Nuclear powered space ships target Mars after 2035

An interplanetary spacecraft for a flight to Mars will be created not before 2025 and the maiden flight to the red planet will be possible only after 2035, said Russian space agency Roscosmos chief Anatoly Perminov Wednesday.

"The possibility of a flight to Mars needs to be combined with the construction of a spaceship having a new nuclear power propulsion unit, which will make it possible to reach the planet in a month," Perminov said in Russia's upper house of parliament.

He said the propulsion unit, which serves the purpose of changing the velocity of a spacecraft in the space, is to be built by 2019.

Some 7.2 billion rubles ($256 mln) are to be allocated as part of the state nuclear corporation Rosatom's innovation development programme in 2010-2018 on the joint project with Roscosmos to create a nuclear power unit-based transport module for the future spacecraft.

Answering questions from senators in the Federation Council, the Roscosmos head called flights to Mars on board existing spaceships "absurdity," and added that the prospective flight could only be organised on an international level.

Russia, as well as the US, have been developing technology to produce nuclear-powered spacecraft for decades. Roscosmos and NASA are planning to discuss the development of a nuclear-powered spaceship Friday during talks in Moscow.

via Mars flight possible after 2035.

Cesium-137 forecast shows high altitude radiation cloud concentrate over western US on April 12

YouTube - Cesium-137 forecast shows high altitude radiation cloud concentrate over western US on April 12.

The orientation of the globe is strange. The US is on the upper left and it is almost upside down. See it now?

Japan ups nuke crisis severity to match Chernobyl

Japan raised the crisis level at its crippled nuclear plant Tuesday to a severity on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing high overall radiation leaks that have contaminated the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater.

Japanese nuclear regulators said they raised the rating from 5 to 7 — the highest level on an international scale of nuclear accidents overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency — after new assessments of radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant since it was disabled by the March 11 tsunami.

The new ranking signifies a "major accident" that includes widespread effects on the environment and health, according to the Vienna-based IAEA. But Japanese officials played down any health effects and stressed that the harm caused by Chernobyl still far outweighs that caused by the Fukushima plant.

The revision came a day after the government added five communities to a list of places people should leave to avoid long-term radiation exposure. A 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius already had been cleared around the plant.

The news was received with chagrin by residents in Iitate, one of the five communities, where high levels of radiation have been detected in the soil. The village of 6,200 people is about 40 kilometers from the Fukushima plant.

"It's very shocking to me," said Miyuki Ichisawa, 52, who runs a coffee shop in Iitate. "Now the government is officially telling us this accident is at the same level of Chernobyl." ...

via Japan ups nuke crisis severity to match Chernobyl - Yahoo! News.

This is from yesterday, April 11, 2011:

Breaking news flash being reported on CNN says a new 7.1 earthquake hit Japan today at 8:08 AM local time  or 4:08 PM EST. Shortly after a new fire was reported at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

A plant operator is reported to have phoned in the report of the fire describing a fire and smoke coming from the reactor.

CNN said details will follow but so far TEPCO and the government of Japan have not made any statement on the fire.

The news of the new fire is breaking at the same time as news that Japan has officially admitted the Fukushima disaster is equal to Chernobyl and Japan has officially upgraded the Fukushima nuclear disaster to a level 7 incident.

Addressing the nuclear waste issue

Researchers from Northwestern University and Argonne National Laboratory have an enhanced understanding of a common freshwater alga and its remarkable ability to remove strontium from water. Insight into this mechanism ultimately could help scientists design methods to remove radioactive strontium from existing nuclear waste.

Strontium 90, a major waste component, is one of the more dangerous radioactive fission materials created within a nuclear reactor. It is present in the approximately 80 million gallons of radioactive waste sludge stored in the United States alone.

The researchers are the first to show quantitatively how Closterium moniliferum, one of the bright green algae often seen in ponds, sequesters strontium (in the form of barium-strontium-sulfate crystals). They are using this understanding to think about a practical sequestration system for nuclear waste that maximizes strontium removal. The possibilities include using the algae for direct bioremediation of waste or accidental spills in the environment or designing a new process for waste treatment inspired by how the algae work.

The results are published by the journal ChemSusChem, a sister journal of Angewandte Chemie.

"Nuclear waste cleanup is a problem we have to solve," said senior author Derk Joester, who experienced Chernobyl's radioactive fallout when he was a teenager living in southern Germany. "Even if all the nuclear reactors were to shut down tomorrow, the existing volume of waste is great, and it is costly to store. We need to isolate highly radioactive 'high-level' waste from 'low-level' waste. The algae offer a mechanism for doing this, which we would like to understand and optimize."

Even though strontium 90 doesn't appear to be a significant environmental threat following the nuclear accident in Japan, the radioactive isotope will need to be dealt with during the power plant and nuclear waste cleanup, Joester said. ...

via Addressing the nuclear waste issue.

For Farmers In Fukushima, Japan, Growing Uncertainty

Jason Beaubien - As Japan continues to grapple with the effects of the March 11 earthquake, the prefecture of Fukushima faces some of the biggest challenges.

