Japan nuclear crisis: What's in the smoke emerging from Fukushima I?

[highplainsdem]

Source: Christian Science Monitor

Japan nuclear crisis: What's in the smoke emerging from Fukushima I?
Mysterious plumes of white, black, and grey smoke have billowed out of the Fukushima I nuclear power plant, prompting speculation about the status of the devastated reactors.
By Peter Grier, Staff writer / March 23, 2011


Smoke plumes continue to rise from parts of Japan's devastated Fukushima I nuclear plant. On Wednesday, black smoke suddenly billowed up from reactor No. 3, causing workers to evacuate the area and stopping work at the plant for a few hours. Crews later returned, and officials said radiation levels did not spike during the incident. But smoke has been a continuing problem at Fukushima I (also called Fukushima Daiichi) – white and grey plumes have erupted at the plant a number of times this week.

-snip-

Meanwhile, on Tuesday the US Department of Energy for the first time released detailed radiation readings taken by US ground and airborne detectors deployed in Japan.

Unlike the periodic measurements taken at the Fukushima I plant gates, the new US readings give a sense of how radiation has settled over the area surrounding the Fukushima I complex.

The good news is that the readings are relatively low – all are less than 300 mSv per hour – according to the Energy Department. The worrisome news is that the data shows a plume of somewhat elevated radiation levels, higher than 125 mSv per hour, extending up to 25 miles northwest into Japan’s interior, instead of east or southeast towards the ocean.

-snip-


Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0323/Japan-nuclear-crisis-What-s-in-the-smoke-emerging-from-Fukushima-I

---

This is the page at Energy.gov that the article links to:

http://blog.energy.gov/content/situation-japan/

which has a slideshow of the 3/22 report. It's hard to view at that size, but you have the option of downloading it, or there's the "View on SlideShare" link, which will take you to

http://www.slideshare.net/energy/radiation-monitoring-data-from-fukushima-area-march-22-2011

and there you can use the Full Screen link in the lower right corner.

[golddigger]

1. They need to stop fucking around and seal the damn thing.

[AndyTiedye]

4. If They Seal It While It is Still This "Hot", It Won't STAY Sealed

You can use a whole lot of concrete, to withstand a whole lot of pressure,
but if you do that, you could get enough pressure for a

:nuke:

[ladywnch]

6. thanks, I wondered about that earlier when they were calling

for the whole complex to be 'buried'

I thought, it is hot enough to melt through the current cement containment what would stop it from eating through the 'bury' concrete - until they get it cooled and under control?

[Denninmi]

2. Mysterious plumes of white, black, and grey smoke?

Well, they're not electing a new pope there, that's for sure.

Crickey, what are they going to do if the Tokyo urban core of Japan becomes unsafe for habitation -- how are they going to move millions of people?

[Frisbee]

3. Probably by raising the allowable exposure levels. n/t

[AndyTiedye]

5. And Those Who Can Afford To, Will Move South or Overseas

[Baclava]

7. They said today they are powering up all 6 reactor buildings with external power.

{edit} Incrementally power up, that is.

Who knows what fires that will cause in all that damaged machinery when the juice hits fried circuits.

That's likely the cause of the black and grey smoke, I'd say, since they aren't reporting any new huge radiation readings.

[jtuck004]

12. The smoke and steam has been going on and off for a10 days,

and there has been no source of power other than the spent fuel on the outside of the cores and the hot fuel in the cores.

Whoever reported that they are powering up all 6 reactors is missing some deatail, since they have already reported live power at 5&6, and
stated that #3 is too badly damaged to restore. They said and that numerouos checks were going to take at least two days per every two reactors, assuming they can work in close, which doesn't seem likely in readings of 125 to whatever mSv.

If they do power it up, and the smoke is coming from electrical fires, the next smoke will be from hydrogen explosions, a byproduct
of the fuel overheating the cladding around it - something they are dearly trying to avoid by running all the checks. They have had a lid on most radiation readings at the plant or very close for most of this time, instead choosing to report much smaller readings outside of the exclusion zone. The report above is interesting in that early reports of 400 mSv to 1200 mSv are not found, so they have had some success in cooling materiel.

But with all the damage we will see what success they have in the water plant. They need to get the fuel into a pool of relatively clean circulating water as soon as possible, and the quickest might be to construct a pool outside and get the fuel into that. That would also get it out of the way of the cores, which they are reporting at least some damage to.

Simplest explanation and most likely is that it is the product of overheating uraniumm where it is smoke, boiling water if it is steam.

