OMG Earthquake?

[Señor Hoff]

Don't know if this has been posted. But it's insane.

[Wetcoaster]

Police in Miyagi Prefecture say rescuers found 2 people under rubble in Ishinomaki City on Sunday, 9 days after the initial earthquake on March 11th.

Police say an 80-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy responded to rescue workers.

Sunday, March 20, 2011 16:55 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20_24.html

[Wetcoaster]

Some good news from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant - Two of six Fukushima nuclear reactors have been declared safe. Also the plans to vent more radioactive steam which could further contaminate food and water sources in the area remain on hold.

When and if the plant is finally brought under control it will be decommissioned and scrapped.

Officials are now belatedly distributing potassium iodide pills to those living near the nuclear complex after admitting it should have begun sooner. The pills help ward off thyroid cancer that is the biggest worry at the moment for those near the plant.

Two reactors at a crippled Japanese nuclear plant are safely under control after their fuel storage pools cooled down, officials on Sunday told a devastated region that has been holding its breath for good news.

Tokyo Electric Power Company said Units 5 and 6 at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant had been declared safe, after pumping water into the reactors pools for days and bringing temperatures under control.

The units were the least problematic of the facility's six reactors, but marks a minor advance in efforts the stop the nuclear plant from leaking radiation. The Fukushima plant still has four reactors overheating, after an earthquake-triggered tsunami shut down its cooling systems nine days ago.

The northeast coastal region has been struggling to recover from fallout from the disaster, including concerns that leaks at the nuclear plant had contaminated food and water.

Earlier on Sunday, Japanese nuclear authorities stopped venting radioactive gas from the leaking reactor, a move that could have caused as-yet minor cases of food and water contamination to worsen.

Traces of radiation began appearing in food and water sources near the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant over the past several days, after the cooling systems to its six reactors were knocked out by a massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Milk and spinach tainted by radiation were found as far as 120 kilometres away from the troubled facility, while trace amounts of radioactive iodine was found in tap water as far away Tokyo, some 200 kilometres to the south.

Tawain reported on Sunday receiving a shipment of fava beans imported from Japan contaminated with a slight, and legal, amount of iodine.

While radiation levels in food and water have frequently exceeded government-imposed safety limits, officials said they so far pose no immediate health risks.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., has so far suspended venting plans, but the measure could still be considered if the reactor's pressure rises further. Internal temperatures reached 300 degrees Celsius early Sunday.

Nuclear safety officials said venting would release a cloud dense with iodine, krypton and xenon.

A company spokesman said the high pressure may have been caused by seawater pumped into the vessel, an extreme measure used to reduce temperatures. The decision to douse the troubled reactor with sea water means the facility will never operate again.

Japanese officials acknowledged Sunday that the entire complex would be scrapped once the emergency was resolved.

"It is obviously clear that Fukushima Dai-ichi in no way will be in a condition to be restarted," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters.

The growing concern about radiation is the latest in a series of troubles raised since the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami crushed Japan's east coast, killing more than 8,400, leaving nearly 13,000 missing and forcing another 452,000 out of their homes.

One official acknowledged on Sunday that the government was late in realizing they needed to provide potassium iodide pills to those living near the nuclear complex. The pills help reduce chances of getting thyroid cancer from exposure to the radiation.

But officials continued to reassure residents on Sunday that radiation in food and water did not pose immediate health risks.

A spokesperson for the Miyagi prefecture's disaster response team said drinking one litre of affected water was the equivalent of receiving 188th of the radiation from a chest X-ray.

http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110320/japan-nuclear-reactors-110320/20110320/?hub=EdmontonHome

Some additional details here:

Some progress reported in Japan’s efforts to ease crisis at stricken nuclear plant

By Associated Press, Sunday, March 20, 1:13 PM

FUKUSHIMA, Japan — Japanese officials reported progress Sunday in their battle to gain control over a leaking, tsunami-stricken nuclear complex, though the crisis was far from over, with the discovery of more radiation-tainted vegetables adding to public fears about contaminated food.

The announcement by Japan’s Health Ministry late Sunday that tests had detected excess amounts of radioactive elements on canola and chrysanthemum greens marked a low moment in a day that had been peppered with bits of positive news: First, a teenager and his grandmother were found alive nine days after being trapped in their earthquake-shattered home. Then, the operator of the overheated nuclear plant said two of the six reactor units were safely cooled down.

“We consider that now we have come to a situation where we are very close to getting the situation under control,” Deputy Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama said.

Still, serious problems remained at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex. Pressure unexpectedly rose in a third unit’s reactor, meaning plant operators may need to deliberately release radioactive steam. That has only added to public anxiety over radiation that began leaking from the plant after a monstrous earthquake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan on March 11 and left the plant unstable.

The safety of food and water was of particular concern. The government halted shipments of spinach from one area and raw milk from another near the nuclear plant after tests found iodine exceeded safety limits. But the contamination spread to spinach in three other prefectures and to more vegetables — canola and chrysanthemum greens. Tokyo’s tap water, where iodine turned up Friday, now has cesium. Rain and dust are also tainted.

In all cases, the government said the radiation levels were too small to pose an immediate health risk. But Taiwan seized a batch of fava beans from Japan found with faint — and legal — amounts of iodine and cesium.

