Environment

TEPCO To Dump 1,000 Tons Of Radioactive Groundwater Water A Day Into The Pacific Ocean

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– TEPCO seeks to reduce groundwater flowing into reactor buildings (Mainichi Japan, April 24, 2012):

TOKYO (Kyodo) — The operator of the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said Monday it aims to halve the amount of groundwater flowing into the reactor buildings by building about a dozen pumping wells.

The groundwater currently gets mixed with highly radioactive water accumulating inside the reactor buildings and adjacent reactor turbine buildings, resulting in an increase in the total amount of contaminated water at the plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. thus wants to use the wells to direct part of the groundwater into the Pacific Ocean, likely to be about 1,000 tons per day, before all of the groundwater flows into the reactor buildings and elsewhere.

The utility known as TEPCO would check the contamination level of the groundwater before releasing it into the sea.

Read moreTEPCO To Dump 1,000 Tons Of Radioactive Groundwater Water A Day Into The Pacific Ocean

Japan: Tsuruga Nuclear Plant May Have Been Built On Active Fault And Could Be ‘Disqualified’

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– Active faults may force Tsuruga atomic plant to be ‘disqualified’ (Mainichi/Kyodo News, April 25, 2012):

TSURUGA (Kyodo) — The Tsuruga nuclear plant of Japan Atomic Power Co. in Fukui Prefecture could be “disqualified” as a fault running under it and soft earth layers may have moved together in the distant past, nuclear power regulatory agency officials said Tuesday.

It is unusual for government officials to point out the possibility that a nuclear power plant is faced with such a fundamental problem. The state does not allow a reactor building or other key nuclear facilities on an active fault or a fault that could move along with it.

If the risk that it could move along with an active fault is confirmed, the two-reactor Tsuruga plant could be decommissioned.

Read moreJapan: Tsuruga Nuclear Plant May Have Been Built On Active Fault And Could Be ‘Disqualified’

Kyodo News: Fukushima Daiichi Reactors ‘Riddled With Meltdown Holes’

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– Land water flooding reactors to be diverted (Japan Times/Kyodo News, April 24, 2012):

Groundwater is seeping into the damaged reactor buildings at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, and Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to build about a dozen wells to redirect and halve the flow.

Groundwater from precipitation is mixing with highly radioactive cooling water gathering in the reactor buildings, turbine buildings and basements, increasing the volume of tainted water at the complex.

The utility thus wants to use the wells to direct some of the groundwater into the Pacific Ocean — likely about 1,000 tons per day — before all of it seeps into the reactor buildings and elsewhere.

Tepco says it will check the contamination level of any groundwater before releasing it into the sea.

“By creating a groundwater bypass, the amount of water flowing (into the) reactor buildings is expected to be reduced by about 50 percent,” Tepco said in a paper it submitted to the government at a meeting to check its progress on decommissioning the four crippled reactors.

A government official who briefed reporters on the meeting said the bypass is likely to become operational around September or October.

The Fukushima plant generates large volumes of highly radioactive water on a daily basis because it must perpetually cool melted fuel in reactors that are riddled with meltdown holes, as well as the spent-fuel pools sitting on top of them. Since the vessels are leaking, the water keeps the reactor buildings, turbine buildings and their basements flooded.

Read moreKyodo News: Fukushima Daiichi Reactors ‘Riddled With Meltdown Holes’

Japan Struggles With Nuclear ‘Decontamination’

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Refugees may not be able to return to their homes for up to a decade as levels of contamination remain high.

YouTube A report on Minami Soma, near Fukushima, where high levels of radiation have seeped into surrounding fields

– Japan struggles with nuclear decontamination (Aljazeera, April 23, 2012):

Over a year after the nuclear accident triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami contaminated large swathes of land in northeastern Japan, the future of the largely agricultural area and those who have been evacuated from it remain uncertain.

Read moreJapan Struggles With Nuclear ‘Decontamination’

Robert Alvarez, A Former Nuclear Energy Adviser To President Bill Clinton, On Spent Fuel Pool Insanity

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– The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Is Far From Over (Huffington Post, April 22, 2012):

Spent reactor fuel, containing roughly 85 times more long-lived radioactivity than released at Chernobyl, still sits in pools vulnerable to earthquakes.

