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Tellurium 129 Presence Is Proof Of Inadvertent Recriticality At Fukushima
For those wondering just why TEPCO and Japan in general have been in such as scramble to cover up as much of the reactor in a concrete sarcophagus, after up until now the utility had been perfectly happy to come up with one after another useless idea of delaying the inevitable moment of sarcophagation, here is Arnie Gunderson from Fairewinds and Associates explaining that now there is definitive proof, courtesy of Tellurium 129 and a order of magnitude higher concentration of Iodine 131 in Reactor 1, that the reactor is now undergoing sporadic events of recriticality: in other words, the fission reaction is recommencing on its own, and without any supervision, emitting undetectable neutron beams which are irradiating any and all personnel still on location. For the time being these recritical events are isolated, although courtesy of the whole premise behind a nuclear power plant, all it takes is for some form of critical threshold to be reached, and for a full blown self-sustaining chain reaction to result in Chernobyl part 2. If nothing else, we now know why the authorities are desperate to bury everything literally under the sand. Because at least a few thousands tons of concrete will provide a modest buffer for unprecedented amount of radiation before these hit the surrounding environment. Lastly, all those hoping that natural rod cooling is sufficient, and if the plant is left along long enough on its own, things will get better, are now proven wrong. We can only hope the outcome this time will be a tad more favorable than all the previously disastrously aborted attempts at restoring order.
Newly released TEPCO data provides evidence of periodic chain reaction at Fukushima Unit 1 from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.
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The fail is profound.God help us all.
The big black swan just had a cygnet!
And a $38 egg...
For those who are just catching up on FairWinds take on all this, there is a fuel rail laying on its side next to an exposed core. The core is emitting a buttload of gamma rays that are raining back to earth in a thing called skyshine and this makes working around the area lethal. Add to that there is aerosolized radioactive elements from the exposed core AND all that water they are pumping in. Then there is the problem of the radioactive water that is around the reactor in canals and the leakage into the ocean. Add to this clusterflock, there appears to be no staging going on, ie they are not about to fix this problem, because (gulp) anyone who goes near the place other than Marvel's Wolverine, is going to die in a short period of time. And now there is the neutron problem, as if this problem couldn't get any worse.
I don't think spraying Corexit is going to cover up this mess any time soon.
Thank you. We are proud.
And yet, the fail has actually not occurred yet. It looks like it is going to. But it hasn't happened yet. Don't get frozen into inaction by the fear of the future before it has actually happened. Do something now that might change how things turn out.
So any and all workers and visitors to the site may have been "neutroned"... "and how's that ache all over feeling coming along Mr. Prime Minister?"
Criticality Bitchez!
NHK isn't saying shit about it. In fact, they're talking about people returning home in the exclusion zone.
Also, why wouldn't they be putting borated water in the reactors/SFPs anyway? Are they out? And if there's criticality occurring in the #1 core, how are neutrons escaping confinement? That doesn't sound right to me.
I believe when they attempt to inject water into a reactor's primary cooling system (core, torus, turbine, condenser) it leaks out and ends up in the ocean or flashes to radioactive steam.
The spent fuel pools are hard to hit with hoses, except #4
Best bet is to waterflood all four reactors and turbines, cool everything down, then start pouring concrete.
Start with this,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZHFK0vWKpU
Spent fuel rod assemblies can take over 18 months to cool down enough to move into permanent storage. I wish it were as simple as pouring water, but a year and a half of radioactive steam sounds like a nightmare.
Though I don't work in the power industry, I have a background in physics; and I've been scratching my head at what can be done to mitigate radiation release. Its clear much will have to be buried, but they might have to dig a hole big enough to bulldoze everything in, might take less time than waiting for everything too cool.
First thing they need to do is work some borax into the mess. It's going to be hard, because the borax needs to be right in the sputtering mess of white hot, near-critical jumbled fuel pellets and radioactive fission-product, cladding, control-rod, oxidized crud.
Bummer. I was hoping to add this to the long list of shit I'd like to forget about while watching Survivor. //Sarcasm off//
Great...because between Tokyo becoming Cancer Central, and the American Treasury market about to reach uncontrolled fission...I did not yet have enough shit to disturb my sleep tonight...Tyler.
Thanks. //sarcasm function offline entirely//
But it ain't so bad if you have first access to freshly printed money. After returning from the desert this weekend on virtually empty freeways (by LA standards), I explained to my wife (she of the 'ha, ha, MERS isn't collapsing chain-of-title, so there') the basic theory of why monetization is so pernicious.
You see, certain parts of PS entertain those who enjoy "first access", as exhibited by differerent direct & indirect fed.gov contractor functions. Then, when you leave the resort(s), you once again enter the world where people who can't afford gas simply stay home, watch TV and drink some beer.
Tongue in cheek, I mentioned that I hope gas goes to $5-6/gal - imagine how empty the roads would be then. Of course, the revolution would kick off beforehand, so alas, I guess I won't get to experience a completely empty freeway.
One last note: in the 'good 'ole days', there would be 200 mile long trains of F350s, boats, sand rigs, RVs, etc returning back to the city. Today, only older retired guys in tricked out RVs, still pulling down whatever pensions are keeping them in the lifestyles to which they have become accustomed. Regular working stiffs don't get to play anymore.
