Japanese Earthquake

[WhiteBlue]

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/15_51.html

Radiation levels rise south of nuclear plant

Northerly winds carried radioactive material from the quake-damaged Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant more than 200 kilometers south to Tokyo on Tuesday morning.

Radiation levels rose in areas to the south of the plant in the hours before and after an explosion at the plant's No.2 reactor, which occurred at 6.00 AM.

In Iwaki city, about 40 kilometers south of the plant, the radiation level was 470 times higher than normal as of 4:00 AM, but has since dropped.

Local government officials say that such levels are low enough not to pose a danger to humans.

Higher-than-normal levels of radiation were also detected more than 200 kilometers away in Tokyo and 4 neighboring prefectures.

Local government officials say the radiation does not pose a health hazard, as it remains less than one-hundredth of the acceptable level of annual exposure for humans.

Keiichi Nakagawa, an expert on radiotherapy at the University of Tokyo, says the radioactive material in Tokyo most likely came from the Fukushima nuclear plant, but the amount is tiny and does not pose a health threat.

He says people should remain calm, as the radiation released by the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant is unlikely to reach hazardous levels.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 19:44 +0900 (JST)

This is proof of the fact that the problem isn't localized closely any more. Hopefully the proliferation of activity was mainly caused by the fire in #4 unit which is now extinguished and not by #2 damaging pressure vessel and catch pool in the explosion.

[Pup]

Well I've reported this mess of a thread twice, but I guess giblets is too busy making sure that comments about Hamilton's brand of shampoo are properly filed in the "McLaren Hair Products 2011" thread. I guess the only sure fire way to get their attention is to claim that Fernando Alonso is responsible.

Just kidding. Though his involvement is undeniable.

Looks like things at the plant are stable and that the containment and reactor housing are holding, which will obviously disappoint a few here.

[manchild]

French sources say level 6 of 7, Japanese say 4 of 7.

I don't know how but it was also the French authorities who reported first that cloud is heading towards Tokyo and that it would reach it in 10 hours, before anyone else did.

How come France has all this info?

I've read another statement form Japanese PM, who was mad at TEPCO because they haven't reported last explosion to government for a whole hour.


http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wo ... ent-scale/

PARIS (AFP) - The accident at Japan's Fukushima plant now rates six on a seven-point international scale of gravity for nuclear accidents, the head of France's Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) said Tuesday.

The 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania rates five on an international scale of zero to seven, while Chernobyl is put at seven, the highest.

Japan's nuclear safety agency has estimated the accident at Fukushima at level four.

"The incident has taken on a completely different dimension compared to yesterday. It is clear that we are at level six," Andre-Claude Lacoste told a press conference.

"The order of gravity has changed," he said.

Level 3 indicates a "serious incident" according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) scale, while level four means there has been an "accident with local consequences."

The March 28, 1979 accident at Three Mile Island was a partial reactor meltdown that led to "very small" releases of radioactivity, according to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

It caused no casualties, but was rated five on the scale, corresponding to "an accident with wider consequences."

Level 6 is a "serious accident".

The April 26, 1986 explosion at the Soviet nuclear power plant in Chernobyl -- rated a maximum 7 -- was the world's worst nuclear disaster.
Unleashed by an unauthorised technical experiment, it spewed radioactive dust over swathes of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and western Europe. The death toll ranges from a UN 2005 estimate of 4,000 to tens or even hundreds of thousands, proposed by non-governmental groups.

[Shrieker]

I think now it's pretty certain that the Japanese GP will not take place, despite Suzuka being a lot further to the south west. It's the least of things to get worried about, I know...


Nuclear energy might be considered safe; as in "the probability of something going wrong is one in a million", but when that one in a million event occurs, the ramifications are long lasting and efecting a huge area, if not the entire planet. This is not acceptable. I for one also think that the Jap. govt. is hiding a lot of things. The French increasing the disaster rating to 6 and the Japanese getting stuck in 4 is significant. Also the American aircraft carrier high tailing it fast speaks volumes. They know what has and still is about to unfold.

