Ethan A. Huff

Natural News
January 31, 2013

The two-year anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster is rapidly approaching, and the waters around the crippled plant are still highly contaminated with radiation, according to new reports. A fish caught as part of an ongoing Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) seafood monitoring program recently tested at levels of 254,000 becquerels per kilogram (Bq/kg) of radioactive cesium, or roughly 2,540 times higher than the maximum legal limit of 100 Bq/kg established by the government for seafood.

The contaminated fish, which has been dubbed “Mike the Murasai,” was caught in ocean waters fairly close to the shuttered plant nearly 24 months after the catastrophe, raising fresh concerns about the safety of seafood off the coast of Japan. Though the fish itself did not show visible signs of deformation or other radiation-induced damage, according to reports, the level of radiation detected in its tissue is high enough to suggest that the Fukushima plant is more than likely still releasing extremely high levels of nuclear radiation directly into the ocean.

In response, TEPCO says it is planning to install an extensive series of nets beneath the surface of the waters surrounding the still-damaged plant, which will cover a radius of about 20 kilometers, or roughly 12.5 miles. This netting is intended to trap other contaminated fish and prevent them from migrating too far from the plant. Many experts worry that deposits of radioactive cesium and other nuclear chemicals are continuing to build up on the ocean floor, and that Murasai, which are feeder fish for other sea species, will inadvertently contaminate other fish species, and potentially even fisheries.

Radiation levels actually appear to be increasing around Fukushima

The high levels of radiation detected in Mike the Murasai would not necessarily be as big of a concern if they were less than previously detected levels. But according to reports, the 254,000 Bq/kg of cesium identified is nearly 10 times higher than the amount detected in scorpion fish caught last August, suggesting that radiation pollution is increasing in the area, despite continued reassurances by TEPCO and government officials that the situation is under control.

It was also confirmed back in November by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), an independent oceanographic research institution based in the U.S., that nearly half of all sea creatures living in the waters near the Fukushima plant are still contaminated with levels of radioactive cesium that greatly exceed government safety limits. And as the radioactive particles continue to sink in ocean waters, the problem is only expected to worsen, particularly for bottom-feeding fish.

“We can’t sell any of these fish,” explained Kozo Endo, a local fisherman, about the dire situation. “We can only catch them for radiation sampling. Those that are left over — well, all of us working on the boat take them home to eat.”

Both TEPCO and the Japanese government continue to change their respective stories surrounding the disaster. In the past, the two entities tried to deny that Fukushima was still leaking radiation into the ocean. After this was shown to be false, they then tried to claim that radiation levels were minimal, and that particles were sinking into the ocean floor where they would be unable to cause further damage. Now, the story has changed again, and TEPCO is allegedly taking more drastic measures to contain radioactive fish.

“Grave concern” over chance of reactor meltdown

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Despite the fact that it long since disappeared from major news headlines, an editorial in one of Japan’s leading newspapers warns that the Fukushima crisis is still at a critical stage and that the Japanese government has drawn up contingency plans for the potential evacuation of Greater Tokyo’s 39 million residents.

Fukushima’s reactor number 4, which holds 75% as much nuclear fuel as the entire Chernobyl complex did prior to its meltdown, 460 tons in total, is at risk of collapse. With the roof of the complex blown away, if the storage pool for the spent fuel, which is housed on the 3rd and 4th floors of the building, were to fracture then the nuclear fuel would overheat and explode, spreading radioactive fallout over a wide area.

Both the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and French nuclear energy company Areva have warned that reactor number 4 is the “weakest link” out of the entire Fukushima complex. The Tokyo Electric Power Company has resisted calls to bury the spent fuel rods in concrete, citing the cost, but an editorial in Japan’s Mainichi Daily News quotes government insiders who warn that the potential collapse of the reactor is “a grave concern.”

