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Latest Digitalglobe Satellite Photos Of Fukushima Show Extensive Damage To Reactors 2 And 4
Satellite imaging company Digitalglobe has just released its latest flyover image of reactors 1 through 4. Sadly, each one appears to have suffered extensive damage.
Wider angle:
Source: Digitalglobe
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I understand that is less than good when you can see the containment vessel thru the wall.
A statement even the doom-mockers would have difficulty making light of.
You crazy. What ZH forgot to address in this picture is right above it, Ben is flying a helicopter and literally dropping bags of US dollars to try and put the fires out. Ben for Prez.
www.silvergoldsilver.blogspot.com
Bwahahahaha!!!
I don't care who you are, thats funny!!!
Speaking as an engineer, I hate it when a design fails ... this is breaking some guys heart right now to see the walls literally 'blown out' out of these reactors ... it's like watching one's kids 'go wrong' ...
Ha ha ... pussy junkers (plural now); posting from mom's basement again this morning are we? Or the library? Should have made a comment and 'locked' my ability to extend and amend, pussies.
It's easy to tell none of you sorry SOB's has ever had to sign-off on a project (literally: a major engineering project e.g. a building, a plant, comm infrastructure, etc) that impacted the public in some way; it can weigh on one's mind and is something that some of us out there in the REAL WORLD (vs cyber space) take seriously.
Of course, you arm-chair, mouse-pad mercenaries will never understand this, never comprehend this ... living off of a relative or family member, or out-right govt welfare as you do ...
Let's take a moment to educate your 'young mind' on the subject of "projects":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management
"Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. It is sometimes conflated with program management, however technically that is actually a higher level construction: a group of related and somehow interdependent engineering projects."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_planning
"Project planning is part of project management, which relates to the use of schedules such as Gantt charts to plan and subsequently report progress within the project environment.
Initially, the project scope is defined and the appropriate methods for completing the project are determined. Following this step, the durations for the various tasks necessary to complete the work are listed and grouped into a work breakdown structure. The logical dependencies between tasks are defined using an activity network diagram that enables identification of the critical path ..."
Doubleplusungood.
I'm sure the usual idiots will be here backpedalling shortly. "I NEVER said there wasn't anything to worry about"
Jump! You Fuckers!
I agree and thank you for saying that.
One must aways be wary of self proclaimed "experts". I am always careful when posting pictures and commentary to disclaim expertise and will always label my speculation as speculation and I will admit when I am speaking totally out of my ass. This is how credibility is built, not by shouting at others for being ignorant or stupid, but by carefully wording what you think you know and don't know and where you are downright shaky.
When people are treated with respect and dignity it's amazing how much trust they will offer. But in a world of official abuse and propaganda, many minds are beginning to wake up to the control dynamic that is becoming more and more obvious, even here on ZH.
Denninger is worried, should I be worried now?
I was joking with Banzai7 very early this morning about precisely when to panic if one wishes to be out in front of the (panicked) herd. I told Banzai7 I carried my own personal panic button to be used at a moments notice and I was waiting on him for "the word".
Then the Japanese Emperor was trotted out in front of the camera's to speak words of reassurance. Banzai7 sent me a simple joke email message.
Now is the time to panic. :>).
How about: Make informed, knowledgeable decisions (rather than outright panic).
I know, you're being light-hearted about this (gallows humor* and all that).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallows_humor
* ... a type of humor that arises from stressful, traumatic, or life-threatening situations; often in circumstances such that death is perceived as impending and unavoidable. It is similar to black comedy but differs in that it is made by the person affected.
Nice button by the way ... mind if I borrow it (for off-site use)?
Jump! You Fuckers!
- - - - - - - - - - -
One of my favorites:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TYezSrzUUs
"Hey Mr. Banker -
You can't take much
of what you've been dishing out,
It's your turn to get downsized,
what? you going to do now?