“I’m worried, really worried,” said Mayumi Mizutani, a 58-year-old Tokyo resident shopping for bottled water at a supermarket to give her visiting 2-year-old grandchild. “We’re afraid because it’s possible our grandchild could get cancer.” Forecasts for rain, she said, were also a cause for concern.

All six of the nuclear complex’s reactor units saw trouble after the disasters knocked out cooling systems. In a small advance, the plant’s operator declared Units 5 and 6 — the least troublesome — under control after their nuclear fuel storage pools cooled to safe levels. Progress was made to reconnect two other units to the electric grid and in pumping seawater to cool another reactor and replenish it and a sixth reactor’s storage pools.

But the buildup in pressure inside the vessel holding Unit 3’s reactor presented some danger, forcing officials to consider venting. The tactic produced explosions of radioactive gas during the early days of the crisis.

“Even if certain things go smoothly, there would be twists and turns,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters. “At the moment, we are not so optimistic that there will be a breakthrough.”

Nuclear safety officials said one of the options could release a cloud dense with iodine as well as the radioactive elements krypton and xenon.

The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., temporarily suspended the plans Sunday after it said the pressure inside the reactor stopped climbing, though staying at a high level.

“It has stabilized,” Tokyo Electric manager Hikaru Kuroda told reporters.

Kuroda, who said temperatures inside the reactor reached 572 degrees Fahrenheit (300 degrees Celsius), said the option to release the highly radioactive gas inside is still under consideration if pressure rises.

Growing concerns about radiation add to the overwhelming chain of disasters Japan has struggled with since the 9.0-magnitude quake. It spawned a tsunami that ravaged the northeastern coast, killing 8,450 people, leaving more than 12,900 people missing, and displacing another 452,000, who are living in shelters.

Fuel, food and water remain scarce. The government in recent days acknowledged being caught ill-prepared by an enormous disaster that the prime minister has called the worst crisis since World War II.

Bodies are piling up in some of the devastated communities and badly decomposing even amid chilly rain and snow.

“The recent bodies — we can’t show them to the families. The faces have been purple, which means they are starting to decompose,” says Shuji Horaguchi, a disaster relief official setting up a center to process the dead in Natori, on the outskirts of the tsunami-flattened city of Sendai. “Some we’re finding now have been in the water for a long time, they’re not in good shape. Crabs and fish have eaten parts.”

Before the disasters, safety drills were seldom if ever practiced and information about radiation exposure rarely given in Futuba, a small town in the shadow of the nuclear plant, said 29-year-old Tsugumi Hasegawa. She is living in a shelter with her 4-year-old daughter and feeling bewildered.

“I still have no idea what the numbers they are giving about radiation levels mean. It’s all so confusing. And I wonder if they aren’t playing down the dangers to keep us from panicking. I don’t know who to trust,” said Hasegawa, crammed with 1,400 people into a gymnasium on the outskirts of the city of Fukushima, 80 miles (50 miles) away from the plant.

Another nuclear safety official acknowledged that the government only belatedly realized the need to give potassium iodide to those living within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the nuclear complex.

The pills help reduce chances of thyroid cancer, one of the diseases that may develop from radiation exposure, by preventing the body from absorbing radioactive iodine. The official, Kazuma Yokota, said the explosion that occurred while venting the plant’s Unit 3 reactor a week ago should have triggered the distribution. But the order came only three days later.

“We should have made this decision and announced it sooner,” Yokota told reporters at the emergency command center in Fukushima. “It is true that we had not foreseen a disaster of these proportions. We had not practiced or trained for something this bad. We must admit that we were not fully prepared.”

The higher reactor pressure may have been caused by a tactic meant to reduce temperatures — the pumping of seawater into the vessel, said Kuroda, the Tokyo Electric manager.

Using seawater to cool the reactors and storage pools was a desperate measure adopted early last week; Unit 4’s pool was sprayed again Sunday and a system to inject water into Unit 2’s reactor was repaired. Experts have said for days that seawater would inevitably corrode and ruin the reactors and other finely milled machine parts, effectively turning the plant into scrap.

Edano, the government spokesman, recognized the inevitable Sunday: “It is obviously clear that Fukushima Dai-ichi in no way will be in a condition to be restarted.”

Contamination of food and water compounds the government’s difficulties, heightening the broader public’s sense of dread about safety. Consumers in markets snapped up bottled water, shunned spinach from Ibaraki — the prefecture where the tainted spinach was found — and overall expressed concern about food safety.

Experts have said the amounts of iodine detected in milk, spinach and water pose no discernible risks to public health unless consumed in enormous quantities over a long time. Iodine breaks down quickly, after eight days, minimizing its harmfulness, unlike other radioactive isotopes such as cesium-137 or uranium-238, which remain in the environment for decades or longer.

High levels of iodine are linked to thyroid cancer, one of the least deadly cancers if treated. Cesium is a longer-lasting element that affects the whole body and raises cancer risk.

Rain forecast for the Fukushima area also could further localize the contamination, bringing the radiation to the ground closer to the plant.

Edano tried to reassure the public for a second day in a row. “If you eat it once, or twice, or even for several days, it’s not just that it’s not an immediate threat to health, it’s that even in the future it is not a risk,” Edano said. “Experts say there is no threat to human health.”

