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We’re In The Most Dangerous Moment Since the Cuban Missile Crisis
Scientists Warn of Extreme Risk
We’ve long said that the greatest short-term threat to humanity is from the fuel pools at Fukushima.
The Japanese nuclear agency recently green-lighted the removal of the spent fuel rods from Fukushima reactor 4′s spent fuel pool. The operation is scheduled to begin this month.
The head of the U.S. Department of Energy correctly notes:
The success of the cleanup also has global significance. So we all have a direct interest in seeing that the next steps are taken well, efficiently and safely.
If one of the pools collapsed or caught fire, it could have severe adverse impacts not only on Japan … but the rest of the world, including the United States. Indeed, a Senator called it a national security concern for the U.S.:
The radiation caused by the failure of the spent fuel pools in the event of another earthquake could reach the West Coast within days. That absolutely makes the safe containment and protection of this spent fuel a security issue for the United States.
Hiroaki Koide – a nuclear scientist working at the University of Kyoto – says:
I’m worried about whether Tepco can treat all the 1,331 [spent-fuel] assemblies without any problem and how long it will take.
Award-winning scientist David Suzuki says that Fukushima is terrifying, Tepco and the Japanese government are lying through their teeth, and Fukushima is “the most terrifying situation I can imagine”.
Suzuki notes that reactor 4 is so badly damaged that – if there’s another earthquake of 7 or above – the building could come down. And the probability of another earthquake of 7 or above in the next 3 years is over 95%.
Suzuki says that he’s seen a paper that says that if – in fact – the 4th reactor comes down, “it’s bye bye Japan, and everyone on the West Coast of North America should evacuate. Now if that’s not terrifying, I don’t know what is.”
The Telegraph reports:
The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant … will begin a dry run of the procedure at the No. 4 reactor, which experts have warned carries grave risks.
***
“Did you ever play pick up sticks?” asked a foreign nuclear expert who has been monitoring Tepco’s efforts to regain control of the plant. “You had 50 sticks, you heaved them into the air and than had to take one off the pile at a time.
“If the pile collapsed when you were picking up a stick, you lost,” he said. “There are 1,534 pick-up sticks in a jumble in top of an unsteady reactor 4. What do you think can happen?
“I do not know anyone who is confident that this can be done since it has never been tried.”
ABC notes:
One slip-up in the latest step to decommission Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant could trigger a “monumental” chain reaction, experts warn.
***
Experts around the world have warned … that the fuel pool is in a precarious state – vulnerable to collapsing in another big earthquake.
Yale University professor Charles Perrow wrote about the number 4 fuel pool this year in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
“This has me very scared,” he told the ABC.
“Tokyo would have to be evacuated because [the] caesium and other poisons that are there will spread very rapidly.
Perrow also argues:
Conditions in the unit 4 pool, 100 feet from the ground, are perilous, and if any two of the rods touch it could cause a nuclear reaction that would be uncontrollable. The radiation emitted from all these rods, if they are not continually cool and kept separate, would require the evacuation of surrounding areas including Tokyo. Because of the radiation at the site the 6,375 rods in the common storage pool could not be continuously cooled; they would fission and all of humanity will be threatened, for thousands of years.
Former Japanese ambassador Akio Matsumura warns that – if the operation isn’t done right – this could one day be considered the start of “the ultimate catastrophe of the world and planet”:
(He also argues that removing the fuel rods will take “decades rather than months.)
Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen and physician Helen Caldicott have both said that people should evacuate the Northern Hemisphere if one of the Fukushima fuel pools collapses. Gundersen said:
Move south of the equator if that ever happened, I think that’s probably the lesson there.
Harvey Wasserman wrote two months ago:
We are now within two months of what may be humankind’s most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
***
Should the attempt fail, the rods could be exposed to air and catch fire, releasing horrific quantities of radiation into the atmosphere. The pool could come crashing to the ground, dumping the rods together into a pile that could fission and possibly explode. The resulting radioactive cloud would threaten the health and safety of all us.
***
A new fuel fire at Unit 4 would pour out a continuous stream of lethal radioactive poisons for centuries.
