Stop the Hogs!

Japan Struggles With Tainted Reactor Water

[ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 09254.html ]

----- Original Message -----
From: Gordon Edwards
Sent: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 3:45 PM
Subject: Wall Street Journal: Japan Struggles With Tainted Reactor Water

Background:

When the huge earthquake struck Japan on March 11 2011 the three operating nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant immediately and safely shut down. The nuclear reaction in all three reactors was completely stopped long before the tsunami hit. The shutdown systems worked perfectly.

But no one knows how to shut off radioactivity. In the core of each reactor, such an enormous inventory of radioactive materials has been created by the splitting of uranium and plutonium atoms that large quantities of heat will continue to be produced for many years after the nuclear chain reaction has stopped. This heat is caused by the unstoppable radioactive disintegrations of dozens of varieties of radioactive materials called "fission products".

Fission products -- such as cesium-137, iodine-131, strontium-90 --are the broken pieces of uranium and plutonium atoms that were split in order to get energy to boil water to produce electricity. The fission products are fiercely radioactive. The heat they produce is called "decay heat", because it is the result of radioactive decay.

And no one knows how to speed it up, slow it down, start it, or stop it. Like the tsunami itself, the decay heat is an unstoppable force of nature.

And as long as that decay heat is being produced, it will drive the temperature up and up, unless the heat can be removed as rapidly as it is being produced. For that you need pumps, and for those you need power.

So when the tsunami wiped out the backup electrical generators, and the batteries on hand became exhausted, the stage was set for the three reactors to undergo complete core meltdowns, at temperatures in excess of 2800 degrees C (5000 degrees F).

Even now, and for some years to come, heat must be removed from the radioactive mass in the core of each reactor by flushing water through it at a tremendous rate. But that act pollutes the water with debris from the damaged core and with radioactive materials. Cooling the core automatically flushes out those radioactive materials on an ongoing basis -- and then you have enormous volumes of radioactively contaminated water that has to go somewhere. And, of course, despite industry efforts to deny the danger, these materials are all superb carcinogens and mutagens....

Question of the day: What do you do with millions of gallons of highly radioactive water? And how do you persuade people that "everything is under control" . . . when it isn't?

Gordon Edwards
President, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
http://www.ccnr.org

============

Japan Struggles With Tainted Reactor Water

<[ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 09254.html ]>

The Key to Cooling Damaged Nuclear Plants Now Poses Major Radioactive Worry, Storage Challenge

By PHRED DVORAK , Wall Street Journal, February 29 2012

http://tinyurl.com/6lp5h9f

Foreign correspondents were taken on a tour of the blasted Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors. The WSJ's Phred Dvorak talks to Jake Schlesinger what she saw at Fukushima.

OKUMA, Japan—Nearly a year after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami sparked triple meltdowns at reactors here, the taming of Fukushima Daiichi has become in large part a quest to control water.

Foreign journalists on a tour of the Fukushima Daiichi compound Tuesday saw fields of squat, gray water-storage tanks; miles of orange, black and gray hoses; an AstroTurf-covered barge full of contaminated water; and white-suited workers huddled in a field preparing space for a new water container.

Water is crucial to the continued safety and stability of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, even after reactor temperatures fell at the end of last year to a level at which little radioactivity is being emitted. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. is still injecting hundreds of thousands of gallons into the reactors every day to keep them from overheating again.

Because that water and groundwater—now contaminated—is leaking out of the reactors at an estimated 10,000 tons a month, cleaning it up and storing the excess is a constant challenge.

When the temperature drops, as it is expected to do Tuesday night, there is the added problem that the water might freeze, bursting out of hoses, tanks and pipes.

More:

Japan Panel Shows Nuclear Vulnerability (need Subscription)

< [ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 73938.html ]>

Japan Real Time: Photos: One Year On

< [ http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012 ... e-year-on/ ]


MORE:

[ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 09254.html ]

EDWARDS: Update on the spent reactor fuel situation at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Site

----- Original Message -----
From: Gordon Edwards
Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2012 4:07 PM
Subject: Update on the spent reactor fuel situation at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Site

Background:

Here [below] is an authoritative description of the radioactive inventory in the spent fuel pools at Fukushima Dai-ichi by Robert Alvarez, with special emphasis on the precarious spent fuel pool of reactor Unit #4.

