Getting Worse -CNN: Reactors may be riddled with holes+TEPCO admits meltdowns @ #'s 1, 2 & 3+ more

[stockholmer]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/25/japan.nuclear.report/

Tokyo, Japan (CNN) -- Two of the damaged reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan may be riddled with holes, according to the facility's owner.

The holes may be as big as 7 to 10 centimeters ( 2.8- 3.9 inches), Tokyo Electric Power Co. said in a 225-page document submitted to Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

In the report, Tokyo Electric says the containment vessel of reactor No. 1 may have developed a hole as big as 3 centimeters in diameter 18 hours after the quake.

Fifty hours after the quake, the hole may have widened to 7 centimeters, the report said. In reactor No. 2, the containment vessel may have developed a hole as wide as 10 centimeters 21 hours after the quake..........."

snip

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http://green.yahoo.com/news/nm/20110524/wl_nm/us_japan_tepco_reactors.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/us-japan-tepco-reactors-idUSTRE74N07S20110524


TEPCO Confirms Three of Four Reactors in Meltdown


(Reuters) - The operator of the nuclear power plant at the center of a radiation scare after being disabled by Japan's earthquake and tsunami confirmed Tuesday that there had been meltdowns of fuel rods at three of its reactors.

Tokyo Electric Power Co said meltdowns of fuel rods at three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant occurred early in the crisis triggered by the March 11 disaster.

The government and outside experts had said previously that fuel rods at three of the plant's six reactors had likely melted early in the crisis, but the utility, also known as Tepco, had only confirmed a meltdown at the No.1 reactor.

Tepco officials said a review since early May of data from the plant concluded the same happened to reactors No.2 and 3......................."

snip

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http://atmc.jp/plant/rad/?n=1

Drywall Definition: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/drywell.html

Highest yet radiation dose at Reactor No. 1 — 204 FULL Sieverts per hour in drywell

5/25 @ 204 Sv/hr
5/24 @ 192 Sv/hr
5/23 @ 201 Sv/hr
5/22 @ 196 Sv/hr
5/21 @ 36.2 Sv/hr
5/20 @ 46.5 Sv/hr
5/19 @ 36.3 Sv/hr
5/18 @ 45.4 Sv/hr





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http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/soil-contamination-from-fukushima-crisis-comparable-to-chernobyl-study

Japan gov’t expert: 1,300 sq. kilometers in Japan above Chernobyl level for forced migrations

Radiation released by the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has caused soil contamination matching the levels seen in the Chernobyl disaster in some areas, <...> said Tomio Kawata, a research fellow of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan, at the meeting of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission, which sets policies and strategies for the government’s nuclear power development.

According to Kawata, soil in a 600 square kilometer area mostly to the northwest of the Fukushima plant is likely to have absorbed radioactive cesium of over 1.48 million becquerels per square meter, the yardstick for compulsory migration orders in the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe.

Kawata also said soil in a 700 square km area is likely to have absorbed 555,000-1.48 million becquerels per square meter, which was a criteria for temporary migration during the Chernobyl disaster.

<...> radioactive cesium binds strongly to soil, making it hard to reduce radiation levels, Kawata said

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/24/more-melted-fuel-japan-fukushima-un-probe_n_866315.html

UN Mission Finds Chunks of nuclear fuel appear to have entered drywell, causing damage

TOKYO — A major international mission to investigate Japan's flooded, radiation-leaking nuclear complex began as new information suggested that nuclear fuel had mostly melted in two more reactors in the early days after the March 11 tsunami.

That would mean that all three troubled reactors at the plant have had their cores mostly melted down.

The team of U.N. nuclear experts met with Japanese officials Tuesday and planned to visit the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in coming days to investigate the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986 and assess efforts to stabilize the complex by Tokyo's self-declared deadline of early next year.

Meanwhile, the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., released a new analysis suggesting that fuel rods in the plant's Units 2 and 3 mostly melted during the early days of the crisis, which had been suspected but not confirmed. In addition, some chunks of the fuel appeared to have entered the inner containment chambers, or drywell, causing some damage.........................."

snip

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http://www.news24.com/World/News/70-000-must-evacuate-around-Fukushima-20110524


70,000 more “must evacuate around Fukushima” — Contamination up to several million Bq/m2

Seventy thousand people living beyond the 20km no-go zone around Fukushima should be evacuated because of radioactivity deposited by the crippled nuclear plant, said. <...>

Radioactivity levels in this area range from several hundred becquerels per square metre to thousands or even several million bequerels per square metre, the IRSN report, issued late on Monday, said. <...>

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/business/energy-environment/25nuke.html?_r=3

NYT: Threat of catastrophic radioactive release from a spent fuel pool at Fukushima is dwarfed by risk posed by pools in U.S., study says

The threat of a catastrophic release of radioactive materials from a spent fuel pool at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant is dwarfed by the risk posed by such pools in the United States, which are typically filled with far more radioactive material, according to a study released on Tuesday by a nonprofit institute . <...>

At one plant that is a near twin of the Fukushima units, Vermont Yankee on the border of Massachusetts and Vermont, the spent fuel in a pool at the solitary reactor there exceeds the inventory in all four of the damaged Fukushima reactors combined, the report notes. <...>

“The largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet will remain in storage at U.S. reactor sites for the indefinite future” -Robert Alvarez, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of the report

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http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/node/4227

Highest Cesium-137 level in nearly a month for N. California raw milk

Raw Milk: Dairy in Sonoma County, UC Berkeley, May 24, 2011:

Cs137

5/18 0.16 Bq/L
5/4 0.10 Bq/L
4/27 0.07 Bq/L
4/20 0.27 Bq/L

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http://news.lucaswhitefieldhixson.com/2011/05/media-gallery-may-23rd-2011.html

Media Gallery (Videos and Pics)

[The Blue Flower]

1. Thank you

Thanks for putting this all together. The weather has elbowed out coverage of all else. Nuclear meltdown is SO last week!