More than a year after the Fukushima nuclear power disaster began, the news media is just beginning to grasp that the dangers to Japan and the rest of the world are far from over. After repeated warnings by former senior Japanese officials, nuclear experts, and now a U.S. senator, it’s sinking in that the irradiated nuclear fuel stored in spent fuel pools amidst the reactor ruins pose far greater dangers than the molten cores. This is why:

• Nearly all of the 10,893 spent fuel assemblies sit in pools vulnerable to future earthquakes, with roughly 85 times more long-lived radioactivity than released at Chernobyl

• Several pools are 100 feet above the ground and are completely open to the atmosphere because the reactor buildings were demolished by explosions. The pools could possibly topple or collapse from structural damage coupled with another powerful earthquake.

• The loss of water exposing the spent fuel will result in overheating and can cause melting and ignite its zirconium metal cladding resulting in a fire that could deposit large amounts of radioactive materials over hundreds, if not thousands of miles.

Read moreRobert Alvarez, A Former Nuclear Energy Adviser To President Bill Clinton, On Spent Fuel Pool Insanity

Fukushima Is Falling Apart: Are You Ready … For A Mass Extinction Event?

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Update 3:

– Fukushima: While No One Is Watching Humanity Faces The Most Dangerous Situation Ever

Update 2:

– ‘The Greatest Threat Humanity Has Ever Faced’: Fukushima Reactor No. 4 SFP ‘An Immediate Problem’ – Building Is Sinking, Over 30 Inches In Places

Update:

– Which Will Collapse First, The Economy Or The Spent Fuel Pool At Fukushima? (Ambassador Murata: Total Number Of Spent Fuel Rods At Fukushima Daiichi Site Excluding The Rods In The Pressure Vessel Is 11,421!!!)

From the article:

If they are MOX fuel, containing 6% plutonium, one fuel rod has the potential to kill 2.89 billion people. If this pool collapses, as Senator Wyden is now saying too, we would face a mass extinction event from the release of radiation in those rods.

That is, if we aren’t in one already. Nuke experts like Arnie Gundersen and Helen Caldicott are prepared to evacuate their families to the southern hemisphere if that happens. It is that serious.

So now you know, if you didn’t before. We are in big trouble.

More info on reactor 4 down below.

– Fukushima is falling apart: are you ready? (End The Lie, April 21, 2012):

Thirteen months have passed since the Fukushima reactors exploded, and a U.S. Senator finally got off his ass and went to Japan to see what is going on over there.

What he saw was horrific.

And now he is saying that we are in big trouble.

See the letter he sent to U.S. Ambassador to Japan Ichiro Fujisaki, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and NRC’s Chairman Gregory Jaczko here.

But what is so ironic about this is that we have been in this heap of trouble since March of 2011. March 17th, to be exact, when the plume of radioactive materials began bombarding the west coast of California.

And Oregon. And Washington. And British Columbia. And later Maine, Europe, and everywhere in between.

Independent researchers, nuke experts, and scientists, from oceanography to entomology and everywhere in between, having been trying to sound the alarm ever since.

The scientists most upset are those who have studied the effects of radiation on health. I’ll say it again, so its really clear: we are in big trouble.

The most preliminary reports of soil contamination are starting to come in from the USGS, who has seemed reluctant to share this information. Los Angeles, California, Portland, Oregon, and Boulder, Colorado, so far have the highest radioactive particle contamination out of the entire US.

That being said, every single city tested across the country showed contamination from Fukushima. What is even more alarming, however, about the numbers coming in, is that they are from samples taken April 5th, of last year.

Read moreFukushima Is Falling Apart: Are You Ready … For A Mass Extinction Event?

Huge Water Resource Exists Under Africa, Say Scientists

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– ‘Huge’ water resource exists under Africa (BBC News, April 20, 2012):

Scientists say the notoriously dry continent of Africa is sitting on a vast reservoir of groundwater.

They argue that the total volume of water in aquifers underground is 100 times the amount found on the surface.

The team have produced the most detailed map yet of the scale and potential of this hidden resource.

Read moreHuge Water Resource Exists Under Africa, Say Scientists

Radioactive Flowers From Fukushima: Carnation 7290Bq/Kg – Gerbera 6240Bq/Kg

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– 7290 Bq/Kg from carnation in Fukushima (Fukushima Diary, April 22, 2012):

At the symposium about internal exposure held by IWJ, a participant shared information about the fresh flowers’ contamination.

??????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????

Flowers were bought from a wholesaler in Osaka on 4/19/2012. Measurement tool is germanium semiconductor detector.

???4/19???????????????????????????????????????????????

???? Made in Fukushima

???? Gerbera?6240Bq/Kg

???? Made in Ibaraki
????? Freesia?3280Bq/Kg

???? Made in Chiba
??????Sweet pea?2550Bq/Kg

???? Made in Tochigi
???????Trachymene coerulea?3810Bq/Kg

???? Made in Miyagi
????? Spray mum?3420Bq/Kg

????Pot-plants

???? Made in Fukushima
??????? Carnation?7290Bq/Kg
? Soil?10250Bq/Kg

???? Made in Ibaraki
??????? Carnation?2010Bq/Kg
? Soil?2580Bq/Kg

Source

Radioactive Japan: Another Mutated Dandelion, This Time In Saitama

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– Mutated dandelion in Saitama (Fukushima Diary, April 22, 2012):

Following up this article..Mutated dandelion in Tokyo

A mutated dandelion was found in Kawaguchi city Saitama. Several flowers are growing from the same stem, which is called fasciation. The stem is about 2cm width.
Associate director of the environment devision of Saitama prefecture, Mr. Okuma states, fasciation is often observed among a golden?rayed lily or dandelion, but we hardly find such a big dandelion.

Read moreRadioactive Japan: Another Mutated Dandelion, This Time In Saitama

Insane Japan: 10 Osaka Elementary School Students Diagnosed With ‘HEAT STROKE’ And Hospitalized – Actual Temperature Was Only 22.1?

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– Students hospitalized for heat stroke in Osaka, 22.1? (Fukushima Diary, April 20, 2012):

10 of the 12 years old elementary school students were hospitalized during the measurement of physical fitness in Yao city Osaka.

4 of them were male, the rests were female.

It was from 11:30 ~ 0:15 of 4/19/2012, 93 students attended at the PE class.

Those 10 students became sick when they were running around in 20m. Doctor diagnosed one of them had heat stroke, but it was only 22.1?. Dry?weather warning was giving out.

Read moreInsane Japan: 10 Osaka Elementary School Students Diagnosed With ‘HEAT STROKE’ And Hospitalized – Actual Temperature Was Only 22.1?

Meteorologist Piers Corbyn Brands Met Office ‘Lying Scum’

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From the article:

“It’s based on the fact that the weather and climate are controlled by activity from the Sun, and its modulation by the orbit of the Moon,” he says. “It’s a solar-magnetic-lunar system.”

– The weatherman caught in a media storm (Independent, April 21, 2012):

Rogue forecaster brands Met Office ‘lying scum’ after spat over his latest apocalyptic warning

It’s surely one of the more sensational weather forecasts of the last few years – the prediction that next month will be the coldest May in Britain for a century.

Read moreMeteorologist Piers Corbyn Brands Met Office ‘Lying Scum’

Radioactive Japan: 2170 Tons Of Radioactive Waste Containing Over 8000 Bq/Kg Cesium Have No Place To Go In Tochigi

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– 2170 tones of over 8000 Bq/kg melted slag has no place to go in Tochigi (Fukushima Diary, April 20, 2012):

Because of radiation, 2630 tones of melted slag has no place to go in Tochigi at the end of February.

They measured over 8000 Bq/kg of cesium from about 80% of them (2170 tones), which are supposed to be processed by the government as specified radioactive waste, but disposal site must be basically in Tochigi prefecture.

Because there is no controlled landfill site in Tochigi, it is impossible to landfill 2630 tones of the contaminated melted slag.

Melted slag is produced from sewage sludge. It used to be recycled for construction material, but it is stopped since they measured radiation from the slag. They are kept in 4 water purifying facilities at the moment.

