbers in the CAPTCHA questions?
Just go to bloomberg.com.....they run single articles all day and usually get their material here.
P.S. To keep idiots out like you......who helped you with the answer?
What?! I was asking to make it easier for idiots like you cause you probably went to an American public school.
Pro Tip: They make a device called a calculator if you are having trouble. I bet your computer might even have a calculator program. Math Iz hard!
These ideas come to me, and who can I tell?
It is when the alternative to my plan is seen
to be the interminable release of Plutonium
into our world, that anyone will listen.
Plutonium would become, for all human time
frames, a permanent fact. I imagine there will
be others more qualified than myself to
explain what this would mean, and I think they
will.
A nuclear bomb of a correct magnitude, and
positioned correctly above the ruins of the
power plant, would vaporize all its fuel rods,
and all other radioactive materials.
The temperature of an atomic bomb is like the
temperature of the Sun. There would be a
certain amount of radiation from the bomb
itself, but not as much as what it destroyed.
The winds would disperse this over the
Pacific, and the crisis would finally be over.
Who can I tell? Who will listen to these ideas
that come to me?
Well, I'm no scientist, I'm probably wrong.
I'm just making this up, you know.
The temperature of the fireball from a weapon is much greater than the surface of the sun -- but it still cannot simply destroy the uranium and plutonium atoms in the fuel rods.
A nuclear explosion at a power plant would reduce much of the plant's radioactive fuel to vapor and small particles -- and would hurl those small particles into the high atmosphere.
Those particles and atoms would then rain down onto a large area -- it's hard to say how large.
The amount of radiation released in this way would be far worse than that from a nuclear weapon by itself. It would also be far worse -- probably -- than what is likely to happen at Fukushima no matter how badly the situation deteriorates.
This would be a kind of nuclear hyper-dirty-bomb that would, all by itself, release more radioactivity than a substantial nuclear war.
They know nothing IAEA. I bought a table off them and the leg wobbled.
Herman Strand-Schnecke
The plutonium spring to adjust the table level must have fallen off.
There seems to be not enough free storage tank capacity in Fukushima plant to remove radioactive water from trenches outside the plant. The need to build new water storage places immedeately, as cooling continues to add polluted water:
http://www.saposjoint.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=2657&p=31454#p31454
Great Interview of Jim Willie on this Japanese Crisis and the impacts it will have on gold and especially silver: http://www.contraryinvestorscafe.com/jim-willie-radio/
What people need to consider carefully is if a developed western Government is prepared to lie to it's population about something as serious as radiation - what are the chances they are going to open up and admit that the financial system is fucked?.....again.
In a plutonium weapon, what fraction of the plutonium does not undergo fission? Is it large enough to pollute the atoll with Pu? Or was that from a failed weapon?
sorry Aristarchan -- this was meant to be a question for you...
A new 6.3 about 120km due east of the power plant....about forty minutes ago. Rattled their teeth I'm sure.
I wonder if they can tell the Pu isotopes from Nagasaki fallout from the ones that would be leaking from the spent rods and/or MOX.
From Asahi Shinbun update (in Japanese, new information only; 7:26PM JST 2/28/2011):
The press conference was held past midnight on March 28.
well, since the last J reactor thread is now on page 2 this AM I guess the crisis is really over.
Assuming it's not, could Jim, Ari and other knowledgeable address the blown up building to the west of the reactors? I'm afraid I dont' have a pic, but someone posted it a few days ago. The building is west of the berms and (guessing here) several hundred meters from there. It is a large building that appeared to have the same kind of blown to hell appearance of the reactor buildings. Approx. three stories tall.
Since the diagram of the locations of the PU in the grown are directly east of this building, could there have been some kind of research facility that went boom and could that have been the source of the PU?
If I find a pic, I'll post it. Thanks
The building ith internal blast damage is at the top (west) of first frame and right side of second frame. Building with external blast damage, probably from Unit 1 explosion, is between Unit 1 and damaged outbuilding.
http://www.digitalglobe.com/downloads/featured_images/japan_earthquakets...
http://www.digitalglobe.com/downloads/featured_images/japan_earthquakets...