Mothers of Fukushima

Special Appeal From Paul Watson - Sea Shepherd

Japans nuclear free future

It's been somewhat annoying to read through the plethora of propaganda articles that have been published about the Japanese governments policy on nuclear power. Many of these articles are obviously produced by the nuclear power industry and bear no resemblance to reality. In fact some of the articles are so manipulative that they've spurred The Jackal into looking a little deeper into Japans nuclear free future.

It should be noted that most of the articles claiming that Japan will not reach its objectives of being nuclear free are on blogs, and not from reputable outlets. Although I don't want to foster any doubt about the reputation of blogger's (being one myself), there is something to be said about outlets that can be held to account for what they publish.

Here's one particular disingenuous article from the Guardian no less:

Japan drops plans to phase out nuclear power by 2040

Japan has effectively abandoned a commitment to end its reliance on nuclear power by 2040 amid pressure from the country's business lobby, dropping a deadline recommended by a cabinet panel only days ago.

[...]

There does not seem to have been much press coverage about the Japanese Government abandoning its commitment to end reliance on nuclear power by 2040. Japanese business and industry leaders fear the phase-out would force companies to shift production overseas due to the high price of imported oil and gas.

I guess the Guardian's use of the word "effectively" means they don't really know and the headline is merely to get hits. What the Japanese trade and industry minister, Yukio Edano, actually said is that they might not be able to reach their targets, not that they were abandoning them altogether. Despite these baseless claims, Japan is still committed to become entirely nuclear free, as much as the nuclear industry doesn't wants them to.

Here's Japans actual policy concerning the matter:

Democratic Party (ruling) decision 7/9/2012

• Aim for zero nuclear society
• Mobilise maximum policy resources for zero-nuclear operation in 2030’s
• Strictly apply “40 year life time” policy
• Restart nuclear plants (now 2 out of ten in operation) after check by newly established Nuclear Regulatory Committee
• No new construction of nuclear plants
• Renewable energy share to be more than 20% in early 2020’s, and about 40% in early 2030’s
• Fully revise nuclear fuel cycle.

So clearly Japan is moving towards a nuclear free future and claims that they're not are completely unfounded. Despite the disinformation about Japan abandoning its nuclear free future, according to their policy, restarting some nuclear power plants was always on the cards. Unfortunately that's not the only claim the propagandists are making though, with a veritable truckload of articles being written about how Japans GHG emissions will go through the roof if they don't return to using nuclear power.

At first, there was some truth to these claims, with the Japanese government confirming that to become nuclear free by 2030 would mean a potential short-term increase in GHG emissions of between 5 - 7%. This admission was seized upon by pro-nuclear proponents, who are scrambling to try and protect their dying industry. It's the end of the world without nuclear power they proclaimed, therefore Japan must restart its nuclear power plants.

Only by using nuclear power can climate change be averted they said, usually forgetting to mention the cleanest and most cost effective form of power generation, renewables. Renewables is a dirty word in the nuclear power industry, because they're in direct competition with it. So their propagandists screamed with all their might that Japan would need to use more fossil fuels if they didn't use nuclear.

Another claim has been that if they just reduced the amount of power being consumed, their economy would suffer. Apparently its complete doom and gloom without nuclear reactors. In fact the nuclear industry propagandists jumped up and down so hard about this that they created a warp in the space-time continuum... Fact and fiction merged into some kind of horrendous deformity and the blogosphere was irreparably damaged forever.

However Japans economy has continued to grow. Historically, from 1980 until 2011, Japans growth averaged around 0.5% per year. Nothing has really changed in this respect since they closed down the bulk of their nuclear reactors, and Japans economy grew 0.5% to June this year.

The claim that Japans GHG Emissions would dramatically increase have also been proven to be totally incorrect, with Japan actually reducing its GHG emissions by 2% in 2011 (PDF). They closed their nuclear power plants in March 2011, meaning that the majority in reduced GHG emissions occurred without nuclear power.

How can this be you might ask... Surely closing down their reactors means they have to burn more fossil fuels to meet energy demands ipso facto more GHG emissions?

