Monday, August 1, 2011

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: OVER 10 SIEVERTS/HR Radiation OUTSIDE Reactor 1 and 2

The survey meter went overscale, so no one knows how high the actual radiation really is.

TEPCO hasn't updated the "survey map (contamination map)" of the plant for about a month, and I've been wondering why. (They have a new one out now, but it doesn't mention the exhaust duct at all.)

If you are exposed to 10 sieverts radiation in a short time, you will be dead.

Photo is from Kyodo News Japanese, with the original photo by the Ministry of Defense. The exhaust duct is where the black arrow is pointing.

Not clear from the Jiji article below, but the Kyodo article does say the meter went overscale and the accurate measurement is not available.

From Jiji Tsushin (11:59PM JST 8/1/2011):

東京電力は1日、福島第1原発1、2号機の原子炉建屋の間にある屋外の排気筒の表面で、過去最高の1時間当たり10シーベルト(1万ミリシーベルト)以上の放射線量が測定されたと発表した。測定した作業員の被ばく量は最大4ミリシーベルトだった。

TEPCO announced on August 1 that the highest radiation of over 10 sieverts/hour (or 10,000 millisieverts/hour) was detected on the surface of the exhaust duct between Reactor 1 and Reactor 2 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. The workers who measured the radiation were exposed to maximum 4 millisieverts of radiation.

 これまでの最高値は、1号機原子炉建屋内で6月に測定された同4000ミリシーベルト。同10シーベルトを仮に6分間防護服などなしに浴びると、1000ミリシーベルトを被ばくすることになり、吐き気やリンパ球の急激な減少などの症状が出る。

Prior to this reading, the highest radiation measured was 4,000 millisievert/hour [or 4 sieverts/hour] measured inside the reactor building of Reactor 1 in June. If one is exposed to 10 sieverts/hour radiation for 6 minutes without any protection, he would get 1,000 millisieverts [or 1 sievert] radiation, the level which causes nausea and rapid decrease of lymphocytes.

 東電は半径数メートルを立ち入り禁止にするとともに、今後、付近に鉄板を設置するなどして放射線を遮蔽(しゃへい)する。ただ、この付近での作業は予定されておらず、今後の事故収束作業への影響はないという。

TEPCO will prohibit access to the area within a few meters radius of the duct, and plans to shield the radiation by installing steel panels around the area. However, according to TEPCO, there is no work planned near the area, and there will be no effect on the progress of the work at the plant.

  東電によると、排気筒には非常用ガス処理系と呼ばれる配管が接続されており、この接続部で高線量が測定された。1号機では震災直後の3月12日、原子炉格 納容器の圧力逃がし弁を開く「ベント」が行われたが、その際に、容器内の空気がこの配管の中を通った。東電は、通過した気体に含まれる放射性物質が配管内 に付着し、何らかの理由で高い放射線量になったとみている。

According to TEPCO, the pipe for the emergency gas process system is connected to the exhaust duct, and it was at the joint that the high radiation was measured. On March 12 right after the earthquake/tsunami, they did the venting in Reactor 1, in which the pressure release valve on the Containment Vessel was opened to let the air inside the CV out. TEPCO thinks the radioactive materials in that air somehow got attached inside the duct, causing the high radiation.

Wait a minute. How could the work at the plant not be affected? TEPCO is going to put the gigantic cover over Reactor 1, and this exhaust pipe is right in the way.

(h/t Dr. Ono and anon readers)

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had been wondering about what might be getting displaced by the Nitrogen injections, and where it was going.

It stands to reason that if the Nitrogen is necessary, hydrogen generation is ongoing- which means either oxidizing Zirconia, or perhaps burning cement. All that Nitrogen pumped in comes out somewhere, and evidently is flushing out other materials with it.

One thing I have not seen mention of- what is the radionuclide species/concentration coming out of the tall vent stacks?

zzyzx

Anonymous said...

As usual, things are "surreal" with Tepco...

They would like us to believe that... this spot wasn't checked before... ?

Four months after the catastrophe, a few meters away from the "crime scene", from the reactors building... suddendly they've decided to check for radioactivity by doing a gamma ray analysis ?

And bingo they found a super radioactive spot ?

It's insane.

Anonymous said...

And only one "joint" is involved? Just one?

They really need to update (correctly) the contamination MAP with the right data.

Anonymous said...

10 Sv / h makes 10.000 mSv for 3600 secondes.

At that level, to get 4 mSv, you stay on contact no more than 2 seconds without protection.


How the measure was done ? Protection and distance from the source ?

netudiant said...

Given the massive amount of cesium 137 liberated to the water and the environment in this accident, it should be no surprise that the vents are glow in the dark radioactive. My guess is that the inside of the turbine hall and the reactor basements will be found to be equally or even more contaminated. After stewing for months in a hot bath laced with half the radioactivity from three reactors, every surface will be dripping with radio nucleotides.
I have no idea how this is to be cleaned up, but with a 30 year half life for cesium, it would take generations. So I view this as an early straw in the wind preparing the way for a decision to bury the site in place, rather than to embark on the immense task of cleaning it up.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@anon at 2:33PM, according to NHK, they seem to have taken a gamma-ray photo of the area, and decided to measure the radiation using humans. The worker with full protection gear used the survey meter attached at the end of a long stick. No info how long the stick was.

They must have known this and other extreme hot spots. They were going to cover Reactor 1. They've been exposing workers to unknown, deadly level of radiation.

Anonymous said...

They are slowly faceing a point of No return.