Fukushima's roads were damaged in the earthquake, its coast was battered by the tsunami, and now leaking radiation around the crippled Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has made parts of the prefecture unlivable.

The tsunami pushed seawater more than 2 miles inland in some places. Rail lines in Fukushima — Japan's third-largest prefecture — were destroyed along the coast; train traffic still hasn't resumed through the prefecture. Radiation from the leaking nuclear complex has forced tens of thousands of residents from their homes. The sale of many vegetables from Fukushima has been banned.

Akio Nagato, the director general of the Fukushima governor's office, says the tsunami and earthquake mainly affected the coast but the radiation is affecting the entire prefecture, which spans more than 5,000 square miles.

Even outside the 12-mile mandatory evacuation zone around the Fukushima Dai-chi nuclear plant, Nagato says, businesses are packing up and moving. He says the cleanup along the coast has barely started because vehicles can't travel through the nuclear exclusion zone.

"We are not just talking about rebuilding houses," Nagato says, speaking of the Fukushima coast. "We are talking about places of work, ports, railroads all being unusable. We are talking about the big picture here. We are talking about putting everything back together."

Unsafe Food

The nuclear disaster is now also a disaster for Fukushima's farmers. The government has banned the sale of milk, spinach and other leafy vegetables, not just from here but also from neighboring prefectures.

The Japanese Health Ministry found that the radiation level in these foods exceeds legal limits for human consumption. This has left farmers such as Shinichi Asaka with goods they can't sell.

"We are going to have throw it out," he says through an interpreter, regarding rows and rows of green spinach. "Get a big tractor, load it up and throw it out. There's nothing else to do." ...

via For Farmers In Fukushima, Japan, Growing Uncertainty : NPR.

When Does a Nuclear Disaster End?

Those who think Japan's Fukushima disaster is today's headlines and tomorrow's history need to take a good look at the Chernobyl disaster, which to this day is a continuing threat to the people of Ukraine. It will be hundreds of years before the area around the destroyed reactor is inhabitable again and there are disputes over whether or not Chernobyl's nuclear fuel still poses a threat of causing another explosion. There is also a teetering reactor core cover and the deteriorating sarcophagus itself that may collapse and send plumes of radioactive dust in all directions.

via Activist Post: When Does a Nuclear Disaster End? Never..

Radiation from Japan detected in Cleveland

A researcher at Case Western Reserve University has detected tiny amounts of Iodine 131 from Japan in rainwater collected from the roof of a campus building.

Gerald Matisoff, professor of geology, said the presence of the isotope presents no danger to human health. He estimated the level of radiation is about one-tenth that of natural background radiation.

"In theory, the Iodine 131 could have come from any radioactive waste processing facility," Matisoff said. "But, we know it's from Japan. The isotope is being seen worldwide."

Matisoff and graduate student Mary Carson collect water on the roof of the A.W. Smith Building, on the campus quad, to monitor the particulates being carried in rain into Lake Erie.

Carson ran the analysis Friday and Matisoff verified the findings today.

via Radiation from Japan detected in Cleveland.

Some bad news:

At 1:45,  the newscaster states that a crane collapsed onto the fuel rods.   This is MOX fuel, meaning they damaged rods that contained plutonium.

Update: Confirmed:

Plutonium found in soil at the Fukushima nuclear complex heightened alarm on Tuesday over Japan's battle to contain the world's worst atomic crisis in 25 years, as pressure mounted on the prime minister to widen an evacuation zone around the plant. ...

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said plutonium was found at low-risk levels in five places at the facility, which was crippled by a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

A by-product of atomic reactions and also used in nuclear bombs, plutonium is highly carcinogenic and one of the most dangerous substances on the planet, experts say.

They believe some of the plutonium may have come from spent fuel rods at Fukushima or damage to reactor No. 3, the only one to use plutonium in its fuel mix. ... - reuters

Japan workers pulled out of reactor, as radiation soars

Reports from Japan say radioactivity in water at reactor 2 at the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant is 10 million times the usual level.

Workers trying to cool the reactor core to avoid a meltdown have been evacuated, Reuters news agency says.

Earlier, Japan's nuclear agency that levels of radioactive iodine in the sea near the plant have risen to 1,850 times the usual level.

The UN's nuclear agency has warned the crisis could go on for months.

It is believed the radiation at Fukushima is coming from one of the reactors, but a specific leak has not been identified.

Leaking water at reactor 2 has been measured at 1,000 millisieverts/hour - 10 million times higher than when the plant is operating normally.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), has been criticised for a lack of transparency and failing to provide information more promptly.

The nation's nuclear agency said the operator of the Fukushima plant had made a number of mistakes, including worker clothing. ...



via BBC News - Japan workers pulled out of reactor, as radiation soars.

Yes, worker clothing. For example, the stripes should be yellow to signify radiation and not blue. The ankle tape doesn't match the suit stripes, and the shoe colors are all over the place, blue, white, black. ... but the important thing is to get the cooling restored, stop the meltdowns  and contain the leaks!

Sorry, this is really no joking matter. Things could get much worse than they are. Yes, radiation from Japan has been detected in China now, but the thing that I'm concerned about is the plutonium in No. 3 reactor. I was told by a nuclear physicist  that Japan will be nothing like Chernobyl because there won't be an explosion. He said there won't be an explosion because Chernobyl was secretly using bomb material.

