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Nuclear fuel rods removed from Japan's Fukushima plant

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posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 02:07 PM
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Nuclear fuel rods removed from Japan's Fukushima plant


www.newscientist.com

Operations commenced this week to remove nuclear fuel rods from a storage pool at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, some 16 months after the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl occurred at the Japanese site.

Plant operator TEPCO requested media outlets to refrain from filming the delicate and dangerous operations, but aerial images aired on TV and online showed cranes lifting two of the 1535 fuel units from the No 4 reactor building.
(visit the link for the full news article)



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 02:07 PM
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[ALERT - HEADLINE DISCREPANCY]

If a reader were to base their opinion solely on the title of the article, I would expect a sense of relief...

However, they have not "removed the fuel rods" they have ONLY BEGUN to remove the fuel rods.

----------------------------------------------------------------

This tragedy is on the knife's edge; reportedly some 170,000 protested this move by TEPCO... who you may have noticed above "reminded" the press not to cover this operation (after the Japanese Parliament made it illegal to say anything "bad" about the situation at Fukushima.)

Here are some facts the reporters tells us:


...This process could take years.

(imagine that, years of no press coverage at the site of the most significant nuclear disaster of our time.)


...the biggest concern remains the sheer volume of fuel in the storage pools, which, if exposed to the air, would release vast amounts of radiation.

The word "vast" doesn't really convey an adequate sense of what we are talking about here.... but he expands...


"The amount of caesium-137 in the fuel in the pools is equivalent to 5000 times the amount that was spread by the Hiroshima atomic bomb," says Koide. "The government has said that the amount of radioactivity released by the three affected reactors following [last year's disaster] was 168 times that of Hiroshima, so it is clear that we would be looking at a considerably worse outcome should the [reactor number 4] structure be compromised."


When the Japanese government used these estimates (worst-case scenario) they determined that 35 million people would need to be evacuated from Tokyo.

The operation begins by removing the 204 unexpended fuel rods remaining...


TEPCO, which declined to comment on the latest operations due to their "sensitive" nature, estimates that such operations will commence in December 2013, though Koide believes that is ambitious. "It's a process that carries with it an immense amount of danger," he says.


Just keeping us updated... thought you might like to know.

www.newscientist.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

edit on 20-7-2012 by Maxmars because: (no reason given)

edit on 20-7-2012 by Maxmars because: (no reason given)



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 02:19 PM
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The first fuel units to be removed are among some 204 that had yet to be used. TEPCO says that these units pose little danger because unused fuel emits low levels of radiation. Operations to remove the 1331 more dangerous used fuel units will not be attempted until a much larger crane has been installed. This will be used to manoeuvre the 100-tonne metal casks that will be required to house the spent fuel units to ensure they are not exposed to the air, says Koide.



So, the most dangerous materials will still remain.

I am dizzy from all this running in circles.



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 02:24 PM
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entomb.........this........site!

Anything short of that is placing the entire planet in danger because this situation is way out beyond the point where the signs say 'out of control'. Enough with the attitude of making lemonade out of lemons and doing everything all nice and pretty for the corporate sheets. entomb this place forever in a number of concrete tombs within a few larger ones with something even bigger beyond that. This is pandora's box and they still have no idea what the cores look like.


edit on 20-7-2012 by Wrabbit2000 because: (no reason given)



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 02:33 PM
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Where do they plan to put them?



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 02:42 PM
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reply to post by Infi8nity
 


Probably just throw them in the ocean.



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 02:51 PM
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They probably fly tipped them. After all radiation is good for you.



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 03:02 PM
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My understanding is that there are these million dollar lead containers they use with fuel rods for long-term storage or transport. I think that it is there intention to put all these fuel rods in those.

I head heard they were so expensive that other options were being foisted on the deciders... but in the end, it seems unlikely that there are any other realistic options....

I remember the day after the news of the real crisis at the plant (as if the earthquake and tsunami weren't enough) I was among the few saying the the same thing as Wrabbit posted above... encase the whole site - but I guess that would have been too much of a complete surrender for TEPCO's executives and board to accept (not that they were listening to the peanut gallery anyway.)

It is kind of curious that the high price of nuclear-generated electric energy was to offset the exorbitant insurance costs for plants like this.... but obviously that was just another excuse to gouge the consumers for as much as possible. No insurance can cover this kind of crisis... or at least, no insurance seems to.



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 03:54 PM
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Yes, but I don't see them being airlifted out in tanks of water. And they're very hot. They have to be moved in cold water or the whole planet is being nuked by full rods with every one moved, and that is something I researched and was explained in a very good video, and that we've never done this before, its very costly and takes extraordinary equipment, so one country and one company alone couldn't do it.

So to me, what Tepco is doing is trying to kill the world.

And that brings up another question.

Where is the world, a world wide think tank and then decisions counsel should have already gotten world wide equipment and world wide solutions to Fukushima within a week of it occurring.
edit on 20-7-2012 by Unity_99 because: (no reason given)



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 04:16 PM
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reply to post by Unity_99
 


I echo your questions. Seriously.

