Japan says it is in touch with U.S., others on Fukushima water crisis

We will be looking......

No, you should have been looking since day one,

The articles aways seem to say, the disaster caused but the massive earthquake and tsunami.. which isn't entirely correct.. some potentially damage may have been caused but the run away reactions and meltdowns were caused by neglect and lack of safety standards by the company that thus far has been more or less left to their own deal with this international crisis....

well it is better late than never, still they mess up pretty bad, will be laying off sea food from the Pacific Ocean.

The amount of money they going to spend on defense, would be better serve taking care of Fukushima leak right now.

Foreign companies were shut out now Japan is asking for their help. Kind of late isn't it?

Yeah, in touch with an occasional email with the US. It's going to take a lot more than a casual, complacent approach to international help. The gov't needs to be proactive on this on massive international reach for help in solving this crisis.

Still wearing the Tokyo 2020 pin, good to see his priorities are on display.

"A spokesman for the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said no decision had been made on whether to use the technology suggested by overseas experts and declined to provide specifics on those exchanges."

In the middle of a runaway disaster and they have not made a decision about whether they to use technology suggested overseas experts. Since their own expert don't know how to do it what is the purpose of asking overseas experts if you are not going to use technology they suggest. Maybe they are waiting for the next disaster to happen before they decide.

"Motegi said it was too soon for Japan to consider a legal framework that would give the government sole oversight for scrapping the Fukushima reactors."

Why, as the company has already proven that they are incapable of handling the situation? Why delay just taking over and doing whatever is necessary? Have they forgotten this could get much worse easily at any time?

In touch but out of action... the Fukushima crisis we all read about are lies covered by more lies. The only way we can move forward is to have the whole facility contained, buried and covered by loads of concrete. That's probably not in the forecast but there's no hope there anymore. Tanks leaking over concentrated radiated water, that water finding it's way to the ocean is by in no way a joke. What we all read about is only the tip of the iceberg. Just wait everyone.... there's a lot more to come.

I think we can probably encourage the Japanese to accept international help and technology if we propose setting up an international super soldier team.

Each different member comes from a different part of the world, has a different color uniform, is skilled in martial arts and has their own large mecha robot resembling an animal. Then they can all get together, form a large mecha robot and fight the monster Fukushima has caused and clean it up.

Perhaps we can call them..... the Mighty Nuclear Power Rangers

There're all just covering the asses praying to the printing Gods that the people don't wake up. Abenomics, Senkaku were the great distractors. Now the olympics. What's next? Oh yeah, Syria....

Whack a mole?? Yup! But even that does that sounds too good to describe the mess Tokyo Electric has caused up in Fukushima! Tokyo Electric is only tip of the iceberg, we still have Kansai electric, Chubu, Kyushu, Hokkaido etc...

Hope Japan is throwing towel and US has to pick it up now.

Japan refused to get a new GM generator shipment that was on the way to Japan from Florida port right after the 3/11. I have a record of that fact. Japan has been refusing US help. Why now?

Japan was criticized for being slow to seek overseas help in the early stages of the response to the Fukushima disaster two and a half years ago.

Slow is 1 week, 2.5 years is criminal and to come to the conclusion "We don't know what we are doing, help us please".

Japan refused to get a new GM generator shipment that was on the way to Japan from Florida port right after the 3/11.

Right! Also, the very very large cranes. The US had asked a crane manufacturer to divert a delivery of one to..Thailand, I think it was. The US brought it to Japan from Australia with the military and dropped it at the closest US base. Japan refused delivery to Daiichi because they couldn't get the permits to use the roads.

hello is this the IAEA, yes this is Tepco everything is fine we dont need outside assistance as we are very competent and know exactly what were doing. what radioactive water leak, no thats just a small gasket problem we got our local handyman to fix that its all good. what you need to be kept updated on the full details of the ongoing crisis? yes yes we have been doing that, its just our engrish is not so good its just a "lost in translation" problem. we will call you again very soon bye bye.

Sorry, but saying, "There's nothing to worry about" or lying about the situation being under control is hardly 'being in touch'.

@gogogo:

Slow is 1 week, 2.5 years is criminal and to come to the conclusion "We don't know what we are doing, help us please".

I think it should be "we don't.....,do not help us please." because they have declined foreign assistance from day one.

I have been posting in several newsgroups about solutions to these problems.

First and foremost; the cooling problem is secondary to the primary concern for the crippled reactors.

There is a procedure for reducing the cooling requirements; I will paste some of it here from a previous post xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

01/09/2013

These government quackers still haven't the vaguest clue about the real magnitude of this disaster. They allowed the corporate quackers to pretend to be fixing the melted_down reactors, while the real problem mushroomed.

These type of reactors are modeled after the fast breeder design; they incorporate fuel rods, which besides the fissionable material, contain U238 which absorbs neutron radiation and is transformed into Plutonium. This type of breeder reactor increases it's fissionable mass, which increases it's radiation and heat output, which increases it's cooling requirements. It is a losing battle for the corporate quackers and the longer that they have been allowed to pretend at fixing the reactors, the greater the problem the government quackers will inherit. It is absolutely imperative that they begin a proper program to fix the melted_down reactors.

