The Brazil Syndrome

[prole]

 

Stiiiill going....

 

Massive New Radiation Releases Possible from Fukushima … Especially If Melted Core Materials Hit Water

 

By Washington’s Blog

 

 

Governments Underreported Severity of Fukushima

 

As I’ve noted for 6 months, the Japanese and U.S. governments have continually under-reported the severity of the nuclear crisis at Fukushima.

 

The Wall Street Journal points out:

 

The Japanese government initially underestimated radiation releases from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, in part because of untimely rain, and so exposed people unnecessarily, a report released this week by a government research institute says.

 

PhysOrg writes:

 

The amount of radiation released during the Fukushima nuclear disaster was so great that the level of atmospheric radioactive aerosols in Washington state was 10,000 to 100,000 times greater than normal levels in the week following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the disaster.

 

***

 

[A] study [by University of Texas engineering professor Steven Biegalski and researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory] reports that more radioxenon was released from the Fukushima facilities than in the 1979 meltdown at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania and in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine.

 

Biegalski said the reason for the large release in Fukushima, when compared to the others, is that there were three nuclear reactors at the Japan facilities rather than just one.

 

Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen notes:

 

New TEPCO data measured on August 19 & 20 shows severe damage to the spent fuel in Fukushima Daiichi Units 1, 2, and 3…. This TEPCO data clearly contradicts and refutes the July assertion by the NRC the Fukushima Daiichi spent fuel pools were not damaged in this tragic accident.

 

There are also several unconfirmed reports that the Japanese government is trying to keep people from buying geiger counters to measure radiation.

New, Large Radiation Releases Are Possible

 

Mainichi Dailly News notes:

 

As a radiation meteorology and nuclear safety expert at Kyoto University’s Research Reactor Institute, Hiroaki Koide [says]:

 

The nuclear disaster is ongoing.

 

***

 

At present, I believe that there is a possibility that massive amounts of radioactive materials will be released into the environment again.

 

At the No. 1 reactor, there’s a chance that melted fuel has burned through the bottom of the pressure vessel, the containment vessel and the floor of the reactor building, and has sunk into the ground. From there, radioactive materials may be seeping into the ocean and groundwater.

 

***

 

The government and plant operator TEPCO are trumpeting the operation of the circulation cooling system, as if it marks a successful resolution to the disaster. However, radiation continues to leak from the reactors. The longer the circulation cooling system keeps running, the more radioactive waste it will accumulate. It isn’t really leading us in the direction we need to go.

 

It’s doubtful that there’s even a need to keep pouring water into the No.1 reactor, where nuclear fuel is suspected to have burned through the pressure vessel. Meanwhile, it is necessary to keep cooling the No. 2 and 3 reactors, which are believed to still contain some fuel, but the cooling system itself is unstable. If the fuel were to become overheated again and melt, coming into contact with water and trigger a steam explosion, more radioactive materials will be released.

 

***

 

We are now head to head with a situation that mankind has never faced before.

 

Mainichi also reports:

 

The Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) and residents of the zone between 20 and 30 kilometers from the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant held an emergency evacuation drill on Sept. 12 … in preparation for any further large-scale emission of radioactive materials from the plant.

 

***

 

The scenario for the drill presupposed further meltdown of the Fukushima plant’s No. 3 reactor core, and a local accumulation of radioactive materials emitting 20 millisieverts of radiation within the next four days. …

 

And nuclear expert Paul Gunter says that we face a “China Syndrome”, where the fuel from the reactor cores at Fukushima have melted through the container vessels, into the ground, and are hitting groundwater and creating highly-radioactive steam. from here.

[JosephH]

No real news there - it will likely take the better part of a decade to get the situation under any semblance of 'control'...

[prole]

No real news there...

 

The news is that it's being criminally under-reported and exists mainly outside the mainstream consciousness.

[JosephH]

Japan is inhabited by the Japanese whose cultural predilections for 'under-reporting' are legendary and have not really changed a shred from feudal times. That's just one of a few places where a cultural and technology mix doesn't work out so well compared to, say, making cars and electronics.

[ivan]

sounds like japan's (and brazil's) problem?

[rob]

Japan is inhabited by the Japanese whose cultural predilections for 'under-reporting' are legendary and have not really changed a shred from feudal times.

 

[G-spotter]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903285704576562370929380678.html

 

On Friday, Mr. Hachiro described parts of Fukushima as a "city of death," after visiting the quake-hit prefecture that is at the center of Japan's worst nuclear accident. The remark was one of several comments that attracted sharp criticism for their inappropriate nature.

[tvashtarkatena]

What part of Fuk-u don't you guys understand?

[Hugh Conway]

Japan is inhabited by the Japanese whose cultural predilections for 'under-reporting' are legendary and have not really changed a shred from feudal times.

 

 

It's true. They invented the used schoolgirl panty vending machine before gunpowder

[JosephH]

There was a USA-host family program over the summer where Japanese-American families took in mothers and children from affected areas around Fukushima to allow the children to be outside for the summer.

 

Friends of mine here in PDX were a host family and I had the chance to meet their visiting mother and two children and take the older daughter climbing at PRG. They've gone back home now, but the issue is they had just bought their property and built their 'dream house' and their extended family are all orchardists in the area. The mother is encountering stiff resistance from her husband and extended family to the idea of abandoning their life there for the children's sake.

 

The whole clan has been on the land their forever and because the radiation can't be seen the older and more influential members of the clan think it's not so bad a problem, or that it will get better with time, or are in other forms of denial from being so tied to the land and their family history there.

 

There is also the issue of a great deal of prejudice in Japan against those from affected areas around Fukushima such that on their way to the US the mother had to try and keep their origin a secret while traveling from Fukushima to Tokyo and while boarding the flight for fear of people's responses. Pretty ugly.

 

Overall the young mother is in a real bind with both she and the US host family here trying to convince her husband and extended family that they need to abandon all they have ever known and try to resettle in some other part of Japan and attempt to overcome both the financial hardships and prejudices that would come with such a decision.

[kevbone]

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6l7hPL6ASg&feature=related

[ivan]

sounds like a continuance of the tradition of fearing and ostracizing hiroshima and nagasaki survivors.

 

gotta feel bad for the japanese - nuke power makes sense for them, but the price of a single fuck-up is steeeeep.

[G-spotter]

Mmmm, heading down all the way to Brazil?