On 02 November 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company said Reactor 2 at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was in melt down, again. Now they changed their mind!
TEPCo now says the level of xenon radiation they detected is too low to be from spontaneous fission. Can these guys get anything right?
02 November 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company announced that melt down has re-started in Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 2.
TEPCo detected radioactive xenon-133 and xenon-135, in the reactor’s containment vessel on 02 November. They are produced during nuclear fission. TEPCo poured a boric acid solution into Reactor 2 to suppress the nuclear fission (melt down).
Analysts are speculating that the other reactors at Fukushima Daiichi could also go critical. Professor Okamoto Koji, of the University of Tokyo Graduate School, says the presence of xenon in the reactors leaves open the possibility that localized and temporary fission could still occur.
TEPCo claims that using the boric acid has cooled down the reactor.
Shiitake mushrooms used in school lunches have tested positive for 350 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium. That’s below the government limit of 500 becquerels, but Yokohama school officials are getting rid of them anyway.
Yokohama is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
At a Ibaraki Prefecture mushroom farm, 830 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium were found on the mushrooms there. The farm is about 170 km (106 miles) from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Earlier in the week mushrooms in Chiba Prefecture were found to be contaminated with cesium, higher then the government safe limits. Clearly, after almost seven months, radiation is still spreading from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Yokohama City officials are testing their soil for strontium, after a private testing firm said they found high levels of strontium on some roof tops.
The company said they detected 195 becquerels of strontium per kilogram, more than six times the government safety limit. Yokohama has already suffered cesium levels at 80 times the government limits.
Yokohama is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
30 September 2011, for the first time since the March nuclear disaster, the Japanese government has found plutonium contamination outside the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant compound.
There have been at least three other times plutonium was found. A couple of times it was found within the perimeter of the nuclear plant’s compound, but, in June a university team found plutonium outside the Fukushima Daiichi compound.
This latest (government confirmed) plutonium contamination was found 45 km (28 miles) outside the nuclear plant. It was detected in samples taken from six locations in the towns of Futaba, Namie and Iitate Village in Fukushima Prefecture, all northwest of the nuclear plant.
The isotopes included plutonium 238, 239 and 240.
27 September 2011, Japan’s National Tax Agency has just now realized that all alcoholic drinks coming from the Fukushima area are probably contaminated with radiation. Even so, testing on beer, wine/sake will not take place until next month!
Mandatory testing will be done at all beverage factories within 150 km (93 miles) of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Random testing will take place at factories outside the 150 kilometer radius.
Along with the national government, six major cities, including Tokyo, will test water meant for use in making beer and wine.
Rice and barely, used in beer and sake, have already tested positive for cesium contamination.
21 September 2011, Typhoon Roke is moving up the Pacific coastline of Japan, after coming ashore south of Tokyo at Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture.
Sustanted winds are 144 km (89.4 miles) per hour, with gusts up to 155 km (96 miles) per hour recorded at Hachioji City, near Tokyo.
During the past 24 hours, more than 400 millimeters (15.74 inches) of rain has fallen in Tokai region and Yamanashi Prefecture, and more than 200 mm (7.87 inches) of rain fell in northeastern Japan.
At least four people have died, three are missing. More evacuation orders have been given to at least a half million more people.
The damaged nuclear plant, Fukushima Daiichi, has escaped typhoon damage from previous storms, but Roke looks like it will make a direct hit.
Roke is moving fast and should be approaching the northeastern Honshu prefecture of Fukushima. Already 200 mm of rain has fallen in Fukushima since September 20. The nuclear plant is already flooding with rain water.
Work to stop the further spread of radiation, like the steel wall around the ocean intakes, and specially treated tarps over the exploded reactor buildings, has been halted. Tokyo Electric says their workers have tied down everything they could think of that might get blown away.
TEPCo says reactor 1 and 2 have rain water pouring in from the roofs, and Reactor 6 basement is totally flooded. TEPCo officials insist that none of the radioactive water will leak out. Yeah right, how many times now have they made such promises?
Nine months later, and the radiation just keeps pouring from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Now its Mother Earth who’s to blame.
Tokyo Electric Power Company admitted that the heavy rains from typhoons and tropical storms are flooding reactor buildings, greatly increasing the chance of massive flooding of highly contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.
The nuclear plant is already flooding the ocean with radiation, but this would be on a massive scale.
Here’s why it’s so bad: TEPCo is already pumping 550 tons of water per day to cool three of its damaged reactors. About 80,000 tons of highly radioactive water has already accumulated in the buildings. Now add the flooding from the storms. TEPCo says it has found 200 to 500 tons of rainwater entering every day into the basements of reactor buildings.
16 September 2011, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency says the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant could have been avoided.
They say if water injection began four hours sooner there would have been no melt downs.
Anyone who’s been following the situation from day one knows that Tokyo Electric Power Company has dragged their feet on just about everything connected to dealing with the disaster. Especially at the beginning when it seemed that TEPCo officials just refused to believe that anything was wrong!
Of the plant’s six reactors, reactors 1 and 3 suffered meltdowns after losing cooling functions.
Reactor 2 suffered a hydrogen explosion on 15 March, which caused the release and spread of massive amounts of radioactive isotopes.
16 September 2011, ever since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster began, waste incinerator sites across Japan have reported high levels of radiation in the ashes of burned garbage and sludge.
The latest tests show three Prefectures still with levels of cesium contamination exceeding safe limits: Iwate, Fukushima and Chiba.
The highest measurement was 144,420 becquerels per kilogram at one facility in Fukushima!
The Japanese Environment Ministry realized that the incinerators reporting high levels of radiation contamination, are storing the garbage outside, where it can be contaminated by airborne cesium. This is also an indicator of just how much airborne radiation is being spread across Japan.
The Environment Ministry has now decided to test all incinerators sites, that store the garbage outdoors.
Read more about incinerator contamination: