Friday, March 25, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
(NaturalNews) If you listen purely to what Japanese authorities and officials at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant are saying concerning the unfolding nuclear meltdown situation, you might come away thinking that everything is just fine and under control. But reports continue to flood in that seem to say otherwise, suggesting that conditions at the plant are far from remedied.
On Wednesday at roughly 4:20 pm, a black smoke that was seen billowing from Reactor 3 -- which happens to contain the highly dangerous MOX plutonium fuel (http://www.naturalnews.com/031736_p...) -- prompted an evacuation of all workers at all four damaged reactors. Roughly an hour later, officials claim the smoke started to recede, but they did not identify what prompted it, and some reports say the smoke actually continued throughout the day (http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/20...). This event followed a similar one at Reactor 3 on Monday where observed gray smoke prompted an earlier worker evacuation.
Kyodo News reported on Wednesday that Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has observed mysterious neutron beams coming from the plant 13 times since the initial earthquake and tsunami. These neutron beams, which reportedly measure roughly one mile, may be evidence that uranium and plutonium have already been released from the plant's damaged reactors and fuel rods as spent nuclear fuels allegedly release such beams through nuclear fission. Officials have been observing these beams since March 13 and are just now disclosing this important information on March 23 (http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/20...).
Throughout the week, reports continue to warn that high levels of radioactive iodine and cesium are now being found in the water supplies of Tokyo and other areas. Officials have recently warned Tokyo parents not to give their babies tap water because many water samples contained more than double the legal limit of radiation. At the same time, officials are also insisting the levels are somehow safe for adults, even though they exceed government maximum safety levels (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...).
And besides water, food crops from near the Fukushima plant have also been testing positive for radiation, prompting a nationwide ban in Japan of produce grown near the damaged plant (http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-new...). And yet officials continue to declare that radiation levels are low, insinuating that the situation is not really a significant health threat.
On Wednesday, TEPCO issued a press release of what it claims is the current status at the Fukushima plant (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/cor...). In it, the company says it is continuing to pump seawater into the various spent fuel pools of Reactors 1-4, all of which had allegedly run dry. Some of reactor temperatures reached as high as 400 degrees Celsius, which is significantly higher than the maximums for which they were designed (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/cor...).
Stay tuned for periodic updates here on NaturalNews as to the status of the situation.
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