Open up the window and checkout the view
Jump! you fu- - - "
++good you can see the core thru the walls....saves sending someone in to look for themselves
if the containment vessel is still there, it certainly has neither escaped nor melted down.
hows that for doom mocking?
ummm... I'm assuming thats all sarcasm, otherwise I think the radioactive fallout melted your brain already.
i only do sarcasm, but thanks for asking
I love sarcasm, but irony is even more satisfying. I was able to hone my gallows humor to a dull edge thru one and 1/4 wars. Wonderful comedy environment.
ou guys should read this... and pay close attention to the diagrams.
http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/13/fukushima-simple-explanation/
The damage you see is in the secondary containment area... which has metal walls. The primary containment area is below and has think concrete walls - and does not appear damaged in the photos.
"Omen" Oehmen's article has been completely discredited:
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/remember-mit-all-safe-paper
And thus, now, so have you.
There was actually ZERO attempt at discrediting anything in the article. Once again, Tyler just calling people names because he felt like it, and you take it as Gospel. Fuck you, doomer! Go bury some silver in your back yard.
Being so calm all the time getting to ya MM.
I keep telling you, it's not over yet.
The spent fuel rods in the roof have merely been sprinkled around Japan. Don't worry, this is actually a safe way of disposing of old nuke fuel.
Sure garden hoses are not the normal way of cooling nukes, but in a pinch it works just as well. The radiation is decreasing every day as the reactions die down anyways.
++good you can see the core thru the walls....saves sending someone in to look for themselves
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Cough - cough ... that one was a true LOL moment!!
Only recovering just now ...
Good one.
Japan has raised the maximum radiation dose allowed for nuclear workers, to 250 millisieverts from 100 millisieverts. It described the move as "unavoidable due to the circumstances
The official speak is "not so good". But don't worry, they have a magic shield deployed at a 30km radius.... no worries outside 30km... nothing to see here, move along and BTFD...
....
No4 looks much worse on here than in your earlier pic looking across No3 to the 'good' side of 4.
I wouldn't worry about this. It's just a couple of tiles which fell from the rooftop, and some water steam from the cooling system.
You're right. It's just a flesh wound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4
Exactly! Just get a new desk and carry on...
"All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk."
--Ronald Reagan (Republican candidate for president), cited in the Burlington (Vermont) Free Press, February 15, 1980. (In reality, the average nuclear reactor generates 30 tons of radioactive waste per year.)
http://thereaganyears.tripod.com/reaganquotes.htm
Meh, the Dow is already bouncing off its lows. Priced in last night when the Nikkei melted up.
The Pigmen will always bend the rules and screw the little guy.
Learn it, love it, trade it.
DOW +3% today.
Where did Harry Wanger go? I guess Prof. K wrote some thesis and now his work is done?
Two words: autoerotic asphyxiation.
Slightly less embarrassing than his posts.
i call rule 34
autoerotic radiation
You really think he swung a Hung Fu? A Michael Hutchense?
@tmosley
LOL. He was found with his belt around his neck and tied to the bedpost of a display at a Detroit area home furnishings store.
Look over at MW. Someone over there with a similar moniker shows up to quell the nuclear hysterics and pump AAPL.
Based upon Harry's writing style, word usage etc I say s/he has taken on a new persona/ID here at ZH. I won't name names simply because it would be pure speculation on my part, but many have made the same observation. Harry had lost all credibility under the "Harry" moniker.
So the game now is not where's Waldo but where's Harry?
Hamy is just a dumbass version of Harry.. which is like saying Bernanke is dumber than a melon..
Learn it, love it, trade it my ass. More like burn it, hate it, monetize it.
NO need to worry! Another $400 Trillion pumped into the markets will take care of everything! I mean shit, the Nikkei closed up 5%! Everything is just FFING GREAT!
no matter what the R2K must go higher...this is the word of ben bernanke
Geez, come on:
Fukushima No. 3 reactor's container feared damaged: EdanoFollowed by (no really)
URGENT: Severe damage to No. 3 reactor's containment vessel unlikely: EdanoTOKYO, March 17, Kyodo
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano suggested Wednesday it is unlikely that the containment vessel of the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has been damaged severely.
''The possibility of the No. 3 reactor having suffered severe damage to its containment vessel is low,'' the government's nuclear disaster headquarters reported.
The top government spokesman pointed out earlier in the day that the containment vessel may have been damaged, noting that steam was spewing out of part of the critical structure.
==Kyodo
I notice NHK has some nice architectural models now of the power plant complete with bent structural steel and even that mottled paint job.
