Fukushima Problems Are Unprecidented

fukushima-radiation-leaking-into-pacific-ocean

“Nobody really knows how to solve the problems at Fukushima. There is nobody that has solutions to these. The problems at Fukushima are unprecedented. So even bringing in outside expertise, all they can do is problem-solve — there’s no solutions that other countries have that they can come in and shut down the contamination and shutdown the leaks…”


 
…words from Robert Jacobs, a professor at Hiroshima University

“…but hopefully bringing in other expertise would bring in more professionalism that TEPCO has shown in the past 2-1/2 years…though even those experts will be at a loss as to how to solve the immense problems that we will be facing for decades in Fukushima.”

 
The situation at the failed nuclear power plant apparently remains pretty bleak, to say the least, and while Robert Jacobs statements may be true — the rest of the world needs to become more situationally aware (and involved) in doing the best we can for a lasting solution to the ongoing meltdown and release of radioactive contaminated cooling water into the environment of Japan — which is seeping to the rest of the world.

 
Reported today on RT News,

There is a worrying spike in radiation at Fukushima Daiichi compounding a worsening situation in recent months where readings from a water storage tank have rocketed six-and-a-half THOUSAND times (6,500) higher in two days after a powerful typhoon swept through Japan earlier this week causing more toxic water released into a drainage ditch leading to the Pacific Ocean.

And… the storage tank leaked over 300 TONS of contaminated water in August, some of which is believed to have found its way into the sea through a ditch, while TEPCO has said that radioactive substances like strontium have also reached the groundwater.

 
Plus… There’s a Super Typhoon (Francisco) bearing down on Japan which may impact even worse than what just happened with Typhoon Wipha.

super-typhoon-francisco-bears-down-on-japan

Francisco gained strength late Friday afternoon and was classified as a Super Typhoon by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, which estimated one minute average sustained winds of 135 knots (155 mph) with gusts to 165 knots (190 mph). This would classify Franciso as a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.

-AccuWeather.com

Did you know that the nuclear rod “fuel pools” at Fukushima Daiichi are 100 feet above the ground, entirely open to the atmosphere (except for the emergency water constantly being pumped into them), and because the nuclear reactor buildings were blown apart by explosions back during 2011, these fuel pools (especially #4) could collapse from structural damage, should a strong earthquake occur (or Super Typhoon winds?), and scatter the rods all over the ground which could potentially explode into radioactive fire?…

 
Bought any Pacific fish lately?

 
And then there’s this…
Unfolding Human Disaster At Fukushima Nuclear Plant

Or you might want to know…
How to make your own earthen filter for radioactive water.

25 Comments

  1. According to reputable nuclear disaster experts (Independent of the nuclear industry)and not alarmists with a barrow to push like Gundersen.
    The threat from Fukashima is not ocean contamination. The size of the Pacific is enough to absorb and dilute the pollutants from Fukashima.

    The real hazard is the plant itself becoming so contaminated by some accident – man caused or by some natural event (earthquake etc etc) or simply the plant deteriorating to such an extent that no humans will be able to go anywhere near the site.

    If no ongoing maintenance or risk preventives are performed then in short time the plant will break down and a nuclear fire will start. A small fire will turn into a major catastrophic fire. A combination of radioactive pollutants will take to the air. The non survivable radius around the plant will increase and increase until the next Nuclear plant down the coast will be included. Then there will be two plants in catastrophic condition. The area of non survivability will extend almost to entire Japan.

    China will get worried when the situation looks like spreading to another plant and demand something extreme needs to be carried out to solve the situation. This will involve an instantaneous burning up of all the fuel at the sites. (You can use your imagination). Would you believe that U.S. experts suggested that this would need to be eventually done right at the start of the emergency two years ago.

    This super nuclear fire scenario is what will happen. The E.U. experts have already reported this. They have made the reports and reported to their respective government authorities. The government authorities are like the captain of the Titanic thinking the ship wont sink.

    The real threat is airborne – not seaborne.

