http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/25/japan.nuclear.report/Tokyo, Japan (CNN) -- Two of the damaged reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan may be riddled with holes, according to the facility's owner.
The holes may be as big as 7 to 10 centimeters ( 2.8- 3.9 inches), Tokyo Electric Power Co. said in a 225-page document submitted to Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
In the report, Tokyo Electric says the containment vessel of reactor No. 1 may have developed a hole as big as 3 centimeters in diameter 18 hours after the quake.
Fifty hours after the quake, the hole may have widened to 7 centimeters, the report said. In reactor No. 2, the containment vessel may have developed a hole as wide as 10 centimeters 21 hours after the quake..........."
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http://green.yahoo.com/news/nm/20110524/wl_nm/us_japan_tepco_reactors.htmlhttp://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/us-japan-tepco-reactors-idUSTRE74N07S20110524TEPCO Confirms Three of Four Reactors in Meltdown(Reuters) - The operator of the nuclear power plant at the center of a radiation scare after being disabled by Japan's earthquake and tsunami confirmed Tuesday that there had been meltdowns of fuel rods at three of its reactors.
Tokyo Electric Power Co said meltdowns of fuel rods at three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant occurred early in the crisis triggered by the March 11 disaster.
The government and outside experts had said previously that fuel rods at three of the plant's six reactors had likely melted early in the crisis, but the utility, also known as Tepco, had only confirmed a meltdown at the No.1 reactor.
Tepco officials said a review since early May of data from the plant concluded the same happened to reactors No.2 and 3......................."
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http://atmc.jp/plant/rad/?n=1Drywall Definition:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/drywell.htmlHighest yet radiation dose at Reactor No. 1 — 204 FULL Sieverts per hour in drywell5/25 @ 204 Sv/hr
5/24 @ 192 Sv/hr
5/23 @ 201 Sv/hr
5/22 @ 196 Sv/hr
5/21 @ 36.2 Sv/hr
5/20 @ 46.5 Sv/hr
5/19 @ 36.3 Sv/hr
5/18 @ 45.4 Sv/hr
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http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/soil-contamination-from-fukushima-crisis-comparable-to-chernobyl-studyJapan gov’t expert: 1,300 sq. kilometers in Japan above Chernobyl level for forced migrationsRadiation released by the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has caused soil contamination matching the levels seen in the Chernobyl disaster in some areas, <...> said Tomio Kawata, a research fellow of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan, at the meeting of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission, which sets policies and strategies for the government’s nuclear power development.
According to Kawata, soil in a 600 square kilometer area mostly to the northwest of the Fukushima plant is likely to have absorbed radioactive cesium of over 1.48 million becquerels per square meter, the yardstick for compulsory migration orders in the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe.
Kawata also said soil in a 700 square km area is likely to have absorbed 555,000-1.48 million becquerels per square meter, which was a criteria for temporary migration during the Chernobyl disaster.
<...> radioactive cesium binds strongly to soil, making it hard to reduce radiation levels, Kawata said
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/24/more-melted-fuel-japan-fukushima-un-probe_n_866315.htmlUN Mission Finds Chunks of nuclear fuel appear to have entered drywell, causing damageTOKYO — A major international mission to investigate Japan's flooded, radiation-leaking nuclear complex began as new information suggested that nuclear fuel had mostly melted in two more reactors in the early days after the March 11 tsunami.
That would mean that all three troubled reactors at the plant have had their cores mostly melted down.
The team of U.N. nuclear experts met with Japanese officials Tuesday and planned to visit the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in coming days to investigate the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986 and assess efforts to stabilize the complex by Tokyo's self-declared deadline of early next year.
Meanwhile, the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., released a new analysis suggesting that fuel rods in the plant's Units 2 and 3 mostly melted during the early days of the crisis, which had been suspected but not confirmed. In addition, some chunks of the fuel appeared to have entered the inner containment chambers, or drywell, causing some damage.........................."
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http://www.news24.com/World/News/70-000-must-evacuate-around-Fukushima-2011052470,000 more “must evacuate around Fukushima” — Contamination up to several million Bq/m2Seventy thousand people living beyond the 20km no-go zone around Fukushima should be evacuated because of radioactivity deposited by the crippled nuclear plant,
said. <...>
Radioactivity levels in this area range from several hundred becquerels per square metre to thousands or even several million bequerels per square metre, the IRSN report, issued late on Monday, said. <...>
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/business/energy-environment/25nuke.html?_r=3
NYT: Threat of catastrophic radioactive release from a spent fuel pool at Fukushima is dwarfed by risk posed by pools in U.S., study says
The threat of a catastrophic release of radioactive materials from a spent fuel pool at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant is dwarfed by the risk posed by such pools in the United States, which are typically filled with far more radioactive material, according to a study released on Tuesday by a nonprofit institute . <...>
At one plant that is a near twin of the Fukushima units, Vermont Yankee on the border of Massachusetts and Vermont, the spent fuel in a pool at the solitary reactor there exceeds the inventory in all four of the damaged Fukushima reactors combined, the report notes. <...>
“The largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet will remain in storage at U.S. reactor sites for the indefinite future” -Robert Alvarez, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of the report
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http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/node/4227
Highest Cesium-137 level in nearly a month for N. California raw milk
Raw Milk: Dairy in Sonoma County, UC Berkeley, May 24, 2011:
Cs137
5/18 0.16 Bq/L
5/4 0.10 Bq/L
4/27 0.07 Bq/L
4/20 0.27 Bq/L
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http://news.lucaswhitefieldhixson.com/2011/05/media-gallery-may-23rd-2011.html
Media Gallery (Videos and Pics)