April 19, 2011
Originally posted by Destinyone

The spin machine at TEPCO, continues to state that radiation levels in the reactors are getting lower, in fact human workers can now go in and do some work...unfortunately, these pack bots don't have the capability, like humans, to lie.  I'm placing my bets on the bots... uh huh....

The PackBot robots, provided by iRobot, are already reporting that the radiation levels in the power plants are too high for humans to spend any significant time in the plants, according to a New York Times report. The robots, outfitted with a set of sensors originally designed for hazardous materials incidents, have entered reactors 1 and 3 of the plant, which were damaged during the catastrophic March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.
A pair of 60-pound military robots originally designed for such tasks as disarming bombs and combat zone surveillance have entered reactor buildings at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant in Sendai, Japan.

The PackBot robots, provided by iRobot, are already reporting that the radiation levels in the power plants are too high for humans to spend any significant time in the plants, according to a New York Times report. The robots, outfitted with a set of sensors originally designed for hazardous materials incidents, have entered reactors 1 and 3 of the plant, which were damaged during the catastrophic March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami. ~ Source

From this article 4 18 2011  States TEPCO needs to get "creative" in order to do anything to follow the "plan".

Radiation Poses Barrier to Repair Work at Plant - By HIROKO TABUCHI
Published: April 18, 2011

TOKYO — Robots deployed inside two reactors at the Japanese nuclear plant overrun by last month’s devastating tsunami have detected radiation levels too high for workers to enter, posing immediate challenges for a new plan to bring the ravaged complex under control by year’s end.  “It is a harsh environment for humans to work in,” said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director general at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. He said the levels would require the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, to be “creative” in bringing the plant to a stable state known as a cold shutdown within six to nine months, as the company laid out in a timetable on Sunday ~ Source

Des

April 19, 2011
Originally posted by Moonbeams771

One of the good things to come from situation at Fukushima is the renewed attention to Chernobyl.

I tended to think of the Chernobyl disaster as being in the past, but the reality is that the plant still poses considerable danger to this day.

This news is a reminder that "cleaning up" after a nuclear disaster is a very, very, very long process - something we will likely to have to leave to our children. The promotional video on the Guardian site demonstrates the HUGE scale of the work required for decontamination. Hopefully some of this will help the Japanese deal with Fukushima

Originally posted by Destinyone

Thank you TEPCO...saying "pellets" have melted.... sheesh, they make it sound like bb's decided to melt to a liquid state, all by their little own selves. Just because  Edano says it...doesn't make it so.

April 19, 2011 in Nation/World
Radiation levels keep repair workers at bay

“Even I had expected high radioactivity in those areas. I’m sure (plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.) and other experts have factored in those figures when they compiled the roadmap,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

Originally posted by makeitso

Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy released data recorded from its Aerial Measuring System as well as ground detectors deployed along with its Consequence Management Response Teams.

Today, the Department provided the following update on the information gathered by the AMS.

U.S. Department of Energy Blog

April 20, 2011
Originally posted by DancedWithWolves

Yet another study gathering dust on TEPCO's bookshelves from just last year. Fukushima should have cracked open the book they have now become the poster child for.

Nuke plant meltdown warning went unheeded

Japanese nuclear power plant operators were totally unprepared for the potential long-term loss of power supply, a lifeline to help cool nuclear reactors, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Meanwhile, the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (JNES) released last fall a simulation in which a nuclear reactor would have a core meltdown and other consequences only 100 minutes after losing its cooling capabilities. The study shows that a meltdown began about one hour and 40 minutes after the water- pumping function stopped. About 3 hours and 40 minutes later, the pressure container broke down and about 6 hours and 50 minutes later the containment vessel also ruptured.

At the Fukushima nuclear plant, the pressure within the containment vessel of the No. 1 reactor abnormally surged at 1:20 a.m. on March 12, about 8 hours and 40 minutes after the reactor's water-filling function failed. Radioactive steam was vented from the containment vessel and a hydrogen explosion occurred at 3:36 p.m. the same day.

More evidence they knew what was happening this entire time. And they are still getting away with it. So sad and so wrong. And it's not just TEPCO. Thanks all for the reading materials this evening. Very helpful.