I used to live in Venice and coming back from Gorman was a bitch on Sundays, We would sit on the 405 coming over the supulveda pass for about 2 hours , but it did give us chance to finish all the beers
Celebration of Persian New Year today. Big-time celebration in Balboa Park in S.F. Valley. Maybe kept a few folks off the freeways today.
Do some googling for updates on workers dying in the Gulf Cdad. And then add that to the list. Media's on mum about our situation down south but people cleaning up the Gulf mess are getting sick.. As in very sick. When I re-find the link I'l post it.
Next season: Survivor Japan.
LOL!!!!
If that happens, I may actually watch the f---in stupid shop for the first time. ;-)
The first person to make a lead tent wins.
Sometimes I'm glad to be old, and this is one of them.
no shit
I am glad to have evacuated to Costa Rica several years ago, cannot imagine going back
Bill
You and Jim Willie both.
So, if I may ask, are you retired or if not, how do you make a living?
Thanks.
Export entrepreneur
retired on ss, while it lasts
Bill
Radioactive elements abound in nature. This article has a list of radioactive elements which are arranged in the order of increasing atomic number along with their decay modes. Before we have a look at the radioactive elements list, let us understand what do we mean by a radioactive element first! That is, we must understand the phenomenon of radioactivity.
Radioactivity arrived on the scene of world physics in the 19th century, just when people thought they knew everything in physics! With its discovery in 1896, radioactivity opened up a Pandora's box of questions and revealed a new world, waiting to be explored in the microcosm of the atomic nucleus.
Let us understand radioactivity and how it led to developments which culminated into the invention of nuclear energy and nuclear bomb! We will also get introduced to certain terms like isotopes and ideas like half life, which will help us understand radioactivity better. Then we will make a list of radioactive elements and study their individual properties.
What is Radioactivity?
Radioactivity is a very interesting phenomenon in nature. Classical Electromagnetism cannot explain radioactivity. It's a spontaneous and random phenomenon whereby nuclei of certain chemical elements like Uranium, radiate gamma rays (high frequency electromagnetic radiation), beta particles (electrons or positrons) and alpha particles (Helium Nuclei).
By the emission of these particles and radiation, the unstable nucleus gets converted into a stabler nucleus. This is called radioactive decay. In the list of radioactive elements, all the elements which undergo decay are listed. Find more information on radioactivity through the articles, 'What is radioactivity?' and meaning of radioactivity decay.
The Term 'Radioactive' - A Misnomer
A radioactive element is a fundamental element whose atomic nuclei demonstrates the phenomenon of radioactivity. The name 'radioactive' may suggest to you that radioactive elements radiate radio waves, but unfortunately that is not so! The name 'radioactivity' is a misnomer because the radioactive elements have nothing to do with radio waves! The reason is that energy and frequency of a gamma ray which is emitted by a radioactive element, is far beyond that of the radio band of electromagnetic spectrum! So, we are just stuck up with the name!
What Makes an Element Radioactive?
To understand radioactivity, we need to explore the structure of an atomic nucleus. Every nucleus contains neutrons as well as protons. Neutrons are neither positively charged, nor negatively charged, they are neutral particles. Protons are positively charged. As you might remember from high school physics, like charges repel each other while unlike charges attract each other. In the nucleus, protons and neutrons are cramped together in a really very small space.
The protons in the nucleus, all being positively charged, repel each other! So if all the protons repel each other, how does the nucleus stay glued together and remain stable? It is because of the 'Nuclear Force'.
This force is more stronger than the electromagnetic force, but the range of this force is only limited to size of the nucleus, unlike electromagnetic force whose range is infinite! This nuclear force acts between the protons and neutrons, irrespective of the charge and its always strongly attractive! However, it has limitations of range! So, in the nucleus, there is a constant tussle between the repelling electromagnetic coulomb force of protons and the attractive strong nuclear force.
In a nucleus like Uranium, which has almost 92 protons, coulomb repulsive force becomes too much for the nuclear force to contain. Subsequently, the nucleus is very unstable and radioactive decay occurs, while Uranium decays into a more stable element. Such an unstable nucleus like Uranium, when gently tapped by a neutron, splits up into two other nuclei through nuclear fission, releasing tremendous amount of energy in the process! This is the principle on which nuclear energy and nuclear weapons are based!
The radioactive elements listed below shows all the decay modes of Uranium. A full explanation of radioactivity can only be given, if we plunge deep into quantum physics and elementary particle physics!
Types of Radioactive Decay
This decay may occur in any of the following three ways:
Alpha Decay: Nucleus emits a helium nuclei (called an Alpha Particle) and gets converted to another nucleus with atomic number lesser by 2 and atomic weight lesser by 4.
Beta Decay: Beta decay could be of two types. Either through emission of an electron or positron (the antiparticle of electron). Electron emission causes an increase in the atomic number by 1, while positron emission causes a decrease in the atomic number by 1.
Gamma Decay: Gamma decay just changes the energy level of the nucleus.
A radioactive element may have more than one decay mode. The list of radioactive elements below will give the decay modes of all radioactive elements.
Radioactive Isotopes
When two nuclei have the same atomic number, but different atomic weight or mass numbers, then they are said to be isotopes! Isotopes have the same chemical properties but different physical properties! For example, carbon has two isotopes, 6C14 and 6C12. Both have the same atomic number, but different number of neutrons. The one with the two extra neutrons is radioactive and undergoes radioactive decay.
