Cleanup (Or Coverup?) Begins At Tepco

Tepco deploys robots and RPV's to dismantle destroyed reactors at Daiichi:

The utility started using remote-controlled power shovels and bulldozers to remove the rubble on Sunday afternoon. Operators are using cameras attached to the equipment as well as 6 fixed cameras at the site to carry out the work from hundreds of meters away. A lead-covered mobile operating room will be used to remove debris from places that cannot be reached by radio waves. TEPCO says the rubble will be put into containers and stored at the plant under strict supervision, as it may be contaminated with high levels of radiation. Sunday, April 10, 2011 18:40 +0900 (JST)

I'm starting a new thread so we can keep track of the systematic destruction of the reactors and the plant that is beginning now. I hope the thread stays focused around images documenting what is removed, where it is put, what is revealed under the rubble, etc.

I think we are going to witness the fastest coverup and recovery from a meltdown in history.

Comments and Speculation Welcome !!

I am glad to see they are starting to remove some debris now..It will be interesting to follow

Can't help but notice...they started doing this now after the barges had a few days to remove things under cover eh?

Good thinking Chakotay! I bet when they get to the bottom of the cleanup, The only thing we will see is lights at night,and Tarp to cover up EVERYTHING they dont want us to see. MHO............ I know those on ATS are going to watching carefully though..................


Star and Flag!!

reply to post by okiecowboy


Here's one source for recent photos- if anyone has good links for real-time and recent photos/videos please post so we can start forming a "time-lapse" understanding of what they are going to do over the next few weeks:

Daiichi Photos at Pink Tentacle

The sheeple of this world will go on believing nuclear energy is safe, and we'll have posters on the boards spouting lies from nuclear industry "watchdogs", (you know them, the dogs trained to protect the nuke industry,) telling us nuclear power never hurt anyone and nobody died from radiation because of Fukushima.

How many disasters will it take before people stop telling us fission is a responsible way to produce power?

Humanity is not a responsible species.

Here is an interesting thing , as we know they are on a massive offensive to "distill" public opinion, this demolition becomes very important, though , one aspect has been somewhat overlooked : radar

there are lots of fishing sonars that should be able to 'SEE' radioactive water ( the industry calls it RCS ) and it is possible that radar could also be used to track radioactive clouds...

now any construction or destruction produces dust and the aerosols and radiation 'pollution' around that plant should be radar/sonar visible with commercially available tech ...so...local people may be able to pick this out of the ether as things get dusted up a bit

reply to post by Chakotay


Coverup!

On a related thread...some of us ask why are they putting steel covers over the intake to stop the
leak of radioactive water?


Saturday, April 09, 2011 22:22 +0900 (JST)

Tokyo Electric Power Company plans to start removing highly radioactive water from the Number 2 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A large amount of contaminated water was found in the reactor's turbine buildings and tunnels. The water is emitting high levels of radiation, which is obstructing restoration work.

............Hoses are being installed to connect the turbine buildings with the waste disposal facility. The contaminated water in the tunnel of the reactor will be transferred to the condenser, and then to the processing facility through the hoses.

Also on Saturday, a steel plate was placed over the intake of the Number 2 reactor to stop highly radioactive water from reaching the sea.

www3.nhk.or.jp...

Are the intakes leaking the radioactive water?

Like, backwash?

"A large amount of contaminated water was found in the reactor's turbine BUILDING(S) and TUNNELS."

Now THAT sounds pretty bad.

An we can only assume it is so radioactive now that entering the area might mean certain death. (Fuki fifty)

That, or (this is just speculation now) they're running out of engineers qualified in dealing with the actual aftermath of rampaging nuclear plants. Granted, they supossedly have many in that field in Japan, but how many are "qualified" to deal with this or are willing now that it is visually so bad?

Right now it actually astounds me that they're not asking for help from everyone. It MUST be that they don't want to admit failure. Same as their government.

I can see that they're covering up most of this, but there is more to understand here than meets the eye. For the most part, they CANNOT just up and state "We're a dead country", if they do, their money is worthless abroad. Other countries cannot except a dead currancy, thus making it MORE problematic to leave. Right now, the BEST thing their people can do is read between the lines and trust their gut. Their government is giving the people time to leave before the country implodes, without the ability to actually TELL them what is going on.

The only areas that are going to be habitable in the end of all this are the northern and southern regions. And in my humble opinion, that is a best-case scenario.

Inter-Corporate Team Plans for Demolition Of Daiichi

The multinational team is code-named MT.FUJI, short for Management Support for Fukushima U.S. and Japan Initiative.

More Here: Demolition News

Issa - Snail, ever so slowly climb Mt Fuji- which is read: katatsuburi sorosoro nobore fuji no yama.

Load all the hot metal onto barges in the middle of the night and dump it on top of the Russian nuke waste in the sea of Japan... no one will be the wiser

Originally posted by Kailassa
The sheeple of this world will go on believing nuclear energy is safe,

Nuclear energy IS safe... if we didn't have it we would all be dead...

Mankind using it to boil water is not safe especially when idiots are in charge.

Now out of all the stupidity coming from Japan this picture is the stupidest in my opinion



Why on Earth would you be standing out in the open when you have a remote controlled machine? Even a lead shielded cab on the machine would be better protection, but then you wouldn't need robots. Are these workers that crazy or is this a setup shot?

reply to post by zorgon

He is a mechanic, dude.

Mechanics are God.

