Desdemona Despair

April 30 (VOA News) –A key Japanese adviser on radiation leaks at the country's disabled Fukushima nuclear power facility has quit in protest over the government's handling of the disaster.

The adviser, Toshiso Kosako, a radiation safety expert at the University of Tokyo, said the government-set limits for radiation exposure at schools near the nuclear site are too high. At a tearful news conference late Friday, Kosako said he could "not allow this as a scholar."

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan appointed Kosako to advise the government after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. In quitting his position, Kosako criticized the government for what he said is its "impromptu" handling of the crisis and slow pace of bringing the nuclear facility's radiation leaks under control. …

Japanese Radiation Adviser Quits in Rebuke to Government

[Keep in mind that 250 millisieverts/year is the maximum radiation dose allowed by Japan. Every 100-millisievert exposure increases the risk of cancer by about 1%.]

By arevamirpal::laprimavera
30 April 2011

2 workers exceeded 200 milli-sieverts: This number is the total of external and internal exposures, as of the end of March. The reason why TEPCO is now announcing? Well TEPCO didn't know, because they couldn't use the whole-body counters that measure the internal radiation at Fukushima I Nuke Power Plant.

Why couldn't the whole-body counters be used? (There are 4 of them at Fukushima I.)

Another Mainichi article (in Japanese, 4/30/2011) explains that there was no power at the plant until the end of March so the counters couldn't be used. By the time the power was finally restored, the air radiation level at the plant had gotten so high that the measurement was rendered irrelevant; even when the radiation was detected by the whole-body counter, they couldn't distinguish between the internal radiation exposure level and the environmental radiation level. TEPCO finally moved the workers who exceeded 100 milli-sieverts to its Iwaki-City facility and measured the internal radiation there, with the help of Japan Atomic Energy Agency.

If TEPCO was so disorganized and rattled with the on-going crisis at Fukushima I and wasn't paying enough attention for the radiation safety for the workers, wasn't it the government's responsibility to ensure the safety of the workers by arranging for the whole-body counters and doing the testing, much, much sooner?

(Oh I forgot. This is the government who said it was basically TEPCO's problem to find enough food, water and blanket for the workers, while it stood by, saying it regretted the situation.)

So it suddenly occurred to the government and TEPCO after 6 weeks that they could take the workers off-site and have them tested?

Just criminal.

Mainichi Shinbun reports the news, but no other major newspapers like Yomiuri or Asahi do. Or maybe they do but I can't readily find the news as they are busy with the British royal wedding. …

３月末までに１００ミリシーベルトを超える外部被ばくをした２１人について、優先的に内部被ばくを測定した。２００ミリシーベルトを超えた作業員 は、３月２４日に３号機のタービン建屋で電源復旧作業中に被ばくし、病院に搬送された３人の協力会社社員のうちの２人。最も被ばく線量が高かった作業員 は、外部被ばく２０１．８ミリシーベルト、内部被ばく３９ミリシーベルトで、計２４０．８ミリシーベルトだった。現在、残る１人の作業員と共に同原発での 作業はしていない。

TEPCO measured the internal radiation exposure of the 21 workers whose external radiation exposure exceeded 100 milli-sieverts by the end of March. The two workers whose total radiation exposure exceeded 200 milli-sieverts are two of the three workers from TEPCO's affiliate companies who were irradiated in the Reactor 3 turbine building [in the highly radioactive water] on March 24 as they were performing the electrical work to restore the power and were sent to hospital. One of them suffered 201.8 milli-sieverts external exposure, and 39 milli-sieverts internal exposure, the total 240.8 milli-sieverts. The two workers no longer work at Fukushima I Nuke Plant.

２１人のうち、合計２００～１５０ミリシーベルトが８人、１５０～１００ミリシーベルトは１１人だった。

Of 21 workers [who exceeded 100 milli-sieverts], 8 had 150 to 200 milli-sieverts, 11 had 100 to 150 milli-sieverts. [And 2 exceeded 200 milli-sieverts.] …

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: 2 Workers Exceeded 200 Milli-Sieverts

By Roger Harrabin Environment analyst, BBC News
15 April 2011

Air pollution is damaging 60% of Europe's prime wildlife sites in meadows, forests and heaths, according to a new report.

A team of EU scientists said nitrogen emissions from cars, factories and farming was threatening biodiversity.

It's the second report this week warning of the on-going risks and threats linked to nitrogen pollution.

The Nitrogen Deposition and Natura 2000 report was published at a key scientific conference in Edinburgh.

Earlier this week, the European Nitrogen Assessment - the first of its kind - estimated nitrogen damage to health and the environment at between £55bn and £280bn a year in Europe, even though nitrogen pollution from vehicles and industry had dropped 30% over recent decades.

Nitrogen in the atmosphere is harmless in its inert state, but the report says reactive forms of nitrogen, largely produced by human activity, can be a menace to the natural world.

Emissions mostly come from vehicle exhausts, factories, artificial fertilisers and manure from intensive farming.

The reactive nitrogen they emit to the air disrupts the environment in two ways:

It can make acidic soils too acidic to support their previous mix of species.

But primarily, because nitrogen is a fertiliser, it favours wild plants that can maximise the use of nitrogen to help them grow.

In effect, some of the nitrogen spread to fertilise crops is carried in the atmosphere to fertilise weeds, possibly a great distance from where the chemicals were first applied.

The effects of fertilisation and acidification favour common aggressive species like grasses, brambles and nettles.

They harm more delicate species like lichens, mosses, harebells and insect-eating sundew plants.

The report said 60% of wildlife sites were now receiving a critical load of reactive nitrogen. …

Air pollution 'damaging Europe's wildlife havens' via Wit's End

By arevamirpal::laprimavera
29 April 2011

After the pressure inside the Containment Vessel of the Reactor 1 dropped down very, very close to the atmospheric pressure, TEPCO decided to stop the experiment of pumping extra water into the Pressure Vessel of the Reactor 1.

The idea was to pump extra water into the Pressure Vessel, which then would leak extra water into the Containment Vessel, which then would be filled with water to the level that's high enough to cool the fuels inside the Pressure Vessel.