The radioactive isotope of carbon was used to develop carbon dating tool, which has made the dating of various elements possible! In the radioactive elements' list below, all the radioactive isotopes of elements are presented.
Half Life of a Radioactive Element
Another term that you need to understand, if you want to understand radioactivity is 'Half Life'. Those of you from a chemistry background might have heard about half life in nuclear chemistry. Half life is the amount of time required, for half quantity of radioactive element to decay! For example C14has a half life of 5730 years. That is, if you take 1 gm of C14, then half of it will have been decayed in 5730 years! In the list of radioactive elements below, half lives of all the radioactive elements are presented.
Radioactive Elements List
Here is a detailed and comprehensive list of radioactive elements along with their atomic and mass numbers, decay modes and half lives. Here 'Beta Decay (?-)' denotes Electron emission while Beta Decay (?+) denotes Positron emission.
Radioactive Element Atomic Number Atomic Mass Number Decay Type Half Life
Hydrogen (H) 1 3 Beta Decay (?-) 12 years
Beryllium (Be) 4 10 Beta Decay (?-) 2,700,000 years
Carbon (C) 6 14 Beta Decay (?-) 5,730 years
Calcium(Ca) 20 41 Beta Decay (?+) 100,000 years
Iron (Fe) 26 59 Beta Decay (?-) 45 days
Cobalt (Co) 27 60 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 5 years
Nickel
(Ni) 28 59 Beta Decay (?+) 80,000 years
Zinc(Zn) 30 65 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 145 days
Selenium (Se) 34 79 Beta Decay (?-) 70,000 years
Krypton (Kr) 36 85 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 10 years
Krypton (Kr) 36 90 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 33 seconds
Rubidium (Rb) 37 87 Beta Decay (?-) 47 billion years
Strontium (Sr) 38 89 Beta Decay (?-) 53 days
Strontium (Sr) 38 90 Beta Decay (?-) 28 years
Yttrium (Y) 39 90 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 64 hrs
Yttrium (Y) 39 91 Beta Decay (?-) 58 days
Zirconium (Zr) 40 93 Beta Decay (?-) 950,000 years
Zirconium (Zr) 40 95 Beta Decay (?-) 65 days
Niobium (Nb) 41 93 Gamma 4 years
Niobium (Nb) 41 95 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 35 days
Molybdenum (Mo) 42 93 Beta Decay (?+) 10,000 years
Technetium (Tc) 43 99 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 210,000 years
Ruthenium (Ru) 44 103 Beta Decay (?-) 40 days
Ruthenium(Ru) 44 106 Beta Decay (?-) 1 year
Palladium (Pd) 46 107 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 7 million years
Silver (Ag) 47 110 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 249 days
Tin (Sn) 50 126 Beta Decay (?-) 100,000 years
Antimony (Sb) 51 125 Beta Decay (?-) 2 years
Tellurium (Te) 52 127 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 105 days
Tellurium (Te) 52 129 Beta Decay (?-) 67 minutes
Iodine (I) 53 129 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 17.2 million years
Iodine (I) 53 131 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 8 days
Iodine (I) 53 134 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 52 minutes
Xenon (Xe) 54 133 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 5 days
Xenon (Xe) 54 137 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 4 minutes
Xenon (Xe) 54 138 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 14 minutes
Cesium (Cs) 55 134 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 2 years
Cesium (Cs) 55 135 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 2 million years
Cesium (Cs) 55 137 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 30 years
Cerium (Ce) 58 144 Beta Decay (?-) 285 days
Promethium (Pm) 61 147 Beta Decay (?-), Gamma 2 years
Europium (Eu) 63 154 Beta Decay (?-), Beta Decay (?+), Gamma 16 years
Europium (Eu) 63 155 Beta Decay (?-) 2 years
Lead (Pb) 82 210 Beta Decay (?-), Alpha 21 years
Bismuth (Bi) 83 210 Alpha 3 million years
Polonium (Po) 84 210 Alpha 138 days
Radon (Rn) 86 220 Alpha, Beta Decay (?+) 1 min
Radon (Rn) 86 222 Alpha 4 days
Radium (Ra) 88 224 Alpha 4 days
Radium (Ra) 88 225 Beta Decay (?-) 15 days
Radium (Ra) 88 226 Alpha 1,622 years
Thorium (Th) 90 228 Alpha 2 years
Thorium (Th) 90 229 Alpha 7,340 years
Thorium (Th) 90 230 Alpha 80,000 years
Thorium (Th) 90 232 Alpha 14 years
Thorium (Th) 90 234 Beta Decay (?-) 24 days
Proactinium (Pa) 91 226 Alpha, Beta Decay (?+) 2 minutes
Uranium (U) 92 233 Alpha 162,000 years
Uranium (U) 92 234 Alpha 248,000 years
Uranium (U) 92 235 Alpha 713 million years
Uranium (U) 92 236 Alpha 23.9 million years
Uranium (U) 92 238 Alpha 4.51 billion years
Neptunium (Np) 93 237 Alpha 2.2 million years
Plutonium (Pu) 94 236 Alpha 285 years
Plutonium (Pu) 94 238 Alpha 86 years
Plutonium (Pu) 94 239 Alpha 24,390 years
Plutonium (Pu) 94 240 Alpha 6,580 years
Plutonium (Pu) 94 241 Beta Decay (?-), Alpha 13 years
Plutonium (Pu) 94 242 Alpha 379,000 years
Plutonium (Pu) 94 243 Alpha 5 years
Plutonium (Pu) 94 244 Alpha 76 million years
Americium (Am) 95 241 Alpha 458 years
Americium (Am) 95 242 Beta Decay (?-), Beta Decay (?+), Alpha, Gamma 16 hours
Americium (Am) 95 243 Alpha 7,950 years
Curium (Cm) 96 242 Alpha 163 days
Curium (Cm) 96 243 Alpha 35 years
Curium (Cm) 96 244 Alpha 18 years
Curium (Cm) 96 247 Alpha 40 million years
Hope this comprehensive list of radioactive elements will be useful to you. These radioactive isotopes have a lot of applications today, ranging from medicine to atomic energy. Since these radioactive elements are harmful, burning up radioactive waste or disposing it, is difficult. Every development in science and technology brings in new developments and problems. Now, it's for us to decide, how we want to use the power of technology placed in our hands.
