Japan Nuclear Reactor Meltdown

[AuroraGlacialis]

Just wanted to copy some updates on the current situation there, as the mass media have lost interest it seems. Too busy celebrating the death of a certain someone maybe.

YouTube - Nuclear collapse looms? Fukushima No. 4 reactor 'leaning'
(Russian Television, english language)

additionally, radioactive water (presumably from block 2) has appeared in blocks 3,5 and 6 basements and in the groundwater of nearby towns. This means, that somehow, radioactive water from the containments that are filled with water gets into the groundwater in amounts large enough to spread contamination.

Radiation in soil near troubled Japan nuclear plant exceeds Chernobyl evacuation level - The Mainichi Daily News

Cesium-137 that has longer effects, ranging from 3 million to 14.7 million becquerels per square meter, was detected in Namie, Futaba, Minamisoma, Iitate [outside the current evacuation zone] and Katsurao, northwest of the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, in Fukushima Prefecture. The levels far exceeded 550,000 bacquerels per square meter, the level the then-Soviet Union had used as a criterion for urging people to evacuate at the time of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Fukushima: Nuclear chain reactions may have temporarily restarted 12 days after earthquake - Boing Boing

Technology Review explains why Tetsuo Matsui, a researcher at the University of Tokyo, thinks conditions inside two of the damaged generator units may have temporarily restarted chain reactions 12 days after the shutdown.

This is just from a blog, so it has to be confirmed, I do not speak japanese, so I cannot translate the original source myself that is a TEPCO press conference:
From TEPCO Presser May 12 AM (Part 1): "We Have No Idea Where the Water Went" from Reactor 1 RPV/Containment Vessel | EX-SKF

From TEPCO Presser May 12 AM (Part 1): "We Have No Idea Where the Water Went" from Reactor 1 RPV/Containment Vessel
"In the initial stage when the reactor core was still hot, the water might have been evaporated and escaped from the Containment Vessel. But now, the reactor temperature is between 100 to 120 degrees Celsius, so the water would remain water. We are assuming most of the water escaped the Containment Vessel into the surrounding reactor building. However, there is no water in the northwest corner of the basement of the reactor building, as far as we can see by the camera. We don't know where the water has gone. Possibly, it may have gone to the reactor building, the turbine building, or the waste disposal facility."..."The water may be escaping from the bottom of the Containment Vessel or the RPV, but we haven't identified the location."

Oh and another official release (via Informationen zur Lage in den japanischen Kernkraftwerken Fukushima, Onagawa und Tokai | GRS - Fukushima-Informationsportal , german - the german society for nuclear power safety) reads (translated), that "TEPCO reports that the water level in block 1 RPV does not reach the bottom of the fuel rods. NISA concludes, that the core was not cooled and the fuel rods have molten and collected at the bottom of the vessel, where they are now covered with water" - the same information is also presented in english in the blog mentioned above.

[AuroraGlacialis]

[Fko Lrrtok]

Thank-you for this update AuroraGlacialis, though it is disturbing news, it should be kept at the forefront of the news periodically so that our awareness of this does not dull into obscurity.

The ramifications from this will linger for generations to come, I only hope that the authorities give the locals enough truth and factual information about their health risks and/or any relocation, finacial and medical help in the future.

[HufweMakto]

Thank-you for this update AuroraGlacialis, though it is disturbing news, it should be kept at the forefront of the news periodically so that our awareness of this does not dull into obscurity.

The ramifications from this will linger for generations to come, I only hope that the authorities give the locals enough truth and factual information about their health risks and/or any relocation, finacial and medical help in the future.

Oddly enough I haven't heard of this so much now in the news as I have about other things. It seems like people forgot about this already.

[AuroraGlacialis]

Oddly enough I haven't heard of this so much now in the news as I have about other things. It seems like people forgot about this already.

Yeah. "The attention span of the average people these days has been reduced to the length of a twitter message"

[Tsyal Makto]

I'm sure some under the table bribes into the world media at the hands of the fatcats at TEPCO has something to do with it. Remember, the main goal of the media is not to inform us, it is to make us forget. These days, we might as well be staring at telescreens.

