Japan feared aftershocks at nuclear plant, report shows

Well, duh. So did everyone else.

Wow... it took them months to know what a child could have pointed out. Great job TEPCO! The better question is that since they knew about it, what have they done to prevent an aftershock creating such disaster? My guess? nothing. The execs probably left it to someone else while they ran away with stomache problems, and those 'in control' were left with nothing from above and have had to save the company with the actions they don't get credit for.

another no news story to feed into the fukushima press mill

This article makes it sound like they are out of the woods. The horse has already bolted from the barn. They have had 3 reactors MELT THROUGH into the ground and they are still steaming radiation into the air, ground and ocean.

We cannot know the true extent of the damage to the spent fuel pool at reactor #4 and I do not expect we will get the real information if it is bad.

We all fear a nuclear bomb because of the explosion and then radioactive fallout. When will people realize that Japan was nuked on an epic scale way beyond Hiroshima or Nagasaki starting in March and still ongoing. West coast North America is getting their share as well but even more so the ocean.

The near worst has already happened (outside of the melted fuel, corium, hitting the water table and blowing sky high).

ssway

They have had 3 reactors MELT THROUGH into the ground

Putting it in ALL CAPS doesn't make that statement any more correct. Let's stick to facts and not lies, OK?

When will people realize that Japan was nuked on an epic scale way beyond Hiroshima or Nagasaki starting in March and still ongoing.

Like this. ~250,000 people died as a direct result of 6 and 9 August, 1945. Tens if not 100's of thousands died from the later after effects. Total death toll from Fukushima Daiichi - 3, all workers, none as a direct result of the radiation. This will surely increase over the next 30 years but to compare it to Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings is completely and utterly ludicrous, not to mention horribly disrespectful to the hibakusha.

West coast North America is getting their share as well

Oh cmon. West coast of America got measurable traces, that's all. This is an ocean problem and a Japan problem.

Yet another....now they tell us moment!

We already figured all this out months ago here on JT.

In fact there is more detail to the above story, (such as many of the fuel rods in Pool #4 are live/active, not spent, they are all packed together in dangerously close proximity, and there is MOX, thus plutonium in that pool.)

The only thing newsworthy here is that JNES have finally confirmed some of the facts we already knew.

Any of us who KNEW wrote the same MONTHS ago, half a year ago. Just check our posts to prove as such.

@Zichi: Very possibly from the fires at No 4 storage pool, too.

I have to sympathize with the Japanese a little on this one. They have been faced with an unprecedented task and have no idea what to do about it. Yeah, they are naive and, to a certain extent, ignorant, but shutting down these reactors is not like turning off a toaster. Sadly, there have been many offers from international agencies to help shut down this debacle, but they have been refused. The French wanted to send 20 specialists in to shut down the plant, but the were denied. The radiation is contained to a specific area and it has been evacuated. Of course, there are hot spots triggering hysteria within the society, but if you are outside the exclusion zone you are not in danger of contracting any form of radiation sickness. You may be exposed to a small amount of radiation from different sources, but it is not dangerous. The risk is higher having two or three X-rays a year.

Didn't TEPCO keep saying that everything was under control ? LOL i guess it doesn't matter since most people don't trust what they say

Thanks for the images, zichi.

Looks like they need to send in a pooper-scooper and drop some of those hot bits back into a spent fuel pool or somewhere to cover them and cool them down.

zichi Oct. 17, 2011 - 12:38AM JST

I don't know what you mean by "shut down"? It will take more than 10 years to deal with the plant. In Tokyo there's an international team of nuclear experts, scientists, engineers working on the plant problems. Decommissioning will take at least 20 years, maybe longer?

Probably means "cold shutdown", where the temperature of the coolant water inside the reactors is below 100 degrees centigrade. More here: http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/IT-Fukushima_units_near_cold_shutdown-2909114.html

The plant can't just be shut down. No one has tried to remove melted fuel (corium) before. Technically, all the reactors have shut down.

Well, not producing power anyway.

Many good comments, thumbs up from the bottom of my heart to all of those who are still here in Japan, and trying to get along with our lives in spite of the idiots at Tepco.

While the plants may have reached "cold shutdown" status (and the jury is still out on how you determine that when the rods are no longer where they're supposed to be or in the form they're supposed to be), this article addresses the danger to the spent fuel pools. Those can go "hot" quickly if the pool gets cracked and loses coolant. Number four is of particular concern because in addition to the spent fuel, the pool also has the ACTIVE fuel that was in the reactor prior to it coming down for maintenence. Ponderous. Freaking PONDEROUS, man!