“Because sea water was being pumped into the reactor, the soundness of the structure (concrete corrosion and deterioration) was questionable. There also were doubts about the calculations made on earthquake resistance as well,” said one government source familiar with what took place at the time. “It’s been suggested that the building would be reinforced, and spent fuel rods would be removed from the pool under those conditions. But fuel rod removal will take three years. Will the structure remain standing for that long?”

As part of contingency planning for the collapse of reactor number 4, the Japanese government has drawn up a blueprint for forcibly evacuating 39 million residents out of the Tokyo metropolitan area.

“The worse-case scenario drawn up by the government includes not only the collapse of the No. 4 reactor pool, but the disintegration of spent fuel rods from all the plant’s other reactors. If this were to happen, residents in the Tokyo metropolitan area would be forced to evacuate,” according to the editorial by senior writer Takao Yamada.

The radiation exposure Tokyo residents are already receiving as a result of the disaster are certain to cause devastating health effects for decades to come.

Research has shown that some areas of Tokyo have more radiation than existed in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zones. Indeed, recent soil samples taken in Tokyo were found to be so radioactive that they would be considered radioactive waste in the United States and would have to be disposed of by experts at a secure facility.

Last week TEPCO announced that, “it has found that the cooling water in one of the damaged reactors (number 2) at Fukushima is only 60 centimeters deep, far lower than previously thought.” Radioactive material from the stricken nuclear plant has been found in sea creatures and ocean water some 600 km off the coast of Japan.

“There was a chance early on that a storage pool collapse could be prevented, but according to the report Tokyo Electric Power Co. refused to take the necessary steps as a cost-cutting measure,” writes Mac Slavo.

“If storage pools in the No. 4 reactor collapse and disintegrate as the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has warned could happen, we will see a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale as millions of refugees will have no choice but to flee Tokyo. They’ll have no possessions, no money, no food, no water, no shelter, and a very fragile safety net.”

As we highlighted last week, while residents in Fukushima and surrounding areas continue to express justified concern over radiation poisoning, almost a quarter of them are instead being treated for “psychiatric disorders,” with fear of contamination being characterized by health authorities as a mental illness.

Similar/Related Articles

1. New Fukushima Cessium-137 Threat
2. Tokyo Electric Co.: Chance of chain reaction ‘not zero’
3. The Amount of Radioactive Fuel at Fukushima DWARFS Chernobyl
4. Video Taken by Aerial Robotic Vehicle at Fukushima Reveals Devastation
5. Tokyo Soil: Blanketed with Fukushima Radiation – Would Be Considered “Radioactive Waste” in U.S.
6. Tepco: Fukushima Fuel Rods Are Fully Exposed
7. Reduced Pressure at Fukushima Reactor Indicates Possible Leakage
8. Fuel rod fire at Fukushima reactor “would be like Chernobyl on steroids”
9. Tokyo Hit With Fukushima Radiation
10. Alert: Fukushima Coverup, 40 Years of Spent Nuclear Rods Blown Sky High
11. What The Fukushima Is Going On In Omaha?
12. Massive New Radioactivity Possible from Fukushima, Especially If Melted Core Materials Hit Water

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
March 16, 2012

Nuclear fuel pool at Fukushima prior to earthquake.

The corporate media is again ignoring a major and potentially catastrophic development at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.

Kyodo News reported on March 15 that “that the clarity of water inside the spent fuel pool of the No. 4 unit may have deteriorated based on a survey conducted by a camera,” according to Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator.

TEPCO said “visibility in the pool is only about 1 meter, far less than the approximately 7 meters needed to work at removing nuclear fuel from the pool as part of the process of scrapping the four reactors severely damaged by last year’s nuclear accident.”

One month ago, TEPCO was able to see approximately five meters into the spent fuel pool water.

The spent fuel rods pose considerable hazard. In order to reduce “decay heat,” the rods must remain submerged in circulating water. If exposed to air, they combust and release large amounts of radioactive cesium-137.

Following the earthquake and tsunami that damaged the Fukushima plant last year, the Japanese government underestimated the amount of radiation released into the environment, including cessium-137 from the fuel pool at reactor 4.

