Post Fukushima. Where Now for Nuclear Power?

[st_dux 26]

Hi all

This video explains what happened at Fukushima and why there is a high probability of a much worse than Fukushima disaster in the US.

tbMPrzr7aug

Walker

Gundersen is a man who uses a pair of 39-year-old university degrees to claim the title of “nuclear engineer†so that he can get paid $300 per hour to seek to destroy valuable assets like Vermont Yankee. That plant produces about 4.8 billion kilowatt-hours of emission free electricity every year. Gundersen’s claim to expertise includes a number of questionable statements about the real world experience he gained after earning those entry level tickets. Gundersen has a legitimate claim to have earned a pair of respectable degrees, but the claim that he developed and maintained any reliable knowledge about topics like plant maintenance, operations, radiation health effects, and economics should be viewed with a bit more skepticism.

Full article:

http://atomicinsights.com/2011/02/arnie-gundersen-has-inflated-his-resume-yet-frequently-claims-that-entergy-cannot-be-trusted.html

Edited July 14, 2011 by ST_Dux

[.kju 3239]

@ ST_Dux

Rod Adams (1967 articles)

Pro-nuclear advocate with small nuclear plant operating and design experience. Former submarine Engineer Officer. Founder, Adams Atomic Engines, Inc. Host and producer, The Atomic Show Podcast.

You really feel comfortable posting that rubbish?

[walker 0]

Hi all

For Comparison to ST_Dux's knocker Rod Adams's experience:

Arnold Gundersen

Arnie is an energy advisor with 39-years of nuclear power engineering experience. A former nuclear industry senior vice president, he earned his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in nuclear engineering, holds a nuclear safety patent, and was a licensed reactor operator. During his nuclear industry career, Arnie managed and coordinated projects at 70-nuclear power plants around the country. He currently speaks on television, radio, and at public meetings on the need for a new paradigm in energy production. An independent nuclear engineering and safety expert, Arnie provides testimony on nuclear operations, reliability, safety, and radiation issues to the NRC, Congressional and State Legislatures, and Government Agencies and Officials throughout the US, Canada, and internationally. In 2008, he was appointed by the Vermont Senate President to be the first Chair of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant Oversight Panel. He has testified in numerous cases and before many different legislative bodies including the Czech Republic Senate. Using knowledge from his Masters Thesis on Cooling Towers, Arnie analyzed and predicted problems with Vermont Yankee’s cooling towers three years prior to their 2007 collapse. His Environmental Court testimony concerned available and economically viable alternatives to cooling towers in order to reduce consumptive water use and the ecological damage caused by cooling tower drift and heated effluents. As the former vice president in an engineering organization, Arnie led the team of engineers who developed the plans for decommissioning Shippingport, the first major nuclear power plant in the US to be fully dismantled. He was also an invited author on the first DOE Decommissioning Handbook. Source term reconstruction is a method of forensic engineering used to calculate radiation releases from various nuclear facilities after nuclear incidents or accidents. Arnie is frequently called upon by public officials, attorneys, and intervenors, to perform source term reconstructions. His source term reconstruction efforts vary. Arnie has calculated exposures to oil workers, who received radiation exposure while working on wells. He has also calculated radiation releases to children with health concerns, who live near a nuclear facility, like the one that carted radioactive sewage off-site and spread it on farmers' fields. Finally, he has performed an accurate source term construction of the radiation releases from the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Also involved in his local community, Arnie has been a part-time math professor at Community College of Vermont (CCV) since 2007. He also taught high school physics and mathematics for 13 years and was an instructor at RPI's college reactor lab.

http://www.fairewinds.com/content/who-we-are

As allways follow the link to the original source

It should also be noted that he has correctly assessed everything at Fukushima including that the plants had all melted down weeks before TEPCO finaly admited it.

He also has been warning of the dangers of a loss of cooling power accident causing an event like Fukushima for decades.

Nothing boosts your credentials like getting it right.

Also worth noting that the US government considers him to be worth listening too.

Kind Regards walker

[st_dux 26]

@PvPscene:

I don't see how that description makes Ron Adams' testimony rubbish.

@walker:

You took that from his own website. Of course it shines a favorable light on him.

@thread:

Nuclear energy is a valuable resource that shouldn't be ignored out of inane paranoia. Yes, there have been accidents, but there are accidents in every field. The number of people who have died due to nuclear accidents pales in comparison to the number of people who have died in coal mining. We need to move forward, not backward.

