TEPCO: Plutonium is not dangerous. Where's the Boss?

[Octafish]

MIA or AWOL. It doesn't matter when the subject is plutonium.



"It is not a health risk to humans," the company said.

TEPCO says plutonium found on quake-damaged plant grounds

By the CNN Wire Staff
March 28, 2011 -- Updated 1735 GMT (0135 HKT)

okyo (CNN) -- Some plutonium found in soil on the grounds of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may have come from its earthquake-damaged reactors, but it poses no human health risk, the plant's owners reported Monday.

The element was found in soil samples taken March 21-22 from five locations around the plant, the Tokyo Electric Power Company told CNN late Monday. The company said it was equivalent to the amounts that fell on Japan following aboveground nuclear weapons tests by other countries in past decades.

"It is not a health risk to humans," the company said. But it added, "Just in case, TEPCO will increase the monitoring of the nuclear plant grounds and the surrounding environment."

Plutonium is a byproduct of nuclear reactions that is also part of the fuel mix at the plant's No. 3 reactor. It can be a serious health hazard if inhaled or ingested, but external exposure poses little health risk, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Three plutonium isotopes -- Pu-238, -239 and -240 -- were found in soil at five different points inside the plant grounds, Tokyo Electric reported. It said that plutonium found in two of the samples could have come out of the reactors that were damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that ravaged northern Japan.

CONTINUED...

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/28/japan.nuclear.plutonium/?hpt=T2

This makes me very interested in learning why the company and authorities in general are saying "everything's OK" instead of saying what it is we need to be aware of and what we can do about it. So, who can we ask about this? One person, to start, would be the boss of TEPCO. If anybody ever did, he has a lot of explaining to do.

Vanishing act by Japanese executive during nuclear crisis raises questions

By Andrew Higgins
Washington Post
March 28, 1:51 PM

TOKYO — In normal times, Masataka Shimizu lives in The Tower, a luxury high rise in the same upscale Tokyo district as the U.S. Embassy. But he hasn’t been been there for more than two weeks, according to a uniformed doorman.

Death, devastation grip Japan following quake: A massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake and several powerful aftershocks struck the eastern coast of Japan on Friday afternoon, triggering tsunamis that devastated the coastline north of Tokyo.

Gallery: Death, devastation grip Japan following quake: A massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake and several powerful aftershocks struck the eastern coast of Japan on Friday afternoon, triggering tsunamis that devastated the coastline north of Tokyo.

In fact, nobody has seen much recently of the president of Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco, owner of a haywire nuclear power plant just 150 miles from the Japanese capital.

He is the most invisible — and also most reviled — chief executive in Japan.

CONTINUED...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/vanishing-act-by-japanese-executive-during-nuclear-crisis-raises-questions/2011/03/28/AFDnHNpB_story.html

Plutonium brings up a whole bunch of questions I'd like to ask Mr. Shimizu. First off: What can the people of Fukushima and Honshu do to protect themselves? Then: What can the people of the world do to protect themselves?

EDIT: Wrong URL, Shimizu. Wrong URL, again, Shimizu.

Here's what I want it to convey:

DOE-STD-1128-98

Guide of Good Practices for Occupational Radiological Protection in Plutonium Facilities

EXCERPT...

4.2.3 Characteristics of Plutonium Contamination
There are few characteristics of plutonium contamination that are unique. Plutonium
contamination may be in many physical and chemical forms. (See Section 2.0 for the many
potential sources of plutonium contamination from combustion products of a plutonium fire
to radiolytic products from long-term storage.) The one characteristic that many believe is
unique to plutonium is its ability to migrate with no apparent motive force. Whether from
alpha recoil or some other mechanism, plutonium contamination, if not contained or
removed, will spread relatively rapidly throughout an area.

[FirstLight]

1. I have a queasy feeling about this

bad juju, man

[Octafish]

4. Me too.

It's a small world. Some of the same folks who are big into nuclear power also brought us eugenics.

PS: Sorry about the busted link in the OP, FirstLight. I think it's a go, now. The important content from it is now at the bottom.

