Õnnetused tuumaelektrijaamades

[Tiam]

Fukushima General Electricu reaktorite kohta oli juba enne nenede käiku minekut olulist kriitikat:

Thirty-five years ago, Dale G. Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric resigned from their jobs after becoming increasingly convinced that the nuclear reactor design they were reviewing -- the Mark 1 -- was so flawed it could lead to a devastating accident.
Questions persisted for decades about the ability of the Mark 1 to handle the immense pressures that would result if the reactor lost cooling power, and today that design is being put to the ultimate test in Japan. Five of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which has been wracked since Friday's earthquake with explosions and radiation leaks, are Mark 1s.

"The problems we identified in 1975 were that, in doing the design of the containment, they did not take into account the dynamic loads that could be experienced with a loss of coolant," Bridenbaugh told ABC News in an interview. "The impact loads the containment would receive by this very rapid release of energy could tear the containment apart and create an uncontrolled release."

The situation on the ground at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is so fluid, and the details of what is unfolding are so murky, that it may be days or even weeks before anyone knows how the Mark 1 containment system performed in the face of a devastating combination of natural disasters.

But the ability of the containment to withstand the events that have cascaded from what nuclear experts call a "station blackout" -- where the loss of power has crippled the reactor's cooling system -- will be a crucial question as policy makers re-examine the safety issues that surround nuclear power, and specifically the continued use of what is now one of the oldest types of nuclear reactors still operating.

GE told ABC News the reactors have "a proven track record of performing reliably and safely for more than 40 years" and "performed as designed," even after the shock of a 9.0 earthquake.

Still, concerns about the Mark 1 design have resurfaced occasionally in the years since Bridenbaugh came forward. In 1986, for instance, Harold Denton, then the director of NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, spoke critically about the design during an industry conference.

"I don't have the same warm feeling about GE containment that I do about the larger dry containments,'' he said, according to a report at the time that was referenced Tuesday in The Washington Post.

"There is a wide spectrum of ability to cope with severe accidents at GE plants,'' Denton said. "And I urge you to think seriously about the ability to cope with such an event if it occurred at your plant.''

Bridenbaugh told ABC News that he believes the design flaws that prompted his resignation from GE were eventually addressed at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Bridenbaugh said GE agreed to a series of retrofits at Mark 1 reactors around the globe. He compared the retooling to the bolstering of highway bridges in California to better withstand earthquakes.

"Like with seismic refitting, they went back and re-analyzed the loads the structures might receive and beefed up the ability of the containment to handle greater loads," he said.

When asked if that was sufficient, he paused. "What I would say is, the Mark 1 is still a little more susceptible to an accident that would result in a loss of containment."

ABC News asked GE for more detail about how the company responded to critiques of its Mark 1 design. GE spokesman Michael Tetuan said in an email that, over the past 40 years, the company has made several modifications to its Mark 1 reactors in the U.S., including installing "quenchers" and fortifying the steel structures "to accommodate the loads that were generated." He said that GE's responses to modifications ordered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were also shared with the Japanese nuclear industry.

Bridenbaugh told ABC News that he is watching the events in Japan with a mix of anxiety and deep reflection. Many years have passed since he and fellow GE colleagues Gregory C Minor and Richard B. Hubbard publicly resigned, joined the anti-nuclear movement, and became known as the "GE Three."

Undoubtedly, he said, the containment structures at that Fukushima Daiichi plant are facing significant amounts of pressure -- and testing the very questions he was studying on paper more than three decades earlier. While he knew then that the Mark 1 had design limits, he said, no one knows now whether those limits will be surpassed.

Lisaks sellele tuleb välja, et see reaktor on loodud töötama uraani ja plutooniumi põhisel kütusesegul, seega kui see vigane saastekaitsekest seal järele annab ja neid ühendeid õhku paiskab on meil Tšernobõl II ootamas. Plutoonium on ka üliväikeses koguses inimese sanaselt polooniumile kehas ülitappev, olles: 1. raskesti eemaldatav organismist ning 2. ka väike kogus seda jätkab organismi "kiiritamist" olulisel tasemel:

Scientists warned this week of yet another wrinkle to Japan’s evolving nuclear crisis: one of the doomed reactors is loaded with mixed-oxide fuel that contains plutonium.

“This sort of plutonium fuel is more difficult to control than uranium fuel,” said Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear scientist and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.

The fuel, known generically as “MOX,” was made by nuclear giant AREVA in France, where MOX technology has been used for almost two decades.

The rods, made by blending small amounts of plutonium with traditional uranium, were loaded into unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant last September.

Makhijani said the unit contains 32 MOX assemblies—or about 5 percent of the fuel now in the reactor, where an explosion this week kindled fears of a radiation release.

“With this fuel, the risks of accidental criticality are different,” he said. “You have the same kinds of problems, they are just more intense with plutonium.”

AREVA is also part of Shaw AREVA MOX Services—the group building the National Nuclear Security Administration’s $4.86 billion MOX plant at Savannah River Site.

The MOX fuels used in the Japan reactor and several dozen others are a mixture of uranium and plutonium reprocessed from spent uranium, but the facility at Savannah River Site is designed to use weapons grade plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads to make fuels usable in commercial nuclear power reactors.

The plant’s mission is to dispose of the weapons grade material to prevent exploitation by terrorists. But the search for utilities willing to use the fuel when production starts in 2018 has moved slowly.

Currently, Tennessee Valley Authority is evaluating the use of MOX fuel in as many as five of its reactors, and a Richland, Wash., utility is mulling its use in one unit, but no formal user agreements have been signed.

