BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Apr 11 - 06:11 PM

Gunderson does have a point of view and an ax to grind with an industry that doesn't like whistle-blowers, however qualified. So I understand why some who have made major contributions to this thread might prefer to remain skeptical. However, I have much more respect for Gunderson that I do for TEPCO or the NRC.

I'll also be interested in how the Union of Concerned Scientists responds to his video, as soon as I can figure out the best way to contact them again.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 05:03 AM

Yes, Charley... I too would like to hear what UCS has to say on the claim of a nuke blast.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 08:06 AM

gnu et al-

That yellow flash on the right side of Reactor Unit 3 may be a unique signature. The fact that the explosion was directed upward suggests that it was channeled in some way and its possible that the concrete structure of the spent fuel pool provided that focus and that the fuel itself exploded possibly triggered by an explosion of hydrogen gas. In Unit 1 containment building the blast was dispersed in all directions as the hydrogen exploded, indicating that the gas was more generally dispersed. Just my thoughts trying to piece this together.

I've sent an inquiry in to the Union of Concerned Scientists, attempting to break through their contact fire wall; donor inquiries are the primary options on the drop-down menu but my wife has been a supporting member for 30 years.

It's not clear to me from the video of the wreckage if any part of the spent fuel pool survived the explosion, and remember the fuel there was uniquely laced with Plutonium. Ugh!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Jack Campin
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 08:23 AM

If you search on YouTube for "fuel air explosion" you will find rather a lot of yellow flashes associated with much bigger bangs than Fukushima Dai-ichi 3. Gundersen is just talking nonsense here.

And clouds of black smoke can mean almost anything - certainly doesn't have to be nuclear fuel. Burning thermal foam insulation would look the same. So would diesel fuel, and it would make sense for them to have that on-site to power the pumps.

When I was a kid in New Zealand there was a dockside accident where an acetylene cylinder fell out of a crane net, hit concrete and went bang. The top end of the cylinder was found a few weeks later on the other side of the harbour, two miles away. The same distance that Gundersen is saying a conventional vapour explosion couldn't throw a fuel rod.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 08:47 AM

Charley... if the pool was even partially empty enough to expose the fuel, resulting in the fuel jackets providing ignition, the pool would surely act "as a rifle", as was said in the video. But, I still do not accept that there was a nuke blast. There is no evidence to support this.

As for Gundersen implying that the government has the data but isn't making it public... they have aliens and spacecraft too don't they? >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 01 May 11 - 09:04 AM

There's been no news on the BBC website for some days now, I wonder if that really means there's no news or that it's just not getting out!

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 01 May 11 - 12:41 PM

WTF???

NHK...

Prime Minister Naoto Kan says the government and Tokyo Electric Power Company failed to fully address safety issues that had come to light before the March 11 disaster.

An accident last June at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant caused by the loss of outside power and the subsequent drop in the water levels of a reactor was taken up at Sunday's Upper House Budget Committee meeting.

In response to a question on whether sufficient safety measures had been taken, Kan said nuclear plants operate on the assumption that emergency diesel generators will maintain a reactor's cooling functions when outside power is cut off.

He said the fact that such a back-up system failed to work properly has serious implications.

Kan said measures were not taken despite previous accidents and warnings, and that he must admit that the utility and the government failed to fully deal with the situation.

He also suggested that he will study the possibility of setting up an alternative capital to take over Tokyo's role in an emergency, saying that measures must be taken to secure the continuity of the capital's central functions.

Sunday, May 01, 2011 23:20 +0900 (JST)

"... study the possibility of setting up an alternative capital to take over Tokyo's role in an emergency, saying that measures must be taken to secure the continuity of the capital's central functions."

That sounds RATHER ominous. Anybody care to jump to any, ah, er, "theories"?

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 01 May 11 - 12:47 PM

Is anyone surprised about the June incident? Do we not see how they operate? mg

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 May 11 - 01:58 PM

CNN, BBC, CTV and Al Jazeera have dropped any prominent coverage of the Japanese nuclear problems, perhaps believing the public is no longer interested.
Japan Times remains the best Japanese newspaper source of updates.

1. A second woman working with sick workers from the Fukushima Daiichi (No. 1) plant has been found to have been overexposed from radiation. Tepco says it is thought she inhaled radioactive particles from the workers' clothing.

Four women, two not radiation workers, have been found by Tepco to have been overexposed.

2. 76 percent of Japanese in a poll think Prime Minister Kan is doing a poor job.