    The seaborne threat is real on a local scale. The 100kms coastline either side of Fukashima is already radioactively compromised and with each incoming tide gets worse. And then. It’s the radioactive particles that get washed up on shore with each tide and remain on the land that are the most risk – not the radioactivity in the water itself.

    1. The real threat is BOTH. The leaked radiation threat is HUGE and is already killing ecosystems on the US side, Alaska, Canada.

      The “whole 6 plants burn” and no one can get close, is pretty clearly an extinction level event. F those in charge. We deserve better.

  2. 20 miles out to sea, the ambient radiation level is in the pico-bequerels. This is about the equivalent as strolling the Pacific Crest Trail in the summer.

    I think before the US or anyone else starts criticizing the Japanese or Tepco, someone needs to come clean about the grand mess we have yet to deal with out at the Hanford Nuclear reservation. The amount of radiation just from the Cesium out there is at least an order of magnitude greater than what could possibly be released at Fukushima. That is only the tip of the iceberg of all the residue left that no one is doing anything about, and no one has any clue yet how to deal with that either. No one even knows just how bad that site is, since a lot of what was dumped there was never documented.

    Compared to that, Fukushima is just a little burp.

    1. Dont try to minimize this, you can only be perceived as a nuke pimp, a troll.

      1. Just looking at the data the IAEA have published on their website. You can go look for yourself instead of making grand alarmist statements.

        Up here in Anchorage, we have yet to detect any radiation increases in the environment locally. That means no impacts to our ecosystems, including the migrating fish populations.

        And yes, comparatively speaking, Fukushima is a burp. The mess we are sitting on at Hanford is at least one order of magnitude beyond anything Fukushima could generate, maybe 2. But what would I know, I only worked there since 88. You’re the expert, right?

        1. LOL trust the IAEA you have to be friggin kidding! And FORCE me to go and surf a site rather than provide a link?

          Sure Hanford is a big problem, but that is already there….cake is baked. Fuku is still baking, in fact, getting far worse. You sound like a nuke pimp, a minimalist. eff you.

        2. Here’s your link:

          Just so you know, I am neither a nuke pimp or a minimalist. I am a realist. If we are not going to bother cleaning up messes that were made back in the 1940s and 50s, then why start worrying so much about new ones? If we started tomorrow, it’d take 150 years or more to remediate Hanford. Even so, we’d still have an enormous amount of cannistered waste to manage. That stuff won’t go away for far longer.

          Raising the alarm about the latest nuclear catastrophe is just a fad. It will come and go just like Chernobyl did, just like Three Mile Island did, etc.

          So I guess eff us all, eh? Eff being for fail.

        3. I live in Richland washington, 20 miles south of Hanford and Id rather live here than anywhere near Japan. I know Hanford has some leaks but most have been contained. Fukashima is about to get real bad. just a matter of time. Richland WA is home to hundreds of nuclear scientists and if it was as unsafe as you claim, i think they would be the first to leave town. yet they still live here… go figure!

        4. Hanford is the size of Rhode Island. The sheer volume of waste on site is incredible. The single wall tanks that hold some of the worst of it have been leaking into the groundwater for decades. Now the double shell tanks are also leaking. They have no idea what to do with the waste because agitating it is a big problem. They can’t dilute it because water will react with it to make hydrogen, among other things. Then theres the thousands of tons of radioactive material that was just dumped out of tankers into trenches out in the open. The site is surrounded on two sides by the Columbia river and tributaries of the Yakima river on a third. The wind blows across the site in excess of 80 mph at times.

          I worked out there for quite a while, and saw a lot, and talked to many of those same scientists and technicians you refer to. Hazard and risk are not the same thing. There are some gravely serious problems out on site, and as time goes by the threats they pose will increase. Meanwhile, they continue to study the problems, because they really have no idea how to solve them, only how to slow down the rate of migration, and better ways to temporarily contain what is leaking out of containment now.

          For those who know, there’s nothing quite so spooky as hearing the sound of the 3 foot thick vault door closing behind you, from within a level A suit with an SCBA hissing like Darth Vader in your ears. The thought niggles in the back of your mind if that door will open again when you are ready to leave.