Let me smoke a bag of weed and get back to you.
so, its no great secret that energy does not have a "decay rate" but more simply a "tranfer rate" knowing this, to find the "negitve attractor"(more aggressive the better) for these elements, creates a situation for a new high energy source...to remove the atmoshpereic contaminates in a harnessed/directed force......maybe akin to a rail-gun design, ive even seen rail gun like plans, for launching solid mass into orbit.
downside....if you find that negitive, by accident, in an uncontrolled situation, bigger issue's i could see
Yes, very useful, thank you. I always wanted to know all the diferent ways I AM GOING TO DIE!!!!
I know zilch about physics. But if all ratioactive elements have half lives, why haven't they already naturally decayed given the enormous length of time since the creation of the solar system? Is there a natural process that continually re-constitutes radioactivity in elements?
radioactive. not ratioactive.
the time since the creation of the solar system is not relevant. what's relevant is the time since the last nearby supernova that created these heavy elements that cause so much trouble.
why aren't they all gone, given that they all have half-lives? um...becuase some of their half-lives are long enough that they haven't decayed to non-detectability yet. Like U-238, whose halflife is 4.5 billion years.
plutonium, on the other hand -- if you ever see any of that -- it was definitely made by people. longest half-life of any of its isotopes is 80 million years -- which means that if any of that stuff was made when our solar-system's stuff got made -- it has lived though at least 60 half-lives since then. Which means it is reduced by a factor of a million trillion. Give or take.
Plutonium is good for you
It facilitates ocular beams as noticed in X-Men
Bob - Trav said not to panic so shut up and eat your plutonium like a good sheep
Trav is legit.
We are all people sharing ideas, we won't always agree, and I hope we never do.
What a borring and unproductive world that would be if everyone agreed.
Contrarianism is the purview of innovation.
I completely agree with you that it is boring and unproductive.
The process or the product?
I hope to be infinately bored by both as I will always be in the process of learning.
The process and the product are tolerable for now, its some of the people who insist on unproductive, boring behavior that detract from the quality.
I actually tried out for the X-Men once.
True story.
Dr. Xavier: And ... (looks up) your power is?
Mick: Sarcasm.
Dr. Xavier: Excuse me?
Mick: Oh, yeah. Like you've never heard sarcasm before.
Dr. Xavier: I ... see. Yes. Well, thank you, very much for coming! Next?
Me too, at the interview I placed a small rock and on the table and glared at it and guess what happened... as if by magic... it didn't, then the whole building started shaking.
Which proves beyond doubt that I have the innate ability to force rocks to do well, nothing...
and so rests the case for the defence M'lord...
Of course, then the 40 foot tsunami hit and you could just make out a couple of exploding nuclear reactors in the background. Needless to say I withdrew my application 'cos I'm clearly far too powerful and didn't get the job, even with my new sideburns and snazzy specs, but I did get arrested by the Japanese police for walking home through downtown Tokyo with my underpants on the outside...
well, the bus driver wouldn't let me on...
and you probably still think there's a HAARP conspiracy... I still say it's not my fault, honest...
It's true...
hahahah that's awesome
Thanks for the spelling lesson. Let me return the favor. It's 'Radioactive', not 'radioactive': the first word in a sentence is always capitalized.
He spelled "because" wrong as well.
oh no. not if i don't feel like it. i'm an artist.
Just because people do not understand you, does not make you an artist.
apparently not.
"We are all...starrrrr stuffff"
Please identify the above quote to continue playing Planetary Science--The Dark Side
We are star dust....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrWNTqbLFFE
Close...quote at 0:20 but you can watch the whole thing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE9dEAx5Sgw
Read the above: "Classical Electromagnetism cannot explain..." No one was around at the start of the universe. It's a good bet that the start or Big Bang was not a 100% toxic event; otherwise, no life would have formed.
TEPCO and Fukushima is a deliberate, manmade, toxic event. It's not "occuring in nature;" the reactors were designed by GE and then some GE jack4sses sold a bill of goods to the Japanese. If you followed along, you don't start counting half-life until ALL FISSION at FUKUSHIMA HAS STOPPED. We're not there yet. As long as Fukushima is an on-going reaction, constant, full strength radioactive byproducts are constantly being replenished and reproduced. Notice I used "constant" twice.
Yes, there are some random events in the universe, like the Negroid ethnicity suddenly showing albinism. Can't be explained.
