FUKUSHIMA: Where are the People? – Arnie Gundersen on the Ongoing Human Toll of the Nuclear Disaster
Please go listen his week’s feature on Nuclear Hotseat podcast:
Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Energy Education, focuses on the human toll inflicted by the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi. Recorded December 2, 2017, at DePaul University, at an event sponsored by Chicago’s Nuclear Energy Information Service, or NEIS.
Japan’s Reconstruction Agency to Fold in 2021
Japan studies how to support 2011 disaster areas after Reconstruction Agency folds in 2021
Staff are seen at the Reconstruction Agency in Tokyo in February 2017.
The government has started work to determine how to support rebuilding efforts in areas of northeastern Japan hit by the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster after the Reconstruction Agency is abolished in March 2021, sources said Tuesday.
The government has started by gathering views from 12 municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture, where a number of residents were forced to evacuate following the triple meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s crippled Fukushima No. 1 power plant. The goal is to find out what support the municipalities expect from the central government, according to officials familiar with the matter.
The government aims to establish a basic assistance policy by the end of March 2020, chiefly by determining the roles of an organization that will succeed the agency, the officials said.
The agency was set up in February 2012 to take control of support for reconstruction efforts — particularly in severely damaged areas in the three Tohoku prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.
It now has some 520 staff to support those affected and back business revitalization. It is also helping with the return of evacuees to their homes in Fukushima.
Legally, the agency cannot exist beyond March 2021, when the government-set reconstruction period for the disaster expires. But affected areas are still struggling. In Fukushima, evacuation advisories remain intact in some areas, prolonging recovery work even further.
The basic support policy and a blueprint for the successor organization will be finalized based on the results of the Fukushima survey, as well as talks with the Iwate and Miyagi prefectural governments and the ruling camp, the officials said.
The government hopes to see necessary legislation pass the Diet in 2020, they added.
One likely scenario regarding the successor body is setting up a department at the Cabinet Office to mainly support reconstruction efforts. But there are calls for creating a government agency to take charge of disaster prevention and reconstruction across the country, critics have said.
FUKU B.S.
Are we stupid enough to forget that Tepco has always been lying since day one and that for now 7 years ?
Yesterday I was amazed to see a website which has been covering the Fukushima disaster for the past 7 years, suddenly for the first time complaining that Tepco is withholding some of the meltdown data collected during Tepco’s recent probe inside Fukushima reactor 2.
Amazed because that particular website has been posting now for the past 7 years only reposts of Tepco’s official reports as if those were the holy truth, never before questioning Tepco’s data to be reliable or not…
Come on where have you been ? All the serious Fukushima watchers who followed closely this ongoing disaster since its beginning know one sure fact:
Tepco has always been lying, that since day one. Lying twisting the facts and numbers, lying by omission, sometimes photoshopping their released photos and editing their video footages.
Those Tepco’s released reports have always been just the sweetened B.S. version that Tepco feeds us, wants us to swallow hook and sinker.
Their damage control, hired advertising and P.R. company, Dentsu corporation, coaching them to write and schedule those B.S. reports to cover-up the hard facts and numbers and to cushion the unsettled ongoing disaster facts to the eyes of the general public, locally, nationwide and internationally.
The nuclear industry has always been a lying business, covering up the hard facts and lying to the public. In that Tepco is no different than the other corporations involved in that harmful business. But since Tepco has been lying abundantly non-stop for now 7 years, it has developed it to an art form level, and for that Tepco rightly deserves the Pinocchio award of the nuclear industry.
A reminder, there is no independent commission on location, all the data coming out of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant site are what they agree to feed us, after being properly vetoed by Tepco, the IAEA, the Japanese government, and Dentsu. So all the main stream media articles have the same one and unique source : Tepco.
So any information released by Tepco should be considered tainted and biased.
Tepco cannot successfully filter the accumulated radioactive water on site but it does efficiently filter all informations coming out from there, diluting the truth with lies so as to cover up the real gravity of the situation on location.
Right from the beginning Tepco always lied, and still does, and I believe that Tepco will not change its modus operandi.
Only a fool would fully believe those Tepco’s B.S. reports to be true, as if they were Holy Bible, and keep reposting them helping thus to build Tepco’s credibility.
