jammin screw
Well-Known Member
That is, I tripped out on it.... I don't think I've seen alot of pictures like that, n the missing train wit passengers and the ship, wowzerz
TSUNAMI about to hit CALIFORNIA coastlines already hitting HAWAII!!!! RUN!!
- Thread starter Big P
- Start date
sebastopolian
Well-Known Member
I was watching the movie 2012 last night, just minutes before my son came in & told my boyfriend & I to turn the channel to cnn live. I could not belive it! We watched it... as it was happening. It looked like the dam movie...unforunately it wasn't. Watching cars trying to out run the water was fucked up. I feel so bad for all those poor people!
Big P
Well-Known Member
looks like it might get a lot worse:
'MAY BE EXPERIENCING NUCLEAR MELTDOWN'
'HIGH POSSIBILITY' NUCLEAR FUEL RODS MELTING...
Rods Exposed Due to Cooling Failure...
Venting operation suspended due to high levels of radiation...
More than 1,000 people were feared dead and authorities warned a meltdown may be under way at a nuclear plant after a monster tsunami devastated a swathe of northeast Japan.
Reactor cooling systems failed at two generating plants after Friday's record 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit, unleashing a terrifying 10-metre (33-foot) high wave that tore through coastal towns and cities, destroying all in its path.
Radiation 1,000 times above normal was detected in the control room of one nuclear plant, although authorities said levels outside the facility's gates were only eight times above normal, spelling "no immediate health hazard."
But officials warned one of the plants, just 250 kilometres northeast of Tokyo, "may be experiencing nuclear meltdown," Kyodo and Jiji reported.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from around the plants as Tokyo Electric Power, which runs the facilities, said it had released some radioactive vapour at both locations to relieve building reactor pressure.
"We are not in a situation in which residents face health damage," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters, according to Jiji news agency.
The two nuclear plants affected are the Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 plants, both located about 250 kilometres (160 miles) northeast of Tokyo.
The atomic emergency came as the country struggled to assess the full extent of the devastation wreaked by the massive tsunami, which was unleashed by the strongest quake ever recorded in Japan off the eastern coast.
The towering wall of water pulverised the northeastern city of Sendai, where police reportedly said 200-300 bodies had been found on the coast.
More than 215,000 people were in emergency shelters, police said.
The full scale of those left homeless was believed to be much higher, with police saying they had not received a tally from Miyagi prefecture, the hard-hit province that is home to Sendai.
"What used to be residential areas were mostly swept away in many coastal areas and fires are still blazing there," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said after seeing the damage with his own eyes by helicopter.
The unstoppable black tide picked up shipping containers, wrecked cars and the debris of shattered homes and crashed through the streets of Sendai and across open fields, forming a mud slick that covered swathes of land.
The police said 413 people had been confirmed dead and 784 were missing, with 1,128 injured in the disaster but the toll was expected to rise sharply.
"It is believed that more than 1,000 people have lost their lives," said Edano, the prime minister's right-hand man and top spokesman.
"The damage is so enormous that it will take us much time to gather data," an official at the police agency told AFP.
Authorities said more than 3,000 homes were destroyed or swept away and tens of thousands of people spent the night in emergency shelters.
The tsunami obliterated Rikuzentakata, a coastal city of some 23,000 people, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.
Some 50,000 military and other rescue personnel were pushed into action to spearhead the Herculean rescue and recovery effort with hundreds of ships, aircraft and vehicles headed to the Pacific coast area.
Army helicopters airlifted people off the roof of an elementary school in Watari, Miyagi prefecture.
The towering wave set off alerts across the Pacific, sparking evacuations in Hawaii and on the US West Coast, damaging boats and leaving one man missing.
Chile said it was evacuating coastal areas and Ecuador's state oil company announced it had suspended crude oil exports due to risks posed by the tsunami.
The Bank of Japan said it would do its "utmost" to ensure the stability of financial markets after the quake brought huge disruption to key industries.
Major manufacturers including Toyota, Nissan and Sony were forced to suspend production at some sites, raising short-term concerns for the nation's struggling economy.
More than eight million homes lost power, mobile and landline phone systems broke down and gas was cut to more than 300,000 homes, meaning many Japanese could not heat their dark homes during a tense, cold night.
The military mobilised thousands of troops, 300 planes and 40 ships for the relief effort. An armada of 20 naval destroyers and other vessels headed for the devastated Pacific coast area of Honshu island.
Leading international offers of help, President Barack Obama mobilised the US military to provide emergency aid after what he called a "simply heartbreaking" disaster.
The United States, which has nearly 40,000 military personnel in Japan, ordered a flotilla including two aircraft carriers and support ships to the region to provide aid.
"It was the biggest earthquake I have ever felt. I thought I would die," said Sayaka Umezawa, a 22-year-old college student who was visiting the port of Hakodate, which was hit by a two-metre wave.
The quake, which hit at 2:46 pm (0546 GMT) and lasted about two minutes, rattled buildings in greater Tokyo, the world's largest urban area and home to some 30 million people.
Millions were left stranded in the evening after the earthquake shut down the city's vast subway system.
But with small quakes felt every day somewhere in Japan, the country is one of the best prepared to deal with the aftermath of such a calamity.
People take part in regular drills at schools and workplaces to prepare for a tremor on the scale of Friday's "super quake".
"If there is any place in the world ready for a disaster of the scale and scope of this historic calamity, it is Japan," said Stacey White, senior research consultant at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
As the emergency response swung into action, the government urged people to stay near their workplaces rather than risk a long walk home as there was major disruption to air travel.
Bullet train services, like the country's network of advanced nuclear power plants, are designed to shut down as soon as the earth shakes in one of the world's most quake-prone countries.
In a rare piece of good news, a ship that was earlier reported missing was found swept out to sea and all 81 people aboard were airlifted to safety.
But mostly the picture was one of utter devastation.
The tsunami submerged the runway at Sendai airport, while a process known as liquefaction, caused by the intense shaking of the tremor, turned parts of the ground to liquid.
Hours after the quake struck, TV images showed huge orange balls of flame rolling up into the night sky as fires raged around a petrochemical complex in Sendai. A massive blaze also engulfed an oil refinery near Tokyo.
Nearly 24 hours after the first, massive quake struck just under 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of Tokyo, aftershocks were still rattling the region, including a strong 6.8 magnitude tremor on Saturday.
The US Geological Survey said more than 100 aftershocks had hit the area.