There has been so much discovery in this disaster recently, I'm still trying to wrap my head around exactly where this plant stands and what this carnage says about the social structures we have allowed to exist. It is so far beyond the cold shutdown verbage on Tepco's website....Where is truth and honor in our modern business model? :(

Wait a minute... it's here. Where a virtual here can have more truth and honor and reality than a RW here, So grateful to all the beautiful minds on ATS. It gives some hope for tomorrow. Thank you so very much for sharing your thoughts and ideas and inklings. At least people have a place to come and follow along and find out what is really happening. A place to begin to fit the pieces together. A place to assemble and share and compare.

I sleep better knowing the ATS night crew/day crew/afternoon crew you name it are on duty. There are people who care deeply about what we are doing to our world and why this is being allowed to happen.

FUKUSHIMA, Japan, April 20, Kyodo

A citizen's group concerned about the impact on mothers and babies of the radioactive leaks from a crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture said Wednesday that small amounts of radioactive iodine have been found in the breast milk of four women living east or northeast of Tokyo.

Of the samples provided by the four women, the breast milk of the mother of an 8-month-old baby in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, contained the highest level of 36.3 becquerels of radioactive iodine per kilogram, but no radioactive cesium was found, the group said.

The Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan has not set safety levels for radioactive substances in breast milk, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. But the reading was below the safety limit of 100 becquerels per kg for tap water consumption by infants under 1 year old.

Kyodo News

April 20, 2011
Originally posted by Maluhia

Article date April 18
The lack of information we've been "sensing" appears to have a real cause:

April 21, 2011

Originally posted by DancedWithWolves

TEPCO's expendables begin to figure out they are being used, lied to and sacrificed.

Workers at nuke plant complain about handling of radiation exposure data

A 30-year-old emergency worker from a subcontractor said he had been told by an official of a primary contractor shortly before joining in restoration work at the troubled nuclear power plant in late March that, "The dose of radiation you are going to be exposed to this time will not be on your radiation exposure registration record. So, don't worry."

In late March, the president of his company which specializes in checking pumps told him: "We were asked by our client to send someone just for three days. If the situation is really bad, you can come back in the middle of your work. I want you to go just for three days right away." The man then headed for the nuclear power plant. He did not know any details of what he was supposed to do there. But after arriving at the scene of the crisis, he was told to connect electric cables necessary to restore power to a spent nuclear fuel pool, which is out of his domain. "They seem to be desperate to attract any available workers to restore electric power no matter what," he said.

He carried on with his job while receiving instructions from experienced workers: "I took a long time to do the job because I had never done it before, and I was unnecessarily exposed to radiation." At that time, dosimeters were in short supply, with only one given to his group of six.

His radiation exposure registration booklet was kept at a primary contractor he had worked for before the March 11 earthquake, and therefore he did not have it with him. "I haven't had it for a long time, and therefore I am not sure if the radiation I was exposed to this time was added on to my registration booklet," he said. There is no way of confirming it because the company has not been operating since the earthquake.

Another worker said:

"The way the registration booklets are handled varies from one subcontractor to another. Presumably, subcontractors may not put the latest date on the registration booklets in a bid to receive orders in the future. The company may be able to receive orders, but the people left holding the bag in the end are the workers," he said.

Source

I cannot begin to imagine what these workers are going through. Would this not be falsification of data and exposing worker's to untold radiation without detectors. There is no excuse for workers not having basic detectors. This is intentional. I have lost all faith in the safety provisions of nuclear plants and the industry that supports them. Safety is an illusion they have carefully crafted. What is going on at this plant? Are there any independent inspectors there?  Anyone? Thankfully some media in Japan are getting this story out.

Second story with further details about the radiation exposure cover-up:

Nuke authorities vague about radiation exposure limits for emergency workers

April 21, 2011
Originally posted by Destinyone

TY NoAngel, she does tell it like it is. Lack of info from Japan is making a few ripples...

Retired nuclear engineer worried by lack of news from Japan
By Gale Rose The Pratt Tribune Posted Apr 19, 2011 @ 03:11 PM

The recent silence from Japan about conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility that was damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami has a local man wondering just how severely the facility has been damaged.

The one thing he does know is that whatever is going on inside the reactors is very serious.

“It’s been kind of quiet out of Japan. This is not good,” said Eddie Petrowsky, nuclear engineer, area farmer and former employee of the Morris, Ill., Dresden No. 2 Nuclear reactor. “They’ve got some major problems.”

Petrowsky worked for two and half years as the lead nuclear engineer at the Morris facility, which is of the same type as the Fukushima facility, so he is familiar with its construction and operation.

