Earlier this week we posted an update to the situation in Japan. In the update we pointed out how massive amounts of radioactive materials were still making their way into the environment.
Well, things seem to just keep getting worse for Japan’s troubled Fukushima nuclear plant. Earlier this week, Plant operator TEPCO admitted that almost 12 tons of radioactive water and contaminated material just leaked from a treatment pipe into the pacific ocean.
Similar leaks have occurred several times since the initial damage but this is the second major leak in the last two weeks. The last spill reportedly sent 120 tons of radioactive water streaming out of one of the plants decontamination vessels.
The growing number of leaks are raising some serious concerns over TEPCO’s ability to keep the melted reactors cool and contain the radiation. It’s also has many experts questioning their overall ability to keep the plant stable. In fact, some experts are so concerned that THE Mainichi Daily News in Japan is reporting that the Japanese government is actually drawing up plans for the possible evacuation of Tokyo:
One of the biggest issues that we face is the possibility that the spent nuclear fuel pool of the No. 4 reactor at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant will collapse.
The storage pool in the No. 4 reactor building has a total of 1,535 fuel rods, or 460 tons of nuclear fuel, in it and the storage pools are barely intact on the building’s third and fourth floors. If the storage pool breaks and runs dry, the nuclear fuel inside will overheat and explode, causing a massive amount of radioactive substances to spread over a wide area.
The worse-case scenario drawn up by the government includes not only the collapse of the No. 4 reactor pool, but the disintegration of spent fuel rods from all the plant’s other reactors. If this were to happen, residents in the Tokyo metropolitan area would be forced to evacuate.
So sad for Japan and so sad for the rest of the world as this poison makes its way into the food supply and into the air we breath. This is the biggest coverup of all time and I can’t believe there isn’t more outrage over what’s happening over there. Then again most people get their news from the idiot box and those people refuse to report on anything that actually effects our lives.
people have all this information at their finger tips…but most choose to not know the truth. now with all these earthquakes and such happening all over the world you’d think more people would wake up.
Is There no Way to Remove the Fuel Rods to a Safe Better Constructed Pool ? If Not then its just a Matter of Time ..
This worries me to no end, I have family (wife is Japanese) and friends in Tokyo and Chiba area. This is truly something that will not end. I consider Japan a second home and they have suffered enough, I pray to all powers that be that this turns out well.
your link to the reported plans for an evacuation of Tokyo appears not to work
Ok, so for those of us who know about it, and are willing to accept the reality of this situation, what do we do about it? You can buy protection against radioactive iodine (Potassium Iodide) without any major problems or prescriptions. You can’t, however, buy protection against the Cesium radiation (Prussian Blue) without involving medical personnel to get a prescription. As far as I know, the ones that control most of the Prussian Blue to deal with Cesium radiation is our own government. Its not like they are selling it at Walmart… assessing that we do have a problem is the first step. Where do we go from here?
Since the original disaster surfaced a year ago this March I have been aware of the absence of news coverage of this major, global event. It was only discussed the first week of the disaster and more coverage of the videos taken of the actual sunami’s horrific damage to the towns and populations of the surrounding area was shown. Then we became part of the Lybia NATO war (without any Congressional consent) and all the news from all channels was concentrated on the Lybia conflict. Convenient distraction? This nuclear disaster is the most serious threat to the human race ever….and the silence of the network news coverage is deafening. The so called “Fair and Balanced” Fox cable channel is not covering it either, so much for “looking out for you” hipocracy.
We live in Japan. I think many people here are in denial. I mentioned my thoughts on why the meat and seafood was so cheap but no one wanted to admit it. I heard ” don’t say things like that, the government would not allow us to eat contaminated food” . Really, I thought? They did not tell us the truth when it first happened! We have no choice but to live here. I often wonder about our future. What wl happen to us? How long does it take to get sick? Everytime I have a pain or ache I’m thinking, am I sick now? Will I get worse? From what I read they continue to dump radiation into tge ocean. Soon the world will be contaminated. I am so sorry!
