Aw, I dunno about that.  My son had a teacher in the late-80's I could easily have... er, developed a crush on.

Gosh this is gloomy... 40 years and 600 billion to clean the mess up ??!!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/08/us-japan-fukushima-idUSBRE92417Y20130308

They are in a hurry.

http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18208-nuclear-crisis-at-fukushima-could-spew-out-more-than-15-000-times-as-much-radiation-as-hiroshima-bombing

If the building collapses, then it'll be a lot harder to remove the fuel rods. Or they could break. Or fission... gosh.

Perhaps this is good news, recently they've removed 1 of the fuel rods:

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-first-nuclear-fuel-rods-were-successfully-removed-from-fukushima

 I wonder if they can remove all of them... some think not.

https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/10/24-3

Although note that this article is severely biased by a leftist spokesman. There are a few quotes from nuclear experts in there which are worthwile, they say that there's a possibility for more leaking of nuclear material if one of the rods ruptures, and that it would mean that some nuclear material would be impossible to recover once it leaks out. The most hyped statements about the possibility of an explosion, comes from an activist... now we all know that their vision isnt' necessarily contrained by reality.

Oh wait, the article links to an expert who is also voicing concern.

http://rt.com/news/fukushima-apocalypse-fuel-removal-598/

I quote: "could result in a criticality if  the rods come into close proximity to one another". But is this even possible? If they're removing the rods one at a time, they cannot come close to each other, or can they? Maybe if they drop one of the rods on top of another one, but they're not going to do that, are they?

I quote: "chain  reaction process could be self-sustaining and go on for a long  time." So the expert doesn't expect a huge nuclear explosion, but something else. A mass of burning nuclear material that will release copious amounts of pollutions for a long time. Maybe like Chernobyl? It doesn't say.

I quote: "In a fuel pool  containing damaged rods and racks, it could potentially start up  on its own at anytime. TEPCO has been incredibly lucky that this  hasn't happened so far. " So basically we're overdue for a disaster.

I quote: " Chernobyl was one reactor, in a rural area, a  quarter of the size of one of the reactors at Fukushima. There  was no 'spent fuel pool' to worry about" So the problem is a lot bigger than Chernobyl.

Gosh such an expert is such a "relief" compared to all the scaremongering. It's bad, but maybe not as bad as the worst some people want us to believe. Oh wait... further in the article the expert says that billions of people could die because of radiation, in the worst case scenario...

Gosh... let's hope that won't happen. 

Anyway... I thought they had things under control... but it's a bad situation. If the scaremongerers are right then it looks like they're taking a huge gamble with as worst-case outcome that the whole of Japan must be evacuated. This poses an interesting problem. Where do you put over 100 million people overnight? Are there enough hotel-rooms available for so many people?

But should we put our trust in scaremongers... I don't think so. They want to make us believe there's an atomic bomb buried there, which could irradiate the whole earth. But the fissionable material is not nearly dense enough to go critical like that... but still, it still has the potential to be worse than Chernobyl if I understand the expert correctly.

I quote: "We have three 100-ton melted fuel blobs underground, but where  exactly they are located, no one knows." Oow... so the expert says they will will only need to remove the spent fuel cells. The ones in the actual nuclear reactor have already molten down and are somewhere under ground, nobody knows where...

Gosh... I'm getting confused. I thought there hadn't been any meltdown. Is this story about reality or just a worst-case scenario?

Oh there actually was !!!

http://science.time.com/2011/05/24/what-fukushima%E2%80%99s-triple-meltdown-means/

How the &%# could I've missed that...

Ok I understand better now, why people were scared when the geiger counters went off globally last week. Sorry that I took it so lightly.

And even after the fuel rods are removed, they still present a clear danger... just in a different location.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23779561

But there are also funny stories like these:

http://concienciaradio.com/fukushima/shimatsu_nuke_explosion_possible_at_fukushima.html

Those people have a vivid imagination, not limited by any knowledge of the most basic of physics... like Fukushima can melt the whole world, that's just crazy talk.

Or this...

http://topinfopost.com/2014/01/03/underground-nuclear-explosion-at-crippled-japan-atomic-plant-shocks-world

That is obviously a joke. It's based on a report about normal earthquakes in the vicinity of Fukushima, not at Fukushima... and note the picture with the Fukushima melt-through point !!!

Ok... this article seems more sensible:

http://www.cfact.org/2013/10/12/physicist-there-was-no-fukushima-nuclear-disaster/

If you get rid of all the hype, what's really left... a burning blob of material in the ground.

There is the potential for a fuel leak when the fuel is being removed... but that will be limited to some gas, from 1 fuel rod, so that should be limited in scope. And such a leak will occur anyway when the fuel rods are left in there...

There is the potential for more fuel going critical while they remove the fuel rods, but what are the chances of that happening, really... my guess is, that the chance is practically zero. First of all such a fuel rod has to fall down from the crane. Second of all, it has to fall at exactly the worst spot possible. And thirdly the cooling must fail (everything is cooled by water to keep fuel from getting too hot). And fourthly, the 2 fuel rods that are melting will also have to somehow melt all the other rods.... now really, what are the chances of that happening.

So perhaps they're doing the right thing, to remove the fuel from the damaged reactor.

The media are so full of hype, does anybody know what's real and what's not real anymore?

GeomanNL...what say you spend a little more time with education..and a little less time 'guessing' what might be right or wrong with comments on the net.

I doubt you'd recognize 'hype' if it jumped up and bit you on the bum...;)

You seem to have the 'eagerness' for knowledge of the new-born...but without a clue how to distinguish science from blogging.

Simply put...Fukushima was and still is a disaster, just as all 'mishaps' with nuclear reactors have been.

