It will turn out to be a criminal decision

Greenpeace is the only organisation to my knowledge that is assisting the Japanese people by accepting food samplings from them for testing. The results may be useful in any future litigation and law suites. If your rich and/or smart enough you should consider having some of your typical food items tested for various radioactive isotopes - especially Idonie129/131, Cesium137, Strontium90 and even Plutoniuum

You can see the corporate profit motive continue to play a role in how this disaster is portrayed in the public

Its just disgraceful - and to see people online act as apologists and trivialisers of a major radiological incident is pathetic to say the least

I am really quire ashamed to be even engaging in conversation with them

After some high-profile errors, little new information on water, ground and air radiation has been released since Thursday. One reason is that the dosimeters being used don't go above 1,000 millisieverts per hour, said Junichi Matsumoto, an executive with Tokyo Electric.

Authorities know the water in the cracked concrete shaft is emitting at least that much radiation -- which equates, at a minimum, to more than 330 times the dose an average resident of an industrialized country naturally receives in a year.

Workers rush to get rid of radioactive water at Japanese nuclear plant
By the CNN Wire Staff

April 4, 2011 -- Updated 1054 GMT (1854 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

    * NEW: Water from a treatment facility and around four reactors will be dumped
    * Officials say this is to create space for radioactive water from near the No. 2 unit
    * The official calls the step "unavoidable," saying it's needed to ensure safety
    * Basement water threatens "stability" of the Nos. 5 and 6 units' cooling systems

Tokyo (CNN) -- About 11,500 tons of radioactive water that has collected at the crippled Fukishima Daiichi nuclear facility will be dumped into the Pacific Ocean, officials said Monday, as workers prioritize dealing with a crack that has been a conduit for contamination.

These are the latest, but hardly the only challenges facing workers at the embattled power plant and its six reactors, which have been in constant crisis since last month's ruinous earthquake and tsunami.

Officials with the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which runs the plant, proposed Monday afternoon releasing excess water that has pooled in and around the Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6 reactors into the sea. But most of the dumped water -- 10,000 tons -- will come from the plant's central waste treatment facility, which will then be used to store highly radioactive water from the No. 2 unit, an official with the power company said.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano called the dumping "unavoidable," even though this liquid was most likely contaminated in the process of trying to cool nuclear fuel rods.

The build-up of water could cause problems around the nuclear facility, which is 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Tokyo, Edano said Monday.

Authorities have made a priority of dealing with water from the No. 2 unit, some of which has been gushing into the sea through a crack in a concrete shaft.

"The radioactivity level is very high near the No. 2 reactor, and we know this. We have to stop the leak as early as possible to prevent this from going into the sea," said Edano. "The radioactivity level is much less in the water from the Nos. 3 and 4 units."

"For the safety of the (No. 2) reactor, we have no choice," he added.

The water will be dumped "as soon as possible," Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency said early Monday evening.

Neither attempt to fill the 20-centimeter (8-inch) crack outside the No. 2 reactor's turbine building -- on Saturday by pouring in concrete, then Sunday by using a chemical compound mixed with sawdust and newspaper -- was successful.

As they mull other ways to cut off the leak at its source, workers will install a silt fence along a damaged sea wall surrounding the plant, Nishiyama said. The aim of this screening, usually used to halt erosion at construction sites, is to prohibit the spread of radioactive particles into the sea.

Workers also have injected a dye tracer into the water to allow them to track the dispersal of such particles, the spokesman added.

Addressing the issue quickly is critical because officials believe it is a source of alarmingly high radiation levels in seawater near the plant, as well as in nearby groundwater.

Complicating the situation is the fact that, in some cases, authorities don't even know how much radiation is getting out.

After some high-profile errors, little new information on water, ground and air radiation has been released since Thursday. One reason is that the dosimeters being used don't go above 1,000 millisieverts per hour, said Junichi Matsumoto, an executive with Tokyo Electric.

Authorities know the water in the cracked concrete shaft is emitting at least that much radiation -- which equates, at a minimum, to more than 330 times the dose an average resident of an industrialized country naturally receives in a year.

Plugging the external leak is job one, in order to prevent the outflow of radiation into the Pacific. But it may not be the most difficult, or important, task ahead.

Authorities still have to figure out how the tainted water got into the concrete shaft in the first place. The water had to come from somewhere, potentially traveling across melted-down nuclear fuel in the reactor's core before somehow reaching the outside.

"We were assuming and hoping (that water) would stay in the containment vessel as vapor after being cooled," Nishiyama, the nuclear safety official, said Sunday. "However, it may have flowed into the building, and then the trench."

Determining why and how that happened -- and what to do about it -- may be "exceptionally challenging," said physicist James Acton, with the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment think tank. Officials may have to inspect a complex array of pipes inside the dangerous radioactive environment inside the containment buildings.

The state of the Nos. 5 and 6 units is another new problem. Water in their turbine buildings' basements threatens the power supply for the system used to cool nuclear material...

NRSI have been conducting tests and making them public since day 1 - well maybe 3.

Complicating the situation is the fact that, in some cases, authorities don't even know how much radiation is getting out.

After some high-profile errors, little new information on water, ground and air radiation has been released since Thursday. One reason is that the dosimeters being used don't go above 1,000 millisieverts per hour, said Junichi Matsumoto, an executive with Tokyo Electric.

Authorities know the water in the cracked concrete shaft is emitting at least that much radiation -- which equates, at a minimum, to more than 330 times the dose an average resident of an industrialized country naturally receives in a year.

muso wrote on Apr 5^th, 2011 at 11:04am:



Sorry, Muso, but they haven't been conducting enough systematic tests, with the right equipment - and their adhoc findings haven't been released in a timely fashion...

It is simply not good enough that they are measuring radiation with equipment that does not record levels as high as those that are being emitted...

How do we know if the levels are 1,001 millisieverts per hour or 2,000 millisieverts per hour or even 10,000 millisieverts per hour!?

Don't you think it has gone a bit beyond the issue of CEO bonuses?  The Fukushima Number 1 (Daichi) plant is now scrap. It will never work again.

Everybody involved is trying to minimise the effects of this incident. It has gone past any possible cover-ups and scandals. That's everybody Including the management and workers at the site.

The cracks in the tunnel were the result of a natural disaster that the plant was not designed to cope with. Now we can follow the BMW approach (Bitch, Moan and Whinge) or we can ask ourselves realisitically what are the likely exposures? and  how can we learn from this.  


Instead of bitching moaning and using every hyperbole in the book, you might be better served trying to understand the consequences.