The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Catastrophe

[Mythopoeika]

I think I've read this story before, about a year ago.
There is hope - there are areas of the seas that are not so 'fished out' and a lot of the fish have fled there. Plus, with climate change occurring, fish from tropical waters are turning up in places that are normally cold (e.g. off the British coast).

 

[rynner2]

I think I've read this story before, about a year ago.

I posted it, in Environmental issues, last October:

Posted: Tue 22-10-2013, 9:41

Maritime waste: Our oceans are threatened by a toxic tide
Modern mariners are more likely to observe man-made junk than the wonders of nature
By Callum Roberts
8:22PM BST 21 Oct 2013

The ocean can be a lonely place. Ivan MacFadyen expected long weeks of isolation when in March he set sail from Melbourne to race his yacht to Japan, and then on to San Francisco.
...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/enviro ... -tide.html

The article is hard-hitting, but it's about general pollution, trash, and over-fishing. It doesn't actually mention radioactivity.

 

[OneWingedBird]

That's one way to deal with radioactivity, kill all the fish before they grow two heads.

 

[Mythopoeika]

That's one way to deal with radioactivity, kill all the fish before they grow two heads.

Two heads? Extra protein!

 

[Kondoru]

Double the number of cod tongues

No, its not about radioactivity, its more a general problem.

 

[ramonmercado]

Every story just makes the situation even more surreal. Next Mothra will carry off a worker.

Fukushima radiation levels underestimated by five times - TEPCO
Published time: February 08, 2014 07:03
http://rt.com/news/fukushima-radiation- ... mated-143/

AFP Photo / IAEA

TEPCO has revised the readings on the radioactivity levels at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant well to 5 million becquerels of strontium per liter – both a record, and nearly five times higher than the original reading of 900,000 becquerels per liter.

Strontium-90 is a radioactive isotope of strontium produced by nuclear fission with a half-life of 28.8 years. The legal standard for strontium emissions is 30 becquerels per liter. Exposure to strontium-90 can cause bone cancer, cancer of nearby tissues, and leukemia.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. originally said that the said 900,000 becquerels of beta-ray sources per liter, including strontium - were measured in the water sampled on July 5 last year.

However, the company noted on Friday that the previous radioactivity levels had been wrong, meaning that it was also likely reading taken from the other wells at the disaster-struck plant prior to September were also likely to have been inaccurate, the Asahi Shimbum newspaper reported.

The Japanese company has already apologized for the failures, which they said were a result of the malfunctioning of measuring equipment.

TEPCO did not mention the radioactivity levels of other samples of both groundwater and seawater taken from between June and November last year – which totaled some 140.

However, the erroneous readings only pertain to the radiation levels measured in water – readings taken to measure the radiation levels in air or soil are likely to have been accurate.

In the basement of the station, the drainage system and special tanks have accumulated more than 360,000 tons of radioactive water. The leakage of radioactive water has been an ongoing problem in the wake of the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant.

TEPCO also said on Thursday that 600 liters of contaminated water – which had 2,800 becquerels of beta-ray sources per liter in it, leaked from piping leading to a tank at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

A record high level of beta rays released from radioactive strontium-90 was detected at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant beneath the No. 2 reactor's well facing the ocean, according to the facility’s operator who released news of the measurements mid-January.

TEPCO measured the amount of beta ray-emitting radioactivity at more than 2.7 million becquerels per liter, Fukushima’s operator said as reported in the Japanese media.

In March 2011, an earthquake triggered a tsunami that hit Japan’s coast, damaging the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The catastrophe caused the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the facility, leading to the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

The water used to cool the reactors has been leaking into the soil and contaminating the ground water ever since. Some of the radioactive water has been escaping into the Pacific Ocean.

 

[ramonmercado]

Next, Mothra & Godzilla will be joined by an aircraft carrier crewed by radiation zombies.