[nettrucker 142]

@PvPscene:

@thread:

Nuclear energy is a valuable resource that shouldn't be ignored out of inane paranoia. Yes, there have been accidents, but there are accidents in every field. The number of people who have died due to nuclear accidents pales in comparison to the number of people who have died in coal mining. We need to move forward, not backward.

Yeah tell that the Japanese people.

Nuclear energy is not safe because security measures are too weak and completely inadequate. We have the capability and the knowledge to gain energy from less dangerous resources. Focusing on nuclear power plants with the current technoglogy is not a move forward but a big step backwards.

My 2 cents . . . keep the change.

[walker 0]

Hi all

There are increasing worries that highly Radioactive beef has been exported from Fukushima.

Japan Won't Rule Out Possibility Radioactive Fukushima Beef Was Exported

QBy Aya Takada and Yuriy Humber - Jul 20, 2011 10:38 AM GMT+0100

Japan’s government said it can’t rule out the possibility beef contaminated with radioactive material has been exported, as consumers and lawmakers accused authorities of negligence on food safety.

The government yesterday imposed a ban on beef shipments from areas near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant after finding 637 cattle were fed hay containing radioactive cesium. Supermarkets including Japan’s biggest, Aeon Co., said the beef was sold in Tokyo and other cities.

“We cannot completely rule out the possibility†contaminated beef was also sold abroad, Yuichi Imasaki, the deputy director of the farm ministry’s meat and egg division said by phone today. “The chances are very low†because most countries have tightened rules on Japanese beef imports or banned them, he said...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-20/japan-won-t-rule-out-possibility-radioactive-fukushima-beef-was-exported.html

As allways follow the link to the original article in full

I dare say Americans are worried about feeding their kids a Glow in the Dark McDonald's,that is not a part of the latest advertising campaign or eating fine unable to be rare self cooking T bone steak off the barbecue.

Hey dad the beefs cooking and you aint thrown the petrol on yet!

It is possible that a large amount of what would be condemned meat has found its way in to the cheap beef market.

Going vegy for a while Walker

Edited July 20, 2011 by walker

[st_dux 26]

I dare say Americans are worried about feeding their kids a Glow in the Dark McDonald's,that is not a part of the latest advertising campaign or eating fine unable to be rare self cooking T bone steak off the barbecue.

Hey dad the beefs cooking and you aint thrown the petrol on yet!

Is that what you actually envision when you consider nuclear energy, steak that magically cooks itself and hamburgers that glow in the dark? No wonder you can't stop fear mongering.

[walker 0]

Is that what you actually envision when you consider nuclear energy, steak that magically cooks itself and hamburgers that glow in the dark? No wonder you can't stop fear mongering.

Hi all

Whoooshhh! Straight over his head.

As you are such an expert on nuclear power would you care to explain to us why so called "Spent" Fuel rods are more radioactive than when they went in the reactor?

And how about explaining why SCRAMing a reactor does not shut it down?

In your answer you may want to refer to such concepts as: decay heat, recriticality, coolant power incident, and the use of neutron reflection to effect criticality excursions and increased yield in nuclear reactions. These last come broadly under the concept of the altering of atoms and the decay chain products they result in, as well as the the effects of radiation on chemistry. You will also need to consider reactor rod warping and prompt criticality.

As an example you might want to use say something like say the Fukushima incident.

Kind Regards walker

Edited July 26, 2011 by walker

[walker 0]

Hi all

A Video Update on Fukushima explaining what the Radioactive Beef means.

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Kind Regards walker

[walker 0]

Hi all

Off the Scale Radiation readings are being Detected at Fukushima.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/07/31/bloomberg1376-LP8WWK6JTSEJ01-5PIJEFGJ36KM50OK194CMKAJ22.DTL

Nuclear Power 101:

Pt.1

buCnW1fQjNE

Pt.2

r5ou4-wFIgs

Pt.3

hrLrhSeoHUk

Walker

Edited August 1, 2011 by walker

[walker 0]

Hi all

Fukushima is reporting yet more record off the scale Radition readings at Fukushima.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-02/tepco-reports-second-deadly-radiation-reading-at-fukushima-plant.html

Levels of radiation are making areas inside the plant unworkable.

