Toxic plutonium seeping from Japan's nuclear plant

[Octafish]

Source: Bloomberg BusinessWeek

By YURI KAGEYAMA and MARI YAMAGUCHI

TOKYO

Highly toxic plutonium is seeping from the damaged nuclear power plant in Japan's tsunami disaster zone into the soil outside, officials said Tuesday, as the government grew frustrated by missteps in the effort to stabilize the overheated facility.

Safety officials said the small amounts of plutonium found at several spots outside the complex were not a risk to humans but support suspicions that dangerously radioactive water is leaking from damaged nuclear fuel rods -- a worrying development in the race to bring the power plant under control.

SNIP...

The contaminated water has been emitting radiation exposures more than four times the amount the government considers safe for workers and must be pumped out before electricity can be restored to the cooling system.

That has left officials struggling with two crucial but sometimes-contradictory efforts: pumping in water to keep the fuel rods cool and pumping out -- and then safely storing -- contaminated water.


Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9M8NGK80.htm

---

Serious problems. Where's the cavalry?

[ixion]

1. cavalry? There is no cavalry for this...

which is precisely why nuclear power was a bad idea.

[Octafish]

6. Fighting a nuclear meltdown must seem a lonely fight.

From WSJ blog:

The glory, such as it is, for battling blazes and radiation at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex has belonged to firefighters, soldiers, a corps of plant workers, and hundreds of industry foot soldiers who support the effort by carrying pipes, clearing debris and performing other manual labor amid the threat of elevated radiation.

Agree totally, ixion. Nuclear power is a very bad idea. But, profitable.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

2. 1 oz of plutonium can kill every person on the planet if dispersed idealy....it is now WORSE CASE!

Fukushima has tons of it...I know that for sure # 3 has several tons alone....god only knows how much is stored in the other 5 reactors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mXCsOflWsk

[Octafish]

9. ‘Do Not Panic’: Tepco Chief Shimizu in His Own Words

I appreciate empty mind as much as anyone, but sometimes mine must get hit by the stick.

‘Do Not Panic’: Tepco Chief Shimizu in His Own Words

Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s president, Masataka Shimizu, hasn’t been seen in public since March 13, two days after the earthquake and tsunami hit the company’s Fukushima Daiichi power plant, triggering Japan’s worst-ever nuclear crisis.

By Kenneth Maxwell
Wall Street Journal

EXCERPT...

But back in 2009, Mr. Shimizu did discuss leadership in crisis, the crisis in question being the financial breakdown of autumn 2008. As vice-chairman of the business leaders’ federation Nippon Keidanren, he contributed a message to the August 2009 issue of the federation publication “Economic Trend” that casts light on his philosophies of life and management.

“My own personal motto in life is a well-known phrase from Zen Buddhism, kankyakka, which translates into something like ‘look at what is beneath your own feet,’” he wrote, referring to a story of a monk and his students in the days of the Song dynasty in China.

“I believe that this phrase tells us that even if you find yourself in a situation in which it is as if you have been plunged into total darkness, do not panic; instead, turn your attention to what lies beneath your own feet. As long as you take care to watch every step, then the path you need to follow will make itself clear to you. When it comes to resolving those problems that stand in your way, you can find the answer right where you stand, as long as you look hard enough.”

“Is this not the very essence of corporate management?” Mr. Shimizu asked. “In order to find the direction in which we should be moving, we need to be on-site, be hands-on and be up-to-date with our business reality. This is how, in business, we can examine the ground beneath our feet, and begin to move forward, one step at a time, in the right direction. Right now, as I consider how to ensure steady and successful management, I am struck again by the weight of this phrase, and am once again determined to consider it in all that I do.”

CONTINUED...

http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/03/30/do-not-panic-tepco-chief-shimizu-in-his-own-words/

The ground beneath my feet? Oh,yeah. I see peace there, around 6-feet down. Eternal.

[SpiralHawk]

3. "not a risk" - Hello?

This is the frikken corporate mantra...It's about as believeable as Republicon claims to 'moral superiority.'

i.e. - not at all.

[Octafish]

11. 'Tell The People Of Japan To Run!'

Surviving Chernobyl Cleaner: 'Tell The People Of Japan To Run!'

Honshu is a big island, but not that big. Like our planet.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

4. "not a risk to humans"...BULLSHIT!!! 1 oz of plutonium is enough to kill every human on the planet!

Fukushima #3 alone has tons of plutonium stored in it...god knows how much more is stored in the other 5...not that it matters, after all only the first ounce is needed to kill everyone on earth

[Octafish]

12. True, that it is the most dangerous substance known. But, there is good news...

...it has to be ingested to do its harm, a few atoms per person.