Cold Shutdown … or Escape of Hot Fuel?

Washington’s Blog
January 20, 2012

I noted last month in connection with Tepco’s announcement of “cold shutdown” of the Fukushima reactors:

If the reactors are “cold”, it may be because most of the hot radioactive fuel has leaked out.

The New York Times pointed out last month:

A former nuclear engineer with three decades of experience at a major engineering firm … who has worked at all three nuclear power complexes operated by Tokyo Electric [said] “If the fuel is still inside the reactor core, that’s one thing” …. But if the fuel has been dispersed more widely, then we are far from any stable shutdown.”

Indeed, if the center of the reactors are in fact relatively “cold”, it may be because most of the hot radioactive fuel has leaked out of the containment vessels and escaped into areas where it can do damage to the environment.

After drilling a hole in the containment vessel of Fukushima reactor 2, Tepco cannot find the fuel. As AP notes:

The steam-blurred photos taken by remote control Thursday found none of the reactor’s melted fuel ….

The photos also showed inner wall of the container heavily deteriorated after 10 months of exposure to high temperature and humidity, Matsumoto said.

TEPCO workers inserted the endoscope — an industrial version of the kind of endoscope doctors use — through a hole in the beaker-shaped container at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant’s No. 2 reactor ….

The probe failed to find the water surface, which indicate the water sits at lower-than-expected levels inside the primary containment vessel and questions the accuracy of the current water monitors, Matsumoto said.

And while cold shutdown means that the water inside the reactors is below the boiling point, CNN reports:

Massive steam and water drops made it difficult to get a clear vision….

Given that steam forms when water boils, this is an indication that the reactor is not in cold shutdown.

Mainchi points out that reactors 1 and 3 are probably in no better shape:

The fuel inside the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors is believed to have melted through the pressure vessels and been accumulating in the outer primary containers after the Fukushima plant lost its key functions to cool the reactors in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami on March 11 last year.

More Than 4 Times Maximum for “Cold Shutdown”

Washington’s Blog
Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Over 400 Degrees Celsius

Pretending that the Fukushima reactors achieved a state of “cold shutdown” was a political – rather than scientific - decision.

Tepco itself said the state of cold shutdown could only continue so long as the temperature within the nuclear reactors stayed below 100 degrees Celsius. (Because the thermometers within the reactors have a 20 degree margin of error, Tepco says that any reading over 80 degrees violates the conditions for a cold shutdown.)

As Bloomberg notes today:

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the temperature in one of the damaged reactors at its Fukushima nuclear station rose to levels above safety limits even as it injected increased amounts of cooling water.

One of three thermometers indicated the temperature at the bottom of the No. 2 reactor pressure vessel rose to 93.7 degrees Celsius (200.7 Fahrenheit) today, higher than the 80 degrees limit, Ai Tanaka, a spokeswoman for the utility known as Tepco, said by phone today.

***

The thermometers have a margin of error of as much as 20 degrees.

But major Japanese news sources Yomiuri and Jiji note that the thermometer in reactor 2 has since climbed to 272.8 degrees Celsius, and then hit the upper limit of the thermometer at 400 degrees Celsius (752 degrees Fahrenheit).

In other words, the thermometer is showing temperatures more than 4 times higher than the 100 degree Celsius limit for cold shutdown.

Tepco claims that such a high reading means that the thermometer must be broken, and is maintaining its declaration of cold shutdown based upon the reading of other thermometers. Of course, the fuel is moving around, so there could be hot spots and cooler spots within each reactor.

Of course, Tepco could be right: the thermometer could be broken. But I am not yet convinced, given that – ever since the earthquake last year – Tepco has repeatedly claimed that an instrument is broken whenever there is a new reading of things gone haywire. (Indeed, one Japanese writer said that Tepco’s spokesman sounded “testy” when asked how Tepco knew that the thermometer was broken.)