Radiation levels have doubled since June.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-02/lethal-radiation-levels-recorded-at-fukushima-plant/2821276

Walker

Edited August 2, 2011 by walker

[walker 0]

Hi all

The Nuclear industry continues to decline round the world as a result of Fukushima.

Here in the UK the newest plant at Sellafield is closing down, though it was already proving too costly run even before Fukushima:

Failing Sellafield fuel plant shuts after losing Japan orders

Britain is to close a nuclear fuel processing site at Sellafield, after losing orders from Japanese companies in the wake of the Fukushima earthquake and meltdown.

By Rowena Mason

6:00AM BST 04 Aug 2011

Around 800 jobs will be lost at the Mox plant, which opened in 2002 to renew fuel from Britain's huge stockpiles of civil plutonium. It takes the spent fuel from Sellafield's Thorp plan and recycles it into "mixed oxide fuel" which can be then be re-used.

Despite costing £1.4bn, the plant run by the Nuclear Decommissing Authority had always underperformed expectations. It has made just 15 tonnes of Mox fuel in nine years, compared to an expected output of 560 tonnes in a decade...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/8680072/Failing-Sellafield-fuel-plant-shuts-after-losing-Japan-orders.html

As always follow the link to the original text in full

With the abject failure of all the safety features at all three US built Fukushima Nuclear reactors, which are exact replicas of the same plants in the US, and the terrifying risks of open tank irradiated fuel rod storage now apparent, there are growing calls to close all the same type of plants in the US, as they have done in Germany, until proper safety features that work are installed on those plants.

Plans to burn radioactive sludge and release the airborne ash to the air are to say the least disturbing.

http://www.waste-management-world.com/index/from-the-wires/wire-news-display/1471589095.html

NOT A GOOD IDEA!

Questions continue to be asked about the radiation monitoring methods used.

http://www.straight.com/article-415216/vancouver/monitoring-stations-catch-fraction-fukushima-fallout

The key problem is that most are measuring only Gama radiation with very little monitoring of the far more dangerous Alpha sources taking place, even beta source radiation is hardly ever sampled. To date there is not even a decent radionuclide survey of Japan and even the Gama radiation in highly affected prefectures and locations in Japan remains heavily censored.

http://www.bousai.ne.jp/eng/

Though some times as I pointed out, in other posts, massive increases in radiation; outside the two constantly censored Prefectures of Miyagi and Fukushima; into Ibaraki were caught just before they too became censored/under survey.

The censorship of dangerous radiation levels also takes place in western media, with not a single story about the censorship of the Japanese Governments SPEEDI Radiation Monitoring site in any western media outlet.

The only sources talking about the censorship of SPEEDI are blogs like this one:

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/05/02/japan-release-censored-fukushima-nuclear-radiation-forecasts-censored-panic-ordinary-people-21976/

Allthough some one err aquired the data and published it on the web.

DEoDikMNtz8

In other News:

An unemployed man in Sweden has been arrested for trying to create a Nuclear Reactor in his kitchen. He obtained quantities of Radium, Uranium and more worryingly Americium (With Beryllium it is a very powerful Neutron source for creating a neutron gun) over the Internet and from EBay.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14403432

This is similar to what happened in the US with the so called "Radioactive Boy Scout".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn

http://s7icky.com/documentaries/the-nuclear-boy-scout-documentary-2003/

Kind Regards walker

Edited August 26, 2011 by walker

[walker 0]

Hi all

Subsequent to someone acquiring the information about the censorship of the Japanese Governments SPEEDI Radiation Monitoring site, and placing it on YouTube ^^^, Japanese Government officials are now busily engaged in "duck and cover"

And at last western media outlets have started talking about it, almost 6 months after the event.

70TYXGWeZhg

AP IMPACT: Japan ignored own radiation forecasts, leaving thousands in plume’s predicted path

By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, August 9, 7:08 AM

NAMIE, Japan — Japan’s system to forecast radiation threats was working from the moment its nuclear crisis began. As officials planned a venting operation certain to release radioactivity into the air, the system predicted Karino Elementary School would be directly in the path of the plume emerging from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.

But the prediction helped no one. Nobody acted on it.

The school, just over six miles (10 kilometers) from the plant, was not immediately cleared out. Quite the opposite. It was turned into a temporary evacuation center.

Reports from the forecast system were sent to Japan’s nuclear safety agency, but the flow of data stopped there. Prime Minister Naoto Kan and others involved in declaring evacuation areas never saw the reports, and neither did local authorities. So thousands of people stayed for days in areas that the system had identified as high-risk, an Associated Press investigation has found.

