nuclear-news

Tritium level rising in Fukushima plant port – Ground subsidence issues on land

MsMilkytheclown1

Tritium level rising in Fukushima plant port
Officials from Tokyo Electric Power Company say the level of radioactive tritium has been rising in sea water near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
They say they can’t rule out the possibility that contaminated groundwater seeped into the sea.
TEPCO officials said contained 1,100 becquerels of tritium per liter.That is 10 times the amount detected in previous tests.
But they said the figure is still less than one-fiftieth of the government-set limit for water to be released into the sea.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130625_04.html

The river sediments of Dneeper, Sozh and Pripjat, Neman, Zapadnay and Divina increased Cs-137 by 80%. This is only official state data. It reached also backwaters: The Sr-90 activity varies from 2,2 – 66,0 up to 407 – 4,215 Bq/Kg).

Alpha-radionuclides density in riverbed sediments is higher than in river waters: Pu238 from 0,005 – 9,10 Bg/Kg; Pu-239-240 from 0,13 – 28,13 Bq/Kg; Am-241 from 0,07 – 16,2 Bq/Kg. In the 90ies the levels fro Cs-137 and Sr-90 exceed pre-accidental levels in ground water 20 – 30 times and in underground waters 10 times and more.

Chernobyl turned the soil into a collector where accumulation and prolonged retention of long-living radionculides occur.

http://tschernobyl-initiative.welcomes-you.com/dokumente/belarus/pdf/band3_s8_23.pdf

h/t ; Iori Mochizuki

According to Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Cs-134 was detected from 7300m deep in the Pacific only 4 months after the Fukushima nuclear accident.

The location is in approximately 115km east from the epicenter, 4.9km east from the trench axis of the Japan Deep.

From their press release of 5/29/2013, 20 Bq/Kg of Cs-134 was measured from the the sea ground sediment (0~1cm depth) in July of 2011. It proves the Fukushima contamination reached 7300m deep in the Pacific detecting Cs-134.

They observed the upsurge of phytoplankton around the Japan deep from late March to early April in 2011. They assume Cs-134 fell down with the mass of marine snow.

Also, at the point of 110km east from the epicenter, they observed the local strong current with a certain direction. Due to this strong current, dead bodies of sea creatures and the sorts of fish that can’t fix themselves at one location were carried to the deeper area. Almost no living benthos was found.

At both of the 110km area and 115km area, they observed mineral particles causing seawater extraordinary unclear. The thickness of the unclear layers were 30m and 50m in each.

http://www.jamstec.go.jp/j/about/press_release/20130529/

20,000 Bq/Kg from school swimming pool sediment in Miyagi prefecture

According to a citizens’ radiation monitoring station in Kakuda city Miyagi prefecture, significantly high level of Cs-134/137 was measured from sediment in a swimming pool.

The pool is located in an elementary school of the city. The school is probably going to have a swimming class this year.

http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/06/20000-bqkg-from-school-swimming-pool-sediment-in-miyagi-prefecture/

Chapter1. State of the Environment Annual Environment report 1992

Ground subsidence is brought about by the excessive extraction of ground water.
Once it has subsided, ground cannot return to its former level. This can cause severe damage and problems to architectural structures.

Ground subsidence was already observed in Tokyo’s Edo-ku and in West Osaka before the Pacific War. After the war, economic stagnation resulted in a temporary pause, but by the mid-1960s it resumed countrywide, with some locations even recording a severe drop of more than 20cm annually.

After that, as a result of regulations on the use of ground water, land subsidence has gradually decreased. However, even in 1990, 5 locations (a total of 14km²) dropped by more than 4cm, and 18 loca-tions (totaling 360km²) dropped by more than 2cm. Particularly affected are the Northern Kanto Plain, the Kujukuri Plain in Chiba prefecture. and Chikugo-Saga Plain in Saga prefecture (Figure 1-1-27).

Fig. 1-1-27 Land Subsidence Across the Nation in FY 1991

http://www.env.go.jp/en/wpaper/1992/eae210000000000.html#1_1_1_3

In the video at the top of this post Tepco mention injecting materials to block and solidify the ground and to block ground water but as the above chart shows, that could destabilise the ground levels by effecting the pressure and direction of the ground water.. Spent fuel pool 4 at Fukushima Daichi is in peril as the ground has already dropped after the 2011 earthquake and subsequent remedial works. Did or does Tepco use the ground water at Daichi? Are they taking into account the porous nature of the rock type/fractures?  [Arclight2011part2]

June 25, 2013 - Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized