Category: Disastrous
Across the universe
It makes me so sad, what we’ve done to our planet. This isn’t going to go away:
From the Union of Concerned Scientists All Things Nuclear blog:
Today the IAEA has finally confirmed what some analysts have suspected for days: that the concentration per area of long-lived cesium-137 (Cs-137) is extremely high as far as tens of kilometers from the release site at Fukushima Dai-Ichi, and in fact would trigger compulsory evacuation under IAEA guidelines.
The IAEA is reporting that measured soil concentrations of Cs-137 as far away as Iitate Village, 40 kilometers northwest of Fukushima-Dai-Ichi, correspond to deposition levels of up to 3.7 megabecquerels per square meter (MBq/sq. m). This is far higher than previous IAEA reports of values of Cs-137 deposition, and comparable to the total beta-gamma measurements reported previously by IAEA and mentioned on this blog.
This should be compared with the deposition level that triggered compulsory relocation in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident: the level set in 1990 by the Soviet Union was 1.48 MBq/sq. m.
Thus, it is now abundantly clear that Japanese authorities were negligent in restricting the emergency evacuation zone to only 20 kilometers from the release site.
Go read the rest.
Baby you’re a rich man
Will Bunch has been all over this story, and I hope all Pennsylvanians tell everyone they know:
In case you needed any more proof that Gov. Tom Corbett came to Harrisburg with a mission — to do anything and everything to help his billionaire friends in the natural gas biz — and that all that other running-the-state stuff comes second, check out this stunning report tonight
Oil and gas inspectors policing Marcellus Shale development in Pennsylvania will no longer be able to issue violations to the drilling companies they regulate without first getting the approval of top officials.
That’s according to a directive laid out in a series of emails received by the Department of Environmental Protection staff last week and leaked to ProPublica. The emails say the new edict applies only to enforcement actions related to Marcellus Shale drilling and that failure to seek prior approval “will not be acceptable.”
You can read the leaked memos here and here.
John Hanger, who was the chief environmental official under Corbett’s predecessor, Ed Rendell, and who has been fairly down the middle until now about the new GOP governor’s policies toward the natural gas gold-rush in rural Pennsylvania involving hydrofracking, or “fracking,” is appalled by this new info. Hanger tells ProPublica the DEP directives are “really breathtaking,” “profoundly unwise,” and should be rescinded immediately.
As the article notes, Corbett has already named a major campaign donor from the coal industry with a history of anti-environmentalism to oversee new permit applications for natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale. All this, of course, comes after Corbett’s rigid refusal to consider the kind of tax on natural gas drilling that exists in the other 14 of the top 15 gas-producing states, even as his administration plans to slash spending for public schools and state universities to the bone.
Run for your life if you can, little girl
Everybody’s got something to hide except me and my monkey
Isn’t it funny that they only pay attention to this stuff when they have to?
WASHINGTON — Almost all American nuclear power plants have backup batteries that would last only half as long as those at Japan’s troubled Fukushima Daiichi plant did after a tsunami knocked out power there, an expert testified Tuesday at a Senate committee briefing on nuclear safety.
An industry official, addressing the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, conceded that battery life was “one of the obvious places” that nuclear operators would examine for potential improvements.
David Lochbaum, a nuclear expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, which generally takes a critical tone toward nuclear reactors, said that just 11 of the nation’s 104 plants had eight-hour batteries, and 93 had four-hour batteries. The batteries are not powerful enough to run pumps that direct cooling water, but they can operate valves and can power instruments that give readings of water levels, flow and temperatures.
In the meantime, Japanese officials are considering stem cell transplants for workers at the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactor.
I’m a loser
I’ll believe it when I see it, but wouldn’t it be pretty to think so?
BP (NYSE: BP) is having a rough year. After claiming responsibility for one the worst oil spills in U.S. history, and accepting costly penalties for the disaster, BP managers may now face manslaughter charges.
Prosecutors are considering whether the decisions managers made prior to the explosion leaving 11 workers dead are grounds for manslaughter charges.