That website has been wasting 7 years helping Tepco to spread its B.S.
Such time would have been more usefully spent if used to spread the voices of the Fukushima victims on location and of the Tohoku residents organizing themselves to measure the radiation that they have now to live with.
It took that blogger on that website 7 years to finally notice that Tepco was witholding data ? Come on, stop being a moron !
Fukui weighs new wave of reactors to protect status as Japan’s ‘nuclear capital’
Fukui Prefecture’s days as the center of Japan’s nuclear power industry might be fading with five reactors scheduled for decommissioning. These include the No. 1 (front) and No. 2 units at Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Oi plant in Fukui, shown in this January 2017 photo.
OSAKA – With 13 commercial nuclear reactors — more than any other prefecture — Fukui has long been Japan’s nuclear power capital. Prior to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and triple core meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, Fukui’s plants provided up to half of Kansai’s electricity.
As only two commercial reactors run by Kansai Electric Power Co. are in operation and a total of five Fukui reactors are scheduled to be decommissioned by midcentury, the prefecture’s days as a nuclear power center might appear to be ending. But despite the growing use of renewables, entrenched public opposition to atomic power, and unanswered questions about its future costs and economic competitiveness, Fukui’s nuclear-friendly utility executives and corporate leaders, as well as local politicians, have not given up on the idea of building even more reactors.
Earlier this month, Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa met with Kepco President Shigeki Iwane and Mamoru Muramatsu, the president of Japan Atomic Power Co., which runs two reactors at the Tsuruga plant in Fukui — including one scheduled for decommissioning.
They discussed building new reactors at Tsuruga — which have long been planned — and replacing Kepco’s decommissioned reactors with new ones. The meeting took place amid a review of the nation’s energy mix.
“What needs to be done by midcentury? We need to make this clear in the nation’s energy plans as we look to 2050,” Iwane said at a news conference afterward.
A couple of weeks later, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko told reporters that even without building new reactors or replacing old ones, Japan could meet its national goal of having atomic power provide between 20 and 22 percent of all electricity by 2030.
Nishikawa, traditionally a staunch supporter of nuclear power plants and the subsidies his prefecture receives for hosting them, has so far avoided coming out directly in favor of building new reactors.
He told reporters at the end of 2017 that he wasn’t going to wade into the debate of whether it was a good or bad idea. Instead, he said he was waiting for the central government’s view.
“The government needs to make clear what its stance is on new reactors. The main problem is gaining social trust for the use of nuclear power,” Nishikawa said.
That could be difficult. A survey by the Fukui Shimbun in October showed that 49.8 percent of respondents favored slowly exiting from nuclear power. Gaining national and local approval to build new reactors could take years.
Yet even if construction of new Tsuruga reactors goes ahead, it will likely be years, possibly decades, before they are completed at an unknown cost. In the interim, the use of renewables is expected to expand even more. Furthermore, as Japan’s population declines and uses more innovative energy-efficient products, predicting electricity needs in 10 — let alone 30 or so — years from now is problematic at best.
Adding reactors in Fukui will certainly increase the electricity supply for Kansai. But what pro-nuclear politicians and businesses in Fukui want now is assurances from Tokyo that they will still financially benefit from new reactors even if their output may not be needed or wanted by consumers.
Selective abortion and radioactive contamination in Japan
From November 2, 2015
The Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11th 2011. The tsunami reached shore 49 minutes later. Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant was hit and 7 minutes later lost all power and control over the reactors. We know now that 4 hours later, the nuclear meltdown had already started. The first explosion occurred one day after the loss of power.
Tragic environments that a thousands of children with disabilities and sicknesses live with as the result of the mega earthquake and the Tsunami followed by the nuke accident in Fukushima continues. Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey reported the results of Thyroid Ultrasound Examination on 7 February 2014. 75 suspicious or malignant cases were found including 34surgical cases, one of benign nodules, 32 papillay adenocarcinoma, one suspicious for poorly differentiated cartinoma. Whenever Japanese parents fume over Fukushima radiation, they stressed their baby’s abnormality as the results of tragedy. And it has been long time debating the parental dilemma whether or not to have a baby from the fear of radiation after 311 in Fukushima.
