Thanks Sarge. Actually a few days ago, I was reading through the "early" posts in this thread, and I realize how much you knew what you were talking about. The risk from the spent nuclear rods in no. 4 was worse than I realized at the time. The situation was even more precarious than my wracked mind knew and we were truly at the mercy of the weather for at least a few days there.

This thread name is a bit out of date, it is more than possible and there were at least two "melt-through"s.

Greenpeace and other independent organizations have been monitoring food and the rad numbers the gov't etc. seem to have been legit. They are pretty low for areas outside "the radius". Actually a few foods well south in Japan are actually showing up with rads, albeit low, which is making some experts shake their heads. The numbers could still go up again as the cesium seeps into the soil.

The reactors and that spent fuel container seem to be stable. However, we get bigger and stronger tremors these days since the BIG one, so those reactors (and Japans 53 others!) are still ones to watch.

I don't think I mentioned this before, but the grandparents wanted my son to visit for New Years (that's like Christmas in the US). My wife and I weren't sure, but it is significantly closer to the problem. But my son and I went (wife stayed home to work). The rad levels are actually pretty low there anyway. However, I was not happy with some food they would put on the table while we were there. They neglected to tell us for example that the potatoes they were putting in every dish were from my father-in-laws old farm MUCH nearer to the reactors and harvested in July. I checked websites and root vegetables have yet to show any spikes, so it was probably safe but.... the last thing I needed was a big fight with the in-laws. They have been told food is safe, so it's safe. There was another instance where they were thrilled to get some plums at discount because NOONE ELSE WOULD BUY THEM! I had to bite my tongue hard. My son wanted to stay longer, but I made an excuse and we left days earlier than we had planned. Ah, the post-disaster politics...

One year ago today.....

The other night/early morning I watched a program called Witness: Disaster in Japan on the NGC channel.

The whole show was actual video taken right before, during & after the earthquake/tsunami by amateurs, news outlets & survivors with cell phones & camcorders. Very graphic.

Throughout the whole show I was on the edge of my seat. And to watch an actual tsunami wiping out whole towns, cities & villages in real time was amazing to see.


PS: The show was subtitled in English since the language spoken was Japanese.

TEPCO just put a 10 meter longer than the first time endoscope into reactor two at Fukushima Daichi. Reactor 2 has been the most troublesome reactor for much of the last year. It was revealed that even though it has had the most water pumped into it, the water level is only 60 cm deep and not the 3 meters they thought it was.

This means that is in effect only being cooled by water coming in from the top of the reactor before it quickly leaks out into the containment building around it. This not only makes cooling concerns rise, but also makes it clear that the cleanup will be even harder than anticipated, because the core needs to be surrounded by water to provide radiation shielding in any future clean up efforts.

Ah, another cup of tea and maybe I'll study up some more.

Encouraging new report:

In terms of soil contamination, the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant is only about an eighth as severe as the meltdown at the Chernobyl plant, in what is now Ukraine, in 1986, according to a report by the science ministry released Tuesday.

Also,

In 1986, some parts of Norway as far as 1,700 km from Chernobyl saw radiation spike to 40,000 becquerels of cesium per square meter, a condition seen only within 250 km of the Fukushima No. 1 plant, the report added.

The research "confirms that areas affected by the Chernobyl accident are substantially wider" than that of the Fukushima plant, the ministry said in the report.

Good news in general, methinks.

However, in bad news, more radioactive water, about 100 liters before it was found, has leaked from containment that was supposed to be sealed, and made it to the sea. It contained strontium. Strontium is one of the really scary ones.

Thanks for the updates. Followed some of the links on the NHX World page. Saw that strontium article yesterday there. Lots of local quake related articles. There's no blueprint for this type of disaster, they are just going day by day. What a mess over there.

I used to be all for nuke power, not sure now. When it runs well it's great, but when something goes wrong it's more than just putting a fire out and rebuilding the generating plant like with gas or coal fired plants.

So, I said I got together with other foreign residents who had been going to the same forum about radiation in Japan/Tokyo for about a year.

I learned/confirmed some things that I feel are pretty conclusive:

There has not been enough heat left over for months and months in any of the reactors to cause a recriticality or more hydrogen explosions. Any info to the contrary is suspect.

The spent nuclear rod pool (open air!) is the biggest concern, but it can only heat up very slowly if the pool emptied out or became low for whatever reason, and even if an earthquake caused it to collapse, only the very local area would be affected, as there is no mechanism for the cesium and other goodies to travel distances (such as explosions and burning).

Also, I asked another expert there about the higher levels where I go to work which are somewhere around 5-6 times higher than much of the rest of Tokyo. He said most of the cesium has settled and become largely inert. You don't really get exposure through the skin at such levels, it's largely inhaled, and there isn't much left to inhale. Should be fine. Still wouldn't move the fam up there, which was the original plan, but it's nice to know it's safe.