From the report of NRA (Nuclear Regulation Authority), Cesium-134/137 was detected from 32 of 32 marine soil samples taken this May.
The sampling locations are offshore of Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki and Chiba Prefecture. The report was published on 7/13/2015.
The report says the samples were taken from 30m depth to 660m and collected by Marine Ecology Research Institute (MERI) and analyzed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA).
Cs-134 was not detected from only one sample. Cs-134 was measured from all the rest of the samples.
The highest reading was 164 Bq/Kg in total of Cs-134/137. The sampling location was approx. in 40km South East of Fukushima nuclear plant.
Other nuclides such as Sr-90 and U-235 were not even tested. They did not collect samples from Tokyo Bay either.
http://radioactivity.nsr.go.jp/en/contents/11000/10000/24/458_20150713.pdf
Source: Fukushima Daiichi
Cs-134/137 detected from all of the marine soil samples along Eastern Japan coastal area
July 14, 2015
Posted by dunrenard |
Japan | Fukushima Daiichi, Fukushima Radiation |
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We have new clear precise lab results that seaweed on the West Coast of BC has both Cesium 137 and Cesium 134 radiation in it. PLEASE stop eating from the Pacific. Results are from a test sample sent in from my friend Jeff whose use of a Geiger Counter on seaweed showed distinctly elevated readings. He sent the samples to labs and these were the results.
The final result is in for the seaweed sample you sent us on June 16, 2015.
137Cs = 0.5 +/- 0.3 Bq/kg
134Cs = 0.3 +/- 0.3 Bq/kg
The 137Cs is above the limit of detection. The 134Cs is at the detection,limit which is generally considered a nondetect.
While the amount of radio cesium was low it held up after repeated analyses. Although the result is a low detect, it is nevertheless one of the few samples that shows any radioactive cesium in west coast seaweed samples. Time will tell if it is part of a trend.
Source: Mimi German from Radcast.org
July 14, 2015
Posted by dunrenard |
Canada, oceans | Fukushima Radiation |
3 Comments
Kyushu Electric Power Co. will have the No. 1 reactor at the Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture back online as early as Aug. 10, according to sources.
The utility will begin producing electricity several days after the restart and resume commercial operations in mid-September, the sources added July 10.
Kyushu Electric is currently undergoing the final procedures toward the restart of the reactor under the new safety standards of the Nuclear Regulation Authority. The utility began loading nuclear fuel into the No. 1 reactor in the afternoon of July 7, and completed the work before dawn on July 10.
Kyushu Electric will continue to have NRA inspections of equipment related to the reactor. It will also hold a four-day safety drill from July 27 that will replicate conditions of a severe accident at the plant, which is located in the city of Satsuma-Sendai.
Source: Asahi Shimbun
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201507110054
July 14, 2015
Posted by dunrenard |
Japan | Nuclear Plant Restart, Sendai |
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It is the evening TV screens in Fukushima Prefecture.
Before the accident at the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi power plant, it looked like a scene from science fiction, but unfortunately it is now in real life.
People watch the news on TV, followed by weather forecast, then by the radiation measures of the day.
A scene that shows us what is living with radiation …
This is not to discuss the measures of radioactivity viewed on the screen, because there are many debates about the veracity of the measures communicated by the local channel NHK.
The purpose here is to show the trivialization of radiation.
Special thanks to Kurumi Sugita, Nos Voisins Lointains 3.11
_____
These photos were published July 13, 2015 on Facebook by Mrs. Kazue Morizono resident of the city of Koriyama in Fukushima Prefecture
July 14, 2015
Posted by dunrenard |
Japan | Fukushima continuing, radiation |
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Look closely at this picture! This is one of the great land storage sites of the contaminated soil which has been removed after the Fukushima disaster.
It was published by the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun and I saw for the first time a month ago in Seoul, at the biennial meeting of science journalists from around the world (WCSJ) , for which I had organized a roundtable on nuclear : « How to inforrm appropriately and accurately about nuclear? ».
This picture was presented by our fellow Toshihide Ueda in his PowerPoint, he was the scientific and medical news main journalist on Asahi Shimbun, who for ten years covered nuclear issues for the Asahi Shimbun.
An impressive picture when one realizes the size of the truck (center of photo) and of the cranes.
These little black things piled on a blue waterproof tarpaulin, those are thousands of very large bags …
Credit: Asahi Shimbun / getty images. This photo was taken near the town of Tomioka.
In my story in the heart of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which I visited June 12, 2015, where many bags also litter the place, I had asked the question of what would happen to them?
