IAEA updates, and Minutes to Meltdown, we didn't get the true story then, aren't getting it now

I've been following the Japan threads and haven't seen this posted yet so hope it's new, sorry if I missed it.

This video describes several things which are important to understand, like:
-It starts with a brief overview of the Fukushima crisis
-It notes how the the operators of the TMI reactor didn't have the slightest clue what was really going on inside the reactor (is it the same situation in Fukushima? For clues, see the updates below)
-what would happen in a full meltdown and what would cause it (around 11 minutes in the video)
-how miscommunication occurs after a nuclear accident in the MSM

This video is labeled: japan nuclear crisis * national geographic minutes to meltdown three mile island
This is only the first 14 minutes of the documentary and I don't see the rest on youtube but this part covers those key points. If you get a chance to see the whole hour on NatGeo, I recommend it, it's worth watching.

Note that the meltdown scenario that could have occurred at TMI could have been much worse, when they describe the symptoms of a full meltdown in this video at around 11 minutes.

Note the situation in Japan isn't that bad yet, and that pouring concrete at this point may actually cause the full meltdown nightmare scenario described.

Also note how that disastrous meltdown was only 30 minutes away when media was telling the public there's nothing to worry about. That wasn't the media's fault by the way, they were just repeating what the power company told them. But it was completely false.

It's very interesting to see what really happened at TMI and how the public was lied to in that event and draw parallels to the Japan disaster which is also briefly mentioned at the beginning of the video.

Does this video help you understand what a real meltdown would be like? And why entombing in concrete which might cause that is a really bad idea?

Do you see how badly the public was lied to in the TMI incident? Chernobyl was probably even worse in that respect.

I was reviewing the updates on the IAEA site and there's some conflicting information there:


www.iaea.org...

Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update (13 March 2011, 02:35 CET) - Corrected

Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that Units 1, 2 and 4 at the Fukushima Daini retain off-site power. Daini Unit 3 is in a safe, cold shutdown, according to Japanese officials.

Unit 3 is in safe, cold shutdown. Then how can it explode?

www.iaea.org...

Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update (14 March 2011, 00:30 UTC) - Clarified

Unit 3 does not have off-site power supply nor backup diesel generators providing power to the plant. As the high pressure injection system and other attempts to cool the reactor core have failed, injection of water and boron into the reactor vessel has commenced. Water levels inside the reactor vessel increased steadily for a certain amount of time but readings indicating the water level inside the pressure vessel are no longer showing an increase.

It no longer sounds like the cold safe shutdown they previously reported, or am I missing something? The next thing we know they're reporting it's back at safe, cold shutdown:

Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update (14 March 2011, 04:15 UTC)
...Unit 3 is in a safe, cold shutdown.

How did that happen? And if it's safe and cold, why did it explode?

Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update (14 March 2011, 06:00 UTC)

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) has provided the IAEA with further information about the hydrogen explosion that occurred today at the Unit 3 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. A hydrogen explosion occurred at Unit 3 on 14 March at 11:01 am local Japan time.

www.iaea.org...

Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update (15 March 2011, 02:35 UTC)

Japanese authorities yesterday reported to the IAEA at 20:05 UTC that the reactors Units 1, 2 and 3 of the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant are in cold shutdown status. This means that the pressure of the water coolant is at around atmospheric level and the temperature is below 100 °C. Under these conditions, the reactors are considered to be safely under control.

Safely under control? I don't think so, because look at the next update 2 hours and 40 minutes later:

Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update (15 March 2011, 05:15 UTC)

Japanese authorities informed the IAEA that there has been an explosion at the Unit 2 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The explosion occurred at around 06:20 on 15 March local Japan time.

Japanese authorities also today informed the IAEA at 04:50 CET that the spent fuel storage pond at the Unit 4 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is on fire and radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere.

That list of Japan reports reminds me of the three mile island video. One minute there's saying everything is fine, under control, nothing to worry about, then there's an explosion. There's so much conflict in these reports it might take years before we know what really happened, or will we ever really know? It seems like we finally do know what happened at TMI but it took years to find out what this documentary reveals. Do you see the parallels between the two incidents?

The latest IAEA update for today was just released:
www.iaea.org...
You can read the whole thing but the most noteworthy part to me was this:

TEPCO has identified a possible leakage path from the Turbine building of Unit 2 to the sea via a series of trenches/tunnels used to provide power to the sea water intake pumps and supply of service water to the reactor and turbine buildings. On 4th April, a tracer was used in an attempt to determine where the water was coming from. So far, the tracer has not been observed in the water leaking into the sea.

If they can't tell where the water is coming from, it's going to be hard to fix the leak, won't it?

yes it's a nightmare,problem is I can't grt the full documentary,did nageo pull it?I hate to think they are compliant with a coverup

The description states...

the video is really about three mile island but started with the crisis in japan so i uploaded that part but you can find the other clips by searching for national geographic minutes to meltdown three mile island here on youtube...

I actually watched the "TMI - Minutes to Meltdown" documentary a few nights ago on Youtube. I can't watch the vid because I'm at work, but it sounds like maybe they've added a little bit about the Japan crises at the start to make the documentary more relevant and re-released it.

