19 March 2011

today in nukequake — UPDATING AND UPDATING AND UPDATING

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Radiation was detected in water in Tokyo and the prefectures of Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba and Niigata.
Japan has confirmed the presence of radioactive iodine contamination in food products from near a crippled nuclear plant and is considering whether to order a halt to the sale of such products from the area, the U.N. nuclear body said on Saturday.

"Though radioactive iodine has a short half-life of about 8 days and decays naturally within a matter of weeks, there is a short-term risk to human health if radioactive iodine in food is absorbed into the human body," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement.
They are saying "tap water". Are the crops irrigated with "tap water"? Is the groundwater being irradiated by the meltdowns at Daiichi?

And neither are they mentioning the other isotopes bound to be there.

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Still talking repair and not Chernobyl Option....

I try to think how the damage assessments as linked at the image can be genuine, when I am unsure how they can make the statements about the primary containment vessels at all. Seems they have have managed to get power to Daiichi at last, but how could enough monitoring equipment there be functional enough to tell them this stuff? It seems to me the only indicators they can go off are their eyeballs. If they can see the tops of the containment vessels, WHAT does that really tell them? The entire bottoms of them could have melted away and the fuel be burning its way down, and HOW could they tell until samples of groundwater start showing evidence of certain isotopes?

I mean, that's the deal: The fuel is so heavy it goes DOWN, not up. A "meltdown" doesn't mean the entire containment turns into a molten blob, just the fuel rods do that... and anything in their way as they try to obey gravity.

ARE these fuckers going to wait for the groundwater to turn so radioactive that no one in that aquifer will be left alive? That's TOTALLY the BP model. So don't call me a doomsayer.

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And that IS the best course as far as sociopathic bean counters would be concerned.

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It has just occurred to me that the sense in the seemingly-obtusely-ridiculous hosing of the reactors bit they have been doing every day is precisely to help the tops of the reactors not melt... and nothing more... and that would mean that eventually, sooner or later, I haven't a clue when, the hosing and/or restoration of cooling systems of some description, will cease to be necessary. The fuel will be far enough down to just leave whatever's up top as radioactive as it is now, but not any hotter. Don't get me wrong. I'm not basing this on any expertise whatsoever. It just seems logical and explains, in some way, the otherwise-inexplicable hosing that can't POSSIBLY be raising cooling pond water levels more than a millionth of an inch for a split second.... I mean, aside from the part about them not being there anymore to fill with anything....

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BTW... It seems radiation levels in Denver are definitely rising, whereas other places are also higher, but not so markedly. They were higher than everywhere else yesterday, but still below 60 and they seem to be rising more every time I check this map. Could it be that most of the radiation cloud is still up higher than most of us? Denver is at 5280 feet above sea level. That could explain why they seem to be leaving the normal zone and headed for the alarm zone faster.

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EXCUSE ME, BUT...

Would someone please let me know if I should go postal now? That screenshot was taken from HERE and aside from it also not mentioning alpha radiation, some of those gamma readings have given me appendicitis.

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QUOTH THE EPA...

These levels are thousands of times below any conservative level of concern.

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? If you do, maybe you can find better radiation plume maps on this site and give me the links...?

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BONK, BONK, BONK...

I just realized that I read somewhere days ago that it would take a week or eight days for the radiation to hit California. The worst radiation releases will not have hit yet....

[Underlying message: Freak some more now....]

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YOIKZOOKS...
I don't know the law in Japan, so I can't tell you if Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) can plead insanity to the homicides about to happen.
Gotta love Palast's attitude....

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THEY ARE VENTING RADIATION FROM #3 AGAIN RIGHT NOW...
Technicians prepared to vent radioactive gas into the air Sunday because of a new spike in pressure at Japan's crippled, leaking nuclear complex....

While four of Fukushima's six nuclear reactors have been dangerously overheating since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disrupted cooling systems, Unit 3 has proved particularly troublesome.

After the government said Saturday that the unit appeared to be stabilizing after being doused with water, nuclear safety officials said the efforts may not have worked. Pressure was rising again inside the reactor's containment vessel, requiring a release of radioactive gas to prevent a more dangerous buildup, said safety agency official Hidehiko Nishiyama.

The venting is an "unavoidable measure to protect the containment vessel," Nishiyama said. He warned that a larger amount of radiation would have to be released than when similar venting was done a week ago because more nuclear fuel have have degraded since then.

While battling Unit 3, emergency teams used an unmanned vehicle to spray water at another at-risk reactor — Unit 4 — while preparing to switch power back on for the first time since a March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant's crucial cooling systems.

However, there was no guarantee the cooling systems would still work, even once power was restored.
This means I will need to be fortifying myself for another mad dash down the tubes tonight. It's 11pm PDT right now. I was just thinking how I'm actually feeling sleepy....

