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Fukushima - New developments going unpublicized?
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| EarnYourKeep |
I have a lot of travel plans coming up, specifically Japan. I'm reading unnerving articles on the net that to me, speak a lot of volume on developments going on within JP. I'm not a nuclear scientist, but reading this both speaks truth and reason. I'm not one to believe everything typed online or in the media, but I'm smart enough to be skeptical.
I'm not asking people for a debate on who is wrong or what is right, I'm seeking first hand experiences if you or any of your friends who've traveled that way, what the sense of expression is regarding these new developments.
My interpretation is, if Fukushima gets ed up from a typhoon, let's say Man-Yi who just flooded Fukuchiyama in Kyoto Prefecture, not only will cores melt and radiation plumes will wade into the atmosphere, but we're talking 10x chernobyl both Air, Land, and Sea.
In before all Godzilla jokes...
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As the escape of radiation at Fukushima seems virtually unstoppable, there are still steps that governments all over the world should take to prevent worst case consequences. One of them would be canceling the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Scientific estimates predict that the radioactive plume travelling east across the Pacific will likely hit the shores of Oregon, Washington State and Canada early next year. California will probably be impacted later that year. Because the ongoing flow of water from the reactor site will be virtually impossible to stop, a radioactive plume will continue to migrate across the Pacific affecting Hawaii, North America, South America and eventually Australia for many decades.
We are only talking about ocean currents, however, fish swim thousands of miles and don’t necessarily follow the currents. As noted in Part I, big fish concentrate radiation most efficiently, and tuna have already been caught off the coast of California containing cesium from Fukushima. Seaweed also efficiently concentrates radioactive elements.
As I contemplate the future at Fukushima, it seems that the escape of radiation is virtually unstoppable. The levels of radiation in buildings 1, 2 and 3 are now so high that no human can enter or get close to the molten cores. It will therefore be impossible to remove these cores for hundreds of years if ever.
Buildings 1, 2 & 3
If one of these buildings collapses, the targeted flow of cooling water to the pools and cores would cease, the cores would become red hot and possibly ignite releasing massive amounts of radiation into the air and water and the fuel in the cooling pools could ignite. It is strange that neither the US government in particular nor the global community seem to be concerned about these imminent possibilities and exhibit no urge to avert catastrophe.
Similarly the global media is strangely disconnected with the ongoing crisis. Most importantly, the Japanese government until very recently has obstinately refused to invite and collaborate with foreign experts from nuclear engineering companies and/or governments.
Building 4
This structure was severely damaged during the initial quake, its walls are bulging, and it sank 31 inches (79cm) into the ground. On the roof sits a cooling pool containing about 250 tons of hot fuel rods, most of which had just been removed from the reactor core days before the earthquake struck. This particular core did not melt because TEPCO was able maintain a continuous flow of cooling water, so the rods and their holding racks are still intact, but geometrically deformed due to the force of the hydrogen explosion.
The cooling pool contains 8,800 pounds of plutonium plus over 100 other highly radioactive isotopes. Instead of this core melting into a larval mass like the other three cores, it sits exposed to the air atop the shaky building. A large earthquake could disrupt the integrity of the building, causing it to collapse and taking the hot fuel rods with it. The cooling water would evaporate and the intrinsic heat of the radioactive rods would ignite a fire as the zirconium cladding reacted with air, releasing the radioactive equivalent of 14,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs and 10 times more cesium than Chernobyl.
Not only would the Northern Hemisphere become badly contaminated, but the Japanese government is seriously contemplating evacuating 35 million people from Tokyo should this happen. TEPCO has constructed a steel frame to strengthen the shaky building in order to place a massive crane on the roof so they can extract the hot rods by remote control. This operation is always performed by computer and a remote manually-controlled extraction has never been attempted before. If the rods are deformed, a rod could fracture releasing so much radiation that the workers would have to evacuate or, should they touch each other, a chain reaction could release huge amounts of radiation.
I defer to Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer in whom I have great faith. He says that a 2-meter thick zeolite wall should be constructed some distance from the reactors on the mountainside, which would effectively absorb the cesium from the water surrounding the reactor cores so it could not get out and further pollute the pure water descending from the mountain. At the same time, channels must be constructed to pump and divert the unpolluted mountain water into the sea. Then the three molten cores and their associated buildings could be immersed in concrete as the Soviets did at Chernobyl, and the situation could possibly be neutralized for about 100 years. What our poor descendants will then decide to do with this radioactive rubbish dump is beyond my comprehension.
However, as one Japanese official said, “If we just buried them no one would look at another nuclear plant for years.” An interesting reaction, so it is perfectly obvious that despite the calamity, they still want to pursue the nuclear option.
North America and Canada the EPA should immediately start monitoring the fish routinely caught off the west coast and it must also, as a matter of urgency, establish many effective airborne monitors up and down the west coast and across the US continent, so that if there is another large release of radiation it will be effectively measured and the information rapidly passed on to the public. The same holds true for Canada.
The US and Canadian governments must forthwith ban imported food from Japan, unless each batch is monitored for contamination, and the food grown in the US and Canada needs to be effectively monitored pending another major accident. The US has allowed food measuring up to 1,200 Becquerels per kilo to be sold in the US from Japan, while the Japanese allowable concentration for food is only 100 Becquerels per kilo. What does the US government think it is doing purposely exposing people to radioactive food? This situation must be urgently amended.
read more here - http://rt.com/op-edge/fukushima-cat...r-olympics-883/
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| EarnYourKeep |
| i guess no one really cares if the rods melt/building implodes, large clouds of radiation is let into the sky and if drifts over to the west coast? |
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| _Ocean_Drive_ |
I care. Deeply.