Study claims USS Reagan crew exposed to extremely high levels of radiation near Fukushima
Published time: February 20, 2014 21:12
http://rt.com/usa/uss-reagan-fukushima-radiation-979/

US aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (AFP Photo / US Navy)

A new report on the nuclear crisis that started to unfold in Fukushima, Japan almost three years ago suggests that American troops who assisted with disaster relief efforts were exposed to unheard of radiation levels while on assignment.

Kyle Cleveland, a sociology professor at Temple University Japan, makes a case for that argument in an academic paper published in the Asia-Pacific Journal this week titled Mobilizing Nuclear Bias: The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis and the Politics of Uncertainty.

According to Cleveland, transcripts from a March 2011 conference call obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that United States servicemen on the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier experienced radiation levels 30-times above normal during relief operations that week.

During that March 13 phone call, Cleveland wrote, Troy Mueller — the deputy administrator for naval reactors at the US Department of Energy — said the radiation was the equivalent of “about 30 times what you would detect just on a normal air sample out at sea.”

“So it's much greater than what we had thought,” Mueller reportedly warned other American officials after taking samples on the Reagan. “We didn't think we would detect anything at 100 miles.”

After Mueller made that remark, according to Cleveland’s transcript, Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman asked him if those levels were “significantly higher than anything you would have expected.” He responded yes.

When Poneman later asked Mueller, “how do the levels detected compare with what is permissible,” Mueller said those on the scene could suffer irreversible harm from the radiation within hours.

“If it were a member of the general public, it would take -- well, it would take about 10 hours to reach a limit,” he said. At that point, Mueller added, “it’s a thyroid dose issue.”

If people are exposed to levels beyond the Protective Action Guideline threshold released by the Energy Department, Cleveland acknowledged in his report, radiation could have ravaged their thyroid glands.

When approached for comment by reporters at the website NextGov, however, Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Sarah Flaherty said in an email that the crewmembers aboard the USS Reagan were never at danger of such exposure.

“Potentially contaminated personnel were surveyed with sensitive instruments and, if necessary, decontaminated. The low levels of radioactivity from the Fukushima nuclear power plant identified on US Navy ships, their aircraft, and their personnel were easily within the capability of ship's force to remedy,” Flaherty said

The latest report, NextGov’s Bob Brewin wrote, comes only days after the attorneys representing 79 USS Reagan crewmember filed an amended lawsuit in California against Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO., which has been accused of negligent with regards to maintain the Fukushima nuclear facility ahead of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that started the emergency.Attorneys for those servicemen are asking TEPCO for $1 billion in damages, and say that the infant child born of one of the crewmembers since the incident has a rare genetic disorder likely brought on by radiation exposure.

Attorneys in that suit say that “up to 70,000 US citizens [were] potentially affected by the radiation,” and might be able to join in their suit.

 

[Kondoru]

As long as the lawyers get work everythings allright?

 

[ramonmercado]

Fukushima cleanup suspended after worker’s death
Published time: March 28, 2014 15:21
http://rt.com/news/fukushima-nuclear-worker-death-921/

This handout picture taken by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on March 28, 2014 shows a pit under a storage house where a worker was burried in earth and rubble while digging a hole at the site at TEPCO's Fukushima dai-ichi nuclear plant in Okuma in Fukushima prefecture. (AFP Photo)

The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, TEPCO, suspended the cleanup at the facility after one of the workers died while digging a ditch Friday.

A man in his fifties was buried under gravel as he was digging near the nuclear plant’s storage area, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

The worker was dug out and rushed to hospital, but failed to regain consciousness and was pronounced dead three hours after the incident.

“In the three years since the disaster, we had not had any worker deaths caused by work [inside the plant]. The fact that such a serious accident has occurred is deeply regrettable,” said Masayuki Ono, a spokesperson for TEPCO in Tokyo, Reuters reported.

All cleanup operations at the plant have been suspended for an immediate safety inspection, Kyodo News reports.

