Japan May Become Uninhabitable Due To Nuclear Meltdown

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(NaturalNews) Recent reports confirming that Reactors 1, 2, and 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility completely melted just hours after the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the area on March 11 (http://www.naturalnews.com/032537_F...) have been trumped by even worse news that those same reactors have all likely "melted through," a situation that according to Japan's Daily Yomiuri DY is "the worst possibility in a nuclear accident."

And senior political official Ichiro Ozawa suggested in an interview with The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that the Fukushima situation could make the entire country of Japan "unlivable."

A nuclear core meltdown involves nuclear fuel exceeding its melting point to the point where it damages the core, leaks out, and threatens to potentially release high levels of radiation into the environment. However, a nuclear melt-through is an even worse scenario, as nuclear fuel literally melts through the bottom of damaged reactor pressure vessels into out containment vessels -- and possibly even melts through those outer vessels directly into ground, air, and water.

The report suggesting that melt-throughs have already occurred, which is set to be submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is the "first official recognition" of this dire situation, according to DY. It also confirms early suspicions that such a scenario had been underway all along, as later reports confirmed that the epic disaster at the reactors had produced holes in come of the plant's core containment vessels, and that radioactive water, and possibly even fuel, were leaking into the lower vessels.

IAEA has already stated that the Fukushima disaster is at least as bad as the Chernobyl disaster (http://www.theatlanticwire.com/glob...), but this new information now suggests that it is probably even worse. At this time, it is unknown whether the fuel that has accumulated in the outer containment vessels has seeped outside, where it has the potential to contaminate groundwater supplies and wreak widespread environmental damage.

In an interview conducted prior to the release of the new report, Ichiro Ozawa told the WSJ that areas around Fukushima were already becoming completely "uninhabitable." He also suggested that as it currently stands, much of the rest of the country, including Tokyo, could suffer the same fate if nothing is done to properly and effectively contain the situation.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/nationa...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...

http://hawaiinewsdaily.com/2011/03/...

Japanese Raised Nuclear Crisis From Level 4 to Level 5 - Approaching Another Chernobyl?

By Shinichi Saoshiro and Yoko Nishikawa

Japan has raised the severity rating of the nuclear crisis from Level 4 to Level 5 on the seven-level INES international scale, putting it on a par with America's Three Mile Island accident in 1979, although some experts say it is more serious.   
 

Chernobyl was a 7 on that scale.   

The operation to avert a large-scale radiation leak has overshadowed the humanitarian aspect of Japan's toughest moment since World War Two, after it was struck last Friday by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a 10-metre (33-foot) tsunami.   

Around 6,500 have been confirmed killed in the double natural disaster, which turned whole towns into waterlogged wastelands, and 10,300 remain missing with many feared dead.      

Some 390,000 people, including many among Japan's aging population, are homeless and battling near-freezing temperatures in makeshift shelters in northeastern coastal areas.    

Food, water, medicine and heating fuel are in short supply.   

"Everything is gone, including money," said Tsukasa Sato, a 74-year-old barber with a heart condition, as he warmed his hands in front of a stove at a shelter for the homeless in Yamada, northern Japan.    

Under enormous pressure over its handling of the combination of crises, Japan's government conceded it could have moved faster at the outset.   

"An unprecedented huge earthquake and huge tsunami hit Japan. As a result, things that had not been anticipated in terms of the general disaster response took place," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters late on Friday.   

Health officials and the U.N. atomic watchdog have said radiation levels in the capital Tokyo were not harmful, but the city has seen an exodus of tourists, expatriates and many Japanese, who fear a blast of radioactive material.   

"I'm leaving because my parents are terrified. I personally think this will turn out to be the biggest paper tiger the world has ever seen," said Luke Ridley, 23, from London as he sat at Narita international airport using his laptop. "I'll probably come back in about a month."   

Amid their distress, Japanese were proud of the 300 or so nuclear plant workers toiling in the wreckage, wearing masks, goggles and protective suits sealed by duct tape.    

"My eyes well with tears at the thought of the work they are doing," Kazuya Aoki, a safety official at Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told Reuters.    

Even if engineers restore power at the plant, the pumps may be too damaged to work.   

The first step will be to restore power to pumps for reactors No. 1 and 2, and possibly 4, by Saturday, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, Japan's nuclear safety agency spokesman.   

By Sunday, the government expects to connect electricity to pumps for its badly damaged reactor No.3 -- a focal point in the crisis because of its use of mixed oxides, or mox, containing both uranium and highly toxic plutonium.   
 

That could be a turning point.   

"If they can get those electric pumps on and they can start pushing that water successfully up the core, quite slowly so you don't cause any brittle failure, they should be able to get it under control in the next couple of days," said Laurence
Williams, of Britain's University of Central Lancashire.   

The last-resort option of burying the reactors could leave part of Japan off-limits for decades.     

Read the complete article...