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Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

Miss Caphat said:
They didn't even have to say that...one thing I kept hearing even in the beginning (on the news, radio, etc) was that once you introduce sea water into the equation, a plant will not be usable again.
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Yeah I know its probably been obvious for some time, but in the Japanese media they seemed to largely be staying away from this topic until very recently.
 
Great resource, loads of graphs that are updated often, and cover both the wider area and plant radiation monitoring:

http://fleep.com/earthquake/

The last 4 are from the plant and you can see some of the spikes I've been going on about in recent days, and why the company & media linking the downward trend to water spraying events is a bit misleading, or at the very least is not demonstrated by any particular short period of time within the data. Note that the spikes I have commented on are only the latter ones that have received little press attention, the really dramatic ones early on were not often commented on by me at the time, and most of them are clearly linked to explosions etc that occurred at the time.

This is the one for the data that I repeatedly go on about, ie stuff from a office or control building 500m from reactors. It covers the same range of time as I've been going on about it, as data was not being collected, or at least not published, from this location earlier in the crisis.

fukushima_daiichi_office_north.png
 
Some updated food contamination data:

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/79856.html

In 1 kilogram of spinach grown in open air in the city [Hitachi in Ibaraki Prefecture], 54,000 becquerels of iodine was detected, exceeding the 2,000 becquerel limit preliminarily set by the government under the food sanitation law, the Ibaraki prefectural government said.

The level of cesium in the spinach grown in the city was also higher at 1,931 becquerels, compared to the limit of 500 becquerels.

The level of iodine in the spinach grown in open air in Kitaibaraki city in Ibaraki, around 75 kilometers south of the nuclear plant, was 24,000 becquerels, 12 times more than the limit of 2,000 becquerels. A cesium level of 690 becquerels, 190 more than the limit, was also found in the spinach, which was taken for investigation Friday.
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Ironic, that a nuclear power plant with four nuclear reactors generating electricity for the Japanese grid cannot pump cooling water around its own reactors and cooling ponds without an electric power supply from an outside source.

Seems ironic to me, all that gerating power and needing a three phase cable from the local grid!
 
Apparently some self defense force tanks are being brought in to help with the debris clear up to make operations near the plant easier. The thick armor is being cited as the reason, its a much more dense target for gamma rays to get through. Also Im guessing its NCB kitted, that is to say the airpressure inside is held greater than outside so air does not leak in and the air intake is heavily filtered.

Apprently debris is affecting water cannon operations. The water cannon is used ahead of fire trucks as operators can remain inside while using it.
 
If this nightmare had happened in the UK, and then the following story appeared, peoples brains would run away with theories wouldnt they?

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/79861.html

Prime Minister Naoto Kan canceled early Monday a half-day visit to one of the areas devastated by the massive earthquake and tsunami earlier this month as well as a base for workers tackling the crisis at the quake-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, due to bad weather, government officials said.

Kan was scheduled to leave his office by helicopter in the early morning to visit Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture to meet people affected by the calamitous earthquake and tsunami that hit the country's northeastern region on March 11.

He had also planned to visit ''J Village,'' a vast soccer training facility about 20 kilometers from the nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture now being used by firefighters and others responsible for containing the emergency situation there. The plant faces overheating of its reactors and radiation leaks.

The Japan Meteorological Agency says rain is forecast for the area Monday and the government officials say the conditions would make it difficult for the helicopter to land and lift off.
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So, the weather. I dont know too much about weather and nuclear accidents, but I did read that the reason certain parts of the uk got hit worse by Chernobyl contamination was because once the bad stuff reached there, it happened to start to rain. In the same article, which unfortunately I dont have a link to right now, I think it suggested that areas beyond the zone where it had rained would have benefitted, because a lot of the radioactive shit had fallen out of the sky before it reached them, as a result of the rain.

If I apply this limited knowledge to the weather picture that is forming in Japan this morning, the rain and wind are bad for some places in terms of further nuclear contamination, but the area of rain includes not just the Tokyo area but also the region all around and including the nuclear plant itself. So ifthe residents of Tokyo are lucky, this might be better for them than if there was only a strong wind blowing stuff towards them, or if it was only raining over them and not also raining in the evacuated zone.

I have only limited weather data for Japan, only low res plume prediction maps, and no actual idea what stuff is coming out from the nuclear site at any moment, nor what altitudes it achieves. So its far from possible to attempt to give out forecasts for radioactivity hitting Tokyo or anywhere else, I'll likely only get some idea in hindsight.
 
Data up to 4.30am Monday morning JST shows radiation levels are continuing to fall at the site, continuing the downward trend shown on the earlier graph, no further spikes like the one on the end of the graph have been observed.
 