From April 2013, government approved 26 flagship hospitals to conduct the noninvasive prenatal genetic testing (NIPT) which will results of increasing number of selective abortion of babies with disabilities, as same as phenomenological dilemma people in US were already faced. Many people with disabilities have felt and do feel real threat to life. Violence against people with disability in Japan continues, or accelerates after 311.
Japan in talks over bid for UK uranium powerhouse
Japanese government wants to acquire a producer of enriched uranium that is expected to be worth several billions of dollars.
Kansai Electric’s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture. Japan looks to have atomic energy supply a fifth of the nation’s power by fiscal 2030.
Multibillion-dollar deal would keep China and Russia from gaining control of Urenco
TOKYO — The Japanese government has entered into negotiations to acquire U.K.-based Urenco, a major European producer of enriched uranium, in a deal that is expected to be worth several billions of dollars.
The state-owned Japan Bank for International Cooperation is expected to make an offer together with U.S. nuclear energy company Centrus Energy.
The not-so-ulterior motive is to block companies from Russia and China — two countries that are increasing their influence in the global nuclear power market — from taking control of the company.
At home, the Japanese government is promoting nuclear power generation as a major source of electricity — another reason it hopes to secure an interest in Urenco’s enriched uranium.
The Japanese government is holding talks with major shareholders of Urenco, sources close to the matter said. Ownership of Urenco is evenly split by three parties — the governments of the U.K. and the Netherlands as well as German electric utilities including RWE.
The German side is exploring a sale as the government plans to phase out nuclear power. The U.K. government, working on fiscal consolidation, is also looking for a buyer.
Urenco is engaged in turning natural uranium into enriched uranium, which is critical in generating nuclear power. The company ranks second in the world after Tenex — a unit of Russian nuclear concern Rosatom — in terms of capacity to produce enriched uranium, holding a global share of around 30%.
JBIC and Centrus Energy are looking to acquire a majority or larger stake in Urenco, which would cost several hundred billion yen (several billions of dollars). JBIC by itself hopes to hold a stake of around 20-30%. Negotiations are expected to last through the summer. A deal could be struck as early as this year.
The joint bid for Urenco is aimed at keeping Russia and China at bay. Both countries are said to be showing interest in acquiring the enriched uranium producer.
According to the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, China had 35 nuclear reactors in operation as of January 2017, while Russia had 30. Including reactors in the planning stage, however, the numbers grow to 82 in China and 55 in Russia, surpassing Japan’s 53.
Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 2: new investigation
Tepco has just released the results of an investigation made in the containment of reactor 2. Nothing really new, apart from a found assembly element, we are waiting for radioactivity measurements now.
20 janvier 2018
A new 10-hour investigation was conducted in the Fukuishima Daiichi reactor 2 containment enclosure, according to a report released by Tepco on January 19, 2018. However, Tepco does not indicate the date of the operation. The images and measurements were taken using a 13 meter probe with a camera. TEPCO will only broadcast the radioactivity measurements later.
Photo: an assembly element was found
According to this document, TEPCO gives two main informations:
– The entire bottom of the base of the reactor base is covered with deposits of sandy and clay.
– Some fuel assembly components have fallen to the base of the reactor base and are considered fuel debris.
As usual, Tepco does not use the word “corium”. It does not speak more about the radioactive environment of the place which is lethal (a last year made measure at this place was 530 Sieverts) but promises to return soon. I will update this page when the information falls.
The deposit of sandy and clay types is what is at the bottom of the enclosure and which had already been spotted last year around the pedestal. This vase prevents a clear view of the bottom of the enclosure because the slightest movement of the camera, the water is troubled.
For the first time, Tepco discloses a diagram showing the inside of the reactor pedestal. We see :
– an upper platform, which was already known, which allows access to control rods located just below the reactor vessel. This, according to the February 2017 report, is pierced with a hole 1 meter in diameter. It is the mass of the corium coming from the tank during the meltdown that made this hole.
– an intermediate platform that Tepco claims has not been piereced (but the diagram does not show it in full)
– An annular lower platform bordering the wall of the pedestal, which Tepco also claims that it has no hole. But, same remark, the diagram shows only half.
