Now its bottles at the supermarktet, or so they suggest could be a possibility. ----------------------- ------
Radioactive substance could be radium 226
The science ministry says the high radiation detected in a residential neighborhood in Tokyo is most likely caused by radium 226.
On Tuesday science ministry officials and experts dug up the ground beneath a supermarket parking lot and a nearby sidewalk in Setagaya Ward.
They detected substances related to radium 226 at a depth of about 30 centimeters.
The 2 spots had registered readings of high radioactivity, as much as 170 microsieverts per hour last month.
Radium is a product of decayed uranium and found in basalt and granite. In the past it was used for treating cancer, and as an ingredient in luminous paint used on the face of clocks and watches.
The ministry says that they also found a bottle of chemical at the same site, about 40 centimeters below surface, and detected radiation of 40 microsieverts per hour nearby. The ministry plans to investigate the link between the bottle and the radiation.
Radium 226 was also detected in a different residential area in the same ward recently and it was determined that the radiation had nothing to do with the nuclear disaster in Fukushima.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011 Setagaya, Tokyo's High Radiation Supermarket: It's Radium Again, Emitting 40 Millisieverts/Hr Radiation
According to the Ministry of Education and Science, a glass bottle was found 40 centimeters below the surface, which was emitting 40 millisievert/hour radiation. Radium-226 is suspected.
(How many more radium-226 bottles are there buried in Setagaya-ku?)
Regarding the high radiation detected inside the supermarket compound and in the vicinity in Hachimanyama in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, the Ministry of Education and Science announced on November 1 that the cause of the high radiation was likely to be "radium-226" buried in the soil.
At 40 centimeters below the ground surface, 40 millisieverts (or 40,000 microsievert) per hour radiation was measured, according to the Ministry. 40 millisievert is 40 times the annual radiation exposure limit [still 1 millisievert, though it is likely to change very soon] for the general public [not engaged in radiation work].
According to the Ministry of Education, there was a glass bottle at 40 centimeter below the surface, and the radiation on the spot was 40 millisieverts/hour. The radiation on the ground surface there was 1 millisievert/hour. The work is proceeding very cautiously because the radiation level is extremely high. The bottle will be removed on November 2 or after.
The Ministry and the Setagaya government have been saying "There is no effect on health". Really. (1 millisievert/hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and we would be talking the radiation exposure in sievert.) http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/...-high-radiation.html
Bet, before this is over they find that Fukushima is fine, and just a litter of bottles full of radium underneath the plant. /sarcasm
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07:55 PM
dennis_6 Member
Posts: 7196 From: between here and there Registered: Aug 2001
November 03, 2011 3:14 AM text size: TT Xenon at Fukushima Isn't From Critical Reaction, Tepco Says Story tools
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(Updates with Mainichi report in fourth paragraph.)
Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the No. 2 reactor at its destroyed Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear station isn't in a critical state after the company detected signs of nuclear fission.
The discovery of xenon, announced yesterday, at the plant was caused by “natural” nuclear fission, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the company known as Tepco, said today at a press briefing in Tokyo.
The occurrence of the gas, which is associated with nuclear fission, was confirmed yesterday by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. No increase in radiation was found at the site and the situation is under control, officials said.
Tepco may not be able to achieve its goal of stabilizing Fukushima by the end of this year, the Mainichi newspaper reported today, without citing anybody. The incident won't affect the schedule, Matsumoto said yesterday.
Eight months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami wrecked the station, causing a loss of cooling and the meltdowns of three reactors, Tepco is trying to prevent further leakage of radiation that has spread across the world.
Fissioning involves the splitting of atoms, which, in the case of certain uranium isotopes, can lead to an uncontrolled reaction and emittance of radiation.
Shares of Tepco declined 2.6 percent to close at 302 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange yesterday. Today is a public holiday in Japan. The shares have fallen 86 percent since the disaster.
Interesting video... it just sucks that back in those days, no one fully realized the effects that nuclear testing could have. Of course, by the 60s, we were pretty well aware. The only reason why Russia continued to do it well into the 90s was simply because they were economically broke, and that was because of Communism. Never the less, we did a lot of that stuff too during the 40s and 50s. I remember watching a lot of videos where we would nuke our old WW1 battleships. You'd see Navy and DoD people all standing on other more modern ships a mile or so away, and you'd see them wearing nothing but sunglasses as the after-shock blast would sweep through them.
They all assumed they were ok, but later realized they had major contamination. I saw some kind of documentary on this, and most of them developed extensive cancerous growths... like huge hands and stuff. They all died within like 10-15 years after... at least. Many of them sooner.
A good movie, K19 Widowmaker with Harrison Ford also shows the disregard that Russia had with nuclear fallout and danger.
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07:59 PM
dennis_6 Member
Posts: 7196 From: between here and there Registered: Aug 2001
This kind of brings doubt to the previous article i posted. ----------------------- Wednesday, November 2, 2011 Reactor 2 CV Gas Analysis on November 2: Slight Increase in Xe-131m, Xe-135, 100-Fold Increase in Krypton-85 from November 1
TEPCO disclosed the latest result of the analysis of the gas coming from the Containment Vessel of Reactor 2 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, along with the result of the analysis done on October 28, 2011 when the gas management system started operating in Reactor 2.
There was no xenon or krypton detected on October 28. Then they were there in the analysis on November 1.
From TEPCO's handout for the press (11/2/2011), from November 1 to November 2,
*
Krypton-85 (half life 10.8 years) went from 3.6 x 10^-3 to 5.3 x 10^-1, 100-fold increase *
Xenon-131m (half life 12 days) went from to 5.3 x 10^-4 to 6.1 x 10^-4 *
Xenon-133 (half life 5 days) went from 6.5 x 10^-6 to below detection limit *
Xenon-135 (half life 9 hours) went from 1.3 x 10^-5 to 1.7 x 10^-5.