Knowing that there are about twenty sites where they currently are stacked.
They are called ISF, for “interim storage facility”.
It is planned that their content will be transferred “in thirty years” on a permanent site – which can not be located on the territory of Fukushima Prefecture (following an agreement between the government and local authorities).
But can we believe it? What place in Japan will then accept this storage?
Whereas radioactivity, mainly due to cesium will have decreased by only half (the half-life of radioactive cesium 137 is 30 years). And the memory of Fukushima will not yet be erased …
What form this final stockage will take? Will the soil be compacted?
For it is not a small volume that it is today. According to the IRSN (French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety), “the volume of waste related to decontamination is estimated between 28 and 55 million m3 “.
In other words, if we look for a meaningful equivalent between 11 000 and 22 000 Olympic swimming pools …
For comparison, by volume, a center like the one in Aube, France, managed by Andra, reserved for low and medium short-lived radioactive waste (in operation since 1992), has a 1 million m3 capacity and that of very low activity has a 650 000 m3 capacity.
A whole series of other questions we could ask.
The bags that we see in the photo how long will they last without being altered and spill their contents?
Will the Groundwater under those storage areas not be threatened , despite the waterproof tarpaulins (in principle) that are installed tight on the ground?
And that will really happen to the already scrapped decontaminated areas?
Will they not become re-contaminated, thanks to the rainfall which swell the streams, draining the particles coming down from the hills and mountains around …
Credit: Dominique Leglu. Seoul, June 10, 2015, World congress of science journalists (WCSJ). At the lectern, Toshihide Ueda (right) shows the photo of the storage site of the city of Tomioka, during the round table devoted to nuclear energy.
I remembered an interview that Prof. Hiroaki Koide (assistant at research laboratory in the nuclear reactor at the University of Tokyo) had granted nine months after the debut of the Fukushima disaster (Le Monde, paper edition Thursday, 8 December 2011).
To the question of our colleague Philippe Pons “The government wants to turn the page: the motto is” rebuilding “,” decontaminating “…, he replied : “[…] Decontamination is a new source of profit for the government and reconstruction, a windfall for civil engineering companies. If we want to decontaminate, it is the entire Fukushima prefecture that must be decontaminated. But where do we transport the irradiated soil? ”
When Shinzo Kimura, associate professor at the University Dokkyo came to Paris on 18 June 2015 for a conference on the health consequences of the disaster, I asked him the what he thought, four years later, about the soil decontamination operations.
The response of the radiation protection specialist, who fights locally to help people deal with the issue of contamination, illustrates the difficulty of deciding on the situation: “I am both for and against. We must do the maximum. But this removal has little impact. It can not succeed. ”
IRSN cites an example, the decontamination plan of the “special decontamination area ” located in the territory of the Municipality of Tamura.
[…] Completed it reduced notably the radiological environment in residential areas from 28 to 56%. ”
Clearly, it is a vicious circle in which a government after a disaster of the kind Fukushima is caught – that contaminated an area of 13 783 km² (1/10 of New York State) and the life of its 2 millions inhabitants.
If the government does nothing it will be accused of gross negligence (or worse) vis-à-vis of its population. If it does something there is no evidence that the results are convincing.
Especially in the intermediate phase, as currently around Fukushima, where multiple “small storages” are developping, awaiting to be transferred and regrouped in the ISF, until the hypothetical final storage. And not to mention the security issues that these places, of course, do not fail to cause. A real headache.
Credit: Pallava Bagla. June 12, 2015, in Fukushima
Translated by Hervé Courtois
Source : Science pour vous et moi
http://sciencepourvousetmoi.blogs.sciencesetavenir.fr/archive/2015/07/13/fukushima-61-23304.html
July 14, 2015
Posted by dunrenard |
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By Kurumi Sugita Nos Voisins Lointains 311
The City of Date has divided its territory into three zones to program decontamination work: Zone A where the measurement of ambient radioactivity exceeds 20 mSv/yr, the area adjacent to the B zone A and zone C where radioactivity does not exceed 5 mSv/yr.
In zone C, instead of decontaminating entire areas, the municipality only cleans hot spots that exceed 3μSv/h measured at 1cm off the ground. For example, if a measurement exceeds this limit on a rooftop, it won’t be decontaminated.
Before and After decontamination according to the lying local authorities
During the election campaign of January 2014, the incumbent Mayor Shôji NISHIDA promised to work on decontaminating the entire specified C areas. However, since his re-election, he did not fulfill his promise.
