BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 06:26 PM

Contract labor in Japan.
In previous posts, it was noted that there are two classes of employees, those hired to relatively permanent positions (about 20%)-trained technical or professional employees, and the majority, about 80%, of workers hired under time-limit contract.

"..........The employer is free to hire somebody by a fixed term contract so long as its term does not exceed one year. The employer is also free, at the end of the term, to renew the contract or not. The contract expires by itself and the employer does not have to terminate or oust the employee. The Labor Standards Law does not address such insecurity of employees under a fixed term contract." [Courts have modified this slightly through decisions]

A laborer under such a contract has no expectation of re-hire. This tends to make these laborers extremely docile in order to get on the 'good side' of the employer so that the contract will be renewed for another term.

The contracts (more than 10 employees) are written, the laborer knows the conditions of his employment. There may be a union, setting collective bargaining rights.
Some thirteen typical contracts are enumerated under the Civil Code.

[Contracts are much less inclusive of the types of protection that labor has in North American and most European countries].

From: "Similarities and Differences between Labor Contracts and Civil and Commercial Contracts: Japan Report."
Hiroya Nakakubo

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 03:49 PM

They need relief and those idiots who put the reactor together and said no tsunami threat should be the ones manning and womaning the fire hoses, if they are still using them. Otherwise they should be arranging for hot meals, showers etc. for the people. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 02:56 PM

Yes, I think it's way too easy to forget what those poor men are going through for all of us. They are true heroes, absolutely and wholly, true heroes.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 02:04 PM

Charley... MAYBE this one too... it does have a downside...

NHK...

The Italian government has frozen a plan to build new nuclear power plants in the country.

On Tuesday, the administration of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi submitted a bill to the Senate that indefinitely shelves the construction of new plants.

The bill says the plan was frozen in order to obtain further scientific proof about the safety of nuclear plants.

After the 1986 Chernobyl accident, Italy shut down all its nuclear power stations and abandoned nuclear power generation.

But the Berlusconi administration had come up with a plan to build new plants as a way to resolve the country's energy shortages.

Following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant due to the March 11th earthquake and tsunami, Italy announced a one-year moratorium on site selection and plant construction.

The latest move is apparently in response to rising public opposition to nuclear power generation.

A referendum had been scheduled for June on whether to resume nuclear power generation in Italy.

But the Italian media say the referendum is not likely to be held in view of the latest decision.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011 10:27 +0900 (JST)

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 01:59 PM

Q... the poor bastards. Gotta be be hell for them.

Charley... yer gonna LOVE this...

NHK...

A US power company says it will abandon plans to build nuclear reactors in Texas, amid the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan.

NRG Energy, which operates the South Texas Project nuclear station, planned to build the 2 reactors with Japan's Toshiba Corporation.

The company said on Tuesday that it will write off its investment in the project, citing extraordinary challenges facing US nuclear development due to present circumstances.

The firm also said justifying to its shareholders any further financial participation in the project would be impossible.

The firm is the first in the US to decide to withdraw from nuclear expansion since the start of the Fukushima crisis.

NRG Energy will record a pretax charge of 481 million dollars in the first quarter of this year for impairment of net assets.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011 16:35 +0900 (JST)

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 01:54 PM

Charley, maybe that is the real significance of the pyramid on the back of the U. S. dollar bill and on the Great Seal.

(Sorry, let's not digress into that).

Japan Times April 20-
1. Nuke workers at risk of overwork death. Statement by a doctor who recently examined them.
2. Kan (prime minister) to make 20-km no-entry zone binding.
3. Asia nuclear reactors face deadly tsunami risk. This article includes a photo of the skeleton of the large complex being built "on the doorstep of Hong Kong's bustling metropolis."
Disturbing articles.

1. Workers have been exposed to multiple stresses-
Some barely survived the quake and tsunami, survived the hydrogen explosions, some lost friends, family and co-workers.
Many are complaining that they can't sleep, and fear the dangers of radiation, dealing with debris, and overwork.
Working conditions are bad, in hot protective clothing on 4-day-on and 2-day-off shifts, with no shower during the working shift.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 07:56 AM

Yes, what's being planned for Chernobyl is an amazingly huge structure. Some of us in the anti-nuclear power movement suspected that the Egyptian pyramids were also designed as containment structures...I wonder if we were correct?

