Japanese activists want referendum on nuclear power in Osaka

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then Last year, following the violent earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor was thrown into a state of emergency. System failure prevented adequate cooling of enriched uranium rods, causing a meltdown while hydrogen explosions rocked the plant.
nowJust under a year removed from the disaster, a group of Japanese activists have submitted a petition in Osaka (within Kansai Prefecture), calling for a referendum on nuclear power. Osaka is Japan’s second largest city behind Tokyo, and draws power from 11 nuclear reactors near the city. source

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02 Aug 2011 10:18

See the red spots? You know, the ones surrounded by blue and green? Those represent 10 sieverts per hour of radiation. That is extremely high and could lead to death within seconds. And at the Fukushima site, that’s what they’re apparently still dealing with … mind you, five months after the fact. “Radiation leakage at the plant may have been contained or slowed but it has not been sealed off completely,” noted Osaka University professor and nuclear engineering expert Kenji Sumita. “The utility is likely to continue finding these spots of high radiation.” To put this in perspective, add three zeros to the number 10, to make it 10,000 millisieverts per hour (mSv). Then, take a look at this graphic. Yeah. Scary as hell, right? We’ll say. source

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We’re at a point where merely opening a door can cause a radiation leak of some kind. That’s what plant operators had to deal with today, as they opened the doors to Fukushima’s No. 2 plant to cool things off and let some air inside. They hope to install a cooling system to prevent an explosion in the plant. Meanwhile, they hope to restart the cleanup process quickly, which was recently stalled. To give you an idea of what they need to clean up, let’s put it this way: 110,000 tons of highly-radioactive water, enough to fill 40 Olympic-sized swimming pools which absolutely nobody should swim in. Officials fear that things could get really bad — think water overflowing all over the place — if they don’t act soon to deal with the water. source

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Things were so dangerous after a blast at Fukushima Daiichi reactor No. 1 that workers didn’t enter the building at all afterwards. Until today. Nearly two months after the hydrogen explosion that greatly damaged the plant on March 11th, NHK reports that workers re-entered the building housing the reactor for the first time since the initial blast. The workers plan to install an air purifier in the plant, reportedly “aimed at preventing workers from suffering internal radiation exposure when they work on setting up a new cooling system at the No. 1 reactor.” That must be a really good air purifier. (Above: A pic of a robot working in the plant, via TEPCO) source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

The hope for Fukushima The prognosis for Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been thought to be improving in recent days, as efforts to install new power lines to the facilities, and thereby restart the cooling pumps, have been going well. Reactors 5 and 6 now both have cooling (those units are storing already spent fuel rods, not active ones).
Today’s smoke-fueled Delay A plume of dark smoke was recently seen rising from Reactor 3, over a pool of spent fuel rods. Reactor 2 also seemed to have white steam rising. While the cause of the plumes is not known, officials say they see no spike in radiation, though workers have been evacuated and work halted until tomorrow. source

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