Second extremely high radiation reading recorded at Fukushima Daiichi

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) recorded a second source of an extremely high radiation exposure amid the wreckage of its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant destroyed by the multiple unit hydrogen explosions and nuclear meltdowns as a result of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

On August 3, 2011, geiger counters used by TEPCO workers entering Unit 1 shot up to 5 seiverts per hour (500 REM/hr). This is considered a deadly dose of radiation forcing the workers to retreat from the area. On August 1, 2011 workers first encountered a radiation field that sent instrument readings offscale at  more than 10 seiverts per hour.

Update on August 4, 2011 by admin

Arnie Gundersen (pictured at left) at Fairewinds Associates has posted a video explaining his theories about the origins of the lethally high radioactivity dose rates now being detected at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. It is entitled "Lethal Levels of Radiation at Fukushima: What Are the Implications?"

Fukushima radiation equals 20 nuclear bombs but will stay dangerous much longer

Professor Tatsuhiko Kodama, head of the Radioisotope Center at the University of Tokyo, testifies before the Committee on Welfare and Labor in the Lower House of the Japanese Diet. Very emotional — yet clear and rational —testimony.

"Based on the thermal output, it is 29.6 times the amount released by the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. In uranium equivalent, it is 20 Hiroshima bombs.

“What is more frightening is that whereas the radiation from a nuclear bomb will decrease to one-thousandth in one year, the radiation from a nuclear power plant will only decrease to one-tenth.

“In other words, we should recognize from the start that just like Chernobyl, Fukushima I Nuke Plant has released radioactive materials equivalent in the amount to tens of nuclear bombs, and the resulting contamination is far worse than the contamination by a nuclear bomb.”

If English captions don’t appear, be sure to click the “CC” button on the lower right of the YouTube player. For more Kodama videos, or for French or German language, go to Green Action Japan.

Highest radiation dose rate yet recorded indoors detected at Fukushima Daiichi

The Mainichi Daily News reports that, just a day after the highest radiation dose rate yet recorded outdoors at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (1,000 rems per hour, enough to kill a person after just 30 minutes exposure time), Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has reported that the highest radiation dose rate yet recorded indoors has been detected, on the second floor of the Unit 1 reactor building: 500 rems per hour, enough to kill a person after just one hour's exposure time from radiation poisoning. However, such measurements have simply "maxxed out" the radiation monitoring equipment, so represent minimum radiation dose rates -- actual figures could be much higher. TEPCO not explained why it has taken five months to detect such high radiation fields, nor why it does not have the proper radiation monitoring equipment to determine how high the dose rates actually go. It also has said it plans no in depth study on the contamination, as supposedly no workers will go nearby those specific danger zones. Its explanation that the high dose rates likely result from radioactive debris, residue, or contamination from the failed attempt to vent the primary and secondary containment structures so they would not breach or explode in the earliest hours and days of the catastrophe seems to indicate that TEPCO intended to discharge such high level radioactivity into the environment on purpose, only it never made it completely out of the ventilation duct and smokestsack system. The Japanese federal government's point person on the nuclear catastrophe, State Minister Goshi Hosono, has called for comprehensive analysis of contamination levels and dose rates.

Two Fukushima Daiichi workers drowned by tsunami had been ordered to inspect basement

The Mainichi Daily News reports that two Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant workers, whose drowned bodies were discovered on March 30th, nearly three weeks after the earthquake-triggered tsunami inundated the northeastern Japan atomic site, had been ordered by a Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) supervisor down to the turbine building basement of Unit 4 to check for leaks from pipes, despite warnings that large tsunamis were inbound.

Significant degradation of plant safety reported at Davis-Besse atomic reactor

Despite possessing this photo showing severe corrosion on Davis-Besse's lid, NRC allowed the atomic reactor to continue operating to the brink of rupture in 2002.In a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission "Event Notification Report" dated July 26th, and posted on NRC's website July 27th, entitled "UNANALYZED CONDITIONS INVOLVING THE SAFETY RELATED DIRECT CURRENT (DC) SYSTEM," an "unanalyzed condition that significantly degrades plant safety" and a "condition that could have prevented fulfillment of a safety function" were reported at the problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor. Two problems were identified, having to do with "an old design issue" going unresolved despite being identified during inspections. The first problem "could challenge the adequacy of electrical separation between the potentially grounded non-safety related equipment and the safety related batteries. The second problem posed the risk of "If a ground fault existed on one of these switches, the fault could be transferred from one power source to the redundant source, potentially impacting the ability of both safety-related DC power sources to perform their required functions." Davis-Besse has had a long litany of near-disasters, as chronicled in a Beyond Nuclear backgrounder. Beyond Nuclear, along with Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio, has intervened against Davis-Besse's requested 20 year license extension, and won standing and the admittance of four contentions from NRC's Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board. The contentions argue that (1) wind power alone could replace Davis-Besse; (2) solar photovoltaics alone could replace Davis-Besse; (3) a combination of wind, solar PV, and compressed air storage could certainly replace Davis-Besse; and (4) Davis-Besse severely underestimated the costs and casualties that would result from a catastrophic radioactivity release, a fatal flaw in its Severe Accident Mitigation Alternatives (SAMA) analyses required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).