I read someplace that the Japanese people are starting to publish the home addresses of the TEPCO executives. Good start, because the Japanese want to drag their butts to the Fukushima reactors and force them to go inside and work until the reactor problem is solved. I already stated that Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, and Jack Welch out to be drug over there with Geiger counters strapped to their butts. Plus there will probably be a whole generation of young Japanese who will kick the butts of any nuclear proponent, lobbyist, or nuclear corporation executive. Good to pin up somewhere in case there is a nuclear accident in the US.
Not if there is a Japanese diaspora because the place is uninhabitable.
I'm not an expert either, but I think that most(like all) of the isotopes with half lives of less than a couple million years have decayed, but some of the longer lived radioactive elements like Uranium keep producing short lived isotopes of other elements. Like almost all of the helium that earth contained flew off into space, so to get helium today you need to mine helium that was created by radioactive decay and got trapped in natural gas reserves.
it's chemistry not physics. start from there and you will begin the path of understanding young grasshopper.
Indeed. One might explain that natural uranium consists of 93.3% U-238 and about 0.72% U-235, (only the latter is fissile and must be physically separated), but with a name like Livermore Jim, I suspect you probably have access to the locked area of the Bancroft Library.
I think current cosmoligical theory has the early universe made up of almost nothing but hydrogen and helium. The heavy elements we find laying around were created by a supernova that exploded 4.5 to 5 billion years ago, leaving behind the stuff to make rocky planets.
One of the big pieces of evidence for this solar system creation event is in the half lives of heavy elements like thorium and uranium. The natural isotopes of these elements are almost stable, with half lives of billions of years.
Once we induce fission, we get a random assortment of middlweight elements like samarium or tellurium, in random isotopes. These isotopes have half lives ranging from milliseconds to, well, to complete stability -- an infinite half life if you will.
I used the power of technology placed into my hands to scroll past your worthless, and yet tedious, post.
Can we recylce those bytes?
I am so happy that U-235 was chosen as a primary energy source as it has only a 713 million year half life. Thank heavens they didn't choose something deadly like coal.
Ehhh, take off your tinfoil hat now, maybe you should revisit your physical science class.
The longer the half life of an element the less dangerous it is, it's the ones with very short half lives you need to worry about.
tldr
A long time ago when Tunga was riding along at 60 mph a bee flew SMACK! right into the face shield and made a wicked mess. So thats Kinetic activity like you read about. Now just Imagine for a second if the reactor cores were full of BEES! So you see; it could really be a lot worse.
Is this a cut and paste from Wikipedia or an 8th grade science book?
Anyway, thanks.
I picked a bad month to quit drinking, well theirs always valium37 and thorazine57.
lemon714
you got junked (18 as I write) because you provided useful information. The ZH half-brained morons here are incapable of appreciating useful information. Be that a lesson to you. Only meaningless bitching is appreciated around here.
round here they generally prefer a synopsis with a link
Don't know why you've been junked so much; I appreciated your work here.
Not too bad a read. Serious oversupply of exclamation marks, some very poor sentence structure and a few conceptual jumbles. But could be worked on to make something useful.
Because of those flaws, I'm assuming you wrote this yourself, rather than lifted it from somewhere. But you really should state a source for the radioisotope data. And also mention it's ordered by atomic weight. Also, it's not complete. Eg see chart of all isotopes http://nucleardata.nuclear.lu.se/nucleardata/charts.asp
Not sure why it's getting so many junks. Maybe it's the facile ending paragraph? How about we first eliminate the Elites, in order to regain the power to decide _anything_ for 'ourselves'?
I'm getting Fukushima Fatigue.
It is a side effect of the invisible and most dangerous radiation that is affecting you: the imaginary one that emanates from armchair hystericals as they furiously type bs on their keyboards. Stay away from discussion lists for a day and you'll recover promptly
a little sex doesn't hurt either.
If one is hoping to have healthy kids in the future , is now the time to freeze sperm and eggs before theyre mutated to the point of spawning a couple of kiddies from The Hills Have Eyes?
i think it's time to freeze our heads! one of us should stick around until the Bernanks' head is frozen, then throw it into the reactor!
I feel incredibly sorry for the people of Japan and the people of the world for that matter. The devastation that will be procured by this disaster will be permanent and the consequences dire for many lifetimes.
The words of Oppenheimer are so incredibly resounding right now it chills the marrow of my existence. Particularly because he was arguably one of the most intelligent human beings to have ever existed.
Oppenheimer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8H7Jibx-c0
A very compelling 1 1/2 hour documentary for those wishing some entertainment before farceures open:
"The Day After Trinity"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgM0GOvXLDE
By the way, we realize we are dealing with sources of energy that power the universe right?
If there ever was a time that would require all of man kind to solve a problem; this it it.
It's game time bitchez.
The Secret History of the Atomic Bomb:
http://www.whale.to/b/mullins8.html
Keep in mind there are 50 more reactors in Japan. Tending reactors is a full time job for a highly industrialized society for decades.
Japan is broke: who is gonna tend the Fabulous Fifty in ten years? Twenty years? A hundred years?
This is just more of the same, the same infrastructure breakdown, the same dynamic that gave us the real estate bust, Wall Street bust, Deepwater Horizon, the EU bust, the MENA bust, the just starting China bust ... our sick-iety isn't designed to handle anything other than good times and rock and roll.
