JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Thunderbird2,
The country and the people owe him more than deep gratitude.
Posted in: Japan declined U.S. offer to station nuclear experts in Kan's office: Edano
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The meltdowns had already started on Mar.11.
Later, the plant manager, Masao Yoshida who was the main boots on the ground and the guy with his finger on the pulse complained about having to take time out from dealing with the emergency to take calls from Kan demanding to know what was happening.
PM Kan introduced info control and made TEPCO submit copies of all press releases and statements to the prime minister's office before receiving permission to release them.
Posted in: Kan appears at Diet inquiry to give his version of nuclear crisis response
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Tyler Vandenberg
The earthquake damaged the plant and the tsunami destroyed it. Everything on ground level including the inside of the reactor building was a tangled mess. The plant manager, Masao Yoshida knew how to vent the reactors and operators tried to do that but couldn't locate it. The radiation levels was already dangerously high.
There was a lack of Tyvek suits and full face masks.
I think it was Masao Yoshida who decided to sent home all the workers not needed for the emergency. On a normal day there would been 3,000 to 5,000 workers at the site. He asked for volunteers to stay from the older workers but some of the younger ones stayed too. They were the Fukushima 50 who were joined by hundreds of emergency workers from all over Japan.
The plant was never left unmanned. I think Masao Yoshida didn't even go home for many weeks?
Posted in: Japan declined U.S. offer to station nuclear experts in Kan's office: Edano
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yasukuni,
The meltdowns all happened in the first 48 hours after the time of the earthquake and tsunami. The explosions followed and the disaster was made within the first 100 hours. The American nuclear engineers would have to fly in, once the President had made the decision. They would have to get up to speed on the plant laid out and how it operated and how much damaged was caused by the earthquake and tsunami. Japanese experts would have to take time out to explain what was happening and there might have been a language problem too.
The American experts would give their advice to the Japanese ones. In turn they would pass on the advice to the prime minister who in turn might have to discuss it with the head of the NSC before deciding whether or not to pass it on to TEPCO, which in turn would have to think about it before passing it on to the plant manager at Fukushima.
The only person who knew what was really happening was the plant manager, Masao Yoshida who took the right decisions to flood the reactors with sea water. One of the complaints Yoshida had was that he had to keep taking time out from dealing with the emergency because PM Kan kept phoning him to demand to know what was happening.
The actions by Masao Yoshida prevent No1-3 reactors from exploding. Had that happened it would have been Chernobyl times ten with the evacuation of Tokyo.
Posted in: Japan declined U.S. offer to station nuclear experts in Kan's office: Edano
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ultradork,
it was correct for America to offer to send its nuclear engineers, and France offered to do the same too. There was strong international concern for what was happening at the Fukushima plant.
The reasons for the nuclear disaster involves a very long chain of various companies, atomic safety agencies, governments over five decades.
The reactor design was flawed. LDP governments were bed fellows of the nuke industry which in turn made large political donations. The atomic safety agencies lacked the necessary standards and the commitment to ensure the highest levels of safety at all the nuclear power plants. Not enough inspections by independent groups. Lack of a real backbone by the IAEA.
But at the end of the day, I believe that TEPCO are 100% responsible for the nuclear disaster. Every company which own and operates a dangerous plant has a duty to the country, the people and its shareholders to ensure that its being run to the highest safety standards, even beyond what is required by law. Its companies like TEPCO which should have been setting the standards.
TEPCO has a history of putting profit before safety. It was warned in 2006 and 2008 that the sea wall was too low in the event of a major tsunami but took no action. It was also warned about the backup power supply systems but again took no action. TEPCO even lacked a proper emergency manual.
Basically, everyone involved in the Japanese nuclear industry believed a nuclear disaster could never happen here.
Posted in: Japan declined U.S. offer to station nuclear experts in Kan's office: Edano
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The Japanese "Tabloids" are no better or worse than all the world's gutter press seeking to hold onto its readers in an ever decreasing market.
Posted in: Tabloid blasts growing numbers of foreign welfare chiselers
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Im3ngs
do you think international big nuke or any other country would be willing to pay a single cent of the likely costs of 20 to 30 trillion yen?
