Fukushima Accident Assessment Officially Raised To Maximum, Level 7

[IScreamSundays]

What started as less serious than Three Mile Island has just become as serious as Chernobyl, with the Fukushima disaster assessment having been raised to the highest, Level 7. From NHK: "For a series of accidents happening at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency of the Ministry of Economy, which released large amounts of radioactive substances that affect human health and the environment in a wide range As an assessment based on international standards of the accident, the worst "level seven" decided to raise. "Level 7" is the same as the evaluation occurred in the Soviet Chernobyl disaster. Nuclear Safety Agency, 12, held a press conference with the Nuclear Safety Commission has decided to publish the contents of the evaluation." Of course, due to the much greater concentration of people, and the far smaller land territory, should Japan continue to persist with "controlling" the crisis with the same success as it has over the past month, very soon a Level of 8 and/or higher may be required. In the meantime, we are getting unconfirmed reports that radiation content in Hawaii milk is orders of magnitude greater than Federal Drinking water limits. While one can bicker over the exact number, it is certain that as long as Fukushima continues to billow radioactive smoke, steam and/or water, cumulative radiation levels, both domestically and globally, can only go in one direction.


http://www.zerohedge.com/article/fukushima-accident-assessment-officially-raised-maximum-level-7

[Ian David]

1. Is this a credible source? n/t

[franzia99]

8. Plenty of independent nuclear physicists have been saying this is a 7

That it's as bad as Chernobyl and that it has a potential to be worse since 4 reactors are causing problems. Not only that, the spent fuel rods are just as bad as what's in the reactor core and they have never, ever been protected by a containment vessel.

[Ian David]

9. I can't believe Level 7 is as high as it can go. It needs to go at least to eleven. n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Yes, ZH is very credible.

[mrJJ]

17. According to NHK its a done deal...

Japan to raise Fukushima crisis level to worst

The Japanese government's nuclear safety agency has decided to raise the crisis level of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident from 5 to 7, the worst on the international scale.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency made the decision on Monday. It says the damaged facilities have been releasing a massive amount of radioactive substances, which are posing a threat to human health and the environment over a wide area.

The agency used the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, or INES, to gauge the level. The scale was designed by an international group of experts to indicate the significance of nuclear events with ratings of 0 to 7.

On March 18th, one week after the massive quake, the agency declared the Fukushima trouble a level 5 incident, the same as the accident at Three Mile Island in the United States in 1979.

Level 7 has formerly only been applied to the Chernobyl accident in the former Soviet Union in 1986 when hundreds of thousands of terabecquerels of radioactive iodine-131 were released into the air. One terabecquerel is one trillion becquerels.

The agency believes the cumulative amount from the Fukushima plant is less than that from Chernobyl.

Officials from the agency and the Nuclear Safety Commission will hold a news conference on Tuesday morning to explain the change of evaluation.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011 05:47 +0900 (JST)http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/12_05.html

[malaise]

21. Oh My!!!

Who thinks it was always a 7!

[franzia99]

26. Knew it. Thanks for posting this. I remember when Japan was saying it was a 3 or 4. LOL.

[robdogbucky]

22. How 'bout this source?

Monday, April 11, 2011
Fukushima Accident: Level 7.

"There were some hints earlier, within the last 24 hours or so that the Japanese would upgrade the INES accident level at Fukushima Daiichi from Level 5 to Level 7 but nothing concrete was announced.

However, news just coming out in Japan is indicating that the NSC (from whom we still never seem to hear anything) along with NISA and the Japanese Government will announce later today (the 12th in Japan) that they're upgrading the categorical assignment of the Fukushima Daiichi accident to Level 7.

At present, the level of 5 is the same as that assigned Three Mile Island, while 7 has only been assigned to Chernobyl...


...Clearly this is an admission that this accident is of the worst possible caliber. Why it was not upgraded to a Level 6 prior to this is not known. Apparently a press conference is planned by the NSC in the morning hours in Tokyo. Much more to come."

http://atomicpowerreview.blogspot.com/2011/04/fukushima-accident-level-7.html

[robdogbucky]

24. Or this source?

Japan may raise nuke accident severity level to highest 7
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/84721.html

"The Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan released a preliminary calculation Monday saying that the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had been releasing up to 10,000 terabecquerels of radioactive materials per hour at some point after a massive quake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan on March 11.

The disclosure prompted the government to consider raising the accident's severity level to 7, the worst on an international scale, from the current 5, government sources said."



And tomorrow they will say "oh no, we made a calculation mistake, it was really only 10 000 nanobecquerels".

The cover up and farce continues.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/7794#more

[MadHound]

2. And it could very well get worse

TEPCO is still trying to save the actual facility, when they should be focused on simply shutting the mess down. Concrete, with boric acid, the Chernobyl solution, is the only way to end this crisis. Anything else is playing Russian roulette with a major meltdown, and continuing to expose the rest of the world to danger.

[99th_Monkey]

4. I thought the Japan Gov't nationalized TEPCO several weeks ago? ~nt

[MadHound]

6. No, they're just thinking about nationalizing it.

Meanwhile, there are corporate assets to save:eyes:

[99th_Monkey]

30. Oh, well. Corporate Assets? Say no more.

Everything must be done then to serve TEPCO's bottom line. :sarcasm:

[Bandit]

7. But Ann Coulter says everyone will be better off if we are all exposed.

You can't possibly be saying she doesn't know what she is talking about can you? :shrug: She is such a HERO to the Right Wing.