Safety officials have pointed out that the problems in Japan were caused by the catastrophic, combined effects of the tsunami and earthquake—not by the type of fuel in the affected reactors.

In an emailed statement Tuesday, a National Nuclear Security Administration spokesman said U.S. officials remain confident in the safety of existing programs.

“The American people should have full confidence that the U.S. has rigorous safety regulations in place to ensure that our nuclear power is generated safely and responsibly,” the spokesman said. “Information is still coming in about the events unfolding in Japan, but the Administration is committed to learning from Japan’s experience as we work to continue to strengthen America’s nuclear industry.”

Midagi kahtlast on toimumas, sest täna käis uudistest läbi, et viimasest plahvatusest ei teavitatud Jaapani valitsust jaamu opereeriva Tokyo Electricu poolt ning peaminister sai sellest teada alles meedia vahendusel 1h peale plahvatusi, mis lõppes sellega, et ta tegi "jõuga omale teed" Tokyo Electriku nõupidamisele. Räägitakse, et see cover-up toimub just selle firma tasemel, kes ei ole tegeliku olukorra tõsidust avaldanud.

Alles nüüd tunnistatakse ametlikul tasandil, et 2. reaktori saastekaitseümbris on purunenud.

[Tiam]

KORIYAMA, JAPAN—Japan was considering spraying water and boric acid over a stricken nuclear plant in a desperate measure to contain radiation after officials said Wednesday that many fuel roads were damaged, in an escalating crisis caused by last week's earthquake and tsunami.

Masami Nishimura, a spokesman for Japan's nuclear safety agency, said the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., thought of the measures after a string of explosions and fires at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

The latest fire broke out at a reactor early Wednesday, a day after the power plant emitted a burst of radiation that panicked an already edgy Japan following Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami that is estimated to have killed more than 10,000 people.

Hajimi Motujuku, a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power, or TEPCO, said the outer housing of the containment vessel at the No. 4 unit at the complex caught fire.

On Tuesday, a fire broke out in the same reactor's fuel storage pond — an area where used nuclear fuel is kept cool — causing radioactivity to be released into the atmosphere. TEPCO said the new blaze erupted because the initial fire had not been fully extinguished.

About three hours after the blaze erupted Wednesday, Japan's nuclear safety agency said flames could no longer be seen at Unit 4. But it was unable to confirm that the blaze had been put out, and clouds of white smoke were billowing from the reactor, according to live video footage of the plant.

Also Wednesday, Japan's nuclear safety agency said 70 per cent of the nuclear fuel rods may have been damaged at another Fukushima Dai-ichi reactor that was first stricken last week, triggering the crisis.

“But we don't know the nature of the damage, and it could be either melting, or there might be some holes in them,” said an agency spokesman, Minoru Ohgoda.

Japan's national news agency, Kyodo, said 33 per cent of the fuel rods at a second reactor were also damaged.

The troubles have been caused by overheating of the reactors, which have lost their cooling ability because of damage to equipment from the earthquake and tsunami. Excessive heating will lead to a meltdown of the reactor and release hazardous radiation.

Engineers are desperately trying to cool the reactors and spent fuel rods after the electricity was cut off in the wake of the quake, shutting down their cooling functions.

Boric acid is “important because it captures radiation and helps prevent radiation from leaking,” said Nishimura, the safety agency spokesman.

He said the government had also ordered the utility company to immediately spray water on Unit 4.

Both units 1 and 3 have no roof after earlier blasts, making it easy to dump water onto them, he said. Unit 4 has holes in the building, allowing fire trucks to spray water inside, he said.

Boric acid contains boron, which helps slow nuclear reactions by absorbing neutrons, said Naj Meshkati, a nuclear power plant safety expert at the University of Southern California. But the same acid also melted away steel when it was used repeatedly at a troubled northern Ohio nuclear plant.

Radiation levels in areas around the nuclear plant rose early Tuesday afternoon but appeared to subside by evening, officials said. But the unease remained in a country trying to recover from the massive disasters that are believed to have killed more than 10,000 people and battered the world's third-largest economy.

The radiation leak caused the government to order 140,000 people living within 30 kilometres of the plant to seal themselves indoors to avoid exposure, and authorities declared a ban on commercial air traffic through the area. Worries about radiation rippled through Tokyo and other areas far beyond that cordon. The stock market plunged for a second straight day, dropping 10 per cent Tuesday. However, the market soared more than 6 per cent in Wednesday morning trading.

The re-emergence of the fire at the spent fuel pond in Unit 4 makes that “my biggest worry” because “the spent fuel pool really doesn't have any containment over it and it's very exposed,” said Meshkati. “There is radioactive fuel that could cause some problems.”

The fire could put all sorts of radioactive isotopes — such as cesium and iodine — into the air, Meshkati said.

The troubles cascaded Tuesday at the Dai-ichi plant, where there have already been explosions at two reactor buildings since Friday's disasters. An explosion at a third reactor blasted an 8-meter hole in the building and, experts said, damaged a vessel below the reactor, although not the reactor core. Three hours later, a fire broke out at a fourth reactor, which had been offline for maintenance.

In a nationally televised address Tuesday, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation had seeped from four of the plant's six reactors. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Japanese officials informed it that the fire was in a pool where used nuclear fuel rods are stored and that "radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere." Long after the fire was extinguished, a Japanese official said the pool might still be boiling.

Depending on how bad the blast was at Unit 2, experts said more radioactive materials could seep out. If the water in the storage pond in Unit 4 boils away, the fuel rods could be exposed, leaking more virulent radiation.

