After adding one more alarming link, I wish to return to Curtis' film A is for Atom, that was discussed here. Inside the 21:00-29:00 time marks it pitches a pivotal moment in the history of nuclear industry. The first commercial GE and Westinghouse reactors were just oversized simplest reactors for submarines with little adaptation. Particularly, containment problems under cooling failure were quickly foreseen. The Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards had warned the Atomic Energy Commission in 1966 that new reactors near NY and Chicago should have improved designs, and their letter should had been published by law. But the AEC chairman Seaborg saw too much trouble for the industry, and vowed to negotiate privately - but pushing for a change in the whole manufacturing system was not a feasible approach for him. The industry bluffed that they would stop selling reactors if forced to deal with containment issues seriously. So basically, there is no prescription for Fukushima reactors now.

The most important news is this:

Japan may have lost race to save nuclear reactor | World news | The Guardian

Readings from reactor two at the site have been made public by the Japanese authorities and Tepco, the utility that operates it.

Richard Lahey, who was head of safety research for boiling-water reactors at General Electric when the company installed the units at Fukushima, told the Guardian workers at the site appeared to have "lost the race" to save the reactor, but said there was no danger of a Chernobyl-style catastrophe.

..."The indications we have, from the reactor to radiation readings and the materials they are seeing, suggest that the core has melted through the bottom of the pressure vessel in unit two, and at least some of it is down on the floor of the drywell," Lahey said. "I hope I am wrong, but that is certainly what the evidence is pointing towards."

No. 2 is the one where radiation level readings inside the drywell have gone up.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

 The Oil Drum - Fukushima Dai-ichi status and prognosis

NHK Just broadcast an interview with a TEPCO worker at the plant. He says that TEPCO is not providing individual dosimeters to all workers. TEPCO admitted this was the case but said that they only sent in workers to low radiation dose areas without individual dosimetsrs. The worker said he would only reliably know what dose he was receiving if he was close to others with dosimeters.

TEPCO also said that they didn't have enough for everyone as many at the plant were destroyed by the explosions. That doesn't sound like a valid excuse.

<snip>

No, that excuse doesn't hold water at all. There aren't spare dosimeters at other reactor sites? The JSDF doesn't have any? They can't ask the US for some?

There were reports back when the firefighters first entered the plant that the chief in charge told the others to ignore their dosimeters, or they wouldn't get anything done. He stayed with his men the whole time and monitored his dosimeter, rotating the crew in and out of the hottest areas, and picked up a year's worth of radiation himself. If the firefighters had them, why doesn't TEPCO have extras?

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

   URGENT: Radioactivity 10,000 times the limit found from groundwater: TEPCO

A radioactive substance about 10,000 times the limit was detected from groundwater around the No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday.

A Tokyo Electric official said the radiation level is ''extremely high.''

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

 npr - Bird's-Eye View Of Japan's Stricken Nuclear Plant Shows Vast Damage  

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

 KYODO - Man arrested after breaking into Fukushima Daini plant premises  

An unemployed man from Tokyo was arrested Friday after allegedly intruding by car into the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant premises, near the radiation-leaking Fukushima Daiichi plant in Fukushima Prefecture, police said.

Hikaru Watanabe, 25, from Shinjuku Ward, allegedly broke through the western gate of the Daini plant around 1:10 p.m. Thursday, before driving inside its premises for about 10 minutes, the plants' operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said, adding that no one was injured in the incident.

Watanabe was arrested on suspicion of unlawful entry and property destruction, the local police said, adding that he admitted to the allegations. The purpose of the intrusion remains unknown.

The police, who were alerted to the incident and went to the scene, asked the suspect to voluntarily go with them for questioning. The vehicle and the suspect underwent a radiation decontamination process before being taken to a police facility, they said.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

 KYODO - Groundwater at nuclear plant 'highly' radiation-contaminated: TEPCO  

More signs of serious radiation contamination in and near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were detected Thursday, with the latest data finding groundwater containing radioactive iodine 10,000 times the legal threshold and the concentration of radioactive iodine-131 in nearby seawater rising to the highest level yet.

Radioactive material was confirmed from groundwater for the first time since the March 11 quake and tsunami hit the nuclear power plant on the Pacific coast, knocking out the reactors' key cooling functions. An official of the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said, ''We're aware this is an extremely high figure.''

The contaminated groundwater was found from around the No. 1 reactor's turbine building, although the radiation level of groundwater is usually so low that it cannot be measured.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

evacuation numbers if exclusion zone expanded


Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

What I take from this is:

1.  they don't have anything under control

2.  pouring water is a palliative

3.  nobody has a handle on probable outcome

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

 WNN - Further evacuations a possibility

Japanese authorities are considering the evacuation of more people in the area around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after a more serious spot of radionuclide disposition was identified. Some restrictions on tap water are being lifted but discharges to sea continue.

Notification of this came from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reporting the work of its monitoring teams in Japan.

Results from a range of soil samples taken at distances of between 25 kilometres and 58 kilometres from the power plant "indicate a pronounced spatial variability" of the total amounts of iodine-131 and caesium-137 deposited on the ground.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Reuters quoting Mainichi newspaper - Japan govt to take control of Tokyo Electric Power via public fund injection  

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

LDP considering grand coalition gov't with Kan's DPJ | Kyodo News

The largest opposition Liberal Democratic Party in a policy shift is considering an idea sounded out by Prime Minister Naoto Kan's ruling Democratic Party of Japan to form a grand coalition government following the calamitous March 11 earthquake and tsunami and ongoing nuclear crisis, LDP lawmakers said Thursday.

Katsuya Okada, the DPJ's No. 2 man who serves as secretary general, also sounded positive the same day about the idea of allowing other parties including the LDP in a new ruling bloc.

The LDP earlier sought to retake power by urging Kan to dissolve the lower house and call a general election but is now seeking to work as the DPJ's coalition partner to prioritize addressing the disaster, the lawmakers told Kyodo News.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

NHK -  Japanese researcher has explained how radioactive substances that leaked from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have spread and reached Tokyo and other parts of the Kanto region.　　　　

