Radiation leaks from Japan's quake-hit nuclear plant

[PaDUer]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Radiation leaked from Japan's earthquake-crippled nuclear plant on Saturday after a blast blew the roof off, and authorities prepared to distribute iodine to people in the vicinity to protect them from exposure

-snip-
The wind at the disabled plant was blowing from the south, which could affect residents north of the facility, Japan's national weather forecaster said, adding the direction may shift later so that it blows from the north-west toward the sea.

The direction of the wind is a key factor in judging possible damage on the environment from radiation.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/12/us-japan-quake-idUSTRE72A0SS20110312

---

This is worsening by the minute...

[Turborama]

1. Three people who were seeking refuge near the Fukushima No 1 nuclear plant were exposed to radiation

Three people who were seeking refuge near the Fukushima No 1 nuclear plant were exposed to radiation when a building housing one of its reactors exploded earlier on Saturday, Kyodo News reports.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/12/japan-earthquake-tsunami-aftermath-live#block-34

[PaDUer]

2. On one of the sites, I saw

pix of workers dressed in hazmat uniforms complete w/ masks..Watch the numbers add up quickly for being exposed..& watch the way the wind blows..this is one nightmare.

[abqmufc]

3. Like one reporter said, government officials said up to 5 cores where hot....

yet where are only hearing about the one we all saw have an explosion at or near the reactor. What is going on to the other 4 the BBC, CNN, Guardian, etc. have reported where also declared a state of emergency?

Japan issued 5 state of emergencies declarations, for 5 reactors that could not cool down....we only hear about one. Correct me if I am wrong....please.

[Auggie]

4. I read the same thing. n/t

[PaDUer]

5. I read the same, that's why....

in one of the other threads, I wrote that different reports were given out and wondered what's really going on...

[Turborama]

6. A campaign to silence the news about it has begun

10:21pm
With the evacuation zone extended to a 20km radius around the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and journalists reportedly not allowed within a 60km perimeter, Japan's prime minister Naoto Kan urged people to remain calm, telling reporters:

"By taking firm measures, we will do our best not to have even a single person suffer from health problems ... From the bottom of my heart, I would like everybody to listen to the government and to media reports and to act calmly."
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/asia/live-blog-japan-earthquake

I've even seen it start to happen here.

[PaDUer]

8. Check this out...

Japanese official says pumping system caused nuclear disaster

(CNN) -- An explosion at an earthquake-struck nuclear plant was not caused by damage to the nuclear reactor but by a pumping system that failed as crews tried to bring the reactor's temperature down, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Saturday.

Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant have begun flooding the reactor containment structure with sea water to bring the reactor's temperature down to safe levels, he said. The effort is expected to take two days.

-snip-
If the reactors are not kept cool, the fuel rods inside the reactor can melt down, which can cause enormous damage to the reactor or, in a worse case, cause the release of radioactive material into the air or water, raising the threat of cancer and other health problems, experts say.

The government was also preparing to distribute iodine tablets to residents, the IAEA said. Iodine is commonly prescribed as to help prevent the thyroid gland from taking in too much radioactivity, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website.

-snip-
"This is a situation that has the potential for a nuclear catastrophe. It's basically a race against time, because what has happened is that plant operators have not been able to cool down the core of at least two reactors," said Robert Alvarez, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday on its website that the quake and tsunami knocked out a Daiichi reactor's off-site power source, which is used to cool down the radioactive material inside. Then, the tsunami waves disabled the backup source -- diesel generators -- and authorities were working to get these operating.

On Saturday, Japanese nuclear authorities said the cooling system had also failed at three of the four reactors at the Fukushima Daini plant.

-snip-
"The big problem is if it can't cool and the (reactors') core starts to melt -- then you have the possibility of a greater release of radioactivity into the environment," Acton said. If that happens, "there's a possibility of cancer in the long term -- that's the main hazard here."

-snip-

<http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/japan.nuclear/index.html>

[jpak]

16. IF that was the result of the attempt to use seawater to cool the core - it failed

not good

[abqmufc]

9. Yes! What do you think about this.

And it seems the video we see is a very short loop from one camera angle (one camera).

The location of the explosion in the video on this picture is tough for me to figure out? Thoughts?



Also in the video seen everywhere, where is the black smoke in this picture?


Or is this two fires. Maybe even on fire at an oil refinery "near by"? The black smoke looks like an oil fire, and I'd guess the area around the nuclear power plant would be an industrial park. We all seem to concentrate our industrial pollution to a common location. A refinery would also be desirable near a port (Japan imports its crude oil).

I seriously doubt that white smoke turns black just like that. To me, you can see the white smoke keep lower to the ground and move in the North (?) direction, where as the black smoke rises from another source.

[PaDUer]

10. some info about the smoke..

Video aired by Japanese broadcaster NHK showed extensive fires in Miyagi and in the port city of Hakodate, in the southern part of Hokkaido island in northern Japan. An oil refinery was burning in Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo, according to NHK. And Kyodo News said fires could be seen in extensive areas of Kesennuma in Miyagi.

Aerial views of Kesennuma showed plumes of white smoke emanating from the center of the city and large, black areas the flames had already traversed.

