***ushima could soon become worse than Chernobyl

[mhgaffney]

***ushima could soon become worse than Chernobyl...

Last year I warned that the ***ushima disaster could rival or exceed Chernobyl -- because of the huge volume of nuclear fuel and spent fuel at the four plants.

For taking this position -- I was ridiculed by the resident blow hards and knee jerks.

Now the experts have confirmed that ***ushima was indeed much worse than originally thought. The disaster is already as bad or worse than Chernobyl.

And it still has the potential to become much worse. The spent fuel in reactor 4 alone could release 10 times the amount of Cesium 137 as was released at Chernobyl -- -- IF those 1500 fuel rods are exposed to air.

And this could easily happen due to continuing quakes and after shocks.

Read about it here:

http://cryptogon.com/?p=28497

So where are the nuclear advocates, now? They have been strangely silent, lately.

[cutthemdown]

I'm for nuclear power, against Chernobyl style meltdowns. Hopefully they get a handle on that thing. It is scary to think that thing spewing radiation into the pacific ocean.

[jhns]

You are a moron.

When you have to lie and deceive to make a point, you have no point. You just prove to everyone that you are an idiot.

Your article doesn't even say what you are claiming. You are too stupid for this conversation.

[theAPAOps5]

The only thing even worth mentioning is the naughty word filter not liking the power plants name!

[Rohirrim]

Originally Posted by mhgaffney

***ushima already as bad or worse than Chernobyl...

Last year I warned that the ***ushima disaster could rival or exceed Chernobyl -- because of the huge volume of nuclear fuel and spent fuel at the four plants.

For taking this position -- I was ridiculed by the resident blow hards and knee jerks.

Now the experts have confirmed that ***ushima was indeed much worse than originally thought. The disaster is already as bad or worse than Chernobyl.

And it still has the potential to become much worse. The spent fuel in reactor 4 alone could release 10 times the amount of Cesium 137 as was released at Chernobyl -- -- IF those 1500 fuel rods are exposed to air.

And this could easily happen due to continuing quakes and after shocks.

Read about it here:

http://cryptogon.com/?p=28497

So where are the nuclear advocates, now? They have been strangely silent, lately.

Yep, Gaffo. You were on top of it. If only people would listen to you.

What really worries me is the stuff could leak into the ocean and spawn Godzilla!

[mhgaffney]

Originally Posted by Rohirrim

Yep, Gaffo. You were on top of it. If only people would listen to you.

What really worries me is the stuff could leak into the ocean and spawn Godzilla!

I post for the serious drop ins -- not for you clowns.

[jhns]

Originally Posted by mhgaffney

I post for the serious drop ins -- not for you clowns.

You posted a conclusion that didn't come from the article you posted. You then go on about being right about this non existent conclusion.

If you are being serious, you really are an idiot.

[Rohirrim]

Originally Posted by mhgaffney

I post for the serious drop ins -- not for you clowns.

Of course, the real danger is that he might mate with Mechagodzilla!

[BroncsRule]

"So far the ***ushima accident has resulted in a release of about one-tenth of the amount of radiation that escaped from Chernobyl, the worst civilian nuclear disaster to date."

from the Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/04...-been-released

[mhgaffney]

Originally Posted by BroncsRule

"So far the ***ushima accident has resulted in a release of about one-tenth of the amount of radiation that escaped from Chernobyl, the worst civilian nuclear disaster to date."

from the Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/04...-been-released

Sorry, this page has moved or does not exist

[ghwk]

Originally Posted by mhgaffney

I post for the serious drop ins -- not for you clowns.

We are your serious drop ins.

[mhgaffney]

Arnie Gunderson talks about ***ushima

Don't miss this killer interview. Gunderson lays it out there, pulling no punches.

http://enenews.com/gundersen-3-fuel-...e-gotten-audio

[mhgaffney]

Sen Ron Wyden says US must help at ***ushima

Wyden acknowledges that another earthquake could make make ***ushima much worse.

Geophysicists are saying such a quake is likely.

