Japan: Earthquake, Tsunami + Nuclear Disasters

[Coast]

 

Japan watchdog fears operator can't cope in some respects

 

* Watchdog also concerned more tanks might leak radioactive water

 

* China says it "shocked" to hear plant still leaking contaminated water

 

* Contamination levels worst since plant destroyed by quake, tsunami

 

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/21/japan-fukushima-idUSL4N0GM0DG20130821

[be cause]

Michio Kaku discussing the situation in Fukushima, though it sounds more like a looming global disaster than anything...

http://soundcloud.co...ly-newsmag-05-6

Frequent use of the word 'stable' .. but surely the horse has bolted !

[BornFromTheVoid]

Frequent use of the word 'stable' .. but surely the horse has bolted !

 

This makes for a somewhat sobering read...

http://rt.com/news/fukushima-apocalypse-fuel-removal-598/

[Coast]

Frequent use of the word 'stable' .. but surely the horse has bolted !

 

It's certainly trickling away and BFTV's link is quite chilling if they don't get it 100% right.

[john pike]

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/21/world/asia/japan-nuclear-leak-warning/?hpt=ias_c2

Similar to above stories with video

[Coast]

 

Fukushima leak is 'much worse than we were led to believe'

 

A nuclear expert has told the BBC that he believes the current water leaks at Fukushima are much worse than the authorities have stated.

 

Mycle Schneider is an independent consultant who has previously advised the French and German governments. He says water is leaking out all over the site and there are no accurate figures for radiation levels. Meanwhile the chairman of Japan's nuclear authority said that he feared there would be further leaks. The ongoing problems at the Fukushima plant increased in recent days when the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) admitted that around 300 tonnes of highly radioactive water had leaked from a storage tank on the site.

 

The Japanese nuclear energy watchdog raised the incident level from one to three on the international scale that measures the severity of atomic accidents. This was an acknowledgement that the power station was in its greatest crisis since the reactors melted down after the tsunami in 2011. But some nuclear experts are concerned that the problem is a good deal worse than either Tepco or the Japanese government are willing to admit. They are worried about the enormous quantities of water, used to cool the reactor cores, which are now being stored on site.

 

Some 1,000 tanks have been built to hold the water. But these are believed to be at around 85% of their capacity and every day an extra 400 tonnes of water are being added. "The quantities of water they are dealing with are absolutely gigantic," said Mycle Schneider, who has consulted widely for a variety of organisations and countries on nuclear issues. "What is the worse is the water leakage everywhere else - not just from the tanks. It is leaking out from the basements, it is leaking out from the cracks all over the place. Nobody can measure that.

 

 

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23779561

[Coast]

 

Typhoon Man-yi forces TEPCO to release tainted rainwater into Pacific Ocean

 

The strong rains from Typhoon Man-yi has forced Fukushima Daiichi operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) to release some of the tainted rainwater that accumulated inside the plant into the ocean. They assured the public however that the radioactivity of the water was low enough and did not exceed the government’s limit of 30 becquerels per liter.

 

The rainwater pooled within the circular barriers near the storage tanks that house the contaminated water used to cool the damaged reactors. TEPCO spokesman Yo Koshimizu said they decided to release it into the ocean because after they monitored the levels of radiation, it was considered rainfall rather than a leakage from the tanks. The barriers, created to contain the leakage from the storage tanks, were opened and the pooled water was released through rainwater ditches. They said they released the rainwater, which contained low levels of strontium 90, at seven locations but did not specify how large of a volume was released into the ocean. The overall radiation level of the rainwater was at a maximum of 24 becquerels per liter.

 

But in the areas where the water was still highly toxic at 170,000 becquerels per liter, instead of releasing it into the ocean, they transferred it somewhere else using makeshift pumps. The typhoon also forced the cancellation of outdoor operations on Monday. There was no major damage reported inside the Fukushima nuclear plant, which had been out of operations since the meltdown in 2011

 

 

 

http://japandailypress.com/typhoon-man-yi-forces-tepco-to-release-tainted-rainwater-into-pacific-ocean-1736008/

[Love Snow]

@weatherchannel: BREAKING: Magnitude-6.8 #earthquake struck off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan at 3:22pm US EDT. #Tsunami advisory issued...

[pip22]

I was just about to post it!! You beat me to it!!

[john pike]

http://www.tsunami.gov/