Read moreRadioactive Japan: 2170 Tons Of Radioactive Waste Containing Over 8000 Bq/Kg Cesium Have No Place To Go In Tochigi

Radioactive Japan: 42,700 Bq/Kg In Incineration Ash In Tochigi

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– 42,700 Bq/Kg from sludge incineration ash in Tochigi (Fukushima Diary, April 20, 2012):

Utsunomiya city government in Tochigi measured 42,700Bq/Kg of cesium from sewage sludge incineration ash on 4/9/2012.
They measured 380~4060 Bq/Kg of cesium from sewage sludge.

Read moreRadioactive Japan: 42,700 Bq/Kg In Incineration Ash In Tochigi

Russia Stunned After Japanese Plan to Evacuate 40 Million Revealed

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– Russia Stunned After Japanese Plan to Evacuate 40 Million Revealed (rsn/European Union Times, April 18, 2012):

A new report circulating in the Kremlin today prepared by the Foreign Ministry on the planned re-opening of talks with Japan over the disputed Kuril Islands during the next fortnight states that Russian diplomats were “stunned” after being told by their Japanese counterparts that upwards of 40 million of their peoples were in “extreme danger” of life threatening radiation poisoning and could very well likely be faced with forced evacuations away from their countries eastern most located cities… including the world’s largest one, Tokyo.

Read moreRussia Stunned After Japanese Plan to Evacuate 40 Million Revealed

Japan’s Other 14 Reactors In ‘Severely’ Damaged Condition (Video)

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– Fukushima Report Introduced by Top Official Hosono: “Other reactors are all in considerably severe condition” — 14 total; Dai-ni, Onagawa, Tokai — “Extreme situations, though not much has been broadcast” (VIDEO) (ENENews, April 19, 2012)

 

Arnie Gunderson: More Cesium In Reactor 4 SFP Than All Nukes Ever Exploded

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– Gundersen: As much cesium in No. 4 fuel pool as in all 800 atomic bombs ever dropped — Fukushima would be at one place, at one time, and on ground level (AUDIO, 30 min.):

Title: Arnie Gundersen Interview
Source: WBAI’s Five O’Clock Shadow
Date: Tuesday April 17, 2012 5:00pm

At 25:45 in

There’s enough fuel in that pool, that it’s almost as much cesium as in all of the atom bombs that were ever dropped into the atmosphere, 800 bombs were dropped into the atmosphere, well there’s as much cesium in that one pool as in those bombs.

It could very easily cut Japan in half […]

Prof. Yukio Hayakawa Measures Radiation Levels In Abiko City And Kashiwa City In Chiba

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– Professor Yukio Hayakawa Takes a “Radioactive Walk” In Abiko City and Kashiwa City in Chiba (EX-SKF, April 19, 2012):

The Gunma University professor took a walk in part of Abiko City and Kashiwa City, in the so-called “Tokatsu area” in the northwest corner of Chiba Prefecture with elevated radiation levels.

He says there is a statistically significant difference between the radiation levels on the ground levels and the levels at 1 meter off the ground, with the levels at 1 meter off the ground 20 to 30% less than at the ground levels.

The radiation levels of “black dust” he found along the way (in microsievert/hour):

2.676
3.767
2.489
1.556

Professor Hayakawa’s walk from Abiko City to Kashiwa-no-ha in Kashiwa City on April 16, 2012:

???-???

EveryTrail – Find hiking trails in California and beyond

Unbelievable: Only 26 % Of People In Japan Concerned About Food Safety

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“If you don’t educate yourself now and fast, you’ll die.”
– Prof. Hayakawa of Gunma University

–  Only 26 % of People in Japan More Concerned about Food Safety after Disasters (Fukushima Diary, April 20, 2012):

Tokyo, April 20 (Jiji Press)–Only 26.1 pct of people in Japan are more worried about food safety after last year’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, a Cabinet Office survey showed Friday.

According to the survey, 55.8 pct said their dietary habits have not changed since the disasters, signaling that people do not think securing food safety is more challenging than before.

Among men, 17.6 pct said they are more concerned about food safety. The figure among women was 33.0 pct.

Read moreUnbelievable: Only 26 % Of People In Japan Concerned About Food Safety

‘The Chernobyl Zone Is A Population Sink, Or An Ecological Trap’ For Birds, Says Biologist Tim Mousseau, Expects Fukushima To Be Even Worse

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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A year after Fukushima, the government has asked residents to bury radiated soil in their own backyards. But how dangerous is the dirt and where should it go? NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel reports.