BP closed at $46.04 Monday and is now at $45.12 in pre-market trading. Coupled with the manslaughter report, BP must also contend with a downgrade from “hold” to “sell,” by Collins Stewart.
Due to the oil well explosion in 2010, BP’s share price lost half its value from April to late June. It has since begun to slowly recover to some extent, but the challenges BP faces in the wake of the oil spill are clearly plentiful.
The contrarian investor may consider now as a reasonable buying opportunity. BP has clearly been beaten down in the last year and performed significantly worse than competitors Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX). As the fine for the oil spill has yet to be levied, it is possible that it will drive the price down further. BP has also paid businesses that purportedly lost revenue due to the effects of the spill.
When the aftereffects of the oil spill disaster are behind us, BP has the opportunity to grow immensely from the lows at which it is currently trading. Can BP recover from a blow like this? BP will have to pay out many billions in fines and other costs related to the spill in the coming months and years. If the investor takes a long position in BP, it may be quite some time before he or she reaps a profit from the investment.
Uh oh
Plutonium has been detected in soil at five locations at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday.
The operator of the nuclear complex said that the plutonium is believed to have been discharged from nuclear fuel at the plant, which was damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
UPDATE: Let’s see. We have radioactive water now leaking directly into the ocean and it sure looks like we have at least a partial meltdown. Wheee!
Sometimes you just shouldn’t fuck with things.
Spin
Will we ever get a straight answer out of anyone about what really happened, and how it will affect us? Nope.
HIGHLY radioactive water, endangering workers and hindering repair efforts at the Fukushima nuclear plant, was the result of a “partial meltdown” of the fuel rods in the plant’s No 2 reactor, Japan’s chief government spokesman admitted yesterday.
Chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said the water was believed to have temporarily come into contact with the partially melted fuel rods inside the reactor.
After another day of unnerving aftershocks and fresh problems at the Fukushima plant, Mr Edano attacked the Tokyo Electric Power Company for its continued bungled handling of the crisis.
At a time like this, it’s such a distinct advantage to have a company trying to maintain its financial viability by blowing smoke up everyone’s ass instead of a government agency whose management just wants to get the job done.
That last line was ironic. We’re just screwed, no matter what.
He tried to warn them about tsunami danger
But who would believe such a crazy thing?
According to the researcher, Yukinobu Okamura, and the records of a government council where he made the warning, TEPCO asserted that there was flexibility in the quake resistance design of its plants and expressed reluctance to raise the assumption of possible quake damage citing a lack of sufficient information.
”There should be ample flexibility in the safety of a nuclear power plant,” said Okamura, head of the Active Fault and Earthquake Research Center at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. ”It is odd to have an attitude of not taking into consideration indeterminate aspects.”
Okamura had warned in 2009 of massive tsunami based on his study since around 2004 of the traces of a major tsunami believed to have swept away about a thousand people in the year 869 after a magnitude 8.3 quake off northeastern Japan.
He had found in his research that tsunami from the ancient quake had hit a wide range of the coastal regions of northeastern Japan, at least as far north as Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture and as far south as the town of Namie in Fukushima Prefecture — close to the Fukushima Daiichi plant — penetrating as much as 3 to 4 kilometers inland.
One world
And we have more radiation than usual in it!
BOSTON — Health officials said Sunday that one sample of Massachusetts rainwater has registered very low concentrations of radiation, most likely from the Japanese nuclear power plant damaged earlier this month by an earthquake and tsunami.
John Auerbach, the Massachusetts commissioner of public health, said that radioiodine-131 found in the sample — one of more than 100 that have been taken around the country — is short lived. He said the drinking water supply in the state was unaffected and officials do not expect any health concerns.
Nevada and other Western states also have reported minuscule amounts of radiation, but scientists say those presented no health risks.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health said the in-state sample was taken in the past week, but they did not say where. The testing is part of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency network that monitors for radioactivity.
State officials said similar testing was done in California, Pennsylvania, Washington and other states, and showed comparable levels of I-131 in rain.