Experts noted that much of the leaking radiation was apparently in steam from boiling water — and the falling radiation levels suggest the situation could be stabilizing.

Government spokesman Yukio Edano said the radiation leak potentially affected public health. But authorities and experts said the risks to the public diminished the farther the distance from the plant. At its most intense, the leak released a radioactive dose in one hour at the site 400 times the amount a person normally receives in a year. Within six hours, that level had dropped dramatically.

A person would have to be exposed to that dose for 10 hours for it to be fatal, said Jae Moo-sung, a nuclear engineering expert at Seoul's Hanyang University.

Radiation elsewhere never reached that level. In Tokyo, 270 kilometres to the southwest, authorities reported radiation levels nine times normal — too small, officials said, to threaten the 39 million people in and around the capital. Weather patterns helped, shifting Tuesday night to the southeast, blowing any potential radiation from the plant toward the sea.

"It's not good, but I don't think it's a disaster," said Steve Crossley, an Australia-based radiation physicist. "If the radioactive material gets out, it's a major problem. That doesn't appear to be happening in Japan, and that's the big difference. As long as you are not near it, it doesn't pose a health risk."

The IAEA said Tuesday that all other Japanese nuclear plants were in a safe and stable condition.

Though Kan and other officials urged calm, the developments fuelled a growing panic in Japan and around the world amid widespread uncertainty over what would happen next. In the worst case scenario, one or more of the reactor cores would completely melt down, a disaster that could spew large amounts of radioactivity into the atmosphere.

Foreigners began leaving in larger numbers. China organized an evacuation of its citizens from Japan's stricken northeast. The U.S. urged Americans to avoid travel to Japan. Austria moved its embassy from Tokyo to Osaka. Lufthansa diverted its two daily flights to Tokyo to other Japanese cities.

The U.S. navy shifted some ships from Japan's east coast to western waters to avoid hazards from debris dragged into the sea by the tsunami and to be away from any radiation plume. One ship at its base south of Tokyo detected low levels of radiation from the Fukushima plant.

In evacuation centres for people living near the plant, Japanese worried about radiation contamination, calling it an unseen threat, and complained that the government was not forthcoming with information.

"Nuclear power is the most frightening, even more than a tsunami. The government, the ruling party, administrators, nobody tells us, the citizens, what is really happening," Isao Araki, 63, said at an evacuation centre.

Kan's government has been more open and transparent than previous administrations in keeping the nation informed of developments in the nuclear crisis. Edano, his top spokesman, appears frequently before the press with updates that have been widely praised for their frankness and clarity.

However, given past governments' notorious record of covering up bad news on nuclear emergencies, many Japanese are skeptical they are getting a complete picture.

The radiation fears added to the catastrophe that has been unfolding in Japan. Four days after the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, millions of people strung out along the east coast had little food, water or heat, and already chilly temperatures dropped further as a cold front moved in. Up to 450,000 people are in temporary shelters.

Officials have only confirmed about 3,300 deaths, but officials have said the toll was likely to top 10,000 in one of the four hardest-hit areas. Experts involved in the 2004 Asian tsunami said there was no question more people died, despite Japan's high state of preparation, and like the earlier disaster, many thousands may never be found.

In a rare bit of good news, rescuers found two survivors Tuesday, one of them a 70-year-old woman whose house was torn off its foundation by the tsunami.

Mostly, though, search teams found few signs of life. More than 200 rescue crews from the U.S. and Britain poured Tuesday into the coastal city of Ofunato, finding little but rubble and people looking for lost possessions. Whole city blocks lay flattened. A yacht came to rest atop the remains of a two-story gas station.

Amid the debris, 32-year-old Ken Suioya used a crowbar to try to force open a safe, which he said had been thrown from his father's destroyed home and into a trench.

"My house has gone, our family's restaurant has gone, our car has gone — this is part of what we have left," he said, gesturing to unyielding grey metal.

As rescue teams and survivors hunted through ruined communities and officials struggled to deliver supplies to the displaced, urgent attention was focused on the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, the most severely damaged of three nuclear plants on the battered coast. Three of the plant's six reactors were out of service for maintenance at the time of Friday's disasters, which compromised cooling systems at all of the reactors. Before Tuesday's fire in Unit 4's storage pool, workers were desperately trying to pump seawater to cool the fuel rods in the three active reactors.

Conditions in Unit 2 are less clear after a blast near a suppression pool, into which fuel rods are plunged to cool them and which also serves as an emergency receptacle for excess steam, said plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Co. The nuclear core was not damaged but the bottom of the surrounding container may have been, said Shigekazu Omukai, a spokesman for Japan's nuclear safety agency.

The IAEA's head, Yukoiya Amano, urged the Japanese government to provide better information to the agency about the situation.

Temperatures in the two other offline reactors, units 5 and 6, were slightly elevated, said Edano, the chief cabinet secretary. Fourteen pumps have been brought in to get seawater into the other reactors, and technicians were trying to figure out how to pump water into Unit 4, where the storage pool fire occurred. Early Wednesday, Tokyo Electric Power officials said they had scrapped a plan to use helicopters, deeming them impractical, and said they were considering other options, including using fire engines.

About 70 workers remained at the complex, struggling with its myriad problems. The workers, all in protective gear, are being rotated in and out of the danger zone quickly to reduce their radiation exposure.

The prime minister and other officials warned there is a danger of more leaks and ordered a wider emergency cordon, telling people within 30 kilometres of the Fukushima plant to stay indoors to avoid exposure that could make people sick.

"Please do not go outside. Please stay indoors. Please close windows and make your homes airtight," Edano told residents in the danger zone.

