Japan, out of options, tries crop-dusting Fukushima: Know how bad things have gotten at Fukushima? Well, now the Japanese military is dumping seawater out of a helicopter onto the nuclear plant. This seems unfortunate. source
Courtesy of The Daily, this is an excellent two-minute video summarizing the events at Fukushima’s nuclear reactor in Japan, complete with icons, a timeline, and fancy zooming maps. It’s current up to this morning, and to the good folks at The Daily, bravo. It’s really helpful to have such a complex series of events distilled down into such an easily digestible nugget. source
Taniguchi has been a weak manager and advocate, particularly with respect to confronting Japan’s own safety practices, and he is a particular disappointment to the United States for his unloved-step-child treatment of the Office of Nuclear Security.A U.S. diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks • On Tomohiro Tanaguchi, the man who was the IAEA’s (International Atomic Energy Agency) Deputy Director General for the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security from 2001 to 2009. While another cable reveals that Tanaguchi urged fellow officials to focus more on nuclear power safety in 2008 (which seems like the sort of thing you shouldn’t need to tell the IAEA), it seems that this plea late in his career was not enough to salvage the opinion of American diplomats, who express a great degree of angst over the state of Japan’s nuclear earthquake preparedness. Tomohiro departed his position in 2009, leaving the position to another Japanese member, Yukiya Amano, who currently holds the post. source (via • follow)
And here’s a little more info on the author, David Ropeik, a risk-assessment guy. (via portorock)
No United States service members currently conducting relief missions in Japan are showing symptoms of radiation poisoning, but some crew members are being given Potassium Iodide tablets as a precaution, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
Additionally, the Pentagon said US forces in Japan are not permitted within 50 miles of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant without special authorization.
(Information via Reuters)
Japan has some of its industry curtailed, like auto and steel — but that’s not going to last too long. People are starting to realize that there [sic] economy is not going to be shut down for long — and they’re going to have to start to look for alternative fuel sources.INFA Energy Brokers CEO Brad Schaeffer • Suggesting that Japan will have to switch its energy sources to an alternative source. But Schaeffer means “alternative” in the way one might call a band like Nickelback “alternative” — see, he thinks that Japan should move to oil. “Remember, they need to get their nation back on their feet,” he says. “They aren’t worrying about their carbon footprint so much. They’re thinking we need to get oil here now – so we can get our generators up and running.” While there’s some grain of truth here, we wonder how much of what he’s saying is wishful thinking, seeing that he’s the CEO of an energy-brokering company. Quotes like these? They seriously make us cringe. source (via • follow)
The Governor of Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture says misinformation and panic are keeping much-needed supplies like food, medicine and fuel from reaching grocery stores, hospitals and refueling stations in areas not affected by last Friday’s earthquake and tsunami.
Speaking on Japanese broadcaster NHK Wednesday evening, Governor Yühel Sato urged the central government to pass along accurate information regarding the nuclear emergency so shipping companies could resume the delivery of goods to the Fukushima Prefecture.
“We’re lacking everything,” Governor Sato said. “We need help, we need the understanding of the rest of the nation.”
Governor Sato said misinformation is causing suppliers to stop short of Fukushima Prefecture even when they are delivering to areas that are safe.
“Fuel and other supplies are not coming into the prefecture,” Governor Sato said. “There is fear and panic caused by misinformation.”
Governor Sato went on to say the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant was a “nuclear disaster” and called on the central government to deliver “accurate information.”
Fukushima Prefecture was one of the hardest hit areas of Japan by a strong earthquake that spawned a large tsunami on March 11th. More than 500 evacuation shelters are currently housing 100,000 people displaced by the earthquake, tsunami and ongoing nuclear crisis in the area. [Audio: Governor Sato’s NHK interview in English]
» For context: Please check out our various updates here, here, here, and here.
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All the workers there have suspended their operations. We have urged them to evacuate, and they have.Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano • On the 50 workers who had been fighting the fires and working as a last line of defense at the plant. Apparently the radiation levels got too high and rose rapidly. Hopefully we can find the levels soon. source
“A small crew of technicians, braving radiation and fire, became the only people remaining at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on Tuesday — and perhaps Japan’s last chance of preventing a broader nuclear catastrophe.
They crawl through labyrinths of equipment in utter darkness pierced only by their flashlights, listening for periodic explosions as hydrogen gas escaping from crippled reactors ignites on contact with air.
They breathe through uncomfortable respirators or carry heavy oxygen tanks on their backs. They wear white, full-body jumpsuits with snug-fitting hoods that provide scant protection from the invisible radiation sleeting through their bodies.
They are the faceless 50, the unnamed operators who stayed behind. They have volunteered, or been assigned, to pump seawater on dangerously exposed nuclear fuel, already thought to be partly melting and spewing radioactive material, to prevent full meltdowns that could throw thousands of tons of radioactive dust high into the air and imperil millions of their compatriots.
They struggled on Tuesday and Wednesday to keep hundreds of gallons of seawater a minute flowing through temporary fire pumps into the three stricken reactors, Nos. 1, 2 and 3. Among the many problems they faced was what appeared to be yet another fire at the plant.
The workers are being asked to make escalating — and perhaps existential — sacrifices that so far are being only implicitly acknowledged: Japan’s Health Ministry said Tuesday it was raising the legal limit on the amount of radiation to which each worker could be exposed, to 250 millisieverts from 100 millisieverts, five times the maximum exposure permitted for American nuclear plant workers.
The change means that workers can now remain on site longer, the ministry said. “It would be unthinkable to raise it further than that, considering the health of the workers,” the health minister, Yoko Komiyama, said at a news conference.”—
“Workers at Fukushima Plant Brave Radiation and Fire,” the New York Times.
They are the faceless 50.
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