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US, UK Pull Search Teams Out Of Japan As TEPCO Admits Situation Is "Severe"
Earlier today we received an email from one of our readers aboard the aircraft carrier group off Japan performing evacuation efforts for US citizens in Japan, that it had turned around and is now going back. While we are trying to validate this, we have just noticed breaking news from Sky News that US and UK search teams are pulling out of Japan tomorrow. We were wondering what may have brought about this (so far unconfirmed) evacuation of the evacuators until we saw the next breaking news from Sky News: "Japan Admits Nuclear Problem Is 'Severe'" - "This is a severe incident that is occurring right now," the spokesman said at a news conference. "We have vented and used seawater as cooling, followed the accident management plan but this is a very severe operation." The admission comes as plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) continues attempts to stop the six-reactor Fukushima 1 complex from going into nuclear meltdown. "We have to keep cooling the fuel so it doesn't reach criticality," the Tepco spokesman said, adding that radiation levels have barely fallen at the site." Translation: if operation "Irrigation" fails, TEPCO itself confirms the chance of a critical reaction in the nuclear fuel is very high. Which of course would explain why everyone who knows more than the average peasant who just watches manipulated media, is getting the hell out of dodge.
More from Sky News:
The UK's chief scientific officer John Beddington explained that spent nuclear rods were stored in 'ponds', which kept them cool.
"The situation has changed," he said."The pond in rector four is the cause of very considerable concern. What has happened is that this has been damaged by explosions and is leaking very fast.
"We've had reports that it has gone dry."
Low concentrations of radioactive particles from the power plant have been heading eastwards and are expected to reach North America in days, a Swedish official said.
Lars-Erik De Geer, research director at the government-run Swedish Defence Research Agency, cited data gathered from a network of international monitoring stations used to detect nuclear weapons tests.
Meanwhile, international energy authorities and other nations voiced concerns over the situation at the Fukushima plant north-east of Tokyo.
Japanese Chinook helicopters - reportedly fitted with lead radiation shields - attempted to dump tons of seawater into cooling pools to prevent spent fuel overheating while operator working in short shifts pumped water into the reactor cores.
The International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) said that four water drops were also made after midnight in an attempt to prevent the reactor overheating.
A police riot control water cannon attempted to replenish the cooling pools but was withdrawn, while two military airport fire trucks continued afterwards.
Sebastian Pflugbeil, president of the private German-based Society for Radiation Protection, said Japan's efforts to pull the Fukushima 1 plant back from the brink signalled "the beginning of the catastrophic phase".
"Maybe we have to pray," he said.
The head of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory Jaczko, said he believes the situation is more serious than the Japanese government is letting on.
Mr Jaczko warned water in reactor 4's cooling pool may have run dry and a second reactor could be leaking - something experts say could accelerate the release of radiation.
"We believe that around the reactor site there are high levels of radiation," he said.
For those who missed our in depth overview of the (now supposedly water-free) spent fuel rod cooling pools can do so at the following link.
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TEPCO's new management.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eGuordzuwk
"whose flesh is as the flesh of asses"
Finest kind!
Strange Bloomberg article just posted:
Efforts to cool reactors at Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear plant may have succeeded enough to start cleanup measures in two days, a U.K. professor said.
“In another 48 hours, it should be clear that the water and steam temperature is low enough to start other cleanup efforts,” said Roger Crouch, head of the School of Engineering at Durham University. “It appears it’s getting stabilized..."
check the date of the article, that was the kinda fud that was passed around a couple of dazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzze ago.
However, at the time of this post.
Latest18.41 An official at Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the plant operator, said the pool at the no 4 reactor at Fukushima "seemed to have water" on Wednesday, based on aerial observations carried out by the military helicopters, AFP reports. Another TEPCO spokesman said: "We have not confirmed how much water was left inside but we have not had information that spent fuel rods are exposed."
That's the 'glint of silver' TEPCO thinks it sees in there. No one else seems to be able to see it.
I think it's a.....lunchbox. Or just a dream.
Anyway where are these drone pix at???
