Fukushima apocalypse...

[Jordan]

I doubt many people know about this as its not reported on any news stations here that I've seen on TV. I have news on my phone from a few different sources and the only one that talks about it RT news. AP and BBC also CNN no mention of it that I've noticed.

I wonder how our Bro. and Sis. in Japan are faring?

 

For a while they were telling the public in Japan everything was just fine. So I doubt they would actually tell anyone the truth as it might cause panic. There have been many there that I've been reading about that were labeled "tinfoil hats" (conspiracy theorists) that were telling the public the truth from the beginning but the quickest way to deflect any issue is marginalize them with a debasing title. Everyone is on board for not wanting to look like Jerry Fletcher.

 

So now were seeing that things might be getting out of control and more is becoming public about the scary facts. I wouldn't be surprised if there is radiation in places no one aware of at the moment and we'll get the big surprise soon. Really looks like they are running scared now, panicking a bit.

Guess we'll see.

 

[Lin ASL Ebron]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGsz15CC4pw

 

Examples of the human impact from such events.  It's really tragic that money and maintenance of this system trumps human well being.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb6txRfYS24

 

Man's inhumanity to man, Solomon was right about man's domination.

[Jewelz]

Apparently so far the US FDA isn't testing the seafood.

This report from the UN also downplays any risk ...

http://www.unep.org/newscentre/Default.aspx?DocumentID=2716&ArticleID=9518&l=en

Makes you wonder how soon Jehovah?

[Jordan]

Apparently so far the US FDA isn't testing the seafood.

This report from the UN also downplays any risk ...

http://www.unep.org/newscentre/Default.aspx?DocumentID=2716&ArticleID=9518&l=en

Makes you wonder how soon Jehovah?

 

Here's some interesting things to look it -- they are finding radiation in Milk in Cali.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/31/radiation-in-milk_n_843068.html

 

It's also showing up in food and meats at higher levels and here's the interesting and I think telling thing. If you look at what they are doing and not saying as usual you see they are not the same. Because of the higher levels found in the water (181 times what they normally are) they (EPA) decided to raise the levels so now you are safe again because they can say they are within safe levels... in some cases they say up to 100,000 times what it is now.

 

http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/node/2162

 

Just like in Japan they told people it was 131 (and it's not just C131) at safe levels but now people are finding out it's lingering much longer then it should so levels are not safe and there is more being dispersed all the time. Again the opposite of what they said. Don't put your faith in nobles

 

http://enenews.com/epa-finds-drinking-water-radioactive-iodine-131-idaho-washington-samples-collected-last-week

 

http://enenews.com/cnn-clearly-the-radiation-has-not-dissipated-cesium-in-seafood-off-california-raises-a-lot-of-alarm-bells-implications-for-tsunami-debris-video

 

The things being done right now, right under everyones nose is comically insane. And of course this is only the things were being told, I'm sure there's a lot going on we are not yet aware of. The EPA is constantly raising allowable limits of poisons in our foods.

Look into what they are going to do with Glyphosate. They are going to raise it massively. It's just greed driven insanity. The world and it's leaders have really gone mad, no kidding. I mean if people really had their eye's open and were watching what was happening all around them they would be running for the exit doors. But some how, "these are not the droids you are looking for...." is actually working.

 

It's just crazy and the more you look at things the more you realize how dire all these things really are.

Edited August 20, 2013 by Jordan

[Jewelz]

Zombies ...

[Jewelz]

Finally made BBC news...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23764382

[Jordan]

Zombies ...

 

haha

[User_123]

an acquaintance at work said he read that there was some sort of secret facility at fukushima and they were using the spent rods to make weapons. he also said they couldn't find the cores and thry could melt through the earth!

also, i remember when this happened, i heard a fox reporter state that the disaster was so bad that Tokyo would need to be evacuated by 2015. i never heard it again.

[izzydee83]

I feel SO much safer knowing the human authorities can simply raise the levels of poisons we're allowed to be exposed to. 

