How the groundwater got contaminated by Fukoshima nuclear disaster
Fukushima ground water contamination, could be the worst contamination in the history of the nuclear industry. The problem started when reactor No. 3′s housing at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan exploded on March 14, 2011 following the massive 9.0 earthquake off Japan’s east coast. Reactor No. 3 was filled with a controversial fuel called MOX (Mixed OXide) — a mixture of plutonium and uranium oxides — and was to begin producing electricity about one month following.
Now about the fact that MOX is a highly controversial fuel. In a 1997 letter written to then President Bill Clinton, 171 organizations joined together requesting that the President prohibit the use of MOX plutonium fuel in commercial nuclear reactors. There are notes that some of the safety concerns posed by MOX when compared to traditional uranium fuel includes a more delicate fabrication of fuel rods to protect against contamination, greater risk of loss of control during reactor operation despite the presence of extra control rods, release of fission gases, and corrosion of fuel rods during reactor operation.
Even Greenpeace had to designate an entire page against the use of MOX fuel on their website. ”MOX in a reactor is more unsafe because plutonium is more reactive and this hotter fuel can cause increased localised melting of fuel in the reactor.”
With these hazards known in advance, experts conclude that the Japanese Island was “just plain lucky due to the favorable meteorological conditions during the accident. Winds were blowing out to sea when the explosions took place at the reactors. This prevented air borne particals from spreading over the mainland causing uninhabitable areas. Although the winds carried much of the airborn radioactive particles to sea. Still, the ground water may not move out to sea but instead carry the radioactivity further North inland. And moreover there are concerns about the sludge. Was sludge sold as construction material?.
More signs of serious radiation contamination in and near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were detected. With the latest data finding groundwater containing radioactive iodine 10,000 times the legal threshold and the concentration of radioactive iodine-131 in nearby seawater rising to the highest level yet. Radioactive material was confirmed from groundwater for the first time since the March 11 quake and tsunami hit the nuclear power plant on the Pacific coast, knocking out the reactors’ key cooling functions.
Nuclear engineer, Arnie Gunderson of Fairewinds Associates, discusses what would have happened if the winds had blown toward Japan rather than into the Pacific Ocean during the nuclear plant crisis. Arnie Gundersen discusses also theories regarding explosion at reactor #3 fuel pool. He discusses the issue of prompt criticality an event with historical precedence. At the SL-1 reactor operated in Idaho by the US Army, Navy Electrician’s Mate Richard C. Legg was standing on top of the reactor vessel when a fuel rod shot up and impaled and pinned him to the ceiling.
Sources:
Fukushima ground water contamination, could be the worst contamination in the history of the nuclear industry. The problem started when reactor No. 3′s housing at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan exploded on March 14, 2011 following the massive 9.0 earthquake off Japan’s east coast. Reactor No. 3 was filled with a controversial fuel called MOX (Mixed OXide) — a mixture of plutonium and uranium oxides — and was to begin producing electricity about one month following.
Now about the fact that MOX is a highly controversial fuel. In a 1997 letter written to then President Bill Clinton, 171 organizations joined together requesting that the President prohibit the use of MOX plutonium fuel in commercial nuclear reactors. There are notes that some of the safety concerns posed by MOX when compared to traditional uranium fuel includes a more delicate fabrication of fuel rods to protect against contamination, greater risk of loss of control during reactor operation despite the presence of extra control rods, release of fission gases, and corrosion of fuel rods during reactor operation.
Even Greenpeace had to designate an entire page against the use of MOX fuel on their website. ”MOX in a reactor is more unsafe because plutonium is more reactive and this hotter fuel can cause increased localised melting of fuel in the reactor.”
With these hazards known in advance, experts conclude that the Japanese Island was “just plain lucky due to the favorable meteorological conditions during the accident. Winds were blowing out to sea when the explosions took place at the reactors. This prevented air borne particals from spreading over the mainland causing uninhabitable areas. Although the winds carried much of the airborn radioactive particles to sea. Still, the ground water may not move out to sea but instead carry the radioactivity further North inland. And moreover there are concerns about the sludge. Was sludge sold as construction material?.
More signs of serious radiation contamination in and near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were detected. With the latest data finding groundwater containing radioactive iodine 10,000 times the legal threshold and the concentration of radioactive iodine-131 in nearby seawater rising to the highest level yet. Radioactive material was confirmed from groundwater for the first time since the March 11 quake and tsunami hit the nuclear power plant on the Pacific coast, knocking out the reactors’ key cooling functions.
Engineers at Japan's stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant have abandoned their attempt to stabilize reactor Number 3 by flooding it with water, finding that melting fuel rods had created a hole in the chamber, allowing some 3,000 tons of contaminated water to leak into the basement of the reactor building—raising concerns about groundwater contamination. Added to this is the continued pumping of water from reactors 5 & 6 which leads to the likely contamination of ground water. Sewage sludge was found to have radioactive contamination.
There may be people who may say that there really weren't the fatalities we would have expected. To those people He says "Well, the problem there is that the wind was blowing out to sea. And the other problem is, as Dr. Wing discussed lately. What you've done is you haven't eliminated the cancers, you have spread them out in a world wide population so that really it may be more hard to determine whose cancer is a Fukushima cancer and whose is not. But it hasn't reduced the number of cancers. It certainly has saved the Japanese living near the reactor enormously.
Sources:
entire page
survcast.com
fairewinds.com
fairewinds.com/updates
skepticaleye.com
midnightwatcher
greenmountaindaily.com
thecomingdepression
enenews.com
4report.com
democraticunderground
huffingtonpost.com
huntingtonnews
mgx.com
antinuclearnutrition
crisisboom.com
abovetopsecret.com
thecomingcrisis
thecomingdepression
survcast.com
fairewinds.com
fairewinds.com/updates
skepticaleye.com
midnightwatcher
greenmountaindaily.com
thecomingdepression
enenews.com
4report.com
democraticunderground
huffingtonpost.com
huntingtonnews
mgx.com
antinuclearnutrition
crisisboom.com
abovetopsecret.com
thecomingcrisis
thecomingdepression
No comments:
Post a Comment