The unit is Bq/cubic centimeter. According to wiki, "About three atoms of krypton-85 are produced for every 1000 fissions (i.e. it has a fission yield of 0.3%)". It sure looks like a nuclear chain reaction happening, i.e. re-criticality, the possibility of which TEPCO's Matsumoto has already admitted.
News Broken bottle of radium caused Tokyo supermarket hot spot: science ministry A broken glass bottle containing a lump of radium found buried near a supermarket in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward on Nov. 1. (Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) A broken glass bottle containing a lump of radium found buried near a supermarket in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward on Nov. 1. (Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology)
The mystery of where the radioactive material discovered by a supermarket in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward came from may have been cracked with the Nov. 2 discovery of a buried chemical reagent bottle.
Abnormally high levels of radiation were detected Oct. 28 on the property of a Power Larks supermarket during radiation checks spurred by a local resident's warning. It was determined that the hot spot was not connected to the Fukushima nuclear plant, as radium was not one of the elements released in the disaster.
Work by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and other authorities to clear the hot spot and determine its cause has been ongoing for several days, resulting in the Nov. 2 find of the broken 500-milliliter bottle containing a mass of dark red-brown material believed to be radium-226.
After digging out the soil around where the bottle had been, radiation at the site dropped from 40 millisieverts per hour to 25 microsieverts per hour, leading the science ministry to conclude that radium in the bottle was indeed behind the hot spot.
Even after the bottle and surrounding soil were removed, however, a sweep of the supermarket property found 12 places both in- and outside the building emitting relatively high radiation of between 0.2 and 12 microsieverts per hour. Furthermore, there were three spots on the roads bordering the property which registered radiation doses of 0.3 to 2 microsieverts per hour. Airborne radiation around the supermarket hovered around 0.1 microsieverts per hour.
The science ministry and other authorities have said they will continue their examination of the area.
Guess Japan has a lot of radium bottles buried, I still wonder how many they will find in Fukushima so they can claim no radiation was ever released from the plant.
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08:02 PM
dennis_6 Member
Posts: 7196 From: between here and there Registered: Aug 2001
Editorial: Closer monitoring and more explanation of Fukushima reactors needed This Sept. 29, 2011 photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. shows the No. 2 reactor building of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co.) This Sept. 29, 2011 photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. shows the No. 2 reactor building of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. (AP Photo/Tokyo Electric Power Co.)
The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the tsunami-hit Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, should step up their monitoring of the plant's reactors to check whether nuclear fission is occurring and provide good explanations of the situation in the reactors to the public.
Xenon was detected in the containment vessel of the plant's No. 2 reactor, and the finding was confirmed by the semi-governmental Japan Atomic Energy Agency.
Xenon is a radioactive substance with a short half-life generated in the process of nuclear fission of uranium, a nuclear plant fuel. The finding suggests that nuclear fission is occurring in the reactor, and it was initially feared that the reactor temporarily reached criticality -- a chain of nuclear fission reactions.
Small-scale criticality temporarily occurring in a reactor would not mean that the reactor is in a dangerous situation. Criticality can be sustained only if certain conditions, such as the right ratio of water and fuel inside the reactor, are met.
Still, we mustn't let down our guard. The government and TEPCO need to find out why the fission has occurred and take appropriate responses. TEPCO has injected boric acid into the No. 2 reactor to prevent it from reaching criticality, but more may need to be done.
Even if the reactor is not in a dangerous condition, the possibility that it might reach criticality has surely caused anxiety to the public. It is important for TEPCO and the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) to clearly explain the condition of the reactors and the implications of the discovery of xenon.
The xenon was detected from gas inside the reactor's containment vessel using a containment vessel gas management system that began operations in late October. It was the first time that such a measurement was conducted, and at least one expert says it would be no surprise if nuclear fission has been occurring since well before these latest findings.
The gas inside the containment vessels of the Fukushima plant's No. 1 and 3 reactors has not yet been analyzed. The government and TEPCO should carry out similar examinations of the inside of their containment vessels as soon as possible to check for nuclear fission occurring in them.
More than these individual measurements, however, what is needed is a system that constantly monitors the conditions of all the nuclear reactors at the plant. Officials should consider equipment that can detect neutrons, as they can be used as a direct indicator of whether criticality has occurred.
The government and TEPCO have announced their intention to bring forward the timing of achieving a so-called "cold shutdown" of the crippled reactors in their roadmap to bringing the nuclear plant under control. They define a cold shutdown as a situation in which the temperature inside the pressure vessels of the reactors are kept sufficiently low and the emissions of radioactive substances are under control.
However, the discovery of xenon in the No. 2 reactor's containment vessel suggests nuclear fission is occurring even though the temperature at the bottom of the pressure vessel is thought to be below 100 degrees Celsius. It raises questions as to whether such a reactor can be considered stable, even if it is under that temperature threshold.
The conditions and locations of melted fuel in the plant's No. 1 to 3 reactors as well as the details of the damage to the reactors remain unclear, and after this most recent finding, the government and TEPCO must step up their monitoring.
Channel 4 News CATCH UP Programme at 1900 weekdays, weekend timings see listings Friday 04 November 2011 Search Channel 4 News Search
New fission fears at Japan's Fukushima nuclear site Thursday 03 November 2011 Eight months on from the devastating tsunami and earthquake which sparked a nuclear crisis in Japan, an expert tells Channel 4 News new signs of fission at the plant are "a concern". Fresh fission fears at Japan's Fukushima nuclear site (Getty)
On Wednesday, the plant operator of Japan's tsunami-ravaged Fukushima nuclear plant said it had found substances in a reactor which could be the result of nuclear fission.