Like most of the laborers at the disaster-hit nuclear plant, the worker was hired by TEPCO through a subcontractor.

This handout picture taken by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on March 28, 2014 shows a pit under a storage house where a worker was burried in earth and rubble while digging a hole at the site at TEPCO's Fukushima dai-ichi nuclear plant in Okuma in Fukushima prefecture. (AFP Photo)This handout picture taken by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on March 28, 2014 shows a pit under a storage house where a worker was burried in earth and rubble while digging a hole at the site at TEPCO's Fukushima dai-ichi nuclear plant in Okuma in Fukushima prefecture. (AFP Photo)


The Fukushima operator didn’t announce the man’s name or his direct employer, only saying that he reported up to Toso Fudosan Kanri Company, a first-tier contractor under TEPCO.

Friday’s fatality was the fifth death among the workers involved in the cleanup operation at the Fukushima plant. According to TEPCO, three people have died from heart attacks and one died from leukemia.

The company said that none of the deaths were related to radiation exposure as the workers are thoroughly monitored and removed from duty after reaching an annual radiation limit.


Earlier Friday, TEPCO said that work to remove fuel rods from one of the destroyed reactor buildings had been also halted.

The delay was caused by a worker mishandling a giant crane on Wednesday as he damaged the mechanism by moving it without disengaging the handbrake.

TEPCO has been widely criticized for its handling of the cleanup, which has been plagued by a series of leaks of contaminated radioactive water from hastily built tanks.

About 436,000 cubic meters of contaminated radioactive water is stored at the site in about 1,200 tanks, with the operator struggling to decontaminate it due to frequent failures of equipment.

Men wearing protective suits and masks work in front of welding storage tanks for radioactive water, under construction in the J1 area at the Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma in Fukushima prefecture (AFP Photo / Toru Hanai)Men wearing protective suits and masks work in front of welding storage tanks for radioactive water, under construction in the J1 area at the Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma in Fukushima prefecture (AFP Photo / Toru Hanai)

In mid-January, TEPCO warned that nuclear radiation at the boundaries of the damaged power plant had jumped to eight times the government safety guideline.

An investigation by Reuters last year revealed widespread labor abuses at Fukushima, with workers speaking of lack of scrutiny over working conditions inside the plant and their payments being skimmed.

An earthquake and tsunami hit the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, which is situated just 220 kilometers away from capital Tokyo, on March 11, 2011.

Three reactors at the facility went into meltdown and exploded causing the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

The contamination of water, food and air in the area forces over 160,000 residents to flee from nearby towns and villages.

 

[ramonmercado]

So why isn't the clown replaced? Why not cut out the gangsters and directly employ trained workers at proper wages?

Out of control: Fukushima manager admits to ‘embarrassing failure’

The manager of the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant has admitted not having full control of the facility. Contrary to the statements of the Japanese PM, TEPCO’s Akira Ono said attempts to plug the leaks of radioactive water had failed.

"It's embarrassing to admit, but there are certain parts of the site where we don't have full control," Ono told reporters touring the plant this week, reported Reuters. Last year, the Japanese PM attempted to assure the world that the situation at the stricken nuclear power plant was under control.


However, over the last couple of months the clean-up procedure at the plant has been fraught with difficulties.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the plant’s operator, has consistently faced contaminated water leaks at the Fukushima plant.

Water has to be pumped over the facilities stricken reactors in order to keep them from overheating, but this process creates large quantities of contaminated water which has to be stored in tanks on the site.

Ono acknowledged to press that in TEPCO’s rush to deal with the stricken facility following the earthquake-triggered tsunami in 2011, the company may have made mistakes.

“It may sound odd, but this is the bill we have to pay for what we have done in the past three years,” he said. “But we were pressed to build tanks in a rush and may have not paid enough attention to quality. We need to improve quality from here.”

TEPCO will have to improve the quality of the tanks so the plant can survive the next 30-40 years of the decommissioning process, Ono went on to say.

