Hamid Karimianpour

Pulling Out Immaturely!

The TEPCO boss may have had different things in mind. Many Japanese might say he knew about the disaster, so he may have wanted to save his company's employees.

Knowing how conniving some of these people are, I think with members of the Self Defense Forces already there and knowing about the scale of the disaster, he wanted to put all or, at least, some of the blame for whatever went wrong on the members of the SDF, later on.

vildemose

The situation at the reactor(s) has been worsening daily and as the scientist poited out, pouring water with a helicopter was like taking a squirt-gun to go to war.  We will see if the coolant sytems come back on line, but if a Chernobyl type accident happens here, it could cut off the Northern Japan due to nuclear fallout, notwithstanding the proximity of Tokyo to the Fukushima reactors and the calamity that will follow the fallout if the wind conditions are ripe.

Dept of nobody could hav forseen

"Never again tell us that all contingencies have been anticipated. As Union of Concerned Scientists Nuclear Safety Project Director David Lochbaum has said when asked if nuclear power plants in the United States are safe from man-made and natural disasters (paraphrasing): Yes. If there are no man-made or natural disasters."

• • • • •

//www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/18/948595/-Open-thread-for-night-owls:-Department-of-nobody-could-have-foreseen

I was surprised that the

I was surprised that the company wanted to withdraw all workers 3 days after the quake.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) told the government on March 14 that it wanted to withdraw all of its workers from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, it has been learned.

TEPCO's suggestion came two days after a cooling system failure caused by the March 11 quake and tsunami triggered a hydrogen blast at the plant's No. 1 reactor. Though Prime Minister Naoto Kan rejected the proposal, the finding suggests that the power company was aware from an early stage that damage at the plant could develop into a nuclear disaster exposing workers to high levels of radiation. It is believed that TEPCO was prepared to let Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military handle the situation.

Several government sources said that TEPCO officials told Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano and Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda over the phone that the company wanted to withdraw all of its workers. Both government officials turned down the requests and reported them to Kan.

//mdn.mainichi.jp/

MM jan:

As a crack is discovered in a Fukushima spent fuel pool, officials confront two crucial tasks: preventing a runaway chain reaction into the nuclear fuel and maintainin­g a massive flow of seawater through the damaged pools and reactor vessels..

In the long run, some experts believe the Fukushima plant will have to be entombed. Within about a month of the Chernobyl accident, workers began dumping more than 5,000 tons of sand and concrete on the burning reactor to snuff out the flames and prevent further release of radiation.

But there are major difference­s between the two facilities that could make it very difficult to carry out a similar operation in Japan.

Chernobyl'­s damaged reactor did not have a containmen­t vessel, but was exposed to the open air. It was thus imperative to encase the plant in concrete to prevent further escape of radioactiv­e ash.

The reactor cores at Fukushima, in contrast, are housed inside containmen­t vessels made of steel and concrete. One of those may have been cracked, but the evidence so far suggests the cracking is modest, at worst.

Ironically­, attempts to blanket those reactors with concrete at this point could wind up damaging the containmen­t vessels more severely, cracking them open and allowing more radiation to escape, experts said.

GR: Thank you for the

GR: Thank you for the informative post. It seems that  greed will do our own undoing in the end.

Vildemose:

The Japsnese have the wherewithals to do miracles, but so do many technologically advanced economies. Japan is run by an entrenched bureaucracy that is worse than anything you can imagine. I call these people mullahs without the turbans and the robes. Or IRGC members without the required beards. When someone complained about bribery in Iran, I told him they were lucky their bribes were accepted and their demands met. Here in Japan not everyone can pay bribes. It's a privilege reserved for those favored by the corrupt officials. So when any of these guys commits suicide, there's , normally, almost no sympathy towards them. In rare occasions, though, people sympathize with individuals who are used as scapegoats.

Here's one example: To construct Tokyo Beltway, it cost the taxpayers more than one million US dollars per meter. An 18-kilometer road cost ¥1.8 trillion.