Irradiated nuclear fuel, also called "spent fuel", is extraordinarily radioactive. An unprotected human being one metre away from a single irradiated fuel assembly, freshly removed from the core of an operating nuclear reactor, would receive a lethal dose of radiation within seconds, and would be dead within days.

Even so, that blast of penetrating radiation (gamma rays) given off by each spent fuel assembly pales into insignificance compared with the enormous inventory of radioactive poisons contained in each of these irradiated fuel assemblies. If those materials are released into the environment and find their way into the bodies of living things through inhalation, ingestion or absorption, they can trigger a large variety of cancers, blood diseases, and damage to genetic material which can be transmitted to future generations. This can happen far away from the reactors if the radioactive materials are disseminated.

At the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, the molten cores of units 1, 2 and 3, are matters of great long-term concern. But the radioactive inventory of all the irradiated nuclear fuel stored in the individual spent fuel pools of the six reactors at Fukushima Dai-ichi, as well as the common fuel pool that is used for the longer-term storage of irradiated fuel elements from all six reactors, is far greater and even more problematic than the molten cores -- in terms of potential offsite consequences.

The reasons for this are: (1) each pool contains the irradiated fuel from several years of operation, making for an extremely large radioactive inventory; (2) these pools are not enclosed within a strong containment structure similar to the structures that enclose the cores of the reactors; (3) several of these pools are completely open to the atmosphere since the roofs and outer walls of the buildings have been demolished by powerful explosions; (4) the individual pools are at an elevation of about 100 feet [30 metres] and could possibly topple or collapse as a result of structural damage coupled with another powerful earthquake; (5) if the water from these pools is drained for any reason, the blast of penetrating radiation from the unshielded irradiated fuel assemblies inside the pool would prevent human access for a couple of hundred metres in all directions; (6) the lack of cooling water will result in overheating of the fuel which can cause melting and even burning of their zirconium metal coating [called cladding], sending clouds of radioactive materials skyward.

Please note that the overheating of the fuel is caused by the intense radioactivity of the materials in the irradiated fuel assemblies, and is not necessarily caused by a resumption of the nuclear chain reaction that was responsible for creating these materials in the first place.

Gordon Edwards, President
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
www.ccnr.org

- - - - -

From: Robert Alvarez <kitbob@erols.com >

Date: March 31, 2012 12:57:22 PM EDT (CA)

Dear All --

Based on recent information provided at the Japanese government's public hearing of the Budgetary Committee of the House of Councilors, and my Japanese friends, reactor No. 4 contains 1,231 irradiated spent nuclear fuel (SNF) assemblies in the pool of Reactor No. 4.

The pool is structurally damaged, has leaked and is exposed to the elements [i.e. the atmosphere]. The infrastructure to safely remove it [i.e. irradiated spent fuel from the pool] has been destroyed.

The SNF in Pool No. 4 contains about 100+ million curies [MCi] of long-lived radioactive elements. Roughly 40% [of that] or 40 MCi is cesium-137 [Cs-137].

If another earthquake or other event were to cause the water to drain, it could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 40 times the amount [of radioactivity] estimated by the National Commission on Radiation Protection to have been released at Chernobyl (1.6 million curies). The Dai-Ichi accident, according to Japanese authorities has so far released ~ 1 million curies.

There appears to be a total of 11,138 spent fuel assemblies stored at the Dai-Ichi site. There are 6,530 assemblies in a common pool with nearly all the rest [in pools] amidst the reactor ruins. A small amount [of irradiated spent nuclear fuel] is contained in dry casks.

Roughly 982 million curies of the total SNF inventory are from cesium-137. This is about 145 percent more than estimated to have been released by all atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, the Chernobyl accident, and world-wide reprocessing plants (the grand total amounting to ~270 million curies or one million million million [1.0E+18] Becquerels.)

It's important for the public to understand that nuclear power plants that have been operating for decades have generated some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet. Spent fuel pools at boiling water reactors are particularly of concern, because they are about 100 feet above ground and do not have "defense in depth" protection. [By contrast,] despite the enormous destruction caused at the Dai-ichi site, the dry spent fuel storage casks were unscathed.

Best,

Bob

= = = = = =

Fukushima reactor shows radiation levels much higher than thought

< http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/28/
fukushima-reactor-radiation-levels >

Damage from disaster so severe that clean-up expected to take decades, according to latest examination of nuclear plant

The Guardian, Associated Press, March 28, 2012

One of Japan's crippled nuclear reactors still has fatally high radiation levels and much less water to cool it than officials estimated, according
to an internal examination that renews doubts about the plant's stability.

