Tokyo Doubles Estimate for Total Radiation Release In 1st Week After Quake

[Octafish]

Source: Wall Street Journal

TOKYO (Dow Jones)--The Japanese government, providing fresh evidence on the severity of a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, more than doubled Monday its estimate for the amount of radiation released from the plant in the first week of the crisis in March.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, a government nuclear watchdog, also said it believes that reactor cores at some of the units at the complex melted much more quickly than the plant operator previously suggested, citing recent evidence suggesting initial efforts to inject seawater water into the reactors failed to achieve positive results.

NISA said it now estimates the total amount of radiation released into the atmosphere in the first week of the crisis at 770,000 terabecquerels. This compares with NISA's previous estimate, released on April 12, of 370,000 terabecquerels for the first month of the crisis. NISA has pointed out that most of the radiation was released in the first week. A terabecquerel is equivalent to 1 trillion becquerels.

SNIP...

The latest figure is still only about 10% of the radiation released from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, which is estimated at 5.2 million terabecquerels, NISA said. But the sharp upward revision shows that the failure to contain the crisis swiftly resulted in greater radioactive contamination of surrounding regions than previously thought.


Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110606-701246.html

---

Still less radiation than Chernobyl by one measure, anyway. If true, good news.

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. So much for the ZERO possibility of a containment breach for the Mark I reactors

Our NRC still has that ridiculous and demonstrably false assertion in their analysis of these reactors in America. Fukushima not only proved that assertion false, it did it in a spectacular fashion. I hope all DU'ers note the lack of real mainstream coverage of the ONGOING Fukushima disaster. It is no accident. There are very powerful interests that do not want the US population to know just how dangerous this type of power can be.

[thewiseguy]

2. How does 770,000 equal to 10% of 5.2 million?

and furthermore the Chernobyl incident is said to have released 1.8 million terabecequerels of radioactivity in total. Got to love the Japanese for fixing numbers and making shit up! :puke:

[AtheistCrusader]

4. 120,000 to 300,000 petabecquerels, actually.

Depending on which russian source you believe.

Still, Fukushima's number may be revised upwards again. They simply cannot know for certain at this point precisely how much went out into the environment.

[Overseas]

3. K&R.

It did seem like a much larger accident than was being disclosed from the beginning.

Multiple meltdowns.

[blackspade]

5. This is a serious problem.

Just like the total news blackout of the disaster in the US.

[kpete]

6. No.1 reactor vessel damaged 5 hours after quake (No. 2/3 reactors after 80/79 hours )

Source: NHK World

No.1 reactor vessel damaged 5 hours after quake

Japan's nuclear regulator says the meltdown at one of the Fukushima reactors came about 5 hours after the March 11th earthquake, 10 hours earlier than initially estimated by the plant's operator.

The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency on Monday issued the results of its analysis of data given to it by Tokyo Electric Power Company.

The report says the fuel rods in the Number 1 reactor began to be exposed 2 hours after the earthquake due to the loss of the reactor's cooling system in the tsunami. Its fuel rods may have melted down 3 hours later, causing the damage to the reactor. This means the meltdown occurred about 10 hours earlier than TEPCO estimated last month.

The nuclear agency also says a meltdown damaged the Number 2 reactor about 80 hours after the quake, and the Number 3 reactor 79 hours after the quake.

Read more: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/06_33.html

[robdogbucky]

7. Scientists call for radiation exposure reduction

A group of scientists at Fukushima University is urging the prefectural government to take stronger precautions in reducing radiation exposure to citizens.

The group comprises 12 associate professors at the university, including Hazuki Ishida, an environmental engineering specialist. On Monday they presented the Fukushima Governor with a 7-point request in connection with the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A health risk management expert for the prefecture said that radiation exposure of up to 10 microsieverts per hour causes no health problems.

But for those remaining outdoors in such conditions for only 5 days, the total radiation exposure will exceed 1 millisievert, the annual limit for ordinary people, as recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection.
The professors called for reducing exposure to radioactivity as much as possible and urged the prefecture to establish guidelines toward this purpose.

They also asked that prefectural government radiation experts who say that even relatively low levels of radioactivity are harmful be included as health risk management advisors. They also requested that the prefectural government draw up and make public a concrete plan to remove contaminated topsoil. Ishida says the prefectural government should take measures to protect its residents, on the premise that even low levels of radiation exposure are dangerous.

Monday, June 06, 2011 22:31 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/06_35.html

[robdogbucky]

8. More Fukushima updates

Govt. document shows offsite center dysfunctional

An internal document from Japan's nuclear safety agency reveals that an emergency response office was nearly dysfunctional at the time of the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant on March 11th.

NHK has obtained a document from the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency that shows how the office, called an "off-site center" failed to function properly due to a rise in radiation levels in the wake of a power outage.

Off-site centers were established at 22 locations near nuclear power plants throughout the country after a criticality accident in 1999 at a nuclear fuel processing plant in Tokai Village in Ibaraki Prefecture...

...It reveals that after the power outage, an emergency diesel generator did not work at all, communications were down, and other critical functions were lost...

Monday, June 06, 2011 22:00 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/06_34.html


Probe poised to take Tepco to task
Utility tardy in venting reactor pressure, lacked plan for multiple crises, ignored historical data

By REIJI YOSHIDA
Staff writer

Shortly after 7 a.m. on March 12, Prime Minister Naoto Kan confronted Masao Yoshida, director of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, at the compound in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture.

Kan flew from Tokyo by chopper to the crippled nuclear plant, desperately wanting to ask one critical question: Why can't Tokyo Electric Power Co. still open valves to release rising steam inside reactor No. 1 to avoid a looming meltdown?

The March 11 megaquake and monster tsunami had already knocked out all the power supply and critical cooling systems of the plant, pushing temperatures and pressure inside reactor 1 to an acutely dangerous level.

Tepco had been unable to open the electric valves because the station had suffered a total blackout. Radiation in the reactor building had already risen to dangerous levels, making Tepco hesitant to send in workers to manually open the valves...

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110606x3.htm...


Experts fear tsunami sludge could lead to infectious disease outbreak

With the rainy season and scorching summer approaching disaster-hit northeastern Japan, experts fear sludge left by the tsunami could cause an outbreak of infectious diseases among local residents.

Sludge brought by the tsunami covered coastal cities in northeastern Japan, but the governments of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures -- the three regions most severely damaged by the disaster -- have yet to find a way to dispose of the considerable amount of sludge covering vast areas.

In the coastal city of Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, dust from dried sludge drifts in the air and restricts visibility.
"The smell of sludge has become stronger than immediately after the earthquake. I must always wear a face mask," said a 57-year-old local man who was cleaning his flooded home in early June.

The rice fields around his house were covered with a black sediment, producing a large number of fly-like insects...

(Mainichi Japan) June 6, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110606p2a00m0na00...

[neoralme]

9. Frankly, I don't believe anything the Japanese government says about

anything with respect to this disaster. I don't expect Japan to recover for two or three generations, if ever. I sure wish I knew what was happening there.

[aquart]

10. What are you smoking? There is NO good news from Fukushima.

And every day they release a little more very bad news.