If it happens it will cause another major release of radiation -- probably from the spent fuel at unit 4:


http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-daily...3287/#47073287

[W*GS]

Where's your answers to my questions about the ISS and Venus, you chickenshyte?

[jhns]

You still have yet to provide anything that says what your thread title claims. You continue to prove that you are an idiot.

[cutthemdown]

I worry the Japanese so proud they wouldn't ask for help even if they needed it. Like out of pride.

[mhgaffney]

You clowns are asleep on your feet. Here is another wake up call.

If another 7.0 earthquake happens in northern Japan - -- the pool at reactor #4 could release 85 times the cesium-137 released at Chernobyl.

That would make the Japanese disaster far far worse than Chernobyl.

MHG


Is ***ushima's Doomsday Machine About to Blow?

By Mike Whitney

April 19, 2012 "Information Clearing House" --- Mounting troubles at Japan's hobbled ***ushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant now pose a real threat to human survival. If the area in which Unit 4 is struck by another 7.0 magnitude earthquake, there's a 70 percent chance that "the entire fuel pool structure will collapse" and massive doses of lethal nuclear radiation will be released into the atmosphere. The disaster would release approximately "134 million curies is Cesium-137 — roughly 85 times the amount of Cs-137 released at Chernobyl as estimated by the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP)." Experts believe that the amounts are sufficient to "destroy the world environment and our civilization", which makes containment "an issue of human survival." ("The Greatest Single Threat to Humanity: Fuel Pool Number 4", Washington's blog) Link--http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/04/the-largest-short-term-threat-to-humanity-the-fuel-pools-of-***ushima.html

The structural integrity of Unit 4's cooling pool was greatly compromised by the earthquake and following tsunami which struck the facility over a year ago. At present, the pools are not adequately protected or reinforced, which means that a sizable tremor could "cause a disaster worse than the three reactor meltdowns." If such a disaster were to occur, "people should get out of Japan, and residents of the West Coast of America and Canada should shut all of their windows and stay inside," says nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen.

While the danger to life and the environment pose the greatest single national security threat the United States has faced since WW2, the Obama administration has provided little aid to the emergency effort. Japan is largely "going it alone" trying to cobble together a plan to safely store the spent fuel and minimize the risks to public safety.

On March 8, 2012, Dr. Hiroaki Koide, Research Associate at the Research Reactor Institute of Kyoto University, gave his bleak assessment of the situation on the Japanese a news program called, “Morning Bird”. Koide explained how 1,500 rods are presently located in a "fuel pool" that has been severely damaged. The rods have to be cooled constantly or a "huge amount of radiation contained in the spent fuel will be released outside". If an earthquake hits and undermines the pool, the coolant will exit the pool, the rods will melt and radioactive plumes will rise into the atmosphere. Koide explained that the rods could not be safely removed from the existing pool because "if you hoist them up in the air, huge amount of radiation will come out from the spent fuel and people nearby will die."

One of the journalists on "Morning Bird” asked Koide what would happen if the Unit was struck by another earthquake?

Koide answered, "That will be the end."

"The end," the journalist asked, visibly shaken?

"The end," Koide repeated emphatically. ("***ushima Dai-Ichi No. 4: An earthquake before spent fuel rods are moved to safe storage would be “the end”, Lambert Strether, Naked Capitalism)

Now, check this out:

"Japan’s former Ambassador to Switzerland, Mr. Mitsuhei Murata... strongly stated that if the crippled building of reactor unit 4—with 1,535 fuel rods in the spent fuel pool 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground—collapses, not only will it cause a shutdown of all six reactors but it will also affect the common spent fuel pool containing 6,375 fuel rods, located some 50 meters from reactor 4. In both cases the radioactive rods are not protected by a containment vessel; dangerously, they are open to the air. This would certainly cause a global catastrophe like we have never before experienced. ... Such a catastrophe would affect us all for centuries."
("***ushima Daiichi Site: Cesium-137 is 85 times greater than at Chernobyl Accident", akiomatsumura.com)

Murata's concerns have been brought to the attention of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, to high-ranking officials in the Obama administration and EU, and to leaders around the world. The reaction has basically been the same everywhere, which is, "It's Japan's problem. Let them deal with it."

There is no way to overstate the media's complicity in concealing critical information about the tragedy that is presently unfolding at ***ushima. If there is another earthquake, the media will certainly be every bit as responsible as the government officials who saw the danger, but chose to do nothing.

http://www.informationclearinghouse....ticle31123.htm

[jhns]

You still have yet to back your claim. Kind of proves that you are an idiot.

[mhgaffney]

5 minutes of research on the Internet would confirm the worst fears -- but jhns is too deep into his narcissistic comfort zone to give a damn about the planet -- or anything else.

MHG

[DenverBrit]

Originally Posted by mhgaffney

5 minutes of research on the Internet would confirm the worst fears
MHG

I see what you mean. I googled summer's eve......

[mhgaffney]

DenverBrit,

Are you married?

Is your wife pregnant? If so -- you better pay attention -- because infants in utero are a thousand times more vulnerable to radiation -- than adults.

Do you have small children? If you do -- they are also at risk.

Any reasonable person -- given what's happening in Japan -- would be calling his/her congressman asking why US government agencies have stopped monitoring nuclear radiation from Japan.

This is an outrage. They should be stepping up efforts to track the radiation -- but its like after 9/11. A cover story has taken root. The media (most of it) refuses to go there.

This is the world of Orwell that we live in - scary, and all too real.

MHG

[W*GS]

Originally Posted by mhgaffney

This is the world of Orwell that we live in - scary, and all too real.

Where's your answers to my questions about the ISS and Venus, you chickenshyte?

PS - You "live" scared to death of about every ****ing thing. Grow the **** up. Quit being such a baby.

[jhns]

Originally Posted by mhgaffney

5 minutes of research on the Internet would confirm the worst fears -- but jhns is too deep into his narcissistic comfort zone to give a damn about the planet -- or anything else.

MHG

You still have yet to provide anything that backs what your thread title claims.

You are proving that you are really stupid.

[mhgaffney]

APRIL 24, 2012

Why ***ushima is a Greater Disaster Than Chernobyl

by ROBERT ALVAREZ

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/...han-chernobyl/

In the aftermath of the world’s worst nuclear power disaster, the news media is just beginning to grasp that the dangers to Japan and the rest of the world posed by the ***ushima-Dai-Ichi site are far from over. After repeated warnings by former senior Japanese officials, nuclear experts, and now a U.S. Senator, it is sinking in that the irradiated nuclear fuel stored in spent fuel pools amidst the reactor ruins may have far greater potential offsite consequences than the molten cores.

After visiting the site recently, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) wrote to Japan’s ambassador to the U.S. stating that, “loss of containment in any of these pools could result in an even greater release than the initial accident.”

This is why:

Each pool contains irradiated fuel from several years of operation, making for an extremely large radioactive inventory without a strong containment structure that encloses the reactor cores;

Several pools are now completely open to the atmosphere because the reactor buildings were demolished by explosions; they are about 100 feet above ground and could possibly topple or collapse from structural damage coupled with another powerful earthquake;

The loss of water exposing the spent fuel will result in overheating can cause melting and ignite its zirconium metal cladding – resulting in a fire that could deposit large amounts of radioactive materials over hundreds of miles.

Irradiated nuclear fuel, also called “spent fuel,” is extraordinarily radioactive. In a matter of seconds, an unprotected human one foot away from a single freshly removed spent fuel assembly would receive a lethal dose of radiation within seconds. As one of the most dangerous materials in the world, spent reactor fuel poses significant long-term risks, requiring isolation in a geological disposal site that can protect the human environment for tens of thousands of years.

It’s almost 26 years since the Chernobyl reactor exploded and caught fire releasing enormous amounts of radioactive debris. The Chernobyl accident revealed the folly of not having an extra barrier of thick concrete and steel surrounding the reactor core that is required for modern plants in the U.S., Japan and elsewhere. The ***ushima Dai-Ichi accident revealed the folly of storing huge amounts of highly radioactive spent fuel in vulnerable pools, high above the ground.

What both accidents have in common is widespread environmental contamination from cesium-137. With a half-life of 30, years, Cs-137 gives off penetrating radiation, as it decays. Once in the environment, it mimics potassium as it accumulates in biota and the human food chain for many decades. When it enters the human body, about 75 percent lodges in muscle tissue, with perhaps the most important muscle being the heart. Studies of chronic exposure to Cs-137 among the people living near Chernobyl show an alarming rate of heart problems, particularly among children.

As more information is made available, we now know that the ***ushima Dai-Ichi site is storing 10,833 spent fuel assemblies (SNF) containing roughly 327 million curies of long-lived radioactivity About 132 million curies is cesium-137 or nearly 85 times the amount estimated to have been released at Chernobyl.

The overall problem we face is that nearly all of the spent fuel at the Dai-Ichi site is in vulnerable pools in a high risk/consequence earthquake zone. The urgency of the situation is underscored by the ongoing seismic activity around NE Japan in which 13 earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 – 5.7 have occurred off the NE coast of Honshu in the last 4 days between 4/14 and 4/17. This has been the norm since the first quake and tsunami hit the site on March 11th of last year. Larger quakes are expected closer to the power plant.

Last week, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) revealed plans to remove 2,274 spent fuel assemblies from the damaged reactors that will probably take at least a decade to accomplish. The first priority will be removal of the contents in Pool No. 4. This pool is structurally damaged and contains about 10 times more cesium-137 than released at Chernobyl. Removal of SNF from the No. 4 reactor is optimistically expected to begin at the end of 2013. A significant amount of construction to remove, debris and reinforce the structurally-damaged reactor buildings, especially the fuel- handling areas, will be required.

Also, it is not safe to keep 1,882 spent fuel assemblies containing ~57 million curies of long-lived radioactivity, including nearly 15 times more cs-137 than released at Chernobyl in the elevated pools at reactors 5, 6, and 7, which did not experience melt-downs and explosions.

The main reason why there is so much spent fuel at the Da-Ichi site, is that it was supposed to be sent to the Rokkasho reprocessing plant, which has experienced 18 lengthy delays throughout its construction history. Plutonium and uranium was to be extracted from the spent fuel there, with the plutonium to be used as fuel at the Monju fast reactor.

After several decades and billions of dollars, the United States effectively abandoned the “closed” nuclear fuel cycle 30 years ago for cost and nuclear non-proliferation reasons. Over the past 60 years, the history of fast reactors using plutonium is littered with failures the most recent being the Monju project in Japan. Monju was cancelled in November of last year, dealing a fatal blow to the dream of a “closed” nuclear fuel cycle in Japan.

The stark reality, if TEPCO’s plan is realized, is that nearly all of the spent fuel at the Da-Ichi containing some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet will remain indefinitely in vulnerable pools. TEPCO wants to store the spent fuel from the damaged reactors in the common pool, and only to resort to dry, cask storage when the common pool’s capacity is exceeded. At this time, the common pool is at 80 percent storage capacity and will require removal of SNF to make room. TEPCO’s plan is to minimize dry cask storage as much as possible and to rely indefinitely on vulnerable pool storage. Senator Wyden finds that TEPCO’s plan for remediation carries extraordinary and continuing risk. He sensibly recommends that retrieval of spent fuel in existing on-site spent fuel pools to safer storage in dry casks should be a priority.

Given these circumstances, a key goal for the stabilization of the ***ushima-Daichi site is to place all of its spent reactor fuel into dry, hardened storage casks. This will require about 244 additional casks at a cost of about $1 mllion per cask. To accomplish this goal, an international effort is required – something that Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has called for. As we have learned, despite the enormous destruction from the earthquake and tsunami at the Dai-Ich Site, the nine dry casks and their contents were unscathed. This is an important lesson we should not ignore.

ROBERT ALVAREZ, an Institute for Policy Studies senior scholar, served as senior policy adviser to the Energy Department’s secretary from 1993 to 1999. www.ips-dc.org

[W*GS]

**** you, you p***Y.