Recent content by Jim Lagerfeld

There is an increased risk of an M7 class quake around the plant suggested by this recent paper: "Tomography of the 2011 Iwaki earthquake (M 7.0) and Fukushima nuclear power plant area" http://www.solid-earth.net/3/43/2012/se-3-43-2012.pdf "Our results suggest that the Iwaki earthquake...

I'm intrigued, that sure is some shoddy work with the clone stamp! And the comparison with the low-res video-cap from the same spot proves that it is not an honest stitching artifact but rather a shoddy attempt at removing something from the hi-res image.

Since the no fly zone was reduced to 3km on Feb 25th, there has been a lot of fresh aerial news helicopter footage of the plant site run on Japanese TV. Someone has uploaded one of the clearest clips to youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vq5TzMvRa4&feature=player_embedded The presenter...

How about this paper - it seems to me to better match the current situation, although apologies in advance if I have missed something obvious. They suggest that based on a simulation similar to three mile island, cycling criticality events are quite possible in a damaged fuel debris bed...

I thought you might be interested in this tidbit from the Washington Post: "NRC e-mails reveal disagreement about how to advise the Japanese. The NRC staff chafed at some unorthodox advice coming from an ad hoc group of scientists assembled by Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Famed physicist...

The 1983 Sea of Japan tsunami swept along a wide part of the Sea of Japan coast, from the Noto peninusla north, reached ten metres in height and and killed about one hundred people including some on the Korean peninsula. Kashiwazaki has tsunami protection for a reason! The animation shows a...

According to the press conference I watched yesterday (and assuming I understood it all correctly) they had expected to see the water level at about 'OP 10000' (about 5m above the bottom of the primary containment floor). This prediction was based on 'pressure differentials'. Instead they found...

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I mean that I have read that the initial ratio differed between the two accidents. 0.5 or 0.6 to 1 Cs-134:Cs-137 in Chernobyl, closer to 1:1 in Fukushima. This paper gives the 0.6 :1 value: http://www.irpa.net/irpa7/cdrom/VOL.3/S3_146.PDF But the...

A better map of Austria: http://www.progettohumus.it/include/chernobyl/mappe/europa/PLATE10.PDF And detailed maps for the rest of Europe if you are interested: http://www.progettohumus.it/chernobyl.php?name=mappe2 Not sure the best way to go about making comparisons with the Japanese...

Thank you for the quick linking! Reading both articles, it is still not clear to me whether the installation of the gas management system allowed the measurement of the fission products, revealing a process which might have been already continuing for some time, or whether the xenon is a totally...

I posted the soil samples by regular post to the US where they were counted by a volunteer using a HPGe detector properly calibrated with a prepared cesium 137 source. The test focused on cesium 134 and 137 only, and as far as I know detecting strontium accurately requires a different setup...

Interesting. So far, the worst contamination in fish has mostly been from sandlance, skate and flounder. All bottom dwelling, and eating filter feeders like small shrimp, crab, worm. Mebaru are but are much more predatory. I just got some results from some soil I collected. Total cesium soil...

Fantastic link thank you! Regarding the thermocouples on which 'cold shutdown' claims will be based, some are deemed to be 'overscale', some 'underscale', and some destroyed. Of the remaining: "we think that the data collected at the moment is reliable to some extent. We are not sure if the...

Here's an interesting one from up north: Early results are in from the ongoing monitoring of citizens in Minami Soma on the edge of the exclusion zone. It appears citizens' internal exposure increased much more rapidly during the period April 3-June 4 than it did March 20-May 19...

Thank you for that added clarification. The article indeed includes the line "TEPCO believes that due to the high temperatures created by the meltdown, wires connecting to the sensors may have melted, burnt or shorted out", but there is no rationale provided, so the way the particular story is...