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

view from camera on top of pemp arm into  reactor building

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/13684184

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Too Little. Too Late?

Speaking Tuesday at a session of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Peter Lyons, an acting assistant energy secretary in charge of nuclear power, said the United States was sending remote-controlled "radiation-hardened robotics" to Japan to help resolve the crisis at the Fukushima complex.

A robotic device that can withstand extremely high levels of radioactivity has been shipped to Japan from the Energy Department's Idaho National Laboratory, along with several cameras to take photographs inside the nuclear power plant, according to an Associated Press report.

Lyons said the Energy Department will also send about 40 employees and 7 metric tons of equipment necessary to carry out the work.

This might have been of some use on March 21, if there were some switches that needed to be thrown in a control room, etc. Perhaps it will still be of use. It is likely that there is a lot more in the 7 metric tons of equipment that will go along. The two week delay in offering/accepting/sending this is just astounding.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

Reactor operators accelerate anti-tsunami defenses Asahi Shimbun

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry called for three steps: deployment of firefighting vehicles and mobile power sources to cool reactors and storage pools holding spent fuel rods; establishment of procedures to respond to an emergency; and implementation of emergency drills based on such procedures.

Earlier, TEPCO submitted to NISA an interim report on revised safety measures for the Fukushima No. 1 plant. Although the utility was instructed to take into account a massive tsunami, which had hit the northeastern region at intervals of 450 years to 800 years, at a gathering of experts in 2009, it failed to finalize the report.

While utilities are actively crafting anti-tsunami steps, their focus is limited to deployment of mobile power sources and adding watertight features to buildings. They are not at present looking at radical redesigns or measures. As a result, local governments hosting nuclear plants appear far from reassured by the ministry's instruction.

"Those safety precautions came too late," said a Niigata prefectural official dealing with nuclear power stations. The official also raised doubts about the ministry's call for the deployment of power-source vehicles, calling it a stopgap measure.

Chubu Electric has been unable to restart the No. 3 reactor at its Hamaoka nuclear plant, which has been idle for checks since November. The operator secured emergency power vehicles before the central government issued the instruction. It also plans to build a breakwater more than 12 meters high and locate emergency generators upland from the plant. The company also held emergency drills Tuesday to prepare for resuming nuclear power generation.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

French nuke firm Areva vows to support Japan in tackling crisis   Kyodo News

Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive officer of Areva, told Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda that her company recognizes the Fukushima nuclear emergency as its own, according to a Japanese official. Their meeting was partially open to the media.

The CEO said at a press conference later in the day that Areva plans to soon send about 20 more experts to Japan, in addition to two who are currently assisting the Fukushima plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. in dealing with the contingency. The Areva experts heading to Japan include those specializing in the disposal of radioactive water and spent nuclear fuel, Lauvergeon said. Areva is a manufacturer of uranium-plutonium mixed-oxide fuel, or MOX, which was used at the No. 3 reactor of the Daiichi power station.

Kaieda thanked Lauvergeon for Areva's donation of items such as radiation protective suits and masks and expressed hope that the French firm, which was involved in managing the 1979 Three Mile Island accident and the 1986 Chernobyl crisis, can support Tokyo to resolve ''the unprecedented'' disaster.

Areva has so far sent to Japan 10,000 radiation protective suits, 3,000 masks and 20,000 sets of gloves for nuclear workers, as well as two radiation monitoring vehicles, the Japanese official said.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

I have been thinking about the low water level in the reactor cores (below the top of the fuel rods), but realised I don't even know if and how any water gets in there. What they flooded with seawater is supposed to be the containment around the pressure vessel (the drywell), isn't it? Does anyone remember details on this?

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

NHK WORLD English

US, Japan forces start massive search

The US military and Japan's Self-Defense Forces have launched a massive operation to find those still missing in the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.

The joint operation started on Friday, 3 weeks after the disaster. More than 16,000 people remain missing.

In the morning, helicopters of the Ground Self-Defense Force left their base in Sendai City to join the search mission.

Participating in the joint mission are 100 aircraft and 50 vessels from the Self-Defense Forces and about 20 aircraft and more than 10 vessels from the US military.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

In the previous thread, we discussed where TEPCO could put the contaminated water found in the turbine buildings. Here is what they are actually doing, for reactors No. 1 to 3:

TEPCO : Press Release | Status of TEPCO's Facilities and its services after the Tohoku-Taiheiyou-Oki Earthquake (as of 10:00AM)

- At approximately 5:00 pm, March 24th, draining water from underground
  floor of turbine buildings into a condenser was started and it was
  paused at approximately 7:30 am, March 29th because we confirmed that
  the water level reached almost full capacity of a condenser. In order
  to move the water in the condenser into condensate reservoirs, water
  transfer from the condensate reservoirs to suppression pool's water
  surge-tanks has been conducted since around 0:00 pm, March 31st.

...

- At approximately 4:45 pm, March 29th, the water in condensate reservoirs
  was being transferred to suppression pool water surge-tanks to
  prepare for water transfer from a condenser to condensate reservoirs in
  order to drain water on the underground floor of the turbine building
  into a condenser.

...

- At approximately 5:40 pm, March 28th, the water in condensate reservoirs
  was being transferred to suppression pool water surge-tanks to prepare
  for water transfer from a condenser to condensate reservoirs in order to
  drain water on the underground floor of the turbine building into a
  condenser. We finished the transfer work at approximately 8:40 am, March
  31st.

As I understand it:

• The condenser and condensate reservoirs are part of the plant's primary circuit: steam that passed the turbines are condensed into water with the help of cooling circuits circling seawater, and that is pumped back into the reactor.
  
• The suppression pool is the torus under the reactor, which was to serve as part of an emergency short-circuit of the primary circuit: overpressure in the core can be reduced by pumping the steam into this pool to condense.
  
• So what they are now doing: they want to pump the water on the floor of the turbine building into a condenser chamber, for that they are pumping the water out of the condenser chamber into the condensate reservoirs (still inside the turbine building), for that they are pumping the water in the reservoirs into tanks connected to the torus underneath the reactor.