[Jordan]

I feel SO much safer knowing the human authorities can simply raise the levels of poisons we're allowed to be exposed to. 

 

Problem solved...

[Jordan]

Japan to issue gravest Fukushima nuclear warning in two years: agency

 

By Kentaro Hamada and James Topham

TOKYO | Tue Aug 20, 2013 11:29pm EDT

 

(Reuters) - Japan will dramatically raise its warning about the severity of a toxic water leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant, its nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday, its most serious action since the plant was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

 

 

The deepening crisis at the Fukushima plant will be upgraded from a level 1 "anomaly" to a level three "serious incident" on an international scale for radiological releases, a spokesman for Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said.

 

That will mark the first time Japan has issued a warning on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) since three reactor meltdowns after the massive quake in March 2011.

 

 

Water still leaking from the plant is so contaminated that a person standing close to it for an hour would receive five times the annual recommended limit for nuclear workers in a year.

 

A maximum level 7 was declared at the battered plant after explosions led to a loss of power and cooling two years ago, confirming Fukushima as the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl a quarter of a century earlier.

Contaminated water with dangerously high levels of radiation is leaking from a storage tank at Fukushima, the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Tuesday. The leak was classified as an "anomaly" earlier this week.

The NRA's impending assessment upgrade came in a document posted on the agency's website on Wednesday, with formal adoption to follow a meeting that is being held by the authority's commissioners, the NRA spokesman said by telephone.

 

 

"Judging from the amount and the density of the radiation in the contaminated water that leaked ... a level 3 assessment is appropriate," the document said.

The leak, which has not been plugged, is so contaminated that a person standing 50 cm (1.6 feet) away would, within an hour, receive a radiation dose five times the average annual global limit for nuclear workers.

After 10 hours, a worker in that proximity to the leak would develop radiation sickness with symptoms including nausea and a drop in white blood cells.

 

Each one-step INES increase represents a tenfold increase in severity, according to a factsheet on the website of the International Atomic Energy Agency. (www.iaea.org/)

 

 

 

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/21/us-japan-fukushima-severity-idUSBRE97K02B20130821

Edited August 21, 2013 by Jordan

[Jewelz]

They wonder why the sea lions pups are washing up on shore in California, and why the dolphins are beaching themselves? REALLY!

http://articles.dailypress.com/2013-08-09/news/dp-nws-dolphin-strandings-update-20130809_1_dolphin-deaths-mortality-event-strandings

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130319-sea-lions-pups-strandings-california-animals-science/

[Bluebell]

Japan nuclear agency upgrades Fukushima alert level

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23776345

 

Japan's nuclear agency has upgraded the severity level of a radioactive water leak at the Fukushima plant from one to three on an international scale.

[Jordan]

Radioactive Water From Fukushima Is Systematically Poisoning The Entire Pacific Ocean

 

 

Right now, a massive amount of highly radioactive water is escaping into the Pacific Ocean from the ruins of the destroyed Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan.  This has been going on all day, every day for more than two years.  The enormous amounts of tritium, cesium and strontium that are being released are being carried by wind, rain and ocean currents all over the northern Hemisphere.  And of course the west coast of the United States is being hit particularly hard.  When you drink water or eat seafood that has been contaminated with these radioactive particles, they can stick around for a very long time.  Over the coming years, this ongoing disaster could potentially affect the health of millions upon millions of people living in the northern hemisphere, and the sad thing is that a lot of those people will never even know the true cause of their health problems.

 

For a long time, the Japanese government has been trusting Tepco to handle this crisis, but now it has become abundantly clear that Tepco has no idea what they are doing.  In fact, the flow of radioactive water has gotten so bad that authorities in Japan are now calling it an “emergency”…

 

 

The amount of water that we are talking about is absolutely enormous.  According to Yahoo, 400 metric tons of water is being pumped into the basements of destroyed buildings at Fukushima every single day…

Highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is creating an “emergency” that the operator is struggling to contain, an official from the country’s nuclear watchdog said on Monday.