For now, the idea of turning the "unintended" water entombment into the "intended" is out.

Snippets from Asahi Shinbun (9:58PM JST 4/29/2011):

東京電力は２９日、福島第一原発１号機の格納容器に水を充填（じゅうてん）する「水棺」の試験のため毎時１０トンに増やしていた注水量を元の６トンに戻した。温度や圧力が下がったためで、引き続き様子をみる。

On April 29 TEPCO reduced the amount of water being injected to the Reactor 1 [Pressure Vessel] from 10 tonnes/hr back to 6 tonnes/hr for the "water entombment" experiment to fill the Containment Vessel with water, because the temperature and the pressure dropped [more than expected]. TEPCO will continue to observe the changes. …

It was good that the temperature dropped, but the pressure drop was the Murphy.

Here are the precise numbers for the Containment Vessel dry well pressure (from the Plant Parameter sheets from NISA, the latest is linked). It did come awfully close to the atmospheric pressure:

1 atmospheric pressure = 0.1013 MPa
April 29 11:00AM: 0.105 MPa
April 28 5:00AM: 0.125 MPa
April 27 5:00AM: 0.155 MPa (when the experiment started)

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Murphy Wins, TEPCO Stops "Water Entombment" Experiment on Reactor 1

By Parija Kavilanz, senior writer
28 April 2011

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) – Wal-Mart's core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.

"We're seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure," Duke said at an event in New York. "There's no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact."

Wal-Mart shoppers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, typically shop in bulk at the beginning of the month when their paychecks come in.

Lately, they're "running out of money" at a faster clip, he said.

"Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month even more than last year," Duke said. "This end-of-month [purchases] cycle is growing to be a concern.

Wal-Mart, which averages 140 million shoppers weekly to its stores in the United States, is considered a barometer of the health of the consumer and the economy.

To that end, Duke said he's not seeing signs of a recovery yet.

With food prices rising, Duke said Wal-Mart is charging customers more for some fresh groceries while reducing prices on other merchandise such as electronics.

Wal-Mart has struggled with seven straight quarters of sales declines in its stores. …

Wal-Mart: Our shoppers are 'running out of money'

April 27 (SWNS) -- The source of the River Thames has dried up after the UK experienced the lowest recorded rainfall in March since 1929.

The Thames head spring in Trewsbury Mead near Cirencester, Glos., has stopped flowing after the driest March in more than 80 years.

It was fed from deep underground and joins with the River Churn to make up the waters of the Thames that stretches for 215 miles (346 km).

But a stone placed in the meadow three miles south of Cirencester to mark the source of the infamous river is as dry as a bone.

Experts are warning that the lack of rainfall is likely to lead to hosepipe bans and the possibility of droughts through the summer.

The Met Office reported that the average rainfall in England from 1 to 29 March was just 13.3 mm – just a fifth of the average for the whole month of 66.6mm.

Provisional figures make it the driest since 1929 – when there was no measurable rain until the 24 March and a total of 7.8 mm was recorded for the entire month. …

River Thames source dries up via Democratic Underground

Forty years of wandering from bad decisions to neglect have done terrible damage to the lowest place on earth

By Shuki Sadeh
28 April 2011

Short-term thinking. Unthinking optimism - "everything will work out." Putting off hard decisions, selling national assets for peanuts, and first and foremost, of course, a lack of governance. These are the factors behind the ecological monster that is the Dead Sea, which is about to flood the hotels built in the Ein Bokek oasis.

After one High Court ruling, two biting reports by the state comptroller and any number of warnings about the gravity of the situation, the government is supposed to finally make decisions. It has to decide how to rescue one of Israel's most important tourism destinations, the lowest place on earth. After 20 years of foot-dragging, it has to decide how best to stop the rising level of the sea's southern half from swamping the hotels.

Last Thursday, hearing a petition by the Dead Sea Hotels Association, Supreme Court Justice Eliezer Rivlin voiced concern that the state had its own ideas about the pace of things. The state's representative asked not to be forced to make a decision before May. "Madam said May but didn't say which year," gibed Justice Asher Grunis. In any case, the court gave the state until August to make some decisions.

Dr. Yaakov Nir, a geologist who has been monitoring the Dead Sea's condition for years, finds the situation unacceptable. "Many absurd things have happened over the years, and sadly, the stupid ideas continue," Nir says. "I don't know if it's corruption or something else, but I'm sure it isn't wisdom. When experts come from abroad and see what we've done to the Dead Sea beaches, they ask why we did this to ourselves." …

Israel's ignoring of nature was the root of the evil behind the damaging of the Dead Sea. Israel built its main water conduit from north to south in the 1950s. At the time this was hailed as progress; only later came recognition of the tremendous damage it caused. Since the national conduit redirected water to central Israel, it all but eliminated the flow of natural water down the Jordan River south of Lake Kinneret. Israel's neighbors Syria and Jordan diverted the course of the Jordan and Yarmouk rivers too. The upshot was that during the 20th century, the Dead Sea fell 25 meters.

Also to blame for the drop in sea level is the Dead Sea Works, owned by Israel Chemicals (ICL ), which in turn is owned by the Ofer family. DSW is responsible for 20% of the drop in sea level, according the Geological Institute. It siphons seawater into evaporation pans south of the sea, from which it extracts the potash it sells worldwide as fertilizer.

The drop in sea level has created other problems, one being sinkholes - yawning holes that suddenly appear, mainly in the northern part of the sea. The roads in the area also need maintenance. …

The belated battle to revive the dying Dead Sea

When building 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi plant exploded last month, those who saw the video footage were left to wonder why it was more severe than the other explosions. Adding to the mystery were reports that the containment and reactor in building 3 were still intact. Gundersen discusses several known facts about Fukushima 3 and theorizes on a possible scenario leading to the explosion.

Gundersen Postulates Unit 3 Explosion May Have Been Prompt Criticality in Fuel Pool

By arevamirpal::laprimavera
28 April 2011

FNN News Network in Japan has rare footage of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant from the ground-level. The video was taken by Shigeharu Aoyama, a member of Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission on April 22.