The discovery is a possible setback in attempts to bring the damaged plant to a "cold shutdown", when temperatures are stable below boiling point. The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), has been battling to bring Fukushima under control since the tsunami hit and caused the nuclear accident almost eight months ago.
Reactors at the plant have been releasing small amounts of radiation into the atmosphere ever since, in the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
Get the latest from the Channel 4 News team on the ground in Japan, in our tsunami revisited live blog
Now there are concerns that the situation is worse than the authorities believed.
Tepco said it has discovered small amounts of xenon, a byproduct of fission, in the number two reactor at the plant and had poured in a mixture of water and boric acid, an agent that helps prevent nuclear reactions, as a precaution.
However, the operator played down the find, saying there was no evidence of a "criticality" in the reactor. The temperature and pressure at the reactor remained stable. Fukushima's reactors are still badly damaged (Reuters)
But nuclear expert John Large told Channel 4 News that any evidence of fission was a "concern" which raised problems for Tepco's plans to make the plant safe by the end of the year.
He added: "It shows there are still considerable problems. It's concerning because it shows they are not in total control of the nuclear processes in the plant - and even a small amount of fission is a concern because it can become a large amount of fission."
Tepco said it was still assessing the data, but said it believes any fission was temporary and finished. The company has made progress in its battle with the problems at Fukushima, saying in October that the amount of radiation being emitted from the complex had halved from a month earlier.
It has also brought down temperatures at the three damaged reactors.
Following criticism of Tepco, Japan's nuclear authorities and the government at the time of the incident for releasing information too slowly to the public, they are keen to now show that they are being as open as possible.
On Tuesday, to show that decontamination efforts were progressing, Japanese cabinet official Yasuhiro Sonoda drank a glass of purified water taken from the Daiichi plant after being challenged by journalists to prove it was safe. http://www.channel4.com/new...kushima-nuclear-site
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08:07 PM
dennis_6 Member
Posts: 7196 From: between here and there Registered: Aug 2001
Plan B: Japanese government unveils proposal for backup city in case earthquake cripples Tokyo
By Wil Longbottom
Last updated at 4:40 PM on 3rd November 2011
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Concerned about the impact a crippling earthquake could have on Tokyo, the Japanese government has unveiled plans to develop an entire backup city in case.
Snappily called the IRTBBC - or Integrated Resort Tourism, Business and Backup City - the spare city will be built on a 1,236-acre site 300 miles west of the capital Tokyo.
It could be home to 50,000 residents and 200,000 workers and will also feature offices, resorts, casinos and parks - as well as essential government facilities in case of disaster. Just in case: The Japanese government has announced plans to build a backup city for Tokyo, in case an earthquake cripples the capital
Just in case: The Japanese government has announced plans to build a backup city for Tokyo, in case an earthquake cripples the capital
The potential site is on the site of Itami Airport - which is politically unpopular and has been superceded by other airports including Kansai and Kobe, according to wired.co.uk., and could also boast a 1,900ft-tall office tower.
Hajime Ishii, a member of the ruling Democratic Party, told the website: 'The idea is being able to have a back-up, a spare battery for the functions of the nation.'
Nearly 16,000 people were killed after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the east coast of Japan on March 11, 2011 - sparking a tsunami with up to 133ft waves which devastated the country. Failsafe: The new city would be built near the Itami Airport, in Osaka, and could be home to 250,000 people
Failsafe: The new city would be built near the Itami Airport, in Osaka, and could be home to 250,000 people
Although Tokyo, home to 12.79million people, was not among the cities severely damaged by the quake, electricity supplies and fresh water were cut off for days in the capital.
The city has been badly damaged by earthquakes in the past, notably 1923, and video footage taken earlier this year showed skyscrapers in Tokyo wobbling as the massive quake struck.
A group of planners has requested £115,000 to study whether the project is feasible.
It comes after the operators of the nuclear power plant crippled by the tsunami were forced to deny further nuclear incidents today. Fears: A town in Ishinomaki, north eastern Japan, that was totally destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami in March this year
Fears: A town in Ishinomaki, north eastern Japan, that was totally destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami in March this year
Crippled: The Fukushima power plant that was badly damaged in the tsunami. There are fears another big earthquake would devastate Tokyo and prevent the government from carrying out its business
Crippled: The Fukushima power plant that was badly damaged in the tsunami. There are fears another big earthquake would devastate Tokyo and prevent the government from carrying out its business
Tokyo Electric Power Co said radioactive gas leaking from one of the damaged reactors came from spontaneous fissions that occurs in any idle reactor.
Radioactive xenon was found at the Fukushima Daiichi site earlier this week, hinting that unexpected nuclear fission had taken place.
Boric acid was injected into the reactor as a precaution, but further examination determined the xenon was produced by curium - a nuclear fuel component that causes spontaneous fission.
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Interesting video... it just sucks that back in those days, no one fully realized the effects that nuclear testing could have. Of course, by the 60s, we were pretty well aware. The only reason why Russia continued to do it well into the 90s was simply because they were economically broke, and that was because of Communism. Never the less, we did a lot of that stuff too during the 40s and 50s. I remember watching a lot of videos where we would nuke our old WW1 battleships. You'd see Navy and DoD people all standing on other more modern ships a mile or so away, and you'd see them wearing nothing but sunglasses as the after-shock blast would sweep through them.
They all assumed they were ok, but later realized they had major contamination. I saw some kind of documentary on this, and most of them developed extensive cancerous growths... like huge hands and stuff. They all died within like 10-15 years after... at least. Many of them sooner.
A good movie, K19 Widowmaker with Harrison Ford also shows the disregard that Russia had with nuclear fallout and danger.