With that knowledge, there are things we can do to defend ourselves.

Technical Topic Papers
Rocky Flats Public Exposure Studies

Plutonium

EXCERPT...

Why is plutonium a human concern?

Plutonium emits alpha radiation and low-energy x-rays, which are easily absorbed by tissue. The alpha radiation travels only about a quarter of an inch in air and cannot penetrate the skin. Therefore, if plutonium remains outside the body, it is generally not harmful. Plutonium is very toxic if it enters into the body because the alpha radiation can damage living tissue. The larger the "dose" in the body, the greater the toxicity.

Human exposure occurs mainly by breathing contaminated air or ingesting contaminated food or drink. Breathing is generally the route of most concern. When plutonium particles are inhaled and lodge in lung tissue, they continue to give off radiation internally. They can remain in the lungs or enter the gastrointestinal tract and the bloodstream. About 80 percent of the plutonium that enters the bloodstream goes either to the liver, bone or bone marrow, where it is retained for years, damaging tissue nearby. That damage may later develop into cancer. Common forms of plutonium do not dissolve significantly in water or body fluids, so little ingested material is actually absorbed into the blood from the gastrointestinal tract.

How do scientists estimate human health risks from low-level exposure to plutonium?

A great deal of research has been performed on the effects of radiation exposures at higher concentrations. However, little information is available for low doses of plutonium. Relatively few such exposures have been documented, with little solid evidence of effects. New information on exposures of Russian nuclear weapons plant workers has helped in developing better risk estimates for plutonium exposures. To estimate the risks of developing cancer from exposure to plutonium, the researchers conducting the Historical Public Exposures Studies on Rocky Flats used four independent sets of data:

1) Results of studies of Russian workers exposed to plutonium at the Mayak weapons plant, a production facility similar to Rocky Flats;

2) Data from populations exposed to other alpha-emitting radioactive materials such as radium, radon and thorium;

3) Data from Japanese World War II atomic bomb survivors exposed briefly to high levels of the gamma and neutron radiation from the atomic explosions; and

4) Results of controlled experiments on animals exposed to plutonium and other alpha-emitting materials.

Based on this information, the researchers developed revised estimates of the risks associated with plutonium exposure. (See the technical report Assessing Risks of Exposure to Plutonium prepared by Radiological Assessments Corporation for the Historical Public Exposures Studies on Rocky Flats in February 1999.) Because plutonium is retained in the lung, liver, bone and bone marrow, rather than in the reproductive organs, genetic risks are not the primary risks from plutonium.

CONTINUED...(with busted link I'm working on)

http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/rf/plutoniu.htm

While we're currently not there, a freakish set of circumstances have brought about conditions for the worst case scenario. Let's keep learning and hoping and praying and DOING what we must.

[lonestarnot]

5. Octafish, we are more fucked than I imagined.

That is pretty fucked. :hug:

[Octafish]

13. Way past fucked.

The same class of people who brought us eugenics and the ultra-right also happen to be very influential in the nukyoolar biz.

US nuclear tab at $5.8 trillion

South News July 1

Washington: In an enormous drain on resources the United States has spent $5.8 trillion on nuclear weapons according to a new study

A four-year study of newly declassified Pentagon documents, released yesterday by the Brookings Institute, looked at the expenditures of producing and deploying nuclear explosives over the past 5 1/2 decades with current spending on the arsenal at about $35 billion annually, or roughly 15 percent of the total defense budget.

Since the birth of the atomic weapons program in 1940, a total of $5.5 trillion was spent through 1996, the Washington think tank reports. That is 29 percent of all U.S. military spending and almost 11 percent of all government spending through the 52 years.

In the first comprehensive audit of the US nuclear arsenal,it calculated costs for research, development, deployment, command and control, defenses and dismantlement. The U.S. government has never attempted to track these costs, and whether the weapons helped to bring down the Soviet Union, against whom most of the arms were aimed after World War II, remains an open question, Stephen I. Schwartz, chairman of the four-year study, said in the report.

SNIP...

The audit shows that when McNamara declared in 1964 that a total nuclear force equivalent to 400 megatons (equal to 400 million tons of TNT) would have been enough to achieve "mutual assured destruction" with the Soviet Union, the U.S. stockpile already totaled 17,000 megatons.