The plant’s manager said that the number one aim was to keep the radioactive water from getting into the ocean.

“The ultimate purpose is to prevent contaminated water from going out to the ocean, and in this regard, I believe it is under control,” Ono said. But a series of leaks have obliged officials to “find better ways to handle the water problem.”

In the latest blunder at the plant, TEPCO mistakenly flooded the Fukushima facility’s basements with radioactive cooling-tank water. Earlier this week the Japanese newspaper the Asahi Shimbun reported that around 200 tons of water had found its way into waste disposal facilities under the power plant. TEPCO said they were working to fix the leakage as soon as possible.

Cleaning up Fukushima is becoming an increasing headache for the Japanese authorities. Experts predict that fully decommissioning the stricken plant is a process that could take decades, costing the country billions of dollars.
http://rt.com/news/fukushima-embarrassi ... -leak-332/

 

[Mythopoeika]

You're completely right.
The Japanese government has to forcibly take over TEPCO and employ contractors from all over the world who have the ability to help. It's past the point of no return now. Madness.

 

[ramonmercado]

The former may also raises the problems with workers in voklved in the clean up:

“Their equipment was getting worse; preparation was getting worse. So people had to think about their safety first. That’s why those who understood the real danger of radiation began to quit. Now we have unprofessional people working there.

They don’t really understand what they’re doing. That’s the kind of people who use the wrong pump, who make mistakes like that.

Fukushima radiation killing our children, govt hides truth - former mayor

Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of Futaba, a town near the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant, is warning his country that radiation contamination is affecting Japan’s greatest treasure – its children.

Asked about government plans to relocate the people of Fatuba to the city of Iwaki, inside the Fukushima prefecture, Idogawa criticized the move as a “violation of human rights.”

Compared with Chernobyl, radiation levels around Fukushima “are four times higher,” he told RT’s Sophie Shevardnadze, adding that “it’s too early for people to come back to Fukushima prefecture.”

“It is by no means safe, no matter what the government says.”

Idogawa alleges that the government has started programs to return people to their towns despite the danger of radiation.

“Fukushima Prefecture has launched the Come Home campaign. In many cases, evacuees are forced to return. [the former mayor produced a map of Fukushima Prefecture that showed that air contamination decreased a little, but soil contamination remains the same.]"

According to Idogawa there are about two million people residing in the prefecture who are reporting “all sorts of medical issues,” but the government insists these conditions are unrelated to the Fukushima accident. Idogawa wants their denial in writing.

“I demanded that the authorities substantiate their claim in writing but they ignored my request.”

Once again, Idogawa alludes to the nuclear tragedy that hit Ukraine on April 26, 1986, pleading that the Japanese people “never forget Chernobyl.” Yet few people seem to be heeding the former government official’s warning.

“They believe what the government says, while in reality radiation is still there. This is killing children. They die of heart conditions, asthma, leukemia, thyroiditis… Lots of kids are extremely exhausted after school; others are simply unable to attend PE classes. But the authorities still hide the truth from us, and I don’t know why. Don’t they have children of their own? It hurts so much to know they can’t protect our children.

“They say Fukushima Prefecture is safe, and that’s why nobody’s working to evacuate children, move them elsewhere. We’re not even allowed to discuss this.”

The former mayor found it ironic that when discussing the Tokyo Olympics, scheduled for 2020, Prime Minister Abe frequently mentions the Japanese word, “omotenashi,” which literally means that you should “treat people with an open heart.”

In Idogawa’s opinion, the same treatment does not apply equally to the people most intimately connected with Fukushima: the workers involved in the cleanup operations.

“Their equipment was getting worse; preparation was getting worse. So people had to think about their safety first. That’s why those who understood the real danger of radiation began to quit. Now we have unprofessional people working there.

They don’t really understand what they’re doing. That’s the kind of people who use the wrong pump, who make mistakes like that.