In effect, they seem to be trying to contain all contaminated water in pipes and reservoirs meant to contain such water. Then again, there is no control over outflows like that from the spray on the spent fuel pools.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Tokyo Electric warned for not securing enough dosimeters for workers | Kyodo News

The government's nuclear regulatory agency said Friday it had issued another warning to Tokyo Electric Power Co. over the management of workers' radiation exposure at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, after it was found that there were not enough dosimeters to cover all of the workers.

Some workers were sharing dosimeters while doing the same job because many of the devices were destroyed in the March 11 quake and tsunami, a situation that was not ''desirable from the viewpoint of ensuring workers' safety,'' said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the agency.

But the plant operator, known as TEPCO, had been able to secure a total of 420 dosimeters by Thursday, sufficient for each of the workers to wear a device when working at the radiation-leaking site.

TEPCO officials said the number of dosimeters available had declined from an initial 5,000 to 320 after the tsunami damaged devices. It had been managing the workers' radiation exposure by ordering the leader of each work team to wear a dosimeter, but some workers had expressed concern about the situation.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Fukushima plant groundwater likely contaminated despite data error | Kyodo News

Groundwater at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is highly likely to be contaminated with radioactive materials, even though its operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. is reviewing its analysis released late Thursday due to erroneous calculations, the government's nuclear safety agency said Friday.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said some of the analysis data on the groundwater presented by the utility known as TEPCO cannot be trusted due to the errors, casting doubts on the finding that the concentration of radioactive iodine in the water was 10,000 times the legal limit.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

For Fukushima's Farmers, Growing Uncertainty : NPR

As Japan continues to grapple with the effects of the March 11 earthquake, the prefecture of Fukushima faces some of the biggest challenges.

Fukushima's roads were damaged in the earthquake, its coast was battered by the tsunami and now leaking radiation around the crippled nuclear complex has made parts of the prefecture unlivable.

The tsunami pushed seawater more than 2 miles inland in some places. Rail lines in Fukushima -- Japan's third-largest prefecture -- were destroyed along the coast; train traffic still hasn't resumed through the prefecture. Radiation from the leaking nuclear complex has forced tens of thousands of residents from their homes. The sale of many vegetables from Fukushima has been banned

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

WHY THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT CAN AFFORD TO REBUILD: IT OWNS THE LARGEST DEPOSITORY BANK IN THE WORLD

Skeptics asked how a country with a national debt that was over 200% of GDP could be "strong and wealthy." In a CIA Factbook list of debt to GDP ratios of 132 countries in 2010, Japan was at the top of the list at 226%, passing up even Zimbabwe, ringing in at 149%. Greece and Iceland were fifth and sixth, at 144% and 124%. Yet Japan's credit rating was still AA, while Greece and Iceland were in the BBB category. How has Japan managed to retain not only its credit rating but its status as the second or third largest economy in the world, while carrying that whopping debt load?

The answer may be that the Japanese government has a captive funding source: it owns the world's largest depository bank. [...] Japan has remained impervious to the speculative attacks that have crippled countries such as Greece and Iceland because it has not fallen into the trap of dependency on foreign financing.

[...] In a 2007 reorganization, the postal savings division was separated from the post office's other arms, turning Japan Post into a proper bank. According to an October 2007 article in The Economist:

The newly created Japan Post Bank will be free to concentrate on banking, and its new status will enable it to diversify into fresh areas of business such as mortgage lending and credit cards. To some degree, this diversification will also be forced upon the new bank. Some of the special treatment afforded to its predecessor will be revoked, obliging Japan Post Bank to invest more adventurously in order to retain depositors-and, ultimately, to attract investors once it lists on the stock market.

That was the plan, and Japan Post has been investing more adventurously; but it hasn't yet given up its government privileges. New Financial Services Minister Shizuka Kamei has put a brake on the privatization process, and the bank's shares have not been sold. Meanwhile, the consolidated Post Bank has grown to enormous size, passing up Citigroup as the world's largest financial institution; and it has been branching into new areas, alarming competitors. A March 2007 article in USA Today warned, "The government-nurtured colossus could leverage its size to crush rivals, foreign and domestic."

Before the March 2011 tsunami, that is what it appeared to be doing. But now there is talk of reverting to the neoliberal model, selling off public assets to find the funds to rebuild. Christian Caryl commented in a March 19 article in Foreign Affairs, published by the Council on Foreign Relations:

As horrible as it is, the devastation of the earthquake presents Japan and its political class with the chance to push through the many reforms that the DPJ [Democratic Party of Japan] has long promised and the country so desperately needs.

In other words, a chance for investors to finally get their hands on Japan's prized publicly-owned bank, and the massive deposit base that has so far protected the economy from the attacks of foreign financial predators.

The Japanese government can afford its enormous debt because the interest it pays is extremely low. For the private economy, public debt IS money. A large public debt owed to the Japanese people means Japanese industries have the money to rebuild. But if Japan Post is sold off to private investors, interest rates are liable to rise, plunging the government into the debt trap it has so far largely escaped.

Tremors exceeded design limits for 3 reactors - NHK WORLD English

...The Tokyo Electric Power Company, known as TEPCO, says reactor No.2 suffered the largest horizontal ground acceleration of 550 gals, which is 26 percent stronger than the reactor's design limit.

TEPCO says the readings were 548 gals at the No.5 reactor, about 21 percent higher than its design limit; and 507 gals at the No.3 reactor, topping the capacity by about 15 percent.

The power company says the strength of ground motions were close to or within the design parameters at the remaining 3 reactors, and at all 4 reactors of the nearby Fukushima Daini nuclear plant.

The utility says it was planning to reinforce the reactors so they could withstand horizontal shaking of 600 gals, after the government reviewed their quake-resistance standards 5 years ago. But the work was not finished.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

GE: Fukushima reactors have no structural defects - NHK WORLD English

The chief executive of General Electric has stressed that the GE reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have no structural problems.