Thank you for your note…We live in Arizona, and have been following these events since it happen. We’ve been reading about how Japan raised the radiation-level that people are being exposed too in an effort to mislead the people, and contaminated debris is washing ashore in other parts of the world. We also have several plants in the U.S. :(
The truth is for each of us to seek out on our own the government(s) are not going to tell us. In regards to the sickness depends on the type and levels of radiation. I’m sorry too :( and it’s not anyone country or persons fault…we all must face this together. Stay safe and we’ll try to do the same.
Radiation sickness is a very hard to miss thing.
look up the symptoms and consider moving away from japan.
You actually are not describing the worst case scenario, that is potentially inevitable.
If another modest but major quake hits the Fukushima area ( not likely to cause another tsunami ) prior to structural stabilization of the spent fuel pools at the site, destruction of any remaining integrity to the SPENT FUEL POOLS will result in nuclear fuel FIRES exposed to atmosphere, of highly radioactive stored fuel rods, potentially (likely) 85X the amount of radioactivity released by Chernobyl, into the air carried by winds and weather across the worlds ( READ THAT CORRECTLY ) worlds atmosphere.
Where Chernobyl’s nuclear fire, covered a large fraction of Europe with nuclear fallout ( FALLOUT ), a fire at the Fukushima spent fuel pools ( presently containing some water ) formed of an earthquake in the region ( 70% likely to occur in a year ) WILL RELEASE 85x more atmospheric radiation ( long half life radionucleides ) than CHERNOBYL.
For all intents and purposes, MUCH of the WORLD will be blanketed by dangerous levels ( possibly uninhabitable ) radiation fallout, and certainly much of Asia and likely the pacific coast in North America.
Safety of human and animal life on large swaths of planet earth, will no longer be the case, radiation hazard levels will be unthinkable under paths of wind patterns carrying the potential radioactive fires that might follow upon collapse of any water retention by the SPENT FUEL POOLS at the Fukushima site.
If one pool falls ( losing all remaining cooling water ), the fires will possibly also occur at all the spent fuel pools, for similar reasons of more earthquake damage causing total loss of critical water needed to prevent the fuel rods in the spent fuel pools from igniting and melting all structural integrity of the fuel rods placed in the spent fuel pools that are open to the atmosphere ( no substantial fire proof covers ).
Much of discussions of other risks, further radioactive leakage of water into the ocean without the potential fires to the spent fuel rods, pale in comparison to the potential risks to the world by fires to the spent fuel rods on site, should this not improbable scenario occur.
It might indeed be a near world ending event should it occur, as the magnitude of radioactive atmospheric emissions will equal apparently 1/2 of those emitting in all recent human history by weapons and accidents of any kind, but in weeks rather than 1/2 century prior.
Much of the discussions here are of circumstances largely irrelevant scale versus the latent risk not yet mitigated, if the spent fuel pools at Fukushima BURN.
The scary possibility is the loss of cooling or the structural collapse of the pool and the heating up of the spent fuel and the inevitable fires and melting of the fuel. The possibility here is for a prompt critical reaction like what happened at Chernobyl. It is possible for a nuclear explosion to occur if enough material is present to support prompt criticality. If that happens it could be a nuclear explosion, but the conditions have to be right. The other more likely scenario is ongoing fires and massive off gasing of radionuclides and particulates that could last for weeks or months. GOD help us if that were to occur. GOD help us all.
It’s significant to note that among the 19 ommissions of MSM coverage of these very significant events, the 11th one is directly applicable to the Fukashima disaster. Unexplained
massive deaths of fish, dolphins, whales and birds?
All of these species depend on the ocean for their survival, and the ocean is being poisioned by the hour with the irradiated nuclear waste leaking from the Fukashima multiple meltdowns. Sad situation with no news coverage for the citizens of this globe.
Just eat freshwater fish or something from the Atlantic that should be safe for awhile.
I think the jappenese need to take out of the russian txt book and just cover them in concrete.