Fukushima: Up to 100% of No. 2 reactor fuel may have melted

[Generic Other]

Where did it go? Nobody knows...Utilizing cosmic ray muon radiography with nuclear emulsion, researchers from Nagoya University peered inside the reactors at Fukushima. The nuclear fuel in reactor core No. 5 was clearly visible via the muon process. However, at No. 2 reactor, which released a very large amount of radioactive substances coincident with the 2011 explosion, little, if any, signs of nuclear fuel appear in the containment vessel. A serious meltdown is underway.

Still, a true understanding of the dangers of the Fukushima disaster may never be fully known by the general public because of difficulties accessing solid information. Indeed, the Japanese government has made it nearly impossible to obtain information which is not indiscriminately labeled “secret,” and a journalist may face up to 10 years in prison based upon which side of the bed a government employee gets up on any given morning; it’s absolutely true!

The independent organization Reporters without Borders has downgraded Japan in its World Press Freedom Index from 22nd place in 2012, to 53rd in 2013 and to 59th in 2014, following the enactment of the state secrets bill. Reporters without Borders says that “Japan has been affected by a lack of transparency and almost zero respect for access to information on subjects directly or indirectly related to Fukushima,” Reporters without Borders (2013). Press Freedom Index 2013: Dashed Hopes After Spring, August 2014.

Meanwhile, there is another angle to the nuclear issue. On the opposite side of the anti-nuke crowd it is instructive to note that a sizeable pro-nuke coterie claim nuclear power is safe and also claim that few, if any, serious human health problems have arisen, or will arise, from radiation exposure. In fact, some nuke addicts even claim a “little radiation exposure” is good.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/30/the-worlds-never-seen-anything-like-this/

[haikugal]

1. Great...they'll never tell us the truth.

Japan World

What a disaster.

Thanks for posting this information Generic Other!

[Gregorian]

2. Good to read, as I have an ongoing agument with an engineering friend over this.

He's lukewarm about climate change, and pro nuke. After 30 years of knowing him I've finally unplugged my phone in order to avoid his calls, believe it or not.

I find this kind of lack of vigilance infuriating. Were these people blindfolded and told they were walking toward a cliff I guarantee they'd grab on to something and ask to stop.

I honestly think the human species has out brained itself. Our ability to think into the future has turned against us. Life is so convenient and safe, but it sucks. Tooth decay, heart disease, painful old age, not to mention what we've done to the other species.

There's no going back with grace.

[MisterP]

4. reactor engineers are often encouraged to be "True Believers"--to see opposition or worry as just

not "understanding the science" and drawing little electron orbits to quell the fear of the unknown and quiet the housewives, smilingly eating a chunk of plutonium, and going to bat for the industry online or whatever (Cracked and the science blogs especially shill for this sector as the scientists say "duck!&quot

it's also why they keep making wild promises of meltdown-proof reactors or finally being able to process away all that alleged "waste" you peons are always complaining about (of course our storage facilities are totally proof against anything anyway, stop complaining!)

it's the last outpost of old-style hard-walled technocracy, seeing itself as a candle guttering in an eternal night of fear and superstition; whenever the Sagan types warned of a New Dark Ages they really do include doubts about nukes and GMOs as the main cause of it when it happens ...

http://www.amazon.com/Plutopia-Families-American-Plutonium-Disasters/dp/0190233109

[Octafish]

3. There is no ''safe'' level of radiation.

TEPCO and its supporters continue their public disservice.

It's a PDF, but it's worth grabbing from Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a democratic bunch if ever there was one:

http://www.nirs.org/radiation/radtech/nosafedose072005.pdf

Solving the ongoing catastrophe of a triple meltdown will require a planetary response.

[JEB]

5. K&R for exposure. nt

[Donald Ian Rankin]

6. That seems like a safe bet, yes.

Certainly, we can be confident that not more than 100% of it will have melted...