http://my.firedoglake.com/kirkmurphy/2011/03/14/nuke-engineer-fuel-rod-fire-at-stricken-reactor-would-be-like-chernobyl-on-steroids/

The Fukushima reactor building that exploded March 12 is one of a series of identical General Electric reactors constructed in Japan and the US.  In this reactor design, the used nuclear fuel rods are stored in pools of water at the top of the reactor building.  These “spent” rods are still highly radioactive: the radioactivity is so great the rods must be stored in water so they do not combust.   The explosion at Fukushima Daiichi reactor unit 1 apparently destroyed at least one wall and the roof of the building: some reports stated the roof had collapsed into the building.

Two days later, the nearby building containing the plutonium-uranium (MOX) fueled Fuksuhima Daichii reactor unit 3 exploded.  So why bother about the rubble of reactor No 1?  The WaPo quotes a nuclear engineer who knows the answer:

Although Tokyo Electric said it also continued to deal with cooling system failures and high pressures at half a dozen of its 10 reactors in the two Fukushima complexes, fears mounted about the threat posed by the pools of water where years of spent fuel rods are stored.

At the 40-year-old Fukushima Daiichi unit 1, where an explosion Saturday destroyed a building housing the reactor, the spent fuel pool, in accordance with General Electric’s design, is placed above the reactor. Tokyo Electric said it was trying to figure out how to maintain water levels in the pools, indicating that the normal safety systems there had failed, too. Failure to keep adequate water levels in a pool would lead to a catastrophic fire, said nuclear experts, some of whom think that unit 1’s pool may now be outside.

“That would be like Chernobyl on steroids,” said Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer at Fairewinds Associates and a member of the public oversight panel for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, which is identical to the Fukushima Daiichi unit 1.

People familiar with the plant said there are seven spent fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi, many of them densely packed.

Gundersen said the unit 1 pool could have as much as 20 years of spent fuel rods, which are still radioactive.

From the Health Ranger:

http://www.naturalnews.com/031731_radiation_preparedness.html

http://en.rian.ru/world/20110315/163008312.html

"A fire at the fourth reactor of the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant resulted in a leak of highly concentrated radiation, the Japanese premier said on Tuesday."

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/483/031/Fourth_Japanese_Nuclear_Reactor_Explodes_and_Catches_Fire.html

"The tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s No. 4 reactor caught fire and exploded on Tuesday morning, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s office tweeted.

"The fire and the hydrogen explosion have added to the already high radiation level at the Daiichi plant."

This just in from PatR....

Topic started on 14-3-2011 @ 01:58 AM by AllSeeingI

US Air Force WC-135 Detects Deadly Radiation Over Pacific (US in 24hrs)

Special USAF aircraft have detected large amounts of Radioactivity over the mid-north Pacific region. The radiation cloud could make landfall in western North America within 24 hours.

The WC-135 Constant Phoenix is a special purpose aircraft derived from the Boeing C-135 and used by the United States Air Force. Its mission is to collect samples from the atmosphere for the purpose of detecting and identifying nuclear explosions. It is also informally referred to as the “weather bird” or “the sniffer” by workers on the program.

Still working to get other sources. The article did point out that during the Hydrogen Explosion earlier the cloud reached a height of 800m during the initial blast.

More to come....

UPDATE: The original author claims to have been given an anonymous insider tip from a contact friend of his inside the military. He himself is attempting to find out if this story is true. He asks for any possible leads be emailed to him. Mentioned in the source article.

As temperatures plummet, millions of people are spending a fourth night without foods, water or heating.

Overwhelmed shelters are housing 550,000 people along Japan's east coast after the earthquake and tsunami killed at least 10,000 people. Kyodo news agency reports that authorities have lost contact with a further 30,000 citizens.

In Ishinomaki, Patrick Fuller, of the International Federation of the Red Cross, says:

It is the elderly who have been hit the hardest.

The tsunami engulfed half the town and many lie shivering uncontrollably under blankets. They are suffering from hypothermia having been stranded in their homes without water or electricity.

Snow is expected within the next few days.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/asia/japan-crisis-live-blog

"TEPCO reported that they confirmed 8217 micro Sievert at the front gate of the Daiichi Fukushima Powerplant.  This is 3 times of what a person normally exposed to in a year in one hour."

Check out Al Jazeera's Live Blogs:

March 12th:  http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/asia/live-blog-japan-earthquake

March 13th:  http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/asia/japans-twin-disasters-march-13-liveblog

March 14th:  http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/asia/disaster-japan-march-14

March 15th:  http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/asia/japan-crisis-live-blog

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_earthquake

"The pulverized coast has been hit by hundreds of aftershocks since Friday, the latest one a 6.2 magnitude quake that was followed by a new tsunami scare Monday. As sirens wailed, soldiers abandoned their search operations and told residents of the devastated shoreline in Soma, the worst hit town in Fukushima prefecture, to run to higher ground.

