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Tepco starts to fill Unit 3 trench with concrete

jhlmlmlkmklFebruary 5, 2015 

Unit 3 trench filling work situation

This effort to concrete in the unit 3 trench had not been previously announced and the area had not had any unusually high levels of contamination compared to other areas.

TEPCO concreted the unit 3 trench in some unannounced work at Fukushima Daiichi.

Today’s chedule from 10:00 AM to 13:42PM they unloaded 100m3 of concrete into the Unit 3 trench.

Source: Tepco

http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2015/images/handouts_150205_01-j.pdf

February 5, 2015 Posted by | Japan | | Leave a comment

Sendai Nuclear plant restart delayed again

Feb. 5, 2015
The restart of a nuclear power plant in southwestern Japan may not come until May at the earliest, due to a procedural reason.

In September, 2 reactors at the plant in Satsuma Sendai City in Kagoshima Prefecture became the first in Japan to meet new, tougher government regulations introduced after the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima. Later, the governor of Kagoshima gave consent to Kyushu Electric Power Company to restart them.

The utility still needs approval from the Nuclear Regulation Authority for technical documents. It told the authority on Thursday that preparing them will take 2 or 3 months longer than expected because the authority says many revisions are needed.

One of the documents explains in detail facility designs for the plant’s Number 1 reactor. The company originally planned to submit it in December. It now says it will take until the end of February, due to the need to provide more detailed data and explanations on earthquake resistance.

The utility says it will submit by the end of March a separate document describing designs for facilities that are shared with the Number 2 reactor.

The restart may not come until May or later, possibly the summer, pending the regulator’s approval of the documents and onsite inspections.

All of Japan’s commercial nuclear reactors remain offline.

Source: NHK
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150205_29.html

February 5, 2015 Posted by | Japan | , | Leave a comment

Analysis of Japanese Radionuclide Monitoring Data of Food Before and After the Fukushima Nuclear Accident

February 4, 2015

  1. The study reviewed foods testing for cesium 137 contamination and also strontium 90 contamination.
  2. Official assumptions had been than there was a set ratio of cesium 137 to strontium 90 across all foods.
  3. This is even more problematic as testing for actual strontium 90 in foods is done less often due to the complexity of the testing method.
  4. What was found is that over time the ratio of strontium 90 in foods had increased.
  5. A new study in the journal Environmental Science & Technology looked at governmental food testing in Japan.

In an unprecedented food monitoring campaign for radionuclides, the Japanese government took action to secure food safety after the Fukushima nuclear accident (11 March 2011). In this paper we analyze a part of the immense data set, in particular radiocesium contaminations in food from the first year after the accident. Activity concentrations in vegetables peaked immediately after the campaign had commenced, but they decreased quickly, so that by early summer 2011 only few samples exceeded the regulatory limits. Later, accumulating mushrooms and dried produce led to several exceedances of the limits again. Monitoring of meat started with significant delay, especially outside Fukushima prefecture. After a buildup period, contamination levels of meat peaked by July 2011 (beef). Levels then decreased quickly, but peaked again in September 2011, which was primarily due to boar meat (a known accumulator of radiocesium). Pre-Fukushima 137Cs and 90Sr levels (resulting from atmospheric nuclear explosions) in food were typically lower than 0.5 Bq/kg, whereby meat was typically higher in 137Cs, and vegetarian produce was usually higher in 90Sr. The correlation of background radiostrontium and radiocesium indicated that the regulatory assumption after the Fukushima accident of a maximum activity of 90Sr being 10% of the respective 137Cs concentrations may soon be at risk, as the 90Sr/137Cs ratio increases with time. This should be taken into account for the current Japanese food policy as the current regulation will soon underestimate the 90Sr content of Japanese foods.

Source: Environmental Science & Technology

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es5057648

February 5, 2015 Posted by | Japan | | Leave a comment

Last December’s fallout in Futaba increased 3.7 × as December of 2013

Last-Decembers-fallout-in-Futaba-increased-3.7-×-as-December-of-2013-800x500_c

February 4, 2015

According to NRA (Nuclear Regulation Authority), Last December’s fallout level of Cs-134/137 increased 3.7 times much as December 2013 in Fukushima.

From their report “Readings of environmental radioactivity level by prefecture” released on 1/30/2015, the fallout level in Futaba county was 6,200 MBq/km2・month in December of 2014.

It was 1,657 MBq/km2・month in December of 2013.

The readings of other areas in Fukushima prefecture are not reported.