Posted in: Japan declined U.S. offer to station nuclear experts in Kan's office: Edano
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the_harper
That was part of the reactor design from General Electric of America who insisted at the time that they would only build the reactors if TEPCO accepted the design 100%. Basically, there are many flaws in this GE reactor design including putting huge pool of water 100 feet above ground.
Posted in: Hosono visits Fukushima No. 4 reactor amid concern over fuel pool
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People can base their opinions on emotional knee jerk reactions but the truth must be based on facts so that very important lessons can be learnt from the nuclear disaster leading to an improvement of nuclear safety the world over and eventually to the point of all countries realising that the myth of nuclear energy being safe, clean and cheap is busted!
Posted in: Japan declined U.S. offer to station nuclear experts in Kan's office: Edano
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@Vesperto,
It called the IAEA or the International Atomic Energy Agency which has shown iself from this nuclear disaster to be on the side of "International Big Nuke".
Posted in: Japan declined U.S. offer to station nuclear experts in Kan's office: Edano
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It would not have changed the outcome of the nuclear disaster and had it happened in America instead and the Japanese offered their nuclear engineers, America too, would have declined the offer.
What makes America believe that their nuclear engineers are any better than the Japanese ones?
The scenario for a nuclear disaster had already been set many decades ago when TEPCO accept an American design for the Fukushima plant. A design which was flawed in so many ways and didn't take into account the country experienced powerful earthquakes and tsunami.
The design by General Electric of America, which to this day have accepted no responsibility in the making of the nuclear disaster. The design of the plant put emergency generators below sea level and included building a system of spent fuel pools 100 feet above ground level. But it don't stop there. Basically, the design of the reactors was an unsafe one, and even scientists working for General Electric questioned it and some resigned over it.
I believe that America was more concerned with limiting damage to its own reputation and that of General Electric.
The country already had the best person at the plant who was Masao Yoshida, the plant manager who retired last year for health reasons. He knew that plant inside and out and was willing to make the right decisions, even if it meant disobeying orders from TEPCO and the government, which he did when he started pumping sea water into the reactors and refused the order to stop. His actions prevented a worse nuclear disaster from happening.
The seawater prevented the nuclear cores from exploding.
In addition to Masao Yoshida, lets not forget the brave actions of the so called "Fukushima 50" which probably prevented a worse disaster from happening and were willing to give their lives to do so.
They were quickly joined by hundreds of workers from all over the country who rushed to the plant to join them, like the brave Tokyo firemen. By Mar.18, there were 580 emergency workers at the site. By Mar.28, there were more than 1,000 emergency workers including firemen and Self Defense Forces, power cable engineers trying to restore power lines.
I just don't see how the addition of the 6 American nuclear engineers would have changed anything. The Americans send the commissioner of the NCR and a team to Tokyo, but judging from the cables released between them and the White House, the Americans were more concerned about damage control to their own nuclear industry.
The Kan government can't be held responsible for the nuclear disaster which had only been in office for less than 2 years when it happened. Also, it was dealing with three mega disasters, not just one and I doubt the Americans could have done any better in a similar situation. We only have to remember Katrina, and the more recent BP oil disaster in the Gulf.
I believe PM Kan was forced out of office because following the nuclear disaster he took a very strong anti nuclear stance.
The nuclear disaster happened because of a flawed reactor design, and a head-in-the-sands attitude to nuclear safety by decades of LDP governments, the atomic safety agencies like the NSC, the power companies and the nuclear industry. And even the IAEA.
Nuclear atomic power plants the world over are built with safety based on probabilities and not on possibilities.
What happened at the Fukushima plant happened in the first 100 hours following the earthquake and tsunami.
Posted in: Japan declined U.S. offer to station nuclear experts in Kan's office: Edano
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TEPCO will have to have a crane made to remove the fuel from the No4 pool but will also have to ensure that the floor can carry the weight of a 35 ton crane.
Posted in: Hosono visits Fukushima No. 4 reactor amid concern over fuel pool
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some07791,
No, I consider myself 100% Kelt.