Former Ambassador Mitsuhei Murata says full-scale releases from Fukushima “would destroy the world environment and our civilization. This is not rocket science, nor does it connect to the pugilistic debate over nuclear power plants. This is an issue of human survival.”
Even Japan’s Top Nuclear Regulator Says that The Operation Carries a “Very Large Risk Potential”
Even the head of Japan’s nuclear agency is worried. USA Today notes:
Nuclear regulatory chairman Shunichi Tanaka, however, warned that removing the fuel rods from Unit 4 would be difficult because of the risk posed by debris that fell into the pool during the explosions.
“It’s a totally different operation than removing normal fuel rods from a spent fuel pool,” Tanaka said at a regular news conference. “They need to be handled extremely carefully and closely monitored. You should never rush or force them out, or they may break.”
He said it would be a disaster if fuel rods are pulled forcibly and are damaged or break open when dropped from the pool, located about 30 meters (100 feet) above ground, releasing highly radioactive material. “I’m much more worried about this than contaminated water,” Tanaka said
The same top Japanese nuclear official said:
The process involves a very large risk potential.
BBC reports:
A task of extraordinary delicacy and danger is about to begin at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power station.
***
One senior official told me: “It’s going to be very difficult but it has to happen.”
Why It’s Such a Difficult Operation
CNN notes that debris in the fuel pool might interfere with operations:
South China Morning Post notes:
Nothing remotely similar has been attempted before and … it is feared that any error of judgment could lead to a massive release of radiation into the atmosphere.
***
A spokesman for Tepco … admitted, however, that it was not clear whether any of the rods were damaged or if debris in the pool would complicate the recovery effort.
The Wall Street journal notes:
Among the risks [Hiromitsu Ino, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering at the University of Tokyo] and other experts cite is the possibility that a container being used to move the units falls and breaks apart, exposing the fuel to the air.
Similarly, Edwin Lyman – a nuclear expert and the chief scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists notes:
The biggest risk with Unit 4 pool unloading is that a spent fuel cask might drop and damage the pool, causing a leak that could expose some fuel and cause overheating.
Professor Richard Broinowski – former Australian Ambassador to Vietnam, Republic of Korea, Mexico, the Central American Republics and Cuba – and author of numerous books on nuclear policy and Fukushima, says some of the fuel rods are probably fused.
Murray E. Jennex, Ph.D., P.E. (Professional Engineer), Professor of MIS, San Diego State University, notes:
The rods in the spent fuel pool may have melted …. I consider it more likely that these rods were breached during the explosions associated with the event and their contents may be in contact with the ground water, probably due to all the seawater that was sprayed on the plant.
Fuel rod expert Arnie Gundersen – a nuclear engineer and former senior manager of a nuclear power company which manufactured nuclear fuel rods – recently explained the biggest problem with the fuel rods (at 15:45):
I think they’re belittling the complexity of the task. If you think of a nuclear fuel rack as a pack of cigarettes, if you pull a cigarette straight up it will come out — but these racks have been distorted. Now when they go to pull the cigarette straight out, it’s going to likely break and release radioactive cesium and other gases, xenon and krypton, into the air. I suspect come November, December, January we’re going to hear that the building’s been evacuated, they’ve broke a fuel rod, the fuel rod is off-gassing.
***
I suspect we’ll have more airborne releases as they try to pull the fuel out. If they pull too hard, they’ll snap the fuel. I think the racks have been distorted, the fuel has overheated — the pool boiled – and the net effect is that it’s likely some of the fuel will be stuck in there for a long, long time.
In another interview, Gundersen provides additional details (at 31:00):
The racks are distorted from the earthquake — oh, by the way, the roof has fallen in, which further distorted the racks.
The net effect is they’ve got the bundles of fuel, the cigarettes in these racks, and as they pull them out, they’re likely to snap a few. When you snap a nuclear fuel rod, that releases radioactivity again, so my guess is, it’s things like krypton-85, which is a gas, cesium will also be released, strontium will be released. They’ll probably have to evacuate the building for a couple of days. They’ll take that radioactive gas and they’ll send it up the stack, up into the air, because xenon can’t be scrubbed, it can’t be cleaned, so they’ll send that radioactive xenon up into the air and purge the building of all the radioactive gases and then go back in and try again.