          My point is, there are problems out at Hanford, really big ones, and it will take an immense effort just to keep it under control, let alone to clean it all up. Fukushima has some incredible problems to overcome as well. But relatively speaking, Hanford is in much worse shape. Maybe not so immediate, thanks to the MSM headlines, but just as severe.

          I would agree that living in parts of Japan right now is not so attractive. But I would not generalize. I would be happy to live back in Richland now too, except that I am enjoying the hell out of being in Alaska right now.

  3. I am retired from the fire department as a Captain. I worked for NASA here in Houston a couple years and have been writing articles and reports over at http://www.enenews.com as to firefighting Nuclear plant problems at FUKUSHIMA.

    First I have a couple thoughts I need to have sent to Professor Chris Busby since he is able to look at things to see if they would work. I did write the people that handle radiation in a group, but never heard anything back.

    Here are my thoughts I wish to have sent

    FIREFIGHTING A NUCLEAR FIRE

    Prof Busby PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU RECEIVE THIS DIRE EMAIL

    Hello I am in Houston, Texas a retired Fire Captain and also worked at NASA as a fire protection Specialists.

    I wrote a report back when the Russian reactor blew up as to making a non water nuclear fuel system to make a self encased reactor protection system that could contain fissionable radiation and would be so cool it did not need water to keep it from releasing radiation. It was tried in England and worked,as a experiment.It was shown on the science channel a few years ago.

    As to the Nuclear problem at Fukushima and Nuclear reactors around the world I have come up with a containment and fire fighting system that can be used to fight nuclear fires and also the fuel rods containing zirconium.

    Here is my info I have been trying to send to people but, email addresses are not published , for the people I needed to write to have them look at my findings and work on the solution rates as to the application.

    First there needs to be a hard cover entomb system. Second here is a firefighting liquid that can be used to extinguish UN-controlled nuclear fires.

    HERE is a fire fighting tactic for Fukushima to stop radiation Spread if Unit # 4 catches fire in the fuel pool . Info below I also I need a response to this email.

    SOLUTION FOR THE WHOLE COMPLEX..

    FIGURED OUT A PLAN FOR NUCLEAR FACILITIES AND JAPAN’S PROBLEM AS WELL AND THE WORLD.

    This is Fire fighting plan for nuclear plants but a way to save The reactors in Japan let Chris Busby and some scientists also know about this theory for them to look and see if this is viable.

    Look at the CLASS D FIREFIGHTING CHEMICALS I LISTED and FIGURE the Mixture rates and the Amounts to use to neutralize any type of fire and radiation and the covering of the Fuel rod Bundles and get this info to Japan.

    HERE IS HOW HOW TO FIGHT A REACTOR FIRE, OR EXPLOSION AND COVER RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS. When you mix the elements together with a concrete mixture.it seals Radiation problems, THAT JAPAN NEEDS TO USE AS A LAST RESORT WHICH CAN NOW PROTECT THE WORLD FROM HARM.

    The heat from the nuclear materials bonds all the things together like a glass ball. ALSO SMOTHERS ANY TYPE OF FIRE
    This will encase the nuclear pile like a shield,and wrap its self around the fissionable materials.

    Lead powder
    Sand
    Graphite
    Shuttle tile crushed is basically a strong carbon
    Boron
    Crushed glass particles
    Concrete mixture AND Medical clean Charcoal
    Also add class D Halon to the mix Including the materials listed below to fight Nuclear problems.

    FIREFIGHTING LIQUID Extinguishing Through fire fighting equipment and hoses

    Class D fire fighting chemical for burning metals BELOW INCLUDING REACTORS AND FUEL POOLS

    Class D Elements — > Class D (combustible metals) fire fighting agent comprises a detergent mixture, and sodium chloride although vitamin B-6 and bicarbonate soda may be present. The detergent mixture comprises an alkylbenzolyate sulfonate, non-ionic detergent and lauric superamide, linear alkylbenzene sulfonate, isoctylphenyl polyethoxyethanol, about polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate, lauric diethanolamide, about monoethanolamide superamides, and water.