I lived north of there (Iwate) for 3 years. My friends are without houses, whilst the government is fritting away billions on the Olympics.
To cut a long complicated story short, TEPCO and execs have been lying to the public from Day One. Every single one of those useless s should be in jail for the rest of their lives.
Whatever you've read, worsen it in your mind by at least 1,000 times, and that's the scene.
A ty state of affairs where stupid pride and saving of face has meant a reluctance to seek outside help.
Tokyo is safe from Fukushima, but is also long overdue for 'the big one'. |
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| EarnYourKeep |
Not only for personal curiosities, but would you feel like it's safe to travel to that region within the next 6 months?
I have a lot of mixed emotions about taking this trip on, specifically exposing myself knowingly. My concerns are, I'm out there for snow and well, if there's radiation in the atmosphere there certainly will be within the snow.
I'm also thinking on the verge of precautions, as if this does unfold dramatically, say within the next 6 months to a year, would this be more of an 'opportunity' to see it before things get worse.
I want to see TEPCO concede and seek some serious international help. I think it's in the best interest of the world to be honest. |
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| _Ocean_Drive_ |
| quote: | Originally posted by EarnYourKeep
Not only for personal curiosities, but would you feel like it's safe to travel to that region within the next 6 months?
I have a lot of mixed emotions about taking this trip on, specifically exposing myself knowingly. My concerns are, I'm out there for snow and well, if there's radiation in the atmosphere there certainly will be within the snow.
I'm also thinking on the verge of precautions, as if this does unfold dramatically, say within the next 6 months to a year, would this be more of an 'opportunity' to see it before things get worse.
I want to see TEPCO concede and seek some serious international help. I think it's in the best interest of the world to be honest. |
If you wanna go skiing, go up to Niseko in Hokkaido. Or Hakuba in Nagano. |
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| itsamemario |
| quote: | Originally posted by EarnYourKeep
Not only for personal curiosities, but would you feel like it's safe to travel to that region within the next 6 months?
I have a lot of mixed emotions about taking this trip on, specifically exposing myself knowingly. My concerns are, I'm out there for snow and well, if there's radiation in the atmosphere there certainly will be within the snow.
I'm also thinking on the verge of precautions, as if this does unfold dramatically, say within the next 6 months to a year, would this be more of an 'opportunity' to see it before things get worse.
I want to see TEPCO concede and seek some serious international help. I think it's in the best interest of the world to be honest. |
You ski or snowboard? If you wanna hit the slopes you definitely should try out Norway, bra. Also great for X-country, and various other extreme-skiing activities. Went up to my cabin in the mountains with a mate and some dutch guys who'd never seen snow before, and took them up to the Jotunheimen plateau, which hosts 29 of our tallest mountains and 80 peaks above 2000 meters, which is but an hour drive away, so got to see a bit more than a few people kiting in a semi-storm which was heavy enough to blow the car into the side of the road while at a standstill :P
And all snow but the yellow is edible, so it's all good safety-wise, like that. And you know the afterski at Beitostølen is like being transported into an 80s feel good movie where you just saved the rec center, and how can you go wrong with that? You HAVE seen norwegian girls right? :P
This is what Norway is all about :
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| FuzzQi |
| Godzilla will become true |
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| Jon_Snow |
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| EarnYourKeep |
| quote: | Originally posted by _Ocean_Drive_
If you wanna go skiing, go up to Niseko in Hokkaido. Or Hakuba in Nagano. |
I'll be in Hokkaido and Rusutsu, some time in tokyo on the return.
I'm concerned like anyone else, radiation in the ocean could still come out as precipitation up in the mountains especially with the water current maps Germany has predicted. It looks majority traveling north and well...Hokkaido and Rusutsu is mainly north of everything.
I guess I'll monitor more closely as the date sets, if it maintains stability at the plant then I'll go a head with my plans but if it takes another devasting blow I'll just cancel all together.
It has me worried, don't know why people aren't talking about it more it could seriously up the northern hemisphere if not the whole world. |
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| EarnYourKeep |
| quote: | Originally posted by itsamemario
You ski or snowboard? If you wanna hit the slopes you definitely should try out Norway, bra. Also great for X-country, and various other extreme-skiing activities. Went up to my cabin in the mountains with a mate and some dutch guys who'd never seen snow before, and took them up to the Jotunheimen plateau, which hosts 29 of our tallest mountains and 80 peaks above 2000 meters, which is but an hour drive away, so got to see a bit more than a few people kiting in a semi-storm which was heavy enough to blow the car into the side of the road while at a standstill :P
And all snow but the yellow is edible, so it's all good safety-wise, like that. And you know the afterski at Beitostølen is like being transported into an 80s feel good movie where you just saved the rec center, and how can you go wrong with that? You HAVE seen norwegian girls right? :P
This is what Norway is all about :
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i've snowboarded for almost 16 years..mainly in the US and CA. I've hit a lot of mountains in my time, still plan on doing so. I'll make my way to EU, the only problem with EU for me is if I'm hopping a pond I'd want to only do it for a beach vacation and not lugging around my board bag and all my winter gear. So I only really do Ibiza, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Berlin for partying, bombing, and beaching. |
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| pkcRAISTLIN |
| quote: | Originally posted by EarnYourKeep
it could seriously up the northern hemisphere if not the whole world. |
:stongue: :stongue: |
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| EarnYourKeep |
going on right now...
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