“I’m really ashamed for my country, but I have to speak the truth for the sake of keeping our planet clean in the future. ..
http://rt.com/news/tokyo-radiation-fuku ... ldren-836/

 

[ramonmercado]

Levels are still too low to be a real danger but the fact that they have tripled is of concern.

Radiation level in tuna off Oregon coast tripled after Fukushima disaster

While the state of Oregon gears up to test its shores for radioactive contamination from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster, university scientists have found that radiation levels in some albacore tuna caught off its coast have tripled.

According to researchers at the University of Oregon, the results came after tests analyzed the cesium levels in 26 tuna caught prior to the 2011 nuclear calamity – as far back as 2008 – and those caught after the accident.

Although the levels of radioactive isotopes in some of the tuna tripled after the disaster, the researchers found they are still “a thousand times lower” than the safety standards outlined by the US Department of Agriculture.

"A year of eating albacore with these cesium traces is about the same dose of radiation as you get from spending 23 seconds in a stuffy basement from radon gas," the study’s lead author, Delvan Neville said to Oregon’s Statesman Journal.

Still, Neville added that the discovery of any amount of radiation is significant.

"You can't say there is absolutely zero risk because any radiation is assumed to carry at least some small risk," he said. "But these trace levels are too small to be a realistic concern."

Researchers stated that the migration paths of the tuna could also affect the levels of radiation going forward. Most of the 3-year-old tuna tested had no traces of Fukushima radiation, but 4-year-old tuna – which likely traveled through the radioactive plume a couple of times – had higher cesium levels. Continued migration could increase cesium levels further, but the researchers said it would still fall well below maximum safety levels.

Since the results did reveal a spike in radiation, though, the researchers will be expanding their study beyond Oregon to test a larger number of tuna across the West Coast.

"The presence of these radioactive isotopes is actually helping us in an odd way – giving us information that will allow us to estimate how albacore tuna migrate between our West Coast and Japan," Neville told the Journal.

Meanwhile, Oregon state itself plans to hold its next quarterly radiation test on May 13. Back in February, Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution stated that a plume of radioactive water from Fukushima would likely hit the US West Coast by April 2014. Buesseler said the plume is likely too diluted to pose a health concern to Americans or the habitat, but added that only testing will be able to confirm his belief.
http://rt.com/usa/155692-oregon-tuna-ra ... fukushima/

 

[ramonmercado]

More good news.

Fukushima’s Cesium-137 levels ‘50% higher’ than previously estimated

The amount of Cesium-137 leaked from the Fukushima nuclear power plant could be worse than expected, a Japanese research team has concluded. They believe 50 percent more of the radioactive material could have escaped into the atmosphere and seawater.

The original estimate of 13,600 terabecquerels was made by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the operator of the power station. However, a new report by Japanese researchers estimates that between 17,500 and 20,500 terabecquerels have been released, which is 50 percent higher than originally thought.

Michio Aoyama, a professor at Fukushima University’s Institute of Environmental Radioactivity who is part of the team, told Kyodo News that TEPCO is “underestimating” the amount of Cesium-137 that was released into the atmosphere and later fell into the sea.

Cesium-137 is a radioactive isotope produced by nuclear fission. However, it is problematic due to its ability to spread easily as it is highly soluble. It is also very harmful to humans and can cause cancer, while it has a half-life of around 30 years.

The team announced its findings at a conference in Vienna and it will come as another blow concerning their handling of the accident, which happened in 2011 after being triggered by a tsunami, following an earthquake in the Pacific Ocean off the Japanese coast.

AFP Photo / Toru HanaiAFP Photo / Toru Hanai

Three weeks ago, the manager of the plant, Akira Ono, said attempts to plug the leaks of radioactive water had failed.

“It's embarrassing to admit, but there are certain parts of the site where we don't have full control,” Ono told Reuters. Last year, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe attempted to assure the world that the situation at the stricken nuclear power plant was under control.