At Karino Elementary in the town of Namie, about 400 students, teachers, parents and others gathered in the playground at the height of the nuclear crisis stemming from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Many ate rice balls and cooked in the open air.

They were never informed of the predictions that they were at risk. In an interview with the AP, Namie’s mayor said it took more than 24 hours for him to realize — from watching TV — that the evacuees were in danger. He sent buses to move some of them out. But, unaware of the risks, they were taken to another part of town also forecast to be in the plume’s path. Most were left to fend for themselves...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/ap-impact-japan-ignored-own-radiation-forecasts-leaving-thousands-in-plumes-predicted-path/2011/08/09/gIQAhuFn3I_story.html

As always follow the link to the original text in full

Interestingly though as a US Media outlet, they are not talking about the radiation that reached the US Pacific coast and Hawaii. Nor are they talking about the censorship of US radiation monitoring and altering of US monitoring data that took place when the radiation reached the US.

Addendum

The Japanese Government has started to comprehend the degree to which industry corruption caused Fukushima and its aftermath:

Japan Fires Three Bureaucrats Over Fukushima

POSTED BY: John Boyd / Tue, August 09, 2011

At a news conference held last Thursday morning Banri Kaieda, head of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), said he would fire three top government bureaucrats over the on-going Fukushima nuclear plant crisis. He followed this unprecedented triple firing by saying he himself intended to resign when the time was appropriate. The firing announcements come as METI’s nuclear watchdog the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency or NISA is facing accusations it asked power companies under its supervision to help manipulate public opinion to favor proposed but controversial nuclear energy policies.

The three outgoing officials are Nobuaki Terasaka, director general of NISA; Kazuo Matsunaga, vice-minister of METI; and Tetsuhiro Hosono, director general of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy...

http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/energy/nuclear/japan-fires-three-bureaucrats-over-fukushima

As always follow the link to the original text in full

Walker

Edited August 9, 2011 by walker

[walker 0]

Hi all

Cracks in the ground with radioactive steam comming out of them have been discovered across the Fukushima plant. As well as an increasing number of lethal hotspots.

zrmnfU_5qIQ

http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/fukushima-early-stage-china-syndrome-global-media-blackout

http://fukushima-diary.com/2011/08/breaking-news-splashing-steam-from-the-cracks-in-the-ground/#.Tkkz9M8fr6Y.twitter

Worryingly Radiation levels in the US and Canada have risen considerably to dangerous levels.

http://theagoranational.ca/index.php/content/health/item/322-extremely-high-radiation-20000-cpm-in-ontario-after-rainfall

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Mean while in the US several reactors have suffered cooling power losses in an east coast earthquake just like Fukushima:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-08-23/dominion-s-north-anna-nuclear-plant-loses-power-after-quake.html

Walker

Edited August 23, 2011 by walker

[walker 0]

Hi all

A massive increase in the radiation levels found by a recent survey in Japan may force long term depopulation of the region.

Large Zone Near Japanese Reactors to Be Off Limits

By MARTIN FACKLER

Published: August 21, 2011

TOKYO — Broad areas around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant could soon be declared uninhabitable, perhaps for decades, after a government survey found radioactive contamination that far exceeded safe levels, several major media outlets said Monday.

The formal announcement, expected from the government in coming days, would be the first official recognition that the March accident could force the long-term depopulation of communities near the plant, an eventuality that scientists and some officials have been warning about for months. Lawmakers said over the weekend — and major newspapers reported Monday — that Prime Minister Naoto Kan was planning to visit Fukushima Prefecture, where the plant is, as early as Saturday to break the news directly to residents. The affected communities are all within 12 miles of the plant, an area that was evacuated immediately after the accident.

The government is expected to tell many of these residents that they will not be permitted to return to their homes for an indefinite period. It will also begin drawing up plans for compensating them by, among other things, renting their now uninhabitable land. While it is unclear if the government would specify how long these living restrictions would remain in place, news reports indicated it could be decades. That has been the case for areas around the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine after its 1986 accident...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/world/asia/22japan.html?_r=3

As always follow the link to the original text in full

A Japanese Government Survey found levels of radiation were at least 20 times what was released from Hiroshima.

Walker

[HyperU2 11]

Had the earth shaking under my feet today, thankfully no glowing.