Mr. Aoyama, a former Kyodo News correspondent, went into Fukushima I Nuke Plant on April 22 as a member of the Nuclear Safety Commission. He said in the other video (that shows the workers) that he was told he could go inside the plant as an expert (Nuclear Safety Commission member), even when the entry was denied for journalists.

You can view the video at this link, or click on the screenshot above.

Mr. Aoyama wanted to stop at the Reactor 3, but was told by a TEPCO employee that the radiation was too high to stop. Mr. Aoyama was speechless when he saw the devastation on the ocean side. "I can't believe I'm seeing a nuclear power plant," he said. After 5 minutes into the video, you will see a pipe that goes to the Central Waste Processing Facility, where the highly radioactive water is being transported. The pipe is laid on the ground and protected by lead sheets to protect the workers. Mr. Aoyama was told again that the radiation was too high to venture outside.

I hope the link stays, but the Japanese media, particularly the major TV networks, do not keep the link available for very long.

Youtube has the video that combined three separate videos (the one I linked above is the 2nd part), here --> http://youtu.be/dEUh7_1i_dg

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: A Rare Ground-Level Video Footage

Contact: Rob Gutro
Robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov
443-858-1779
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
28-Apr-2011

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite again flew over severe thunderstorms that were spawning tornadoes over the eastern United States on April 28 and detected massive thunderstorms and very heavy rainfall.

TRMM, a satellite managed by both NASA and the Japanese Space Agency, captured the rainfall rates occurring in the line of thunderstorms associated with a powerful cold front moving through the eastern U.S. on April 28. TRMM flew over the strong cold front and captured data at 0652 UTC (2:52 AM EDT) on April 28, 2011. Most of the rainfall was occurring at moderate rates however, there were pockets of very heavy rainfall in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama where rain was falling at a rate of 2 inches (50 millimeters) per hour.

Tornadoes associated with this extremely unstable weather caused the deaths of at least 128 people in Alabama and 15 in Georgia.

TRMM data was also used to generate a 3-D look at the storm. TRMM's Precipitation Radar (PR) data was used by Hal Pierce of SSAI at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. to create a 3-D structure of those storms. The image Pierce created is a TRMM radar vertical cross section that shows some of these violent storms reached to incredible heights of almost 17 km (~10.6 miles).

TRMM Satellite sees massive thunderstorms in severe weather system

PARIS, April 26 (AFP) — Himalayan villagers have won the backing of climate science for their suspicions that snow cover, water resources and the ecosystem are changing in their region, a study published Wednesday said.

The authors of the research carried out by Britain's Royal Society say this is the first time that subjective perceptions about climate change have been put to a wide scientific test.

And, they argue, it shows that local knowledge, far from being snubbed or sidelined, can be a useful tool for combatting the climate threat.

Researchers interviewed 250 people living in 10 villages in Singalila National Park, in the Darjeeling Hills of India's West Bengal state, and in eight villages in Ilam district of Nepal.

They asked them about 18 possible indicators of climate change in the past decade.

These interviews were then followed up with a looser-structured questionnaire in meetings at 10 other villages in the same area, the aim being to cross-check the results.

Three-quarters of the interviewees said they believed the weather had been getting warmer over the past 10 years, while two-thirds said the onset of summer and the monsoon had advanced.

Nearly half the respondents thought there was less snow on the mountains than before and 70 percent said water was less plentiful.

Roughly half said they believed that some plant species were budding earlier than before and that mosquitoes had appeared in villages where none had been seen before. At least a third said new crop pests or new weeds had emerged in places where they farmed.

These observations tally with scientific studies on temperature, rainfall and species carried out in the Himalayas or other regions, although there is no confirmation that the onset of monsoons has advanced, said the paper. …

Most Villagers in Nepal Say the Climate is Changing

Media Contacts
Cheryl Dybas, NSF (703) 292-7734 cdybas@nsf.gov
Terry Devitt, University of Wisconsin-Madison (608) 262-8282 trdevitt@wisc.edu
April 28, 2011

Researchers eavesdropping on complex signals from a remote Wisconsin lake have detected what they say is an unmistakable warning--a death knell--of the impending collapse of the lake's aquatic ecosystem.

The finding, reported today in the journal Science by a team of researchers led by Stephen Carpenter, an ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), is the first experimental evidence that radical change in an ecosystem can be detected in advance, possibly in time to prevent ecological catastrophe.

"For a long time, ecologists thought these changes couldn't be predicted," says Carpenter. "But we've now shown that they can be foreseen. The early warning is clear. It is a strong signal."

The implications of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported study are big, says Carpenter.

"This research shows that, with careful monitoring, we can foresee shifts in the structure of ecosystems despite their complexity," agrees Alan Tessier, program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology. "The results point the way for ecosystem management to become a predictive science."

The findings suggest that, with the right kind of monitoring, it may be possible to track the vital signs of any ecosystem and intervene in time to prevent what is often irreversible damage to the environment.

"With more work, this could revolutionize ecosystem management," Carpenter says. "The concept has now been validated in a field experiment and the fact that it worked in this lake opens the door to testing it in rangelands, forests and marine ecosystems. …

In the new study, the Wisconsin researchers, collaborating with scientists at the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis., focused their attention on Peter and Paul Lakes, two isolated and undeveloped lakes in northern Wisconsin.

Peter is a six-acre lake whose biota were manipulated for the study and nearby Paul served as a control.

The group led by Carpenter experimentally manipulated Peter Lake over a three-year period by gradually adding predatory largemouth bass to the lake, which was previously dominated by small fish that consumed water fleas, a type of zooplankton.

The purpose, Carpenter notes, was to destabilize the lake's food web to the point where it would become an ecosystem dominated by large predators.

In the process, the researchers expected to see a relatively rapid cascading change in the lake's biological community, one that would affect all its plants and animals in significant ways.

"We start adding these big ferocious fish and almost immediately this instills fear in the other fish," Carpenter says.

"The small fish begin to sense there is trouble and they stop going into the open water and instead hang around the shore and structures, things like sunken logs. They become risk-averse."

The biological upshot, says Carpenter, is that the lake became "water flea heaven."

The system becomes one where the phytoplankton, the preferred food of the lake's water fleas, is highly variable.

"The phytoplankton get hammered and at some point the system snap into a new mode," says Carpenter.

Throughout the lake's three-year manipulation, all its chemical, biological and physical vital signs were continuously monitored to track even the smallest changes that would announce what ecologists call a "regime shift," where an ecosystem undergoes radical and rapid change from one type to another.

It was in these massive sets of data that Carpenter and his colleagues were able to detect the signals of the ecosystem's impending collapse.

Ecologists first discovered similar signals in computer simulations of spruce budworm outbreaks.

Every few decades the insect's populations explode, causing widespread deforestation in boreal forests in Canada. Computer models of a virtual outbreak, however, seemed to undergo odd blips just before the outbreak.

The problem was solved by William "Buz" Brock, a UW-Madison economist who for decades has worked on the mathematical connections of economics and ecology.

Brock utilized a branch of applied mathematics known as bifurcation theory to show that the odd behavior was in fact an early warning of catastrophic change.

In short, he devised a way to sense the transformation of an ecosystem by detecting subtle changes in the system's natural patterns of variability.

The upshot of the Peter Lake field experiment, says Carpenter, is a validated statistical early warning system for ecosystem collapse.

The catch, however, is that for the early warning system to work, intense and continuous monitoring of an ecosystem's chemistry, physical properties and biota are required.

Such an approach may not be practical for every threatened ecosystem, says Carpenter, but he also cites the price of doing nothing.

"These regime shifts tend to be hard to reverse. It is like a runaway train once it gets going and the costs – both ecological and economic – are high." …

A Tale of Two Lakes: One Gives Early Warning Signal for Ecosystem Collapse

By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com
27 April 2011

The Asian Development Bank has warned that high food prices on the continent could push 64 million people in developing countries into extreme poverty, reports the AFP.

On average food prices are up 10% since the beginning of the year with staple prices significantly higher than last year. For example, rice prices have risen by 36.7% since June 2010 in Vietnam, while Kyrgyzstan has seen wheat prices rise 67% during the same time period.

"Left unchecked, the food crisis will badly undermine recent gains in poverty reduction made in Asia," Asian Development Bank chief economist Rhee Changyong said.

The rise in food prices has been linked in part due to extreme weather throughout the world, which has crippled some vital crop regions, including in some cases unprecedented droughts in Russia, China, and the US; floods in Australia and Pakistan; and a severe winter in Europe and parts of the US. Experts say that climate change is likely intensifying such extreme weather events, and causing them to occur with greater frequency.

Rising oil prices and a weakening US dollar are also expected to exacerbate the situation in Asia.

"For poor families in developing Asia, who already spend more than 60% of their income on food, higher food prices further reduce their ability to pay for medical care and their children's education," said Rhee.

Rising food prices threaten to push over 60 million Asians back into poverty

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent; Editing by Janet Lawrence
27 April 2011

OSLO (Reuters) - Sea level rise is the "most terrifying" impact of climate change and rich countries are showing scant leadership in addressing the threats, the incoming chair of a U.N. alliance of small island states said on Tuesday.

Marlene Moses, the U.N. ambassador of the Pacific island state of Nauru, the world's smallest republic, urged developed countries to do far more to cut their greenhouse gas emissions and to provide climate aid to developing states.

Nauru was chosen on Tuesday to take over from Grenada in late 2011 as chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), a 43-member group whose members from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean are especially at risk from rising seas.

"It's the most terrifying of all climate change impacts," Moses told Reuters in a telephone interview. "I once said that climate change is as big a threat to security as an invading army. Sea level rise will force people to relocate".

She faulted rich nations for failing to do enough.

"We are really waiting for a leader to emerge from the developed world," she said. "We are going through not only a climate crisis but also a leadership crisis. This is holding up the multilateral process."

She said Nauru's 10,000 people, living on a rocky island of 21 sq kms (8 sq miles) in the western Pacific, were primarily at risk from disruptions to water supplies, erosion and damage to the ocean exacerbated by climate change.

"But for low-lying atolls -- the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, sea level rise is really a threat. Relocation is a threat. It is imminent," she said of the risks that states could be swamped by rising seas. …

Rising seas scariest climate impact - Nauru's Moses

By Dahr Jamil
02 Mar 2011

San Salvador - "We have a very clear position," El Salvador’s Minister of Environment, Herman Chavez, told Al Jazeera at his office in San Salvador, the capital.

"The President of El Salvador, last year on July 20th, in an extraordinary meeting of presidents that was convened here in San Salvador, launched the intervention process. We put Climate Change as the number one issue for the region."

The government of El Salvador's position, which mirrors that of other Central American countries like Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras, is due to the fact that anthropogenic (human caused) climate change is impacting the planet more than ever, and scientists expect it to worsen.

In January, new figures provided by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed that Earth’s global average surface temperature for 2010 tied 2005 for the hottest year on record. The two agencies' figures also showed that 2010 was the wettest year ever recorded.

2010 proved to be a model year for what the planet can expect as the result of climate change. Huge floods occurred in Pakistan, Australia, and California. A record-breaking heat wave in Russia, and the severe die-offs of coral reefs underscored the acceleration of the global trends in Climate Change.

Last year was also the 34th consecutive year that global temperatures have been above the 20th-century average, and nine of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001 due to what scientists attribute to a 40 per cent increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution began.

"Climate change for us is not a hypothesis,” Minister Chavez added. "It is a very concrete reality that strikes us. The disasters we've been having are very clearly linked to climate change."

El Salvador, like other countries in the region, has been dramatically affected by severe weather events including extreme rain events and flooding from tropical storms and hurricanes that are increasing in both frequency and intensity. …

Climate change 'number one issue' via The Oil Drum

By Sarah Goodyear
26 Apr 2011

My head nearly exploded at the breakfast table on Saturday morning.

I was reading a piece in The New York Times about an Illinois developer who has finally found a way to unload the new houses he has built some 50 miles from downtown Chicago, in a place he has seen fit to dub a "Village of Yesteryear."