A tool equipped with a tiny video camera, a thermometer, a dosimeter and a water gauge was used to assess damage inside the number two
reactor's containment chamber for the second time since the tsunami swept into the Fukushima Daiichi plant, a year ago.

The data shows the damage from the disaster is so severe the plant operator will have to develop special equipment and technology to tolerate the harsh environment, and decommission the plant. The process is expected to last decades.

The other two reactors that had meltdowns could be in even worse shape. The number two reactor is the only one officials have been able to closely examine so far.

Tuesday's examination, with an industrial endoscope, detected radiation levels up to 10 times the fatal dose inside the chamber.

Plant officials previously said more than half of the melted fuel had breached the core and dropped to the floor of the primary containment vessel, some of it splashing against the wall or the floor. [ . . . ]


= = = = =

Excellent Youtube video of interview with Kevin Kamps (Beyond Nuclear):

Fukushima...radiation so high - even robots not safe

< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwO3MDfUeRo >


= = = = = =

Tokyo Soil Samples Would Be Considered Nuclear Waste In The US

< http://www.fairewinds.com/content/
tokyo-soil-samples-would-be-considered-nuclear-waste-us >

4:27-minute Arnie Gundersen YouTube here

While traveling in Japan several weeks ago, Fairewinds’ Arnie Gundersen took soil samples in Tokyo public parks, playgrounds, and rooftop gardens. All the samples would be considered nuclear waste if found here in the US. This level of contamination is currently being discovered throughout Japan. At the US NRC Regulatory Information Conference in Washington, DC March 13 to March 15, the NRC's Chairman, Dr. Gregory Jaczko emphasized his concern that the NRC and the nuclear industry presently do not consider the costs of mass evacuations and radioactive contamination in their cost benefit analysis used to license nuclear power plants. Furthermore, Fairewinds believes that evacuation costs near a US nuclear plant could easily exceed one trillion dollars and contaminated land would be uninhabitable for generations.

[BEGIN: RIC Conference Footage]

NRC Chairman Jaczko: The events at Fukushima reinforce that any nuclear accident with public health and safety or environmental consequences of that magnitude, is inherently unacceptable. But we focussed on the radiological consequences of this event. I believe we cannot ignore the large social and economic consequences such an event poses to any country with a nuclear facility that deals with such a crisis.

In Japan, more than 90,000 people remain displaced from their homes and land, with some having no prospect for a return to their previous lifestyle in the foreseeable future. While not easy to characterize, these are significant hardships on these people and they are inherently unacceptable. So as we look to the future and we look in a proactive way, we ultimately will have to address the issue of how do we deal with nuclear events that lead to significant land contamination. And displacement, perhaps permanently, of people from their homes and their livelihoods and their communities.

[END: RIC Conference Footage]

Arnie Gundersen: What you have just heard was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's chairman, Gregory Jaczko, saying that the NRC does not take in to account mass evacuations and people not getting back on their land for centuries when it does a cost benefit analysis as to whether or not a nuclear plant should be licensed.

I am Arnie Gundersen from Fairewinds and today I am at the Regulatory Information Conference put on by the NRC in Washington D.C.

So today, I am in Washington D.C. Couple of weeks ago though, I was in Tokyo and when I was in Tokyo, I took some samples. Now, I did not look for the highest radiation spot. I just went around with five plastic bags and when I found an area, I just scooped up some dirt and put it in a bag. One of those samples was from a crack in the sidewalk. Another one of those samples was from a children's playground that had been previously decontaminated. Another sample had come from some moss on the side of the road. Another sample came from the roof of an office building that I was at. And the last sample was right across the street from the main judicial center in downtown Tokyo. I brought those samples back, declared them through Customs, and sent them to the lab. And the lab determined that ALL of them would be qualified as radioactive waste here in the United States and would have to be shipped to Texas to be disposed of.

Now think about the ramifications for the nation's capital, whether it is Tokyo or the United States. How would you like it if you went to pick your flowers and were kneeling in radioactive waste? That is what is happening in Tokyo now. And I think that is the point that Chairman Jaczko was trying to make. When the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does it's cost benefit analyses now, it does not take into account the cost to society if you have to evacuate for generations or if you have to move 100,000 people, perhaps forever.