"They barked out orders: "Find high ground! Get out of here!" Several soldiers were seen leading an old woman up a muddy hillside. The warning turned out to be a false alarm.

History repeats itself (remember Haiti?):  "People are surviving on little food and water. Things are simply not coming," said Hajime Sato, a government official in Iwate prefecture, one of the three hardest hit.  He said authorities were receiving just 10 percent of the food and other supplies they need."

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/03/14/devastation-in-japan-leads-to-drop-in-gas-prices/

How does that work?  They are using less gas which means there is more of a supply on the world market which lowers the price.  Personally, I'd rather pay the higher price than to see this devastation.

If you have a basement, take off enough doors in your house and lean them up against the basement wall, from a corner to as far down as you want protected space.  Put every mattress you have up against the doors.  Put anything else large you have up against the mattresses.  The more bulk you put between you and radiation, the more protection you will have. 

In the room right above the corner of the basement you are making a shelter in, turn bookcases over and throw as much bulk on the floor as you can.  Tape plastic to the windows to keep radioactive dust and debris from coming in through cracks. 

Put food, blankets, light, water, medicines, whatever you need inside your shelter so you don't need to come out.  Don't forget a chemical toilet.  If time is too short, you can make a sawdust toilet:  5-6 gallon plastic bucket, a toilet seat, and a lot of sawdust, plus thick garbage bags.  Line the bucket with a bag, use it, then throw in sawdust which will absorb much of the odor.  Throw the bag out of your shelter when it becomes obnoxious.  Remember, you will probably be in the shelter for a while, several weeks is not unthinkable, so bring games, toys, whatever to keep busy.

Block the entryway to your shelter with another door/mattress or whatever you have.  You can also use sandbags filled with dirt to make a door too.

Make sure your radio works from your basement or you won't know when it is safe to come out.  Have a cell phone with you too.  You can get hand-crank rechargers at http://beprepared.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_CL%20L530_A_name_E_Wavelength%20Emergency%20Radio,%20Charger%20&%20Flashlight.

Print out a copy of the Nuclear War Survival Skills manual at http://www.oism.org/nwss/.  (It's probably cheaper to buy one.  You get the most current copy and most importantly, the pictures are better quality.)  It instructs you how to make your own geiger counter and much, much more, including an expedient fallout shelter that you can dig in the ground (if you don't have a basement).

Other large mass objects you can use to block radiation is dirt, water barrels, columns of tires filled with dirt, bricks, cinder blocks, whatever you have around the house...sofa, refrigerator, washers, dryers, etc.

I posted some recall I had from last night earlier today at https://earthchanges.ning.com/profiles/blogs/all-contactees-take-note-some.  I'll post it again here:

[I seemed to be up in the air looking down.]  I saw flat land.  [I seemed to be down the coast (south) from the plant.] There was a watery bluish color to the air (meaning it was daylight).  The below image was taken before the explosion.  The explosion occurred in the afternoon, Japanese time.  [See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ3IgHQuCBM&feature=player_embedded starting around 0:23 for the bluish color]: 

Off in the distance I saw what looked like puffs of cloud or smoke that were increasing in size [ground based].  The distance was further away than the second picture below, kind of like being not far from the horizon, but the timing was more like the first image, which appeared to be the first fireball, with subsequent ones just beginning to rise, which expanded rapidly.  But the color of the first fireball was more like the second picture, but tinted blue. 

My attention was drawn to it.  It felt like a bad thing was happening at first but then something like relief suddenly flowed from those clouds.  My sense is that a disaster was allowed to start so that it could provide something necessary so that a worser disaster could be averted by unseen forces.

[In another scene] I continued seeing very flat land, the same watery blue color, the color and light were like being near water in the early morning.  From the middle of this land rose a very tall, flat building that looked like the UN, but the surrounding landscape was definitely not DC.  I gathered [the building] was symbolic rather than real.  I sensed that it wasn't just the nations of the Earth gathering there, but a gathering of galactic worlds as well.

[In another scene, I also had recall of an alien.  Loosely, he resembled General Akbar in Star Wars.  However, his head was taller (longer) and his eyes were higher and not so far to the sides (but larger than human eyes), there were three boney protuberances between his eyes, but his skin color was that bronze-ish/brownish color.  I suspect George Lucas had seen one of his kind when he casted Star Wars. "General Akbar" seemed to be a physician and was healing someone's hand aboard a spacecraft.  I felt a lot of affinity for this being.  He was old and very wise.]

I had asked for some confirmation (which usually doesn't happen) but this time, much to my amazement and delight, it did.  After posting the above, I found this article:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_japan_earthquake, that said:

"Edano said an explosion caused by vented hydrogen gas destroyed the exterior walls of the building where the reactor is, but not the actual metal housing enveloping the reactor."  [The explosion allowed to happen to help mitigate worse affects?]

