Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, claims to have successfully removed all 1,331 spent fuel assemblies from the badly damaged fuel pool in the Unit 4 reactor, Reuters reported Nov. 5. The fuel pool was damaged by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, but is not one of the three reactors that sustained a nuclear meltdown.
In this photo from Nov. 21, 2013, a cask containing 22 fuel rods at the Unit 4 reactor is moved via trailer to another building where a common fuel pool is located at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Photo by Kyodo/Reuters
According to TEPCO, only 180 unused fuel assemblies remain, awaiting transport to the Unit 6 reactor.
Planet Waves first reported on this undertaking in the November 2013 article Notes From Downwind.
The removal of the unused fuel assemblies is considered less dangerous than the spent fuel since it has not been irradiated in a reactor. TEPCO began the precarious process of removing the assemblies from Unit 4 in November 2013.
Almost 1,400 fuel assemblies must still be transferred from three reactors that experienced meltdowns during the disaster.
Although a quick look at the chart for the earthquake that led to the nuclear disaster does not render any big, obvious correlations, it’s worth noting that Planet Waves recently described the entrance of Mars into the Uranus-Pluto square as a ‘sign of the times’. Dare we hope that the successful removal of the spent fuel rods is one of those signs?
In less encouraging (but also less threatening on a massive scale) news, three workers sustained injuries last Friday at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after steel construction materials collapsed on them, Agence France-Presse reported Nov. 7. The three men were constructing a 13-meter-high tank for the storage of contaminated water used to cool the reactors.
View glyph key here; in-depth discussion of the Fukushima astrology available in Notes From Downwind.
One worker, knocked temporarily unconscious, was transported to hospital via helicopter and remains in critical condition. A second worker suffered what appeared to be a broken leg while the third evaded serious injury and was able to walk unassisted after the accident.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator of the plant, has been hurrying to construct hundreds of new tanks for water storage.
From the initial earthquake and tsunami (and the resulting fires) that damaged the Fukushima plant, to the problem of seeping groundwater carrying leaked radiation from the holding pools into the sea, water has presented dangerous surprises and ongoing problems. As Planet Waves reported at the time, the earthquake struck just hours before Uranus made its final move from the last degree of Pisces (a water sign) into Aries (a fire sign), on its way to square Pluto.
One observation regarding this chart for the earthquake is Venus, ruler of the 10th house of outcomes, and in the sixth house of repairs who also is in the same degree as the Sedna Discovery Chart’s Neptune, both at 10+ Aquarius. Sedna’s Neptune is sextile the Sedna chart Vesta at 10+ Sagittarius and that forms a yod with the Sedna chart Saturn at 12+ Cancer retrograde which is being opposed by transiting Pluto and Mars in Capricorn.
The Earthquake Mars at 12+ Pisces is one degree from Sedna’s Mars at 13+ Pisces which is where transiting Chiron is and is preparing to station direct. All 3 are trine Sedna’s Saturn in Cancer which squares Sedna’s Pallas at 11+ Aries, only one degree from where transiting Uranus will station direct in December. Yesterday PBS Weekend News ran a story on how a certain breed (?) of tuna would be extinct in a few years due to it’s over-consumption by the Japanese (I believe, perhaps it was all of Asia) in their sushi. Might the link between Sedna’s discovery and the Fukushima Earthquake and its subsequent nuclear meltdown point to something that is being covered up? Sedna’s Neptune (coverup) conjunct Earthquake Venus (consumption, value).
Sedna’s discovery date is November 14, 2003, eleven years ago this Thursday. The Sun at the time was at 21+ Scorpio, conjunct south node (stop doing this) at 20+ Scorpio and Achilles (!) at 20+ Scorpio and Pholus (small cause. . ) at 22+ Scorpio (Saturn’s recent transit was conjunct them), while sextile the Sedna chart’s Nessus at 21+ Capricorn conjunct Persephone at 20+ Capricorn. This sextile in the Sedna Discovery chart connects to the Earthquake chart’s Juno in Virgo, Vesta in Capricorn (conjunct Sedna’s Persephone and Nessus), Nessus in Aquarius , Sun in Pisces and Eris in Aries. I’ve not had a chance to read your Notes From Downwind yet, but there is the Earthquake Sun sextile Earthquake Vesta forming a yod with the presently transiting Jupiter in Leo who turns it into a Boomerang by opposing the Earthquake Nessus in Aquarius.
No doubt it is a complex picture to suss out but worth the effort if it could lead to clarity on just what is happening to our water. There was a story on water tonight on PBS News Hour about the dreadful shortage of it in Mexico.
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Thank you so much for this article!
Nice to see some good news again.
How do we really know they’ve succeeded at doing this? TEPCO has not exactly been a responsible corporate citizen.
Dammit. That was a nice moment of hope. 😉
Very true, Eric. We don’t know. We can only hope that TEPCO is just as interested in executing this successfully as we are. Unfortunately, they are not forthcoming about admitting major problems unless forced to. Also, we must keep in mind that the secrecy bill is just now going into effect which will further obfuscate information coming out of Japan. That works well for the maintainence of a squeaky clean image and the illusion that “everything is under control” at Fukushima. They certainly can’t have any bad news before the big Olympic Games in Tokyo.
I’m hoping this is true, but we must remain skeptical of TEPCO for sure.