3 is just gone. At this point I do not believe a word coming out of the Japanese government or TEPCO.
Not good, comrades!
pizzzdetz!
shit, more like: Naaahhooi
FYI - The Russians just parachuted in two of their best from '86
<google translated link provided>
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout...
This is beyond "not good". The potential for worldwide contamination grows every hour. If they cannot keep these things covered with water, they will eventually blow up. That means the worlds largest dirty bomb will provide us with radioactive compounds for the forseeable future.
Got lead?
Got KI?
Chernobyl they dumped sand 1st, it melted, turned to glass; and then they put the lead on, which blew the lead all over the place too!
This just keeps getting better and better!
WTF?
I would like to know who the geniuses were that decided that storing spent fuel rods in the reactor containment building was a good idea. I hear that some of the original GE engineers quit 30 years ago over the design of this plant.
The spent fuel rod pools hold up to 8 times more rods than the reactor core.
If the water boils away and exposes them all to the air and they melt down, what is going on in the reactor vessel itself will be the least of our problems.
Isn't that special?
And they don't just store the spent rods in the same building, they store them in a pool above the reactor. At least they do at #4. Check out the drawing in this article: http://www.npr.org/2011/03/15/134552475/radiation-fears-rise-at-japanese-power-plant?ft=1&f=1001
Based on the before/after photos, is there much reason to suspect that spent nuclear fuel rods aren't scattered across the country side and sea?
One Russian nuclear expert, who was brought in after Chernobyl went tits up, to help get a remediation plan together, called the Japanese Company running Daiichi incredibly greedy for stacking so much fuel in so small a space as they did.
Chernobyl clean-up expert slams Japan, IAEAThat's why the Chinook helicopter with the water bucket slung under it shown on TV this morning was about.....refilling the swimming pool they keep the spent rods in.
BTW, Exact same potential problem at EVERY nuke plant in the US....they store the spent rods onsite in a pool of open water, with a simple metal building over it. They have to constantly keep cool water running over them, or it will evaporate off, and the rods will melt down with almost as much problem as the "hot" fuel in the reactor. Got to be most stupid excuse for a "plan" going, but since nobody want's the stuff buried in their backyard, that's it.
Except the chinook gave up, because the radiation levels above the reactor were too high.
Got that? Radiation too high, to even hover for a few seconds and pull the bucket-dump cord.
I don't think we're in 'steam' anymore, Toto.
Yeah, the Russians dumped sand from helicopters at Chernoble, and I heard most of the crews later died of radiation poisoning.
of just workers, I'd put it at 250,00 dead in 15-20 years, that being half
"BTW, Exact same potential problem at EVERY nuke plant in the US....they store the spent rods onsite in a pool of open water, with a simple metal building over it."
Are you sure about that? Please cite your source for this information.
If the source is credible, when I go into work tonight I'll advise them to chisel away the heavily reinforced concrete fuel building and replace it with a BWR designed secondary containment building.
The only one I'm familiar with is Vermont Yankee. Unless you've got a really explanation for why they put a cheapass steel prefab around their reinforced concrete building, I'm sticking with my previous belief that all that building is good for is keeping the rain off.
thought that was common knowledge; i remember years ago when they proposed to dump out in NV, but it never went through, so we have the existing policy of storing most waste on site here in the usa
Now, I don't what this means, from a precise technical standpoint, but the shit sounds bad
Also, Trav has asked me how much (or if?) Mox fuel is on site there, and I do believe I read that it is indeed on site there, so if someone wants to lend me a citation or link for Trav and others before I am able to find one, thanks.
Cover Up Of "reactor top" pool holds 3450 fuel rod assemblies - is chain nuclear reaction underway?
looks like they did what I thought they should and drilled a hole in the last building to prevent hydrogen buildup....probably why the other reactor blgds haven't exploded. You can see steam venting in the pic
Now introducing the new, 2011 Fukushima Cabriolet! This fancy new model has a detachable-roof option, sure to please all those neutrons that just wanna be free!
Okay, I think this is potentially reliable data on Mox fuel:
MOX fuel rods used in Japanese Nuclear Reactor present multiple dangers
Question.
If they can not stop the spent fuel rods from heating up now while it is still possible to go there for a short time in protective suits, what can TEPCO do when they start burning and the radioactive levels get much higher?
