Ken Belson and Hiroko Tabuchi report: "Compounding the matter, the government said Tuesday that the recent discovery of plutonium in the soil at the plant provided new evidence that at least one reactor was experiencing melting of its nuclear fuel, as happened in the early days of the crisis."
A dairy farmer empties raw milk onto his pasture in the city of Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture. Radiation above the legal limit has been detected in raw milk in the area close to the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 03/27/11. (photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images)
Confidence Slips Away as Japan Battles Nuclear Peril
30 March 11
After workers switched on the first set of control room lights at Japan's crippled power plant in Fukushima last week, the Japanese government offered its strongest assurances yet that its nuclear crisis was close to being under control.
Heroic workers and firefighters continued to cool the volatile reactors by pumping in hundreds of tons of water a day. Much-awaited electricity had reached the plant after a rush to extend new power lines, ready to hook up to vital cooling systems and guide the plant to a long-term "cold shutdown."
But less than a week later, a deluge of contaminated water, plutonium traces in the soil and an increasingly hazardous environment for workers at the plant have forced government officials to confront the reality that the emergency measures they have taken to keep nuclear fuel cool are producing increasingly dangerous side effects. And the prospect of restoring automatic cooling systems anytime soon is fading.
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One can't seal up something that produces heat. In this case, virtually unlimited amounts of heat. The model for concrete entombment is Chernobyl, and it was many years before the concrete could be installed.
Chernobyl raises another point. It was less than 1/10 of this mess, and it KILLED 6,000 children already.
This crisis is still worsening day by day, and is killing those most deeply involved in providing the solution. Radiation has already crossed the USA.
If you think you have a solution, you're not close enough to understand what's wrong with it.
USA is saying that the radioactive particles coming here and Hawaii is low...well, when it continues to build up it is harmful.
Has anyone thought about those on Cruises? No one speaks of Orient or Alaska/Canada. It is like they do not count but I believe we should think about buying products from them in future. Reality.
No one is speaking about the water going into Ocean, paritices, or smoke. Where is these Organizations who want yur money monthly and the facts or at least the beginning of facts. where is the data? Now storms coming accross USA which means current in Ocean out west is carrying that Nuclear waste with it.
there is no dilation of Nuclear Waste, their is consequences. What they must do for 5 years is small compared to the contamination coming from Japan Now and Thereafter.
RSN where is the data? No more nonsense abut dilution in USA. Hawaii is in a hit area for all currents and wind. Facts do not cause Panic, Facts help us make awareness of how to keep ourselves and our children safe. I must read articles of words...want facts to live by.
So you want facts? They're out there! Here's a lot of info from a person who knows from experience at Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl:
http://vimeo.com/21731200
A series of videos - please sample.
With all the 'one world' existing reactors and all those that will be coming into existence in the years ahead, I think it's about time for someone at the U.N. to learn how to spell w-a-t-c-h-d-o-g.
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