A Tokyo Electric Power Company employee refused to reveal how much radiation he’s been exposed to in the past three and a half weeks.
”I can’t tell you. It’s private information as well.”-Murata Yasuki
Recently Murata was allowed to take one day off to visit his wife and son.
Workers at the critical Fukushima Daiichi plant live in a building designed to withstand a 7.0 quake. It is also lead lined, but workers there say the radiation shielding has been compromised.
Tokyo Electric Power Company says there are signs that the injection of nitrogen into Reactor 1 is working to prevent an explosion. But it might be too soon to tell, the nitrogen injection operation will take six days.
Fukushima Daiichi’s Reactor 1 core began build up of hydrogen gas, probably caused by the melting of the outer casing of partially exposed fuel rods. In normal circumstances reactor cores have nitrogen in them to counteract any hydrogen build up, but TEPCo officials think Reactor 1’s core is breached, leaking out the nitrogen.
If that’s true then the six day nitrogen injection operation could be only temporary.
NHK interviewed a nuclear analyst, who pointed out that just because contamination readings are within safe limits does not mean that it’s ‘OK’.
He said officials are mistaken for telling people that it does not pose a threat to health. What it means is that you must begin “…limiting your exposure…” to radiation contamination, because it builds up in your body, it doesn’t go away.
It is referred to as cumulative exposure to radiation.
Add to the potential for reactor 1 core explosion the Reactor 4 fuel pool crisis.
Fukushima Daiichi’s Reactor 4 fuel pool was damaged after an explosion several weeks ago (many main stream media report only two explosions, but there were three; reactors 1, 3 & 4 buildings). The problem is that it is now apparent that Reactor 4 fuel pool is leaking water faster than they can pour in (maybe this is the source of the leaks into the ocean?).
If spent fuel rods are exposed too long they will break down and spew radiation.
Japanese media now saying that the main reason for United States interest in the nuclear crisis is because the U.S. is in the path of most radiation contamination. The U.S. is going to start using an UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) to monitor airborne radiation levels above Fukushima Daiichi, especially Reactor 4 fuel pool.
There are more than 10,000 spent fuel rods at Fukushima Daiichi, according to Hosono Goshi, a special adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Kan Naoto.
After Tokyo Electric Power Company reported that they had stopped the leak in Reactor 2’s pit, an NHK helicopter took video of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, showing not only smoke coming from the reactors, but water still pouring into the ocean.
Today, TEPCo admits that plugging the leak in the pit will only cause new leaks to show up. That’s because they don’t know exactly where the leaking water is coming from, or how it made its way to the pit.
Japanese central government officials are now saying that they goofed on the evacuation zone currently in place.
Officials say the current evacuation zone is based on a short term, low level, nuclear emergency. They did not expect the current situation to have lasted so long.
Japanese officials say they will revise evacuation plans to take into account long term exposure to high levels of radiation.
Many local governments have given up relying on central government data, and have started their own evacuation plans.
”I feel very sorry that a local government had to decide on its own. As soon as possible, the government and…nuclear experts working together must present clear guidelines on from where to where is safe.”-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano
In a 06 April 2011 Reuters article they compare an explosion of a reactor core, to the explosion of the reactor buildings three weeks ago: “The possibility of another hydrogen explosion like those that ripped through reactors 1 and 3 early in the crisis, spreading high levels of radiation into the air, was ‘extremely low’, he said.”
This statement is completely misleading. It makes it sound like an explosion of the reactor core wont be any worse the the earlier explosions of the reactor buildings. Reuters does cite Tokyo Electric Power Company officials as the source of this misleading info.
If TEPCo is saying a reactor core explosion isn’t that bad then they are flat lying. If a reactor core explodes it will release a constant stream of deadly radiation, much worse than what is happening now!
It is possible that the TEPCo official was simply saying he thought the chance of an explosion was low (just an explosion), not that the chance of another explosion with resulting spewing of radiation was low. But that’s how the Reuters article reads. However TEPCo now has a proven track record of lying to the public.
In any case, don’t let anybody fool you, a reactor core explosion is THE worst case scenario, for a reason!
NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation) interviewed a nuclear analyst who said that Tokyo Electric Power Company’s reactionary actions have actually made the situation with their Fukushima Daiichi plant much worse.
Also, he warned that hydrogen gas build up in the Reactor 1’s core is much much worse that the hydrogen gas build up the resulted in the reactor’s outer buildings to explode. TEPCo is going to try using nitrogen to counteract the hydrogen gas build up.
If a reactor core, or containment vessel, explodes it will result in a constant stream of deadly radiation being spewed into the air.
Tokyo Electric Power Company admitted that they are still detecting plutonium contamination in the dirt around their Fukushima Daiichi facility.
This is the second time they’ve announced such detection. It is an indicator that plutonium is being constantly spewed from the reactors. Plutonium is a byproduct of reactors that use uranium enriched fuel rods.
Besides being radioactive, plutonium is highly toxic (poisonous).
French nuclear analysts have used radiation numbers, publicly release by Japanese officials, to determine how bad the contamination is in the Pacific Ocean.
The Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety determined that with the current level of contamination (that is the contamination that has already happened) fish and seaweed will need constant monitoring. Also, they said the high levels of radioactive contamination, recently spilled by reactor 2, will spread through out the Pacific Ocean in three months.
They pointed out that some radiation will float with the ocean currents, while other isotopes will sink to the ocean floor. The ocean does not affect isotope half life, so cesium-137 still has a half life of 30 years in water. Cesium-137 is in the ocean.
This does not assume any further contamination, so expect it to get worse.