Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Incident On April 12th

AMY GOODMAN: Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan tried Tuesday to calm fears about radiation levels and food safety in the region around the heavily damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant. His comments came after Japan raised the severity rating of its nuclear crisis to the highest possible level, heightening concerns about the magnitude of the disaster.

Speaking at a news conference to mark one month since the massive earthquake and tsunami devastated the northeastern coast of the country, Japanese Prime Minister Kan said produce from the region around the Fukushima plant is safe to eat despite radiation leaks.

PRIME MINISTER NAOTO KAN: [translated] From now on, people should not fall into an extreme self-restraint mood, and they should live life as normal. To consume products from the areas that have been affected is also a way in which to support the area. We should enjoy the use of such products and support the areas that have been affected. I ask you to do this.

AMY GOODMAN: A spokesperson for the International Atomic Energy Agency said the latest food sample data indicates levels of contamination are below the limits set by domestic authorities. Denis Flory, IAEA spokesperson, also said yesterday Japan’s nuclear crisis was not comparable to Chernobyl.

DENIS FLORY: The mechanics of the accidents are totally different. One happened when a reactor was at power, and the reactor containment exploded. In Fukushima, the reactor was stopped, and the containment, even if it may be somehow leaking today—and we do not know—the containment is here. So this is a totally different accident.

AMY GOODMAN: Japanese officials said they raised the severity level to 7 because of the total release of radiation at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, not because of a sudden deterioration in the situation. The 1986 Chernobyl disaster is the only other nuclear accident rated at the highest level, 7, on a scale developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency to assess nuclear accidents. But officials insist so far the power plant in Japan has released one-tenth as much radioactive material as Chernobyl.

To discuss the situation in Japan, as well as his latest book, we’re joined by Dr. Michio Kaku, a Japanese American physicist, a bestselling author, professor of theoretical physics at City University of New York and the City College of New York. His brand new book is Physics of the Future: How Science Will Change Daily Life by 2100.

Welcome to Democracy Now! It’s great to see you again.

DR. MICHIO KAKU: Glad to be on the show, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about this raising of the category level to 7, on a par with Chernobyl.

DR. MICHIO KAKU: Well, Tokyo Electric has been in denial, trying to downplay the full impact of this nuclear accident. However, there’s a formula, a mathematical formula, by which you can determine what level this accident is. This accident has already released something on the order of 50,000 trillion becquerels of radiation. You do the math. That puts it right smack in the middle of a level 7 nuclear accident. Still, less than Chernobyl. However, radiation is continuing to leak out of the reactors. The situation is not stable at all. So, you’re looking at basically a ticking time bomb. It appears stable, but the slightest disturbance—a secondary earthquake, a pipe break, evacuation of the crew at Fukushima—could set off a full-scale meltdown at three nuclear power stations, far beyond what we saw at Chernobyl.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about exactly—I mean, as a physicist, to explain to people—exactly what has taken place in Japan at these nuclear power plants.

DR. MICHIO KAKU: Think of driving a car, and the car all of a sudden lunges out of control. You hit the brakes. The brakes don’t work. That’s because the earthquake wiped out the safety systems in the first minute of the earthquake and tsunami. Then your radiator starts to heat up and explodes. That’s the hydrogen gas explosion. And then, to make it worse, the gas tank is heating up, and all of a sudden your whole car is going to be in flames. That’s the full-scale meltdown.

So what do you do? You drive the car into a river. That’s what the utility did by putting seawater, seawater from the Pacific Ocean, in a desperate attempt to keep water on top of the core. But then, seawater has salt in it, and that gums up your radiator. And so, what do you do? You call out the local firemen. And so, now you have these Japanese samurai warriors. They know that this is potentially a suicide mission. They’re coming in with hose water—hose water—trying to keep water over the melted nuclear reactor cores. So that’s the situation now. So, when the utility says that things are stable, it’s only stable in the sense that you’re dangling from a cliff hanging by your fingernails. And as the time goes by, each fingernail starts to crack. That’s the situation now.

AMY GOODMAN: What about the food, the level of contamination of the food? They are increasingly banning food exports.

DR. MICHIO KAKU: The tragedy is, this accident has released enormous quantities of iodine, radioactive iodine-131, into the atmosphere, like what happened at Chernobyl, about 10 percent the level of Chernobyl. Iodine is water soluble. When it rains, it gets into the soil. Cows then eat the vegetation, create milk, and then it winds up in the milk. Farmers are now dumping milk right on their farms, because it’s too radioactive. Foods have to be impounded in the area.

And let’s be blunt about this: would you buy food that says "Made in Chernobyl"? And the Japanese people are also saying, "Should I buy food that says 'Made in Fukushima'?" We’re talking about the collapse of the local economy. Just because the government tries to lowball all the numbers, downplay the severity of the accident, and that’s making it much worse.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you think has to be done now? I mean, one of the biggest problems is secrecy, both with the Tokyo company that runs the plants and also the government, the constant downplaying from the beginning. And yet, there are so many people who have been evacuated, who are demanding compensation. There was just a major protest at TEPCO with the people in the area who have been evaluated—no jobs, no money—saying, "We demand compensation."

DR. MICHIO KAKU: Well, TEPCO is like the little Dutch boy. All of a sudden we have cracks in the dike. You put a finger here, you put a finger there. And all of a sudden, new leaks start to occur, and they’re overwhelmed.

I suggest that they be removed from leadership entirely and be put as consultants. An international team of top physicists and engineers should take over, with the authority to use the Japanese military. I think the Japanese military is the only organization capable of bringing this raging accident under control. And that’s what Gorbachev did in 1986. He saw this flaming nuclear power station in Chernobyl. He called out the Red Air Force. He called out helicopters, tanks, armored personnel carriers, and buried the Chernobyl reactor in 5,000 tons of cement, sand and boric acid. That’s, of course, a last ditch effort. But I think the Japanese military should be called out.

AMY GOODMAN: To do...?