In good news, a second, nearby 4-reactor nuclear complex which almost melted down last March – the Fukushima Daini complex (referred to as the Fukushima “2″ complex), which is 7 miles away from the infamous, leaking 6-reactor Fukushima Daiichi complex – apparently is in a true state of cold shutdown.

Levels 1,000 times higher than previous readings

Ethan A. Huff
Natural News
February 26, 2012

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster is far from over, as new reports explains that water samples taken nearly 400 miles off the coast of Japan in the Pacific Ocean are showing radiation levels of up to 1,000 times higher than previous readings. Presenting their findings at the recent Ocean Sciences Meeting in Salt Lake City, Ut., scientists continued to claim these severely elevated radiation levels are not a significant health or environmental threat.

Back in June 2011, a ship carrying scientists traveled off the eastern coast of Japan collecting water samples at distances of roughly 20 miles to 400 miles from the coast. Upon analysis, these samples were found to contain elevated levels of cesium-137 at ten to 1,000 times higher than levels detected before the Fukushima disaster, which is highly alarming.

Included in the detections was the presence of radioactive silver, which is an obvious product of melted control rods at the nuclear facility. The mainstream media is claiming that this silver is simply a result of nuclear fission, but the reality of the situation is that this silver is evidence of a complete core meltdown at the facility, which is obviously having widespread repercussions.

Meanwhile, Hartmut Nies, an official from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), insists that all this radiation is not that big of a deal. He even went so far at the recent meeting to claim that “if it was not seawater, you could drink it without any problems,” a completely absurd position that has no grounding in science.

As part of their misinformation campaign, IAEA officials and others compared the radioactive cesium and silver to the naturally-occurring, elemental potassium-40 found in seawater. This natural potassium, of course, is much different than the radioactive elements being emitted from Fukushima, as sea creatures have developed a natural tolerance for potassium-40.

Even those falsely claiming that all this radiation is completely harmless to humans are at least admitting that the findings are indicative that the Fukushima nuclear facility is still leaking radiation into the environment. Marine chemist Ken Buesseler, for instance, who recently said radioactive seafood is safe and that he would eat it, toldFish Info & Servicesthat the reactor “still seems to be leaking,” and that it “hasn’t shut off completely.” 

Sources for this article include:

http://www.cbsnews.com

http://enenews.com

http://www.cnn.com

http://www.fis.com

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/035065_Fukushima_radiation_Pacific_Ocean.html#ixzz1nUdQDAla

Det blir lite Fukushima artiklar nu dagen till ära.

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
February 2, 2012

TEPCO reported today that more than eight tons of radioactive water has leaked from the number four reactor at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant after a frozen pipe burst. The electric company said none of the water reached outside of the stricken reactor containment building.

Fukushima reactor number 4 containment building.

TEPCO failed to winterize the reactor’s cooling system and this oversight led to fractures in pipes due to frozen water inside, according to reports.

“I wouldn’t say this is a positive development. But it isn’t something that would further stoke safety concerns over other nuclear plants,” Kenji Sumita, honorary professor at Osaka University, told Reuters. “If it hadn’t been for the Fukushima disaster, an incident like this could have gone unreported.”

Soon after the earthquake and tsunami that overwhelmed and damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant last year, a long history of covering up mismanagement, accidents, and disasters by TEPCO and its transnational business partner General Electric was revealed.

Most of the cover-ups involved safety violations related to earthquakes. In addition, TEPCO has repeatedly endangered the lives of employees. In 1999, a serious accident at Tokaimura exposed hundreds of people to radiation and resulted in the evacuation of thousands.

“Behind Japan’s escalating nuclear crisis sits a scandal-ridden energy industry in a comfy relationship with government regulators often willing to overlook safety lapses,” Public Intelligence wrote last March. “Leaks of radioactive steam and workers contaminated with radiation are just part of the disturbing catalog of accidents that have occurred over the years and been belatedly reported to the public, if at all.”