No contamination has been reported in Japan’s main food export — seafood — worth about $1.6 billion a year and less than 0.3 percent of its total exports.

Amid the anxiety, there were moments of joy on Sunday. An 80-year-old woman and her teenage grandson were rescued from their flattened two-story house after nine days, when the teen pulled himself to the roof and shouted to police for help.

Other survivors enjoyed smaller victories. Kiyoshi Hiratsuka and his family managed to pull his beloved Harley Davidson motorcycle from the rubble in their hometown of Onagawa.

“I almost gave up the search but it happened that I found it,” the 37-year-old mechanic said. “I know that the motorbike would not work anymore, but I want to keep it as a memorial.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/some-progress-reported-in-japans-efforts-to-ease-crisis-at-stricken-nuclear-plant/2011/03/18/ABWBIts_singlePage.html

Edited March 20, 2011 by Wetcoaster

[Wetcoaster]

More detail on the two reactors Nos 5 and 6) at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant that have reportedly been brought under control.

Tokyo Electric Power Company says cooling functions were restored by Sunday evening for the No.5 and No.6 reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Coolant water temperatures have now fallen below 100 degrees Celsius.

The tsunami triggered by the massive earthquake that hit northeastern Japan on March 11th damaged the emergency diesel generator at the No. 5 reactor, causing the coolant water levels to drop.

The No.5 reactor had been halted for regular inspections when the earthquake and tsunami struck, but nuclear fuel rods had already been placed inside the reactor.

TEPCO restored the cooling functions of the No.5 reactor on Sunday afternoon using the emergency diesel engine generator of the No.6 reactor, which escaped damage from the quake and tsunami.

The cooling function of the No.6 reactor was restored by 7:30 PM.

Sunday, March 20, 2011 23:46 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20_33.html

[nucklehead]

My Chinese co-worker was telling me about this. He told me his Aunt in Hong Kong asked him to send her some salt. So, he went to two different grocery stores in Richmond (Save On and Superstore I believe) and they were sold out there too!

In other news health officals are puzzled by a spike in strokes,cardiovascular disease,hypertension and high blood pressure incidents.

[Wetcoaster]

Some more detail on the 16 year old boy and the 80 year old woman rescued nine days after the quake - they were grandmother and grandson. It has also been confirmed the other "survivor" who was found 8 dyas after the quake had returned to his home after first being in an evacuation shelter.

Two survivors, one an elderly woman, have been rescued from under rubble in the devastated Japanese city of Ishinomaki, nine days after the huge earthquake and tsunami.

"Their temperatures were quite low but they were conscious," said a spokesman for the Ishinomaki Police Department.

"Details of their condition are not immediately known. They have been already rescued and sent to hospital."

Sumi Abe, 80, and her 16-year-old grandson Jin Abe were in the kitchen when the quake struck on March 11, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The grandson, Jin, was found on the roof of his house in Ishinomaki, yelling out for help, reports say. Jin led rescuers inside where they found his grandmother.

The house collapsed with them inside but the grandson was able to reach food from the refrigerator, helping them to survive, NHK quoted rescuers as saying.

They were found under debris.

The boy was said to be shivering and with no feeling in one leg.

There have been few such miracle rescues, with almost 21,000 people confirmed as dead or listed as missing following the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and giant tsunami which flattened Japan's northeast coast on March 11.

On Saturday troops announced they had found a man thought to have survived for eight days in a half-destroyed house in the earthquake and tsunami zone, but it later turned out he was actually an evacuee who had returned to his home.

Freezing temperatures and snow have hampered rescue operations.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/special-reports/two-survivors-found-under-rubble-nine-days-after-japanese-earthquake/story-fn7zkbgs-1226024997197

[MrsCanuck]

Don't know if this has been posted. But it's insane.

Wow that's terrifying to watch! I'd be so scared being in that boat.

Edited March 21, 2011 by MrsCanuck

[Wetcoaster]

Update on the efforts to bring the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant under control by NHK:

2nd water spraying operation at No.3 reactor ends

At the quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, firefighters finished their second operation to spray water on the No.3 reactor building shortly before 4 AM on Monday.

The operation began at 09:30 PM on Sunday and lasted for 6 and a half hours.

The Tokyo Fire Department's first operation began on Saturday. Firefighters sprayed water on the spent fuel rod pool of the No.3 reactor for 14 hours. The first operation was carried out in 2 parts, and ended early on Sunday.

Firefighters used an unmanned vehicle that can continuously spray seawater from the height of 22 meters directly into a pool containing spent fuel rods.

Since the vehicle they had used during the first operation had problems after the prolonged operation, a replacement was used in the second operation. A pump vehicle supplied seawater to the unmanned vehicle.

After adjusting the position of the unmanned vehicle and the direction of its spray, the firefighters moved outside the compound.

The amount of seawater sprayed so far is about triple the capacity of the spent fuel pool.

The level of radioactivity around the No.3 reactor decreased after the dousing that ended on Sunday.

The operation that finished on Monday is expected to further improve the condition of the spent fuel pool.