Jeff Immelt spoke to NHK and other media outlets on Thursday. Some observers say the No. 1 and 2 reactors, the oldest types at the plant, have a flaw in their designs.

He said the GE reactor has been in service for more than 40 years and is well-tested and well-designed and has been upgraded over time.

And we should take his word on it because...

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

URGENT: Gov't eyes injecting nitrogen into reactor vessels to prevent blasts | Kyodo News

The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. are considering injecting nitrogen into containment vessels of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's reactors to prevent hydrogen explosions, government sources said Friday.

Huh!? The hydrogen generated during the initial water depletion should have been mostly vented by now, so does that mean that they still have hydrogen generation?

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

TEPCO data credibility suffers on serious groundwater contamination | Kyodo News

The operator of a crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture suffered another blow to its credibility on Friday over errors found in its radioactive contamination data, including on groundwater at the plant, while workers began test-spraying a resin there to prevent radioactive particles from being dispersed.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the concentration of radioactive iodine in the groundwater was 10,000 times the legal limit as it announced earlier, but acknowledged a programming error on a measuring device that affected substances other than iodine.

Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said it was ''extremely regrettable'' that TEPCO -- as the utility is known -- had given incorrect radiation data. The agency has strongly warned the operator over the matter and urged it to take steps not to do so again, he added.

''TEPCO faces a grave situation as it is failing to live up to the expectations of people who are very worried by the company. Its data should be trustworthy,'' Nishiyama said.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

NHK WORLD English

Urgent work is continuing on several fronts to contain the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Efforts to cool down the reactors continued on Friday. A barge provided by the US Navy is preparing to pump large volumes of fresh water by hose to a water tank near the No.1 reactor.

Workers at the plant are replacing seawater with fresh water to cool the reactors and spent-fuel storage pools. The move follows concerns that salt in the seawater could clog up reactor equipment and hamper the flow of coolant water.

Near the No.4 reactor, 400 liters of a synthetic resin solution were sprayed in an experiment intended to solidify contaminated dust and prevent radioactive materials from getting airborne.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company is due to test the solution for about 2 weeks to see if it works.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Do not attempt to discuss with me the precise radiological likelihood of there being P239 there (which is slight). I am only posting a very cool photo. (This is not photoshop, this is a photo some aliens from the future took after they picked the Giza containment vessels and dropped them in Japan. Where they said, "Enough is enough with your civilization.")

I am sick and tired of graphs and data. I am sick and tired of arguments and facts. Mother Mary knows we've developed science to such high precision, and my windmills wouldn't have evolved without it.

But enough decision-making without real vision.

My wish for humanity? If you're so into logic and science, get with the program.

(ET moderation: in the interests of credibility, we have excised most of this comment, but because we thought the photo was cool, we let some sentences pass. We at ET are not responsible for the ravings of a madman.)

PS. Dear ET, while i respect your moderation, you should not have edited the comment. Eye mean, you left out the whole part about why the aliens decided to act as saviors of this wretched, forge-based civilization in the first place. Didn't you think the part about the aliens being jealous of YouTube democracy was contrapunctally contrite and to the punt?

But i won't quibble, nor schwank. After all, we've all seen the drone photos of where we are now.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

IAEA chief braces for prolonged nuke crisis in Japan | Kyodo News

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano on Friday warned of a prolonged battle to end the ongoing nuclear crisis in quake-hit Japan.

''In order to say everything is normal...I would say it would take more time than people think,'' Amano said at a press conference after meeting with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in the Kenyan capital.

The IAEA chief reiterated that the situation at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant remains ''very serious.''

At the same press conference, Ban also expressed anxiety about the current crisis, saying, ''We remain deeply concerned about the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.''

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

NHK WORLD English

Japan's government is deciding if highly radioactive water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant can be temporarily kept in a steel mega float or in US military vessels.

Highly radioactive materials have been detected in water at the crippled nuclear plant in northeast Japan.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company plans to use water tanks to store the radioactive water, but the capacity of these tanks is limited.

Shizuoka City has offered TEPCO a hollow floating platform made of steel to store the water. The mega float is 136 meters long and 46 meters wide, and is currently used as a deep-sea fishing park.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Perhaps the largest single cause of unpredicted failures in complex systems is that multiple components, supposedly independent and redundant, can all fail at the same time for unforeseeable reasons. These can be "commonmode" failures--multiple failures of identical, redundant components in the same manner--or "common-cause" failures--multiple failures, caused by a single initiating event, of components that are different from each other but aresupposed to do the same task. For example, identical valves can fail at the same time if they are all exposed to conditions for which they were not designed, or if they were designed or built wrongly: a common-mode failure

From "Brittle Power", Lovins and Lovins 1984

Kan to review energy policy on nuclear reactors

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Thursday the government will review its basic energy policy that includes increasing the number of nuclear reactors by 14 from the current 54 by 2030.

"Based on the examination results of the current accidents (at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant), we need new discussions about nuclear power and other energy policies," Kan said at a joint news conference with visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Kan also said that after the nuclear crisis is settled, the government will discuss whether to maintain the current system of depending on private companies, including Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima plant, for all of the nation's electricity supply.

"It is necessary to hold discussions about how electric power companies are operated, including the point of whether current private companies should be maintained," Kan said.

Refreshing!

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

FSA urges moratorium for quake-hit businesses

Financial regulators have called on lenders to grant a loan moratorium for businesses suffering from the March 11 earthquake, the crisis at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture or rolling blackouts.

The Financial Services Agency on Thursday revised guidelines and allowed financial institutions to continue to classify these borrowers as "performing" even if they fall behind in debt repayments. The FSA's revised financial inspection guidelines effectively urged banks and other lenders to postpone loan repayments and not to abruptly call back loans or demand additional collateral from these borrowers.

The financial inspection manual strongly influences how financial institutions categorize borrowers. Financial institutions normally categorize borrowers as "nonperforming" if they default on loan repayments or are at risk of going bankrupt. Nonperforming borrowers are categorized into four groups ranging from "requiring monitoring" to "bankrupt."

