As for Angle of Death’s Next Nuke Choices…

Fukushima operator given green light to restart nuclear reactors!!

The mindless nuclear regulators in Japan, a part of the global nuclear mafia, have given the operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (TEPCO), initial approval to restart two reactors, just six years after the March 2011 triple meltdown, and despite the fact that TEPCO is still struggling to decommission other rectors.

Five tiny men, acting as Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) commissioners, have voted unanimously to approve the restarts at reactors No 6 and No 7, each with a capacity of 1,356 megawatts, at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, said to be the world’s largest NPP.

Greenpeace Germany has correctly accused the NRA of recklessness.

“It is the same disregard for nuclear risks that resulted in Tepco’s 2011 triple reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi site. Approving the safety of reactors at the world’s largest nuclear plant when it is at extreme risk from major earthquakes completely exposes the weakness of Japan’s nuclear regulator,” said a senior nuclear specialist with the organization.

Some 23 seismic faultlines run through the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa site, Greenpeace said.

The Japan Centre for Economic Research estimates the total cost of the Fukushima cleanup, which is expected to take up to 40 years,  to reach 70tn yen (~ $620bn).

Fukushima: 6 Years of Catastrophe and Counting

Unending Nightmare: Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

Key Facts and Figures as Fukushima Disaster Enters 7th Year

• 3 Reactor core meltdowns continue releasing radioactive nanoparticles into the environment.
• Contaminated water is still leaking continuously into the Pacific ocean
• Partially decontaminated water is being dumped into the ocean.

<span “>Contaminated Water
Tepco injects a total of 252m³ of water each day into reactors 1, 2 and 3 to cool the corium.http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/betu17_e/images/170217e0101.pdf.

The strongly contaminated water infiltrates basements under the reactor and turbine buildings where it mixes with the ground water that floods those areas.

Tepco is also pumping an additional 135 m³ of contaminated water and 62 m³ of groundwater into the basements of the reactors and turbine buildings daily, in addition to the water injected for cooling. A total of 197 m³ is accumulated daily in tanks after treatment. It is more when it is raining, and more still during the typhoons. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2017/images/handouts_170213_01-e.pdfTepco

To keep about 2 million cubic meters of contaminated and processed water and hundreds of tons of sludge, Tepco has erected about 1,000 shoddily constructed holding tanks hat occupy almost the entire plant site. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/betu17_e/images/170217e0101.pdf 

Since March 2016, Tepco has been trying to freeze the ground around the stricken reactors to reduce infiltration and dispersal of radioactive water, but this has proved far less effective than expected. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2017/images/handouts_170209_02-e.pdf

Full article is posted at https://nuclear-news.net/tag/6-years-anniversary/

 

‘Fukushima Catastrophe Ongoing: Leakage continues on a daily basis’

Radiation at Fukushima rising to highest level since 2011 meltdown

“[…] recent measurements showing 53,000 Rem per hour (deadly to humans within a minute or less, at close range, in the absence of radiation shielding), or higher, radiation dose rates in the melted down Unit 2 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi, Japan.”

Emergency storage tanks contain “800,000 tons of highly radioactive water … because every day they pour a hundred tons of water on each of these three melted down cores and sometimes they lose those tanks. They leak, they overflow, so it is an ongoing catastrophe,” says Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste monitor at Beyond Nuclear,

“There are many shoes that could still drop at Fukushima Daiichi. One of the ones is the high radioactive waste storage pools that aren’t even inside radiological containment. They don’t have all of that spent nuclear fuel transferred to a safer location in a couple of the units still. If something were to go wrong with that – those would be open air releases of very high-level radioactivity.

“The prime minister at the time the catastrophe began, Kan, had a contingency plan to evacuate all of Northeast Japan – up to 50 million people. It was predominantly because of those storage pools. We’re still in that predicament- if one of those pools were to go up in flames. As Tokyo plans to host the 2020 Olympics and bring in many millions of extra people into this already densely populated area –it is not a good idea.”

More information is available at:

http://www.beyondnuclear.org/japan/2017/2/6/fukushima-catastrophe-ongoing-leakage-on-a-daily-basis.html

See also previous blog entries on Fukushima catastrophe.

Nuclear fuel debris possibly found at Fukushima Daiichi NPP

• CJ Members
• EAC
• OC Teams

Decommissioning of crippled Fukushima NPP hits new snag

Workers have found a black mass, most likely Nuclear fuel debris, below the containment vessel at Fukushima Daiichi reactor No. 2  left over since the 2011 meltdown disaster, plant operator Tepco said today.

• Details are available from FIRE-EARTH PULSARS.

 

First Cancer Case Linked to Fukushima Triple Meltdown

Over 21,000 Fukushima NPP workers exposed to illegal radiation levels: Report

A worker involved in clean-up operations at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant may have developed cancer as a result, Japanese health authorities have revealed.

The plant, severely damaged by a mega earthquake and subsequent tsunami on 11 March 2011, underwent a triple meltdown, releasing massive quantities of radiation to the environment.

The victim, a man in his late 30s, reportedly worked at the crippled plant for more than a year and is now suffering from leukemia.

He was exposed to a total of 19.8 millisieverts (mSv) of radiation, including 15.7 millisieverts at the Fukushima plant, according to NHK.

“While the causal link between his exposure to radiation and his illness is unclear, we certified him from the standpoint of worker compensation,” a health ministry official was reported as saying.

Several other workers at the planet, who have also developed cancer are yet to be assessed by the health authorities.

Former plant manager Masao Yoshida died of esophageal cancer two years ago; however, the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has denied liability.

Workers who develop cancer more than a year after they have been exposed to annual radiation of 5 milliseverts are entitled to compensation.

More than 45,000 people have worked on the clean up at the crippled Fukushima plant, and about half of them have been exposed to annual radiation levels of [at least] 5 millisieverts, NHK quoted officials as saying.

Only 13 nuclear workers have ever been granted compensation for work-related cancer in plants other than Fukushima.

The highest dose of radiation received so far by a worker responding to the Fukushima emergency was 670 mSv, while estimated maximum dose to evacuees who lived closest to the Fukushima plant was 70 mSv.

What is a lethal dose of radiation from a single Exposure?

Studies of the 1945 atomic bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki show that 100 percent of victims whose bodies were exposed to 600,000 millirems (6,000 mSv) died from radiation. About 50 percent of victims who received 450,000 millirems (4,500 mSv) of radiation also died.

(Note: Rem is a unit of ionizing radiation equal to the amount that produces the same damage to humans as one roentgen of high-voltage x-rays. Source: MIT)

1 rem = 10 mSv
1 Sv = 100 rem
1mSv = 0.1 rem
1mSv = 100 millirems (mrem)

Background Radiation in millirems per year (mrem/yr)

• Average background radiation (US): 300 (3 mS/yr)
• Higher altitudes (e.g, Denver): 400 (4 mS/yr)

“Safe Levels” of Radiation (U.S.) – millirems per year

Limits above natural background radiation levels (average 300 millirems per year, or 3 mSv/yr) and medical radiation:

• Occupation Limit: Maximum of 5,000 (the limit for a worker using radiation)
• Average Natural Background: 300

[Note: Lifetime cumulative exposure should be limited to a person’s age multiplied by 1,000 millirems, e.g., a 70-year-old person, 70,000 millirems.]

Adults

• Max single dose for an adult: 3,000
• Annual total dose: 5,000

Under 18

• Max single dose for a person aged under 18 years: 300 millirems (whole body equivalent)
• Annual total exposure: 500

Fetal Exposure

• Maximum limit for fetal exposure during gestation period: 50 millirems per month above background levels

Medical

• Single Chest X-ray (the whole body equivalent): 2 millirem

Air Travel

• Coast-to-coast US round trip flight: 12 millirems

Space Travel

• 6 months stay on the International Space Station: 8,000 millirems
• 260-day trip to Mars: 36,000 millirems
• Maximum allowed radiation exposure for astronauts over their career: 100,000 millirems (1 Sv)

*Notes:

1. Radiation dose of about 2,000 millisieverts (200,000 millirems) cause serious illness.

2. The average annual radiation dose per person in the U.S. is currently 620 millirem (6.2 mSv), according to EPA. “Half of our average dose comes from natural background sources: cosmic radiation from space, naturally occurring radioactive minerals in the ground and in your body, and from the radioactive gases radon and thoron, which are created when other naturally occurring elements undergo radioactive decay. Another 48 percent of our dose comes from medical diagnostics and treatments.”

Half-life of some radioactive elements

[NOTE: Half-life is the time taken for a radioactive substance to decay by half.]

• Cesium-134 ~ 2 years
• Cesium-137 ~ 30 years
• Iodine-131 ~ 8 days
• Plutonium-239 ~ 24,200 years

• Ruthenium-103 ~ 39 days [Ruthenium is a fission product of uranium-235.]
• Ruthenium-106 ~ 374 days
• Strontium-90 ~ 28.85 years [Strontium-90 is a product of nuclear fission and is found in large amounts in spent nuclear fuel and in radioactive waste from nuclear reactors.]

• Uranium-234 ~ 246,000 years
• Uranium-235 ~ 703.8 million years
• Uranium-238 ~ 4.468 billion years

Related Links

• Fukushima Radiation Level 8 Times Govt Standard: TEPCO January 13, 2014
• Record Radiation Detected at Fukushima [AGAIN] December 22, 2013
• Japan Renews Nuke Ambitions Despite Fukushima, Common Sense December 14, 2013

• 80 Percent Chance of Major Catastrophe at Fukushima NPP November 7, 2013
• Crimes Against Nature: Water Overflows from 12 Fukushima Barriers Posted on October 21, 2013
• Fukushima Potentially More Disastrous Than Hiroshima October 18, 2013
• TEPCO Continues to Contaminate the World October 3, 2013
• Overflow of Water from the Dike of H8-South Area at Fukushima Daiichi NPS Oct 2, 2013

• Fukushima Fatal Farce Turns Deadlier September 1, 2013
• Disaster Deepens at “Nuked” Fukushima Plant August 21, 2013
• Fukushima SNAFU August 20, 2013

For earlier links, where they have not been removed or hacked, search blog content.

