Fukushima leak is 'much worse than we were led to believe'

[UpInArms]

Source: BBC

A nuclear expert has told the BBC that he believes the current water leaks at Fukushima are much worse than the authorities have stated.

He says water is leaking out all over the site and there are no accurate figures for radiation levels. [...]

“The quantities of water they are dealing with are absolutely gigantic,” said Mycle Schneider, who has consulted widely for a variety of organisations and countries [France, Germany] on nuclear issues.

“What is the worse is the water leakage everywhere else – not just from the tanks. It is leaking out from the basements, it is leaking out from the cracks all over the place. Nobody can measure that. [...]

“It is much worse than we have been led to believe, much worse,” said Mr Schneider, who is lead author for the World Nuclear Industry status reports.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23779561

[closeupready]

1. Oh please. Most sentient adults aren't that dumb - we already know

that TEPCO is lying about everything - whatever they say, multiply it by 5.

Not to diminish Schneider's remarks, but the tone is a little too, "who could have predicted?"

[freshwest]

8. +100. I wasn't surprised. It was a Chernobyl on Day One and should've been encased in concrete.

Too much greed leads to this. Every single time. That's why we protested these years ago. I wouldn't say it to anyone who has been hurt by this, not that it won't be all of us in the end. But to those who kept dancing, making money pretending they didn't know... We told you so.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

14. I'm glad he came out and stated the obvious

I haven't even looked at the responses in the thread yet, but on most Fukushima-related posts, there are a few people who advocate strongly for nuclear energy and attempt to lessen Fukushima's impact. They need to see statements like this. Thanks.

[obxhead]

15. Maybe WE did, but I bet most don't.

In fact I bet if you polled random people on the street and just asked "what is Fukushima?" the majority would answer I don't know.

A very sad thought indeed.

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. FYI - When the government tells you not to panic - start to panic!

Cheers~

[riverbendviewgal]

3. Sounds like it's "on the beach" time

who knows what other disasters other countries have hidden. Look at my country's Tar Sands...

Scary...I am old but I feel sorry for the children and young people.


and it is all for money...and for just a few.


in case you don't know On The Beach movie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(1959_film)

I saw it when I was 12. It made my views so aware of what could happen and that is how I am a DUr.
At the same age I was becoming aware of Adolph Eichmann and his comrades.

[mountain grammy]

13. My Mom took me to see it, I was also 12. Very frightening.

The remake was ok too. It was just a movie, but sometimes I think about it a lot.

I think "The Road" is probably more realistic.

and you're right, "it's all for the money, and just for a few."

[ConcernedCanuk]

21. Blast from the Past! _ I read the book in the 60's.

.
.
.

Nevil Chute was the author -

Had a profound effect on my life -

Never saw the movie though, but read the book more than once since then.

I read more than one book by Chute, "No Highway" being one of them,

the rest do not come to mind.

CC

[Journeyman]

4. That place is a sieve . . .

The arsewipes in charge are as reckless with the truth as they are incompetent with burning their nuclear garbage. The lot of 'em -- management and engineers, and every politician who's aided and abetted their criminal coverup -- should be stripped to their skivvies, issued sponges, and set to mopping up the mess they created. It won't solve the problem but it'll help clear away many of the obstructions that currently block the world's ability to understand the scope of the situation.

[spin]

5. When the Fukushima disaster occurred I remember telling my family, ...

"You can kiss Japan goodbye."

One more major earthquake near the damaged reactor and I might be proven right. God, I hope not.

Insight: After disaster, the deadliest part of Japan's nuclear clean-up

By Aaron Sheldrick and Antoni Slodkowski
TOKYO | Wed Aug 14, 2013 3:16am BST

(Reuters) - The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is preparing to remove 400 tons of highly irradiated spent fuel from a damaged reactor building, a dangerous operation that has never been attempted before on this scale.

Containing radiation equivalent to 14,000 times the amount released in the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima 68 years ago, more than 1,300 used fuel rod assemblies packed tightly together need to be removed from a building that is vulnerable to collapse, should another large earthquake hit the area.

***snip***

Tepco has shored up the building, which may have tilted and was bulging after the explosion, a source of global concern that has been raised in the U.S. Congress.

***snip***

And if an another strong earthquake strikes before the fuel is fully removed that topples the building or punctures the pool and allow the water to drain, a spent fuel fire releasing more radiation than during the initial disaster is possible, threatening about Tokyo 200 kilometers (125 miles) away.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/08/14/us-japan-fukushima-insight-idUKBRE97D00M20130814

The article also mentions the considerable danger in removing the radioactive rods from the pool.