There is a hundred miles between us and a dozen nuclear power plants here in Washington D.C. Fukushima was almost 200 miles away from Tokyo, and yet Tokyo soil in some places, the ones I just happened to find, would qualify as radioactive waste here in the United States.

How would we feel if our nation's capital were contaminated to that degree? So I agree with Chairman Jaczko, new nukes and old nukes that are being re-licensed should include as a cost in their analysis what we have learned to be happening in Tokyo and in Japan.

Thank you very much and I will keep you informed.

- - - - -

MUCH MORE INFO:
http://www.fairewinds.com/

. anyone hear about this on CBC Radio???

. . . it only affects every living organism on the Planet!!!

Elaine

= = = = = =

Anti-Nuclear Rally Draws 170,000 in Tokyo

< http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/
20120716p2g00m0dm090000c.html >

The Mainichi Japan 17 July 12

An anti-nuclear power plant rally called for by a group led by Nobel literature laureate Kenzaburo Oe and other celebrities drew a crowd of around 170,000 people Monday at Tokyo's Yoyogi Park, according to organizers.

At the assembly held under a scorching sun, dubbed "100,000 People's Assembly to say Goodbye to Nuclear Power Plants," journalist Satoshi Kamata said at the opening event, "We want to bring an end to nuclear power plants immediately."

Oe criticized the government's stance of trying to restart nuclear reactors when the Fukushima nuclear crisis has not yet fully been resolved. "I feel we're being insulted by the government" due to the recent rebooting of a reactor, a move he described as "a plot by the government."

The rally, which also featured live musical performances by Japanese singers, was part of the ongoing antinuclear campaign "10 Million People's Action to say Goodbye to Nuclear Power Plants" that has been conducted following the 2011 crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

The organizing group consists of the Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs, commonly known as Gensuikin, and other bodies.

According to the organizers, the event drew not only activists from civic groups but also numerous private citizens concerned about their future. The number of participants in the rally at Yoyogi Park was unparalleled for an event there, they said.

Kumiko Kobayashi, 59, from Tokyo's Meguro Ward brought her children and granddaughter in participating at an antinuclear protest for the first time. "The first priority is to halt nuclear power plants. I want the government and the general public to have a normal way of thinking and realize that," she said. [ . . . ]

= = = =

Tokyo Rally Is Biggest Yet to Oppose Nuclear Plan

http://tinyurl.com/cxvuaom

Tens of thousands of antinuclear protesters gathered on Monday in central Tokyo in the largest rally since last year's Fukushima disaster.

Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times, July 16 2012

TOKYO — In Japan’s largest antinuclear rally since the disaster at Fukushima, tens of thousands of protesters gathered at a park in central Tokyo on Monday to urge the government to halt its restarting of the nation’s reactors.

Organizers said 170,000 people filled a Tokyo square to sing songs, beat drums and cheer on a series of high-profile speakers who called for more Japanese to make their voices heard. The police put the number at 75,000, still making it the biggest gathering of antinuclear protesters since the Fukushima accident last year.

“To stay silent in the wake of Fukushima is inhuman,” the Oscar-winning musician Ryuichi Sakamoto told the crowd, which braved soaring temperatures to gather at Yoyogi Park.

Polls suggest that public opinion is still divided over the future of nuclear power in Japan. But a unilateral decision last month by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to start putting the country’s reactors back into use has angered many Japanese and galvanized the antinuclear camp.

Antinuclear protests have gained momentum especially here in the capital, where tens of thousands of protesters now gather every week to shout slogans in front of Mr. Noda’s official residence. [ . . . ]

Cancer risk 70% higher for females in Fukushima area, says WHO

< http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... ushima-who >

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 February 2013 11.30 GMT

Girls exposed as infants in the worst hit areas have a higher risk of developing thyroid cancer over their lifetime.

People in the area worst affected by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident two years ago have a higher risk of developing certain cancers, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday.

A 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, killed nearly 19,000 people and devastated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, triggering meltdowns, spewing radiation and forcing about 160,000 people to flee their homes.

"A breakdown of data, based on age, gender and proximity to the plant, does show a higher cancer risk for those located in the most contaminated parts," Dr Maria Neira, WHO director for public health and environment, said in a statement.

In the most contaminated area, the WHO estimated that there was a 70% higher risk – up from a baseline risk of 0.77% to 1.29% – of females exposed as infants developing thyroid cancer over their lifetime. The thyroid is the most exposed organ as radioactive iodine concentrates there and children are deemed especially vulnerable.