[walker 0]

Hi all

The Japanese Government is to Tripple the number of radiation checks after an increase in the number of Hotspots discovered.

Japan Triples Airborne Radiation Checks as ‘Hot Spots’ Spread

By Tsuyoshi Inajima and Yuji Okada - Aug 24, 2011 6:25 AM GMT+0100

Japan will more than triple the number of regions it checks for airborne radiation as more contaminated “hot spots†are discovered far from Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power station.

The government said it will increase radiation monitoring by helicopter to 22 prefectures from the six closest to the plant, which began spewing radiation after an earthquake and tsunami struck the station in March. The plan comes after radioactive waste more than double the regulatory limit was found 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the plant this week.

Authorities have refused to give a cumulative figure for radiation released from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant after estimating in June that fallout in the six days following the quake was equal to 15 percent of total radiation released in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. The authorities have been too slow to widen airborne radiation testing, said Tetsuo Ito, the head of Kinki University’s Atomic Energy Research Institute in Osaka.

“The government should have expanded the monitoring area by helicopters much earlier to ease concerns among the public,†Ito said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Officials on Aug. 12 found compost in a kindergarten yard in Tokamachi city, Niigata prefecture containing radioactive cesium measuring 27,000 becquerels per kilogram, Kenichiro Kasuga, an official at the city’s disaster prevention department, said by phone...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-24/japan-triples-air-radiation-checks-for-hot-spots-.html

As always follow the link to the original text in full

A survey has found 45% of Japanese Children with low-level thyroid radiation exposure.

http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/200603/20110819/fukushima-half-of-children-tested-positive-for-radiation.htm

Radiation sickness syptoms in general public, reported by doctors

This also follows concerns raised by Japanese Doctors about the appearance of Radiation Sickness like syptoms in the General population.

http://seetell.jp/en/18136

In the US and Canada testing of fisheries is to be introduced.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/19/bc-fish-fukushima_n_931725.html

CORRECTION!

In an earlier post I said a Government survey of radiation released from Fukushima said it was at least 20 Times that of Hiroshima, I have since found out from the direct source that it was 30 times the radiation released from Hiroshima.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110824f2.html

Walker

Edited August 24, 2011 by walker
Added source for Japanese Doctors reporting radiation sickness symptoms in general public.

[walker 0]

Hi all

As I pointed this out a while back and we are now in to the time period:

...This will probably be more important in the next few months as the only analysis I have been able to find of what happens now makes clear:

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/mragheb/www/NPRE%20457%20CSE%20462%20Safety%20Analysis%20of%20Nuclear%20Reactor%20Systems/China%20Syndrome.pdf

The water table at Fukushima is believed to be less than 10m below the surface and a melt through would reach it in about 5 to 6 moths after leaving the containment.

At this point there is a risk of both a prompt criticality and explosion:

http://bigthink.com/ideas/31746

Either way Fukushima will if that analysis is correct reach its most dangerous phase around 5 months after the melt through, which many now believe to have taken place in the first week of the disaster:

http://hawaiinewsdaily.com/2011/03/when-the-fukushima-meltdown-hits-groundwater/ ...

I thought it best to remind every one; as cracks in the ground gushing radio active steam at levels above what the counters can measure have been reported to have appeared round the reactors: http://fukushima-diary.com/2011/08/breaking-news-splashing-steam-from-the-cracks-in-the-ground/

Walker

[*LK1* 10]

Had the earth shaking under my feet today, thankfully no glowing.

no casualties i hope....

---------- Post added at 07:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:51 PM ----------

hi walker,

do you know if the radiation level is higher or lower comparated with chernobyl? queston without much importance, just flow on my mind.

[HyperU2 11]

no casualties i hope....

Just some flattened cars lol.

[Rovka 14]

And a scary rare hurricane seems to be willing to run up the East Coast of the USA... I hope that whirling vapormass won't damage or even destroy a nuke-reactor plant or two..

Just as with earthquakes, nobody has anything to say about the force of nature, but to be rightfully cautious about where to build their stuff 'n property.. What looks suitable, may be a nightmare, and nowhere on Earth is truly safe..

As for the Japanese infected population, diagnosed with radiation sickness.. If unable to be timely cured, I hope they die a quick death for themselves.. Nobody wants a long sickbed to go through, and suffer until the end...

I don't expect nuke-power to die out overnight, but I would've thought governments to be more wise regarding powerplants policy..

