Fukushima Suffers Setback as Officials Detect Signs of Nuclear Fission

[Hissyspit]

Source: Guardian (UK)

Fukushima suffers setback as officials detect signs of nuclear fission

Traces of radioactive gas are detected at Fukushima's No 2 reactor – one of three that suffered core meltdown

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 November 2011 05.08 EDT

The operation to stabilise the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has suffered a setback after officials said they had detected small traces of a radioactive gas that is a byproduct of nuclear fission.

The discovery was made as a nuclear reactor in south-western Japan became the first to start generating electricity following a series of shutdowns in the wake of the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.

The operator of Fukushima Daiichi, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said it had found signs of recent nuclear fission inside the No 2 reactor, one of three at the plant that suffered core meltdown in March.

- snip -

The utility dismissed the possibility of a "major criticality accident", in which a sustained nuclear reaction occurs, but has not ruled out localised criticality inside the reactor.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/02/fukushima-setback-signs-nuclear-fission

[AndyTiedye]

1. Fukushima Will be Hot and Spewing Radiation for Centuries

[bananas]

2. "Given the signs, it is certain that fission is occurring" a general manager at Tepco told reporters

"Given the signs, it is certain that fission is occurring," Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at Tepco, told reporters.

That's from the article in the OP: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/02/fukushima-setback-signs-nuclear-fission

[Overseas]

3. K&R.

[leftyohiolib]

4. what's wrong with fission? i thought that's what goes on ina reactor?

[AtheistCrusader]

6. But it's only supposed to when the reactor is in functioning condition.

That might make cleanup on reactor 2 more difficult. Depending on the geometry of the material, poking around in there could reduce, or increase the fissioning rate.

[Peace Patriot]

5. "Localized criticality"? Now there's a phrase!

"The utility dismissed the possibility of a 'major criticality accident', in which a sustained nuclear reaction occurs, but has not ruled out localised criticality inside the reactor." --from the OP

This is like a murderer saying, 'Yeah, I chopped her up into little pieces in front of her kids but I didn't touch her kids!"--and then begging the court for mercy because he could've done so much worse!

What's sobering, though, is that this is routine corporate brainwashing, no matter the damage they've done for profit by releasing toxics into the environment and destroying multiple natural resources. I've heard similar lines of bull from timber corporations, oil corporations, strip miners, GMO pushers, Pentagon weapons manufacturers and others, and, lately, with regard to our government's financial resources, banksters and their political apologists.

When a city fires half its teachers, librarians and police officers, it's only a "localized criticality."

As if the world were comprised of billions of completely sealed tiny cells of activity and life, none of them touching or affecting the other--a completely wrong and "Alice in Wonderlandish" picture of both nuclear reactors and everything else.

Nuclear power makes this VERY CLEAR, more than any other corporate crime: a "localize criticality" is everybody's criticality. It is the WORST of corporate crimes and the symbol of them all.

[AtheistCrusader]

8. Um, it's actually a nuclear physics term.

It doesn't mean, 'it only involves the local region/no regional impact'.

It describes the condition of the material in the core. There are other very bad things that could be happening, this is just one of them. The flow of water inside the core could bring two damaged masses of fuel together for a prompt critical excursion, things like that.

This is likely a small mass that is critical, or a few fuel rod remnants that happen to be in the proper geometry to periodically go critical when immersed in water that isn't borated.

This is bad, but by no means the worst possibility. 'localized' was not used in the context you are implying.

[daleo]

16. Wouldn't all criticality be local, short of a nuclear explosion?

This term seems like it could encompass most anything that might happen in the reactor accident.

[PearliePoo2]

7. Ummm..you might want to check the "Country of Origin" when making purchases for a while...

It's not only Japan's tea, beef, fish, seaweed, rice and mushrooms that are HOT, now it's the cars too..
From the "Telegraph":
"Japanese dealers selling 'radioactive cars'
Unscrupulous used-car dealers in Japan are selling vehicles exposed to dangerously high levels of radiation to unsuspecting buyers."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8849664/Japanese-dealers-selling-radioactive-cars.html

[robdogbucky]

9. TEPCO finds sign of fresh nuclear fission at Fukushima reactor

I know I'm just an Extreme EnviroWeenie spewing Biased Claptrap, but didn't we say this was likely occurring many months ago?



TEPCO finds sign of fresh nuclear fission at Fukushima reactor

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday that it has detected signs of a recent nuclear fission in the No. 2 reactor at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant, but ruled out the possibility that a major criticality accident had occurred.

The plant operator injected early Wednesday water containing boric acid to control a possible nuclear reaction at the reactor, where nuclear fuel is believed to have melted when the cooling system failed following the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The company said the reactor's temperature and pressure were stable.

As for the possibility of criticality, in which nuclear fuel sustains a fission chain reaction, the utility's spokesman said such a phenomenon may have happened "temporarily or partially," but he does not think enough energy has been generated to raise the reactor's temperature and pressure.

The latest incident suggests that the plant's seemingly stable situation could be fragile, even almost eight months after the crisis erupted. The world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years resulted in the meltdown of nuclear fuel in the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors at the Fukushima complex...

(Mainichi Japan) November 2, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111102p2g00m0dm008000c.html




Xenon suggests possible nuclear fission

A nuclear energy expert says the presence of xenon in the No.2 reactor leaves open the possibility that localized and temporary fission could still occur.

