[Horse]

Post webcam observations for November here. Observations should start with a date and ‘jst’ time (Japan Standard Time) and camera(s). Describe as best as possible what you see. Contribute data such as weather conditions, work activities, TEPCO or local news reports, radiation readings, earthquake activity, or any information that documents events occurring at Daiichi. Comments and analysis welcome. Help keep an eye on TEPCO's disaster site.

TEPCO Cameras
Cam1
Cam4

Time Lapse Archives
Fukushima Daiichi
sengoku1904
Fuku1long

Environmental Archives
Archive of ENENews

Another way for anyone to contact me, Café Rad Lab administration, email: CafeRadLabHorse@gmail.com
or Twitter @CafeRadLabHorse

[Horse]

After many years of recording the old computers are dying. I've been refurbishing replacement computers and have one replaced and working on the other one. I'll get Tepcam pictures posted when I get this maintenance done.

[Horse]

Slowly getting old computers replaced.  Sadly, I've not got recordings for some of what I noted seeing.  11-01 at 10:37 a worker moved cam1 lower so we won't see the tower work.  Here's a before and after shot to show the view shift, the cutter tool at night, and some of the other crane tools being used.  

   
   
   
   

[Horse]

11-26 Last week was bad weather on the tepcams with rain and fog.  This week the cutter returned to the vent tower for another bite.  I thought I saw a drone.  Then I noticed a bird with part of the cutter showing on cam1.  

   
   

The drone moved smoothly up and off the screen with no parts flapping.  The bird was flapping wings giving it a jerky movement as it changed shape.  Then I noticed part of the cutter coming into view.  

   

[Horse]

11-26 The cutter tool goes in for another chunk of vent tower.  Sits there the rest of the night, busy cutting, I'd guess.  

   
   

[Felibi]

Thanks for these reports, Horse, Hope you're satisfied with the 2 new computers.
Dismantllng is complicated it seems. Cutting slow for sure.
Let life be good with you and us all.

[Horse]

Thanks Felibi. The computers aren't new, far from it, they're old used computers I've had to repair. One's in place for the one that broke down but it needs a better graphics card. Still building the other one. Files weren't easily accessible for awhile, but I bought more disk storage and got the stranded files transferred to my bench computer. I hope to keep the pictures coming, when Tepco gives me something to show. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

[d kitty]

Cutter might be stuck, after cutting 80% of the way through.
Guess they don't  carry wedges

@microcarpa1: Nov27,6pm：Demolition of #Fukushima Dai-ichi vent stack stranded for >7hrs. Rotating saw(s) get stuck within the main pipe,after about 80% circumference has been cut. Even if possible,no option to lift the equip down to ground to fix leaving unstable pipe part on top of twitter.com/kochigen2017/status/1199629590831878144 https://twitter.com/kochigen2017/status/...0831878144

https://twitter.com/microcarpa1/status/1...8537148416

[Horse]

Thanks for sharing microcarpa's tweet d kitty, I was waiting for them to bring the chunk down but its been taking longer than the other cuts. What they gonna do with the blade stuck in the main pipe, try to wiggle it out or break it off? Tepco's in a real bind again, even if they get the cutter away from the tower, they have a piece of vent pipe dangling with only 20% of the metal holding it up.

[Code]

The obvious could be stated too.....that all of those cutting operations are releasing dangerous radiation into the atmosphere.  Nobody is going to go up in a lift to manhandle the situation.  Like a super kryptonite that was the death blow to superman,  radiation from our nuke industry is killing man and all life.

[Horse]

The cutting operations would certainly create iron filings that would mostly scatter down in the area.  The base of the tower is off limits due to radiation concerns.  I have seen some sparking on cam1.  I was afraid they might have d kitty climb up there with a wedge.  The bad particulate on the inside won't be much of a factor until they remove it and transport it to wherever they dump the tower pieces.  That's the big problem for Tepco now, how do they get that last 20% cut and bring the piece down now with the blade jammed?

[Horse]

Via microcarpa
@microcarpa1
#Tepco postpones sending workers up to the top of currently 110 m high #Fukushima vent stack to fix the dismantling equip stranded,until Dec1
For WKend,to check the procedures carefully,'cept may send workers up to refuel the generator of equip,if it's calm weather.
Thorny path

   

[Code]

Horse said "The cutting operations would certainly create iron filings that would mostly scatter down in the area.  The base of the tower is off limits due to radiation concerns.  I have seen some sparking on cam1.  I was afraid they might have d kitty climb up there with a wedge.  The bad particulate on the inside won't be much of a factor until they remove it and transport it to wherever they dump the tower pieces.  "

Well you might be right....the radiation may not be  much of a factor until they dump it.  I seem to recall that that tower was extremely radioactive.  The base, I think, was so radioactive, that it would be deadly just to approach it.   If my memory is faulty, correct me.

Can you imagine one gram of cesium being liberated by the dismantling procedure?  There is 1.879 g/cm3.....the pinky finger is about a centimeter wide...so just the tip of your pinky finger....that amount of cesium, spread around those big tubes; its a small amount.

Well I could be wrong, but it seems within the realm of possibility that a gram of cesium could be released with all that violent cutting and handling.   So if we take the findings from Bandazhevsky,  10,000 bq of Cs137 is a significant dose for a person.  If my calculation is correct, there are 320 million such doses in a gram of cesium.  Of course there arent 300 million people lined up to take that as an internal dose...but the environmental damage is somehow equivalent.   The earth is covered in living things.  If you want to think in terms of acute doses,  a study showed that 44 μg/kg of caesium-137 killed all of the dogs within 33 days, while animals with half of that burden survived for a year.   So that gram of liberated cesium would kill 1,600 dogs in a month or over 3000 dogs in a year.   How many field mice, birds and butterflies?

Thats the thing about nuke fallout; the toxicity boggles the mind.  I think thats one reason the mafia feel like they can dump it anywhere, they just cant imagine something so poisonous.  

I was just reading that the most common nuclear 'accident'  is with medical supplies.   A nice looking, pencil sized steel rod has a tiny bit of cesium or other radionuclide in the tip of it....it looks innocuous.   Someone picks it up and puts in their pocket, and they have received a lethal or near lethal dose.   This stuff ends up in the landfill,  in metal smelters, or on the black market.

There is simply NO WAY they can keep these super poisons from getting into the environment.   The earth IS the environment.  A car mechanic is told not to get oil, grease or soot anywhere....just keep it in the car and dispose of it safely.  He does his best, and then a bride in a white dress comes by in her white cadillac,  and the mechanic gives her a big hug.  And thats it, the dress is ruined, its stained with black oily soot.  Its as inevitable as nuke waste poisoning nature.