DR. MICHIO KAKU: Because of the fact that the radiation levels are so great, workers can only go in for perhaps 10 minutes, 15 minutes at a time, and they get their year’s dose of radiation. You’re there for one hour, and you have radiation sickness. You vomit. Your white corpuscle count goes down. Your hair falls out. You’re there for a day, and you get a lethal amount of radiation. At Chernobyl, there were 600,000 people mobilized, each one going in for just a few minutes, dumping sand, concrete, boric acid onto the reactor site. Each one got a medal. That’s what it took to bring one raging nuclear accident under control. And I think the utility here is simply outclassed and overwhelmed.

AMY GOODMAN: And yet, these workers are in for much longer periods of time.

DR. MICHIO KAKU: That’s right. And we don’t even know how much radiation levels they’re getting, because many areas around the site have no monitors. So we don’t even know how much radiation many of these workers are getting. And that’s why I’m saying, if you have access to the military, you can have the option of sandbagging the reactor, encasing it in concrete, or at least have a reserve of troops that can go in for brief periods of times and bring this monster under control.

AMY GOODMAN: What about the evacuation zone? Is it big enough?

DR. MICHIO KAKU: It’s pathetic. The United States government has already stated 50 miles for evacuating U.S. personnel. The French government has stated that all French people should consider leaving the entire islands. And here we are with a government talking about six miles, 10 miles, 12 miles. And the people there are wondering, "What’s going on with the government? I mean, why aren’t they telling us the truth?" Radiation levels are now rising 25 miles from the site, far beyond the evacuation zone. And remember that we could see an increase in leukemia. We could see an increase in thyroid cancers. That’s the inevitable consequence of releasing enormous quantities of iodine into the environment.

AMY GOODMAN: What has to happen to the plant ultimately?

DR. MICHIO KAKU: Well, in the best-case scenario—this is the scenario devised by the utility itself—they hope to bring it under control by the end of this year. By the end of this year, they hope to have the pumps working, and the reaction is finally stabilized by the end of this year.

AMY GOODMAN: Oddly, it’s sounding a little bit like BP when they were trying to plug up the hole.

DR. MICHIO KAKU: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: "It will happen. It will happen."

DR. MICHIO KAKU: They’re literally making it up as they go along. We’re in totally uncharted territories. You get any nuclear engineering book, look at the last chapter, and this scenario is not contained in the last chapter of any nuclear engineering textbook on the planet earth. So they’re making it up as they go along. And we are the guinea pigs for this science experiment that’s taking place. Then it could take up to 10 years, up to 10 years to finally dismantle the reactor. The last stage is entombment. This is now the official recommendation of Toshiba, that they entomb the reactor over a period of many years, similar to what happened in Chernobyl.

AMY GOODMAN: Entomb it in...?

DR. MICHIO KAKU: In a gigantic slab of concrete. You’re going to have to drill underneath to make sure that the core does not melt right into the ground table. And you’re going to put 5,000 tons of concrete and sand on top of the flaming reactor.

AMY GOODMAN: Should people be concerned about any food that says "From Japan"?

DR. MICHIO KAKU: Not from Japan. But remember, in the area, the sea, we’re talking about levels that are millions of times beyond legal levels found right there. However, as you start to get out further, radiation levels drop rather considerably.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to talk about policy in this country. I mean, we are now seeing happening in Japan this horrific event. Japan was the target of the dawn of the Nuclear Age, right?

DR. MICHIO KAKU: Mm-hmm.

AMY GOODMAN: The U.S. dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima, Nagasaki. Your own family mirrors the history of the Nuclear Age. Can you talk just briefly about that, before we talk about current U.S. policy?

DR. MICHIO KAKU: Yeah, first of all, I have relatives in Tokyo, and they’re wondering about evacuation. In fact, some of my relatives have already evacuated from Tokyo. They have little children. And radiation has already appeared in the drinking water in Tokyo. And so, people are wondering, you know, especially for young children, for pregnant women, should they leave. People are voting with their feet now. A lot of people are voluntarily evacuating from Tokyo, because they simply don’t believe the statements of the utility, which have consistently lowballed all the estimates of radiation damage.

AMY GOODMAN: And, though, in the past, in terms of your own family’s history, your parents, being interned in the Japanese American internment camps?

DR. MICHIO KAKU: That’s right. In California, my parents were interned in the relocation camps from 1942 to 1946, four years where they were put essentially behind barbed wire and machine guns, under the supervision of the United States military.

AMY GOODMAN: And yet, you became a nuclear physicist, interestingly enough, and you worked with the people who made the atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan.

DR. MICHIO KAKU: Yeah. In fact, my high school adviser was Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb. And he arranged for me to get a scholarship to Harvard, in fact, and that began my career as a nuclear scientist. And Edward Teller, of course, wanted me to work on the Star Wars program. He put a lot of pressure and said, "Look, we’ll give you fellowships, scholarships. Go to Los Alamos National Laboratory, Livermore National Laboratory. Design hydrogen bombs." But I said no. I said, "I cannot see my expertise being used to advance the cause of war."

AMY GOODMAN: And you’ve been very outspoken when it comes to nuclear power in the United States. This, of course, has raised major issues about nuclear power plants around the world, many countries saying they’re not moving forward. President Obama is taking the opposite position. He really is very much the nuclear renaissance man. He is talking about a nuclear renaissance and has not backed off, in fact reiterated, saying this will not stop us from building the first nuclear power plants in, what, decades.

DR. MICHIO KAKU: Well, there’s something called a Faustian bargain. Faust was this mythical figure who sold his soul to the devil for unlimited power. Now, the Japanese government has thrown the dice with a Faustian bargain. Japan has very little fossil fuel reserves, no hydroelectric power to speak of, and so they went nuclear. However, in the United States, we’re now poised, at this key juncture in history, where the government has to decide whether to go to the next generation of reactors. These are the so-called gas-cooled pebble bed reactors, which are safer than the current design, but they still melt down. The proponents of this new renaissance say that you can go out to dinner and basically have a leisurely conversation even as your reactor melts down. But it still melts. That’s the bottom line.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, what do you think should happen? Do you think nuclear power plants should be built in this country?

