Replying to @realDonaldTrump ​

His #NukeHurricanes idea is so stupid that it made my list. 

— The Retrospective @TRetrospective

"You could hear a gnat fart in that meeting. People were astonished. After the meeting ended, we thought, 'What the f---? What do we do with this?'"

— National Security briefer

Japan Pictures Likely Show Melted Fukushima Fuel for First Time

New images show what is likely to be melted nuclear fuel hanging from inside one of Japan’s wrecked Fukushima reactors, a potential milestone in the cleanup of one of the worst atomic disasters in history.

www.bloomberg.com

“Never before have we taken such clear pictures of what could be melted fuel,” Kimoto said at a press briefing that began at 9 p.m. Friday in Tokyo, noting that it would take time to analyze and confirm whether it is actually fuel. “We believe that the fuel melted and mixed with the metal directly underneath it. And it is highly likely that we have filmed that on Friday.”

Decommissioning the reactors will cost 8 trillion yen ($72 billion), according to an estimate in December from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Removing the fuel is one of the most important steps in a cleanup that may take as long as 40 years. 

Pictures taken on July 21 inside of Fukushima reactor. Source: Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc.

• In big step forward, Tepco finds melted fuel at bottom of reactor 3 in Fukushima, Japan Times
• Japan Pictures Likely Show Melted Fukushima Fuel For First Time, NDTV
• Robot finds likely melted fuel heap inside Fukushima reactor, The Times of India

Since the accident, five robots sent into the reactor buildings have failed to return because of high radiation levels and obstruction from debris.

Officially named the Land-Side Impermeable Wall, but better known simply as the ice wall, the project sounds like a fanciful idea from science fiction or a James Bond film. But it is about to become a reality in an ambitious, and controversial, bid to halt an unrelenting flood of groundwater into the damaged reactor buildings since the disaster five years ago when an earthquake and a tsunami caused a triple meltdown.

Built by the central government at a cost of 35 billion yen, or some $320 million, the ice wall is intended to seal off the reactor buildings within a vast, rectangular-shaped barrier of man-made permafrost. If it becomes successfully operational as soon as this autumn, the frozen soil will act as a dam to block new groundwater from entering the buildings. It will also help stop leaks of radioactive water into the nearby Pacific Ocean, which have decreased significantly since the calamity but may be continuing.

However, the ice wall has also been widely criticized as an expensive and overly complex solution that may not even work. Such concerns re-emerged this month after the plant’s operator announced that a section that was switched on more than four months ago had yet to fully freeze. Some also warn that the wall, which is electrically powered, may prove as vulnerable to natural disasters as the plant itself, which lost the ability to cool its reactors after the 45-foot tsunami caused a blackout there.

Engineers with the wall’s builder, the construction giant Kajima Corp., estimate that it will take about two months for the soil around a pipe to fully freeze. Solidifying the entire wall, which consists of 1,568 such underground pipes, will require 30 large refrigeration units and consume enough electricity to light more than 13,000 Japanese homes for a year.

Adding to the urgency is the 2020 Olympics, which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan helped win for Tokyo three years ago by assuring the International Olympic Committee that the water troubles at Fukushima Daiichi were under control.

Radioactive Reindeer Roam Norway 30 Years After Chernobyl

Long after the radiation that blanketed Europe dispersed, herders in Norway are living with the effects of the worst civilian nuclear disaster in history.

www.wired.com

THE CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR Power Plant explosion remains the worst civilian nuclear disaster ever. The catastrophe blanketed much of western Russia and Europe beneath a toxic cloud, and even now, 30 years later, radiation appears in unusual places—like the migratory reindeer of Norway.

The reindeer live in southern and central Norway, where they graze on lichen and fungus—two things that ravenously absorbed the fallout of Chernobyl. As a result, many of the animals contain levels of radioactivity far beyond the European Union limit for consumption. That troubling for the Sami, an indigenous population that relies upon them for sustenance.

Photojournalist Amos Chapple spent a week in the village of Snåsa in January on assignment for Radio Free Europe1. He worked with a veterinarian and other experts to document how Sami herders live with the lingering effects of Chernobyl. Chapple, who photographed the coldest town on earth, braved single-digit temperatures during the project.

In the days after Chernobyl, reindeer tested by the government ranged from 30,000 to 60,000 becquerel (a measure of radiation) per kilogram. That prompted authorities to increase the acceptable level from the EU cap of 600 becquerel per kilo to ensure the Sami could maintain their way of life. Today, the acceptable limit stands at 3,000.

“It is important to remember that the permissible levels are not ‘toxic’ limits,” says Lavrans Skuterud, an environmental radiation expert with the Norway Radiation Protection Authority. Instead, the limits are meant to minimize the amount of irradiated food people consume, generally pegged at less than 75,000 to 80,000 becquerel annually.