3. Kan promises temporary housing for all evavuees by Bon (a mid-August holiday).

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 May 11 - 05:39 PM

I asked for a second opinion to the video presentation by Arnie
Gundersen linked by NIRS:

"A new video from nuclear engineer Arnie Gunderson of Fairewinds
Associates postulates that the Unit 3 explosion was sparked by a
criticality in its fuel pool. The video includes excellent footage
and a clear explanation.

Gunderson makes an interesting case for the explosion in the
Fukushima-1 Unit 3 spent fuel pool being more than a hydrogen explosion."

Here's the reply from David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists:

"I do not believe that there was a criticality blast at Fukushima.
Uncovered fuel is known to create copious amounts of hydrogen.
Copious amounts of hydrogen are known to explode."

In summary, I continue to agree with Gunderson that the concrete structure of the spent fuel pool in Unit 3 channeled the blast upwards with tremendous force and that the inventory of spent fuel rods laced with Plutonium was fragmented in the hydrogen explosion and dispersed around the nuclear complex site area.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 02 May 11 - 07:29 AM

Workers preparing to instal air purifier in Reactor No.1:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13257557

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 May 11 - 07:36 AM

Jim-

I also find this quote from your link of interest:

On Monday top government spokesman Yukio Edano said the government would not cap liabilities faced by Tepco, because the disaster was "not impossible to foresee".

It's about time that TEPCO's chickens came home to roost, especially after they'd counted their chicks before they hatched! (You may quote me or not)

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: mg
Date: 02 May 11 - 11:08 AM

Well of course the government should have equally forseen it, since any schoolchild here on the opposite side of the ocean hears about the big one, 9.0 or greater, all the time. Don't let anyone get buy with oh gee we did not see this one coming. it is because we are either too ignorant or too lackadasical to do anything about it. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 May 11 - 12:48 PM

U. S. doctors, "Social Responsibility," a non-profit organization of docters, condemns the limits on radiation set by the government for playgrounds at schools as being too high. They are joined by Toshiso Kosako, University of Tokyo professor, who said he would step down as an advisor to Prine Minister Kan in protest.
The U. S. group said any exposure, including background,can be a danger to children, and fetuses are even more vulnerable.
Japan Times, May 3, 2011.

Schools on the west coast of the U. S. might teach about the dangers of a large earthquake, but most children would be only remotely aware, if at all, of what earthquakes could do.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 02 May 11 - 01:12 PM

They know and they know about tsunamis too except they call them salamis. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Bill D
Date: 02 May 11 - 01:22 PM

"...they call them salamis...."

They do? I don't get the joke....

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 May 11 - 02:23 PM

They have salami races in skiing ?

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 02 May 11 - 03:07 PM

it is not a joke...they are young and misheard. that is what they called it when we evacuated for one here. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 02 May 11 - 07:11 PM

Charley... another one for you... NHK...

Some of the shareholders of a Japanese electric power company say they want the utility to close its nuclear power plants.

On Monday, a group of 232 individual stockholders of Tohoku Electric Power Company submitted the documents needed for their proposal to scrap its nuclear power plants.

The proposal is expected to be put to a vote in an annual shareholders' meeting at the end of next month.

Tohoku Electric Power has 2 nuclear power plants in Japan's northeastern region, one in Higashidori Village in Aomori Prefecture and another in Onagawa Town in Miyagi Prefecture.

The group is also calling for the company to end its investment in spent nuclear fuel reprocessing businesses, including a reprocessing plant at Rokkasho Village in Aomori Prefecture.

The group representative, Hironori Shinohara, noted the moves by power companies to introduce additional safety measures following the nuclear emergency involving Tokyo Electric Power Company. But he said accidents never happen under the same scenarios, and stressed the importance of shutting down the nuclear plants.

An official of Tohoku Electric Power said the company takes the disaster facing TEPCO extremely seriously. The official said Tohoku Electric will examine the proposal and submit it to the shareholders' meeting along with comments from board members.

Monday, May 02, 2011 20:15 +0900 (JST)

Not so good...

The operator of the troubled Fukushima nuclear power plant says it has detected higher levels of radioactive materials in seawater samples from near the water intake at one of the reactors.

Tokyo Electric Power Company says it detected 130 becquerels of radioactive iodine-131 per cubic centimeter in samples collected near the water intake for the Number 2 reactor on Saturday. The figure is 3,300 times the national limit and 30 percent higher than the level detected on Friday.