In early January, it was reported by a number of sources that radiation from Fukushima has spread worldwide. 20,000 premature deaths in the United States have been attributed to the increased level of radiation, up from an estimated 14,000 in December. Meanwhile, a sudden rise in thyroid cancer has stumped the medical establishment.

In December, a report was released indicating that levels of radioactive cesium had reached 50 million times normal levels in the ocean water off the coast of the Fukushima Dai-ichi facility. Following the report, TEPCO finally admitted that the disaster was ongoing and alarming quantities of radioactive strontium have leaked into the ocean.

Considering TEPCO’s history of habitual lies and cover-ups, its latest claim that more than eight tons of radioactive water from the number four reactor is not a threat to public health should not be accepted at face value.

Similar/Related Articles

1. Tepco Drills Hole in Fukushima Reactor – Finds Nuclear Fuel Has Gone Missing
2. Tepco Says Highest Radiation Yet Is Detected at Fukushima Dai-Ichi
3. Tepco: Fukushima Fuel Rods Are Fully Exposed
4. TEPCO claims Fukushima plant stabilised
5. Fukushima Gov. Slams TEPCO, Govt for ‘Betrayal’
6. Tepco fails to block Fukushima crack
7. TEPCO Again Underplays Severity of Situation at Fukushima
8. Remember Fukushima? It’s Back
9. TEPCO: Radioactive water may have leaked into sea
10. Japan’s Latest Proposal To Contain Fukushima’s Radioactive Fallout – A (Circus) Tent
11. Downgraded Typhoon Poised to Spread Fukushima Radiation
12. Massive New Radioactivity Possible from Fukushima, Especially If Melted Core Materials Hit Water

CNN
June 6, 2011

Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced full meltdowns at three reactors in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami in March, the country’s Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters said Monday.

The nuclear group’s new evaluation, released Monday, goes further than previous statements in describing the extent of the damage caused by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

The announcement will not change plans for how to stabilize the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the agency said.

Read Entire Article

Michio Nakayama and Tsuyoshi Inajima
Bloomberg
May 12, 2011

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said fuel rods are fully exposed in the No. 1 reactor at its stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, setting back the utility’s plan to resolve the crisis.

The water level is 1 meter (3.3 feet) below the base of the fuel assembly, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility known as Tepco, told reporters at a briefing in Tokyo. Melted fuel has dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel and is still being cooled, Matsumoto said. The company doesn’t know how long the rods have been exposed, he said.

Tepco is trying to contain the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl after a quake and tsunami two months ago knocked out power and cooling systems at the Fukushima station. The utility planned to flood the No. 1 containment chamber, which surrounds the reactor vessel, in a procedure known as water entombment to prevent fuel from overheating.

“I’ve been saying from the beginning the water tomb plan won’t work,” said Tadashi Narabayashi, a professor of nuclear engineering at Hokkaido University. “Tepco must work on a water circulation cooling system as soon as possible. They’ve been going round and round in circles and now realize this is what they need to do.”

Full article here

Fukushima Gov. Slams TEPCO, Govt for ‘Betrayal’

The Yomiuri Shimbun
April 10, 2011

Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato has expressed anger at the central government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., saying both “betrayed” the people of Fukushima Prefecture with repeated assurances about the safety of nuclear power plants.

“We feel we were betrayed [by the central government and TEPCO,” Sato said during an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun on Thursday, nearly a month after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the outbreak of a series of accidents at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant.

“The central government and TEPCO repeatedly told us, ‘Nuclear power plants are safe because they’ve got multiple protection systems,’ and, ‘Earthquake-proof measures have been taken,’” Sato said.

“TEPCO used the term ‘beyond our expectations’ [to describe the natural disaster], but they can’t establish effective policies for nuclear energy safety unless they take into account things that are beyond their expectations,” Sato said.