A senior FSA official said the agency revised the manual because many businesses have suffered enormous damage from circumstances beyond their control. Still, companies may eventually fail to pay back all the debt if the quake-hit region's economy remains in the doldrums. "Even if the borrowers are given more time, it doesn't necessarily mean they can rebuild their businesses," a senior official of a major bank said.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

TEPCO speeds up work to remove radioactive water NHK World

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is stepping up work to remove radioactive water that hinders the functioning of the cooling systems. Tokyo Electric Power Company is trying to remove contaminated water from the basements of the turbine buildings of the No.1, 2, and 3 reactors.

At all 3 reactors, TEPCO wants to move radioactive water into storage tanks. But first, uncontaminated water in the storage tanks must be transferred. Work at the No. 2 and 3 reactors is expected to begin on Saturday. As for the No. 1 reactor, the uncontaminated water in the storage tank will be completely transferred to another one by Saturday afternoon.

On Friday, workers began a test spraying of synthetic resin in areas around the reactors to contain radioactive materials released by hydrogen blasts. Synthetic resin is expected to harden mud and dust.

The same day, 8 monitoring posts to measure radiation levels in the compounds started functioning again for the first time since the quake struck 3 weeks ago.
TEPCO says it will restore the automatic data transmission system so that the information can be made public on its website.

Also on Friday, docked US military barges began providing freshwater to cool the reactors. But work was suspended temporarily after water leaked from a hose.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

Kan looking to split NISA, METI
The Japan Times Online

(Kyodo News) Prime Minister Naoto Kan is looking into the feasibility of separating the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, according to government sources. METI has long actively promoted nuclear power, which critics say compromises the NISA's role of ensuring safety in the industry. Kan's review of how the government handles nuclear energy comes as Japan is living through its worst-ever nuclear energy crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

The agency, established as a special entity of the METI-affiliated Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, is responsible for ensuring the safety of nuclear plants. The Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, institutionalized under the Cabinet Office, is designed to double-check the agency's steps. In reality, though, the commission merely echoes what the agency decides, according to government officials.

Regional governments hosting nuclear plants have been calling for years for the agency to be independent from the ministry to effectively ensure safety of the facilities. Likewise, Mizuho Fukushima, head of the Social Democratic Party, said in a news conference that she met with Kan and stressed to him her party's long-standing position that the agency must be severed from the ministry.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

Reactor Core Was Severely Damaged, U.S. Official Says NYT

WASHINGTON -- Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Friday that roughly 70 percent of the core of one reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan had suffered severe damage. His assessment of the damage to Reactor No. 1 was the most specific yet from an American official on how close the plant came to a full meltdown after it was hit by a severe earthquake and massive tsunami on March 11.

Japanese officials have spoken of "partial meltdown" at some of the stricken reactors. But they have been less than specific, especially on the question of how close No. 1 -- the most badly damaged reactor -- came to a full meltdown. Mr. Chu, a Nobel laureate in physics, suggested that the worst moments of the crisis appeared to be receding, saying that the best information the United States had received from the Japanese authorities indicated that water was once again covering the cores of the stricken reactors and that pools of spent fuel atop the reactor buildings were "now under control."

In addition to the severe damage at Reactor No. 1, the Energy Department said that Reactor No. 2 had suffered a 33 percent meltdown. Mr. Chu cautioned that the figures were "more of a calculation" because radiation levels inside the plant had been too high for workers to get inside, and sensors were unreliable.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

Tainted water confirmed to have seeped into sea from nuke plant | Kyodo News

Water with high levels of radiation has been confirmed to have seeped into the sea from the No. 2 reactor at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, government officials said Saturday, raising wider fears of environmental contamination by the release of radioactivity.

The water has been leaking into the sea from a 20-centimeter crack detected at a pit in the reactor where power cables are stored, the government's nuclear safety agency said, adding that Tokyo Electric Power Co., known as TEPCO, is ready to encase the fracture in concrete.

The first detection of tainted water flowing out into the Pacific Ocean could force the government and the operator to limit further expansion of radioactive contamination, likely hampering efforts to restore the crippled cooling functions at the complex.

The government ''wants (the utility) to start the operation of covering the crack in concrete as soon as possible,'' said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

NHK is reporting that the US specialists have told the Japanese SDF that radioactive Caesium attaches to the paint used on military helicopters and trucks especially easily. military vehicles and crew need their radiation levels monitoring especially thoroughly


Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Zero Hedge  Chris Martenson Exclusive: New Photos Of Fukushima Reactors

Exclusive: new photos of Fukushima reactors

Noting that the press has largely turned its resources off of the Fukushima complex, and needing up-to-date information on the status of the damage control efforts there, we secured the most up-to-date satellite photo from DigitalGlobe (dated March 31st), which we analyze below. This is the first photo of the damaged reactor site at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility made available to the public in over a week. That means you, our readers, are the first public eyes anywhere to see this photo.

Drawing upon the expertise of our resident nuclear engineer and Ann Stringer, imaging expert, we conclude that the situation at Fukushima is not stabilized: things are not yet at a place of steady progress in the containment and clean-up efforts. It's still a dance, forwards and backwards, with the workers making gains here and there and the situation forcing them to react defensively.  

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Japan PM tells Fukushima nuclear plant workers to hold firm | World news | The Observer

Japan's prime minister, Naoto Kan, will tell workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to hold firm in the belief that disaster can be averted, as highly radioactive water continued to seep into the sea.

Nuclear officials' discovery of a crack in a concrete pit at the number two core could offer an explanation for the flow of contaminated water that has jeopardised the operation to calm the reactors and raised fears about radiation finding its way into the sea and soil near the facility.

Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) said it would pour concrete into the pit, where radiation measuring 1,000 millisieverts per hour has been recorded, in an attempt to seal the eight-inch long crack.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

and no indication as to when and judging from the film it must be recent but I don't remember seeing this before

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Japan Earthquake: nuclear plants - Page 157

The problems Tepco have in moving the basement and trench water are clearly indicated in below slide:

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Disaster legislation 'to nationalize land' : National : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)

A key part of a special legislative package for disaster reconstruction will place land that was wrecked by the March 11 tsunami and has been abandoned by disaster victims under state ownership, it has been learned.