And here is the truth --- What is the evidence? There is little doubt that high-dose radiation exposure can cause cancer. This has become clear from studies of groups such as the survivors of the atomic blasts in Japan, where the risks of certain cancers such as leukemias and thyroid cancers were higher than normal. Some issues, however, are not as clear, such as the amount of exposure required, and the types of cancer that radiation can cause.
In the late 1970s, a higher than usual number of cases of leukemia was seen among the troops present at the "Smokey" nuclear test in Nevada in August 1957. The question arose as to whether these cases were caused by radiation from the nuclear tests. Although the rate of leukemia was higher than expected, rates for all cancers combined were actually lower than expected, making the results difficult to interpret. Some cancers are known to have a long latency period – that is, they do not appear until decades after the exposure. The reason for the high leukemia rates of the "Smokey" test remains unexplained.
To date, follow-up of troops present at other tests have not shown an overall increased number of deaths from cancer. One study compared about 1,000 veterans who received the highest doses of radiation to other veterans who were minimally exposed. The risk of dying from some blood-related cancers (certain leukemias and lymphomas) was higher in those exposed to radiation, and the risk of dying overall was also slightly higher. However, the risk was not increased for other types of cancers known to be caused by radiation, and the overall risk of dying from any form of cancer was not higher.
Studies of British troops present at similar tests have not found that they have higher cancer rates or death rates overall, although these studies have also suggested that leukemia rates might be higher.
With the possible exception of an increased risk of thyroid cancer, studies of people who worked at nuclear weapons plant sites have generally yielded similar unclear results, as have studies of people living near areas where the weapons were tested.
** There was one test in the Pacific where people were actually exposed to high levels of radioactivity and there WERE health issues and a death from that exposure.
[This message has been edited by phonedawgz (edited 11-04-2011).]
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08:40 PM
phonedawgz Member
Posts: 17091 From: Green Bay, WI USA Registered: Dec 2009
Daigo Fukuryū Maru (第五福竜丸?, Lucky Dragon 5) was a Japanese tuna fishing boat, which was exposed to and contaminated by nuclear fallout from the United States' Castle Bravo thermonuclear device test on Bikini Atoll, on 1 March 1954. Aikichi Kuboyama, the boat's chief radioman, died less than seven months later, on 23 September 1954, suffering from acute radiation syndrome. He is considered the first victim of the hydrogen bomb of Operation Castle Bravo.
In 1947, the fishing boat was launched from Koza, Wakayama, named Dainana Kotoshiro Maru (第七事代丸?, Kotoshiro Maru No. 7). Later it became a tuna fishing boat in Yaizu, Shizuoka, where it was renamed the Daigo Fukuryū Maru.
Daigo Fukuryū Maru in early 1950s, shortly before the incident
Nuclear test site contamination
Daigo Fukuryū Maru encountered the fallout from the U.S. Castle Bravo nuclear test on the Bikini Atoll, near the Marshall Islands, on 1 March 1954. The boat, along with its 23 fishermen aboard, as well as their catch of fish, were contaminated. They returned to Yaizu, Japan on 14 March. The crew members, suffering from nausea, headache, burns, pains in the eyes, bleeding from the gums, etc., were diagnosed with acute radiation syndrome and admitted to two Tokyo hospitals. On September 23, chief radio operator Mr. Aikichi Kuboyama, 40, died — the first Japanese victim of a hydrogen bomb. He left these words: "I pray that I am the last victim of an atomic or hydrogen bomb."
The sky on the west lit up like a sunrise. Eight minutes later the sound of the explosion arrived, with fallout several hours later. The fallout, fine white flaky dust of calcined coral with absorbed highly radioactive fission products, fell on the ship for three hours. The fishermen scooped it into bags with their bare hands. The dust stuck to surfaces, bodies and hair; after the radiation sickness symptoms appeared, the fishermen called it shi no hai (死の灰?, death ash). The US government refused to disclose its composition due to "national security", as the isotopic ratios, namely percentage of uranium-237, could reveal the nature of the bomb. Lewis Strauss, the head of the AEC, issued a series of denials; he went so far to claim the lesions on the fishermen bodies were not caused by radiation but by chemical action of the calcined coral, that they were inside the danger zone (while they were 40 miles away), and told Eisenhower's press secretary that Lucky Dragon was a "Red spy outfit", commanded by a Soviet agent intentionally exposing the ship's crew and catch to embarrass the USA and gain intelligence on the test. He also denied the extent of contamination of the fish caught by Fukuryu Maru and other ships. The FDA however imposed rigid restrictions on tuna imports. The United States dispatched two medical scientists to Japan to limit the public disclosure and study the effects of fallout on the ships crew, under the pretense of helping with their treatment. Even publications of the fallout analysis were a thorny political issue.
When the test was held, the Daigo Fukuryū Maru was catching fish outside the danger zone which the U.S. government had declared in advance. However, the test was over twice as powerful as it was predicted to be, and changes in weather patterns blew nuclear fallout, in the form of a fine ash, outside of the danger zone. The fishermen realized the danger, and attempted to escape from the area, but they took time to retrieve fishing gear from the sea, causing them to be exposed to radioactive fallout for several hours.
Later, the United States expanded the danger zone and it was revealed that in addition to the Daigo Fukuryū Maru, many other fishing boats were in the expanded zone at the time. It is estimated that about a hundred fishing boats were contaminated to some degree by fallout from the test. Many hundreds of inhabitants of the Marshall Islands were also exposed, and a number of islands had to be evacuated entirely.
The US at first tried to cover up the Lucky Dragon incident, sequestering the victims and declaring the site off limits. Later the United States paid Kuboyama's widow and children the equivalent in yen of about $2,500.
The tragedy of the Daigo Fukuryū Maru gave rise to a fierce anti-nuclear movement in Japan, rising especially from the fear that the contaminated fish had entered the market. It also inspired Kaiju eiga (monster movies) starting with Godzilla (Gojira) in 1954. The U.S. government feared this movement would lead to an anti-American movement, and attempted to quickly negotiate a settlement with the Japanese government (led at the time by the Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, who was considered to be a pro-U.S. politician). The U.S. government agreed to pay $2 million compensation to the Japanese for injuries or damage sustained as a result of the blast. The Japanese government also acknowledged that it would not pursue further reparations from the U.S. government.
The Daigo Fukuryū Maru was preserved in 1976 and is now on display in Tokyo at the Tokyo Metropolitan Daigo Fukuryū Maru Exhibition Hall.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced Wednesday that there is the possibility that criticality, a sustained nuclear chain reaction, had occurred "temporarily" and "locally" in the No. 2 reactor of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. It detected radioactive xenon-133 and xenon-135, products of uranium or plutonium fission, in gases collected Tuesday from the reactor.
Because the half life of xenon-133 is 5.25 days and that of xeon-135 is 9.14 hours, criticality is very likely to have occurred just before the gases were analyzed.
Although more than seven months have passed since the start of the nuclear fiasco, clearly the reactor has not yet been stabilized. Tepco's plan to achieve "cold shutdown" of the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 reactors by the end of this year may face difficulty.
The fact that Tepco cannot deny the possibility of criticality irrespective of its scale is a grave situation. The conditions are similar in the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 reactors. It is thought that nuclear fuel in them melted and has collected in the bottom of both the pressure and containment vessels.
Tepco should make serious efforts to accurately grasp the conditions of nuclear fuel inside the reactors.
Even after a reactor is shut down, nuclear fuel fissions occur bit by bit inside cladding tubes without reaching criticality. Experts concur that large-scale criticality will not occur in molten nuclear fuel. But Tepco and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency should take a serious view of the fact that radioactive xenon pointing to criticality was detected from the No. 2 reactor. What happened in it can happen in the Nos. 1 and 3 reactors.
They should strictly watch the conditions of the three reactors and do their utmost to prevent occurrence of criticality. They should not forget the simple fact that a large amount of nuclear fuel exists in these reactors.
Tepco injected 10 tons of a solution containing 480 kg of boric acid into the No. 2 reactor shortly before 3 a.m. Wednesday to restrain nuclear fission. This inversely shows that it has not been injecting a boric acid solution into the reactors in continuously cooling them by circulating water. Its laxness should be criticized. It wasn't till after 7 a.m. Wednesday that NISA reported the criticality incident to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. NISA clearly lacked the ability to make a correct judgment in this matter. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/ed20111104a1.html
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06:56 AM
dennis_6 Member
Posts: 7196 From: between here and there Registered: Aug 2001
(CNN) -- A rare type of radioactive decay, not a renewed chain reaction, appears to have produced the radioactive xenon gas discovered this week at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, its owner said Thursday.
Engineers from the Tokyo Electric Power Company discovered two short-lived isotopes of xenon on Tuesday inside the plant's No. 2 reactor, one of three that melted down following Japan's historic earthquake March 11. Their presence raised fears that a new chain reaction could have begun within the damaged fuel now believed to be piled up at the bottom of the reactor vessel.
Tokyo Electric responded by injecting boric acid into the reactor's coolant water to stop any renewed chain reaction that might prolong the nearly 8-month-old crisis at the plant, according to the company and the International Atomic Energy Agency. But the company announced Thursday that temperature and pressure readings from Unit 2 showed no change that would indicate an ongoing reaction.
One of the isotopes that triggered the concern, xenon-135, has a radioactive half-life of a little over nine hours; the other, xenon-133, loses half its radioactivity in just over five days. Tokyo Electric said Thursday it believed the gases were produced by "spontaneous fission" of uranium, since the shorter-lived isotope persisted after the use of boric acid.
Gary Was, a nuclear engineering professor at the University of Michigan, said spontaneous fission occurs when a heavy radioactive element like uranium splits on its own. It's an improbable phenomenon, he said -- but if it happens, "you'll see xenon fission products."
Was said the discovery came less than a week after Japan began taking new gas samples from the reactors.
"They need to keep monitoring this and keep checking it and make sure there are no changes in this xenon level, and do those calculations to make sure those xenon levels are consistent with spontaneous fission," he said.
Tokyo Electric has faced periodic questions about the possibility of a renewed chain reaction at Fukushima Daiichi, where meltdowns occurred in all three operating reactors after the earthquake and resulting tsunami knocked out the plant's cooling systems. More than 80,000 people remain displaced after the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
A revived chain reaction would be a blow to efforts to bring the crisis to an end, producing more heat and radioactive waste.
The company has repeatedly said that it has no evidence of a renewed chain reaction, known as "recriticality," and Was said the damaged fuel is unlikely to produce such an event.
"It's believed to be very unlikely, if you have a fuel melt in the bottom of the vessel, that you could sustain fission," he said. "You've got the wrong geometry to sustain a chain reaction." http://edition.cnn.com/2011.../asia/japan-nuclear/
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06:59 AM
phonedawgz Member
Posts: 17091 From: Green Bay, WI USA Registered: Dec 2009
The geometry needed is fuel interspaced with water, as in the core's geometry. The water is needed to act as a moderator so sustain the nuclear reaction. A blob in the bottom of the reactor can't go critical. It doesn't have the correct geometry. There are no water molecules to moderate the neutrons to the correct speed before colliding into an uranium atom to achieve a chain reaction.