DR. MICHIO KAKU: I think there should be a national debate, a national debate about a potential moratorium. The American people have not been given the full truth, because, for example, right north of New York City, roughly 30 miles north of where we are right now, we have the Indian Point nuclear power plant, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has now admitted that of all the reactors prone to earthquakes, the one right next to New York City is number one on that list. And the government itself, back in 1980, estimated that property damage would be on the order of about $200 billion in case of an accident, in 1980 dollars, at the Indian Point nuclear power station.

AMY GOODMAN: No private corporation could even build a nuclear power plant: you have to have the taxpayers footing the bill.

DR. MICHIO KAKU: You have to have what is called the Price-Anderson Act, having the United States government guarantee the insurance. Nobody will guarantee—nobody will sell an insurance policy for a nuclear power plant, because who can afford a $200 billion accident? That’s why the United States government has underwritten the insurance for every nuclear power plant. So the Price-Anderson Act is an act of Congress that mandates the U.S. government, the taxpayers, will underwrite the insurance, because nuclear power stations are not insurable.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Dr. Michio Kaku. We’re going to go to break, and when we come back, we want to ask him about, well, his new book, Physics of the Future: How Science Will Change Daily Life by 2100. What would be a day in the life of the future? Is it possible that, oh, the internet can be in your contact lens, that cars will drive themselves? Just what we’ll ask Dr. Kaku when we come back. Stay with us.

Water Transfers, Remote-Controlled Debris Clearing Underway at Fukushima Daiichi

Nuclear Street News Team 

Mon, Apr 11 2011 6:10 AM 

Crews successfully moved water from Fukushima Daiichi unit 2’s condenser to a condensate storage tank over the weekend, allowing them to begin pumping water from the unit’s basement into the condenser in a bid to lower radiation levels.

Work was underway Sunday to begin transferring 3,000 tons of water in trenches and the basement of unit 2 where dose readings have delayed repair work on the reactor for days. While the highest readings have been found at unit 2, the basements of units 1 and 3 also are filled with irradiated water. Some 60,000 tons in total will be pumped into condensers, a waste storage building where low-level radioactive water has been drained into the sea and an off-site storage container that has yet to arrive.

In a bid to reduce radiation levels outside the reactor buildings, heavy machinery operated by remote control also was deployed over the weekend, Kyodo reported Tokyo Electric Power Co. as saying.  The equipment will secure debris between units 2 and 3 and the west side of unit 3 where dose levels have been recorded at several hundred millisieverts per hour.

Inside the reactors damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported the temperature of the feed water nozzle of unit 1 at 235 C and the bottom of the structure at 120 C. The temperature at unit 2’s feed water nozzle was 145 C. Unit 3’s nozzle measured 97 C with a reading of 109 C at the bottom of the vessel. Temperatures below 95 C indicate cold shutdown, according to the IAEA.

Just up the coast from Fukushima, regulators were also busy inspecting the Onagawa nuclear plant following another earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan Thursday. The IAEA reported over the weekend that all external power has been restored at the plant. Three liters of water spilled from one of the plant’s spent fuel tanks. The spill and associated radiation were confined to the reactor building and subsequently cleaned up.

(Photo: Tsunami damage is evident in one of Fukushima Daiichi's main buildings. Source: TEPCO)

Japan, earthquake, Tokyo Electric Power Co., Fukushima Daiichi, crisis

Nuclear Protest Photos

Austria People demonstrate during a public summer party calling on authorities to switch off atomic power plants in front of the International Center where the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, has it's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Saturday, April 9, 2011. Poster at right reads: Finally Switch Off. Poster at left: Nuclear Power, Booh. (Ronald Zak)

Brazil People holding hands march during an anti nuclear protest at Leblon beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday March 27, 2011. (Felipe Dana)

Britain Peace protestor Nina Carter-Brown, 26, passes a line of police during a protest outside the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, England, Monday Feb. 15, 2010, where warheads for Britain's submarine-based Trident missiles are made. According to the organizers, hundreds of people took part in the protest, including two Nobel Peace Prize winners - Jody Williams, who led a campaign to ban land mines, and Mairead Maguire, who led a campaign to end violence in Northern Ireland.(Barry)

Bulgaria Demonstrators take part in an anti nuclear protest in Sofia, Saturday, March 19, 2011. The protesters gathered to demand the shutdown of Bulgarian nuclear power station and suspension of the plans for construction of a new power plant in Belene, Bulgaria. The poster reads BeleNE (No to Belene nuclear power plant). (Valentina Petrova)

Cyprus Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot environmental activists wearing masks and white overalls protest against Turkey's plans to build a nuclear power plant on its southern coast during a demonstration in the divided island's capital Nicosia, on Saturday, March 19, 2011. Environmentalists say the site where the proposed plant will be built sits near an seismic fault line and could pose a danger to Cyprus 100 kilometers (62 miles) away as well as other neighboring countries.(Philippos Chris)

France A demonstrator wears a gas during an anti-nuclear protest in Paris, Sunday March 20, 2011. Fueled by the nuclear crisis unfolding in Japan following the country's earthquake, demonstrators are demanding that France end its dependence on nuclear power. (Thibault Camus)

Germany Anti nuclear demonstrators march in Cologne, western Germany Saturday March 26, 2011 to protest against nuclear power. Poster in front reads: Fukushima warns: Pull the Plug on all Nuclear Power Plants. White banner behind reads : 'Solidarity with the people in Japan'. Some 200,000 people turned out in Germany's largest cities on Saturday to protest against the use of nuclear power in the wake of Japan's Fukushima reactor disaster, police and organizers said.