<http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/11/japan.quake/index.html?iref=allsearch>

[abqmufc]

11. Thanks.NHK has been a good source. n/t

[kiranon]

36. Agree. I am a downwind child from the bomb tests in Nevada and

no information or disinformation is the name of the game. When I go to my high school reunions, we count who is left and has not yet died from cancer. Many died young and many of their children have unusual birth defects.

[sce56]

38. This has been a big discuussion online for years look at the actors possibly killed by those tests!

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/374/did-john-wayne-die-of-cancer-caused-by-a-radioactive-movie-set
Did John Wayne die of cancer caused by a radioactive movie set?

I'm horrified to have to report this, John, but your girlfriend's claim is only slightly exaggerated. Of the 220 persons who worked on The Conqueror on location in Utah in 1955, 91 had contracted cancer as of the early 1980s and 46 died of it, including stars John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Agnes Moorehead, and director Dick Powell. Experts say under ordinary circumstances only 30 people out of a group of that size should have gotten cancer. The cause? No one can say for sure, but many attribute the cancers to radioactive fallout from U.S. atom bomb tests in nearby Nevada. The whole ghastly story is told in The Hollywood Hall of Shame by Harry and Michael Medved. But let's start at the beginning.

The Conqueror, a putative love story involving Genghis Khan's lust for the beautiful princess Bortai (Hayward), was a classic Hollywood big budget fiasco, one of many financed by would-be movie mogul Howard Hughes. Originally director Powell wanted to get Marlon Brando for the lead, but John Wayne, then at the height of his popularity, happened to see the script one day and decided he and Genghis were meant for each other. Unfortunately, the script was written in a cornball style that was made even more ludicrous by the Duke's wooden line readings. In the following sample, Wayne/Genghis has just been urged by his sidekick Jamuga not to attack the caravan carrying Princess Bortai: "There are moments fer wisdom, Juh-mooga, then I listen to you--and there are moments fer action — then I listen to my blood. I feel this Tartar wuh-man is fer me, and my blood says, 'TAKE HER!'" In the words of one writer, it was the world's "most improbable piece of casting unless Mickey Rooney were to play Jesus in The King of Kings."

The movie was shot in the canyonlands around the Utah town of St. George. Filming was chaotic. The actors suffered in 120 degree heat, a black panther attempted to take a bite out of Susan Hayward, and a flash flood at one point just missed wiping out everybody. But the worst didn't become apparent until long afterward. In 1953, the military had tested 11 atomic bombs at Yucca Flats, Nevada, which resulted in immense clouds of fallout floating downwind. Much of the deadly dust funneled into Snow Canyon, Utah, where a lot of The Conqueror was shot. The actors and crew were exposed to the stuff for 13 weeks, no doubt inhaling a fair amount of it in the process, and Hughes later shipped 60 tons of hot dirt back to Hollywood to use on a set for retakes, thus making things even worse.

Many people involved in the production knew about the radiation (there's a picture of Wayne himself operating a Geiger counter during the filming), but no one took the threat seriously at the time. Thirty years later, however, half the residents of St. George had contracted cancer, and veterans of the production began to realize they were in trouble. Actor Pedro Armendariz developed cancer of the kidney only four years after the movie was completed, and later shot himself when he learned his condition was terminal.

[Turborama]

42. Absolutely fascinating

Thank you for sharing that article. I never knew about about all that until now.

And John Wayne as Genghis Khan? Wow. I might have to watch it out of morbid curiosity.

[Raschel]

7. Fox news had a very good expert on. He said there is NO safe level of radiation

exposure and that the Japanese government should have handed out the iodine already. He also said they up the amount of acceptable exposure during an accident, which is strange. He indicated that this is VERY serious.

He was very knowledgeable, I wish they had kept him on longer.

P.S. I've been switching between CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and any information I can find.

[abqmufc]

13. A great website for info (Japanese television in English)

If you've not found this yet, I found it to be a good source.

NHK is the international broadcasting service of the Japan Broadcasting Corporation.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

[Raschel]

21. Thanks

:hi:

[skepticscott]

23. If there is NO safe level of radiation exposure

then we are all unacceptably unsafe, every minute of every day. Is that really what this "expert" is saying?

[VermeerLives]

35. Hmm....that is a very good question

I think, though, that he is probably speaking in the context of a leak....

[Raschel]

43. Yes, thanks.

[defendandprotect]

44. ... and after that, it returns as rain -- !!

[Zorra]

12. It's all lies spread by anti-nuclear power communist hippies. There is no leak.

I repeat: THERE IS NO LEAK!

Run along now, everything is fine, nothing to see here.

[jonthebru]

28. Oh Wow,

I can see your aura, its glowing and is very hot!

[dipsydoodle]

14. Worsening by the minute for the Japanese people :

nobody else. Yes of course they have my sympathy.

[tavalon]

15. Yes, it is

[originalpckelly]

17. The deniers of nuclear's danger are as bad as climate change deniers.

The companies are propagandizing the left in order to get us to fall for their bullshit, but if I had a choice, I'd rather live next to a coal plant rather than a nuke plant. I prefer to live near none of the two, but coal is definitely better than nuclear when it comes to a catastrophic incident.

