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Nuclear Expert: “The Melted Core Cracked The Containment Vessel, There Really Is No Containment” At Fukushima Reactors
Steven Starr - Director of the Clinical Laboratory Science Program at the University of Missouri/Senior Scientist at Physicians for Social Responsibility - said:
The Japanese basically lied about what happened with the reactors for months. They said they were trying to prevent a meltdown, when in fact they knew within the first couple of days Reactors 1, 2, and 3 at Fukushima Daiichi had melted down, and they actually melted through the steel containment vessels.
So there was a worst case scenario that they were trying to hide, they even knew that at that time enormous amounts of radiation were released over Japan and some of it even went over Tokyo [...]
The melted core cracked the containment vessel, there really is no containment. So as soon as they pump the water in it leaks out again.
Asahi Shimbum notes that the location of Fukushima melted fuel is unknown. It could be ‘scattered’ in piping, vessels ... “we’ve yet to identify all hotspots” around plant.
While the Japanese government tried to cover up the lack of containment with "mission accomplished" type announcements of "cold shutdown", the loss of containment has been known for years.
For example, AP wrote in December 2011:
The nuclear fuel moved as it melted, so its condition and locations are little known.
AP noted a couple of days later:
The complex still faces numerous concerns, triggering criticism that the announcement of “cold shutdown conditions” is based on a political decision rather than science. Nobody knows exactly where and how the melted fuel ended up in each reactor ….
We noted last year:
If the reactors are “cold”, it may be because most of the hot radioactive fuel has leaked out.
***
The New York Times pointed out last month:
A former nuclear engineer with three decades of experience at a major engineering firm … who has worked at all three nuclear power complexes operated by Tokyo Electric [said] “If the fuel is still inside the reactor core, that’s one thing” …. But if the fuel has been dispersed more widely, then we are far from any stable shutdown.”
Indeed, if the center of the reactors are in fact relatively “cold”, it may be because most of the hot radioactive fuel has leaked out of the containment vessels and escaped into areas where it can do damage to the environment.
After drilling a hole in the containment vessel of Fukushima reactor 2, Tepco cannot find the fuel.
As AP notes:
The steam-blurred photos taken by remote control Thursday found none of the reactor’s melted fuel ….
The photos also showed inner wall of the container heavily deteriorated after 10 months of exposure to high temperature and humidity, Matsumoto said.
TEPCO workers inserted the endoscope — an industrial version of the kind of endoscope doctors use — through a hole in the beaker-shaped container at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant’s No. 2 reactor ….
New video of the inside of the torus room in Fukushima reactor 1 shows piles of sediment:
As nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen pointed out last year:
Tokyo Electric ran a probe into the basement of Unit 1. This is not inside the containment, this is outside the containment. On the top of the water surface they found lethal radiation, 1000 rem an hour.
But then they put the probe down into the water and what’s even worse is the bottom, the sediment on the bottom, was thousand of times hotter than that. And what that indicates is that fuel, nuclear fuel, has left the containment, as particles, and settled out on the bottom outside the containment. So, I think that’s a pretty clear indication that the containment was breached. It just makes decommissioning these plants… it was going too be hard already, but this information makes it worse.
Loss of containment of nuclear fuel also exists within the spent fuel pools at Fukushima.
For example, Chris Harris, former licensed Senior Reactor Operator and engineer says of new video released by Tepco showing extensive damage and debris in Fukushima spent fuel pool 3:
Plenty of heavy steel beams and refueling equipment that must be cleared out of the way in order to see how badly damaged each fuel assembly is.
There is little doubt that failed fuel exists, which is highly radioactive.
Asahi Shimbum notes:
The water [inside Fuel Pool 4] was muddy and brown.
The Fukushima fuel pools continue to be one of the main threats to Japan, the United States ... and all of humanity.
And the Fukushima accident is presently causing higher and higher levels of contamination hundreds of miles away ... and is still contaminating wildlife thousands of miles away.
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Saw that. It may be that these 2 sites can only be contained for some limited number of generations and nothing truly long term. Several hundred years of weathering on anything can be rough when considering that the once in a century floods will stress those sites eventually. Maybe soil building will put it a few feet off the surface some long time from now. Or total absorption into the ocean may occur. Being heavy elements, a lot of it may settle to the sea bottoms if not stuck in the land.