India An Indian protester belonging to the Anti-Nuclear Struggles Solidarity Forum holds a photo of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster during anti-nuclear protest, in New Delhi, India, Friday, March 25, 2011. Nearly 100 protesters marched to India's parliament on Friday demanding that the government give up plans to set up a large number of nuclear power reactors, underscoring the nuclear crisis in Japan. (Manish Swarup)

Indonesia An Indonesian environmental activist holds a portrait of a victim of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster during an anti-nuclear protest marking its 24th anniversary outside The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, April 26, 2010. (Dita Alangkara)

Israel Greenpeace activists place a huge banner on a light rail bridge at the entrance to Jerusalem, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2011. Greenpeace activists protested Sunday against the country's plans to build a new coal-fueled power plant in southern Israel. (Sebastian Scheiner)

Italy A giant Greenpeace banner reading in English and Italian "Stop nuclear madness'' is unrolled from the "Squared Colosseum", also known as the Palazzo della Civilta' Italiana (Palace of the Italian Civilization), reflected in a lake, in Rome's EUR district, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010. As the sun rose Tuesday over the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini's palace, four members of the pro-environment group used ropes to reach the top in a protest against the possible construction of nuclear power plants.

Japan Protesters hold placards against nuclear power plant as they took to the streets in a rally against nuclear power and its development, in Tokyo, on Sunday, April 10, 2011, after a devastative earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex in northeastern Japan last month. (Itsuo Inouye)

Malaysia Protesters hold a banner during an anti-nuclear protest in Port Klang, outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Sunday, April 3, 2011. Some 30 protesters joined an anti-nuclear protest on Sunday, calling for the government to drop plan to build two nuclear power plants by 2022. The red words at the bottom read "Caution! Radiation effects." (Lai Seng Sin)

Mexico A Greenpeace activist hangs in back of an anti-nuclear sign in front of Mexico's Energy Secretariat (Sener) during a protest in Mexico City, Thursday March 31, 2011. The sign reads in Spanish, "Nuclear? No, Thanks!" (Alexandre Meneghini)

Philippines Tribal Filipinos and environmental activists burn a caricature of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III during a rally near the Presidential Palace in Manila, Philippines, Thursday, March 3, 2011, to coincide with the 16th anniversary of the Mining Act of 1995 which liberalized the country's mining industry and allegedly allowed 100-percent ownership by foreign corporations of mineral lands and mining operations.

Russia Several members of liberal Yabloko party hold a poster, showing a map with a route of nuclear waste from Germany to Russian Urals Mountains, as they picket at the Germany Embassy in Moscow on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010. Protesters demanded a ban on nuclear waste transfer from Germany to Russia for an utilization. (Sergey Ponomarev)

South Korea South Korean environmentalists stage a protest aboard a boat calling for the closure of the outdated Wolsung reactor and opposing the construction of a new reactor on seas off Wolsung Nuclear Power Plant in Gyeongju, South Korea, Wednesday, March 23, 2011. Fears over possible radiation contamination are growing in South Korea, the country closest to Japan, after Japanese nuclear power plants were damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.(Yonhap, Lee Sung-hyung) KOREA OUT

Spain A Greenpeace protester adjusts her gas mask outside Spain's Industry Ministry in Madrid Wednesday Sept. 22, 2010 against a planned nuclear dump. Various Spanish towns have volunteered to host a nuclear waste dump that is becoming a hot potato for the government. Spain has eight nuclear reactors that provide 19 percent of the country's electricity. Banners read 'No to the Nuclear cemetery' (Paul White)

Sweden A policeman apprehends a Greenpeace activist after he was prevented from entering the Forsmark nuclear power plant, North of Stockhollm, Monday, June 14, 2010. Police say they arrested around 50 activists after they entered a power plant in central Sweden as part of a Greenpeace protest against the use of nuclear energy. Greenpeace says the activists were staging a protest Monday against government plans to allow new nuclear power stations to be built in Sweden.(Bertil Ericson)

Switzerland People demonstrate against nuclear power plants, in Geneva, Switzerland, Saturday, March 26, 2011. The demonstration is in reaction to the nuclear power plant destruction after the recent earthquake followed by a tsunami in Japan. (Martial Trezzini)

Taiwan A Taiwanese, wearing a headband with Chinese characters (reversed) that read, "Anti-nuclear, Save Taiwan," holds a lily and prays for victims of last Friday's earthquake and tsunami in Japan during a protest for antinuclear in front of the Executive Yuan, Thursday, March 17, 2011, in Taipei, Taiwan.(Chiang Ying-ying)

Turkey A woman walks past Greenpeace activists as they display symbolic mock-ups of traditional Russian matryoshka dolls with the image of Russian Prime Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, during their protest in Ankara, Turkey Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009. The activists gathered to protest against Putin's offer to help Turkey build nuclear power plants, hours before Putin is scheduled to arrive in Ankara. (Burhan Ozbilici)

United States Demonstrators outside the federal courthouse in Tacoma pray before a sentencing hearing for the Rev.Bill Bichsel, of Tacoma; the Rev. Stephen Kelly of Oakland, Calif.; Lynne Greenwald of Tacoma; Sister Anne Montgomery of Redwood City, Calif.; and Susan Crane of Baltimore Monday, March 28, 2011. The five cut through fences in November 2009 to reach the weapons storage area at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor where they put up banners, scattered sunflower seeds and prayed to protest submarine nuclear weapons

~ Link to all of Fairewindes videos ~

http://www.fairewinds.com/multimedia

Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gundersen demonstrates How Fukushima's Fuel Rods Melted and Shattered

Fairewinds' Chief Nuclear Engineer, Arnie Gundersen, conducts a field demonstration simulating the impact of Fukushima's intense heat upon Zircaloy [zirconium alloy] fuel rods. Gundersen's demonstration shows that intense heat weakens and embrittles Zircaloy changing it from a sturdy metal to a brittle oxide that is easily shattered. Images from the post accident Three Mile Island nuclear core show embrittled and broken Zircaloy fuel rods in the nuclear reactor.