"These are figures that potentially affect health. There is no mistake about that," he said.

Some 70,000 people had already been evacuated from a 20-kilometre radius from the Dai-ichi complex. About 140,000 remain in the wider zone.

The multiple problems at Fukushima appear to be the nuclear industry's most severe accident in 25 years, since the meltdown at the Chernobyl power plant in the former Soviet Union.

Experts said that differing designs in the reactors made it unlikely that Fukushima would degenerate into a widespread contamination problem. The biggest difference is that in Chernobyl's case the reactor core caught fire and there was no containment shell — thick reinforced concrete around the reactor.

"We're a long way from fuel material coming out of the reactor in the way it did in Chernobyl," said Crossley, the physicist. "In this case, the fuel is still contained."

Physicist Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group that pushes for nuclear industry safety, said it was unlikely that a plume from the Fukushima plant would rise as high as the one from Chernobyl, which means that radioactive material would be deposited closer to the site.

"That may spare Tokyo from the worst of it," he said.

Olukorra tõsidusest räägib ka see, et viimastel mitteametlikel andmetel paar päeva tagasi Tokyo Electric Power Co kutsus kõik oma töötajad välja õnnetusse sattunud tuumajaamadest kõrge radiatsioonitaseme tõttu. Vaid valitsuse (peaministri) poolne käsk sundis ettevõtet töötajaid õnnetuspaigale tagasi saatma nüüd vist juba päris lootusetut võitlust pidama. Just nende töötajate hulgas on enamik seni kiirgushaigusesse haigestunud inimestest.

Mis mind ennast muretsema paneb on see, et need Prantsuse firmas valmistatud kütusevardad sisaldasid nii uraani kui plutooniumi. Probleem on aga selles, et see plutoonium, mis prantslased sinna varrastesse lisanud on ei pärine kuskilt mujalt kui ümber töödeldud tuumarelvade lõhkepeadest. Seega erinevalt tavatuumajaamast, kus kasutatav uraan ja plutoonium on liiga vaesustatud, et iseeneslikult tuumareaktsiooni käima panna (isegi kriitilise massi kokku saades), samas selles õnnetusse sattunud tuumajaamas on nö weapons grade plutoonium, mis kriitilise massi kokku saades võib iseeneslikult tuumareaktsiooni käivitada. Siin ongi minu arvates see suurim oht, et kui reaktori sisemus sulab ja tuumareaktsioone juhtida lubava geomeetria kaotab - juhtvarrasste asetus tuumakütuse suhtes ning kütusevarrastes ülirikastatud plutooniumipelletite vahele paigutatud uraanipelletid sealt nihkuvad - on võimalus selleks, et piisav kogus seda ülirikastatud plutooniumi kokku sulab võibki midagi tuumapommilaadset seal käivituda.

Lisaks see jubedus, et need kasutatud kütusevardad, mis paar korda põlema on läinud on väljaspool seda terasest saastekaitsekapslit, mille sees reaktor ise paikneb. See sarnaneb juba väga Tšernobõlile:

[Tiam]

How much of a threat is the nuclear crisis in Japan? That question is on the minds of millions of people around the globe tonight. Unfortunately, the Japanese government and the mainstream media have both been doing their best to downplay this crisis. Even though there have been massive explosions at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility, authorities in Japan have still been very stingy with information and they keep insisting that the situation is under control. But the situation is not under control. In fact, it just seems to get worse with each passing day. Radiation levels are now incredibly high at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex and the radiation cloud is starting to spread. Radiation levels in Tokyo are already 10 times above normal levels, and there are reports in the international media that some people have begun to flee the city. It is imperative that the Japanese government tell the truth about what is going on because this could potentially affect the health of millions of people. There are over 12 million people in the city of Tokyo alone. If this nuclear crisis continues to get worse it could potentially end up killing more Japanese than the tsunami just did.

Yes, things really are that serious.

We are not just talking about a repeat of Chernobyl.

We are possibly talking about “many Chernobyls”.

It is somewhat understandable that the Japanese government and the mainstream media do not want to panic the public, but the reality is that people need the truth about what is going on.

Unfortunately, it is not likely that the Japanese government or the mainstream media are going to “change their stripes” overnight, so in order to try to get an idea of what is really going on we need to look at the clues.

Sometimes it is much more important to watch what people are doing rather than what they are saying.

For example, a significant number of foreign governments are now evacuating personnel from Tokyo.

Why would they be evacuating if there was no threat?

Posted below are 27 signs that the nuclear crisis in Japan is much worse than either the mainstream media or the Japanese government have been telling us. When you take all of these clues and you put them together it really does paint a frightening picture….

#1 Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is urging all people living within 30 kilometers of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility to stay indoors.

#2 Andre-Claude Lacoste, the head of France’s Nuclear Safety Authority, says that the containment vessel surrounding the No. 2 reactor at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex is “no longer sealed“.

#3 Radiation levels in Tokyo are already 10 times above normal levels.

#4 Reuters is reporting that some residents of Tokyo are already starting to flee the city.

#5 Radiation levels in one city north of Tokyo, Utsunomiya, were recently reported to be 33 times above normal levels.

#6 Radiation levels in the city of Saitama have been reported to be 40 times above normal levels.

#7 According to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, the “possibility of further radioactive leakage is heightening.“

#8 The Japanese government is admitting that radiation levels near the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex are very harmful to human health.

#9 According to the World Nuclear Association, exposure to over 100 millisieverts of radiation a year can lead to cancer. At this point the level of radiation being measured right outside the number 4 reactor at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex is 400 millisieverts per hour.