quote
Moderator Main article: Neutron moderator A neutron moderator is a medium which reduces the velocity of fast neutrons, thereby turning them into thermal neutrons capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction involving uranium-235. A good neutron moderator is a material full of atoms with light nuclei which do not easily absorb neutrons. The neutrons strike the nuclei and bounce off. After sufficient impacts, the velocity of the neutron will be comparable to the thermal velocities of the nuclei; this neutron is then called a thermal neutron. The light water reactor uses ordinary water, also called light water, as its neutron moderator. The light water absorbs too many neutrons to be used with unenriched natural uranium, and therefore uranium enrichment or nuclear reprocessing becomes necessary to operate such reactors, increasing overall costs. This differentiates it from a heavy water reactor, which uses heavy water as a neutron moderator. While ordinary water has some heavy water molecules in it, it is not enough to be important in most applications. In practice all LWRs are also water cooled. In pressurized water reactors the coolant water is used as a moderator by letting the neutrons undergo multiple collisions with light hydrogen atoms in the water, losing speed in the process. This moderating of neutrons will happen more often when the water is denser, because more collisions will occur. The use of water as a moderator is an important safety feature of PWRs, as any increase in temperature causes the water to expand and become less dense; thereby reducing the extent to which neutrons are slowed down and hence reducing the reactivity in the reactor. Therefore, if reactivity increases beyond normal, the reduced moderation of neutrons will cause the chain reaction to slow down, producing less heat. This property, known as the negative temperature coefficient of reactivity, makes PWR reactors very stable. In event of a loss-of-coolant accident, the moderator is also lost and the active fission reaction will stop leaving just a 5% power level for 1 to 3 years called the "decay heat". This 5% "decay heat" will continue for 1 to 3 years after shut down, where upon it finally reaches "full cold shutdown". "Decay heat" while dangerous and strong enough to melt the core, is not nearly as dangerous as an active fission reaction. During this "decay heat" post shutdown period the reactor requires water pumped cooling or the reactor will overheat to above 2200 degrees Celsius where upon the heat separates the cooling water in to its constituent parts Hydrogen and Oxygen which can cause hydrogen explosions, threatening structural damage or even the possible exposure of highly radioactive stored fuel rods stored ready for use in surrounding nuclear storage pools(approx 15 tons of fuel is replenished each year to maintain normal PWR operation). This decay heat is the major risk factor in LWR safety record.
An assembly is critical if each fission event causes, on average, exactly one other. This causes a self-sustaining fission chain reaction. When a uranium-235 (U-235) atom undergoes nuclear fission, it typically releases 2 or 3 neutrons (with the average being about 2.4). In this situation, an assembly is critical if every released neutron has a 1/2.4 = 0.42 = 42% probability of causing another fission event as opposed to either being absorbed by a non-fission capture event or escaping from the fissile core. The average number of neutrons that cause new fission events is called the effective neutron multiplication factor, usually denoted by the symbols k-effective, k-eff or k. When k-effective is equal to 1, the assembly is called critical, if k-effective is less than 1 the assembly is said to be subcritical, and if k-effective is greater than 1 the assembly is called supercritical.
Halt of crop farming in Fukushima forces manure to accumulate on cattle farms At his cattle farm, Kazunori Mizunoya looks at a cow knee deep in its own excrement in the Fukushima Prefecture village of Nakajima on Oct. 20. (Mainichi) At his cattle farm, Kazunori Mizunoya looks at a cow knee deep in its own excrement in the Fukushima Prefecture village of Nakajima on Oct. 20. (Mainichi)
FUKUSHIMA -- Two months after a government ban on beef was lifted, cattle farmers here are growing increasingly desperate as nearby vegetable farmers have halted production due to the ongoing nuclear disaster, leaving nowhere to take the accumulating manure that was previously used as fertilizer.
"When vegetable farmers are pushed into a dead end, there's a domino effect that puts us into dire straits, too," says 51-year-old Kazunori Mizunoya, a cattle farmer raising some 600 cows in Nakajima, a village located 70 kilometers from the troubled nuclear power station.
Not only is the fertilizer shed overflowing with manure, the cows in the barn stand in their own excrement nearly 70 centimeters deep. They sometimes shake their massive bodies as if they're trying to wiggle free.
Cows like to be clean, and suffer high stress levels and illness when kept in unhygienic conditions. Indeed, almost half the cows in Mizunoya's barn are experiencing deteriorating health.
The area where Mizunoya raises his cattle is home to farms that raised broccoli, tomato and cucumber. Cattle farmers provided vegetable farmers with manure to be used as fertilizer, and in return, vegetable farmers provided cattle farmers with rice straw to be used as cow feed. Mizunoya had built such reciprocal relationships with 10 vegetable farms nearby, supplying them with 1,500 tons of fertilizer ever year, which was used on a total of 30 hectares of farmland every year in March and July.
The nuclear disaster triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami interrupted that cycle, however. Many vegetable farms were forced to forgo planting in the spring, and continued radiation fears prevented many of the farmers from planting summer vegetables as well. This year, none of the farms used fertilizer from Mizunoya's farm in the spring, and only two of the 10 farms did so in the summer.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) has set the maximum allowable radiation levels for fertilizer at 400 becquerels per kilogram. Since September, the Fukushima Prefecture Government has been running tests at the approximately 3,400 farms in the prefecture raising beef cattle and dairy cows, and advising them to supply fertilizer to crop farmers if radiation levels are below the limit. Mizunoya has not fed any radiation-tainted rice straw to his cattle, and tests show that there are no problems with the fertilizer produced at his farm. He says, however, that there's been an emerging trend of crop farmers avoiding local fertilizer. Cows eat hay in a cattle shed of a livestock farm in a no-entry zone near the crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture. (Mainichi) Cows eat hay in a cattle shed of a livestock farm in a no-entry zone near the crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture. (Mainichi)
The prefectural government has advised that cattle farmers remove excrement from the cow barns and store it in a separate location. Mizunoya however, has not done so because of the many residences in the vicinity and a fear of causing environmental pollution. According to prefectural officials, many cattle farmers are facing similar conundrums.