One of the main reasons is that Japan has already invested $17 billion into renewable energy projects. They now predict it will take 15 years to totally replace the 50 GW of nuclear electricity generation (13% of Japan’s primary energy consumption) with renewable energy. Implementation of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power in Japan is outstripping previous projections, and Japans government is set to create an approximately $628 billion clean energy market by 2020 through deregulation and subsidies to promote development of renewable energy and low-emission cars.

It's true that global warming posses a threat, but so does old nuclear reactors. Both threats to humanity can be removed through the use of renewable energy. All it takes is a government willing to do so.

Will they never learn?

Yesterday, the New York Times reported:

TOKYO — Brushing aside widespread public opposition, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda ordered the reactivation of two nuclear reactors at a plant in western Japan on Saturday, making it the nation’s first plant to go back on line since the crisis last year in Fukushima.

The decision to restart the Ohi nuclear plant ends the temporary freeze of Japan’s nuclear power industry since the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant idled all 50 of Japan’s functional reactors. Despite the prime minister’s vows to strengthen the Ohi plant against the same sort of huge earthquake and tsunami that knocked out Fukushima, the Japanese public has remained deeply divided over the safety of nuclear power.

I sometimes wonder what will need to happen before the politicians realize that nuclear power is not safe full stop.

According to polls, some two-thirds of Japanese still express deep concern about the safety of nuclear plants after last year’s accident, which contaminated food with radiation and shattered the myth of Japan’s infallible nuclear technology. The day before Mr. Noda gave the order, his government was visited by an anti-nuclear group led by Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe, which presented the signatures of 7.5 million people calling for the abolition of nuclear power.

On Saturday, thousands of protesters turned out in the rain in Tokyo and elsewhere with placards criticizing the prime minister’s claim that the restarted plant was safe.

In fact the Fukushima disaster shows that all nuclear reactors are fallible, being that the reactors there are the same kind used worldwide. 

The week that was

Aftershocks 11th to 16th

On March the 11th at 05:46 UTC, a massive magnitude 9 Earthquake just off the East coast of Japan triggered tsunamis up to 10 metres which breached defenses and traveled many kilometres inland. There's over 3,000 confirmed dead and petrol, food and water is now in short supply in many parts of the northeast.


Hundreds of thousands have been evacuated with 60,000 buildings destroyed or damaged, as well as 704 roads, 26 bridges and eight railways. Transportation remained paralysed, and around 371,800 people are now housed in government-established shelters. A major fire at Chiba refinery 25 miles east of Tokyo, ignited after the earthquake continues to burn. Power blackouts will affect 5 million households across Japan. Scientists believe that the Earthquake caused the Earth’s mass to shift, resulting in a small change in the planet’s wobble and rotation.

The Earthquake and tsunami caused major damage to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant and three Reactor Units have since exploded and partially melted down with another having a serious fire in its spent fuel containment area. Japan's top nuclear regulator raised its rating of the incident on a seven-level international nuclear severity scale to five from four. However Governments around the world are criticizing Tokyo for downplaying the danger. Reports released by WikiLeaks suggest that the Japanese government has under performed in dealing with the safety of the country’s nuclear plants and their ability to survive earthquakes. The Swedish Defence Research Institute has warned radioactive fallout from Fukushima would cover the northern hemisphere in due time. So far only low levels of radiation have been reported in Canada and the United States, the two countries that will be most effected.

In America, all 31 Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee declined on Tuesday to vote in favour of a series of amendments acknowledging the scientific consensus around climate change. The Amendment stated that: Congress accepts the scientific finding that 'warming of the climate system is unequivocal' and that the scientific evidence regarding climate change "is compelling" and that "human-caused climate change is a threat to public health and welfare." Republicans, who have strongly opposed Obama’s administration efforts to regulate greenhouse gasses, have been pushing to strip the EPA of its regulatory power. The party also blocked Democratic efforts last year to pass climate change legislation. Scientists recently condemned the US as their emissions of greenhouse gases hit a record high. The US produces 16% of the Worlds greenhouse gas emissions and is one of the largest contributors to climate change.

