Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Fukushima Unit 1: The Hell Produced by Human Hubris


Unit 1 at Fukushima Daiichi is a human-produced hell, incapable of sustaining life. Fukushima instantiates the suicidal madness at the heart of our hubris.

Even our machines, the progeny of our alienated praxis, cannot withstand the forces of destruction we have unleashed.


Enenews ( here ) has several articles posted about the problems TEPCO is having with robotics inside unit 1. Their robot died, probably because of the intense radiation levels, which at one point spiked to 24.9 sieverts an hour. Yet, TEPCO reports that radiation levels were actually LOWER than anticipated:
From the AP: "[TEPCO said] the levels were significantly lower than anticipated… Without more data, it will be difficult to figure out exactly how to safely locate and remove the radioactive debris…."

I believe the REASON the levels are lower than expected is because most of the reactor fuel is NO LONGER in containment, but rather resides under the unit 1 reactor building in the underground river that saturates the site and seeps and spills into the Pacific Ocean. We've seen the diagram released by the Swiss embassy and read the anticipated results in the German risk study:
TEPCO admits unit 1 fuel awol:http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/is-this-tepcos-way-of-admitting-reactor.html

RISING radiation contamination of ground water at the site: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/ground-water-contamination-rising-at.html

I think TEPCO waited too long to take necessary steps to reduce contamination.

I also think something has happened at the site recently. Japan has experienced elevated radiation levels for the last 10 days (see my discussion here ), especially in northern Japan. Levels are trending upwards in the US this morning, but I cannot post more than 3 screen-shots.

Sustained, elevated levels suggest to me that background radiation must be rising because the Netc system calculates elevated radiation levels in relation to historical averages at each monitoring site.

NETC.COM Japan 4/14/2015 23:50 PM
 

It has been raining in Fukushima for the last two days. Here are two screenshots of the plant taken 24 hours apart while it was raining (it was raining at the time both screenshots were taken):

4/14/2015 at 00:47 AM


 

Approximately 23 hours later 4/14/2015 at 23:36 PM



I don't understand the difference in plant illumination as the weather conditions were essentially identical (with precipitation). Perhaps TEPCO simply has the lights off today, while they were on yesterday. I hope that is the explanation.

I still see sporadic traffic heading to-and-from the plant, but the number of vehicles appears to have dropped off substantially at the Futaba cam intersection.

Too little, too late.

We are producing hell on earth, not simply through radiation-disasters but also through our unprecedented elemental and chemical assault against the earth that began with our purported Enlightenment. 

Our religions, poets, philosophers, and artists warned us, but our hubris is great.  It alone will have to succor us through the coming dark times because the collapsing eco-system cannot.


RELATED POSTS

2015 Fukushima Anniversary Post/Interview: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/fukushima-anniversary-interview.html

 

 

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