Oh dear:

Grayish smoke was seen billowing from a building that houses the No. 3 reactor of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station on Monday, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

After the smoke was spotted at the southeast of the building around 3:55 p.m., TEPCO said it had temporarily evacuated its workers from the site as it assessed the situation.
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Before this happened, levels were continuing to fall, down to almost 2 microsieverts at 3pm.

The situation at reactor 3 is unclear right now, the smoke might be a sign of something very bad indeed, or could yet be found to be more innocent.
 
Not much more detail at this stage:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/21_25.html

Grey smoke found from No.3 nuclear reactor
A local branch of the Tokyo Electric Power Company says grey smoke was seen rising from the troubled No.3 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture.

The smoke was apparently coming from the southeast edge of the roof of the reactor structure at 3:55 PM on Monday.

The office informed local firefighters about this. The amount of smoke seems to be decreasing.

The reactor operator is evacuating its workers from the area.

The storage pool for spent nuclear fuel is located in the southeast area of the reactor structure.
Monday, March 21, 2011 17:17 +0900 (JST)
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The first graph on this page confirm that radiation levels have risen a little bit again in Tokyo. Think this data will be from well before the latest incident, and is quite possibly due to the weather situation bringing more nasties into the area:

http://fleep.com/earthquake/
 
Ah back to .27
Neurosis.

Watching the NHK stream of the current press conference. I'm not reassured by any of the answers.
 
Checking out readings of background radiation and the crazy US panic inducing news. It's actually currently more radioactive in Boulder Colorado than Tokyo.
 
Yes, background radiation varies considerably at different locations around the globe.

Its probably misleading to focus only on the current reading though, an important question is 'what is causing the higher reading'. In this respect its levels of radioactive cesium, iodine etc that count for something. You dont want these things in your body, and they are usually not the reason why background radiation is higher in some parts of the world. The iodine has a pretty short half life, some of it will be gone by the time you go there, but one of the cesiums involved has a 30 year half-life.

Frankly its incredibly difficult to reach a balanced judgement on this sort of thing. The levels of such things are quite likely to remain on the low end in places like Tokyo, but how much is too much? Perhaps the current magnitude of the risk in Tokyo is similar to other risks we may be exposed to during our lives, eg being in the same room as a smoker. If I was there right now I certainly wouldnt be dancing in the rain, and would probably be trying to avoid drinking tapwater. But we are talking about, at most, long term health complications at the moment, nothing that can do sort-term damage is known to be lurking very far away from the plant.
 
Oh if I press refresh a bit onthe webcam page I get an image, but as its almost dark there it doesnt reveal much of anything.
 
elbows said:
Yes, background radiation varies considerably at different locations around the globe.

Its probably misleading to focus only on the current reading though, an important question is 'what is causing the higher reading'. In this respect its levels of radioactive cesium, iodine etc that count for something. You dont want these things in your body, and they are usually not the reason why background radiation is higher in some parts of the world. The iodine has a pretty short half life, some of it will be gone by the time you go there, but one of the cesiums involved has a 30 year half-life.

Frankly its incredibly difficult to reach a balanced judgement on this sort of thing. The levels of such things are quite likely to remain on the low end in places like Tokyo, but how much is too much? Perhaps the current magnitude of the risk in Tokyo is similar to other risks we may be exposed to during our lives, eg being in the same room as a smoker. If I was there right now I certainly wouldnt be dancing in the rain, and would probably be trying to avoid drinking tapwater. But we are talking about, at most, long term health complications at the moment, nothing that can do sort-term damage is known to be lurking very far away from the plant.
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Thanks a helpful post.

Not sure what to do, but worrying about a two week trip to tokyo seems a little bit selfish when I have so many family and friends living there constantly. Still have not gotten any more word about our family in Miyagi other than the initial (second day) news that they were alive.
 
They are now saying that smoke has stopped from reactor 3 building. It might take a while before we find out more about this. I gotta go to work now so will be updating less frequently.
 
Reuters
- The World Health Organization said on Monday that radiation in food after an earthquake damaged a Japanese nuclear plant was more serious than previously thought, eclipsing signs of progress in a battle to avert a catastrophic meltdown in its reactors.
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Finnish nuclear autroritory STUK has informed Japanese nuclear authotorities that according their studies conducted 20 yrs ago using sea water for cooling in nuclear plants can be only temporary solution. As sea water boils, the saline liquid will condensate and eventually create salt crystals. If crystallation happens extensively, there will not be way of cooling down the reactors
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in Finnish: http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/teemat/ja...sesta_uusia_ongelmia_fukushimaan_2450186.html
 
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