[Baclava]

14. Just going by what I read..."Power lines up at Japan nuclear plant"

FUKUSHIMA, Japan — Workers at a leaking nuclear complex hooked up power lines to all six of its reactor units, but other repercussions from a massive earthquake and tsunami still rippled across Japan as economic losses mounted at three flagship companies.

The progress on the electrical lines at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was a welcome and significant advance Tuesday after days of setbacks. With the power lines connected, officials hope to start up the overheated plant’s crucial cooling system that was knocked out during the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan’s northeast coast.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. warned that workers still need to check all equipment for damage first before switching the cooling system on to all the reactor units — a process that could take days or even weeks.

http://www.trivalleycentral.com/articles/2011/03/23/casa_grande_dispatch/world_news/doc4d8a26aa5da81301582847.txt


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

I wonder what plutonium tastes like

[jtuck004]

15. I know.

The power company was talking about this yesterday - day before? - anyway, they said they had the lines there, and that is what is referenced in the article you quoted here -

"workers still need to check all equipment for damage first before switching the cooling system on to all the reactor units — a process that could take days or even weeks."

and will they even have water to circulate, or will the heat rear up and knock one of these apart some more...

What does plutonium taste like, indeed...

[PoliticAverse]

8. 125 mSv per hour is a _high_ radiation level not a "somewhat elevated" one. n/t

[Hestia]

9. I thought that even 1 mSv was bad, period. Can someone explain this to us non-nuclear people?

[PoliticAverse]

10. Some info...

First the news media keep confusing micro (one millionth) and milli (one thousandth) so they
are sometimes off by a factor of 1,000 when reporting levels.

Average world background radiation is about 2.4 milliSieverts per year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Background_radiation

There is some controversy as to the effect of low level radiation but under the
"linear model" theory any radiation you receive increases your cancer risk.

For 125 milliSieverts per hour in one day you'd get 125 * 24 = 3,000 milliSieverts.
That is enough to give you radiation sickness and possibly kill you.

Here are two charts to put radiation exposure in persecutive:

http://twitpic.com/49mm4l

[Electric Monk]

11. wikipedia link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sievert#Dose_examples

Elevated limit for workers during Fukushima emergency: 250 mSv/year

Criterion for relocation after Chernobyl disaster: 350 mSv/lifetime

In most countries the current maximum permissible dose to radiation workers is 20 mSv per year averaged over five years, with a maximum of 50 mSv in any one year. This is over and above background exposure, and excludes medical exposure.

Public dose limits for exposure from uranium mining or nuclear plants are usually set at 1 mSv/yr above background.

[readmoreoften]

22. Enough to cause cancer if exposed for 24hr

Enough to kill if exposed for a week.

[Thunderstruck]

13. That's happy magic smoke. It's totally good.

[plumbob]

16. Yes, it's nukular, so it's GREEN! Happy happy green smoke!

Breathe it in, and you'll feel better right away!







(that should be "bitter", boss)



What?


(not "better", "bitter")


Batter? That doesn't make sense.


("BITTER" damn it!)

Butter has fuck-all to do with it, eh?


(BITTER! BITTER! BITTER!)


Oh! WHO bit her?


(aaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)


Good Lord! I'm glad he's gone! See how much BETTER?

[caraher]

17. It looks like the Monitor botched the units

The DOE release says levels are all beneath 0.03 rem/hour, which is 30 millirem/hour, which is 0.3 mSv/hr, not 300. The numbers in the Christian Science Monitor article are all too large by a factor of 1000.

300 mSv/hr is not "relatively low" at all... for that matter, neither is 0.3 mSv/hr, but it's a LOT less!!!

[pelau]

18. lets just admit it

the workers at the fukushima plant are fucked. people are trying to go about in so many different pretty ways of saying how much radiation the workers got or did not get. how about the japanese government, better yet the UN or whatever nuclear power plant law facilitating conglomerate that exists, compensate their family members for life, and admits they were wrong for perhaps not sending more people (but then again why put more people in harms way), or building these fucking nuclear plants in the first place. people talk about nuclear war, but shit like this is more probable then NKorea dropping a nuke on cali (or whatever it is people say).

[Citizen Worker]

19. It could be an electrical fire which means the pumps aren't and won't be working any time soon.

[trud]

20. yet again old news.

There have been maps of radiation readings out to 60 km available for over a week.

I hope all you people advocating sealing it (when they have turned the corner and are on the verge of containment) plan on never getting an angiogram. That will zap you with far more radiation than anyone outside the plant boundaries has gotten from this.

[Electric Monk]

21. "far more than anyone outside the plant boundaries has gotten from this"

Keep telling yourself that.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4783437&mesg_id=4784246