The United Nations imposed a no-fly zone on Libya, five days after it was first discussed and after Gaddafi has regrouped and reclaimed much of the territory taken by Libyan freedom fighters. It’s reported that Gaddafi’s army has been brutal in trying to quell the uprising. Britain, France and NATO held emergency meetings on Friday to enforce the no-fly zone.  The freedom fighters have requested that the West does not invade but appreciates the no-fly zone because it has no aircraft of its own. President Barack Obama has demanded that Muammar Gaddafi halt all military attacks against civilians and said that if the Libyan leader did not stand down the United States would join in military action against him. As a missing reporter was found, Gaddafi declared a ceasefire. The uprising against Gaddafi is only one of many struggles being played out in the region. Protests in Tunisia and Egypt have led to the fall of autocratic regimes and there have been demonstrations in Yemen, Jordan and Bahrain. Protests erupted in at least three parts of Syria on Friday.

Act's Hillary Calvert expressed bigoted sentiments when debating the controversial Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill, which approached its final reading. Te Ururoa Flavell briefly responded to the Maori-bashing and Tariana Turia described Calvert's language as racist.

Desperation at Fukushima

Click on image to enlarge.

By late Tuesday, the water meant to cool spent fuel rods in Unit 4 was boiling and by Wednesday, the fuel pond had caught fire and was leaking radiation directly into the atmosphere. The fuel rod fire was reportedly put out within 2 hours and it is unknown how much radiation leaked. At the time readings at the plant were extreme.

On March 14th injection of seawater was halted because all available water in the plant pools had run out. A water supply was restored at 03:20 but operators have resorted to other measures to cool the reactors. Apparently a police riot control truck has since been brought in over uneven roads to keep a spray of water on the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors (unconfirmed).

On March 17 the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that twenty-three nuclear and rescue workers have been injured and another 20 have received high radiation doses from the "partial" meltdown of reactors 1, 2 and 3. Two people were still missing the Vienna-based agency said, citing government information. The IAEA did not indicate that any of the 23 injuries were due to radiation exposure.

Reputable agencies have reported that at least one crane operator was killed in the initial explosion of Unit 1 and a subsequent explosion also killed 2 workers.

Of the 20 people who were exposed to radiation or contaminated with radioactive material, one worker has 'suffered from significant exposure', the IAEA said. Today IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano stated that he was not aware of any casualties from the disaster at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

The 50 people still working at Japan's stricken Fukushima reactor are not "being sacrificed", Dutch nuclear researcher Folkert Draaisma says. The unidentified technicians and emergency workers are trying to save potentially millions of their countrymen. Chernobyl workers who stayed at their stations when the Ukrainian reactor exploded in 1986 died within three months of exposure. The Christian Science Monitor today said that even Chernobyl wasn't all that bad in terms of lives lost. Similar insane statements have been made by pro nuclear supporters who continue to try and downplay the disaster.

Two Japanese military CH-47 Chinook helicopters began dumping seawater on Dai-ichi's damaged Unit 3 on Thursday morning, defence ministry spokeswoman Kazumi Toyama said. The MOX fuel in Reactor 3 is of most concern. Television footage showed much of the water dispersing in the wind. Chopper crews flew missions of about 40 minutes each to limit their radiation exposure, passing over the reactor with loads of 7,500 litres of water a time. Heavy-duty firetrucks are also available on site, but it is unclear if they have been utilized apart from a replacement to the damaged pumps. An attempt to bulldoze a road to unit 4 has been abandoned. The U.N. nuclear agency has warned that the situation is "very serious."

Radiation plume from Fukushima Dai-ichi.

On 18^th March at Midday, New Zealand's One News reported that power had been restored to the facility. However the plan is to reconnect power to unit 2 once the dumping of water on the unit 3 reactor building is completed. According to Japanese representatives, engineers have been able to lay the power cable but this is not as yet supplying power to unit 2.

It has come to light that fuel tanks for the entire site were placed in an unsafe location. These powered Dai-ichi's generators counted on to pump water into reactors and spent-rod wells to keep the rods from overheating and going critical. Only a small dike separated the tanks from the the ocean.

International reaction:

China has suspended approval for new nuclear power stations. It will also carry out checks at existing reactors and those under construction. China currently gets only about 2% of its electricity from nuclear power from 13 reactors and is currently building 27 new reactors - about 40% of the total number being built around the world.

The French government has called for an audit of all 58 nuclear reactors in France.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that seven older plants, those that came online prior to 1980, would be shuttered until at least June while safety tests are conducted.

There is general agreement that all 143 nuclear power plants in the European Union's 27 countries should now undergo additional stress testing.

The level of radiation has reportedly only risen slightly in Russia’s Far East. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ordered safety inspections at Russian nuclear facilities and checks and a review of nuclear industry development plans. But none of the latter have been suspended inside Russia.

The Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals Association has raised questions over whether Indonesia should continue with its nuclear plans and now considers building a nuclear reactor as a last resort. 

The Philippines Government has been quick to say that their nuclear power plants are safe and would not meltdown in the event of a similar catastrophe. Without proper testing, this claim remains unsubstantiated.

On March the 14^th the Atomic Energy Commission and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) leaders assured them that Indian nuclear plants are safe. However the chance of core damage from a quake at Indian Point 3 is estimated at 1 in 10,000 each year. Under NRC guidelines that's of immediate concern regarding adequate protection of the public.

South Korea, which is currently operating 21 nuclear power plants and constructing 5 more units, is not very likely to change its nuclear power policy in response to the unfolding crisis. Nuclear power is currently supplying almost 40% of national electricity. Public opinion on nuclear issues could be a key factor in the 2012 South Korean presidential election. Their president has stated the Bushehr reactor meets all necessary safety standards, and this has been confirmed by the IAEA.

The Canadian government says it is still safe for Canadians to remain in Japan, provided they avoid the area around the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, about 250 kilometres northeast of Tokyo.

The US has made no plans to implement safety measures concerning their many nuclear reactors. They have moved stationary radiation monitors to the West Coast. It is interesting to note that the typical nuclear reactor in the United States, has a 1 in 74,176 chance of core damage by an earthquake each year, exposing the public to radiation. Accidents, tsunamis and other natural disasters are not factored into this calculation.

The US is advising any citizens still within 80 kilometres of the badly damaged nuclear reactors to leave. Australia and South Korea have also advised this however the Japanese government has not extended the 20 km evacuated area and still advises people to remain indoors within 30 km of Fukushima Dai-ichi. No further plan has come to light and those within the affected area are running out of provisions. It appears that the Japanese are relying on a prevailing wind direction to take the radiation offshore. Although the Japanese government has not made an announcement, many people are leaving Tokyo and other areas in the event that radiation levels rise further.

Here is a very good article to read if you're within fallout countries: Urgent radiation preparedness action items for California, Oregon, Washington, B.C., Yukon and Alaska. Potassium iodide which is used as a nuclear fallout medicine, has sold out in parts of the United States and Canada.

Fukushima’s hot wind blows

Friday's Magnitude 9 earthquake and resulting tsunami that laid waste to Japan's North Eastern coastline claiming at least 10,000 lives, has been overshadowed by Fukushima Dai-ichi, one of the worlds 15 largest nuclear power plants. A consensus of experts on Wednesday put the nuclear incident at number 6 - Serious Accident, one behind Chernobyl at number 7 - Major Accident. The Ukraine believes the "accidents" are comparable.

With the threat from Fukushima 1, many countries have now requested that their citizens return home. On Wednesday, surging radiation levels at the nuclear power plant forced emergency workers to withdraw; the operator has since ordered 50 technicians back to the site. However with the control rooms flooded and much of the site decimated from the huge tsunami that breached the plants inadequate defenses, the immense task must be difficult to say the least.

A developing low-pressure system has resulted in sometimes below zero degree temperatures with an advisory of gales and snow over the next few days, making any work to cool the reactors even more difficult. Fukushima’s wind direction has changed a number of times bringing some of the resulting radiation onshore but mainly remains North Westerly and offshore. The predominant wind direction into the North Pacific is North North Easterly, taking the radiation to Canada and the United States West coast. Reports of elevated radiation levels on the US coast have already been made on the 16^th March.

An explosion of Unit 1 occurred on Saturday with an estimated 70 percent of the nuclear fuel rods damaged, however Tepco reported that the primary containment vessel appeared intact. The pumping of seawater to cool the reactor is apparently proceeding smoothly. Apart from steam releases, it is not known where the remainder of this irradiated water is going.