It’s likely that that problem will exist on more than one bundle. So over the next year or two, it wouldn’t surprise me that either they don’t remove all the fuel because they don’t want to pull too hard, or if they do pull to hard, they’re likely to damage the fuel and cause a radiation leak inside the building. So that’s problem #2 in this process, getting the fuel out of Unit 4 is a top priority I have, but it’s not going to be easy. Tokyo Electric is portraying this as easy. In a normal nuclear reactor, all of this is done with computers. Everything gets pulled perfectly vertically. Well nothing is vertical anymore, the fuel racks are distorted, it’s all going to have to be done manually. The net effect is it’s a really difficult job. It wouldn’t surprise me if they snapped some of the fuel and they can’t remove it.
The Japan Times writes:
The consequences could be far more severe than any nuclear accident the world has ever seen. If a fuel rod is dropped, breaks or becomes entangled while being removed, possible worst case scenarios include a big explosion, a meltdown in the pool, or a large fire. Any of these situations could lead to massive releases of deadly radionuclides into the atmosphere, putting much of Japan — including Tokyo and Yokohama — and even neighboring countries at serious risk.
Reuters notes:
Experts question whether it will be able to pull off the removal of all the assemblies successfully.
***
No one knows how bad it can get, but independent consultants Mycle Schneider and Antony Froggatt said recently in their World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2013: “Full release from the Unit-4 spent fuel pool, without any containment or control, could cause by far the most serious radiological disaster to date.”
***
Nonetheless, Tepco inspires little confidence. Sharply criticized for failing to protect the Fukushima plant against natural disasters, its handling of the crisis since then has also been lambasted.
***
“There is a risk of an inadvertent criticality if the bundles are distorted and get too close to each other,” Gundersen said.
***
The rods are also vulnerable to fire should they be exposed to air, Gundersen said. [The pools have already boiled due to exposure to air.]
***
[Here is a visual tour of Fukushima's fuel pools, along with graphics of how the rods will be removed.]
Tepco confirmed the Reactor No. 4 fuel pool contains debris during an investigation into the chamber earlier this month.
Removing the rods from the pool is a delicate task normally assisted by computers, according to Toshio Kimura, a former Tepco technician, who worked at Fukushima Daiichi for 11 years.
“Previously it was a computer-controlled process that memorized the exact locations of the rods down to the millimeter and now they don’t have that. It has to be done manually so there is a high risk that they will drop and break one of the fuel rods,” Kimura said.
***
Corrosion from the salt water will have also weakened the building and equipment, he said.
ABC Radio Australia quotes an expert on the situation (at 1:30):
Richard Tanter, expert on nuclear power issues and professor of international relations at the University of Melbourne:
***
Reactor Unit 4, the one which has a very large amount of stored fuel in its fuel storage pool, that is sinking. According to former prime Minister Kan Naoto, that has sunk some 31 inches in places and it’s not uneven.
And Chris Harris – a, former licensed Senior Reactor Operator and engineer – notes that it doesn’t help that a lot of the rods are in very fragile condition:
Although there are a lot of spent fuel assemblies in there which could achieve criticality — there are also 200 new fuel assemblies which have equivalent to a full tank of gas, let’s call it that. Those are the ones most likely to go critical first.
***
Some pictures that were released recently show that a lot of fuel is damaged, so when they go ahead and put the grapple on it, and they pull it up, it’s going to fall apart. The boreflex has been eaten away; it doesn’t take saltwater very good.
Nuclear engineers say that the fuel pool is “distorted”, material was blown up into air and came down inside, damaging the fuel, the roof fell in, distorting things inside.
Indeed, Fukushima documents discuss “fuel that is severely damaged” inside cooling pool, and show illustrations of “deformed or leaking fuels”.
The Urgent Need: Replace Tepco
Tepco is severely downplaying the risks involved in removing fuel rods. For example, Tepco’s head of the Fukushima plant, Akira Ono, says:
We have removed spent fuels many times. Therefore, we don’t think we are going to be doing anything that is very dangerous.
That is idiotic given that (as shown above) this is anything but a normal fuel removal operation.
