From Bloomberg –

General Electric Co. (GE)’s goal of broadening its $1 billion nuclear service-and-parts business with sales of new reactors risks stalling as world leaders reconsider the future of atomic energy.

Governments from Germany, which halted 25 percent of its nuclear-generated electricity, to India, with $175 billion in planned spending by 2030, are reassessing the technology after Japan’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami crippled a power plant and raised the threat of a meltdown.

Political doubts after the Japan disaster may signal dwindling appetite for new plants, and the reactors that Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt has said he wants to pursue. Three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant use a GE design, including the damaged No. 1 unit that began operating in 1971.

“We want to look at, just like the whole industry, the details of what happened here,” GE Power & Water CEO Steve Bolze said yesterday in an interview. “There is going to be a lot of discussion, and we’re part of that process.”

While the President and Congress are taking a “Damn the Torpedoes” approach and reaffirming their commitment to nuclear power, the business world is having some doubts. I expect the doubts to get worse in the next few days.

I should make note of the pro nuclear vitriol being unleashed in the last few days against those who would “exploit” the crisis. Further, I have seen a good number of times the idea that this is a good development for the American nuclear industry. This is a good example of corporate and political PR techniques gaining wide usage. You attack the enemy’s strongest point. The reality is simple and it will not change no matter how much is written and how much contempt for opponents of nuclear power is expressed, these events call into question the very idea of producing power through nuclear energy.

How that debate works out will depend heavily on the events of the next few days.

James Pilant

This is the United States Nuclear Regulatory Agency’s latest press release No. 11-409, 3-15-11. This is every last word of it, all of it.

NRC ANALYSIS CONTINUES TO SUPPORT JAPAN’S PROTECTIVE ACTIONS
NRC analysts overnight continued their review of radiation data related to the damaged Japanese nuclear reactors. The analysts continue to conclude the steps recommend by Japanese authorities parallel those the United States would suggest in a similar situation.
The Japanese authorities Monday recommended evacuation to 20 kilometers around the affected reactors and said that persons out to 30 kilometers should shelter in place.
Those recommendations parallel the protective actions the United States would suggest should dose limits reach 1 rem to the entire body and 5 rem for the thyroid, an organ particularly susceptible to radiation uptake. The currently reported Japanese radiation measurements are well below these guidelines.
A rem is a measure of radiation dose. The average American is exposed to approximately 620 millirems, or 0.62 rem, of radiation each year from natural and manmade sources.

Their writer has brevity down to an art. The central message here is a combination of “they are doing what we would do” and a sort of background, implied “Go team” for the Japanese. Some of the writers who have commented on this blog in the last few days feel that their government here in the United States is letting them down when it comes to information – for instance, the probabilities of radiation reaching the West Coast and other parts of the United States.

This kind of terse press release does nothing to assuage the public’s fears and, in fact, gives the impression of studied indifference.

This series of incidents in Japan is one of the great historical sagas of this 21st Century. History is being made virtually by the hour.

The United States is ill served by this limited and useless public information during such a crisis.

James Pilant

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Emperor Akihito made an unprecedented televised address to his disaster-stricken nation on Wednesday, expressing deep worry about the crisis at damaged nuclear reactors and urging people to lend each other a helping hand in difficult times.

Looking somber and stoic, the 77-year-old Akihito said the problems at Japan’s nuclear-power reactors, where authorities are battling to prevent a catastrophe, were unpredictable after an earthquake he described as “unprecedented in scale.”

This illustrates the seriousness of the situation. This morning the Japanese were planning a helicopter drop of water and other materials to slow the fires at the reactors. After a single helicopter flew over the site, the mission was aborted. It is safe to assume that radiation levels were too high for a safe mission.

We are reaching the point where they may have to ask helicopter and ground crews to enter the area in spite of the high radiation levels. They are running out of options very quickly. I believe they will have to evacuate in the next day or so. I also predict volunteers will remain in spite of the almost certain personal cost. They are short of every kind of effective response to the crisis but they are not short of courage.