The ban that was placed on Fukushima cattle after the discovery of radiation-tainted meat was lifted on Aug. 25. Mizunoya began shipping his cows after they were tested in early September and found to be safe. Fukushima beef cattle attract few customers, however, and prices are half of what they were prior to the nuclear crisis. As a result, Mizunoya ran out of operating funds, and has taken out a loan of over 100 million yen.
"When the mad-cow epidemic took place, I had to borrow money but was able to survive," Mizunoya says. "This time, though, radiation fears just keep on escalating, and there's no telling when and how much (the operator of the troubled nuclear power plant) Tokyo Electric Power Co. will compensate us."
These are actually uninformed people. This is one of the few times, i will agree with phonedawgz. This is a reaction out of the fear of the unknown. Calling for Thorium would be reasonable, calling for structures built to withstand the 9.0 quake would be reasonable, calling for a complete end to nuclear power is stupid.
Nov 5, 2011, 2:18 pm-Tokyo ``Occupy Kasumigasaki`` Movement Camps Continues in front of METI
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Tokyo- (PanOrient News) Women representatives from all over Japan are camping in Kasumigaseki district in Tokyo to express their objection to the nuclear power plants in Japan in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Tents belonging to various civil anti-nuclear movements are pitched on the sidewalk corner facing the building of Japanese Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry. The women’s movement started on October 30, and continues through November 5.
The activists held banners saying“We Are Anti-Nuclear,” and “Don’t Restart Nuclear Plants.”
One of the banners said "Occupy Kasumigasaki," the district in Tokyo where government buildings are concentrated.
The anti nuclear energy movement is gaining more support among Japanese civilian groups as the crisis in the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plants has not been solved. Reports bring daily news of radioactive leaks and contamination with materials such as radioactive cesium in various part of the country.
The government of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda seems to be adopting the policy of continuing using nuclear power energy, and restarting reactors that have been stopped for maintenance to reconfirm their safety.
The government is also back on track promoting the exports of nuclear technology to countries such as Vietnam and Turkey.
The Japanese prime minister said his government will work to reduce the dependence on the nuclear power in Japan. But observers say that the current government is not able to achieve this goal because there is no viable source yet to fill the gap of about 30 percent of the energy provided currently by nuclear power.
The anti-nuclear activists, however, are calling on the government to activate alternative and clean energy technologies and phase out the nuclear reactors.
Dennis, You are obviously informed and I use your posts to see what's going on since there doesn't seem to be much mainstream media coverage. I don't share your confidence in future nuclear activity though. Maybe you're right, but MY GOD we've been blatantly lied to, starting with the "It's going to be so cheap that you won't need a meter".
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06:55 AM
carnut122 Member
Posts: 9122 From: Waleska, GA, USA Registered: Jan 2004
These are actually uninformed people. This is one of the few times, i will agree with phonedawgz. This is a reaction out of the fear of the unknown. Calling for Thorium would be reasonable, calling for structures built to withstand the 9.0 quake would be reasonable, calling for a complete end to nuclear power is stupid.
But only the ones with robot teachers who don't need to be paid and never protest at our state capital. I think we should replace all teachers with robots [/sarcasm]
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02:22 PM
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Marvin McInnis Member
Posts: 11599 From: ~ Kansas City, USA Registered: Apr 2002
Xenon is a radioactive substance with a short half-life generated in the process of nuclear fission of uranium, a nuclear plant fuel. The finding suggests that nuclear fission is occurring in the reactor ...
Without more specific information, this statement is misleading. Xenon occurs naturally in the atmosphere and in some soils, particularly in granite, due to spontaneous decay of naturally-occurring Uranium and perhaps other radioactive elements. Probably half the homes in the U.S. have measurable amounts of Xenon and Radon in the air in their basements, due to the gas diffusing from the soil through cracks in the foundation walls and/or floor slabs. But perhaps the biggest source of radiation exposure in most modern American homes is from brick or stone wall construction and granite counter tops. That doesn't make it desirable, but alarmist statements like the one quoted don't help anything.
[This message has been edited by Marvin McInnis (edited 11-05-2011).]
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03:17 PM
dennis_6 Member
Posts: 7196 From: between here and there Registered: Aug 2001
Without more specific information, this statement is misleading. Xenon occurs naturally in the atmosphere and in some soils, particularly in granite, due to spontaneous decay of naturally-occurring Uranium and perhaps other radioactive elements. Probably half the homes in the U.S. have measurable amounts of Xenon and Radon in the air in their basements, due to the gas diffusing from the soil through cracks in the foundation walls and/or floor slabs. But perhaps the biggest source of radiation exposure in most modern American homes is from brick or stone wall construction and granite counter tops. That doesn't make it desirable, but alarmist statements like the one quoted don't help anything.
The other articles did indeed state the xenon isotopes in play.
"Isotopes: Natural xenon consists of a mixture of nine stable isotopes. An additional 20 unstable isotopes have been identified." Sources: Xenon is found in the atmosphere at levels of approximately one part in twenty million. It is commercially obtained by extraction from liquid air. Xenon-133 and xenon-135 are produced by neutron irradiation in air cooled nuclear reactors. http://chemistry.about.com/...entfacts/a/xenon.htm
"Naturally occurring xenon consists of nine stable isotopes. There are also over 40 unstable isotopes that undergo radioactive decay. The isotope ratios of xenon are an important tool for studying the early history of the Solar System.[10] Radioactive Xenon-135 is produced as a result of nuclear fission and acts as a neutron absorber in nuclear reactors.[11]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon
From TEPCO's handout for the press (11/2/2011), from November 1 to November 2,
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Krypton-85 (half life 10.8 years) went from 3.6 x 10^-3 to 5.3 x 10^-1, 100-fold increase *
Xenon-131m (half life 12 days) went from to 5.3 x 10^-4 to 6.1 x 10^-4 *
Xenon-133 (half life 5 days) went from 6.5 x 10^-6 to below detection limit *
Xenon-135 (half life 9 hours) went from 1.3 x 10^-5 to 1.7 x 10^-5.