#10 A U.S. Navy crew that was assisting in relief efforts was exposed to a month’s worth of nuclear radiation in just a single hour.

#11 According to the U.S. Navy, low levels of radiation have been detected at their bases in Yokosuka and Atsugi.

#12 The USS Ronald Reagan recently detected significant levels of radiation 100 miles off the Japanese coast.

#13 The operator of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex has pulled out 750 of the 800 workers that were working at the facility.

#14 The French embassy in Tokyo is advising French citizens to leave the city.

#15 The German embassy in Tokyo is advising all German citizens to leave the country entirely.

#16 German technology company SAP is evacuating their offices in Tokyo.

#17 Austria has announced that it is moving its embassy from Tokyo to Osaka due to fears about the radiation.

#18 Finland is urging all of their citizens to leave Tokyo.

#19 The Czech military is sending planes to Japan specifically to evacuate the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

#20 Air China is canceling many flights to Tokyo.

#21 The Chinese Embassy has announced that it will be evacuating all Chinese citizens from the Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki and Iwate prefectures.

#22 Russia is making preparations to evacuate civilians and military units from the Kuril Islands.

#23 Physicist Frank von Hippel recently told the New York Times the following about this disaster: “It’s way past Three Mile Island already”.

#24 The president of France’s nuclear safety authority says that this crisis is now almost as bad as Chernobyl was….

“It’s clear we are at Level 6, that’s to say we’re at a level in between what happened at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.”

#25 There have been reports of extremely high radiation at another nuclear facility in Japan. It has been reported that at the Onagawa nuclear plant radiation that is 700 times the normal level was detected at one point.

#26 One anonymous senior nuclear industry executive told The Times Of India that Japanese power industry managers are “basically in a full-scale panic” and that “they don’t know what to do”.

#27 It is also being reported that there were over 600,000 spent fuel rods stored at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex. Most of these rods were apparently stored near the top of the 6 reactor buildings. There have already been major explosions at three of those buildings. It is now feared that there is now nothing to prevent many of these spent fuel rods from releasing radiation into the atmosphere. That is really, really bad news.

So is there a threat that nuclear radiation from Japan could reach the United States?

Well, actually everyone agrees that radiation could reach the United States. The controversy is whether or not it will be enough to be harmful to human health.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is admitting that it is “quite possible” that nuclear fallout from this disaster could reach the United States. In fact, Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman David McIntyre says that there could already be radiation from Japan over America….

Right now it’s quite possible that there could be some radiation floating over the United States.

But most government officials in the U.S. are insisting that there is “no threat” to the health of American citizens from this crisis at this point.

So how would nuclear radiation from Japan get transported to the United States?

Well, if radiation released by a damaged nuclear reactor got up into the jet stream, the first major land mass that it would encounter would be North America. In fact, the jet stream commonly takes air from over Japan directly over the west coast of the United States.

So is there any reason for those of us living in the United States to be concerned?

According to the Japanese government, the U.S. government and the mainstream media there is not.

But do you believe them?

The truth is that they seem much more concerned with keeping the public calm rather than telling the public the truth.

Radiation levels are increasing all over northern and central Japan. People are starting to leave Tokyo and other major cities in the region. Foreign governments are evacuating personnel. Fires continue to erupt at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex. The authorities in Japan seem to have no idea how to solve this crisis.

If even one of those damaged nuclear reactors fully melts down it is going to be a complete and total nightmare. If you live in an area that could potentially be affected by nuclear radiation from Japan you might want to start figuring out how you and your family are going to handle this crisis.

Tählepanu punktile 25. Tundub, et päris tõsiseid jamasid on olnud ka teises tuumajaamas Onagawas.

[Troll]

Tiam, palun ära postita siia neid pikki ingliskeelseid tekste! Piisab lühikokkuvõttest ja lingist.

[Tiam]

Tiam, palun ära postita siia neid pikki ingliskeelseid tekste! Piisab lühikokkuvõttest ja lingist.

OK! Sry! Ma olen püüdnud paremaid uudiseid siia visata nendest allikatest, mis viimase kahe kolme päeva jooksul sündmustest enne ametlikke allikaid õigema pildi on suutnud anda. Enamik neist on antud omapoolse interpretatsiooniga / lühikokkuvõttega ning eraldi rõhutatult (boldis) põhipunkt.

[kana tagumik]

minu arust võib foorumlane Tiam jätkata samas vaimus...asi on juba ületand " oh-see-on-kõigest-vesinik-mis-pauku-tegi" taseme juba.

mäletate, alguses kinnitati, et katki pole õieti midagi, aga nüüd...???

ärge unustage, et tuumatööstus saab siit meeletult negatiivse PR-i, võite arvata milline lobistamine kulisside taga praegu käib et...sellest loost pole võimalik end distanseerida ka stiilis "oh see tšernobõl oli kõigest vene värk".

juba võib spekuleerida ehk selle üle , mille puhul Tšernobõlis polnud mõtet: saastunud maapind mõnekümne sentimeetri jagu hiljem üles kaevata. Tšernobõlis tasus territoorium lihtsalt maha jätta, jaapanlastel seda luksust ei ole.

[Tiam]

Taas pilk sellele pildile:



Tuleb välja, et selles saastekapslist väljas asuvas basseinis hoiti üle 20a jooksul kogunenud üliradioaktiivset ära kasutatud kütust. Veel hullem on see, et see bassein on kaotanud igasuguse jahutuse, plaanitakse isegi helikopterite kasutamist sinna jahutusvee saamiseks. Arvatavasti sealt on need tulekahjud ka alguse saanud.

