Thursday, May 26, 2011

Fukushima Updates May 26: Radiation in Phoenix UP AGAIN and Thoughts on Global Contamination

Radnet data posted for Phoenix today show 160 Beta. That is the highest level posted since April (there were days in mid May that no data were posted at all so we might have had higher levels then).

Either our local nuclear power plant is spewing radiation or we are being hit by more Fukushima contamination. This is very concerning.

INFORMATION


Here is a powerpoint on the accident development from UT:
http://ptolemy.ph.utexas.edu/Talks/OrbachR.pdf


TEPCO finds new leak
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/26_18.html

"Tokyo Electric Power Company has been removing highly radioactive wastewater from the plant's Number 2 and Number 3 reactors to waste disposal facilities within the compound.

"The utility initially planned to transfer 14,000 tons, but it now wants to remove an additional 5,000 tons because there has been no noticeable drop in accumulated water in the reactors.

"TEPCO suspended the transfer from the Number 3 reactor on Thursday to check whether the disposal facility could hold more water.

"It found that the water level at the facility had dropped by 4.8 centimeters over a 20-hour period, meaning some 57 tons of water had been lost.

"TEPCO says there has been no increase in radiation levels in nearby groundwater, but that the water level continues to fall.

Nitrogen injection into No.1 reactor stops again
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/26_07.html

"Nitrogen injection to prevent a hydrogen explosion was stopped for more than 4 hours at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Wednesday.

"Engineers have been pumping nitrogen into the No.1 reactor since April 6th. The aim is to prevent another hydrogen blast when hydrogen - created when nuclear fuel reacts with water - builds up inside the containment vessel.

"On Saturday, the device for pumping nitrogen temporarily stopped, but plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, quickly replaced it.

Soil contamination from Fukushima crisis comparable to Chernobyl: study (May 25)
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/soil-contamination-from-fukushima-crisis-comparable-to-chernobyl-study

"Radiation released by the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has caused soil contamination matching the levels seen in the Chernobyl disaster in some areas, a researcher told the government’s nuclear policy-setting body Tuesday. ‘‘A massive soil decontamination project will be indispensable before residents in those areas can return,’’ said Tomio Kawata, a research fellow of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan, at the meeting of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission, which sets policies and strategies for the government’s nuclear power development.

ESSAYS

The nuclear environmental disaster of Fukushima Daiichi is just beginning.
Hat tip nukefree http://www.nukefree.org/
http://www.next-up.org/pdf/The_nuclear_environmental_disaster_of_Fukushima_Daiichi_is_just_beginning_by_Serge_Sargentini_2011_05_05.pdf

By SERGE SARGENTINI 2011 05 05 [French version] "Contrarily to what we could think, the disaster of Fukushima Daiichi is just beginning: a new poisoning of the planet Earth is in progress. While many governments are finally becoming aware that the safety of the nuclear reactors cannot be reliable and are thus adopting a radical political change, on the other hand the Japanese people just begin to discover and to assess the extent of the environmental disaster of Fukushima Daiichi. While the world has its eyes riveted on the nuclear site of Fukushima, the main issue is not really the level of radiations, on the site of the nuclear power-plant, but the scale of the impact of the emissions of contaminating radioactive particles which have been generated and which are still generated and disseminated in the world environment…."


"Chernobyl Times Ten" at Counterpunch
Fukushima and the Radioactive Sea
By HARVEY WASSERMAN
http://www.counterpunch.org/wasserman05262011.html

"New readings show levels of radioisotopes found up to 30 kilometers offshore from the on-going crisis at Fukushima are ten times higher than those measured in the Baltic and Black Seas during Chernobyl.
"When it comes to the oceans, says Ken Buesseler, a chemical oceonographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, "the impact of Fukushima exceeds Chernobyl."
The news comes amidst a tsunami of devastating revelations about the Fukushima disaster and the crumbling future of atomic power, along with a critical Senate funding vote today..."

Majia here. There have been times over the last couple of months when I've felt as if I've fallen down the rabbit's hole. The sheer scope of the disaster, coupled with the media censorship, have been surreal. I feel as if I'm in a science fiction novel but in this narrative all the heroes and heroines are helpless against the forces of physics and corporate greed and corruption....

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