Posted in: Scottish nationalists launch 'Yes' referendum campaign
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the_harper,
I'm sure everyone, especially those of us living in Japan, would like the Fukushima disaster to be resolved ASAP but unfortunately when it comes to nuclear energy, time is measured in decades and even 10,000 years. I'm already old enough to know that in the remaining time of my life, I won't see that much progress.
At the Fukushima plant, both American and French companies are working there. Others are working in Tokyo to try and come up with solutions to the many problems. TEPCO should take the lead for the work, because they known the plant best and it would be too easy if it was allowed to hand over the work to another company. TEPCO have a large part of the responsibility for the disaster happening in the first place.
Posted in: Hosono visits Fukushima No. 4 reactor amid concern over fuel pool
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the_harper, I understand what you saying. About one third of the fuel in the pool would hav come from the reactor when it was emptied in Dec. 2010. Another one third would be new fuel which would have gone into the reactor had the 3/11 disaster hadn't happened. The final one third, well I don't know long that has been in the pool.
Normally the spent fuel would spend "x" amount of time in the spent fuel pool. From there it would be moved to a larger common pool for "y". After that it would be moved into dry casks and placed into a special storage down on the docks.
The overhead crane at the common pool was damaged and will have to be replaced before any new fuel can go in here. That is also quite full so some fuel will have to be moved into dry casks after the crane is repaired. The storage for the dry casks is full, so before any more fuel can be put into dry casks, a new storage buildings will also have to be built.
Like I sais no fuel can be removed from the No4 pool until a new building is constructed to house a new fuel crane. The working environment at the No4 reactor is at least 350 to 500 microsieverts per hours which lmits the time a single worker can spend time there.
The fuel in the pool isn't 1,500 nuclear fuel rods. They are 1,500 fuel assemblies which contain about 400 fuel rods each. the rods are about 1/2 inch in dia and about 12 feet long.
Posted in: Hosono visits Fukushima No. 4 reactor amid concern over fuel pool
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the_harper
I think the situation with the No3 reactor is far more serious than what's happening at the No4. It was totally destroyed by hydrogen and probably steam explosions. Infrared photos have shown nuclear fuel mixed in the debris. The 35 ton nuclear fuel crane is inside the spent fuel pool. The radiation level is measured in millisieverts and too high for any worker to spend time inside. The massive door to the containment vessel is struck open. Some experts have stated melted fuel is outside of the reactor and containment vessel.
Posted in: Hosono visits Fukushima No. 4 reactor amid concern over fuel pool
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the_harper
Actually it's a question of time because moving highly irradiated nuclear fuel isn't the same has moving bags of rice. They need time to cool down. The fuel in the reactor was removed in Dec. 2010 and needs at least two years before being moved. In America the rule is 10 years.
Another problem is they need a special kind of crane to move them, that was destroyed by the explosions. TEPCO will need to build a new building next to the present reactor building to house a new crane. Please read the New York Times link in my previous comment.
The explosion in No4 happened according to TEPCO, and others because hydrogen leaked into the building via a vent from No3.
Posted in: Hosono visits Fukushima No. 4 reactor amid concern over fuel pool
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So were are all those forum members who find "sexual parades" like the Tokyo GAY parade, offensive?
Posted in: Thousands take part in 'Slut Walks' in Brazil
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the_harper,
the fuel rods can't be removed until then?
Posted in: Hosono visits Fukushima No. 4 reactor amid concern over fuel pool
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just-a-bigguy
The United Kingdom or (Great) Britain is made up of four nations. Wales (Welsh) Scotland (Scottish) Northern Ireland (Irish) and England (English). They are individual countries. The Welsh, Scots and Irish are Kelts who were the first to occupy the islands. The English are mainly made up of invading armies from countries on mainland Europe.
I was born in English but don't consider myself to be English since my family are Welsh, Scot and Irish (southern Ireland). Maybe one day we'll drive the English out with their war mongering ways and reclaim our lands and women.
Posted in: Scottish nationalists launch 'Yes' referendum campaign