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'Scorpion' robot mission inside Fukushima reactor aborted

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Before we get a warm fuzzy glow ( pun not intended) about Fukushima vs Chernobyl, we hould remember that the accident at Fukushima wrecked a number of buildings and the related explosions ejected nuclear material up to a tousand metres away from the plant! And we have to remember that we are fast approaching the 6th anniversary of the accident and still there are massive outpourings of radiation into the environment on a daily basis! Before we get a warm fuzzy glow ( pun not intended) about Fukushima vs Chernobyl, We should remember that the accident at Fukushima wrecked a number of buildings and the related explosions ejected nuclear material up to a tousand metres away from the plant! And to suggest that somehow record amounts of radiation are insignificant due to being in inaccessible places means that there is less danger than if they were in accessible places means what?

The last time I checked radiation spreads and is not confined unless surrounded by secure shielding which is NOT the case at Fukushima.......

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I was hoping that this would work.

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A radiation level of 530 sieverts per hour at Fukushima’s number 2 reactor is a new record at 70% higher than that of Chernobyl.

Except it isn't a new record because 530 sieverts per hour was never measured at Fukushima. And neither was 650 sieverts per hour. Both of those numbers were ESTIMATES based on the effects the radiation caused on the video cameras. They were NOT measurements.

In fact, the 'scorpion' robot, which made it further than the cleaner robot (which found the estimated 530 sieverts per hour), actually DID measure the radiation level and only found 210 sieverts per hour.

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2017/images/handouts_170216_01-e.pdf

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The damage as effect of the tsunami and Earth quake have nothing to do with the nuclear plant, The suggestion was also that the wall to prohobit damage from a tsunami was expected to be 11 metre high. This was acknowledge by the athority.

That means damage of houses etc as effect of the tsunami and needed evacuation in Connection with that have nothing to do with the nuclear plant.

Here is a serious report of the costs for cleaning of nuclear plant €15bn and evacuation €60bn. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2016/03/10/after-five-years-what-is-the-cost-of-fukushima/#2b5864cf6016

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Radiation decays if its there's no fission. Increasing radiation can only mean one thing unless I am missing something here.

Radiation does not decay, radioactive atoms decay. And there is NOT increasing radiation. They had not measured radiation in this area until last week and before that they expected to find radiation levels as high as they did find.

that the levels have spiked to way beyond anything that came out of Chernobyl

Well since at Chernobyl they didn't have equipment that could read beyond about 200 sv/hr, the comparison is kind of pointless.

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No sure of your point... Safecast who have been independently reporting on Fukushima since day one have said that radiation outside of the plant keeps falling. This is higher because it's in an area that's never been tested before. Is it higher than Chernobyl? Probably given that Chernobyl was a mass explosion that spewed massive amounts of radioactive across a huge area causing such contamination that numerous foodstuffs were banned across multiple countries. Which of course is substantially different to what happened at a Fukushima but I'm sure you knew that already.

Though as you don't use fatalities as a reason to define safe... it's no surprise that you keep banging on about how bad this is.

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Heda_Madness: "I'm not doing anything other than merely repeating what Safecast reported."

So, you can downplay it, but you can't admit the truth about it unless it fits the NPP apologists POV. Okay, so, then, you say they knew it would be bad but hadn't been measured before in that area, why did they not, when everything was said to be safe and under control, say, "Well, except in the second reactor -- where we haven't measured yet and know will be bad", but instead have insisted that nuclear power is safe, and TEPCO pushing for more reactors to go online again?

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@Heda - you are correct. This area has not been accessed before and thus the high readings. Technology now is much, much better than existed during the Chernobyl incident so it is not really a valid comparison. It is not possible to determine yet whether readings are increasing or decreasing. More data is needed.

The readings inside the plant (but not in the Reactor Building) are consistently below 15 micro-Sieverts per hour.

Radiation levels near Dai-ichi have stabilized (not necessarily declining anymore).

The accident is a disaster. The corium has breached the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) but the release of radiation is primarily to the ocean.

International experts are helping with the clean up efforts. People from the U.S. and France have been actively engaged in helping at Fukushima Daichi and most agree this is an enormous challenge and a clean up effort unlike any that has ever been tried before.

Entombment of the reactors is difficult as the location of the corium needs to be determined and entombment will not accomplish the desired results if water still passes through the units and then on to the ocean.

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I'm not doing anything other than merely repeating what Safecast reported.

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Heda_Madness: "Because it was in an area that hadn't been accessible before. It's not that difficult to understand."

You're still playing it down and making excuses, bud. Is it higher than Chernobyl or not?

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Dre.

Which international Body would that be? Who has got experience dealing with a Fukushima style disaster?

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Seems like an international body should take over. This reactor should never have been built in Japan. Only pride made it happen there. The billions in possible repair should have been funneled into purchasing energy.

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Because it was in an area that hadn't been accessible before. It's not that difficult to understand.

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A radiation level of 530 sieverts per hour at Fukushima’s number 2 reactor is a new record at 70% higher than that of Chernobyl. Apparently the previous record was 73 sieverts per hour, March 2012

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You notice how much this has been watered down, if it even appears, in the Japanese media? In international media it's been reported for days that the levels have spiked to way beyond anything that came out of Chernobyl and that any exposure by a person to this much radiation for even a minute would have them dead in a week. Not even the robots can hack it, and they don't know where the fuel is or what to do. No news on that, though -- all is 'under control' after all.

Radiation in this area has not been measured before, and it was expected to be extremely high. While 530 Sv/hr is the highest measured so far at Fukushima Daiichi, it does not mean that levels there are rising, but that a previously unmeasurable high-radiation area has finally been measured.

Radiation levels near Daiichi have proven to be steadily declining.

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Radiation decays if its there's no fission. Increasing radiation can only mean one thing unless I am missing something here.

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"Radiation levels inside the reactor were estimated last week at 650 sieverts per hour at one spot, which can effectively shut down robots in hours."

You notice how much this has been watered down, if it even appears, in the Japanese media? In international media it's been reported for days that the levels have spiked to way beyond anything that came out of Chernobyl and that any exposure by a person to this much radiation for even a minute would have them dead in a week. Not even the robots can hack it, and they don't know where the fuel is or what to do. No news on that, though -- all is 'under control' after all.

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The Japanese government said in December that it expects the total costs—including compensation, decommissioning and decontamination—to reach 21.5 trillion yen ($189 billion) in a process likely to take decades as high radiation levels slow operations.

Pretty soon they won't be able to put a price tag on the amount of damage TEPCO and the government has caused because of their incompetent handling of Fukushima. All efforts to try to, at least, hedge and control the damage should've been made early on. Instead of lying to people and promoting tourism to the prefecture, the best thing would've been to reach out and ask for help, if that's what they needed. This is why we have to hold companies to a higher standard; TEPCO management should've been wiped clean a year after.

Fukushima is making a good case to take over Chernobyl's place as one of the worst self-inflicted human disasters in history.

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6 years on and still investigating damage. But they want the world to believe all is safe and people can return to their homes. Even CNN has a nice ad explaining that all is well. Sad, so sad.

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