Japan sits on the "Pacific Ring of Fire" and Tokyo is in one of its most dangerous areas, where three continental plates are slowly grinding against each other, building up enormous seismic pressure.
The government has long warned of the likelihood that a devastating magnitude-eight quake will strike within the next 30 years in the Kanto plains, home to Tokyo's vast urban sprawl.
'MAY BE EXPERIENCING NUCLEAR MELTDOWN'
'HIGH POSSIBILITY' NUCLEAR FUEL RODS MELTING...
Rods Exposed Due to Cooling Failure...
Venting operation suspended due to high levels of radiation...
More than 1,000 people were feared dead and authorities warned a meltdown may be under way at a nuclear plant after a monster tsunami devastated a swathe of northeast Japan.
Reactor cooling systems failed at two generating plants after Friday's record 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit, unleashing a terrifying 10-metre (33-foot) high wave that tore through coastal towns and cities, destroying all in its path.
Radiation 1,000 times above normal was detected in the control room of one nuclear plant, although authorities said levels outside the facility's gates were only eight times above normal, spelling "no immediate health hazard."
But officials warned one of the plants, just 250 kilometres northeast of Tokyo, "may be experiencing nuclear meltdown," Kyodo and Jiji reported.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from around the plants as Tokyo Electric Power, which runs the facilities, said it had released some radioactive vapour at both locations to relieve building reactor pressure.
"We are not in a situation in which residents face health damage," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters, according to Jiji news agency.
The two nuclear plants affected are the Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 plants, both located about 250 kilometres (160 miles) northeast of Tokyo.
The atomic emergency came as the country struggled to assess the full extent of the devastation wreaked by the massive tsunami, which was unleashed by the strongest quake ever recorded in Japan off the eastern coast.
The towering wall of water pulverised the northeastern city of Sendai, where police reportedly said 200-300 bodies had been found on the coast.
More than 215,000 people were in emergency shelters, police said.
The full scale of those left homeless was believed to be much higher, with police saying they had not received a tally from Miyagi prefecture, the hard-hit province that is home to Sendai.
"What used to be residential areas were mostly swept away in many coastal areas and fires are still blazing there," Prime Minister Naoto Kan said after seeing the damage with his own eyes by helicopter.
The unstoppable black tide picked up shipping containers, wrecked cars and the debris of shattered homes and crashed through the streets of Sendai and across open fields, forming a mud slick that covered swathes of land.
The police said 413 people had been confirmed dead and 784 were missing, with 1,128 injured in the disaster but the toll was expected to rise sharply.
"It is believed that more than 1,000 people have lost their lives," said Edano, the prime minister's right-hand man and top spokesman.
"The damage is so enormous that it will take us much time to gather data," an official at the police agency told AFP.
Authorities said more than 3,000 homes were destroyed or swept away and tens of thousands of people spent the night in emergency shelters.
The tsunami obliterated Rikuzentakata, a coastal city of some 23,000 people, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.
Some 50,000 military and other rescue personnel were pushed into action to spearhead the Herculean rescue and recovery effort with hundreds of ships, aircraft and vehicles headed to the Pacific coast area.
Army helicopters airlifted people off the roof of an elementary school in Watari, Miyagi prefecture.
The towering wave set off alerts across the Pacific, sparking evacuations in Hawaii and on the US West Coast, damaging boats and leaving one man missing.
Chile said it was evacuating coastal areas and Ecuador's state oil company announced it had suspended crude oil exports due to risks posed by the tsunami.
The Bank of Japan said it would do its "utmost" to ensure the stability of financial markets after the quake brought huge disruption to key industries.
Major manufacturers including Toyota, Nissan and Sony were forced to suspend production at some sites, raising short-term concerns for the nation's struggling economy.
More than eight million homes lost power, mobile and landline phone systems broke down and gas was cut to more than 300,000 homes, meaning many Japanese could not heat their dark homes during a tense, cold night.
The military mobilised thousands of troops, 300 planes and 40 ships for the relief effort. An armada of 20 naval destroyers and other vessels headed for the devastated Pacific coast area of Honshu island.
Leading international offers of help, President Barack Obama mobilised the US military to provide emergency aid after what he called a "simply heartbreaking" disaster.
The United States, which has nearly 40,000 military personnel in Japan, ordered a flotilla including two aircraft carriers and support ships to the region to provide aid.
"It was the biggest earthquake I have ever felt. I thought I would die," said Sayaka Umezawa, a 22-year-old college student who was visiting the port of Hakodate, which was hit by a two-metre wave.
The quake, which hit at 2:46 pm (0546 GMT) and lasted about two minutes, rattled buildings in greater Tokyo, the world's largest urban area and home to some 30 million people.
Millions were left stranded in the evening after the earthquake shut down the city's vast subway system.
But with small quakes felt every day somewhere in Japan, the country is one of the best prepared to deal with the aftermath of such a calamity.
People take part in regular drills at schools and workplaces to prepare for a tremor on the scale of Friday's "super quake".
"If there is any place in the world ready for a disaster of the scale and scope of this historic calamity, it is Japan," said Stacey White, senior research consultant at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
As the emergency response swung into action, the government urged people to stay near their workplaces rather than risk a long walk home as there was major disruption to air travel.
Bullet train services, like the country's network of advanced nuclear power plants, are designed to shut down as soon as the earth shakes in one of the world's most quake-prone countries.
In a rare piece of good news, a ship that was earlier reported missing was found swept out to sea and all 81 people aboard were airlifted to safety.
But mostly the picture was one of utter devastation.
The tsunami submerged the runway at Sendai airport, while a process known as liquefaction, caused by the intense shaking of the tremor, turned parts of the ground to liquid.
Hours after the quake struck, TV images showed huge orange balls of flame rolling up into the night sky as fires raged around a petrochemical complex in Sendai. A massive blaze also engulfed an oil refinery near Tokyo.
Nearly 24 hours after the first, massive quake struck just under 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of Tokyo, aftershocks were still rattling the region, including a strong 6.8 magnitude tremor on Saturday.
The US Geological Survey said more than 100 aftershocks had hit the area.
Japan sits on the "Pacific Ring of Fire" and Tokyo is in one of its most dangerous areas, where three continental plates are slowly grinding against each other, building up enormous seismic pressure.
The government has long warned of the likelihood that a devastating magnitude-eight quake will strike within the next 30 years in the Kanto plains, home to Tokyo's vast urban sprawl.
Big P
Well-Known Member
0803: Japan's NHK TV also has that report of an explosion, which it says was "near" the Fukushima-Daiichi plant. The Tokyo Electric Power Company - which runs the plant - says some workers were injured, NHK reports.
