Dr. Michio Kaku : Fukushima : From Fashpoint 05-09-12 : Reactor 4

[trainedobserver]

Years ago there was equipment inside a nuclear plant that I had to service. I learned some time later that while I was there one day inside a control room for a reactor that had been shut down for repairs, another reactor that was running was venting radioactive steam (an accident). Jumpers were pacing the room I was in waiting their turn to go in and turn a bolt a couple of times before being pulled out. I didn't pick up on anything unusual happening but it did make me nervous. In fact as I was leaving I had asked my escort, "If there was a real problem you wouldn't tell me would you?" He didn't miss a beat when he said, "No we would not." and then I got to go through the whole, turn in your dose meter, get scanned by guys with meters and sent out into the world. The local paper ran an article a week or so later that radioactive steam had been vented from the plant the day I was there.

Talking with my peers I realized absolutely no one in the office trusted anything that was coming out of the plant and never had. I had inherited the albatross contract of the office. The more I looked into the history of the account and of the plant the more nervous I became. Although no one in the office actually wanted to go near the place I quickly picked up on the fact that I had better shut up or things were going to escalate to some level that would not be good for me. In short, that account went back to only getting attention when something broke. I could have been on my deathbed or in another state and no one would take a call to that place for me. They would just have to wait.

The fuel rod storage problem in the United States isn't any better than it is in Japan.My personal experience and what I have read and seen of late, does not give me a lot of confidence in the nuclear power industry or its spokespeople to be straight with the public about the potential dangers or accidents when they occur.

 

[Kim323]

Years ago there was equipment inside a nuclear plant that I had to service. I learned some time later that while I was there one day inside a control room for a reactor that had been shut down for repairs, another reactor that was running was venting radioactive steam (an accident). Jumpers were pacing the room I was in waiting their turn to go in and turn a bolt a couple of times before being pulled out. I didn't pick up on anything unusual happening but it did make me nervous. In fact as I was leaving I had asked my escort, "If there was a real problem you wouldn't tell me would you?" He didn't miss a beat when he said, "No we would not." and then I got to go through the whole, turn in your dose meter, get scanned by guys with meters and sent out into the world. The local paper ran an article a week or so later that radioactive steam had been vented from the plant the day I was there.

Talking with my peers I realized absolutely no one in the office trusted anything that was coming out of the plant and never had. I had inherited the albatross contract of the office. The more I looked into the history of the account and of the plant the more nervous I became. Although no one in the office actually wanted to go near the place I quickly picked up on the fact that I had better shut up or things were going to escalate to some level that would not be good for me. In short, that account went back to only getting attention when something broke. I could have been on my deathbed or in another state and no one would take a call to that place for me. They would just have to wait.

The fuel rod storage problem in the United States isn't any better than it is in Japan.My personal experience and what I have read and seen of late, does not give me a lot of confidence in the nuclear power industry or its spokespeople to be straight with the public about the potential dangers or accidents when they occur.

I mean this post with the utmost belief that this interpretation of the events is held. I allege nothing at all, but that this interpretation is indeed held. I don't want this to be contentious. My only purpose is to assure people that GeoShift in his post and I in my previous post in this thread are correct as to the safety of nuclear power plants in the United States.

I read this story (and again, I believe that the events happened and that such an interpretation of them is believed) to my son, an engineer with advanced degrees and who has worked as an engineer in fossil fuel and nuclear plants. He is a nuclear systems engineer.

He did chuckle over it, not to be impolite on his part, but that this interpretation of the events is tenuous at best. He said that in American nuclear plants those "jumpers" mentioned are jokingly referred to as "REM sponges," and that they do not exist in the United States. He said that it's a possibility, but a long stretch even there, that on an American submarine in an emergency something like that perhaps could happen, but that even there the likelihood is remote.

My son is an Iraqi veteran also, and trained military personnel in nuclear stuff.

He told me that nuclear power plants are "beyond safe," that ventilation of radioactive steam in his opinion could not have happened as related, with the "jumpers" and the ancillary stuff surrounding the incident. He said that jumpers going in to "turn a bolt a couple of times" sounds fishy to him. He told me there are so many redundant safety features built in that it is unbelievable.

He gave me a lot of detail on every aspect of these events as related, especially of ventilation of steam, and I won't get into it.

I just wanted to point this out to people on the forum who may live near U.S. nuclear power plants, that they don't need to run out and buy potassium iodide! They have nothing to fear! American nuclear power plants are not being run by "bastards" and "lying sacks of skin." It's quite possible that some members live near a nuclear plant, and I don't want them to be panicked over nothing. Kim

 

[pixelsmith]

I don't want this to be contentious. My only purpose is to assure people that GeoShift in his post and I in my previous post in this thread are correct as to the safety of nuclear power plants in the United States.

of course you and your son are correct because you are the smartest and most correct man in the world and he is your offspring!

 

[trainedobserver]

He did chuckle over it, not to be impolite on his part, but that this interpretation of the events is tenuous at best. He said that in American nuclear plants those "jumpers" mentioned are jokingly referred to as "REM sponges," and that they do not exist in the United States.

So I guess what he is telling you is that the employees at the plant, in particular my official escort, lied to me about the repair operation, and the newspaper article was incorrect. I knew nothing of jumpers until people at the plant told me about it. Could they have been lying to me? Certainly but during the bureaucratic b.s. that followed my complaints they at no time denied anything I brought up only that every thing was within "safe limits." Take it or leave it.