Monday, March 21, 2011 08:37 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/21_09.html

And now:

Restoring external power to Fukushima Daiichi

The Tokyo Electric Power Company has resumed work to restore external power to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, as part of its efforts to regain cooling functions.

This follows operations by the Tokyo Fire Department and Self-Defense Forces to douse the No.3 and No.4 reactors with water.

They ended their water-spraying operations to cool down the spent fuel rod pools on Monday morning.

External power was extended to the electricity distribution panels of the No.2 and No.5 reactors on Sunday, and power can now be supplied to reactors number 1, 2, 5, and 6.

In order to get the electricity back on at the No.2 reactor, the power company plans to check various measurement devices and lighting systems in the central control room -- the heart of the plant -- and check for electricity leakage in the battery charging room.

The No.3 and No.4 reactors, where high levels of radiation are forcing workers to exercise extreme caution, are scheduled to be connected to the electricity distribution panels on Tuesday.

The power company is doing everything it can to restore external power, which it sees as essential to regaining cooling functions for the reactor vessels and the spent fuel rod pools.

Monday, March 21, 2011 12:46 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/21_18.html

[Wetcoaster]

Japan disaster by the numbers from Reuters gives an idea of the scope and scale wrought by the quake and tsunami.

DEATH TOLL

* The death toll is difficult to forecast.

A total of 8,450 people were confirmed dead by police as of Sunday. Police in Miyagi prefecture, the worst-hit area, said the number of dead there would exceed 15,000. Heavy losses were also suffered in Iwate and Fukushima prefectures.

Another 12,931 people are still missing, National Police Agency of Japan says.

NUMBER OF PEOPLE EVACUATED

* A total of 350,332 people have been evacuated and are staying at shelters as of 1200 GMT on Sunday, National Police Agency of Japan says.

The government expanded the evacuation area around a quake-stricken nuclear plant in northeastern Japan to a 20-km (12 miles) radius from 10 km on March 12. Since then, around 177,500 residents have evacuated from the zone.

The government has also told people within 30 km of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, some 240 km north of Tokyo, to stay indoors.

HOUSEHOLDS WITHOUT ELECTRICITY

* A total of 242,927 households in the north were without electricity as of Sunday evening, Tohuku Electric Power Co. says.

HOUSEHOLDS WITHOUT WATER

At least 1.04 million households in 11 prefectures were without running water as of Saturday, the Health Ministry says on Saturday.

NUMBER OF BUILDINGS DAMAGED

* At least 126,723 buildings have been damaged, with at least 14,637 completely destroyed, National Police Agency of Japan says on Sunday.

IMPACT ON ECONOMY

- Citigroup expects 5-10 trillion yen in damage to housing and infrastructure, while Barclays Capital estimates economic losses of 15 trillion yen ($183.7 billion) or 3 percent of Japan's GDP.

UBS expects Japan's economy to grow 1.4 percent this year, compared with its previous forecast of 1.5 percent expansion. But it upgraded its growth forecast for 2012 to 2.5 percent, up from the previous estimate of 2.1 percent.

Goldman Sachs expects total economic losses likely to hit 16 trillion yen, while it expects real GDP to decline by 0.5-2 percent in the second quarter.

NUMBER OF COUNTRIES OFFERING AID

- According to the Japanese foreign ministry, 128 countries and 33 international organizations have offered assistance as of Saturday.

($1=81.66 yen)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/20/us-japan-quake-numbers-factbox-idUSTRE72J2S320110320

[lateralus]

Not sure if this has been posted but here are some more images:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366395/Japan-tsunami-earthquake-Haunting-images-450-Britons-feared-missing.html

[Wetcoaster]

Reuters has special in-depth report that looks at what factors contributed to the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in the wake of the earthquake. The huge amount of spent fuel rods on-site and the manner in which they were stored were serious issues along with a less than stellar safety and maintenance record - and that record applied specifically to the Fukushima Daiichi facility.

The US apparently has number of nuclear plants of the same design and similar pool storage of spent fuel rods as the Fukushima Daiichi plant. For economic reasons they apparently have elected this pool storage unlike the German practise of dry storage of spent nuclear fuel in steel and lined lead casks that can be hardened against attack or accidents with concrete. Like Japan it was never initially intended the spent fuel would remain on site for any lengthy period of time but in the US the nuclear industry has run into opposition when trying to move the spent fuel off site for processing and/or storage.

Once the magnitude of the potential disaster became apparent TEPCO delayed pumping in seawater into the reactors in an effort to preserve its assets and investments until finally ordered to begun pumping seawater by the Japanese Prime Minister.

One can expect the close and cozy relationship between the Japanese nuclear industry and the Japanese government and regulators to be a huge issue in the aftermath of this disaster.

Another issue is corporate leadership in the crisis - TEPCO chief executive Masataka Shimizu has literally vanished from the public eye.

Special Report: Fuel storage, safety issues vexed Japan plant

11:50am EDT

By Kevin Krolicki and Ross Kerber

TOKYO (Reuters)- When the massive tsunami smacked into Fukushima Daiichi, the nuclear power plant was stacked high with more uranium than it was originally designed to hold and had repeatedly missed mandatory safety checks over the past decade.

The Fukushima plant that has spun into partial meltdown and spewed out plumes of radiation had become a growing depot for spent fuel in a way the American engineers who designed the reactors 50 years earlier had never envisioned, according to company documents and outside experts.