Japan Flooding – Update

‘Unprecedented’ rain generates a tsunami-like wall of water in Joso, Japan

State of Emergency has been declared in Joso city [population: 67,000] in Ibraki Prefecture, about 60km north of Tokyo, as a tsunami -like wall of water buried the low-lying areas.

Tropical storm ETAU, having dumped about 500mm of rain over large areas of central Japan, passed over the country’s main island of Honshu into Japan Sea on Thursday; however, heavy rain is forecast to continue over Japan’s northeastern coast, including parts of Hokkaido island.

Another storm is chasing ETAU and is forecast to also track toward Japan’s northeastern coast, and Hokkaido.

Meanwhile, contaminated water at Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant has leaked into the Pacific Ocean after heavy rains overwhelmed the plant’s drainage pumps, said a spokesperson at Tokyo Electric Company (TEPCO).

Related Links

• Powerful Tornado Destroys Dozens of Homes in Chiba, Japan September 7, 2015
• Mass Evacuations Ordered near Tokyo amid Major Flooding September 10, 2015

1.1 Tons of Radioactive Water Leaks from Fukushima

NOTE: Many of the links posted below have previously been blocked or buried by Google, WordPress and others.

SNAFU IN JAPAN
CRIMINAL INCOMPETENCE AT FUKUSHIMA
“COSMIC-LEVEL” RADIATION LEAKS
ENVIRONMENTAL HOLOCAUST
CRIMES AGAINST NATURE
.

Massive leak occurs in a treatment system at Fukushima nuclear plant: TEPCO

The criminally negligent operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has admitted that yet another major setback has plagued a key system used to decontaminate highly-radioactive water.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) says about 1,100 liters of radioactive water overflowed into a barrier inside the ALPS building.

The water was used to wash contaminated equipment and overflowed from  a storage facility on Wednesday.

Comedy of Deadly Errors

The workers discovered the leak while cleaning a tank used for filtering radioactive substances from water. The tank is on one of the 3 separate stages  of the Advanced Liquid Processing System, or ALPS, local media reported TEPCO as saying.

The operator says the water contains more than 3.8 million becquerels of beta ray emitting materials including strontium and 6,700 becquerels of cesium 137.

On Tuesday, TEPCO reported that 203 tons of highly contaminated radioactive water had been pumped into a basement area at the Fukushima between April 10-13.

The building is neither a storage area nor a processing facility. The pumps  had diverted the contaminated water to the wrong building, the  company said.

TEPCO says it found four pumps operating at the location that were not even meant to be used.

[The deadly water may have been pumped intentionally by operators, sources suggest. Editor]

The water contained radioactive cesium decaying at a rate of 37 million becquerels per liter.

Highly contaminated water leaked from yet another  storage tank at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan.  Handout photo released by TEPCO on February 20.

On October 18, 2013 FIRE-EARTH said [but was censored by Google, WordPress and others]:

• Fukushima Potentially More Disastrous Than Hiroshima

On November 7, 2013 FIRE-EARTH said [but was censored by Google, WordPress and others]:

• Scale of potential catastrophe at Fukushima could dwarf a limited nuclear war.

On January 13, 2014 FIRE-EARTH said [but was censored by Google, WordPress and others]:

THE TEPCO REPORT, QUOTED BY JAPAN’S ASAHI SHIMBUN, MAY BE SERIOUSLY FLAWED.

ACCORDING TO http://new.atmc.jp/ THE RADIATION LEVEL AT OR NEAR FUKUSHIMA PLANT IS ≥ 40 MICROSIEVERT PER HOUR (OR ~ 350 mSv/yr)

NOTES:

1. Radiation dose of about 2,000 millisieverts (200,000 millirems) cause serious illness.

2. Average background radiation in the US is about 3 mS/yr. [Ironically, the average background radiation in many parts of Japan is about 1mS/yr, or a third of that in the U.S.]

3. The average annual radiation dose per person in the U.S. is currently 620 millirem (6.2 mSv), according to EPA. “Half of our average dose comes from natural background sources: cosmic radiation from space, naturally occurring radioactive minerals in the ground and in your body, and from the radioactive gases radon and thoron, which are created when other naturally occurring elements undergo radioactive decay. Another 48 percent of our dose comes from medical diagnostics and treatments.”

100 tons of highly radioactive water leaking here, 200 tons leaking there, and soon we’ll be talking big contamination!!! 

Related Links

• Record-high Radioactive Water Leaks at Fukushima NPP February 20, 2014

For earlier links search:

• Radiation Levels at Fukushima Hugely Underestimated: TEPCO February 8, 2014
• Look for the Cracks!  January 21, 2014
• “Radioactive River” Flowing at Fukushima No. 3 Reactor January 20, 2014
• Fukushima Radiation Level 8 Times* Govt Standard: TEPCO January 13, 2014
• Record Radiation Detected at Fukushima [AGAIN] December 22, 2013
• Japan Renews Nuke Ambitions Despite Fukushima, Common Sense December 14, 2013
• Record Outdoor Radiation Level Detected at Nuked Fukushima Plant December 9, 2013
• TEPCO Continues to Contaminate the World October 3, 2013
• 80 Percent Chance of Major Catastrophe at Fukushima NPP November 7, 2013
• Crimes Against Nature: Water Overflows from 12 Fukushima Barriers October 21, 2013
• Fukushima Potentially More Disastrous Than Hiroshima October 18, 2013
• Fukushima Fatal Farce Turns Deadlier September 1, 2013

 

Fukushima Radiation Level 8 Times Govt Standard: TEPCO

Radiation Level at Fukushima Rises to 8*mSv/yr: Report

NOTE: THE TEPCO REPORT, QUOTED BY JAPAN’S ASAHI SHIMBUN MAY BE SERIOUSLY FLAWED.

ACCORDING TO http://new.atmc.jp/ THE RADIATION LEVEL AT OR NEAR FUKUSHIMA PLANT IS ≥ 40 MICROSIEVERT PER HOUR (OR ~ 350 mSv/yr)

Radiation levels near the boundary of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant have increased to 8 millisievert per year, or eight times the government standard, said Tokyo Electric Power Co. said, Asahi Shimbun quotyed the operator TEPCO as saying.

Following the discovery of leaks from the underground waste storage tanks in April,  TEPCO transferred the radioactive wastewater to hastily built storage tanks near the plant’s southern boundary, company officials said.

TEPCO says the main reason for the dramatic increase in the radiation levels are the X-rays emitted by the radioactive water held in the notorious storage tanks.

However, the background radiation level had already reached 7.8 millisievert per year in May 2013, according to the report.

The No. 1 and No. 2 reactor buildings at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, March 15, 2011. Source:  TEPCO handout.

TEPCO says the X-rays are released when beta rays from radioactive strontium and other substances in the water react with iron and other elements in the storage tank containers.

It’s true that high energy beta particles released from radioactive substances can give off bremsstrahlung x-rays when they decelerate during electromagnetic interactions as they pass through matter; however, most beta particles can be stopped by just  a few millimeter of aluminum.

What is a lethal dose of radiation from a single Exposure?

Studies of the 1945 atomic bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki show that 100 percent of victims whose bodies were exposed to 600,000 millirems (6,000 mSv) died from radiation. About 50 percent of victims who received  450,000 millirems (4,500 mSv) of radiation also died.

(Note: Rem is a unit of ionizing radiation equal to the amount that produces the same damage to humans as one roentgen of high-voltage x-rays.  Source: MIT)

1 rem = 10 mSv
1 Sv = 100 rem
1mSv = 0.1 rem
1mSv = 100 millirems (mrem)

Background Radiation in millirems per year (mrem/yr)

• Average background radiation (US):  300 (3 mS/yr)
• Higher altitudes (e.g, Denver): 400 (4 mS/yr)

“Safe Levels” of Radiation (U.S.)

Limits above natural background radiation levels (average 300 millirems per year, or 3 mSv/yr) and medical radiation:

• Occupation Limit: Maximum of 5,000  (the limit for a worker using radiation)
• Average Natural Background: 300

[Note: Lifetime cumulative exposure should be limited to a person’s age multiplied by 1,000 millirems, e.g., a 70-year-old person, 70,000 millirems.]

Adults

• Max single dose for an adult: 3,000
• Annual total dose: 5,000

Under 18

• Max single dose for a person aged under 18 years: 300 millirems (whole body equivalent)
• Annual total exposure: 500

Fetal Exposure

• Maximum limit for fetal exposure during gestation period:  50 millirems per month above background levels

Medical

• Single Chest X-ray (the whole body equivalent): 2 millirem

Air Travel

• Coast-to-coast US round trip flight: 12 millirems

*Notes:

1. Radiation dose of about 2,000 millisieverts (200,000 millirems) cause serious illness.

2. The average annual radiation dose per person in the U.S. is currently 620 millirem (6.2 mSv), according to EPA. “Half of our average dose comes from natural background sources: cosmic radiation from space, naturally occurring radioactive minerals in the ground and in your body, and from the radioactive gases radon and thoron, which are created when other naturally occurring elements undergo radioactive decay. Another 48 percent of our dose comes from medical diagnostics and treatments.”