The piece of assembly that emerges very clearly from a pile of various materials is an upper tie plate. It is surmounted by a bar (“bail handle”), a kind of handle for moving the assembly using an articulated arm. This photo makes it possible to deduce that at least one whole assembly has passed through the tank, which implies that the tank has a hole of at least the width of an assembly (approximately 50 cm). The probe has certainly taken pictures of this hole but Tepco do not release them.
Type of assembly element found on the lower platform of the No. 2 reactor pedestal.
This element is the upper part that we see for example in these assemblies of the reactor pool
Toshiba’s probe, during its presentation in Yokohama, December 22, 2017. The telescopic arm carries a panoramic camera.
Here are the photos of the interior of the BR2 containment building released by Tepco on January 19, 2018:
Here are some pages from the report on the same date:
Tepco’s full report of 19 January 2018
Source : http://www.fukushima-blog.com/2018/01/reacteur-2-de-fukushima-daiichi-nouvelle-investigation.html
Special thanks to Pierre Fetet of the Fukushima Blog
Translation Hervé Courtois (Dun Renard)
Insufficient testing will mean playing radiation roulette for the consumers
Fukushima Pref. to stop blanket radiation checks on rice, start random testing
A woman, left foreground, participates in a tour to experience the blanket screening of Fukushima-produced rice for any radioactive materials.
FUKUSHIMA — The Fukushima Prefectural Government will halt blanket radiation screening of rice produced in the nuclear disaster-hit prefecture in favor of random checks as early as 2020, it has been learned.
Testing all of the prefecture’s annual rice output of some 10 million bags costs 6 billion yen a year. Meanwhile, no cases of rice exceeding the government-set limit of 100 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram have been found in the past three years, according to the prefectural government. However, blanket testing will continue for the time being in areas once subject to evacuation orders in the wake of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant disaster.
The prefecture set up a panel comprising officials from Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA) and consumer group members in July last year to discuss the inspection system. The prefectural government presented the plan to curtail the rice screening on Jan. 18, which was largely agreed to by the panel, and is set to finalize the plan shortly. Random testing has already been introduced for Fukushima Prefecture vegetables and fruits.
When the blanket screening on Fukushima rice began in 2012, there were 71 bags of rice produced that year with radioactive cesium levels exceeding the national limit, accounting for 0.0007 percent of all bags, according to the prefectural government. After natural attenuation of cesium and farmers’ soil management progressed, there were no cases of bags exceeding the limit from 2015 onward, while 99.99 percent of bags dipped under the minimum detection limit of 25 becquerels of cesium per kilogram.
In response, the prefectural government determined that it would be appropriate to switch to random screening after a two- to three-year preparatory period.
As areas where evacuation orders have been lifted are still working to resume rice farming, blanket screening will remain in place in those areas until enough data has been accumulated to guarantee product safety. Farmers who grow rice for their own consumption can have it tested upon their request.
The prefectural government has footed some 5 billion yen of the some 6 billion yen a year needed for the blanket screening, and has demanded plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. pay the same amount in compensation. The remaining 1 billion yen has been subsidized by the central government.
Fears remain among farmers and distributers, though, over whether the current image of Fukushima rice as “safe as it has been screened” would change to “dangerous unless tested” under the new screening policy.
“I want authorities to come up with ways that allow everyone to feel at ease eating Fukushima rice,” said Hitoshi Saito, 62, a farmer from Date, Fukushima Prefecture. Saito went on to question “how consumers will feel” about the scaling back on the inspection system.
In a questionnaire conducted by the prefectural government last year, 40 percent of farmers in Fukushima requested more efficient screening on locally produced rice, while another 40 percent demanded that blanket testing continue. Ten percent said no screening was necessary.
Shin Nagamine, 43, a farmer from the town of Aizubange, hailed the new policy, but added, “It’s unknown whether consumers will accept it in terms of ‘safety.’ I want the central and prefectural governments to get the word out to the whole country the fact that Fukushima rice is safe and secure.”
Fukushima to scale back rice radiation checks
Fukushima Prefectural Government plans to scale back radiation checks on rice harvested in the prefecture.
FUKUSHIMA – Fukushima Prefectural Government plans to scale back radiation checks on rice harvested in the prefecture, officials said Thursday.