0755: AFP says an explosion has been heard at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant, and says Japanese TV is showing a white cloud above the plant.
0755: AFP says an explosion has been heard at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant, and says Japanese TV is showing a white cloud above the plant.
gobears4eva
Well-Known Member
this is some scary stuff,my thoughts an dprayers go out to everyone involved!!!
Big P
Well-Known Member
Big P
Well-Known Member
Click this clinck with before & after pics on top of each other and you can slide the after pic over the before pic just like you were swiping a tsunami wave over it. its crazy, must see:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/japan-quake-2011/beforeafter.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/japan-quake-2011/beforeafter.htm
chillwills
Well-Known Member
Yep. Portions of Japan are re-claimed land, so much of that washed away and is now once again covered/filled with water.i'm wondering, since the whole landmass moved, if areas that were once dry will be permanently underwater now. and it appears a lot of the channels have been filled in with mud.
Big P
Well-Known Member
lets start taking a guesses on the final death toll. Right now its like 3,000 confirmed.
Im guessing maybe 50,0000 dead at final count but its a wild guess.
the radiation is going to ride the jet steam right onto the west coast of the united states. Theres a run in the US for radiation pills goin on. .
Link: Sudden run on potassium iodide pills in U.S....
VIENNA (Reuters) - Japan has told the U.N. nuclear watchdog radioactivity was being released "directly" into the atmosphere from the site of an earthquake-stricken reactor and that it had put out a fire at a spent fuel storage pond there.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), citing information it had received from Japanese authorities at 0350 GMT, said on Tuesday dose rates of up to 400 millisievert per hour have been reported at the Fukushima power plant site.
It did not give details or comparisons on the radiation level but exposure to over 100 millisieverts a year is a level which can lead to cancer, according to the World Nuclear Association. The Vienna-based IAEA uses the unit to measure doses of radiation received by people.
"The Japanese authorities are saying that there is a possibility that the fire was caused by a hydrogen explosion," the IAEA said in a statement. It later said that the fire had been extinguished at Unit 4 of the plant.
In Japan, authorities warned radiation levels had become "significantly" higher around the nuclear power plant on Tuesday after explosions at two reactors, and the French embassy said a low-level radioactive wind could reach Tokyo within hours.
The IAEA said it had been informed "that the spent fuel storage pond at the Unit 4 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is on fire and radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere."
Researchers say people get about 12 millisieverts from a standard CT (computed tomography) heart scan.
The IAEA said Japanese authorities had also informed it that there had been an explosion at the Unit 2 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, saying it occurred at around 0620 local time in Japan.
Im guessing maybe 50,0000 dead at final count but its a wild guess.
the radiation is going to ride the jet steam right onto the west coast of the united states. Theres a run in the US for radiation pills goin on. .
Link: Sudden run on potassium iodide pills in U.S....
VIENNA (Reuters) - Japan has told the U.N. nuclear watchdog radioactivity was being released "directly" into the atmosphere from the site of an earthquake-stricken reactor and that it had put out a fire at a spent fuel storage pond there.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), citing information it had received from Japanese authorities at 0350 GMT, said on Tuesday dose rates of up to 400 millisievert per hour have been reported at the Fukushima power plant site.
It did not give details or comparisons on the radiation level but exposure to over 100 millisieverts a year is a level which can lead to cancer, according to the World Nuclear Association. The Vienna-based IAEA uses the unit to measure doses of radiation received by people.
"The Japanese authorities are saying that there is a possibility that the fire was caused by a hydrogen explosion," the IAEA said in a statement. It later said that the fire had been extinguished at Unit 4 of the plant.
In Japan, authorities warned radiation levels had become "significantly" higher around the nuclear power plant on Tuesday after explosions at two reactors, and the French embassy said a low-level radioactive wind could reach Tokyo within hours.
The IAEA said it had been informed "that the spent fuel storage pond at the Unit 4 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is on fire and radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere."
Researchers say people get about 12 millisieverts from a standard CT (computed tomography) heart scan.
The IAEA said Japanese authorities had also informed it that there had been an explosion at the Unit 2 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, saying it occurred at around 0620 local time in Japan.
Big P
Well-Known Member
Seems there are goverment cover ups,
the US government saying the fear of radiation reaching our west coast shores is unwarrented.
meanwhile, the surgen general has announced for people to purchase iodide pills as a precaution
The french government is now accusing Japan of hiding a full scale nucleur disaster. People in Japan are being lied to and could be at huge risk:
Links:
French claim Japan is hiding full scale of nuclear disaster...
ESCAPE FROM JAPAN: Private Jets in Demand as Exodus Grows...
Thousands Jam Airports; LUFTHANSA, KLM Cancel Flights...
Emperor in historic speech: Don't give up hope...
Setback in Fight to Control Reactors...
'We're Very Close Now to the Point of No Return'...
The Fukushima 50: Not afraid to die...
Radiation spews into sky -- again...
Wind to blow toward Ocean, America...
US Navy Records Elevated Levels 200 Miles Away...
GOVT CALL FEARS UNWARRANTED...
U.S. Surgeon General: Get iodide...
the US government saying the fear of radiation reaching our west coast shores is unwarrented.
meanwhile, the surgen general has announced for people to purchase iodide pills as a precaution
The french government is now accusing Japan of hiding a full scale nucleur disaster. People in Japan are being lied to and could be at huge risk:
Links:
French claim Japan is hiding full scale of nuclear disaster...
ESCAPE FROM JAPAN: Private Jets in Demand as Exodus Grows...
Thousands Jam Airports; LUFTHANSA, KLM Cancel Flights...
Emperor in historic speech: Don't give up hope...
Setback in Fight to Control Reactors...
'We're Very Close Now to the Point of No Return'...
The Fukushima 50: Not afraid to die...
Radiation spews into sky -- again...
Wind to blow toward Ocean, America...
US Navy Records Elevated Levels 200 Miles Away...
GOVT CALL FEARS UNWARRANTED...
U.S. Surgeon General: Get iodide...
Big P
Well-Known Member
Dudes I think large swaths of japan are going to be unihabitable for the decades after this
I think all the sticken reactors will eventually go into full scale meltdown. The Tsunami was just foreplay
'They've lost control': French claim Japan is hiding full scale of nuclear disaster as emergency teams desperately fire water cannon at reactors from long range
By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 1:17 PM on 16th March 2011
All 50 emergency workers who had been fighting to keep overheating reactors cool were this morning pulled back 500 yards from the complex as radiation levels became too dangerous.
And in an extraordinary attack, the French government accused the Japanese of losing control of the situation and hiding the full scale of the disaster.
Military helicopters made a failed attempt to drop water on the reactors from above, amid desperate efforts to cool nuclear fuel. Police water cannons usually used in riot control were even requested to spray the site.
The emergency teams had been pumping sea water into reactors using fire engines, but those efforts are thought to have stopped as the workers were pulled out. But Japanese officials said 180 workers were now back on the site.
Fears of 'an apocalypse' were raised by European officials as radiation levels soared. In another attack, French Industry Minister Eric Besson said: 'Let's not beat about the bush. They have visibly lost the essential of control (of the situation). That is our analysis, in any case, it's not what they are saying.'
In a sign of mounting panic, Cabinet Secretary Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano has already warned that the long-range cooling efforts may not work.
He said: 'It's not so simple that everything will be resolved by pouring in water. We are trying to avoid creating other problems.'
Scroll down for video
'Out of control': This dramatic pictures shows radioactive steam pouring from the Fukushima reactor number three after it was damaged in an explosion
Destroyed: the four stricken reactors at Fukushima. Three were damaged in explosion while a fire broke out at the fourth
Destroyed: Damage after the earthquake and tsunami at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, is seen in this satellite image taken 9:35 am local time (0035 GMT)
Crisis: A cloud of white smoke can be seen rising from the nuclear power plant today as workers battling to control the chaos were evacuated after soaring radiation levels
Desperate measures: A Japanese military helicopter scoops water from the Pacific, which it later attempted to drop on overheating reactors
Nuclear experts said the solutions being proposed to quell radiation leaks at the complex were last-ditch efforts to stem what could well be remembered as one of the world's worst industrial disasters.
'This is a slow-moving nightmare,' said Dr Thomas Neff, a physicist and uranium-industry analyst at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The biggest concerns centre around the four over-heating reactors, and in particular radioactive steam pouring out of the plutonium-fuelled reactor number three which exploded on Monday.
Plutonium is far more hazardous to health than uranium, which is used to power the other five reactors on the site.
There has been damage to four reactors at the Fukushima , three of which were damaged in explosions and another suffered a fire.
Reactor number four is the second highest concern after a nuclear fuel storage pond was exposed to the atmosphere after a fire.
A fifth and six reactor, which were previously unharmed, were today being sprayed with water amid reports that they too were heating up.
An official from the pant operator said today: 'The situation at the No.4 reactor is not exactly a good situation but the No.3 reactor is a higher priority.
More than 140,000 residents within 19 miles of the plant have been ordered to stay indoors - in addition to the 180,000 already evacuated from the immediate area. Terrified families clogged roads as they tried to flee.
And The French government urged its nationals living in Tokyo to leave the country or head to southern Japan due to the risk of radiation from an earthquake-crippled nuclear power plant to the north of the capital.
The French embassy in Tokyo said in a statement that its advisory applied with immediate effect to those French nationals who were not obliged to remain in the city. It added that it had asked Air France to mobilise planes currently in Asia to evacuate French citizens, and two were already on their way.
On Tuesday, a fire broke out in the same reactor's fuel storage pond - an area where used nuclear fuel is kept cool - causing radioactivity to be released into the atmosphere. TEPCO said the new blaze erupted because the initial fire had not been fully extinguished.
More...
But just before 4am this morning the Japanese government said that the fire which had raged for around seven hours had been brought under control.
The Japanese government later ordered emergency workers to withdraw from its stricken nuclear power complex today amid a surge in radiation.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the workers, who have been dousing the reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant with seawater in a frantic effort to stabilise their temperatures, had no choice but to pull back from the most dangerous areas.
Screening: A woman is checked with a Geiger counter at a public welfare centre in Hitachi City, Ibaraki
Extreme measures: There are temporary radiation cleaning shelter, set up by across the affected area including Nihonmatsu city in Fukushima
Potentially exposed: Women, one holding her dog, are scanned for radiation at a temporary evacuation centre for residents living near the Fukushima plant
'The workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now,' Mr Edano said, as smoke billowed above the crippled complex. 'Because of the radiation risk we are on stand-by.'
Mr Edano warned that helicopters drafted in to tackle the nuclear spills may not work. He said: 'It's not so simple that everything will be resolved by pouring in water. We are trying to avoid creating other problems,' he said.
'We are actually supplying water from the ground, but supplying water from above involves pumping lots of water and that involves risk. We also have to consider the safety of the helicopters above,' he said.
Testing: Workers in protective white suits screen worried evacuees at a radiation contamination centre yesterday
Life and death: A woman reacts to news that a relative has died, left, and a baby is checked for signs of radiation, right
The alarm spread worldwide. In Europe, some 500 bone marrow transplant centres were put on standby to treat any victims from Japan. And in India, officials demanded that imported Japanese goods be screened for radiation contamination.
The plant was yesterday rocked by a fire and two more explosions - bringing the total to four. One damaged the concrete and steel walls protecting reactor 2 – as concerns grew that the casing could split and potentially send out a cloud of dangerous radiation.
Aftershocks continue to hit the country, and a 6.0 magnitude tremor struck in the Pacific just off Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, today, raising concerns that further damage would be caused to the already-weakened container walls of four reactors at the Fukushima plant.
Hajimi Motujuku, a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), said the outer housing of the containment vessel at the No 4 unit at the complex caught fire.
Bustle: Passengers wait to leave at the Tokyo International Airport, some on any plane they can
Chaos: The Fukushima plant before the explosion, while right, hundreds of drivers desperate to flee the region pile on to the roads
At risk: Evacuees from the 18-mile radius around the plant are screened for radiation exposure at a testing centre yesterday
Efforts to cool overheating reactors were temporarily suspended after the levels were deemed dangerous to human health.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the workers, who were dousing the reactors with seawater in a frantic effort to stabilize their temperatures, had no choice except to withdraw.
'The workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now,' Edano said. 'Because of the radiation risk we are on standby.' Radiation levels had gone down later in the day but it was not immediately clear if the workers had been allowed back in.
Meanwhile, France’s Nuclear Safety Authority said the disaster now equated to a six on the seven-point international scale for nuclear accidents, ranking the crisis second only in gravity to Chernobyl in 1986.
The authority’s chief Andre-Claude Lacoste said: ‘It is very clear that we are at a level six. We are clearly in a catastrophe.’
