Just In: Blackout at Fukushima Daiichi — Cooling at fuel pools stopped, all power’s been down 3h

reply to post by Unity_99



She's a con-artist:

Leuren K Moret often asserts that she was a "nuclear scientist" at two DOE National Laboratories. This letter, obtained from the University of California operated Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under the California Public Records Act shows that Moret was not a "scientist" and worked very briefly at the Laboratory. Moret was a Senior Scientific Technologist in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing for less than a year from 1989 to 1990. Moret also claims to have been trained in radiation detection by Manhattan Project Scientist Marion Fulk. Fulk's employment from 1964 to 1984 as a Chemist at the Laboratory is also addressed in this letter. While Fulk did have prior employment, it is doubtful that he was a "Manhattan Project Scientist". It also is clear that Moret never worked with Fulk at the Laboratory since Fulk retired in 1984 and Moret began work five years later in 1989.

Crazy Woman

Originally posted by MariaLida
reply to post by MariaLida

 

TV: Historic number of sea lions washing up in S. California — Has reached “epidemic proportions” — Center declares state of emergency — Feds: “There’s something going on oceanographically”

enenews.com... e-dying-theres-something-going-on-oceano

Something is going on with all marine mammals' food supply. Something major is happening with all of our ocean ecosystems. These malnourished pups are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Dr. Bruce Monger, an oceanographer at Cornell University, told my class in eCornell's Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate Program that we as a society have "maxed out the ocean."

He says 75 percent of all major fisheries in the world are currently either fully exploited or over-exploited, and we have less than 10 percent of the top ocean predators (e.g., swordfish or bluefin tuna) today than we had in the 1960s. These fish aren't replaceable, friends.

Many marine scientists believe that, at the rate we're going, the seas will be barren by 2048. (Did you get that? No sea life in 35 years!)

www.huffingtonpost.com...

img.abovetopsecret.com...

edit on 18-3-2013 by MariaLida because: (no reason given)

Radioactive Fish Caught Near Fukushima Holds The Honor of Being World's Most Radioactive Marine Life Ever Tested

The greenling, a bottom-dwelling fish that the Asahi Shimbun says is a delicacy in Japanese cuisine, had radioactive cesium at 7,400 times the maximum amount considered safe for human consumption by the Japanese government.

Another greenling in the vicinity of the plant tested as having a concentration of 510,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram, or 5,100 times the legal limit, and a bluefin tuna caught off the coast of California tested positive for radiation in February.

www.thedailymeal.com...

www.telegraph.co.uk...

Originally posted by antar
reply to post by Jiffy

 

Now that was the scariest and most alarming post I have read so far today.

I usually keep an open mind and positive outlook on these types of close calls, but you are right, and it made me think about where the rad pills are right now...

Sorry, didn't mean to fear monger or anything, just thought 4 days from March 18 and 3 22... No... Could they? ... I surely hope not.

Nankai Trough quake damage to cost $2.3 trillion

The Japanese government has released a new projection that nearly 10 million people will seek refuge if a large earthquake occurs in the Nankai Trough region.A mega-quake and tsunami are forecast along the Pacific coast near central to western Japan.

New damage estimates were released on Monday. Previous estimates included as many as 323 thousand casualties.

Officials say up to 34.4 million people will have no water immediately following the earthquake.

Of them, some 4.6 million people will still be without water even one month later. Power outages will hit 27.1 million households, and even one week later 880 thousand will still be without power.

One week after the disaster there will be 9.5 million evacuees, and 8.8 million people will not be able to return to their homes even after one month.

www3.nhk.or.jp...

This is Japan....

You mean to tell me in 2 years they haven't come up with some crazy-awesome radioactive shielded robots?

Maybe some kind of lead "iron man" type of exoskeleton?

I don't get it.

Originally posted by BostonBill99
I just keep thinking about Edgar Cayce's predicition
"...Japan must go into the sea."
He didn't say will, can or should, implying a natural progression of events, but said "must" implying that it should deliberately go there out of need.
Thoughts anyone?

