[Peace-discuss] Japanese warning

Sat Mar 12 21:02:18 CST 2011

Published on Saturday, March 12, 2011 by Agence France-Presse
US Experts: 'Chernobyl-Like' Crisis for Japan ‎

WASHINGTON - US nuclear experts warned Saturday that pumping sea water to cool a 
quake-hit Japanese nuclear reactor was an "act of desperation" that may 
foreshadow a Chernobyl-like disaster.

Several experts, in a conference call with reporters, also predicted that 
regardless of the outcome at the Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant crisis, the 
accident will seriously damage the nuclear power renaissance.

"The situation has become desperate enough that they apparently don't have the 
capability to deliver fresh water or plain water to cool the reactor and
stabilize it, and now, in an act of desperation, are having to resort to 
diverting and using sea water," said Robert Alvarez, who works on nuclear 
disarmament at the Institute for Policy Studies.

"I would describe this measure as a 'Hail Mary' pass," added Alvarez, using 
American football slang for a final effort to win the game as time expires.

An 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Japan on Friday set off the emergency at 
the plant, which was then hit by an explosion Saturday that prompted an 
evacuation of the surrounding area.

Workers doused the stricken reactor with sea water to try to avert catastrophe, 
after the quake knocked out power to the cooling system.

What occurred at the plant was a "station blackout," which is the loss of 
offsite air-conditioning power combined with the failure of onsite power, in 
this case diesel generators.

"It is considered to be extremely unlikely but the station blackout has been one 
of the great concerns for decades," said Ken Bergeron, a physicist who has 
worked on nuclear reactor accident simulation.

"We're in uncharted territory," he said.

The reactor has been shut down but the concern is the heat in the core, which 
can melt if it's not cooled. If the core melts through the reactor vessel, 
Bergeron explained, it could flow onto the floor of the containment building. If 
that happens, the structure likely will fail, the experts said.

"The containment building at this plant is certainly stronger than that at 
Chernobyl but a lot less strong than at Three Mile Island, so time will tell," 
he said.

Peter Bradford, former head of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that 
if the cooling attempts fail, "at that point it's a Chernobyl-like situation 
where you start dumping in sand and cement."

The two worst nuclear accidents on record are the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in 
Ukraine and the partial core meltdown of the Three Mile Island reactor in the US 
state of Pennsylvania in 1979.

Another expert said the Japanese accident will rank as one of the three worst in 
history.

"If it continues, if they don't get control of this and... we go from a partial 
meltdown of the core to a full meltdown, this will be a complete disaster," 
Joseph Cirincione, the head of the Ploughshares Fund, said in an interview on CNN.

Cirincione faulted Japanese authorities for providing partial and conflicting 
information about what was happening at the plant.

Cirincione said the presence of radioactive cesium in the atmosphere after the 
plant was vented indicated that a partial meltdown was underway.

"That told the operators that the fuel rods had been exposed, that the water 
level had dropped below the fuel rods and the fuel rods were starting to burn, 
releasing cesium," he said.

Japan's nuclear safety agency rated the Fukushima accident at four on the 
International Nuclear Event Scale from 0 to 7, meaning an accident "with local 
consequences," an official said Sunday.

The Three Mile Island accident was rated five while Chernobyl was a seven.

The government declared an atomic emergency and said tens of thousands of people 
living within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the plant should leave after an 
explosion at the nuclear plant Saturday.

"This is obviously a significant setback for the so-called nuclear renaissance," 
said Bradford, the former NRC commissioner.

"The image of a nuclear power plant blowing up before your eyes on the 
television screen is a first."

But a spokesman for the World Nuclear Association said in an interview with CBS 
News that the threat of a full meltdown is minimal.

"I think that possibility is remote at the best of times and is diminishing by 
the hour as the fuel gets cooler and generates less heat," said Ian Hore-Lacy, 
spokesman for the industry organization.