Psssst, it's not about the reactors so much, yet. It will be, soon enough.
It's all that spent fuel. Where is it? Washed away? Roiling, boiling in the waters? Blown to smithereens, spreading sparkley goodness?
All the time, it's watch this watch this... while that comes and chews your nuts off.
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/american-cross-nuclear-rumbles/
Good point...what DOES happen to spent fuel in a fire?
Anyone? Bueller?
It's not so much that the spent fuel is IN a fire, as it IS the fire. Once it gets hot enough, the metal encasing tubes burn in air. The oxides from that rise as radioactive smoke. Also, the fuel inside the tubes contains many different product isotopes that are extremely radioactive, and also are volatile. Which means they 'boil' out of the hot fuel, and rise with the hot air and smoke updraft.
A huge pile of exposed, burning spent fuel rods is hideously nasty.
Also, even just having the water boil away makes the area too radioactive for humans to go near, since the water was acting as a radiation shield as well as cooling. So no one can go near to even drag a hose to the pool.
Not to mention that the pools (two of them definitely, maybe three) are covered in piles of twisted wreckage, so there's no way in hell anyone could get to them. Probably so badly covered in rubble, that even pointing fire hoses at the ruins from a distance may not be able to get sufficient water into the pools to re-cover the rods.
The failure of the attempt to dump water by helicopter, because the radiation was too high, is very disturbing. Would have taken many trips to refill even one pool.
If they could somehow clear enough of the wreckage off the tops of the three badly damaged buildings, that directed water jets could actually get into the pools... but how? (And I just know someone is going to suggest solving this problem with high explosives, but no. Just no.)
Situation looks unrecoverable to me.
Only thing I can imagine is kamikaze heroes, prepared to drag hoses through the wreckage, expending as many lives as it takes to get hoses to the pools.
Even that is only a stopgap, trying to minimize the immediate crisis.
were talking heavy metals, there mass will never blow away; i
Not Good!!! Not Good at all. Don't like the plumes.
There simply is no equipment nor time to adequately deal with the situation. 50 men, what can they do?, reach into boiling water and pluck out the rods one by one? Containment - how and with what? What heavy machinery is on site? These atoms are doing the dance of death [to us anyways - there is no difference between what they are doing in Japan and in the farthest depths of the universe except that here on earth they are destroyers, while in space they are the creators]. Man's hubris has met it's match.
No.3 and No. 4 look worse off than No.1
Also, seems there is no outer containment wall for both no.3 and no.4.
Thinking about nuclear plants in tsunami zones: wouldn't it make more sense to locate the diesel generators on the roofs and the storage pools down at sea level? You know, to keep the dry things dry and the wet things wet.
Engineers and common sense are not often found in the same location.
There's a significant fire risk associated with the gensets.
Ok, how about they get their own dedicated elevated platforms?
The threat of a monster tsunami in that region wasn't contemplated until after 2004.
Plant architect: "Doh! Why didn't we think of that?"
For those that are tired of looking at the status of just 6 reactors...they have just moved to evacuate 10km radius outside of Fukushima Daini as well..they have 4 more reactors!!!
[3:07 a.m. ET Wednesday, 4:07 p.m. Wednesday in Tokyo] As a safety precaution, the Japanese government is now telling people living within a 10-kilometer radius of the Daini plant, the second nuclear power plant in Fukushima, to evacuate.
The Daini plant, which has four reactors, has reported fluctuating temperatures at its suppression pools. The Daini plant's reactors have been stopped, and there has been no radioactivity leakage so far.
Not good.
They had ample time to get back-up generators in and source a water supply.
From bad to worse really.
Wow ... upping the ante ...
There are probable scenarios from here in which the radioactive releases to atmosphere could shutdown Tokyo (mainly from fear but some justification) if it hasn't yet. The Japanese officials are being very cagy about what they say. If the public decides to call it quits and reject their offerings, all bets are off for the country in the short/medium term.
