MP from Fukushima Alleges It May Not Have Been a Hydrogen Explosion on March 12

[flamingdem]

** 10 locals required decontamination, doctor says, due to high levels of radioactivity on their bodies, did the government know about this?


http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/04/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-mp-from.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: MP from Fukushima Alleges It May Not Have Been a Hydrogen Explosion on March 12

If what Takeshi Tokuda, Member of the Lower House (House of Representatives) in the Japanese Diet from Fukushima, says is true, the explosion that blew up the Reactor 1 building roof and side walls may not have been an hydrogen explosion as the government has insisted, but something decidedly more serious.

From his April 17 blog entry (original in Japanese):



Then I heard a startling story from Dr. Oikawa.

On the first hydrogen explosion on March 12 , broken pieces and small stones landed in Futaba-machi, 2 kilometers away from the Plant.

When the hospital checked the radiation level on the people who escaped from around the nuke plant after the explosion, there were more than 10 people whose radiation level exceeded 100,000 cpm , beyond what could be measured by the geiger counter the hospital had.

<100,000 cpm is the new level that the Japanese government set that requires decontamination. Before the Fukushima accident, the level was 6,000 cpm, and on March 12 it was still 6,000 cpm.> MORE AT LINK>>>>>

[flamingdem]

1. Also from SFK: in Japan: Government "Notice" to Scrub Vegetables Before Testing for Radiation

#Radiation in Japan: Government "Notice" to Scrubb Vegetables Before Testing for Radiation

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/04/radiation-in-japan-government-notice-to.html

Professor Kunihiko Takeda of Chubu University says in his April 19 blog post that:

After the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident the government suddenly changed the procedure to measure the radiation level in vegetables, and issued a notice that "the vegetables to be analyzed for radioactive materials should be taken out of the boxes, washed carefully under running water, and then analyzed."

Professor Takeda continues (my quick translation, not necessarily literal):

That caused the total loss of confidence in the safety of the vegetables.

The reason? It is easy to remove the radioactive materials on the vegetables when they are about to be shipped, soon after having been harvested. By the time they reach the consumers, it would be difficult to remove the radioactive materials as they stick fast on the surface or have penetrated inside the vegetables.

You can't trust the radiation level numbers on vegetables and other farm produce announced by the government.

There are people from Fukushima near the nuke plant coming to Tokyo and sell their vegetables saying "see how fresh they look!" That contributes to further loss of confidence.

Why? Because vegetables contaminated with radioactive materials can be very fresh, but being fresh doesn't mean being safe. In the case of mercury poisoning in Minamata, the contaminated fish were consumed as "fresh"MORE AT LINK>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[madokie]

9. Its the same way with anything nuclear

you can't trust them for a second. This isn't a new thing either as they've been lying to us all along, from the get go.

[flamingdem]

10. Formula: take the usual lies and multiply by 10 for the desperation factor nt

[flamingdem]

2. Japanese News Media has their Own "Evacuation" Zone

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/04/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-japanese-msms.html

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Japanese MSM's Own "Evacuation" Zone

I have no way of verifying this. From a tweet by @tosa_suigei:

Japanese news media outlets set their own "evacuation zone" : Asahi Shinbun 50-kilometer radius; Jiji Tsushin 60 kilometers, TV networks (other than NHK) 50 kilometers, NHK 40 kilometers. They have escaped to the safe distance, and have been criticizing freelance journalists and foreign media who have been reporting the danger within the 30-kilometer radius as "demagogues who exaggerate the danger". What horse s--t.

朝日新聞50キロ圏外、時事通信60キロ、民放各局50キロ、NHK40キロ。報道機関が設定した「自主避難区域」である。彼らは早々と安全地帯に逃亡し ておいて30キロ圏内の危険性を報道するフリー記者や外国の報道を危険を煽るデマだと批判してきたのだ。馬のケツの穴のような連中だこいつらは。

I have read that the Japanese media only conducts telephone interviews with people within the 30-kilometer radius while the foreign media (like AP and Reuters) and freelance, Internet-based journalists actually go there. * TAKE NOTE AS THIS RELATES TO CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE PERCEPTION OF THE CATASROPHE IN THE USA VS.IN JAPAN - THEY AREN'T GETTING GOOD REPORTING IT SEEMS Weekly magazines (more like tabloids in the UK and in the US) in Japan seem to have better and more truthful coverage than the daily newspapers and send reporters to the affected areas in Fukushima.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. I checked the MP's blog site

The English translation does match the Japanese.

http://ameblo.jp/tokuda-takeshi/entry-10863321501.html

It is rather disquieting to read about what happened in Futaba-machi. It is not surprising to hear that fragments of the explosion landed a mile away from the plant, since the explosion was powerful enough to destroy the top part of the building.

