Japan declares 'nuclear emergency' after quake - PART 2

Another volcano in Kyushu, southern Japan, about 40 miles from Sendai nuke plant, is showing signs of a possible eruption, this time Mt Io. And if one checks a map of that island you will notice that it is primarily made up of volcanos from one end to the other.

Not good.

www.japantoday.com...

FUKUOKA —
The Japan Meteorological Agency warned Sunday of a possible small eruption at Mt. Io, which straddles the southwestern prefectures of Miyazaki and Kagoshima, after observing an increase in volcanic earthquakes.

The local government in Ebino declared a 1-kilometer no-entry zone around the crater of Mt. Io, part of the Kirishima mountains, while the weather agency said that large stones could be ejected within a 1-km radius in the event of an eruption.

The agency detected 50 volcanic temblors by 3 p.m. Sunday at the 1,317-meter volcano, the highest per day since it set up seismometers there in March 2013.

Volcanic activity has intensified since last year, the agency said. In addition to volcanic quakes, fumarolic gas was observed in December and areas with high ground heat have been expanding.

Another Nuclear Reactor In Japan Is Leaking Radioactive Water - YouTube

Feb 24, 2016
www.undergroundworldnews.com




A nuclear power station in Japan is leaking, this time the Takahama plant, about 380km west of Tokyo. The radioactive water leak comes amid a nationwide push to restart reactors after the catastrophic meltdown at Fukushima five years ago.


The reactor would have been the fourth to come on after the shutdown. The push by the government and utility companies came amid protests across Japan against the continued reliance on nuclear energy, prompted by failures to get the Fukushima crisis under control.

Now Kansai Electric Power says about 34 liters of radioactive water have escaped the plant’s reactor No. 4.

An investigation is underway.

"Hidden Truths" of Fuk....

www.latimes.com...

Three former executives of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. were indicted Monday on charges of failing to take measures to prevent the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011, the Tokyo prosecutor’s office announced.

The accident resulted in a triple meltdown that displaced more than 100,000 people and raised alarms about nuclear energy around the world. The indictment says it also caused deaths and injuries.

More at the link....

Where oh where have the core's gone, oh where oh where can they be??

globalnews.ca...

"“There are melted fuels in units 1, 2 and 3,” Masuda said. “Frankly, we do not really know what the situation is for these (melted fuel), nor where it has gone.”"

More at the link....

What went wrong at Fulushima, and it could have been far worse......

www.independentnews.com...< br />
Safety Expert: Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Could Have Been Worse -- And Nearly Was

Posted: Thursday, March 3, 2016 12:00 am
By Jeff Garberson

As destructive as it was, the Japanese Fukushima nuclear disaster five years ago could have been far worse, according to a leading U.S. nuclear safety expert.

The expert, Allison Macfarlane, is past head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. She spoke last week at Livermore’s Bankhead Theater, describing lessons learned from Fukushima. Her talk was part of the Rae Dorough Speaker Series.
As she described it, the disaster began on the afternoon of March 11, 2011, when a great earthquake 43 miles off the Japanese shore lifted the ocean bottom and generated a huge tsunami that destroyed coastal communities some 50 minutes later.

The tsunami killed nearly 16,000 coastal residents outright. The nuclear catastrophe that followed led to the displacement of 160,000 more. Homes, schools and businesses were abandoned.
The central lesson from the experience was that nations that use nuclear energy need to have an independent regulatory body with the authority and resources to intervene and even shut down plants to ensure safety, Macfarlane said.

More at the link....

This is what pisses me off the most right now about the Fuku disaster. Abe absolutely needs to convey to the world that Japan is safe to visit by the time the 2020 Olympics arrive. Japan's economy is banking on this. If the foreign investors and tourists were to avoid the Olympics, it would crash Japans already weak economy in a heartbeat. This is from a recent AP story;

TOKYO (AP) — Japan is gearing up for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with gusto, investing in everything from stadiums to electric cars, and expecting an economic bonanza from a construction frenzy and an influx of visitors. On the face of it, hosting the Olympics is a big win for Japan at a time when its economy seems besieged by intractable problems.....But for some, 2020 is another manifestation of what has been going wrong in Japan for decades.

Japan "will overstretch itself," William Saito, an entrepreneur and technology expert, said of the spending for the games. "It will quite possibly be the straw that broke the camel's back," he said. "Everyone is predicting that it will be that catalyst."

So in that context we find the biggest obstacle at this point being the fact that Fuku is still acting up, a year after Shinzo said everything was fine now. And what do they do next. They start opening up areas still contaminated for people to return to, places less than 12 miles from the plant still littered with piles of black bags everywhere. And they cut off their funding so some are forced to move back. And they cant grow food because the place is still contaminated.

All Abe, TEPCO and the nuclear power industry cares about is creating this illusion, that you can have a triple meltdown and a few years later everything is fine again, nothing to worry about. And they're using old people who have already suffered great pains from day one of the disaster as their guinea pigs. The following is a good read with a video that talks about how the few old people who have returned have done so knowing that they are watching their town die, as the young refuse to move back, and have already established a life elsewhere. And this is pissing Abe off cause there's no way he'll be able to create his 'everything is fine illusion'

www.reuters.com...

At least they're beginning to research radionuclides in our water. I used to love eating tune but have cut back because the local fisheries may be contaminated and the stuff that should be safe being caught off Indonesia uses slave labor. Oh well.

from www.sciencedirect.com...
via ENE

[M]arine releases may be ongoing due to groundwater seepage… The atmospheric plume from the Fukushima Daiichi reactors traveled east and passed over North America days after the initial release… The arrival of the Fukushima marine plume has aroused concern for some North American stakeholders, particularly those living near the coast and those who consume seafood from the Pacific Ocean. Additionally, the potential effects of exposure to Fukushima derived radionuclides on sensitive marine species will need to be studied and understood in the coming years… Radiocesium biomagnifies through marine foodwebs…Thus the northern fur seal, a predator, should be an excellent sentinel of marine radiocesium in the North Pacific… Northern fur seal exposure to Fukushima radionuclides likely occurred via the consumption of fish or other prey from areas of the Pacific Ocean contaminated by the Fukushima marine release.

a reply to: zworld

At least they're beginning to research radionuclides in our water.

There are a couple of sources which have had ongoing monitoring programs.

kelpwatch.berkeley.edu...
ourradioactiveocean.org...

More on why they are criminals for forcing evacuees back home.

phys.org...

As the fifth anniversary of the disaster approaches, Greenpeace said signs of mutations in trees and DNA-damaged worms were beginning to appear, while "vast stocks of radiation" mean that forests cannot be decontaminated.

In a report, Greenpeace cited "apparent increases in growth mutations of fir trees... heritable mutations in pale blue grass butterfly populations" as well as "DNA-damaged worms in highly contaminated areas", it said.

The report came as the government intends to lift many evacuation orders in villages around the Fukushima plant by March 2017, if its massive decontamination effort progresses as it hopes.

For now, only residential areas are being cleaned in the short-term, and the worst-hit parts of the countryside are being omitted, a recommendation made by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

a reply to: Phage

Here is a site I watch quite often, actually going to become a chart member.

netc.com...

I'm now a member, and when I logged on, this was the first article I saw across the top bar....

enenews.com...

"Washington Post: “No one knows what to do with Fukushima” — Scientific American: Plant is in “crisis mode”… fuel has melted through containers — Official: Corium may never be extracted — Gov’t suggests dumping it under Pacific Ocean"

More at the link.

a reply to: matadoor

Speaking of NETC...


Radiation Weather News USA Miami 661 CPM L.A. San Diego 432+ 3-3-2016 Rad Update - YouTube

Published on Mar 2, 2016
US Hazards Outlook

An area of upper-level low pressure is forecast to move inland from the east Pacific this weekend and then advance to the central U.S. by the middle part of next week, while an area of upper-level high pressure builds along the East Coast. Strong onshore flow is likely to persist along the West Coast through mid-March. Surface high pressure is forecast to prevail across the Bering Sea, while low pressure remains anchored over the Gulf of Alaska.

and you'll appreciate this, also:


West Coast Storm Mid U.S. Rads Trending Up Fukushima Radioactive Weather Update 3/6/16 - YouTube

Strontium Milks
Published on Mar 5, 2016
Japan radiation SOURCE: jciv.iidj.net...

Usa radiation source: Netc.com... and radiationnetwork.com...

i1073.photobucket.com... LARGE IMAGE

Declassified U.S. Government Report Prepared a Week After Fukushima Accident: "100% of The Total Spent Fuel Was Released to the Atmosphere from Unit 4" Washington's Blog
Posted on December 10, 2015 by WashingtonsBlog

We reported in 2011 that the International Atomic Energy Agency knew within weeks that Fukushima had melted down … but failed and refused to tell the public.

The same year, we reported that the U.S. knew within days of the Fukushima accident that Fukushima had melted down … but failed to tell the public.

We noted in 2012:

The fuel pools and rods at Fukushima appear to have “boiled”, caught fire and/or exploded soon after the earthquake knocked out power systems. See this, this and this.



grapnic source
Now, a declassified report written by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on March 18, 2011 – one week after the tidal wave hit Fukushima –states:

The source term provided to NARAC was: (1) 25% of the total fuel in unit 2 released to the atmosphere, (2) 50% of the total spent fuel from unit 3 was released to the atmosphere, and (3) 100% of the total spent fuel was released to the atmosphere from unit 4.



NARAC is the the U.S. National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center, located at the University of California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. NARAC “provides tools and services that map the probable spread of hazardous material accidentally or intentionally released into the atmosphere“.

The fuel pools at Units 3 and 4 contained enormous amounts of radiation.

For example, there was “more cesium in that [Unit 4] fuel pool than in all 800 nuclear bombs exploded above ground.”

This is a must read. From www.truth-out.org...

a quote from the article but the whole thing rocks;

There is good reason to fixate on the clusterf**k that is the remediation of the Fukushima site, and to track the ceaseless entry of radionuclides into the ocean that will continue for decades, the still lethal melted nuclear cores of the plants will need to be removed and contained (a process that will take numerous decades) and the flow of radiation into the sea will continue to effect the local ecosystem and the food chain in the Pacific Ocean. However, we should not allow our gaze to remain fixed on the nuclear plants, we must learn to see the deep wounds to society that are left to heal in darkness. We must learn to bring the whole of the population and ecosystem that suffer from radiological disasters into the light of our awareness and concerns. We must grieve for all that has been lost and we must hold government and the TEPCO Corporation responsible for assisting those whose lives have been shattered. We can demand corporate and governmental compensation and medical monitoring for those whose health and wellbeing have been compromised, for those displaced from their homes by radiation, and for those who have lost their livelihood because of the contamination and loss of public faith in the food they grow or fish they catch. We can remember all of those who have been affected. And we can learn how to understand the long, slow violence that follows behind the compelling first week of the nuclear disasters yet to come.

a reply to: thorfourwinds

Except for the fact that the spent fuel pool in 4 didn't catch fire, boil out or release any radiation. Which is why people have to look for another source of the massive burst of radiation that occurred when 4 blew, and it all comes back to the fact that the explosions at 3 and 4 blew out from the northwest corner of the buildings away from the reactors and on the opposite side of the buildings from the spent fuel pools.

Same day someone will come forward and admit the truth about whats under Fukushima 2, 3 and 4.

Incredibly good news this AM. from www.fukuleaks.org...

Japanese Court Forces Takahama Nuclear Plant To Shut Down

A district court in Shiga prefecture has forced Kansai Electric to shut down unit 3 at Takahama Nuclear Plant and keep unit 4 offline. Unit 4 was given restart permission but suffered a mechanical failure when it attempted to send power to the grid.

The court cited lacking emergency response plans and insufficient upgrades to reactor systems. The ruling cited “There are doubts remaining about both the tsunami response and the evacuation plan,” Problems with insufficient outside power sources in an emergency were one of the few specifics mentioned.