In desperation, Tokyo Electric Power, which is responsible for the Fukushima plant, asked U.S. helicopters to drop water on to the building in an attempt to cool a reactor, as radiation levels are too high for people to approach it.
Levels at the site peaked at a dangerous 400 millisieverts yesterday – four times the level that can trigger cancer. However, they had fallen again by the end of the day. Japan ordered a 30-mile no fly zone over the exclusion zone to stop the spread of radiation.
Broadcasts on NHK television had an apocalyptic tone: ‘For those in the evacuation area, close your windows and doors. Switch off your air conditioners. If you are being evacuated, cover yourself as much as possible and wear a facemask. Stay calm.’
Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan told residents: ‘The level seems very high, and there is still a very high risk of more radiation coming out.’
Despite this, officials stressed that radiation levels were safe and called for calm.
Panic spread to Tokyo, where radiation has risen to ten times the normal level. Shoppers stripped food and face-masks from shops and filled outbound trains.
Potassium iodide pills, which deal with the consequences of radiation, were changing hands for £300, instead of a few pounds.
The U.S. took new steps to protect its personnel from radiation by moving warships to safer waters.
At the Yokoshuka Naval Base, 200 miles south of the plant, it told personnel and families to limit time outdoors and to close off ventilation systems ‘as much as practical’.
At least 17 Americans on helicopter missions have been exposed to the equivalent of around a month’s worth of background radiation.
To make matters worse, a fresh earthquake hit Japan, registering 6.2 on the Richter Scale – and the death toll rose above 3,300, although it will inevitably climb further.
The sense of crisis at the nuclear plant has been growing since Friday’s tsunami, caused by a massive earthquake, knocked out the cooling systems essential to prevent the plant’s uranium and plutonium fuel rods from overheating and melting.
Three of the plant’s six nuclear reactors were working when the disaster struck.
Then, on Saturday and Monday morning, fireballs rocked the site when hydrogen gas – released deliberately to ease pressure inside reactors 1 and 3 – ignited. On Monday night, a third hydrogen explosion hit reactor 2 and in the early hours of yesterday morning reactor 4 was rocked by an explosion damaging the roof.
The blast at 2 demolished the building housing the reactor and damaged the 80-inch steel and concrete containment unit that protects the radioactive core.
Damage to the reactor’s core, combined with a breach of the containment unit could be catastrophic.
Japan’s nuclear safety agency said the blast may have hit the unit’s suppression chamber – a large doughnut shaped structure below the core. A crack would have allowed radioactive steam and particles to escape.
Firms began evacuating staff from Tokyo. German companies such as BMW and Bosch said they would take foreign staff out of the country. Several German banks were doing the same.
Austria said it would move its embassy out of the capital hundreds of miles to the south, to the city of Osaka.
Meanwhile, German airline Lufthansa said its daily flights to Tokyo would instead fly to Osaka and Nagoya. Air China cancelled all flights to Tokyo from Beijing and Shanghai.
India announced it would test imported products from Japan for radiation. Ports and airports were told to check food for signs of contamination.
Exodus from a nuclear nightmare: Thousands flee as they question whether Japan's government is telling them truth about reactors
BY RICHARD SHEARS
Hundreds of vehicles sped out of the shadow of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant yesterday.
Those inside the cars and trucks were fleeing for their lives, terrified about what might happen next and reluctant to believe anything their government was telling them.
‘We knew it was close by, but they told us over and over again that it was safe, safe, safe,’ said 70-year-old evacuee Fumiko Watanabe.
‘People are worried that we aren’t being told how dangerous this stuff is and what really happened.’
Thousands of terrified residents emptied the shelves in last-minute panic-buying sprees. Many of the evacuees filled their pockets and bags with all the food they could carry as they piled into temporary shelters.
Queues: Worried evacuees clutch vital supplies as they crowd a makeshift shelter in Fukushima yesterday as the nuclear meltdown spiralled out of control
Meanwhile scores of terrified residents began to flee Tokyo as the power plant threatened to send a cloud of radioactive dust across Japan.
Even in Yamagata city itself, some 60 miles from the plant, residents were fearful of contamination.
As smoke billowed from the nuclear facility, 56-year-old shopkeeper Takeo Obata said: ‘When the winds blow from the south-east you can smell the sea air.
‘So if we can smell the sea, don’t you think we will be able to smell that poisonous air? What are these people doing to us?’
Empty: A young child wearing a mask walks past nearly empty shelves at a supermarket in the northwestern city of Akita as panic buying sweeps the country following the nuclear fall-out
Health risks: Diagram of the human body with pointers detailing the effects of radiation
Japan’s prime minister Naoto Kan was also furious. He was not told immediately about the latest explosion yesterday in one of the reactors, and is reported to have asked the plant’s operators, Tokyo Electric, ‘What the hell is going on?’
Two 20ft holes have been blasted in the wall of reactor number four’s outer building after the last explosion.
‘I can’t believe them now. Not at all. We can see the damage to our houses, but radiation? We have no idea what is happening. I am so scared.’
Others had only one objective – to escape the area around the plant. ‘I don’t care where I end up,’ said one driver as he joined a massive queue for petrol on the road to Tokyo. ‘I just want to get as far away from this place as I can.’
As residents were evacuated from the area around the Fukushima plant, they were screened for radiation exposure.
Experts in white and yellow protective suits passed geiger counters over thousands – even young babies – who had fled from their homes to camp in huge evacuation centres.
Some declared that they could no longer believe what their government was telling them. ‘We want the truth,’ said Yoshiaki Kawata, a 64-year-old farmer who lives in a hillside village in neighbouring Yamagata prefecture.
Officials of Tokyo Electric sat side by side in the capital and struggled to answer penetrating questions about the level of danger before government spokesman Yukio Edano admitted that dangerous levels of radioactive substances had been spilled into the atmosphere.
Although the government said the real danger zone was within 19 miles of the plant, the radiation announcement caused panic among those within a radius of 100 miles.
This was followed by the warning that anyone inside the radius had to stay indoors. Should they venture outside, they were ordered to shower and throw away their clothes when they returned.
That order meant some 140,000 were trapped indoors in and around Fukushima. But many were already asking how long they will have to stay there.
‘I left my parents behind,’ said a man who was fleeing in his car with his wife. ‘They didn’t want to leave their home and now they can’t go whether they want to or not. The government needs to tell us how long this is going to last.’
Authorities told residents not to use their own vehicles, said Koji Watanabe, a 60-year-old taxi driver.But with military vehicles focused on children, the elderly and the disabled, he got fed up waiting and decided to leave in his car.