I'd rather see ten new coal-powered plants, then a single new nuke-reactor being put into operation.. But I guess it's a 3:1 in favor of the nuke-plants power output, whilst more people are wanting to make use of powergrids worldwide, where their economies boom until it blows sky high with a mighty bang...

[walker 0]

Hi All

A recently completed survey of soil in Japan has found dangerous levels of radioactive isotopes are spread across a far larger area than TEPCO or the Japanese Government has previously admitted:

JAPAN NEWS; AUGUST 30, 2011, 11:19 A.M. ET.

Survey Finds Radiation Over Wide Area in Japan

TOKYO—The first comprehensive survey of soil contamination from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant showed that 33 locations spread over a wide area have been contaminated with long-lasting radioactive cesium, the government said Tuesday.

The survey of 2,200 locations within a 100-kilometer (62-mile) radius of the crippled plant found that those 33 locations had cesium-137 in excess of 1.48 million becquerels per square meter, the level set by the Soviet Union for forced resettlement after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Another 132 locations had a combined amount of cesium 137/134 over 555,000 becquerels per square meter, the level at which the Soviet authorities called for voluntary evacuation and imposed a ban on farming.

Authorities said that all of the highest levels are within the current evacuation zone, which is generally 20 kilometers (12 miles) around the plant plus some specific towns to the northwest that have already been found to have high levels of contamination.

Cesium-137 has a half life of 30 years, meaning that its radioactive emissions will decline only by half after 30 years and affect the environment over several generations. Cesium-134 is considered somewhat less of a long-term problem because it has a half-life of two years.

More than 400 researchers from across the country took part in the survey, conducted between June and July, collecting samples from every two square kilometers (1.2 miles) of land within the 100-kilometer radius of the crippled plant. Until then, only estimates were available about the extent of soil contamination through aerial surveys and airborne dust samplings...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904332804576540131142824362.html

As usual follow the link to the original article in full

The continuous explosion of radiation from the Fukushima dwarfs the one time release of the Chernobyl incident. The facts have started to dawn on the Japanese Government, People and the rest of the world; despite the blandishments of industry sock-puppets, with the media now now finally sitting down to do the math and finding Fukushima's continuing radioactive releases are far higher than Chernobyl.

With current Surveys and estimates putting Fukushima's radioactive releases so far as being between 168 and 72,000 times that of Hiroshima:

Why the Fukushima disaster is worse than Chernobyl

Japan has been slow to admit the scale of the meltdown. But now the truth is coming out. David McNeill reports from Soma City

Monday, 29 August 2011

Yoshio Ichida is recalling the worst day of his 53 years: 11 March, when the sea swallowed up his home and killed his friends. The Fukushima fisherman was in the bath when the huge quake hit and barely made it to the open sea in his boat in the 40 minutes before the 15-metre tsunami that followed. When he got back to port, his neighbourhood and nearly everything else was gone. "Nobody can remember anything like this," he says.

Now living in a refugee centre in the ruined coastal city of Soma, Mr Ichida has mourned the 100 local fishermen killed in the disaster and is trying to rebuild his life with his colleagues. Every morning, they arrive at the ruined fisheries co-operative building in Soma port and prepare for work. Then they stare out at the irradiated sea, and wait. "Some day we know we'll be allowed to fish again. We all want to believe that."

This nation has recovered from worse natural – and manmade – catastrophes. But it is the triple meltdown and its aftermath at the Fukushima nuclear power plant 40km down the coast from Soma that has elevated Japan into unknown, and unknowable, terrain. Across the northeast, millions of people are living with its consequences and searching for a consensus on a safe radiation level that does not exist. Experts give bewilderingly different assessments of its dangers.

Some scientists say Fukushima is worse than the 1986 Chernobyl accident, with which it shares a maximum level-7 rating on the sliding scale of nuclear disasters. One of the most prominent of them is Dr Helen Caldicott, an Australian physician and long time anti-nuclear activist who warns of "horrors to come" in Fukushima.

Chris Busby, a professor at the University of Ulster known for his alarmist views, generated controversy during a Japan visit last month when he said the disaster would result in more than 1 million deaths. "Fukushima is still boiling its radionuclides all over Japan," he said. "Chernobyl went up in one go. So Fukushima is worse."