Tepco is incompetent and corrupt, and has been in cover-up mode since day one. As such, it is the last company which should be in charge of the clean-up.
Top scientists and government officials say that Tepco should be removed from all efforts to stabilize Fukushima. They say that an international team of the smartest engineers and scientists should instead handle this difficult mission.
Bloomberg notes:
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is being told by his own party that Japan’s response is failing. Plant operator [Tepco] alone isn’t up to the task of managing the cleanup and decommissioning of the atomic station in Fukushima. That’s the view of Tadamori Oshima, head of a task force in charge of Fukushima’s recovery and former vice president of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party.
***
[There's] a growing recognition that the government needs to take charge at the Fukushima station…. “If we allow the situation to continue, it’ll never be resolved” [said Sumio Mabuchi, a government point man on crisis in 2011].
Because the U.S. controls Japanese nuclear policy, Americans should demand of our political representatives that they pressure Japan to kick Tepco off the job ... and let an international team of scientists and engineers take over.
Postscript: As challenging as removing the fuel rods from the pool at unit 4 will be, it will be even harder at units 1 through 3. Specifically, it's too radioactive for Tepco to even get a look at what's going on in those 3 reactor pools, and they have no idea how to do it. Indeed, the technology does not even exist to approach those reactors, as the high radiation levels quickly destroy even robots.
Nuclear fuel rod expert Gundersen says the pool at unit 3 is in much worse shape than at 4:
Unit 3 is worse [than No. 4]. Mechanically its rubble, the pool is rubble. It’s got less fuel in it [than unit 4, but] structurally the pool has been dramatically weakened. And, god nobody has even gotten near it yet.
Tepco's not up to it ... we need a focused, well-funded international effort to fix this mess.
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we are seeing the total lack of leadership, morals, and most importantly competency in the politicians of the world..
long ago the major powers should have taken control of the clean up from Japan. this mess is much like the economic mess - with no one in power able to see the needed solutions and take the needed action, blinded by corruption, mis guided policy, and greed of those in power.
we are handcuffed by these puppet leaders of no vision, no creativity and no moral fiber. This is the time of evil, the time of satan, who is best described as an incompetent, corrupt ineffective force we call entropy, or the loss of complexity ..as we become world wide the same dull gray subjugated people, while we are told we honor diversity as we destroy any diversity that is not a dull gray sameness of socialist states, entropy cannot create, it can only destroy the only goal is darkness a lifeless sameness, entropy.
Well, the scientists who maintain the Doomsday Clock don't agree with you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_Clock
During the Cuban missile crisis the Doomsday clock was set to 7 minutes before midnight, but from 1984-1987 it was set to 3 minutes before midnight. (Apparently they were worried that Reagan would initiate a nuclear war.) And currently the clock is set to 5 minutes before midnight. So they feel 1984-87 was a more dangerous period than now.
But can they tell time?
More importantly can you tell time? They can misread clocks. Some are paid to obfuscate truth. Science has been politicized.
How in the hell are they baffled by the acidification of Ocean Waters that are killing off starfish?
The question they need to ask is why are those waters Oxygen depleted? Can they be Plankton Depleted?
Hey, I gradumated from public schools in the sixties so I know how to deal with the nucular threat....duck and cover!
If they botch this process anyone actually think they are going to tell us?
They won't have to. Apparently, we'll know soon enough.
Not until the cancer rate in the U.S. "inexplicibly" swells over 300% in a matter of months.....and more infants "mysteriously" die in their first year than survive.
100 years ago cancer was rare, causing only 1 or 2 out of 100 deaths in the US. Today it causes 1 in 4. Cancer is second only to heart disease and it is practically a photo finish at that.
If cancer deaths go up by 300% it will mean everybody is dead of cancer.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
"If cancer deaths go up by 300% it will mean everybody is dead of cancer."
Howdy hey Diogenes.
Well sir, a big 'yer rootin tootin' to that! Both you and Hoot above are right on target.
Awesome simple truth. More of it is darn sad, than the unreality to be believed that it truly is. Pray, prepare, protect, and live well one day at a time. Layup your treasures where they will count the most. Be in karmic credit, and not karmic debt before you move on into your next life experience. THAT MATTERS!
