After blasting Tokyo Electric Power Company for the leaking water from Reactor 2, the Japanese national government has given the go ahead to release radioactive water from reactors 3 & 4!
Chief Cabinet secretary, Edano Yukio, said the intentional release of contaminated water from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is to maintain operational safety!
Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, has order its own ban on Shitake mushrooms after a sample tested positive for contamination.
Iodine and cesium were found on mushrooms grown outdoors in the city of Iwata. No contamination found on indoor grown mushrooms. Iwata is 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The radiation levels are higher than safe limits set by the national (central) government. It was the local government that set the ban on shipping the contaminated mushrooms, after no order was heard from the central government.
The predominant winds from Japan are bringing radiation spread into the air, to North America. The radiation is, so far, lower level isotopes, and the air disperses it over the long distance.
Now there is highly radioactive isotopes spilling into the Pacific Ocean, in higher concentrations, and the currents could eventually bring it to the North American coast.
The Kuroshio Current (Black Current, or Black Tide) runs northward up the Pacific coast of Japan, then turns eastward into the North Pacific Current heading towards the North American coast.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano Yukio, has demanded that Tokyo Electric Power Company stop the leak of highly contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.
TEPCo has failed at two attempts to stop the leak. They have admitted that they don’t even know where it’s coming from. It’s pouring into a pit connected to Reactor 2, at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Now TEPCo will try to use silt screens in the ocean, to block the spread of radiation in the water.
First the concrete failed, now the disposable diaper absorbent fails.
Workers combined 8 kilograms (17.6 pounds) of polymeric absorbent with 60 kilograms of sawdust and three bags of shredded newspaper into pipes leading to a pit connected to Reactor 2, at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. It failed.
Highly contaminated water continues to pour into the Pacific Ocean.
Hosono Goshi, special adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Kan Naoto, said attempts to control Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will take “several months”. Hosono also said that the plant is still “critical”.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano Yukio, admitted that the government, and Tokyo Electric, have not been forthright with the public about how bad the situation really is. Edano said that it was time for a “highly independent” panel to review the situation at the damaged nuclear plant.
Text: AAron Hutchins
Photos by: Alex Hutchins (click on the pics to make them bigger. More pics, including plaques that explain HTRE, in the Galleries section, click on the INL Nuclear Power Site)
Barely noticeable from the two lane highway, sitting literally in the middle of nowhere, a brick building with some strange caged objects next to it. Getting any closer doesn’t help you identify the metallic two story tall objects, behind locked fences with barbed wire on top. They seem extraterrestrial. Perhaps some ancient Alien visitors left behind their space vehicle?
HTRE-3
It’s like something out of X-Files. But this isn’t Area 51, in Nevada. It’s not Roswell, New Mexico. It’s eastern Idaho, and today is windy and cold. As my son Alex said, “It’s Big Wind.”
As far as ‘ancient’ goes, well, some people might think 1950s is ancient. That’s when the strange twisted metal craft first appeared. Extraterrestrial? Many people in the 1950s thought the scientists of the day were out of this world with their crazy ideas, like nuclear powered jet aircraft.
Taking Exit 93 off Interstate 15, turn west towards Arco. Stay on Highway 26 for about 40 miles. As you drive the lonely 40 miles you’ll pass the big “Welcome to the INL” sign. Then you’ll come to an intersection, make a left, just follow the arrows to Arco. You’ll see building complexes to your right, that’s part of the main Idaho National Laboratory complex.
INL Entrance
At that point pay attention to your left. You should see a lone building in the distance, EBR-1, the world’s first nuclear reactor. That’s where the strange alien vehicle looking things are. There should be a left turn lane coming up, with signs for EBR-1. Make the turn, then another left turn lane, again follow the sign for EBR-1.
It’s a desolate place, my son and I were the only ones there that windy, cold day. We passed a couple of parked cars on the roadside, with no one in them, out in the middle of nowhere, mmm.
EBR-1
There they are, like something left behind, and forgotten, by some advanced species, in the middle of the vast, windy East Idaho desert, HTRE-1, 2 & 3. The three huge Heat Transfer Reactor Experiments units making up world’s first nuclear powered turbine engine. Intentionally twisted metal, big pipes, gigantic turbos, and two little jet engine exhaust at the back. Don’t think these guys are safe, they’re radiation warning signs all over. Many of the openings and fittings are sealed off. Even the giant weld seams on the reactor have been recently coated with a white colored material.
Nuclear powered jet engines and the lead-lined train that pulled them.
Some people would say that only an evil scientist would come up with such a thing. Maybe they’re right? General Electric spent one billion taxpayer dollars on the project, before it was canceled by President Kennedy in 1961. And that’s 1950s dollars, whew!
There are several informational plaques that give the visitor more understandable, and more interesting, info than what I found on the internet. Like “Operation Wiener Roast”. They actually burned a nuclear turbine engine to see if dangerous levels of radiation would be spread if a nuclear powered aircraft crashed.
Operation Wiener Roast
Testing of the reactor turbine was successful, but an actual aircraft was never developed. The program was conducted in Idaho, in Test Area North, of what is now called the INL. The project was managed by the U.S. Air Force and the Atomic Energy Commission. There’s lots more information on the signs, you need to go there to look for yourself.
One things for sure, this archeological find proves that the U.S. government spent taxpayer dollars on some really far out stuff in the 1950s.
Radiation signs next to jet engines.
Lead-lined train in the Arco desert in Eastern Idaho. Photo by Alexander Hutchins.
GHOSTLY NUKE TRAIN ROLLIN’ ‘CROSS IDAHO DESERT
Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric, met with Tokyo Electric chairman Katsumata Tsunehisa on Sunday.
TEPCo officials said GE’s Immelt offered ‘maximum’ support for dealing with the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which GE designed.
According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, there are 23 nuclear plants in the United States that are similar in design as Fukushima Daiichi.
Immelt will meet with the Japanese Economy Minister on Monday. Under Japanese regulations, if the design of the plant is proven faulty then GE can be sued.
Immelt has also been pushing for taxpayer supported nuclear plant development in the U.S. The Guardian newspaper recently reminded people that Immelt once said that investors are not willing to take on the risks of nuclear power, and that those risks should be handled by the government (taxpayers). In other words, capitalist investors know nuclear power is a bad bet.
According to former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, General Electric paid no U.S. taxes in 2010. He also wants Jeffery Immelt to resign from President Barack Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
‘‘Can’t you increase the number of examiners? The lives of farmers are at stake! It’s a matter of whether they can live tomorrow!’’-Sato Yuhei, Governor of Fukushima
The governor of Fukushima Prefecture is blasting the government for dragging its feet with the ongoing nuclear crisis. Especially when it comes to the safety of farm goods.
In response to the governor’s complaints, national government officials simply confirmed that they are short on staffing and equipment, for use in this specific nuclear crisis. Another way of admitting that the government was not prepared.
Tokyo Electric Power Company officials are concerned that Reactor 1, Fukushima Daiichi, could still build up explosive hydrogen gas.
To counter the problem they plan on injecting nitrogen into the containment vessel on Tuesday.