Good morning from Budapest (yes, really Debbie R). I'm having some trouble staying connected, so posts may be short and sweet.Labels: earthquake, Fukushima nuclear power plant, Iranian nuclear program
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:52 AM
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Could there be a connection between the crisis over Japan's nuclear facilities and Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon? Several weeks before the Fukushima accident, Japanese deputy minister for foreign affairs Bessho Koro visited Tehran to meet with Iranian Foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi and carry the message of a pro-Iran Japan (after all, if it's profitable, why not?):Hmmm. Read the whole thing.The Japanese deputy foreign minister said Japan supports Iran's nuclear energy program and added that Iran has the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. He went on to say that Tokyo is determined to develop ties with Tehran. Salehi and Koro also discussed the latest regional developments and called for the expansion of cooperation between the two countries in all spheres.What exactly are the latest regional developments? Iran suppressing democratic protests? The threat of Iranian-funded terrorism taking hold in the new chaos facing the Middle East? Gaza firing Iranian rockets on Israel? Where exactly are the regional developments that create an environment conducive between anything resembling the 21st-century world with one of the most oppressive and unstable regimes on the planet?!
And here's what was in the works last February (via Israel Matzav):
Politico: Japan emerges as key player on IranUnder the alleged compromise fuel swap deal that Japanese diplomats quietly briefed U.S. officials on earlier this month, some 70% of Iran’s low enriched uranium stockpile would be moved to Japan, according to what one Washington source, speaking anonymously, was told by the Japanese. Japan would then take responsibility for the stockpile, and ensure the delivery to Iran of fuel rods for nuclear medical use.If there were any plans in the works for Japan to supply Iran with fuel rods for "medical use", the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis "wiped them off the face of the earth", so to speak. In the Politico article, there's an interesting fact mentioned that creates an eerie connection between the future of Egypt and the latest nuclear crisis:
Labels: earthquake, Fukushima nuclear power plant, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, Japan, tsunami
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:28 PM
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DigitalGlobe has released a new commercial satellite image of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear site in Japan taken at 10:55AM local time on March 17, 2011. Steam continues to vent out of the top of the Unit 3 reactor building. Steam also appears to be continuing to vent out of the side of the Unit 2 reactor building.Hmmm.
The roof of the Unit 4 reactor building appears different than it did in the March 16, 2011 image. While the paneling on the roof of the building appears intact in the March 16, 2011 image, it appears that only the skeleton of the roof frame is left in the March 17, 2011 image. While it is possible that the varying angles of the images is affecting the appearance, the difference appears significant enough to indicate a structural change. It is unclear how the roof structure changed. With only a skeleton frame on the roof, it may be easier to deliver water to the spent fuel pond to Unit 4 from above.
Labels: earthquake, Fukushima nuclear power plant, Japan, tsunami
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:39 AM
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Dr. Michael Allen, an expert on nuclear reactor meltdowns, talks about some of the worst case scenarios in Japan (Hat Tip: Instapundit). The worst of the worst could come if Japan can't come up with a way to sufficiently cool down the reactor fuel cores. That has reportedly become increasingly difficult with workers evacuating the sites -- at least temporarily -- because of high radiation fields.I've heard a lot of reports of Japan using helicopters to get water into the reactors and cool their cores. What I don't understand is why they're not using the water-tanker planes that were used for the Haifa forest fire here a few months ago.
"These things play out over a long period of time, longer than people would think," Allen said. "You have an earthquake that lasts maybe a minute, a tsunami that lasts maybe 15 minutes. But these things could go on for months. You could lose all six of the reactors."
If workers are unable to get additional cooling water into the reactor vessel, the molten fuel core will collapse into the water in bottom of the vessel. Eventually the heat from the decaying fuel would boil away the water that's left, leaving the core sitting on the vessel's lower head made of steel.
Should that happen, "It'll melt through it like butter," Allen said.
That, in turn, would cause a "high-pressure melt injection" into the water-filled concrete cavity below the reactor. Because the concrete would likely be unheated, the reaction created by the sudden injection of the reactor's ultra-hot content would be immense, he said.
"It'll be like somebody dropped a bomb, and there'll be a big cloud of very, very radioactive material above the ground," Allen said, noting that it would contain uranium and plutonium, as well as the fission products.
Should these events happen, the best outcome would be if the winds are blowing east and push the radioactive plume over the Pacific Ocean, he said. "It (the radioactivity) will fall out in the ocean and everything will be fine," he said.
The worst case, Allen said, would be if winds pushed a radioactive cloud south toward Tokyo and Japan's highly populated cities. If that were to happen, he said, the consequences would likely be greater than the 1986 accident at Chernobyl, where an entire area of Ukraine had to be evacuated because of the radioactive conditions that increased the risk of developing cancer.
Should these events happen, the best outcome would be if the winds are blowing east and push the radioactive plume over the Pacific Ocean, he said. "It (the radioactivity) will fall out in the ocean and everything will be fine," he said.