    Burning titanium, uranium, magnesium, zirconium, or any other type of combustible metal fire, can be extinguished by applying the liquid formulation directly to the fire using conventional fire fighting equipment.

    HOW TO RETRIEVE FUEL BUNDLES REACTOR 4 FUEL POOL

    First the fuel bundles are encased in a box configuration with rods packed in each bundle box. The boxes are unstable due to warping and damage so this will possibly work to secure and pull each bundle package.

    Build a hypo injector something like a large syringe and add these materials in the injector.

    Concrete

    Lead powder
    Sand
    Graphite
    Shuttle tile crushed is basically a strong carbon
    Boron
    Crushed glass particles
    Concrete mixture AND Medical clean Charcoal
    Also add class D Halon to the mix.

    You take the injector and put down into the first fuel bundle box to the bottom and fill the bundle. This will harden and keep the radioactive fuel bundle cool enough to be able to pulled out of the FUEL RACK. When a fuel bundle is pulled then drop a separator into the hole and fill the next fuel bundle container and pull. Once the bundles have been pulled they can be encased in a lead lined concrete filled containers and trucked to a separation site and stored in a IGLOO for safe keeping.

    FUKUSHIMA GROUNDS

    The above materials can also be used to fill cracks underground where water has been escaping,and harden and seal and fill gaps and materials above can also be injected to stop core reactor blobs underground. Once you have injected these materials underground you are able to stop the liquidation of the sub surface and strengthen it the concrete builds a protective layer underground and closes up water leakages. Once the blobs are sealed and covered this injection forms a glass lead shield around radioactive blobs,and then you have to cover the complex in the same materials to make the plant safe.YOU concrete the whole Fukushima site.

    This is most of my theory as to the ongoing disaster in Japan. If I figure out another theory I would also like it passed on as well

    1. Professor Busby is one of the references I was using above.

      Your scenario might work as long as you could anywhere close to the plant if it had turned into what he phrases “Super nuclear fire”. The radiation level anywhere near the plant would be at almost death in minutes.

      1. There are ways to throw large amounts of material on a burning nuclear fire.Japan is just been and has been in denial. Many people have tried to help Japan and all have been blocked by the government and others .

        1. They tried all sorts of dumping methods when the plant first went critical. With advice from the U.S. authorities. None were successful. Even tried using helicopters. Ultimately humans had to risk their life to get close with concrete pumps and long range fire pumps.

  4. I stopped eating anything caught off the pacific coast a while ago.

    You said in the article, “some of which is believed to have found its way into the sea through a ditch” but, unless I’m mistaken, a whole heck of a lot more than ‘some of which’ has found it’s way into the ocean. I’m pretty sure at this point its an ecological disaster of some magnitude.

    1. You are correct, Fuku was landfilled over an existing river from the mountains. Fuku dropped 5 feet in the earthquake. The river never went away, just underground.

      Now the coriums are underground, THAT is why they have no answers. Digging under a reactor building to remove hell on earth is extremely hard, and they are not up to the task.

    2. No it isn’t. Not yet. The two biggest problems at the site now are how to process all the contaminated water they have stored, and how to remove/isolate the fuel rods that are strewn around in the pools.

  5. We need to hold the cut throat bastards who INTENTIONALLY caused this responsible. Do you really think Stuxnet was isolated to just Iran? Japan was beholding to the most powerful mafia on Earth, this is the knife against their throat.

    http://www.jimstonefreelance.com/fukushima1.html

    I am an engineer who spent 4 years working on a nuclear naval vessel in the reactor room. I have tried to disprove Jim’s work, but I can’t to any substantial degree. He is either right or damn close to it. It isn’t pretty, but his logic is sound, research is impeccable, and experience that would garner such knowledge. I believe him… read it, and see if you can HONESTLY disprove him.

    Jim is Ed Snowden without the publicity, and his body of work is painfully logical and irrefutable…. and horrific…. because if Jim is even CLOSE, which I believe he is, then we are in a world of shit many times deeper than anyone is saying anything about.