The Fukushima plant contains radiation equivalent to 14,000 times the amount released in the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima 68 years ago. The main task now is to try and limit the fallout from the disaster, with Aoyama saying, “the release of radioactive cesium-137 has a big impact on the ocean,” since the Fukushima nuclear complex is near the coast.

TEPCO has consistently faced contaminated water leaks at the Fukushima plant. Water has to be pumped over the facilities’ stricken reactors to keep them from overheating, but this process creates large quantities of contaminated water which has to be stored in tanks on the site.

Ono acknowledged to the media that in TEPCO’s rush to deal with the stricken facility following the earthquake-triggered tsunami in 2011, the company may have made mistakes.

“It may sound odd, but this is the bill we have to pay for what we have done in the past three years,” he said. “But we were pressed to build tanks in a rush and may have not paid enough attention to quality. We need to improve quality from here.”

TEPCO will have to improve the quality of the tanks so the plant can survive the next 30 to 40 years of the decommissioning process, Ono said.
http://rt.com/news/158084-fukushima-nuc ... an-cesium/

 

[ramonmercado]

Well this is good news: if its true.

Source of Fukushima’s nagging radioactive leak finally discovered – TEPCO

The source of the radioactive leak at the earthquake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was finally identified by the facility’s operator TEPCO to be in the primary containment vessel of reactor 3, authorities reported.

It was in January when the crew of the plant first noticed that water was leaking through to the drain on the first level of the building housing the reactor.

Engineers probed the space with a camera and found the water leakage to be near a pipe joint that connects directly to the containment vessel.

There is still water inside the containment vessel due to the ongoing flow of the coolant used to keep the stricken reactor’s temperature down.

The most likely scenario is that there’s more water in the vessel than there is in the area where the pipes enter it, the Tokyo Electric Power Company believes.

Before engineers can start decommissioning reactors 1, 2 and 3, which suffered meltdowns, they have to deal with the leakage. The coolant water comes out the other end mixed with radioactive waste. While it is possible to remove the radioactive fuel at this time, TEPCO wants to first plug the leak and fill up the space with more water as an additional measure against radiation.

TEPCO is at present trying to figure out the best strategy for plugging the leak.

The news comes just as the facility’s operator has ensured that the groundwater leakage issue (another problem) can also be solved by simply letting the water leak into the Pacific, instead of the cumbersome process of finding ways to store it, or block it from seeping into the ocean. The operation might take place by Wednesday next week.

To ensure that the water is indeed safe for release, TEPCO’s findings had to be backed up by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency and the Japan Chemical Analysis Center. What they found was that the feared presence of strontium-90 and cesium-134 and -137 was way below the health hazard threshold.

TEPCO is currently in talks with local authorities about releasing the groundwater. About 560 tons is to be released in the first round, which will only take about two hours, according to an official with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
But the water buildup continues, and the short-term storage tanks that TEPCO has been relying on in the past are no longer a solution, so the operator is to set up a bypass system to prevent further buildup of the other, highly radioactive groundwater.

As for the load, that’s passed the safety test, local communities have been notified and an agreement was reached on releasing it into the Pacific Ocean as soon as possible.
http://rt.com/news/159324-tepco-fukushima-leak-source/

 

[MercuryCrest]

Hey! What's that doing on here?

I come here for news about how we're all going to die slowly and painfully.

For shame!

 

[ramonmercado]

Hey! What's that doing on here?

I come here for news about how we're all going to die slowly and painfully.

For shame!

Its ok! Godzilla just lumbered ashore and Mothra has eaten the new clean up crew.

 

[OneWingedBird]

Also the pilot of the giant robot has a rotten hangover today.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Hey! What's that doing on here?

I come here for news about how we're all going to die slowly and painfully.

For shame!

Be assured, we will all die slowly and painfully.

Feel better?

 

[MercuryCrest]

That's more like it!

 

[GNC]

Its ok! Godzilla just lumbered ashore and Mothra has eaten the new clean up crew.

