Japan reactor has fatally high radiation, no water

[kristopher]

Japan reactor has fatally high radiation, no water

TOKYO—One of Japan's crippled nuclear reactors still has fatally high radiation levels and hardly any water to cool it, according to an internal examination Tuesday that renews doubts about the plant's stability.

A tool equipped with a tiny video camera, a thermometer, a dosimeter and a water gauge was used to assess damage inside the No. 2 reactor's containment chamber for the second time since the tsunami swept into the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant a year ago. The probe done in January failed to find the water surface and provided only images showing steam, unidentified parts and rusty metal surfaces scarred by exposure to radiation, heat and humidity.

The data collected from the probes showed the damage from the disaster was so severe, the plant operator will have to develop special equipment and technology to tolerate the harsh environment and decommission the plant, a process expected to last decades.

Tuesday's examination with an industrial endoscope detected radiation levels up to 10 times the fatal dose inside the chamber. Plant officials previously said more than half of melted fuel has breached the core and dropped to the floor of the primary containment vessel, some of it splashing against the wall or the floor...

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2012/03/27/new_probe_finds_worse_damage_at_fukushima_reactor/



"the plant operator will have to develop special equipment and technology to tolerate the harsh environment and decommission the plant, a process expected to last decades."

With more than 400 aging reactors designing and building the specialized equipment to clean up meltdowns sounds like an industry with a real future...

[TexasTowelie]

1. This will be a field trip under Gingrich's plan to employ impoverished child janitors.

We wouldn't want to waste our most valuable resources. Give the children jobs scrubbing and cleaning for the opportunity to experience another culture.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Meanwhile, it continues to spew radiation all over the place?

Is there not a danger it could blow up?

I keep thinking ....karma...baaaad karma.

[kristopher]

3. Leaking and seeping radiation would be more accurate

And at this point I'd think the chances of an explosion are very very low. Further large releases of radiation, however, don't require an explosion.

[GliderGuider]

4. And the world is teetering on the brink of an economic meltdown too,

with Japan poised to be a major player. Just when we'll need a lot of money to deal with this situation, there won't be much.

Teenage species like ours make a lot of bad life choices. This so sucks.

[kestrel91316]

5. A little-reported sad bit of fallout from Fukushima:

The craftsmen, only about 30, who make Japan's prized Somoyaki ware, were displaced and their kilns destroyed in the earthquake/tsunami/nuke mess. They have made this amazing pottery there since 1690.

http://www.artisticnippon.com/product/somayaki/somapottery.html



I had 2 large tea sets of it but they were stolen in the storage burglary a couple of years ago and THEN I found out what the stuff was worth and how prized it was. We got it in Japan when I was a kid (we lived in Tokyo 3 years). So now that I am ready to replace it, you can't buy it new, though there is some that shows up on ebay for a pretty penny.

My parents drank their morning coffee out of those cups for decades. (sniff)

[Kolesar]

6. To look on the bright side:

We have not seen that guy from New Jersey since the meltdown.