When the aircraft flew over the site and dropped boron on the facility they were trying to absorb the neutrons from the explosion. Boron rods absorb neutrons and are used to control the nuclear reaction. The more the rods are pushed into the reactor, the slower the reaction, the more they are pulled out, the greater the reaction.

The use of boron also told Petrowsky that the plant was using plutonium in the reactor. Most countries are prohibited from using plutonium because it is easy to use it to make nuclear weapons ~ Source

By TOKO SEKIGUCHI And MITSURU OBE  ASIA NEWS
APRIL 21, 2011, 11:48 A.M. ET

TOKYO—Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan came under renewed criticism Thursday as he visited the area around Japan's damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex and unveiled tightened limits on the plant's evacuation zone, as frustrations mount over the government's handling of the nuclear crisis.

To my knowledge, they have not plugged the leak to date...

Meanwhile, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. released further details about the accidental release of highly radioactive water from the plant earlier this month, saying it totaled 520 tons and had concentrations of radioactive material of about 100 million times Japan's legal limit, underscoring the scramble to plug the leak.

And still...evacuees ask for the bare basics...like food.

"We don't think the government is making enough of an effort," said Shinichi Suzuki, deputy mayor of the town of Naraha, citing what he said was a lack of information about the crisis, as well as the fact that a nearly a quarter of his town's 8,000 residents are still in shelters.

"Many people are still living in a gymnasium without any privacy, more than a month after the evacuation," he said. "The government should have built more temporary housing. Food is also a problem. There are many elderly among the evacuees." ~ SOURCE

Des

Originally posted by Destinyone

April 21, 2011
Originally posted by thorfourwinds
reply to post by Destinyone

Greetings:

The link you posted seems to have gone down for some reason, but there are always backdoors. We thought that the original article was so good, we will post some more of it to add to your fine post. The Pratt Tribune. This article breaks it down in lay person's terms by a bona fide nuclear engineer and local farmer. We also like his smile and think that this person is a stand-up individual.

When the earthquake and tsunami hit, Petrowsky watched with great interest how the facility would handle the crisis and control the threat of radiation contamination. The Japanese are getting close to a point where they may have to turn each of the damaged reactors into a sand and concrete sarcophagus similar to the sarcophagus at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine following an explosion on April 26, 1986, Petrowsky said.

The people working at the accident site have been exposed to a lot of radiation and Petrowsky said that survivability was probably slim and the workers would obviously have a lot of health issues.

When the earthquake and tsunami hit the reactors went into shutdown or scram. Water is supposed to be pumped continuously to keep the reactors cool but both the outside power and backup power failed. It was never assumed that the plant would lose coolant but when all the power failed that is exactly what happened.

Without those systems the critical coolant water that helps produce steam and keeps the reactor temperate at a safe level did not circulate and the reactors and the fuel pool began to heat up, Petrowsky said.

“They were worried about the water level,” Petrowsky said.

He wants to know why the Japanese didn’t bring in stand by generators. The country makes generators, American Navy vessels[/color] were in the area and had generators so why weren’t generators brought in? Petrowsky said.

The loss of water caused dangerous heat to build up leading to hydrogen gas explosions that damaged three of the plant’s six reactors.

Each of the nuclear reactors at the site has three containment vessels. The reactor is a containment vessel itself. Around the reactor is the primary containment vessel and around that is the secondary containment vessel, Petrowsky said.

When the water failed the temperature inside the reactor rose and caused pressure to buildup inside the primary containment vessel. To relieve that pressure, hydrogen steam was released from the primary containment vessel into the secondary containment vessel. The release caused a buildup of hydrogen the rejoined with oxygen and the pressure was too great and it blew the roofs off the secondary containment vessels.That is what people saw exploding on television.

So the primary containment vessels still held but inside the primary, without cooling water, damage continued and it is that damage plus the damage to the fuel pool[/color] that has Petrowsky wondering what the Japanese are going to do with the facility.

And it wasn’t just the water in the reactors that was the problem. When the boron fuel rods used to control the nuclear reaction in the reactor have been used up they are still radioactive and will stay that way for thousands of years.

Seems to me that the numbers for "concernable" radioactivity being bandied about by the MSM never mentioned thousands of years.

Those rods are stored in a fuel pool that continuously covers the rods with recirculated water that keeps the temperature down and controls radiation. The fuel pool doesn’t have a containment building like the reactor but just a metal building.

