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TEPCO Admits Delaying Report Of Major Radiation Leak Into The Pacific Ocean For 10 Months
While faith in Japanese 'economics' is starting to falter (borne out by the split in the BoJ and endless macro data disappointments), trust in TEPCO and its governmental operators must be about to hit a new record low. Having promised and given up on the ice-wall strategy to stop radioactive water leaking into the ocean, Bloomberg reports TEPCO officials have admitted that it’s investigating the cause of a spike in radiation levels (23,000 becquerels/liter vs the legal limit of 90) in drainage water that it believes subsequently leaked into the Pacific ocean from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant. The bigger problem, as NBC reports, TEPCO failed to report the leak for 10 months!
The radioactivity increase was 'reported' on Sunday, the company said in an e-mail yesterday, and as Bloomberg reports,
No workers were exposed and tests of radiation levels in sea water in the port adjacent to the plant showed no significant increase, the company said.
Ocean water tests will be increased to daily sampling from weekly as it investigates the leak, it added.
Rainwater is believed to have become contaminated through contact with radioactive substances and then flowed into drainage ditches, a spokesperson for the Tokyo-based company said today by phone, asking not to be named because of company policy. The company is unable to estimate the size of the radioactive water leak, the person said.
Tepco, as the company is known, detected 23,000 becquerels per liter of cesium 137, from rainwater accumulated on the roof of the No. 2 reactor building, the utility said yesterday in a statement. The legal limit for releasing cesium 137 is 90 becquerels per liter.
...
Tepco has had repeated failures in stemming radioactive water leaks at the plant since it had three reactor meltdowns almost four years ago following an earthquake and tsunami.
But the fact that a massively radioactive leak occurred is not the worst of it.. As NBC News reports,
The operator of Japan's tsunami-stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant admitted it failed to report a radioactive rainwater leak from the facility for about 10 months.
The company noticed a spike in radiation levels in the plant's drainage system, particularly after rainfall, in April, according to a Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) official who spoke at a televised press conference on Tuesday.
"This was part of an ongoing investigation in which we discovered a water puddle with high levels of radiation on top of the Reactor No. 2 building, and because this also happens to be one of the sources for this drainage system, we decided to report everything all at once," the unnamed official said to explain why the findings weren't reported immediately.
...
The governor of Fukushima Prefecture Masao Uchibori criticized TEPCO's withholding of information.
"It is extremely regrettable the swift release of information and the importance of that awareness — these basic things were not carried out," he said in comments carried by Nippon TV.
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Good luck at The Olympics... though we suspect it will be hard to run in a lead vest?
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This will make the holocaust look like a sprained ankle. Unfuckingbelievable
Whats that old saying, confusion is the solution or something like that
Don't believe anything the Japs are saying. Its 1000x worse ...
How much radiation will leak out of Fukushima before this is over with? ALL OF IT.
The slant-eyed lying little fucks need hanging.
GE is holding a gun to their heads.
Rainwater was the culprit? Can't somehow show them how to put up a big tent?
The is a solution to this mess as a liquid fluoride thorium reactor can burn waste uranium in its cycle - but there is one major drawback we have to make free unlimited power in the process so much of it we would generate a middle class around the world... the elite would rather sit in wet mud puddles trying to cut their own wrists with broken beer bottles than allow people to have anything for free.. Unless of course your Obama trying to destroy America with socialist bankruptcy policies then it's all good!
"free power"??? You lost me there. So it builds and runs itself too.
They said the same thing about boiling water reactors back in the '60s.
But they didn't have answers for 1) fission products; 2) corrosion; 3) embrittlement.
The liquid thorium fluoride advocates don't have those answers, either. Works great, when it's all shiny and new .. and liquid fluorides aren't the least bit corrosive :rolleyes:
If you want to follow Fukushima news, this site has been pretty good;
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/tag/Fukushima
http://www.enenews.com is also a top-notch site.
On a side note, did I mention how much I admire Oriental culture? So concerned about social status and "saving face" not a damned one of them could ever admit there is a problem. They'll be glowing light green and have 12 fingers each before any of them could admit that maybe Fukushima isn't 'under control' and hasn't been from the minute the backup generators went off line.
Not to worry. They are working with Google to download their minds into robots so they can continue to populate their country......
A thyroid scar will become fashionable.
"...How much radiation will leak out of Fukushima before this is over with? ALL OF IT..."
That's OK with me because the EPA turns off the radiation monitoring stations for maintenance when the jet stream is showering Fukushima radionuclides anywhere in the U.S. The dose you would have had on those days doesn't count - it's like it was never there. Kind of like a child putting their hands over their eyes to make something scary go away (except it's the EPA's grubby paws).