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CONFIRMED... OR... NOT...

I mean, try to make sense of this for me please:
The operation for filling the spent fuel pool with water at Unit 4 started around 08:20 today. Through this operation 80 tons of water was sprayed till 09:30 by Japan Self-Defense Forces with 11 fire-extinguishing vehicles. Self-Defense Forces told that water reached the pool. The operation will resume afternoon by The Fire and Disaster Management Agency. There is immediate threat of radioactive nuclides release from the spent fuel pools of Unit 3 and 4, because of incapability of cooling these pools.
So is it an on purpose release of containment pressure or completely unmanageable [nonexistent] spent fuel pools? And WHY would they be scheduled to go back if there is an "incapability of cooling these pools"?

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TWO AYEM PDT SUNDAY ZOMBIE REPORTAGE...
The operator of Japan's overheating, leaking nuclear plant backed away Sunday from a tricky venting of radioactive gas from a troubled reactor as concerns grew about wider contamination of food and water.

After the cascading troubles at the Fukushima plant appeared to lessen Saturday, pressure inside the vessel holding the reactor of Unit 3 rose again Sunday, dealing a setback to the government and forcing officials to consider the dangerous venting. Nuclear safety officials said one of the options could release a cloud dense with iodine as well as the radioactive elements krypton and xenon.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., temporarily suspended the plans Sunday after the pressure inside the reactor stopped climbing, though it was at a relatively high level.

"It has stabilized," Tokyo Electric manager Hikaru Kuroda told reporters.
Bullshit.

If you think my journalistic style sucks, you have to admit it's a thousand times better than the PSYCHEDELIC wire pieces they're writing on this. I mean, I rip out as much of the obfuscating blather as possible in these snippets. And, now, after some years experience with the tricks of the trade, I can tell you that when the chips are down you are ONLY liable to find evidence of possible actuality way down near the bottom of the pieces. They are beginning to really jumble it in now, too. You have to really concentrate to see what they're trying to look like they're reporting, but not reporting.

With friends like this, who needs drugs?

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love, 99
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20 comments:

  1. Popeye's worst nightmare....

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  2. Working around a nuke plant, if there is an emergency, no problem, raise the limit for exposure and keep working!

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  3. They raised that radiation limit days ago... and the Japanese are just learning about it today???

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  4. I have a feeling they will continue to feign working on controlling the reactors until the meltdowns have killed everyone. The Chernobyl Option is unlovely and insanely expensive and continues to be insanely expensive. They must re-encase that shit every five or six years to keep the radiation down. It has to be kept up for millennia.... I think the Japanese, or rather the controllers, don't want to bother with that. I know that sounds outright psychotic, but that's what I think.

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  5. Kyodo News had, in their scrolling banner, that the water temperature in the spent fuel pool had been coming down...

    Reactor #6!

    What about #3 & 4?

    Fuck!
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  6. There's no water in those, and the containment has been breached anyway.

    No. Six was the LEAST affected so far. Five and Six were both offline when the quake hit.

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  7. I Know...

    That's why the news headline was such garbage!

    Designed to make you feel all cozy while ignoring the real story!

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  8. Are you going to help me with my wilderness home?

    I'm not kidding. I'm so not kidding about that.

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  9. Ha,

    Been out carpentering on the fence before the big blow tonight and tomorrow.

    They've backed off on the 70mph prediction, down to the 50's now, still enough to take down the portion of my fence that wasn't rebuilt several years ago. Had to put in a few braces at wobbly posts and better fasten a number of boards. It should make it through now.

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  10. I'm going to take that as a "no"....

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  11. Would someone please let me know if I should go postal now?

    Sacramento is somewhat lower than Eureka, San Francisco is Higher - but head east and the rates get even higher - some double the Eureka levels.

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  12. Well, of course, trying to check it at the EPA site makes it all seem so totally minuscule, subnormal even, but that's what we EXPECT them to say. Seems a number of people have been freaking about the same things I am and the guy at the Radiation Network doesn't seem rattled, so....? I keep clicking for the detail and keep getting an error message. Everyone is freaking about THAT too.

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  13. Also, higher elevations get higher readings because there is less insulation from cosmic rays the higher up you go. So normal for them is higher than for us lowland folk.

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  14. I notice, though, that the overall readings are up 5 or 10 units from yesterday....

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  15. OK - Let's think about this...

    "Water being sprayed on the facilities is helping lower the radioactivity level"

    That is the jist of the news reports throughout the paper and TV news propaganda this morning.

    WHERE THE HELL IS ALL THAT RADIOACTIVE WATER GOING????

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  16. Oh, I see now Phil beat me to that bit of news!

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  17. Yes, and I'm sure that they waited until we were all nuts over Japan and Libya to mention it.

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