"Edano said the radiation around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant had not risen after the blast, but had in fact decreased. He did not say why that was so. [This bolded line has been removed from some articles with no explanation, but was in the original Yahoo article.]  He added that pressure decreased after the blast.  [Again, an explosion allowed to happen (or caused?) to enable radiation and pressure to decrease?]

"The explosion was preceded by puff of white smoke that gathered intensity until it became a huge cloud enveloping the entire facility, located in Fukushima, 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Iwaki. After the explosion, the walls of the building crumbled, leaving only a skeletal metal frame."

The yahoo link is no longer good, but here are some others:  http://www.delcotimes.com/general-news/20110311/japan-quake-explosion-rocks-nuke-plant-meltdown-fears-ease and http://www.wbur.org/2011/03/12/japan and http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/12/shaking-smoke-seen-japanese-nuclear-plant-facing-possible-meltdown/.

In these next three links, the line "He did not say why that was so." was missing:  http://www.news-herald.com/general-news/20110311/updated-blast-at-japan-nuke-plant-thousands-missing, http://www.guelphmercury.com/news-story/2706786-explosion-at-japan-nuke-plant-disaster-toll-rises/, http://archive.rgj.com/article/20110312/news12/110312001/Explosion-Japan-nuke-plant-disaster-toll-rises-watch-video-reports-.  Lends weight that it was an unusual event that radiation decreased. 

FOLKS, I sense that our meditation (as well as many others around the world) played a part in averting what could have been a horrible catastrophe! 

UPDATE 03/13/011: 

THE GREAT QUAKE OF JAPAN... 8.9 MAG CAUSES CHAOS... BBC LIVE... REUTERS LIVE MAPS, DETAILS... KYODO WIRE... NHK... Hundreds of bodies found... Over 1,000 Feared Dead... Dam breaks, washes away homes... Agency: North American plate snapped upward... SKY LIVE... VIDEO... PHOTOS... HUGE WHIRLPOOL CREATED... Thousands roam Tokyo streets... Cruise ship, entire train missing... CITY HALF SUBMERGED, HALF IN FLAMES... VIDEO: Skyscrapers swaying...

http://drudgereport.com/

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1116149/1/.html

Fukushima No. 1 reactor

Current measures of pumping seawater to cool reactors is seen as a Hail Mary pass.

"What occurred at the plant was a "station blackout," which is the loss of offsite air-conditioning power combined with the failure of onsite power, in this case diesel generators.

"It is considered to be extremely unlikely but the station blackout has been one of the great concerns for decades," said Ken Bergeron, a physicist who has worked on nuclear reactor accident simulation.

"We're in uncharted territory," he said.

Release of Radiation from Second Reactor Planned
http://www.mediawatch.co.nz/news/world/70430/release-of-radiation-from-second-reactor-planned

http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110311D11JFA11.htm

"The major earthquake that struck northeastern Japan on Friday had the hallmarks of an interplate quake, which occurs at the boundary between two tectonic plates."

"At the area near the epicenter, the North American plate, on which part of the Japanese archipelago lies, slips under the Pacific plate. The temblor was likely triggered when the North American plate snapped upward, releasing the accumulated strain.

"The earthquake occurred near the site of another tremor that shook Miyagi Prefecture on Wednesday, so the earlier quake may have been a foreshock, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

"There aren't many instances in which such a large earthquake occurs right after a magnitude 7-class quake," said an official at the agency. "This is a highly unusual case.

"The agency warns that aftershocks registering around magnitude 7 could take place over the next month.

...

"The plate may have shifted over a stretch of several hundred kilometers along the fault on Friday, according to the agency, with some experts putting the figure at upwards of 400-500km."

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110311/WIRE/110319867/-1/features?p=2&tc=pg

"The quake was caused when one giant tectonic plate was shoved under another, the type of movement that produces the biggest earthquakes. It's the same kind of quake that caused the devastating 2004 Indonesian tsunami.

...

"The quake happened at the intersection of the North American and Pacific plates in the northwestern chunk of the "Ring of Fire," in an area that "has been incredibly quiet," Applegate said."

"Scientists warned that the first tsunami waves are not always the strongest, and officials said people in Hawaii and along the West Coast should remain vigilant. Tsunami warnings continued in California and Oregon, but were downgraded to an advisory in Hawaii, and Gov. Neil Abercrombie said the islands were "fortunate almost beyond words."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014468785_apusjapanearthquakepacific27thldwritethru.html

http://us.mg1.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?.gx=1&.rand=6f2jivkv4tmhg

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1365380/Japan-earthquake-latest-travel-advice.html

"The quake struck at a depth of six miles, about 80 miles off the eastern coast, Japan’s meteorological agency said. The area is 240 miles (380km) north east of Tokyo."

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0001xgp.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/11/markets/world_markets/index.htm

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=134464397