At the time of the March 11 earthquake, the reactor buildings at Fukushima held the equivalent of almost six years of the highly radioactive uranium fuel rods produced by the plant, according to a presentation by Tokyo Electric Power Co to a conference organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Along with questions about whether Tokyo Electric officials waited too long to pump sea water into the plants and abandon hope of saving them, the utility and regulators are certain to face scrutiny on the fateful decision to store most of the plant's spent fuel rods inside the reactor buildings rather than invest in other potentially safer storage options.

That debate has direct implications for nuclear policy in the United States about whether changes enacted after the September 11, 2001 attacks go far enough to protect potentially vulnerable fuel stored at the nearly two dozen U.S. power plants that have the same design as the Fukushima Daiichi plant, experts say.

In Japan, the crisis has also focused attention on Tokyo Electric's spotty record on safety issues that continued until days before the quake, its cost-cutting drive under current chief executive Masataka Shimizu, and a relationship with Japanese government regulators that critics say remains shot through with conflicts of interest.

The cascade of safety-related failures at the Fukushima plant is already strengthening the hand of reformers who argue that Japan's nuclear power industry will have to see sweeping changes from the top.

"I've long thought that the whole system is crap," said Taro Kono, a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker and a longtime critic of nuclear power who sees the need for a government-directed reorganization of Tokyo Electric.

"We have to go through our whole nuclear strategy after this," Kono said. "Now no one is going to accept nuclear waste in their backyards. You can have an earthquake and have radioactive material under your house. We're going to have a real debate on this."

The latest incidents add to a record of safety sanctions and misses at Tokyo Electric - more commonly known as TEPCO - that date back a decade and continued into the weeks before the quake.

Less than two weeks before Fukushima Daichi was sent into partial meltdown, the utility had told safety regulators it had failed to inspect 33 pieces of equipment at the plant, including a backup power generator, according to a filing.

Nuclear industry analysts say an even more pressing question concerns an area where Japan's safety regulations may have given TEPCO too much room to maneuver as it sought to contain costs: storage of used fuel rods.

RADIATION RISKS

When the quake hit, almost 4,000 uranium fuel assemblies were stored in deep pools of circulating water built into the highest floor of the Fukushima reactor buildings, according to company records. Each assembly stands about 3.5 meters high and even a decade after use emits enough radiation to kill a person standing nearby.

The spent radioactive fuel stored in the reactors represented more than three times the amount of radioactive material normally held in the active cores of the six reactors at the complex, according to Tokyo Electric briefings and its presentation to the IAEA.

The build-up of used fuel rods in the Fukushima reactor buildings has complicated the response to the continuing crisis at the complex and deepened its severity, officials and experts have said.

That has been especially the case at the No. 4 reactor, which was out of service at the time of the quake and had some 548, still-hot fuel assemblies cooling in a pool of water on its upper floor.

That reactor, which erupted into explosive flames twice last week, triggered a warning from U.S. officials last week about higher risks for radiation from the stricken plant than Japanese officials had disclosed.

David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said the spent fuel was vulnerable because it was protected only by the relatively "flimsy" outer shell of the reactors and reliant on a single, pump-driven cooling system.

"It's a recipe for disaster and that disaster is now unfolding in Japan," Lochbaum said.

The pile-up of used radioactive fuel stored at Fukushima underscores a dilemma that the nuclear power industry has faced in Japan and in the United States for decades: there is no easy answer to the question of where to store radioactive nuclear fuel after it has been used to produce power.

In the United States, industry planners had once assumed that spent fuel rods would be moved to the Yucca Mountain Repository in Nevada. But political opposition in that fast-growing state helped put the plan on hold, meaning spent fuel has largely piled up in on-site cooling ponds.

"We have no plan for the back end of the (nuclear) fuel cycle, and we need one," said Allison Macfarlane, a professor at George Mason University in Virginia, who serves on a U.S. government panel studying the problem.

The situation is similar in Japan. A medium-term storage facility for waste from Fukushima Daiichi being built in the small village of Mutsu in northern Japan is not scheduled to open until 2012. The plan had been for that facility to hold 20 years worth of spent fuel.

A longer-term and controversial plan to build a uranium enrichment and reprocessing plant at nearby Rokkasho has also faced repeated delays and technical difficulties in a project that dates back to the early 1990s.

More than 60 percent of the uranium stored at Fukushima Daiichi made it through the quake and tsunami without being destabilized because it was kept in a separate pool built in 1997 and in a number of metal casks that do not rely on outside power, Japanese nuclear safety officials said.

But the location of the remaining fuel storage pools - on the highest floor of the reactor buildings - exposed the fuel to additional risks because the pools would have swayed more in the quake and could have lost water through sloshing or leaks, experts say.

As workers at the plant scramble to restore power to the plant and test pumps and other safety equipment, the main focus of the safety response has been to keep water in the storage pools by shooting sprays of water from a hastily assembled battalion of high-powered fire trucks.

The water in the pools serves as both a coolant and a barrier to radiation. When the zirconium cladding on the fuel rods is exposed to air, it can erupt into flames.