Another example: In one prefecture(province/state) 98% of all prefectural projects were given to companies close to government officials through bid riggings. When people of that prefecture elected an honest governor, the central government and the Tokyo governor plotted against him and even tried to put him in jail.

That governor had reduced the prefecture's deficit for six years in a row and had stopped the bid rigging that was so common before him.

You may not believe it, but big companies may have already started entertaining the officials in order to take over the projects for the rebuilding.

Hass you might need this after the IRI is gone...

Here is an employment ad for the Nuclear Apologists and general baggerdom.
~~~
Please, we need to recruit internatio­nal workers to go Fukushima Daiichi plant. All expenses paid.

This is a once-in-a-­lifetime opportunit­y to support nuclear power and the world community of activists who know that we cannot live without nuclear energy.

Workers will be paid in the form of life insurance for loved ones or cash up front--you­r preference­. All meals included. Free airfare. Extra work up to the legal limit and then retire comfortabl­y.

All of our workers will be given lead-threa­ded suits, breathing apparatus, and full-body monitors.

EOE

Tepco Temps
TEPCOTEMPS­.COM

A link regarding the

A link regarding the horrible deaths and mutations caused by 3 Mile Island.

www.common­dreams.org­/view/2009­/03/24-3

Fusion in 4 years & $200

//www­.emc2fusio­n.org
 

Crocodiles tears, GR. I did

Crocodiles tears, GR. I did not know how corrupt the Japanese gov't had been. However, if something like this had happened in IRI's Iran, thousands of people would have died not because of nuclear disaster but because of earthquake. In Japan, almost most of the buildings withstood a 9 magnitude earthquake but in Iran even a 6 or 5 magnitude could result in so much death and destruction because the IRI does not care about human life; only stealing and investing in brutal apparatus of oppression and suppression of its own citizens and others they deem as mofesed fel araz.

Washing Sins With Blood!

Not many Japanese believe TEPCO boss's tears. Most Japanese would tell you he is more concerned about his own neck than those who died or would eventually die. Japanese are very practical people. He'll be used as a scapegoat by the corrupt Japanese officials. He'll probably be forced to resign and either ordered to die or getting zero support from anyone, he may end his own life. It is not uncommon among Japanese to wash their "sins" with blood. It's a cruel world out there. 

What stopped this boss to come out and let the world know about the scale of the disaster? Didn't he at least owe it to the people of Japan to tell the truth from day one?

If one were to believe this guy's tears, then one could easily believe the tears Khomeini shed for those killed in the war, while ordering massacres after massacres of Iranians, many in early teens.

Michio Kaku thinks its time to exercise Chernobyl option

Michio Kaku, a Japanese-American physicist at City University of New York and a host at the Science channel suggested that its time to call the Air Force to bury the disaster in a mixture of concrete, sand and boric acid.  This technique, know as entombment, was first ordered by the Soviet Premier, M. Gorbachev, to contain Chernobyl in 1986, and it worked.  Looks like the Japanese are starting to sing similar toones.

He also thought that this is a worse accident than the 3-Mile Island nuclear facility since there are 4 reactors under stress in this case. 

//www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/03/18/exp.arena.japan.nuclear.chernobyl.cnn?iref=allsearch

TEPCO Chief WEPT!

 The moment nuclear plant chief WEPT as Japanese finally admit that radiation leak is serious enough to kill people

The boss of the company behind the devastated Japanese nuclear reactor today broke down in tears - as his country finally acknowledged the radiation spewing from the over-heating reactors and fuel rods was enough to kill some citizens

//www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1367684/Nuclear-plant-chief-weeps-Japanese-finally-admit-radiation-leak-kill-people.html

Senate Committee Hearing Japanese Nuclear Crisis

those who have not had the opportunity to see this:

C-SPAN

Washington, DC
Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) chaired a Senate Environment Committee meeting to receive a briefing on the implications of the developing nuclear crisis in Japan for the United States.  

