Japan Raises Possibility of Breach in Reactor Vessel NYT

[flamingdem]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/world/asia/26japan.html

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The development, described at a news conference by Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, raises the possibility that radiation from the mox fuel in the reactor — a combination of uranium and plutonium — could be released.

One sign that a breach may have occurred in the reactor vessel, Mr. Nishiyama said, took place on Thursday when three workers who were trying to connect an electrical cable to a pump in a turbine building next to the reactor were injured when they stepped into water that was found to be significantly more radioactive than normal in a reactor. The No. 3 unit, the only one of the six reactors at the site that uses the mox fuel, was damaged by a hydrogen explosion on March 14. Workers have been seeking to keep it cool by spraying it with seawater along with a more recent effort to restart the reactor’s cooling system.

[buddysmellgood]

1. Let's talk about safe levels of plutonium in the water supply.

[flamingdem]

5. I wonder if there are studies, Chernobyl maybe? nt

[cliffordu]

2. Bunch of fucking killjoys.

[flamingdem]

4. Look it's PUFF the Plutonium Dragon

They'll make a cutesy video like "nuclear boy" in anime style to explain this to children.

[kristopher]

6. How would you explain it to children?

The Japanese treasure the innocence of their children and try to protect them from fright in their early years.

[flamingdem]

7. Children need to be away from the radiation

because of their dividing cells.

I firmly believe that but I don't know how they'll manage it.

I wish an independent monitoring agency was checking for all the isotopes.

One protocol for nuclear emergency is not to panic the public.

But in the case of children, they need to move away from danger.

Thyroid cancer is not a death sentence, the other isotopes are nastier.

[kristopher]

9. I competely agree, but how would you talk to children about the entire problem? nt

I think if you think about it a bit, that anime has some logic to it.

[flamingdem]

3. Tepco just admitted that the workers found fuel rod elements in the basement water

On NHK now: addmission by TEPCO that fuel rods are damaged in reactor 3 - and probably in 1 and 2 as well. Zirconium cladding elements have been found in basement water in reactor 3. Spokesman admitting that this is why large amounts of radiation are leaking into the enviroment, and making attempts to control the situtation 'very challenging'.

[intaglio]

10. Links here could someone translate the Yomiuri article

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/radioactive-zirconium-found-fukushima-confirms-exposed-fuel-rods-high-level-radiation-emitte

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/science/news/20110325-OYT1T00127.htm

[tekisui]

11. Here is Google Translation:

TEPCO 24, were taken from the water near the outlet of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, announced that it had detected a small amount of radioactive zirconium 95.

Zirconium is used for nuclear fuel cladding, the cladding melts some of the spent nuclear fuel was hot cooling water is lost, possibly mixed with sea water flowing into the large drainage There. TEPCO am on July 23, collected about 330 m south from the water at the point of outlet. Zirconium-95 concentration was 0.23 becquerels per cubic centimeter. Atomic Energy Research Institute of Kinki Sugiyama Wataru teachers (of nuclear safety), "The evidence that melting in the heat of the fuel cladding, said first find. will come from a spent fuel storage pool at, "he said .
(20:08 minutes Yomiuri Shimbun, March 25, 2011)

[Safetykitten]

8. Incremental information will also be this tragedy.