When the water failed, the rods got hot and caused a hydrogen explosion that blew the top of the fuel pool building off[ releasing radioactive steam, Petrowsky said.

We are inviting Mr. Petrowsky to join us here.
In Peace. Love & Light
tfw

Most of the sane blogs that I read to keep up on nuclear issues have been sadly lacking any meaningful dialog on Fukushima, and the ones that do have a dialog seem to poo-poo the problems there a bit too much for my taste, even though they fall on the moderately anti-nuclear side of the issues.To be fair though they are usually carry  nuclear proliferation topics. Despite this I still keep checking them in.

Today I am more more ticked off.

One of the blogs posted a history lesson on problems with spent fuel storage at reactors. Its not about Fukushima specifically. Its about all reactors who use this type of storage for spent fuel. He told his story about finding specific problems with them, that we have seen come to fruition at Fukushima. He talks about specific problems, and what they knew would happen, and why it would happen if the spent fuel overheated. He lets us know how long the nuclear industry has been aware about the problems, how many people they knew would be radiated, how much it would cost them, how they decided to completely ignore the problems, and how he has been working for years trying to get changes made to at a minimum make them safer. He even wrote a book about it, and has now made the related portion available to the general public via the interwebs.

I'M REALLY TICKED  OFF 

Do not read the blog post and this portion of his book if you wish to continue your evening in blissful peace.

The design calculation for the reactor building ventilation system [..] amounted to 5.2 million BTUs per [..] The cooling system for the reactor building ventilation system was sized to accommodate this amount of heat removal [..] But the design heat load from irradiated fuel stored in the spent fuel pool was 12.6 million BTUs per hour[..] safety analyses assume the spent fuel pool cooling system will not be operating during a reactor accident. [..] but without cooling the spent fuel pool water would heat up, boil, and release heat into the reactor building air. A lot of heat—considerably more heat than that present in the reactor building from all other sources, and far more than the cooling system could handle.

The water boiling off the spent fuel pool would condense and drain down into the basement of the building where it would submerge and disable emergency equipment [..] In addition, as water boiled out of the pool and exposed the fuel, the radiation levels inside the reactor building during an accident would prevent workers from entering [..] the boiling spent fuel pool would create conditions inside the reactor building that would disable the emergency equipment needed to cool the reactor core.

We also found that the standby gas-treatment system—a ventilation system located inside the reactor building that processes air discharged to the atmosphere to reduce its radiation levels by a factor of 100—would shut down if the spent fuel pool water approached boiling because the warm vapor evaporating from the pool would trick sensors into thinking there was a fire, causing inlet dampers to close. And we found that if the spent fuel pool cooling system was not operating, the operators would have no indications of the level or temperature of the water in the spent fuel pool.

The NRC' s study reported  that   a  spent  fuel  pool  accident involving  fuel damage could  result in  an  8x10-6th person-rem  total  radiation  exposure to  the 667,588 people  living within a 50 mile radius of the plant. This radiological dose  averages 11.98 Rem per person,  equivalent  to  479.2 times the maximum dose  that  federal regulations permit  any member  of the  public  to receive in an entire year. The study estimated that such an accident could result  in off-site property damage  totalling $3.4 billion in 1983 dollars. As in the  RSS, the study assumed that the accident involved only the fuel discharged during the  most  recent refueling outage (i.e, one - third of a reactor core).4

However  the  NRC' s  study also reported that  the  chances of a spent  fuel pool  accident resulting in fuel damage  were  1.5x10-7th per reactor year, or less than one accident every 60,000 years  given the  109 plants  currently operating. Due to the accident's perceived low probability, the NRC concluded that it  represented an acceptable risk to public health and safety despite the severe consequences.

Nuclear Waste Disposal Crisis - 1996. Chapter 8  Spent Fuel Pool Safety Issues - [PDF][Archived]

Its all been a huge show, just designed to create as big a disaster as possible and give those cores chances to get down beneath the ground level. Plutonium was found from Alaska to California first day, that Mox which wasn't supposed to reach us.

SOURCE

April 21, 2011
Originally posted by thorfourwinds

Greetings Unity_99:

Here is information just posted in another thread that was spawned from this site that brings America into focus a bit more directly related to this incident.

We were warned.

March 18, 2011 Official UN Forecast: 'Diluted' Radioactive Fallout Heading To US West Coast

And from our friend Alexander Higgins ...

March 16th, 2011

Does that imply the lack of radiation detectors before the deployment? It will be interesting to track the (admitted)  number of units in service at any one time.