This contaminated groundwater has breached an underground barrier, is rising toward the surface and is exceeding legal limits of radioactive discharge, Shinji Kinjo, head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) task force, told Reuters.

And of course all of that water has to go somewhere.  For a long time Tepco tried to deny that it was getting into the ocean, but now they are  finally admitting that it is…

 

 

The utility pumps out some 400 metric tons a day of groundwater flowing from the hills above the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the basements of the destroyed buildings, which mixes with highly irradiated water that is used to cool the reactors in a stable state below 100 degrees Celsius.

 

 

Tepco is trying to prevent groundwater from reaching the plant by building a “bypass” but recent spikes of radioactive elements in sea water has prompted the utility to reverse months of denials and finally admit that tainted water is reaching the sea.

 

 

40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium have gotten into the Pacific Ocean?

 

Tepco said on Friday that a cumulative 20 trillion to 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium had probably leaked into the sea since the disaster. The company said this was within legal limits.

Tritium is far less harmful than cesium and strontium, which have also been released from the plant. Tepco is scheduled to test strontium levels next.

And that is what they are publicly admitting.  The reality is probably far worse.

 

And all of that tritium is going to be around for a very long time.  You see, the truth is that tritium has a half-life of about 12 years.

But strontium is even worse.  Strontium can cause bone cancer and it has a half-life of close to 29 years.

 

And now Tepco is admitting that extremely dangerous levels of strontium have been escaping from Fukushima and getting into the underground water.  And of course the underground water flows out into the Pacific Ocean…

Tepco said in late June that it had detected the highly toxic strontium-90, a by-product of nuclear fission that can cause bone cancer if ingested, at levels 30 times the permitted rate.

The substances, which were released by the meltdowns of reactors at the plant in the aftermath of the huge tsunami of March 2011, were not absorbed by soil and have made their way into underground water.

Subsoil water usually flows out to sea, meaning these two substances could normally make their way into the ocean, possibly affecting marine life and ultimately impacting humans who eat sea creatures.

Cesium has an even longer half-life than strontium does.  It has a half life of about 30 years, and according to samples that were taken about a month ago levels of cesium at Fukushima have been spiking dramatically…

Samples taken on Monday showed levels of possibly cancer-causing caesium-134 were more than 90 times higher than they were on Friday, at 9000 becquerels per litre, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) revealed.

Levels of caesium-137 stood at 18 000 becquerels per litre, 86 times higher than at the end of last week, the utility said.

 

“We still don’t know why the level of radiation surged, but we are continuing efforts to avert further expansion of contamination,” a Tepco spokesperson stated.

When cesium gets into your body, it can do a tremendous amount of damage.  The following is an excerpt from a NewScientist article that described what happens when cesium and iodine enter the human body…

Moreover the human body absorbs iodine and caesium readily. “Essentially all the iodine or caesium inhaled or swallowed crosses into the blood,” says

Keith Baverstock

, former head of radiation protection for the World Health Organization’s European office, who has studied Chernobyl’s health effects.

 

Iodine is rapidly absorbed by the thyroid, and leaves only as it decays radioactively, with a half-life of eight days. Caesium is absorbed by muscles, where its half-life of 30 years means that it remains until it is excreted by the body. It takes between 10 and 100 days to excrete half of what has been consumed.

And it is important to keep in mind that it has been estimated that each spent fuel pool at the Fukushima nuclear complex could have 24,000 times the amount of cesium that was produced by the nuclear bomb that the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War 2.

 

Overall, the Fukushima nuclear facility originally contained a whopping 1760 tons of nuclear material.

 

That is a massive amount of nuclear material.  Chernobyl only contained 180 tons.

 

And of course the crisis at Fukushima could be made even worse at any moment by a major earthquake.  In fact, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit northern Japan on Sunday.

 

This is a nightmare that has no end.  Every single day, massive amounts of highly radioactive water from Fukushima is systematically poisoning the entire Pacific Ocean.  The damage that is being done is absolutely incalculable.

[Jordan]

They wonder why the sea lions pups are washing up on shore in California, and why the dolphins are beaching themselves? REALLY!

http://articles.dailypress.com/2013-08-09/news/dp-nws-dolphin-strandings-update-20130809_1_dolphin-deaths-mortality-event-strandings

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130319-sea-lions-pups-strandings-california-animals-science/

 

 

I've read some other things in that same light. I don't know if it's actually connected or not, I mean it could be a really really slow game of connect the dots but they are finding some strange things right now to be sure. It's possible that it's something else.

 

http://enenews.com/biologist-pacific-herring-in-canada-bleeding-from-eyeballs-faces-fins-tails-ive-never-seen-fish-looking-this-bad-all-100-caught-were-bleeding-hemorrhaging-first-noticed-in-summer-of-201

 

The Globe and Mail, Aug 13, 2013 (Emphasis Added): Independent fisheries scientist Alexandra Morton is raising concerns about a disease she says is spreading through Pacific herring causing fish to hemorrhage. [...] “Two days ago I did a beach seine on Malcolm Island [near Port McNeill on northern Vancouver Island] and I got approximately 100 of these little herring and they were not only bleeding from their fins, but their bellies, their chins, their eyeballs.  [...] “It was 100 per cent … I couldn’t find any that weren’t bleeding to some degree. And they were schooling with young sockeye %5Bsalmon%5D”

SOURCE: Alexandra Morton via Vancouver 24 hrs

Sun News, Aug 12, 2013: [Morton] dragged up several hundred of the fish this past weekend and found the apparent infection had spread – instead of their usual silver colour the fish had eyes, tails, underbellies, gills and faces plastered with the sickly red colour. “I have never seen fish that looked this bad,” [...] In June, the affected fish were only found in eastern Johnstone Strait, but have since spread to Alert Bay and Sointula, she said.

Canada.com, Aug 16, 2013: Morton [...] pulled up a net of about 100 herring near Sointula and found they were all bleeding. “It was pretty shocking to see,” said Morton [...] Herring school with small sockeye salmon and are also eaten by chinook and coho.

Cover of Vancouver 24 hrs (SOURCE: Alexandra Morton)

 

‘Response’ from Canadian Government

Vancouver 24 hrs, Aug 11, 2013: [Morton] says Fisheries and Oceans Canada [FOC] is ignoring the problem. [...] According to emails from FOC, the federal authority had asked the marine biologist to send in 20 to 30 herring in September 2011, saying that would be “more than sufficient for the lab to look for clinical signs of disease and provide sufficient diagnostics.” She did, and hasn’t heard back since. [...] FOC officials did not respond to a request for comment by the 24 hours presstime.

 

Canada.com, Aug 16, 2013: Fisheries and Oceans Canada is trying to confirm reports from an independent biologist that herring around northern Vancouver Island have a disease that is causing bleeding from their gills, bellies and eyeballs. [...] Arlene Tompkins of DFO’s [Department of Fisheries and Oceans'] salmon assessment section said staff in the Port Hardy area have not found bleeding herring. “We are trying to retrieve samples, but %5BMonday%5D we were not successful because of heavy fog,” she said. “We haven’t had any other reports of fish kills or die-offs [see salmon report below].” Tompkins has seen photographs provided by Morton [...]

(MAP)

UPDATE: Canadian official publicly claims 'no concern' over new Fukushima leak info... Yet privately requested tests on salmon, due to "great public co

 

[Lin ASL Ebron]

I guess their hoping all that "dumbing down" via the public school system will kick in.  No questions, no worries  

 

Keep'em entertained with Big Brother, football season will be starting soon, maybe no one will notice.

 

Talk about taking no note...

 

They "accumulate teachers for themselves" on so many levels, it really boggles the mind.

 

Thank goodness we serve Jehovah and know He will not allow man's ineptitude to destroy this planet nor all life on it.