PUSHING THE LIMITS

Fukushima Daiichi had over time been pushing the limits of the plant's capacity to store uranium fuel on site, according to a Tokyo Electric presentation from November 2010 and now circulating among safety experts and environmental critics.

The Tokyo Electric researcher who prepared that presentation on the safety of spent fuel at the complex, Yumiko Kumano, could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for TEPCO declined to comment on its fuel storage decisions and whether they contributed to the crisis.

"Our focus now is on responding to the situation at Fukushima," he said.

The TEPCO presentation noted that the utility had taken steps to increase storage capacity for spent fuel at the plant complex beyond its original design. Those included "re-racking" the pools in the reactor buildings to increase their capacity and then building a separate large, pool outside and a separate hub of metal casks that do not need to rely on electricity.

But the only significant open space left for storage remained inside the reactor buildings, according to the document. TEPCO had the capacity to more than double the number of fuel assemblies stored in the reactors from 3,998 at the time of the quake to 8,310 assemblies.

"They were headed for dense pack and that would have made the situation even worse," said Frank von Hippel, a Princeton University physicist and former U.S. adviser on nuclear security risks in the Clinton administration.

An official with Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, who asked not to be named because he was not speaking on behalf of regulators in a formal capacity, said officials would have to review safety policies on storing fuel inside reactor buildings.

"This is something that we are going to have to look at after what's happened," he said.

SAFETY MISSES, APOLOGIES, MORE MISSSES

When Toru Ishida, a powerful advocate for the Japanese nuclear power industry, decided to leave his government post in 2010 for private industry, he didn't have to change his commute much at all.

Ishida, who had been director general of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the agency overseeing nuclear power, was hired four months after he left his regulatory post by TEPCO.

In a sign of the close ties between the utility and the government agency that serves as its biggest patron, the now-darkened TEPCO headquarters is just a few blocks from METI's drab complex in the Kasumigaski neighborhood that houses much of the government bureaucracy.

The practice of former bureaucrats dropping into high-paid private sector jobs after retirement remains both relatively common and controversial in Japan where it is known as "amakudari," or "descent from heaven."

But the Ishida case attracted so much notice when his hiring by TEPCO became public earlier this year, that then METI Minister Akihiro Ohata felt compelled to concede it could show the need for reform.

"Something should be done to reassure public concern about this," Ohata told reporters in January, while arguing that Ishida had been hired by TEPCO for his "capacity, experience and intelligence" and nothing more.

Critics, including the lawmaker Kono, said the hire illustrates the deep-seated problems in a system that has made METI both nuclear power's biggest backer and home to the safety agency in charge of its regulation.

METI has guided Tokyo Electric's investment in nuclear power and provided an implicit backstop and financing. At the same time, the utility has provided jobs for some senior METI officials like Ishida and a network of sympathetic politicians, Kono said.

"If this is a national policy, then the government has to be responsible entirely," he said. "If this is private enterprise, then we have to think about how to de-cartel this industry."

The Fukushima Daiichi plant is Tokyo Electric's oldest nuclear facility, and it has been the site of a series of high-profile safety lapses going back a decade.

In 2002, TEPCO admitted to safety regulators that it had falsified safety records at the No. 1 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi. In 2003, TEPCO shut down all of its 17 nuclear plants to take responsibility for the false safety scandal and a fuel leak at Fukushima.

In 2007, after a powerful quake hit the area near TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata, the utility was slow to report two radiation leaks and miscalculated the amount of radiation released in a third incident.

Japanese regulators have also come under fire. In 1999, a study commissioned by the U.S. Energy Department determined that workers at Japan's Tokaimura fuel plant had been given insufficient training before they accidentally touched off an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction. Three workers were severely injured in the incident, which forced tens of thousands to evacuate.

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency was established in 2001 in part because of that criticism. But critics have questioned whether it has enough distance from the industry it regulates or the resources it needs. The agency's records show that it has about two field inspectors for each of Japan's 54 nuclear plants.

WHERE'S THE CEO

While the band of TEPCO workers risk dangerous doses of radiation as they struggle to prevent a catastrophic meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi, the company's chief executive has all but vanished from the public eye.

Chief executive Masataka Shimizu has not made a public appearance in more than a week. He has yet to visit the crippled nuclear power plant north of Tokyo. And many Japanese, on a knife edge waiting to see if the nuclear power plant and its radiation leaks can be brought under control, are beginning to question how much he is in control of the crisis.

At his last news conference, a week ago, the 66-year-old apologized for the situation, before all but vanishing from public view. The company issued a statement from him on Saturday in which he expressed regret for "causing such trouble."

Shimizu is a consummate company man, joining the place where his father worked at the age of 23. At the country's biggest power supplier, he made a name for himself as a cost-cutter in the procurement side of the business, before becoming company president in June 2008.

Since the crisis, he has largely left it to TEPCO spokespeople in Tokyo to be the public face of the company and answer increasingly aggressive questions, and criticism, from reporters frustrated at the lack of information.

"He's making the low-ranking people do all the hard work," said Satomi Aihara, a 46-year-old Tokyo resident. "I wonder where he's hiding -- it makes me mad."

Even Prime Minister Naoto Kan has been unable to hide his frustration. "What the hell is going on?" he was overheard telling TEPCO executives last week.