I would have thought that a prime function of organization like the UN would have been responding to these kinds of events, or at least coordinating a global response to situations of this magnitude.

But then... that would interfere with the sovereignty of the mighty transnational corporation... which apparently supersedes that of nations (just look at the BP oil spill... it was "hands off" from the get-go.)



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 04:18 PM
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reply to post by Maxmars
 


It is the most insane thing going, that we are living in this situation and electing these kind of nimrods, and corrupt beings into office, and that so many people are NLP'd to the level that basic, common sense logic doesnt phase them, they simply don't get it.

Try talking about this issue with people and see how far you get. Free Will?

That brings up something to me, free will? Do we have it? When its so basic and common sense yet so bizarre,does this reflect humanity being free will agents? Does this mean they are culpable in any way, if they're not, according to universal or spirtual culpability?

I mean this brings a host of deeper thoughts to me.
edit on 20-7-2012 by Unity_99 because: (no reason given)



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 06:52 PM
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Arent these the same fuel rods that nobody could go near and they killed robots in seconds? Wtf?
I thi
By the way, how many nuclear reactors have melted down in the us? How many nuclear engineers were killed by standing on top of a reactor and pulling so hard on control rods that they pulled them completely out? How many nuclear bombs have detonated in the usa?

Seriously, the us government secretly melted down like 80 reactors in the desert. They were all safely dismantled and this is easily verified. Sure, they didnt happen in the tokyo metro area. This isnt even close to being a worldwide extinction event



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 06:55 PM
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reply to post by Unity_99
 


You and i have it, most people dont.....



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 07:12 PM
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Wow,


This is so disturbing.

The part about the Japanese Parliament making it illegal to say anything bad is obscene.

It's unbelievable how quiet the news is about all this.

Just insane



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 08:19 PM
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reply to post by Pazuzu67
 


Considering there are only a handful (5 or 6 maybe) actual "owners" of media in the world, it's not that hard to get a "policy" like that to work... theoretically.

I believe the politicians and elites have long had the capacity to more or less "control" the media. And they don;t want panic and anxiety to rule the day... especially after an earthquake and a tsunami. So I understand the rationale and ostensible justification behind the action

But that the cumulative effect of the act is to shield TEPCO from PR damage... especially when they are so well-placed to blame for the idiocy of accepting the risk of locating their reactor complex where they did doesn't elude me. The are those for whom nations will surrender justice. Otherwise it might lead to questions about why they DID park them there. Whose land was that? Did they get rich off the deal? etc. etc.

And how about the Energy Cartel... they've been foisting this operational model as "safe" when it clearly didn't respond well to the very thing they assured it could reasonably withstand.... go figure. They lobbied political appointees into regulatory bodies around the world to to advise government based on their "expertise."

No, I suspect for that scenario, it's best we not rouse the rabble.



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 08:50 PM
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reply to post by Maxmars
 


All great points.

I'm truly at a loss for words. This is one of those types of disasters that is too horrific to even fathom completely. I think people (including myself) choose to block it out and stay in a state of denial. Every time I think it about it, it makes me shudder.

The lack of a true and effective plan in case of a disaster really bothers me. The dilapidated condition of other existing nuclear power plants in dangerous locations makes it seems inevitable that this type of accident will happen again.



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 09:11 PM
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Originally posted by Pazuzu67
reply to post by Maxmars
 


......The dilapidated condition of other existing nuclear power plants in dangerous locations makes it seems inevitable that this type of accident will happen again.



I wish I could honestly say that was wrong.... but I think that actuarial tables that drive "profit" for these ... people.... counts the human condition as an externality... and thus, is of no meaningful consequence.
edit on 20-7-2012 by Maxmars because: (no reason given)



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 09:26 PM
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Fukushima...

If one wished to write a instruction manual on everything not to do when operating a nuclear power plant, one would be hard pressed to find a more complete list. The lack of safety backups in the design, the proximity of radioactive water to sea water, the location on a subduction zone, the lack of hindsight in estimating probable quake strengths, the location of the diesel generators and tanks susceptible to tsunami damage/contamination, the delays bringing in alternate power sources, the lack of honesty when evaluating damage, the corporate coverup of important information, the pure lack of common sense in attempting cooling operations...

After this comedy of errors, there is really little anyone can do. Northern Japan is a zombie, dead but not yet fallen down. We have no technology that can reverse, or even slow at this point, the damage.

I wish them luck in removing the rods. Chances are that everyone who works on that project will die either from acute radiation poisoning or from cancerous infestation shortly afterwards. Sadly, they will probably be joined soon enough by the population of that area. I have no concern about a media cover-up... there is nothing left to cover up, really. The damage has been done, all that is left is to watch the aftermath. This was over less than a week after the tsunami.

TheRedneck



posted on Jul, 20 2012 @ 10:27 PM
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Originally posted by TheMindWar
They probably fly tipped them. After all radiation is good for you.


It's a condiment, essentially.


Seriously though, this is maddening that the press aren't reporting on this situation more.



posted on Jul, 21 2012 @ 07:48 AM
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Of course they "salvage" the unused fuelrods first since they still have a large value now that Japan has started using nuclear power again. Just saying...




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