When drastic price cuts weren't enough to entice buyers, he decided to throw in $17,000 cash toward the purchase of a car with every house. (That money can only be spent at the local General Motors dealer, of course -- because, let's go U.S.A.!)

So this is what it has come to. Developers are now giving away vehicles to entice people to live in distant suburbs with life-draining commutes just when gas is hitting $5 a gallon. And a few consumers are biting -- one is quoted as saying, "My money was in the bank, collecting very little interest, so I thought I might as well take a little gamble."

Ah, yes, gambling on real estate. That's the kind of anecdote that makes you feel confident about America's economic future. …

Desperate sprawl developer gives away cars with houses

By arevamirpal::laprimavera
27 April 2011

Fukushima 1 nuke plant: 1120 millisieverts/hr – That high level of radiation would indicate the highly radioactive water from the Pressure Vessel may be leaking outside the Containment Vessel, but TEPCO has decided to go ahead with the plan.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (1:17 PM JST 4/27/2011):

東京電力は２７日、福島第一原子力発電所１号機の原子炉に行っている注水の量を一時的に増やす試験を始めた。

On April 27, TEPCO started the test to increase the amount of water being injected into the Pressure Vessel of the Reactor 1 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

注水量の増加に伴う水位などの変化を調べるのが目的。格納容器の上部まで水を満たして原子炉ごと冷やす「水棺」の本格化に向けた作業となる。

The purpose of the test is to observe the change in water level by increased water injection. It is a step toward the "water entombment" that will involve filling the Containment Vessel with water to cool the Pressure Vessel.

注水量は２７日午前１０時、従来の毎時６トンから１０トンに増加した。同午後４時過ぎには１４トンに増やす。この状態を１８時間続けた後、２８日朝に６トンに戻して試験を終了させる。その後、ロボットを使い、漏水などが起きていないか調べる。

The amount of water was increased from the previous 6 tons/hour to 10 tons/hour at 10:00AM on April 27. It is to be increased to 14 tons/hour starting at 4:00PM for 18 hours, and then to be decreased to 6 tons/hour again in the morning of April 28. After that, the robots will go in to check whether there is any leak.

東電は、２６日のロボットを使った事前調査で、建屋内の数値としては最高の毎時１１２０ミリ・シーベルトの放射線量を記録した場所があったことを 明らかにした。原子炉からの高濃度の汚染水が漏れている可能性があるが、東電は約２時間にわたる調査で漏れ箇所が発見できなかったとして、水棺作業の実施 を決断した。

TEPCO disclosed that during the preliminary survey of the reactor building using the robots on April 26 there was a location that registered 1,120 milli-sieverts/hour, the highest so far for the radiation level inside the plant buildings. It is possible that the highly radioactive water is leaking from the reactor, but TEPCO decided to go ahead with the "water entombment" after no leak was found during the 2-hour survey.

Total 312 tons of water is to be injected before the test is over. We'll find soon enough if there's more Murphy…

Fukushima I Nuke Plant: 1120 Milli-Sieverts/Hr Inside the Reactor 1 Bldg, But "Water Entombment" Has Started Anyway

Contact: Kendra Barkoff (DOI) (202) 208-6416
Dan DuBray (Reclamation) (202) 513-0574
25 April 2011

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today released a report that assesses climate change risks and how these risks could impact water operations, hydropower, flood control, and fish and wildlife in the western United States. The report to Congress, prepared by Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation, represents the first consistent and coordinated assessment of risks to future water supplies across eight major Reclamation river basins, including the Colorado, Rio Grande, and Missouri river basins. 

“Water is the lifeblood of our communities, rural and urban economies, and our environment,” said Secretary Salazar, “and small changes in water supplies or the timing of precipitation can have a big impact on all of us. This report provides the foundation for understanding the long-term impacts of climate change on Western water supplies and will help us identify and implement appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies for sustainable water resource management.”

The report, which responds to requirements under the SECURE Water Act of 2009, shows several increased risks to western United States water resources during the 21st century. Specific projections include:

• a temperature increase of 5-7 degrees Fahrenheit;

• a precipitation increase over the northwestern and north-central portions of the western United States and a decrease over the southwestern and south-central areas;

• a decrease for almost all of the April 1st snowpack, a standard benchmark measurement used to project river basin runoff; and

• an 8 to 20 percent decrease in average annual stream flow in several river basins, including the Colorado, the Rio Grande, and the San Joaquin.

The report notes that projected changes in temperature and precipitation are likely to impact the timing and quantity of stream flows in all western basins, which could impact water available to farms and cities, hydropower generation, fish and wildlife, and other uses such as recreation.

"Impacts to water are on the leading edge of global climate change, and these changes pose a significant challenge and risk to adequate water supplies, which are critical for the health, economy, and ecology of the United States," added Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor.  …

To develop the report, Reclamation used original research and a literature synthesis of existing peer-reviewed studies. Projections of future temperature and precipitation are based on multiple climate models and various projections of future greenhouse gas emissions, technological advancements, and global population estimates. Reclamation will develop future reports to Congress under the authorities of the SECURE Water Act that will build upon the level of information currently available and the rapidly developing science to address how changes in supply and demands will impact water management.

The Bureau of Reclamation is the largest wholesaler of water in the country, providing water to more than 31 million people and to one out of five Western farmers for irrigation of more than 10 million acres of farmland. Reclamation is also the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the western United States with 58 power plants generating nearly a billion dollars in power revenues and producing enough electricity to serve 3.5 million homes.

The SECURE Water Act Report, with fact sheets highlighting climate challenges and impacts in the eight western river basins, is available online at http://www.usbr.gov/climate.

More information about Reclamation’s WaterSMART program is available at http://www.usbr.gov/WaterSMART/.

Interior Releases Report Highlighting Impacts of Climate Change to Western Water Resources

By David McNeill in Tokyo
23 April 2011

The former governor of Fukushima province has spoken of his frustration at the failure of the Japanese authorities to heed his warnings over the safety of the power plant that was stricken by the country's recent earthquake.

