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The money that this accident cost can never be paid by the company. Meaning, that nuclear power is a one way street. At the end the taxpayers and their children (and children childrens and...) have to pick up the bill. This does not only apply to Japan !!Quote:
Originally Posted by HermantheGerman
Indeed. The events in Japan over the last month does not only affect Japan, it affects every country and every person on the planet.Quote:
Originally Posted by HermantheGerman
A big wake up call especially as most thought the Japanese would be able to handle, let alone be prepared for the disaster which is still panning out.
TEPCO seem to be working on it. Give them time. As a corporate entity they are finished.Quote:
Originally Posted by robuzoDoes that mean it can't get worser?Quote:
Originally Posted by misskit
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/wo...mid=tw-nytimes
Japan Nuclear Disaster Put on Par With Chernobyl
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Sergey Ponomarev/Associated Press
Cars destroyed in Iwate Prefecture by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. A search went on for bodies in Iwate on Sunday.
By HIROKO TABUCHI and KEITH BRADSHER
Published: April 12, 2011
TOKYO — Japan has decided to raise its assessment of the accident at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to the worst rating on an international scale, putting the disaster on par with the 1986 Chernobyl explosion, the Japanese nuclear regulatory agency said on Tuesday.
Officials, monks, military officers and other emergency workers observed a moment of silence on Monday in Natori, Japan.
The decision to raise the alert level to 7 from 5 on the scale amounts to an admission that the accident at the nuclear facility, brought on by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, is likely to have substantial and long-lasting consequences for health and for the environment. Some in the nuclear industry have been saying for weeks that the accident released large amounts of radiation, but Japanese officials had played down this possibility.
The new estimates by Japanese authorities suggest that the total amount of radioactive materials released so far is equal to about 10 percent of that released in the Chernobyl accident, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director general of Japan’s nuclear regulator, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
Mr. Nishiyama stressed that unlike at Chernobyl, where the reactor itself exploded and fire fanned the release of radioactive material, the containments at the four troubled reactors at Fukushima remained intact over all.
But at a separate news conference, an official from the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, said, “The radiation leak has not stopped completely and our concern is that it could eventually exceed Chernobyl.”
On the International Nuclear Event Scale, a Level 7 nuclear accident involves “widespread health and environmental effects” and the “external release of a significant fraction of the reactor core inventory.” The scale, which was developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency and countries that use nuclear energy, leaves it to the nuclear agency of the country where the accident occurs to calculate a rating based on complicated criteria.
Japan’s previous rating of 5 placed the Fukushima accident at the same level as the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979. Level 7 has been applied only to the disaster at Chernobyl, in the former Soviet Union.
“This is an admission by the Japanese government that the amount of radiation released into the environment has reached a new order of magnitude,” said Tetsuo Iguchi, a professor in the department of quantum engineering at Nagoya University. “The fact that we have now confirmed the world’s second-ever level 7 accident will have huge consequences for the global nuclear industry. It shows that current safety standards are woefully inadequate.”
Mr. Nishiyama said “tens of thousands of terabecquerels” of radiation per hour have been released from the plant. (The measurement refers to how much radioactive material was emitted, not the dose absorbed by living organisms.) The scale of the radiation leak has since dropped to under one terabecquerel per hour, the Kyodo news agency said, citing government officials.
The announcement came as Japan was preparing to urge more residents around the crippled nuclear plant to evacuate, because of concerns over long-term exposure to radiation.
The authorities have already ordered people living within a 12-mile radius of the plant to evacuate, and recommended that people remain indoors or avoid an area within a radius of about 19 miles.
The government’s decision to expand the zone came in response to radiation readings that would be worrisome over months in certain communities beyond those areas, underscoring how difficult it has been to predict the ways radiation spreads from the damaged plant.
Unlike the previous definitions of the areas to be evacuated, this time the government designated specific communities that should be evacuated, instead of a radius expressed in miles.