Next week? US government bust, perhaps. Soon to come, the Mother of All Deleveragings.
The reactors will be popping all over the place.
Steve, it's been known long time that nuclear energy, like the airline industry, could nto survive without government sops. Airlines are supported by Boeing as an example getting billions in "defense" monies, to offset their airline manufacturing business. Same for EADS etc. All of them. Massive fuel subsidies, airport subsidies. Long list.
Pertinent, becasue as an "expert" said, there is no way (and I think it was Immelt a few years ago) the nucuear industry would exist without givernment back-stops because no investor could risk the potential downside risks of a fukushima like incident. A bottom-less pit of damage control monies, litigation, clean-up costs.
Both those industries and their pernicious ill-effects on us (flying in aluminium coffins at 35,000 feet in stale environments in legs hanging position is really bad for your health for a multitude of hidden and not so hidden reasons), need to go the way of the dodo.
But we are addicted to both of them and .give is happy to support the addiction.
Fukushima will dent the nuclear industry (see france talking about re-examining their dependence, germany with their tentative shut-downs etc.) and 200$ a bbl oil will put a knife through the heart of cheap flying forever.
And this travel dependent populace and cheap energy addicted populace will be left in severe with-drawal. So easy to lure an addict in withdrawal in any direction, as long as you promise a leeedle hit.
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2011/04/03/re-fine-ment/
"Japan is broke: who is gonna tend the Fabulous Fifty in ten years? Twenty years? A hundred years?"
That's what I was thinking. I took a class a long time ago and the teacher originally worked on the Tappen Zee bridge in NY. He said (in the middle 70's) that he wouldn't be able to build a bridge like that now because you couldn't get one crew together that had that skill. It was lost culturally.
How long before Nuclear Operator average age gets to be 50-60, Who will replace them? Will it be like farming where the average age is something like 56?
How will shut them all down properly in 20,30,40 years?
Will the skills be there to do it?
Some nations are more broke than others. Some have to sell assets to satisfy their creditors. Others are allowed to go deeper into debt.
Broke, not broke. It does not mean much.
why can't we load it all into a rocket and mail into the sun? too expensive?
...or maybe CNN convinces people we might accidentally blow up the sun?
Thorium reactors will incinerate that stuff.... problem solved.
"inadvertent recriticality" NEW ZH PHRASE
+!+
that means when i mistakenly bitch somebody out for being an idiot -- twice.
most likely an artificial person, like trav.
i always feel bad about that.
Trying to think of a name for a band. Candidates so far:
inadvertent recriticality
zirconium fire
skyshine
Nuclear Boy and the Fukushima 50
"Rod Fuel and the Blue Light Skyshine".
or just "Blue light Skyshine" . ? the possibilities ...
The Fukushima Repairmen
Neutron Daisy
Tokyo Waiting
The Dayglow Jumpers
Cesium Pillow
Moe Spinz and the Bluelight Orchestra
Sawdust Sarcophagus
Zirconium Fire - a name that suggests accessability, yet urgency and passion. I think the girls would respond to that name big-time.
The Reaktorz
Critical Mass
Teppco & the 8 inch crack
Tokyo Glowing
The Deadlands
Radioactive Momz
Atom & Eve
mighty millisievert
crernoshima (aka fukunobyl)
nuclear clusterfuck
iodide lamp shade
iodide chaser
iodide sushi
rod fuel and the iodide chasers
texas syndrome
The Japanese are on a roll. First came unintended acceleration and now this.
Both are kind ways of referring to operator error.
Did anyone Geiger the two bodies found in the plant? They claim that the quake did them in.
Supposedly both bodies bled out according to media reports. Radiation doesn't generally cause that kind of damage to a human body...
Andromeda Strain?
The Last Gasp
Dr. Stone? There's a wildfire, sir.
"Supposedly both bodies bled out"
Convenient.
Chupacabras are attracted to radiation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SL-1
The guys were killed by blunt force trauma as the prompt criticality threw them around.
fission.....on a Sunday afternoooooon
really......couldn't get away too soooooon
In our face evidence of Hubris, also known as "Atoms For Peace" and "Genetically Engineered Life;" both things that can be controlled until they can't, sure is no fun to watch. When hubris inevitably lets its evil genies break their bottles, our species' finest engineers look a lot like monkeys (not to badmouth monkeys) sticking twigs into an anthill.
Very very well said Thorny. Engineering hubris. Word has it that was the cause of an extinction event for an unlocatable continent and civilization.
I wonder when LHC is going to pop it's ugly, god-particle load.
Ugh!
ORI
ORI and Thorny,
word has it that the majority of the lost continent populace is living a shaman existence in the WWW (wild wild west) reserves (a word with strange meaning, living in reserve)?
I wonder if they have fun watching the other tribe acting out their thoughts in a replay (de jevu).
The pyramid has five faces, they say. Which one is next up (or hidden)?
Maybe the hidden hand will slap us awake ON?
Up-side might be the new down-side. Makes perfect sense!
ORI
localized criticality...
neutrons detected
uncontrolled reaction ..
honorable radioactive bytches...
When do we evacuate LA?
A month before the authorities tell you to.
This guy is cool!!
Does this mean they are not going to use air conditioning to cool the reactor down?
Plan B is for a dozen Geisha Girls with their Geisha fans to flap furiously in shifts of 45 seconds.