Seriously: camera shot of a picture taker? Radiation reading? Short range RC transmitter?

Seriously, there is more here than meets Zorgon's eye...

Or... photoshop?!

They need to get into the reactor buildings to find out what is going on first hand.

Then they need to seal up any problems to keep more radioactivity from escaping and to bring the cooling up to 100%.

This can only be done by removing debris from the ways into the reactor buildings.

They can no longer just react to problems they now have to fix things before they become problems.

They also need to remove the spent fuel bundles from all the reactor building and move them to pools that they can control the cooling away from the coast and any danger from further damage until they cool to a safe level for long term storage.

Japan has a reprocessing plant where they can take the melted fuel rods and stabilize them once they have cooled.
www.ieer.org...

This will have to be done sometime or there will be long term problem with radioactive leaks in the future.

The Japanese have two ways to handle this.
They can do what the Russians did at Chernobyl and leave a mess or clean up and defuel the reactors like they did at Three Mile Island.
www.nytimes.com...

Long term the Three Mile Island method is the only way to control the problems that could come in the future.

By the looks of the photos, there must be radiactive waste scattered throughout the area.
Where are the containment pools for the blow and totally destroyed reactors?
I would suggest they too are kaputski.
i such is the case, there are fuel rods of all degrees of hotness laying around from the blasts.
There has to be an accounting of all the materials stored with the locations cross referencedto the pictures...
Anyone capable?
The pics show total destruction of one reactor building and it is a sure thing its storage pool was damaged too. maybe we could try to reconstruct where the pool was located to see if there is any chance the stored rods were not blown all over the place?

Originally posted by ANNED
They need to get into the reactor buildings to find out what is going on first hand.

Radioactivity too high... instant death to get close to them

Then they need to seal up any problems to keep more radioactivity from escaping and to bring the cooling up to 100%.

breached reactors with corium that has eaten through the bottom into the bedrock is hard to seal and restore coolant

They also need to remove the spent fuel bundles from all the reactor building and move them to pools that they can control the cooling away from the coast and any danger from further damage until they cool to a safe level for long term storage.

Watch the video of the explosion of #3 that big thing flying through the air is the MOX pool... those rods are scattered all over the area, hence the plutonium detected in the surrounding soils. They are scattered to the four winds and will not be going back into a tank anytime soon

reactor #4 spent fuel has gone into an 'open air burn' turning the fuel into an aerosol and released into the air. Confirmed by an Areva report

reactor #1 cracked right after the earthquake and was evacuated BEFORE the Tsunami hit This was confirmed by a Canadian contractor who barely made it out before the waves and an iron worker welding stairs at the plant

#2 is the only one they are attempting to stop from exploding. They are worried about the INTAKES of seawater into #2 because the high radioactivity in the water is NOT helping cooling. The same reason our two nuclear powered aircraft carriers got the hell out of the area when they notice anomalies in their reactors from the contamination in the ocean

It was announce yesterday on NHK that after one month they have gotten no closer to controlling this and yesterday after the 7.4 quake the batteries at the sampling plant burst into flame so they can now use that as an excuse to not have accurate readings

Japan has a reprocessing plant where they can take the melted fuel rods and stabilize them once they have cooled.

The last earthquake effected power and this plant is currently on diesel generators

This will have to be done sometime or there will be long term problem with radioactive leaks in the future.

Guaranteed... this plant has been spewing radiation for over 30days with no end in site and will continue to do so for a very very long time

The Japanese have two ways to handle this.
They can do what the Russians did at Chernobyl and leave a mess or clean up and defuel the reactors like they did at Three Mile Island.

Chernobyl was one reactor on solid rock in a relatively sparsely populated area and Russia has lots of land... Japan cannot bury this one because it is on a very active fault line and near the ocean, on land that has already sunk and cracked. They also have 6 reactors on site 3 of which are in meltdown with the addition of all those 600,000 fuel rods and the MOX fuel already scattered

TMI achieved cooling of the fuel quickly, unlike Japan where the fuel has been melting and burning for 30 days now... And so far their best solution for getting rid of the radioactive water was to dump it into the ocean, killing their fishing industry in the process

Yup it will be a mess for a very long time

reply to post by stirling


You need to follow this thread for updates

Japan declares 'nuclear emergency' after quake,
www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by ANNED


...you do realize that cooling nuclear fuel isn't that easy?

According to the IAEA it takes approximately 10 years for "spent" fuel to cool down sufficiently to be stored and transported.

reply to post by zorgon


We started this thread as the "Japan declares 'nuclear emergency' after quake" thread is getting too epic to follow. Stay with both threads and if you find a "magic picture or video source," post it here.

Originally posted by Chakotay
if you find a "magic picture or video source," post it here.

Ah well... a magic picture you say?

Hmmmm How about a couple clowns eating radioactive fruit and telling people to chow down... it's safe....

Shoppers in the capital Tokyo lined up on the first day of the two-day market to buy fresh strawberries, asparagus, tomatoes and leeks from Iwaki - an area about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which was devastated by the disaster.

The government's chief spokesman Yukio Edano, who has sought to calm fears over radiation contamination, exclaimed "this is so sweet" as he ate a strawberry before the gathered media at the event.

"Only safe produce is being distributed. Please eat it," he added, saying the government planned to organise other events to promote produce from the disaster zone.

link

reply to post by zorgon


Look over here, no- look over there!

Reminds me of Chief Dan George in The Outlaw Josey Wales:

You drink it.