Total loss of power for pumps providing fresh water to pools used to cool spent rods caused by a mouse biting a power cord leading to short.

Still only temporary power supply 3 days later, with no clear outlook for any real resolution.

TEPCO still lying through its teeth, delaying reports.

And of course there is the issue of storage of contaminated water, with the on-site capacity almost exhausted and no alternative sites yet confirmed.


It just goes on and on

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disast ... 1303200086

Tepco management represents everything that is wrong with Japanese senior management.

Not a funny topic, but…
On a serious note, all news from the site and Tepco lying doesn't look good, but did they do anything else since the tsunami?

They invested in Corsica. With this and the TDF your next summer is properly f*cked.

Is that an official line?


Poor Japs, like the rest of us they have to put up with ridiculous decisions made by big business and spineless politicos...

I heard a interesting report on the radio last year about the plight of the inhabitants of Iwaishima island and their 30 year struggle to
stop the building of a nuclear power plant... Mental stuff considering how restrained the Japanese are as a society.

I'm actually hoping for the Mother of all storms to pay a visit from June 29th to July 3rd.

This.

Even more accurate: Tepco represents everything that is wrong with Japan.

Tepco has made an industry out of rape fetishism?

Is that serious?!!



I know this isn't a laughing matter, but jesus fecking christ......

But just imagine the size of the mouse after 2 years in Fukushima!

people with old nuclear recactors shouldnt throw stones

so I wont

however I do know for a fact that certain nearby power plants (those with 30m high yet v skinny concrete towers about 40 odd years old), would not cope very well with even a minor earthquake

- the likes of whcih uk gets all the time

Now that's cultural imperialism...

A short term power loss in a cooling pond isn't that big a deal. If it goes on for a longer period, then yes.

Sounds like some sort of cat might be in order, although - as has been pointed out - this gigantic, radioactive, mouse might require a cat of Siberian proportions.

Hmm. UK reactors post the Magnox first generation ones were designed to cope with earthquakes and direct aircraft impacts on the reactor building. "Designed" means that the efficacy of said design hasn't been tested obviously, but it was thought of even 50 years ago.

Size is one thing, but it glows in the dark too

Things begin to go the bad way after 4 days.

There are things you can do. Nukes have numerous failsafes for the cooling ponds, just like anything else.

Problem is, Tepco seems to have "forgotten" said failsafes, like they overlooked all warnings about a possible big tsunami.

I don't remotely believe the media coverage on the whole thing - whether good or bad. Having worked at a nuclear power station I'm well aware of the complete shite they come out with on a routine basis. When the media around the world showed footage of workers frantically trying to repair power lines in to the station, they were apparently completely unaware of the fact that it was the power lines OUT of the station they were filming. They simply have no clue about the matter.

To my eternal shame, I tend to believe the images showing Fukushima completely ravaged by an earthquake and a tsunami, the way huge portions of territory are now off-limits, reports on high radioactivity both offshore and inland, etc.
Unauthorized people, as not belonging to the nuclear energy system, might have no clue, but the world outside nuclear plants is not inhabited by fools only. Having really no clue would be trusting proven liars like Tepco.

I didn't say I trusted them. My (lack of) knowledge of them as an organisation wouldn't lead me to have an opinion either way, so you could well be right about them - I cannot comment. But I do know that the media talk utter shite repeatedly, and so I tend to be sceptical of them. Note that my first post talked about cooling ponds generally, I've made no comment about Tepco for the reasons above.

As an aside, in the UK at least, one of the encouraged staff side projects was for people to try to think up as many ways as possible to cause a nuclear accident, preferably a big one. The point being of course that if you could find a gap in the safety systems, you could plug it.

I was specifically talking about Fukushima and Tepco. Glad to read about UK safety process, I only hope it's not PR drivel like in France.

Noted. By the way, I tend to adopt a shorthand for the safety culture of a particular nation. It's arbitrary, but seems not entirely unreasonable: If their major airlines are safety conscious, then their nuclear power plants are too. So yes, France is fucked.

Tell me something I don't know.

So Kiwias, how many people have died from Fukushima radiation? Is it still zero?

What about the local ecology, like the unintended Chernobyl nature reserves, the wildlife, especially mice, seem to be thriving

the single most common naturally occurring phenomenon in the universe is nuclear energy

It's ok folks don't worry FA says it's fine, after all we are all made of nuclear waste made from supernovas so how could it harm us

It is an oddity that people object to nuclear waste being buried deep underground. Where do they imagine it comes from in the first place?

Nuclear reactors you thick cunt.

No imagination needed :

The Japanese turn black as well?? Bloody broken reactors

Four days was given as the deadline -- they managed to cobble some sort of power source together before that.

But it is purely temporary and the issue of contaminated water storage remains unresolved

350,000 people forcibly evacuated from contaminated areas with no time frame for them to be allowed back to their homes.

Abnormally high levels of radioactivity still being found in fish and other marine life up and down the coast

All agriculture in those areas completely finished for the foreseeable future

But the mice are fine

Yeah. I'd start with fixing the fucking cable!

I know you didnt mean it as such clement but fyi 'Japs' is considered highly derogatory racial term here.. I didnt realise either until I was told here.

Another issue with nuclear power plants here is the issue of whether they are built on top of earthquake fault lines. Two have been confirmed as such -- out of two that have been re-examined.

Surprise, surprise, the electric power company (not TEPCO but they are all basically run in the same manner) responsible tabled falsified examination reports at the time of gaining approval for construction.

The issue here, FA, is not the number of deaths. It is the damage to entire communities and regional economies