Huh. None from me, but the situation there doesn't seem to be resolving safely. What choices do the people of Japan have?

Despite the "everything is not fine but don't worry" calls...

If in fact the electrical power to the pumps that circulate water through the Spent Fuel Pools has been interrupted, the water will stop. As the fuel begins to heat up, the water in the pools will begin to evaporate. As the levels of water in the pools drop the tops of the fuel rods may become exposed to air. They will rapidly heat, catch fire and fall out of their assembles to the bottom of the pool.

As the exposed fuel rapid heats and burns this increases the rate at which the water evaporates. This further reduces the water level in the pool, exposing more of the fuel rod assemblies to air. This begins a domino defect of burning fuel, boiling water and heated fuel mass at the bottom of the pool. This can reach a crescendo that has a point of no return no matter how much water they throw on the mess. Eventually all the water is gone and a mass of melting fuel (called Corium) at the bottom of the pool begins melting downward through any containment.

Thats why they call it a "Melt- down."

Guess what all the steam you saw coming from the plants in the days after the meltdowns was from?

That is the worst possible result of not turning the power back on soon enough.

Diesel generators are used to offset the heating as they only serve to partially restore the full volume of water that the primary pumps move. They are also dependent upon on-site stores of diesel fuel for continuous operation. If all the power is interrupted on site then all the pools or cooling systems in any other reactor wells have been interrupted.

Not a pretty picture for the responders there. What little infrastructure survived the original quake and meltdowns is stretched thin already. There are no operating plants at the site, just fuel needing to be slowly cooled until it can be safely removed for storage off site. That can take years. As long as the cooling apparatus is functioning.

It is vitally important that main power at the site be restored before the fuel heats and water levels begin to drop any where near the tops of the fuel racks.

By the way, the helos dumping water on the plants in the early days of the crisis was for show more than effect. To give everyone watching the impression they were "doing something". Akin to throwing water on a stove top grease fire. Seawater at that. Yuk...

Originally posted by MystikMushroom
This is Japan....

You mean to tell me in 2 years they haven't come up with some crazy-awesome radioactive shielded robots?

Maybe some kind of lead "iron man" type of exoskeleton?

I don't get it.

Its simple, really... Japan uses the same paradigm as the West does... no personal profit = no interest in designing it.

Makes me recall the indian saying about when all the food is gone and all the water poisoned, only then will man figure out that his [radioactive] money cannot be eaten.

reply to post by MariaLida


We see so many sanctions and such being used against other countries, wasted energy in fighting, war and corruption, but when something of this magnitude strikes at the very heart of our country based on decisions made by countries thousands of miles away, we should be using all the greatest technologies and manpower to help Japan right now instead of sitting back in a wait and see mode as if what they decide to do or not, will only affect them.

They need a big brother to stand up for the people the leaders of Japan are not.

reply to post by Afterthought


When have I said I know it all? I actually do silly things like study, and research, and see what the people that know a lot more than I do are saying about it. I know a good bit about some aspects of radiation, but when a nuclear engineer, or a nuclear physicist is calling BS on the whole "It's the end of life as we know it!" crap, then I'm not going to freak out, and I'm going to actually call people on saying it. You should try it some time, it's actually kind of nice to do, and it keeps you from living in terror of everything all the time.

Originally posted by intrptr
If in fact the electrical power to the pumps that circulate water through the Spent Fuel Pools has been interrupted, the water will stop. As the fuel begins to heat up, the water in the pools will begin to evaporate. As the levels of water in the pools drop the tops of the fuel rods may become exposed to air. They will rapidly heat, catch fire and fall out of their assembles to the bottom of the pool.

And this takes time to happen. Contrary to the fear mongering, it's not an instant, or even nearly instant process. Even with no new water coming in, and no water circulating, the water that is in the pools is such a large amount that it takes days to evaporate to the point where there is danger of a large release.