TEPCO officials say their boss is busy behind the scenes.

"He's been leading the troops at headquarters," company spokesman Kaoru Yoshida said.

Japanese company chiefs may not be as closely associated with the successes of their companies as they are in the United States or Europe, but they are to any failures.

They are expected to take responsibility for shortcomings, scandals or disasters that happen on their watch, apologizing profusely and often resigning.

Indeed, a former president and chairman of the company both stepped down after the 2002 safety scandal.

HAS U.S. DONE ENOUGH?

While TEPCO, its chief executive and regulators may face questions over the safe storage of spent fuel inside the Fukushima reactors, in the United States experts have urged spent fuel be stored away from reactors because of the risk of a terrorist attack.

A classified report by the U.S. National Academy of Science prepared in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, challenged the position of the U.S. nuclear industry that storing spent fuel in pools was as safe as storing it outside the reactor buildings in heavy casks of lead and steel that can also be reinforced with a massive concrete bunker.

About 23 U.S. reactors share the same General Electric "Mark 1" design as the Fukushima Daiichi reactors, which date back to 1971.

"When the plants were originally designed, it was thought that the spent fuel would remain on the sites only two or three months after they came out of the reactor during a refueling outage and then the fuel would be shipped offsite for reprocessing or disposal," said Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"When those plans changed, we just filled the pools up to capacity without ever rethinking whether we should provide better safety or barriers," he said.

The Japan nuclear crisis has raised concern for U.S. officials because of the areas where safety practices overlap. By contrast, Germany, for example, has relied more heavily on storage of spent fuel in casks that can be hardened against attack or accidents with concrete.

One of problems limiting the wider use of the dry storage units is their upfront costs: each cask costs about $1 million or more. Critics say the costs are roughly comparable with cooling pools over the long run but require initial capital spending that can be a tougher sell to management and shareholders.

Richard Meserve, who was chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 1999 to 2003 and oversaw its response to the September 11 attacks, said it is too soon to judge what has happened at Fukushima until more reviews take place. If anything, he said, he was surprised the reactors' spent fuel pools were not fuller, given the ages of the plants.

Meserve noted the steps the NRC took after the September 11 attacks such as requiring the hottest fuel to be spread among various cooling pools, and extra systems to spray water on the spent rods. "We have some safety systems in the U.S. reactors that may not be present at the Japanese reactors," he said.

Junichi Nunomura, a Tokyo-based executive with NAC, a U.S. firm that provides dry storage for nuclear fuel, said Japanese utilities had been slow to move away from storing spent fuel in pools at reactors despite the shift in international opinion away from that option in recent years.

"They've been very cautious, very slow to move," Nunomura said. "That could change."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/21/us-japan-nuclear-idUSTRE72K47A20110321

[old_time_hockey]

Once the magnitude of the potential disaster became apparent TEPCO delayed pumping in seawater into the reactors in an effort to preserve its assets and investments until finally ordered to begun pumping seawater by the Japanese Prime Minister.

Just updating my list of things that it is bad to out source with no regulatory oversite.

Oh for the days of old where the executives of TEPCO would be expected to commit Hari Kari

[old_time_hockey]

DP

Edited March 21, 2011 by old_time_hockey

[Wetcoaster]

Just updating my list of things that it is bad to out source with no regulatory oversite.

Oh for the days of old where the executives of TEPCO would be expected to commit Hari Kari

There is regulatory oversight in Japan - the criticism is that the relationship is too cozy.

[old_time_hockey]

That being my point. Oversight by the old boys network doesn't cut it.

It's almost like cops investigating themselves.

[Wetcoaster]

That being my point. Oversight by the old boys network doesn't cut it.

It's almost like cops investigating themselves.

The oversight however is not "outsourced" - it is a government regulatory agency.

[old_time_hockey]

I don't think I was clear. Not that the oversight is outsourced From my understanding TEPCO is a private company, and a company that has shown it puts profits before safety.

After reading your post it made me remember watching a debate in the early 90's where a nuclear lobbyist was saying Canada is so far behind the times compared to the US in regards to having safe, clean nuclear plants. And really what is holding the industry back is that power production in Canada for the most part is still done by crown corps and is too strictly regulated. But the other side of the debate said what is wrong with regulation? And went on to say that he really doesn't think that it is wise to have a private company that answers to share holders operate in an industry that deals with such a potentially hazardous product because he doesn't have full confidance that all the proper procedures and steps will be taken because to do so that costs money.

[Wetcoaster]

Latest Reuters summary - radiation jitters growing even as the Fukushima Daiichi plant seems to be brought under control.

Radiation anxiety grows in disaster-struck Japan

6:28pm EDT

By Shinichi Saoshiro and Kiyoshi Takenaka

TOKYO (Reuters) - Global anxiety rose over radiation from Japan's crippled nuclear plant even as engineers won ground in their battle to avert disaster from the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl.

The high-stakes drama at the battered Fukushima nuclear power complex is playing out while the Asian nation grapples with the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left at least 21,000 people dead or missing.

Technicians working inside an evacuation zone round the stricken plant on Japan's northeast Pacific coast have managed to attach power cables to all six reactors and started a pump at one of them to cool overheating nuclear fuel rods.