After exploding on Monday, Reactor 3 with the highest radiation levels was Tepco’s top priority. Attempts to drop water from helicopters have failed presumably because radiation levels are too high. US Army representatives have stated that their helicopters in the area were only for training purposes. On Tuesday the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that the containment vessel appears intact. However, Chief Cabinet Minister Yukio Edano said on Wednesday there is a "possibility" the vessel had been damaged.

An explosion of Unit 2 on Tuesday damaged the suppression pool where pressure from the reactor is released. The blast may have also affected the integrity of the primary containment vessel. The fuel rods have become fully exposed with an estimated 33% damaged. There is clear evidence of partial nuclear meltdowns in reactors 1, 2 and 3.

On Tuesday a pool that housed spent fuel caught fire in Unit 4. The spent fuel pool is not inside a containment facility and posses a greater threat now that the outer wall is damaged. Tepco plans to build a road to Unit 4 when radiation levels fall so that water pumping to cool the reactor can commence. It has also been reported that fires broke out due to a fuel leak near a water pump at reactor 4.

The temperature of Reactors 5 and 6 have risen slightly with cooling proceedings continuing. This will render all six reactors inoperable in the future. Reactors 4, 5 and 6 had been shut down prior to the earthquake for planned maintenance. There has been confirmation that Reactor 3 uses MOX fuel which is far more dangerous if released into the atmosphere.

Sunday, March 13, 2011, the damaged Unit 1

Tepco has reported that they have almost completed a new power line that could restore electricity to the complex. This would hopefully maintain a steady water supply to the troubled reactors and spent fuel storage ponds to keep them cool as supply lines to the fire engines currently undertaking the task have been intermittent.

Other than this information, officials have given only sparse information about the malfunctioning reactors, probably due to the recent imposition of Article 15 by the Japanese government (unconfirmed). Tepco has disabled public access to a live web cam and a certain amount of disinformation has been presented from pro nuclear representatives, the Japanese Government and Tepco.


Because of the crises, many countries have put on hold plans to build more nuclear reactors, some countries have also shut down their older power plants that use boiling water reactors BWR.

Another Reactor Explosion & Meltdown

Reports are that Unit 2 at Fukushima has exploded this morning at 6:14 AM Japan time. The New York Times reported today that the explosion appeared to be more severe than the previous detonations at the other reactors.

This brings the total probable meltdowns of nuclear reactors at Fukushima Dai-ichi to four out of six. There is evidence of a partial meltdown in Unit 1, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) confirmed on 13th March that a partial meltdown at Unit 3 is likely. Today they said the explosion of unit 1 had likely damaged its containment vessel. A fire has also broken out at Unit 4 at 09:40 JST and radiation levels at the plant have risen significantly. (Update 6:39 PM) Early unconfirmed reports are that this fire has been extinguished with the help of the US Military.

Spokesman Kaoru Yoshida for Tepco said today the containment chamber on its No 2 reactor may be damaged and radiation leakage is possible. There are nine nuclear reactors at three sites that are currently under states of emergency. Three at Fukushima Dai-ichi, three at Fukushima Daini and three at Onagawa. All are northeast of Tokyo and all are boiling water reactors.

Prior to this latest explosion the US aircraft carrier (the USS Ronald Reagan) had abandoned its assistance mission to Japan in the aftermath of last week's quake due to concerns over radiation leaks from damaged power plants. It is unclear how much radiation has been released or whether the remaining three larger reactors are fully intact. The carrier had already traveled through a patch of radioactivity released from the quake-stricken Dai-ichi power plant, around 250 kilometres North-East of Tokyo. US government officials said the sailors were exposed to a month's limit of radiation within an hour.

Japanese reactor operators have little choice but to periodically release radioactive steam as part of an emergency cooling process for the malfunctioning reactors, this will most likely continue for a year or more even after fission has stopped. The plant’s operator must constantly try to flood the reactors with seawater then release the resulting radioactive steam into the atmosphere, a desperate step intended to avoid a much bigger problem: a full scale meltdown of the nuclear cores.

Previously Japanese officials have said the melting of the nuclear cores in the two plants is assumed to be “partial,” and the amount of radioactivity measured outside the plants, though twice the level Japan considers safe, has been relatively modest. Tepco representatives earlier today said that there is no radiation leakage from Fukushima Dai-ichi despite the three explosions, contradicting their earlier statements and readings from independent sources. It is apparent that plant technicians are now required to work in areas that have become contaminated with radioactivity and that Tepco is following previous nuclear incidents such as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl to deny that there is any real danger.