Limiting the flow of information on TEPCO, NRC and the nuke industry

Closing Ranks: The NRC, the Nuclear Industry, and TEPCO are Limiting the Flow of Information

;

Arnie Gundersen discusses inconstancies between what the NRC, TEPCo, and the 
Nuclear Industry are saying privately and publicly. Documents from the french 
nuclear firm, Areva, and the NRC reveal what the industry knows about the 
Fukushima disaster.

Transcript:\

Hi, I’m Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates, and it’s Wednesday, April 6th.

In my previous update I talked about the possibility of an inadvertent criticality 
occurring at Fukushima [Unit] 1. That was based on four things. It was based 
on a neutron beam being detected thirteen times; it was based on the 
presence of chlorine-38; it was based on tellurium-129 being detected; 
and it was based on iodine-131 and [iodine]-132 being detected. Since 
I made that update to you, TEPCO, Tokyo Electric, has pulled the report
 upon which I based it. They, uh, the tellurium data, they say, is no longer accurate. 
When you’re in a mode like Tokyo Electric is in, you would hope that the 
information you’re using is accurate. That’s a serious concern: that 
inaccurate information is being used in decision making at TEPCO. 
This isn’t the only time; there’s a couple of these instances. When the neutron 
beam came out, TEPCO denied that despite the fact that the quote was from 
their own spokesman. There was a report of incredibly high radiation in the 
ocean, and TEPCO denied that and lowered the report [to an amount that was] 
still incredibly high, but a hundred times lower. And Dr. Richard Lahey, a General 
Electric scientist of great renown, was quoted [as saying] that Unit 2 had had 
a meltdown. Again, TEPCO denied that. So I guess I’m concerned about, 
one, the reliability of information coming out of TEPCO, but also that the 
information that’s happening in private at TEPCO is not being relayed to the public.

It’s not just TEPCO that this is occurring with. Today the New York Times 
ran a story about a report circulated within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
[NRC] dating back to March 26 where the NRC staff has identified significant 
problems and dangers at Fukushima; basically, we’re not out of the woods yet. 
The problems that the staff is aware of, but not really sharing with Congress 
or the general public, include the fact that there’s an awful lot of mud inside 
this nuclear reactor. Now, we’ve been talking about that for a week or more 
because of the seawater that’s been injected into the reactor. It’s not coming out, 
and it’s building up inside. The NRC is concerned about that too, they just didn’t
tell you and I. They’re concerned that the weight of the building, with all this water 
in it, might make it unstable in the case of an earthquake. They’re concerned that 
a re-criticality like we talked about last time might occur. They’re also concerned 
about hydrogen being recreated and another explosion occurring. And finally, 
they’re also concerned about plutonium which likely was ejected from the fuel 
pools during the explosions. The NRC believes that this plutonium was ejected 
several miles away from the reactor, and is also onsite and may have been 
bulldozed into the soil. Well, all of this is happening inside the NRC; 
they’re telling Congress, and you and I, that the situation is difficult, but under control.

It’s not just the NRC that’s saying this, it’s [also] large nuclear corporations, 
including one called Areva, which is a French nuclear conglomerate, probably 
one of the largest in the industry. As reported in the New York Times on 
March 23rd: there was an invitation-only meeting at Stanford University 
on the 21st of March, this is ten days after the accident, where Areva presented 
some pretty significant problems that the public was not being made aware of. 
We’ve been able to get a hold of the Areva report that was presented there. 
Now, the Areva report is pretty damning, but in fact there’s information in it that’s 
wrong. I will, next time, be discussing [the] problems with the Areva report that 
actually make the situation worse. The Areva report talks about the fact that it’s 
known that the nuclear fuel in all three reactors reached five thousand degrees 
[5,000 degrees Celsius]. That’s beyond the melting point of stainless steel, 
and beyond the melting point of zircalloy which means that a disintegration 
of the core is pretty obvious. The Areva report talks about Unit 2 in particular 
and identifies that the core, [correction] that the containment was breached by a 
hydrogen explosion. We look at Units 1, 3 and 4 and see the roofs blown off, 
and [Unit] 2 looks pretty good. What happened at Unit 2, though, was that the 
hydrogen built up inside then somehow ignited. It’s unknown why. Sort of like a
sneeze with your nose closed, you’re going to pop your eardrums. Well, that’s 
what happened at Unit 2, but it likely breached the containment. Areva and the 
nuclear industry know that, and really haven’t been sharing it with us.

The other thing that the Areva report talks about is that they recommend control 
of crops and dairy products out to fifty kilometers (50 km). That’s about thirty miles 
(30 mi.) away from the plant. That means that they believe that radiation has exceeded 
well beyond what the emergency evacuation zone is, and that both crops and 
dairy products may be contaminated.

Areva also spends a lot of time talking about Unit 4. That’s the one that has no fuel 
in the reactor, but exploded anyway. They basically said that this was a core 
melt in fresh air. The reason the core melted on Unit 4, Areva believes, is that 
the fuel pool cracked from the earthquake. So the water didn’t boil out of Unit 4 
like we’ve been led to believe. There was a crack in the fuel pool from the 
earthquake and now, with no water, a zircalloy-hydrogen reaction was inevitable.

The last thing that the Areva report notices is that, this was, probably the largest release is 
coming from Unit 4 because there’s no containment. And, they basically say that all of
the fission products can be volatilized.

Finally, industry insiders who are aware of the Areva presentation have told me that the 
person who presented the presentation said this, it’s almost an exact quote: “Clearly, 
we are witnessing one of the greatest disasters in modern time.” Well, in the
private meetings Areva is saying that this is a serious issue, but in public the nuclear
renaissance continues to move forward both within the nuclear industry and
within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

I will update you on this Areva report and identify the problems within it in 
my next presentation, but I wanted to let you know that I will be trying to 
filter out, from all of these sources, reliable information to pass on to you 
in the future.

