Do not recommend this diary. If continued discussion of the situation is important to you, please recommend the Mothership instead so that it will stay in the Recommended list.
This "ROV" (a Remote Operating Vehicle is a 'child diary' or liveblog coverage of major breaking news stories. The term was borrowed from the Gulf Watchers coverage of the Deep Water Horizon crisis)
This is another clearinghouse diary for discussion and commentary about the ongoing nuclear disaster(s) in Japan. Previous diaries are saved in the group page.
Recent Events
- CNN reports that the two workers who were in #2 escaped without harm. A Japanese industry trade group suspects damage in the containment vessel as well as the core. However, they think the pressure in vessel is stable even though actual pressure and temperature readings are unknown.
Status report: Reactor-by-reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant - CNN.com
- iliketodrum, in Europe, posted that the BBC did a live report from Japan. They said that only the #2 workers were evacuated, not everyone from the plant.
- h/t middleagedhousewife
NHK WORLD English
Correction from AP approximately 3:18am EDT
The millisevert measurement is for air rather than water. Presumably this is incorrect as well in the BBC story below.
Huge jump in radiation inside Japan nuclear plant - Yahoo! News
The air in Unit 2, meanwhile, measured 1,000 millisieverts per hour — four times the limit of 250 millisieverts deemed safe by the government, Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Takashi Kurita told reporters.
Officials 'walk back' earlier reports by numerous news sources that leaking water at the reactor had been measured at 1,000 millisieverts/hour - 10 million times higher than when the plant is operating normally. (27 March 2011 Last updated at 01:13 ET BBC News - Japan workers pulled out of reactor, as radiation soars
- Update From NHK:
Radioactive iodine in sea-water off Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant rose to 1,850 times the usual level from 1,250 times measured on Saturday, Japan's nuclear safety agency said on Sunday.
Separately, senior agency official Hidehiko Nishiyama said leakage from reactor vessels was likely to have been the cause for high levels of radiation found in water that has accumulated in turbine buildings.
The article also states that
TEPCO plans to drain the basement of the Number 2 reactor turbine building on Sunday, and is studying ways to drain the basement of the Number 3 turbine building.
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h/t Pluto for this overview ...
Radiation levels soar in seawater near nuke plant
Sendai, Japan • Radioactivity levels have soared in the seawater outside the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, safety officials reported Saturday, igniting fresh concerns about the spread of highly radioactive material and the risks involved in completing an already dangerous job.
Samples taken 360 yards offshore from the plant Friday showed radioactive iodine levels 1,250 times the legal safety limit. Earlier in the week, the levels of iodine-131 in the water had been closer to 100 times the limit.
And Japan’s government revealed a series of missteps by the operator of a radiation-leaking nuclear plant on Saturday, including sending workers in without protective footwear in its faltering efforts to control a monumental crisis.
::
The world’s chief nuclear inspector said Saturday that Japan was “still far from the end of the accident” that has stricken its Fukushima nuclear complex and continues to spew radiation into the atmosphere and the sea. Yukiya Amano, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, acknowledged that the authorities were still unsure whether the nuclear cores and spent fuel were covered with the water needed to cool them and end the crisis.
He cautioned that the nuclear emergency could go on for weeks, if not months, given the enormous damage to the plants.
http://www.sltrib.com/....
In this case -- with the ocean contamination -- it is very bad for all of us. Ships that go in -- even in the Bay of Tokyo will likely become radioactive. The ocean in the area will become a decades-long environmental catatrophe -- affecting food availablity for Japan and Japanese food exports.
- From SF Gate:
Japan's government revealed a series of missteps by the operator of a radiation-leaking nuclear plant on Saturday, including sending workers in without protective footwear in its faltering efforts to control a monumental crisis...
...Government spokesman Yukio Edano urged Tokyo Electric Power Co. to be more transparent, two days after two workers at the tsunami-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi plant suffered skin burns when they stepped in water that was 10,000 times more radioactive than levels normally found near the reactors.
"We strongly urge TEPCO to provide information to the government more promptly," Edano said.
- From NewScientist:
Austrian researchers have used a worldwide network of radiation detectors – designed to spot clandestine nuclear bomb tests – to show that iodine-131 is being released at daily levels 73 per cent of those seen after the 1986 disaster. The daily amount of caesium-137 released from Fukushima Daiichi is around 60 per cent of the amount released from Chernobyl.
h/t brainwave
Regularly Updated Data Sources
@Kos: A database of temperature, pressure, radiation levels, etc readings over time can be found in: The Daiichi Database This is an evolving diary that will be updated regularly
• Japanese Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF) reports, which record such key factors as conditions of core and fuel integrity, water level and containment.
• RSOS Emergency & Disaster information Services - Japan
• Daily Telephone Media Briefings from Union of Concerned Scientists
• Energy.gov: The Situation in Japan (Updated 03/22/11)
• EPA RadNet Map View & EPA's Radiation Air Monitoring
NEW:
Scribble Live part of the Fukishima wikispaces link above
Best Sources
Kyodo Nuclear News Feed
NHK Japan Live:NHK Japan Live
Asahi on Facebook
Tepco's webcam
Reuters
Fukushima Wikispaces
Google Earth Engine (download required): Radiation Over Japan. Visit Pachube for mapping
Due to extensive coverage, the Japan Nuclear Incident Liveblogs team is now saving ALL Coverage @ KOS to the group page. Please visit the group for previous ROVs, MotherShips and other diaries. Please note below if diaries are being reposted to other groups so we can direct readers there as well.
Rules of the Road
Please be kind to kossacks with bandwidth issues. Please do not post images or videos. Again, many thanks for this.
Both the Mothership and the ROVs are for reporting and discussing the developing news. Neither space is for opinions or editorializing on the subject of nuclear energy.
Remember when posting to the thread: STICK TO THE FACTS. Source and link all new information. (This includes insuring authenticity of twitter sources.)
CURRENT TIME IN JAPAN is just a click away for those who want to time/date stamp entries.
Please post news items to the ROV.
*ROV (Remote Operating Vehicle) is a term coined from the Gulf Watchers ongoing coverage of the Deep Water Horizon crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. It is used in place of the term 'child diary' and refers to a diary(s) running concurrently with the Mothership where ongoing discussion and updates to developing news stories occur.
* Please list any diary from the past two days which is not in above list in comments and we will pick it up for posting.