[franzia99]

27. I'm pretty sure criticizing Ms. Coulter is an act of treason

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

10. Chernobyl's was scattered and exposed. Cooling it was easy.

These cores are not easily acessible and mostly still together... some still reaching intermittent criticality. I think it would be unsafe to entomb a still active reactor and there's no simple "shutting them down". They're going to have to wait until the intemittent criticalities stop and they can cool the core (somehow) until the decay heat dies down a bit.

I dobt they're trying to save ANY facility around reactors 1-2-3-4.
Maybe 5 & 6, but those two reactors a little ways away form the first four.

My guess is they are trying to get to the point where they can control the cores long enough to get the spent fuel OUTTA there. The spent fuel seems to be giving the most headaches right now. I don't think chernobyl had the problem of a massive spent fuel pool next to the reactors either. It was pretty much just the core exploding and then cleaning that up. The fukushima spent fuel has the ability to stay hot and burn for a LONG time and release tons of radioactive smoke and soot.

[PCIntern]

3. Three eyes are better than two!!!

Kwitcher complainin!!!

It's no more radiation than if you stuck a banana up your butt or ate 6.023 x 10 23rd power cans of tuna.

[99th_Monkey]

5. +1

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. I think optimistic people are sexy.

Esp. if they glow in the dark.

[fascisthunter]

11. Will This Effect Americans on the West Coast

and if it harms people, what is our government doing to protect us? People say we need wars to protect us, yet when it really comes down to it all, they aren't protecting anyone. This like Katrina and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill proves it.

[franzia99]

14. Yes it already has.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. It will affect them, yes.

All my family lives there.
It will and is affecting everyone in the US.

Radiation Detected In Drinking Water In 13 More US Cities, Cesium-137 In Vermont Milk

• Milk Contamination At EPA Maximum
• Highest Levels Yet In Boise Rainwater

Radioactive Iodine-131 was found in drinking water samples from 13 cities. Those cities are listed below, with the amount of Iodine-131 in picocuries per liter. The EPA’s maximum contaminant level for Iodine-131 in drinking water is 3 picocuries per liter.

* Oak Ridge, TN collected 3/28: 0.63
* Oak Ridge, TN collected at three sites 3/29: 0.28, 0.20, 0.18
* Chatanooga, TN collected 3/28: 1.6
* Helena, MT collected 3/28: 0.18
* Columbia, PA collected 3/29: 0.20
* Cincinatti, OH collected 3/28: 0.13
* Pittsburgh, PA collected 3/28: 0.36
* East Liverpool, OH collected 3/30: 0.42
* Painesville, OH collected 3/29: 0.43
* Denver, CO collected 3/30: 0.17
* Detroit, MI collected 3/31: 0.28
* Trenton, NJ collected 3/31: 0.38
* Waretown, NJ collected 3/31: 0.38
* Muscle Shoals, AL collected 3/31: 0.16

Precipitation

In the data released Friday, iodine-131 was found in rainwater samples from the following locations:

* Salt Lake City, UT collected 3/17: 8.1
* Boston, MA collected 3/22: 92
* Montgomery, Alabama collected 3/30: 3.7
* Boise, ID collected 3/27: 390

As reported above, the Boise sample also contained 42 pC/m3 of Cesium-134, and 36 of Cesium-137.
Air

In the most recent data, iodine-131 was found in air filters in the following locations. In the case of air samples, the radiation is measured in picoCuries per cubic meter.

* Montgomery, AL collected 3/31: 0.055
* Nome AK collected 3/30: 0.17
* Nome AK collected 3/29: 0.36
* Nome AK collected 3/27: 0.36
* Nome AK collected 3/26: 0.46
* Nome AK collected 3/25: 0.26
* Juneau AKcollected 3/26: 0.43
* Juneau AK collected 3/27: 0.38
* Juneau AK collected 3/30: 0.28
* Dutch Harbor AK collected 3/30: 0.14
* Dutch Harbor AK collected 3/29: 0.11
* Dutch Harbor AK colleccted 3/26: 0.21
* Boise, ID collected 3/27: 0.22
* Boise, ID collected 3/29: 0.27
* Boise, ID collected 3/28: 0.32
* Las Vegas NV collected 3/28: 0.30
* Las Vegas, NV collected 3/30:: 0.088
* Las Vegas, NV collected 3/29: 0.044

http://blogs.forbes.com/jeffmcmahon/2011/04/09/radiation-detected-in-drinking-water-in-13-more-us-cities-cesium-137-in-vermont-milk/

[fascisthunter]

16. people don't believe me when I say this, but Sociopaths are in Control

same types who didn't bat an eyelash when the US kept sending more soldiers to their graves during the Vietnam war.

[rhett o rick]

18. This is just a manifestation of capitalism. nm

[robdogbucky]

19. Handmaid's Tale n/t

[hardcover]

20. Unbelievable, wast't it? It still haunts me.

[franzia99]

23. The worst people who don't care about others will do anything to make a profit

we need vigorous regulatory enforcement to keep them under wraps.

I think you're right though that there are a decent number of people who have risen to power who don't give a shit about others.

[caraher]

29. Well, we were all "affected" by Chernobyl and above-ground testing

But it's cause for sober assessment and not a freakout across the ocean from the real trouble. The traces detected in the US are to be expected and are hardly unprecedented.

We should reassess the safety of our own nuclear plants, especially given the age of many of ours and the fact that our plants' spent fuel pools are jam-packed by comparison to Japan's. But we shouldn't run around popping potassium iodide tablets and pretending this one disaster is going to wipe out a huge fraction of the human race.

[Paradoxical]

28. It heavily depends on the level and duration of exposure.

The United States is already measuring elevated levels of isotopes like I-131 among others.

But the current levels are not considered to be harmful.

[DemReadingDU]

25. uh oh