And from The NY TIMES...

Scientists Project Path of Radiation Plume

Health and nuclear experts emphasize that radiation in the plume will be diluted as it travels and, at worst, would have extremely minor health consequences in the United States, even if hints of it are ultimately detectable. In a similar way, radiation from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 spread around the globe and reached the West Coast of the United States in ten days, its levels measurable but minuscule. The projection, by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, an arm of the United Nations in Vienna, gives no information about actual radiation levels but only shows how a radioactive plume would probably move and disperse. The forecast, calculated Tuesday, is based on patterns of Pacific winds at that time and the predicted path is likely to change as weather patterns shift.

The NY Times has published an interactive nuclear radiation fallout forecast map. Here is the current nuclear fallout predictions for March 18th, 2010.

Forecast by the United Nations Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization - New York Times

The same insanity that prevailed (still prevails) in the Japanese MSM is happening here in America. What did you expect?

We were warned.

March 21, 2011
Spike in radiation levels for West Coast?

“Abnormal” readings on 8 of 18 EPA monitors for California, Oregon, Washington — Devices now “undergoing quality review” Some Radiation-Tracking Air Monitors May Not Be Working Properly, EPA Says, Bloomberg, March 21, 2011. Eight of 18 air monitors in California, Oregon and Washington state that track radiation from Japan’s nuclear reactors are “undergoing quality review,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s website. …

“What we are seeing is not a problem,” [Ronald Fraass, director of the EPA’s National Air and Radiation Environmental Laboratory in Montgomery, Alabama] said today in a telephone interview. … Monitors are listed as undergoing review if they report an abnormal reading, Fraass said …

May we enquire as to the "abnormal readings" in question?

And here we were under the impression that radiation detectors detect radiation - not temperature. USGOV Newspeak, again. This is starting to have that fish smell.

A sufficient number of devices are working and can measure any changes in radiation levels from the damaged Fukushima Dai- Ichi reactors, continued Fraass.

How many of these devices constitute a "sufficient" number? Will the public be warned - no, advised - of the changes in a timely manner? What is the response mechanism to a radioactive cloud hovering over a U.S. city? Who exactly is heading up this response mechanism? FEMA?

The U.S. has 124 stationary air-radiation monitors compared with 50 in use when the reactor at Chernobyl, Ukraine, exploded in 1986, said Brendan Gilfillan, an EPA spokesman, in an e-mail.

And here is where they are.

124? !!#?%!! That is not even ONE for each of the nuclear facilities in the U.S.! At least, in the ensuing 35 years, they have managed to add 74 monitors - a couple a year?  Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Oh, that's reassuring - only about 20% of our monitors down in a nuclear emergency! Oh, that's right... everything is OK -  just elevated background radiation - no more that you might get in a flight from Los Angeles to New York.

“If a monitor in one area is being repaired, EPA’s network will still be able to detect any fluctuation in background radiation levels,” Gilfillan said. 

Let's see now. 124 monitors in America. 22 down means 102 in service. Sure would like to see an map with the "down" monitors and the closest ones that are picking up the slack by "remote monitoring" from how many miles away?

And here it is. Does anyone have any stats on the range abilities of the radiation monitors that the EPA is using?

And here's the real-time version to have your way with. How far are you and your loved ones from a radiation monitoring device? Link Remember all the problems associated with the AREVA (Fromatome Richland, WA) nuclear facility outlined in previous posts? Do you think their monitor is in service? Remember when we were complaining about almost 20% of the rad monitors were down nationwide during this inundation of radioactivity? Six out of eleven monitors are out of service in California at this time - 55%!

And the insanity goes on and on.

March 28, 2011

Radioactive Iodine-131 in Pennsylvania rainwater sample is 3300% above federal drinking water standard

[Governor Corbett Says Public Water Supply Testing Finds No Risk to Public From Radioactivity Found in Rainwater

… The Iodine-131 numbers reported in the rainwater samples in Pennsylvania range from 40-100 picocuries per liter (pCi/L). Although these are levels above the background levels historically reported in these areas, they are still about 25 times below the level that would be of concern. The federal drinking water standard for Iodine-131 is three pCi/L.

On Friday, rainwater samples were taken in Harrisburg, where levels were 41 pCi/L[/color] and at nuclear power plants at TMI and Limerick, where levels were [color=red]90 to 100 pCi/L.

Corbett emphasized that the drinking water is safe and there is no cause for health concerns.