[trottigy]

Thanks Lin. I think I will stick my head back in the sand and not worry about this - knowing Jehovah has it ALL under control. Meanwhile - back to the preaching work, eh?

[Jordan]

Thanks Lin. I think I will stick my head back in the sand and not worry about this - knowing Jehovah has it ALL under control. Meanwhile - back to the preaching work, eh?

 

I think Lin's just stating the obvious - we don't worry to much about those things because we know whats in store, just a tad different then the world. Which is why we can use this a added motivation to help those that are putting their heads in the sand to act on the only real solution, Jehovah's kingdom. The more this becomes a news item the more people are going to talk about it.

 

 

That made me check on SE and found that this thread is ranking #2 on duckduckgo.com and #6 on Google search results for the subject. It's nice to know that people will come here and not see us overly concerned about it because we know what Jehovah has in store and they can also benefit from the conversation because we are also talking about the only legitimate solution there is for mankind.

 

Of course we are worried about our brothers and sisters in and near Fukushima. I   Fukushima stands out as one of those items on a long list that shows that man isn't in control of what he is doing. I'm wondering how many (brothers and sisters), in the end, will be affected by this. I know right after it happened that 1 was missing and we lost another

But haven't heard much after that.

 

Like you said Jdog.. back to that preaching work!

Edited August 21, 2013 by Jordan

[Jordan]

oo ooo look what I found.

http://m.wol.jw.org/en/wol/pc/r1/lp-e/1200273029/519/5

[trottigy]

oo ooo look what I found.

http://m.wol.jw.org/en/wol/pc/r1/lp-e/1200273029/519/5

 

Sad -

 

Of the more than 14,000 Witnesses in the disaster area, 12 are confirmed dead and 2 are still missing.

 

You are soo right - only Kingdom of God will fix this mess. Good thing it lasts 1,000yrs. That should be long enough to clean all this up - with a little blessing from Jehovah thru His son - the King Jesus.

 

I better brush on my Nuclear Waste clean up skills 

 

ED> I don't want you guys to have all the fun 

Edited August 21, 2013 by trottigy

[Jordan]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23779561

 

Fukushima leak is 'much worse than we were led to believe'

 

A nuclear expert has told the BBC that he believes the current water leaks at Fukushima are much worse than the authorities have stated.

 

Mycle Schneider is an independent consultant who has previously advised the French and German governments.

He says water is leaking out all over the site and there are no accurate figures for radiation levels.

Meanwhile the chairman of Japan's nuclear authority said that he feared there would be further leaks.

 

The ongoing problems at the Fukushima plant increased in recent days when the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) admitted that around 300 tonnes of highly radioactive water had leaked from a storage tank on the site.

Moment of crisis

 

The Japanese nuclear energy watchdog raised the incident level from one to three on the international scale that measures the severity of atomic accidents.

 

Continue reading the main story

It is leaking out from the basements, it is leaking out from the cracks all over the place”

Mycle Schneider Nuclear consultant:

 

This was an acknowledgement that the power station was in its greatest crisis since the reactors melted down after the tsunami in 2011.

But some nuclear experts are concerned that the problem is a good deal worse than either Tepco or the Japanese government are willing to admit.

 

They are worried about the enormous quantities of water, used to cool the reactor cores, which are now being stored on site

 

 

Some 1,000 tanks have been built to hold the water. But these are believed to be at around 85% of their capacity and every day an extra 400 tonnes of water are being added.

 

 

"The quantities of water they are dealing with are absolutely gigantic," said Mycle Schneider, who has consulted widely for a variety of organisations and countries on nuclear issues.

 

 

"What is the worse is the water leakage everywhere else - not just from the tanks. It is leaking out from the basements, it is leaking out from the cracks all over the place. Nobody can measure that.

 

 

Satellite images show how the number of water storage tanks has increased in the past two years. The tanks store contaminated water that has been used to cool the reactors.

