SOLARWINDPRONET

SOLARWINDPRONET

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Teacher, activist, interested in energy technology, climate change, environmental issues and global security.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The Situation In Japan Has Not Been Getting Much Better

Hi again!
A few weeks passed without posting any news, (I was quite much travelling during that time) but now I'm trying to get things going more fluently in keeping this blog! (I still read the news daily and found then the following links.)
The situation at Fukushima Daichi 1 plant in Japan has not been developing any better, as far as can be found out from the news of Japanese and international news agencies. The only thing which can be seen as positive development is steadily little by little decreasing temperature and radiation of the pressure vessels that can be checked here on daily basis (atmc.jp):
http://atmc.jp/plant/rad/?n=1

Perhaps it is worth mentioning that the criticality that was feared to take place in FD reactors didn't show up to be dangerous, explosive criticality, but apparently a small scale nuclear fission process resulting alerting isotopes normally tied to larger scale uranium or plutonium criticality.
http://enenews.com/tepco-on-xenon-detection-if-the-nuclear-chain-reaction-is-happening-it-is-small-scale-nhk-xenon-created-when-there-is-nuclear-fission-of-uranium-235


Some researchers have been worried of the possibility of a new nuclear explosion in Fukushima
Der Bild (in German):
http://www.bild.de/news/ausland/fukushima/fukushima-wie-mini-atombombe-20843412.bild.html


Meanwhile the general radiation fallout maps have been updated and Japanese people are litlle by little realizing how large area has been contaminated with cesium and other radionuclides:
Enenews:
http://enenews.com/asahi-govt-survey-shows-fukushima-fallout-has-spread-throughout-japan-now-confirmed-at-okinawa-1700-km-away


NHK:
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20111125_25.html


EX-SK:
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/11/radioactive-ocean-nhk-survey-shows-174.html

Radiation has been detected also in japanese rice:NHK:
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20111117_04.html

Yomiuri:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T111126003210.htm

Some good news is that the Japanese government and industry have been slowly turning towards leaving nuclear power as must have option:
Kyodonews:
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/11/127237.html

NHK:
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20111120_13.html

Fukushima-Diary:
http://fukushima-diary.com/2011/11/tepco-officially-admitted-they-dont-need-nuclear-power/


NHK:
Japan and green energy
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20111127_10.html


Some (most/all) of Tepco workers and managers have been doing everything that's possible to prevent worldwide nuclear catastrophe risking their health and lives. We should be thankful for their offering!
NHK:
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20111127_10.html

We keep on waiting for how the situation develops. Let's hope for the best! There are still plenty of uncertainties:
Yomiuri: status of nuclear fuel unknown: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T111118006066.htm

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T111118006292.htm

Enenews:
Reactor 2 bad damages
http://enenews.com/tokyo-professor-on-nhk-breach-of-containment-vessel-at-reactor-no-2-extremely-grave-much-more-prominent-radiation-spike-after-no-2-trouble-yet-tepco-now-says-no-explosion-occurred-the

These were only a minor example of the discussion and articles that could be found online during last three weeks. I keep on digging more news and following the situation worldwide.

I hope the beginning Christmas Time will offer some peace of mind to us all - inspite of all these ugly news.
:)
J.S.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Well, weeks passed and I have been too busy to post any of the energy news I ment to. But now the following are some of the news and links that are of great importance according to my thinking...

The Chernobyl sarcophagus interior has been recently studied by Russian (or Belarussian) scientists and they found out, that the molten fuel lava has turned partly solidified uranium which is totally different from that glaslike lava that it used to be in late 1980's. Now the lava reminds cheese and allows water to interact with that solidified uranium which bring new risks to be evaluated.  (video)

The other thing to be remembered with Chernobyl accident is how close we were to a catastrophic event of super contaminating nuclear explosion of 3-5 megatons and radioactive fallout that could have made whole the Europe an uninhabitable continent. The next short video shows a former Soviet Union nuclear weapon specialist and former president Michail Gorbatschov discussing about the subject.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLRxtdJqpWY&feature=related

It is important to understand the development of the Chernobyl accident to get a clearer view of what is happening in Fukushima Japan and what can happen in any nuclear reactor in the future.

The latest news from Fukushima tell us that recriticality may be occurring not only in one, but in three reactors and it may mean a continuing nuclear fission. So hopes for achieving cold shutdown this autumn for all the crippled reactors may be too optimistic.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/02_38.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-01/tepco-says-nuclear-fission-possible-at-fukushima-plant-2-.html
Some good news: Belgium is going to give up using nuclear energy according to BBC news:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15521865

J.S.   Solarwindadmin