The prefectural government is considering switching to sample tests, from blanket checks on all bags, within a few years for rice produced in areas not close to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, the officials said.
But some farmers have sought to keep the full checks in place. The prefectural government aims to make a final decision by the end of March.
Blanket radiation checks began in 2012 following the triple meltdown at the nuclear plant in March 2011.
From the 2012 harvest 71 bags of rice had levels of radiation that exceeded the safety limit, which is set at 100 becquerels per kilogram.
But the number has since declined, and no such bags were found between 2015 and 2017. Taking the results into consideration, the prefectural government has been reviewing the test method to reduce costs and manpower.
Long-Term Exposure to Low-Dose Radiation and Cancer: Dr. David Richardson at the Hiroshima Peace Institute (EN & JP)
The initiation of the Manhattan project in 1943 marked the emergence of the discipline of health physics and an expansion of research on the health effects of ionizing radiation. The health effects of occupational exposure to radiation were viewed from different perspectives by different members of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). There were those with immediate concerns and a focus on issues related to wartime production and health effects which were definite biological changes which are immediately evident or are of prognostic importance to health. Others had an interest in a more general understanding the effects of radiation on human health, including long term and genetic consequences. There were also managerial concerns, which persist today; Stafford Warren, medical director of the program, encouraged health research to help strengthen the government’s interest in case of lawsuits or demands for workers’ compensation. These concerns motivated a large scale epidemiological program of research on nuclear workers. Beginning in the mid-1980’s, numerous publications on cancer among workers at nuclear facilities appeared, mostly in the US and UK. Risk estimates from individual studies were uncertain, with wide confidence intervals; and, positive associations between radiation and cancer were observed in some, but not all cohorts. To summarize results across studies and improve statistical precision, pooling projects were undertaken. This lecture reviews the history of these pooled studies and then presents results from the most recent, largest, and most informative of these analyses, known as INWORKS. This is a combined study of 308,297 nuclear workers from the United Kingdom, France, and the United States of America. Quantitative results are presented and the strengths and limitations of INWORKS are discussed. (Lecture at Hiroshima Peace Institute, 30 November 2017)
TEPCO claims to have found ‘fuel debris’ in No. 2 reactor
TEPCO finds ‘fuel debris’ in No. 2 reactor
The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has found what looks like fuel debris in the plant’s No. 2 reactor.
The nuclear accident occurred in March, 2011.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, on Friday looked inside the containment vessel of the No. 2 reactor.
TEPCO confirmed, for the first time, the existence of chunks that are believed to be a mixture of melted nuclear fuel and parts of bindings.
The company plans to determine how to remove the debris based on the results of the investigation.
Is Japan ready to trust Tepco with nuclear power again?
The nuclear operator has been granted permission to restart two of its reactors on the Sea of Japan coast, revenues from which it needs to offset massive compensation payments stemming from the Fukushima disaster
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station.
At a quiet end-of-year meeting, Japan’s nuclear power regulators recently gave the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) official permission to restart two of its nuclear reactors on the Sea of Japan coast – reactors which have been idle for the better part of ten years.
This was not the first time the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) had approved a restart – it has okayed 12 reactors, owned by four utilities, since coming into being in 2013. But it was the first time the authorities had openly questioned a utility’s competence to operate a reactor – any reactor.
The authority added “eligibility” to its list of concerns – meaning Tepco’s eligibility to run a nuclear plant. “Tepco is different from other power companies,” said former chairman Shunichi Tanaka.
Tepco isn’t just any utility. It owned and operated the four reactors destroyed in the March 11, 2011 “triple disaster” of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown in Fukushima prefecture. It also owns seven undamaged reactors on the opposite side of Japan, which it desperately wants to begin producing power – and revenue – to offset its enormous liabilities.
The nuclear authority’s actions are the first approvals it has extended to operators of boiling water reactors, or BWRs – the same type of reactor that suffered multiple meltdowns in the Fukushima accident. BWRs also have some safety concerns that are unique to them. About half of Japan’s 40-odd currently-operable nuclear power plants are BWRs.