Charley Noble, heading north to Maine on I-95

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Jack Campin
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 06:14 AM

SciAm measures the thing in terms of the Statue of Liberty. I've never seen that close up, but their figures suggest it could cover St Paul's Cathedral or two of the Sydney Opera House with plenty of headroom.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 10:31 PM

The new cover for Chernobyl is estimated at $1.4 billion eoros. So far, pledges fall short.

Scientific American has an article with diagram, "Nuclear Cover Up: World's Largest Movable Structure to Seal the Wrecked Chernobyl Reactor," Charles Q. Choi, March 17, 2011.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=worlds-largest-movable-structure-seal-chernobyl-reactor

The one for the Fukushimi Daiichi complex may dwarf that.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 09:13 PM

This proposed structure they can't afford won't "conclude" Chernobyl.

The new structure will be the largest of its kind in the world - an arch more than 100m (328ft) high, 250m (820ft) wide and 160m (524ft) long.
It will be assembled away from the Chernobyl site and then slid into place over the damaged reactor, before the ends are blocked up.

BUT!!!...

It is expected to give Ukraine 100 years to dispose of the nuclear waste.

...it's another temporary fix and they'll need to build something even bigger by then.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 09:08 PM

gnu-

Yes, Chernobyl is still a continuing process and most likely will be for ten thousand years or so. The original concrete "shed" they encased it in began to fall apart as soon as it was completed. Soon birds were flying in and out through the cracks. Now they've designed a bigger and hopefully better one on rails so that it can slide over the old structure. Maybe someone can provide a link to this somewhat bizarre design.

Charley Noble, resident in Brooklyn but moving back north tomorrow.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 08:57 PM

I see they have approved a reactor complex just south of Mumbai, and people near the site are demonstrating. BBC News today.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 08:19 PM

What? Are you shittin me? Chernobyl is still not concluded? And there are not funds to "conclude" it? That is sickening!

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 07:58 PM

Meanwhile the funds to build the next phase of containment at Chernobyl are not forthcoming:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13124777

Fukushima is a lot bigger and will need an even more expensive tomb.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 07:53 PM

gnu-

Yes, even if the main roads were damaged you would think that getting the concrete trucks to the site would have been someone's priority.

Q-

And I certainly share concern about siting nuclear plants on the coast in earthquake zones and where there are tsunamis.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 07:44 PM

Indeed, it appears that building nukes where it is cheap to build them is not cheap when things go wrong.

Re the crete pumper trucks... very odd they were not on site immediately. This "technology" is not new. Gee whiz... we got em here in the "backwoods".

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 05:01 PM

New Asian reactors.
"Asia nuclear reactors face deadly tsunami risk," Associated Press (in Japan Times, April 20).
One of the world's biggest nuclear plants is being built on China's SE coast, close by Hong Kong. Three other facilities nearby are running or under construction.
They are close to subduction faults (where tectonic plates meet), hence major quakes and tsunami are likely. People in the area were swept out to sea by a tsunami in 1765.
Not far off in one on Taiwan's tip (40,000 killed in Taiwan in 1782.

Coastal locations seem to be favored for the 32 plants in operation or under construction in Asia.

Data have not been shared or evaluated by nuclear and geological scientists, or with the International Atomic Energy Agency (UN).
A scientist at the earth Observatory in Singapore says it is only a matter of time before the Manila Trench, and regional subduction faults, 'snap'.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 04:31 PM

mg-

Interesting update on the concrete trucks that eventually proved so useful for directing cooling water on the crippled reactors.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 04:31 PM

Lots of news items on this... a partial snippet...

The Associated Press

Date: Tuesday Apr. 19, 2011 6:25 AM ET

NEW DELHI — A mob opposing a government plan to build a nuclear plant in the western Indian state of Maharashtra ransacked a hospital and set buses on fire Tuesday during a protest strike.

Residents of Jaitapur have been protesting the proposed plant since the government's plans became public four years ago. The opposition has grown since Japan's nuclear crisis, with critics noting that Jaitapur is in a seismic zone.

The general strike was called after police fired to disperse protesters who attacked a police station Monday, killing one person.

The town's streets were mostly deserted as the strike took effect. But by midday, groups of people converged on the street, shouting slogans against the government. The mob later ransacked a government-run hospital and set at least three public transport buses on fire, police said.