Well, it seems the same is true of the reactors in Japan...

The battle to regain control of Japan's stricken nuclear power plant suffered a setback Friday when regulators discovered a reactor core could be leaking radiation. Work was halted amid fears of serious radioactive contamination emanating from the troubled Fukushima Dai-Ichi complex.

"It's very possible that there has been some kind of leak at the No. 3 reactor," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Authorities are particularly worried because the No. 3 reactor uses plutonium - more toxic than the pure uranium used in the others. "We must remain vigilant," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said, calling the situation "grave."

via nydailynews

Don't worry, although some say plutonium is the most toxic substance on earth and that a small amount of plutonium widely dispersed could kill every person on earth...

The Mixed Oxide Fuel (MOX) reactor which burns with plutonium/uranium is more deadly than those burning on uranium enriched fuel, according to nuclear experts. The Half-life of Plutonium-239 in MOX is 24,000 years and just a few milligrams of P-239 escaping in a smoke plume will contaminate soil for tens of thousands of years. ... - link

... the danger may be overestimated:

Isotopes and compounds of plutonium are dangerous due to their radioactivity. ... The alpha radiation plutonium emits does not penetrate the skin but can irradiate internal organs when plutonium is inhaled or ingested. ... Plutonium is more dangerous when inhaled than when ingested. The risk of lung cancer increases once the total dose equivalent of inhaled radiation exceeds 400 mSv....  studies generally do not show especially high plutonium toxicity or plutonium-induced cancer results. "There were about 25 workers from Los Alamos National Laboratory who inhaled a considerable amount of plutonium dust during the 1940's; according to the hot-particle theory, each of them has a 99.5% chance of being dead from lung cancer by now, but there has not been a single lung cancer among them. ... Plutonium has a metallic taste. - wiki

Inhalation of about 20 milligrams of plutonium dust of optimal size would be necessary to cause death within roughly a month from pulmonary fibrosis or pulmonary edema - llnl.gov

One web site says Japan's reactors had at least 446 kilograms of plutonium, and it just has to collect in the right place to cause an explosion.

OVER the next few weeks, two ships carrying a secret cargo of dangerous, nuclear weapons-usable plutonium fuel will leave ports in Britain and France and sail around the globe to Japan. On board will be fuel containing more plutonium than in the entire Indian and Pakistani nuclear weapons programmes.... The two British flagged vessels... will leave... Britain and ... France carrying the first commercial shipment to Japan of mixed-oxide (MOX) reactor fuel, made from plutonium and uranium. An estimated 446 kilograms of plutonium is contained in the 40 nuclear fuel elements – enough fissile material to construct 60 nuclear bombs.  ... The first plant to use MOX is scheduled to be Fukushima 1, plant. The date has been set to August 22nd, 2010.

Yes, if MOX was used, things could get much worse for Japan. Don't inhale an aspirin sized amount of plutonium or you will expire within a month.  That 446 Kg of Plutonium would only, however, be able to horribly kill about 22.3 million people based on 20 mg being the lethal dose.

The actual deaths would be way less than that due to dispersion, probably under 1 million due to increased cancer. That's just spit-balling.

One site says Chernobyl resulted in 985,000 deaths world wide during the 18 years from the disaster up to 2004 (that's 55,555 extra deaths per year) and the nuclear plant disasters at Japan, since they use MOX, could end up being like like Chernobyl on steroids.

The "steroids" scenario would be terrible, but would it make a dent in our population problem?

The human population is growing by 81.1  million people per year and the rate of growth is increasing day by day. Ten times the radiation of Chernobyl would cause only 555,550 extra cancer deaths per year. To stop our viral reproduction, we would need a disaster that was 1,460 times worse than Chernobyl.

Personally, I'm for birth control. Stop breeding, then the Illuminati won't have to cause earthquakes and plant computer viruses that trigger plutonium releases in Japan. Okay, I'm pretty sure I'm kidding here... pretty sure... Stuxnet reached Japan but there is no evidence I've seen that it infected any of the failed reactors as some claim:

... this computer virus "Stuxnet" effectively disabled the fail-safe defense system of the Japanese nuclear reactors and was synchronized to take place at the time of the 9.0 (newest calculations: 9.1) quake. ... We can also divulge that the 9.0 - 9.1 earthquake and tsunami that hit the nation of Japan was a meteorological terrorist attack launched against Japan by the out-of-control New World Order (NWO) elite who have decided that at least 25% of the world's population must be eliminated before the final financial meltdown collapses the world economy. - link

Believe this stuff at your own risk. I'm still not detecting any higher radiation levels.

Japan Nuclear Crisis: A Worm IN The Works?

...the Stuxnet Virus attacked SIEMENS operated plants.  The plant at Fukushima is run on Siemens software. When Stuxnet was released, it went Everywhere, even though it was "allegedly" an attack on Irans Bushhier plant ...

The worm itself now appears to have included two major components. One was designed to send Iran’s nuclear centrifuges spinning wildly out of control.

