[martin14]

Fukushima No. 2 reactor's fuel rods fully exposed, melting feared

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/77870.html

[BartSimpson]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Reuters is reporting that the USN is repositioning its ships and aircraft further away because it detected low levels of contamination.

Chatter from my friends say that the helicopter crews that went through the airborne plume of radiation are under decontamination protocol (anyone who's ex-USN knows this is very not fun) and the two affected helicopters were thrown overboard fron the USS Ronald Reagan when it was determined they were 'class seven' material.

I'm not familiar with the 'class seven' thing - anyone else?

[martin14]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Reuters is reporting that the USN is repositioning its ships and aircraft further away because it detected low levels of contamination.

Chatter from my friends say that the helicopter crews that went through the airborne plume of radiation are under decontamination protocol (anyone who's ex-USN knows this is very not fun) and the two affected helicopters were thrown overboard fron the USS Ronald Reagan when it was determined they were 'class seven' material.

I'm not familiar with the 'class seven' thing - anyone else?

Ahh, my truck driving days.. US DOT stuff


Class 7 -- radioactive materials

here:

http://environmentalchemistry.com/yogi/ ... lass7.html


If the choppers were thrown overboard, that is really not funny...
That would mean the radiation is much worse than anyone thinks.

Mind you, what level of radiation do you need to get a carrier
to move out of an area ?

More questions than answers.............................................

[Scape]

Uh, do I have to invest in a geiger counter?

[BartSimpson]

Scape Scape:

Uh, do I have to invest in a geiger counter?

If you're on the West Coast I'd invest in iodine tablets and make sure that any kids you have are taking them. If you can spare it, take them yourself, too.

I'm buying iodine tabs tonight when I get off work and me and Mrs. Bart will be taking multiple doses each day until this thing blows over.

In studies iodine tablets can help prevent thyroid cancer after exposure to radioactive particles. This is especially true in small children.

[martin14]

Scape Scape:

Uh, do I have to invest in a geiger counter?

If something really serious happens, I'm getting my mother out of Victoria,
it's the first stop for any big radiation leak.

It's funny all the links I read about preparations for this and that are all American, can't find much info on Canadian sites.

What really bothers me is no one is willing to say how much radiation has already been released, and where it is heading.
The fact of the Ronald Regan leaving an area.. low levels of radiation.. ya, sure


I think TEPCO cant really keep up with the problems:

$1:

TEPCO said water levels later recovered to cover 30 centimeters in the lower parts of the fuel rods.

The seawater injection operation started at 4:34 p.m., but water levels in the No. 2 reactor have since fallen sharply with only one out of five fire pumps working. The other four were feared to have been damaged by a blast that occurred in the morning at the nearby No. 3 reactor.

The utility firm said a hydrogen explosion at the nearby No. 3 reactor that occurred Monday morning may have caused a glitch in the cooling system of the No. 2 reactor.

Similar cooling down efforts have been taken at the plant's No. 1 and No. 3 reactors and explosions occurred at both reactors in the process, blowing away the roofs and walls of the buildings that house the reactors.

I mean, when an expected explosion damages 4 pumps working on pumping water,
that does not make me think these boys really know what they are doing.

Even the pumping seawater is something completely new, never done before,
regarded as a 'Hail Mary'..

[Spaniard]

Radiation alerts are now being issued according to msn news video and other sources.

If those blow The jet stream will take the radiation fallout across the ocean into B.C. make no mistake about that.

Good news CNN sources and the Japanese ambassador has assured everything is under control, if the fuel rods blow they have a containment field around it, not like the Chernobyl disaster .

$1:

Technicians are racing to prevent a meltdown after uranium rods were fully exposed twice Monday on a third nuclear reactor at a northern Japan power plant that was reeling from explosions at two other reactors.

The fuel rods were exposed after the reactor in Unit 2 at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant because a steam vent wouldn't open, the utility said.

Water levels were restored after they first dropped at the reactor, but the rods remained exposed Monday night after the second episode, officials said.

The exposure raises the risk of the unit overheating, leading to an explosion.