“It is extremely difficult to access the inside of the nuclear plant," Naohiro Masuda, Tepco's head of decommissioning said in an interview. "The biggest obstacle is the radiation.”

What to do with the nearly million tonnes of radioactive water is one of the biggest challenges, said Akira Ono, the site manager. Ono said he is “deeply worried” the storage tanks will leak radioactive water in the sea - as they have done several times before - prompting strong criticism for the government.

The utility has so far failed to get the backing of local fishermen to release water it has treated into the ocean.

More than 8,000 workers are at the plant at any one time, according to officials on a recent tour. Traffic is constant as they spread across the site, removing debris, building storage tanks, laying piping and preparing to dismantle parts of the plant.

“The reactors continue to bleed radiation into the ground water and thence into the Pacific Ocean,” Gundersen said. "When Tepco finally stops the groundwater, that will be the end of the beginning,” referring to the water flowing into the leaking basements of the reactor buildings.

Five years later, Fukushima’s contamination is slow to fade

Fish still show contamination, but the levels have dropped.

arstechnica.co.uk

The team also explored how location influenced the risk of radioactive contamination. Not surprisingly, they found that the risk of contamination of radioactive materials is highest in Fukushima itself, and contamination risk decreases as you move away from the site. The regions south of Fukushima also tended to have higher levels of contamination than the northern regions. This is likely to have been caused by higher radioactive deposition from the radioactive plume around the time of the accident.

They also explored how differences among aquatic species influenced the risk of radioactive contamination. In line with previous studies, the team found that the contamination risk for bottom feeders is highest in marine fish and is much higher than for fish that live away from the floor and the shore. Analysis indicates that the contamination of marine fish has rapidly dispersed even at the bottom of the sea since the accident.

The team analyzed the contamination risks for a representative group of fish in Fukushima. Their results were in line with their own work and previous studies, indicating that the contamination risks are relatively high for freshwater fish, freshwater crustaceans, and fish that migrate between the oceans and freshwater.

This doesn't have as much impact on food safety as it might seem. The freshwater fish used for food in Japan are typically cultured, not wild caught—the radiocesium concentrations of cultured fish are usually low. But the contamination could be a major problem for recreational fisheries and tourism. Strict regulations restrict or prohibit even leisure fishing if a fish is caught with a concentration of radioactive contamination exceeding 100 becquerel/kg.

Fukushima: Almost Five Years Later And Look At What’s STILL Happening

As most of you reading this already know, 2011 bore witness to one of the darkest days of human environmental history. That year, a nuclear disaster occurred at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant after a massive 9.0 earthquake triggered a tsunami, resulting in the nuclear meltdown of three of the plant’s six nuclear reactors. Again, this is […]

www.collective-evolution.com

A recent report by UN nuclear watchdog (IAEA) stated that Japan had made significant progress, but there is still a radioactive threat, and a “very complex” scenario at Fukushima. (source)

This type of thing has been happening since the earthquake first occurred. The Japanese government made it clear in 2013 that a minimum of 300 tonnes of contaminated water has been pouring into the Pacific Ocean every single day. That means that approximately 300,000 tonnes (minimum) of contaminated water made its way into the Pacific Ocean by March of 2013. Just imagine what that number is now. (source)

It’s also noteworthy to mention that TEPCO had to dump 3 million gallons of contaminated water into the Pacific to make room in its storage ponds for water that was more heavily contaminated, which they needed to pump out of the damaged reactors to try and get them under control. (source)

Again, these are minimum amounts, as TEPCO has spent a great deal of time denying the truth and trying to conceal information.

Even after the immediate crisis eased, scientists continued to find radioactive contamination in the waters off the plant.

As Nation Geographic reports:

“Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who has analyzed thousands of samples of fish from the area, said he’s continued to find the high levels of cesium-134, a radioactive isotope that decays rapidly. That indicates it’s still being released.” (source)

He stated that “it’s getting into the ocean, no doubt about it. The only news was that they finally admitted to this.” (source)

“This is one of the most monstrous cover-ups in the history of medicine.” – Dr Helen Caldicott, personally nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Linus Pauling

You can view what she had to say about the crisis here.

Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown Disaster

NOVA reveals the minute-by-minute story of the Fukushima nuclear crisis—the one you know about, and the one you likely don’t: the perilously close call at the other Fukushima nuclear power plant a few miles away from the meltdowns. With unprecedented access inside both Fukushima nuclear power plants, NOVA speaks with workers who were there during the harrowing days—a crisis that began as a natural a disaster but was made worse by human beings. But why did the worst happen at one plant while another that faced nearly identical challenges emerged unscathed? It may come down to the skill and knowledge of one man, who has worked there since they started construction. These are crucial questions as the company that runs both plants, TEPCO, tries to clean up an unprecedented radioactive mess and reintroduce nuclear power to Japan.