The radiation has not spread evenly from the reactors, but instead has been directed to some areas and not others by weather patterns and the terrain. Iitate, one of the communities told on Monday to prepare for evacuation, lies well beyond the 19-mile radius, but the winds over the last month have tended to blow northwest from the Fukushima plant toward Iitate, which may explain why high readings were detected there.
Officials are concerned that people in these communities are being exposed to radiation equivalent to at least 20 millisieverts a year, he said, which could be harmful to human health over the long term. In addition to Iitate, evacuation orders will come within a month for Katsurao, Namie and parts of Minamisoma and Kawamata, said Yukio Edano, the chief cabinet secretary.
People in five other areas may also be told to evacuate if the conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi plant grow worse, Mr. Edano said. Those areas are Hirono, Naraha, Kawauchi, Tamura and other sections of Minamisoma.
“This measure is not an order for you to evacuate or take actions immediately,” he said. “We arrived at this decision by taking into account the risks of remaining in the area in the long term.” He appealed for calm and said that the chance of a large-scale radiation leak from the Fukushima Daiichi plant had, in fact, decreased.
Mr. Edano also said that pregnant women, children and hospital patients should stay out of the area within 19 miles of the reactors and that schools in that zone would remain closed.
Until now, the Japanese government had refused to expand the evacuation zone, despite urging from the International Atomic Energy Agency. The United States and Australia have advised their citizens to stay at least 50 miles away from the plant.
The international agency, which is based in Vienna, said Sunday that its team measured radiation on Saturday of 0.4 to 3.7 microsieverts per hour at distances of 20 to 40 miles from the damaged plant — well outside the initial evacuation zone. At that rate of accumulation, it would take 225 days to 5.7 years to reach the Japanese government’s threshold level for evacuations: radiation accumulating at a rate of at least 20 millisieverts per year.
In other words, only the areas with the highest readings would qualify for the new evacuation ordered by the government.
Aftershocks have continued in northeastern Japan since the March 11 quake and tsunami. The latest occurred Tuesday at 2 p.m. local time when a shock measuring magnitude 6.0 struck off the Fukushima coast at a relatively shallow depth of about six miles under the seabed, according to the United States Geological Survey. Officials at Tokyo Electric said that workers were moved to safer areas within the Fukushima Daiichi plant, but there appeared to be no damage to the power supply and no disruption to pumps sending cooling water into the plant’s four most severely damaged reactors.
The aftershock appeared to be centered very close to a magnitude 6.6 temblor that struck the area on Monday, which knocked out power to the plant for almost an hour, stopping vital cooling work.
Tens of millions of 'lost' cash found in tsunami-hit areas
Tens of millions of 'lost' cash found in tsunami-hit areas - The Mainichi Daily News
Free money, ya'll. Anyone going to risk it to get some?
Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update Log
Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update Log
Updates of 12 April 2011
Staff Report
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Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update (12 April 2011, 04:45 UTC)
The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) today issued a new provisional rating for the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on the IAEA International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES).
The nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi is now rated as a level 7 "Major Accident" on INES. Level 7 is the most serious level on INES and is used to describe an event comprised of "A major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects requiring implementation of planned and extended countermeasures". Japanese authorities notified the IAEA in advance of the public announcement and the formal submission of the new provisional rating.
The new provisional rating considers the accidents that occurred at Units 1, 2 and 3 as a single event on INES. Previously, separate INES Level 5 ratings had been applied for Units 1, 2 and 3. The provisional INES Level 3 rating assigned for Unit 4 still applies.
The re-evaluation of the Fukushima Daiichi provisional INES rating resulted from an estimate of the total amount of radioactivity released to the environment from the nuclear plant. NISA estimates that the amount of radioactive material released to the atmosphere is approximately 10% of the 1986 Chernobyl accident, which is the only other nuclear accident to have been rated a Level 7 event.
Earlier ratings of the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi were assessed as follows:
On 18 March, Japanese authorities rated the core damage at the Fukushima Daiichi 1, 2 and 3 reactor Units caused by loss of all cooling function to have been at Level 5 on the INES scale. They further assessed that the loss of cooling and water supplying functions in the spent fuel pool of the Unit 4 reactor to have been rated at Level 3.