I find that very hard to believe. Mothra wouldn't eat anybody. King Ghidorah, on the other hand...

 

[Mythopoeika]

Its ok! Godzilla just lumbered ashore and Mothra has eaten the new clean up crew.

I find that very hard to believe. Mothra wouldn't eat anybody. King Ghidorah, on the other hand...

What would Mothra eat?

A giant carpet?

 

[GNC]

I don't think we ever see Mothra eat anything, but as she's a giant butterfly (not a moth) she would be busy with the biggest flowers she could find.

 

[ramonmercado]

I saw Godzilla and I have a bad feeling about this.

Japan to create underground ice wall at crippled nuclear plant

Japan's nuclear regulator on Monday approved a plan to freeze the soil under the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to try to slow the build-up of radioactive water, officials said.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority examined plans by Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) to construct an underground ice wall at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant starting in June, regulatory officials said.

The wall is intended to block groundwater from nearby hillsides that has been flowing under the plant and mixing with polluted water used to cool reactors that went into meltdown after an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Under the plan, which is funded by the government, the firm will circulate a special refrigerant through pipes in the soil to create the 1.5-kilometre (0.9-mile)frozen wall that will stem the inflow of groundwater.
"We had some concerns, including the possibility that part of the ground could sink," one official said on condition of anonymity.

"But there were no major objections to the project during the meeting, and we concluded that TEPCO can go ahead with at least part of the project as proposed after going through further necessary procedures."

However, TEPCO may have to review other parts of the project amid fears it might affect existing structures at the plant such as underground drains, he added.

The idea of freezing a section of the ground, which was proposed for Fukushima last year, has previously been used in the construction of tunnels near watercourses.

However, scientists point out that it has not been done on this scale before nor for the proposed length of time.

Coping with the huge—and growing—amount of water at the tsunami-damaged plant is proving to be one of the biggest challenges for TEPCO, as it tries to clean up the mess after the worst nuclear disaster in a generation.
As well as all the water used to keep broken reactors cool, the utility must also deal with the water that makes its way along subterranean watercourses from mountainsides to the sea.

Last week TEPCO began a bypass system that diverts groundwater into the sea to try to reduce the volume of contaminated water.
Full decommissioning of the plant at Fukushima is expected to take several decades. An area around the plant remains out of bounds and experts warn that some settlements may have to be abandoned because of high levels of radiation.

© 2014 AFP

"Japan to create underground ice wall at crippled nuclear plant." May 26th, 2014. http://phys.org/news/2014-05-japan-unde ... ppled.html

 

[ramonmercado]

The saga continues.

Japan underreports 80 nuclear bombs-worth of plutonium to IAEA

Japan has failed to mention having about 640 kg (1,411 lbs) of unused plutonium in reports it submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2012 and 2013. The unreported amount is enough to make about 80 nuclear bombs.

The missing 640 kilograms Japan kept as Mixed oxide (MOX) fuel, a plutonium-uranium mixture that could be burned in a reactor. It was found in an offline reactor in a nuclear plant in Saga Prefecture in the southern Japanese town of Genkai.

The MOX fuel was loaded into the No. 3 reactor of Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Genkai nuclear plant in March 2011 during its regular checkup, shortly before the Fukushima Nuclear disaster happened later that month. It was then taken out two years later as the reactor remained offline.

The unreported plutonium was first found by Kakujoho, a nuclear information website.

According to the reports Tokyo submitted, plutonium reserves in the country stood at 1.6 tons, while they were approximately 2.2 tons in 2011. It appears that Japanese government excluded the loaded plutonium.

However, speaking to Kyodo News an official from Japan's Atomic Energy Commission argued that found plutonium is still considered being used and hence exempt from reporting to the IAEA.

But experts both in Japan and abroad warn that the Tokyo’s reporting does not reflect the actual state of unused plutonium that could be diverted for nuclear weapons.