This seems to be all the slave class can do. Our corrupted lizardian-types are fast tracking mankind into a six foot hole in the ground. Heck, some might not even be buried, rather burned up to a crisp. One way, or another.
On a side note...more talk about this grid down circulates. Is it politically motivated? Or is it more fear mongering?? Use your truth detector to discern. It is located in your heart.
Bless.
If things go pear-shaped, they may not even need to tell us - we might already have discovered there was a "problem" by a more direct means.
Be assured that if there IS a problem, it'll be covered up as much as possible, and for as long as possible. Might be worth keeping an eye on the movements of the well-connected, especially the Japanese well-connected. Sudden interest in Southern Hemisphere holidays might be a useful clue that "things are not quite proceeding to plan".
Exactly, try telling most people about the situation at Fukushima and they just give you this blank look.
"Exactly, try telling most people about the situation at Fukushima and they just give you this blank look."
Hey Star.
In zombism class, we learned that this is the first stage of the complete disintegration of the brains entire cell cavity. After many moons of radiation bio-accumulation in tha knoggin, the human being become lethargic, and dense. When hunger strikes, it is a violent reaction that produces violence to sustain itself. These graduates of the new class, are just getting their wings adjusted. Wait till they get hungry...for brains!!!
The reason that life exists on earth is because it had been shielded from ionizing radiation; now we have radioactive materials sitting all over the place ready to replicate the intensity of radiation found in deep space so your densely populated areas get an intense radiation shower of the type found only in intergalactic space and for hundreds of millions of years. Are we brilliant or what?.....
So I had my teeth cleaned the other day.
I declined the X-Ray and joked that I was getting enough from Fukushima.
The hygenist had no idea what I was talking about. My Dentist overheard and asked if I was going to Japan.
"No" I said, and mentioned the Fukishima reactors. He knew what I was talking about, but when I said that at least one if not two reactors were in meltdown and had gone past their containment vessels and were leaking massive amounts of radiation into the Pacific he said incredulously "Really? I didn't know it was that bad."
I was at the State liquor store tonight and one of the guys that works there was talking about it with a customer and they both knew it was a very bad situation.
Funny, but sad; the reality is not in the minds or sphere of awareness of a majority.
Nobody at my work knows either. They are all numb with Facebook and lollipops. Incredible.
Good work GW, as usual.
But you do, of course, repeat yourself.
Last night I went to see the movie "Gravity". Halfway through, in violation of repeatedly stated screen suggestions and of common sense and decency as well, the guy sitting in front of me started texting on his e-gadget. After several minutes of on-and-off flashing of his gadget screen, I leaned over and stated,in an obviously sarcastic tone and loud enough for all around us to hear, "Thank you sir for being so considerate". He retorted with something about his son being in the hospital, to which I replied "If the situation is that critical, then what are you doing at the movies?" He got up and left to the subsequent laughter.
akak, i'm in the health food store picking up oil, as it comes from the ocean i'm checking dates hoping to find one @ the back pre 2011. the manager comes to help. he asks politely wtf i'm doing, i tell him, he asks me to lower my voice, he doesn't want me to upset his other customers. i find myself replying a little louder than necessary, i mention the removal of the fuel rods. he shakes his head and hands and whispers, please, we really don't want to upset people.
JFC
Think Uncle GE has anything to do with squashing all public exposure to the reality of this event.
Well, you don't see much about it on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, A&E, The Weather Channel, Telemundo... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_General_Electric
With the clusterfucks in charge of the world these days I get this sinking feeling that this is the big one.
Yep. The stupididity and corruption of the powerz-that-be in so many countries seems endless.
The Japanese invented Kabuki theater. This whole operation is a fraud. The fuel rods have already been scattered, touched, started on fire, melted into corium, burned deep into the ground, whatever. The worst case already happened and has been going on since March 2011. Thats what is causing elevated radiation all over the pacific and North America. The worst has happened and there is no way to stop it. The technology doesnt exist. There is no solution.
There are problems and there are predicaments. Problems have solutions. Predicaments have outcomes. Fukushima is a predicament.