Fairewinds Associates Inc.
http://www.fairewinds.com

Good roundup on the new quake (6.6) and radiation updates for today

y Al Jazeera Staff in

Asia

on April 11th, 2011.

[Photo by AFP]

Follow the latest events around the Pacific Rim after an 9.0-magnitude earthquake off Japan's coast triggered a devastating tsunami.

Blog: Mar11-12 - Mar13 - Mar14 - Mar15 - Mar16 - Mar17 - Mar18 - Mar19- Mar20- Mar21

(All times are local in Japan GMT+9)

9:06 p.m. Reuters reports that Tokto Electric Power Co. (the company which operates the damaged Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukoshima) might be on the hook for $23.6 bn in compensation costs. The news agency reports:

Shares of Tokyo Electric, commonly known as Tepco, have lost about three-fourths of their value since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami tore through the Fukoshima Daiichi nuclear complex, causing it to leak radiation.

...As Tepco has struggled to contain the crisis, analysts have struggled to come up with viable estimates for the financial burden facing the utility given the unprecedented scale of the problem and uncertainty over the likely degree of government support. 

7:45 p.m. The governmnet's decision to encourage families living in the 20-30 km zone outside the plant to evacuate has prompted anger and confusion . The AP news agency reports that up official insist that the area was safe, and yet, they're asking pregnant women and children under the age of three to leave, citing "long term exposure risks" to the radioactive fission materials leaking out of the unstable nuclear plant.

7:31 p.m. There are no irregularities resulting from today's quake reported at the Daiichi plant.

7:07 p.m. The Japanese government has expanded the evacuation zone around the troubled Daiichi plant in Fukoshima to the 20-30km radius outside the plant. It seems the earlier quake also played a role in the decision. Reuters news agency reports:

Japan on Monday expanded the evacuation zone around its crippled nuclear plant because of high levels of accumulated radiation, as a strong aftershock rattled the area one month after a quake and tsunami sparked the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
A magnitude 6.6 tremor shook buildings in Tokyo and a wide swathe of eastern Japan on Monday evening, knocking out power to 220,000 households and causing a halt to water pumping to cool
three damaged reactors at Fukushima. 

Children, pregnant women, and hospitalised patients should stay out of some areas 20-30 km from the nuclear complex, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters.
'These new evacuation plans are meant to ensure safety against risks of living there for half a year or one year,' he said. 

6:13 p.m. The quake is downgraded to a magnitude 6.6, but this hardly means that the Japanese can relax. There's still the matter of rebuilding what was destroyed by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11. Harry Fawcett reports from the coastal city of Rikuzentakata:

5:30 p.m. The tsunami warning is lifted.

• 4:40 p.m As Japan is about to mark the passge of one month since a quake and tsunami that wiped out entire communities on the country's northeast coast, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits the same area, promping a tsunami warning. However, the waves are exected to around 50cm high. It remains unclear if the Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukoshima has sustained further damage, but workers there are evacuated.

  

  Regular coverage of the disaster can be found on our Japan disaster spotlight page

Kazuyoshi Saito anti nuke protest song w/English translation

Song loudly by protestors in Toyko 9 April.

Fukushima nuclar plant accident photos with propaganda posters by Japanese youngsters.
Song by Kazuyoshi Saito

Thousands protest N-power amid Fukushima plant crisis

Photo slide show @

http://plixi.com/p/91116915  - just press the arrow

Carl Stimson / Special to The Daily Yomiuri

Thousands of people marched in Tokyo against nuclear power Sunday afternoon, nearly a month after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami sparked a crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant that has shown few signs of abating.

The crowd of people mainly in their 20s and 30s packed Koenji Chuo Park south of JR Koenji Station at 2:30 p.m. for speeches and music before setting off on a march that lasted more than two hours.

"I was vaguely against nuclear power before [March 11] but I'd never been to a protest or anything," said Jun Watanabe, who came with his wife and two friends. "I've been seeing notices about this demonstration on Twitter for a couple of weeks, so I thought I'd come. They say we can't do without nuclear power but I don't agree."

Although placards and banners held by protesters expressed anger and frustration--"Stop polluting the air and water," "Don't trust the government"--the atmosphere was festive, with many people in costumes, bands giving live performances at the park before the march, and groups of musicians playing drums, rock and traditional Japanese festival music while people walked.

A recent antinuclear-power song sung by Kazuyoshi Saito, which he created based on the melody of his hit "Zutto Suki Datta" (I always loved you) and which was posted on YouTube a couple of days ago, was sung many times.

The crowd was overwhelmingly made up of younger people, but some senior citizens were marching, too, and many families with small children were in attendance.

Three women from western Tokyo brought their six boys and girls between the ages of 2 and 9. "I brought my kids so they could learn about nuclear power and because I couldn't come if I didn't bring them," one of the women said.

Homemade placards called nuclear power "dangerous" or "deadly." Others expressed anger at Tokyo Electric Power Co. or the government and many decried the environmental damage caused by the nuclear crisis.

FROM SQUARE ONE / How bad is the Fukushima fallout?

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has released a large amount of radioactive substances into the air and water, raising serious concerns over possible health risks.

The government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. have repeatedly said there will be no major health impact "for the time being" and that there will be no "immediate" effects.

But what consequences will the radiation fallout actually have?

The following will examine the impact of radioactive substances on people's daily lives, and look at how much radioactive fallout has occurred, possible health effects and how to prevent exposure.

How much radioactive material has so far been released into the atmosphere due to the Fukushima accident? Let's compare the radioactive contamination caused by the current crisis to past nuclear accidents.

Fallout of cesium-137 has been monitored for every 24-hour period since March 18 at observation points in each prefecture, except quake-hit Fukushima and Miyagi. Cesium-137 is an international indicator for radioactive contamination.

Monitoring data has shown the total fallout of cesium-137 in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki Prefecture, for 18 days through Tuesday morning was 26,399 becquerels per square meter. In Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, the figure was 6,615 becquerels per square meter.