 

 

"It is much worse than we have been led to believe, much worse," said Mr Schneider, who is lead author for the World Nuclear Industry status reports.

At news conference, the head of Japan's nuclear regulation authority Shunichi Tanaka appeared to give credence to Mr Schneider's concerns, saying that he feared there would be further leaks.

``We should assume that what has happened once could happen again, and prepare for more. We are in a situation where there is no time to waste," he told reporters.

 

The lack of clarity about the water situation and the continued attempts by Tepco to deny that water was leaking into the sea has irritated many researchers.

 

 

Dr Ken Buesseler is a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who has examined the waters around Fukushima.

"It is not over yet by a long shot, Chernobyl was in many ways a one week fire-explosive event, nothing with the potential of this right on the ocean."

 

 

"We've been saying since 2011 that the reactor site is still leaking whether that's the buildings and the ground water or these new tank releases. There's no way to really contain all of this radioactive water on site."

"Once it gets into the ground water, like a river flowing to the sea, you can't really stop a ground water flow. You can pump out water, but how many tanks can you keep putting on site?"

Several scientists also raised concerns about the vulnerability of the huge amount of stored water on site to another earthquake.

Water from the storage tanks has seeped into the groundwater and then into the sea. Efforts to use a chemical barrier to prevent sea contamination have not worked.

New health concerns

 

 

The storage problems are compounded by the ingress of ground water, running down from the surrounding hills. It mixes with radioactive water leaking out of the basements of the reactors and then some of it leaches into the sea, despite the best efforts of Tepco to stem the flow.

 

 

Some of the radioactive elements like caesium that are contained in the water can be filtered by the earth. Others are managing to get through and this worries watching experts.

 

 

"Our biggest concern right now is if some of the other isotopes such as strontium 90 which tend to be more mobile, get through these sediments in the ground water," said Dr Buesseler.

 

 

"They are entering the oceans at levels that then will accumulate in seafood and will cause new health concerns."

There are also worries about the spent nuclear fuel rods that are being cooled and stored in water pools on site. Mycle Schneider says these contain far more radioactive caesium than was emitted during the explosion at Chernobyl.

 

 

"There is absolutely no guarantee that there isn't a crack in the walls of the spent fuel pools. If salt water gets in, the steel bars would be corroded. It would basically explode the walls, and you cannot see that; you can't get close enough to the pools," he said.

The "worsening situation" at Fukushima has prompted a former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland to call for the withdrawal of Tokyo's Olympic bid.

 

 

In a letter to the UN secretary general, Mitsuhei Murata says the official radiation figures published by Tepco cannot be trusted. He says he is extremely worried about the lack of a sense of crisis in Japan and abroad.

 

 

This view is shared by Mycle Schneider, who is calling for an international taskforce for Fukushima.

"The Japanese have a problem asking for help. It is a big mistake; they badly need it."

[Jordan]

"Tepco Has Lost Control" - What Is Really Happening At Fukushima In Four Charts.

 

 

After a self-imposed gag order by the mainstream media on any coverage of the Fukushima disaster (ostensibly the last thing the irradiated Japanese citizens needed is reading beyond the lies of their benevolent government, and TEPCO, and finding out just how bad the reality is especially since the key driver behind Abenomics is a return in confidence at all costs), the biggest nuclear catastrophe in history is once again receiving the attention it deserves. This follows the recent admission by TEPCO of the biggest leak reported at Fukushima to date, which forced the Japanese government to raise the assessment of Fukushima from Level 1 to Level 3, even though this is merely the catalyst of what has been a long and drawn out process in which Tepco has tried everything it could to contain the fallout from the exploded NPP, and failed. And today, in a startling and realistic assessment of Fukushima two and a half years after the explosion, the WSJ finally tells the truth: "Tepco Has Lost Control."

Here is how the mainstream media, in this case the Wall Street Journal, catches up with a topic covered extensively in the "alternative" media for the past several years:

 

 

"

This is what we have been fearing

," said Shunichi Tanaka, chair of Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority, answering questions about the leak at a news conference. "We cannot waste even a minute" to take action.