Another seems right out of the movies:

The computer program also secretly recorded what normal operations at the nuclear plant looked like, then played those readings back to plant operators, like a pre-recorded security tape in a bank heist, so that it would appear that everything was operating normally while the centrifuges were actually tearing themselves apart.

via Japan Nuclear Crisis: A Worm IN The Works

... Stuxnet was in Japan last October, presumably still spreading and intended to wreck nuclear power plants.

... So now the difficulty the Fukushima nuclear plant operators faced in recovering control over their runaway reactors takes on a darker significance. Remember that the first problem following the quake was that the automated shutdown systems failed to operate at some of the reactors, because pumps failed and valves would not open even while running on batteries; the very sorts of mischief Stuxnet supposedly was designed to cause at Iran's power station.

via WindowtoPalestine

Hypothetical: Stuxnet infects water cooling pump PLC, earthquake strikes and Stuxnet is activated, disabling cooling systems. I can say with near certainty that this plant utilized PLC's that can be infected by the worm.

via AboveTopSecret

Interesting conspiracy theory, but it is shot down by this post:

All safety related systems at Fukushima are controlled by relay based logic. In other words, its impossible to modify the programming short of rewiring the relays.
via AboveTopSecret

Radioactive Fallout Reaches U.S.

Radioactive fallout from Japan's crippled nuclear plant has reached Southern California but the first readings are far below levels that could pose a health hazard, a diplomat said Friday.

The diplomat, who has access to radiation tracking by the U.N.'s Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, cited readings from a California-based measuring station of the group.

Initial readings are "about a billion times beneath levels that would be health threatening," the diplomat told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because the CTBTO does not make its findings public.

The organization forecast earlier this week that some radioactivity would reach Southern California by Friday. A CTBTO graphic obtained Thursday by the AP showed a moving plume reaching the U.S. mainland after racing across the Pacific and swiping the Aleutian Islands.

The diplomat's comments backed up expectations by IAEA officials and independent experts that radiation levels -- which are relatively low outside of the immediate vicinity of the Japanese plant -- would dissipate so strongly by the time it reached the U.S. coastline that it would pose no health risk whatsoever to residents.

While set up to monitor atmospheric nuclear testing, the CTBTO's worldwide network of stations can detect earthquakes, tsunamis and fallout from nuclear accidents such as the disaster on Japan's northeastern coast that was set off by a massive earthquake and a devastating tsunami a week ago.

Since then, emergency crews have been trying to restore the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant's cooling system and prevent overheated fuel rods from releasing massive doses of radioactivity.

Japanese officials on Friday reclassified the rating of the accident at the plant from Level 4 to Level 5 on a seven-level international scale, putting it on a par with the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. The International Nuclear Event Scale defines a Level 4 incident as having local consequences and a Level 5 as having wider consequences.

Nuclear experts have been saying for days that Japan was underplaying the severity of the nuclear crisis.

Yukiya Amano, the head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Organization, left for Tokyo on Thursday to assess the situation. He plans to return on the weekend and to brief the IAEA's 35-nation board in an emergency session Monday.

In Geneva, the World Health Organization said Tokyo's radiation levels are increasing but are still not a health risk, and the group sees no reason to ban travel to Japan because of its nuclear crisis. ...

via Source: Minuscule Radioactive Fallout Reaches U.S. - FoxNews.com.

DNA is constantly repairing itself and it is constantly being broken. There is no safe level of radiation, it is just that our bodies will most likely repair the damage from radiation at a certain level... most likely. DNA that is not repaired can cause cell death and then our bodies clean up the dead cell. No problem. But some DNA damage causes a mutation and the cell can become cancerous. It's like playing the lottery. The more you play, the more chances you have to win.

Sales of Geiger counters and potassium iodide spike after Japan earthquake

Sales of Geiger counters and potassium iodide supplements that can block some radiation have surged nationwide since Friday, fueled by concerns among some Americans that radiation released from Japanese nuclear plants could spread to the United States. ... potassium iodide supplements — which can protect the thyroid gland if taken before or shortly after a person is exposed to radiation but do not protect other body parts or prevent damage from other radioactive substances — are either sold out or selling quickly at several Chicago-area stores.

"I've had probably upwards of 100 calls in the last few days concerning this product," said Brennan Cox, an assistant manager at The Vitamin Shoppe in Lincoln Park. He said the store's handful of 2-ounce bottles were gone by Saturday.

True Nature Foods in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood also was sold out of potassium iodide Tuesday. That store and Kramers Health Foods in the Loop, which still had some potassium iodide in stock, have been unable to place new orders, employees at both stores said.

Deerfield-based Walgreen Co. reported that its stores on the West Coast have been receiving inquiries about potassium iodide, but the company does not stock the product, spokesman Jim Cohn said.

Meanwhile, companies that sell Geiger counters have been overwhelmed with orders.

"The phone has been ringing off the hook," said Raphael Karunditu, president of California-based Gamma-Scout. "We have hundreds upon hundreds of orders, and our partner in Germany is talking about thousands of orders at his site." ...

via Sales of Geiger counters and potassium iodide spike after Japan earthquake. - latimes.com.

