(Updated) #Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Former PM Hatoyama Says Chlorine-38 WAS Detected, Despite TEPCO's Retraction

(Update) Hatoyama says in his Nature article that his team had the TEPCO data on chlorine-38 re-analyzed, and came to the conclusion that chlorine-38 was in the water in the basement of Reactor 1, and the density was 1.6 million becquerels/milliliter, just as TEPCO had originally reported. (reading the Japanese translation by Nature Asia.) About his thinking on Reactor 3 nuclear explosion, go to my new post.

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Back in March and April, there was a little fuss about recriticality happening in one or more of the reactors at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant because of the announcement by TEPCO of the detection of chlorine-38 in the water in the turbine building. Based on that announcement, Hiroaki Koide of Kyoto University was the first researcher (I think) in Japan who said recriticality may have happened.

Chlorine-37, stable isotope in seawater may acquire neutron and become unstable chlorine-38. The source of neutron? Fissioning uranium somewhere nearby.

Then, TEPCO denied it later, as one of many "mistakes" they supposedly made in identifying the radionuclides.

But now, apparently in the Nature magazine article that he wrote with a DPJ politician in Japan's Lower House, he says the following, according to Yomiuri Daily (English) (12/16/2011):

In the article, Hatoyama criticizes Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the crippled plant, for disclosing only limited information to Diet committees. He also hints at the possibility of recriticality at the plant and says there is still much about the crisis that needs clarification, including the state of the molten fuel within the nuclear reactors.

Hatoyama also says that he and Taira obtained data on samples of contaminated water TEPCO obtained from the basement of the plant's No. 1 reactor and asked an outside research institute to reanalyze them.

Results showed that radionuclide chlorine 38, one of the isotopes released during recriticality, "was indeed present," he claims.

TEPCO reported at one point that it found chlorine 38 in the sampled water, but the utility later retracted that statement, saying there was a mistake in the analysis.

The Japanese version of this article says exactly the same. And the very interesting thing is that hardly anyone paid attention when the article came out on December 15 in Japanese. The number of tweets for the article is only 12. I saw the headline of the article at Yomiuri, but I didn't think much of it at all and skipped it, partly because I don't care to read anything this former PM of Japan, whose nickname is "space alien", writes.

But to give him some credit, he held a weekly study group in the early weeks and months of the nuclear crisis, inviting researchers who were then ridiculed by the mainstream media and politicians as "extreme" - those who said the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident and the resultant radiation contamination were far more serious than admitted by the government and the MSM.

Judging by the number of Japanese readers retweeting the Japanese version of Yomiuri article that I just tweeted, it is news to them, too.

The title of the article is "Hatoyama: Nationalize Fukushima N-plant". A boring title, on purpose, probably, so that no one reads it. TPTB couldn't afford to attract attention to "recriticality" when they were about to announce a cold shutdown of the plant. Yomiuri did its patriotic duty.

(H/T to enenews for noticing the details beyond the headline.)

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Kyoto University Researcher "Reactor 1 May Be Undergoing "Recriticality"

Evidence? Chlorine-38.

I posted this on my Japanese blog for the Japanese readers. I'm putting out the summary for the English readers here, too.

A nuclear researcher at Kyoto University (which is considered one of the two most prestigious national universities, the other one being Tokyo University) has reversed his opinion and now says the Reactor 1 may be experiencing the "recriticality".

His name is Hiroaki Koide, assistant professor at Kyoto University's Research Reactor Institute who belongs to the Nuclear Safety Research Group at the Research Reactor Institute. He has given interviews on TV and radio, mostly in Kansai stations and not aired in Kanto (where Tokyo is), and would be considered one of the "sceptics" of the official story about Fukushima I Nuke Plant that everything is safe, getting under control.

There ARE researchers in Japan who go against the mainstream government scholars. Koide is one of them (and far from being the most critical), and there are others from universities other than the top few schools (and therefore they don't get hardly any airtime on the Japanese MSM). But thanks to talk radio shows and the Internet (hey it's the same as in the US), at least a small portion of the Japanese people are getting the "alternative" reality other than what's given by the government and the MSM.

This is from the transcript of the interview (in Japanese, NOT the literal translation) Koide gave on April 5, 2011 on Osaka's MBS Mainichi Broadcasting Radio:

"The Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident is not winding down at all. I think I have to revise my opinion which was too optimistic."

- What was too optimistic?

"We thought the reactors "cold stopped", which means the uranium fission stopped. But now I've started to think the fission has started again. In other words, the reactor has become "critical" again - which we call "recriticality"."

- Professor Koide, you were of the opinion that the recriticality was not happening.

"Yes, and I've changed my mind. It may be happening."

- On what evidence?

"First, the level of iodine[-131] is not decreasing; it is increasing. Iodine[-131]'s half life is 8 days. It has been more than 3 weeks since the accident, so the level of iodine[-131] should be about 1/10 of the initial level measured. Second, the presence of chlorine-38 was detected from the contaminated water in the turbine building [he doesn't say which one]."

- What about chlorine-38?

"Well, if chlorine-38 was detected [according to TEPCO], and that can only mean "recriticality".

Chlorine-37 is a stable isotope, and it exists in salt in the sea water. TEPCO had poured literally tons and tons of sea water into the Reactor Pressure Vessels at Fukushima. The way the stable chlorine-37 becomes highly unstable chlorine-38 (half-life 37 minutes) is for chlorine-37 to acquire neutron.

The only way for neutron to be present near chlorine-37 is for uranium to go critical and emit neutron.

That's what Fairewinds Associates' Arnie Gunderson said in his April 3 video, and that's probably why IAEA mentioned the possibility of "recriticality" on March 30.

Koide thinks the recriticality may be happening in the Reactor 1 where the fuel rods may have been melted down most (Koide thinks there is no cladding left, and the tiny uranium pellets are forming a heap at the bottom of the RPV), but says the other two reactors (2 and 3) are also vulnerable if TEPCO cannot cool them sufficiently and the core melt continues.

He also suspects TEPCO is not pouring enough boron to prevent fission.

Maybe that's another item at Fukushima I that's missing: boron.

It took almost 3 weeks for TEPCO to admit they didn't have enough dosimeters for the workers.

Don't hold your breath for a TEPCO's announcement that they are out of boron. Maybe they can dump bath salt in the pressure vessels and that may stop the fission.

And remember, repeat the mantra of the Japanese government: it is safe.

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