TOKYO (Reuters) - Radioactive material released into the sea in the Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis is more than triple the amount estimated by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co, Japanese researchers say.
Japan's biggest utility estimated around 4,720 trillion becquerels of cesium-137 and iodine-131 was released into the Pacific Ocean between March 21 and April 30, but researchers at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) put the amount 15,000 trillion becquerels, or terabecquerels...
Huge amounts of contaminated water accumulated during efforts to cool the reactors, with much of it reaching the sea, and radiation has been found in fish, seaweed and other seafood...
"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera.
I wonder how much is actual evidence and how much is conjecture. Do they have any way to actually see what is happening?
If it really is as bad as that, the whole 'December 21st 2012' prediction starts really looking prescient.
"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera.
Now FOX news is reporting the since Japan nuclear radiation was detected in Philadelphia drinking water at the high level in the nation, infant death rates have jumped 48% percent. The report also reveals that while infant death rates in the entire US have trended downward for the last 6 years, there has been a 2.3% increase in infant deaths since Fukushima nuclear radiation started bombarding the United States.
Is Iodine-131 Killing Babies In Philly?
A researcher says the death rate among babies is up 48 percentsince Iodine-131 was found in Philadelphia’s drinking water
Joseph Mangano is is the executive director of the Radiation And Public Health Project in New York, which is made of up scientists and health professionals.
There has been a recent spike, in infant deaths in Philadelphia, and Mangano says radioactive levels, in our water could be to blame.
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Mangano said radiation combined with higher levels of iodine the EPAQ found in Philadelphia’s water two months ago may be killing young babies here.
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And what’s even more thought provoking is Mangano believes radiation traveling from Japan is particularly pregnant women without them knowing it.
shows an average of five infant deaths a week in the five weeks leading up to the fallout in Japan.
Then, for the 10 weeks after Japan, there was an average of 7. 5.
During the same time period, the rate of infant deaths for the whole country jumped just 2.3 percent.
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Mangano also looked at numbers for the same time period dating back six years. They showed a decline in infant deaths until this year.
Worse than Nuclear Meltdown – In a report prepared for the UN Japan says they believe that Fukushima fuel rods have melted through the bottom for three reactors.
The Montreal Gazette reports that Japan has prepared a report for the UN nuclear watchdog — the IAEA — which states they believe molten nuclear lava at the Fukushima nuclear reactor has melted through the bottom of the containment vessels.
The Montreal Gazette article above cited a report prepared for the UN. That report had not yet been released and the article was based on statements from officials on the contents of the report.
Today, the report was finally released and the Telegraph reports that Japan has confirmed the nuclear melt through the base of three of the reactors. This is a changed from Japan saying it believes melt through has occurred to Japan now confirming the melt through.
TOKYO (AFP) - The operator of Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant on Tuesday said it believed fuel had partially melted inside three reactors, as long suspected by experts.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said new readings on water gauges indicated that the fuel had dropped to the bottom of the containment vessels of units two and three, matching its earlier assessment of unit one.
Uranium fuel in at least one of the six reactors at Fukushima has melted, the operator of the crippled nuclear plant has said. The admission effectively torpedoes a plan to flood the overheating fuel with water and bring a quick end to the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said water levels have fallen at least one metre below fuel rods inside Reactor 1 and that melted fuel has dropped to the bottom of the reactor's containment vessel. Engineers are working inside the reactor building for the first time since the crisis began when a hydrogen explosion blew off its roof following the huge quake and tsunami on 11 March.
Tepco general manager Junichi Matsumoto told reporters in Tokyo that the discovery means its timetable to entomb the containment reactor vessel in water may have to be scrapped. "We can't deny the possibility that a hole in the pressure vessel caused water to leak," Mr Matsumoto said.
Observers fear that Reactor 3, which contains MOX plutonium fuel, may have also suffered a meltdown, and the situation inside Reactor 2 is still shrouded in mystery.
"The situation is clearly far more serious than previously reported, and could escalate rapidly if the lava melts through the reactor vessel," warned Jan Beránek of Greenpeace.
TOKYO - The Tokyo Electric Power Company laid out an ambitious plan on Sunday for bringing the reactors at its hobbled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into a stable state known as cold shutdown within the next nine months and for trying to reduce the levels of radioactive materials being released in the meantime.
The blueprint for action represents Tokyo Electric's most concrete timetable yet for controlling the reactors and improving safety at the plant, which was damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami nearly six weeks ago.
The first part of the plan, expected to take three months, would include building new cooling systems, critical to preventing catastrophic releases of radioactive materials. The company then hopes to cover three badly damaged reactor buildings and install filters to reduce contamination being released into the air.