The seven Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plants on the Sea of Japan coast constitute the largest commercial nuclear power complex in the world. Each is capable of producing enough electricity to light up a small city. They were shut down after the 2007 earthquake and then shut down again after 3/11.
Signs from an anti-nuclear protest against the Japanese government in Tokyo.
Tepco’s management is eager – to say the least – to get at least the two reactors (Units 6 and 7) approved and on-line in order to produce revenues that will offset the massive compensation payments stemming from the disaster, and to cover the cost of imported fossil fuels.
Returning at least two reactors to operations would yield about 200 billion yen (US$1.8 billion) in added revenues. It has been a part of the utility’s business plan almost from the time of the accident, without much expectation – until late last month – that it could be realized.
Tepco’s President Tomoaki Kobayakawa testified before the authority several times last summer, reassuring the commissioners of Tepco’s commitment to safety. He also said he would see the decommissioning of the Fukushima plants “through to the end.”
He turned the question of competence around by insisting that his utility needs the revenue from operating the two K-K plants so that it can fulfill its responsibilities to the Fukushima safety and decommissioning project.
“It seems Tepco’s response on competency is to shift the focus to ‘financial competency,’” said Caitlin Stronell of the Citizens Nuclear Information Center. In any event, the authority seemed persuaded enough to give a green light to a restart, despite the lingering fears from the Fukushima disaster.
Tepco says approximately 6,000 staff and contract workers are laboring at the Kashiwazaki plant, or almost as many workers as are employed in the decommissioning activities at Fukushima. Among other safety features, they have erected a 50 meter-high seawall to guard against future tsunamis.
Hydrogen re-combiners have been installed to prevent a repeat of the hydrogen explosions that rocked the Fukushima Daiichi units. They have also stored 20,000 tons of water in a nearby hilltop reservoir to provide cooling water using gravity, rather than diesel pumps, to keep cores from melting in any loss-of-coolant accident.
Tepco’s operations on the Sea of Japan were compromised in 2007, when the site was hit by the Chuetsu Earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter Scale.
That earthquake caused relatively little structural damage and never came close to a Fukushima-style meltdown. However, it was discovered that the severity of the quake exceeded the design criteria, which resulted in a lengthy shutdown for all seven reactors as Tepco struggled to meet stricter rules.
The utility was in the process of bringing three reactors back on-line when the Great East Japan Earthquake struck in March 2011, putting the big seven out of operation once again and eventually shutting down all of Japan’s commercial reactors.
Successive governors of Niigata prefecture have taken a very cautious position on restarting any of the K-K plants. Three-term Governor Hirohiko Izumida always maintained that he would not approve any restart until the exact causes of the Fukushima disaster are fully known. His recently elected successor, Ryuichi Yomeyama, has the same policy.
This will continue to be an issue for Tepco, for in this area of policy, the national government follows the advice of the governor.
Airborne radiation near Fukushima nuke plant still far higher than gov’t max
In this July 27, 2017 file photo, contaminated water storage tanks are seen on the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant grounds, in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture.
Airborne radiation in “difficult to return” zones around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was as high as around 8.48 microsieverts per hour as of summer last year, according to data presented by the government nuclear watchdog on Jan. 17.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) released the results of the July-September 2017 measurements at a regular meeting on the day. The highest reading was taken in Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture — one of the municipalities hosting the Fukushima No. 1 plant.
Following the March 2011 triple meltdown, the government set a long-term radiation exposure limit of 1 millisievert per year, which breaks down to an hourly airborne radiation dose of 0.23 microsieverts.
The NRA took airborne radiation readings in the Fukushima Prefecture towns of Futaba, Okuma, Namie and Tomioka, and the village of Katsurao. The highest reading registered in the previous year’s survey was 8.89 microsieverts per hour, in Katsurao.
Some of the NRA members at the Jan. 17 meeting pointed to study results showing that human exposure doses are relatively small compared to airborne doses. Regarding the calculation that an annual dose of 1 millisievert is equivalent to hourly exposure of 0.23 microsieverts, NRA Chairman Toyoshi Fuketa stated, “That was decided right at the start of the nuclear disaster, so it can’t be helped that it’s a cautious number.” He added, “If we don’t revise (that calculation) properly, it could hinder evacuees’ return home.”