This rod removal is pure theater to 1)pretend that the worst hasn't already happened and 2)declare victory when its 'over'. Pure bullshit. Do you really thing that Tepco, who couldn't successfully build and operate the reactor, can orchestrate the most technologically difficult cleanup of a reactor site in history?
Learn to live with the radiation. It will be here much longer than you, your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren...
You are confusing fuel rods which were inside the reactors and melted,
versus the fuel rods which are in the spent fuel rod cooling pools outside the reactors, of which there is no clear evidence of melting, and if undamaged, should be removed to a safer location as soon as possible, so that the total problem does not get worse than it already is.
"Learn to live with the radiation"
Radiation causes deformity.
98% of deformity is not useful.
Thank you for that clarification. Our entire political world is a predicament.
Personally I'd call in the Russians who were involved at Chernobyl...if they are still alive.
The article has good information but totally misses the critical point: THERE IS NO PERSON OR GROUP OF PEOPLE OR TECHNOLOGY OR ROBOT THAT IS CAPABLE OF FIXING THIS PROBLEM
Removing fuel rods from the spent fuel rod cooling pools apparently is possible, and useful,
even if the greater problem of the melted reactor cores is unfixable.
Time to just pop a few Fukitols and be done with it.
I read till David Suzuki, he is a scammer and I don't put much stock in anyone that pimps him as an expert.
finally---finally david suzuki gets off the dime! where has he been? yes, he went to fuk u right after the earthquake, but since mar 2011 he's been back here running to fro ditzing with every other minor problem and quiet as a little toad in boiling water ever since! it's about bloody time! hello! little frog the water is indeed boiling!
Damn it's gonna be hard to get out of bed with those lead lined BVD's.
Oh please, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis there was a high probability that at any moment the RV's from dozens of Soviet SS-9's would come sailing into the atmosphere to vaporize American cities with 5 megaton airbursts. Today, mmm, not so much.
You can bet that this will blow up. 99% probability. Good bye humanity or at least USA west coast.
Obozo doesn't seem to understand. Maybe he thinks his dark skin will protect him.
666, on the Chicago lottery the day after Obozo was elected, was an omen?
What do you think?
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'Suzuki used to be a hero of mine when I was a kid.
Now, more and more, he's turning out to be an asshole.
http://blogs.canoe.ca/lilleyspad/politics/video-ezra-levant-on-david-suz...
•?•
V-V
"I've got a bad feeling about this one Bob". Think I'll dig me a foxhole.
God help us.
Maybe God is done with us the way he was done with dinosaurs, and this is our Chicxulub.
"God help us."
Indeed...help!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4KOmEE0Zm0
You'd think from all the hype that no one has ever moved spent reactor rods before. But, about half of the rods in the pools at Fukushima came from other reactors.
What's so difficult about grabbing rods, lifting them in a stream of water and lowering them into a ground level pool? What would happen if there was a hitch? Just keep spraying on the water until the hoist was fixed. There are far more dangerous industrial processes going on in the world than this. But, they aren't nuclear. So, they aren't news.
Let me make a prediction. This proceedure will be completely boring. The anti-nuke fanatics will again be disappointed when no one dies. But, no one, so far, has died at Fukushima.
This has to be a most frustrating nuclear accident for the fanatics. "Where's the action?" they might say. Why do none of our predictions come true? It's because you are meat-heads.
The fossil fuel cabal is behind the front of this endless propaganda to keep nuclear power a non-option. Coal is still the most used energy source in the world today and has spewed forth more filth, radiation (yes, radiation), and sickness than anything the nuclear power industry has ever been responsible for.
I have no investments into Oil. I am a Physicist.
It kind of funny that you write what you write.
When I was attending University the US Army had planned a relocation of Heavy Water near the University. I had some Pitchblende Ore at the time. It was so "Hot" that I kept it in my pocket, next to my Testicals.
I planned to interrupt a planned protest by tossing that Rock up and down for about Ten Minutes and then announcing to the protesters that I had exposed them in Ten Minutes to more Radiany Energy then they would have received in 100 years from the Tritium. This plan of mine was nixed by the Physics Department Chairman.
I do not mind Nuclear Power. I endorse it...when it is done properly and safely.