Half-life of some radioactive elements

[NOTE: Half-life is the time taken for a radioactive substance to decay by half.]

• Cesium-134 ~ 2  years
• Cesium-137 ~ 30 years
• Iodine-131 ~ 8 days
• Plutonium-239 ~ 24,200 years

• Ruthenium-103 ~ 39 days [Ruthenium is a fission product of uranium-235.]
• Ruthenium-106 ~ 374 days
• Strontium-90 ~ 28.85 years  [Strontium-90 is a product of nuclear fission and is found in large amounts in spent nuclear fuel and in radioactive waste from nuclear reactors.]

• Uranium-234 ~  246,000 years
• Uranium-235 ~ 703.8  million years
• Uranium-238  ~ 4.468 billion years

Related Links

• Record Radiation Detected at Fukushima [AGAIN] December 22, 2013
• Japan Renews Nuke Ambitions Despite Fukushima, Common Sense December 14, 2013

• 80 Percent Chance of Major Catastrophe at Fukushima NPP November 7, 2013
• Crimes Against Nature: Water Overflows from 12 Fukushima Barriers Posted on October 21, 2013
• Fukushima Potentially More Disastrous Than Hiroshima October 18, 2013
• TEPCO Continues to Contaminate the World October 3, 2013
• Overflow of Water from the Dike of H8-South Area at Fukushima Daiichi NPS  Oct 2, 2013

• Fukushima Fatal Farce Turns Deadlier September 1, 2013
• Disaster Deepens at “Nuked” Fukushima Plant August 21, 2013
• Fukushima SNAFU August 20, 2013

For earlier links, where they have not been removed or hacked, search blog content.

Record Radiation Detected at Fukushima [AGAIN]

At least two of the links posted below have been censored by Google/WordPress

Record 1.9 million becquerels (Bq) per liter of radioactivity detected at Fukushima No.2 reactor: TEPCO

Radioactive substances have been found in water samples taken from deep underground layers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, reported Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

This is the first time TEPCO has admitted to detecting radioactivity in groundwater taken from a layer 25 meters beneath the No. 4 reactor well that faces the ocean, which implies radioactive substances have been leaking into the sea from yet another source.

No. 2 reactor buildings at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear power plant seen at the center of the above screen dump taken from a news video clip.

Water sample taken on December 17, showed 6.7 becquerels per liter of Cesium 137 and 89 becquerels per liter of strontium and other beta ray-emitting radioactive substances.

“TEPCO officials are putting a new spin over their own report, saying that radioactive substances may have been accidentally mixed during the, according to a report.

Since July, TEPCO has admitted to three major incidents of contaminated water escaping from the power plant into the ocean, including two major leaks of highly radioactive water from storage tanks—a 300-ton spill in August followed by at least 430 liters in October this year.

Meantime, the company reported that density of beta ray-emitting radioactivity in groundwater has been rising since November. On December 19, the activity reached a record 1.9 million becquerels per liter.

[Note: The becquerel, the SI unit of radioactivity, is equivalent to one disintegration per second.]

On November 7, 2013 FIRE-EARTH said:

Scale of potential catastrophe at Fukushima could dwarf a limited nuclear war.

Related Links

• Japan Renews Nuke Ambitions Despite Fukushima, Common Sense December 14, 2013 [CENSORED]

• Record Outdoor Radiation Level Detected at Nuked Fukushima Plant December 9, 2013 [CENSORED]

• TEPCO Continues to Contaminate the World October 3, 2013
• 80 Percent Chance of Major Catastrophe at Fukushima NPP November 7, 2013

• Crimes Against Nature: Water Overflows from 12 Fukushima Barriers October 21, 2013
• Fukushima Potentially More Disastrous Than Hiroshima October 18, 2013
• Fukushima Fatal Farce Turns Deadlier September 1, 2013

For additional links to Fukushima disasters, search blog content.

Global Disasters/ Significant Events – November 18, 2013

Global Disasters/ Significant Events – November 18, 2013

Deadly Tornadoes Attack U.S. Midwest

At least SIX people were killed and dozens more injured after 67 tornadoes [confirmed total] spawned by a massive weather system struck parts of 9 states, including Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky. Some 442 events have so far been reported across NINE states after Sunday storm attacks, which flattened large section of the city of Washington, Ill.

Plane crash in Russia’s Kazan kills 50 people on board

Russian authorities confirmed that all 50 people aboard a passenger plane were killed when the aircraft  crashed on landing in central Russia’s city of Kazan, capital of Tatarstan Republic.

Egypt train and bus crash kills 24 near Cairo

24 people were killed and 20 others injured when a train crashed into a pickup truck and a bus near Cairo, the state news agency MENA said on Monday.

50 Children were killed when a train hit their school bus near Manfalut, about  350km south of Cairo, on November 17, 2012.

Guided-missile cruiser struck by “friendly” drone: LATimes

The guided-missile cruiser Chancellorsville was  struck by an aerial-target drone during a training exercise off Ventura County, officials said.

BQM-74E target drones are launched from the guided-missile destroyer McCampbell in 2010. (Ensign Colleen R. Praxmarer / U.S. Navy)

The US Navy vessel was struck on its port side by an BQM-74 series drone, leaving two sailors with burns.

“The drone, controlled from Point Mugu, was being used during a routine exercise meant to test the ship’s radar system’s tracking ability. The test was not designed for the ship to shoot down the drone,” LATimes quoted officials as saying.

Navy technicians are examining the extent of damage to the ship, as other specialists try to establish the possible cause of the drone malfunction, said the report.

Bomb attack kills 31 in Syria including 4 generals

A bomb attack by Saudi-backed foreign terrorists on an army base near Damascus killed at least 31 Syrian military personnel including four generals,  according to reports.

“Three generals and a brigadier-general were among 31 troops killed in a bomb attack that caused a building in the army transport base in Harasta to collapse,” said director for Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Libya declares a State of Emergency in Tripoli as deadly violence erupts

A 48-hour state of emergency has been declared in the Libyan capital Tripoli after gun battles between rival militia groups left at least 45 people dead and more than 400 wounded.

However, eyewitnesses say the death toll is much higher than the official figures.

“Officially, there were more than 40 victims in the clashes in Tripoli in the past two days, but according to our data, the number of victims is much larger,” a medic on the scene told reporters.

Potentially Disastrous Fuel Rod Removal Operation Starts at Fukushima Daiichi

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. TEPCO, has begun removing nuclear fuel rods from a storage pool at a damaged No. 4 reactor building.

The pool contains 1,533 fuel units, of which 1,331 are highly radioactive spent rods. The operator decided to remove unused units first because they release less radiation and heat than the used ones.

Philippines Mega Disaster Update – SitRep No. 27

Super Typhoon HAIYAN affected up to 14 million Filipinos, leaving 5,578 dead or missing, 4,009, 074 homeless, and causing at least PHP10.4 billion worth of damage to the country’s agriculture and infrastructure.

Source: SitRep No. 27 released by Philippines National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRMC)  November 18, 2013. [$1 = 43.66 Philippine pesos]

Mass Burials

Town officials bury some of the victims of the Super Typhoon HAIYAN in a mass grave. Credit: Local news media.

This post will be updated throughout the day as more information becomes available.

80 Percent Chance of Major Catastrophe at Fukushima NPP

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Scale of potential catastrophe at Fukushima could dwarf a limited nuclear war

Four major factors would contribute to the probability of a major nuclear catastrophe occurring at Fukushima NPP during the fuel rods extraction operations at the plant’s No.4 reactor. —FIRE-EARTH Assessment

1. Probability of  significant earthquakes causing further damage to the reactor building during the recovery cycle: P≥ 0.9

2. Record of disastrous errors by the operator, TEPCO, especially after the 2011 Mega quake and tsunami struck: P≥ 0.9

3. State of fuel rods after the building was damaged by a hydrogen explosion in March 2011: UNKNOWN

4. Suitability of the  new “common pool” used for cooling the fuel rods: UNKNOWN

Based on the two known factors alone, the probability of a major catastrophe can be calculated at ≥ 0.81 [rounded down to eighty percent. ]

Fuel rod extraction process is scheduled to begin tomorrow, November 8, 2013, and would take about 14 months to complete, according to the operator.

The Spent Fuel Pool (SFP) at No. 4 reactor located on the upper floor of the building contains 1,533 units, includes 1,331 spent fuel units still emitting high levels of radiation, with the remaining units being unused fuel rods. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is about to extract and relocate the rods.

TEPCO says removal of the fuels rods, which are currently in a precarious state due to an explosion in the reactor building caused by hydrogen buildup in 2011, is the first step in the decommissioning of the nuclear plant which has so far been subject to triple meltdowns.

The Spent Fuel Pool (SFP) at No. 4 reactor located on the upper floor of the building. Image shows debris scattered over spent fuel assemblies at the reactor’s storage pool as a result of a large explosion caused by buildup of hydrogen in the reactor building in March 2011. The explosion may have damaged some of the fuel rods, and cause them to fuse together. Image source: Handout – Tokyo Electric Company (TEPCO).

…

FIRE-EARTH has a 100% record of forecasting disasters at Fukushima NPP. See blog content.

More details to follow…

Related Links

• Crimes Against Nature: Water Overflows from 12 Fukushima Barriers Posted on October 21, 2013
• Fukushima Potentially More Disastrous Than Hiroshima October 18, 2013
• TEPCO Continues to Contaminate the World October 3, 2013
• Overflow of Water from the Dike of H8-South Area at Fukushima Daiichi NPS  Oct 2, 2013

• Fukushima Fatal Farce Turns Deadlier September 1, 2013
• Disaster Deepens at “Nuked” Fukushima Plant August 21, 2013
• Fukushima SNAFUn August 20, 2013

Fukushima Potentially More Disastrous Than Hiroshima

Radioactivity spikes 6,500 times at Fukushima: TEPCO

The crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s operator, TEPCO, says it detected a sharp rise in radioactivity in a well near a storage tank on Thursday, NHK reported.