"From the safeguards point of view this material is still un-irradiated fresh MOX fuel regardless of its location," former IAEA Deputy Director General Olli Heinonen said. "If it has, indeed, not been irradiated, this should be reflected in the statements."

Keeping the largest amount of plutonium among non-nuclear armed nations, Japan claims to possess over 44 tons of plutonium (9.3 tons within the country and 35 tons in Britain and France), while the actual amount is 45 tons, said Japan's Kyodo News Agency.

Japan’s nuclear reactors remain idle after the 2011 disaster at Fukushima. In the past the country used plutonium for power generation.
http://rt.com/news/164504-japan-nuclear-ieae-reports/

 

[Kondoru]

Id say it was in very safe hands.

Of course, if they intend using it to make Godzilla, `doubly` very safe hands...

 

[OneWingedBird]

Don't be ridiculous, they're not really going to make Godzilla.













They need it too much to power the giant robots.

 

[rynner2]

An intersting sidebar to this thread:

As Irish as... sushi

The Fukushima nuclear disaster has proved unexpectedly beneficial to people on an island off the north of Ireland, the Daily Telegraph writes.
Contamination of the native kelp crop meant that the Japanese were short of seaweed to wrap their sushi rolls in.

This has proved a boon to the seaweed gatherers of Rathlin Island, the paper explains.
The tiny community on Rathlin now exports hundreds of tons of the plant and a laboratory has been set up to help propagate strong, microbe-free kelp in the waters around the island.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-27757841

 

[ramonmercado]

Fukushima monkeys show signs of 'blood abnormalities' following 2011 nuclear disaster

The wild monkeys showed low blood counts and detectable levels of caesium - though scientist say these are not necessarily related to the nuclear meltdown

Scientists have found abnormalities in the blood of monkeys living near the site of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown.

Wild Japanese macaques were found to have lower than normal white and red blood cell levels and detectable levels of caesium in their body, all of which could make them more susceptible to disease.

The new study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, looked for signs of radiation exposure in 61 monkeys living in a 43 mile distance (70 kilometres) of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The power plant suffered a meltdown in March 2011 when it was hit by a tsunami, releasing substantial amounts of nuclear material into the area. Some 300,000 people were evacuated following what was the second largest nuclear incident after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

The author's reports suggest that the caesium in the macaques’ bodies comes from the monkey’s winter diet of tree buds and bark - now contaminated.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 28556.html
The 61 animals monitored in the Fukushima area were compared with 31 monkeys living in the Shimokita Peninsula some 400km (249m) away. None of the Shimokita troop showed signs of caesium in their bodies. ...

 

[ramonmercado]

Fukushima suicide: TEPCO must pay widower $500,000 in landmark court ruling

The operator of the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant could face a barrage of lawsuits after a Japanese court ruled that it was to blame for a suicide, following the disaster of March 2011 that led to catastrophic fallout for the nation.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has been struggling with the consequences of the post-earthquake nuclear leak for three years now, without notable success and with much blame directed at it for the mishandling of the crisis.

Now, a lawsuit by Mikio Watanabe, a resident of Fukushima Prefecture, is causing trouble for the power plant operator. Watanable’s wife, Hamako, 58, suffered severe depression in the wake of the tragedy, and committed suicide by dousing herself in gasoline and setting herself on fire.

The nuclear utility will have to pay 49 million yen ($472,000) in damages in a first-of-its-kind ruling in the three years since the July tsunami and earthquake released a wave of deadly radiation into the environment and derailed the surrounding settlements’ way of life for decades to come.

The Watanabe household was one such case. Their home was located about 40 kilometers away from Reactor 1. When the couple and their relatives were relocated, Hamako’s mental state began to seriously deteriorate. It is said she could not foresee a future away from her home.

The truth hit especially hard when the chicken farm the couple had been tending after the incident closed in June the following year. ...

http://rt.com/news/182796-tepco-fukushi ... n-suicide/