Their own incompetence and downplaying is going to backfire now. If the level continue to rise as it obvously has, they are not able to do mutch inside any of he reactor sites. And electronics are also not working in a high rad, envirioument.
They simply fry.
That leves only humans left to do the work, actualy.
This is bad news, and shocking, even it was not unexpected.

What to say, that this is the mother of All the black swans. And if the govm. and TEPCO stil downplays and their continue with their constant lies, the consequences in a short term future wil be horrifying.
Its no longer a problem of fallout, but the survival of the people of Japan.
We all know it, its jnow becomed a matter of time.

And thats because its only going to be wurse, people of Japan.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
— Marianne Williamson

Lena said...

"TEPCO also said that it will build a 30-meter-deep, 800-meter-long steel
wall to prevent underground leaks of radioactive water from the No 1 to No 4
reactors of the crippled plant into the sea through underground channels.

The shielding wall, to be built a few meters away in front of the existing
seawall over the next two years, will go deeper than a low permeable layer to
ensure any underground leaks are prevented."

http://www.nst.com.my/articles/TEPCOdetechtshighestradiationinFukushimaNo1plant/Article/

Anonymous said...

Temperature drops in Fukushima used fuel pool

01 August 2011

The temperature of the water in the used fuel pool of unit 4 at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant has dropped significantly with the start-up of an alternative cooling system. ..


The company said that it began a test run of the system at 0:44 am on 31 July. The temperature of the pool at that time was between 86°C and 87°C.
.. by 8:00 am on 1 August the temperature had reportedly dropped to 63°C.

.. Tepco is also setting up an alternative fuel pool cooling system at unit 1 and aims to run a test operation of that system within the next couple of weeks. The temperature of that fuel pool is unknown due to a failure of the instrumentation. [right]

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS-Temperature_drops_in_Fukushima_used_fuel_pool-0108114.html

a female Faust said...

1) "The temperature of that fuel pool is unknown due to a failure of the instrumentation." again. i keep seeing this pop up. they keep installing new instruments. why do the new ones not work? is it not an analog gauge?

2) in Your Opinion, Sir,
a) is this hot spot at the base of the stack?
b) or could it be, say, a little farther seaward?

actually, 2(b) is the question i was most burning (*ahem*) to ask you.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@female Faust, whose flyover video is that? Air Photo Service? or someone else? The hot spot is supposed to be at the base of the stack, but some experts think it's not from the stack.

Anonymous said...

Nice picture u have there: The irradiated stuff pumped into the upper atmosphere for the last five months 24/7/365 not to be seen.

Like the resulting deaths of the planned 6 billion people ...

Here I visualized better the first part of the widely published depopulation program (and desired 90% reduction) goals ... or is it papalpogrom?

http://wp.me/pwIAV-19

.

Anonymous said...

.
The still working glo baal fukuirradiation -to- upper atmosphere jet-stream -ventilation system depicted here

http://preparator.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/fukushima-pii-put-2s1.jpg?w=700&h=952

.

a female Faust said...

the original video was up;oaded by responsejp on Mar 17, 2011 titled "東日本大地震】東電社員が撮影した福島原発 その2"
with the caption "ヘリコプターで上空より撮影した福島第一原子力発電所(福島県大熊町)3号機と4号機の映像の一部が17日夜、東京電力によって公開された。同社社員が現地確認のため、16日16時頃に撮影したもの。公開された映像は3種類あり、映像には、水素爆発を起こして水蒸気をあげる3号機建屋や、天井と側壁が爆発で吹 き飛んだ4号機建屋の姿が映っている"

a female Faust said...

(this google translates as "2 Fukushima nuclear power plant employees have taken a major earthquake - Eastern Electric Power "
with the caption "Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station was taken by helicopter from the sky (Okuma-machi, Fukushima Prefecture), the night part of the image 17 of Unit 4 and Unit No. 3, published by Tokyo Electric Power Company. to confirm the company's local employees , was taken around 16:00 16. Image was published has three, to video, and building machines No. 3 up steam causing the hydrogen explosion, building machines, No. 4, flew came blowing in the blast walls and ceilings have seen the figure of."

a female Faust said...

---funny, i think from studying it that it is not 3 and 4 but is between 1 and 2. It is also interesting to note that a comment was left on my slowed down version of the video indicating that the commenter thought it was a roof and not ground level out of which this glowing material appears to be extruding --

Anonymous said...

@ a female Faust

maybe it's the hot SFP with melted fuel glowin'-through the "roof"?

a female Faust said...

mayybe..... i had thought all this time it was ground level -- hmm --

and another thing: in researching this i was reacquainted with certain headlines from April 9. You reported the incident as #Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Reactor 1's Containment Vessel (Dry Well) Measured 100 Sievert, Later Back to 6.83 Sievert.

if 10 sieverts is off the scale, how could 100 be measured?

a female Faust said...

you know, once a spammer visited my little traveled secondary blogsite, (more like media storage right now), and was so moved by the post that he or she went on about it, very believably, specific references and everything. no grammar errors. if it was not for a final short product placement move, i would never have guessed. well that and the fact that his or her name was a compound word made out of a pharmaceutcal brand name and what looked like a randomly generated number......

ps i thought that comment about you being inappropriate was a textbook example of the indiscretion to which it referred. is it still ad hominem if one is

because you fucking rock.

normally i would think that such a bold and general assertion requires easily verifyable evidence or logic to merit consideration... but here it is self-evident.

which is to say, thank you.

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