Tepco to resume attempt to probe damaged reactor at Fukushima No. 1 plant
The operator of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has said it will resume late this week a survey of the crippled No. 2 reactor using a telescopic arm, hoping to obtain images of melted nuclear fuel.
In Friday’s survey, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. aims to investigate the area beneath the reactor’s pressure vessel, through which nuclear fuel is believed to have melted. The step is needed to help develop a plan for removing the fuel for the ultimate decommissioning of the plant.
Tepco, in announcing the move on Monday, said it will insert a 13-meter long pipe at the bottom of the pressure vessel and then deploy a camera at the tip of the pipe to film the bottom of the outer primary containment vessel, where fuel is believed to have accumulated.
The device will also measure the temperature and radioactivity levels in the area. The survey is expected to take one day.
In January last year, an inserted camera with a limited view captured possible melted fuel in the interior of the No. 2 reactor.
The following month, Tepco attempted a survey using a scorpion-shaped robot inside the unit, but the effort ended in failure due to a technical flaw.
Nearly seven years after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that wrecked the plant, details of the damage to the reactors remain largely unknown due to high levels of radiation.
Reactors 1, 2 and 3 at the four-reactor plant suffered core meltdowns due to a loss of cooling water in the world’s worst nuclear crisis since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Bike Project to Bring Tourists Back to Fukushima
In case you are interested, don’t forget to bring with you a good protective mask to stop you from inhaling radioactive nano particles….
Can this bike project bring tourists back to Fukushima?
(CNN) — It’s been over six years since the northeast coast of Japan’s Honshu island was hit by a devastating earthquake, leading to a deadly tsunami and nuclear disaster.
The hardest hit of all the affected prefectures, Fukushima is still fighting to lure tourists back to its beautiful natural landscapes.
Among the locals helping revive the local travel industry is Jun Yamadera, founder of bike share company Fukushima Wheel, based in the prefecture’s capital of the same name.
“In the year of 2011, we have almost no people,” says Yamadera. “It really hurt my feelings. That’s my main motivation to start this project.”
Like other bike share systems, Fukushima Wheel encourages citizens and tourists to explore the city on a shared bicycle. But there’s so much more to the project.
It also serves as a cost-effective way to collect big data from the city through citizen science. An environmental sensor has been mounted on each bike, measuring data such as radiation levels, temperature, air pollution and more.
The wheels are equipped with LED displays that can be customized to show advertisements.
The project also comes with a complementing smartphone app that doubles as a city guide, offering points-of-interest and discounts to the venues around you. It also measures how much you’ve exercised and carbon emissions.
Fukushima Wheel is still in development stage but it has already received enthusiastic praises from media and tech fairs around the world.
Japan-U.S. nuclear fuel reprocessing pact automatically renews after 30-year deadline passes
The nuclear pact between Japan and the United States that allows Japan to reprocess spent nuclear fuel and enrich uranium, automatically renewed Wednesday, after Tokyo made no move to end it by Tuesday, the deadline to do so.
The bilateral nuclear agreement, which entered into force in July 1988, had authorized Japan to establish a nuclear fuel recycling system over 30 years to July 2018.
As neither side has sought to review the pact it will remain in force indefinitely, but can be terminated six months after either party notifies the other. Such a notification can be made at any time.
The pact is “part of the foundation of our country’s use of nuclear power” and also “crucial to Japan-U.S. relations,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference Tuesday.
Under Japan’s nuclear fuel recycling system, spent fuel from nuclear reactors is reprocessed to extract uranium and plutonium. These materials are then recycled into fuel called mixed oxide, or MOX, for use in fast-breeder reactors or conventional nuclear reactors.
But uncertainties over the country’s reprocessing program have grown after most nuclear plants in Japan suspended operations amid safety concerns following the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 plant. In December 2016 the government decided to decommission the trouble-prone Monju fast-breeder reactor at the core of the fuel cycle policy.
The U.S. government does not see any immediate need to review the pact partly because of tensions in East Asia, where North Korea is developing nuclear weapons and China is expanding its military, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
Japan possesses 47 tons of plutonium within and outside the country. If it is unable to reduce its stockpile, that may spark concerns in the United States and calls for reviewing the pact may increase.
1 This Month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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