It's the same site where iodine-131 at a level 7.5 million times the limit was detected on April 2nd. TEPCO says it detected radioactive cesium-134 at 120 times the limit and cesium-137 at 81 times the limit at the same place on Saturday. But the readings taken for these 2 substances were down for the third straight day.

There was a 90 percent drop in levels of iodine and cesium to the south of water intakes for reactors 1 through to 4.

The level of highly radioactive water in the sea rose to three to four times the level of the previous day along the coast 10 kilometers south of the power plant.

TEPCO says it's continuing to monitor the level, though there has not been a fresh leak of highly contaminated water.

Monday, May 02, 2011 05:45 +0900 (JST)

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 May 11 - 07:51 PM

Gnu-

"130 becquerels of radioactive iodine-131 per cubic centimeter in samples collected near the water intake for the Number 2"

I was thinking that that one was supposed to be coasting to cold shutdown. Unit 2, I believe, was one of the reactor building which had suffered the least damage in the hydrogen explosions in the row of four reactor buildings.

I wonder what is going on.

It's so hard for even experts to figure out what is going on at these reactors and spent fuel pools when readings fluctuate so erratically.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Jack Campin
Date: 02 May 11 - 09:09 PM

If it's at the *intake* then presumably reactor 2 itself can't be responsible.

A lump of hot debris on the seafloor from one of the other reactors, maybe?

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 May 11 - 07:53 AM

Jack-

There has been a lot of confusion generated in press releases by references to "intakes" and "outflows." It's never totally clear from translation if the correct term is being used.

It's also likely that some parts of the spent fuel rods which were blasted apart in the explosion at Reaction Unit 3 ended up in the bay. But one would think the readings would be more consistent. Lord knows who systematically they have been monitoring radiation, and what forms of radiation.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 03 May 11 - 12:41 PM

from japan

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/japan/110501/opinion-japan-nuclear?page=0,1

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 May 11 - 01:42 PM

mg-

An interesting article on the Japanese nuclear power experience from a Japanese point of view.

Note to posters: please provide a short summary of the articles you link to.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 May 11 - 01:58 PM

One reason why some information about the status of the reactors is incomplete and confused-

"Power Cut Doomed Fallout Computer"
"The nation's system (Emergency Response Support System) for predicting the volume of radioactive materials to be released to the environment failed amid the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) power poant due to the power supply cut following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami..."
"The malfunction of the ERSS, coupled with "insufficiencies" attributed to SPEEDI, the System for Prediction of EnvironmentalEmergency Dose Information, which projects the dispersal of radioactive fallout based on ERSS forecasts, is likely to have delayed the evacuation of Fukushima residents.
"Japan sent SPEEDI data to the U. N. but withheld it from the public."
"The failure of the 28 billion yen systems casts further doubts on Japan's disaster-prevention policy."
ERSS is managed by the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization, under the supervision of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

The system is "still unable to collect any data on reactors No. 1 to No. 5."

Too many bureaucratic layers breed failure to respond to emergencies and to pass on critical information to the public.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 May 11 - 02:14 PM

That post based on a Japan Times report, May 3, 2011.

Another report-
Japan Times, May 4, 2011

"Utilities Get 68 Ex-bureaucrats Via 'Amakudari'."
The past 50 years have seen 68 former elite bureaucrats parachuting into top positions at the nation's 12 electricity suppliers after retiring from the Ministry, Trade and Industry, including five who landed at TEPCO.
At present, 13 retired career-track METI bureaucrats hold senior positions at electric power companies under the practice of "amakudari" (descent from heaven).
METI, which oversees 10 electric utilities and two electricity wholesalers, investigated the matter after the crisis at TEPCO's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant fueled criticism of the practice.
"....creates "cosy, corrupt relations" and "slack supervision."

So much for Japan's perceived efficiency in industry.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 May 11 - 03:57 PM

Yetch!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 04 May 11 - 06:42 AM

Parents protest about radioactive playgrounds:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/parents-revolt-radiation-levels?INTCMP=SRCH

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 May 11 - 09:15 AM

Yes, children and younger infants are those most vulnerable to radiation exposure. And if the radiation is on a school playground they would be exposed to it 5 days a week, increasing their inventory throughout the year.

Do the math!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 May 11 - 12:58 PM

The Guardian article covers much the same ground as Japanese press reports, but adds the parents protest, which I haven't seen in the Japan Times.
The JP does have a section called "Views from the Street." The question today was "Do you think the Government should take over TEPCO? The respondants said yes, but government mishandling was also mentioned.

TEPCO reports that their workers are preparing to enter the No. 1 reactor building at Fukushima for the first time since it was wrecked by a hydrogen blast the day following the quake/tsunami.
The air must be filtered first. TEPCO is setting up a ventilation system inside with oxygen cylinders and erecting a tentlike structure at the double-door entrance with higher air pressure than in the reactor building to prevent radioactive materials from leaking outside.
The company then plans to set up air coolers outside the reactor building to cool the water filling the containment vessel of the reactor(replacement for the one that went down furing the tsunami.
If the new cooling system works, TEPCO said the temperature in the reactor will drop to under 100 C., achieving cold shutdown, within several days. [Boldface mine]

Seabed samples from 15-20 km north of the plant showed high levels of radioactivity. A similar amouts was found 20 km south of the plant.
Greenpeace has sttarted to take readings outside Japan's 12 mile territorial waters.

{The high seabed readings are not good; the life cycle and food use of organisms dependent on a food chain based on bottom dwelling/feeding organisms will be affected, and the effects passed on to pelagic/marine dwellers.}

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Donuel
Date: 04 May 11 - 01:34 PM

The high sea floor reading may be evidence that the exlosion at #3 blew MOX fuel far from the plant.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 04 May 11 - 02:30 PM

Ya know... we all would like this mess cleaned up yesterday, but I gotta say, the poor bastards IN CHARGE of trying to bring things under control must be in a living hell. To quote David Letterman, "I wouldn't give their troubles to a monkey on a rock."

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 05 May 11 - 05:53 AM

Workers enter No.1 reactor building:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13289877

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 May 11 - 07:49 AM

Here's another aerial view of the entire Fukushima-1 nuclear complex: click here for image!

There are also diagrams that clarify the position of the reactors, the tunnels, and trenches that have come up for discussion.

In my mind I've evidently had the relative positions of reactor units 1-4 reversed with regard to their proximity to the bay. And I was never quite sure where reactor units 5 and 6 were.

So the workers enter Unit-1 in teams for 10 minutes each. Does this mean they return for another 10-minute shift? If so, what is the logic of that in terms of limiting their exposure?

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Donuel
Date: 05 May 11 - 07:52 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZmmSSwtuS0

Note there are no special foods or substances you can eat that will protect you from injesting radioactive particles in food.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 May 11 - 12:46 PM

Maybe it's time to re-examine our assumptions about the impact of the Fukushima-1 disaster. Here's a link to one of the major long-time critics, Karl Grossman, of the nuclear industry: click here!

I tend to agree that the media coverage of this disaster has been totally inadequate, and given the attention span of the media, and the general public, they've refocused on hotter topics.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 May 11 - 12:49 PM

Digression-
Some good news for Japan's industry:

Mayor Bloomberg selects Nissan minivan to be New York's next Yellow Cabs.
The vehicle is estimated to average 25 mpg and will cost c. $29,000 (order will eventually total more than $1 billion.
The vehicle can be converted to electrical energy in the future.
It will be manufactured in Mexico, with some final touches in the U. S.
? New York energy sources.
Nuclear- 26-33% (depending on source information)
[Natural Gas- 26%
[Petroleum- 2%
Hydro- 17%
Imported- 14% (Quebec, Ontario, New England)
Coal- 12%
Figures from Cornell University, Wind energy report.
What is the advantage of electrical vehicles if the energy green footprint is not reduced?
Partial answers (apart from efficiency of new vehicles)- Less air pollution in NYC.
Con- energy required in manufacture (unless older vehicles only retired after they are worn out).

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Donuel
Date: 05 May 11 - 01:00 PM

Elements from Fukushima has been found in milk as far away as Maryland.

Hawaii and Alaska have the most Fukushima radiation in their food followed by the NW states.

They do not want Washingtom apples to be shummed by the market.
The same goes for California wines and produce.

What should they do? Tell the truth?

Of course they will down play away.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Jack Campin
Date: 05 May 11 - 01:38 PM

Fukushima radiation has been found in Scotland:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-13284984

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 May 11 - 03:33 PM

The iodine-131 detected in Glasgow, and all other recording sites mentioned is minute and should pose no risk.
A panel of University of Maryland nuclear experts say the U. S. is safe from radiation leaking out of Fukushima. Also no risk from that detected in Massachusetts rainfall. West coast report posted here some time ago.
Various reports on the net.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 05 May 11 - 04:51 PM

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703849204576302763991781504.html

Yesterday was the first time I saw any official concern or notice about this. To have to wait almost two months, if this is so, for boxed lumches is totally unnecessary and inexcuseable. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 06 May 11 - 08:58 AM

Another nuclear plant Hamaoka)to close:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13306358

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 May 11 - 01:35 PM

Hamaoka plant- BBC story incomplete and not accurate?