On the day before, former Chief Cabinet Officer Edano expressed very similar concerns about the reactor restarts in Japan. The ruling came as a surprise to most, that the courts were willing to take such sweeping action and shut down two of the four currently operating reactors.

Good read on how screwed up our nuke plants in the US are.

www.truth-out.org...

Seven Top NRC Experts Break Ranks to Warn of Critical Danger at Aging Nuke Plants

According to Reuters, the engineers worry the flaw leaves U.S. reactors “vulnerable to so-called open-phase events in which an unbalanced voltage, such as an electrical short, could cause motors to burn out and reduce the ability of a reactor’s emergency cooling system to function. If the motors are burned out, backup electricity systems would be of little help.”

Such an event in 2012 forced the Byron 2 reactor in Illinois to shut for about a week. The engineers’ petition says 13 such events have struck reactors worldwide in the past 14 years.

Nuclear expert David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists said the commission could have dealt with the issue years ago, but instead “snatched defeat from the jaws of victory” by letting the reactors continue operating without correcting the problem. “Something is not right with the safety culture at the agency,” Lochbaum told Reuters.

The NRC could have eased concerns years ago by forcing plants to take action, he said.
Instead, as with so many other unresolved safety issues, America’s crumbling reactor fleet continue to put the nation at increasing risk.

Another good read on evacuees being forced to return. A bit below

www.truth-out.org...

An older man raises his hand. "There's a tombstone behind my house where the radiation measures 10.5 microsieverts per hour. 10.5!" he says.

Multiplied over a year, the figure is 4.6 times the standard Japan's government has set for mandatory evacuation, and 92 times the limit the International Commission on Radiological Protection recommends for the general population under normal circumstances. It is also far higher than most measurements taken recently in Odaka, where a massive government-sponsored cleanup -- together with natural decay -- is steadily lowering radiation levels.

"It's probably a hotspot," an environment ministry official says. "We can take care of it for you."

"I asked the government for data about that spot in August, but I haven't gotten anything. Why not?" the resident demands.

A woman in the audience shouts out: "Because they're liars!"

"We think you're afraid to give us the real data," the man says.

Another resident speaks up: "The forest surrounding my house has not been decontaminated. Would you live in a place like that? I beg of you, please delay the resettlement!" Applause breaks out in the audience.

Really long read, but worth the time...

Is Fukushima's nuclear nightmare over? Don’t count on it

www.rt.com...

On the 5th Anniversary of the catastrophe, Prof Geraldine Thomas, the nuclear industry’s new public relations star, walked through the abandoned town of Ohkuma inside the Fukushima exclusion zone with BBC reporter Rupert Wingfield-Hayes.
Thomas was described as “one of Britain’s leading experts on the health effects of radiation”. She is of the opinion that there is no danger and the Japanese refugees can come back and live there in the “zone”. Her main concern seemed to be how untidy it all was: “Left to rack and ruin,” she complained, sadly.

At one point, Rupert pulled out his Geiger counter and read the dose: 3 microSieverts per hour. "How much radiation would it give in a year to people who came back here,” he asked. Thomas replied: “About an extra milliSievert a year, which is not much considering you get 2mSv a year from natural background”.

“The long term impact on your health would be absolutely nothing.”

Now anyone with a calculator can easily multiply 3 microSieverts (3 x 10-6 Sv) by 24 hours and 365 days. The answer comes out to be 26 mSv (0.026Sv), not “about 1mSv” as the “leading expert on the health effects of radiation” reported.

I must personally ask if Gerry Thomas is a reliable expert; her CV shows she has published almost nothing in the way of original research, so we must ask how it is the BBC has taken her seriously.

More at the link...

www.rt.com...

16 US ships used in Fukushima relief still contaminated with radiation - Navy

Nearly two-thirds of the US Navy ships that assisted in the relief efforts that followed the March 2011 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan are still contaminated with low-level radiation, according to a new report.
The Navy's 25-ship relief effort, Operation Tomadachi, sent sailors near the coast of Japan to assist the area after a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami ravaged the island nation and caused a level 7 meltdown at three reactors in the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

More at the link....

Added, additional link to Stars and Stripes...

www.stripes.com... 94