 

Behind the leak is a more serious problem: During the past few months

it has become clear that Tepco has lost control

over the flow of water at the plant and that the problem is escalating

, nuclear experts say.

 

Every day, the utility has to find a place to store around 400 tons of contaminated water that it pumps out of the radioactive reactor buildings, and Wednesday it warned that it is fast running out of space

. Storage tanks set up on the fly during plant emergencies have started springing leaks, and Tepco can't replace them with sturdier ones fast enough. Groundwater-contamination levels are spiking at the seaward side of the plant, and

water is flowing into the ocean past a series of walls, plugs and barriers that have been flung up to impede its passage

.

What does "losing control" mean in practical terms?

 

 

That lack of control is a big liability, said Kathryn Higley, a specialist in the spread of radiation and head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics at Oregon State University, who spent a week in Fukushima earlier this year.

 

"You have to find ways to control water coming through the site,"

Ms

. Higley said. "With any sort of accident, you want to control the timing of what's released and when it gets released."

 

So far, the levels of radioactivity that have escaped to the outside remain relatively low, but some experts warn they may not stay that way—particularly as equipment ages and the heavy-duty work of dismantling the damaged buildings and removing the melted fuel rods proceeds.

The radioactivity of the water in the most recent leak was so high that workers couldn't get close enough to search for the cause until the remaining fluid in the tank was removed

.

 

Tepco said it doesn't think that water has flowed into the sea

but can't say for sure

. Some of the flooded reactor basements are similarly too hot to approach,

and it is still not clear where the melted fuel cores are,

or in what state.

The last statement bears repeating: "it is still not clear where the melted fuel cores are." Well as long as TEPCO is 100% confident there are no uncontrolled chain reactions taking place... Then again hundreds of tons of coolant must be cooling something.

 

 

"In the future there might be even more heavily contaminated water coming through

," said Atsunao Marui, head of the groundwater research group at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and a member of a blue-ribbon panel set up in May to figure out ways of managing the radioactive water. "

It's important to think of the worst-case scenario

."

Indeed the "worst-case scenario" is an appropriate topic because as covered here over the weekend, it involves the potential death of millions of largely oblivious Japanese citizens.  As for the long overdue mea culpa by a nationalized TEPCO, which also speaks for the entire Japanese government, it sounds hollow at best and makes one wonder what else is left unsaid.

 

 

Mr. Marui and others say the biggest reason for the scramble now is that Tepco—and the government bodies that oversee it—

weren't planning far enough ahead and waited too long to respond to problems they should have seen coming long ago.

 

"They're only responding after the fact—they're not thinking ahead," said Hajimu Yamana, a professor of nuclear engineering at Kyoto University who earlier this month was named chair of a new institute charged with helping develop measures to tackle the longer-term work of dismantling the plant. "As an expert, I was watching it with frustration."

 

"

We have not remained idle, but we admit that we have been reactive

," Zengo Aizawa, Tepco executive vice president for nuclear public relations, said at a news conference Wednesday, during which the company was grilled about the leak. "

We are very, very sorry for causing concern.

"

The concerns are piling up. Earlier today Reuters reported that TEPCO "admitted to new spots of high radiation had been found near storage tanks holding highly contaminated water, raising fear of fresh leaks as the disaster goes from bad to worse."

 

 

In an inspection carried out following the revelation of the leakage, high radiation readings - 100 millisieverts per hour and 70 millisieverts per hour - were recorded at the bottom of two tanks in a different part of the plant, Tepco said.

 

Although no puddles were found nearby and there were no noticeable changes in water levels in the tanks, the possibility of stored water having leaked out cannot be ruled out, a Tokyo Electric spokesman said.

The bottom line, and what has become painfully clear, is that Japan simply can't fix the problem. Even China has now figured it out.

