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Update on Japan's Nuclear Crisis

George Washington's picture




 

The situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex is getting worse in many ways, but better in some ways. Here's a quick roundup.

Reactor 1

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that roughly 70 percent of the core of reactor number 1 suffered severe damage. In other words, it came very close to a total meltdown. But things appear now to be stabilizing:

Mr. Chu, a Nobel laureate in physics, suggested that the worst moments of the crisis appeared to be receding, saying that the best information the United States had received from the Japanese authorities indicated that water was once again covering the cores of the stricken reactors and that pools of spent fuel atop the reactor buildings were “now under control.”

Reactor 2

Tepco announced that there is a crack in the concrete pit of reactor number 2 that is leaking radiation into the ocean from a crippled reactor:

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it had found a crack in the pit at its No.2 reactor in Fukushima, generating readings 1,000 millisieverts of radiation per hour in the air inside the pit.

Reuters noted that workers were attempting to plug the crack with concrete, but were facing challenges:

Public broadcaster NHK said late on Saturday that water was preventing the concrete from hardening and the pit was still leaking.

Reactor 3

As previously noted, CNN reported:

Authorities in Japan raised the prospect Friday of a likely breach in the all-important containment vessel of the No. 3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a potentially ominous development in the race to prevent a large-scale release of radiation.

The New York Times pointed out:

A senior nuclear executive who insisted on anonymity but has broad contacts in Japan said that there was a long vertical crack running down the side of the reactor vessel itself. The crack runs down below the water level in the reactor and has been leaking fluids and gases, he said.

***

“There is a definite, definite crack in the vessel — it’s up and down and it’s large,” he said. “The problem with cracks is they do not get smaller.”

And NHK notes that a giant crane fell over and probably crushed spent fuel rods at in Fukushima reactor number 3, which contain a plutonium-uranium mix:

(starting around 1:40 into video).

Reactor 4

Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen notes that the spent fuel rods in reactor number 4 have no water, and the rods are exposed:

Aerial Views of the Destruction

As can be seen from the following aerial photograph, there is severe damage at several of the reactors (click the images for larger, high-res versions):



Chris Martenson shows where reactors 1 through 4 are located:

Other Developments

Localized nuclear reactions ("re-criticalities") have re-started at Fukushima causing "blue flashes" above the plant:


There is no indication that widespread nuclear reactions will re-start.

Greenpeace has measured very high levels of radiation some 40 killometers from Fukushima:

 

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Sat, 04/02/2011 - 19:59 | 1128800 HungrySeagull
HungrySeagull's picture

Once you put concrete mixed into a readymix haul truck, you have two hours max until it dries out. We keep about 70 gallons to feed it during the trip to the job. Maybe an hour at most. The hotter it is outside, the faster it sets up.

 

You can even pour the goddamn concrete underwater and wait a while. It will set right hard too.

 

Hang the Fed has it right also. Pour Concrete.

Play a firehouse on it before it sets and you have gravel.

Sat, 04/02/2011 - 15:21 | 1128267 jeff montanye
jeff montanye's picture

post says reactor 4 fuel rods have water, video headline says no water.  also first line of post has "same" but probably means "some".

Sat, 04/02/2011 - 19:10 | 1128724 Hang The Fed
Hang The Fed's picture

Typical mass-confusion. 

Sat, 04/02/2011 - 15:18 | 1128262 Armchair Bear
Sat, 04/02/2011 - 15:08 | 1128250 AN0NYM0US
AN0NYM0US's picture

"but better in some ways"

 

was sarc on with that comment?

Sat, 04/02/2011 - 19:21 | 1128746 ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

Nope... he meant "better than expected!"

Sat, 04/02/2011 - 15:03 | 1128232 vast-dom
vast-dom's picture

SCARY!

Sat, 04/02/2011 - 20:20 | 1128833 Judge Judy Scheinlok
Judge Judy Scheinlok's picture

The scary is compounded when you realize how much you are being lied to.

saying that the best information the United States had received from the Japanese authorities indicated that

GW should know better. This is spin control.

Sat, 04/02/2011 - 15:08 | 1128230 AssFire
AssFire's picture

Import the Mexicans- 2 car loads (60 people) and pour the concrete, job finished.

Sat, 04/02/2011 - 17:11 | 1128483 Dolar in a vortex
Dolar in a vortex's picture

Import a volunteer force of stage IV cancer sufferers. Pay their families $1m tax free and thank them for their sacrifice.

Sun, 04/03/2011 - 02:19 | 1129341 chumbawamba
chumbawamba's picture

I can understand why you got junked.  $1 million would just be hyperinflated away by the time this catastrophe is resolved.

Pay them in gold, bitches!

I am Chumbawamba.

Sat, 04/02/2011 - 18:29 | 1128640 barkster
barkster's picture

move item to page 16 and focus on libya...

Sun, 04/03/2011 - 02:19 | 1129345 chumbawamba
chumbawamba's picture

That is the correct answer, but it wasn't in the form of a question.

-$200

I am Alex Trebek.

Sat, 04/02/2011 - 16:08 | 1128380 covert
covert's picture

maybe it should be covered in liquid lead?

http://covert2.wordpress.com

 

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