Seismic Energy Dissipation Devices

Seismic Energy Dissipation Devices

Rising Radioactivity of Fukushima Seawater

According to Japan's nuclear safety agency, test performed earlier on water in one section near the Fukushima Daiichi plant's reactor 1 indicated the iodine level at 1,850 times the legal limit which is now  found at 3,355 times the legal limit.

However, an official said the iodine would have deteriorated considerably by the time it reached people. Radioactive materials are measured by scientists in half-lives, or the time it takes to halve the radiation through natural decay.

"Iodine 131 has a half-life of eight days, and even considering its concentration in marine life, it will have deteriorated considerably by the time it reaches people," Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of Japan's nuclear safety agency told a news conference.

Half-lives range from fractions of a second to billions of years.

Iodine 131 was blamed for the high incidence of thyroid cancer among children exposed to fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.

Alongside uranium, other elements of greater concern are those with much longer half-lives. These include caesium, which is easily taken up by plants and animals and can be inhaled through dust, ruthenium, strontium and plutonium.

Workers at Japan's quake-hit nuclear plant are trying to prevent radioactive water from seeping into the sea.

Highly radioactive liquid has been found inside and outside several reactor buildings.

Small amounts of plutonium have also been detected in soil at the plant - the latest indication that one of the reactors suffered a partial meltdown.

Plant operator Tepco and the safety agency say the exact source of the radioactive leak is unknown. But, like the discovery of plutonium, the high levels of radiation found inside and outside reactor buildings are likely to have come from melted fuel rods.

Theories for the leak centre on two possibilities: steam is flowing from the core into the reactor housing and escaping through cracks, or the contaminated material is leaking from the damaged walls of the water-filled pressure control pool beneath the No 2 reactor.

The plutonium - used in the fuel mix in the No 3 reactor - is not at levels that threaten human health, officials said.

Engineers are battling to restore power and restart the cooling systems at the stricken nuclear plant.

Obama has Given Ultimatum to Gaddafi

US President Barack Obama said the terms of a UN Security Council resolution backing action to defend civilians were "not negotiable".

He has said Libyan government forces must end their offensive against rebel-held towns and pull back - or face military action.

Col Muammar Gaddafi's government has declared a unilateral ceasefire, as attack plans are drawn up against him under the UN resolution.

There are reports government offensives are continuing despite the ceasefire.

Libyan officials have dismissed these as untrue and say international observers are being invited to Libya to verify the situation.

In the rebel-held western city of Misrata, which is surrounded by government forces, residents there told Reuters news agency that there was no sign of a ceasefire and that the city continued to be pounded by bombs and artillery.

And Arabic TV station al-Jazeera reported that pro-Gaddafi forces were advancing quickly towards the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi on Friday evening. Its correspondent reported that loyalist forces were clashing with rebels in the towns of al-Magroun and Slouq, about 50km (30 miles) from the city.

The city of Zawiya has already fallen to pro-Gaddafi forces, while there has been fierce fighting in and around Ajdabiya in recent days.

Mr Obama said: "All attacks against civilians must stop. Gaddafi must stop his troops from advancing on Benghazi, pull them back from Ajdabiya, Misrata and Zawiya, and establish water, electricity and gas supplies to all areas.

"Humanitarian assistance must be allowed to reach the people of Libya.

"Let me be clear, these terms are not negotiable. If Gaddafi does not comply, the international community will impose consequences, and the resolution will be enforced through military action.

"Our goal is focused, our cause is just and our coalition is strong."

The US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, told CNN that Col Gaddafi was in violation of the UN Security Council resolution, adopted on Thursday, which called for an immediate ceasefire and banned all flights over Libya.

But Libya's Deputy Foreign Minister, Khaled Kaim, said on Friday evening that Libyan government forces had conducted no military operations since announcing the ceasefire earlier.

"We have had no bombardment of any kind since the ceasefire was declared," he told reporters when asked about reports of continued government operations in Misrata and other parts of the country.
'Actions not words'

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is travelling to Paris on Saturday to join allies in discussing the next steps in Libya.

The British and French, along with some Arab allies, are expected to play a leading role in any initial air strikes.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said everything was ready to launch military strikes in Libya.

The French ambassador to the UN, Gerard Araud, told the BBC he expected military intervention in Libya within hours of the Paris summit.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Col Gaddafi would be judged by "actions, not his words", and that British Tornado and Typhoon aircraft were being moved to bases in the region.

The commander in charge of planning for the no-fly zone will be US Adm Samuel Locklear, the BBC's Mark Urban has learned.

The US Navy is deploying additional warships to the Mediterranean to support possible military action.

Other countries that could take part in any military action include Denmark, Canada, Spain, Belgium, Norway and Qatar. Italy has offered the use of air bases.

On Thursday, the UN Security Council voted to impose a no-fly zone, expand existing sanctions and endorse the use of force - short of an occupation of the country - to protect civilians.

The 15-member council approved the resolution on Libya late on Thursday with 10 votes in favour, none against and five abstentions.

Russia and China - which often oppose the use of force against a sovereign country as they believe it sets a dangerous precedent - abstained rather than using their power of veto as permanent members.

Col Gaddafi has ruled Libya for more than 40 years. An uprising against him began last month after long-time leaders of neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt were toppled.

Fukushima Wants Burying Like Chernobyl

The last week's huge quake and tsunami driven a nuclear crisis, which has left at least 17,000 people dead or missing. Though France's Nuclear Safety Authority, has rates the Fukushima crisis at six on the scale.(AFP) this crisis was previously rated as local problem by Japanese authority. Now Japan has raised the alert level at its quake-damaged nuclear plant (Fukushima Daiichi) from four to five on a seven-point international scale of atomic incidents.

The UN says the battle to stabilise the plant is a race against time.

Japanese nuclear officials said core damage to reactors 2 and 3 had prompted the raising of the severity grade, reports BBC.

The 1979 incident at Three Mile Island in the US was also rated at five on the scale, whereas the 1986 Chernobyl disaster was rated at seven.

Gift of Chernobyl

Gift of Chernobyl

But they still hoped to solve the crisis by fixing a power cable to two reactors by today to restart water pumps needed to cool overheating nuclear fuel rods. Workers also sprayed water on the reactor 3, the most critical of the plant's six.

It was the first time the facility operator had acknowledged burying the sprawling 40-year-old complex was possible, a sign that piecemeal actions such as dumping water from military helicopters or scrambling to restart cooling pumps may not work, Reuters reports.

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant reactor meltdown(reactor no. 4)

"It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete. But our priority right now is to try and cool them down first," an official from the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, told a news conference.

That is little solace for about 300 nuclear plant workers toiling in the radioactive wreckage, wearing masks, goggles and protective suits with seams sealed off by duct tape to keep out radioactive particles. "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 Fukushima Daiichi plant, the pumps may be too damaged from the earthquake, tsunami or subsequent explosions to work.

The first step is to restore power to pumps for reactors 1 and 2, and possibly 4, by today, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, Japan's nuclear safety agency spokesman.

By tomorrow, the government expects to connect electricity to pumps for its badly damaged reactor 3 -- a focal point in the crisis because of its use of mixed oxides, or mox, containing both uranium and highly toxic plutonium.

Asked about burying the reactors in sand and concrete, Nishiyama said: "That solution is in the back of our minds, but we are focused on cooling the reactors down."

Burying the reactors would leave part of Japan off-limits for decades. "It's just not that easy," Murray Jennex, a San Diego State University in California professor said when asked about the so-called Chernobyl option to bury the reactors.

Cleaning operation of contaminant in Chernobyl

"They are kind of like a coffee maker. If you leave it on the heat, they boil dry and then they crack," he said. "Putting concrete on that wouldn't help keep your coffee maker safe. But eventually, yes, you could build a concrete shield and be done with it."

Enigma of Nuclear radiation of the Fukushima Daiichi plant reactors in Japan

The reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant are boiling water reactors. The reactor which saw the explosion is Fukushima Daiichi 1. It was connected to the grid in November 1970, making it about 40 years old. There are six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi site, of which unit 1 is the oldest, according to the World Nuclear Association.

How does a nuclear reactor of this kind work?

Uranium 235 -- the fuel inside a nuclear reactor -- undergoes nuclear fission. This process emits a lot of heat energy which produces steam, and that steam turns a turbine, generating electricity.

What happened to the nuclear reactors during the quake?

Three of the six reactors at the site were in operation when the earthquake hit. The reactors are designed to shut down automatically when a quake strikes, and emergency diesel generators began the task of pumping water around the reactors to cool them down. However, these stopped about an hour later. The failure of the back-up generators has been blamed on tsunami flooding by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA.)

Sea water injection was started on Saturday, but then paused after a tsunami warning, according to the plant owners Tokyo Electric Power Company.

What could have caused the explosion at the plant?

* Nuclear Energy

The blast was not caused by damage to the nuclear reactor but by a pumping system that failed as crews tried to bring the reactor's temperature down, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Saturday. He said the plant operator confirmed there was no damage to the steel container housing the reactor.

Malcolm Grimston, Associate Fellow for Energy, Environment and Development at London's Chatham House, said he believed the explosion had been caused by a build-up of pressure inside the inner containment of the reactor.

"Because they lost power to the water cooling system, they needed to vent the pressure that building up inside.

"My suspicion is that as the temperature inside the reactor was rising, some of the metal cans that surround the fuel may have burst and at high temperature, that fuel cladding can react with water to produce zirconium oxide and hydrogen.