If you really want to worry and you live anywhere in the Eastern U.S., then you should be keeping an eye on the snow-pack in the Tennessee mountains. Especially in the South Fork Holston River and Watauga River watersheds. That's because the 190 ft. Boone Dam holds back the Boone Lake reservoir which extend for about fifteen miles back up both of those rivers at full pool levels. Fifteen miles of 180 ft. of water makes for one hell of a tsunami. Boone dam itself is in good shape, but the water has been eating away at the foundation rock and earth fill next to (but part of) the dam. I'm no dam engineer, but sinkholes at the bottom of the dam and unexplained muddy water bubbling up from somewhere underneath ANY dam are... well, disconcerting.
TVA drew Boone down to below winter pool levels to take some pressure off of the sinkhole/mud geysers, so it only has to hold back something like a 145 ft. wall of water. Which is fine - until the snow pack in the mountains melts in a couple of weeks. Then you have those two rivers with fifteen miles of water in them filling up REALLY fast. The river below the Boone dam will be swollen, too. I don't think they can just open the floodgates on Boone all the way. So Boone fills up, water migration that caused the sinkholes/mud geysers gets worse, and all of a sudden you have Boone tsunami. Which is sure to take out all the other crappy TVA dams downstream and result in tens of thousands of deaths. But wait - there's more!
And what ELSE does TVA have downstream from Boone Lake? SEVEN nuclear reactors. Three Browns-Ferry 1000 Megawatt GE Mark I (Fukushima) reactors and spent fuel pools, and a couple of 1200 Megawatt PWR-type reactors each at Sequoyah and Watts Bar and their spent fuel pools. The Boone Reservoir tsunami would be a beyond-design-basis accident that the NRC assures us is a once-in-a-million-year event. Hopefully, Boone Dam and the gophers chewing away at the foundation know that and respect the laws of probability. Otherwise, we'll have seven reactors - all larger than the ones in Fukushima - in various conditions of peril (and well out of warranty). Those cores are going to come out and say hello to the good folk of Tennessee, Arkansas and everyone else downwind. Run Hillary... Run!
If you start hearing about flash flooding from the snow melt in Tennessee, you may want to drag out your lead underwear. Thank God for the NRC - they're completely trustworthy and a wealth of timely, accurate information in the event of a nuclear disaster. And the EPA can be counted on to turn off the monitors, so the radiation won't really count. Nothing to worry about - a one banana radiation dose max - maybe one and a half.
Wow. ANOTHER thing to worry about.
My brain is full.
But exc post. Thanks, Paveway!
BTW, my home Geiger counter shows no increase in radiation over what I measured about a year ago, here on Cali coast.
What did your personal geiger say in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 vs. this year and last year?
I think much went north towards Canada & Alaska due to ocean currents
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/radiation-from-japan-nuclear-plant-a...
Every thing I've read suggests that you're missing a zero.
or two and we both are being optimistic
It's not 1000, it's merely 100X....
I believe you are looking for 'the solution to pollution is dilution'. Basically, that's what's going to happen. They are going to keep dumping that shit into the pacific because they can stop it from flowing and they have no idea what to do with it.
They got this..
http://www.mouthfrog.com/2014/sapporo-offering-diet-water-that-will-wage...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uziEgRan2G8
The scary part is that Cs is a fission product of U-235. Cs-134 has a reletively short half life, meaning that there is still OPEN AIR, UNCONTROLLED NUCLEAR FISSION going on at Fuk. They are pumping water on it to cool it off, but it is still happening.
... and in food, and air and water, and buildings and on farm animals. The only thing we can be asbolutely sure of is that nothing exported to the USA has any radiioactive waste on it (sarc)
When asked to clarify, Tepco said, "Well, the stuff has a half-life of 200,000 years, so we figured there was no rush..."
TEPCO has no credibility starting from day one when they refused to acknowledge a steam explosion in #3 even though control room transcripts recorded that being their immediate conclusion, calling it instead another "hydrogen explosion." Because Fukushima has been such an ongoing Fuk-up, they have now classified all reports regarding internal operations and status.
ENENEWS.COM
Japanese people always tell the truth. It's part of their culture. Their word is solid.
/SARC
Fixed it for you.
Looks like they took a page right out of Obama's playbook. None of this news surprises me anymore. I'm just waiting for the government to bring me to my re-education camp and shower me with zyklon b. With the rate at which the US spins out of control into this totalitarian and dictatorial black vortex it should be any year now. Probably after they finally take away the guns and take control of the internet.
We may all be getting a little radiation poisoning if Zero keeps fucking with Russia.
Now might not be a bad time to become a hunter gatherer in the Amazon.
Maybe that is why we are being so reckless with taking on the Russians. A nuclear war cant contaminate any worse than Fukushima lol
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/legacy-danger-old-nuclear-was...