On the other side of the nuclear fence are the industry friendly scientists who insist that the crisis is under control and radiation levels are mostly safe. "I believe the government and Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco, the plant's operator] are doing their best," said Naoto Sekimura, vice-dean of the Graduate School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo. Mr Sekimura initially advised residents near the plant that a radioactive disaster was "unlikely" and that they should stay "calm", an assessment he has since had to reverse.

Slowly, steadily, and often well behind the curve, the government has worsened its prognosis of the disaster. Last Friday, scientists affiliated with the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the plant had released 15,000 terabecquerels of cancer-causing Cesium, equivalent to about 168 times the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the event that ushered in the nuclear age. (Professor Busby says the release is at least 72,000 times worse than Hiroshima)...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/why-the-fukushima-disaster-is-worse-than-chernobyl-2345542.html

As always follow the link to the original article in full

As I say the problem is that TEPCO the Japanese Government, the IAEA and the Nuclear industry has NO PLAN to prevent the continuous release of radiation from Fukushima Daiichi to air and sea.

With regard to airborne releases:

The latest tent proposal just pushes the radiation up a chimney so that it is dispersed higher into the atmosphere so that less of the radioactive isotopes fall on Japanese soil but that just means they are exporting more of the radioactivity to Japan's Pacific neighbours which with the prevailing winds means Canada the US.

With regard to sea-born releases:

The plan to build a subterranean coffer dam is TEPCO's only option but with the water table less than 20m below ground all that will do is push the radiation further back in land polluting more of Japan's water table before eventually overflowing round the edges or over the top and out in to the Pacific where fisheries are already requiring checks in Canada and the US. The current filtration system cannot even cope with current topsoil level releases, so without a massive increase in its size it cannot hope to cope with the water table polution levels.

And though all these months Fukushima Daiichi continues to pour out radiation minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day week after week, month after month with no prospect of a letup probably for milenia.

Walker

[rangerpl 13]

I don't expect nuke-power to die out overnight' date=' but I would've thought governments to be more wise regarding powerplants policy..

I'd rather see ten new coal-powered plants, then a single new nuke-reactor being put into operation.. But I guess it's a 3:1 in favor of the nuke-plants power output, whilst more people are wanting to make use of powergrids worldwide, where their economies boom until it blows sky high with a mighty bang...[/quote']

Coal power is more dangerous than nuclear power.

The Great Smog of 1952 in London is estimated to have indirectly contributed to the deaths of 12,000 people. By comparison, radiation poisoning from nuclear disasters (mostly Chernobyl) has killed 4000 people. That means that in four days, conventional energy has killed three times more people than nuclear power has in sixty-nine years.

The recent opposition to nuclear power is the result of an irrational, stupid fear that is perpetuated by the media and by politicians.

[nettrucker 142]

Coal power is more dangerous than nuclear power.

The Great Smog of 1952 in London is estimated to have indirectly contributed to the deaths of 12,000 people. By comparison, radiation poisoning from nuclear disasters (mostly Chernobyl) has killed 4000 people. That means that in four days, conventional energy has killed three times more people than nuclear power has in sixty-nine years.

Won't comment on this.

The recent opposition to nuclear power is the result of an irrational, stupid fear that is perpetuated by the media and by politicians.

I completely disagree with you. mankind is unable to handle nuclear power in a safe manner. Only a fool isn't afraid of a nuclear disaster. No offence intended.

regards

[*LK1* 10]

Coal power is more dangerous than nuclear power.

arguable. but of course i wouldn't conside the coal power an innocuous source of energy.

The Great Smog of 1952 in London is estimated to have indirectly contributed to the deaths of 12,000 people. By comparison, radiation poisoning from nuclear disasters (mostly Chernobyl) has killed 4000 people. That means that in four days, conventional energy has killed three times more people than nuclear power has in sixty-nine years.

4000 deaths is the official number which was highly contested by many association. the number was understimated just to not compromize the utilization of nuclear energy in the western world.

The recent opposition to nuclear power is the result of an irrational, stupid fear that is perpetuated by the media and by politicians.

i wouldn't consider irrational and stupid the fear of the conseguences of a nuclear disaster. since these conseguences are catastrophic for the environment and for the human beings. and unlike the coal power the conseguences of a nuclear plant disaster persist for thousands of years.

until we dont have the 5th/6th generation of nuclear plants the nuclear power is just a problem not an opportunity.

Edited September 3, 2011 by ***LeGeNDK1LLER***