Frustrated by the lack of response from the mayor on their repeated requests for him to fulfill his promise, some residents of Date city gathered to found the “Association to Protect the Future of Children in the Date city” (Kodomo no Mirai wo kai mamoru in Date). They began installing flags and signs across town, calling for effective decontamination work. The association brings together their voices and publish on their website and Facebook page.
The following is a sample of these voices trying to pierce the ongoing deafening silence.
Frustrated by the lack of response from the mayor on their repeated requests for him to fulfill his promise, some residents of Date city gathered to found the “Association to Protect the Future of Children in the Date city” (Kodomo no Mirai wo kai mamoru in Date). They began installing flags and signs across town, calling for effective decontamination work. The association brings together their voices and publish on their website and Facebook page.
The following is a sample of these voices trying to pierce the ongoing deafening silence.
Voices of the Residents
01 Decontamination work was only done in public gardens and on school sites, but not around the house.
02 How come in Area C, the minimum threshold for decontamination work is at 3μSv/h?
03 Children go fishing for crayfish and fish near rice fields.
04 Children play with mud around the house. These are spots which have not been decontaminated yet.
05 I want to see results on decontamination work come true.
06 Is it safe to let children play outside?
07 Our house is located in zone B, but the workplace and the school are located in Area C.
08 My child is still small and picks up things off the street and eat them.
09 Is it necessary to separate Zone B and Zone C? It would make more sense to work the entire area.
10 I live in zone B. The radioactivity is remains high, even after decontamination. It seems we are being affected by radiation in places surrounding us.
11 Without decontaminating around the house, radioactivity does not decrease.
12 Why in our city of Date, they only clean the house? I have heard elsewhere, that’s different.
13 I am afraid of radiation during farming operations.
14 Small children play sitting on the floor. Sometimes they are barefoot. I saw them at the parking lot of a store where
decontamination work has not yet been made. These are not my children, but I got the chills.
15 I see fumes from things being incinerated. Is this normal? It often happens when children are on the way to school. This worries me.
16 I have concern regarding low-dose radiation. It frightens me to think that the children will live their entire lives in this environment.
17 I will consider possibilities to join a recuperation program or even evacuate.
18 Why isn’t the town Date performing the decontamination work?
19 In 2011, the mayor promised decontamination work would be done in all households. I am still waiting. What happened?
20 I envy inhabitants of the cities and surrounding municipalities.
July 13, 2015
Posted by dunrenard |
Japan | Fukushima continuing |
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Today, a grandmother in my neighborhood asked me if I ate the vegetables produced locally.
She had given me several times vegetables that she had grown.
It seems it’s tomato season now, and she has them abundantly.
I replied that I was eating them, but still selecting them.
It seems that her grand-daughter works in the medical sector. When the grandmother serves her at the table pumpkins or green beans, she says she will eat them later, but in fact she never eats them.
As for her son, before the disaster (of March 2011), he loved and ate every day salty pickled plums. After the disaster, he eats them no more, even after the lifting of the restriction on plums distribution.
I told the grandmother that it was sad.
No one is wrong, not the grandmother nor the son nor the grand-daughter.
I understand the feeling of the grandmother but I also understand the concern of the family members. And no one takes responsibility for this situation. It’s really absurd.
But the grandmother was well aware.
“I grow vegetables in a greenhouse, but as I aerate the greenhouse, it enters through the opening.”
I had heard that radioactivity was detected at the entrance of the greenhouse.
The grandmother said with a laugh, “We, the elderly, we eat everything.”
She also said that after the disaster she measured radioactivity, but as it is no longer detected, these days she does not measure.
___
Published on July 9, 2015 on Facebook by a resident of Date city (in Fukushima Prefecture)
Source : Nos Voisins Lointains 3.11
http://nosvoisins311.wix.com/voisins311-france#!L%C3%A9gumes-dune-grandm%C3%A8re/c1tye/559ef1dd0cf286eab01f08a7
July 12, 2015
Posted by dunrenard |
Japan | Fukushima continuing, radiation |
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The highschool baseball tournament in Fukushima Prefecture began today.
A former classmate of my son plays in it.
I remember that summer of 2011, my son was still in 2nd year highschool when he quarreled seriously with J, his best friend
J was playing in a baseball club.
Trainings were happening outside.
Slides, dust …
My son was concerned for J risk of internal radiation by inhalation.
The year when my son took refuge alone in Sapporo, J came to visit me.
During our conversation, he apologized.
