So now the Really Ridiculous things are starting.
In the middle of the disaster, the Government is trying cleanup excercises that if they weren't so damned criminally negligent, would be pathetic
http://www.jaif.or.jp/...
The education board of Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, has handed
out radiation monitors to local schools and kindergartens.
Some elementary and junior high schools in the prefecture were advised to
restrict outdoor activities of students to prevent possible exposure to radiation
from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
On Wednesday, radiation monitors were given to 55 educational facilities from
kindergartens to high schools.
An elementary school teacher said he will keep a daily log of radiation data,
which he hopes will ease concern among children and parents.
The prefectural education board will compile radiation data from schools and
kindergartens each week and report the outcome to the education ministry
wow. it's a good thing the Industry people have these magical detectors that
are going to protect these kids.
They should have evacuated every kid and woman of child bearing age weeks ago to the western side or even the southern island from within 100 KM of the plant...
Radiation Detectors.... Seriously..
of course this is worse.
Workers are removing radiation-tainted topsoil from school grounds in the
northeastern Japanese city of Koriyama. The city is about 50 kilometers from the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The city began removing the soil on Wednesday at two of the 28 public
elementary and junior high schools and daycare centers.
Radiation levels at one of the schools are higher than the central government's
new safe limit for children playing outdoors. That limit is 3.8 microsieverts per
hour. Other schools are close to the limit.
A heavy machine is used to scrape off the surface layer of the soil after it has
been sprayed with water to keep the dust down.
The city will allow resumed use of the school grounds for up to one hour each
day, once a safe level of radiation is confirmed.
The city's schools and daycare centers have been restricting outdoor activities
due to leaks of radioactive substances from the nuclear plant.
The removed soil is being kept under a cover at the school grounds until it can be
moved to a landfill site.
so their homes, the schools, everything else is contaminated, but, don't worry the
playground is safe. This is 50 KM away and they are at 3.8 mSSieverts/hour...
decontamination is not even a subject of discussion until they shut down these plants.
They should move everyone they can within the 100KM zone, and, take volunteers and bankers and disassemble these reactors.
and then in the regime of utterly foolhardy.
Tokyo Electric Power Company has begun testing one of the damaged reactors at
the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to see if it can move forward with its
plan to submerge and cool the hot fuel rods.
TEPCO began pumping more water into the No.1 reactor on Wednesday in order
to monitor changes in the water depth in the containment vessel
let's see these containments have been hit by 2 big quakes, been overstressed to 2X the design limit, been whacked with a H2 explosion and already had a lot of corrosive sea water put on them. Now they want to fill them half full? Great.
besides without some way to cool the containments, they will just heat up as the reactor conducts heat into them.
The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says water
may be leaking from the spent fuel pool of the No. 4 reactor.
More than 1,500 spent fuel rods are stored in the pool, the largest number at the
site.
so radioactive water is pouring out of the pools at #4.
Bur the firm has also found high levels of radioactive substances at the site of the
No. 4 reactor.
Last Thursday it detected 8,100 becquerels of cesium 137 and 7,800 becquerels
of cesium 134 per cubic centimeter in the water in the turbine building's
basement. The radioactive levels were about 250 times higher than a month
before.
TEPCO says the contaminated water levels are rising
The Evidence of increasing radiation at Reactor 4 argues for some serious leaks, and
if there is iodine in this, then it's got to be going critical.
now does radioactive water get from the rac to the turbine bldg basement? is it leaking through the steam pipes? are there common drains backfeeding?
At the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, workers have begun spraying a
chemical hardening agent to prevent the spreading of radioactive dust.
Radioactive dust is scattered on the plant's compound as a result of hydrogen
explosions at 2 of the plant's 6 reactors in March.
The plant's operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, says 3-
week test-spraying of the agent proved that it keeps radioactive dust from being
blown away.
TEPCO plans to spray 1-million cubic meters of the agent on the 500,000-
square-meter compound by the end of June.
The test-spraying was done by workers using a hose, but a remote-controlled
vehicle will be used for further spraying to minimize workers' radiation exposure.
The spraying is to be followed by work to cover reactor buildings with huge filter
sheets to prevent further releasing of radioactive material into the environment.
Resin spray? Filter sheets? What a circus operation this is.
GE is staying awfully silent.
It' s nuts to dry any decontamination until they get the damned things shut down
and broken down.