Seriously , its up there with trying to paper-mache a 20cm crack and then jet wash concrete over it.
Epoxy
Nah too expensive.
Alexander Higgins Blog
April 3, 2011
Despite countless reassurances that no harmful levels of radiation from the Japan nuclear fallout would hit the US from the EPA, the University of Berkley in California is now reporting that rainwater in San Francisco water has now been detected at levels 18,100% above federal drinking water standards.
Again, with just about all other news of the radiation hitting the US, the news is once again reported to the public over a week after it was first detected.
Iodine-131 was measured in a rainwater sample taken on the roof of Etcheverry Hall on UC Berkeley campus, March 23, 2011 from 9:06-18:00 PDT. The 3 Liters of rainwater collected contained 134 Becquerels of Iodine for an average of 20.1 Becquerel per liter, which equates to 543 Picocuries per liter .
The federal drinking water limit for Iodine-131 is 3 Picocuries per liter, putting the rainwater sample at 18,100% above the federal drinking water limit.
got picocuries?
the link is to alex jones' [infowars.c]
this is some pretty sad reporting and posting, too. captfufflepants gets it, below.
alex higgins and jones must be just desperate for hits.
1) this has nothing to do with san francisco; berkeley is across the bay.
2) this has nothing to do with tapwater; the sample is from a roof on the Cal campus.
3) the math is wrong. styooopid.
the rain from this roof or at least from this area ends up in strawberry creek. neutron ray's link also has data for this creek, prob abt 100 yds. south of this roof. http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/UCBAirSampling
for those of us in this area, this is a site to keep up with. for example: 3.27 2PM: Strawberry Creek run off results posted. We do observe all signatures in the run off creek water, but the dilution is from ~2% for I-131 to 15% for Cs137. However, Cs137 and Te132 are just below minimum detectability for our system and the real dilution is most likely closer to 2-5%. Reservoir and tap water sampling begins next week. These activities are factors of 10 to 50 below rain water results.
and: 3/28 (2:24pm): Latest Air and Water Results data/spectra is now posted. We note decreased levels from previous peaks. This could be due to a number of reasons to include the lack of rain in the past 48 hours to an actual lower amount of particles in the air. Note, this is not a trend unless we see a sustained reduction. We are heading into a period of high pressure in the Bay Area and the jet stream will shift away from our area and this may cause even lower readings.
so, we're getting some cesium137.
They'll start taxing it next, like Co2. I'm convinced it's a conspiracy to cull populations you know.
Explain why lead water piping was banned and why the pikeys were allowed to steal lead roofing?
Well It took a while but I finally got to the source material and here is a link to the actual report.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.5954v1
The maximum level of 131I we observed in the rainwater was 430 pCi/liter (16 Bq/liter)
from the sample collected on March 24. This maximum activity can be compared to the US
EPA limit on 131I allowed in drinking water of 108 pCi/liter. If a person were to drink a
typical amount of water per day containing the EPA limit of 131I, then in one year he or she
would receive a whole body dose of < 0.04 mSv (4 mrem). This dose should be compared to the
US average annual radiation dose of 6.2 mSv (620 mrem) (6). Due to the short half life of 131I,
it is extremely unlikely that the public will be exposed to anywhere near these levels in drinking
water. Thus the levels of fallout we have observed in San Francisco Bay area rain water pose no
health risk to the public.
I get 4 times above EPA limits. Still disturbing but not 18 thousand times above limits.
Photos (link below) show a crack extending across a concrete slab to the pit with the crack that TEPCO tried to plug with concrete and then with other materials. It appears the crack in the pit is part of a longer crack from a significant failure of the structure or the foundation (soil and/or bedrock) beneath the structure. This failure of the foundation and/or structure is the type of failure the earthquake and tsunami may have caused.
Does anyone know exactly where the cracked pit in these photos is located? The Crytome link has the highest resolution image. I have been trying to triangulate the exact location using the tower and the circular tank in the distance, but can't seem to find the structures next to the pit on any of the aerial photos.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/02/japan-fukushima-radioactive-...
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0402/Japan-nuclear-update-Repairing-cr...
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/82882.html
http://cryptome.org/eyeball/daiichi-npp2/daiichi-photos2.htm
Its a hard word to work in to a conversation with a hot chick.
Hey did you see that sore cock of gus?
But the standard will be raised to 1000 Picocuries per liter. These readings are well below the new safety threshold.
All is well!
If it wasn't, we would hear about this on the TV.
Wonder who the #1 manufacturer of deep submersible water well pumps is? We have a 12,000 GPS deep aquifer spring-fed stream and 2 x 450' wells, so radioactive water won't be our problem for a while. But we've already said goodbye to Gulf and now Pacific seafood, so life is rapidly getting just a tad less worth living. Anyone who thinks that the US government isn't complicit in Fukashima better think again. TEPCO owns 25% of the South Texas Nuclear project, humming away only 250 miles from our front door, and my bet is they own a bunch more US nuclear properties, all courtesy of our government's 'encouragement' of foreign investment. Oh, and also, the Chinese government owns @ 40% of the major West Texas wind farm, for which the State of Texas is happily using eminent domain to take away private land for the power lines to deliver all that 'green' energy to our cities. It is indeed a target-rich environment out there.