He and his wife, who has lung cancer, did not have enough fuel to travel far. Many petrol stations are closed, and those that are open have long queues.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366670/Japan-earthquake-tsunami-Radiation-soars-Fukushima-nuclear-plant.html#ixzz1GlqHguip
I think all the sticken reactors will eventually go into full scale meltdown. The Tsunami was just foreplay
'They've lost control': French claim Japan is hiding full scale of nuclear disaster as emergency teams desperately fire water cannon at reactors from long range
By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 1:17 PM on 16th March 2011
- Workers battling nuclear meltdown briefly evacuated today after radiation levels increased
- French minister: 'Let's not beat about the bush, they've essentially lost control'
- Officials comandeer police water cannon to spray complex
- Attempts to dump water on reactors by helicopter fail
- Concern at radioactive steam leaking from reactor number three
- Two more previously stable reactors begin to heat up
All 50 emergency workers who had been fighting to keep overheating reactors cool were this morning pulled back 500 yards from the complex as radiation levels became too dangerous.
And in an extraordinary attack, the French government accused the Japanese of losing control of the situation and hiding the full scale of the disaster.
Military helicopters made a failed attempt to drop water on the reactors from above, amid desperate efforts to cool nuclear fuel. Police water cannons usually used in riot control were even requested to spray the site.
The emergency teams had been pumping sea water into reactors using fire engines, but those efforts are thought to have stopped as the workers were pulled out. But Japanese officials said 180 workers were now back on the site.
Fears of 'an apocalypse' were raised by European officials as radiation levels soared. In another attack, French Industry Minister Eric Besson said: 'Let's not beat about the bush. They have visibly lost the essential of control (of the situation). That is our analysis, in any case, it's not what they are saying.'
In a sign of mounting panic, Cabinet Secretary Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano has already warned that the long-range cooling efforts may not work.
He said: 'It's not so simple that everything will be resolved by pouring in water. We are trying to avoid creating other problems.'
Scroll down for video
Crisis: A cloud of white smoke can be seen rising from the nuclear power plant today as workers battling to control the chaos were evacuated after soaring radiation levels
Nuclear experts said the solutions being proposed to quell radiation leaks at the complex were last-ditch efforts to stem what could well be remembered as one of the world's worst industrial disasters.
'This is a slow-moving nightmare,' said Dr Thomas Neff, a physicist and uranium-industry analyst at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The biggest concerns centre around the four over-heating reactors, and in particular radioactive steam pouring out of the plutonium-fuelled reactor number three which exploded on Monday.
Plutonium is far more hazardous to health than uranium, which is used to power the other five reactors on the site.
There has been damage to four reactors at the Fukushima , three of which were damaged in explosions and another suffered a fire.
Reactor number four is the second highest concern after a nuclear fuel storage pond was exposed to the atmosphere after a fire.
A fifth and six reactor, which were previously unharmed, were today being sprayed with water amid reports that they too were heating up.
An official from the pant operator said today: 'The situation at the No.4 reactor is not exactly a good situation but the No.3 reactor is a higher priority.
More than 140,000 residents within 19 miles of the plant have been ordered to stay indoors - in addition to the 180,000 already evacuated from the immediate area. Terrified families clogged roads as they tried to flee.
And The French government urged its nationals living in Tokyo to leave the country or head to southern Japan due to the risk of radiation from an earthquake-crippled nuclear power plant to the north of the capital.
The French embassy in Tokyo said in a statement that its advisory applied with immediate effect to those French nationals who were not obliged to remain in the city. It added that it had asked Air France to mobilise planes currently in Asia to evacuate French citizens, and two were already on their way.
On Tuesday, a fire broke out in the same reactor's fuel storage pond - an area where used nuclear fuel is kept cool - causing radioactivity to be released into the atmosphere. TEPCO said the new blaze erupted because the initial fire had not been fully extinguished.
More...
- Four days on, the survivors of the deadly tsunami bring hope to those still searching for loved ones
- The nightmare returns: Chilling echoes of Hiroshima's destruction in images from the aftermath of tsunami
- Facebook map uses status updates to show how news of Japanese tsunami spread across the globe
- A very selfless British hero: When the tsunami alarm sounded this young teacher's only thought was how could he save his class of terrified pupils
- 'Be prepared': U.S. Surgeon General's warning as terrified Americans panic-buy anti-radiation drugs over nuclear fall-out fears
- Thousands of seabirds on remote Pacific islands killed by tsunami
- Bill for tsunami damage in California set to top $40m, with Hawaii losing nearly $1bn in tourism
- Japanese government was 'warned that nuclear plants could not withstand quake'
But just before 4am this morning the Japanese government said that the fire which had raged for around seven hours had been brought under control.
The Japanese government later ordered emergency workers to withdraw from its stricken nuclear power complex today amid a surge in radiation.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the workers, who have been dousing the reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant with seawater in a frantic effort to stabilise their temperatures, had no choice but to pull back from the most dangerous areas.
Potentially exposed: Women, one holding her dog, are scanned for radiation at a temporary evacuation centre for residents living near the Fukushima plant
'The workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now,' Mr Edano said, as smoke billowed above the crippled complex. 'Because of the radiation risk we are on stand-by.'
Mr Edano warned that helicopters drafted in to tackle the nuclear spills may not work. He said: 'It's not so simple that everything will be resolved by pouring in water. We are trying to avoid creating other problems,' he said.
'We are actually supplying water from the ground, but supplying water from above involves pumping lots of water and that involves risk. We also have to consider the safety of the helicopters above,' he said.
Life and death: A woman reacts to news that a relative has died, left, and a baby is checked for signs of radiation, right
The alarm spread worldwide. In Europe, some 500 bone marrow transplant centres were put on standby to treat any victims from Japan. And in India, officials demanded that imported Japanese goods be screened for radiation contamination.
The plant was yesterday rocked by a fire and two more explosions - bringing the total to four. One damaged the concrete and steel walls protecting reactor 2 – as concerns grew that the casing could split and potentially send out a cloud of dangerous radiation.
Aftershocks continue to hit the country, and a 6.0 magnitude tremor struck in the Pacific just off Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, today, raising concerns that further damage would be caused to the already-weakened container walls of four reactors at the Fukushima plant.
Hajimi Motujuku, a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), said the outer housing of the containment vessel at the No 4 unit at the complex caught fire.