Any surface containment/burial is too heavy for the substrate in Fukushima. The thousands of earthquakes in the area are causing the ground to sink through liquifaction, and in time the whole site will slide into the sea.
ENENews is a really bad source Georges ... but you know that already ... don't you? ... well, if you want to write on the topic, you should at least understand the difference.
Since one "nuclear particle" can cause cancer, it cannot be diluted. It must be contained.
Yes, the radiation has affected the West Coast. I noticed the abalone has turned a dark greenish magenta and the Pacific salmon now glow.
Seriously, it makes you pnder what are the consequences for all those fetuses along the Coast? ...and young growing bones?
It isn't along the coast. It came in through the Pacific Northwest, along the Canadian border and spread after passing the Rockies. Some of the highest rad readings are in the Northeast and south from there to Florida.
And it's still coming in. Full extinction in about 6-7 generations.
consequences shmonsequences
obamacare will handle it
bitchez
The problem exists, the will to acknowledge that the problem exists is the sticking point. If a tree falls in the woods, it still falls, whether someone is around to hear it or not. This is not a tree however and ignoring it and the potential consequences should cause a man-made tremor in the populace that is being lied to. But these are Japanese and they don't have the history to rise up and overthrow the shoguns
This just located on the web. More lies and wishful thinking, straight from Tepco itself
http://www.houseofjapan.com/local/fukushima-reactors-status-1-feb-2013
This is much more dire problem than anyone is willing to admit. The health concerns for the people of Japan are critical; I've got to believe the radioactive particles will spread through the Northern Hemisphere (if they haven't already). Naval personnel stationed off the coast of Japan already have suffered the consequences and have sued.
'Over 150 U.S. service members say Fukushima radiation has triggered medical issues — Now Defense Department abandons medical registry, leaving them on own'
http://enenews.com/150-service-members-fukushima-radiation-triggered-med...
From the CIC: Let 'em die!
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Fuck, the radiation has to be an evil magic. Everything that is wrong with the perfect spirit inside of each of us is only when one has a dis-ease. It is belief! Maybe we need our own placebo, againt the magic/placebo of radiation. Wird is that it is a bus in a can.
Ya Tepco gave up on Japan and began building reactors in Texas after that.
This hasn't been on the news, thus this problem does not exist.
Add - Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Tunisa, Morocco, Argentina to the list of - non news worthy
We have to wait until all the brokers drop dead from radiation poisoning on the floor of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. That might affect the Dow and thus they would have to report that on CNBC. And Uncle Ben would have to print more $$$.
You don't need brokers. The algos will take care of trading.
"There's an app for that..."
No, we'll have to wait until the rads destroy the HFT server chips.
Of course, all organic life will have ceased by then.
SKYNET Trading. An advance party of aliens lands to find a planet composed only of gambling addicted machines....
I guess this is one of those rare crisis that they'll let go to waste.
We must outlaw ASSAULT nukular power plants!
Yep, best to check the Pacific Ocean off your list of future food suppliers.
Went long tuna and salmon the week after initial news hit the MSM. When it's gone, it's gone.
Canned Tuna for One ASE - Get it while it lasts.
And wine pre-3/11/11. Someday that stuff will be as valuable as platinum, if it can be authenticated.
I don’t eat tuna, but I think I’m going to be able to put the cat in a pressure vessel and power a steam turbine here pretty soon.
Only 2 things in the world smell like tuna...and one of them is tuna.
Eve should never have been allowed to swim in the river.
And while Sarah Palin was visiting friends in Seattle, she really could see the glow of NuKuFuKu from their backyard.
Jeez, from all those down errors you'd think I'd stepped on someones 6 toed foot.
Wow....someone took their funny pills today !
dipshit
You guys are getting pissed about Palin jokes? On ZH? Get fucking real.
Evidently, that's one sore nerve that never healed.
DWTS anyone?
They're still embarrased for mom finding them wacking off to Sarah while she was shooting bears from a chopper. Big boobs and no brains still takes it in America these days.