Highlights of the report:

• The United States produced 70,000 nuclear warheads between 1945 and 1990, with an arsenal that peaked in the 1960s at 32,000 warheads
• Making the warheads was relatively inexpensive. Firing, storing and handling them was extremely costly. The 70,000 warheads cost $409.4 billion, only about 7 percent of the total. But thousands of aircraft, submarines, ships, missiles, and a large network of factories, bases and personnel cost $3.241 trillion.
• In 1996 dollars, the World War II Manhattan Project cost more than $26 billion.
• The United States has produced 65 warhead types for 116 different weapons systems.
• Thirteen major U.S. facilities - including Washington state's Bangor submarine base - handle and maintain nuclear weapons, and cover an area larger than Delaware, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia combined.
• Some 6,135 strategic ballistic missiles were purchased at a cost of $266 billion, as well as 4,680 strategic bombers since World War II at a cost of $227 billion.
• The 2,975 submarine-launched ballistic missiles alone cost $97 billion, said the report. Since their inception, the United States has designed and deployed 14 kinds of strategic bombers. Some 210 nuclear-powered military vessels have been built or are being built.
• The figures include the estimated $7 billion costs of attempting to develop a nuclear-powered airplane, which never got off the ground.
• At the moment, the U.S. nuclear arsenal - long-range strategic and short-range tactical - is estimated at 10,635 warheads.
• The current stockpile has the equivalent explosive force of about 120,000 Hiroshima bombs.
• The United States is spending an estimated $35 billion a year on nuclear weapons and related programs, the Brookings Institution says in a massive study.

CONTINUED...

http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/southnews/980701-USnukes.htm

Perhaps we can, to borrow a popular phrase, leverage the situation to We the People's advantage. Meaning: Everybody in the world can now see the ass-clowns at the top of the heap for what they are.

[bananas]

19. And that's back when a trillion dollars was a lot of money. nt

[ElsewheresDaughter]

7. Hartman video..."It only takes 1 oz of plutonium to kill every human on the planet". #3 holds tons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mXCsOflWsk

[truebrit71]

10. Wow...

...still, 'nothing to worry about' eh? :sarcasm:

[caseymoz]

8. They need to forget salvage.

And get that site encased. Put dirt or sand overhead, drill under and pump in concrete and then put a concrete dome on top. I just hope that might contain it, or seal it off and buy time to think of the next step.

[Octafish]

16. TEPCO: Four Fukushima reactors to be scrapped

Agree, totally, caseymoz. We need time to marshall resources, etc. Unfortunately, the more time this thing goes, the worse things get.

Four Fukushima reactors to be scrapped

30 Mar 2011 18:43

Tokyo – APA. Four reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant No.1 became non-recoverable and will be scrapped, APA reports.

"We have no choice but to scrap reactors 1 to 4 if we look at their conditions objectively," Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata said at a press conference. Katsumata said this issue was discussed with the government and Fukushima local authorities. Yukiya Edano, Chief Cabinet Secretary proposed to shut up all energy blocs in the plant.

[Raschel]

14. He looked at what was beneath his feet and saw plutonium.

[Octafish]

18. Profound beyond my ability to put into words.

Thank you, Raschel.

From better days...

On the Poet's Trail.

[DCKit]

15. But... but the Nnewcuelur defenders told me this could NEVER happen!

Besides, even if it's true, they also assured me that plutonium is totally non-toxic and safe for human consumption.

Remember folks, only Nnewcuelur will save us all. Unless it kills us first.

[Octafish]

20. The fact they lied about the plutonium makes me think they don't have our best interests at heart.

Here's an interesting blog on who makes money off the nuclear biz:

Who Really Needs Nuclear Power? Big Business, That’s Who!

AK Rockefeller was recently informed that Mitsubishi was the driving force behind building the Fukushima power plant, and that they had been warned that its safety could not be guaranteed in the event of a natural disaster. Indeed most of the nuclear facilities in Japan appear to have been built by and for Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Toshiba, GE & Westinghouse. These companies profit not only through their use of the energy, but in the building of the plants themselves. And no doubt, they lobbied the government to help them get the plants built, and they funded the “independent” studies that either fraudulently verified their safety or confirmed that they were unsafe, but were subsequently suppressed.

Those names all make money off war, too.

[slackmaster]

17. I can't recall ever hearing of non-toxic plutonium

:nuke:

[Octafish]

21. It's the only kind of plutonium. The idea is to never ingest it. So, let's bury the whole thing.

That may be about the only, eh, "affordable" option: Japan Weighs Entombing Nuclear Plant in Bid to Halt Radiation.

On the other hand, Japan considers unusual fixes to contain radioactive leak.

So, perhaps there's hope to fix things now to reduce the problems later. Problem is, later won't be coming for a lot of good people.

EDIT: fixed first sentence.