On 01 August 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company detected a massive radiation leak from a pipe between reactors 1 and 2. It’s emitting 10 sieverts (10,000 millisieverts) per hour. The Japanese Science Ministry says anyone who is exposed to such levels can die in one to two weeks!
Now TEPCo says it’s possible there are other radioactive hot spots within the Fukushima Daiichi compound. They claim they will check for more hot spots. The amazing thing is that time after time, whenever a massive amount of radiation is detected, TEPCo says they will conduct better monitoring, yet it’s starting to look like they lie about it.
This latest radiation hot spot was found by a gamma ray camera, but apparently the pipe has been emitting the deadly levels for months. TEPCo now speculates that the pipe is full of material from melted active nuclear fuel rods from Reactor 1. Reactor 1 melted down just hours after the 11 March 2011 quake and tsunami. TEPCo says the pipe was used to vent the reactor after the melt down.
01 August 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company reporting that they’ve recorded the highest radiation levels yet at their damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
A pipe located between reactors 1 and 2, is emitting more than ten sieverts (not millisieverts but the larger measurement of sieverts) per hour of radiation!
Most measurements have been given in the much smaller millisieverts range. One millisievert equals 0.001 sievert. One microsievert equals 0.000001 sievert. So you can see a reading of ten sieverts is huge! It is so huge, that the Geiger counters used to take the measurements max out at ten sieverts, which means the level of radiation being emitted could be higher.
As usual, TEPCo officials don’t understand why they’re getting such high radiation readings! TEPCo sent workers to inspect the pipe, after a gamma camera detected extreme radiation. The workers could not stay long, leaving after being exposed to 4 millisieverts per hour of radiation. TEPCo says the area around the pipe is now a No Go area.
In severalpostings (back in March) I warned that Japanese farmers should not plant their crops because of the radiation contamination…they planted their crops anyway, now it’s a mess.
Prefectural governments, and the national government of Japan, are now telling farmers not to ship their upcoming rice harvest, because of cesium contamination.
It’s not just rice that’s contaminated. For months now tea crops have been coming up with radiation, and what’s amazing is that the Japanese tea industry has spent money promoting their tea around the world, even holding tea drinking demonstrations. Many vegetables are contaminated, and even compost is proving to be contaminated. And, they’re still dealing with the massive beef cesium contamination.
01 August 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company announced a drop in cesium and iodine flooding into the Pacific Ocean, from Fukushima Daiichi.
TEPCo claims cesium 134 and 137, in water leaking from reactor 3, have remained steady since Friday. Iodine 131, in water leaking from reactor 2, has stopped.
At the height of contaminated water emission, cesium 134 hit 20,000 becquerels per cubic centimeter, while cesium 137 was 17 times the official safe limit.
Iodine 131, from reactor 2, had hit 7.5 million times the official safe limit.
But along with TEPCo’s announcment that radioactive water was dropping, they discovered a building flooded with highly radioactive water.
A storage building was found to be flooded with 700 tons of water. That water contains 19,000 becquerels of cesium 134 per cubic centimeter, and 22,000 becquerels of cesium 137. And, not surprisingly, TEPCo officials say they’re trying to figure out where it came from.
As more proof of massive contamination of Japan is revealed by contaminated animals and waste sludge, Tokyo Electric Power Company announced they will start using a new way of monitoring radiation in the air coming out of Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant.
Apparently TEPCo has never trusted their own measurements of airborne radiation coming out of the Fukushima reactors. Maybe they just can’t believe the high readings they’re getting? TEPCo’s own measurements show that up to one billion becquerels of radioactive substances are being released every hour!!! That’s measured from outside reactors 1, 2 and 3. Now TEPCo will take air samples from inside the reactor buildings.
They will set up an air circulation system that pipes air to monitors on the first floor of every reactor building. Isn’t the spreading, and increasing cesium contamination throughout Japan enough proof for these guys?
Back in May I posted how “mysterious” levels of radiation were showing up all over Japan, in sewage treatment centers, and trash burning centers. The situation has gotten incredibly worse, and is clear evidence that Fukushima Daiichi is spewing massive amounts of cesium.
All over Japan water treatment centers, and trash burning centers, are reporting that their waste sludge continues to be contaminated with cesium. Not only that, but the levels are so high that they can not legally dispose of it.
At least 50,000 tons of waste sludge is contaminated with cesium, and 1,500 tons are so contaminated that it can’t be touched. Those 1,500 tons contain at least 8,000 becquerels per kilogram of cesium.