Japanese authorities may revise the INES rating at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant as further information becomes available.
INES is used to promptly and consistently communicate to the public the safety significance of events associated with sources of radiation. The scale runs from 0 (deviation) to 7 (major accident).
Further information on the INES scale: International Nuclear Events Scale (INES).
Latest close-up shots of Fukushima, video of Japan tsunami hitting plant
YouTube - Latest close-up shots of Fukushima, video of Japan tsunami hitting plant
Japan raises nuclear crisis to Chernobyl level - Channel 4 News
japan raises nuclear crisis to chernobyl
Tuesday 12 April 2011
As Japan raises the level of the nuclear accident at Fukushima to that of Chernobyl, a nuclear engineer tells Channel 4 News that burying the reactors is increasingly the only option.
An official at Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency raised the Fukushima accident to a 7, the worst on the internationally recognised scale, due to the overall levels of radiation released into the air and sea. But the authorities stressed that, despite the rating, radiation leaks were currently only at around 10 per cent of those at Chernobyl - the world's worst nuclear accident.
As aftershocks continued to rock Japan, a major fire also broke out at the nuclear plant (pictured). Engineers managed to extinguish the blaze but its very existence is a blow to those hoping the reactors had been sufficiently cooled to avoid further problems.
Almost a month on from the earthquake and tsunami which devastated much of north east Japan and damaged the Fukushima plant, Japan also increased the evacuation zone around the plant in a sign of the severity of the accident.
As Japan struggles to contain the nuclear disaster, it is also still coping with the twin impact of 11 March earthquake and tsunami. Up to 28,000 people may have died, with 150,000 made homeless. The estimated cost stands at $300bn - the world's most expensive disaster.
Disaster still gathering pace
Even whilst I was in the area around Fukushima three and a half weeks ago, the nuclear operators seemed vague, indistinct, even unwilling to admit what was actually happening, writes Jon Snow.
Today I feel more forgiving, I suspect they simply did not know, and still do not know.
The exclusion zone is being expanded. Three communities beyond even twenty miles are to be evacuated this week…two more inside the zone have been told to pack up today. Twenty one workers at the plant have now exceeded the radiation levels any man is supposed to be able to tolerate without serious life threatening consequences.
The disaster that is Fukushima is still gathering pace...
Read more on Snowblog: disaster that is Fukushima still gathering pace
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Disaster scale
At Fukushima, an official from Prime Minister Naoto Kan's office said the leak was not getting worse, saying instead that it had taken time to assess the full impact of the disaster.
"Even before this, we had considered this a very serious incident in that sense, so there will be no big change in the way we deal with it just because it has been designated level 7," he said.
It is telling people that the accident has the potential to cause trouble to our neighbours. Nuclear expert Kenji SumitaPreviously, the Fukushima nuclear crisis had been rated a 5, in line with the Three Mile Island incident in the United States in 1979. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a level 5 accident is a limited release of radioactive material, with several deaths, whereas a level 7 means a major release of radiation with widespread health and environmental impact.
At Fukushima, the level was raised to reflect a radiation reading near the plant of 10,000 terabecquerels per hour - a level which has since dropped to less than 1 per hour, according to reports.
Read more: life in the shadow of Japan's nuclear crisis
Some experts suggested the rating was hysterical, pointing out that Chernobyl blew its containment vessels and spewed radioactive material into the atmosphere, while the Fukushima buildings remain mostly intact and the leaks steady.
However others said the rating was a sign of the seriousness of the accident.
Kenji Sumita, a nuclear expert at Osaka University, said: "Raising the level to 7 has serious diplomatic implications. It is telling people that the accident has the potential to cause trouble to our neighbours."
Solutions?
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers member Victor J. Petrelli, who helped design a nuclear plant in Illinois, in the United States, told Channel 4 News that the solution to the ongoing problem would be to bury or concrete the reactors.
"If the containment leak cannot be mitigated in any other way, the most likely scenario would be to pump the area full of concrete which would seal the containment leak as it hardens," he said.