The report estimated that in the most contaminated area there was a 7% higher risk of leukaemia in males exposed as infants, and a 6% higher risk of breast cancer in females exposed as infants.

The report concluded that for the general population inside Japan, the predicted health risks were low, but that one-third of emergency workers were estimated to have increased risk.

MORE:

< http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... ushima-who >

REPORT: Health risk assessment from the nuclear accident after the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, based on a preliminary dose estimation - pdf, 2.64Mb, 172 pages

< http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/1066 ... 30_eng.pdf >

Fukushima: An Update from Japan

[ http://www.projectcensored.org/fukushima-update-japan/ ]

by Brian Covert December 15, 2013

When International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials praised the authorities in Japan in October 2011 for their “efficient” handling of the Fukushima nuclear accident seven months after it occurred, perhaps the organization was speaking a little too soon or thinking too wishfully.

Or perhaps it had something to do with the head of the IAEA at the time, Yukiya Amano, being a career bureaucrat from Japan who was just doing what he was hired to do. Or perhaps the IAEA itself was just doing the job it was created to do back in 1957 by the United Nations of supporting and promoting the “peaceful use” of nuclear energy worldwide.

Or maybe it was just a simple matter of laying the first foundation of The Official Story: that the Fukushima nuclear disaster was basically, as Japanese authorities have insisted, sotei-gai — beyond expectations — that it was totally unforeseen and could not possibly have been predicted, but not to worry: Everything would soon be under control and back to business as usual.

Despite the best efforts of a “poodle press” in Japan, snuggled comfortably in the elite laps of power, to repeat such reassuring words to an anxious public, some of the truth did manage to come out about what is arguably the worst nuclear accident in human history.

Looking back decades from now, however, 2013 may well be remembered as the year when the iron lid finally came down over the truth and The Official Story concerning Fukushima was set firmly in place...

Read the entire report on the Project Censored website

[ http://www.projectcensored.org/fukushima-update-japan/ ]

Thyroid cancer diagnosed in 104 young people in Fukushima

[ http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disast ... 1408240011 ]

August 24, 2014 by YURI OIWA/ Staff Writer

The number of young people in Fukushima Prefecture who have been diagnosed with definitive or suspected thyroid gland cancer, a disease often caused by radiation exposure, now totals 104, according to prefectural officials.

The 104 are among 300,000 young people who were aged 18 or under at the time of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and whose results of thyroid gland tests have been made available as of June 30. They were eligible for the tests administered by the prefectural government.

Of these 104, including 68 women, the number of definitive cases is 57, and one has been diagnosed with a benign tumor. The size of the tumors varies from 5 to 41 millimeters and averages 14 mm.

The average age of those diagnosed was 14.8 when the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami triggered the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011.

However, government officials in Fukushima say they do not believe the cases of thyroid gland cancer diagnosed or suspected in the 104 young people are linked to the 2011 nuclear accident.

The figure can be extrapolated for comparison purposes to an average of more than 30 people per population of 100,000 having definitive or suspected thyroid gland cancer.

The figure is much higher than, for example, the development rate of thyroid cancer of 1.7 people per 100,000 among late teens based on the cancer patients’ registration in Miyagi Prefecture.

But experts say the figures cannot be compared because the test in Fukushima Prefecture covers a large number of people who have no symptoms.

Experts are divided over whether the cases of thyroid gland cancer diagnosed or suspected in the 104 young people should be linked to the 2011 nuclear accident.

In connection with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the number of young people diagnosed with thyroid cancer rose only after four years. The cancer is also known to develop slowly.

But some researchers say that the occurrence of thyroid gland cancer is likely to be increased by the Fukushima nuclear accident.

MORE:

“[ http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disast ... 1408240011 ]

Removal of Spent Fuel at Fukushima -- is the mission really accomplished

Background by Gordon Edwards, November 5, 2014

[ http://ccnr.org/Mission_Not_Accomplished.pdf ]

"Mission accomplished" -- George W. Bush would have loved it!

It is indeed a relief to know that all of the irradiated nuclear fuel in the spent fuel pool at the unit 4 reactor has been safely transferred to a common pool in another building, and so soon -- only three years and 7 months after the triple meltdown at Fukushima Dai-ichi on March 11, 2011.

But there are still fresh (unirradiated) fuel bundles in the pool, and they won't be all gone until the end of December -- so there are another 3 months to go. Fresh fuel assemblies are more likely to undergo an accidental criticality event -- an inadvertent restart of the nuclear chain reaction -- so we're not exactly out of the danger zone yet. World Nuclear News calls it mission accomplished.