Oh Well. Laughter really is the best medicine after you realize that radiation poisoning is permanent...and not transitory.
And John Kerry & Joe Biden can see it from "Kryzhkiistan"! Wow! Making fun of dumb politicians on a post about runaway nuclear contamination and massive government-sponsored efforts to cover it up IS fun and profitable!
Asshole.
I think you missed the point that... U R Fucked.
Excellent footage, hadn't seen it before. The white/RGB blips in the first video reminds me of Chernobyl footage -- radiation hitting the sensor of the camera.
May I ask a question? How does one go about "cleaning up" nuclear material once it has left the containment vessel?
wait for 7x108 years and it will clean up itself.
They move it to a place like this:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/02/22/us-washington-hanford-nuclear-leak.html
How the hell do they "move it" if it has already seeped into the cracks & crevices of the earth?
They could bury/entomb it. It's been done before. Think about like this there is a lot of radioactive material in the world; we just put too much of it in one place.
So, you want to scatter it around evenly?
They dig it up and move it and store it at a "safe" site. There is liquid waste and solid waste. Solid waste can include the bull dozers and equipment used to dig it up and move it around. Now if it reaches the water table you have a real problem on your hand. About 25 years or so ago some morons hired a contractor to move some waste. He was not an approved contractor and he just stored the relatively low radioactive waste on his property in 55 gal drums which rusted and drained into a local creek. The folly of man has no limit and there is always some guy demanding that things be done cheaply.
Have a look at the Japanese coastline on Google maps, they concreted almost all of it. I remember talking to a marine biologist several decades ago who visited Japan and came back appalled that they had concreted almost the entire coastline. He simply didn't understand they get really big tsunamis from time to time. The concrete was not mere environmental vandalism, it was a matter of survival and defense against just this sort of event (which is all the more curious that they placed reactor complexes all along the eastern coastline! ... slight break-down in communication and planning there).
I have no doubt whatever that the Japanese will spare no expense to build a concrete version of Mt Fuji, to immobilize the stuff, or rather, to seriously impede its re-mobilization (they know they can't completely stop it). They'll do it because, as bad as the particulate and fluid contamination is and damage to marine life, it could easily have been much worse than this - much worse.
Everything that can be picked up, either by hand or crane, is going into the Pacific Ocean.
Tragic -
And I can't help but wonder if there is some truth to the stories that the US itself intentionally attacked the Fukushima plant, via a planted nuclear explosion in the sea or the use of its HAARP type weapons
Or the stories that this is the start of the culling of humanity
But also couldn't help but remember when the man said, with equal falsehood:
'It is contained'
- Ben Bernanke
Based on the research I've done, I don't put anything past those in power, especially those that are behind the scenes. Bank guy's post, (I believe) might be based on Jim Stone's expose on his website (jimstonefreelance.com) making an decent argument for Israeli intervention due to an agreement by TEPCO to supply enriched fuel to Iran.
His post also brings to mind the picture of the BP oil rig burning on one side and a gaping oblong hole in the middle of the heli-pad where there was no fire or evidence of explosion and it looked more like someone had taken an knife and carved it out. No explanation was ever given.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr6u4aHDsDI
The US would not have attacked a nuclear plant. They seem dumb sometimes but they are not stupid enough to intentionally release several thousand tons of nuclear material into the atmosphere. Although they don't have a very good record of dealing with their own waste I will admit.
Maybe that's the plan. Live large until all the nukes melt down, because we don't know what to do with the spent fuel. No wonder they never funded Social Security and instead spent the money.
I agree that the US would not have attacked a nuclear plant. The wind blows east. There is another country, known for it's intense nuclear weapons paranoia, much farther removed geographically that has been mentioned . . . (google stuxnet)
Oh, for gods sake!
There was an great-earthquake moron, fifth highest energy levels in modern instrumented records.
It severely damaged the plant and its plumbing and its backup power, water circulation pumps, and extraction systems, and the mains power was also knocked out.
So the reactors melted and the fuel pools almost boiled dry.
Now shut the fuck up - idiot!
and I thought that the nuclear-powered carrier in that zone would rush to supply emergency electricity instead of scuttling away - would have fixed the issue