Read full article

Zero Hedge
April 6, 2011

For those wondering just why TEPCO and Japan in general have been in such as scramble to cover up as much of the reactor in a concrete sarcophagus, after up until now the utility had been perfectly happy to come up with one after another useless idea of delaying the inevitable moment of sarcophagation, here is Arnie Gunderson from Fairewinds and Associates explaining that now there is definitive proof, courtesy of Tellurium 129 and a order of magnitude higher concentration of Iodine 131 in Reactor 1, that the reactor is now undergoing sporadic events of recriticality: in other words, the fission reaction is recommencing on its own, and without any supervision, emitting undetectable neutron beams which are irradiating any and all personnel still on location. For the time being these recritical events are isolated, although courtesy of the whole premise behind a nuclear power plant, all it takes is for some form of critical threshold to be reached, and for a full blown self-sustaining chain reaction to result in Chernobyl part 2. If nothing else, we now know why the authorities are desperate to bury everything literally under the sand. Because at least a few thousands tons of concrete will provide a modest buffer for unprecedented amount of radiation before these hit the surrounding environment. Lastly, all those hoping that natural rod cooling is sufficient, and if the plant is left along long enough on its own, things will get better, are now proven wrong. We can only hope the outcome this time will be a tad more favorable than all the previously disastrously aborted attempts at restoring order.

Japan Today
April 6, 2011

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) on Wednesday prepared to inject nitrogen into one of the reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex to reduce the potential risk of a hydrogen explosion, while it succeeded in stopping highly radioactive water leaking into the Pacific Ocean from the plant.

The nitrogen, an inert gas, is expected to be injected into the No. 1 reactor’s containment vessel, a process that could take several days. Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the government’s nuclear agency, denied during a morning press conference that there is an ‘‘immediate danger’’ of explosion.

In addition to the task of maintaining the relative stability of all six reactors at the nuclear complex, TEPCO has also been engaged in efforts to stop highly radioactive water from leaking into the sea and cleaning up contaminated water within the plant.

At 5:38 a.m., highly contaminated water, which had been confirmed as leaking into the sea from around a cracked pit located near the No. 2 reactor water intake on Saturday, stopped flowing after TEPCO injected around 6,000 liters of chemical agents including sodium silicate, known as ‘‘water glass.’‘

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said it had ordered the utility to continue monitoring the pit to check whether the water leakage has completely stopped, and noted it is possible that the water, which has lost an outlet, could show up from other areas of the plant.

The highly radioactive water is believed to have come from the No. 2 reactor core, where fuel rods have partially melted, and ended up in the pit. The pit is connected to the No. 2 reactor turbine building and an underground trench connected to the building, both of which were found to be filled with high levels of contaminated water.

To make room to store the highly radioactive water that is hampering the plant’s restoration work, TEPCO continued to dump into the sea massive amounts of low-level contaminated water from inside a nuclear waste disposal facility at the site, as well as contaminated groundwater found from around the Nos. 5 and 6 unit buildings.

TEPCO is aiming to dispose of a total of 11,500 tons of low-level contaminated water in the sea by this weekend, a move which has sparked concern among neighboring countries and strong protests from the domestic fishing industry.

Opening up the nuclear waste disposal facility could be completed as early as Thursday, Nishiyama told the morning press conference. The move would be followed by some repair work to ensure that the facility can retain highly radioactive water safely without fear of the stored liquid leaking outside.

The plant’s power grid and most of the emergency diesel generators were knocked out by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami on March 11, resulting in the loss of many of the reactors’ key cooling functions, partial melting of reactor cores and hydrogen explosions.

The utility has been pouring massive amounts of water into the reactors and their spent nuclear fuel pools as a stopgap measure to cool them down. But the measure is causing ‘‘side effects,’’ such as the detection of contaminated water in various parts of the nuclear complex and some leakage into the sea.

A seawater sample taken near the No. 2 reactor water intake on Saturday showed a radioactive iodine-131 concentration of 7.5 million times the maximum level permitted under law, or about 300,000 becquerels per cubic centimeter.