"We see a light for getting out of the crisis," an official quoted Prime Minister Naoto Kan as saying, allowing himself some rare optimism in Japan's toughest moment since World War II.

Yet away from the plant, mounting evidence of radiation in vegetables, water and milk spread jitters among Japanese and abroad despite officials' assurances levels were not dangerous.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company said radiation was found in the Pacific nearby, not surprising given rain and the hosing of reactors with sea-water.

Radioactive iodine in the sea samples was 126.7 times the allowed limit, while cesium was 24.8 times over, Kyodo news agency said. That still posed no immediate danger, TEPCO said.

"It would have to be drunk for a whole year in order to accumulate to one millisievert," a TEPCO official said, referring to the standard radiation measurement unit. People are generally exposed to about 1 to 10 millisieverts each year from background radiation caused by substances in the air and soil.

Japan has urged some residents near the plant to stop drinking tap water after high levels of radioactive iodine were detected. It has also stopped shipments of milk, spinach and another local vegetable called kakina from the area.

"What I want the people to understand is that their levels are not high enough to affect humans," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

Experts say readings are much lower than around Chernobyl after the 1986 accident in Ukraine. Some warned against panic.

"You would have to eat or drink an awful lot to get any level of radiation that would be harmful," said British nuclear expert Laurence Williams.

"We live in a radioactive world: we get radiation from the earth, from the food we eat. It's an emotive subject and the nuclear industry and governments have got to do a lot more to educate people."

The World Health Organization (WHO) said the radiation impact was, however, becoming more serious than first thought, when it was expected to be limited to 20-30 km from the plant.

However, Peter Cordingley, spokesman for the WHO's regional office, told Reuters there was no evidence of contaminated food reaching other countries from the Fukushima complex, which lies 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

In the city of 13 million, many residents remain indoors or wear masks when out in the street. Some expatriates and locals left after the accident.

Japan is a net importer of food, but has substantial exports -- mainly fruit, vegetables, dairy products and seafood -- with its biggest markets in Hong Kong, China and the United States.

CONTAMINATION FEARS

China said it is monitoring food imports from Japan but also took a swipe against panic by jailing a man for 10 days for spreading rumors about contamination of its waters.

State media said the computer company worker, who had urged people to avoid sea products for a year, was also fined 500 yuan ($76.13) and had confessed to "deep awareness of his mistake."

South Korea is expanding inspection of Japanese food.

And in Taiwan, one Japanese restaurant is offering diners a radiation gauge in case they are nervous about the food.

The United States said it was distributing potassium iodide to American personnel in Japan "out of an abundance of caution" should the radiation treatment be needed.

The prospects of a nuclear meltdown in the world's third-biggest economy - and its key position in global supply chains especially for the automobile and technology sectors - rattled investors worldwide last week and prompted rare joint currency intervention by the G7 group of rich nations.

Damage is estimated at around $250 billion, making it the world's costliest natural disaster.

Japan's economic growth is expected to depress in the first half before reconstruction kicks in.

Global stocks rose on Monday as risk appetite returned following progress in the nuclear crisis. The yen slid on speculation of more Group of Seven intervention.

In a symbolic boost for Japan, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said the quake and tsunami were an "enormous blow" but also presented a "buying opportunity" given recovery prospects.

DEVASTATED NORTH

The official death toll - 8,805 by Tuesday morning - is certain to keep rising, with another 12,654 reported missing.

Police say more than 15,000 people probably died in Miyagi prefecture, one of four that took the brunt of the tsunami.

The 9.0-magnitude quake and ensuing 10-meter (32-ft) tsunami obliterated towns, which are now wastelands of mud and debris, leaving more than 350,000 people homeless.

Japanese are famed for resilience though, and there was none of the chaos or looting that major global disasters often spark.

In one devastated northern town, Rikuzentakata, rebuilding has even begun to help families living on mats in cramped shelters, separated from neighbors only by cardboard.

Steel structures, with walls and wood floors, have been erected at a hilltop school, to provide temporary housing.

Nearly 9.5 million foreigners visited Japan last year.

But, like Korean housewife Jin Hye-ryun who canceled a planned visit in May, many tourists are re-thinking.

"Safety is not guaranteed," she said. "Besides, think about people dying there. No one wants to go there to have fun."

There is widespread admiration for the workers facing high radiation dosages on the front line at Fukushima. Some have wept with tension and relief after finishing their shifts.

Other tales of heroism and horror abound, including a fire chief traumatized after sending a team to close a faulty sea-wall manually just as the tsunami struck, killing them all.

As well as hunting for bodies and survivors, rescuers have been painstakingly recovering photographs and other mementos from the wreckage and laying them out for possible collection.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/21/us-japan-quake-idUSTRE72A0SS20110321

[Truculence]

This guy must have been freaked out. I can imagine him thinking "Wow, look at that. Glad I'm safe way up here... uh... oh crap." (Some shaky camera, but the content is worth it.)

[Donky]

This guy must have been freaked out. I can imagine him thinking "Wow, look at that. Glad I'm safe way up here... uh... oh crap." (Some shaky camera, but the content is worth it.)

Damn...now that's a cliffhanger! It makes you wonder how many deaths occurred while people thought they were safe up high....and while recording. There must be some horrific footage out there.