Anyway, the original TMI documentary is very good and worth a watch

reply to post by gary714
I searched for the full thing but the first 14 minutes was all I could find to embed.

Here's the link on Natgeo's site:

Minutes to Meltdown: Three Mile Island

Go to the video tab, it's not loading for me but maybe it will for you.

It will be at least half a decade if not longer before we have a documentary that accurate on the Fukushima disaster, but it really gives us an idea of what's going on at the Japan crisis site.

reply to post by Arbitrageur

I completely agree with your comments. I for some reason can not get this out of my head. MSM is totally glossing over this. Fat actress falling down on DWTS is getting more coverage than this.

Complete nuclear meltdown
Radiation pouring into the ocean
Radiation millions of times greater than normal levels (yes millions!)
Radiation crossing the Pacific into US territory
Nuclear workers saying they KNOW they are going to die
8 years to encase the meltdown in concrete
Greater than the Chernobyl event and getting worse
Evidence of exposed Plutonium (1 particle can give a person lung cancer)

But there is NO NEED TO WORRY... everything is fine. Hey look over here Obama is running for President again... Big News! Now look over here; Royal Wedding... ohhhhhh ahhhh. Never mind that thousands if not millions of lives are at stake here. Man I hate MSM.

Minutes to Meltdown is available on the newsgroups if you have access to it.

binsearch.info...

reply to post by Arbitrageur


yeah that's what I got too,I would really like to see it.just watched one on chernobyl,I guess japan and the us are doing what the communists did.I hope the loss of life doesn't come close,wishful thinking though.First the gulf and now this.I wish my mom was alive she was a kindergarten teacher and strict....send her and the rest of the faculty to make them stand in a corner.

reply to post by CORN IS NUTS


Still at level 5

Never are all the reactors mentioned in the same report even though a problem in one causes problems in others.

This is why when a county decides to produce electricity using nuclear power it should be controlled by a world body because when they go wrong its the world that pays the bills

Sorry I got here late....

...Also note how that disastrous meltdown was only 30 minutes away when media was telling the public there's nothing to worry about. That wasn't the media's fault by the way, they were just repeating what the power company told them. But it was completely false. ...

And therein lies the problem. The owners of the nuclear plant also happened to be the owners of the media (and still are, by the way.)

I don't think it's the same in Japan, but the Energy Cartel's influence in the Japanese government outweighs nearly all others. Hence, as with the earlier BP crisis, it was they who controlled the message, not the government (who wouldn't have told us the truth anyway.)

Sadly, this is another example of the value and priority we should put on re-establishing our free press.

PS - just for fun ... a Saturday Night Live vintage piece.....

Originally posted by ThreeNF
Minutes to Meltdown is available on the newsgroups if you have access to it.

binsearch.info...

Thanks, nice choice of HD version or compressed version!

Originally posted by Maxmars
And therein lies the problem. The owners of the nuclear plant also happened to be the owners of the media (and still are, by the way.)

You mean TEPCO owns the media?

It really bothers me that GE owns so much Media, and they are the designers of the plant.

I agree, bring back the free press.

But in Three Mile Island, having free press wouldn't have helped in that part of the documentary I embedded. The reporter didn't want to lie, he really wanted to report the truth, and I don't think anyone was stopping him from telling the truth. He just didn't know what was true because the power company didn't tell him the full story.

And even the power company only knew about half the truth, even if they wanted to tell the truth, they couldn't have because they didn't even know what was really going on. They thought the reactor was full of water and it wasn't!

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Sorry, I meant to say that the among the owners of Three-Mile island were the owners of nearly all of the major media companies in the country (at the time) and some of those same companies STILL own the media companies lock stock and barrel.

I don't know if it is the same in Japan, but it would be hard to believe that any country other than the US could convince themselves that such an arrangement was acceptable.

reply to post by Arbitrageur

I think you're confusing the Daini plant with the Daichi plant. The first article you referenced about the plant being in shutdown was about the Daini plant. The article about the explosion was referencing the Daichi plant.

reply to post by Redux
Thanks, you're right! That explains a lot. Out of the six excerpts I posted I think 2 are from the other facility.

adressed already

Originally posted by gary714
yes it's a nightmare,problem is I can't grt the full documentary,did nageo pull it?I hate to think they are compliant with a coverup

I did some more searching on youtube and found the full documentary in 6 parts. The reason I didn't find it at first is, the title on youtube in incorrect:

Here is a playlist link but I don't know if it will work:
www.youtube.com...

In case that doesn't work, here is part one, and if you open this link in another window you can find the links to the other 5 parts:

NatGeo: Minutes to Meltdown

Hi,

Really nice post. I noticed that some f the reports weren't relevant to the facility in question, but it's all relative and someone corrected you already.

I've S+F'd this. I think more people, if they have not already, should stop and take an hour or two to trawl through the mass of dis-info online regarding this. It's a horrible situation, and my heart goes out to people who are dying whilst trying to fix this.

Thundersmurf...
Peace™