I don't know if it was a hydrogen explosion or not, but MIT's newspaper has reported it as being a hydrogen explosion.

http://tech.mit.edu/V131/N14/yost.html

[flamingdem]

4. Thanks for checking, I'm sorry this information is coming out so late

but glad that it is so people know what went on.

I realize the pressures the government is under, we had Katrina here, and BP, so I've come to expect a certain amount of cover-up, or incompetence. It's not right but it is understandable.

[bananas]

5. That MIT opinion piece is not a news report

and he even admits he's got a lot wrong.
MIT's nuclear engineering department has taken a BIG credibility hit because all their happy-talk was wrong, and no just this Keith Yost guy.
His "three important claims" are wrong, why are you even linking to this happy-talk opinion piece and calling it a "news report"?

http://tech.mit.edu/V131/N14/yost.html

CORRECTION TO THIS ARTICLE:
Due to editorial deadlines, this column about the nuclear reactors at Fukushima includes a timeline of events only through March 15. Developments between March 15 and the date of publication are not reflected in the column.

Opinion: The back of the envelope
Continuing analysis of the Fukushima crisis
By Keith Yost
STAFF COLUMNIST
March 18, 2011

<snip>

In particular, I made three important claims:

1) Looking back, we will reflect on the events at Fukushima Daiichi as a success, not a failure, of nuclear safety engineering.

2) The risk to the public from radiological releases from Fukushima Daiichi has been and will be effectively zero.

3) It is likely that the none of the fuel at Fukushima Daiichi has been or will become melted.

As an opinion columnist with some 80 or so articles to my name, I’ve had to eat crow before. I don’t like the taste, but I’d rather dine on my words than live the rest of my life making only those predictions that are too vague or distant to ever come back to haunt the predictor. Whether it was speculation on the legislative chances of ObamaCare, the weapons program of Iran, or the suitability of Sarah Palin as a vice presidential candidate, I’ve managed to make a fool of myself in this paper even when I had days to prepare my thoughts.

<snip>

[Art_from_Ark]

6. All the Japanese sources I have seen

are saying it was a hydrogen explosion. For example:

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/science/news/20110408-OYT1T01005.htm

Do you have any reputable sources that say it was an actual nuclear explosion?

Also, did the editorialist say that it wasn't a hydrogen explosion? He apologized for some of the mistaken conjectures he had made, but I did not see anything about a hydrogen explosion there.

[bananas]

7. IIRC, what I've seen questioned where the explosion was or where the hydrogen came from

I don't recall seeing anything say that it was not a hydrogen explosion.
IIRC there have been questions as to whether the explosion was before or after the vent,
and whether it came from the core or spent fuel rods.
I'll have to recheck what I've read and see if I can find more details.
Not sure if I'll have that tonight.

[Art_from_Ark]

8. In the original post, there was an assertion by a Japanese MP

that the hydrogen explosion may have actually been something more serious. I checked the original Japanese of the MP's blog site and confirmed that was, indeed, what he was contending. It could be that he is sick of the lies and just doesn't believe anything anymore, which is understandable, especially since he's from a severely affected area. It could be that he doesn't understand how a hydrogen explosion could propel fragments a mile or more away. Of course, natural gas and other types of explosions in the US have been known to hurl debris far away from the explosion site.

As regarding the site of the explosions, there was an MIT paper (not an editorial, an actual academic paper) put out around March 15 which purportedly explained the cause of the explosions. I found it once but can't locate it again. That is actually why I posted the MIT piece here, because I was looking for the the academic paper and that was what I could find at the time.

[FBaggins]

11. Yes... the government (and we) "knew about this"

The "reporting" here is a little off (possibly poor translation), but we did discuss those contamination checks back on 3/13

<100,000 cpm is the new level that the Japanese government set that requires decontamination. Before the Fukushima accident, the level was 6,000 cpm, and on March 12 it was still 6,000 cpm.>

I don't know whether it's "new" in Japan, but it's the standard we've used here in the states for many years (assuming a radiological event over course).

As for "not a hydrogen explosion", what else are you considering as "decidedly more serious"? At one point, steam was considered a possibility, but that wouldn't be any worse than the hydrogren explosion (and likely less serious) unless it was a steam explosion from within the reactor itself. Since #1 continues to hold pressure, that's not really possible.

[Art_from_Ark]

12. It was the MP from Fukushima Prefecture who was questioning

the hydrogen explosion. The information is from his blog, and the translation is correct.