Fukushima disaster released twice as much radiation as initially estimated

By Danielle Demetriou

A worldwide network of sensors found that levels of radioactive caesium 137 released from the damaged nuclear plant were significantly higher than anticipated, according to the Norwegian Institute for Air Research study.

The Japanese government estimated that 15,000 terabecquerels of caesium were released after the plant was damaged, while the new study put the figure at 36,000 terabecquerels – 40 per cent of the total released from Chernobyl.

Andreas Stohl, author of the preliminary study, focused on the emission of caesium 137, a slow decaying element which can last for 30 years in the environment and release cancer-causing radiation.

The discrepancy in Fukushima levels was attributed to the possibility that data recordings in Japan at the time would not have taken into account the emissions which were blown directly out to sea.

Around 20 per cent of the caesium settled on land in Japan, while the remainder is believed to have fallen into the Pacific Ocean, with around two per cent ending up on land outside the country.

Japan’s Nuclear Industrial Safe Agency, the body overseeing radioation levels, said it was unable to comment as it had not reviewed…

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After Fukushima: Toyota now No.3 in global vehicle sales

By Inautonews

Toyota Motor Co. sold 3.7 million vehicles worldwide this year, down 11 percent compared to a year earlier as sales crashed 62 percent in April-June on production disruptions caused by the March earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.

GM’s global sales increased 8.9 per cent over the first half of 2010 to 4.53 million units, while Volkswagen jumped into second position with 4.13 million vehicle sales. It is to be mentioned here that Volkswagen is aiming to become the largest car maker in the world by year 2018.

“Even if Toyota recovers production, it will take another few more months for sales to actually recover” as it takes time to deliver vehicles to dealers, said Takeshi Miyao, an analyst at consulting company Carnorama in Tokyo. “Toyota’s sales may trail behind Volkswagen in the full-year as well.”

Market analysts believe that Toyota may lose even the second largest car maker’s spot to Volkswagen for the full year sales as well.

Toyota predicted in April that its recovery period, or the point at which production will return to pre-quake levels, would…

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Uranium stocks under siege as Fukushima continues spewing radiation

By James West

As shares in uranium exploration companies continued to shed value, Japan’s nuclear nightmare is still getting worse. News this weekend that the hope of ‘stabilizing’ the leakage of radiation by steam into the atmospohere and by water into the ocean is unlikely underscores just how bad the situation is. Within a 20 kilometre radius around the stricken plant, a Chernobyl-style dead zone is developing, with levels of 1.48 million becquerels a square meter measured within that area. (The average human naturally experiences 4400 becquerels from decaying potassium-40 within the body.) Dangerous levels of radiation have now been confirmed as far as 600 kilometres away from Fukushima.

Germany announced that it would discontinue all nuclear power generation by 2022. Switzerland, Italy, Thailand and Malaysia have all also announced the freezing of nuclear development until further notice. In the United Kingdom, anti-nuclear activists have seized on the decision of Germany to ratchet up…

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70,000 more should evacuate after Fukushima: Watchdog

By The Times of India

Seventy thousand people living beyond the 20-kilometre 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 20-km (12 mile) 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 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.

“These are people who are still to be evacuated, in addition to those who were evacuated during the emergency phase in March,” Didier Champion, its environmnent director, told AFP.

Staying in this area means the inhabitants would be exposed to radiation of more than 10 millisieverts (mSv)in the year following…

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Japan nuclear plant confirms meltdown of two more reactors

By Justin McCurry

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said fuel rods in two more reactors were likely to have suffered a meltdown soon after they were crippled by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami in north-east Japan.

Confirmation by Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) that fuel in the cores of reactors 2 and 3 had melted came days after new data confirmed a similar meltdown in reactor 1 about 16 hours after the disaster.

The utility, which last week suffered the biggest annual loss by any Japanese firm outside the financial sector, said most of the melted fuel in all three reactors was covered in water and did not threaten to compound the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

The temperature of the fuel rods, which are believed to have melted and settled at the bottom of flooded reactor pressure vessels, remained well below dangerous levels, the company said.

“It is unlikely that the meltdowns will worsen the crisis because the melted fuel is covered in water,” said a Tepco spokesman, Takeo Iwamoto.

It said the fuel rods in the reactors 2 and 3 had started melting two to three days after…

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Fukushima Daiichi plant worker dies

By NHK

A worker at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant fell unconscious at work on Saturday and later died.

The worker in his 60s complained of ill health while working at a waste processing facility. He worked for a subcontracting firm of Tokyo Electric Power Company.

The man was taken to a medical office in the plant, where he was found to have lost consciousness. He was then taken by ambulance to a hospital in Iwaki City and confirmed dead shortly after 9:30 AM. The cause of his death is unknown.

Tokyo Electric says the worker had been transporting equipment since Friday. He was scheduled to work for 3 hours from 6:00 AM on…

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Deadly Silence on Fukushima

By Vivian Norris

I received the following email a few days ago from a Russian nuclear physicist friend who is an expert on the kinds of gases being released at Fukushima. Here is what he wrote:

About Japan: the problem is that the reactor uses “dirty” fuel. It is a combination of plutonium and uranium (MOX). I suspect that the old fuel rods have bean spread out due to the explosion and the surrounding area is contaminated with plutonium which means you can never return to this place again. It is like a new Tchernobyl. Personally, I am not surprised that the authority has not informed people about this.

I have been following the Fukushima story very closely since the earthquake and devastating tsunami. I have asked scientists I know, nuclear physicists and others about where they find real information. I have also watched as the news has virtually disappeared. There is something extremely disturbing going on, and having lived through the media blackout in France back in April and early May 1986, and speaking to doctors who are deeply concerned by…

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Massive fire at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

By MatrixGazette

As reported by Alexander Higgins and others a fire has broken out at Fukushima.

For now there is no coverage/confirmation of this event by the mainstream media.

Links:
Alexander Higgins
Lucas White Field Hixson

There’s also a animation on Youtube