 

 

China said it was "shocked" to hear contaminated water was still leaking from the plant, and urged Japan to provide information "in a timely, thorough and accurate way".

What is strangest of all is that the Japanese people are far less concerned about the government's cover up. Oh well: they have their distractions - like a plunging currency, and (transitorily) soaring stock market, in nominal terms of course.

Finally the following four charts from the WSJ provide a full breakdown of the current state of play at the devastated nuclear power plant.

Full interactive charts can be found here

 

 

 

 

http://www.zerohedge.com/node/477904

[Jordan]

I don't know if anyone has seen this visual map before but it's pretty cool to watch and listen to.. hang on at about 1:51 into the video, Fukushima gets hit hard. Earthquakes leading up to, during and after Fukushima -

 

 

Edited August 24, 2013 by Jordan

[Jordan]

http://rt.com/news/fukushima-international-iaea-leak-866/

 

 

Fukushima operator pleads for international help as radiation crisis deepens

 

TEPCO, operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, admits it needs overseas help to contain the radioactive fallout, after 18 months of trying to control it internally. It comes after the latest leak at the facility was deemed a “serious incident.”

"Many other countries outside of Japan have experienced decommissioning reactors, so we hope we can consult them more and utilize their experience,” TEPCO’s vice president, Zengo Aizawa, said at a news conference on Wednesday night.

"In that sense, we need support, not only from the Japanese government but from the international community to do this job."

The call comes after one of the 1,060 temporary tanks used to store highly contaminated water sprang a leak on Wednesday, discharging as much as 300 tons of radioactive liquid containing large amounts of cesium. Further tests revealed excessive radiation levels elsewhere in the facility.

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) rated the incident 3 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, which spans from 1 to 7.

"The current situation is at the point where more surveillance won't be enough to keep the accidents from happening," declared Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the NRA.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that it is “taking this matter seriously and remains ready to provide assistance on request."

In the past, Japan has been averse to letting foreign entities help with eradicating the nuclear fallout from the Tohoku Disaster of March 2011. The vast majority of clear-up tenders were won by local companies, and outside experts have observed from afar.

The leak is the latest - and most serious - in a string of accidents that have kept the station in the headlines throughout the summer.

 

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) workers work on waste water tanks at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in the town of Okuma, Fukushima prefecture (AFP Photo / Pool/ Noboru Hashimoto)

TEPCO admitted that groundwater that floods the damaged basements of the destroyed reactors is becoming contaminated and flowing out into the ocean.  Three-hundred tons of the radioactive liquid reached the open water each day, even as TEPCO continued to deny the existence of the problem.

The financially-troubled company is attempting to construct a chemical and steel double barrier to stop this outflow, but the obstacle is not impermeable and  only covers a limited area - requiring water to be pumped away to stop it from building up and bursting through.

Its tanks, which are used to keep the coolant that prevents the damaged reactors from overheating dangerously, are considered to be unsuitable because they were made for other industrial purposes. They were adapted following the emergency, but they are nearly full. TEPCO estimates that it has already reached 85 percent capacity, although plans to create a more permanent facility have so far not materialized. The latest leak was the fifth time that toxic water escaped from a basin.

TEPCO has been slow in measuring the levels of radioactive elements that have flowed out of the station, as well as publishing its data.  The company finally revealed this month that highly unsafe tritium and cesium levels had been detected in the seawater near the plant. A concentration of these elements could damage the marine environment and build up in marine life, possibly endangering humans further up the food chain.

"The contaminated water remains a problem that could lead to a crisis," Aizawa conceded during the press call.

“Unfortunately, TEPCO waited until a severe emergency arose to finally report how bad things really are. Historically, everything TEPCO says always turns out to be much worse than they initially admit,” nuclear accident researcher Christina Consolo told RT.

Most experts say that it could take between four decades and a century to eliminate the impact of the Fukushima disaster.

[surfergirl]

This is so sad. Poor people who live near by the disaster

.

Poor creatures of the sea.