The story of Japan's epic disaster comes with a generous cast of Cassandra figures, the seismologists, conservationists and whistle-blowers ignored by the national nuclear planners. But 71-year-old Eisako Sato may be pre-eminent among them.

As governor of Fukushima Prefecture from 1988-2006 – "roughly half the life of the plant", he told journalists at Tokyo's Foreign Correspondents' Club earlier this week – he was initially an enthusiastic supporter of nuclear power, swayed like his predecessors after the government and utility giant Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) brought his prefecture jobs, subsidies and a chance to contribute to the national good.

In 1998 he conditionally agreed the controversial use of mixed oxide plutonium uranium (MOX) fuel at the plant. But he withdrew it after discovering a cover-up of reactor malfunctions and cracks. Later his doubts would grow.

"Between 2002 and 2006, 21 problems at the Fukushima plant were reported to my office," he said. The whistleblowers, including some employees at the plant, bypassed both Tepco and Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) because they feared, rightly, that their information would go straight to Tepco. Sato became an increasingly bitter critic of the plant and Japan's entire energy policy, directed by NISA's powerful government overseer, the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry.

In 2006, he was forced to step down and was prosecuted and convicted in 2008 on bribery charges that he claims were politically motivated. Embittered, he wrote a biography called Annihilating a Governor explaining his concerns about nuclear power and how he was set up and wrongfully convicted by the prosecution. Largely ignored until March 11, the book is now at the top of the sales list. "Unfortunately, it took this tragedy to make it a bestseller," he laments. …

Warnings of nuclear disaster not heeded, claims former governor

By Jeff Masters
26 April 2011

According to the Interagency Fire Center, wildfires in 2011 have already burned nearly 2.3 million acres in the U.S. This is the greatest acreage on record so early in the year, and is more area than burned all of last year. The largest U.S. acreage to burn since 1960 was the 9.9 million acres that burned in 2007, so we area already 25% of the way to the all-time record fire year--with summer still more than a month away. Last night, a line of thunderstorms brought heavy rains of 2 - 3 inches from Dallas southeastwards through Louisiana, providing precious rains to a portion of Texas that was under their worst drought since 1925. However, the portion of Texas that has seen the worst wildfires (the black spots in the image), received no rain.

Tornadoes, floods, and fires assault the nation

By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
26 April 2011

Americans depended more on government assistance in 2010 than at any other time in the nation's history, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data finds. The trend shows few signs of easing, even though the economic recovery is nearly 2 years old.

A record 18.3% of the nation's total personal income was a payment from the government for Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, unemployment benefits and other programs in 2010. Wages accounted for the lowest share of income — 51.0% — since the government began keeping track in 1929.

The income data show how fragile and government-dependent the recovery is after a recession that officially ended in June 2009.

The wage decline has continued this year. Wages slipped to another historic low of 50.5% of personal income in February. Another government effort — the Social Security payroll tax cut — has lifted income in 2011. The temporary tax cut puts more money in workers' pockets and counts as an income boost, even when wages stay the same.

From 1980 to 2000, government aid was roughly constant at 12.5%. The sharp increase since then — especially since the start of 2008 — reflects several changes: the expansion of health care and federal programs generally, the aging population and lingering economic problems. …

"What's frightening is the Baby Boomers haven't really started to retire," says University of Michigan economist Donald Grimes of the 77 million people born from 1946 through 1964 whose oldest wave turns 65 this year. "That's when the cost of Medicare will start to explode." …

Americans depend more on federal aid than ever

TOKYO, April 25 (UPI) – Radiation leaks remain a health threat for areas around Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, officials said.

The crisis at the plant resulted from an earthquake and tsunami March 11.

Some experts believe the Fukushima crisis is more serious than that resulting from an explosion at Ukraine's Chernobyl power plant 25 years ago, the Mainichi Daily News reported Monday.

"It's graver than Chernobyl in that no one can predict how the situation will develop," said Atsushi Kasai, a former senior researcher with the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute.

In addition to danger from leaking radioactivity, Japanese citizens are also at risk of psychological illnesses, officials said. …

The Yomiuri Shimbun said Monday the amount of radiation released from the damaged plant is greater than first reported.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it could be as long as four months before it is able to control radiation leakage from the crippled reactors. …

Health risks numerous near nuclear plant

By Andrew Osborn, Moscow
25 Apr 2011

In a rare interview on the eve of the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl on Monday, Col-Gen Nikolai Antoshkin said he was shocked at how poorly Japan had coped with its own nuclear disaster.

"Right at the start when there was not yet a big leak of radiation they (the Japanese) wasted time.

And then they acted in slow-motion," he said.

The Soviets had evacuated 44,600 people within two and a half hours and put them up in "normal comfortable conditions" on the same day, he recalled.

"Look at advanced Japan," he said. "People are housed in stadiums and are lying about on the floors of sports halls in unhygienic conditions."

Gen Antoshkin said he thought the Japanese were simply unable to cope on their own. "It is clear that they do not have enough strength or means. They need to ask the international community for help," he said. "I think the Japanese catastrophe is already more serious than Chernobyl. The main thing is that they do not allow it to become three, four or five times more serious." …

Chernobyl recovery officer criticises Japan's efforts at Fukushima

By Ichiro Matsuo, Tatsuyuki Kobori, and Hidenori Tsuboya
26 April 2011

Tokyo Electric Power Co. started the unprecedented and potentially risky measure of allowing water to flood the containment vessels of three troubled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, company sources said.

It is the world's first attempt to saturate the entire containment vessel with water with the aim of cooling the pressure vessels inside the containment vessels and ultimately the reactor cores themselves.

So far, TEPCO has been injecting water into the pressure vessels at the No. 1 through No. 3 reactors. Under the new plan, TEPCO will allow the water to overflow from the pressure vessels through valves and ruptured pipes until the water fills the outer containment vessels.

According to TEPCO's road map, the water levels will reach the upper end of the fuel rods within three months.

The amount of water injected into the pressure vessels is about one ton larger per hour than the amount that evaporates due to the intense heat from the fuel rods.

The water level at the No. 1 reactor has been raised to about 6 meters above the bottom of the containment vessel. That level is 3 meters below the bottom of the pressure vessel.

