Some breaking news...
In addition to the story NHK broke earlier -- that the situation at the Building 4 Spent Fuel Pool, having been assessed by teams of engineers who, upon entering that Unit for the first time since March recently, found a "large hole" in the SFP wall, as well as "mangled " coolant piping... meaning that TEPCO may have to scrap its plan to install a heat-exchanging water recirculation system in that Spent Fuel Pool to bring temperatures below the current 80-degree-plus Celsius levels -- now Kyodo is reporting that the water treatment system testing has hit a major "snag". No details yet...
Damn, we NEED stuff to start breaking our way, FAST...
Rick Cromack.
Allen, Texas
Marine life soaking up radiation
Marine life soaking up radiation along Fukushima coast
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/campaign-blog/marine-lif...
Two week’s ago we released preliminary results from our marine radiation monitoring work off the coast of Japan, near the melted-down and leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. These results showed worrying levels of radioactive contamination in seaweed – a staple of the Japanese diet.
After having difficulties finding a lab in Japan to do detailed analysis, we sent samples of seaweed, fish, and shellfish collected by our radiation monitoring teams both onshore and on the Rainbow to professional labs in France and Belgium. The results of the details analysis are back – and we can say that the situation in the ocean along the Fukushima coast is worse than we originally thought.
The new data shows that some seaweed contamination levels are not only 50 times higher than safety limits – far higher than our initial measurements showed – but also that the contamination is spreading over a wide area, and accumulating in sea life, rather than simply dispersing like the Japanese authorities originally claimed would happen.
This should come as no surprise
This should come as no surprise. The marine life is living in the contaminated water. I haven't looked at the detailed data yet, but I'm much more interested in contamination measurements farther out. That will give us some idea of how much we can expect in the US. And I don't believe TEPCO or anyone else said the contamination would be dispersing close to shore. I've only heard the dispersion claim in relation to the ocean as a whole. There is no doubt that the Fukushima coast has and will continue to be severely damaged.
I am curious about the following statement from the article:
"Other samples showed lower than expected concentrations of caesium, but much higher levels of iodine than expected, which raises serious concerns that contaminated water is continually leaking from the nuclear plant"
The obvious question is where is the iodine leaking from? But also, if there is continued leakage, why isn't caesium not also at high levels as found with iodine?
Radiation survey - Fukushima
Radiation survey - Fukushima
.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/nuclear/safety/acci...
Map
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=h&msa=0&msid=216097317933...
Monitoring results - Data (Use of this data)
This data is released under an Open Data Commons Attribution license. Please DO: Re-publish, mash-up, re-mix, share and create new works from this data. Please DO: Cite us as the source and link to this page. Please DO NOT: Imply that Greenpeace endorses your product or interpretation (we're only an original data source).
Spreadsheets
Team 1 - Gamma spectrometer output, 04 April 2011 (xls)
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publication...
Team 2 - Field log, 04 April 2011 (xls)
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publication...
Team 2 - Field log, 07 April 2011 (xls)
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publication...
Food Testing results 04 - 08 April 2011 (xls)
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publication...
Marine testing preliminary results, published 12 May 2011 (xls)
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publication...
Marine testing lab results 1, published 25 May 2011 (pdf)
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publication...
Marine testing lab results 2, published 25 May 2011 (pdf)
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publication...
I think you are reading things into the article
Hi Rick,
I think you are reading things into the article. They said they "found a large hole in a wall". They didn't say it was a SFP wall. If there was a large hole in the wall of the SFP, there wouldn't be any water in it to cool in the first place. Just hope the hole (wherever it is) doesn't further compromise the structural integrity of the SFP or the building.
As for the plumbing being mangled, that should come as no surprise at all. They'll just have to figure out another way to get plumbing into the pool to begin recirculation. Even if they have to come in from the top vs. the existing plumbing, which I assume came in from the sides. It's a setback. But, not a permanent show stopper.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/12_02.html
We'll have to see how big of a snag the decontamination effort has hit.
You might be right...
...I guess we'll have to see what else gets reported in the next couple of days, see if we can't get some clarification here.
It would be helpful if Kyodo would make more information available without a subscription...
Rick Cromack.
Allen, Texas