"Never Give Up, Fukushima" Sign Right Next to 10-Plus Sieverts/Hr Location

That's the bleakest picture I've seen so far about Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

UK's Guardian has a series of photographs taken secretly by Kazuma Obara, who "became the first photojournalist to gain unauthorised access to the power plant and produced an exclusive glimpse of life inside the facility".

On the "Never Give Up, Fukushima" screen, Obara says the photo was taken before the 10-plus sieverts/hour location was found just nearby. The workers in the photo never knew about the radiation, and were never told about it even after the announcement by TEPCO, which was on August 1 evening.

For the rest of the photos and Obara's commentary, go to Guardian.

Kazuma Obara became a freelance photojournalist 3 days after the disaster. For more of his work, go to his website.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: 3.6 Sieverts/Hr at Stack Drain Pipe for Reactors 1 and 2

Another solid "sievert" number from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

Maybe I shouldn't be writing in sieverts. It minimizes the significance somewhat. It is 3.6 sieverts/hour, or 3,600 millisieverts/hour, or 3,600,000 microsieverts/hour. No humans of any age should be exposed to that kind of radiation, not even the TEPCO workers.

From what I've found, only Mainichi Shinbun (only a brief mention) and Nikkan Sports (tabloid newspaper covering mostly sports-related news) carried the news from Kyodo News. (But I couldn't find it at Kyodo News site.)

Nikkan Sports citing Kyodo News (8/4/2011):

福島第１原発１、２号機の主排気筒の底部で毎時１０シーベルト（１万ミリシーベルト）以上の高線量が測定された問題で、東京電力は４日、底部につながる配管から毎時３・６シーベルトを測定したと発表した。

Investigating the 10-plus sieverts/hour radiation at the bottom of the main exhaust duct for the Reactors 1 and 2 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, TEPCO announced on August 4 that 3.6 sieverts/hour radiation was detected at the drain pipe that connects to the bottom of the main exhaust stack for Reactors 1 and 2.

　配管は底部にたまった雨水を排出するのに使われ、主排気筒から数メートル離れたところで毎時３・６シーベルトが測定された。東電は新たに配管周辺も立ち入り禁止区域とした。

The pipe is for draining rainwater from the bottom of the exhaust stack. 3.6 sieverts/hour radiation was measured at several meters from the exhaust stack. TEPCO has designated the area around the pipe as off-limits.

　１０シーベルト超の高線量の原因を調査するため、作業員４人が周辺を測定して発見。作業員の被ばく線量は最高で２～３ミリシーベルトだった。

The 3.6 sieverts/hour spot was found by 4 workers measuring the area as part of investigation to find out why the radiation at the exhaust stack had such high radiation exceeding 10 sieverts/hour. The maximum radiation exposure for the workers was 2 to 3 millisieverts.

Here's the photo released by TEPCO on August 5. The orange cone to the left marks the location where 10-plus sieverts/radiation was measured on August 1:

This is the photo of the location with 10-plus sieverts/hour. The pipe that extends right from the exhaust stack is the one that measured 3.6 sieverts/hour:

I have to wonder where the rainwater has been draining, all these 4-plus months.

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Wanted: 20 Healthy Males Who Want over $600 for 4-Hour Work a Day for One Month to Help Disaster-Affected Tohoku

It's probably a job in the disaster-affected area called Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant...

Anyone care to join "Fukushima 50"? It's not too late. They need fresh workers in the "new normal" at the plant where 10 sieverts/hour radiation is considered no big deal. (TEPCO says it doesn't matter because no work is planned in the area of 10-plus sieverts/hr radiation.)

Someone in Japan (t2aki) posted the photo of an ad on a utility pole, which reads:

Urgently Wanted
50,000 yen [US$648] per day
4 hours a day work

(and in handwriting)
Only for one month (20 working days)
2 days of training given

Work to assist recovery in the disaster affected area in Tohoku

No age limit
Healthy males
20 workers wanted

Probably an ad by a subcontractor of a subcontractor of a subcontractor .... many degrees removed from TEPCO.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Workers Knew About the Extremely High Radiation Around Exhaust Stack

They may not have known the exact number (well, for that matter, no one knows because the survey meter went overscale at 10 sieverts/hr), but they've been running past the area when they have to enter Reactor 1 building to install the external heat exchanger to the Spent Fuel Pool, according to the tweets by a worker currently at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

So much for TEPCO's word that "there is no work planned near the area, and there will be no effect on the progress of the work at the plant", which is technically correct, at least the first half.

There may not be any work planned in the area there, BECAUSE RADIATION IS TOO HIGH. There may be no work planned there, but the workers have to go near it to enter the Reactor 1 building. The radiation is so high that the workers, with all their full protection gear and equipment and construction materials they carry, have been running past the area in order to minimize radiation exposure.

So it's been known.

More information from his tweets:

(Someone asked if it's true that TEPCO does not have the survey meter that can measure more than 10 sievert/hr radiation.) I think that's correct. We do have the instrument to measure the radiation of the nuclear fuel rods, but I wonder what happened to that. Broke?

(Referring to the area where over 10 sievert/hr radiation has been detected,) the radiation level around the exhaust stacks has been too high to even go near, ever since the accident started. Not just the area around the stack for Reactors 1 and 2, but also the stack for Reactors 3 and 4.

Debris are removed by shielded heavy equipment or remote-controlled equipment. That (10+ sievert/hr) spot was found during such operation.

We have to run when we go by the stack to enter Reactor 1. That's hard work. My legs hurt already from climbing up and down the stairs in the reactor building. Now I appreciate elevators!

All the elevators inside the reactor buildings at Fukushima I Nuke Plant are broken.

As to the worker who measured the radiation with the survey meter attached to a stick, Hiroaki Koide of Kyoto University says he must have spent only 1 or 2 seconds near the stack to get 4 millisieverts radiation.

Let's see. 2.78 millisieverts for one second, if the radiation was 10 sieverts/hr.

Koide thinks the radiation level is impossibly high to be coming from inside the duct or stack. He suspects there is a piece or two of the spent fuel blown out of the Spent Fuel Pool when Reactor 1 and Reactor 3 had hydrogen explosions.

He also says the protection suits that workers wear do nothing to protect them from gamma rays, unless they wear lead vests, but even then only marginally.

(For more of his comment, there's a transcript of the radio program that he appeared in, in Japanese.)

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