Chaos: The Fukushima plant before the explosion, while right, hundreds of drivers desperate to flee the region pile on to the roads
Efforts to cool overheating reactors were temporarily suspended after the levels were deemed dangerous to human health.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the workers, who were dousing the reactors with seawater in a frantic effort to stabilize their temperatures, had no choice except to withdraw.
'The workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now,' Edano said. 'Because of the radiation risk we are on standby.' Radiation levels had gone down later in the day but it was not immediately clear if the workers had been allowed back in.
Meanwhile, France’s Nuclear Safety Authority said the disaster now equated to a six on the seven-point international scale for nuclear accidents, ranking the crisis second only in gravity to Chernobyl in 1986.
The authority’s chief Andre-Claude Lacoste said: ‘It is very clear that we are at a level six. We are clearly in a catastrophe.’
In desperation, Tokyo Electric Power, which is responsible for the Fukushima plant, asked U.S. helicopters to drop water on to the building in an attempt to cool a reactor, as radiation levels are too high for people to approach it.
Levels at the site peaked at a dangerous 400 millisieverts yesterday – four times the level that can trigger cancer. However, they had fallen again by the end of the day. Japan ordered a 30-mile no fly zone over the exclusion zone to stop the spread of radiation.
Broadcasts on NHK television had an apocalyptic tone: ‘For those in the evacuation area, close your windows and doors. Switch off your air conditioners. If you are being evacuated, cover yourself as much as possible and wear a facemask. Stay calm.’
Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan told residents: ‘The level seems very high, and there is still a very high risk of more radiation coming out.’
Despite this, officials stressed that radiation levels were safe and called for calm.
Panic spread to Tokyo, where radiation has risen to ten times the normal level. Shoppers stripped food and face-masks from shops and filled outbound trains.
Potassium iodide pills, which deal with the consequences of radiation, were changing hands for £300, instead of a few pounds.
The U.S. took new steps to protect its personnel from radiation by moving warships to safer waters.
At the Yokoshuka Naval Base, 200 miles south of the plant, it told personnel and families to limit time outdoors and to close off ventilation systems ‘as much as practical’.
At least 17 Americans on helicopter missions have been exposed to the equivalent of around a month’s worth of background radiation.
To make matters worse, a fresh earthquake hit Japan, registering 6.2 on the Richter Scale – and the death toll rose above 3,300, although it will inevitably climb further.
The sense of crisis at the nuclear plant has been growing since Friday’s tsunami, caused by a massive earthquake, knocked out the cooling systems essential to prevent the plant’s uranium and plutonium fuel rods from overheating and melting.
Three of the plant’s six nuclear reactors were working when the disaster struck.
Then, on Saturday and Monday morning, fireballs rocked the site when hydrogen gas – released deliberately to ease pressure inside reactors 1 and 3 – ignited. On Monday night, a third hydrogen explosion hit reactor 2 and in the early hours of yesterday morning reactor 4 was rocked by an explosion damaging the roof.
The blast at 2 demolished the building housing the reactor and damaged the 80-inch steel and concrete containment unit that protects the radioactive core.
Damage to the reactor’s core, combined with a breach of the containment unit could be catastrophic.
Japan’s nuclear safety agency said the blast may have hit the unit’s suppression chamber – a large doughnut shaped structure below the core. A crack would have allowed radioactive steam and particles to escape.
Firms began evacuating staff from Tokyo. German companies such as BMW and Bosch said they would take foreign staff out of the country. Several German banks were doing the same.
Austria said it would move its embassy out of the capital hundreds of miles to the south, to the city of Osaka.
Meanwhile, German airline Lufthansa said its daily flights to Tokyo would instead fly to Osaka and Nagoya. Air China cancelled all flights to Tokyo from Beijing and Shanghai.
India announced it would test imported products from Japan for radiation. Ports and airports were told to check food for signs of contamination.
Exodus from a nuclear nightmare: Thousands flee as they question whether Japan's government is telling them truth about reactors
BY RICHARD SHEARS
Hundreds of vehicles sped out of the shadow of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant yesterday.
Those inside the cars and trucks were fleeing for their lives, terrified about what might happen next and reluctant to believe anything their government was telling them.
‘We knew it was close by, but they told us over and over again that it was safe, safe, safe,’ said 70-year-old evacuee Fumiko Watanabe.
‘People are worried that we aren’t being told how dangerous this stuff is and what really happened.’
Thousands of terrified residents emptied the shelves in last-minute panic-buying sprees. Many of the evacuees filled their pockets and bags with all the food they could carry as they piled into temporary shelters.
Meanwhile scores of terrified residents began to flee Tokyo as the power plant threatened to send a cloud of radioactive dust across Japan.
Even in Yamagata city itself, some 60 miles from the plant, residents were fearful of contamination.
As smoke billowed from the nuclear facility, 56-year-old shopkeeper Takeo Obata said: ‘When the winds blow from the south-east you can smell the sea air.
‘So if we can smell the sea, don’t you think we will be able to smell that poisonous air? What are these people doing to us?’
Japan’s prime minister Naoto Kan was also furious. He was not told immediately about the latest explosion yesterday in one of the reactors, and is reported to have asked the plant’s operators, Tokyo Electric, ‘What the hell is going on?’
Two 20ft holes have been blasted in the wall of reactor number four’s outer building after the last explosion.
‘I can’t believe them now. Not at all. We can see the damage to our houses, but radiation? We have no idea what is happening. I am so scared.’
Others had only one objective – to escape the area around the plant. ‘I don’t care where I end up,’ said one driver as he joined a massive queue for petrol on the road to Tokyo. ‘I just want to get as far away from this place as I can.’
As residents were evacuated from the area around the Fukushima plant, they were screened for radiation exposure.
Experts in white and yellow protective suits passed geiger counters over thousands – even young babies – who had fled from their homes to camp in huge evacuation centres.
Some declared that they could no longer believe what their government was telling them. ‘We want the truth,’ said Yoshiaki Kawata, a 64-year-old farmer who lives in a hillside village in neighbouring Yamagata prefecture.
Officials of Tokyo Electric sat side by side in the capital and struggled to answer penetrating questions about the level of danger before government spokesman Yukio Edano admitted that dangerous levels of radioactive substances had been spilled into the atmosphere.
Although the government said the real danger zone was within 19 miles of the plant, the radiation announcement caused panic among those within a radius of 100 miles.
This was followed by the warning that anyone inside the radius had to stay indoors. Should they venture outside, they were ordered to shower and throw away their clothes when they returned.
That order meant some 140,000 were trapped indoors in and around Fukushima. But many were already asking how long they will have to stay there.