Professor Koji Okamoto of the University of Tokyo Graduate School says substances from melted fuel that could undergo fission are probably scattered around, but are unlikely to react. He says, however, that neutrons from radioactive materials could react with the uranium fuel and other substances...

...The professor also referred to a plan by the government and TEPCO to achieve a state of cold shutdown by the end of the year. He says that if fission reactions are not under control, it would not be a cold shutdown.

Okamoto says TEPCO must locate the melted fuel inside and outside the reactor in order to prevent further reactions.

Wednesday, November 02, 2011 10:24 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/02_13.html




Nuke watchdog says fresh meltdown unlikely

...The safety agency says it is unlikely that nuclear fuel has begun melting again, as the density of xenon is low and there has been no change in the reactor's temperatures.

The agency also says it will closely monitor if xenon continues to be detected after Tokyo Electric Power Company poured boric acid solution into the reactor to suppress nuclear fission.

It added that it cannot yet say how the latest development will affect the government's plan to achieve a cold shutdown of the disabled reactors by the end of the year.

Senior official Yoshinori Moriyama said it is difficult to determine the amount of nuclear fuel remaining in the containment vessel of the No.2 reactor. He said his agency will assess the situation and judge if it is still possible to stably lower temperatures in the reactor and containment vessel.

Wednesday, November 02, 2011 15:10 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/02_22.html



Nuclear safety body used inspection criteria drafted by nuclear fuel firm

The only legally mandated, independent nuclear industry inspection body in Japan copied nuclear fuel inspection criteria directly from documents provided by the company making the fuel, the Mainichi has discovered.

The documents, obtained by the Mainichi through repeated official information requests, show that the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (JNES) copied an inspection manual verbatim from materials it ordered Global Nuclear Fuel Japan Co. to create. Global Nuclear Fuel is one of the firms subject to JNES checks.

The legally mandated JNES inspections are based on official manuals which include a list of inspection procedures and pass criteria. The Mainichi obtained the manual for a check of nuclear fuel scheduled for delivery to Higashidori nuclear plant in Aomori Prefecture. The Mainichi also obtained a draft inspection procedure document -- listing inspection goals, items, methods for sampling fuel lots, and fuel rod measurements -- created by the fuel shipment's maker, Global Nuclear Fuel.

Except for the cover and first page, the JNES manual and the Global Nuclear Fuel document were identical, even down to the page format and font...

(Mainichi Japan) November 2, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111102p2a00m0na016000c.html



Carry on, regardless

[Octafish]

18. You are just an Extreme EnviroWeenie spewing Biased Claptrap.

It has been an interesting discussion these nine months:

TEPCO and the government of Japan have been upfront with the news and the facts.

No one, apart from a few workers here and there, died at Fukushima.

It's not as bad as Chernobyl or the explosion in the Urals.

Everyone gets hit by radiation every day.

The reactors are all under 100-degrees.

The radiation is half of what it was in September.

A nuclear explosion is impossible in a civilian reactor.

No radiation from Fukushima has been found in North America.

Everybody knows Japan was a hotbed of watch dial painting for much of the 20th century.

robdogbucky likes to scare people on DU.

[stonecutter357]

10. get the money out of politics.

Do they know where the fuel even is ?

[stonecutter357]

11. get the money out of politics.

This is a stupid way to boil water.:nuke:

[PearliePoo2]

12. No...they don't know for sure where the fuel is.

It's melted blobs SOMEWHERE. Likely pancaking its way out of the bottom of the vessel.
It's too "hot" for humans to inspect and they just lost their high-tech robot.:(

[robdogbucky]

13. Arne reported just the other day that

Scientist Marco Kaltofen Presents Data Confirming Hot Particles


6:13 minute video:

http://www.fairewinds.com/updates



Washington, DC - October 31, 2011 – Today Scientist Marco Kaltofen of Worchester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) presented his analysis of radioactive isotopic releases from the Fukushima accidents at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA). Mr. Kaltofen’s analysis confirms the detection of hot particles in the US and the extensive airborne and ground contamination in northern Japan due to the four nuclear power plant accidents at TEPCO’s Fukushima reactors. Fairewinds believes that this is a personal health issue in Japan and a public health issue in the United States and Canada.

[PearliePoo2]

14. thanks for linking the Fairewinds video...rather disturbing isn't it?

Hot particles are found in air filters and radiation is detected in the Cascade Mountains.
The radiation is contaminating shoes in Japan! When you touch your shoes and don't wash your hands after-wards, you're very likely to spread or ingest radioactive particles.

[boppers]

17. There's always radiation in the Cascade mountains...

Like the banana problem<1>, people aren't taught nearly enough about relative doses, dosage effects, natural dosages, etc. He does address this issue in the video, somewhat, but his "control" for this are spikes in one year's worth of data. I should hope that multiple years are compared, to adjust for seasonal variations, to inform people how many less bananas/potatoes/brazil nuts a person should eat to get the same exposure as they had in prior years.

Oh, and then there's the *HUGE* error made implying that all cancer, and all radiation, are tightly related. We now know that some cancer causes are viral, some are chemical, some are radiation exposure, etc., and we're just now getting a handle on it, after decades of mis-information campaigns (yes, you can "catch" cancer)<2>.

<1> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose
<2> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPV

[DCKit]

15. Can't be. I just saw a guy from the owner company drinking a glass of water on the news tonight.

Nobody knows where the water came from, but it was declared "safe".