Japan has urged Chubu Electric (the operator, not Tepco) to suspend all 3 reactors while a seawall and other structures are built to ensure a major earthquake/tsunami does not cause a second radiation crisis.
Chubu said it will "swiftly consider" the government's request.
Chubu has drawn up safety measures including a seawall 1.5 km long over the next 2-3 years. [12 meters height, T. Yamada, Chubu official]. Also planned are concrete walls along 18 water pumps to protect the pumps from damage, to take 1-1 1/2 years to construct.
The plant has no barrier now but sandhills between the ocean and the plant are c. 10-15 meters high, according to the company.

"Trade Minister Banni Kaieda said the utility should halt operating its nuclear reactors while implementing such safety measures. He argued Chubu's safety measures were "not enough" without elaborating further."
"Until the company completes safety steps, it is inevitable that it should stop operating nuclear reactors," Kaieda said.

The plant provides power to 16 million people. TOYOTA headquarters plant and other automakers would be affected.

Associated Press, May 6, 2011, Shino Yuasa.

Note- This will be the subject of back-and-forth argument for some time before implementation !
The government request does not mean immediate stoppage.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 06 May 11 - 06:26 PM

Well, whaddya do? Screw up 16M people and their industry in the meantime? What will happen to some of those people?... to Toyata and others? It ain't an easy situation to mitigate.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 May 11 - 08:43 PM

On a personal note Judy and I will be meeting tomorrow with one of our favorite nieces who just paid a visit to one of her good friends in Northwestern Japan. She had studied there a year on full scholarship and now speaks Japanese well enough to bluff her way through ten minutes of conversation with native speakers. She's part Native-American with some Asian characteristics and a slight build, which helps her blend in with the crowd.

She and her mother want us to check her out with our radiation monitoring equipment (left over from our more activist days). However, she probably picked up more radiation flying and going through security checks than she encountered in one week in Japan. We made our arguments for postponing the visit but she really wanted to see her friend and she plans to teach English there next year.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 07 May 11 - 01:20 PM

Chibu Electric says it will not implement the suspension of the Hamaoka reactors, as requested by Prime Minister Kan, "while it weighs the consequences."
Japan Times, Saturday, May 7, 2011.

"800 nuke plant workers get belated health checkups."
They have spent more than a month battling the nuclear emergency at Fukushima No. 1 plant (Daiichi).
"Exams for 30 irradiated above 100-millisievert precrisis limit neglected at Fukushima No. 1."
Japan Times, May 7, 2011.

"In Search of a nuclear disposal site."
"Roughly 300 km NW of Finland's capital, Helsinki, is the island of Olkiluoto, home to two nuclear power plants and the potential site for one of the world's first permanent underground high-level waste repositories."
A blueprint diagram shows the proposed layout, some several hundred meters underground.
Japan Times, May 7, 2011.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110507f1.html

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 07 May 11 - 01:40 PM

"radiation monitoring equipment"

Pray tell of this equipment.

Dad used to bring home rocks from the cobalt fields in Ontario and a Geiger counter, get me to hide them in the house and he would find them. I was fascinated as a boy of four or so.

Dad and the lads used to have their film tags read every day before leaving the base (CFB Trenton). When they got close to the weekly limit, they would leave the the tags in their desks at the base before going to *****. Everyone who worked on his team died of cancer which began in the upper femurs. Nuclear warfare is dangerous business.

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 May 11 - 06:27 PM

Niece and her accessories checked out within the normal background radiation of our back porch. We did have to destroy some of the treats she brought back with her from Japan. She was there for about a week visiting a good friend and her family but is planning to return in a month or so and teach English south of Kyoto for at least a year.

Our old nuclear radiation monitoring unit, purchased in 1997, is a Radalert, manufactured in the USA buy International Mecom; it detects alpha, beta, gamma and X radiation. You can purchase a newer upgraded one for about $500.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 07 May 11 - 06:54 PM

Don't let them get by with oh we overlooked checking out the health of the workers in the plant. This was deliberately avoided for financial or legal reasons or callous disregard for those they considered expendable. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
From: gnu
Date: 07 May 11 - 06:59 PM

Charley... are you monitoring radiation on a daily basis?