[Raschel]

2. Why isn't there some international organization demanding straight answers from TEPCO for the

people of Japan and the people of the world?

We have a nuclear disaster going on and everyone's sitting on their thumbs listening to TEPCO talk sh*t.. I don't get it.

[Octafish]

8. They're hiding out too.

Typically, by committee. They're calling a meeting:



The IAEA calls nuclear safety summit amid Japan crisis.

[Junkdrawer]

11. "IAEA, which promotes peaceful uses of nuclear energy"....

Well there's your problem right there.

[crickets]

17. Calling a meeting. In June. Possibly.

The agency has said it can only communicate the data Japan gives it and says it lacks the power to enforce nuclear safety standards, something it may now lobby to change.

So... essentially, it's a fancy science club. Cute.

[PA Democrat]

3. I'd seen a story that Shimizu had "fallen ill."

Found it. He is also being asked to step down.


Local media are now reporting that Shimizu became ill on March 16 and therefore couldn't work for days, according to AFP (via The Straits Times). He reportedly,

Took a week off from the joint task force that had been set up by the government and the company, the Mainichi Shimbun daily said, citing company officials. "He was not at the task force but (was) still collecting information at the headquarters (in Tokyo), giving instructions," a Tepco spokesman was quoted saying by the Mainichi daily.

But another Tepco employee, described as a senior official, said Mr Shimizu had been so sick that he had stayed 'mostly in bed' in a separate room in the building where the task force was meeting, the newspaper said.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/tepco-head-masataka-shimizu-pressed-to-quit-after-costing-holders-26-billion-2011-3#ixzz1HvYAOzUf

[Octafish]

19. Tsunami Wall of Water Risk Well Known to Engineers, Regulators

Don't blame him for calling in sick, if he did.



Do blame him for apparent negligence in his duties -- or for taking the modern way: socialize the risk, privatize the profits.

Tsunami Wall of Water Risk Well Known to Engineers, Regulators

By Jason Clenfield, Yuriy Humber and Shigeru Sato
Bloomberg.com - Mar 27, 2011 11:18 PM ET

Japan’s nuclear regulators and the operator of the crippled Fukushima reactors were warned that a tsunami could overwhelm the plant’s defenses and failed to recognize the threat.

The Trade Ministry dismissed evidence two years ago from geologists that the power station’s stretch of coast was overdue for a giant wave, minutes from a government committee show. Tokyo Electric Power Co. engineers also didn’t heed lessons from the 2004 tsunami off Indonesia that swamped a reactor 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) away in India, even as they advised the nuclear industry on coping with the dangers.

Tokyo Electric’s Dai-Ichi plant withstood the impact of Japan’s record earthquake March 11, only for a wall of water to knock out generators needed to keep its reactors cool. The cost of the miscalculation mounted as explosions and fires at the plant caused radiation leaks that forced the evacuation of more than 200,000 people and contaminated drinking water.

“The Japanese system underestimated the natural threat from the earthquake and tsunami,” said Pierre Zaleski of University Paris Dauphine and a former French Atomic Energy Commission member. “They really haven’t taken these threats seriously enough, and they haven’t moved fast enough.”

Underscoring the Japanese government’s failure to foresee the risk posed by tsunamis to nuclear power plants is the country’s national report on nuclear safety, filed with the International Atomic Energy Agency in September 2010. The 194-page document discusses detailed earthquake mitigation measures 74 times. Tsunamis are mentioned twice, both times in reference to a working group studying the issue.

CONTINUED...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-25/tsunami-risk-well-known-to-nuclear-engineers-regulators-who-failed-to-act.html

Sincerely hope this guy goes into protective custody sooner, rather than too-later.

[crickets]

5. This is no longer a case of scary CYA ineptitude.

It's criminal. With straight faces, they're claiming that finding plutonium outside the reactors is "not a health risk to humans." Many people have found reason to assume they haven't been telling the whole truth up to now, but this is an obvious LIE. I agree with Raschel: when is the IAEA or someone going to call them on this? Why isn't the Japanese government doing more to step up? People are going to die because of the lies.