Saw the barrels of radioactive waste and was reminded of something closer to home william.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX_lzoYl9AU
Dude--Where did you get this awesome Grateful Dead poster?
This poster was for the other guys: the pissed-off dead.
You really need White Men to handle a disaster of this magnitude. Well, actually it was an attack; http://www.jimstonefreelance.com/fukushima1.html
Well, at least it will be easier to find the tuna in the refrigerator since it glows in the dark.
Does your refrigerator light turn off .... when you close the door .... well, so does the tuna glow !
Gives new meaning to the term "Hot Tuna." And, you thought it was just some guys from Jefferson Airplane.
So much for Japanese fish.
Japan's fishing stocks have been dangerously contaminated for 4 years now
not just Japanese fish. Fish do travel as does the contamination
http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/982233/alberta-students-science-project...
Hiroshima and Nagasaki cleaned themselves up .... with time .... and are thriving .... let's focus on Japan's real problem .... a low birth rate !
Yes, the poison filtered itself through human cancerous tumors. Great cleanup job for the chemotherapy drug companies.
They didn't, actually. They just rebuilt on the charred remains.
But, and this is really important: Hiroshima and Nagasaki were contaminated with one ten thousandth or less, radioactive fission products than Fukushima. Probably more like a millionth.
Despite all the drama of a nuclear explosion, it only uses a few pounds of fissionable elements. A boiling water reactor has hundreds of tons of fissionables sitting around in its core and spent fuel pools.
any sanctions for Japan? no? i think so too../
Triple the sanctions placed on Russia .... for Chernobyl .... and that would be .... 3 X 0 = 0 !
Where were the radiation proctologists .... when Chernobyl went tits up ?
This won't become a real problem until 2020 when atheletes bow out and this thing gets the lowest participant turnout since the Russians boycotted the Olympics back in the 1970's.
You Communists ... and your five year plans .... Russia is a "Banana Republic" with nukes .... the nukes you deny Japan .... and the reason you cling to the pants of Putin !
This is a very low quality of trolling. Where can I report you to your masters?
" it will be hard to run in a lead vest? "
lead under pants would be a better idea I think.
Erect a concrete shell around your sleeping bag using pavers from home Depot. Breathe thru N-95 rated dust masks.
(Well, at least this would help in a nuclear war scenario).
olympic
lead medals
Worry about the Brazilian Games .... Japan and her sister island .... England .... will always muddle through .... worry about ISIS .... there's plenty of real stuff to worry about !
This is a report from Harvard regarding the dangers of spent fuel ponds - in a nutshell, if Fukushima goes out of control... we will have an extinction event:
The Consequence of Cesium-137 Release
A 400 t PWR pool holds about 10 times more long-lived radioactivity than a reactor core. A radioactive release from such a pool would cause catastrophic consequences. One major concern is the fission product cesium-137 (Cs-137), which made a major contribution (about three quarters) to the long-term radiological impact of the 1986 Chernobyl accident.
A spent fuel pool would contain tens of million curies of Cs-137. Cs-137 has a 30 year half-life; it is relatively volatile and a potent land contaminant. In comparison, the April 1986 Chernobyl accident released about 2 Mega Curies (MCi) Cs-137 into the atmosphere from the core of the 1,000 MWe unit 4. It is estimated that over 100,000 residents were permanently evacuated because of contamination by Cs-137.The total area of the radiation-control zone is about 10,000 km², in which the contamination level is greater than 15 Ci/km² of Cs-137. [6]
A typical 1 GWe PWR core contains about 80 t fuels. Each year about one third of the core fuel is discharged into the pool. A pool with 15 year storage capacity will hold about 400 t spent fuel. To estimate the Cs-137 inventory in the pool, for example, we assume the Cs137 inventory at shutdown is about 0.1 MCi/tU with a burn-up of 50,000 MWt-day/tU, thus the pool with 400 t of ten year old SNF would hold about 33 MCi Cs-137. [7] Assuming a 50-100% Cs137 release during a spent fuel fire, [8] the consequence of the Cs-137 exceed those of the Chernobyl accident 8-17 times (2MCi release from Chernobyl).
Based on the wedge model, the contaminated land areas can be estimated. [9] For example, for a scenario of a 50% Cs-137 release from a 400 t SNF pool, about 95,000 km² (as far as 1,350 km) would be contaminated above 15 Ci/km² (as compared to 10,000 km² contaminated area above 15 Ci/km² at Chernobyl). Thus, it is necessary to take security measures to prevent such an event from happening.
Much More http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/364/radiological_terrori...
Next month will be 4 years since Fukushima disaster.
Quick recapitulation:
Two of four reactors suffered complete melt down, one partial meltdown and fourth which was not operational at that time still has big spent fuel problem which cannot be removed, posing threat of explosion if another disaster hits.
