I've been arguing in various diaries that the Fukushima Racs are still running critical.
Such as
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Now there have been various shills out there saying "Oh, it's not so bad:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
The reactors at units 1, 2 and 3 all have maintained some measure of cooling water with more relief expected soon. They do not appear to be in danger of a full meltdown at this time.
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the amount of power being produced by the reactors has been dropping steadily and is by now only few percent of full power. In the absence of a full scale meltdown and fuel once again producing a nuclear reaction there is just not the amount of energy available inside the reactor to create a steam explosion sufficient to pop the containment structure.
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This is why I find it doubtful that significant amounts of uranium or plutonium have left the primary containment boundary.
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It is for this reason that I am highly skeptical of claims that everything in the reactor buildings has been damaged or destroyed. It is also for this reason that I am not alarmed by the photos of rubble at units 1 and 3.
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Dry rods next to each other cannot create a nuclear reaction because the neutrons are too fast to interact.
So our Super Bright Industry Type spent weeks arguing everything was fine,
well I hate to break it to you but TEPCO's Evidence is pretty Straight forward that
Rac 1 and 3 are flashing critical and rac 2 is in steady state criticality.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/...
now it's saturday night and I don't have the time to import the pics so
ust follow the link above and look at the Graphs for each unit
Unit 1: See the Rise over time for Iodine, and how Cesium Tracks it? That's a
reaction running, then it shuts down and starts again, and shuts down again.
That seesawing is intermittent restart.
Unit 2: See the Continous output of Iodine? That stuff is supposed to have
a short half life, instead it's continuing to pour out of somewhere. Fuel Pools,
Reactor, something.... It's a nice steady reaction.
Unit 3: Same thing, with a increasing trend? Yeah.
Unit 4, See how it's decaying hard? That means whatever happened is over for now.
5-6, those are pretty low level measurements. I'm not sure if that's contamination getting carried in, or just little bits thrown off from the spent fuel...
But Units 1-3 are showing ongoing activity...
Now maybe our really smart industry apologists will come up with some argument
for why this is really a good thing, and maybe our resident snark artists will
start whining about how this possibly can't be worse then a Level 7 event
because the Scale only goes to 7.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
The panel has also said that the fuel grains with a diameter of between several millimeters and 1 centimeter are believed to have settled evenly at the bottom of the vessels, leaving almost no possibility of a nuclear chain reaction called ''recriticality.''
But I would like to see someone argue how continuing Iodine Production is a good thing
at Unit 2.
Now the Japanese have been engaged in some pathetic cleanup shams
http://www.dailykos.com/...
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.
and wonderful Apologists and snarkmasters like http://www.dailykos.com/... and http://www.dailykos.com/...
just decided that they had to be all smart and clever about how of course
I'm panic mongering and overblown, and Dramatic...
well
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Japan’s embattled prime minister, Naoto Kan, defended his government’s handling of the nation’s nuclear crisis on Saturday, a day after an adviser resigned during a tearful news conference in which he charged that the government was not adequately protecting the population from radiation.
In one of his most damaging charges, the adviser, Toshiso Kosako, drew attention to a recent government decision to allow children living near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to receive doses of radiation equal to the international standard for nuclear power plant workers. That level is far higher than international standards set for the public. “I cannot allow this as a scholar,” said Mr. Kosako, an expert on radiation safety at the University of Tokyo.
He also blasted the government for what he said was a lack of transparency in releasing radiation levels around the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and for setting an overly high limit on radiation exposure for workers who have spent weeks struggling to keep the plant under control.
Government advisory positions are considered prestigious, and it is highly unusual for an academic to quit one in protest. The prime minister brought Mr. Kosako on as an adviser after the powerful March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged the plant, causing the world’s biggest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl accident in 1986.
Now I'm Sure, top 1%'s like KBMan and GChaucer are going to start
Pointing out how the Scientific literature doesn't say X or Y,
and It's all getting much better
http://www.euronews.net/...
Two senior Japanese officials have warned that there is still a real risk of a catastrophic disaster at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant.
I'm sure the Scientific literature That our Apologists follow doesn't say this either
http://www.youtube.com/...
children are up to 100X times more sensitive to radiation the adult men.
The japanese needed to evacuate all women and children within 100 miles.
Silly PR exercises and their apologists are not helping....
Evacuate vulnerable populations and pets, shut down and clean up the 4 racs with an army of volunteers, and protect or shutdown the other nuke plants in Japan.
BTW, we have plant problems in Browns Ferry Alabama,,, but I'm sure it's okay there.