(Bangs head on desk and reaches for the vice-grips and phone to call George...)

Newspeak... DoubleSpeak... Gobbledegook... Your choice. More horrific news to come... we are now behind the eight-ball and need to wake up and do something ... Thoughts, anyone?
In Peace, Love & Light
tfw

April 22, 2011
Originally posted by imlite

More Japanese citizen journalists check out radiation levels around fukushima.

It is a picture of the last 20km is within a hazard area. 4.5km from the primary site. Number of ground asphalt parking lot
2011.04.21.22:00-4.5km from fukushima-daiichi-77600 cpm gamma+beta!!! - Video

Okuma nursery before the town, and where there is a laundromat. Rapidly increase the number of Geiger counter.
2011.04.21.22:00-4.5km from fukushima-daiichi gigier counters - Video

2.5km road from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant from the point toward the primary. Geiger counter rising numbers leave! ! ! The side Sports Complex While driving. I came to check in before their eyes will no longer enter the hazard area.
2011.04.21.22:00-2.5km from fukushima-daiichi gigier counter in the car - Video

Ookuma nursery before the town, and where there is a laundromat. I 振Ri切Re Geiger counter needle.
2011.04.21.22:00-4.5km from fukushima-daiichi gigier counter福島第一原発 - Video

April 22, 2011

Originally posted by DancedWithWolves  

Link to an important new thread on ATS for review and confirmation. Evidence of buried EPA data:

Radioactive Fukushima Plutonium And Strontium Bombarding US West Coast Since March 18th

The EPA has been posting data of its air, milk, and rainwater radiation online through the socrata data system.

But they have hidden many results from the public including the detection Plutonium, Strontium and several Cesium isotopes all of which began falling along the entire US west coast since March 18th.

Recently while searching the EPA RADnet database for radiation reports, we found a link to the main database.  It included the RADNet monitoring data  for many isotopes not released in the public reports.  Notice that:

• RADnet began monitoring for Plutonium from Day 1
• Plutonium was found from Alaska. to San Francisco California. and down into Guam from 03/18/2011
  
• Strontium was detected in the United States on 03/18/2011
  
• Isotopes found not released in public reports Plutonium, Strontium and Cesium
  
• What do the negative values mean in the results column?

Link to site with detection levels displayed

Link to perform your own search from last step on EPA Radnet site

April 22, 2011
Originally posted by Destinyone

Yup, the "New Japan"...a weak imitation of China.

They can't make journalists disappear like China can.

The Japanese government appears to be working closely with both the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and the nation's mainstream media outlets to maintain the facade that everything is just fine, and that the nuclear meltdown situation is largely mitigated and under control. But recent prodding and questioning by certain media sources outside this "good ol' boys" club have struck a nerve with authorities, sparking the new crackdown on those who oppose the official story. Authorities say such scrutiny is a threat to national security. For the most part, the mainstream Japanese media has been the only type of media invited to most of the press conferences concerning Fukushima. And the reporters who attend these events merely reiterate what TEPCO and others are saying about the situation, without asking any hard questions or investigating the situation. But the few press conferences at which independent and freelance reporters have been permitted to attend have been rife with the tough, hardball questions that nobody else has been asking -- and this has caused quite an upset.

Unfreaking believable

One of the biggest and most obvious questions that many independent journalists, as well as Japanese citizens, are asking concerns the near-total blackout of information on the current status of Fukushima. Authorities continue to repeat that the situation is under control, but where is the actual evidence to back this claim? And if those in power have nothing to hide, then why have all the meetings between TEPCO officials and the government been private, closed-door meetings that exclude actual journalists?

Learn more: HERE
Des

April 22, 2011
Originally posted by Tworide

That's not all they knew...

SEOUL, April 22 (Yonhap) -- The Japanese tourism minister called on South Koreans Friday to travel more frequently to Japan, saying his country is safe from radiation released from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant.

TOKYO—The operator of Japan's stricken nuclear plant let pressure in one reactor climb far beyond the level the facility was designed to withstand, a decision that may have worsened the world's most serious nuclear accident in a quarter century.

Japanese nuclear-power companies are so leery of releasing radiation into the atmosphere that their rules call for waiting much longer and obtaining many more sign-offs than U.S. counterparts before venting the potentially dangerous steam that builds up as reactors overheat, a Wall Street Journal inquiry found.