He told me that nuclear power plants are "beyond safe," that ventilation of radioactive steam in his opinion could not have happened as related, with the "jumpers" and the ancillary stuff surrounding the incident. He said that jumpers going in to "turn a bolt a couple of times" sounds fishy to him. He told me there are so many redundant safety features built in that it is unbelievable.

I told it like it happened, believe it or not. I related that tale to illustrate my long running distrust of the nuclear industry and those who speak for it.

"bastards" and "lying sacks of skin."

Your continued tendency to find a personal insult in every subject that you can harp on repeatedly borders on the infantile Kim.

If there were no jumpers in that reactor in the 80s then I was lied to not once, but several times by less than admirable fellows (substituted for a less sensitive description) in the nuclear industry at that time. I don't trust the nuclear industry any better now as they have repeatedly lied about Fukushima. Anyone who wants to believe everything is fine and dandy with nuclear energy has my blessing. It must be a nice feeling.

 

[pixelsmith]

I shudder to think Kim has offspring just as pompous as he is.

 

[pixelsmith]

He told me that nuclear power plants are "beyond safe," that ventilation of radioactive steam in his opinion could not have happened as related, with the "jumpers" and the ancillary stuff surrounding the incident. He said that jumpers going in to "turn a bolt a couple of times" sounds fishy to him. He told me there are so many redundant safety features built in that it is unbelievable.

Maybe you and your son should take a trip to Japan and let them know everything is fine.

 

[mike]

Three Mile Island accident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Only an idiot could use the words "beyond safe" when it comes to these things.

Clearly the apple didnt fall far from the tree.

 

[mike]

Fukushima Reactor 4 poses massive global risk | CTV News

Fukushima Reactor 4 poses massive global risk


note the last comment in the comments section.....................

Chris from NB
said​

We don't need to worry about this at all.... God will protect us.

 

[trainedobserver]

 

[mike]

According to U.S. Army General Albert N. Stubblebine (ret.) of the Natural Solutions Foundation, the situation is extremely serious and poses a significant danger to our entire civilization. Since TEPCO and the Japanese government have refused the entombment option (as the Russians did with Chernobyl) the world is at the mercy of nature. A mistake here would cause the deaths of tens of millions of people across the globe.

If there ever existed a threat that could cause the end of the world as we know it, it’s the ongoing and unresolved nuclear saga in Japan:

U.S. Army General: The Whole Northern Hemisphere is at Risk of Becoming Largely Uninhabitable

 

[stonehart]

Thank F**K we banned nuclear power here of the type used overseas... man what a nightmare ... yet for all our isolation we are no better off in the long run when one of these monstrosity's gets out of control.
Pandora's box is open in regards to Fukushima and it is now a matter of time... so thank you greedy corporate world for pissing in the pool we all have to swim in.

 

[mike]

Its not looking good, the japanese are dealing with this with all the acumen of a headless chook
i was reading an article on a japanese farmer whos moved here to australia, because his ancestral property in japan wont be fit to grow rice for 300 years..........

Cookies must be enabled. | The Australian

Catastrophic radiation contamination of the soil means his family won't be able to sow rice on their Iwaki rice paddies, about 60km from the crippled defunct power plant, for at least 300 years.

 

[stonehart]

Its not looking good, the japanese are dealing with this with all the acumen of a headless chook

and we know what happens when a chook gets microwaved.

 

[mike]

Even if nothing else goes wrong, which is unlikely things like this

Catastrophic radiation contamination of the soil means his family won't be able to sow rice on their Iwaki rice paddies, about 60km from the crippled defunct power plant, for at least 300 years.

Means their goose is well and truly cooked

 

[stonehart]

Even if nothing else goes wrong, which is unlikely things like this Means their goose is well and truly cooked

How do you even comprehend that? 300 hundred years!
so what happens if the shit really hits the fan.. where are all those people going to go? or would they even tell them and even then how long until they do?

 

[mike]

Probability of nuclear reactor core meltdown higher than expected | Homeland Security News Wire

San Onofre Nuclear Plant's Tubing Problems May Prompt Review Of Federal Equipment Rules


Feds Cut Nuclear Emergency Exercises, Avoid Public Scrutiny | Enformable


Anyone who thinks these things are "beyond safe" is "beyond stupid"

 

[mike]

How do you even comprehend that? 300 hundred years!
so what happens if the shit really hits the fan.. where are all those people going to go? or would they even tell them and even then how long until they do?

Australia has been colonised for less than that

But to answer the question

It’s so serious, in fact, that the Japanese government has considered and put into place evacuation plans for the whole of Tokyo – some 40 million people. Reports are also emerging that suggest a collapse of the spent fuel pools would be so serious that the entire country of Japan may have to be evacuated. The entire country – that’s 125 million refugees that will cause an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.

 

[stonehart]

Australia has been colonised for less than that

But to answer the question

Like I said before just beyond comprehension .... and you know a large amount of them will head down here.

 

[stonehart]

Thorium reactors... as safe as we can ever get with this form of power generation

 

[mike]

I have nightmares about the navy having to sink and drown them by the millions.
Our infrastructure cant take them, there are more people in just Tokyo than all of Australia combined and our health system would collapse as they needed medical care for radiation induced illness.