Friday, January 13, 2012

"Baseless Rumor" from an LDP Upper House Politician: Explosion in Fukushima I on January 9?

Satsuki Katayama is an LDP member of the Upper House of the Japanese Diet and a former career bureaucrat in the Ministry of Finance.

In her official blog on January 13, 2012, Katayama relates the following rumor:

さきほど、南相馬の元市議会議員から市長に連絡がはいり、1月9日にまた、福島第一で(おそらく4号炉だと思うが)なんらかの爆発が起きており、それを政府が隠している、という話であった。真偽のほどはわからないが、水素爆発ではあっても、核爆発ではないであろう。

Just then, there was a communication from the ex-council member of Minami Soma City to the mayor [of Soma City] that there was some kind of explosion at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on January 9 (probably at Reactor 4 building) and the government is hiding it. I don't know whether it's true or not, but if it is, it is probably a hydrogen explosion, not a nuclear explosion.

Katayama says she was speaking with Hidekiyo Tachiya, mayor of Soma City (north of Minami Soma City) when the mayor related the "rumor" to her. I have no idea why she's allowed to talk loose like this in her official blog. 

So far, it doesn't seem to have gathered much attention in Japan, and many on Twitter ridicule her. But some people are connecting this "rumor" to the massive deployment of the Self Defense Force helicopters on January 9.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Umm... excuse me, please. What helicopters would those be?

Anonymous said...

Helicopters: http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/01/military-helicopters-observed-south-tokyo-area/

They were over Machida too, but not as many as during the week after March 11.

It is hard not to get very worried when these beasts fly overhead in huge numbers at low altitude ...

Anonymous said...

There's a connection between SFP#4 and helicopters in Yokohama? Come on guys, I love a good conspiracy theory, but this is getting ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

Conspiracy theory? to connect self defense force helicopters to an accident in Fukushima?

That's so tame compared to what's been promoted here by various trolls on this blog.

Anonymous said...

Self Defence Force helicopters are not deployed for nothing. It has to be serious business, especially if deployed in large numbers. This is very costly and bothersome. WTF, you think they fly these things everyday in numbers? Maybe it was just an exercise because JapGov has loads of money to spend on an air show? Riiiiiiiiggghhhhht.....

Anonymous said...

If the choppers were in Fukushima or Ibaraki it might be interesting, but Yokohama's a bit of a stretch. If you live in Tokyo, helicopters overhead from both the US and Japan are common.

Chibaguy said...

@anon 6:06

I work in Tokyo and happened to be at Kasumigaseki that day. Some unusual huge helicopter flying at a low elevation like a bat out of hell was flying back and forth. Usually they just fly in circles at high elevations. I am yet to dismiss this rumor as poster that watch the web cam reported massive fires at diaichi.

Mauibrad said...

There has also been video footage of a lot of increased activity at Reactor #4, and there has been the increased cesium measurements in the air, and short half-life iodine in Tokyo sewage, and this was after and during a number of earthquakes close to Fukushima. I say there's something to it, and something is definitely up at the #4 spent fuel pool.

Anonymous said...

RE the helicopters, I live a few blocks from the Tokyo Metropolitan building and the noise from increased Helicopter traffic has been driving me nuts. Picked up about 4 days ago. Mostly the usual large civilian types circling incessantly but I've spotted a couple of large military ones flying low and fast and straight over Shinjuku going north as well.

As far as SFP4 is concerned, I think it would be pretty hard to hide any kind of explosion or cover up a big new release, but we are still a single quake away from disaster, and the pool seems to be failure prone. The pressure on the GOVT to keep painting a rosy picture since the cold shutdown announcement is immense. Imagine the press conference... "the cold and stable Fukushima facility exploded again yesterday, but this will in no way effect our recovery plan or your health etc etc"

Anonymous said...

Guys, there are workers crawling all over Fukushima Daiichi and it seems like all of them have Twitter accounts and access to Iwakami-san. If #4 exploded they would be all over it. You can't hide military helicopters hovering over #4 trying to stop... something. I remain interested in #4, but I'm skeptical that this is the most troublesome building. I think #1-#3 are in bad enough shape, and I doubt we know the extent of it.