"That hydrogen then will be part of the gases that need to be vented. That hydrogen then mixes with the surrounding air. Hydrogen and oxygen can then recombine explosively.

"So it seems while the explosion wasn't directly connected with the nuclear processes, it was indirectly connected, because the hydrogen was only present because of what was going on in the reactor core."

What is a meltdown, and can it be avoided here?

Japan's nuclear agency said there was a strong possibility that radioactive cesium detected at the plant after the blast was from the melting of a fuel rod.

Robert Alvarez, Senior Scholar at the U.S. Institute for Policy Studies, explained that a meltdown could happen when the water surrounding the core of the reactor boiled or leaked away, leaving the fuel rods exposed, allowing temperatures to rise to up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

"The radiation is so intense it's impossible to deal with it. The control room would be uninhabitable," he said. "Without cooling, cladding surrounding the fuel can ignite, and the fuel itself start to melt.

"Then you have a huge amount of radioactive gases and particles, and if the primary and secondary containment fails, you have a large amount of radioactive gases escaping into the environment."

Whether a meltdown happens in this case depends on whether the pumping and cooling system can be restored in time, and whether if a meltdown starts, the secondary containment is strong enough to stay intact, according to Alvarez.

"If the pumping system is down there won't be enough pressure or water inside to cool the fuel rods down," he said. (ArticlesBase SC #4396654)

The Taliban,Pakistan and USA

A recent incident which took place in Swat, Pakistan where a girl was flogged just for going some where with her Father in law ohh! what a pity!,what is happening in our dear home land the people responsible for this are world famous terrorists “The Taliban” but do we really know who are they ? does any anybody ever tried to figure out whose responsible for their birth?they are the ones who claimed responsibility of recent street firing in New york which clamied the lives of 13 people and 26 people got hurt . I know we have a habit Of forgetting the past very easily we only know what ever is happening in the present.

So let me take you a few decades back in the year of 1979 in the era when Russia was a very strong country decided to invade Afghanistan and so they did, USA which was another strong country become very worried that Afghanistan will soon be captured by USSR a land which is the key to enter a rich world of oils and different resources .

USA thought and made a strategy to use Pakistan to stop the USSR, and so Pakistan was aroused by the USA through supply of weapons, aids and all sorts of helps, in the mean while USA in Pakistan gave birth to Talibans,the Russia invasion in Afghanistan was dramatized as a holy war and Talibans being students of religious studies were aroused to go to the troubled land for the war,USA helped the Taliban grow strong by providing them strength by all means and interesting part is that Osama Bin Laden was the part of that movement and so the war began and ended in the way the USA wanted it Aghanistan was safe but not for good.

Why did USA stopped the Russains ?obviously not for the reason that the they are very peace loving country helping the poor, in this mean world who gives or helps others without any reason in my knowledge a very few and iam convinced that atleast USA is not amongst the few angles Iam talking about now I will give you few clues try to solve the puzzle and make a clear understanding of people responsible for bringing these recent  tragedies in the world since 9/11/2001.

*After the war of 1979 in Afghanistan where did the baby of USA “Taliban” go?
* Pakistan becomes nuclear power first Muslim country to hold such power.
* Pakistan alleged for nuclear proliferation which is helping other countries to develop WMD.
* USA was not happy penalized Pakistan by laying sanctions on it.
* Incident of 9/11/2001 where “Al-qaeda” was responsible, and to mention the most Osama Bin Laden is the one which Heads Al-qaeda
* Stories claming that Al-qaeda does not works alone but with Taliban
* Where are Taliban? In Pakistan
* Where are the hideouts of Al Qaeda and Taliban In Pakistan
* Stories related to Taliban are growing strong in Pakistan
* USA worried
* USA Attacks Afghanistan to kill the responsible i.e. Al-Qaeda and Taliban
* USA with Help of Pakistan captures Afghanistan
* In the mean time USA captures Iraq(which has many oil fields)
* Pakistan starts becoming target of Sucide attacks since USA captured Afghanistan
* America says that Pakistan is breeding terrorists
* USA after 7 years of capturing whole Afghanistan still unable to find “Osama Bin Ladin” and spear Head of Taliban “Bait Ullah Masuud”,according to my knowledge USA claims that they have satellites which could easily locate these people.
* Whenever any  incident happens in any part of the world these mentioned two men claims responsibility where ever it is.
* India for every incident ready to blame Pakistan though their own men are always found guilty by trying to give Pakistan a bad name
* Pakistan is doing every effort to get rid of the militants by sending their troops to the disturbed Northern portion
* USA still unsatisfied
*USA starts drones attack on Pakistan the reason is that they are targeting hideouts of militants in reality they are killing innocent people which includes women and children.
* USA expands drone attacks in one more province of Pakistan saying that Talibans are growing strong in Baluchistan.
*USA  now eager to send troops to Pakistan to control the situation.