Entombment may be another disaster in the making; these reactors are in a steady increase of radiation and heat output; entombment would be just screwing a cap on a pipe bomb and lighting the fuse. The only feasible course is to begin cycling a boron slurry through the reactors to reduce the heat and radiation output.

Boron is a non_toxic material which has little or no adverse affect on the environment and can absorb a great deal of neutron radiation without becoming appreciably radioactive itself. Boron is used in the "CONTROL RODS" of proper safe reactors. Such control rods are held suspended above their holes in the reactor core and will fall into the core and shut down the reactors when the power is cut. These breeder reactors have no control rods and no failsafe mechanisms. They are disasters waiting to happen.

If a boron pumping system had been implemented at the beginning, they would have only required a few dozen tanks and the radiation would have been reduced a thousandfold. Unfortunately, corporate quackers,are only concerned with saving money. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

There is more; I will include in my next post

Japan says?....insert anything you want. No one believes anything that follows. That is tragic.

This disaster has been left in the hands of mindless corporate profit seekers and equally mindless politicians. The disaster was set up by building the reactor at virtually high tide in a known earthquake and tsunami region where evidence showed that a previous tsunami wiped out a village over 300 feet above tidewater. The puny little seawall that was built to protect the reactor from a tsunami was a ridiculous lie to the Japanese people so that the corporation could maximize profits and the politicians could laud their own good economic sense.

The corporation has allowed this disaster to escalate in order to save money while the politicians quacked mindlessly about their proper actions in this farce.

There is a simple procedure that would allow the opening and and remedial action on the meltdown reactors. It involves the use of Boron slurries pumped into the reactors to slow or halt the nuclear reactions producing the heat and radiation that is preventing the workers and robotic devices from breaking up the critical mass of the fissioning material.

The only solution for this problem, is to break up the fissioning mass and separate the pieces; once the pieces are small enough and separated past the minimal distance, the fission process will decrease or even halt, especially if contained in a boron slurry.

The cost of the boron pumping system would have been expensive to begin with but would have been far cheaper than the cost of the pretend procedure of the corporate quackers and the escalated cooling problem and eventual cleanup costs. There has been no plan or procedure to fix the primary problem which has allowed this disaster to escalate to the point where all available funds are being used for the escalating cooling procedure. These are breeder reactors which incorporate fuel rods containing U238 which is transmuted by neutron radiation into plutonium, which is a higher yield nuclear fuel.

The actual amount of fissionable fuel in these broken reactors is increasing while the control mechanisms are non functional. How long before the heat and radiation output exceeds any possible water cooling system?

Worst case scenario; The most damaged reactor increases it's plutonium to the point where it's output exceeds any water cooling effort; a further melt down occurs which melts and mixes the moderator rods with the fuel rods (moderator rods contain materials which slow down fast neutrons which can then be captured by U238 which transmutes it into Plutonium). Without the moderator material, Plutonium cannot be made; mix the two together and you have uncontrolled production of Plutonium. The heat and radiation output curve will go vertical. The resulting explosion will scatter much radioactive material including plutonium.

This is the primary problem and should have been addressed from day one.

Sorry folks they have done too little and now the Enviourement has been destroyed . Japan is making the Ocean a place where food can no longer be sourced from through radiation. Congratulations now the Fish Rice and Seaweed on my sushi cannot be trusted

mustangpony: The only solution for this problem, is to break up the fissioning mass and separate the pieces; once the pieces are small enough and separated past the minimal distance, the fission process will decrease or even halt, especially if contained in a boron slurry.

Thanks - I'm only familiar with PWRs not BWRs. Are you saying fission is still ongoing in the melted-down cores? I thought the problem was decay heat only.

Photoman; In these breeder reactors, fission is always occurring and is controlled by the moderator rods and the operating water. The moderator rods increase the output by increasing the transmuting of U238 into plutonium which is a much higher yield fuel than U235. What the corporate quackers refer to as a full shut down is simply the withdrawal of the moderator rods from the core, which leaves the reactor at a minimal output which could be as high as 20 per cent of it's max. I have seen no reports or data which shows that there was a full shutdown prior to the tsunami. If indeed there was no full shutdown, there were moderator rods inserted in the core when the tsunami flooded the reactors and shut down all the electrical systems. Even with a full shutdown, the reactors need a large volume of cooling water to remain undamaged; with no cooling, meltdown was a certainty. From what I have seen of the design, the moderator rods are below the fuel rods. Gravity would bring any meltdown into contact with the moderators which would increase the Plutonium output.

This design is a disaster waiting to happen, but what is more disastrous is that the government quackers allowed the corporate quackers to ignore all the advice of nuclear engineers who wanted to build the reactor three hundred feet higher to avoid damage from the worst case scenario; a tsunami such as the one that occurred.The government quackers issued the permits to build this reactor complex at tidewater.

The decay heat is from all the surrounding metals and materials of the reactor that have absorbed radiation and are re-radiating it; the decay heat generally tapers off relatively quickly in a matter of hours or days. it is only a small percentage of the full output of the reactor. It is two and a half years now and the radiation and heat output have increased

mustangpony: The decay heat is from all the surrounding metals and materials of the reactor that have absorbed radiation and are re-radiating it

HUH? NO WAY What are you talking about ? The decay heat is the heat from the radioactive decay of the fission products created by the previous operation of the reactor. If you don't know that then I'm not finding you explanations credible.