Archive for May, 2011

Worker Dies at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

A worker who had been helping with the clean-up of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has died after suddenly falling ill and collapsing:

The cause of the death was unknown. The man, in his 60s, was employed by one of Tokyo Electric’s contractors and started working at the plant on Friday. He was exposed to 0.17 millisieverts of radiation on Saturday, Tokyo Electric said.

The Japanese government’s maximum level of exposure for male workers at the plant is 250 millisieverts for the duration of the effort to bring it under control.

In the numbers are correct, the death was not caused by radiation. The man was exposed to less radiation than one would normally get from a stomach x-ray. To cause sudden illness and death, an exposure of several thousand millisierverts of radiation would be necessary.

The man, who was in his 60′s, was an employee of a contracting firm. He had been wearing a protective suit, gloves, and mask. It had only been his second day working at the plant.

It is the third death that has taken place at the nuclear plant. The other two deaths were caused by the earthquake and tsunami. So far, there has been no confirmed case of any workers dying from radiation poisoning.

Update: Jiji press is now reporting that doctors at a hospital in Iwaki believe that the man likely died of a heart attack.

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Video: UFO’s Over Tokyo

A popular video on YouTube shows a “group of UFO’s” over Tokyo on May 8, 2011:

Hat tip to Leo, who noted in his e-mail, “I love the old lady going positively CRAZY in the background.”

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Influential Senators Call U.S. Military Plans in Japan Unrealistic & Unaffordable

U.S. Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), and Jim Webb (D-Va.) have issued a statement declaring that the 2006 U.S.-Japan realignment agreement is “unrealistic, unworkable, and unaffordable.” That includes the controversial relocation of Okinawa’s U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma:

Moving the Marines off Okinawa was the linchpin of a 2006 U.S.-Japan agreement to lessen the impact of the U.S. military presence on Okinawa, where U.S. bases take up approximately 20 percent of the island’s land. The pact also included the plan to shutter Futenma and build a runway at Camp Schwab, in Okinawa’s less populated north, which Webb derided Wednesday as unfeasible.

“This would be a massive, multi-billion dollar undertaking, requiring extensive landfill, destruction and relocation of many existing facilities, and in a best-case scenario, several years of effort – some estimate that the process could take as long as ten years,” Webb wrote on his official website.

The senators instead called for the military to relocate Futenma’s current Marine air operations to the nearby Kadena Air Base, which is owned by the Air Force.

Although the Pentagon and the White House disagree with the Senators, the Asahi notes that their statements could make the relocation more difficult:

The Armed Services Committee has authority over the Pentagon’s budget and the senators’ recommendations carry considerable weight. It will likely make more difficult implementation of the Japan-U.S. agreement reached in May 2010 to relocate Futenma to Nago.

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Meltdown Confirmed at Fukushima Daiichi

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has announced that fuel rods in the #1 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi power plant have melted. At a press conference, they said that the reactor was in a state of “meltdown”:

The utility company said on Thursday that most of the fuel rods are likely to have melted and fallen to the bottom of the reactor. Earlier in the day, it found that the coolant water in the reactor is at a level which would completely expose nuclear fuel rods if they were in their normal position.

The company believes the melted fuel has cooled down, judging from the reactor’s surface temperature.

But it suspects the meltdown created a hole or holes in the bottom of the reactor causing water to leak into the containment vessel.

It also suspects the water is leaking into the reactor building.

High radiation levels had preventing people from entering the #1 reactor building since March 12, so there had been no way of knowing the exact state of the reactor. About a week ago, it was decided that a drop in radiation levels finally allowed workers to begin very limited work within the building. The renewed access to the reactor #1 building has allowed workers to better observe the conditions within the reactor, so we now have confirmation that fuel has indeed melted (in other words, a “meltdown”). Nobody can be 100% sure when the melting occurred, although it probably wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that it happened back in March, when workers were unable to pump large amounts of water into the reactors.

Since March, scientists and experts had been predicting that there the situation could have resulted in partial or total melting of fuel. According to one scientist intereviewed by the Japan Times, this latest announcement is not surprising:

“It’s neither a surprise nor bad news,” Kunihiko Takeda of Chubu University told The Japan Times. “This means Tepco has been pumping lots of water in the reactor without knowing what exactly is happening in it, which is the best thing Tepco could do.” He added that reactors No. 2 and 3 may also be in the same situation.

The new finding doesn’t increase the likelihood of a hydrogen explosion because the temperature in the pressure vessel is still low, experts said.

The news will likely make TEPCO’s cooling plans take longer than expected, but it does not indicate the existence of any gigantic new radiation leak into the environment. However, radioactive water is probably leaking into the reactor building itself:

It is highly likely that water is leaking from both the pressure vessel and containment chamber and flowing into underground parts of the reactor building and the adjacent turbine building, TEPCO officials said.

If the basement of the building is flooded with water, it will make it harder to clean up the building. However, it doesn’t mean that the water from reactor #1 is going into the ocean. So far, the only known ocean leakage has occurred at reactor #2 and reactor #3.

The situation in Fukushima remains serious, but the announcement of a confirmed meltdown does not indicate a significant new danger to the safety or health of people in the region.

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Monkeys Use Stone Tools to Crush Nuts

A video of monkeys that use stone tools to crush nuts at the Iida Zoo in Nagano prefecture:

They are tufted capuchins, a species of primate that is known for their use of tools. Zookeepers knew that wild capuchin sometimes use rocks as tools, so they placed rocks in their cage and provided plenty of nuts. A couple of the Iida Zoo’s capuchin have learned to use large stones to crush the shells of the nuts.

Only two of the primates have acquired the skill. The most adept is Yoichi, a 20-year-old male. Yoichi’s 10-year-old son can also crush nuts, but has a much lower success rate.

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Embassy of Benin in Japan Provided Phony Jobs to Illegal Immigrants

An employee of the Embassy of Benin has been arrested after he used his position to help illegal immigrants work in Japan:

The man issued fraudulent paperwork claiming that the people in question were employees of the embassy so that they could be given a visa to live in Japan. They then went off and found other work at bars or construction companies. All of the recipients were citizens of the Philippines.

The Asahi Shimbun notes that a Filipino employee of the Libyan embassy also participated in the scheme. It is believed that at least 20 people obtained fraudulent visas thanks to the help of the embassy employee.

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