Excerpt: "Tepco, as the utility is known, and the government announced that the Fukushima plant reached a cold shutdown on Dec. 16, nine months after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami wrecked the nuclear station, and caused three reactors to meltdown and release radiation. 'It was too early to say the plant is safe in December. They declared cold shutdown even though nobody is sure about the location of melted fuel,' Tetsuo Ito, the head of the Atomic Energy Research Institute at Kinki University in western Japan. 'A similar incident will probably occur again.'"
A handout photograph shows the Unit 2 reactor building at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (Tepco) Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station in Fukushima, Japan. (photo: Bloomberg News)
Nuclear Reaction Threat as Fukushima Plant Temperature Rises
07 February 12
okyo Electric Power Co. injected boric acid into a reactor at its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to prevent an accidental chain reaction known as re- criticality after temperatures rose in the past week.
The temperature of the No. 2 reactor was 70.1 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit) as of 6 a.m. today, according to preliminary data, Akitsuka Kobayashi, a spokesman for the utility, said by phone. The reading fell from 72.2 degrees at 5 a.m. this morning, and is below the 93 degrees that's used to define a cold shutdown, or safe state, of the reactor.
Since Feb. 1, temperatures at the bottom of the No. 2 reactor vessel have risen by more than 20 degrees Celsius, according to the company's data. Tepco, as the utility is known, and the government announced that the Fukushima plant reached a cold shutdown on Dec. 16, nine months after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami wrecked the nuclear station, and caused three reactors to meltdown and release radiation.
"It was too early to say the plant is safe in December. They declared cold shutdown even though nobody is sure about the location of melted fuel," Tetsuo Ito, the head of the Atomic Energy Research Institute at Kinki University in western Japan. "A similar incident will probably occur again."
Tepco increased the rate of cooling water being injected into the unit to 13.5 cubic meters per hour from 10.5 cubic meters per hour at 4:24 a.m. today, it said. A cold shutdown describes a reactor's cooling system operating at atmospheric pressure and below 93 degrees Celsius, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Dilemma
"Tepco is in a dilemma," Ito said. As Tepco maintains water injection at a high rate, more radioactive water will be accumulated in the basements of plant buildings, he said.
About 95,000 cubic meters, which is enough to fill 38 Olympic-sized swimming pools, of highly radioactive water may still be in the basements, even after the company has processed more than 220,000 cubic meters of contaminated water, according to Tepco's latest estimate on Feb. 1.
Tepco replaced coolant piping on Jan. 26 to improve reliability of equipment following water leaks caused by freezing temperatures, Taichi Okazaki, a spokesman for the utility, said by phone today. This may have led to insufficient cooling water reaching inside the reactor, according to Tepco. Water Leaks
Water Leaks
Tepco found a total of 28 water leaks between Jan. 28 and Feb. 3, according to the utility. The average temperature in Namie town near the wrecked plant in January was 0.5 degrees Celsius, compared with the 2.1 degrees Celsius January average between 1981 and 2010, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency's data.
No traces of xenon 135, which is associated with nuclear fission, were found when Tepco conducted a gas sampling of the reactor yesterday, the company said in an e-mailed statement.
In November, Tepco said it detected xenon, signs of nuclear fission, in gases taken from the No. 2 reactor, raising concerns that radiation emissions may increase. Tepco later announced the xenon was caused by "natural" nuclear fission and the plant isn't in a critical state.
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Fukushima is a terrible ongoing disaster. There is no need to trivialize it with tabloid headlines.
They can't find the fuel. There is absolutely/positively NOTHING routine about this situation, whatsoever. It is an ongoing 3-Reactors + 6-Fuel Pools Chernobyl-like (Chernobyl was 1-Reactor, 0-Fuel Pools) ONGOING nuclear energy disaster and environmental/human holocaust. Here's what 1 Reactor disaster has caused the world…so far (the released radioactive elements from Chernobyl are STILL decaying in the environment, some for another millennia or so:)
"The book [Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment, NY Academy of Sciences] presents an analysis of scientific literature and concludes that medical records between '86, the year of the Chernobyl disaster, and '04 reflect 985,000 premature deaths as a result of the radioactivity released. The authors suggest that most of the deaths were in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, though others occurred worldwide throughout the many countries that were struck by radioactive fallout from Chernobyl." Wikipedia
And most people are running around outdoors in North America like everything's fine when it most definitely is NOT.
Well, I'm not. I rarely go outside; and, when I do, I wear a face mask like EVERYONE should be doing, people thinking I'm "weird" be damned.
There have already been approximately 20,000 deaths from Fukushima in the U.S. alone, and in the next couple of years we're going to see cancer rates and deaths, and premature deaths from immune compromising diseases, and common ailments like cold and flu viral infections, skyrocket as they've already begun to do. There are going to be millions of deaths because almost no one is taking any precautions.
I would like to know more about this mask you wear that protects your entire body from radiation.
Sorry again, but the claim of "20,000 deaths from Fukushima in the US" is entirely and completely bogus.
Once again, there are more than enough excellent reasons to oppose nuc power without inventing hysterical ones.
Inhaling large alpha particles, and some beta, into the lung tissues is quite DNA damaging (ie cancer causing,) and can often be mitigated with HEPA masks. Ggle it. Similarly, stay out of the rain as the jet stream particles get attached to the falling heavy water molecules, causing more radionuclides to subsequently reach the ground accordingly. Gamma radionuclides penetrate the skin, and most surfaces, so it's a SOL situation there.
Second, last I read, it was 14,000 combined deaths worldwide, mostly those with autoimmune deficiency/immaturity. Ggle it.
So you think Emil is wearing an appropriate mask?
So are you protecting yourself from Thorium and Radium daughter products in your own home?
Don't know about Emil's mask. Asking him about that would be more appropriate I would imagine.
You mean like, staying out in the sun for prolonged periods of time during peak radiation hours, in order to decrease one's risk in skin cancer, kinda thing? Yep, we mitigate all kinds of radiation exposures due to their cumulative risks to DNA damage (ie cancer risks.) Just read a recommend by Dr. Oz to use the separate throat guards when getting dental or breast exam X-rays. Can you imagine a for-profit doctor trying to mitigate radiation exposure risk. Who'd a thunk it!
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