[AuroraGlacialis]

teletubbies.. teletubbies... :P :P
I dont know if it has to be bribes. If you tell someone now about Fukushima, most people will just file that under "old news" and look for something more fresh. THAT is the nature of mass media - nothing lasts longer than a few weeks there until it is replaced by something new, more exciting. Just like with cellphones or any other gadget that needs to be updated and replaced avery year or two.

[HufweMakto]

teletubbies.. teletubbies... :P :P
I dont know if it has to be bribes. If you tell someone now about Fukushima, most people will just file that under "old news" and look for something more fresh. THAT is the nature of mass media - nothing lasts longer than a few weeks there until it is replaced by something new, more exciting. Just like with cellphones or any other gadget that needs to be updated and replaced avery year or two.

Updated and replaced every year or two? I would have to say, every six months or so, noting that I usually buy things when they go way down in price only to find out... The newer version is already there a month later. I'm kinda glad that Best Buy has a buy back oppertunity thing, though with what I get it may be out of my price range.

As for the media, I cannot fully agree, most of the time it's now on Osama, and what he had in his bunker. I mean, we finally got him and all, but shouldn't there be a little reporting on what's happening at Fukushima? I mean, people panicked in my part of the world when they heard that a plume of radiation was heading towards the west coast of the US, takng potassium pills that made them sick. I think I heard some of the radioactive waters came near to shore a month ago, not sure.

[AuroraGlacialis]

Yeah, people in the media talk about the pron of Osama while there are civil wars raging, thousands of tons of radiactive water is missing in Fukushima, workers at the wrecked plant die, Meltdowns are confirmed and so on. Doesnt that deserve at least some notice? But I guess it is more interesting to watch Osama zapping through TV channels or buying pr0n. At least for the next week or so until something new will come up and then Osama is old news...

140 characters it is, yes?

[AuroraGlacialis]

UPDATE:
Atomkatastrophe in Fukushima - Der unbemerkte GAU - Panorama - sueddeutsche.de (german newspaper)
Summary: The meltdown of the block 1 reactor is likely to have started before the tsunami came. Up to now the message was always that only the combined earthquake plus massive tsunami lead to the meltdown. If it is true that the Earthquake alone already started the meltdown, this would put severe doubts on the arguments that this was such a unique event....There are doubts that there is any water at all in reactor #3, whose temperature keeps rising for about 2 weeks now.

Asahi Shinbun: #Fukushima Reactors 2, 3 Also Had Core Meltdown | EX-SKF
Summary: Blocks #2 and #3 also have suffered extensive (or complete) meltdowns.

Two Other Nuclear Reactors Suffer Serious Damage - WSJ.com
Summary: All three blocks 1,2,3 have "holes at the bottom" of the pressure vessels.

EX-SKF Financial and Economic News, Data, Links, Analysis and Commentary
"According to the data, the pressure inside the Reactor 2 RPV (Reactor Pressure Vessel) dropped at 6:43PM on March 15 (JST), and the pressure inside Reactor 3 RPV dropped at 11:50PM on March 16. The integrity of the RPVs were compromised, it is thought, and the pressure went down...
The contaminated water from the Reactor 3 has been found to contain the radioactive materials like technetium that are produced when the nuclear fuel gets damaged, indicating that the melted fuel may have dropped from the RPV into the Containment Vessel."

I know you will call me a scaremongerer again, but I hate to say it, a lot of what people have feared and that was said to be "just scaremongering" is now official. (near) complete meltdowns, breached reactor vessels, breached containment vessels, water from the RPVs in the basements of the buildings and in the groundwater.

So the evidence and official statements now suggests that in all three reactors, there was a complete meltdown, breaching the RPVs, in some buildings also the containment is toast and the cooling of the molten fuel may not happen for reactor 3. Additionally, there is some evidence that the buildings structural integrity is compromised, the foundations seem to be damaged and the buildings may be "leaning". That is yet unconfirmed by the officials except that they say they are doing some things to stabilize the position of the spent fuel pools to prevent them from collapsing down. But hey - it took them 2 months to admit that there was a complete meltdown in the reactors, so maybe in 2 months we will hear what happens now...