Radiation-shielding sheets to be installed in Sept. at earliest at Fukushima

[flamingdem]

Sheet, that's a long time before they get the spewage is under control


http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/83374.html


TOKYO, April 6, Kyodo

A plan to cover damaged reactor buildings at the crisis-hit Fukushima nuclear plant with special sheets to halt radiation leakage cannot offer a quick remedy, as the sheeting will be installed in September at the earliest due to high-level radioactivity hampering work at the site, government sources said Tuesday.

The government had asked Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the Fukushima Daiichi power station crippled by the March 11 quake and tsunami, to study the installment of radiation-shielding sheets, and a major construction firm commissioned to examine the idea said the construction will not start until June, the sources told Kyodo News.

They said workers need to wait until radiation levels drop at the site, where hydrogen explosions have blown away the roofs and upper walls of three reactor buildings.

Some nuclear experts have been skeptical about the feasibility of the plan as they believe the step would have only limited effects in blocking the release of radioactive substances into the environment.

[enough]

1. Murderous irony there. They need to wait until the radiation goes down before they can try

to cut down radiation release.

[flamingdem]

3. I guess he $5000 per day pay offers by Tepco are receiving a cool response!

Maybe they lack kamikaze workers, the Japanese know too much about radiation.

[Avalux]

5. The Japanese are protesting outside the Tepco headquarters.

Japanese people don't protest - it's not something they do. For them to be outside of that buiding with signs, yelling, is really something.

[flamingdem]

16. Was this on CNN? I'd like to see that

I hope they are supported by the masses, and I am guessing they certainly are at this point.

[Avalux]

24. Yes, I saw it on CNN (Cooper) last night. n/t

[Avalux]

2. I don't get it.....

they won't ever be able to make that plant operational again. Just entomb the whole damn mess a la Chernobyl and be done with it. Call in the Japanese military to do it.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. I honestly think they have no idea what they're doing, haven't from the beginning.

Their whole approach has been sort of like that of a 4 year old... "If I ignore it, it will go away."


I suspect the "plan" now is to manage it by keeping the radiation releases in such a fashion that no one can really say where they're going, or how much, so when the inevitable effects start rolling in, they can throw up their hands and say "eh. Prove it had anything to do with us".

They're just going to let that thing sit there and stew, and there's very little any of us can do about it. I suppose we can take comfort in the fact that nothing has exploded or caught on fire lately. :shrug:

[Avalux]

6. But who is it - Tepco, the Japanese government, or both?

No one seems to be in charge and I haven't heard any requests for help from the rest of the world. Waiting for the radiation to go down to put the barriers in place is ridiculous. In the meantime......

[Warren DeMontague]

11. I had the feeling that TEPCO spent the 1st 72 hours shredding documents

a "crisis plan" sort of like BP's.

About 3 days in, I was watching with my wife when the news said they were pulling the last workers out, that was the big "oh fuck" moment for me. To the Japanese gov'ts credit, they then did exactly what I was screaming at the tv for them to do-- the got TEPCO on the horn and said "you CANNOT simply abandon this situation and let all these reactors go"

All 3 reactors seem to have had some kind of meltdown, but I suspect it could have been even worse.

[flamingdem]

19. I remember that moment

so they bent over and got into the sea water spraying ... but some say that did more harm than good!

Where are the smart scientists and engineers, this is a global disaster!

[Warren DeMontague]

22. Kinda like the realization that no one is flying the plane.

That's how it felt!

[flamingdem]

23. I wonder what happened with the first head of Tepco who cried

and ended up in a hospital.. I guess his inevitable suicide won't be big news.

In Japna they have to follow the big dog, so they were acting in a chaotic manner,
trying to comply, but without the brains needed to resolve anything.

[dixiegrrrrl]

26. On NHK (japan English ) tv, a whistleblower was interviewed

he says actually TEPCO has "done nothing" besides the water spraying, that everything is still
"in the planning stage on how to hand the problem". and they have no idea what to do.

NHK tv runs delayed clips, in English, with a lot of information.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

[flamingdem]

8. That is the only comfort, no major spewing fires or explosions lately

though I wonder about the news on number 1, wasn't that melting down ..

[Avalux]

10. There was at least a partial meltdown....

otherwise plutonium would not have been found in the ground around the plant - how else would it have gotten there? There's a lot they're not disclosing.

[Warren DeMontague]

12. One of our resident nuke defender 'experts' was saying that it's impossible for the fuel pellets to

melt.

I asked him, so how come the water coming out of #2 is 100,000 times more radioactive than the water normally in there? Where is all that radioactive material coming from?

Still haven't got an answer.

[bluecoat_fan]

7. The spent fuel needs to be cooled by water may be an issue.

Not sure how you water circulating/cooled in a tomb.

[flamingdem]

9. Thus the sheet so they can get back in to work on things?, we'll see nt

[PVnRT]

14. It's not quite that easy

The first attempt to entomb Chernobyl did not contain the radiation, so they had to do it again. Plus, you have to have workers in the area doing the work. Easier to do when you're the Soviet Union, not so much when you're a democratic (sort of) Japan.

[Warren DeMontague]

20. Oh, I never suggested it might be easy. That's another reason that nuclear power

is irresponsible IMHO. Any time you have a technology that can create situations - no matter how allegedly 'unlikely' - that are, essentially, impossible to deal with... it's irresponsible to take that risk.

Yes, with Chernobyl they had to throw about a half million people, and the might of the Red Army- at it to get it under control.


But it';s also worth remembering that TEPCO's dithering because they knew using seawater would trash the plant- and their investment- arguably is what caused the larger problems in the first place.

[damntexdem]

13. And when will they be installed over the entire Pacific Ocean?

jus askin

[flamingdem]

15. It's going to be hot at the beach this summer

as in nuclear hot.

Don't touch the seaweed sweetie!

[Warren DeMontague]

17. When you order the cucumber roll

Better make sure there are some breadstick-sized control rods on the plate, too.

[flamingdem]

18. Nori comes right from Sendai

Luckily I weaned off of sushi a few years ago. In general it has too many toxins.

I think that's it for fish from the Gulf and the Pacific for me..

Trout? Maine Lobster maybe..

[Warren DeMontague]

21. Yeah, I've gotten really good at a baked trout fillet that I make.

Thankfully.

[Warren DeMontague]

25. "For god's sake, man! Don't just do something...

...sit there!"

[spanone]

27. i thought they were gonna just turn on the pumps and cool everything off???

never heard about those pumps again once the power went on

[Warren DeMontague]

28. The pumps can't go on because the buildings are flooded with radioactive water.

the buildings with radioactive water can't be drained because there's nowhere to put it, and there's radioactive water leaking into the ocean.

As I understand it, part of the logic of dumping the sort-of radioactive water into the ocean is so that they free up a place to store the REALLY radioactive water. Which is also leaking into the ocean.

I think the idea is that once they stop the water leaking into the ocean-- which they claim to have just done, good news- then in theory they can get started getting this highly radioactive water out of the buildings, then they can take a look at the pump equipment, and then MAYBE they can get the pumps going.

But honestly, it seems like every week there's a new urgent problem to deal with, and I have trouble believing that the systems in any of those "buildings" (more like smoldering piles of radioactive rubble) are in any sort of workable shape... so I'd be surprised- pleasantly, but surprised- if they got those pump systems operational any time soon.

[proud patriot]

29. This is soo comforting

:sarcasm: