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Contaminated Fluid Spills From Japanese Nuclear Plant
Roughly 15 tons of radiation-tainted fluid has escaped into the earth from a container at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the nation’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said on Tuesday (see GSN, June 27).
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power indicated it was looking into the source of a container rupture, which was discovered on Tuesday and then patched, Reuters reported.
Plant personnel have battled to prevent radioactive contaminants from escaping the six-reactor Fukushima facility following a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 20,000 people dead or missing in Japan. Radiation releases on a level not seen since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster have already forced the evacuation of about 80,000 residents from a 12-mile ring around the facility.
Separately, workers on Tuesday resumed operation of equipment deployed recently at the site for treating contaminated liquid, Tokyo Electric Power representative Junichi Matsumoto said.
The firm has pumped water into the facility on an ongoing basis in an effort to cool components, resulting in Read more…
Indonesia Hit By Strong Earthquake, Latest On Ring Of Fire
Indonesia was hit by a large earthquake and a series of strong tremors Sunday afternoon. A 6.5 magnitude quake, the latest in string of strong quakes to hit the Pacific Ring if Fire region during the last week, struck the country’s easternmost Province of Papua 1.16 p.m. GMT.
The quake was centred 53 kilometres (33 miles) northeast of Waren, a town on the northern coast of Papua island, according to Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency. It was also felt in nearby Biak island, and Enarotali town on the main island The U.S. Geological Survey put the initial quake’s magnitude at 6.4.
The region was hit by at least moderate tremors in the following hours. The tremors measured 5.4 (x2), 5, 4.5 and 4.3 on the Richter Scale. There were no immediate reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued.
Papua comprises most of the Read more…
Japan’s Stealth Fighter Gambit
Tokyo seems poised to spend billions developing the country’s first homegrown stealth warplane. But is the Shinshin really meant for military service?
Michio Kaku Fukushima They Lied to Us 22 June 2011
Number Of Recorded Earthquakes Rises Sharply
2011 is on target to record the largest number of earthquakes in a single year for at least 12 years.
Research by Irish Weather Online, using data from the US Geological Survey (USGS), has found that earthquake activity (5.0-9.9 magnitude) from 01 January to 19 June 2011 is already exceeding the total annual seismic activity for the years 2001, 2002 and 2003. 2011’s total number of recorded earthquakes is also expected to exceed the most seismically active year of the past 12 years, 2007.
A total of 1,445 earthquakes, ranging in magnitude from 5.0 to 9.9, have been recorded in the year up to 19 June. The total number of earthquakes recorded globally for the entire of 2007 was 2,270.
The massive earthquakes in Japan (2011), Chile (2010), Sichuan (2008), Sumatra (2005 and 2008) and Indonesia (2004) have served to remind us of the devastating impact of earthquakes on life and property. While the number of earthquakes ranging Read more…
China, Russia ties on sound base
Sino-Russian relations are usually wrapped in high-sounding rhetoric, but they are essentially very pragmatic. For China, Russia is a geopolitical “safe rear” and, in economic terms, a major resource base. For Russia, China is a huge market just across the border and a valuable geopolitical partner. The fundamentals of the relationship are solid and not likely to change in the short or medium term.
When President Hu Jintao visits Russia on Wednesday, he and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will duly celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation between the two countries. But the main expectation this time will be the finalization of the 30-year agreement, under which Russia will supply China with 68 billion cubic meters of gas annually over the next 30 years from 2015.
When finalized, the agreement will strengthen China’s energy security and diversify Russia’s gas exports. Until now, the principal issue between the two countries has been the price of Russian gas for China. Gazprom wanted it to be as close to the lucrative European Read more…
NIA Releases U.S. Economic and Inflation Update
The official U.S. unemployment rate rose during the month of May to 9.1%, up from 9% in April, with only 54,000 non-farm jobs being created for the month. The real unemployment rate including short and long-term discouraged workers is now 22.3%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) used the birth/death model to produce a positive monthly bias during the month of May of 206,000 jobs, up from 175,000 in April, 117,000 in March, and 112,000 in February. Without the birth/death model, 152,000 jobs were lost during the month of May.
By utilizing the birth/death model, the BLS is assuming that during the month of May, the number of new jobs created by start-up businesses were 206,000 greater than the number of jobs lost from companies going out of business. NIA finds this assumption to be Read more…
Plutonium Found Outside Fukushima Plant
Minute amounts of plutonium have been detected for the first time in soil outside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Shinzo Kimura of Hokkaido University collected the roadside samples in Okumamachi, some 1.7 kilometers west of the front gate of the power station. They were taken during filming by NHK on April 21st, one day before the area was designated as an exclusion zone.
Professor Masayoshi Yamamoto and researchers at a Kanazawa University laboratory analyzed the samples and found minute amounts of 3 kinds of plutonium.
The samples of plutonium-239 and 240 make up a total of 0.078 becquerels per kilogram.
This is close to the amount produced by past atomic bomb testsBut the 3 substances are most likely to have come from the plant blasts, as their density ratio is different from those detected in the past.
Professor Yamamoto said the quantities are so minute that people’s health will not be harmed.
But he recommended that the contamination near the plant should be fully investigated, saying that a study may shed light on how radioactive materials spread in the air.
Volcano expert fears we’ll see a super eruption
Volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer yesterday warned there was a one-in-500 chance of the world being hit by a super- volcano this century.
The reader in vulcanology at Cambridge University told a Hay audience: “That might not sound like much, but it is a lot more likely than an asteroid impact.
“The events in Japan remind us that you can have a tsunami and earthquake and a nuclear plant there as well and you can have these chain reaction events that are actually quite calamitous and they are not unimaginable.”
Examining geological, historical and archeological records, the expert took the audience on a journey back to three volcanic eruptions that have shaken the world – the 1815 Tambora volcano in Indonesia that Read more…
Oil spill, explosion hit crippled Japan nuclear plant
International Atomic Energy Agency fact-finding team leader Mike Weightman inspects Reactor Unit 3 at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, May 27, 2011. (AP Photo/IAEA)
TOKYO (AP) – An oil spill and a small explosion have caused limited damage – but no further radiation leaks – at the crippled nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan, the plant operator said Tuesday.
Workers at Fukushima Dai-ichi plant found an oil spill in the sea near reactors five and six, which were in shutdown when the earthquake and tsunami struck March 11, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. The spill was contained by an oil fence, TEPCO spokesman Taichi Okazaki said.
The explosion workers heard at reactor four was Read more…
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