The worst case, Allen said, would be if winds pushed a radioactive cloud south toward Tokyo and Japan's highly populated cities. If that were to happen, he said, the consequences would likely be greater than the 1986 accident at Chernobyl, where an entire area of Ukraine had to be evacuated because of the radioactive conditions that increased the risk of developing cancer.
Labels: earthquake, Fukushima nuclear power plant, Japan, nuclear meltdown, tsunami
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:45 PM
3 comments
A cable released by Wikileaks discloses that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned of danger to Japanese nuclear facilities that were only built to withstand magnitude 7 earthquakes on the Richter scale. The IAEA official told a meeting of the G8's Nuclear Safety and Security Group in Tokyo in 2008 that Japan's safety guidelines were outdated, the cable said.Over at Pajamas Media, Roger Simon considers and quickly rejects the prospect that what happened in Japan will have any effect on Iran's nuclear ambitions.
According to the cable, the official raised concern that safety guidelines for seismic safety were only revised three times in the last 35 years.
"Also, the presenter noted recent earthquakes in some cases have exceeded the design basis for some nuclear plants, and that this is a serious problem that is now driving seismic safety work," the cable noted.
Not surprisingly, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the man who informed us that there are no homosexuals in Iran, insists that their reactors are modern and earthquake proof (if not resistant to Israeli computer viruses), even though Wikipedia reminds us:There are six Arab capitals (Kuwait, Riyadh, Manama, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Muscat) that are closer to the Bushehr nuclear plant than Tehran is. I wonder if their rulers are willing to sacrifice their people for Iran's apocalyptic vision.Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, being crossed by several major fault lines that cover at least 90% of the country. As a result, earthquakes in Iran occur often and are destructive.They list nine Iranian earthquakes of 5.9 or above since 2002, all of which had fatalities and one of which — the 2003 Bam quake — claimed at least 30,000 lives.
With their overweening nuclear ambitions, the mullahs are as likely to blow up their own citizens (and plenty of them) as anybody else, given how things are going. Not that they would care. It’s all part of the chaos, don’t you know? And they evidently think their time — the Mahdi’s time — actually has come.
Labels: earthquake, Fukushima nuclear power plant, IAEA, Iran
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:20 AM
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Ouch.Labels: earthquake, Fukushima nuclear power plant, Japan, tsunami
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:42 AM
1 comments
I had a friend growing up who was a lot more handy than I was. He was constantly making things for his parents' house - mostly out of wood but also out of other materials. We used to joke that whenever we went to visit him, he would take us on a "see this? I made it" tour of his house.As the world continues to gaze with concern at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant, hi-tech security cameras installed by an Israeli defense firm are recording events at the troubled core from an insider’s vantage point.Keep that in mind the next time someone suggests to you that we ought to be boycotting Israel.
The Arava-based Magna BSP company, which specializes in producing and installing stereoscopic sensory and thermal imaging cameras, had been contracted to place cameras around one of the plant’s six cores – the core that has been experiencing explosions and overheating.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Monday, Magna’s head, Haim Siboni, said the thermal cameras also had the ability to detect the presence of radioactive clouds in the air, but added that Magna had not been able to gain access to the images recorded by the cameras at this time.
“Because we are using these special cameras, we can also identify radioactive clouds, due to the spectrum that our cameras can sense,” Siboni said.
Although Magna is able to gain remote access to its computer system, which receives the cameras’ images, Siboni said his company had not yet been authorized to do so.
“We have not been allowed to take control remotely yet,” Siboni said.
Labels: Fukushima nuclear power plant, Magna BSP company, stereoscopic sensory cameras, thermal imaging cameras
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:43 PM
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Japanese authorities said Sunday that efforts to restart the cooling system at one of the reactors damaged by Friday's earthquake had failed, a major setback in the struggle to contain what has become the most serious nuclear power crisis in a quarter century.Read the whole thing.
Officials said utility workers released "air containing radioactive materials" in an effort to relieve pressure inside the reactor, even as they raced to bring several other imperiled reactors under control.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said officials were acting on the assumption that a meltdown could be underway at that reactor, Fukushima Daiichi's unit 3, and that it was "highly possible" that a meltdown was underway at Fukushima Daiichi's unit 1 reactor, where an explosion destroyed a building a day earlier.
Hours before he spoke, authorities began evacuating more than 200,000 residents from a 12.5-mile radius around Fukushima Daiichi and another nuclear power complex, made preparations to distribute potassium iodide pills, and warned people in the vicinity to stay inside and cover their mouths if they ventured outdoors.
Federal safety agency officials said that as many as 160 people had been exposed to radiation from the plants. "Only the gravest danger would justify an evacuation at such a moment," said Peter Bradford, a former commissioner at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
...
The Nuclear Energy Institute said that the incident at Fukushima Daiichi had been given a rating of 4 on its 7-point International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, lower than the 5 earned by the 1979 Three Mile Island incident in Pennsylvania and the 7 earned by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
But many experts said it was too early to reach conclusions while new information was emerging.
Labels: earthquake, Fukushima nuclear power plant, Japan, tsunami
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:45 AM
1 comments
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
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