Vermonk Yankee (Fukushimaga identne GE Mark 1 reaktor USAs) kontrollkomisjoni liige tuumafüüsik Arnie Gundersen on seda veel süngemalt Washington Postis välja toonud, võrreldes tekkida võivat olukorda Tšernobõliga steroididel:

At the 40-year-old Fukushima Daiichi unit 1, where an explosion Saturday destroyed a building housing the reactor, the spent fuel pool, in accordance with General Electric’s design, is placed above the reactor. Tokyo Electric said it was trying to figure out how to maintain water levels in the pools, indicating that the normal safety systems there had failed, too. Failure to keep adequate water levels in a pool would lead to a catastrophic fire, said nuclear experts, some of whom think that unit 1’s pool may now be outside.

“That would be like Chernobyl on steroids,” said Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer at Fairewinds Associates and a member of the public oversight panel for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, which is identical to the Fukushima Daiichi unit 1.

People familiar with the plant said there are seven spent fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi, many of them densely packed.

Gundersen said the unit 1 pool could have as much as 20 years of spent fuel rods, which are still radioactive.

Tšernobõl oli niivõrd saastav, sest seal ei olnud reaktori ümber seda terasest saastekaitsekapslit vaid õhuke betoonist rajatis. See lubaski plahvatusel + järgenenud tulekahjul selle saaste kõrgele atmosfääri paisata. Jaapanis võib sama asja allikaks saada see kasutatud kütusest pungil olev kaitsekapslita süttida võiv kasutatud kütuse varu.

[nod476]

Energiavolinik: katastroof võib olla tundide küsimus

http://w3.ee/openarticle.php?id=1324125&lang=est

[Tiam]

Viimane asjade seis väga autoriteetsest teadusajakirjast / portaalist (Nature):

* Fukushima tuumajaamas on kiirgusetase nüüdseks PÜSIVALT tuhandeid kordi üle normaalse, seega mikrosiivertitest on jõutud millisiivertiteni. Seega need vaprad jaamatöötajad ja helikopterijuhid on sisuliselt korporatsiooni eksimuste / lohakuse tõttu oma maa jaoks oma elu ohverdamas. Hetkel on pakutud, et 2h sellise kiirgusfooni juures jaamas viibimine annab surmava doosi radiatsiooni.

* 1. 2. ja 3. reaktor on vähemalt osaliselt sulanud

* 4 reaktoris väljaspool saastekapslit hoitud 20 aasta varu kasutatud kütust on põlemas ning veest väljas

* Väljaspool kehtestatud 20km tsooni on leitud 25km kaugusel tuumajaamast ülikõrge 0.08 mSv ( ligi 300x üle normaalse kiirgusfooni) kiirgusfooniga piirkond (ametlikult kinnitatud)

Viimane ülevaade igas üksiku reaktori ja süsteemi kaupa- ehk mis toimib ja mis mitte. 15. märts 19:00 seisuga:





Positiivset:

Uus elektriliin jaamadeni on peagi valmis ning varsti peaksid Fukushima jaama jahutusseadmed elektri tagasi saama. Kui 1. - 4. reaktoris pole vist enam midagi teha, ehk see aitab päästa veel midagi 5. ja 6. reaktoris kus on hakanud ka uudised tulema, et veetase on nii palju langenud, et ka seal on kütusevardad peagi veest väljas ja seega sulamas.

[andrus]

Viimane asjade seis väga autoriteetsest teadusajakirjast / portaalist (Nature):

Tõlge on tase, äkki peaksid mõnda huumorisaatesse minema?

Peak radiation levels at the site are now solidly in the millisievert (mSv) per hour range — dangerous enough to require minimal crews and frequent shift changes for workers.

Fires have broken out at another reactor, unit 4, probably as a result of old fuel which is stored on site and became exposed after the crisis began.

Today, the Japanese public broadcaster NHK has reported an alarmingly high dose rate of 0.08 mSv per hour 25 kilometres away from the plant. This rate is potentially dangerous if people remain in the open for long periods of time.

Tuumafüüsika asemel tegeled äkki millegi jõukohasemaga? Oma taseme avasid meile juba esimese postitusega, rohkem pole vast vaja ennast katkestada.

ps.
ja doos kirjutatakse doos, mitte toos.

[Avatar]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_ ... _accidents
Mingit tuumaplahvatuse moodi asja sealt tulemas ei ole. Palju ebameeldivalt kiirgavat keemiat aga küll. Ja tõenäoliselt ennastohverdav võitlus praeguses situatsioonis enam ei päästa.

[Tiam]

Viimane asjade seis väga autoriteetsest teadusajakirjast / portaalist (Nature):

Tõlge on tase, äkki peaksid mõnda huumorisaatesse minema?

Oot äkki seletaksid mis siin valesti on????????? Nature nii ajakirjana kui ka sinna juurde loodud e-teadusportaalina on maailma juhtiv teaduspublikatsioon. Tee endale vähemalt sellised asjad basic asjad selgeks. (See ajakiri on oma trükiversioonis läbi andmebaaside üks mu põhilisi akadeemilises töös kasutatavaid allikaid, seega ära sellest veidi kehvast tõlkest nii meeletult midagi välja loe).

Fires have broken out at another reactor, unit 4, probably as a result of old fuel which is stored on site and became exposed after the crisis began.