“Every time when we met, S (my son) insisted me to pay attention to radiation. It was because he cared for me … but I was tired. I told him to stop. Still, I knew it was because S was thinking of me …. “
“But if I was careful to radiation, I could not play baseball. To avoid it, I would have been forced to give up my dream … “
In saying this, J had some tears in his eyes.
Two years already.
This summer, this is the last highschool baseball tournament for him.
I’d like to see his achievement.
Today his highschool won.
My son screamed with joy when I gave him the news.
I hope my son will have a chance to go to the tournament to show his support.
The radiation….
Currently there is an atmosphere of discomfort to use this word within Fukushima Prefecture.
The baseball exploits of the highschool students from Fukushima Prefecture.
My support is for them.
_____
Published: July 10, 2015 YOKOTA Asami, a resident of the city of Koriyama in Fukushima Prefecture.
Source : Nos Voisins Lointains 3.11
http://nosvoisins311.wix.com/voisins311-france#!La-radiation-et-le-r%C3%AAve-de-baseball/c1tye/55a184740cf286eab020799d
July 12, 2015
Posted by dunrenard |
Japan | Fukushima continuing, radiation |
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Plutonium levels 10,000,000 times normal in water below Fukushima reactors — Plutonium hit record high off coast in 2014 — “Has been transported relatively long distances” – Every sample taken from rivers flowing into Pacific had Pu-239, Pu-240, Pu-241,and Pu-242 from plant
Scientists from Japan’s National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Hirosaki University, and Peking University (pdf), May 2015 (emphasis added): Pu Distribution in Seawater in the Near Coastal Area off Fukushima… the amount of Pu isotopes directly released into the marine environment remains unknown. In the high level radioactive accumulated water collected at the FDNPP after the accident, high level radioactivities of Pu isotopes (ca. 10-3 Bq/mL) were detected. These values were 6 to 7 orders of magnitudes [1,000,000 – 10,000,000 times] higher than that of the seawater in the western North Pacific. In addition, a new study on Pu isotopes… suggested there was a potential sediment-borne Pu supply from Fukushima coastal rivers to the Pacific Ocean. Thus more attention should be paid to the contamination situation of Pu isotopes in the marine environment off Fukushima since the FDNPP accident… Pu isotopes in seawater… needs to be routinely investigated… There are two sampling sites close to the FDNP… 239+240Pu concentrations in seawater were reported in 2012-2014 and the range was from detection limit to 14 mBq/m3 except 31 mBq/m3 observed at T-2-1 site on 10 April 2014.
Scientists from Japan, Belgium, and French gov’t (pdf), 2015: Tracing the dispersion of contaminated sediment with plutonium isotope measurements in coastal catchments of Fukushima Prefecture — The Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident led to important releases of radionuclides into the environment, and trace levels of plutonium (Pu) were detected in northeastern Japan… In this study, we measured Pu isotopic ratios in recently deposited sediments along rivers draining the most contaminated part of the inland radioactive plume… Results showed that the entire range of measured Pu isotopes (i.e. 239Pu, 240Pu, 241Pu, and 242Pu) were detected in all samples, although in extremely low concentrations. The 241Pu/239Pu atom ratios measured in sediment deposits (0.0017 – 0.0884) were significantly higher than the corresponding values attributed to the global fallout (0.00113 – 0.00008 on average in the Northern Hemisphere between 31-71 N)… These results demonstrate that this radionuclide has been transported relatively long distances… and deposited in rivers representing a potential source of Pu to the ocean.
Source: Enenews
http://enenews.com/experts-plutonium-levels-10000000-times-normal-water-below-fukushima-reactors-plutonium-ocean-japan-hit-record-high-2014-pu-transported-relatively-long-distances-every-sample-rivers-flow-pacific
July 11, 2015
Posted by dunrenard |
Japan | Fukushima continuing, Fukushima Daiichi, plutonium |
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Welcome to Japan, land of cherry blossoms, sushi and sake, and 17,000 metric tons of highly radioactive waste.
That’s what the country has in temporary storage from its nuclear plants. Supporters of atomic power say it’s cleaner than fossil fuels for generating electricity. Detractors say there’s nothing clean about what’s left behind, some of which remains a deadly environmental toxin for thousands of years.
Since atomic power was first harnessed more than 70 years ago, the industry has been trying to solve the problem of safe disposal of the waste. Japan has been thrown into the center of the conundrum by its decision in recent months to retire five reactors after the Fukushima disaster in 2011. It also decided this week to begin the restart process of one reactor despite public opposition.