NY Times article says SFPs are 39 ft (12 m) deep. The 13-ft (4 m) fuel rods are normally covered with 26 ft (8 m) of water.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/asia/18spent.html?hp
We all saw that helicopter video. How in the hell could they see down into a narrow, 39-foot deep pit, in which the water level may be 30 or 35 feet down from the top edge, or even nonexistent? Even if there weren't a layer of debris on top, there would be no way to see down into the spent fuel pool except with a powerful spotlight, shined from directly above it with a clear view.
No way they did that. Sorry, but this story of 'silver reflections' is wishful fiction.
This was a photo-op exercise for the gullible mainly Japanese public.
It appeared that they were doing something rather than nothing.
eh...I can't concur on this.
Until they get the SFRs underwater, they have no chance to clean up anything. They are in desperate need of radiation shielding for exposed core elements.
It may come to having a team of kamikazes run up with a garden hose, don't laugh. A remotely controlled crane that could punch a hole and put a hose into the SFPs would be highly useful at this point.
If they can get the SFP rods underwater, rad levels will drop markedly, then the only remaining hot zones would be the reactors which have significantly more containment.
Very cogent response Trav
Thats what I've been trying to say
Well, i can't see how Japan as a country will survive this. It is bad, very bad, and the radiation isn't going away for a long, long time. They will have to evacuate Tokyo - and they won't be going back. We are witnessing the beginning of the largest population displacement in the history of the world. No one wants to believe it, so no one is really talking about it.
Gee, I guess Anderson Cooper is having a rough year. First bitchslapped in Egypt, the lit up in Japan...bad things come in three's. I'm starting a raffle - first one to guess the third insult to the CNN news hero wins a bottle of Potassium Iodide...
a small bit of good news if true (no spent fuel rods at #2)
from Reuters
- Engineers hope to use power from the main grid to restart water pumps to cool reactor No. 2, which does not house spent fuel rods considered the biggest risk of spewing radioactivity into the atmosphere.
It all could have been so easy and secure.
High altitude winds, the future of windpower !
KITEGEN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl_tqnsN_Tc&feature=player_embedded#at=14
I wouldn't read to much into the search teams being withdrawn beyond the fact that there is probably no one left alive in the rubble and debris to find. Obscured by the nuclear frenzy (for right or wrong) is the tragedy of the human toll from the tsunami. The official death toll is very, very low. People are not being reported missing because whole communities where simply wiped away. The final death toll will likey be 30 to 40 thousand.
The Russians and Germans decided that yesterday. So did the Canadians.
Today passengers are showing up with radiation at airports in the US.
BP may have been covering up a few steps but what the Japs government and TEPCO are doing is outright criminal and careless.
The helicopter show is for cameras folks. There's nothing they can do long enough before they run out of volunteers or helicopter fuel, whichever comes first.
Time to get some serious analyst to assess the potential level of damage to the global population.
80 km radius my ass.
http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110317D17JFA30.htm
Tepco CEO's can carry buckets and while doing that do some live damage reports. In the same effort they can take a leak to cool hotspots. To make up a little for pissing on the population
Maybe Prez Retard can explain why he cancelled the Yukka Mt storage facility, so now all OUR spent fuel will remain in hundreds of unsecure locations? I'm guessing it has something to do with the oil lobby and the desire to kill off competition.
The biggest problem facing the USA, isn't radioactive fallout floating ashore, but cashed out treasury notes leaving the country, that's the melt down that is going to put a hurt on everyone.
It'd be nice if the aircraft carrier could do radiation readings in the pacific on the way back to track the cloud of shit that is about to hit us.
No one from Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Countrywide, Bank of American, AIG, Lehman, Bear, etc. went to jail. These entities all stored the Spent Fuel Rods that Credit Derivatives improperly (intentionally - Goldman - or unintentionally - AIG).
Will anyone from TEPCO go to jail? They stored Spent Fuel Rods improperly (way too many, and in reckless fashion).
What do you mean improperly? It seems like that's best industry practice... Now, whether it passes governmental regulations means dick for the subsequent lawsuits... You can bet your ass california milk producers will be filing soon... of course, their clean-up measures have to be reasonable as well... but, the best way to help yourself in that regard is to send all those who know to their radioactive deaths and make sure camera footage is less than clear... which seems to be happening pretty well. I bet they get a fair shake in cali courts too.
The various geiger counters readings monitoring online are still falling. Clearly they are being manipulated by the Japanese government to misrepresent the situation. The bastards.