The government and Democratic Party of Japan are working on a set of bills to help with the rebuilding of regions struck by the disaster and hope to pass the package by the end of the month, government sources said Thursday.

Many tsunami-devastated coastal communities have been largely depopulated and are unlikely to be revived because of the severity of the disaster, the sources said. In addition to the areas laid waste by the tsunami, the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant could leave large tracts of land abandoned for a long period of time.

To address the scale of the tragedy, the special legislation will increase the burden the central government must pay to move disaster victims into evacuation shelters. Under the existing disaster relief law, the central government is required to fund three-fourths of the cost, according to the sources. The bigger ratio will ease the burden on local governments, which must pay for a quarter of the costs under the current system.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Distrust grows among N-crisis players : National : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)

Prime Minister Naoto Kan's visit to the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant a day after the March 11 earthquake is being criticized for allegedly delaying efforts to control the nuclear crisis.

The prime minister had expressed a strong wish to see the accident site, and a Ground Self-Defense Force helicopter carrying Kan left the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo's Nagatacho district early on the morning of March 12.

Kan's visit to the plant lasted for 50 minutes.

At that time, pressure inside the containment vessel at the No. 1 reactor was very high. Three hours before Kan's departure, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda instructed plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. to open a valve and release high-pressure steam into the air.

However, the utility did not implement this measure until one hour after the prime minister finished his visit.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the prime minister's visit had nothing to do with the delay. According to a ranking official of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, however, many believe TEPCO intentionally waited so that Kan would not be at risk from the radioactive materials that would be released from the containment vessel with the steam.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

N-reactor builders fret about loss of business : National : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)

U.S. and European nuclear reactor builders increasingly are concerned about the situation at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant because a prolonged crisis could force countries worldwide to change their policies on nuclear power and eventually deal a heavy blow to their business.

Apparently stemming from this concern, visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Areva SA, a French major nuclear reactor maker, on Thursday announced support for Japan's response to the series of accidents at the nuclear power plant following the massive quake and tsunami.

During talks with Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda in Tokyo, Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive officer of Areva, said she recognized that the problems at the Tokyo Electric Power Co. nuclear plant are not only Japan's but her company's as well. She said Areva would provide maximum support to Japan.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Nuke crisis in Fukushima forces utilities to delay restart of reactors | Kyodo News

The ongoing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, has forced other Japanese utility firms to put off resuming operations at their nuclear power plants and invest more in safety measures.

Chubu Electric Power Co. has postponed its original plan for early April to resume operations at the No. 3 reactor at its Hamaoka nuclear plant in Omaezaki, Shizuoka Prefecture, where a major earthquake has been feared to hit.

The power company has also decided to wait until fiscal 2016 to build its sixth reactor at the plant from 2015, and until after 2013 to use plutonium-uranium mixed oxide, or MOX, fuel at the No. 4 reactor.

MOX fuel was used at the No. 3 reactor of the overheating, radiation-leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station where cooling functions were lost after the quake.

Power companies are planning to take measures against tsunami as instructed in late March by the Japanese government after the disaster, and hoping to get their nuclear reactors, suspended mainly for regular checkups, up and running.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Graphs of temperatures, pressures, water levels, flow rates and radiation readings produced by the Institute of Computing, UNICAMP

http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/EXPORT/projects/fukushima/plots/2011-04-01-200000/plot-un1-full.png

http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/EXPORT/projects/fukushima/plots/2011-04-01-200000/plot-un2-full.png

http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/EXPORT/projects/fukushima/plots/2011-04-01-200000/plot-un3-full.png

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

NHK WORLD English

Radioactive iodine twice the country's legal standard has been detected in seawater at a location 40 kilometers south of the disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The Japanese Science Ministry on Saturday released the results of a survey based on samples taken 3 days ago. The sample was collected at a spot 10 kilometers off Iwaki City and 40 kilometers from the disabled plant, both in Fukushima Prefecture.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Tepco dumps concrete to plug radiation leak at No. 2 | The Japan Times Online

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday that a cracked storage pit at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant was the source of a radioactive water leak contaminating the ocean and that it is attempting to fill it with concrete.

According to the utility and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, the square, concrete-covered pit is situated near an intake used to pump seawater into reactor No. 2.

Although the pit is small, it contains highly contaminated water with a radioactivity exceeding 1,000 millisieverts per hour that is leaking into the ocean from a 20-cm crack, Tepco said.

The pit, which is 1.2 meters x 1.9 meters and 2 meters deep, is usually used to store cables. But it is also connected directly to the reactor building through a cable trench, raising the possibility that the source of the contaminated water is the reactor itself, a NISA official said.

The cable trench is different from the pipe trench at No. 2, where water with the same level of radioactivity was discovered Monday. Although the two trenches are connected, no water has been found in the cable trench because it is at a higher elevation, the official said.

How much water has leaked and for how long were not known as of Saturday afternoon.

In japanese

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

NHK -  Radioactive levels measured within 20km of plant

The Japanese government and the operator of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant have started to gauge radioactive levels in the air within a 20 kilometer radius of the plant.

The government and Tokyo Electric Power Company have already been measuring radioactivity in the air outside the 20-kilometer exclusion zone that residents have been instructed to leave.

But they have not conducted any detailed assessments within the zone, saying that most residents have already evacuated the area and that there would be an increased risk of workers conducting the tests being exposed to radiation.

At a meeting of Japanese and US nuclear experts, the US side claimed more research is needed to determine the extent at which radioactive substances are spreading  

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Embattled TEPCO now facing a harsh public backlash   Asahi Shimbun

Some members of the public are expressing their frustrations with Tokyo Electric Power Co. and its employees for the concerns arising from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and rolling blackouts. Because the initial complaints have escalated to threats and harassment, TEPCO has taken measures to protect the safety of its employees.

....

The company has a number of dorms for single employees and families in the Tokyo area. Those dorms have taken to applying masking tape over the company name or replacing the sign with one that does not include the company name. An official at the Tokyo branch said, "It is being done to protect our employees and their families."

....

According to TEPCO sources, complaints and protests about the nuclear accident and rolling blackouts have flooded the call center the Tokyo branch has set up for phone consultations. Because the number of calls exceeds the capacity to respond, some people have come directly to the call center to complain to employees about failing to take their call. Since March 23, when levels of iodine exceeding safety standards were found in a reservoir for drinking water in Tokyo, protests have been made about concerns about radioactive materials and how TEPCO was planning to assume responsibility.

....

Toshiaki Kamei, a professor emeritus at Kansai University who heads the Japan Risk Management Society, said TEPCO bore much of the blame. "The bad response by TEPCO only intensified the concerns among the public," Kamei said. "The public did not initially know what was occurring in the nuclear plant and that led to doubts that, 'They are likely hiding something.' There is a need to release information as it is obtained and explain what is going on."

   

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

Lack of packaging keeps shelves empty  Daily Yomiuri

Weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, shelves in many stores remain empty of food and various everyday items. It is often not the products themselves that are in shortage, however, but containers and packaging. Containers for natto, a traditional Japanese dish of fermented soybeans, and cartons for milk are scarce, and a lack of ink has hampered production of some magazines.

....

The milk supply chain has been disrupted by a shortage of cardboard cartons. Nippon Paper-Pak Co., a major beverage packaging firm, had to suspend operations at its two plants in Ibaraki Prefecture due to the disaster, and its storage warehouse was damaged. Although it had resumed normal operations as of Tuesday, the company said it would take time for its output to catch up to milk firms' demand.

With water contamination scares pushing up demand for bottled mineral water, the beverage industry is facing a shortage of caps for plastic bottles. Bottle cap production at Japan Crown Cork Co.'s plant in Ishioka, Ibaraki Prefecture, and Nihon Yamamura Glass Co.'s factory in Utsunomiya have been halted. Production by the nation's three leading cap makers has slowed to 60 percent of pre-earthquake levels. Output at factories in western Japan has been increased, but this has not been enough to meet the gap. "We haven't been able to get the amount [of caps] we want. This is now having a negative impact on our efforts to boost production," an official of a major beverage maker said.

....

Publisher Shueisha Inc. has been hit by shipping disruptions as well as shortages of paper and ink. It postponed the March 28 release of comic magazine "Weekly Shonen Jump" by one week, and pushed back the release of "Kochikame Volume 174" and other comic book titles from Monday until April 21.

Procuring ink, in particular, has become difficult. Earthquake damage to equipment at Maruzen Petrochemical Co.'s plant in Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture, has stopped production of Diisobutylene, a chemical product used to make ink. The Chiba factory was responsible for 100 percent of the domestic supply of Diisobutylene, so its troubles have had a huge impact on the publishing industry.

Lots of nails gone missing.  

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

From Far Labs, a Vivid Picture Emerges of Japan Crisis  NYT/IHT

For the clearest picture of what is happening at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, talk to scientists thousands of miles away. Thanks to the unfamiliar but sophisticated art of atomic forensics, experts around the world have been able to document the situation vividly. Over decades, they have become very good at illuminating the hidden workings of nuclear power plants from afar, turning scraps of information into detailed analyses.

....

Most of these computer-based forensics systems were developed after the 1979 partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, when regulators found they were essentially blind to what was happening in the reactor. Since then, to satisfy regulators, companies that run nuclear power plants use snippets of information coming out of a plant to develop simulations of what is happening inside and to perform a variety of risk evaluations.

Indeed, the detailed assessments of the Japanese reactors that Energy Secretary Steven Chu gave on Friday -- when he told reporters that about 70 percent of the core of one reactor had been damaged, and that another reactor had undergone a 33 percent meltdown -- came from forensic modeling.

The bits of information that drive these analyses range from the simple to the complex. They can include everything from the length of time a reactor core lacked cooling water to the subtleties of the gases and radioactive particles being emitted from the plant. Engineers feed the data points into computer simulations that churn out detailed portraits of the imperceptible, including many specifics on the melting of the hot fuel cores.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

Radiation below legal limits found in farm, sea products near Fukushima   TOKYO, April 3, Kyodo

The health ministry said Saturday that lower levels of radiation materials than the legal limits were detected in farm products and seafood in and around Fukushima Prefecture where the crippled nuclear power plant is located.

In Fukushima, 33 out of 49 vegetables and fruits had radioactive cesium and iodine but their levels were below the limits set under the food sanitation law, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said. "There is a possibility of proliferation of radioactive substances abating," a ministry official said.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

Absorbent to soak up radioactive water, 2 found dead at nuke plant | Kyodo News

Workers prepared Sunday to block the leakage of highly radioactive water into the sea from the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant by injecting polymeric powder that can absorb 50 times its volume of water, the government's nuclear safety agency said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, meanwhile, told a press conference that it could take several months before radiation stops leaking from the plant.

The plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the same day that two workers in their 20s who had been missing since the devastating March 11 quake and tsunami that crippled the power station were found dead in the basement of a reactor turbine building last Wednesday.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Gov't says several months may be required before radiation leaks stop | Kyodo News

The government expects that several months may be required before radioactive particles stop being released from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, its top spokesman said Sunday.

''If we apply methods considered to be normal, I believe that it will be something like that,'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference, when asked whether at least several months would be required before the plant crippled by the devastating March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami is brought under control.

''While it may not be feasible, we have been asking for other possibilities to be explored to shorten that period,'' Edano said, noting that the government and the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. are considering multiple approaches to halting the nuclear crisis.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Fukushima gov. rebukes nuclear agency for late radioactivity data | Kyodo News

Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato expressed anger at the central government's nuclear safety agency on Sunday for its late release of radioactivity data related to local farm produce, shipments of which have been partly restricted amid the ongoing nuclear crisis.

The prefectural government also faced moves overseas to curb business with local manufacturers of industrial goods over worries about radiation, and will deal with them by measuring residual radiation from the products from Monday at its research institute, officials said.