"Units 1 and 3 are at least somewhat stabilized for the time being," said Nuclear and Industrial Agency official Ryohei Shiomi. "Unit 2 now requires all our effort and attention."

Officials had declared states of emergency at six Fukushima reactors — three at Dai-ichi and three at the nearby Fukushima Daini complex — after Japan was hit Friday by a 8.9 magnitude earthquake centred offshore and resultant tsunami. The main cooling systems and backup generators at the reactors were knocked out by the twin disasters officials warned Monday.

Read more. Exposed fuel rods raise fears of 3rd blast

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/cbc- ... d=27994853

[DrCaleb]

Scape Scape:

Why I am not worried about Japan’s nuclear reactors

Good stuff there Scape. A little calm in a sea of hype.

[martin14]

Interesting report from NISA, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency in Japan.

They are getting very poor or no information from reactor units 1,2,3

http://www.nisa.meti.go.jp/english/file ... 0315-1.pdf

[BartSimpson]

Radio station here in Sacramento says a third reactor at Fukushima has gone bad.

[DerbyX]

Scape Scape:

Uh, do I have to invest in a geiger counter?

Just invest in some lead lined undie. Gotta protect the future right?

[EyeBrock]

Scape Scape:

Uh, do I have to invest in a geiger counter?

You out West Scape?

I remember that the fall-out from Chernobyl reached the hills of the UK and got into the food chain. As we ex Cold War types know, this stuff travels fast.

[raydan]

DerbyX DerbyX:

Scape Scape:

Uh, do I have to invest in a geiger counter?

Just invest in some lead lined undie. Gotta protect the future right?

And here I am, with all my cheap Chinese stuff bought at the dollar store, covered in lead paint....


...Who's laughing now?

[BartSimpson]

More reports on the net and on the air say that a third reactor has melted down.

Meanwhile, my agency gets emergency traffic and this came through via one of our official channels:

$1:

The System for Prediction of Environment Emergency Dose Information (SPEEDI) releases gamma radiation data online. The site is jittery and apparently not suited for major traffic which is why we represent several screen captures of the data. While it is not surprising that according to the website both Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures are entirely "Under Survey" as it makes sense that the government does not want to generate panic, SPEEDI has disclosed some tell-tale data about cities in Ibaraki prefecture, which is just a hundred or so miles north of Tokyo, and is just south of the ill-fated Fukushima prefecture. And the data is stunning: based on a N, NE and NNE wind direction (where it originates), meaning all coming from Fukushima, with a normal reading in the 80 nGy/h range, the city of Kounosu Naka is at 3,024, Kadobe Naka is at 2,416, Isobe Hitachioota is at 1,213 and many others are in the mid to upper triple digit range! Again, this is based on wind coming out of Fukushima and ultimately headed toward the capital. Indicatively, normal terrestrial plus cosmic gamma radiation is about 44 nGy/h.

Meaning that radiation levels are as much as 39 times that of normal.

At one of the plants right now the sensors are recording as much as 7400 nGy/h

While none of those rates is instantly lethal they are indicative of particles in the air that can cause illness later on.

Immediate lethality would occur at 30 Gy/h - or about 25,000 times greater radiation.

But the long-term is what's at stake here.

http://www.sid.ir/en/VEWSSID/J_pdf/92620030307.pdf

According to the study done on long term radiation effects in Hiroshima an increase of radiation exposure from a normal average of 44 nGy/h to the 49 nGy/h found at Hiroshima causes significant increases in thyroid cancers.

Which is why I'm saying that taking iodine is not a bad idea.

[martin14]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

More reports on the net and on the air say that a third reactor has melted down.

That would be the number 2 reactor at Fukushima.


The outer shell of Number 1 blew up first, Reactor 3 building had an explosion after.


There is talk of a fault being found in the reactor chamber of #2,
but nothing definite yet.



Sorry, reactor number 3

edit* from the BBC:

#
2207: Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yukio Edano, has said a partial defect has been found inside the containment vessel of reactor 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the Kyodo news agency reports. He has also said the reactor is "not necessarily in a stable condition". Early on Tuesday morning, officials said pressure inside the container had dropped and sea water was being pumped in to cool the fuel rods.