Rain on March 21-22--the first since the nuclear crisis began--brought down a large amount of cesium-137, spreading the contamination to Tokyo and 13 prefectures in and around the Kanto region.

Although many people believe their lives have been free of radioactive contamination, history shows that radioactive materials were widely dispersed during the 20th century, sometimes dubbed the Atomic Age.

Domestic studies on radioactive fallout date back to 1957, three years after the exposure to radiation of the crew of the tuna boat Fukuryu Maru No. 5 after an atmospheric nuclear test by the United States. One crew member died six months after the incident.

This test took place amid the Cold War when the United States and the Soviet Union conducted a large number of nuclear tests. In 1962 alone, at least 178 nuclear tests took place, dispersing plutonium and other radioactive materials into the atmosphere. In Osaka, 688 becquerels per square meter of cesium-137 was measured in May 1963.

The worst case of radioactive contamination was the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, then a Soviet republic, in April 1986. About 7 tons of radioactive materials--about 400 times what was released by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima--were released across the Northern Hemisphere. In Kanazawa, cesium fallout was 318 becquerels per square meter in May that year.

Areas within 30 kilometers of the Chernobyl plant were incredibly contaminated--as much as 1.48 million becquerels per square meter in some areas. Residents in these areas were evacuated. In parts of Germany and other nations, more than 70,000 becquerels per square meter were detected. In Belarus and Moldova, also Soviet republics at the time, and other nations such as Austria and Finland, the average amount of fallout exceeded 10,000 becquerels per square meter.

The level of radioactive fallout in Hitachinaka and some other areas in the wake of the Fukushima crisis is believed to be higher than that reported in the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in the United States, and about the same as that reported in Europe after the Chernobyl incident.

Fallout levels in the Kanto region have been decreasing this month. Daily readings have been about the same as the early 1960s when so many nuclear tests were conducted. Some experts have said these levels pose no threat to people's health. However, highly radioactive water leaked from the Fukushima plant into the ocean could cause severe damage to marine life.

===

Upper limit changes in a crisis

There are two reference levels for the effects of radiation exposure on health--one for normal times and another for emergencies. The everyday yardstick for radiation exposure for ordinary people is set on the safe side.

According to the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), the annual intake limit for artificial radioactive substances--excluding natural radiation such as from cosmic rays and from medical devices such as X-rays--is 1 millisievert (mSv) for ordinary people.

A becquerel is a unit for measuring a substance's radioactivity, and is equal to the number of nuclear decays per second. A sievert is a unit to quantify the biological effects of radiation. Becquerels can be converted into sieverts through a formula that factors in elements including the type of nucleus and type of radiation exposure.

Research on atomic-bomb survivors suggests that the incidence of cancer increases if the radiation dose exceeds 100 mSV. The annual limit of 1 mSv was set on the grounds that if a person is exposed to this level every year until age 80, the total radiation dose will be less than 80 mSv.

But during emergencies, such as an accident at a nuclear power plant, this level is often increased. The Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan has said people should stay indoors if the annual radiation dose exceeds 10 mSV.

The ICRP in 2007 issued an advisory saying the annual radiation limit for ordinary people can be raised to 20 mSv to 100 mSv during an emergency. The ICRP's suggestion of this temporary level is based on lessons learned from the Chernobyl disaster and other incidents.

"Even if people are exposed to 20 mSv of radiation in a year, they wouldn't experience any symptoms such as nausea or burns. Raising the upper limit could increase the risk of cancer, but if there are other merits, such as avoiding the need to evacuate, it might be a feasible option," according to Yasuhito Sasaki, an executive director at the Japan Radioisotope Association.

Whether to change the annual limit on radiation intake from the normal level to an emergency level is decided by the NSC after considering the scale of the radioactive contamination and doses in different areas and reporting on this to the government.

Radiation intake limits for workers at nuclear facilities are set at 100 mSv over five years, but this limit was raised to 250 mSv following the accidents at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

The ICRP has also issued an advisory that the emergency exposure limit for rescue and other personnel should be between 500 mSv and 1,000 mSv over five years.

(Apr. 11, 2011)

National go Ishihara easily wins reelection / Tokyo governor takes 4th term; DPJ suffers setback in local polls (Apr.11) Thousands protest N-power amid Fukushima plant crisis (Apr.11) TEPCO details tsunami damage / Waves that hit Fukushima plant exceeded firm's worst-case projections (Apr.11) JCG seizes Chinese trawler off Kagoshima (Apr.11) Tokyo Disneyland to reopen Friday (Apr.11) Presumption of death to be hastened (Apr.11) Tsunami devastates abalone fishing industry (Apr.11) N-crisis a battle for workers' wives (Apr.11) FROM SQUARE ONE / How bad is the Fukushima fallout? (Apr.11) FROM SQUARE ONE / Cooking, processing may reduce radioactive materials in food (Apr.11)

Fukushima Disaster: Are We Told The Truth?: Stephen Lendman

By Stephen Lendman

08 April, 2011

Countercurrents.org

On April 6, Reuters reported that "the core at Japan's Fukushima nuclear reactor has melted through the reactor pressure vessel," Rep. Edward Markey told a House hearing on the disaster, saying:

"I have been informed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that the core has gotten so hot that part of it has probably melted through the reactor pressure vessel."

However, the NRC is denying this. Reuters subsequently reported:

A top official from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Wednesday it was not clear that Japan’s Fukushima No. 2 nuclear reactor has melted through the reactor pressure vessel.

Earlier, Democratic lawmaker Edward Markey told a House of Representatives hearing on the nuclear disaster that the NRC had told him the core had melted through the vessel.

“That’s not clear to us, nor is it clear to us that the reactor has penetrated the vessel,” said Martin Virgilio, deputy executive director for reactor and preparedness programs at the NRC.

Recklessly promoting nuclear proliferation, America's NRC is notorious for coverup and denial of its harmful effects.