He said that the time for cooling the reactors was over, if the radiation continued to leak.
"Stop trying to cool the reactor with liquids. Bury it," he said.
Read more: Fukushima clean-up 'will take decades and cost billions'
Long term, he said the radiation risks and how the authorities cleared them up depended on the type of material leaking.
"It depends on what radioactive material is leaking - specifically its half life. Iodine-131 has only an eight day half life before becoming harmless, whereas plutonium-239 has a half life of 24,000 years. Isolated trace quantities of plutonium found in the soil could be simply dug up and moved to a long term storage area.
"But note that ingesting plutonium is not very harmful, however breathing it is harmful as it is very toxic to the lungs. So eating spinach fertilized with plutonium laced soil would not be very harmful wherein inhaling dust from the soil would be."
Eventually, the accident will be cleared up and dealt with, he said.
"Long term containment is to encase the reactor in concrete which was done at Chernobyl," he said.
"Now, some 30 years later, nature has reclaimed the Chernobyl area with plant and animal life. So apparently Nature believes the area to now be safe."
The Japanese authorities said the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere was around 10 per cent that of Chernobyl - but plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) warned that the release could eventually exceed the 1986 disaster if leaks were not fixed.
People living in five communities in areas beyond the 20km exclusion zone have also been encouraged to leave the area because of the long-term risks to health.
In Pictures - Fukushima nuclear crisis worsens
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Click on the image to see more photos from Fukushima
and as expected and predicted, it has become another Chernobyl
Idiot, without cooling the heat will simply increase and burn its way through any concrete containment.Quote:
Originally Posted by StrontiumDog
I suggest he goes and builds a house there then if he thinks it's safe.Quote:
Originally Posted by StrontiumDog
Chernobyl was really easier to deal with as the fire dispersed much of the radioactive material into the atmosphere (and across Europe :(, but at concentrations which really didn't do much long term damage)
In Japan it is collecting in molten blobs at the bottom of the damaged reactors and the heat/radiation is more focused in one place.
No, this could never become another Chernobyl, anymore, since in Chernobyl the most damage was not done by technological disaster, but human (or homo soviet:) ie soviet human) mismanagement and culture of secrecy, one party rule and dictatorship that prevented warnings going out.Quote:
Originally Posted by Butterfly
Japanese are one of the most able nations to handle this kind of situation.
^ Yes, I looks like they are handling the situation with typical Japanese efficiency... :rolleyes:
QUOTE]Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerbil
As this was an old General Electric reactor "made in the USA", so maybe mr. Petrelli has some insider information.
As for nature plant and animal life returning to Chernobyl, the plants or animals - dont really know with radiation if it is not dangerous or not. They might not sense it any more than humans. Their insticts do not cover this eventuality. What I hear human babies still have serius abnormalities over there in Ukraine. They had the first dose over and over again for some weeks come months while their government (Soviet Union) did nothing. Could not happen in civilized world, like it does not happen in Japan.
Well, in many/most? countries on something like the original event happening there would have been large scale looting, killing and disintegration of state, not in Japan though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Muadib
That statement would be hilarious if the background were not so serious. Yes nature sees the area as safe now because humans are not interfering, not because radiation levels have dropped. Even during the worst time of Chernobyl nature was never seriously affected except in the immediate vincinity of the reactor core.Quote:
Originally Posted by StrontiumDog
Of course the levels pose an unacceptable risk to human life causing cancer and birth defects but do not threaten the survival of any species.
Yes, the Japanese people are handling this in their typical stoic, communal behavior... I was eluding to TEPCO and the mis-information campaign they have been waging since the outset of this crisis...Quote:
Originally Posted by nostromoWell, in many/most? countries on something like the original event happening there would have been large scale looting, killing and disintegration of state, not in Japan though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Muadib
Am I not mistaken you and HermantheGerman are "the members" of the anti-nuclear power lobby?Quote:
Originally Posted by Loy Toy
Nuclear disasters are local - say parts of Japan, or all of New York, France or Shanghai would become dead for next 1000 years, that would be horrible, but world and human race would still live on. But global warming is global in effect and can finish off human life from this planet. Logic is this, nuclear power so far is slowing this and that is why scientiest, even green party scientists support nuclear power. Of course we hope for fusion reactor or other technology but its not here yet.