[stockholmer]

2. each aggregated post on here about Fukushima gets less and less views

Many just do not care anymore, as the hyper-active news cycle has moved on and/or covered up.

The fact about TEPCO lying about the 3 meltdowns from the start is huge, yet gets a collective yawn.

:shrug:

[Forkboy]

5. I don't think it's because people don't care.

Japan cares more about Japan than Joplin, which is totally understandable, and Joplin cares more about Joplin than Japan, also understandable. It's not that one doesn't care about the other.

As for the rest of us, I think a lot of people are feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of horrible disasters in the last year or so. Massive floods in Pakinstan that are still affecting millions, massive fires in Russia, floods in Australia, the BP oil spill, the tornadoes in Alabama and Missouri....it goes on. The human mind can only process so much of this before it starts to go into self-preservation mode.

Why the news carries less and less of the disaster in Japan is clear: Radiation doesn't make for good copy. If it bleeds it leads, and radiation isn't a very sexy news story.

[Kaleko]

15. You nailed it.

Overwhelmed by outrage overload for too long, numbness sets in.

[lapislzi]

25. Also, some of the terminology is difficult for lay people to understand

Hell, we in the U.S. barely understand "milligrams." Now you're throwing "sieverts" and "bequiels" at us? These terms sound like another language (which, in a sense they are), and make the whole thing harder to wrap our heads around.

We know radiation = bad.

Once you start throwing numbers and terms around, people's heads explode.

[onecent]

6. It's not that I don't care, but I never understand half of what

they are "really trying to tell us"...I want to know the bottom line immediately before I read 6 paragraphs of something that doesn't
make any sense. Unfortunately, that's what also happens with most of the news overseas....

I'm a senior citizen. (a cool one, lol) and I get confused about all those countries and their relation to each other.....

[Aerows]

18. Many of us who have been following this

knew that TEPCO was lying through their teeth since day one.

Pretty much anytime you have a flood of people doing damage control, you know it's bad.

[bvar22]

19. It quickly becomes the "New Normal",

just like the ongoing crisis in the Gulf of Mexico.

[NNN0LHI]

3. The "experts" were on TV 2 months ago proclaiming long as the containment isn't breached no problem

Now that we find out that the containments of three reactors look like Swiss cheese the experts are noticeably absent.

Anyone else notice this?

Don

[Selatius]

7. There were quite a lot of people here vehemently challenging each other over the claims.

I remember that much, many whitewashers and naysayers.

[SpiralHawk]

4. Fugly nuclear reality

k and r

[closeupready]

8. I'm just waiting for nuclear shills to explain why this incident was totally unique,

and 'could never ever ever ever ever ever ever happen again.' :eyes:

[PufPuf23]

13. The incident is unique in that there is no prior experience nor

solid plan to bring the reactors under control.

I now view every aging nuclear plant as a future problem without a major chnage in technology that excludes dangerous waste.

[Aerows]

22. And they are - here is our damn wake-up call

and no one wanted us to pay any attention to it. It's a shitstorm waiting to happen, and that's why there were so many defenders, damage controllers and "experts" telling us not to worry.

Because there WAS reason to worry, and most with a grain of sense already knew it.

[clayton72]

9. Even worse than suspected. K&R

[Prometheus Bound]

10. This is really scary. It's just too horrible to think of the consequences.

[gratuitous]

11. Oh, you alarmists! Always on about your "radiation" and your "meltdowns"

Gee whiz, none of you ever farted in a crowded elevator? And you're completely overlooking all the possible positive side effects of this disaster that's not a disaster. Why, our piscene friend Blinky here with his third eye could be a kind of . . . of superfish! I know I'd sure like to have three eyes.

[8 track mind]

12. exactly!!!!

you see, those super duper ultra-safe reactors are DOING what they were designed to do!!!! You see those super moral nuclear industry god-like people would NOT lie to us!



:sarcasm:

[Sabriel]

14. If CA milk contamination is up...

...I'm going to assume that milk here in WI is, too.

But the state has stopped testing for it.

How conveeeeeeeeenient.

[intheflow]

16. Sobering. k&r.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

17. Ah, hell. As posted above in an earlier comment, this is really fugly.

I can't fathom what the end result will be... what's the half-life of this material?

[Tom Rinaldo]

20. One thing you can count on

ALL of this information will see the light of day each and every time any company attempts to build a new nuclear power plant, at least in a western nation or Japan. It will almost certainly also come up at any future attempt to extend the opeetional life of any current plants. People have a hard time coping with a disaster that they have no seeming control over, but given the right time and place to fight back, people do.

[barbtries]

21. thank you for posting

important stuff.

[truebrit71]

23. I am getting quite concerned because they haven't talked about the pool...

..with the spent rods..If i recall correctly there are a boatlaod of those, and because they were spent they were even more nasty than the regular ones..

Has anyone got any information on that?

[Javaman]

24. What happened on May 22nd that made the radiation dose jump so high? nt