But TEPCO has been unable to verify the water levels at the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors, and suspect that water is leaking from the damaged containment vessels.

Industry specialists have raised doubts about the effects and safety of TEPCO's new operation.

Since the concrete-made building of the No. 1 reactor may have been weakened by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami as well as aftershocks, it might not be able to bear the weight of the water, which will reach up to 7,400 tons. TEPCO said it is re-calculating the structural strength of the building. …

TEPCO filling containment vessels; experts raise doubts

By Stuart Biggs, Kanoko Matsuyama, and Frederik Balfour
25 April 2011

The wreckage of a 379-metric ton tuna boat blocks the road to the deserted fish market in Kesennuma, once Japan’s largest port for bonito and swordfish. Even after the debris from last month’s tsunami has been cleared away, the industry may never recover.

“Thirty years ago we used to think Japan was the number one fishing country in the world, with the best catching and processing methods, but that’s really no longer the case,” Ryosuke Sato, chairman of the Kesennuma Fisheries Cooperative Association, said in an interview in the town, 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Tokyo. “We’ve been in terminal decline.”

Traffic at the port had dropped by 90 percent over the last 20 years as seafood imports rose, even before the country’s northeastern coast was devastated on March 11. Destruction of boats, harbors and processing plants, coupled with fears of radioactive contamination in marine life, threatens to hasten Japan’s turn to overseas for its most important food staple after rice. …

Last month’s earthquake and tsunami, which left almost 28,000 dead or missing, disproportionately affected Japan’s northeastern fishing ports and towns. In Iwate prefecture, the tsunami caused about 106.6 billion yen ($1.3 billion) of damage to the fishing industry, according to data from the government. That’s about ten times the combined total for the prefecture’s agriculture and forestry industries. …

“There’s so much damage, this is a crisis for the town and the fishing industry,” said the 69-year old Sato, whose Kanedai Co. fish company has sales of 9.4 billion yen in Japan and China, with 230 employees. A poster on the wall signed by wholesalers and customers reads: “You’re not alone, everyone is with you. Thank you always for the delicious fish.”

South Kesennuma, where most of the fish processing plants were located, was the first area to be hit by the tsunami after it passed the island of Oshima that creates the entrance to Kesennuma’s harbor about two kilometers off shore. In the harbor, trawlers and a refueling tank were slammed together, spewing fuel. Fire spread across the fuel-water mix, creating an inferno.

The 50-meter-long Myojin Maru No.3, licensed to catch yellowfin and albacore tuna in the Indian Ocean, is one of at least 10 giant vessels dumped around the town. It towers over gutted two-storey buildings owned by fishing companies about 500 meters from the fish market.

“Companies may have the money to rebuild but people are saying they don’t want to come back,” Yaeko Komatsu, 53, said as she gazed at the rubble of her seafood company employer she didn’t identify. “They say it’s dangerous.” …

Even as the government hurries to rebuild facilities, fishermen and consumers are worried about radiation from Tokyo Electric Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant, Akira Sato, mayor of Shiogama, said in an interview after the town’s first fresh tuna auction since the March 11 earthquake. The fisherman Takatsuka sailed more than 60 kilometers wide of the plant on the way to the port, rather than hugging the coast, in order to reassure buyers.

About 520,000 liters of water with a level of radioactivity that was 20,000 times the legal limit leaked into the ocean between April 1 and 6, Junichi Matsumoto, a Tepco general manager, said last week.

“It puts a cloud over the entire fishing industry and Japan’s food culture is suffering as a result,” Jeff Kingston, director of the Department of Asian Studies at Temple University’s Japan campus said. “People are spooked.”

At Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market, sales of fresh fish fell to an average 583 metric tons per day in the week ended March 17, down 28 percent from a year earlier. The following week they dropped by 44 percent.

“If this continues for two or three years we don’t know what will happen to our bodies from consuming contaminated fish,” Yasuo Kawada, a 59-year-old manufacturing employee said in an interview. “I do worry.” …

Tsunami Quickens ‘Terminal Decline’ of Northern Japan’s Fishing Industry

Measured distribution of radioactive contamination at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in millisieverts/hour. Asahi Shimbun / www.ex-skf.blogspot.com

The official TEPCO map of radioactive contamination at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in millisieverts/hour, 24 April 2011. Sankei Shinbun / www.ex-skf.blogspot.com

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant "Contamination Map" Emerges, Sort Of...

Washington, April 22 (IANS) – Melting glaciers and ice caps on Canadian Arctic islands play a much greater role in sea-level rise than scientists previously suspected.

For instance, the 550,000-square-mile Canadian Arctic Archipelago contains some 30,000 islands. Between 2004 and 2009, the region lost the equivalent of three-quarters of the water in Lake Erie, found a study led by the University of Michigan.

Warmer-than-usual temperatures in those years caused a rapid increase in the melting of glacier ice and snow, said Alex Gardner, research fellow in Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences at Michigan, who led the project, reports the journal Nature.

"This is a region that we previously didn't think was contributing much to sea-level rise," Gardner said. "Now we realize that outside of Antarctica and Greenland, it was the largest contributor for the years 2007 through 2009," a Michigan statement quoted him as saying.

"This area is highly sensitive and if temperatures continue to increase, we will see much more melting," added Gardner. …

During the first three years of the study, from 2004 through 2006, the region lost an average of seven cubic miles of water per year. That increased dramatically to 22 cubic miles of water -- roughly 24 trillion gallons -- per year during the latter part of the study. …

Melting ice in Canadian Arctic bigger player in sea-level rise via The Oil Drum

By arevamirpal::laprimavera
23 April 2011

Fukushima I nuke plant: 154 terabecquerels per day, every day, of radioactive iodine and cesium are still spewing out of the plant, Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission now admits.

On April 12, during the joint press conference with Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) where they jointly announced the Fukushima I Plant accident was INES Level 7, the Commission assured the world that said that the release of radioactive materials from the plant had decreased to less than 1 terabecquerel per hour, or 24 terabecquerels per day.

It took the Commission 11 days to go from 24 terabecquerels per day to 154 terabecquerels per day. They say they miscalculated. What else have they, all nuclear experts, miscalculated?

From Yomiuri Shinbun (9:15PM JST 4/23/2011):

The Nuclear Safety Commission under the Prime Minister's Office disclosed on April 23 that the amount of radioactive materials being released from the TEPCO Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was 154 terabecquerels per day (1 tera is 1 trillion) as late as April 5 when the amount being released was considered stabilized.

On April 5, the estimated amount of radioactive materials released from Fukushima I Nuke Plant was 0.69 terabecquerels/hour for iodine-131 and 0.14 terabecquerels/hour for cesium-137. When the numbers were recalculated according to the INES method (converting cesium amount into iodine equivalent), the amount released turned out to be 6.4 terabecquerels/hour (which was 154 terabecquerels per day. Previously, the Nuclear Safety Commission had simply added the numbers for iodine-131 and cesium-137, and announced it was less than 1 terrabecquerel per hour.

内閣府原子力安全委員会は２３日、東京電力福島第一原子力発電所から大気中に放出された放射性物質の量が、放出量が落ち着いた今月５日の時点でも、１日あたり１５４テラ・ベクレル（１テラは１兆）に達していたことを明らかにした。

５日に福島第一原発から大気に放出された放射性物質の推定値は、ヨウ素１３１が毎時０・６９テラ・ベクレル、セシウム １３７が同０・１４テラ・ベクレル。国際的な事故評価尺度（ＩＮＥＳ）で使われるヨウ素換算値で、ヨウ素とセシウムの合計量を計算し直すと、放出量は同 ６・４テラ・ベクレル（２４時間で１５４テラ・ベクレル）となることがわかった。同委員会はこれまで、５日ごろの放出量について、セシウムとヨウ素の量を 単純に合計し、「毎時約１テラ・ベクレル以下」と低く見積もっていた。

Hmmmm. The supposed nuclear power experts of the Committee didn't know how to calculate using the INES method? BS. Because on April 12 when they announced the total emission estimate of the radioactive materials from March 23 to April 5, they did say they converted the cesium amount into iodine equivalent.

Now, there's another interesting (but all too common by now) work of editing out some unpleasant information, no doubt practiced by the 4th column (the media) by themselves for the good of the community (no doubt). The earlier version of the same Yomiuri article (which I found on a Japanese message board) had the following sentence after where the current version ends:

If this amount [154 terabecquerels per day] continues to be released from the plant, it would be the equivalent of INES Level 6. [154 terabequerels per day for 90 days = 13,860 terabequerels.]

３か月、この状態が続いた場合の放出量は、ＩＮＥＳの「レベル６」の事故に相当する。

You can simply calculate it yourself to come to the same conclusion, but for the majority of people who wouldn't bother, if they weren't told they wouldn't connect. …

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: 154 Terabecquerels Per Day, Every Day

By KATE GALBRAITH
22 April 2011

The severe drought across Texas has hit the oil and gas city of Midland especially hard, as I reported in Friday’s New York Times and Texas Tribune. Since Oct. 1, Midland has received only 0.13 inches of rainfall — making it “most likely the driest six-and-a-half-month period in recorded history,” said David Hennig, a Midland-based meteorologist with the National Weather Service. With three major regional reservoirs ranging 2 percent to 30 percent full, the city has put in place outdoor watering restrictions — albeit not backed up by penalties — for the first time.

Texas weather experts attribute this drought to the Niña effect. Some observers are wondering whether it is also related to global warming, though that’s a delicate question in Texas, the only state refusing to carry out greenhouse gas regulations recently introduced by the Environmental Protection Agency. Gov. Rick Perry, who just issued a proclamation urging prayers for rain this weekend, has said that the climate is always changing but that it is not clear that humans are affecting it.

John Nielsen-Gammon, the Texas State climatologist, says that about 80 percent of the models laid out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in a 2007 report predicted declining precipitation for Texas, but on the other hand Texas has gotten increasing rainfall from 1895 to the present. The reason for this difference is unclear, he said, but it could be attributable to factors like variations of sea-surface temperature patterns, modeling flaws or changes in aerosols or land use.

“Certainly global warming has contributed to the rate at which the ground has dried out because of the warm temperatures,” Dr. Nielsen-Gammon said. But, he added, “the magnitude of the dryness is well beyond what global warming would be able to do so far.” …

In Texas, Questions of Drought and Climate Change via The Oil Drum

French nuclear conglomerate AREVA presented this slide deck during an invitation-only meeting at Stanford University on 21 March 2011. The Fukushima Daiichi Incident outlines the probable course of events, from the earthquake to the meltdowns. Most of this information hasn’t received widespread media coverage, but Arnie Gunderson and the folks at Fairewinds have liberated it for us.   

By Dr. Matthias Braun, AREVA
7 April 2011

2. Accident Progression

At ~1800°C [expected Unit 1,2,3]

• Melting of the cladding
• Melting of the steel structures
  

At ~2500°C [expected Unit 1,2]

• Breaking of the fuel rods
• Debris bed inside the core
  

At ~2700°C [maybe Unit 1]

• Significant melting of uranium-
  zirconium-oxides

Release of fission products during meltdown

• Xenon, cesium, iodine, …
• Uranium/plutonium remain in core
• Fission products condense to airborne aerosols

Containment

• Last barrier between fission products and environment
• Wall thickness ~3cm
• Design Pressure 4-5bar
  

Actual pressure up to 8 bars

• Normal inert gas filling (nitrogen)
• Hydrogen from core oxidation
• Boiling condensation chamber (like a pressure cooker)
  

First depressurization of containment

• Unit 1: 12 March 2011, 04:00
• Unit 2: 13 March 2011, 00:00
• Unit 3: 13 March 2011, 08:41

Spent fuel stored in pool on reactor service floor

• Due to maintenance in Unit 4 entire core stored in spent fuel pool
• Dry-out of the pools
  · Unit 4: in 10 days
  · Unit 1-3, 5, 6 in few weeks
• Leakage of the pools due to earthquake?
  

Consequences

• Core melt in fresh air
• Nearly no retention of fission products
• Large release

Areva Fukushima Report