© 2011 Agence France-Presse

On 3/12/11 8:58 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> Japan's nuclear power operator has chequered past
> The company at the centre of a nuclear reactor crisis following the biggest 
> earthquake in Japan's recorded history has had a rocky past in an industry 
> plagued by scandal.
> | March 12, 2011 |
>
> See 
> <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=japans-nuclear-power-operator-has-c>.
>
> On 3/12/11 8:46 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>> Published on Saturday, March 12, 2011 by the Associated Press
>> Huge Rally in Germany: 'Nuclear Power? No Thanks!'
>>
>> BERLIN - An explosion at a Japanese nuclear power plant has given new fuel to a
>> long-running dispute over the technology's future in Germany, where thousands on
>> Saturday demonstrated against plans to extend the life of the country's nuclear
>> power stations.
>>
>> Organizers said tens of thousands formed a human chain between the
>> Neckarwestheim nuclear plant and the southwestern city of Stuttgart, which are
>> 28 miles (45 kilometers) appart- some waving yellow flags with the slogan
>> "Nuclear power - no thanks." Police didn't immediately give a figure.
>>
>> The demonstration was planned long before the post-earthquake blast at Japan's
>> Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, but the fears of possible disaster gave an added focus
>> to opponents of the technology in Germany.
>>
>> Saturday's explosion destroyed a building housing the reactor, but a radiation
>> leak was decreasing despite fears of a meltdown from damage caused by a powerful
>> earthquake and tsunami, officials in Japan said.
>>
>> Germany's government last year decided to extend the life of its 17 nuclear
>> plans for an average 12 extra years. A previous government had said it wanted
>> them all shut by 2021.
>>
>> While Germany - unlike some of its European Union partners - has no plans to
>> build any new plants, the extension was divisive.
>>
>> The mishap in Japan, which comes two weeks before a closely fought state
>> election in the region where Saturday's protest was held, prompted new criticism
>> from the opposition.
>>
>> Events at Fukushima "show that, even in a high-tech country like Japan that is
>> equipped for all eventualities, nuclear power is an uncontrollable, highly
>> dangerous, risky technology," the leadership of the opposition Greens said in a
>> statement.
>>
>> Matthias Miersch, a lawmaker with the main opposition Social Democrats, urged
>> the government to scrap immediately the decision to extend German nuclear
>> plants' lives. The third opposition party, the Left Party, called for a
>> worldwide moratorium on expanding nuclear power capacity.
>>
>> Nuclear energy has been unpopular in Germany since an explosion at a nuclear
>> reactor at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986, sent a cloud of radiation over much of
>> Europe.
>>
>> Chancellor Angela Merkel, however, has argued that Germany needs to keep nuclear
>> energy for now as a "bridging technology" until it has developed more renewable
>> power sources.
>>
>> Her deputy, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, on Saturday pushed aside
>> questions about the government's nuclear policy.
>>
>> With thousands likely dead or missing in Japan, "Germany's first answer can't be
>> that ... a political argument breaks out here because there are state election
>> campaigns going on," he said.
>>
>> Merkel's center-right coalition faces a tight battle to keep control of the
>> regional government in Baden-Wuerttemberg in a March 27 election, and two other
>> votes also are looming.
>>
>> © 2011 Associated Press
>>
>> On 3/12/11 6:41 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>>> I'd say that there's a good chance they are. Have you been reading Bill Keller
>>> recently?
>>>
>>> The Times regularly puts into practice the poet's advice:
>>>
>>> Tell all the Truth but tell it slant —
>>> Success in Circuit lies
>>> Too bright for our infirm Delight
>>> The Truth's superb surprise...
>>>
>>>
>>> On 3/12/11 6:29 PM, Brussel Morton K. wrote:
>>>> So what did Broad conclude about "Nuclear Jihad: Can Terrorists Get the 
>>>> Bomb?"?
>>>> He's not only written for the NYT, and moreover, not everyone who writes for
>>>> the Times is contaminated….
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mar 12, 2011, at 5:55 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Given the tie-ups between the NYT and the nuclear industry, I'd think we'd
>>>>> at least want a second opinion...
>>>>>
>>>>> The author of this piece is a long-time Timesman who's written on and
>>>>> perhaps contributed to US science propaganda. In the run-up to the invasion
>>>>> of Iraq he published "Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War"
>>>>> (2001), and in 2007 he did a "Discovery Channel" program called "Nuclear
>>>>> Jihad: Can Terrorists Get the Bomb?"
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 3/12/11 5:17 PM, Brussel Morton K. wrote:
>>>>>> A fair report by William Broad on the dangers of radioactivity from the
>>>>>> severely damaged Japanese reactor. We don't yet know the intensity of its
>>>>>> radiations, and so we don't know if they are a serious problem. We are
>>>>>> constantly exposed to nuclear radiations, and the safety limits imposed by
>>>>>> the responsible agencies are considered super safe; there could be very
>>>>>> high multiples of those limits and yet have no observed effects on human
>>>>>> health (despite the claims of someone like Wasserman).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/science/13radiation.html?hp
>>>>>>
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