Another thing that bothers me is why, since an accident of this type has the potential for grave international repercussions, does there seem to be no international protocol for dealing with it?

[Raschel]

12. It is criminal. They are SO confident and clear when they say things aren't harmful, but always

revert back to their "maybes" and "coulds" when they are discussing the state of the reactors.

[Octafish]

21. It IS criminal.

The only reason I can see lying is to avoid panic. People are past that. The people of Honshu and now the planet need INFORMATION.

While we need more information of better quality, this is about the best of what I've found so far: "What can we do to minimize the health risk of plutonium."

Stating the most dangerous substance in the world -- even at "fallout levels" -- is safe is a murderous lie. The authorities in Japan and here in the United States are acting -- IMFO -- as if they know this.

[G_j]

6. this is sooooo bad!

:scared:

[Octafish]

20. Long game at Japan nuclear plant

More incredible than a 50-foot tall black swan with razor-sharp teeth scary.



Top to bottom: Fukushima Daiichi NPP Reactors 1 through 4

Long game at Japan nuclear plant

SIDEBAR:

FUKUSHIMA UPDATE (29 MAR)

Reactor 1: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas explosion. Highly radioactive water detected in reactor

Reactor 2: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas blast; containment damage suspected. Highly radioactive water detected in reactor and adjoining tunnel

Reactor 3: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas blast; containment damage possible. Spent fuel pond partly refilled with water after running low. Highly radioactive water detected in reactor

Reactor 4: Reactor shut down prior to quake. Fires and explosion in spent fuel pond; water level partly restored

Reactors 5 & 6: Reactors shut down. Temperature of spent fuel pools now lowered after rising high
Plutonium: Found at five locations in soil - levels said to represent no danger to human health

CONTINUED...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12896690

I'm trying to learn as much as possible about avoiding plutonium contamination. I'll share ASAFP.

[Ian David]

7. Even if they're telling the truth, it lacks verisimilitude.

It doesn't sound like it CAN be true, even IF it IS true.

[Octafish]

22. Remembering Karen Silkwood, Union Martyr for Health & Safety

The fact plutonium is the most deadly substance ever is missing from the press release and coverage, which, is an important -- if not the most important -- part of the story. So, Big Nuke did what they have to do to kill the story and, from the looks of things, the messenger.

[opihimoimoi]

9. Its Time to put the Nuke Genie back in the bottle...we now have the means to live Nuke Free

We have the ability to choose how and where to live...

The new paradigm points to better use of energy....without nukes....

Overall safety tells us unless we learn Nuke Control (super safe), we should build our energy systems in fail proof modes...Super green and updated...

[RufusTFirefly]

10. Just don't breathe, and you'll be fine

We've lost our chance
We're the first and last
After the blast
Chips of plutonium
Are twinkling in every lung

[FirstLight]

13. I am reposting these links for you too...

because they have some really interesating information, exposure measurements, and so much more...

I got started by a thread posted here a few days ago:
"ghost town"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x745969
it gives some initial info about measuring radiation and is a wonderful photo journal of a trip through chernobyl country

and that led me to this:
a video documentary about chernobyl in detail... (please note the 8th segment where the govt. woman has files from the early investigations and cover up, where the levels and deaths were significantly higher...but never admitted to this day.)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x567127

This is, IMO, a worse scenario than chernobyl, the ocean is an obvious reason, so is the water table being so very close to the floor. Needless to add is that this is THREE reactors and 3 times the potential for radioactive material, three times greater exposure risk...or is it exponential? either way i don't feel good about this at all.

EDIT TO FIX LINKS! :)

[jtuck004]

14. I get 404 errors on both of those... eom

[FirstLight]

15. try now? n/t

[jtuck004]

16. Better, thanks. I have been reading the kidofspeed sites for some time

now. It pulls you in.

[SoCalDem]

18. Why do we even have IAEA?

they should have the power and mandate to take over "oopsies" like this..