By the way, the helos dumping water on the plants in the early days of the crisis was for show more than effect. To give everyone watching the impression they were "doing something". Akin to throwing water on a stove top grease fire. Seawater at that. Yuk...

Really? Why does an assistant nuclear engineering professor disagree with you? Seawater is the worst possible thing to use, because it ruins the reactor due to all the minerals in it, but seawater with boron added will work to cool a reactor long enough to allow you to restore power to the cooling system, and get water back to it.

Boron can be injected into water-coolant systems to control the activity of a reactor core because it is a strong neutron absorber, especially for thermal neutrons. But boron is not usually used in boiling-water reactors such as those at Fukushima Daiichi because boron is also corrosive on fuel elements. In cases of emergency, however, boron and seawater can be used to suppress fission chain reactions in the fuel elements.

Probably if they had more time they would have tried to restore the diesel generators that ran the backup cooling system and circulate the water they already had. But with the water in the core evaporating due to the high temperatures, they needed to add more and more water so they could quickly suppress boiling conditions.

www.scientificamerican.com...

There is some cooling going on as we speak, because the reactor is a boiling water reactor. So as the warm water rises, it pulls in cool water that's still in the system. That gives a little more time but not much.

reply to post by MariaLida


Thanks for posting this important information. I cannot help but wonder whether this is an event that just might succeed in waking people up. I feel for the people and animals and land that is Japan and the immediate surrounds.

Here's to wondering whether the mainstream media will actually report on this situation - and - whether they will deliver accurate reports.


Much Peace...to every person and animal in Japan and nearby...

I'm hoping they can do something but the sad truth is that there has been radiation leaking from Fukushima Daichi and several other messed up sites in that area of Japan. What gets me is, RARELY if EVER, I think it was only one post here on ATS, have I seen anyone even ask about the other plants that were impaired from the tsunami and earthquakes. I wrote in a thread HERE: www.abovetopsecret.com...
about the others and what I could find at the time about them. In all about 11 reactors in the area and all were damaged that year. What are our various governments doing to protect us all from it?

I'd also like to know WHY the HELL did they build all those reactors near a such a HUGE fault without thinking about what MIGHT happen in a tsunami or earthquakes. Rather weak of them not to.

I am aware that Japan doesn't want to be alarming people, but no news is worrisome as it suggests no progress has been made to rectify the danger
.
Search engines show nothing new and that the media sources aren't touching make one question why. Seems like the blackout is in the media as well as Fukushima. Just sayin'.

Did find this. Sorry if it was posted and I missed it.

TEPCO reports power failure at Fukushima, stops cooling system

rt.com...

Originally posted by Zaphod58
As long as they can get power back to the cooling system, even if it's just through portable generators, then they can bring #4 temperature down, and buy even more time before it's a risk to release. In another day or two I'll get nervous, but until then, I wouldn't panic about it, or start the doom and gloom predictions just yet.

I'm not sure where you get your information from but just to inform you it has been doom and gloom from the get go and nobody has said otherwise at all.....
This is a Catastrophe right now.

Regards, Iwinder

reply to post by Afterthought


Where did I say that? I don't remember saying it was the same, but the radiation we're exposed to daily is more than you will see from a nuke plant in normal operations.

As for this, where did I say it was safe? I didn't, in fact I've said repeatedly that there is a danger, but I have also said repeatedly that it's NOT going to kill off the Northern Hemisphere, NOT going to be an extinction level event, and that there is time to react, and get it under control. But I would go work there if I could, and try to do something about it, and unlike most people who crap their pants at the thought of radiation, not be in a total panic about it. If you want to fear monger, then have fun, and I'm sure most people would agree with you, and believe you. I'm just trying to inject a little less fear into a thread, what's wrong with that?

As for getting your comment removed, talk to the mods, I had nothing to do with that. I very rarely say anything about comments, unless they're way out of bounds. Your comment wasn't even close to what I would complain about. Believe that or not as you will.