On Thursday, workers detected 400,000 becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances, including strontium, at a well  near the tank that  leaked more than 300 tons of contaminated water in August, TEPCO said.

The radioactivity level was 6,500 times higher than the readings taken the previous day.

“The well was dug to monitor the impact of the leakage and is located at about 10 meters from the tank,” the report said.

TEPCO believes the latest findings are indicative of ground water contamination, because radioactive substances like as strontium are transferred relatively slowly.

Given the extent of Fukushima catastrophe, the operator’s inability to deal with the ever-worsening disasters at the site and Japanese government’s “wait-and-see” attitude, to put it mildly, the blog Moderators believe the situation at the disaster-stricken plant could potentially become as bad, if not worse than the aftermath of Hiroshima atom bomb.

Related Links

• Fukushima SNAFU August 20, 2013
• Radioactive Water at Fukushima an ‘Emergency’: Watchdog  August 5, 2013
• Strong Quake Shakes Fukushima NPP  September 19, 2013
• MAN-YI Eying Tokyo, Fukushima September 15, 2013
• Japan Angry by Cartoon Linking Fukushima to Olympics September 12, 2013
• Fukushima Fatal Farce Turns Deadlier September 1, 2013
• Nuked Fukushima Plant: New High Radiation Areas Found August 22, 2013
• Disaster Deepens at “Nuked” Fukushima Plant August 21, 2013
• About Half the Kids In Fukushima Have Thyroid Radiation Exposure ‎ July 5, 2011

Earlier Links

• Will the Scope of Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Widen? April 6, 2011
• Probability of a Nuclear Disaster – by Country April 18, 2011

Japan Better Off On Horse Manure Than Nuclear

Radiation levels near Fukushima hit 2-year high

Radiation levels in seawater just outside one of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear reactors was 13 times the previous day’s reading, said the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) on Thursday.

The combined level of radioactivity from Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 just outside the damaged No. 2 reactor surged to 1,200 becquerels per liter on Wednesday, the highest level reported since late 2011.

Regulatory limits for Cesium, which emits powerful and potentially fatal gamma radiation, is a maximum of 90 bq/l for Cesium-137 and 60 bq/l for Cesium-134.

Two workers in protective gears presumably discussing leaking tanks at the nuked Fukushima power plant. Image hand out by TEPCO. Original image removed by Editor. [Google is not listing most of the images posted on FIRE-EARTH, or delay listing them for several days until they’ve lost their immediate relevance. Editor]

Adding insult and injury to tragedy and disaster, six workers were exposed to highly radioactive water on Wednesday.

Japanese politicians, scientists and technicians are evidently unable [too incompetent] to deal with this ever-worsening disaster.

Japan would have been better off sticking to horse manure for its energy needs, instead of going nuclear.

Related Links

• TEPCO Continues to Contaminate the World  October 3, 2013
• Fukushima Fatal Farce Turns Deadlier September 1, 2013
• Nuked Fukushima Plant: New High Radiation Areas Found August 22, 2013
• Disaster Deepens at “Nuked” Fukushima Plant August 21, 2013
• Fukushima SNAFU August 20, 2013
• Radioactive Water at Fukushima an ‘Emergency’: Watchdog August 5, 2013
• Disaster Diary – July 9, 2013 July 9, 2013

Two Cyclones Moving Toward Japan

Tropical Cyclone SEPAT strengthening; tracking close to Fukushima

Tropical Cyclone SEPAT (TS 1322) is strengthening and models show it would track close to the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The news comes amid yet another revelation by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) that it had found yet another leak at the plant, which caused 4 tons of radioactive water to enter the sea.

The criminally negligent government of Japan and TEPCO apparently won’t rest until the entire region, the country, the sea and all of its content, is contaminated with radiation.

Tropical Storms SEPAT and FITOW. Visible/Shortwave IR Satellite Image recorded at 07:32UTC on October 1, 2013. Source: CIMSS/SSEC/WISC.

Tropical Storm SEPAT (TS 1322) @ 06:50 UTC, 1 October 2013
Location: N30.0°, E141.3°
Movement and speed: NNW 15km/h(9kt)
Central pressure: 996hPa
Max sustained wind: 20m/s (40kt)
Max wind gust: 30m/s (60kt)
Source: JMA

Tropical Cyclone FITOW  (TS 1323)

Tropical Storm FITOW. Visible/Shortwave IR Satellite Image recorded at 07:32UTC on October 1, 2013. Source: CIMSS/SSEC/WISC. FIRE-EARTH Enhancement.

Location: N15.0°, E131.5°
Movement and speed: NNW, Slow [quasi stationary]
Central pressure: 994hPa
Max wind speed: 18m/s (35kt)
Max sustained wind: 25m/s (50kt)
Source: JMA

List of Typhoons in the Western North Pacific [October 1, 2013]

1. SONAMU
2. SHANSHAN
3. YAGI
4. LEEPI
5. BEBINCA
6. RUMBIA
7. SOULIK
8. CIMARON
9. JEBI
10. MANGKHUT
11. UTOR
12. TRAMI
13. PEWA
14. UNALA
15. KONG-REY
16. YUTU
17. TORAJI
18. MAN-YI
19. USAGI
20. PABUK
21. WUTIP
22. SEPAT
23. FITOW

Related Links

• WUTIP Hammers Central Vietnam October 1, 2013
• USAGI Disaster Update: 25 Dead; 7,100 Homes Destroyed September 23, 2013
• FEWW New Hurricane Scale September 3, 2008
• Satellite Imagery

Nuked Fukushima Plant: New High Radiation Areas Found

More Radiation Hotspots Found at Fukushima NPP

The operator of Japan’s nuked Fukushima plant has found two new radiation hotspots near storage tanks holding highly irradiated water, raising fear of new leaks as the extent of the disaster widens.

The news follows a press release earlier this week in which Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), a name now synonymous with incompetence, treachery and cowardice, admitted contaminated water with dangerously high levels of radiation was leaking from one of its purpose-built storage tanks.

The first of the two highly irradiated areas was found near the tank No. 4 in the group B in the H3 area, with a reading of 100mSv/h, and the second was near storage tank No. 10 in the group A in the H3 area, where the reading was 70mSv/h.

The company’s latest press release is posted below.

Press Releases 2013
Press Release (Aug 22,2013) – Water Leak at a Tank in the H4 area in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (Follow-up Information 10)

This is follow-up information on the “water leak at a tank in the H4 area in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station” found on August 19.

From around 11:00 AM to around 3:00 PM, we conducted full inspections (appearance inspections and dose measurement) on the flanged tanks in the other areas, which are of the same type as the tank from which water has leaked.

Neither leak nor puddle was found by the appearance inspections on the tanks and the drain valves. However, 2 locations locally showing high dose rates were found around the H3 area tanks.

The surfaces of these locations were dry, and we confirmed that water flowed out neither into the inside of the dike nor into the outside of the dike. We also confirmed that the water levels of these tanks remain unchanged after receiving water.

[High dose rate locations, the surface dose equivalent rates at these locations (γ and β rays (70μm dose equivalent rate)), and tank water levels]
” Near the bottom flange of the tank No. 4 in the group B in the H3 area: 100mSv/h and approx. 97% of the full water level
” Near the bottom flange of the tank No. 10 in the group A in the H3 area: 70mSv/h and approx. 95% of the full water level

No locations around the other tanks and drain valves showed high dose rates.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

The Internet Mafia has previously censored Public Health Emergency, global health warnings and any and ALL information posted on this blog concerning nuclear disasters, nuclear energy and the global nuclear mafia. The cabal have also blocked or buried blog entrees on Fukushima Daiichi NPP.

What is a lethal dose of radiation from a single Exposure?

Studies of the 1945 atomic bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki show that 100 percent of victims whose bodies were exposed to 600,000 millirems (6,000 mSv) died from radiation. About 50 percent of victims who received  450,000 millirems (4,500 mSv) of radiation also died.

(Note: Rem is a unit of ionizing radiation equal to the amount that produces the same damage to humans as one roentgen of high-voltage x-rays.  Source: MIT)

1 rem = 10 mSv  (1 Sv = 100 rem)

Background Radiation in millirems per year (mrem/yr)

• Average background radiation (US):  300
• Higher altitudes (e.g, Denver): 400

“Safe Levels” of Radiation (U.S.)

Limits above natural background radiation levels (average 300 millirems per year) and medical radiation:

• Occupation Limit: Maximum of 5,000  (the limit for a worker using radiation)
• Average Natural Background: 300

[Note: Lifetime cumulative exposure should be limited to a person’s age multiplied by 1,000 millirems, e.g., a 70-year-old person, 70,000 millirems.]

Adults

• Max single dose for an adult: 3,000
• Annual total dose: 5,000

Under 18

• Max single dose for a person aged under 18 years: 300 millirems (whole body equivalent)
• Annual total exposure: 500

Fetal Exposure

• Maximum limit for fetal exposure during gestation period:  50 millirems per month above background levels

Medical

• Single Chest X-ray (the whole body equivalent): 2 millirem

Air Travel

• Coast-to-coast US round trip flight: 12 millirems

*Note:  Radiation dose of about 2,000 millisieverts (200,000 millirems) cause serious illness.