The unit is Bq/cubic centimeter. According to wiki, "About three atoms of krypton-85 are produced for every 1000 fissions (i.e. it has a fission yield of 0.3%)". It sure looks like a nuclear chain reaction happening, i.e. re-criticality, the possibility of which TEPCO's Matsumoto has already admitted.
But only the ones with robot teachers who don't need to be paid and never protest at our state capital. I think we should replace all teachers with robots [/sarcasm]
Now that was funny!
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09:33 PM
dennis_6 Member
Posts: 7196 From: between here and there Registered: Aug 2001
But only the ones with robot teachers who don't need to be paid and never protest at our state capital. I think we should replace all teachers with robots [/sarcasm]
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11:40 PM
dennis_6 Member
Posts: 7196 From: between here and there Registered: Aug 2001
The Japanese government has approved a special business plan put forward by Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) that will release government funds to compensate those affected by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.
Tepco has promised to start work immediately on providing "compensation with empathy and consideration" under the terms of the special business plan, approved by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) on 4 November. The ministerial approval means that government funding will be released to the company to make compensation payments. The Japan Times reported that the government will release some ¥900 billion ($11.5 billion) to Tepco to cover compensation payments over the rest of the current financial year, which ends in March 2012.
In the plan, Tepco has also promised to work towards a "drastic streamlining" of current management and set itself targets to achieve cost reductions of over ¥2545.5 billion ($32.6 billion) over the next ten years. The special business plan is itself an emergency measure and will be revised in a comprehensive special business plan, to be completed for approval in the spring of 2012.
The same day that METI approved the special business plan, Tepco released interim financial results for the period 1 April-30 September 2011 in which it reported net losses of ¥627.2 billion ($9.3 billion). Extraordinary losses of ¥1975.9 billion ($25.3 billion) included costs and losses of ¥185.0 billion ($2.4 billion) from restoration costs to properties damaged by the Tohoku-Chihou-Taiheiyo-Oki Earthquake and nuclear damage compensation of ¥890.9 billion ($11.4 billion).
Operating revenues were down 7.7% on the same period in the previous financial year, the company noted. In response to the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami which struck northern Japan in March, Japanese consumers were asked to conserve electricity and Tepco noted that electricity sales had fallen 13.6% compared to the same period in 2010 thanks to a decrease in electricity consumption, a decline in production activities and a relatively cool summer, which depressed the demand for air-conditioning.
The Japanese government has approved a special business plan put forward by Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) that will release government funds to compensate those affected by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.
Tepco has promised to start work immediately on providing "compensation with empathy and consideration" under the terms of the special business plan, approved by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) on 4 November. The ministerial approval means that government funding will be released to the company to make compensation payments. The Japan Times reported that the government will release some ¥900 billion ($11.5 billion) to Tepco to cover compensation payments over the rest of the current financial year, which ends in March 2012.
Smaller increase in children's weight in Fukushima
A survey shows that some children in Fukushima Prefecture have smaller average weight gains this year compared to the year before. A pediatrician says the results indicate the negative effects of the nuclear plant accident in March.
Doctor Shintaro Kikuchi tracked the weights of 245 children aged from 4 to 6 in 2 kindergartens in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture. The results show an average weight increase of 0.81 kilograms over the past year through June. The increase for children in the same age group the previous year was 3.1 kilograms.
The average increase for children aged 5 to 6 in the survey was 0.84 kilograms. But a nationwide health ministry survey conducted last year for children of the same age group showed an average gain of 1.8 kilograms.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident has caused high levels of radioactivity in areas around the plant. Koriyama is located about 60 kilometers from the facility and many children in the city have been forced to play indoors to avoid contamination.
Kikuchi noted that the smaller weight increases could be related to reduced appetite resulting from less exercise as well as changes in the secretion of growth hormones due to stress. He said measures should be taken to restore normal hormone levels in the children.
A pediatrician says the results indicate the negative effects of the nuclear plant accident in March.
Of course the trauma and residual emotional stress of a massive tsunami, the destruction of their homes, and death of many siblings, playmates, and close relatives has little to do with it. Yes, the nuclear plant is probably a factor but it's a lot more complex and difficult for a child to comprehend. Children do respond to their parents' anxieties, though.
[This message has been edited by Marvin McInnis (edited 11-08-2011).]
So, it looks like the taxpayers are footing the bill for compensation? Or, am I missing something?
The taxpayers always foot the bill. The consequences of a nuclear power disaster are always bigger than any private corporation could possibly pay for. One of the downsides of the technology is that it has the ability through malfunction to incur costs and liabilities greater than the net value of the entire industry. In other words, they can never pay for their own mistakes.
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08:56 AM
phonedawgz Member
Posts: 17091 From: Green Bay, WI USA Registered: Dec 2009
Of course the trauma and residual emotional stress of a massive tsunami, the destruction of their homes, and death of many siblings, playmates, and close relatives has little to do with it. Yes, the nuclear plant is probably a factor but it's a lot more complex and difficult for a child to comprehend. Children do respond to their parents' anxieties, though.
I would tend to agree with you. Being displaced and unemployed has probably caused enough stress and loss of money to buy food to the point that weight loss would probably occur radiation or not. OTOH, radiation can't be ruled out either.
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09:58 AM
carnut122 Member
Posts: 9122 From: Waleska, GA, USA Registered: Jan 2004