"Mission almost accomplished" perhaps.

And then there are the three other spent fuel pools in units 1, 2, and 3 -- the reactors that actually did melt down, unlike unit 4 that didn't. Unit 4 was completely offline and defuelled at the time of the 2011 disaster. That's why there is still unirradiated fuel in the unit 4 spent fuel pool.

"Easiest part of the mission almost accomplished" perhaps.

And then of course there are the three molten cores themselves. After figuring out how to empty the irradiated fuel from units 1, 2, 3, there is the irradiated fuel in the reactors themselves -- fuel that in 2011 melted like candle wax at a temperature of 5000 degrees F (2800 degrees C) and congealed into a blob like lava somewhere or other -- at the bottom of the reactor containment vessels, or on the floors of the 3 reactor buildings, or in the ground beneath the 3 reactor floors, as at Chernobyl....

"The first step in the easiest part of the mission is almost accomplished," perhaps.

It is indeed an achievement to have safely removed the undamaged irradiated fuel from the unit 4 pool -- a routine operation at a nuclear power plant under normal circumstances.

And it is worth a little celebration.

But maybe it's a bit over-the-top to say, "Mission Accomplished".

Gordon Edwards, President
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
http://www.ccnr.org

========================

Mission to remove used fuel complete at Fukushima

by World Nuclear News, November 5, 2014

[ http://tinyurl.com/mgrrz57 ]

A year-long operation to remove all the used fuel assemblies from the storage pool at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi unit 4 has been successfully completed. Some fresh fuel remains in the pool, but this should be removed by the end of the year.

MORE:

[ http://tinyurl.com/mgrrz57 ]

Fresh nuclear leak detected at Fukushima plant in Japan

[ http://ibnlive.in.com/news/fresh-nuclea ... 984-2.html ]

Feb 22, 2015 at 05:17pm IST

Tokyo: Sensors at the Fukushima nuclear plant have detected a fresh leak of highly radioactive water to the sea, the plant's operator announced on Sunday, highlighting difficulties in decommissioning the crippled plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said the sensors, which were rigged to a gutter that pours rain and ground water at the Fukushima Daiichi plant to a nearby bay, detected contamination levels up to 70 times greater than the already-high radioactive status seen at the plant campus.

TEPCO said its emergency inspections of tanks storing nuclear waste water did not find any additional abnormalities, but the firm said it shut the gutter to prevent radioactive water from going into the Pacific Ocean.

MORE:

[ http://ibnlive.in.com/news/fresh-nuclea ... 984-2.html ]

Japan Govt Audit: Millions of Dollars Wasted in Fukushima Nuclear Cleanup

[ http://enr.construction.com/yb/enr/arti ... VNmAmbBg** ]

Associated Press, via Engineering News-Record, March 24, 2015

http://tinyurl.com/oftgww2

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese government auditors say the operator of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant has wasted more than a third of the 190 billion yen ( $1.6 billion ) in taxpayer money allocated for cleaning up the plant after it was destroyed by a March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

A Board of Audit report describes various expensive machines and untested measures that ended in failure. It also says the cleanup work has been dominated by one group of Japanese utility, construction and electronics giants despite repeated calls for more transparency and greater access for international bidders.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Teruaki Kobayashi said all of the equipment contributed to stabilizing the plant, even though some operated only briefly.

Some of the failures cited in the report:

FRENCH IMPORT: Among the costliest failures was a 32 billion yen ( $270 million ) machine made by French nuclear giant Areva SA to remove radioactive cesium from water leaking from the three wrecked reactors. The trouble-plagued machine lasted just three months and treated only 77,000 tons of water, a tiny fraction of the volume leaking every day. It has since been replaced with Japanese and American machines.

SALT REMOVAL: Sea water was used early in the crisis to cool the reactors after the normal cooling systems failed. Machines costing 18.4 billion yen ( $150 million ) from several companies including Hitachi GE Nuclear Energy , Toshiba Corp. and Areva were supposed to remove the salt from the contaminated water at the plant. One of the machines functioned only five days, and the longest lasted just six weeks.