Half-life of some radioactive elements

[NOTE: Half-life is the time taken for a radioactive substance to decay by half.]

• Cesium-134 ~ 2  years
• Cesium-137 ~ 30 years
• Iodine-131 ~ 8 days
• Plutonium-239 ~ 24,200 years

• Ruthenium-103 ~ 39 days [Ruthenium is a fission product of uranium-235.]
• Ruthenium-106 ~ 374 days
• Strontium-90 ~ 28.85 years  [Strontium-90 is a product of nuclear fission and is found in large amounts in spent nuclear fuel and in radioactive waste from nuclear reactors.]

• Uranium-234 ~  246,000 years
• Uranium-235 ~ 703.8  million years
• Uranium-238  ~ 4.468 billion years

Probability of a Nuclear Disaster by Country

The following probability figures  calculated by FIRE-EARTH on April 8, 2011 still hold!

• Japan (880)³
• United States (865)
• France (855)
• Taiwan (850)
• Belgium, China, Finland, India,  South Korea, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Russia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Armenia, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania,  Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain,  Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico,  South Africa, Canada (810)
• Germany, Sweden, Netherlands (800)
• Switzerland  (750)

Notes:

1. The list represents a snapshot of events at the time of calculating the probabilities. Any forecast posted  here is subject to numerous variable factors.
2. Figures in the bracket represent the probability of an incident occurring out of 1,000; the forecast duration is valid for the next 50  months.
3. Probability includes a significant worsening of Fukushima nuclear disaster, and future quakes forecast for Japan.
4. A nuclear incident is defined as a level 5 (Accident With Wider Consequences), or worse, on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES). See below.
5. Safety issues considered in compiling these lists include the age, number of units and capacity of nuclear reactors in each country/state, previous incidents, probability of damage from human-enhanced natural disasters, e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic activity, hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, wildfires, flooding…]
6. The  Blog’s knowledge concerning the extent to which the factors described in (3) might worsen during the forecast period greatly influences the forecast. (Last UPDATED: June 26, 2011)

Related Links

• Disaster Deepens at “Nuked” Fukushima Plant August 21, 2013
• Fukushima SNAFU August 20, 2013
• Radioactive Water at Fukushima an ‘Emergency’: Watchdog August 5, 2013
• Nuke Disasters
• Japan Quakes
• Probability of a Nuclear Disaster by Country
• Record High Radiation Found in Fukushima Fish March 1, 2013
• Radiation Record Broken by Fukushima Fish March 18, 2013
• Fukushima Pre-Harvested Rice Contaminated by Radiation September 24, 2011\
• Japan’s Nuclear Industry: Mega Disaster in the Making  June 11, 2011
• Japan Earthquakes, Disasters: Recent History and FIRE-EARTH Forecasts

Also search the blog for dozens of additional entries on “Fukushima.”

Disaster Deepens at “Nuked” Fukushima Plant

More tanks may be leaking contaminated water: NRA

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has raised the severity of the Fukushima crisis from a level 1 “anomaly” to a level 3 “serious incident” on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), an international scale for radiological releases.

[NOTE: Each step increase on INES represents a 10-fold jump in severity.]

The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said on Tuesday that highly contaminated water was leaking from a storage tank; however, the NRA fears that more of the storage tanks may be leaking.

NRA Chairman has likened the nuked Fukushima plant to a house of horrors at an amusement park. “I don’t know if describing it this way is appropriate, but it’s like a haunted house and, as I’ve said, mishaps keep happening one after the other,” he told reporters. “We have to look into how we can reduce the risks and how to prevent it from becoming a fatal or serious incident.”

Meantime, the deadly farce continues…

Japan’s Nuclear Facilities. Copyright © Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA, Japan). All Rights Reserved.

TEPCO: Press Release (Aug 21,2013) Water Leak at a Tank in the H4 area in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (Follow-up Information 6)

This is follow-up information on the “water leak at a tank in the H4 area in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station” found on August 19.

We would like to announce analysis results on seawater near the exit of the side ditch of the south water outlet and water in the side ditch in front of the core warehouse, sampled yesterday (on August 20), as follows.

As a result of the analysis this time, the densities in seawater near the exit of the side ditch of the south water outlet were found to fall within the fluctuation ranges of the past densities measured on a regular basis in seawater near the exit of the side ditch of the south water outlet. The densities in water of the side ditch in front of the core warehouse were found almost unchanged from the results obtained yesterday.

<Seawater of the south water outlet (near the exit of the side ditch) (sampling performed at 2:20 PM on August 20)>
Cesium-134:Below the detection limit value [the detection limit value: 1.1Bq/L (1×10^-3Bq/cm³)]
Cesium-137:1.8Bq/L (1.8×10^-3Bq/cm³)
All β:Below the detection limit value [the detection limit value: 19Bq/L (1.9×10^-2Bq/cm³)]

<Water of the side ditch in front of the core warehouse (sampling performed at 11:40 AM on August 20)>
Cesium-134:Below the detection limit value [the detection limit value: 19Bq/L (1.9×10^-2Bq/cm³)]
Cesium-137:Below the detection limit value [the detection limit value: 27Bq/L (2.7×10^-2Bq/cm³)]
All β:93Bq/L (9.3×10^-2Bq/cm³)

We are to continuously conduct analysis today on seawater of the south water outlet (near the exit of the side ditch) and water of the side ditch in front of the core warehouse.

For the past sampling results, please refer to the following page on our website:  http:// www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/index-e.html

The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES)

The INES, a logarithmic scale, which was introduced in 1990 by the IAEA to enable prompt communication, classifies the intensity of nuclear incidents as follows:

[NOTE: Each step increase on INES represents a 10-fold jump in severity.]

7 – Major Accident [Chernobyl disaster, criticality accident, April 1986]

6 – Serious Accident [e.g., Kyshtym incident, Mayak, former Soviet Union, steam explosion released up to 80 tons of highly radioactive material into the atmosphere, September 1957. ]

5 – Accident With Wider Consequences [e.g., Three Mile Island accident  Pen State, U.S., partial meltdown release radioactive gases  into the environment, March 1979.]

4 – Accident With Local Consequences [e.g., Sellafield, UK, at least 5 incidents reported between 1955 to 1979]

3 – Serious Incident [e.g., Vandellos NPP, Spain, fire destroyed control systems; the reactor was shut down, July1989]

2 – Incident [e.g., Forsmark NPP, Sweden, a backup generator failed, July 2006]

1 – Anomaly [e.g., TNPC, France, 1,600 gallons of water containing 75 kilograms (170 lb) of uranium leaked into the environment,  July 2008]

0 – Deviation (No Safety Significance) [e.g., Atucha, Argentina – Reactor shutdown caused by tritium increase in reactor encasement, December 2006.]

Related Links

• Fukushima SNAFU August 20, 2013
• Radioactive Water at Fukushima an ‘Emergency’: Watchdog August 5, 2013
• Nuke Disasters
• Japan Quakes
• Probability of a Nuclear Disaster by Country
• Record High Radiation Found in Fukushima Fish March 1, 2013
• Radiation Record Broken by Fukushima Fish March 18, 2013
• Fukushima Pre-Harvested Rice Contaminated by Radiation September 24, 2011\
• Japan’s Nuclear Industry: Mega Disaster in the Making  June 11, 2011
• Japan Earthquakes, Disasters: Recent History and FIRE-EARTH Forecasts

Also search the blog for dozens of additional entries on “Fukushima.”

What is a lethal dose of radiation from a single Exposure?

Studies of the 1945 atomic bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki show that 100 percent of victims whose bodies were exposed to 600,000 millirems (6,000 mSv) died from radiation. About 50 percent of victims who received  450,000 millirems (4,500 mSv) of radiation also died.

(Note: Rem is a unit of ionizing radiation equal to the amount that produces the same damage to humans as one roentgen of high-voltage x-rays.  Source: MIT)

1 rem = 10 mSv  (1 Sv = 100 rem)

Background Radiation in millirems per year (mrem/yr)

• Average background radiation (US):  300
• Higher altitudes (e.g, Denver): 400

“Safe Levels” of Radiation (U.S.)

Limits above natural background radiation levels (average 300 millirems per year) and medical radiation:

• Occupation Limit: Maximum of 5,000  (the limit for a worker using radiation)
• Average Natural Background: 300

[Note: Lifetime cumulative exposure should be limited to a person’s age multiplied by 1,000 millirems, e.g., a 70-year-old person, 70,000 millirems.]

Adults

• Max single dose for an adult: 3,000
• Annual total dose: 5,000

Under 18

• Max single dose for a person aged under 18 years: 300 millirems (whole body equivalent)
• Annual total exposure: 500

Fetal Exposure

• Maximum limit for fetal exposure during gestation period:  50 millirems per month above background levels

Medical

• Single Chest X-ray (the whole body equivalent): 2 millirem

Air Travel

• Coast-to-coast US round trip flight: 12 millirems

*Note:  Radiation dose of about 2,000 millisieverts (200,000 millirems) cause serious illness.

Half-life of some radioactive elements

[NOTE: Half-life is the time taken for a radioactive substance to decay by half.]

• Cesium-134 ~ 2  years
• Cesium-137 ~ 30 years
• Iodine-131 ~ 8 days
• Plutonium-239 ~ 24,200 years

• Ruthenium-103 ~ 39 days [Ruthenium is a fission product of uranium-235.]
• Ruthenium-106 ~ 374 days
• Strontium-90 ~ 28.85 years  [Strontium-90 is a product of nuclear fission and is found in large amounts in spent nuclear fuel and in radioactive waste from nuclear reactors.]