Did you know that everytime that you turn on your thermal Oven that you are irradiating the Earth? Every single time that you turn on a Light in your home you are irradiating the World?
There is a marked difference between Radiant Energy (Radiation) and Radionucleotides.
Chernobyl has spewed out deadly Radionucleotides. There is a difference between the Radionucleotides in Carbon Fuels, like Coal, than the Radionucleotides in a Nuclear Plant.
I do not consider Carbon 12 dangerous. As for Cesium, Uranium and Plutonium..They are extremely dangerous.
Plutonium is so toxic that it has been reported that One Pound, evenly distributed, can kill all Humans on Earth.
One Pound is roughly 453 Grams. 50 Grams were released into the atmosphere out of Fukushima.
That is a deadly dose for 720 Million people.
I do not care if you believe this or not. I really do not care about a major fuck up at Fukushima at this point. I am just reading that it can finish us off a little quicker.
We are already all dead anyway. The release of toxic water is killing the Oceans. With the Plankton Die Off we will just slowly starve and suffocate.
Plankton provide most of the Oxygen that we breath. And the Pacific Current that runs right next to the reactor just feeds fresh Plankton to the Kill Zone.
As Plankton populations decrease due to Radionucleotide Poisoning the Oceans become slowly depleted of Oxygen and Food for higher Oceanic Life Forms. They die off due to Famine and Oxygen Depletion.
So our Atmospheric Oxygen and a substantial percentage of Food Stocks are depleted on dry land.
There is not one damned thing that can be done to stop Ocean Currents.
Already Bluefin Tuna are showing up off of San Diego California shores with Fukushima Radionucleotides. They were caught a few weeks ago. They migrated from Japan and were transported by Ocean Currents.
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/may/tuna-radioactive-materials-053012.html
Stanford University (the bastards who defeated the Oregon Ducks Thursday Night) is an Ivy League School. (Go Sun Devils. I do support my school.)
Fukushima Radionucleotides were reported in Vermont Milk by Forbes Magazine, (a "Right Wing" as you will so quaintly write), publication.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2011/04/09/radiation-detected-in-drinking-water-in-13-more-us-cities-cesium-137-in-vermont-milk/
Starfish are dying off in Washington State due to acidification of the Oceanic water. Acidification of the water happens in Oxygen Depleted waters and rich with Hydrogen Ions...
Hmmmm...Why are those waters Oxygen Depleted???
I am just so "baffled". [SARCASM]
It just seems that those Scientists forgot their Freshman Chemistry Acid-Base Reactions? Or perhaps they do not want to cause a panic?
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/09/massive-starfish-die-off-baffles-scientists/
The evidence is overwhelming, pal.
We are all dead.
If uranium and plutonium are so dangerous, it would be better to "burn" the existing supplies within existing nuclear power reactors, at least until the existing nuclear fuel supplies are eliminated.
And then do not mine and manufacture any more nuclear fuel in the future, and then close down and dismantle all the nuclear power reactors so that there will be no incentive to mine and manufacture nuclear fuel in the future.
At the same time and by the same process, eliminate the uranium and plutonium fuel in the nuclear weapons.
Of course, this can't be taken seriously ... but maybe, just maybe, it's true.
Chernobyl - "fewer than 50 deaths had been directly attributed to radiation from the disaster, almost all being highly exposed rescue workers, many who died within months of the accident but others who died as late as 2004."
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr38/en/index.html
I am betting, hoping, that you understand the Rule of 70 and its application in Finance.
The Earth's atmosphere is roughly 21% Oxygen at Sea Level.
People begin to suffer hypoxia on mountains at about 10000 feet.
(Of course there is acclimation and I have climbed to 12,000 feet without any problem. I was even a smoker and smoked all the way up Mt. Agassiz in Flagstaff, Arizona. I am still here. But I lived at 7000 feet for years before doing that climb. There are cities that are at 18000 feet in the Andes. The Red Blood Cell count is much higher in Populations that live there. But after that elevation you need to bring Bottled Oxygen.)
The percentage is the same but the O2 pressure is about a half of than that of what is at sea level at 18.000. The fatal limit of O2 saturation is about 7% or less. The less Oxygen saturation leads to a more rapid demise from hypoxia.