    Good luck Jim. I hope you survive this…

  6. The underlying geography excludes a sarcophagus type structure atg Fukashima.
    The big problem is the melted down coriums from reactors 1,2 and 3. At the moment it’s “assumed” the coriums are still in the reactor containment buildings.If they melt through the floors a sarcophagus wont help.

    Did you know that the sarcophagus at Chernobyl is not impermeable? There are gaps and holes in it everywhere. Birds and bats nest inside and fly in and out all the time. Other animals live inside

  7. http://www.enenews.com has stories on Japan. There are massive cracks around the Fukushima site. Concerning the land as to it being messed up that is why I [ut elements together with concrete to do

    TWO THINGS

    1. Stabilize the land reinforcing it CONCRETE
    2. Elements > surround the Massive blobs and seals them in a cocoon.

    Markww

  8. Yes here’s my general breakdown/understanding- there are 3 reactor cores that melted through the plant and are underground, real close to the ocean, near an underground river, somewhere we can’t measure. So basically slow/quick leak into the ocean that’s VERY BAD. We’re worried about reactor 4 melting down, which would basically be very close to the cooling pools, which are already damaged and full of lots of spent fuel rods- ONE of which contains so much highly dangerous radioactive material it could kill millions if it started overheating unstoppably and burned up, and ALL of which would probably do that if one did. No one could do a thing or even get near it it would just blow the entire plant.
    That’s VERY LIKELY to happen since they’ve made little/no progress in solving the problem yet, and it’s been 2 years. They’re starting to try to remove the fuel rods this month supposedly O_O sooo ..bye guys
    I think we’re worried about the latter more, because the former has already happened. And we aren’t all dead yet so cool, it will be a problem for the present/indefinite future/ at least tens of thousands of years longer though.

  9. Oh the concrete- great that’s the best they can do. IT’s actually awesome for a last ditch effort, might prevent total destruction long enough to …think of a better feasible plan… where are the nuclear engineers now?

  10. I’m so terrified about this situation, I can’t focus on anything else..anxiety through the roof as I fear that we’re all going to die due to an explosion. I’m writing to the governments of Canada and the US pleading for their intervention. It will likely do very little. Unfortunately not all of us are wealthy enough to build bomb shelters and stock pile food and water. That would costs thousands of dollars..so we hope that we can somehow get through this..but even if the nuclear plant doesn’t explode, it’s destroyed the ocean for generations to come which seems like something out of a horror movie..can’t believe it’s real. I’ve spent my life trying to help save endangered species, and now it’s all for not.

    I’ve been following the Japanese scientist and journalist Yoichi Shimatsu. He said that we could avoid a reaction but it requires a miracle. In my words, for Japan to lower their pride and accept help.

    “The underground corium pockets can be detected by radiation scanners and with blast tomography, which reveals the locations of larger concentrations. Next, steam-injection pumps used at near-exhausted oil fields should be deployed to pump borax solution into those pockets. Borax unlike boric acid, crystallizes in solution, thereby partitioning the underground spaces with neutron-absorbing barriers. Subdivided into smaller cysts, the fissile materials will be deprived of critical mass.”

    If this preventative measure isn’t done, we’re talking human extinction and that is something I can’t wrap my head around…it’s bloody unreal.

    1. Melissa,

      In the early days of the Fukushima tragedy and the Japanese tsunami, many of us understood the ramifications of the depths of it. Many of us wrote to raise awareness in the USA, for when something happens elsewhere, then upon hearing it’s in foreign lands or hearing a foreign name then it becomes disconnected from their personal sense of reality.

      A huge portion of the world just barely manages to survive. They can’t be bothered to look beyond their own misfortunes and eek along each month barely able to pay their bills. As such, unless their survival is immediately threatened, then they dismiss the threat.

      [To understand this read Carl Maslow and the Hierarchy of Need.]

      On the path to becoming a prepper, part of that journey is about becoming more aware than just ourselves. We came to understand the interconnectedness of all things and all life. That each of us plays roles within Nature and spiritual matters. That what someone else does affects their brother and sister. That some natural forces will be destructive, that man-made disasters happen all the time, and that conflicts threaten not only our survival but those within communities, even communities world-wide.