Thats the ticket. Why drop bombs and fire Tomahawks. Lets just drop windmills and nuclear power plants on Libya. Ghaddfi will either be glowing or trembling within 6 months. Stalemate my ass.
We're fucked
Not as f***ed as a fitness fanatic.
Up to date stutus of reactors
http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/EXPORT/projects/fukushima/plots/v6/Main.html
Not up to date, thirdhand, had to correct "typos"?
Neutrons are natural.
That shit is in your food anyway.
Neutral particals are harmless particles.
:)
I'm just burning doing the Neutron Dance!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhcjRoU0C7g
Maybe Eddie Murphy could use his Pluto Nash character to save the day at Fukushima
I spelled "particle" wrong.
The shame.
and you changed your avatar to ... what the hell is that? the sun rising over titan? a gamma ray burster? a spark coming off the grinding wheel of heaven?
Mick-
It's not the appearence of the avatar but the quality of the avatar it represents.
-Martin Luther Bling
Don't judge based on avatar. Jesse Jackson will be on that ass.
You should always report and link the original source because a lot of people are goig to disregard prison planet as a reliable source without checking to see if it has any basis in fact. Of course you're going to get the "everything is fine" line from the original source regardless of the actual danger but you'll also get exactly what they said.
http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/UCBAirSampling
MarketWatch says Japan Tankan unchanged from before Quake, etc. Really? Really!!!!
By Michael Kitchen
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- The Bank of Japan released a "post-earthquake" version of its March tankan business sentiment survey Monday, with the headline index number showing sentiment among large manufacturers unchanged at +6. The March tankan was released Friday, but some 70% of responses had been received before the catastrophic March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Counting only the pre-quake responses, large-manufacturer sentiment was +7, compared to +5 in the December survey. However, the index showing large manufacturers' forward-looking business sentiment for June was at -2 for responses following the disaster, compared to +3 for responses submitted earlier, the central bank said. The yen strengthened slightly after the release of the tankan supplement, with the U.S. dollar slipping to 84.18 yen, compared to 84.27 yen minutes before the release.
After watching the video I find it odd that "neutron beams" are being detected from the reactor. The reactor pressure vessel plus the secondary contaiment should significantly reduce the amount of neutrons/radiation being detected. What is not known at this time (at least I have not been able to find it yet) is the condition of the reactor pressure vessle and the contaiment structure. It seems more likely to me (give my keyboard physics experience) that the recriticality is more likely from the fuel that was in the fuel pool, or is in a damaged fool fuel. If the fuel is outside the fuel pool, or portions the fuel pool are damaged and the recriticality ocurred, the neutrons and gamma rays would radiate outwards and be more easily detected. I doubt a "beam" is being detected, more a large flux of neutrons being emitted outward, and being detected at distance by one monitor. Sea water was used to spray the spent fuel and to fill the spent fuel pools also, so the recriticality in the fuel pool would create the same emissions and isotopes as the reactor. Plus, if blue flashes of light are being detected/seen, I think it would be much easier to see the light if the fuel is out in the open or in the open top fuel pool, rather than still inside the reactor pressure vessel. Accidental criticality events are actually quite common, with many of the poor bastards exposed to the radiation blast being killed or terribly injured. Here is a list of accidental criticality events I found a few days ago-
http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/radcrit.html
Many of the events occurred with plutonium or uranium in solution, and many were accompanied by the blue flash of death
It's the blue torpedo flash of winning.
bob_d: was so impressed to see you change avatars in the middle of the stream the other night, as were discussing just these blue flashes.
money squid: my best guess is that the re-crit is from the spent fuel pool contents. some have wondered whether they are still where they're supposed to be, but wherever they are in there, the cladding and the rods are quite damaged, it would seem.
Slewie -
I am so impressed you noticed.
I feel like a celebrity when anonymous monikers comment on the variation of my avatar.
Hollywood must be next. Get the cement ready!
...no really
get the cement ready, Japan is going to need it
arnie thinks it's a core issue, for sure. i hadn't heard the whole audio.
Hey we Neutrons aren't anything to mess with we can be 20x as biologically damaging as gamma rays and high z numbers don't stop us but hydrogen rich materials can slow us down or stop us.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_biological_effectiveness
...and, outside of a nucleus, you have a half-life of like 15 minutes.
I expect to see you decay into Proton Ray and Electron Ray by the next time ZH has a thread on the Fuku Cluster Flock.
recriticality in reactors should not cause neutron beam excursions...the reactors are built to operate with ongoing criticality in them.
Maybe SFPs are the source?
they need to immobilize all the rod materials to prevent runoff while spray cooling. If there's a crack in a fuel pond, they will need to immobilize all the melted pellets, get enough water in for shielding, seal the crack, then fill the ponds. This sounds like a troubling engineering problem
"This sounds like a troubling engineering problem"
It's impossible. This is insurmountable.
Other then that I have no concerns.
(Yes, you can stick with my thesis....you know the one I'm talking about)
*again we are dealing with sources that power the universe.
Who here thinks we can tame that type of energy? It's quite clear pandora has been unleashed.
Pandora is a gnarly bitch.
nothing is insurmountable.
Just announce free chicken and waffles there and say that the fuel pellets will turn into a free plasma TV and you'll have the problem gone in no time
You're right.
Nothing a little watermelon can't solve.
Yea, but the last thing left in Pandora's box was HOPE! Milestones