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Page added on March 17, 2012
New Fukushima Cessium-137 Threat
The corporate media is again ignoring a major and potentially catastrophic development at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.
Kyodo News reported on March 15 that “that the clarity of water inside the spent fuel pool of the No. 4 unit may have deteriorated based on a survey conducted by a camera,” according to Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator.
TEPCO said “visibility in the pool is only about 1 meter, far less than the approximately 7 meters needed to work at removing nuclear fuel from the pool as part of the process of scrapping the four reactors severely damaged by last year’s nuclear accident.”
One month ago, TEPCO was able to see approximately five meters into the spent fuel pool water.
The spent fuel rods pose considerable hazard. In order to reduce “decay heat,” the rods must remain submerged in circulating water. If exposed to air, they combust and release large amounts of radioactive cesium-137.
Following the earthquake and tsunami that damaged the Fukushima plant last year, the Japanese government underestimated the amount of radiation released into the environment, including cessium-137 from the fuel pool at reactor 4.
4 Comments on "New Fukushima Cessium-137 Threat"
BillT on Sat, 17th Mar 2012 1:56 pm
This is not news to the intelligent community. Radiation has been falling over the Us since a few days after the event. The Us government stopped reporting radiation levels when they realized how much was falling on the sheeple. Soon, those salmon you like will be a bit more radioactive. As well as the tuna and many other ocean sourced foods. But then, you will not notice as the other contaminants are more deadly.
Kenz300 on Sat, 17th Mar 2012 9:02 pm
Japan has shut down 52 of their 54 nuclear reactors. The disaster at Fukishima continues today but most of the worlds press has moved on. TEPCO and the Japanese government are in over their heads on this one and need help from the rest of the world.
BillT on Sun, 18th Mar 2012 2:34 am
The nuclear industry has put the lid on any news out of Japan that is negative about nuclear energy. After all, GE is one of the largest owners of news outlets in the world. And make nuclear reactors.
SilentRunning on Sun, 18th Mar 2012 7:31 pm
the good thing about radioactive cesium is that it forms soluble compounds (hydroxides) that rather quickly dilute in the ocean to the point where they wont do much damage.
Remember that each of us also has a significant number of radioactive carbon 14 atoms in our bodies – it is inevitable that everything alive is slightly radioactive.
Cs-137 will disperse and dilute to vanishingly small concentrations in the ocean, and will decay over time.
The huge hulking building complex in Fukishima will remain, and be an enormous financial burden to Japan. Trillions of yen are going to have to be spent to entomb/clean up the remains.