If the worst happens this could make most of the problems we worry about today appear relatively insignificant.

[Flaxbee]

12. It's too late for the groundwater, and aquifers tend to be connected ... Japan

will die without fresh water.

And because of the ineptitude and greed of the nuclear power industry (controlled largely by US interests) and the fear that the global market will collapse if the truth is known - that Japan is dying - the situation is only going to get worse.

There is a way to slow down the reaction, so that there isn't as much water needed, but until people actually confront the issue - that this is a global catastrophe that should put a permanent end to our idiotic dalliance with nuclear power - I'm afraid nothing will be done.

Japan is being allowed to contaminate the world. And very few people seem to understand, or care....

[spin]

20. Sadly true. (n/t)

[greiner3]

6. "...every day an extra 400 tonnes of water are being added. ..."

From the article, I figured that works to about 100,000 gallons/day.

Now that much water would fill a lot of crap; to paraphrase.

[CarrieLynne]

7. what are the effects on the PNW?

are we in danger?

[maindawg]

9. are we in danger?

I am no expert. But it seems to me that the ocean around Japan is being irradiated. Stuff spread rapidly in water, and there is no way to contain or clean it up. It will spread through the entire pacific ocean, the other oceans until the planet is dead. Does that sound like we are in danger?
No one seems to care. We are doing nothing. When our west coast is contaminated, we will care. When the rain is contaminated we will all die.

[Flagrante]

17. Blinky

Not to play lightly with this horrible clusterfuck that the Japanese have given the world, but we can surely expect some strange genetically modified creatures to pop up as a result of the enormous amout of radioactive particles being released into the ocean (not to mention an increase in world cancer deaths). Godzilla did come from the sea around Tokyo, right? Perhaps his creators were clairvoyant.

[Flagrante]

18. Ironic, isn't it, Smithers?

"Ironic, isn't it, Smithers? This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election. And yet, if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you." - Mr. Burns

[caseymoz]

19. I wouldn't place it that dire.

But it's pretty dire. And I have a little expertise about radiation.

It probably won't kill the whole planet. It might take 5-15 years off peoples' life expectancy, and make things more uncomfortable in between time, but I think the planet death scenario is unlikely.

And most likely we can probably kiss Japan goodbye, and the refugee problem from that will be enormous.

It seems like we've had a planet shaking environmental crisis every year for the last 5 years. I mean there was Deep Water Horizon, there was Fukishima I, Fukishima II . . . it looks like this is going to be the new normal too, unless people rise up and abnormalize it. For one thing, even producing plutonium should become a crime against humanity.

Fukishima might not kill us, but environmental catastrophes this bad year-after-year definitely will.

[jtuck004]

10. I don't think so.

Unless you eat food, breathe air, drink water, depend on the health of the life in the ocean for your own, stuff like that. Otherwise one probably will be unaffected.

Problem is, since they have obfuscated this since the beginning, there is nothing except guesses as to the real effects of this colossal screw up, going on 2 years now.

Interesting stuff in this article.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-17/radioactive-water-leaking-fukushima-what-we-know

google "zero hedge fukushima" for more - take some it with a grain of salt, but perhaps we should think about being ready to take some iodine tabs too...

[PCIntern]

11. Oh no no no no no...

it's like eating three bananas a day, flying at 10000 feet for 15 minutes, and living in a stone house.

That's what some posters here were saying...it MUST be true!

Could it be that some were trying to disrupt the Board? Are they still here? Enquiring minds want to KNOW!

[Civilization2]

16. Clearly nuke-energy is unsafe and needs to be phased out starting now. No wast system exists!

The "plan" so far is to keep generating nuke-wast and profiting while doing so,. however there is NO PLAN to deal with the wast,. that little capitalist idea that profits outweigh any future issues is in full effect in the nuke-power industry.

This, and the obvious problems when sht goes bad, as in Russia and Japan, prove that nuke-plants are a money pit and a terrible danger to our children. As usual short term profits over long term thinking is the capitalist system in a nut-shell.

Yeah, Fukushima is mess, but don't forget there are over a hundred nuke-plants in America!!!

There needs to be a more urgent push to both the cleanup in Japan and the safe (if that is even possible) decommissioning here at home.

[L0oniX]

22. I figure and expect that every corporation and government lies all the time. n/t

[Phlem]

23. yep.

peace.

-p

[Cronus Protagonist]

24. Lots of people in Japan and here in the US are already having "special" babies

This is the beginning of a new era. And still we do nothing about our own nuke plants made with virtually the same design.