Please don't post further.  Take the time to get an education....then you will be able to separate bullshit from reality....;)

Well, it's hard to find good information on the internet. There's just so much bullshit.

I had a good education.

My common sense tells me that there's no imminent global disaster. Not will there be.

A tonne of waste water? It gets diluted by trillions of tonnes of ocean water, so what difference does it make.

A second meltdown? There already was a triple meltdown in Fukushima and the fuel is either underground and pretty harmless to the rest of the world, or it's still above ground but cooled by a lot of water. This water becomes contaminated with parts of that fuel of course, but if it's gradually released over the course of many decades than there's no global disaster to speak of.

If a fourth meltdown would happen, that fuel would release some radiation and then also sink to the bottom of the reactor, or into the ground, where it will be harmless to the rest of the world. It would take some extraordinary circumstances if that fuel would created a toxic cloud that spans the whole northern hemisphere... I just don't see that happening, even in the worst case scenario. It's just impossible, too much fuel is already gone critical so what can the remainder do, really.

Well anyway that's what my common sense tells me.

And then I read some bullshit from leftist activists who act pretty convincingly like the world is coming to an end.

And I get doubts.

Maybe that's their intention? To exaggerate things to further their own political agendas? No matter how much senseless panic they spread?

They are politicians after all...

I've got some major doubts about that fall-out expert now as well... what is a fall-out expert anyway? Maybe another leftist activists who calls himself an expert?

Well anyway, if someone can point me to a few good articles on the topic, that would be much appreciated.

I'll leave it at this.

That's the sort of statement that really has me thinking 'troll'.

Classifying an 'expert' as 'another leftist activist' means your 'doubts' are simply prejudiced ramblings....fuelled by seemingly random sound-bites gleaned from various blogs on the net.

There is more to an educated response to a topic of debate than the parroting of selectively sourced net-dross.

You 'just not seeing that happening' is certainly nothing to hitch an argument to, not with the basis of research as found by googling blogs...;)

When I was 5 my father ran the Mildura Aerodrome ...couple of hundred miles East of Maralinga.  One of his 'roles' was to take and log air sample readings ....all  top-secret for the Govt.

They were positive.

Years later... Bikini Atoll....the Frogs wanted to blow the shit out of it... fall-out over Australia was measured as equivalent to the dose you'd get from the paint on your fluorescent watch....not a lot....but the people who used to paint those watches did develop cancer.

Shit publicly hit the fan re Bikini....

None of that is from blogs .... it's real life learning.... the hard way.

Who needs fallout from Fukushima....when you have already been dosed by the US, the British....and the French?

Any amount in seawater is too much ....when humans like to think of themselves as at the top of the food chain....;p

That's education.

Ok fine, sorry. I just got a weak moment. I'm tired of all this hype. Fukushima, global warming. The media and the internet make no sense anymore, they only seem to be happy if they can exaggerate everything.

When I was 15, Chernobyl happened. That was a close call for the Netherlands; I also know what a nuclear disaster means. I also know what exaggeration means. What happened at Chernobyl was a lot worse than Fukushima.

I will clarify... when I read the article, it seemed to make sense at first, but after giving it more thought his (or her) statements are so exagerrated. Like, the current state Fukushima is in will cause millions of deaths. That's completely unfounded, hardly much radiation escaped. Chernobyl released a lot more and that didn't cause millions of deaths. She says that according to some other experts Northern Japan is already uninhabitable... it's all highly suggestive and extreme.

I don't trust an expert that makes such suggestive statements. I was wrong to even mention it. I'm sorry, it just seemed to make sense at the moment.

I'll leave it at this.

Ok I found this article which seems reliable. And it's just a few days old.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-to-worry-about-after-fukushima-nuclear-disaster

It says that things are bad only in the vicinity of the nuclear reactors.

When you strip away all the hype, not much is left.

Is it possible for someone to be a troll without knowing they are a troll?

Only if they are being remotely con-Trolled.

Although, judging from past posting history.... hmmm...

Yes.

Although you'd like to think otherwise...;)

Ok so I'm a troll... so what, is there something wrong with being a troll? Is it my greenish teint or something? That's because of the radiation you know, I was born with it.

Trolls are removed...;)

I dunno, why is it these 'supposedly' serious threads always end up getting somehow ugly?

Mkay. I don't like being a troll anyway. I'll try to change back to John Doe, my original alias [drinking a potion - gulp]. There you go I'm now John Doe. I'm cured! I'm no troll no more! Trolololola. I'm a happy camper now.

And I'll try to refrain from entering serious subjects like these ever again. They give me the creeps.

And the world just keeps turning.... 

To answer your question starkers, because people consider themselves more knowledgeable than they really are and refuse to be open minded.

Oh well, that don't include me.  I know everything about bugger all.

Reminds me of the truisms of the Building/Architecture game....

An Engineer is a person who knows a great deal about very little....and goes on to know more and more about less and less until he knows practically everything about nothing.

An Architect is a person who knows a little bit about a great deal....and goes on to know less and less about more and more until he knows practically nothing about everything.

And a Client is always right.

Hehe, that reminds me of the: "Me and my dad know everything... ask me a question, any question you like, and we can answer it"

Next thing I got asked a question about whatever, and whether I knew the answer or nor, I'd answer with: "Better go ask me dad, I don't know that one."

Hmmm, the things I used to do at the pub after a few too many ales.

There's this german term:

DELLE: durch einfach liegen lassen erledigt.

Translation: by simply letting it lie, solved.

It works like a charm.

We have a saying here...

"let the sleeping dog lay"

I need to have a beer with you sir, you think just too much like me 

More German sayings...this one is lethal...

Wenn ist das Nunstrück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! ... Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.

I think this is an appropriate time to pug again for a broken record or dead horse digicon....