• Uranium-234 ~  246,000 years
• Uranium-235 ~ 703.8  million years
• Uranium-238  ~ 4.468 billion years

Fukushima SNAFU

300 tons of highly contaminated water leaked from storage tank

Highly radioactive water has leaked from a storage tank into the ground at Japan’s crippled Fukushima plant, the operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) says.

The ongoing calamity is by far the most serious incident since the clean up operation began at the world’s worst nuclear disaster site since Chernobyl meltdown.

The contaminated water contains at least 80 million Becquerels of radiation per liter, about 540,000 times the normal background level.

According to some reports, the water level inside the leaking storage tank had dropped by about 300cm (10 feet) before anyone noticed.

TEPCO has announced its intention to remove some 1,300 highly irradiated spent fuel rod bundles weighing more than 400 tons from its crippled storage pools later this year.

[It’s hoped that TEPCO will NOT be allowed to do so. Any such climacteric and potentially apocalyptic operation should only be done by an international (non-Japanese) team of competent engineers. Editor]

At least 350,000 tons of radioactive water is currently stored at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

The Internet Mafia has previously censored Public Health Emergency,   global health warnings and any and ALL information posted on this blog concerning nuclear disasters, nuclear energy and the global nuclear mafia. The cabal have also blocked or buried blog entrees on Fukushima Daiichi NPP.

Probability of a Nuclear Disaster by Country

The following probability figures  calculated by FIRE-EARTH on April 8, 2011 still hold!

• Japan (880)³
• United States (865)
• France (855)
• Taiwan (850)
• Belgium, China, Finland, India,  South Korea, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Russia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Armenia, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania,  Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain,  Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico,  South Africa, Canada (810)
• Germany, Sweden, Netherlands (800)
• Switzerland  (750)

Notes:

1. The list represents a snapshot of events at the time of calculating the probabilities. Any forecast posted  here is subject to numerous variable factors.
2. Figures in the bracket represent the probability of an incident occurring out of 1,000; the forecast duration is valid for the next 50  months.
3. Probability includes a significant worsening of Fukushima nuclear disaster, and future quakes forecast for Japan.
4. A nuclear incident is defined as a level 5 (Accident With Wider Consequences), or worse, on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES). See below.
5. Safety issues considered in compiling these lists include the age, number of units and capacity of nuclear reactors in each country/state, previous incidents, probability of damage from human-enhanced natural disasters, e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic activity, hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, wildfires, flooding…]
6. The  Blog’s knowledge concerning the extent to which the factors described in (3) might worsen during the forecast period greatly influences the forecast. (Last UPDATED: June 26, 2011)

Related Links

• Radioactive Water at Fukushima an ‘Emergency’: Watchdog August 5, 2013
• Nuke Disasters
• Japan Quakes
• Probability of a Nuclear Disaster by Country
• Record High Radiation Found in Fukushima Fish March 1, 2013
• Radiation Record Broken by Fukushima Fish March 18, 2013
• Fukushima Pre-Harvested Rice Contaminated by Radiation September 24, 2011
• Japan Earthquakes, Disasters: Recent History and FIRE-EARTH Forecasts

Also search the blog for dozens of additional entries on “Fukushima.”

What is a lethal dose of radiation from a single Exposure?

Studies of the 1945 atomic bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki show that 100 percent of victims whose bodies were exposed to 600,000 millirems (6,000 mSv) died from radiation. About 50 percent of victims who received  450,000 millirems (4,500 mSv) of radiation also died.

(Note: Rem is a unit of ionizing radiation equal to the amount that produces the same damage to humans as one roentgen of high-voltage x-rays.  Source: MIT)

1 rem = 10 mSv  (1 Sv = 100 rem)

Background Radiation in millirems per year (mrem/yr)

• Average background radiation (US):  300
• Higher altitudes (e.g, Denver): 400

“Safe Levels” of Radiation (U.S.)

Limits above natural background radiation levels (average 300 millirems per year) and medical radiation:

• Occupation Limit: Maximum of 5,000  (the limit for a worker using radiation)
• Average Natural Background: 300

[Note: Lifetime cumulative exposure should be limited to a person’s age multiplied by 1,000 millirems, e.g., a 70-year-old person, 70,000 millirems.]

Adults

• Max single dose for an adult: 3,000
• Annual total dose: 5,000

Under 18

• Max single dose for a person aged under 18 years: 300 millirems (whole body equivalent)
• Annual total exposure: 500

Fetal Exposure

• Maximum limit for fetal exposure during gestation period:  50 millirems per month above background levels

Medical

• Single Chest X-ray (the whole body equivalent): 2 millirem

Air Travel

• Coast-to-coast US round trip flight: 12 millirems

*Note:  Radiation dose of about 2,000 millisieverts (200,000 millirems) cause serious illness.

Half-life of some radioactive elements

[NOTE: Half-life is the time taken for a radioactive substance to decay by half.]

• Cesium-134 ~ 2  years
• Cesium-137 ~ 30 years
• Iodine-131 ~ 8 days
• Plutonium-239 ~ 24,200 years

• Ruthenium-103 ~ 39 days [Ruthenium is a fission product of uranium-235.]
• Ruthenium-106 ~ 374 days
• Strontium-90 ~ 28.85 years  [Strontium-90 is a product of nuclear fission and is found in large amounts in spent nuclear fuel and in radioactive waste from nuclear reactors.]

• Uranium-234 ~  246,000 years
• Uranium-235 ~ 703.8  million years
• Uranium-238  ~ 4.468 billion years

Radioactive Water at Fukushima an ‘Emergency’: Watchdog

EXCLUSIVE

TEPCO’s “sense of crisis is weak:”  Japan’s NRA

Highly radioactive water from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is leaking into the ocean creating an “emergency” that the operator, TEPCO, may be unable to contain, said an official from the country’s nuclear watchdog.

“This contaminated groundwater has breached an underground barrier, is rising toward the surface and is exceeding legal limits of radioactive discharge, Shinji Kinjo, head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) task force,” told Reuters.

Tokyo Electric Power Co’s “sense of crisis is weak,” Kinjo said. “This is why you can’t just leave it up to Tepco alone” to deal with the ongoing disaster.

“Right now, we have an emergency,” he said.

A total of up to 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium may have leaked into the ocean since the disaster, said TEPCO, insisting that it was within legal limits.

• Full report is posted HERE.
• Related news link: Radioactive Fukushima groundwater rises above barrier

Probability of a Nuclear Disaster by Country

The following probability figures  calculated by FIRE-EARTH on April 8, 2011 still hold!

• Japan (880)³
• United States (865)
• France (855)
• Taiwan (850)
• Belgium, China, Finland, India,  South Korea, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Russia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Armenia, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania,  Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain,  Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico,  South Africa, Canada (810)
• Germany, Sweden, Netherlands (800)
• Switzerland  (750)

Notes:

1. The list represents a snapshot of events at the time of calculating the probabilities. Any forecast posted  here is subject to numerous variable factors.
2. Figures in the bracket represent the probability of an incident occurring out of 1,000; the forecast duration is valid for the next 50  months.
3. Probability includes a significant worsening of Fukushima nuclear disaster, and future quakes forecast for Japan.
4. A nuclear incident is defined as a level 5 (Accident With Wider Consequences), or worse, on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES). See below.
5. Safety issues considered in compiling these lists include the age, number of units and capacity of nuclear reactors in each country/state, previous incidents, probability of damage from human-enhanced natural disasters, e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic activity, hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, wildfires, flooding…]
6. The  Blog’s knowledge concerning the extent to which the factors described in (3) might worsen during the forecast period greatly influences the forecast. (Last UPDATED: June 26, 2011)

Nuclide Analysis Results of the Underground Reservoirs

• Nuclide Analysis Results of the Underground Reservoirs/Observation Holes (As of August 4) – TEPCO Website

Related Links

• Nuke Disasters
• Japan Quakes
• Probability of a Nuclear Disaster by Country
• Record High Radiation Found in Fukushima Fish March 1, 2013
• Radiation Record Broken by Fukushima Fish March 18, 2013
• Fukushima Pre-Harvested Rice Contaminated by Radiation September 24, 2011
• Japan Earthquakes, Disasters: Recent History and FIRE-EARTH Forecasts

Also search the blog for dozens of additional entries on “Fukushima.”

Michigan Declared Major Disaster Area

16 Michigan Counties Declared Federal Disaster Areas Following Devastating Floods

The Whit House has declared a major disaster exists in the State of Michigan in the areas affected by flooding during the period of April 16 to May 14, 2013.

The counties covered by the declaration are Allegan, Baraga, Barry, Gogebic, Houghton, Ionia, Kent, Keweenaw, Marquette, Midland, Muskegon, Newaygo, Ontonagon, Osceola, Ottawa, and Saginaw.

Other Global Disasters/ Significant Events

SNAFU at Fukushima

Trust TEPCO, the operators of Japan’s disaster-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, turning a disaster into a farce… And, that’s exactly what they have been doing since March 2011 Mega Quake and tsunami, which crippled the reactors causing multiple meltdowns.

TEPCO  has revealed that high levels of a toxic radioactive Strontium-90 was present in the groundwater at 30 times the legal limit.  The plant operators also found Tritium eight times the legal limit.

To compound the problem, experts say that Fukushima plant is running out of storage space for contaminated water, while large amounts of water is needed each day to cool the reactors.

Strontium-90 has a half life of 29 years, and is believed to cause bone cancer if ingested.

-oOo-

Uttarakhand, N. India: Death toll tops 150, as flooding and landslide devastate a vast region

The Mega Deluge and massive landslides, caused by extreme monsoon rains, have devastated hundreds of towns and villages, destroying thousands of homes and other buildings,  and leaving more than 150 dead, with at least as many reported missing.