Alright. Let us suppose that we have a 2% annual depletion rate of Plankton in the Pacific due to Fukushima. That is not a lot, is it. Or is it?
In 35 Years, by the Rule of 70, 1/2 of the Plankton are gone. That means that one half of the Atmospheric Oxygen, that the Plankton contributed through Photosynthesis, is gone. Now let's suppose that the North Pacific covers about 20% of the Earth's Surface (70% of the Earth's Surface are Oceans.)
That means that the Earth's Oxygen Saturation will have declined by (.2)(.5)(21) = 2.1% Oxygen Depletion in 35 Years That is a substantial loss. So 35 Years from now the Oxygen Content will be at 18.9%...still livable. Extrapolating that figure the Earth's Oxygen Saturation at Sea Level will be at 7% and Fatal.
But YOU will already be long Dead and gone, so who cares, as it is only about YOU, right?
Now I used some very conservative figures for my initial calculation. I did this intentionally so that you can see my concern.
But the truth is that the outflow of Poison is growing at a rate of 300 Tons of poisoned Water per day. After the Plankton die off the poison does not disappear. It continues to kill. As the Rate of Poisoned water grows, the Rate of Plankton depletion, as a Percentage, will also grow, This in turn means that the Oxygen Depletion in the Atmosphere will also grow.
The Percentage is NOT A CONSTANT as I used in the example above. That percentage is also increasing at an Exponential Rate.
The problem is that I have no Environmental Data. If studies have been done then I am not privy to that information. If studies have not been done then we are very foolish not to consider that Environmental mpact. Just because one denies the predicament or refuse to study it does not make it disappear. So the Science is politicized. If I had the data I can give you a better model with verifiable predictions. I would actually sit down, do the math, and write the paper.
So, in all LIKELIHOOD...IT WILL AFFECT YOU....since it is ALL about YOU.
But I cannot have any information. It is restricted as I wrote in a previous response. TEPCO does not want this story out. It is just a matter of expedience. Why panic the public?
Because it is their right to know so they can plan appropriately.
But I do have a valid concern. There is already evidence suggesting that Oxygen Depletion and Plankton Die Off is happening.
Scientists in Japan are "baffled" that Radiation levels are higher in Oceanic Life more distant from Daiichi than those found closer in proximity. I am not baffled at all. Those found closer in Proximity have been brought by the Ocean Currents whereas those with the higher exposure have already succumbed.
(It is kind of curious that both the "Japan News" and American Press have both keyed in on the same transitive verb, "baffled", to describe two DISTINCT Oceanic Stories. Japan News was reporting the unexpected results of Radioisotopes in Sea Creatures whereas the American Press was reporting about Starfish death. It is rather curious. That is not a word that is used frequently. I'd expect, "perplexed", "confused", "surprised"...but, "baffled"?)
As for Chernobyl...Did you watch the film that GW placed in the Comments? The Death Rate is much higher.
But here is a question for you to consider. Just how many deaths are acceptable to you? Is 50 an acceptable Death Toll to you?
To me one Death at Chernobyl is just one too many.
Oh...It wasn't 3,000..it was less than 50? So that makes it okay?
I understand...It was not YOUR Death. So that makes it okay.
Can you see what you are writing?
tall tom, thank you for the links, thank you for the insight.
No I will not claim that I am a Nuclear Physicist. My field of expertise is Astrophysics.
Of course the Stars are just Fusion Reactors.
And as for Acid Rain killing off the lakes? One of the many contributions, in my not so illustrious path, was to help in the design of the construction of the Precipitators on Coal Fired Power Plants in the USA which served to reduce the Sulfide Emissions. That served to alleviate the problem of the Sulfides combining with Atmospheric Water which formed the Sulfuric Acid.
I like SOLUTIONS as that is what people want. I do not like people attempting to sweep them under the rug.
Then you claim I am a fraud? You write a Personal Attack rather than disputing any claims? The ad hominum is appreciated. Thank you for your concession in this debate.
No Doubt your a .gov plant.
Get in here and look around a bit and come back and tell me how it's going inside.
http://americablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/fukushima_4.jpg