[marekk]

I think now it's pretty certain that the Japanese GP will not take place, despite Suzuka being a lot further to the south west. It's the least of things to get worried about, I know...

Not quite sure about Oz/Malaysia/China. Not big thing anyway.

[autogyro]

I think now it's pretty certain that the Japanese GP will not take place, despite Suzuka being a lot further to the south west. It's the least of things to get worried about, I know...

Not quite sure about Oz/Malaysia/China. Not big thing anyway.

Do you think that somebody or something is trying to tell Bernie something?

[forty-two]

1456: Tepco says it may start pouring water from a helicopter over Fukushima Daiichi's reactor four in the next few days, to cool the spent-fuel pool.

Why would TEPCO start pouring water from a helicopter?
Surely this could be performed more quickly and carefully on the ground?

Does this indicate that the area is now too dangerous for personnel on site to do this?

[segedunum]

While I wouldn't be quoting stuff from Greenpeace, I just wonder what these idiots have been up to.

You can't save these reactors and no, you're not going to save yourselves tens of billions. Fill them with boron and get them shut down.

[segedunum]

French sources say level 6 of 7, Japanese say 4 of 7.

It's most definitely not a 6, assuming this is the standard incident scale.

[Pup]

Well it's a shame that all those GP's have been cancelled. Any official confirmation on that yet?

You guys will love this - Live! From Tokyo! It's an online geiger counter!

Feel free to obsess.

Here's a little screen grab for you to enjoy, since I know how difficult it is to click on a link (as if)...



That spike is from the latest "explosion" which wasn't really an explosion. The graph is in Counts per Minute (CPM), and for this particular counter 1 CPM = 0.01µSv.

So what does it mean, double rainbow man? (That's you, Manchild!) Well, the spike peaked at what looks like 80 CPM, or 60 CPM above everyday background level (damned universe!), and the spike lasted for about three hours. Do the math and we've got 0.3µSv/h, or 0.0003mSv/h, which, when referenced to this chart here is equivalent to, well, nothing - the chart doesn't go that low. And then it all dropped back to normal levels.

So what have we learned? Nothing, I suspect - you guys don't seem have a head for all this sciency-stuff. And after all, we know the government there is hiding the obvious FACT that at least two-thirds of Japan has already turned to molten glass and has sloughed off into the sea. Continue your panic, gentlemen!

[WhiteBlue]

I think now it's pretty certain that the Japanese GP will not take place, despite Suzuka being to a lot further to the south west. It's the least of things to get worried about, I know...

I disagree. If Japan can contain the accidents on the current level and the #2 reactor core is contained in the building the radiation will never reach Suzuka as we have seen in the worst case scenario. F1 will fly to Osaka anyway.

[WhiteBlue]

1456: Tepco says it may start pouring water from a helicopter over Fukushima Daiichi's reactor four in the next few days, to cool the spent-fuel pool.

Why would TEPCO start pouring water from a helicopter?
Surely this could be performed more quickly and carefully on the ground?

Does this indicate that the area is now too dangerous for personnel on site to do this?

Look up the location of the fuel storage pool in this design and you will see that it is at the top of the building. Now consider that #4 has two 8 square meter big holes in the upper cladding. It hasn been said but one can assume that at least one of these holes is in the ceiling over the pool.

Next you need to consider that they are improvising with fire fighting equipment to cool a bunch of reactors and several other fuel pools. It would be a relieve for the on site personnel and resource to hand the work load over to some heli pilots that pour the water into the pool from the air. They would most likely have less radiation exposure with that job than a ground screw manning fire fighting pumps going up some 25 m high building.

[forty-two]

Thanks for the link Pup. My Japanese is a little bit sketchy, so do you happen to know where the sensor for that web-graph is located?

Thank you for the info WB, I haven't heard or seen any info about any holes in the roof of unit 4, where did you learn this?