Japan's venting policy got its first real-world test in the chaotic hours after March 11's earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power complex. By the first hours of March 12, an emergency was brewing inside the plant's No. 1 reactor.

Fukushima waste storage pool critical

The water in the spent fuel storage pond of Unit Four of the Fukushima nuclear power station is close to boiling point and is quickly evaporating.

Engineers have to flush 170 cubic metres through the pond each day, creating a radioactive outflow into the sea. The operators say they need three more months for getting on top of the trouble.

TOKYO (AFP) – The operator of Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant is considering installing underground walls around its crippled reactors to prevent radioactive water seeping out, according to a broadcaster.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is studying the measure to contain contaminated water leaking from the plant's reactors which were damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, TV Asahi said on Saturday, citing unnamed sources.

Workers would have to dig to a depth of 15 metres (50 feet) to reach an impervious layer to build the walls on, it said.

TEPCO has dumped a massive amount of water into reactor containers and overheating pools containing spent nuclear fuel rods, after the magnitude 9.0 quake triggered monster waves which knocked out the plant's cooling systems.

Workers battling to stabilise the battered nuclear facility later found highly contaminated water submerging turbine buildings and underground tunnels, with some running off from a cracked concrete pit into the Pacific Ocean.

They sealed the crack but have faced a challenge in trying to ensure no underground water seeps out of the plant.

Seven-Eleven To Buy More Rice From Battered Tohoku

(The Nikkei April 23 morning edition)

TOKYO (Nikkei)--The nation's largest convenience store chain will use more rice from Tohoku starting in mid-May, throwing its market clout behind the region's down-on-their-luck farmers.

Seven-Eleven Japan Co. will raise the content of Tohoku-grown rice in its "onigiri" rice balls to around 60% from around 50% -- an increase equal to 150 million onigiri a year. It plans to keep up the heightened level of procurement for one to three years.

April 23, 2011
TEPCO discloses radiation map

Tokyo Electric Power Company has disclosed a map of radiation levels at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The utility plans to urgently remove radioactive rubble, and the map will help to protect workers from unnecessary exposure to radiation.

TEPCO began making the map in late March, and has posted copies in the plant's buildings.

The map shows radiation levels that controllers measured around the first 4 reactors before the start of the working day.

Radiation levels around the Number 3 reactor building, which was damaged by a powerful hydrogen explosion, are higher than in other locations, and 300 millisieverts per hour of radiation was detected in debris on a nearby mountainside.

Work started on April 6th to remove contaminated rubble, which had been obstructing the restoration process.

TEPCO says much of the debris around the former office building has been removed, and it has started clearing the rubble around the Number 3 and Number 4 reactors.

Enough debris has been removed to fill 50 containers, and it is being kept in a field on the mountainside.

The radiation levels one meter away are 1 to 2 millisieverts per hour.

Movers turn away evacuees / People told to relocate get cold shoulder from moving firms

The Yomiuri Shimbun

FUKUSHIMA--Many residents in Fukushima Prefecture who have been told to prepare for evacuation have been refused service by moving companies, it has been learned. People living in designated areas have been told to evacuate within one month because of radiation leaks from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in the prefecture.

"Out of consideration for our employees' safety, we can't let them take on those jobs," an official of one moving firm said.

If Japan thinks this won't backfire on them....think again!

"We were told to evacuate, but we can't. Are [the moving companies] just going to abandon us without offering help?" said a 50-year-old woman of Iitatemura, which is within the designated zone.

The woman called a major moving firm on Saturday, and informed a staff member of her address. The employee told her, "Currently, we classify [Iitatemura] as a no-service area."

The woman persisted in her request for service, but the employee said: "We think there'll be consequences from the accident at the nuclear power plant... Our company has already decided its position on the matter."

Another major moving company also refused to serve the woman, she said.

I think TEPCO should go into the moving business.  They've obviously failed in the reactor business.

After hearing on April 11 that a new evacuation zone would be set, she decided to move as soon as possible. She found a house in Sendai and made plans for the family to move there on May 4, only to be rebuffed by the moving companies.

Iitatemura's village administration office has received inquiries from other residents seeking advice after being turned away by moving companies.

"This isn't a problem the village office can deal with. It's the policy of these companies. We want the central government to do something," a village official said.

"I want the central government or someone to give us proper support so we can move. If the situation is left as it is, people will be left behind in the evacuation zone," the woman said.

Moving firms cited employee safety as the reason for the policy.  ~ SOURCE

Des