Kyodo News: Update on water and soil contamination

[flamingdem]

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/81357.html

Woes deepen over radioactive water at nuke plant, sea contamination

TOKYO, March 27, Kyodo

--- snip
Meanwhile, Tokyo Electric, known as TEPCO, is studying whether highly toxic plutonium is contained in the soil of the plant. The No. 3 reactor was using plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel for so-called ''pluthermal'' power generation.

** Note: they already know the results of the plutonium tests and are not sharing the information. Edano said they had the results already.

[kestrel91316]

1. But the pro-nukers here on DU have reassured us that even plutonium is no big deal.

And that no nuclear contamination of any kind is reason for handwringing.

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

2. I'm betting this is why the PM was "grave" and "not optimistic" yesterday

They know Plutonium has escaped.

And it will be around for 24,000 years.

[flamingdem]

4. They tested the soil a week ago

and claimed tests would take a week.. unlikely.

So they'll give the results from a week ago, typical Tepco.

[LiberalEsto]

9. 24,000 or 240,000?

I thought I'd seen the larger figure kicking around here.

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

11. 24000 is just a half life. so, it would take much longer for all of it to decay

[flamingdem]

3. On the Twitter: Tepco revises iodine levels to 100,000 from 10 million

(unconfirmed as of now)

Whew?

[jpak]

5. What'r orders of magnitude when you're talkin' teh happy talk about radio-iodine in teh environments

:shrug:

[flamingdem]

6. Iz nuthin I tell you, back to work! It's a nice day! Have a nice (short) life! nt

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

7. they don't want to admit to the iodine 134 because it is proof of active fission

that's why they retracted the reading.

If Iodine 134 is there, then criticality is present in Reactor 2.

[flamingdem]

8. I'm more concerned about the plutonium levels

because of what that implies short term for the workers and long term for the population.

I think this is what they have to hide, I'm guessing you mean the very high levels of iodine?
Or a certain isotope of iodine?

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

10. iodine134 has a short half life(~1 hour), so it indicates fission is still occurring in the reactor

[FBaggins]

12. Do you REALLY think that's how we would discover active fission?

You can't think of...oh I don't know... a DOZEN more obvious signs that would be impossible to miss?

You really think there's an active sustained chain reaction going on in one or more cores and the ONLY sign of it is I-134?

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

13. Do you deny that I134 is a sign of recent fission??

[FBaggins]

14. Of course not.

If you were given a physics exam and the paper said only that I134 was detected in quantity two weeks later... You would assume fission.

But this isn't on paper... It's in real life. If you ALSO saw that the temperature and pressure were still way down and radiation outside the unit wasn't changing... You would know that there's something wrong with the isotope identification.

There's no such thing as an active fission chain reaction that can only be identified by stumbling upon ONE fission product.

[flamingdem]

15. Video of Press conference, isotopes mentioned

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KgTysfmWZw&feature=player_embedded#at=178

[Statistical]

17. Do you understand how half-life works?

"If Iodine 134 is there, then criticality is present in Reactor 2."

No I-134 means fission occurred at one time. The level of I-134 would indicate how long ago that was.

[FBaggins]

18. And the reported level says "not very long ago"

Unless I-134 is also a decay chain product of something with a longer half-life.

The more likely alternative is that the reported value was wrong.

[Statistical]

21. The reported levels that are being retested?

The retested levels which now indicate no detectable I-134 in the other reactor buildings?

[FBaggins]

23. "The more likely alternative is that the reported value was wrong."

Seems they agree.

[jpak]

19. 134-I has a half-life of 52 minutes and would decay to negligible levels after 10 hours

if none were being produced by fission within the core(s)

Those reactors have not been critical since the quake - over two weeks ago

supposedly

but if there is still 134-I present - it does not bode well

yup

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

20. so a large amount of I134 indicates recent fission, correct?

[Statistical]

22. A large amount? Yes.

Any amount? No.

[PamW]

24. As usual, you are correct.

You can't think of...oh I don't know... a DOZEN more obvious signs that would be impossible to miss?
==================

As usual, you are correct. An active self-sustaining chain reaction would be
impossible to miss.

PamW

[PA Democrat]

16. +1. Iodine 134 has a half-life of less than one HOUR