MORE:

[ http://enr.construction.com/yb/enr/arti ... VNmAmbBg** ]

Fukushima radiation measured on B.C. shore for 1st time

[ http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/fukus ... z7gOXRE%3D ]

Trace cesium detected, but levels far below limit for safe drinking water

CBC News Posted: Apr 06, 2015 3:23 PM ET| Last Updated: Apr 08, 2015 9:49 AM ET

Trace amounts of radiation from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan have been detected on North American shores for the first time, but researchers say the amount of radiation is not a concern.

Radioactive forms of the element cesium that could only have come from Fukushima were detected in samples collected on Feb. 19 in Ucluelet, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, with the help of the Ucluelet Aquarium, scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution reported today.

The private, independent research organization is based in Cape Cod, Mass. It has been monitoring radiation levels along North American shores over the past 15 months with help from citizen scientists [ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.2552906 ] who are collecting samples from 60 sites along the U.S. and Canadian west coast and Hawaii, along with a Canadian-funded organization called inFORM led by University of Victoria oceanographer Jay Cullen.
[ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.2990947 ]

MORE:

[ http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/fukus ... z7gOXRE%3D ]

Helen Caldicott: The Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown Continues Unabated

[ https://independentaustralia.net/politi ... ated,10019 ]

Independent Australia 13 February 2017

EXCERPT:

Every day since the accident began, 300 to 400 tons of water has poured into the Pacific where numerous isotopes – including cesium 137, 134, strontium 90, tritium, plutonium, americium and up to 100 more – enter the ocean and bio-concentrate by orders of magnitude at each step of the food chain — algae, crustaceans, little fish, big fish then us.

Fukushima meltdown - Caldicott says Japan may become uninhabitable - media silent

[ https://independentaustralia.net/busine ... ih.twitter ]

David Donovan May 31, 2011

EXCERPT:

Dr Helen Caldicott says that the Fukushima nuclear disaster has the potential to make Japan “uninhabitable”, yet the mainstream media in Australia continue to ignore the crisis. Managing editor David Donovan reports.

Yesterday – the same day Germany announced it would close all its nuclear plants because of Fukushima, and dangerous levels of radiation were reported in Japanese clean-up workers – Independent Australia did a straw poll of 50 random people at a metropolitan shopping centre in Queensland. Each of them was asked: “were you aware that there had been a nuclear meltdown at Fukushima in Japan”. Almost all of these respondents recognised the name Fukushima but only 4 of the 50 – a mere 8 per cent – said they had heard of any meltdown.

Fukushima: a Lurking Global Catastrophe?

[ http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/20/ ... tastrophe/ ]

by Robert Hunziker February 20, 2017

Year over year, ever since 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown grows worse and worse, an ugly testimonial to the inherent danger of generating electricity via nuclear fission, which produces isotopes, some of the most deadly poisonous elements on the face of the planet.

Fukushima Diiachi has been, and remains, one of the world’s largest experiments, i.e., what to do when all hell breaks lose aka The China Syndrome. “Scientists still don’t have all the information they need for a cleanup that the government estimates will take four decades and cost ¥8 trillion. It is not yet known if the fuel melted into or through the containment vessel’s concrete floor, and determining the fuel’s radioactivity and location is crucial to inventing the technology to remove the melted fuel,” (Emi Urabe, Fukushima Fuel-Removal Quest Leaves Trail of Dead Robots, The Japan Times, Feb. 17, 2017). [ http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/0 ... Kt0BuTrvbI ]

As it happens, “”inventing technology” is experimental stage stuff. Still, there are several knowledgeable sources that believe the corium, or melted core, will never be recovered. Then what?

According to a recent article, “Potential Global Catastrophe of the Reactor No. 2 at Fukushima Daiichi,” d/d Feb. 11, 2017 [ http://enenews.com/expert-potential-glo ... is-most-dr ] by Dr. Shuzo Takemoto, professor, Department of Geophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University: The Fukushima nuclear facility is a global threat on level of a major catastrophe.

Meanwhile, the Abe administration dresses up Fukushima Prefecture for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, necessitating a big fat question: Who in their right mind would hold Olympics in the neighborhood of three out-of-control nuclear meltdowns that could get worse, worse, and still worse? After all, that’s the pattern over the past 5 years; it gets worse and worse. Dismally, nobody can possibly know how much worse by 2020. Not knowing is the main concern about holding Olympics in the backyard of a nuclear disaster zone, especially as nobody knows what’s happening. Nevertheless and resolutely, according to PM Abe and the IOC, the games go on.

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[ http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/20/ ... tastrophe/ ]