Enne sedavõrd karmi hüppamist vaatad ehk teisi selles teemas minu poolt eelnevalt välja toodu uudiseid ka kus on JUST sellel teemal sõna võtnud nii sama tüüpi tuumareaktorit USAs haldava firma palgal olev füüsik kui ka selle projekteerimise juures GE-s osalenud konstruktorid.
Kasutatud kütuse teemal:

At the 40-year-old Fukushima Daiichi unit 1, where an explosion Saturday destroyed a building housing the reactor, the spent fuel pool, in accordance with General Electric’s design, is placed above the reactor. Tokyo Electric said it was trying to figure out how to maintain water levels in the pools, indicating that the normal safety systems there had failed, too. Failure to keep adequate water levels in a pool would lead to a catastrophic fire, said nuclear experts, some of whom think that unit 1’s pool may now be outside.
“That would be like Chernobyl on steroids,” said Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer at Fairewinds Associates and a member of the public oversight panel for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, which is identical to the Fukushima Daiichi unit 1.
People familiar with the plant said there are seven spent fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi, many of them densely packed.
Gundersen said the unit 1 pool could have as much as 20 years of spent fuel rods, which are still radioactive.

Konstruktorite hinnang Jaapanis kasutatavale reaktorile sh olidki nende kaks peamist kriitikanooti jahutussüsteemi puudused +plutooniumi kasutamine kütusena:

Thirty-five years ago, Dale G. Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric resigned from their jobs after becoming increasingly convinced that the nuclear reactor design they were reviewing -- the Mark 1 -- was so flawed it could lead to a devastating accident.
Questions persisted for decades about the ability of the Mark 1 to handle the immense pressures that would result if the reactor lost cooling power, and today that design is being put to the ultimate test in Japan. Five of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which has been wracked since Friday's earthquake with explosions and radiation leaks, are Mark 1s.
"The problems we identified in 1975 were that, in doing the design of the containment, they did not take into account the dynamic loads that could be experienced with a loss of coolant," Bridenbaugh told ABC News in an interview. "The impact loads the containment would receive by this very rapid release of energy could tear the containment apart and create an uncontrolled release."

Today, the Japanese public broadcaster NHK has reported an alarmingly high dose rate of 0.08 mSv per hour 25 kilometres away from the plant. This rate is potentially dangerous if people remain in the open for long periods of time.

Palun jälle loe ennem hoolega kui kohe nii nähvad: kehtestatud on 20km ohutustsoon ümber jaama ning see kõrge radiatsiooninäiduga piirkond leiti 25km jaamast SEEGA VÄLJASPOOL SEDA piirkonda. Pärast seda uudist andis ka USA keskkonnaamet teada, et Jaapan on hoiatustes liiga tagasihoidlik olnud ning pole õnnetuse tegelikust ulatusest maailma ega oma inimesi piisavalt informeerinud. JA TÄPSELT SEDA MA KIRJUTASIN KA:

* Väljaspool kehtestatud 20km tsooni on leitud 25km kaugusel tuumajaamast ülikõrge 0.08 mSv ( ligi 300x üle normaalse kiirgusfooni) kiirgusfooniga piirkond (ametlikult kinnitatud)

Seega minu soovitus jällegi: rahune ennem maha kui siin teiste lugemisoskuses kahtled ja loe ise ennem kaks korda üle.

ps. ja doos kirjutatakse doos, mitte toos.

Viga omaks võetud ja parandatud.

]Tsiteerin::
Peak radiation levels at the site are now solidly in the millisievert (mSv) per hour range — dangerous enough to require minimal crews and frequent shift changes for workers.

Ehk teeks selle peak asemel tumedaks ka sõna solidly. Kõik viimased teadaanded Jaapani valitsuselt ja IAEA on välja toonud, et kui esimestel päevad olid need kõrgenenud radiatsiooni perioodid lühiajalised (seotud reaktoris kütusevarraste ümber oleva metalli ülikiirel oksüdeerumisel tekkinud vesiniku väljaventileerimisega rõhu vähendamiseks) ja jaamas said töötajad täispikkade vahetuste kaupa töötada, siis viimased arengud räägivad sellest, et need kõrged näidud on püsivad, mis on kaasa toonud selle, et 1 päev tagasi toodi kogu töötajaskond jaamast ära, mispeale ainult peaministri käsk nad tagasi tööle saatis ning erinevalt varasematest on nüüd töö võimalik vaid lühikeste vahetustena. Euronews ja ABC News tõid just tund tagasi välja selle, et ekspertide hinnangul saavad jaama töötajad nüüdseks arenenud kõrgenenud kiirgusfoonil töötades arvatavasti letaalse kiirgusdoos:

"We're very close now to the point of no return," Dr. Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist, said. "It's gotten worse. We're talking about workers coming into the reactor perhaps as a suicide mission and we may have to abandon ship."

Fires have broken out at another reactor, unit 4, probably as a result of old fuel which is stored on site and became exposed after the crisis began.]

Äkki loed ikka jällegi eelmisi postitusi enne nähvamist. Seal näiteks Washington Post on ära toonud tuginedes ametlikele avaldustele, et tulekahjud on 4. reaktoris olevas kasutatud kütuse varraste hoidmise blokis toimunud ning taas lahvatanud.