It is always been the strategy of the USA to use the people when they need them then dispose them off when they dont.

I think now one could easily make out why did USA never wanted Russia to capture Afghanistan.

Now after few observations and gathering fruitful information from daily papers and talk shows , the actual Scenario in Pakistan regarding the suicide attacks, bombings and killings is not known to the common men, India is very much involved in Afghanistan they(Afghanistan) have turned against Pakistan, secretly Afghan forces are entering Pakistan along with the RAW (Indian Intelligence) and are responsible for all the situation of massacres,India has always been against Pakistan sine partition and now they have the support of USA ,why is that? So that Pakistan would ask help of USA to send their troops in Pakistan or USA would by itself invade Pakistan for further invasion to Iran and so on.

How is that Pakistan is doing nothing when they know everything? Its because USA controls Pakistan in every aspect governments are made by the decision of Washington, governments are just the puppets of USA helping them to enter Pakistan.

This brief information in the article may help people understand the real scenario of Pakistan and its future.

Conclusion:
The reason for sketching the Afghan war was to show that why USA invaded Afghistan and what are their targets and how they achieve them ,currently Pakistan is the target. The above information may not be comprehensive but Iam sure it may open many secret windows .(ArticlesBase SC #852777)

Gaddafi on the defensive

Libya is still in flames. A Gaddafi on the defensive tries his maximum to salvage his position. The more the protesters go on the offensive, the more he fights with his back on the wall. But going by the trends, the dictator is poised to taste defeat if not now, within one or two weeks. East Libya already under the occupation of protesters, Benqazi, next important city after Tripoli also under their occupation, their confidence too strong and are determined to fight to the hilt to force the dictator to flee the ‘throne', otherwise to kick him out. The man who well entrenched since 41 years in his saddle with nobody even to question or challenge his authority was drunk with power till recently. Because of that reason itself the first sign of resistance that too massive resistance has shaken him violently, it was something unexpected as far as he was concerned.

But his stubborn attitude of ‘not to say die' approach, his powerful militia and armory have so far helped him to launch a massive suppression - free killing almost 1000 citizens so far. Still he finds the resistance irresistible than he had expected and the thought of giving into the pressure of citizens he finds untenable. A man with king-size ego cannot even imagine in his dreams the thought of even inviting the protesters for a negotiation as he considers himself the Almighty of Libya whom nobody could even touch. It is really a dark wonder that the people of Libya were tolerating such a man, even afraid of this man who could force them dance to his tunes like puppets. But as anywhere a dictator, however powerful and iron-fisted he is will have to do a climb down in the face of massive resistance by citizens who can't any more resist the brutal ways of their ruler. Gradually step by step they group under one umbrella shedding their fears and apprehensions, go on the offensive, sometimes they might taste defeat, still not being taken aback they will group together to fight against the dictatorial menace.

We could read about several such dictatorships crumbling down under the might of collective resistance of citizens power we could witness many dictators fleeing away with their tails tucked in between their legs some even getting salvation even by angry mobs, pointing out each a difficult task as the list is endless, similarly is the fate of Muammar-al-Gaddafi like that of Tunisian dictator Zine-El-Abidine-Ben Ali, Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharaf, Nepal Monarch King Gyanendra etc etc.

With international pressure mounting on Gaddafi, his confidents are defecting one by one, army personnel too joining the protesters thus weakening Gaddafi's strangle-hold on Libya with the passing of each day. There are talks of forming a parallel administration by the defected leaders like Interior Minister and once a close confident of Gaddafi. Arab League has asked Gaddafi to stop the genocide and International Criminal Court is closely watching the situation. One day, if matters are going on like these we could very well see this man booked as a culprit by ICC. Security Council has passed a resolution asking Gaddafi to stop the brutal suppression herewith, US, Britain and France are busy mulling financial and weapons sanctions as also Germany. US President Barack Obama has asked Gaddafi several times to withdraw from the scene or to stop forthwith the killing spree of citizens. International pressure is mounting upon him and the man finds himself in a vicious circle. The thought of vacating the saddle is like conceding defeat for him and that is unimaginable with Libya in the grip of massive rebellion. International crude oil prices have jumped up reaching US $120 per barrel each day which threatens each nation. The price is likely to go up in the event of the conflict turning more bitter and violent.

Non-resident Indians as well as people from other countries in large numbers are stranded there, without finding any way out some even fleeing to other nations.

The matters are in such a fluid situation and nobody is in a position to predict how long this conundrum would last, how long this dictator would stick to his position. Before a determined resistance don't think Gaddafi can hold on to power indefinitely.