James Pilant

 

This is the National Post’s special report page on the atomic plants in Japan. You can see in the lower right corner a map of the jet stream which seems to point the radiation toward the U.S. I have no idea if that is the correct interpretation. There is a lot of interesting stuff on it. You can probably see it better here at their web site.

James Pilant

This is all I have. It came in on Reuters “comments.” I want this to be right. If the workers are on site, there is a chance that meltdown can be avoided.

Japan nuclear agency: Evacuation order of plant workers lifted at 0230 GMT after radiation falls

This came in later —

I am very pleased.

James Pilant

From MSNBC

Workers at a quake-damaged atomic power plant briefly suspended operations and evacuated Wednesday after a surge in radiation made it too dangerous to remain there, dealing a setback to Japan’s frantic efforts to stem a nuclear crisis.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said work on dousing the overheated reactors with water was disrupted by the need to withdraw.

“All the workers there have suspended their operations. We have urged them to evacuate, and they have,” Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Edano said, according to a translation by NHK television.

The workers were allowed back into the plant after almost an hour when the radiation levels had fallen.

It’s possible that evaporation from reactor No. 3 may have caused the temporary surge, Edano said, although that can’t be immediately confirmed.

This popped up on Yahoo news just as I had finished posting that the Japanese government had abandoned the nuclear station after the radiation became too dangerous for the workers.

I suppose comment is not necessary at this time.

James Pilant

From Yahoo News –

President Barack Obama on Tuesday defended the use of nuclear energy despite the calamity in Japan where a nuclear power plant leaked radiation in the wake of a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The president told Pittsburgh television station KDKA that all energy sources have their downsides but that the U.S. — which gets 20 percent of its electricity from nuclear power — needs to look at the full array of them.

The president said facilities in the U.S. are closely monitored and built to withstand earthquakes, even though nothing’s failsafe. Proponents of nuclear power fear their efforts to win over the public to the safety of their industry have been dealt a tremendous blow by the disaster in Japan.

By ERIC TALMADGE and SHINO YUASA, Associated Press –

Japan suspended operations to prevent a stricken nuclear plant from melting down Wednesday after a surge in radiation made it too dangerous for workers to remain at the facility.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said work on dousing reactors with water was disrupted by the need to withdraw.

The level of radiation at the plant surged to 1,000 millisieverts early Wednesday before coming down to 800-600 millisieverts. Still, that was far more than the average

“So the workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now,” Edano said. “Because of the radiation risk, we are on standby.”

Experts say exposure of around 1,000 millisieverts is enough to cause radiation sickness.

There is no one there to pump water into the plants. A meltdown is inevitable at all four plants. The two others, No. 5 and No. 6, will be in danger from the crisis at the other four. I have no idea whether or not they will be damaged or not.

James Pilant

Greg Harris very kindly sent me this link – http://squall.sfsu.edu/scripts/nhemjetstream_model.html or here.

This can show you a time lapse map of the jet stream path over the Northern hemisphere for whatever time you want to enter in the box.

Pretty good stuff.

Here’s what a still picture looks like –

CBS news consultant was told that one of the workers in the plant said he wasn’t afraid to die  that this was his job.

Incredible courage.

James Pilant

 

From Huffington Post –

Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Hajimi Motujuku says the blaze erupted early Wednesday in the outer housing of the reactor’s containment vessel. Fire fighters are trying to put out the flames. Japan’s nuclear safety agency also confirmed the fire, whose cause was not immediately known.

On Tuesday, a fire broke out in the reactor’s fuel storage pond – an area where used nuclear fuel is kept cool – causing radioactivity to be released into the atmosphere.

Reuters reported that two workers are missing inside the plant, and a Japanese official said that there was a crack in the roof of the No. 4 reactor.

 

This must be two of the fifty workers who remained on site after the other 750 were evacuated. There appear to be firefighters on the scene, so we don’t know how many are risking their lives to try and prevent a meltdown.

James Pilant