"Complex breach" in a spent fuel pool, severity raised from 4 to 5.

[GliderGuider]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-quake-wrapup-20110318,0,2262753.story

U.S. government nuclear experts believe a spent fuel pool at Japan's crippled Fukushima reactor complex has a breach in the wall or floor, a situation that creates a major obstacle to refilling the pool with cooling water and keeping dangerous levels of radiation from escaping.

That assessment by U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials is based on the sequence of events since the earthquake and information provided by key American contractors who were in the plant at the time, said government officials familiar with the evaluation. It was compelling evidence, they said, that the wall of the No. 4 reactor pool has a significant hole or crack.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/asia/19japan.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1

As the crisis seemed to deepen, Japan’s nuclear safety agency raised the assessment of its severity to 5 from 4 on a 7-level international scale. Level 4 is for incidents with local consequences while level 5 denotes broader consequences. It was not immediately clear why the action had been taken. The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 was rated 5, and the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was rated 7.

In a further sign of spreading alarm that uranium in the plant could begin to melt, Japan planned to import about 150 tons of boron from South Korea and France to mix with water to be sprayed onto damaged reactors, French and South Korean officials said Friday. Boron absorbs neutrons during a nuclear reaction and can be used in an effort to stop a meltdown if the zirconium cladding on uranium fuel rods is compromised.

[jschurchin]

1. I really don't think the truth

is being told to, not only us, but more importantly the Japanese people concerning the amount of radiation being released.

Here is why. During the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, reports were being done within 1/2 mile of the plant. There were reports filed nightly with the Cooling towers as a backdrop. At Fukushima, besides a few pictures and films taken by a helicopter, everything else is from miles away with a long range lens.

It just seems, to me, that if the situation is comparable to TMI, people would be able to get somewhat closer to the plant.

Then again, it might just be the way I process information.

[GliderGuider]

2. I agree. There is an enormous breakdown of trust going on right now.

The Powers That Be do not have our best interests at heart, and as painful as it is to realize, they never really have. The one thing that this accident has highlighted for me is the accelerating breakdown of trust within global society. We have wanted to trust our political and corporate leaders, they have repeatedly told us they were trustworthy, and most people gave them the benefit of the doubt. Now push has come to shove, and the veneer of polite lies is being torn away.

[SpoonFed]

4. i think you'd be interested...

Check out the other thread on the article about TEPCO's ethical meltdown...
The other thread is here.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

8. Bad link... here is what comes up for me:

Invalid Topic ID

The page you requested cannot be displayed because the topic ID syntax is not valid. The topic ID must be an integer number.
If you have any questions, please contact the site administrator.
Click here to go back to previous page.

[bananas]

13. Try this link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x280257

[caraher]

7. Yeah, there's no question this is FAR worse than TMI

That's been clear at least from last Saturday (even if they were still rating it a "4" then). And the US is pretty clearly skeptical of Japanese estimates of the situation...

[kristopher]

10. dupe delete

[kristopher]

11. dupe delete

[kristopher]

12. Maybe this will clarify things a bit...

Japan is a small island. In terms of a radiation release, where do they go. There are 42 million people in and around Tokyo (Kanto Plains). Where are they all going to go?

The government has already told people to take the right precautions, and they are following the advice far better than we would with proof.

I tried to get several people to come here for a prolonged "vacation" but every one of them wanted to stay even though they trust both me and the more urgent status reports I have been giving them.

The Japanese Islands suffer from severe earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunami, typhoon and (historically) mass regional starvation; all on a fairly regular basis.

To say they are hard to shake emotionally is an understatement.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Gotta love the minimizing in this sentence:

"U.S. government nuclear experts believe a spent fuel pool at Japan's crippled Fukushima reactor complex has a breach in the wall or floor"

For 3 days there have been pics all over the news of one of the reactors with the roof and 2 sides of the building blown completely off, in the area where the spent fuel rod pool sits.
uhh.sat...

[SpoonFed]

5. yeah

the people who say it's a hole in the wall have an extra hole in their head

[Throckmorton]

15. Because a hole in the pool wall or floor is much worse

The walls and floors they are referring too are the pool walls and floor, not the building. Holes there make it all but impossible to re-flood the pool and shield future workers from the lethal incident radiation.

[jpak]

6. This is much worse than TMI and French nuclear safety officials gave it a 6 - not 5

yup

[FBaggins]

9. And the French aren't the gold standard for this scale.

Yes, it's very clearly worse than TMI... it's also very clearly NOT as bad (so far) as the only six on record.

What should they do... call it a 5.5?

I think the real error was in calling TMI a 5. It's pretty consistent with some of the fours I've researched.

This would make more sense with TMI at a four... Fukushima (several times as bad) as a five... and the Kyshtym disaster (several times as bad as this) as a six.

If the fuel pool runs/stays dry and there's a major fire that burns uncontrolled for several days... then it's a six. Kyshtym was (very roughly) much like all the fuel in that pool converted to dust with 100 tons of TNT exploded under it.

[CJvR]

14. It also depends on...

...what kind of stuff is leaking.

TMI leaked a big dose of radiation, but much of it was isotopes that were less harmful.
Mayak and Windscale on the other hand delivered the good stuff, loads of Iodine as well as Strontium and Cesium.

Mayak 1957: rated 6: 2 - 50 MCi or 74 - 1850 PBq
Windscale 1957: rated 5: 0,4 MCi or 13 PBq
Lake Karachay 1968: 5 MCi or 185 PBq
Lake Karachay today: 1200 MCi or 44400 PBq (aka "the most polluted place on earth")
TMI 1979: rated 5: 13 MCI or 480 PBq
Chernobyl 1986: rated 7: 1350 - 3200 MCi or 50000 - 120000 PBq