I have a few more times open this weekend (March 19 &20) if you'd like your Sacramento area home checked for radiation levels with my Geiger counter. You could just go ahead and trust the news when they say that there is no danger... well, I don't know about you, but I like to see the numbers for myself.

Xeno's Home Radiation Level Exam Service
$25 Fee includes testing for
Alpha, Beta, Gamma and X-Ray radiation
Email: xeno735@yahoo.com
group rates available

Japan nuke crisis 'worse than Three Mile Island'

Two more reactors at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power station are at risk of overheating after their cooling systems failed.

Radiation levels around Japan's crippled power plant are falling, but the situation remains critical this morning.

Radioactivity soared to dangerous levels yesterday after a third explosion and a fire at the plant, with residents within 30 kilometres of the reactors told to evacuate or stay indoors.

France's nuclear watchdog has upgraded the situation to a level six - placing it second to Chernobyl as the world's worst nuclear disaster.

But winds are now dispersing the radioactive material over the Pacific Ocean, away from Japan and other Asian countries. ...

Trouble at the nuclear plant has sparked a rout on the stock market and panic buying in supermarkets. ...

Japan is struggling to cope with the enormity of the damage from Friday's record quake and the tsunami that raced across vast tracts of its north-east, destroying all before it. ...

On Sunday, the police chief of Miyagi, one of the hardest-hit prefectures, said the number of deaths was expected to exceed 10,000 in his region alone...

via Japan nuke crisis 'worse than Three Mile Island' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

Radiation Detection Services $25, Sacramento Area + Radiation Map

Several people have expressed interest in my Geiger counter readings. It is understandable that few want to pay ~$450 for a device like the RadAlert 100 (or even rent one for $80). Also, the available maps I've found are not specific enough since radiation can vary from home to home and even room to room depending on your ventilation.

Perhaps my investment in the RadAlert can pay for itself. I only need to find 18 people in the Sacramento area who will pay $25 for an analysis of their radiation levels.

Email me to book your appointment.

Cities served: Sacramento, Rancho Cordova, Carmichael, Folsom, Camden, Roseville, Woodland, Davis, Vacaville, Cameron Park, Shingle Springs, Dixon,West Sacramento, Rio linda

According to Snopes, the following map is a hoax:

Origins: This map showing the projected path of fallout across the western United States following a possible meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan began circulating shortly after a massive

8.9 earthquake hit that country in March 2011. The map bore the logo of the Australian Radiation Services (ARS), an organization which has disclaimed any connection with it:

Australian Radiation Services is aware of information about radioactive contamination being spread from the Japanese nuclear reactor incident released under the ARS logo and name. We wish to be clear that this information has not originated from ARS and as such distance ourselves from any such misinformation.

I'd link you to the Snopes site, but I don't trust the Snopes web site because it gives pop-up ads to Netflix and other sites in Firefox even with pop-ups blocked. Here is the map that they say is a hoax:

80-120 rads - You have a 10% chance of vomiting and experiencing nausia for a few days
130 -170 rads - You have a 25% chance of vomiting and contracting other symptoms
180-220 rads - You have a 50% chance of vomiting and having other severe physical effects
270 More..-330 rads - 20% chance of death in 6 weeks, or you will recover in a few months.
400-500 rads - 50% chance of death
550-750 rads - Nausea within a few hours ; no survivors
1000 rads - immediate incapacitation and death within a week or less.

Day 1 was Friday, March 11, the day of the quake. Time line excerpted from CSmonitor.

• At 2:47 p.m. local time, Japan is struck by the largest recorded earthquake in its history off the coast of the northeastern city of Sendai. Meteorologists log it at 8.9 on the Richter scale.


• 11 nuclear reactors shut down automatically.


• A powerful tsunami triggered by the earthquake sweeps away cars and homes and knocks out regular and backup cooling systems at the six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Several reactors are affected


• Day 2 – Saturday, March 12


• A blast caused by a pressure buildup blows the roof off the containment structure of the Fukushima Daiichi plant's Unit 1 reactor, but reports say the nuclear fuel rods are not affected.


• Workers begin injecting seawater and boric acid into the reactors in what experts say is a last-ditch attempt to prevent a meltdown after the backup cooling systems for reactors 1 and 3 fail completely.


• Day 3 – Sunday, March 13


• There is believed to have been a partial meltdown in the reactor.


• in southwestern Japan, Shinmoedake volcano erupts for the second time in 2011, sending ash and rock more than two miles into the air. Analysts say it was the biggest volcanic activity there in 52 years.


• Day 4 – Monday, March 14


• An explosion caused by pressure buildup blows away the roof and walls of the building housing the Fukushima Daiichi plant's No. 3 reactor and injured 11 people. The plant's No. 2 reactor loses its cooling capabilities after the explosion. Workers begin injecting seawater and boric acid into that reactor.


• A fire is extinguished, but Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says that more radiation was released as a result and that "now we are talking about levels that can damage human health."


• The US Geological Survey upgrades the earthquake from an 8.9 to a 9.0

• Day 5 – Tuesday, March 15


• An explosion hits Fukushima Daiichi's No. 2 reactor in the morning. Readings indicate some damage to the No. 2 reactor's suppression pool, a donut-shaped reservoir at the base of the reactor's containment vessel.