More steam releases also mean that the plume heading across the Pacific toward Canada and the US could continue to grow. On Sunday evening, the White House sought to waylay peoples fears, saying that modelling done by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had concluded; “Hawaii, Alaska, the U.S. Territories and the U.S. West Coast are not expected to experience any harmful levels of radioactivity.” Potassium Iodide treatments have almost sold out.


New information concerning safety at Fukushima and other reactors has recently surfaced. Apparently Japan had to shut down 17 plants in 2003 because they'd been falsifying the records about what had been happening at them and after it emerged that Tepco had hidden accidents, including the collapse of the cooling system of Japan's first commercial fast breeder reactor. In 1995 the Monju nuclear power plant sprang a leak in its liquid sodium cooling system. The reactor had to be shut down immediately and stayed that way until the beginning of last year.

It is apparent that the fuel rods in unit 2 had become fully exposed from their coolant, causing a third large explosion. Several officials and industry experts said on Sunday that the top four to nine feet of the nuclear fuel in the core was not intact and the control rods appear to have been exposed to the air, a condition that can quickly lead to melting, and ultimately to full meltdown. Gauges in the reactor have been damaged making it impossible to know just how much cooling process is still functional within the core.


When the fuel was intact, the steam they were releasing had only modest amounts of radioactive material. With damaged fuel the steam is far more radioactive. The operators are now dumping seawater into the vessel and letting it cool the fuel by boiling. But as it boils, pressure rises too high to pump in more water, so they have to vent the vessel to the atmosphere, and feed in more water, a procedure known as “feed and bleed.” Forcing the seawater inside the containment vessels has been difficult because the pressure has become so great.

Another concern is that some Japanese reactors (as well as some in France and Germany) run on a mixed fuel known as mox, or mixed oxide, that includes reclaimed plutonium. It has been confirmed that unit 3 uses a mixed oxide (MOX) fuel containing plutoniun, which is a dangerous threat in tiny doses and is therefore, much more toxic than the fuel used in the other reactors. The steam etc this is releasing is far more toxic.


European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said on Monday that "safety at older German nuclear power stations must be checked rigorously" and refused to rule out closures if necessary. "The crisis at a Japanese nuclear plant had changed the world and put into question what had been previously regarded as safe and manageable."

Unit 3 at Fukushima Explodes

Japan's chief cabinet secretary says a hydrogen explosion has occurred at Unit 3 of Japan's stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. The blast was similar to an earlier one at a different unit of the facility.

Unit 1 was a boiling-water reactor, (BWR-3) produced 460 MW and was supplied by General Electric in the 70’s while Unit 3 was a 784 MW BWR-4 made and supplied by Toshiba. Unit 3 is a far larger reactor. AP journalists felt the explosion of Unit 3 30 miles (50 kilometers) away.

Unit 2 is still undergoing emergency measures to try and cool the reactor sufficiently to inhibit a meltdown. The workers have resorted to using fire engines to cool the core down with seawater and boron. This is most likely being pumped back into the ocean creating fears that the release of radiation into the atmosphere and water, could lead to widespread cancer and other health problems.

Operators had earlier halted injection of sea water into the reactor of Unit 3, resulting in a rise in radiation levels and pressure. Official reports are that unit 3's inner containment vessel holding the nuclear rods is still intact, allaying some fears of the risk to the environment and public. However this is what was reported in the earlier unit 1 explosion and then officials admitted to the fact that a partial meltdown had occurred.



Previous to this latest explosion of Unit 3, a search and rescue helicopter has detected radiation 60 miles out to sea. Radiation levels at Fukushima are dangerously high.

A massive column of smoke was seen belching from the plant's No. 3 unit. The reactor had been under emergency watch for a possible explosion as pressure built up and emergency measures were undertaken. Unfortunately they have not stopped another large explosion from occurring.

It appears that the more the officials say they're in control, the more I sense things may be out of control.

The initial Earthquake that has caused major damage and devastating tsunami has been upgraded from a 8.9 magnitude to a 9 M. With many aftershocks still happening because of tectonic instability, a 7.1 M Earthquake is predicted to occur shortly.