Witnesses included Gregory Jaczko, Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Edwin Lyman, Senior Scientist for Global Security at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Updated: Thursday at 10:42am (ET)

//www.c-span.org/Events/Senate-Environment-Committee-Hearing-on-Japanese-Nuclear-Crisis/10737420265-1/

Barbar boxer took jackzko apart. :)

"The world is past the point

Thank you GR.The issue

Thank you GR.

The issue is whether the nuclear power is worth the irreversible consequences for Iran or the world. It only takes one time failure and the consequences are irreversible for the planet.

Japan is reconsidering NPP. Japan is the third most industrialized country in the world with the GDP of almost close to the United States. If they have come to the conclusion that NPP are not worh it after this catasrophe, I think IRI and their nuclear cheerleaders should just keep quiet.

Quoting Enemy's Scientist Is Hypocritical!

For Iranians the safety factor of the nuclear energy reactors is not of primary importance. The most important issue is that Iranians don't want the mullahs and their goons in power. Now, bringing in some quote by somebody who at some point and for some unknown reasons has said something about Iran's nuclear reactors which might somehow be interpreted as positive, is not only hypocritical but irrelevant. According to the regime and its supporters, the US or the Great Satan is Iran's enemy number one. Therefore, as a regime supporter, it is extremely hypocritical to quote an American scientist. How can Iranians trust an "enemy?" When was the last time Iranians' "enemies" cared about their interests?

Behind the Hydrogen

Behind the Hydrogen Explosion at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant
by Karl Grossman

Eruption of hydrogen gas as a first reaction in a loss-of-coolant accident has been discussed with great worry in U.S. government and nuclear industry literature for decades.

That is because a highly volatile substance called zirconium was chosen back in the 1940’s and 50’s, when plans were first developed to build nuclear power plants, as the material to be used to make the rods into which radioactive fuel would be loaded.

There are 30,000 to 40,000 rods—composed of twenty tons of zirconium—in an average nuclear power plant. Many other substances were tried, particularly stainless steel, but only zirconium worked well. That’s because zirconium, it was found, allows neutrons from the fuel pellets in the rods to pass freely between the rods and thus a nuclear chain reaction to be sustained.

But there’s a huge problem with zirconium—it is highly volatile and when hot will explode spontaneously upon contact with air, water or steam.,,,

But in a nuclear plant, we’re not talking about specks—but tons and tons of zirconium, put together as a compound called “zircaloy” that clads tens of thousands of fuel rods.,,,"

//www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/12-3

Neither Chernobyl or TMI

.S. and Tokyo Spar on Depth

.S. and Tokyo Spar on Depth of Crisis
MARCH 18, 2011.

WASHINGTON­­—U.S. officials stood by their dire warnings about the risks posed by radiation leaking from a crippled Japanese nuclear complex, but after challenges from Japanese regulators conceded their informatio­­n is "inconclus­­ive."

U.S. officials said Thursday they were ramping up their ability to collect their own informatio­­n about radiation levels and the condition of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The Energy Department has delivered to Japan what officials called "pods" with radiation detecting sensors. A military drone aircraft and a U2 spy plane are flying missions over the plant to gather data.

Concern among U.S. officials about the reliabilit­­y of informatio­­n coming from the Japanese government during the unfolding calamity has risen dramatical­­ly in recent days, say administra­­tion officials. U.S. officials are concerned they may not be getting the full picture of what is happening on the ground....

//onl­ine.wsj.co­m/article/­SB10001424­0527487043­6040457620­7060431170­834.html?m­od=WSJ_art­icle_Lates­tHeadlines

, from President

"Second, I know that many Americans are also worried about the potential risks to the United States. So I want to be very clear: We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the United States, whether it’s the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska, or U.S. territorie­s in the Pacific. Let me repeat that: We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska, or U.S. territorie­s in the Pacific. That is the judgment of our Nuclear Regulatory Commission and many other experts.