NRA hasn’t made any announcement on this rapid increase in fallout level.

http://radioactivity.nsr.go.jp/en/contents/10000/9394/24/195_20150130.pdf

http://radioactivity.nsr.go.jp/ja/contents/9000/8745/24/195_20140131.pdf

Source: Fukushima Diary

Last December’s fallout in Futaba increased 3.7 × as December of 2013

February 5, 2015 Posted by | Japan | | 1 Comment

VIDEO: Cancer epidemic underway in Fukushima — Rates up 6,000% says head of cancer research center

Fukushima resident Chieko Shiina, supporter of the Fukushima Collaborative Clinic (translated by Carole Hisasue), Jan 24, 2015

  • At 8:00 — Already, 85 children have had surgeries for thyroid cancer, there are 112-113 children who are suspected of having cancer. When children get cancers it progresses very quickly. The former person in charge of health, Yamashita Shunichi, said it would be only a 1 in a million chance of children getting any kind of cancer because of radiation. But he was lying. Right now, it’s like 1 in 3,000 — it’s an epidemic… The head of the National Cancer Research Center estimated right now in Fukushima the rate of cancer has gone up 61 times. And yet the gov’t and also the hospitals related to the gov’t are saying this is not because of radiation… How long does the gov’t think that we’ll be silent about this? In light of this epidemic, my anger will never die down. And then to think about the parents of the small children – how worried they must be.
  • At 12:00 — It’s not only children. There are many things happening to adults as well. Increased rates of thyroid cancer, heart attacks, leukemia, cataracts – many, many health problems, where they are wondering… there’s something definitely wrong.
  • At 16:00 — I can’t forgive the gov’t, they’re murderers. This is definitely a holocaust.
  • At 20:00 — Media won’t report on it. Everything’s just being swept under the rug.
  • At 26:00 — A TV program called ‘Hodo Station’… they went to Fukushima City to interview people and they also came to my clinic… The director that made this program also made a follow up show and contacted one of the interviewees telling her, ‘We’ll be airing it soon.’ But before it was aired, it was taken off the program. This director died. This director apparently told one of the interviewees, ‘If you do hear that I died, please believe that it was not a suicide, no matter what you might hear.’ There is no truth in the media in Japan today. There are all sorts of these mysterious events happening that are still unexplained and uninvestigated.
  • At 43:00 — Even today the gov’t is insisting the rise in pediatric thyroid cancer rates are not due to the accident…Why are they being so insistent? It’s because the moment they admit the reality of what’s going on, then they obviously can’t restart any of the nuclear plants and must change their entire nuclear policy.

Carole Hisasue, translator (at 1:15:00): It’s disappeared from the media, it’s disappeared from people’s consciousness. There’s this big culture of denial going on outside of Fukushima. They want to pretend like it never happened. I can’t talk to my own family about radiation contamination… They don’t want to hear it. They go, ‘You don’t understand because you don’t have to live here, we have to live here.’… It’s like ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’… just trying to ignore it and pretend life is the way it was before 3/11. It’s frightening, it’s very very frightening… [My sister-in-law] is completely brainwashed by the gov’t who says, ‘Oh no, it’s fine, fine, fine’… she believes it, even though her son suffers from a lot of nosebleeds — and I think that’s a serious problem. If I mention it to her, or even to my own mother, they get very offended. They go, ‘Oh no, no. He’s always been like that. It’s nothing to do with radiation.’ Talk about denial, it just hurts my heart.

Sources:  

Youtube: Report From Fukushima And The Abe Government Expansion And Export Of Nuclear Plants 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10weYriSSP8

Enenews: Cancer epidemic underway in Fukushima — Rates up 6,000% says head of cancer research center — “This is definitely a holocaust… everything’s being swept under the rug” — “Very, very frightening… my family members are brainwashed”

http://enenews.com/video-cancer-epidemic-underway-fukushima-6000-increase-estimated-head-cancer-research-center-definitely-holocaust-everything-being-swept-rug-very-very-frightening-family-members-brainwashed-g

February 5, 2015 Posted by | Japan | | 1 Comment

4000 errors in inspection records at Onagawa plant

Onagawa_Nuclear_Power_PlantFeb. 4, 2015
Tohoku Electric Power Company says it has found more than 4,000 improper entries in its inspection records about one of the reactors at its Onagawa nuclear power plant.

The initial inspection was held to check a wide range of facilities at the plant’s No. 2 reactor after the great earthquake that hit northeastern Japan. The operator is hoping to restart the reactor about 100 kilometers north of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant.

But Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority pointed out last year that Tohoku Electric’s inspection was lax and the firm was re-examining the inspection records on the No. 2 reactor.

Company officials said at a news conference on Wednesday that the utility has scrutinized all the inspection records for the reactor since August 2011.

They said in some cases workers entered “no problem” for parts that didn’t exist, citing the example of monitoring equipment for a valve which was not there.

In other cases, incorrect product types and serial numbers were left untouched. They say there were 4,188 errors in total.

Managing Director Takao Watanabe apologized to people in the region for causing concern, although he asserted the improper entries will not lead to any safety problems.

The company says it will also check the inspection records for the No.1 and No. 3 reactors.

Source: NHK
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150204_51.html
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February 5, 2015 Posted by | Japan | Leave a comment

Tectonic stress levels off northeastern Japan back to pre-disaster state

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February 04, 2015

Pressure exerted by tectonic plate movement off Tohoku that triggered the 2011 earthquake and tsunami has returned to pre-disaster levels, seismologists say.

“Large earthquakes might occur more randomly distributed in time than conventionally expected,” said Bogdan Enescu, an associate professor at the University of Tsukuba.

Researchers from the university and Switzerland-based Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule analyzed seismic data collected by the Japan Meteorological Agency since 1998.

As part of the study, the team calculated b-values, a ratio comparing the occurrence of small earthquakes in a specific area with larger ones.

Because the b-values decline to under 1 when the frequency of large quakes increases, they assumed values of less than 1 are indicative of high plate stress in the areas being studied.

Although readings in the region at the center of the 2011 earthquake hovered around 0.8 to 0.9 from 1998 until 2005, the b-values dropped to around 0.6 to 0.7 in mid-2005. Those figures then surged to 1 or higher after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011.

But the b-values started to decline again around 2013, and returned to around 0.8 by the fall of 2014–almost the same level registered prior to the magnitude-9.0 quake.

“Observing b-values could be useful in improving the accuracy of massive earthquake forecasting,” said Enescu.

The findings were published in the British scientific journal Nature Geoscience on Feb. 3.

Source; Asahi Shimbun

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/quake_tsunami/AJ201502040069

February 5, 2015 Posted by | Japan | | Leave a comment

Land secured in Fukushima opens door for 1st shipment of radioactive waste

gglmkmùPreparatory work to build an interim storage site for radioactive waste is under way at the Okuma east industrial park (front) in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, on Feb. 3. The crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant stands in the background.

February 04, 2015

The government has begun prep work on a parcel of land near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to receive its first delivery of radioactive debris from decontamination work in the area.

The Environment Ministry began the work for the interim storage site on Feb. 3, following its announcement last month that it had secured 60,000 square meters of land in industrial parks in the towns of Okuma and Futaba as a first step.

The move comes as companies owning large lots of land in the industrial parks are ready to sell their plots for the storage project.

While the plots owned by the companies account for just 2 percent of the total land needed to build storage site in Okuma and Futaba, which co-host the plant, the move will allow the government to begin shipping tainted debris by its target of March 11, the fourth anniversary of the nuclear disaster triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

The ministry plans to transfer 43,000 cubic meters of radioactive soil and other debris stored at 43 localities in the prefecture over a year on a trial basis.

The secured plots take up about 70 percent of the Futaba industrial park and Okuma east industrial park’s combined 440,000 square meters of land.

The Asahi Shimbun found that eight of the 13 companies that own property in the parks are willing to sell their land to the government and have already notified the appropriate officials of their decision.

Most of the companies are in the pharmaceutical and machinery industries and based in Tokyo.

“We doubt products we make here will sell anyway, even if we can someday resume operations,” said an official with a company that owns a factory in the Okuma park, referring to its decision to sell off the land. “We are afraid that (radiation-related) fears about products and produce from this area will linger.”

An official with a company in the Futaba park that also agreed to sell its land said: “We set up the factory about 20 years ago and hired many residents. We are more than happy to offer our land to help rebuild the local area.”

Residents of the two towns, where radiation levels remain high, continue to live outside the area after it was evacuated following the outbreak nuclear crisis.

Plots in the industrial parks were among the ministry’s first targets for the interim storage site. It is expected to be easier to start building the site on these plots because they house fewer buildings compared with other land.

Still, the ministry expects a prolonged battle to secure the 16 square kilometers needed for the storage site. “It will take a very long time,” said a senior ministry official.

The storage facility to be built in the towns will be designed to hold radioactive waste for up to 30 years.

Source: Asahi Shimbun

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201502040078

February 5, 2015 Posted by | Japan | | Leave a comment