Animals - or some biologist do mention which animals do- do not have sensory instincts for radiation, and they will just carry on getting on radiation-affected offsprings.Quote:
Originally Posted by Takeovers
TEPCO is a company so they do have their spin. It is not a country and very unfair to think Japan is TEPCO or TEPCO speaks for them. TEPCO is probably one of the 5 largest power suppliers in the world and it means they have real... power:) What you think would be happening if this was California?Quote:
Originally Posted by MuadibYes, the Japanese people are handling this in their typical stoic, communal behavior... I was eluding to TEPCO and the mis-information campaign they have been waging since the outset of this crisis...Quote:
Originally Posted by nostromoWell, in many/most? countries on something like the original event happening there would have been large scale looting, killing and disintegration of state, not in Japan though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Muadib
And of course Butters:)Quote:
Originally Posted by nostromo
No, I am Pro Nuclear power...Quote:
Originally Posted by nostromoAm I not mistaken you and HermantheGerman are "the members" of the anti-nuclear power lobby?Quote:
Originally Posted by Loy Toy
Nuclear disasters are local - say parts of Japan, or all of New York, France or Shanghai would become dead for next 1000 years, that would be horrible, but world and human race would still live on. But global warming is global in effect and can finish off human life from this planet. Logic is this, nuclear power so far is slowing this and that is why scientiest, even green party scientists support nuclear power. Of course we hope for fusion reactor or other technology but its not here yet.
What does that have to do with the mis-information campaign that TEPCO and in turn the Japanese government have been spouting in order to save face?
The Japanese government placed sufficient reliance on the information provided by TEPCO to relay to the world community... It is obvious that either they are complicit in the mis-informaiton campaign or inept... Take your pick... In the mean time, no one really knows the extent of the damage and radiation footprint this is leaving behind and it has been 1 month since the incident...Quote:
Originally Posted by nostromoTEPCO is a company so they do have their spin. It is not a country and very unfair to think Japan is TEPCO or TEPCO speaks for them. TEPCO is probably one of the 5 largest power suppliers in the world and it means they have real... power:) What you think would be happening if this was California?Quote:
Originally Posted by MuadibYes, the Japanese people are handling this in their typical stoic, communal behavior... I was eluding to TEPCO and the mis-information campaign they have been waging since the outset of this crisis...Quote:
Originally Posted by nostromoWell, in many/most? countries on something like the original event happening there would have been large scale looting, killing and disintegration of state, not in Japan though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Muadib
Quote:
Originally Posted by MuadibNo, I am Pro Nuclear power...Quote:
Originally Posted by nostromoAm I not mistaken you and HermantheGerman are "the members" of the anti-nuclear power lobby?Quote:
Originally Posted by Loy Toy
Nuclear disasters are local - say parts of Japan, or all of New York, France or Shanghai would become dead for next 1000 years, that would be horrible, but world and human race would still live on. But global warming is global in effect and can finish off human life from this planet. Logic is this, nuclear power so far is slowing this and that is why scientiest, even green party scientists support nuclear power. Of course we hope for fusion reactor or other technology but its not here yet.
What does that have to do with the mis-information campaign that TEPCO and in turn the Japanese government have been spouting in order to save face?
I never thought you were with anti-nuclear lobby. And I agree with you as I said in previous post, TEPCO is a company and they want to tell things they want - but I dont see Japanese government involved in TEPCO spin (of course there are links at this level between them, but it is not the issue now) .
Correct, so they behave as if there would be no radiation.Quote:
Originally Posted by nostromo
Correct too. But if only a part of their offspring is affected they can thrive in an area where they are not bothered by humans. Only if all or too many are affected they will die out. As it is they thrive in the Chernobyl area, so not too many of their offspring are affected. As would be the case with humans living there except we don't accept the number of deformed children those animals do.Quote:
Originally Posted by nostromo