In four years what they accomplished was merely pouring water on cores of melted reactors and pumping it into hundreds of storage tanks build in the vicinity of NPP while having no clue what to do with it.
Because, guess what, the vessel containment of melted down reactors has failed, developed concrete cracks as well damage of pressure piping during disaster and in aftermath. Through those fissures highly contaminated water’s pouring massively into ground water system. The fact of bridging containment vessel (prelude to China syndrome) alone leads to horrifying conclusions that the problem is unfixable at all short of currently impossible task of removing all melted nuclear fuel from vessel. The truth that anyone involved in mitigation of this disaster wouldn’t even utter.
On the top of it after four years TEPCO does not have good account of state of melted down reactors or complete list of damages, since supposedly world leading powerhouse robotics nation cannot produce one dammed good robot that would work in such extreme conditions. Several attempts to deploy robots have been proven complete failure.
It is shocking but they simply do not know what to do. They are in loss, confusion and panic. There is neither plan, nor technology invented yet to tackle the problem. In desperation thousand retired workers indebted to Japanese mafia are being sent there into these reactors, for two minutes each, to senselessly die on orders of Japanese Oligarchs. It is that bad.
Since rate of process of removing radiation from highly contaminated water is many times lower that rate of pumping newly contaminated water into new, freshly built storage tanks, the whole effort is hopeless from engineering point of view. All this is just Sisyphus work, which lead to nowhere since they have to keep pumping water to cool and moderate fission material inside leaky damaged reactors so they will not blow up again. Now many those tanks are also leaking profusely back to ground water adding to chaos. All the contaminated water leaked from reactor vessels and storage tanks ends up in the ocean continually bleeding radiation and all frantic attempts of preventive measures such as “ice wall” utterly failed.
Japanese MSM media, in 1984 style propaganda of changing past to control present, covers up gruesome reality of the Fukushima situation with its human implications, not to mention ignores severe problems with remaining 100 aging Japanese nuclear reactors put offline after 03/11/2011. The official talk about Fukushima NPP decommission process planned for about four decades supposedly already started is a cruel fairy tale in context of utterly hopeless situation on the ground. The apparent inertia and indifference of the government, busy destroying Japanese economy with QE, cannot be explained in any other way than deliberated criminal, genocidal act against Japanese nation and world community unless you believe in fairy tales.
For Japanese failed policies regarding Fukushima and wider context:
https://contrarianopinion.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/japan-miracle-that-wasnt/
Situation at some US nuclear power plants:
https://sostratusworks.wordpress.com/2015/01/01/devils-good-intentions/
and propaganda lies about renewable and nuclear energy at:
https://sostratusworks.wordpress.com/2015/02/11/engineering-renewable-delusions/
hold on. this isnt going to interupt my smp run is it, ,is it?
didnt think so.
Fucka fuckin shama
Fukushima: however bad you think it is, it's a hundred times worse.
Shameful:
The Govt needs to jump in, micromanage this with Inspectors - sadly; but hopefully, a painful lesson for TEPCO for Fracking this up so badly.
one of your best works wb7, almost perfect image. love this !
http://deepseanews.com/2013/11/true-facts-about-ocean-radiation-and-the-...
So far, about 20 of those samples have been analyzed, and 10 have been positive for cesium-134, the Fukushima fingerprint. All were relatively close to the surface.
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/tech/science/environment/2014/11/0...
Ok so the meltdown occurred 4 years ago and it's trace elements are still being found. The thing is the plant isn't only releasing cesium isotopes...it's also releasing things like strontium, plutonium, uranium, and tritium isotopes. Some plutonium isotopes have half lifes of 80 million years and even in the smallest observable quantities can cause cancer and permanent tissue deformations. Strontium also sticks around for long periods of time and is nothing to mess around either causing various cancers to include bone cancer and leukemia in very small quantities.
The cesium 134 is looked for only because it is a way of saying....for 4 years all that other shit has been leaking into the Pacific ocean from the 4 reactors in Fukushima as well.
Oh thank you for being honest with us.
I guess I don't understand why no university has set up monitoring stations all around Fuki, testing water, air, ground on a daily basis? No grad students willing to work? No funds allocated for a daily trek to check the stations. Heck, with tech today, those stations can remote report on a daily basis, unless nobody really wants to know the details because then they would have to actually admit that they have lost control and that would lose face.
Culture Shock. Japanses style, cue the Pop Music Girls and Hello Kitty
Radiation is NOT supposed to escape containment - ever - for any reason. If you cannot insure this, you do not build, where or how you're going to build. Three GE engineers didn't quit because they didn't like the color. Let's get this straight once and for all - Humans failed. And they haven't stopped.