– Fewer female birds after Chernobyl, study finds; same true at Fukushima? (MSNBC, April 19, 2012):

Scientists are focusing on Japan’s Fukushima area after a study published this week found an alarming development at another nuclear disaster site — Chernobyl.

The proportion of female birds has fallen off since the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl, the study found, and that appears to be causing male birds to increase their chirping in efforts to find a mate.

“The Chernobyl zone is a population sink, or an ecological trap, that brings in new birds each year but these birds suffer lower survival,” co-author Tim Mousseau, a University of South Carolina biologist, told msnbc.com.

“In other words,” he said, “the Chernobyl zone is not an eden for wildlife” as some have claimed.

Mousseau, who’s leading a team along with Anders Pape Moller of the University of Paris-Sud, is now in the Fukushima area preparing to test birds there for radioactivity from the nuclear reactors hit by the tsunami after the March 11, 2011, earthquake.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

NBC’s Richard Engel visits the exclusion zone surrounding Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

“We will be placing small dosimeters on birds and measuring body content of radionuclides,” he said. That will also be done this summer around Ukraine’s Chernobyl area, where earlier testing focused on counting birds.

For the Chernobyl study “we collected 1,080 birds using mist nets in forested areas that were highly contaminated but also in areas that were effectively ‘clean’ and sites in between,” Mousseau explained.

“In the more contaminated areas, most birds were yearlings, suggesting that survival rates were significantly lower in these areas than in clean ones.”

Read more‘The Chernobyl Zone Is A Population Sink, Or An Ecological Trap’ For Birds, Says Biologist Tim Mousseau, Expects Fukushima To Be Even Worse

Prototype Wind Turbine Condenses 1,000 Liters Of Water A Day From Desert Air

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– Prototype Wind Turbine Condenses 1,000 Liters of Water a Day from Desert Air (Geek, April 18, 2012):

If you live in or travel through a desert region, having access to clean water is always going to be an issue. If you can’t carry enough for your journey, you have to ensure your route allows for a few water bottle refills. But the lack of water in deserts and other arid locations may soon be a thing of the past if a new wind turbine system is implemented on a large scale.

Marc Parent, founder of Eole Water, realized that he could extract water from the air after noticing how much water an air conditioner unit collected. He decided to combine a green energy source with the necessary components for condensing water directly from the air. The end result after 10 years of R&D is the WMS1000 wind turbine, capable of condensing and storing up to 1,000 liters of water every day.

The 34 meter tall turbine requires 15mph winds for its 13 meter diameter rotor to turn and generate sufficient energy. It then produces 30kW of power for the system to function. Air is drawn in through vents in the nose of the turbine and a generator heats it producing steam. That steam is then fed through a cooling compressor to form moisture that gets condensed into water. The resulting liquid is piped into a storage tank at the base of the turbine after being purified.

As long as an area meets the wind speed requirements this is a completely self contained system. It effectively allows mass water storage in some of the most arid places on earth.

Read morePrototype Wind Turbine Condenses 1,000 Liters Of Water A Day From Desert Air

Radioactive Whales!

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Flashback:

– Prof. Yury Bandazhevsky: Over 50 Bq/Kg In Humans Leads To Irreversible Lesions In Vital Organs – CRIMINAL WHO And IAEA EXPOSED (Video)

– Irradiated whales (Fukushima Diary, April 17, 2012):

Whales are contaminated.

From the results of the inspection on radioactivity materials in fisheries products by Fisheries Agency, they constantly measure cesium from whales .

  • 15 May,2011 Minke whale 31Bq/kg
  • 2 June,2011 Minke whale 24.3Bq/kg
  • 25 September,2011 Minke whale 17.6Bq/kg
  • 2 October,2011 Minke whale 12.5Bq/kg
  • 12 October,2011 Minke whale 5.4Bq/kg
  • 24 October,2011 Minke whale 21.6Bq/kg
  • 10-Jul?Minke whale?21.1Bq/kg
  • 7-Jul?Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera brydei)?7.1Bq/kg
  • 31-Jul?Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera brydei)?6.5Bq/kg

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