Construction is to start this year on the first of six units at the proposed $10 billion plant, billed as the biggest in the world. The project by the French nuclear energy company Areva will generate 9,900 megawatts of power when completed. The first unit is expected to start producing power in 2018.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 03:15 PM

More about the IIC at Tepco. I keep wanting to call them Petco but do not want to insult a probably fine company (Petco). I have the utmost contempt for almost everything I have seen and read about Tepco and their utter inability to do the most obvious things.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/early-disorder-added-to-japans-nuclear-crisis/2011/04/10/AFHuRw5D_story_1.html

Of course I want them to bear any consequences that will not harm the Japanese public. I want them stripped of excessive pay, bribes, retirement beyond what a public school teacher would get. They are acting as a national government making decisions that affect oceans and air and food of other countries so we can't say well let Japan sort it out. Their feet have to be held to the fire and I want everything illegal they have ever done to be investigated and prison sentences or huge community service where necessary. Many if not most should resign whenever it is to the benefit of the Japanese people for them to do so..I would assume it is now but I do not know. It probably was the day of the disaster. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 02:04 PM

Other news-
An SDF (Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force) member, assigned to work near the Fukushima Daiichi plant, has been dismissed after be fled in panic.
The commander of the unit pledged to tighten discipline to prevent a recurrence. [!]

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 01:51 PM

Areva, the French reactor company, will build a facility to decontaminate the radioactive water at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Chemical agents will remove radioactive iodine and caesium from contaminated water.
The decontaminated water can then be used to cool the reactors. TEPCO and Areva hope to have the operations start in June.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/19_33.html

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 01:12 PM

mg-

Actually not a "nice article" but perhaps a critically accurate assessment.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 12:59 PM

don't know about trojan.

Here is a nice article about the IIC at Tepco.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/public-leaders-network/blog/2011/apr/18/private-sector-tepco-not-shining-beacon-public

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 09:16 AM

Jim-

It kind of makes sense that conditions within what's left of the reactor and turbine buildings might be very hot and humid, and that the Packbots might fog up their lenses.

mg-

What ever happened to the spent fuel from the decommissioned Trojan reactor? Is it in dry cask storage or still in a spent fuel pool?

I've also read a follow-up story this morning in my New York Times about the Vermont Yankee license extension attempt. Vermont Yankee, as mentioned above, is a boiling water reactor similar in design and age to the reactor in Unit 1 at the Fukushima-1 nuclear complex. The plant is schedule3d for decommissioning in 2012 but the NRC in March(!) approved a company plan to extend its license another 20 years. However, under an existing agreement with the company running the plant the Vermont Legislature has the final word on such an extension and the Senate voted decisively in April to not approve the extension. Now the company is suing the State, saying that it is interfering with interstate commerce and only the NRC has jurisdiction over nuclear health and safety issues. I don't expect the Governor or the State Legislature to back down and this will make an interesting case for "state's rights."

Charley Noble, still resident in Brooklyn after his morning bagel and coffee

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 19 Apr 11 - 08:38 AM

Robots lenses steamed up!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13127728

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 09:53 PM

http://totaltuna.com/

Of course they could have caught it elsewhere. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 09:20 PM

Tuna is not caught in Alaskan waters.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 09:11 PM

It's not so much where the currents go but, perhaps, where the higher predator fish such as tuna go after feeding off the Japanese home waters.

It's relatively easy to do some sample testing, and perhaps reassure everyone.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 03:28 PM

Both federal and state health officials say North Pacific fish are so unlikely to be contaaminated by radioactive material from Japan that there's no reason to test them.
Ron Klein, Alaska's food safety manager, says the FDA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have demonstrated that Alaskans have no cause for worry.
NY Post, UPI, etc.

Russians also say no cause for worry and discuss fish migratory patterns. UPI

(A look at Pacific Ocean currents map shows currents hitting the American coast well south of Alaska. A subsidiary current branches from there to Alaska. Automatic atmospheric and sea monitoring is done for California. Nothing above background has been noted, except for the atmospheric measurements for one day.)

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 03:28 PM

Yeah... that cracked firehose thing was unreal to the nth.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 03:21 PM

These are people who could not get firehoses working. How can they manage a nuclear crisis? mg

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 03:04 PM

Experts doubt nine month figure.
Too many uncertainties say Tadashi Yoshida, Nuclear Reactor Laboratory, Tokyo City University, and Hisashi Ninokata, Tokyo Institute of Technology.
Explanations given: "Success No Given in Tepco Road Map," Japan Times, April 19, 2011.

