TEPCO: Unit No. 1 is now "in a state of meltdown" — Suspects there are holes in bottom of reacto

No offense but this story is BS.

I had already come to terms that 1,2,3 had full meltdowns like 2 months ago. 2 months ago!!!

I had already accepted this fact existed and was reality. It was hard to accept but I eventually did.

And now I am expected to think this is just now happening? Yeah right. This news is like 2 months old to me.

Common sense would tell you this already happened a long time ago.

reply to post by muzzleflash


At least someone here has some common sense. People worry to much. And the fact is, The fuel rods melting and falling to the containment vessel is what is supposed to happen. Once it all goes down they will seal it off forever. Nothing to worry about.

Always knew it was going to turn out like this from day one, such a shame...it saddens me on so many levels.
I've said many times that I wish there was something I could do but sadly in this situation I'm rendered useless... I hope that everything somehow manages to get better.

We really need a miracle for this one.

Peace,
David.

The Western media doesn't care unless your story is about terrorism, American Idol, or Dancing with the Stars.

Reactor meltdown in Japan isn't glamorous, it's ugly, and nobody likes an ugly news story.

TEPCO officials confirmed today the months-long of suspicion that the Reactor No. 1 at Fukushima suffered a full meltdown. According to the disclosure today, workers discovered earlier this week that No. 1's containment vessel has been leaking water and today discovered a sizeable hole they believe was created by fallen fuel pellets. The water leakage not only indicates that the clean up efforts will take longer than originally expected but also that the worst case scenario was already underway when TEPCO said it had been avoided.

RSOE EDIS

click on the Situation Update Tab for latest news

reply to post by russ1969



Except that the containment vessel is leaking, which is why this is such bad news.

Here's a recent article from Japan Times on the situation, since Western Media and our allies won't touch this.

It has lots of ambiguous statements, like "we're not sure...," and "There are actually no tools specially designed to check the water level in the containment vessel."

Japan Times news on Reactor 1

Originally posted by russ1969
At least someone here has some common sense. People worry to much. And the fact is, The fuel rods melting and falling to the containment vessel is what is supposed to happen. Once it all goes down they will seal it off forever. Nothing to worry about.

No, what is supposed to happen is the fuel rods are supposed to NEVER be exposed, EVER. They are supposed to be constantly submerged in coolant and that coolant must always be kept circulating to remove the heat the rods constantly generate. Even a partial exposure of the rods to air is a disaster. This is why there's multiple layers of redundancy to make sure they don't ever get exposed. But the designers did not anticipate an earthquake AND tsunami hitting the same complex, so the primary AND backup systems ALL failed. What you don't seem to realize is that the containment vessel is designed to contain the rods only as long as they are kept cool. It is not designed to secure melting rods, because we don't have the technology to contain melting rods! If they melt, they burn through the containment vessel and create breaches. This is exactly what they believe has happened, but it's far too dangerous to verify it (the radiation would be a death sentence to anyone who got close enough to check). This situation is a complete and total disaster and incredibly it is all but shunned by the MSM. This facility has been classified as a 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, that is the worst possible classification. Chernobyl is the only other 7 the world has ever seen. I don't know how to state it any more clearly, maybe this will help (from Wiki):

The scale is intended to be logarithmic, similar to the moment magnitude scale that is used to describe the comparative magnitude of earthquakes. Each increasing level represents an accident approximately ten times more severe than the previous level.

Level 7: Major accident Impact on people and environment
Major release of radio­active ­material with widespread health and environmental effects requiring implementation of planned and extended ­countermeasures

Simply put, Fukushima is as bad as it gets. Obviously the biggest impact is local, it's the Japanese who are going to pay the biggest price for this disaster.

Ok i thought i would update this. This is from the IAEA its a report on the status of the situation and it also has TEPCO plans to stable reactor 1

Emergency at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Overall, the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant remains very serious.

1. Reduce radiation levels in the reactor building by installing a filtered air circulation system (completed), remove rubble, decontaminate and install shielding;
2. Recalibrate existing reactor pressure vessel water level and pressure instruments and install additional reactor pressure vessel water level gauges to improve monitoring of conditions inside the reactor pressure vessel;
3. Install primary and secondary closed-loop cooling systems;
4. Flood the containment to provide a water supply for the primary system.

Gamma dose rates are measured daily in all 47 prefectures. On 10 May the value of gamma dose rate reported for Fukushima prefecture was 1.7 µSv/h. In all other prefectures, reported gamma dose rates were below 0.1 µSv/h with a general decreasing trend.

As of 11 May, the only food restrictions remaining are in Fukushima prefecture and for the cities of Kitaibaraki and Takahagi in Ibaraki prefecture.

The increase in the radioactivity in the marine environment had occurred by aerial deposition and by discharges and outflow of water with high level radioactivity.

On Friday, 13 May 2011, the IAEA provided the following information on the status of nuclear safety in Japan

reply to post by EVILteddie


hey evilteddie you forgot about charlie sheen being replaced by ashton kutcher

A worker at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant died Saturday after collapsing while carrying materials as part of crisis-fighting operations, the operator said. It is the first time a worker has died at the plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered a series of radiation leakage accidents there. No radioactive substances have been detected on the man, who was in his 60s, the utility said. The man had started working at the plant on Friday and was wearing protective gear at the time of the accident. He was exposed to radiation totaling 0.17 millisievert.

Worker dies after collapsing at Fukushima plant

Anyone else surprised that no workers have died from radiation? Do you think there hiding it. Because it took a few weeks for the Chernobyl workers and Emergency service workers, who were exposed, to die.

Originally posted by malcr

Originally posted by amazing
In the this modern age, we can't think of a better way to cool things than water? meh. Stupid

That's not as dumb as using a "controlled" nuclear reaction to BOIL WATER to generate steam to drive a turbine to create electricity.

Heh... Glad someone finally said it out loud.

Two thumbs up for you.

Originally posted by Bixxi3

A worker at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant died Saturday after collapsing while carrying materials as part of crisis-fighting operations, the operator said. It is the first time a worker has died at the plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered a series of radiation leakage accidents there. No radioactive substances have been detected on the man, who was in his 60s, the utility said. The man had started working at the plant on Friday and was wearing protective gear at the time of the accident. He was exposed to radiation totaling 0.17 millisievert.

Worker dies after collapsing at Fukushima plant

Anyone else surprised that no workers have died from radiation? Do you think there hiding it. Because it took a few weeks for the Chernobyl workers and Emergency service workers, who were exposed, to die.

Two Chernobyl plant workers died on the night of the accident, and a further 28 people died within a few weeks as a result of acute radiation poisoning.

edit on 14-5-2011 by Bixxi3 because: (no reason given)

The workers and firemen that died shortly after Chernobyl were in very close proximity to the exposed reactor core. The core was not covered in water and they were spraying water on the core creating fog and steam which is the worst thing to do. The thing is they did not know any better, they thought everything was okay and they were putting out and actual fire not a nuclear reaction. Chernobyls reactor only had Geiger counters that read up to 3.5 mSv/h so they thought everything was okay initially, it wasn't until they got real Geiger counters that the true seriousness of the situation sunk in.

Chernobyl was mishandled because of the Geiger counter misreadings and the fact they didn't want panic, even after they knew the real readings they made military personal walk around unmasked in Prypiat, the nearest city to the reactor. But, even then they were cleaned out of the city within 30 or so hours from initial explosion, unlike Japan who has made their people live in fallout for 2 months while saying they are trying to get things under control.

That's what's so funny, when the reactor melts, there is no control. In Chernobyl they got lucky with the boron/sand mixture, in japan they don't even try anything but using firetrucks to dump more water on it.

Japan and TEPCO's actions in this very serious situation have been abysmal at best, they have proven incompetent time and time again, to the point where Russia handled this situation better 25 years ago.

So much for Japanese pride, more like ignorance.

Pred...

UPDATE

A robot has detected highly dangerous levels of radiation in the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's No. 3 reactor building, it has been learned, indicating further safety measures will be needed before workers can enter the structure. According to plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., the remote-controlled PackBot robot on Tuesday found radiation levels in the northwestern section of the building of 49 to 120 millisieverts per hour, which would pose a threat to human workers.

Confirmed water leaks

... TEPCO has announced that water has been leaking through small openings in the bottom of the No. 1 reactor's pressure vessel.

It would seem radiation has doubled in Reactor 3, since april 17th
Robot finds high radiation at No. 3 reactor

reply to post by predator0187


Thank you for the reply im actually really surprised that they didn't learn from a massive past mistake. something this serious you'd really hope so. When is enough, enough?

Originally posted by Bixxi3
reply to post by predator0187

 

Thank you for the reply im actually really surprised that they didn't learn from a massive past mistake. something this serious you'd really hope so. When is enough, enough?

Not that Chernobyl was handled properly but it was handled better than Japan. It's pathetic that such a serious matter can be handled improperly, especially when an advanced country like japan is in charge.

Although U.S.'s approach to Katrina was just about as pathetic, or the gulf spill for that matter. They left the over seeing of the clean up to the company that made the mess. Of course we are going to get jaded information. Hopefully we learn from that mistake as well.

Pred...

Update

Emergency cover for n-reactor unit at Fukushima

While the preparatory work was being started now, Tepco said the actual installation of the cover for Unit 1 at the multi-reactor plant would begin in June. The entire exercise was being so designed as to minimise the exposure of workers to high levels of radiation at the unit. While the company did not specify, in its latest statement on this subject, that Unit 1 was now in a state of melt-down, observers were of this view.

On another front in Japan's continuing nuclear crisis, two active reactors at the Hamaoka plant in central Japan were completely shut down by Saturday in accordance with a directive from Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan. The plant's operator announced the shut-down schedule on Friday.

Radioactivity found in Tokyo sewage:

The ash, containing an unidentified substance with a radioactive density of 170,000 Becquerels per kilogram, was collected from a plant in Koto Ward, eastern Tokyo, the Nikkei and Sankei dailies said, quoting metropolitan government sources.

The substance has yet to be identified and researchers are currently looking into whether it is radioactive cesium, they said.

Ok so if radiation is in the sewer i hope it does get through to any water filtering plants. I found it interesting they couldn't Immediately identify it is that normal?

Originally posted by EVILteddie
reply to post by russ1969

 

Except that the containment vessel is leaking, which is why this is such bad news.

That is where we differ. I read that water is leaking into the containment vessel. Nothing about it leaking itself.

And Just so you know, It was bad news the minute People started to make assumptions before knowing the facts. Just leave it to news and so called experts from all walks of life. You know, The internet is full of experts.

I can assure you that this problem they are dealing with in japan, Will not get any worse then it has already been.

reply to post by babybunnies The western world's 10 second attention span has moved along to other stories. Fukushima, while still a massive problem, is out of sight, out of mind.


I don't think it's our short attention span this time. I will say how I felt about this situation, and see if anyone agrees with me. When the Japanese couldn't get the radiation under control after the first week, I expected the rest of the world would say to them, "Get out of the way, we're taking control of this situation."

Then I hoped we'd move in with monster machinery to break down the buildings and dig out the rubble so the rods could finally be safely stored somewhere.

This didn't happen. Without a sense of dire emergency, the situation is now beyond critical. And STILL this crisis is being handled with kid gloves.

So, I give up. I don't want to watch anymore.