But that’s not all. A water treatment center in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture, has 89,697 becquerels per kilogram of cesium in its waste sludge. Remember the national safe limit for food is 500.
This is proof the damaged nuclear plant is spewing far more radiation that what people are being told.
The government of Japan has already banned beef shipments from Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures. Now Iwate Prefecture is being considered for such a ban after cows there have been found contaminated with cesium.
At least 12 prefectures are voluntarily checking their own cows. The national government is says it will cover the cost of the testing. It is now believed that at least 3,000 contaminated cows made it to consumer markets.
It is becoming very clear that the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been, and still is, spreading massive amounts of cesium across Japan.
Last week the national government of Japan ordered all cattle shipments from Fukushima Prefecture halted, now they have done the same with cattle from Miyagi Prefecture.
It turns out that the majority of cesium contaminated beef came from Miyagi Prefecture. The cows were fed hay contaminated with thousands of becquerels of cesium. The national safe limit is 500.
In another sign that radiation is spreading across Japan, officials say the contaminated cows did not come from specific areas within the prefectures, but from all over.
The city of Pocatello is back to the drawing board after voting against buying $6.2 million worth of water rights. The deal would have been made with Portneuf Marsh Valley Canal Company. City officials backed out after credible threats of lawsuits from water users “downstream”.
Water is a big issue for Pocatello. Its main source of water is the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer, and it’s running dry. The Portneuf River flows through Pocatello, but it does not recharge the aquifer, and the city does not take any water from it.
To add to the problem, the city of Pocatello is not the only one using the Aquifer, the city of Chubbuck also gets its water from the same source.
For a long time it was thought that surface water runoff made its way to the ground water (Aquifer), but now its known that most surface water runoff just ends up in rivers heading out to the oceans (although some recharging comes from Mink Creek, and snow).
Geoscientists believe the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer was created 17,000 years ago when a natural dam broke, releasing a huge sea into the area (Bonneville Flood). Part of that sea was trapped in what is now known as Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer.
Another issue is that while many aquifers are held in small rock formations, even pebbles and sand, the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer is trapped by huge boulders, which were part of the natural dam holding back the ancient sea. You can see huge boulders around the area now. Every time a housing development goes in they end up spending a lot of time digging out the boulders in order to put in basements. It has also resulted in lucrative local rock mining businesses.
The water in the Aquifer is almost finite, it does not easily recharge as was once thought.
However, while most rain ends up in rivers, any water from slow melting snow, or used on farms or residential properties can get into the Aquifer. The problem is that large boulders do not filter the incoming surface water, like sand or pebble aquifers. This means the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer is very vulnerable to contamination.
To add to that, the soil is only about 2 to 8 feet thick, before you hit rock. I can attest to that since I’ve done a lot of landscaping here, and I grow vegetables and fruits. I can dig the depth of a shovel blade and hit rocks 4 inches in diameter or bigger. The thin soil means if you dump used motor oil on the ground, or use chemicals on your garden, it’s almost instantly heading for the Aquifer.
There is a three part (boring, basically a college lecture from 2010) video explanation of the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer issue, presented by Glenn Thackray of Idaho State University:
Thackray explains that the cities, residents, farmers and businesses take out more water from the Lower Portnuef Valley Aquifer, per year, than what flows into the Aquifer. This has been going on for a long time, and is why we’re running out of water. Add to that the fact that we’ve had some very dry winters, with less than normal snowfall (a big source of recharge, because it melts into the ground, unlike rain that runs off). The water level has been dropping since the 1990s.
Pocatello city officials say they are taking this issue seriously, and are being proactive about finding a solution.
On 22 July 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant lost external electrical power to reactors 3 and 4. This affected cooling operations, but they were able to get back up generators working.
Tokyo Electric Power Company announced that the power loss was due to an incorrectly wired circuit breaker. They say the circuit breaker was set up to handle only one third the amount of electricity that was actually needed to run the reactor’s cooling systems.
This comes after TEPCo officials held a conference claiming that Yakuza (organized crime; aka gokudō, aka bōryokudan or aka ninkyō dantai) could be infiltrating the ranks of employees at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. TEPCo also says they think Yakuza are taking over rebuilding efforts in the quake and tsunami damaged parts of Japan. TEPCo offered no proof. They implied that Yakuza were causing the delays in controlling the damaged nuke plant, and other problems. Again, Tokyo Electric offered no proof of their claim, and it sounds more like they’re trying to use Yakuza as scape goats for their own incompetence.