‘I left my parents behind,’ said a man who was fleeing in his car with his wife. ‘They didn’t want to leave their home and now they can’t go whether they want to or not. The government needs to tell us how long this is going to last.’
Authorities told residents not to use their own vehicles, said Koji Watanabe, a 60-year-old taxi driver.But with military vehicles focused on children, the elderly and the disabled, he got fed up waiting and decided to leave in his car.
He and his wife, who has lung cancer, did not have enough fuel to travel far. Many petrol stations are closed, and those that are open have long queues.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366670/Japan-earthquake-tsunami-Radiation-soars-Fukushima-nuclear-plant.html#ixzz1GlqHguip
Big P
Well-Known Member
Newly Released Images Show Devastated Nuclear Reactors
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
UPDATE: It is important to stress that 40 years worth of deadly spent fuel rods that would have been blown sky high by the blasts were stored in the roof of the facilities you see devastated in these images. See our article for more on this urgent aspect of the story.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company has released new images that show the devastated nuclear reactors at the stricken Fukushima plant, as authorities confirm that a second reactor containment vessel has been damaged, leading to yet more deadly radiation being released into the atmosphere.
Following news that a containment vessel at reactor number 2 had cracked, it was later confirmed that reactor number 3 had ruptured and was releasing radioactive smoke.
Top government spokesman Yukio Edano told a press conference in the morning that smoke has been recognized from about 8:30 a.m. around the No.3 reactor and said, As we saw in the No. 2 unit, steam has been released from the (No. 3) reactors containment vessel, reports Kyodo News.
A fire in the plants number 4 reactor, where massive numbers of highly radioactive spent fuel rods are stored, was likely caused by the water that is in place to cool the rods boiling and exposing them to open air. As we have documented, the threat posed by the spent fuel rods burning and releasing radioactivity is even greater than the active fuel rods.
The Fukushima Daiichi plant has seven pools dedicated to spent fuel rods. These are located at the top of six reactor buildings or were until explosions and fires ravaged the plant. On the ground level there is a common pool in a separate building that was critically damaged by the tsunami. Each reactor building pool holds 3,450 fuel rod assemblies and the common pool holds 6,291 fuel rod assemblies. Each assembly holds sixty-three fuel rods. In short, the Fukushima Daiichi plant contains over 600,000 spent fuel rods a massive amount of radiation that will soon be released into the atmosphere.
Images released by the Tokyo Electric Power Company appear to confirm the worst that the spent fuel rods stored near the roof of the facility were impacted by the blasts.
Close up of reactor no. 4 CLICK FOR ENLARGEMENT.
Reactor no. 3 is completely devastated.
Another shot of reactor no. 4.
Radiation levels in Tokyo have not increased, but thats probably only because strong winds are blowing the radiation out into the Pacific Ocean. The fact that the prevailing jet stream is heading towards the U.S. west coast has prompted a run on potassium iodide pills, with U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin contradicting assurances from government officials by encouraging Americans to obtain potassium iodide as a precaution.
Thats easier said than done given the fact that manufacturers are telling retailers that there wont be any more available until the end of April or even May after existing supplies were bought up as early as Saturday.
In addition, it appears that the government has enforced a blockade on potassium iodide. A caller to the Alex Jones Show yesterday related how U.S. health authorities could be blocking Americans from obtaining the radiation-fighting drug, after his doctor refused to prescribe the drug following a conversation with the CDC.
Despite surging demand, the U.S. government only has enough potassium iodide in reserve to cover populations living within 10 miles of nuclear reactors, leaving hundreds of millions of Americans exposed to potential radiation clouds without protection should the winds carry any radioactivity across the Pacific.
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
UPDATE: It is important to stress that 40 years worth of deadly spent fuel rods that would have been blown sky high by the blasts were stored in the roof of the facilities you see devastated in these images. See our article for more on this urgent aspect of the story.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company has released new images that show the devastated nuclear reactors at the stricken Fukushima plant, as authorities confirm that a second reactor containment vessel has been damaged, leading to yet more deadly radiation being released into the atmosphere.
Following news that a containment vessel at reactor number 2 had cracked, it was later confirmed that reactor number 3 had ruptured and was releasing radioactive smoke.
Top government spokesman Yukio Edano told a press conference in the morning that smoke has been recognized from about 8:30 a.m. around the No.3 reactor and said, As we saw in the No. 2 unit, steam has been released from the (No. 3) reactors containment vessel, reports Kyodo News.
A fire in the plants number 4 reactor, where massive numbers of highly radioactive spent fuel rods are stored, was likely caused by the water that is in place to cool the rods boiling and exposing them to open air. As we have documented, the threat posed by the spent fuel rods burning and releasing radioactivity is even greater than the active fuel rods.
The Fukushima Daiichi plant has seven pools dedicated to spent fuel rods. These are located at the top of six reactor buildings or were until explosions and fires ravaged the plant. On the ground level there is a common pool in a separate building that was critically damaged by the tsunami. Each reactor building pool holds 3,450 fuel rod assemblies and the common pool holds 6,291 fuel rod assemblies. Each assembly holds sixty-three fuel rods. In short, the Fukushima Daiichi plant contains over 600,000 spent fuel rods a massive amount of radiation that will soon be released into the atmosphere.
Images released by the Tokyo Electric Power Company appear to confirm the worst that the spent fuel rods stored near the roof of the facility were impacted by the blasts.
Close up of reactor no. 4 CLICK FOR ENLARGEMENT.
Reactor no. 3 is completely devastated.
Another shot of reactor no. 4.
Radiation levels in Tokyo have not increased, but thats probably only because strong winds are blowing the radiation out into the Pacific Ocean. The fact that the prevailing jet stream is heading towards the U.S. west coast has prompted a run on potassium iodide pills, with U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin contradicting assurances from government officials by encouraging Americans to obtain potassium iodide as a precaution.
Thats easier said than done given the fact that manufacturers are telling retailers that there wont be any more available until the end of April or even May after existing supplies were bought up as early as Saturday.
In addition, it appears that the government has enforced a blockade on potassium iodide. A caller to the Alex Jones Show yesterday related how U.S. health authorities could be blocking Americans from obtaining the radiation-fighting drug, after his doctor refused to prescribe the drug following a conversation with the CDC.
Despite surging demand, the U.S. government only has enough potassium iodide in reserve to cover populations living within 10 miles of nuclear reactors, leaving hundreds of millions of Americans exposed to potential radiation clouds without protection should the winds carry any radioactivity across the Pacific.
