This is another clearinghouse diary for the posting of additional news (with links to their source) and intelligent commentary about the ongoing nuclear disaster(s) in Japan.
THE JNI coverage is for reporting and analysis of events in Japan following the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and the meltdowns at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. It is NOT a place for editorializing or POVs on nuclear power.
Please provide links to credible news stories.
For older information on news and a timeline of the events following the March 11 Japanese Earthquake, visit the Mothership . provides a more extensive list of news and data sources, social media, crisis mapping and other relevant information.
If you would like to recommend this diary feel free to do so. All previous liveblogs published to the Japan Nuclear Incident group can be found here.
Multiple 10-Centimeter Holes in Reactor 2 Containment Vessel at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant
So says the Mainichi Shinbun reporters who must be reading the report submitted by TEPCO on May 23 and released on May 24.
Multiple 10-centimeter holes in the Reactor 2 Containment Vessel, and one 7-centimeter hole in the Reactor 1 Containment Vessel.
Hiroaki Koide of Kyoto University was so right. The Containment Vessels' integrity has been long gone. TEPCO should have known all along, and all the experts, including Koide, must have known.
The original Tepco data recordings from the beginning of the Fukushima crisis are here www.houseoffoust.com
Quake victims offered easy-to-build wood structures
A maker of wooden furniture and houses is proposing easy-to-build temporary structures with the warmth of wood for people displaced by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
Oak Village, based in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, has produced a prototype that can be put u...p in one day and costs roughly the same as prefabricated temporary housing.
UK’s Chief Scientific Adviser to visit Japan to discuss Fukushima and its aftermath. Details of a live on-line event.
Professor Sir John Beddington, the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser will be visiting Japan from 28 May. During the recent crisis at the Fukushima Dai-iichi nuclear power plant, Professor Beddington held teleconferences with members of the British community, to provide his assessment of the nuclear incident, and the possible impact on human health. The transcripts can be found here.
Japan has belatedly admitted that reactors No. 2 and 3 at the Fukushima nuclear plant actually did have meltdowns following the earthquake in March.
Coverage from JNI team 5/23-24
5/24 Earthquake may have damaged unit 3 cooling system h/t by procrastinator john
According to the Asahi Shinbun (Japanese) the pipes in the cooling system of unit 3 may have been damaged by the earthquake, before the tsunami struck. From the article:
According to TEPCO, after external power was lost due to the tsunami on March 11, at unit 3 another system [other than the Emergency Core Cooling System] cooled the reactor, but around noon on the 12th it stopped functioning. When they switched to using the high-pressure system after a drop in water level was detected the water level [in the reactor] rose for a time. Later, when battery power was used up, a valve needed to operate the system no longer could be opened or closed. The water level began dropping again and a major meltdown occurred.
During the operation of the high-pressure system, the pressure had been around 75 bars inside the reactor pressure vessel but dropped to 10 bars in about 6 hours. Normally it would be difficult to explain such a rapid loss of pressure and TEPCO hypothesized that the pressure may have dropped because of damage somewhere in the pipes that circulate steam. The outcome was that the change in pressure roughly matched the level that was actually measured, so it is believed that steam may have leaked from the pipes.
5/24 France's IRSN says 70,000 should be evacuated h/t by mahakali overdrive
Paris - Seventy thousand people living beyond the 20km no-go zone around Fukushima should be evacuated because of radioactivity deposited by the crippled nuclear plant, a watchdog said.
Updating its assessment of the March 11 disaster, France's Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) highlighted an area northwest of the plant that lies beyond the 20km zone whose inhabitants have already been evacuated.
Radioactivity levels in this area range from several hundred becquerels per square metre to thousands or even several million bequerels per square metre, the IRSN report, issued late on Monday, said.
Around 70 000 people, including 9 500 children aged up to 14, live in the area, "the most contaminated territory outside the evacuation zone", the agency said.
cont...
The dose under discussion is low, however, and I don't know about the IRSN. Still, they are concerned. So worth reporting.
And the other piece of great news today is (from Japan Times)
5/23 Facility for tainted water almost full h/t by evergreen2
"A nuclear waste disposal facility being filled with radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 power plant will soon be full, Tokyo Electric Power Co. officials said Monday.
The operator, known as Tepco, plans to suspend the extraction operation until the middle of June once the facility becomes filled and until a new water treatment facility begins operating."
I'm a little brain-dead at the moment, but the article goes on to describe the various things they plan to do with all the water they're having to move in and out of the reactors.
"Meanwhile, the amount of contaminated water is expected to increase as the crippled reactors continue to leak and the rainy season sets in, possibly posing another challenge to stabilization work at the plant."
Cesium found in breast milk h/t by mahakali overdrive
Small amounts of radioactive substances have reportedly been detected in the breast milk of five women in Japan.