These reactors have suffered major damage from huge hydrogen explosions. The only way that much hydrogen can form is from major fuel damage. Based on the condition of the buildings, and the weak Mark I containments that these plants have, I would guess there is containment damage as well. That means really no effective barrier for damaged fuel in reactors. Then you have the Spent Fuel Pools that are boiling dry and exposing that fuel to damage and release. Eventually this site will get so containminated and radiated that only workers willing to sacrifice their lives will be allowed to go in. It may be at this point right now, not sure. If not the whole site, there are numerous areas that would kill a person with 24 hours if exposed.
MOX fuel is really not that big of an issue. Sure the airborne contaminants are worse, but in comparison to the whole disaster, you're looking at a 10% insult to injury at best. Folks they have 4, possible 6 nuclear units with no or unstable cooling to the reactors and spent fuel pools. Massive explosions creating all sorts of damage and fire/smoke likely from burning fuel. All they need now is a return to criticality event in one of these locations, god forbid.
There is a super-shiny/hot question-mark shaped object at the base of #4 giving off smoke or steam. Whatever it is, it's not contained.
Shit yeah. What is that? Best image is here:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5214/5530841229_c5880c5052_o.jpg Full size of the 20110316 oblique view
Zoomed in it's not clear what that could be. Maybe a length of shiny ducting? OR... one of the unspent fuel rod assemblies, that had been removed from the reactor and stored in the SFP of builing #4? Bent up, glowing white hot and smoking slightly? The shape is oversize for a fuel rod assembly, but that could be an image flare effect due to brightness.
It's very hard to tell if that is really smoke coming off it, or merely shadows in the structures behind. Needs an image series to distinguish.
A POX on this damned information starvation.
You know, given all the incredible bad luck that's going down here, what are the chances the plant operators actually had one of the live fuel rods hanging from the gantry crane at the moment power went out? In the pool, but attached to the cables, and so to the crane, and the roof? So they just left it like that. In the pool, so safe, right?
And now we're looking at it?
Not as if they'd ever admit it.
Ridiculously bad images. For $5K you can purchase a very effective RPV with an HD camera. You can send it in to the site to capture very high-res pictures. We've been flying these things for years. You can fly them right into the building and down the corridors. We have followed hawks and peeered into little crannies in high cliffs. is there no-one with brains overseeing this disaster?
Smack bang on top of Sendai.
http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/
These conspiracy theories are ridiculous.
There is no way the governments and TEPCO could keep a secret like this from the people. The media would be all over it if there was really something to worry about. These facilities were so over-engineered that the there is no way that we will see a eal catastrophe.
Haha! Funny, no way for a corporation or a government to keep things secret.... Wow.
There is no way the governments and TEPCO could keep a secret like this from the people. The media would be all over it if there was really something to worry about.
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Agree 100% with that part. As long as the pictures and images continue to flow out.
In the top photo I see four buildings, three of which have extensive damage and one of the three is still smoking badly. The fourth, which apparently still has an intact building around it has smoke (steam or ?) emminating from it...which I would consider a sign that all is not well in that one either.
A tragedy to be sure.
Impressive ground level photos of reactor buildings #3 and #4 at this link:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366670/Japan-earthquake-tsunami-French-claim-scale-nuclear-disaster-hidden.html
Windows of nearby office buildings all blown out. It's like a war zone.
Wow ... nice collection of images/pictures there ... thanks.
Windows of nearby office buildings all blown out. It's like a war zone.
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Some of those might have been taken out by the Tsunami .. don't know ...
It does look like the top floor/steel panel roof of Rx Bldg #4 was blown over by the explosion of Rx Bldg #3 ...
If the spent rod cooling pools are on the roof, (and burning exposed to the environment on tower 4) where do these pools now lie from buildings 1 and 3 being the roofs were blown off? Scattered around the property?
The pools are not "on the roof". The pools are 40 foot deep and cut into the main concrete structure of the reactor. The roof area which has been blown off just holds various cranes and gantries for moving things around. Think of it like the roof over a covered swimming pool, that has been blown off, the diving board has probably gone too, and now the pool surface is exposed to the air - if the level of water falls then the spent fuel rods will be directly exposed to the air and the environment. Topping the pool up by helicopter drop or water cannons is therefore an OK idea now that the roof is off.
If it can be cleaned up at all at some point, the SL-1 reactor meltdown in Idaho might provide some lessons. But a convenient burial site for the waste anywhere nearby is not likely.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SL-1_Reactor_Accident