An inclusive[?] diagram, TEPCO's "road map," is reproduced at the head of the article. Worth a look.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 02:45 PM

Speaking of measuring, in a Tepco-like move, (I think that Tepco is going to move from being a noun to a verb) some department in Alaska, I don't think Fisheries..but it sounds like a state department..has declined to measure radiation in fish because it is so unlikely that any will be found. What a stupid reason for not measuring something, if indeed that is the reason. Again, independent, unbiased investigators should measure everything, if only to calm potential purchasers, stabilize the market and provide baseline data. That is too stupid for scientists to say we are not going to measure something because we of course know what the answers will be..if indeed it is the scientists making that decision. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 02:36 PM

Problems
Japan Times reports U. S. robots found dangerous spikes in three reactor buildings, which will hamper efforts to bring Fukushima under control.
Workers are trying to repair the cooling systems. TEPCO is reducing hours for its contract workers, "the maximum allowable annual radiation dose for nuclear workers is 250 millisieverts, which is two and a half times the pre-crisis limit. This means each worker can only spend a maximum of five hours inside the building. Many have already passed the standard annual limit of 100 millisieverts and many subcontractors are reportedly refusing to adhere the to the higher radiation limit set for the crisis".

TEPCO plans to install a new air-cooling system to cool the coolant water to be stored inside the reactors' containment vessels. These are similar to air conditioners used in French nuclear power plants that remove heat from the coolant water that will circulate inside the containment vessel and keep the core cool.
Stabilization is still estimated to take up to nine months.

"Meanwhile a more urgent task...at No. 2 reactor, where radioactive water is flooding its turbine building and an adjacent underground trench." TEPCO is building storage facility and water-proofing it. Adhesive concrete may be used at No. 2 to stop leakage.
Polluted water in buildings and nearby areas totals "67,500 tons."

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 11:21 AM

The current dreadful state of affairs was officially said to last six to 9 months.

I think it will best be measured in centuries.

Thousands of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Apr 11 - 09:59 AM

Odd, last evening's post disappeared into limbo.

TEPCO is "locked in a vicious cycle in which water being pumped to cool the reactors is being turned into radioactive runoff that must either be stored or dumped into the sea, while it bleeds off radioactive steam into the atmosphere to cool off the cores."

This situation was certainly predictable but there were few good options for the Japanese once they were forced to improvise. I'm not sure our nuclear engineers would have done better if they were operating "beyond the script," what could reasonably have been anticipated given the constraints of what the nuclear industry was willing to build. I do wonder also if the corporate culture in Japan may also have played a role in how poorly their engineers dealt with the initial impact of the earthquake and tsunami.

If there is a similar earthquake and tsunami in Southern California, we may be able to test this interesting question. How exciting!!!

Charley Noble, adrift in Brookyn for much of the week

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 03:05 PM

Interesting quote- Prof. of Politics Kato, Waseda University, on Clinton visit: "The purpose of the visit to Japan is clearly to see whether the Kan government is really capable of handling the crisis, and I think the conclusion will be that it is not."
The Kan government may have difficulty staying in power, but so far the Japanese press, although critical, has not mounted a strong attack on the government.
France 24, AFP press, international news, 17 April, 2011; "Clinton Visits Japan, U. S. relief Effort Warms Ties."
The article also reports 20,000 US forces are engaged in helping to clear debris, and distribute aid supplie. The US is providing coolants, two water barges and fire engines at Fukushima.

Japan Times, carrying the story that reactor shutdowns are nine months away, reports the U. S. proposed a "daring plan to use a remote-controlled helicopter and cranes to pluck out the spent fuel rods."
TEPCO is "locked in a vicious cycle in which water being pumped to cool the reactors is being turned into radioactive runoff that must either be stored or dumped into the sea, while it bleeds off radioactive steam into the atmosphere to cool off the cores."

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 03:01 PM

"No compensation or recognition of cancer-caused deaths has come from the Federal government."

The government cannot do this. It would be an admission of MANY things. I know a widow who receives a pension which is not taxable. It is a "compassionate" pension. The government absolutely denies that radiation from her husband's service in the nuclear industry caused his death... they cannot admit it because many more cases would qualify for compensation, including the general public, farmers who lost animals...

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 01:34 PM

"....unlikely case of a level nine earthquake and tsunami...."
The Japanese government also dismissed the possibility, not just TEPCO. A number of the designated safe refuges for those fleeing a tsunami were completely inundated and thousands died in them.

An article in the Santa Fe New Mexican about the nuclear test at the Trinity Site, near Alamogordo, White Sands, New Mexico, in July, 1945, in which a 19-kiloton plutonium device called "The Gadget" was detonated.
Tresa VanWinkle, director of the Alamogordo-based Cancer Awareness, Prevalence and Early Detection Center, points to cancer in her family and in others, and to spiking cancer rates among families in the wind-whipped Tulerosa Basin north of Alamogordo.
No compensation or recognition of cancer-caused deaths has come from the Federal government.