Anonymous said...

I think the reason that all eyes are on #4 is that if it goes, then they lose the whole site along with half of Honshu. The government itself released that report buried on new years eve which said if they lose #4 then Tokyo and Yokohama would fall inside a new 170-250km evacuation zone. Would you really want to wait until 20 million people try to up and go? Anyone with an ounce of sense would be out of Tokyo on the first concrete indication that #4 was on a downward spiral, so the heightened sensitivity to these rumors seems pretty understandable to me.

nelson311 said...

where there is a sparkle, there is fire. I do not think they could conceal such an explosion, but I am still very surprised at Katayama's claim. something is definitely up (or down)

Anonymous said...

Possible to get a follow-up on this, Primavera? Either there was an explosion at #4 or there wasn't, I don't see how this can be left hanging. I'm also scratching my head at how an elected official can claim the "government is hiding it". She IS the bloody government, can't she shine some light on this? Can you imagine if a congressman/woman in the US claimed the government was hiding something, and there being complete silence on this for three days? Where is the fourth estate for crying out loud.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

I think I'll write to her.

I'm also thinking of creating a big honking list of "What's been left hanging" since March 11. Maybe I create a post, and people can fill in, using the comment section.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I see many reports of helicopters flying towards Fukushima. These are military and civilian coppers. What are they doing ?. They are ferrying injured workers to other parts of japan. Maybe Yokohama or farther ?. Why ?. When those workers die, "they are not from Fukushima" will be the claim. A very sneaky move but a deceptive move no doubt. Check out Rense.com for the report of SFP #4 burning without water. The earthquake on Jan 1 @2.30am was magnitude 7.0. Damaged SFP badly that water leaked out. Serious trouble in which cover-up will make it way worse.

SxPxK said...

When the Corium breach the containment vessel it will continue its descent at a much faster rate then when it was eating through 8 meters of concrete.
At that time any contact with water will result in a chemical explosion spewing radioactive fumes.
I think there is a correlation between the strength of the explosion and the amount of Corium getting in contact with a certain amount of water.
I doubt there are any ways to stop the corium from its descent, could the recent quake be related to that! if so and due to the amount of Corium and the definite existence of groundwater, what can we expect when it will reach a significant phreatic zone?

- Reaching out to you guy with way more knowledge on this matter -

Recalling an earthquake inducing machine developed by the Russian during the cold war, I used machine and not weapon (even considering the historical timeline) as to its main purpose was to lesser the effects of bigger earthquake by provoking smaller ones in order to ease the snap that occurs during the tectonic earthquake.
Based on the concept to fight forest fires by burning buffer zones ahead of the main fire in order to stop it before it reaches habitable or protected areas.

Could this current situation in all its nuclear horror (continuous quakes in the region induced or not by the fleeting corium) have a possible positive side to it and ease the long expected Tokai Nankai quake that would ravage the coastline of Japan?

My apologies if it is unclear, its getting late here.
I'll check back later.

Anonymous said...

"When the Corium breach the containment vessel it will continue its descent at a much faster rate then when it was eating through 8 meters of concrete.

Why at a much faster rate? How do you know this? Show me how you calculate this. It didn't do that at TMI.

"At that time any contact with water will result in a chemical explosion spewing radioactive fumes."

Chemical explosion? Describe that. Also describe what you mean by radioactive "fumes".

"I think there is a correlation between the strength of the explosion and the amount of Corium getting in contact with a certain amount of water."

Please show any article or calculation pointing to correlation btwn the strength of explosion, amount of corium and amount of water.

"I doubt there are any ways to stop the corium from its descent,"

How do you know that?

"could the recent quake be related to that! if so and due to the amount of Corium and the definite existence of groundwater, what can we expect when it will reach a significant phreatic zone?"

You don't think with all the tonnes of water being pumped and sloshing around basements that corium hasn't met any yet??

