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Fukushima Daiichi latest - hows the clear up going?


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk0WzCtF0yY

Basically they haven't got a f+*>ing clue what they are doing and are just messing things up more and more and refusing proper international help. By the time this problem is sorted I will be abou

  • 2 months later...

Interesting that we haven't heard much about them moving all those 'rods' of late isn't it. Or not much anyway.

 

Fukushima's children at centre of debate over rates of thyroid cancer

 

Three years after the worst nuclear accident in a generation, the Japanese prefecture is reporting a rise in the number of children showing cancer symptoms. But is this directly related to the disaster, or is the testing more rigorous?

 

Jolly well can't think that it would be in any way related to the disaster! :grandpa:

 

Has this been on Japanese news?

 

 

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Interesting that we haven't heard much about them moving all those 'rods' of late isn't it. Or not much anyway.

 

Fukushima's children at centre of debate over rates of thyroid cancer

 

Three years after the worst nuclear accident in a generation, the Japanese prefecture is reporting a rise in the number of children showing cancer symptoms. But is this directly related to the disaster, or is the testing more rigorous?

 

Jolly well can't think that it would be in any way related to the disaster! :grandpa:

 

Has this been on Japanese news?

 

Hodo Station, now.

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Interesting that we haven't heard much about them moving all those 'rods' of late isn't it. Or not much anyway.

 

Fukushima's children at centre of debate over rates of thyroid cancer

 

Three years after the worst nuclear accident in a generation, the Japanese prefecture is reporting a rise in the number of children showing cancer symptoms. But is this directly related to the disaster, or is the testing more rigorous?

 

Jolly well can't think that it would be in any way related to the disaster! :grandpa:

 

Has this been on Japanese news?

 

Hodo Station, now.

 

That was a pretty detailed report, actually.

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At time of Chernobyl, the conventional wisdom (based on data from Hiroshima and Nagasaki) was that thyroid cancer does not show until at least 8 years after exposure to Iodine-131.

 

Four years after Chernobyl, they first received sonogram machines, and immediately started finding cancers, which was a surprise to them.

 

Now, some apparently argue that cancers found after 3 years is too early to be related to the Daiichi meltdowns, because cancers didn't start showing up around Chernobyl until 4 years after. But, this forgets that high-tech diagnosis only became available 4 years after Chernobyl.

 

The only way to really determine cause is to take similar examinations on people who could not have been exposed -- either living far away from the site, or born after the disaster.

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  • 3 months later...
The operator of Japan's battered Fukushima nuclear power plant has said it is having trouble with the early stages of an ice wall being built under broken reactors to contain radioactive water.

 

Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) has begun digging the trenches for a huge network of pipes under the plant through which it intends to pass refrigerant.

 

This will freeze the soil and form a physical barrier that is intended to prevent clean groundwater flowing down mountainsides from mixing with contaminated water underneath the leaking reactors.

 

Tepco said on Tuesday that a smaller, inner ice wall whose pipes it sank earlier to contain the already-contaminated water was proving difficult.

 

"We have yet to form the ice stopper because we can't make the temperature low enough to freeze water," a Tepco spokesman said.

 

"We are behind schedule but have already taken additional measures, including putting in more pipes, so that we can remove contaminated water from the trench starting next month."

 

The coolant being used in the operation is an aqueous solution of calcium chloride, which is cooled to -30C (-22F).

 

The idea of freezing a section of the ground, which was proposed for Fukushima last year, has previously been used in the construction of tunnels near watercourses.

 

However, scientists point out that it has not been done on this scale before, nor for the proposed length of time.

 

Coping with the huge – and growing – amount of water at the tsunami-damaged plant is proving to be one of the biggest challenges for Tepco, as it tries to clean up the mess after the worst nuclear disaster in a generation, in which three reactors went into meltdown.

 

As well as all the water used to keep broken reactors cool, the utility must also deal with water that makes its way along subterranean watercourses from mountainsides to the sea.

 

Full decommissioning of the plant at Fukushima is expected to take several decades. An area around the plant remains out of bounds, and experts warn that some settlements may have to be abandoned because of high levels of radiation.

 

But I am sure they are doing there best, with little or no fannying around, and may well be sorry for any delays.

 

Which is, of course, jolly re-assuring.

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