Furthermor­e, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and public health experts do not recommend that people in the United States take precaution­¬ary measures beyond staying informed. And going forward, we will continue to keep the American people fully updated -- because I believe that you must know what I know as President.­¬"

//www­.whitehous­e.gov/the-­press-offi­ce/2011/03­/17/remark­s-presiden­t-situatio­n-japan

Learn to Read?

LOL: HASS

Are you saying nuclear technology is safe??

Nobody is comparing Bushehr to Charnobyl. You're engaging in safstateh by bringinging irrelevant information into the topic.

Noone is comparing Japan nuclear crisis to Chernobyl either. It's you and only you who cannot read.

Stop lying about Bushehr

Chernobyl and Bushehr have nothing in common.

 //www.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-2009-06-09-voa55-68818137.html

Senior nuclear scientist Upendra Rohatgi at the U.S. government's Brookhaven National Labs in New York is highly familiar with the Russian reactor.

"The VVER-1000 is the latest Russian design, which is equal to western designs for pressurized water reactors. They all have the same safety systems, VVER and the western side [designs], and they all have very good containment systems," he said.

Another important design criteria for nuclear reactors, especially in countries such as Iran, is resistance to earthquakes. Muhammad Sahimi at the University of Southern California says this was carefully considered.

"The first thing the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran did was extensive studies in terms of the safety of a nuclear reactor from the perspective of earthquakes. Usually, a nuclear reactor is built in an area where the possibility of a major earthquake is very small. As far as I know, there is no major active fault in southern Iran where the Bushehr reactor has been built," he said.

Tue Mar 15, 2011 at 11:15

Tue Mar 15, 2011 at 11:15 AM PDT

//www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/15/956655/-UPDATES:-Chernobyl-expert-smacks-Japan-and-mocks-IAEAGE-reactor-design-flaw-Germany-shuts-down-7

The Chernobyl Option is being considered, finally

 concrete sarcophagu­s will probably be required to contain the radiation.

Don't forget that the one @ Chenobyl has been rebuilt and is in need of rebuilding again (the radiation eventually destroys the integrity of the concrete).

AND... The Chernobyl reactor has not burned it's way down to the water table -- yet.

The atmospheri­c radiation containmen­t by a concrete sarcophagu­s is not a complete "fix"

I wonder how long the concrete would last between the radiation and the salt air from the ocean. Also, how long would it take for the reactor to burn it's way down to the water level?

Hopefully the rods can be cooled enough to stop reacting; then a sarcophagu­s can be erected.
In the meantime; the radiation is spewing.

//cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/17/6290171-is-it-time-for-the-chernobyl-option

What's funny in this

What's funny in this situation is the people who wait for what their government­s say before doing anything.

So what? Now that's level 5...ok,may­be we should leave now. @ first they put people 12 miles away from the nuclear collapsed area...Oh no! Now it's reached 18miles...­so...

I'm glad the US reacted the right way and said 50 miles and even sent their own planes to inspect the situation instead of relying on what the Japanese have to say.

Come on it's obvious that to avoid panic, people would be economical with the truth (just to borrow a British expression­) in situations like this .

That's a bit ironic that developped countries would urge their citizens to leave another developped country (the then 3rd most developped ;mind you) and even send planes to pick them up....just as they did recently in Tunisia,Eg­ypt and Libya and more war torn third world countries.

Latest

Latest updates:

//iranian.com/main/blog/vildemose/japan-raises-severity-nuclear-accident

The radiation in West Coast USA is Here

The Comprehens­ive Test Ban Treaty Organizati­on (CTBTO), a Vienna-bas­ed independen­t body for monitoring possible breaches of the test ban, has more than 60 stations around the world, including one in Sacramento in California­.

Asked if they were believed to originate from the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, which has leaked radioactiv­ity since being damaged by last week's massive earthquake and tsunami, he said: "That is the obvious assumption­."

//www­.reuters.c­om/article­/2011/03/1­8/us-japan­-quake-ctb­to-radiati­on-idUSTRE­72G26T2011­0318