"The Gadget" carried about the same payload as the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
Santa Fe New Mexican, April 16, 2011: "Six Decades after Trinity Site Blast, Area Residents Living with Fallout with No Help from Government," Dennis Carroll, The New Mexican.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 12:04 PM

and...

TEPCO is scheduled to start operating the new cooling system by summer.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 12:02 PM

NHK...

The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has issued a schedule for putting the crisis under control in 6 to 9 months.

The chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company, Tsunehisa Katsumata, explained the plan at a news conference on Sunday.

The utility firm said a two-phase process is scheduled.
In the first stage over the next 3 months, it will build new cooling systems outside the Number 1 and 3 reactor buildings to cool down the nuclear fuel, and to ensure that radiation levels around the plant continue to decline.

The company says it will contain the radioactivity leakage from the Number 2 reactor by patching the damaged section.

In the second stage, TEPCO plans to lower the temperature of the nuclear fuel in the reactors to below 100 degrees Celsius to stabilize its condition.

The firm says the cooling will considerably lower the radiation levels in the environment around the plant.

The two-phases will be completed in 6 to 9 months.

The firm also plans to cover the reactor buildings with giant covers with filters to prevent the release of radioactive substances into the air.

It will also set up equipment to purify the contaminated water in tanks and other facilities.

At the same time, the company will increase the number of monitoring points within the government-set evacuation areas. It will use the data to neutralize the radioactive substances in soil and on buildings.

Sunday, April 17, 2011 16:35 +0900 (JST)

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 08:40 AM

Well, gang, you're doing a fine job of digesting the latest updates.

I fully expect that a few more horrible surprises lie in wait as they examine the details of this evolving disaster. I would argue that it was a disaster "designed" to happen, in that TEPCO ignored the "unlikely case" of a level 9 earthquake and tsunami. I'm also still convinced that there were human errors committed in trying to manage the crippled reactors and spent fuel pools after the event, not surprising since they had not devised a script to deal with such an unlikely situation and were forced to improvise.

Well, it's back to my hard work at this Festival.

Charley Noble, anchored at NEFFA

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Jack Campin
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 07:26 AM

Picture caption in today's BBC story, of Hillary Clinton with the Emperor:

Before the disaster, Japan-US ties had been strained by a dispute over military bases

Meaning, I suppose, that the US has now got Japan over a barrel and they can carry on with their gang of unaccountable rape-happy thugs occupying a quarter of Okinawa indefinitely.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 02:45 AM

There never has been a sound sustainable ecoonomic savings to any nuclear plant on Earth. Not even France.

In every single case the waste nuclear fuel issue is still unsolved leaving the last ditch scenario of reprocessing what can be salvaged and storing the waste on site. Over itme it is like Shel Sivlerstein's Sarah who would not take the garbage out.

Now take into account the growing areas on Earth which can not be safely habitable due to radioactive accidents. First they are measure in Su miles then in terms of a state like Rhode Island and then Pennsylvania and then half the oceans...

Sixty years agop we deposited highly radioactive waste in steel barrels and dumped them in the ocean. They all began to leak about 10 years ago. 10s of thousands of tons worth.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 16 Apr 11 - 02:53 PM

Sigh... worse... Canuck Bud.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Apr 11 - 02:51 PM

Top U. S. and French specialists are helping- see previous posts.

(OMG, a Molson drinker?)

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 16 Apr 11 - 02:41 PM

Jack... here's another "Sherlock moment" from my post above...

"Highly radioactive water may also be leaking underground."

D'ya think? WTF?????

Q... Heineken... fine with me if you drink it. I'll have my usual.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 16 Apr 11 - 02:32 PM

I'd have thought they'd have had the top experts from around the world over there...

In fact, WHY isn't there an International Nuclear Rescue Division, or some such thing? This stuff is deadly when it goes wrong, so surely there should be a worldwide emergency agency for these things happen....

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Apr 11 - 02:29 PM

Japanese Liability Law- see Wall Street Journal, Law Blog, March 18, 2011.
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/03/18/japanese-taxpayers-likely-to-shoulder-nuclear-liability/

The lawyer, Ashby, says only TEPCO and Japanese government are on the hook.
But as you say, there could be a surprise or two before this is over.
Lets just go Dutch on the beer now, while we are still alive.
(Oops! political correctness.... May I wiggle out by saying I only meant we should drink Heineken?)