Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

90,000 tons of leaked radioactive water a Level-7 nuclear accident by itself

13 May 2011 (Asahi Shimbun) – As if Tokyo Electric Power Co., the embattled operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, didn’t have enough problems, another daunting task is what to do with an estimated 90,000 tons of radioactive water. This vast amount remains from the pumping of water to cool reactors […]

TEPCO: Meltdowns in Reactors 2 and 3

By arevamirpal::laprimavera The water gauges for the Reactors 2 and 3 are not to be trusted, said TEPCO’s Matsumoto in the press conference on May 12 (I watched the live-recorded video) when the company officially acknowledged the meltdown of the Reactor 1. If the water gauges for the Reactors 2 and 3 have been overstating […]

Video: Each nuclear reactor at Fukushima challenged by new problems

Gundersen says Fukushima’s gaseous and liquid releases continue unabated.  With a meltdown at Unit 1, Unit 4 leaning and facing possible collapse, several units contaminating ground water, and area school children outside the exclusion zone receiving adult occupational radiation doses, the situation continues to worsen. TEPCO needs a cohesive plan and international support. Fukushima – […]

Image of the Day: Satellite View of Ellesmere Island Ice Shelf Breakup, August 2008

Ellesmere Island ice shelves at the end of August 2008. The 2007 ice shelf extent is outlined in black and coastline in blue. Left to Right: Serson, Petersen, Milne, and Ward Hunt. The unusually wide expanse of open water along the coast likely contributed to the 2008 break-up of three of these ice shelves. 29 […]

Radiation-contaminated area spans 800 square km, new map shows

By Hisae Sato and Fumikazu Asai12 May 2011 The total area contaminated with radiation from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is estimated at about 800 square kilometers, or about 40 percent the size of Tokyo, according to a radiation map created by the science ministry and U.S. Department of Energy. The report uses […]

Extreme drought crippling Texas agriculture

May 12 (Southwest Farm Press) – The Texas Farm Bureau board of directors, meeting in its regular quarterly session at its headquarters in Waco, Texas, issued the following statement of urgency: As wildfires in Texas continue a rampage across more than two million acres, another major disaster is gripping the Lone Star State. Dry weather […]

Arctic nations eye future of world’s last frontier – ‘We are looking at this huge crisis and the response is a lot of inside baseball’

By Andrew Quinn; additional reporting by Alister Doyle in Oslo; editing by Laura MacInnis 10 May 2011 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Leaders of Arctic nations gather in Greenland this week to chart future cooperation as global warming sets off a race for oil, mineral, fishing and shipping opportunities in the world’s fragile final frontier. Secretary of […]

Ocean swallows two islands in Gulf of Mannar

By S Raja and Gokul Chandrasekar9 May 2011 RAMANATHAPURAM/CHENNAI: Two islands in the Gulf of Mannar have submerged within the last few months, arguably due to global warming. While officials at the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park attributed the submergence of Poomarichan and Vilangusalli islands to global warming, independent experts pointed their finger of […]

New measurements show almost no water in Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor

By arevamirpal::laprimavera11 May 2011 Murphys have never left Fukushima I Nuke Plant, and they are coming out from their hiding places. After the workers braved the very high radiation inside the Reactor 1 building and repaired the pressure gauge and the water gauge inside the Containment Vessel and the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV), TEPCO is […]

Chain reactions reignited at Fukushima nuclear plant after tsunami: study

By KentuckyFC  9 May 2011 Nuclear reactors produce radioactive by-products that decay at different rates. One common by-product is iodine-131 which has a half life of about 8 days while another is cesium-137 with a half life of about 30 years. When a reactor switches off, the iodine decays more quickly so the ratio between […]

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