Fukushima: radioactive materials yet to be contained

[robdogbucky]

Radiation expert says outcome of nuke crisis hard to predict, warns of further dangers


...The nuclear disaster is ongoing. Immediately after the crisis first began to unfold, I thought that we'd see a definitive outcome within a week. However, with radioactive materials yet to be contained, we've remained in the unsettling state of not knowing how things are going to turn out.

Without accurate information about what's happening inside the reactors, there's a need to consider various scenarios. At present, I believe that there is a possibility that massive amounts of radioactive materials will be released into the environment again.

At the No. 1 reactor, there's a chance that melted fuel has burned through the bottom of the pressure vessel, the containment vessel and the floor of the reactor building, and has sunk into the ground. From there, radioactive materials may be seeping into the ocean and groundwater.

The use of water to cool down the reactors immediately after the crisis first began resulted in 110,000 cubic meters of radiation-tainted water. Some of that water is probably leaking through the cracks in the concrete reactor buildings produced by the March 11 quake. Contaminated water was found flowing through cracks near an intake canal, but I think that's just the tip of the iceberg. I believe that contaminated water is still leaking underground, where we can't see it. Because of this, I believe immediate action must be taken to build underground water barriers that would close off the nuclear power plant to the outside world and prevent radioactive materials from spreading. The important thing is to stop any further diffusion of radioactive materials...


(Mainichi Japan) September 9, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/perspectives/news/20110909p2a00m0na016000c.html

[ixion]

1. "will be released" = "are being released"

just sayin'...

[mike_c]

2. I believe that's "radioactive materials have yet to be FOUND...."

eom

[robdogbucky]

3. More from Hiroake Koide interview

As a radiation metrology and nuclear safety expert at Kyoto University's Research Reactor Institute, Hiroaki Koide has been critical of how the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) have handled the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. Below, he shares what he thinks may happen in the coming weeks, months and years...

...The government and plant operator TEPCO are trumpeting the operation of the circulation cooling system, as if it marks a successful resolution to the disaster. However, radiation continues to leak from the reactors. The longer the circulation cooling system keeps running, the more radioactive waste it will accumulate. It isn't really leading us in the direction we need to go.

It's doubtful that there's even a need to keep pouring water into the No.1 reactor, where nuclear fuel is suspected to have burned through the pressure vessel. Meanwhile, it is necessary to keep cooling the No. 2 and 3 reactors, which are believed to still contain some fuel, but the cooling system itself is unstable. If the fuel were to become overheated again and melt, coming into contact with water and trigger a steam explosion, more radioactive materials will be released.

TEPCO says it is aiming to bring the No. 1, 2 and 3 reactors to cold shutdown by January 2012. Cold shutdown, however, entails bringing the temperature of sound nuclear fuel in pressure vessels below 100 degrees Celsius. It would be one thing to aim for this in April, when the government had yet to confirm that a meltdown had indeed taken place. But what is the point of "aiming for cold shutdown" now, when we know that fuel is no longer sound?...

(Mainichi Japan) September 9, 2011

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/perspectives/news/20110909p2a00m0na016000c.html

[defendandprotect]

6. That should be a separate OP --- but all common sense says this thing can't sit there like this ....

this is an earthquake-prone island --

and Global Warming will bring increasing numbers of earthquakes of increasing

intensity --

If anything Global Warming will be moving ever faster and as we can see from

other predictions they have been way off -- by decades --


We have 103/106 of our own nuclear reactors in America which need to be shut down --

[defendandprotect]

4. "possibility massive radioactive materials will be released into environment again --"

Amazing the risks we have taken to use NUCLEAR POWER to boil water to create steam !!!

These things should all be shut down --

[dtexdem]

5. Well, after all, give them time -- like, say, 20,000 years.

;-)

[Overseas]

7. sad K&R.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Giant disgusted heavy sigh.

Somewhere back in July I just got totally overwhelmed with the massive waves of ignorance and stupidity of the "average" human race inhabitants, and had to take a bit of a time out.
Now all I can muster is a sigh.

[Generic Other]

9. Is he saying cold shut-down no longer possible?

Not that it is a surprise at this point.

When does the Japanese government intend to admit the severity of the present situation?

[MadHound]

10. Hard to do a cold shut down when the mass is out of the containment vessel

And starting to work its way downwards.

[Generic Other]

11. So the only cold shutdown now will be

when it hits the underground water table. Great.