Online newspaper Japan Today said that in samples taken from 41 women across five prefectures, the tests found cesium in the breast milk of four women in Tokyo, Fukushima and Ibaraki, and radioactive iodine in the breast milk of a woman in Fukushima.
-cut-
Safety levels of radioactive substances in breast milk have not been set by the Japanese government but readings -- 5.5 becquerels of iodine and up to 10.5 becquerels of cesium -- in all five cases were well below the safe levels -- 100 becquerels of radioactive iodine and 200 becquerels of cesium -- for tap water consumption by infants.
cont...
5/24 14 terabecq's of iodine/cesium found in ocean h/t by mahakali overdrive
Japan has belatedly admitted that reactors No. 2 and 3 at the Fukushima nuclear plant actually did have meltdowns following the earthquake in March.
The statement on Tuesday by TEPCO, the operator of the power plant, means that all three active reactors at the plant suffered meltdowns.
Some nuclear experts have long believed that was the case.
In the meantime, 14 terabecquerels of radioactive cesium and iodine have been found in the sea near the plant, stoking fears that radiation could spread further in the Pacific Ocean.
As the situation deteriorates, a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency that arrived in Japan on Monday has begun a 10-day investigation into the plant.
Fukushima - mysterious bright flashes with pink and blue camera pictures 5/21- fascinating .. thoughts?
This is Hudebnik's account of what he witnessed on Saturday 21 May 2011, with illustrations kindly researched by others on the http://www.scribblelive.com/... forum.
I turned on the feed of the TBS/JNN live camera feed at 1005UTC (1905JST). It appeared normal and dusk was just beginning to fall. At 1006/1906 as I was directly watching the camera feed I saw a very bright white flash on the camera. It seemed to come from between reactors 2 & 3, roughly roof height. It was extremely bright, and the camera went into a
whiteout for several (5+) seconds. The effect was very like watching film of a nuclear test, an extremely bright and sudden flash emanating from an identifiable central point. At this point the plant buildings were impossible to see. After 5-10 seconds the bright white started to turn bright light pink, and the plant began to be visible again.
Coverage@Kos Diaires
Please visit JNI group page or Nuclear Free DK for diaries on ongoing situation in Japan
GameSave
A 5-week competition in which teams build a demo and working concept for a game which addresses disaster mitigation. “Building virtual disaster games takes you through the challenges of response to prepare you for when things actually happen …. Register by June 10
Burners without Borders: Ongoing Reports on their work in Japan
Sculpture Workshop
Today I taught a class at a rec center in Kessenuma. The children and I made animals out of kami nendo. Afterwards they showed me lots of origami and then we hopped around like kangaroos. It was a really great time and it was wonderful to see their smiles. A big thank you to Tanaka-san from the Kessenuma Volunteer Center for helping me organize this project and acting as my translator
Regularly Updated Data Sources
@Kos: A database of temperature, pressure, radiation levels, etc readings over time can be found in:
The Daiichi Database: This is an evolved diary has stopped being updated regularly.
Japanese Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF)
RSOS Emergency & Disaster information Services - Japan
EPA RadNet Map View &
EPA's Radiation Air Monitoring
Scribble Live
Japan Municipal Water Charts in Japanese Needed???
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Best News Sources
Kyodo Nuclear News Feed
NHK Japan Live
OilDrum
&
Asahi on Facebook
Fukushima Wikispaces
WHO situation reports
METI Twitter Feed
Rules of the Road
Given the seriousness of this situation, please use this diary for posting information DIRECTLY Related to coverage of the developing news!
The"ROV" (a Remote Operating Vehicle) is a 'child diary' for liveblog coverage of major breaking news stories. (The term was borrowed from the Gulf Watchers coverage of the Deep Water Horizon crisis.)
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12:05 PM PT: Unconditionally, Japan prescribed after the oil crisis of nuclear power.Since then the industry has corrupted the whole country, especially Fukushima operators Tepco. Politics, science and the media are complicit - a large-scale technology has infiltrated a democracy."
At least that's how google translate puts it. Long article from Der Speigel which explains how nuclear power corrupted the Japanese political process.
http://www.spiegel.de/...
Sat May 28, 2011 at 11:37 PM PT: Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power has restored the cooling system of the nuclear reactor and fuel pool at the No. 5 unit of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant in northeastern Japan, an official of the plant operator said on Sunday.
Tokyo Electric, know as TEPCO, said the cooling facility restarted at 12:49 p.m. (0349 GMT) and was expected to lower temperatures which had risen at the reactor and fuel pool after the cooling system stopped working late on Saturday.
Sat May 28, 2011 at 11:40 PM PT: Typhoon Songda weakened to a Category 3 storm off Taiwan, while a change in its forecast path cut the risk it will pass over Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant.
The eye of the storm was about 300 kilometers (190 miles) east of Taipei at 9 a.m. Japan time, the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center said on its website today. The typhoon’s path shifted south compared with the Center’s projections yesterday, and the storm is now forecast to pass along the south coast of Japan from tomorrow.