“Radioactive Iodine is a natural product of the nuclear fuel decay. Radioactive Iodine accumulates in the thyroid and it causes high doses that can be accumulated by this organ. And as we know from Chernobyl, thyroid cancer was one of the major consequences.”
Vladimir Saenko from Nagasaki University
The International Nuclear Events Scale has just raised the Fukushima Daiichi disaster to 6, out of a total of 7. 7 is the worst, which is what the 1986 Chernobyl disaster is ranked. The 1979 Three Mile Island incident is ranked at 5.
This ranking contradicts many “expert’s” claims that Fukushima was not serious.
The Japanese government has authorized nuclear plant workers to be exposed to higher levels of radiation. This might be in order to allow workers to fight the new fire at reactor 4, which is emitting deadly radiation levels and preventing fire fighting efforts under current radiation exposure rules.
Chris Hope, of Ririe, Idaho, is back home after escaping from the Fukushima Daiichi plant during the 9.0 earthquake.
He works for an East Idaho software company, and was in Japan upgrading software programs at the Fukushima plant. Hope said he had experienced smaller quakes in Japan, even found them exciting, but this quake caused him to fear for his life.
He and other people at the plant had to literally fight to get out of the building. Outside it was like a disaster movie. Plant officials went to great effort to get Hope to Tokyo, so he could return to Idaho. He says the best example of how hard it was to get to Tokyo is the movie “Planes, Trains & Automobiles”.
Despite what is going on with the Fukushima nuclear plants, Hope says he still trusts nuclear power.
NHK is reporting that Fukushima plant 1 (Daiichi), reactor 4, is on fire for a second time. NHK is also reporting that currently no flames are visible.
Late last night/early this morning officials said the fire burned itself out.
Plant officials are saying they can not fight the fire because of the high levels of radiation. They are asking for firefighting help from the government.
There is a growing number of nuclear experts, around the world, that are becoming extremely concerned over the fact that spent fuel rods are exposed and/or burning.
Earlier today NHK reported that reactor 4 has 783 spent rods stored in a “pool” above the reactor. Spent rods are still highly radioactive. It has also been admitted that the survivability of the spent fuel rod pools, in event of natural disaster, was never taken into account.
An official interviewed by NHK admitted that they don’t really know what is going on. This makes sense because there is a skeleton crew at the plant (which probably have been exposed to deadly levels of radiation), and the “officials” are not at the plant. Most employees evacuated the plant after the earthquake.
Using Global Volcanism Program (GVP) website, monthly reports, I totaled the number of volcanic events, around the Pacific Ring of Fire, for the year 2010. Then I averaged the number of events over the whole year. The monthly average number of volcanic events, for 2010, came to 5.3. Keep in mind that at least 90% of the world’s volcanic events took place on the Ring of Fire, in 2010.
The GVP weekly activity reports include “ongoing” activity, so I threw those out and counted the “new” activity only. It is clear there is an increase.
For the reporting month of January 2011, I counted 16 new activity reports for the Ring of Fire. For February it is 13. The first week of March is 2 (I expect March will end up with a high number, due to what’s happening in Japan).
Maybe the GVP has differences in what they post for monthly vs weekly, but, the most monthly activity in 2010, was in February with 9 (remember I did an average for the whole year). You can see, comparing February 2010 to February 2011, there is an increase of 4.
Is this cause for alarm? Maybe not. I went back to February 2001, and there was much more volcanic activity then (I counted 24). Another issue is how the GVP gets it information. The website states that information comes from “…hundreds of correspondents, scientists, and other volcano observers that contribute information.” GVP does list activity reports that they have determined to be “false”.
Officials now saying that reactor 4 spent fuel rod fire, burned itself out. The temperatures had risen to twice the limit. This, along with possible hydrogen explosion, caused the 783 spent fuel rods to catch fire.
Officials admit the spent fuel rod storage areas are not equipped with any type of “back up” systems to prevent overheating and fire caused by natural disaster. The design of the nuclear plant has the spent fuel rods stored above the reactors. Workers at Fukushima plant 1 (Daiichi) are now focusing on reducing spent fuel rods from overheating. There is now concern with the Spent Fuel Rod storage above reactors 5 & 6, their temperatures are rising. Officials say they have begun flooding the storage areas with sea water. Reactors 5 & 6 were down for maintenance when the quake/tsunami hit.
Atsushi Takeda, an official with Japan’s Nuclear Safety Research Association, says that most of the back up systems did not work properly. The primary concerns are to keep reactors from overheating. Takeda believes most of the problems with the Fukushima plant happened after the tsunami, not because of the magnitude 9 quake.
A magnitude quake hit Tokai Region of Japan, in Shizuoka Prefecture, at 10:31pm Japan time. This area is further south from the area hit by the big quake/tsunami, it is southwest of Tokyo.
The quake was 10km below the surface. No concern over tsunami event. No damage reported at nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture.
The IAEA says spent fuel rod fire on reactor 4 was put out. Radiation levels have dropped.
Radiation levels had reached 400 millisievert per hour. The IAEA says “A person’s radiation exposure due to all natural sources amounts on average to about 2.4 millisievert (mSv) per year.” This clearly shows how bad the radiation levels got, and why people were told to get inside, and not to drink even tap water.
However, NHK, Japan’s public news service, continued to interview “experts” who down played the levels.
The IAEA says they have been informed that the spent fuel rod fire is on Reactor 4, plant 1 (Fukushima Daiichi). Radiation levels of 400 millisieverts per hour being released!
Reuters is reporting that the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) has been told that a spent fuel rod pound is on fire. Spent fuel rods are still highly radioactive, and the pools contain years worth of rods.
At the Fukushima plant 1, the spent fuel pools are on top of reactors. The problem is that reactors 1 & 3 exploded, literally blowing their tops. So where did the spent fuel rods that were on top of the buildings go?
Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer at Fairewinds Associates, said a spent fuel rod fire “…would be like Chernobyl on steroids.” Gundersen is also a member of the public oversight panel for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
Fukushima plant 1 might have as many as 7 spent fuel pools, with 20 years worth of rods.
Gundersen pointed out that the design of the Fukushima nuclear reactors are based on a General Electric plan, and that plan put the spent fuel rod pools on above of the reactors. Can you say “dumb & dumber”? What’s GE’s slogan, “We bring good things to life”? Yeah buddy!