      People assume that nuclear power is safe, for they have to as the power plants dot the land in diverse countries. The fact that we’ve never figured out a nuclear waste plan for long term storage should greatly concern everyone, but as long as the spent fuel pools were kept cool, and as long as mishaps happened and no one was aware (or only a tiny chorus of voices were raised), then all was well.

      Now, so many disasters are occurring simultaneously: reckless government spending unto madness…and ultimately economic collapse of the dollar, the world-wide connection of the economic system and economic collapse in diverse countries, pandemic potential, EMP weapons that are theoretically possible and probable, military conflict, the outright abandonment of natural rights being supported by governments, potential martial law, continual drought, earthquakes, etc.

      When a person wakes up to the potential, possible, and probable disasters on our horizon then it makes us shudder. Being a prepper of many decades, I would think most people have a epiphany and think, “We’re doomed.”

      But despite the history of humanity’s poor stewardship of the Earth, the world hasn’t ended. The enormity of our self-inflicted wounds of the planet are immense. In our past all kinds of events have severely harmed humanity and yet there are still billions upon the Earth. You have to temper your sense of impending doom with the reality that life is persistently possible through adaptation.

      If we study Chernobyl, despite the massive release and long term affects on children with cancers in Belarus or the huge numbers of birth defects, or the inability of humans to live in the region, many animal species have actually increased in numbers in that area. Some species adapted, and while their bodies may be riddled with cancerous tumors, they still survive.

      Most people can’t be bothered to understand nuclear energy, as long as the lights keep working. They can’t be bothered to look to Japan, for they live in Boston and keep doing the same things they have to do each day to pay the bills. They can’t be bothered to understand there is no way to safely manage the spent fuel rods, or that accidents like this are inevitable due to natural events and stupidity. They can’t be bothered to learn it’s on-going. They can’t be bothered to learn that radioactive isotopes are being released into the ground, air, and water. They can’t be bothered to learn that it’s eventually going to affect their living space.

      Why? Because if they bothered to learn these things, it would mean the media lies to them. They go to the news, and read magazines, and watch the happy-clappy diversions on the Internet, and thus are enslaved. As long as people do not open their eyes, then they won’t raise their voices, insist upon their natural rights, see the interconnectness of each of us, and prepare.

      To do those things is WORK. It requires energy, commitment of time, talent, and treasure. Since they feel powerless and helpless, it’s easier to live vicariously through the lives of the false personas of celebrities. If they can think about a famous sports figure, a musician, a pretty actress, then their attention is diverted from reality. The artifice of media enslaves almost everyone.

      The school systems were created to enslave you by teaching you false histories and ideas about money creation. They were made to create an endless amount of worker bees for their factories. They were made so you would think false dreams from the Gates of Ivory.

      “Stranger, dreams verily are baffling and unclear of meaning, and in no wise do they find fulfillment in all things for men. For two are the gates of shadowy dreams, and one is fashioned of horn and one of ivory. Those dreams that pass through the gate of sawn ivory deceive men, bringing words that find no fulfillment. But those that come forth through the gate of polished horn bring true issues to pass, when any mortal sees them. But in my case it was not from thence, methinks, that my strange dream came. “
      The Odyssey by Homer

      Since humanity cannot ever be united by the diversity of our different hopes and dreams, then we will always struggle to have power, even though we are born into power by natural law. Thus all you can do is learn and educate yourself and be a good critical thinker. You can raise the clarion, but never expect anyone to listen. You can write countless posts, but mostly you preach to the choir. You can prepare yourself by spirituality, saving seed, gathering supplies, and honing skills.

      Ultimately, the prepper movement is not about survival. That’s a hard lesson to learn and to digest. The goal of prepping is to live life abundantly as long as we have time. It is to be bold in friendship and romance.

      If lucky, we leave a legacy of some kind, but mostly by easing the path of our descendants. In many cases, whatever we do to ease their path, results in them struggling less, and so taking life for granted and actually that is often destructive. The juice of life is mostly found in the struggle for existence and makes us cognizant of the fragility of being an aware human being.

      Create Hope even as you stare into the Abyss.

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