Ning veel selle "probable" vastu. Just peale järgnevas uudisnupus kirjeldatud kirjutatud plahvatust algas nende kasutatud kütusevarrastega seostatud tulekahju, mida nüüdseks on kaks korda kustutatud. Enamik eksperte toob välja, et kui põlesid tõesti kasutatud kütuse vardad, siis peaks see tähendama, et nendes toimub sulamine ning kas nende ümber ei ole enam vett või on see keev vesi (siia on nad paaniliselt pilootide eluga riskides helikopteritega vett ka kogu aeg peale kandmas):

A nuclear crisis at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant deepened Tuesday as fresh explosions occurred at the site and its operator said water in a pool storing spent nuclear fuel rods may be boiling, an ominous sign for the release of high-level radioactive materials from the fuel.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the water level in the pool storing the spent fuel rods at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant's No. 4 reactor may have dropped, exposing the rods.
The firm said it has not yet confirmed the current water level or water temperature in the pool and will try to pour water into the facility from Wednesday through holes that were created following an explosion earlier Tuesday in the walls of the building that houses the reactor.
Unless the spent fuel rods are cooled down, they could be damaged and emit radioactive substances.

. Väite kinnituseks, et kasutatud kütuse vardad on veest väljas, mis on arvatavasti kaasa toonud ka senised nende kasutatud kütusevarrastage seotud tulekahjud. Vaatamis väärib ka selle uudisloo kõrval olev video, mis räägib tugevalt selle pildi poolt, mida ma olen püüdnud oma postitustest toodud uudisnuppudega viimase paari päeva jooksul esitada ning kus on videos näha reaktor 4-s toimunud tulekahjude jäljed (arvatvasti siis kasutatud kütuse varraste põlemisega seotud). Selles videos püütud välja tuua ka, millises saatanlikus olukorras need jaamatöötajad neid tulekahjusid seal kottpimedas püüavad kustutada. Arvatavasti on seal põlemas ikka midagi nii ohtlikku ja olulist (kasutatud kütuse vardad), et selle peale inimelusid raisata jaamatöötajaid neid veetorudega kustutama saates ning helikopteritega sinna vett peale tarides. Seda rõhutab veel USA ametlik teadaanne, milles palutakse jaapanlastel leida täiendavaid "vabatahtlikke" neid tulekahjusid jaama kustutama, hoolimata sellest, et tegemist ei ole millegi muu kui enesetaputööga.

Oma taseme avasid meile juba esimese postitusega, rohkem pole vast vaja ennast katkestada.

Selle artikli otsa sattusin re-postina ühes blogis ning siia foorumisse tõin selle lihtsalt pärast läbilugemist blogis lingina toodud originaalallikast. Daily Maili kehvast kuulsusest ma ei olndu kahjuks teadlik, kuna ei ole ennem seda lehte lugema sattunud. Selle re-postida siia foorumisse langetasin vaid 100% sisu põhjal. Sellel hetkel oli see minu hinnangul parim paljudest loetud analüüsidest ühe artiklina vormistatud ülevaade asjade arengu tõsidusest. Sama argumendiga põhjendasin ka TTA, miks ma viitasin seda lugu- keskendusin loetud sisule ega osanud absoluutselt allikat kahtluse alla seada. Seega andrus ootan konkreetselt väljatooduna neid punkte selle kohta, mis SISULISELT selles minu esimesena välja toodud artiklis väära olid ning - mida sinusugune "tark" inimene seal kindlasti märkas - mis lubavad sinul mind sellises poolsõimavas laadis küündimatuks nimetada.

[Tiam]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_ ... _accidents
Mingit tuumaplahvatuse moodi asja sealt tulemas ei ole. Palju ebameeldivalt kiirgavat keemiat aga küll. Ja tõenäoliselt ennastohverdav võitlus praeguses situatsioonis enam ei päästa.

Sellega nõus. See ühes varasemas postis toodud spekullatsioon plutooniumi teemal (et sellest võiks areneda tuumaplahvatus) oli minu enda looming. Kuigi paar füüsikakraadiga venda on hiljem internetis oma blogides samadel teemadel spekuleerinud ning mitu mitu korda üle rõhutanud kuivõrd ohtlik on keskonda paiskuv plutoonium võrreldes uraaniga. Seega 100% ebaloogiline ja alusetu see idee ei olndu kuigi jah väga ebatõenäoline.

17min väga üldiste ja lihtsate terminitega videona selgeks tehtud, miks need kasutatud kütuse vardad sedavõrd suure (Tšernobõliga võrreldava) jama kaasa võivad tuua - (ning miks ma viimased 2 päeva seda trummi olen tagunud)- seal on max 8 reaktori jagu võimalikku õhku paiskuvat radioaktiivset materjali.. Üllataval kombel ka seal saates esinev ekspert oma seisukohtadega kattub minu poolt viimase paari päeva jooksul uudistenuppudega välja toodud seisukohtadega, seega väga metsas ja küündimatu mu uudiste valik ja sellel põhinev analüüs olla ei ole saanud.

[Tiam]

Kõige selle juures paneb mind ikka imestama see jaapanlaste rahulikkus ja organiseeritus kogu selle jama juures- just tavainimeste tasemel.Huvitav, kas eesti rahvas ka sarnases olukorras nii efektiivselt suudaks oma rahu säilitada. Teisest küljest on see kriis vähemalt mulle jälle neäiteks selle kohta, et arenenud Lääne riik ei suuda efektiivselt looduskatastroodfidega just keskvõimu tasemel toime tulla: Katrina USAs, see Mehhiko lahe naftareostus ning nüüd see Jaapani tuumakriis.

[redhott]

Tiam kirjutas.
Kõige selle juures paneb mind ikka imestama see jaapanlaste rahulikkus ja organiseeritus kogu selle jama juures- just tavainimeste tasemel.Huvitav, kas eesti rahvas ka sarnases olukorras nii efektiivselt suudaks oma rahu säilitada.

Ma olengi rahulik, joodi tablesid ostma ei torma ja japside tuumajama jätab külmaks, ei saagi eriti aru, miks Sa 2 päeva oled seda trummi tagunud.