"- Reaching out to you guy with way more knowledge on this matter -"

You make a lot of assumptions--not that assumptions shouldn't be made, heck that's all we have to go on thanks to TEPCO, but all of yours are nonsensical.

Anonymous said...

The helicopters on the 9th and 10th were part of a planned military celebration related to New Years, that's all. I'm not saying there was not an explosion, but the helicopters were not related to it. I took a long drive on the 10th and there were helicopters all over from Tokyo to the country side. In the small towns there were just a few doing circles or flying up the beach, then closer to the cities it looked like they joined up and were flying in large parade formations.

SxPxK said...

To Anonymous who kindly replied to my earlier post on JANUARY 16, 2012 11:18 AM

PART 2


Your second comment
"Chemical explosion? Describe that. Also describe what you mean by radioactive "fumes".

Well it is self explanatory, fumes, steam, vapors produced by a radioactive source

Another extract:
The thermal hydraulics of corium-concrete interactions (CCI, or also MCCI, "molten core-concrete interactions") is sufficiently understood. However the dynamics of the movement of corium in and outside of the reactor vessel is highly complex, and the number of possible scenarios is wide; slow drip of melt into an underlying water pool can result in complete quenching, while a fast contact of large mass of corium with water may result in destructive steam explosion.

And this one:
Reactor vessel breaching
In absence of adequate cooling, the inside of the reactor overheats, deforms as the portions undergo thermal expansion, then structurally fails once the temperature reaches the melting point of the structural materials. The melt then accumulates on the bottom of the reactor vessel. In case of adequate cooling of the corium melt, it can solidify and the spread of damage is limited to the reactor. However, corium may melt through the reactor vessel and flow out or be ejected as a molten stream by the pressure inside the reactor. The reactor failure may be caused by overheating of its bottom by the corium melt, resulting first in creep failure and then in breach of the vessel. High level of cooling water above the corium layer may allow reaching a thermal equilibrium below the metal creep temperature, without reactor vessel failure.
If the vessel is sufficiently cooled, a crust between the melt and the reactor wall can form. The layer of molten steel on top of the oxide creates a zone of increased heat transfer to the reactor wall;[1] this condition, known as "heat knife", exacerbates probability of formation of a localized weakening of the side of the reactor vessel and subsequent corium leak.
In case of high pressure inside the reactor vessel, breaching of its bottom may result in high-pressure blowout of the corium mass. In the first phase, only the melt itself is ejected; later a depression forms in the center of the hole and gas is discharged together with the melt, resulting in rapid decrease of pressure inside the reactor; the high temperature of the melt also causes rapid erosion and enlargement of the vessel breach. If a hole is in the center of the bottom, nearly all corium can be ejected. A hole in the side of the vessel may lead to only partial ejection of corium, retaining its portion inside the reactor. Melt-through of the reactor vessel may take from few tens of minutes to several hours.
After breaching the reactor vessel, the conditions in the reactor cavity below the core govern the production of gases. If water is present, steam and hydrogen are generated; dry concrete results in production of carbon dioxide and smaller amount of steam.

SxPxK said...

To Anonymous who kindly replied to my earlier post on JANUARY 16, 2012 11:18 AM

PART 3

Another one of your pearl:
"You don't think with all the tonnes of water being pumped and sloshing around basements that corium hasn't met any yet"

It has and "fumes" or steam have been witnessed coming out of the plant on many occasions while they were pumping seawater in it. I'm sure you heard of it.

You also wrote:
"Please show any article or calculation pointing to correlation btwn the strength of explosion, amount of corium and amount of water."

Thats my two cents, but I'll make it easy for you to grasp the concept or correlation on that matter.
1kg of Corium in 10 liters of water
--or--
10kg of corium in 100 liters of water
which scenario gets the biggest hydrogen reaction.

Now if you wanna know more I suggest you google it friend, I was asking for answers not questions.

Not to school you or anything but here is some reading for you doubtful mind
http://gendai.ismedia.jp/articles/-/11152

Don't bother replying I ain't reading this thread anymore.

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