The death toll may swell substantially once the exact count of bodies scattered across the ravaged towns is known.  Right now, large parts of the region remain deluged and hundreds of homes  and businesses lay in ruins, the report said.

• “Very heavy casualties are feared and I cannot give the exact number without a proper survey,” said Uttarakhand Chief Minister, who described the flood ravage as unprecedented caused by a “Himalayan tsunami.”

Meantime, India’s Meteorological Center reported that the state of Kerala had received an average of 57 cm of rain between June 1 and 17, some 69 percent more than the normal level.

• “The highest rainfall was recorded in Kannur district at 85 cm. This was 105 per ent more than the expected rainfall,” said a report.

Thousands of people have died in floods and landslides in Uttarakhand: BJP

Indian People’s Party (BJP), which is the country’s second largest political party, has claimed that “thousands of people have died [in floods and landslides in Uttarakhand] and [that] there is no rescue operation,” said a report.

• “We demand that urgent steps be taken to describe this disaster as a national calamity. Adequate attention on war footing be given for rehabilitation and rescue operations,” a BJP spokesperson told reporters in Delhi.

-oOo-

“Super heat wave hits many parts of China”

A “super heat wave” has hit many parts of China, according to the official media. Many areas have reported temperature highs of 37ºC (98.6 degrees F).

-oOo-

U.S. High and Low Temperatures (F)

High Temperature for Tuesday, June 18, 2013 (received by 8 am EDT June 19)

• 114 degrees (45.6ºC), recorded at Death Valley, CA

Low Temperature for Wednesday, June 19, 2013 (received by 8 am EDT June 19)

• 27 degrees,  recorded at Spincich Lake, MI

Global High and Low Temperatures

• 116.3 degrees (46.8ºC), Algeria
• -86.8 degrees (-66ºC), Antarctica

Related Links

• World Record High Temperature Could Be Broken This Year

-oOo-

Global Disasters/ Significant Events Headlines – 6 April 2013

Fukushima Nuke Plant Leaking Large Quantities of Radioactive Water

Up to 120 tons of radioactive water may have leaked from one of the seven underground storage tanks at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, contaminating the surrounding ground, Tokyo Electric Power Co was reported as saying.

The storage tanks hold about 13,000 cubic meters of contaminated water, which  TEPCO is transferring to other tanks nearby, Kyodo news wire quoted the utility as saying.

Third large oil spill in 7 days: Shell Pipeline ruptures in Texas

Thousands of gallons of oil have spilled from Shell Pipeline in West Columbia, Texas, the third incident of the kind in a week, said a report.

Manatee death toll rising in Florida despite Red Tide ebbing

Red Tide, a deadly algae bloom, has killed at least 241 manatees in Florida so far this year, surpassing the previous record of 151 deaths set in 1996.

The recent Red Tide bloom in the Gulf of Mexico began in September 2012  covering a 70-mile (113-km) stretch of southwest Florida’s coast from Sarasota County to Lee County, which is  home to a large population of the state’s estimated 5,000 manatees, said a report.

Karenia brevis. Photo:  FFWCC

Meanwhile, deaths of 85 manatees since July on Florida’s Atlantic coast remain a mystery. The mass die-off occurred  in the Indian River Lagoon, Brevard County.

• Red Tide Kills Millions of Fish Along Texas Coast

Mount Karangetang: A Mountain of Fire

Lava spewes from the top of Mount Karangetang. Photo: AFP. Image may be subject to copyright.

• One of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia, Karangetang, aka, Api Siau, is a located on the northern part of Siau Island.
• Karangetang was one of the three volcanoes that erupted after the The Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, 2011.

Frozen Britain

UK temperatures over the past week fell to among the coldest experienced in April for nearly 100 years, with maximum temperatures barely above the freezing in many parts of the southeast, reports said.

At -11.2ºC (11.8 degrees Fahrenheit), the village of Braemar in Scotland, about 90 km west of Aberdeen, held the joint coldest weather anywhere in the UK in April for nearly a century.

US Weather: Snow Impacting the Upper Midwest and Northern Great Lakes

‘A storm system moving through the Upper Midwest will bring a round of late-season winter weather to parts of the northern Great Lakes region on Saturday. The heaviest snow will fall from northeastern Minnesota through northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. These areas could see up to 6 inches of snow.’ NOAA reported.

• How Homo Ignarus Killed Spring

Previous Global Disasters/ Significant Events Headlines

• Global Disasters/ Significant Events Headlines – 2 April 2013

Radiation Record Broken by Fukushima Fish

Fish found with record 7,400 times the legal radiation limit near Fukushima NPP

The Operators of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), said they had caught a fish with record 740,000 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium, Kyodo News reported.

Hexagrammos otakii fish, aka Fat Greening, or Ainame. Source Kawasaki City website.

The radiated fish, a greenling, which measured 38 cm long and weighed 564 grams, was caught near a water intake of the power station on February 21, said the report.

The previous known record of radioactive cesium contamination in fish was 510,000 becquerels per kilogram found in another greenling caught in the same area…

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant underwent multiple meltdowns after it was crippled by the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and the ensuing tsunami on March 11, 2011.

Related Links

• Nuke Disasters
• Japan Quakes
• Probability of a Nuclear Disaster by Country
• Record High Radiation Found in Fukushima Fish March 1, 2013

.

March 18, 2013 — DISASTER CALENDAR SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,090 Days Left 

Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.

• SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,090 Days Left to ‘Worst Day’ in the brief Human  History
• The countdown began on May 16, 2011 …

GLOBAL WARNINGS

• WARNING: Human impact 2.85 x Earth’s diminishing carrying capacity
• WARNING: RAPID PLANETARY DECLINE IN PROGRESS!
• Europe: The First Phase of Collapse Has Started 
• United States: The First Phase of Collapse Has Begun

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

Record High Radiation Found in Fukushima Fish

Contaminated fish caught near Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi NPP had 5,100 times the legal radiation limits: TEPCO

The hexagrammos otakii  (Fat Greening, Ainame) fish, caught in a port near the nuclear power plant, showed caesium contamination reaching 510,000 becquerels per kilogram, or 5,100 times more than the government food limit, said the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

The latest find is more than twice the previous record caesium contamination in fish of 254,000 becquerels per kilogram.

Hexagrammos otakii fish, aka Fat Greening, or Ainame. Source Kawasaki City website.

Meantime, caesium radiation equivalent to 277,000 becquerels per kilogram were also found in a rockfish, said the company.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant underwent multiple meltdowns after it was crippled by the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and the ensuing tsunami on March 11, 2011.

Related Links

• Nuke Disasters
• Japan Quakes
• Probability of a Nuclear Disaster by Country

.

March 1, 2013 – DISASTER CALENDAR SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,107 Days Left 

Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.

• SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,107 Days Left to ‘Worst Day’ in the brief Human  History
• The countdown began on May 15, 2011 …

GLOBAL WARNINGS

• WARNING: Human impact 2.85 x Earth’s diminishing carrying capacity
• WARNING: RAPID PLANETARY DECLINE IN PROGRESS!
• Europe: The First Phase of Collapse Has Started 
• United States: The First Phase of Collapse Has Begun

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

Flooding in the U.S. Northeast Forces Mass Evacuations

Pennsylvania rivers turn toxic after flooding swamps 10 sewage processing plants

The White House Declares states of emergency in New York and Pennsylvania

Virginia Governor declares a state of emergency as  flooding prompts mass evacuations in Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and Virginia, killing at least 6 people.

READ THIS FIRST

Continued hacking and content censorship

In view of the continued hacking and censorship of this blog by the Internet Mafia, the Moderators have decided to maintain only a minimum presence at this site, until further notice.

FIRE-EARTH will continue to update the 2011 Disaster Calendar for the benefit of its readers.

WordPress is HACKING this blog!

WordPress Continues to Hack Fire-Earth, Affiliated Blogs

The Blog Moderators Condemn in the Strongest Possible Terms the Continued Removal of Content and Hacking of FIRE-EARTH and Affiliated Blogs by WordPress!

Disaster Calendar 2011 – September 9

[September 9, 2011]  Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.  SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,650 Days Left to the ‘Worst Day’ in Human History

• Northeast, USA. Remnants of Tropical Storm Lee have dumped more than 12 inches of rain  in parts of New York and Pennsylvania since Monday, submerging small towns along the Susquehanna River near Wilkes-Barre.
• Earlier, NWS issued flood warnings for Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Flash flood warnings were issued for parts of  Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Flash flood watches were also issued for Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC.
• The White House Declared states of emergency in New York and Pennsylvania.
• Virginia Governor declared a state of emergency as  flooding prompts mass evacuations in Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and Virginia, killing at least 6 people.
• More than 130,000 people were evacuated from flooded areas, and at least 6 were reported killed as a result of flooding, including three in Pennsylvania.
• Pennsylvania Gov. Corbett warned residents to avoid floodwater because 10 sewage treatment plants were submerged releasing their loads into the rivers and turning the water toxic.
• Floodwater from Chenango and Susquehanna rivers spilled over dikes in Binghamton, N.Y., submerging streets, said a report.
• New York Gov. Cuomo surveyed the damage which  “included thousands of destroyed homes and businesses,” the Press & Sun Bulletin said.
• The town of West Pittston in Pennsylvania was almost entirely submerged.

