Updated: 5/18
This is another clearinghouse diary for the posting of additional news (with links to their source) and intelligent commentary about the ongoing nuclear disaster(s) in Japan.
FULL STOP
If you think this is about your views on nuclear power industry, the viability of solar or wind power please:
PUT THE KEYBOARD DOWN and let your finger guide the scroll wheel while you are forcibly asked to lurk.
Credible news stories with hyperlinks to them, along with factual, (reasonably) well presented discussion by you, the reader, community member and Brother or Sister Kossack. . . You knowingly wouldn't put a defenseless Pootie in a Woozle diary would you? And hey, this isn't a Bakers Square, so leave the pie at home (French Silk exception stated). Now is that asking too much???
And now back to our regularly scheduled conversation
For older information on news and a timeline of the events following the March 11 Japanese Earthquake, visit the Mothership . provides a more extensive list of news and data sources, social media, crisis mapping and other relevant information.
If you would like to recommend this diary feel free to do so. All previous liveblogs published to the Japan Nuclear Incident group can be found here.
(For ongoing 24/7 breaking news use this is a resource by reading below the fold, community member posts and adding newsworthy posts yourself)
LEAD STORY
Doubt over meltdown dispelled by Jonathan Soble in Tokyo
Financial Time or FT.com
Published: May 18 2011 17:18 | Last updated: May 18 2011 17:18
Doubt over meltdown dispelled
Now, a little over two months later, new information on the state of Fukushima Daiichi’s three overheated reactors is making the m-word impossible to avoid. Fuel inside the cores, it is now understood, melted far more quickly and extensively than was initially believed – disintegrating just a few hours after the tsunami knocked out the plants electricity and cooling systems.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On board with our very own, with recent Coverage@kos:
5/16 by Fish out of Water
Radioactivity way up in Seawater from Fukushima 1, 2 & 3 Meltdowns
5/14 by Joieau
Fukushima Roundup
5/13 by Meteor Blades
Confirmed: Fuel rods at Fukushima reactor have mostly melted. Taxpayer-funded bailout announced
5/12 by Adept2uFollow
Fukushima Dai Ichi Unit 1 is officially in a state of Meltdown
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Updates
A massive update for CatDat Situation Report (Part 15)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
PDF's
Toshiba
http://www.iaea.org Fukushima #3 shroud replacement document for your reading enjoyment] Very good document on BWR core internals replacement, stresses etc.. with great break away drawings...
Shhh one of Boatsie's sources
Reindeerflotilla
This is going to be pinned up
Very cute little link that will be used with Boatsie's presentation
Oak Ridge National Lab
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Other Stuff
Latest videos from 200Watts.org (France: Understanding the Nuclear Industry)
Latest WHO Status report 11 May (downloadable report)
5280 injured and 9853 missing. There are now 115 098 evacuees.
Health situation monitoring, needs and risk assessments and response in the earthquake and tsunami affected areas are ongoing.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
ACTION:
JNI Team analysis (from previous ROV and Diaries)
Story Here:,Japanese Times
High radiation readings taken in the No. 1 reactor building the night of March 11 suggest it was the quake rather than the loss of cooling that critically damaged the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, a utility source said Saturday.
The belated disclosure could trigger a review of quake-preparedness at nuclear facilities across the country. Many have been focusing on increasing defenses against tsunami, which knocked out the plant's poorly placed emergency power generators.
(snip)
Based on the dosimeter readings [when workers entered the building in the middle of the night], the radiation level was about 300 millisieverts per hour, the source said, suggesting that a large amount of radioactive material had already been released from the core.
The source of the steam was believed to be the No. 1 reactor's overheated pressure vessel.
But for that scenario to hold, the pressure in the reactor would have to have reached enormous levels --- damaging the piping and other connected facilities. It should have taken much more time to fill the entire building with steam.
A source at Tepco admitted it was possible that key facilities were compromised before the tsunami.
It sound like TEPCO is inching toward a disclosure that unit 1 did not scram properly after the earthquake.
がんばれ日本!
by procrastinator john
on Sun May 15, 2011 at 04:58:43 PM PDT
FOLLOWED BY A POST:
by mahakali overdrive
I remember reading some earlier ( conjecture too that it could have been quake damaged. I can't recall now who said it. But it did strike me as a serious point of important information. That's a huge revelation indeed. Also, given how much more common earthquakes are -- not only in Japan but worldwide -- rather than giant tidal waves, it is extremely important to know that this sort of damage could result from earthquake damage.
It would make a huge case for closing many, many reactors.
If I recall, there is an earthquake of the same magnitude as the one near Fukushima about every year or two somewhere in the world (this could be the wrong amount of time, I can't recall now, but it was close enough in years to strike me as worrisome).
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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 evolved diary has stopped being updated regularly.
Japanese Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF)
RSOS Emergency & Disaster information Services - Japan
EPA RadNet Map View &
EPA's Radiation Air Monitoring
Scribble Live
Japan Municipal Water Charts in Japanese Needed???
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Best News Sources
Kyodo Nuclear News Feed
NHK Japan Live
OilDrum
&
Asahi on Facebook
Fukushima Wikispaces
WHO situation reports
METI Twitter Feed
Rules of the Road
Given the seriousness of this situation, please use this diary for posting information DIRECTLY Related to coverage of the developing news!
The"ROV" (a Remote Operating Vehicle) is a 'child diary' for liveblog coverage of major breaking news stories. (The term was borrowed from the Gulf Watchers coverage of the Deep Water Horizon crisis.)
To continue following and participating in the breaking coverage in Japan Nuclear Incidents series, click here and then click the heart icon underneath the profile picture to the Right. This will bring these diaries directly into your personal "stream."
Due to slowing news coverage, Coverage@KOS is including diaries covering a few day periods. All coverage is then archived to the group page.
You can assist us in including relevant diaries by providing links to any postings we may have missed to insure they are included in this coverage. Also, note below if diaries are being reposted to other groups so we can direct readers there as well.
Please be kind to kossacks with bandwidth issues. Please do not post images or videos. Again, many thanks for this.
Remember when posting to the thread: STICK TO THE FACTS. Source and link all new information. (This includes insuring authenticity of twitter sources.) Both the Mothership and the ROVs are for reporting and discussing the developing news. Neither space is for opinions or for editorializing on the subject of nuclear energy. The JNI team has decided that diaries which are not factual or which sensationalize this event are not included in Coverage@Kos.