Nonetheless, on April 6, New York Times writers Matthew Wald and Andrew Pollack headlined, "Core of Stricken Reactor Probably Leaked, US Says," stating:

America's NRC "said Wednesday that some of the core of a stricken Japanese reactor had probably leaked from its steel pressure vessel into the bottom of the containment structure, implying that the damage was even worse than previously thought."

Far worse, in fact, because molten core material then burns uncontrollably through the concrete foundation, meaning all bets are off.

On April 5, Times writers James Glanz and William Broad headlined, "US Sees Array of New Threats at Japan's Nuclear Plant," saying:

American engineers warned "that the troubled nuclear plant....is facing a wide array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely, and that in some cases are expected to increase as a result of the very measures being taken to keep the plant stable, according to a confidential" NRC assessment.

Identified threats include:

-- Possible further explosions because of hydrogen and oxygen from seawater used to cool the reactors that may have done more harm than good. According to former GE reactor designer Margaret Harding:

"If I were in the Japanese's shoes, I'd be very reluctant to have tons and tons of water sitting in a containment whose structural integrity hasn't been checked since the earthquake," and very likely is seriously damaged.

-- Because of concern about severe reactor core damage, NRC recommended boron be added to cooling water as a moderator to absorb neutrons.

-- Exposed/unprotected spent fuel rods in Units 1, 2, 3 and 4 pose extreme dangers. Moreover, explosions blew nuclear material "up to one mile from the units" into the atmosphere, indicating much greater damage than previously disclosed.

As a result, David Lochbaum from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) believes:

"This paints a very different picture, and suggests that things are a lot worse. They could still have more damage in a big way if some of these things don't work out for them....They've got a lot of nasty things to (handle), and one missed step could make the situation much, much worse."

Other experts believe criticality was reached, posing far greater dangers than revealed.

Yet government and Tokyo Electric (TEPCO) officials still claim "no immediate risk of a hydrogen explosion occurring" or serious harm to human health. In fact, danger levels now are extreme. More on that below.

Even the NRC admitted that salt water "severely restricted" and likely blocked circulation pathways. Moreover, inside the core, "there is likely no water level (so it's) difficult to determine how much cooling is getting to the fuel." Perhaps none, and three or more reactors are affected, one or more in meltdown.

Independent Expert Opinions

On April 4, geoscientist/international radiation expert Leuren Moret told interviewer Alfred Lambremont Webre that Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper are concealing the effects of tectonic nuclear war on North America from Fukushima's fallout. In fact, Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) radiation maps confirm contamination on America's West Coast, Midwest, and Western Canada, in some areas as high as Japan's.

Radioactive Iodine-131 in rainwater sampled near San Francisco was found to be over 18,000 times above federal drinking water standards. Idaho, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts rainwater samples showed Iodine-131 up to 181 times above normal, expected to rise. It's also showing up in milk.

As a result, mobile measures in parts of America and Canada were suspended until further notice to conceal the disaster's gravity.

Moret cited two distinguished nuclear scientists who've publicly said northern Japan (one-third of the country) is uninhabitable and should be evacuated. Marion Fulk is one, a Manhattan Project scientist who helped develop the hydrogen bomb. He also was America's atmospheric fallout expert when above-ground tests were conducted.

Dr. Chris Busby is the other, an ionizing radiation expert. On March 30, he told Russia Today television that Fukushima contamination will cause at least 417,000 new cancers.

Moret called Fukushima a false flag operation to weaken an economic rival, harm its economy, agriculture and fisheries, and compromise its detente with China. Compared to Chernobyl, Fukushima's releasing multiple times more radiation, perhaps amounts too enormous to imagine with potentially catastrophic global effects.

In response, Japan, America and Canada are in denial. Permissible radiation exposure levels have been raised. Legitimate reporting was halted. US and Canadian atmospheric testing was suspended. State authorities told California physicians not to give iodine to concerned patients. Measuring radiation in milk was also stopped.

Contamination is spreading from the Arctic to the Equator. Long-lived radioactive isotopes will cause environmental and human health havoc for generations. Moret said life forms developed over billions of years are being destroyed in a century.

On March 29, Chris Busby's Rense.com article headlined, "Deconstructing Nuclear Experts," saying:

"What these people have in common is ignorance. (Most) who appear (in the major media) and pontificate have not actually done any research on the issue of radiation and health. Or if they have, they....missed all the key studies and references. (Others are) real baddies" who say Fukushima is nothing to worry about, nothing like Chernobyl or Three Mile Island (TMI).

In fact, Fukushima already way exceeds both and will get increasingly worse ahead as radiation releases continue and spread. Busby quoted Joseph Conrad saying, "after all the shouting is over, the grim silence of facts remain."

"I believe that (the array of) phony experts," said Busby, "are criminally irresponsible, since their advice will lead to millions of deaths....I hope they are sent to jail where they can have plenty of time to read the scientific proofs (showing) their advice was based on the mathematical analysis of thin air."

He cited the late Professor John Gofman, a senior US Atomic Energy Commission expert who resigned, saying:

"(T)he nuclear industry is waging a war against humanity."

So far, in fact, it's winning. It's entered an endgame that will decide whether or not humanity will survive. "Not from sudden nuclear war," said Busby. "But from the ongoing and incremental nuclear war which began with the releases to the biosphere in the 60s of all the atmospheric test fallout, and which continued inexorably since (to this day), accompanied by parallel increases in cancer rates and fertility loss to the human race."

Busby calls it "the greatest public health scandal in human history...." Who can disagree.

A Final Comment

In a personal email, environmental researcher Dr. Ilya Perlingieri explained the dangers of Japan dumping thousands of tons of radioactive water in the Pacific, saying:

"We are all in grave danger! This was insanity! This radioactive water will come here (to America). There is no question about that. The currents will bring it to the west coast and contaminate the entire area: beaches and all sealife between the coast and Japan. What evaporates naturally will then come on the air currents around the rest of the US and then the rest of the planet!""This is epic, and it was not an accident."

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/