The central government is considering lifting its restriction on shipments of vegetables tainted with radioactive substances after confirming levels below designated limits for consumption in three tests, but it takes a few days for the results of each test to be released, according to Sato.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Fukushima gov. rebukes nuclear agency for late radioactivity data | Kyodo News

• NEWS ADVISORY: Radioactive water still leaking after injection of polymeric powder (17:46)
• NEWS ADVISORY: TEPCO injects polymeric powder into pit to absorb radioactive water (17:35)

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

NHK WORLD English

More than 12,000 people have been confirmed dead so far in the March 11th massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit northeastern Japan.

The highest number of deaths was reported in Miyagi Prefecture -- 7,318 -- followed by 3,518 in neighboring Iwate Prefecture. Other deaths were reported in a wide area of eastern Japan, including 7 in Tokyo.

<snip>

The authorities say the number of dead could increase further, as some local municipalities have been unable to assess the number of missing people because they were devastated by tsunami.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

that 20 cm crack via Physics forums

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

is quite good.

Economics is politics by other means

Time: We want to show that the government is looking to the future. (April 1, 2011)

YUKIO EDANO, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary, explaining why he showed up for a press conference Friday, April 1, in normal business attire rather than the blue emergency jumpsuit he has worn at the podium since disasters struck the country on March 11

With a picture of him in the blue emergency jumpsuit.

Please tell me that's an April Fools'.

Economics is politics by other means

Illegal levels of radioactive substances found in Fukushima mushrooms | Kyodo News

The health ministry said Sunday it has detected radioactive substances higher than the legal limits in mushrooms sampled Friday in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, where the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is located.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said it found the mushrooms to contain 3,100 becquerels of radioactive iodine and 890 becquerels of radioactive cesium against the limits of 2,000 becquerels and 500 becquerels.

The announcement led the prefectural government to ask farmers to voluntarily refrain from shipping mushrooms in Iwaki.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Gov't aware of possibility of reactor core's meltdown before quake | Kyodo News

The government was aware of the possibility that the reactor cores of nuclear plants could partially melt down if all power supply equipment was crippled, making it impossible to cool down the cores' nuclear fuel, even before the March 11 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, according to last May's lower house minutes.

Nobuaki Terasaka, who heads the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said on May 26, ''It is logically possible for a reactor core to melt down if all outer electricity sources were lost, leading the plant's cooling functions to be lost for many hours,'' according to the minutes of a House of Representatives committee.

Terasaka also said the operators of Japanese nuclear plants ''have ensured safety'' by fitting the plants with multiple backup electricity sources. He was responding to a question from Japanese Communist Party legislator Hidekatsu Yoshii.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Gov't eyes use of huge sheet to contain radioactive substances | Kyodo News

The government has asked Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, to study the possibility of containing radioactive substances from four damaged reactors by wrapping their entire containment buildings with a huge amount of sheeting, government sources said Sunday.

The proposal calls for building framed structures around the 45-meter-high containment buildings and then wrapping them with the sheeting, the sources said.

If all of the four buildings were wrapped in this manner, it would cost about 80 billion yen and take up to two months, the sources said.

But atomic energy experts are skeptical about the feasibility of the plan, proposed by a general construction firm, saying the step would have only limited effects in blocking the release of radioactive substances into the environment.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

NHK WORLD English

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said a full-scale recovery of cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is needed to stem the leakage of radioactive substances, but that work will take several months.

A senior official of the agency, Hidehiko Nishiyama, made the comments at a news conference on Sunday.

Highly radioactive water was found inside turbine buildings and also in tunnels under the plant. The radioactive water is flowing directly into the sea.

The agency said it will take several months to remove the contaminated water in the turbine buildings and to take measures to protect workers from radiation.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Aircraft carrier may leave Japan for repairs - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

SAN DIEGO -- Maintenance work on the aircraft carrier George Washington was continuing March 30 in waters off Japan, more than a week after it left its berth in Fleet Activities Yokosuka to escape radiation detected by the ship's sensitive equipment during a yard period.

But lingering worries about the failing Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, some 170 miles north of Yokosuka, raise questions: How long can George Washington sustain its selective restricted availability (SRA) while underway? If Yokosuka isn't available as a viable and safe yard, what other port in Japan and in the region can support a carrier that needs to finish its maintenance period? Would the Navy send its carrier out of the region, temporarily leaving the forward-deployed naval forces and return to stateside shipyards in San Diego; Bremerton, Wash.; or Pearl Harbor, Hawaii?

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

The Yomiuri Shimbun -  Dosimeters, more food secured for N-plant crew

Tokyo Electric Power Co. has secured 920 dosimeters for personnel struggling to control the crisis at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, resolving a shortage of the devices, a TEPCO spokesman told The Yomiuri Shimbun.

The company has also increased the workers' food rations from two meals a day to three, according to Keiichi Kakuta, manager of the plant's public relations department.

"The conditions they face are still arduous, but the situation is gradually improving," he said.

Kakuta has been staying nights at the plant to act as liaison between the Fukushima compound and TEPCO's head office.

The dosimeters were procured from various sources, he said, with 500 of them arriving from TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture on Friday.  

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

Bloomberg - Tokyo Electric Sawdust Solution Fails to Stop Radiation Leak  

  A Tepco executive said yesterday he isn't optimistic about the prospect of containing damage at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant's No. 3 reactor.

"I don't know if we can ever enter the No. 3 reactor building again," Hikaru Kuroda, the company's chief of nuclear facility management, said at a press conference.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

The UN Would Never Lie to George Monbiot

And then we finish up with DemocracyNow, March 30 2011, live...

GEORGE MONBIOT:--that so far the death toll from Chernobyl amongst both workers and local people is 43. Am I--sorry, are you saying you didn't know that they had examined this--

HELEN CALDICOTT: That's a lie, George. That's a lie.

In sum: If you believe that less than fifty people died after the greatest nuclear meltdown in history, then I've got a fantastic house to sell you, mansion, pool, hot tub, everything. It's a steal... just outside Fukushima, Japan. Ocean view, stunning. Email me (George).