Other Major Incidents

• West Coast, USA (and Mexico). A massive blackout affected at least 5 million residents in Arizona, southern California and Mexico.
• The blackout knocked out about 4,300 megawatts of power, creating havoc on roads and forcing trains and flights to be cancelled.
• In San Diego, 2 sewage pumps failed due to the blackout, contaminating a lagoon and a river feeding into San Diego Bay and prompting the officials to close nearby beaches, reports said.
• Economic losses from the blackout could be as high as $118 million, according to estimates by the National University System Institute for Policy Research, a report said.
• Fukushima, Japan. Radioactive material released into the sea at Fukushima NPP following the triple core meltdown is at plant were at least three times the amount declared by Tokyo Electric Power Co, Japanese researchers reported.
• TEPCO had reported that 4,720 trillion becquerels of cesium-137 and iodine-131 were released into the Pacific Ocean between March 21 and April 30, but researchers at Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) say the amount was 15,000 trillion becquerels (terabecquerels).
• Texas, USA. BEAR CREEK (#536), Cass County. Satellite images show about 40,000 acres have burned. “The 40,000-acre Bear Creek Fire in Cass County has exhibited extreme fire behavior for the past few days… The fire is burning very actively in heavy timber and is threatening numerous houses.”  At least 8 homes have been destroyed so far.
• Fire Management Details(Texas Forest Service, TFS)
  • Date: Friday, September 9, 2011
  • National Preparedness Level: 3
  • Southern Area Preparedness Level: 4
  • TFS Preparedness Level: 5
• Fire Stats
  • Total Number of Fires YTD: ~ 19,557 4,376
  • Acres burned: ~ 3,669,801 [“That’s roughly the size of Connecticut.” Rick Perry said.]
  • Structures Destroyed by Fire: 4,376 units [FEWW Estimate: ~5,300]
  • Fires in the past 7 days: TFS has responded to 186 fires for 156,517 acres. “Fire departments reported 266 fires for 6,206 acres in the online fire reporting database.” TFS reported.

YTD Fire Stats. Source: TFS

Related Links

• Mega Heatwaves Could Kill Tens of Thousands in the U.S. FIRE-EARTH Forecast
• U.S. Disaster Losses Mounting
• 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season: AAA  FIRE-EARTH Forecast
• U.S. back-to-back disasters phase has begun
• 2011 Much More Disastrous: FIRE-EARTH Forecast
• Global Disasters in 2011 Could Impact 1/3 to 1/2 of the Human Population
• Back to the Primordial Future
• Mass Die-offs FIRE-EARTH Forecast

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities EDRO Forecast
• 2011 Disaster Calendar – August
• 2010 Disaster Calendar 
• 2011 Disaster Calendar

Japan’s Fukushima Nuke Plant Still Leaking

Radioactive water leaking from Fukushima NPP

Some 15 tons of radioactive water have leaked from a storage tank at the stricken Fukushima NPP, Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported.

The plant operators, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), continue to accumulate large volumes of radioactive contaminated water after being used to cool the melting reactors.

Meantime, TEPCO’s majority institutional shareholders have nixed a motion by a large number of individual shareholders to abandon nuclear energy in the wake of the Fukushima plant’s triple core meltdown.

Probability of a Nuclear Disaster by Country

The following probability figures are calculated by FIRE-EARTH on April 8, 2011

• Japan (880)³
• United States (865)
• France (855)
• Taiwan (850)
• Belgium, China, Finland, India,  South Korea, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Russia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Armenia, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania,  Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain,  Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico,  South Africa, Canada (810)
• Germany, Sweden, Netherlands (800)
• Switzerland  (750)

Notes:

1. The list represents a snapshot of events at the time of calculating the probabilities. Any forecast posted  here is subject to numerous variable factors.
2. Figures in the bracket represent the probability of an incident occurring out of 1,000; the forecast duration is valid for the next 50  months.
3. Probability includes a significant worsening of Fukushima nuclear disaster, and future quakes forecast for Japan.
4. A nuclear incident is defined as a level 5 (Accident With Wider Consequences), or worse, on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES). See below.
5. Safety issues considered in compiling these lists include the age, number of units and capacity of nuclear reactors in each country/state, previous incidents, probability of damage from human-enhanced natural disasters, e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic activity, hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, wildfires, flooding… ]
6. The  Blog’s knowledge concerning the extent to which the factors described in (3) might worsen during the forecast period greatly influences the forecast. (Last UPDATED: June 26, 2011)

Related Links

• Japan Earthquakes, Disasters: Recent History and FIRE-EARTH Forecasts

Fukushima NPP: “There must be a large leak”

High levels of radiation detected near Fukushima Reactor 1

Water level in Reactor 1 reactor vessel has dropped 5 meters below operating level

TEPCO technicians at Fukushima Nuclear Plant discovered earlier today that water level in the Reactor 1 pressure vessel had dropped 5 meters below the designated operating level, or  more than one meter below the base of the uranium fuel rods, indicating a large volume of water was leaking into the containment building.

NRC schematic drawing of Containment Building and Basic Internals

“There must be a large leak,” Junichi Matsumoto, a senior manager at TEPCO told a news conference.

“The fuel pellets likely melted and fell, and in the process may have damaged […] the pressure vessel itself and created a hole.”

Fukushima prefecture officials have revealed that the radiation level rose to 1,015 mircrosieverts per hour on Saturday, NHK reported.

“One hour of exposure to this amount of radiation is equivalent to the permissible amount of radiation an ordinary person receives in one year. It is about twice the level that requires power companies to notify the government of an emergency situation.” Said the report.

[Note:  Single radiation dose of 2,000 millisieverts (200,000 millirems) and above causes serious illness. See also exposure list below.]

TEPCO raised the alarm, after noticing that the water in the pressure vessel had not risen despite pumping in 150 tons of of water daily to cool the reactor core.

The technicians  have pumped a total of about 10,400 tonnes of water into the reactor so far, a report said.

TEPCO says temperatures at the bottom of the containment building are between 100 and 120 degrees Celsius, suggesting that the damaged fuel rods have melted and fallen through the reactor vessel and into the bottom of the reactor building, where they are being cooled down for now.

Probability of a Nuclear Disaster by Country

The following probability figures are calculated by FIRE-EARTH on April 8, 2011

• Japan (880)³
• United States (865)
• Taiwan (850)
• Belgium, China, France, Finland, India,  South Korea, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Russia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Armenia, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania,  Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain,  Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico,  South Africa, Canada (810)
• Germany, Sweden, Netherlands (800)
• Switzerland  (750)

Notes:

1. The list represents a snapshot of events at the time of calculating the probabilities. Any forecast posted  here is subject to numerous variable factors.
2. Figures in the bracket represent the probability of an incident occurring out of 1,000; the forecast duration is valid for the next 50  months.
3. Probability includes a significant worsening of Fukushima nuclear disaster, and future quakes forecast for Japan.
4. A nuclear incident is defined as a level 5 (Accident With Wider Consequences), or worse, on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES). See below.
5. Safety issues considered in compiling these lists include the age, number of units and capacity of nuclear reactors in each country/state, previous incidents, probability of damage from human-enhanced natural disasters, e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic activity, hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, wildfires, flooding… ]
6. The  Blog’s knowledge concerning the extent to which the factors described in (3) might worsen during the forecast period greatly influences the forecast.

Half-life of some radioactive elements

[NOTE: Half-life is the time taken for a radioactive substance to decay by half.]

• Cesium-134 ~ 2  years
• Cesium-137 ~ 30 years
• Iodine-131 ~ 8 days
• Plutonium-239 ~ 24,200 years

• Ruthenium-103 ~ 39 days [Ruthenium is a fission product of uranium-235.]
• Ruthenium-106 ~ 374 days
• Strontium-90 ~ 28.85 years  [Strontium-90 is a product of nuclear fission and is found in large amounts in spent nuclear fuel and in radioactive waste from nuclear reactors.]

• Uranium-234 ~  246,000 years
• Uranium-235 ~ 703.8  million years
• Uranium-238  ~ 4.468 billion years

What is a lethal dose of radiation from a single Exposure?

Studies of the 1945 atomic bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki show that 100 percent of victims whose bodies were exposed to 600,000 millirems (6,000 mSv) died from radiation. About 50 percent of victims who received  450,000 millirems (4,500 mSv) of radiation also died.

(Note: Rem is a unit of ionizing radiation equal to the amount that produces the same damage to humans as one roentgen of high-voltage x-rays.  Source: MIT)

1 rem = 10 mSv  (1 Sv = 100 rem)

Background Radiation in millirems per year (mrem/yr)

• Average background radiation (US):  300
• Higher altitudes (eg. Denver): 400

“Safe Levels” of Radiation (U.S.)

Limits above natural background radiation levels (average 300 millirems per year) and medical radiation:

• Occupation Limit: Maximum of 5,000  (the limit for a worker using radiation)
• Average Natural Background: 300

[Note: Lifetime cumulative exposure should be limited to a person’s age multiplied by 1,000 millirems, e.g., a 70-year-old person, 70,000 millirems.]

Adults

• Max single dose for an adult: 3,000
• Annual total dose: 5,000

Under 18

• Max single dose for a person aged under 18 years: 300 millirems (whole body equivalent)
• Annual total exposure: 500

Fetal Exposure

• Maximum limit for fetal exposure during gestation period:  50 millirems per month above background levels

Medical

• Single Chest X-ray (the whole body equivalent): 2 millirem

Air Travel

• Coast-to-coast US round trip flight: 12 millirems

Megaquake and Tsunami Death Toll

The latest figures released by the authorities put the number of dead at about  12,000 with 16,000 people still listed as missing.

Related News

• Japan is shutting down 35 of its 54 reactors by late May

Related Links

• Japan Earthquakes, Disasters: Recent History and FIRE-EARTH Forecasts
• News Links 
• WARNING: JPTRMT1