[plumbob]

45. I DO live next door to some gorgeous, clean, white wind generators.

They are silent, and the rent paid for their locations has enabled many local farmers to get some actual security for their kids for the first time ever.

There's a reason the sun is 93 million miles away, and as long as all other reactors are just as far away, I have no problem with them. And coal is found buried underground, where it should stay.

[northernlights]

18. wow. earlier today they were saying that radiation levels dropped after the explosion

having a hard time keeping their stories straight, it seems. :(

[uppityperson]

19. BBC link "reactor was not damaged...radiation levels fallen"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12720219
Japanese officials say the container housing the reactor was not damaged and that radiation levels have now fallen.

[originalpckelly]

20. Bullshit, boiling water reactors are dangerous because they have more parts...

where there is radioactive water/steam, since there is not a heat exchanger before the water goes off to the turbines. More pipes = more places things can go wrong, just like more parts = more things that can go wrong in any machine.

I sincerely doubt that there is a lesser amount of radioactivity being released. Unless all of the water was vaporized and there is simply nothing left behind.

And I also doubt they had all the control rods in place, either.

You want to tell me everything went A-OK during one of the worst earthquakes in history? Fucking bullshit.

Do not trust these people one damn bit, they are trying to protect themselves from being sued at a later date, and trying to manage public opinion so there other nuclear reactors won't get shut down.

[uppityperson]

24. Who says "everything went A_OK"? Not me. Here's a BBC running blog I found also

Don't even TRY to tell me I am saying "everything went A-OK". Seriously, stop with that.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698
The International Nuclear Event Scale was developed in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The rating of 4 for the Fukushima plant incident comes from an as yet unidentified official at Japan's nuclear safety agency, news wires report.

1622: More information on that figure: The 1986 Chernobyl disaster was rated 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale; the 1979 Three Mile Island accident was rated 5.

[jannyk]

27. It may or may not be AOK, but this foru is for LBN not LBHype or Theory

There is no new news from that plant since the "Sea Water/Boric Acid" announcement. Up to that point the rad danger was down dramatically. Is that true? Who the fuck knows, but there is no Latest Breaking NEWS to the contrary.

[daleo]

31. Discussion groups discuss things

Theory and "hype" are part and parcel of discussion.

[jannyk]

33. and therefore belong in GD. Many of us rely on LBN for actual

current news. It was one of the few places remaining that could be trusted.

[sce56]

37. I agree look at the night time pictures the plants lights are fully on!

The systems must have been broken all of the piping and pumps required to keep the coolant flowing have most likely been destroyed by the earthquake! The reactor vessels are built really strong but that does no good with out the auxiliary system.

BWR


PWR



See the way they work here:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/nukequiz/nukequiz_one/nuke_parts/reactor_parts.swf

[daleo]

32. If the secondary containment building is not intact intact

Due to an explosion, then measured levels of radiation at some recording sites could fall, because it is immediately being dispersed into the environment, and thus is diluted. Still, that doesn't mean the escape of radiation into the general environment hasn't increased.

[jannyk]

22. This all happened hours ago - why is this LBN? Multi threads all night long. nt

[Rex]

25. Because radiation still is pouring out of the plant?

And this should still be here for people waking up to these new facts they didn't know about last night? :shrug:

[jannyk]

26. But it's not, and this was last night's news. No new news out of that

plant for hours, but that doesn't mean it's leaking radiation.

The very last statement on radiation leakage was that it had gone way down. Find me a recent (last hour) link stating different and I'll retract my statements. This is LBNews, not LBTheory

[tekisui]

29. THe standard for LBN is not by 'the last hour'.

It doesn't matter if it is being discussed in GD, this is a different forum. I honestly don't understand your objection to it being posted here.

[Rex]

30. Hatred for the truth.

A lot of people are suffering from it here and in GD. Sad to see, but a typical reaction from typical humans.

[VermeerLives]

34. Iodine tablets are being handed out to people who live in the area. (n/t)

[CountAllVotes]

39. WRAPUP 13-Radiation leaking from Japan's quake-hit nuclear plant

Source: Reuters

FUKUSHIMA, Japan, March 12 (Reuters) - Radiation leaked froma damaged Japanese nuclear reactor north of Tokyo on Saturday, the government said, after an explosion blew the roof off the facility in the wake of a massive earthquake.

The developments raised fears of a meltdown at the plant as officials scrambled to contain what could be the worst nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl explosion in 1986 that shocked the world.

The Japanese plant was damaged by Friday's 8.9-magnitude
earthquake, which sent a 10-metre (33-foot) tsunami ripping through towns and cities across the northeast coast. Japanese media estimate that at least 1,300 people were killed.

"We are looking into the cause and the situation and we'll
make that public when we have further information," Chief
Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said after confirming the
explosion and radiation leak at the plant.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/12/japan-quake-idUSL3E7EC07M20110312

[denem]

40. This IS old. Covered a dozen times in LBN and GD.

[CountAllVotes]

41. WRAPUP 13-Radiation leaking from Japan's quake-hit nuclear plant

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