Fukushima Meltdown Update.

Officials say radiation may already have been released from the Fukushim 1 Nuclear Reactor incident. Japan's US envoy on Saturday acknowledged there had been a "partial melt" of a fuel rod at the quake-hit plant.

Japan's top government spokesman Yukio Edano said Sunday that radioactive meltdowns may have occurred in two reactors of the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear plant and that there was a fresh threat of explosion from a nuclear unit at a power plant in the country's earthquake-ravaged northeast.

A hydrogen explosion could occur at Unit 3 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano. That would follow a blast that took place Saturday at the same power plant as operators attempted to prevent a nuclear meltdown of another unit by injecting sea water into it.

There should be no runway chain reaction at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant in Japan as a result of the powerful earthquake that hit Japan on Friday, March 11, head of the Moscow Rosatom State Nuclear Corporation Sergei Kiriyenko said on Saturday.

The fear is that a partial or complete meltdown of one or more reactor cores would send radioactive particles into the atmosphere and ocean. Prevailing winds and ocean currents generally move in a northeasterly direction from Japan.

There's currently no threat for radiation exposure in Alaska. Eddie Zingone, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Anchorage, said the jet stream coming from the area around Japan is blowing significantly south of Alaska.

Has Fukushima Killed Us?

The ceiling of Unit 1 has collapsed and an explosion has blown the entire outer structure off of the containment building at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. A controlled release has not prevented what is most likely a major meltdown. Five other reactors are situated nearby but have apparently been successfully shut down.

Several workers have been injured in the explosion and black and white smoke can be seen billowing out of the plant.

An increase of radiation levels has been confirmed following the explosion. The hourly radiation within the plant was measured at 1,045 μSv. The hourly radiation leaking from the plant is reported to be equal to the amount permitted in one year.

Currently wind direction is northerly but changes to south easterly (It appears from the picture to have already shifted) tonight and then back to north easterly on Sunday morning. It remains the same on Monday. 

It's not just air born radiation that will most likely spread over much of the top half of Japan in the next few days when the wind direction changes. Radiation contamination might also spread into the Philippine sea and North Pacific Ocean. This is because Fukushima is situated at a cross roads of sea currents.

A Japanese environmental group, has documented previous safety problems at the Fukushima reactor complex:

On June 17, 2010, the same Fukushima I-2 reactor experienced a loss-of-power accident. According to Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, “On June 17, Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima I-2 (BWR, 784MW) scrammed due to a problem with the generator. Power was lost for a time, because the switchover to the offsite power supply was unsuccessful. As a result, the feedwater pump stopped and the water level in the reactor core fell about 2meters. The emergency diesel generator started up just in time, so the Emergency Core Cooling System was not activated. The water level was restored by an alternative pump in the core isolation cooling system.” At least one reactor at the complex, Fukushima I-3, began using MOX (mixed plutonium-uranium) fuel in September 2010.

After a Magnitude 8.9 Earthquake at a depth of 24.4 km just off the coast of Japan that has caused extensive damage, there has been an explosion at the Fukushima Nuclear power plant at 0630 GMT. Reactor 1 had reportedly been having problems with its cooling system after damage from the quake had stopped a main valve from being operational.

Further information can be found here: Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant

Massive Earthquake in Japan

Audio Version.

Friday, March 11, 2011 at 06:46:23 PM NZT 
 

A major Earthquake just off the coast of Japan has caused major damage and large tsunami. Initial estimates have been upgraded to Magnitude 8.9 at a depth of 24.4 km. Significant loss of life is predicted.

NZ Civil Defense has issued a warning: A tsunami potential threat advisory is still in effect for New Zealand. Stay away from beaches.

Initial prediction place potential waves hitting Northland in New Zealand at 6:14 AM.

The Japanese Earthquake caused 8 to 13-foot tsunami that damaged buildings, caused fires and washed away homes along the Japanese northeastern coast.

A major oil refinery is on fire in Chiba, northeast of Tokyo. Another major fire was reported at JFE Holdings steel plant in Chiba.

http://eqnz.co.nz/

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usc0001xgp/

Aftershocks 5 M to 7 M continue to rock the region as images on Japanese television showed cars and boats being swept away by tsunami waters