• The plant is emitting as much radiation in one hour as it normally would in six months


• The head of France's Nuclear Safety Authority, says the international alert should be from a level 4 disaster to a level 6 incident.

Below is a network of citizen radiation detectors. Great idea but I'm not sure how well it is actually working.

Welcome to RadiationNetwork.com, home of the National Radiation Map, depicting environmental radiation levels across the USA, updated in real time every minute. This is the first web site where the average citizen (or anyone in the world) can see what radiation levels are anywhere in the USA at any time

... Mineralab, LLC, the operator of this web site, can not independently verify that the Radiation Levels, or any Radiation Alerts, that are displayed on this Radiation Map are correct and valid. Among other possibilities, Geiger counter malfunctions or proximity of the counters to certain medical procedures or to radioactive items can cause high readings at a Monitoring Station. If the Radiation Map appears to show elevated Radiation levels, contact Mineralab.

via Radiation Network.

The current map for Japan that they have doesn't show any readings as far as I can see. Here is a much better map of what is happening with the plume in Japan from a Dr. Gerhard Wotawa on the ZAMG web site. Does seem to be heading our way, doesn't it?






I'm also working on setting up a monitoring station everyone can check on the web. I just need $80 for the software and the connector cable to hook my RadAlert 50 to my laptop.

Donate

As Japan horror unfolds, safety fears cloud up nuclear sunrise

...Governments of nuclear powers across the world went into damage control mode as thousands took to streets in Europe in protest against nuclear power plants.  ...

Workldwide, there are 443 nuclear reactors supplying electricity to 30 countries. In recent years, there has been a nuclear renaissance of sorts with an additional 17 countries wanting to join the nuclear energy bandwagon. In all, 62 new reactors are under construction, 158 have been ordered and as many as 342 more are proposed. This would push up nuclear energy production by an additional 545 gigawatts in the coming decades.

But the grim story from Japan has put paid to these breathless calculations. Japan has 55 nuclear reactors supplying almost 30% of the island nation's energy needs. Most were built in the '70s. All of them are on the coast, and had been built to very stringent quake proof standards as Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone places on the earth.

Yet two reactors have failed and several others are spluttering. Details coming out now show that Fukushima was built to withstand 7.9 magnitude earthquakes and 6.5 meter high tidal waves. The monster quake on March 11 has now been officially upgraded to 9 magnitude and the tidal wave was over 7 meters by the time it reached Fukushima's reactors.

Even more worrying are reports that Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) that runs this facility was caught forging repair and maintenance reports on 29 counts in 2002, and again in 2006, it was found to be using falsified reports from 1985 in inspections till 2005. The Japanese government too is under pressure because Ishibashi Katsuhiko, a well known seismologist, had said in 2007 that Fukushima was highly vulnerable.

Nuclear power had gained traction because of another fear haunting humanity — global warming. It was suggested that nuclear power could replace massive carbon-emitting thermal plants. But as huge demonstrations in Germany and France show, people are equally worried about the nuclear option. ...

via As Japan horror unfolds, safety fears cloud up nuclear sunrise - The Times of India.

The situation is bad in Japan even without counting the nuclear plant meltdowns.

... Japanese authorities continued to struggle to respond to the aftermath of Friday’s earthquake and tsunami as thousands remained missing and nearly half a million survivors huddled in temporary shelters.

Official figures put the death toll at 1,834 on Monday, although reports of bodies lying unclaimed, due to the difficulty of approaching large parts of the worst-hit areas in northern Japan, suggest this will rise considerably.

The human toll and infrastructure damage wreaked by the disaster is likely to be the worst in Japan’s postwar history; far exceeding the 1995 Kobe earthquake, which devastated the city and much of the surrounding area.

The cost of rebuilding after the Kobe disaster has been estimated at up to $118bn, or 2 per cent of gross domestic product in 1995 terms. Initial estimates from Credit Suisse and Barclays on Monday put the cost at $180bn while Mitsubishi UFJ Securities said the cost could run as high as 5 per cent of GDP.

The rescue effort has included Japan’s largest military mobilisation since the war, with 100,000 from the Self-Defence Force dispatched to the country’s stricken north-east. More than 2,400 shelters have been set up in schools, community centres and other public buildings in the region, taking in an estimated 450,000 evacuees as of Monday.

But in the worst affected areas survivors were spending a fourth night without water, food or heating in near-freezing temperatures, as tens of thousands of rescue workers struggled to reach them.

“People are exhausted both physically and mentally,” Yasunobu Sasaki, principal of a school converted into a shelter in Rikuzentakata, a nearly flattened village of 24,500 in the far north Iwate prefecture, told Reuters. There was not enough food for three meals a day and no heating, he said. Sanitation was also a problem...

via FT

 

Former U.S. Nuclear Official Warns: It Can Happen Here

As a former commissioner at the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Peter Bradford knows something about nuclear power accidents. He had been serving as one of the nation’s top nuclear officials for over two years when, in March 1979, more than half of the fuel in the Unit 2 reactor at Three Mile Island (TMI) melted down — the worst nuclear power accident ever to have occurred in the United States.

I asked Bradford today what he thought of the claims, widespread in the media and in press statements released by some in the nuclear power industry, that the current situation in Fukushima Daiichi, Japan, is not as grave as the accident at TMI thirty-two years ago.

“I’ll be quite surprised if the events at Fukushima are ultimately considered to be less serious than TMI,” he responded, adding that more people have already been exposed to high levels of radiation in Japan than were exposed at TMI.

Bradford, who served on the NRC from 1977 to 1982, also warned against a mindset common in the US nuclear power industry that what is happening now in Japan can’t happen here.

“The phrase, ‘it can’t happen here,’ has been a harbinger of trouble in the nuclear industry,” he said. “Soviet experts came to TMI and solemnly intoned that such an accident could not happen in the Soviet Union because they did not have that type of reactor. They got Chernobyl. After Chernobyl, experts from many nations deplored the unique inadequacies of the Soviet system — inadequate containment, dangerous design, complacency, secrecy. Of course the [Soviet] design did not exist in their countries, one of which now has Fukushima. No doubt the next accident will also be different in its specifics. Nuclear spokespeople in every other country will then spout owlish and well-financed explanations of why it cannot happen to them.”

Bradford’s experience at TMI — where the full extent of the damage to the reactor core wasn’t known until a decade after the accident — makes him skeptical of broad assessments concerning the current situation in Japan.

“It’s important to realized that we know only a small percentage of what we will need to know to reach firm conclusions one way or the other,” he says. “Three days into TMI, much that we believed we knew turned out to be wrong.”

via Former U.S. Nuclear Official Warns: It Can Happen Here - Osha Gray Davidson - Edison 2.0 - Forbes.

Two Nuclear Plant Meltdowns Underway, in Japan! Possible Fallout Projections For the U.S

Police in Gas Masks: Photo By Kaname Yoneyama / AP

Update: I spoke to a nuclear physicist this morning about the Japanese nuclear melt downs who said Chernobyl was different because it didn't have the containment that these Japanese reactors have and also it was being used to make weapons, so Chernobyl was more like an A-bomb in terms of the contamination.

These won't be anywhere near as bad. Still bad, but not Chernobyl bad. Another thing about these meltdowns is that they won't reach us because they won't go airborne. This is because there won't be the kind of explosion that happened at Chernobyl which threw radiation high into the air.  The radiation in this case will mostly be dispersed by



the sea. There are three reactors in Japan, he said, that they are now watching. With Chernobyl, the core ate through the vessel and landed on the concrete floor and when it did this, it spread out and cooled and turned into glass, which stopped the chain reaction. He also said there won't be a "China Syndrome" for the Japanese reactors where they eat into the earth and keep going.



What caused the problem in the case of one reactor is that the back up power failed and then the battery back up ran out of power because they skimped on the battery power. The back up only lasted (4 to 6?) hours. The meltdown would not have happened if they had enough battery back up to keep cooling the core until the reaction completely shut down.

... a hypothetical idea of an extreme result of a nuclear meltdown in which molten reactor core products breach the barriers below them and flow downwards through the floor of the containment building. The origin of the phrase is the fictional idea that molten material from an American reactor could melt through the crust of the Earth and reach China.

- via Wikipedia

From Twitter: FLASH: #Japan chief cabinet secretary says risk of explosion at building housing #Fukushima Daiichi No. 3 reactor. Confirmed by Reuters and AFP.

Stratfor is reporting that the Japanese nuclear reactor container has been BREACHED!

Japanese Officials are now operating under the presumption that TWO reactors have either already melted down or are on their way to a meltdown. Critical core cooling systems have failed at both reactors. This situation has gone from bad to worse real quick.

U.S. nuclear officials have warned that we are in “uncharted” territory and that pumping seawater to cool the nuclear reactor is nothing short of an act of desperation.“Sky News is reporting that up to 160 people may have suffered radiation exposure. Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says people are being tested for radiation exposure.”

At the same time officials in Washington State have stated that Washington will face NO threat of radiation regardless of what happens. The idea that these officials can predict that at this moment is an absolute joke and very unprofessional. Even in the event of a significant release from the reactor, radiation would be diluted before reaching our state and levels would be so low no protective action would be necessary, officials say, reported King5.com

via Possible Fukushima Nuclear Fallout Projections For the U.S, Two Plants Meltdown Underway :.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) confirmed the meltdown Saturday afternoon. Fukushima is one of the 25 largest nuclear power stations in the world. The NISA is affiliated with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

High levels of cesium and iodine, by-products of nuclear fission, are being reported and providing more evidence that a nuclear meltdown is currently underway.

It is now certain Japan is experiencing a Chernobyl event. “At this point, events in Japan bear many similarities to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Reports indicate that up to 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) of the reactor fuel was exposed. The reactor fuel appears to have at least partially melted, and the subsequent explosion has shattered the walls and roof of the containment vessel – and likely the remaining useful parts of the control and coolant systems,” Stratfor explains.

“Given the large quantity of irradiated nuclear fuel in the pool, the radioactivity release could be worse than the Chernobyl nuclear reactor catastrophe of 25 years ago,” said Kevin Camps, a nuclear waste specialist. ...

As the image above illustrates, the prevailing jet stream moves from Japan to the United States across the Pacific Ocean. Airborne radiation would work its way into the jet stream and reach the United States in less than 36 hours. Jet streams flow from west to east in the upper portion of the troposphere.

By downplaying this serious disaster, the Japanese government is not only endangering its own people, but also millions of people in the United States and Canada.

via Infowars

There could be up to six meltdowns.

Horrible for people in the area and this makes the coming California super storm even more scary. And what about that huge solar flare that will hit us? Will that shut down cooling to our nuclear plants?

Now I'm glad I have a radiation detector, the RadAlert 50.  I'll let you know if the levels go up.  Right now I'm at 0.016 milliroentgen(mR)/hr.  The units mR/hr apply to gamma or x ray radiation, but an exposure of 1 mR gamma or x radiation results in a dose equivalent of approximately 1 mrem.  The current regulatory occupational exposure limit in the United States for workers is 2.5 mrem/hr.

If you are in the area of the meltdown, get out of there. If you can't evacuate, here is more info on what to do in case of a disaster like this:

http://www.ki4u.com/guide.htm

By appearances, that's pulverized concrete dust, indicating that a violent explosion occurred. We can be certain that the outer containment structure is completely missing. - via chrismartenson

This earthquake may be upgraded to 9.0 and the reactors are not designed to withstand quakes of this magnitude. There was plenty of warning that this could happen.  In July 2007 another quake in Japan caused serious damage at a reactor.

Japan investigates possible nuclear meltdown

A nuclear power plant affected by a massive earthquake is facing a possible meltdown, an official with Japan's nuclear safety commission said Saturday.

Ryohei Shiomi said that officials were checking whether a meltdown had taken place at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant's Unit 1, which had lost cooling ability in the aftermath of Friday's powerful earthquake.

Shiomi said that even if there was a meltdown, it wouldn't affect humans beyond a 10-kilometre radius.

Most of the 51,000 residents living within that radius have been evacuated, he said.

Earlier Saturday, Japan declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability.

Operators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant's Unit 1 scrambled to tamp down heat and pressure inside the reactor after the 8.9-magnitude quake and the tsunami that followed cut off electricity to the site and disabled emergency generators, knocking out the main cooling system.

Some 3,000 people within three kilometres of the plant were urged to leave their homes, but the evacuation zone was more than tripled to 6 miles (10 kilometers) after authorities detected eight times the normal radiation levels outside the facility and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1's control room.

The government declared a state of emergency at the Daiichi unit -- the first at a nuclear plant in Japan's history. But hours later, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the six-reactor Daiichi site in northeastern Japan, announced that it had lost cooling ability at a second reactor there and three units at its nearby Fukushima Daini site.

The government quickly declared states of emergency for those units, too.

via Japan investigates possible nuclear meltdown - World - CBC News.

Staged 100 MPH train crash tests nuclear container strength

Woah. Cataclysmic. What about two trains each going 100 MPH in a head on collision?

Powerful 3-D X-rays for kids in braces should be the exception, not the rule

—Some orthodontists may be exposing young patients to unnecessary radiation when they order 3-D X-ray imaging for simple orthodontic cases before considering traditional 2-D imaging, suggests a paper published by University of Michigan faculty.

There is ongoing debate in the orthodontic community over if and when to use cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) for orthodontic diagnosis and treatment planning, said Dr. Sunil Kapila, lead author of the paper and chair of the Department of Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry at the U-M School of Dentistry.

A very small number of orthodontists utilize the 3-D imaging on a routine basis when developing a treatment plan, and this raises concerns of unnecessary radiation exposure. In contrast, the evidence summarized in Kapila's paper suggests that 2-D imaging would suffice in most routine orthodontic cases. One of the tradeoffs for the superb 3-D images is higher radiation exposure, Kapila said.

The amount of radiation produced by 3D CBCT imaging varies substantially depending on the machine used and the field of view exposed, and some clinicians may not realize how much higher that radiation is compared to conventional radiographs. One CBCT image can emit 87 to 200 microsieverts or more compared to 4 to 40 microsieverts for an entire series of 2-D X-rays required for orthodontic diagnosis, Kapila said. ...

via Powerful 3-D X-rays for kids in braces should be the exception, not the rule.

Tanning beds to be installed at Moscow's notorious Butyrskaya prison

A centuries-old Russian prison notorious for its primitive conditions will soon offer inmates a new perk — tanning beds.

The ITAR-Tass news agency on Sunday cited federal prisons service Viktor Dezhurov as saying the tanning beds at Moscow's Butyrskaya prison will be ready for observances of its' 240-year anniversary this year.

Dezhurov was quoted as saying the tanning beds are meant to compensate for inadequate sunlight in the cells. But inmates will have to pay and at 10 rubles (33 cents) a minute, that's a sizable fee in a country where the average monthly salary is well under $1,000.

The prison's dismal conditions attracted wide attention in 2009 after the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a young lawyer who died of pancreas disease there after inadequate medical care.

via Tanning beds to be installed at Moscow's notorious Butyrskaya prison.

Radiation experiments.