“It’s part of the price of nuclear energy,” Allison Macfarlane, a former chief of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said in an interview in Tokyo on atomic waste. “Now, especially with the decommissioning of sites, there will be more pressure to do something with this material. Because you have to.”
For more than half a century, nuclear plants in more than 30 countries have been humming away — lighting up Tokyo’s Ginza, putting the twinkle into New York’s Broadway and keeping the elevators running up the Eiffel Tower. Plus powering appliances in countless households, factories and offices around the world.
In the process, the world’s 437 operating reactors now produce about 12,000 tons of high-level waste a year, or the equivalent of 100 double-decker buses, according to the World Nuclear Association.
Fukushima Disaster
Most countries now agree burying atomic waste deep underground is the best option. Other ideas like firing it into space or tossing it inside a volcano came and went.
The U.S., with the most reactors, spent an estimated $15 billion on a site for nuclear refuse in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Local opposition derailed the plan, meaning about 49,000 tons of spent fuel sits in cooling pools at nuclear plants around the country.
Japan faces another challenge. Four years ago, the country had a nuclear accident unlike anything seen before. An earthquake and tsunami ripped through the engineering defenses at the Fukushima plant north of Tokyo and caused the meltdown of three reactors.
It will need billions of dollars and technology not yet invented to clean up Fukushima. How long that will take is disputed. The operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., estimates 40 years. Greenpeace says it could take twice that time.
‘Ethical Responsibility’
All Japan’s 43 operational reactors have been offline since September 2013 for safety checks after the disaster. The government has said atomic power is essential to energy supply and reactors that meet safety standards will be allowed to restart.
The first in line belongs to Kyushu Electric Power Co., which today said it has finished refueling one of its units in southern Japan. It plans to restart the plant in August, which means generation of more nuclear waste.
It will be a “failure in our ethical responsibility to future generations,” to restart reactors without a clear plan for waste storage, the Science Council of Japan said in April.
No Thanks
Japan’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization, known as NUMO, has been searching for a permanent storage site for years, initially inviting districts to apply as a host.
In 2007, it got one when the mayor of a town called Toyo submitted interest. Like the residents near Yucca Mountain in the U.S., Toyo’s citizens didn’t like the idea and voted him out of office. His successor canceled the plan.
Now facing the accelerated shutdown of some reactors post-Fukushima, NUMO in May ditched the idea of waiting for a volunteer. Instead, scientists will nominate suitable regions.
“We’d like all citizens to be aware and feel ownership of this situation,” said Takao Kinoshita, a NUMO official. “We should feel grateful for the community that’s doing something for the benefit of the whole country and respect their bravery.”
Deep Underground
NUMO’s plan for a final underground repository was drawn up in 2007 and would cost 3.5 trillion yen ($29 billion).
It would contain about 40,000 canisters, each weighing half a ton and holding waste at temperatures above 200 degrees Celsius (392 Fahrenheit). The contents would give off 1,500 sieverts of radiation an hour, a level that would instantly kill a human being.
The canisters need to cool in interim storage for as long as 50 years before heading 300 meters below ground. Their stainless steel inner layer is wrapped in bentonite clay to make sure water can’t leak inside.
“That’s the biggest risk we see, water leaking through,” said Kinoshita.
Finland and Sweden are the only two countries so far to have selected and reached a public agreement on a final site and storage technology for high-level nuclear waste. Finland’s is expected to open in 2020.
Taking apart a reactor, known as decommissioning, produces a few tons of highly radioactive material, usually the used fuel and coolant. The buildings and equipment account for thousands of tons of so-called low-level waste.
Disposal Confusion
Japan’s government is responsible for dealing with the most radioactive waste. The plant operator handles the rest.
“Even in the low-level category there is the relatively higher-level waste and the nation’s technical solutions are not ready,” Makoto Yagi, the president of Kansai Electric Power Co., said at a June briefing in Tokyo.
Shaun Bernie, senior nuclear specialist with Greenpeace Germany, said this shows Japan’s reactor program and high-level nuclear waste policy is “in a state of crisis.”
Without a clear disposal strategy, costs to take apart the reactors can end up being double original estimate, said Colin Austin, senior vice president at Energy Solutions, which has worked on every decommissioning project in the U.S.
Another wrinkle in Japan for finding a final disposal site is that the country sits on a mesh of colliding tectonic plates that make it one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world.
Former NRC chief Macfarlane, who is also a seismologist, said that doesn’t make it impossible to bury the waste. A repository hundreds of meters underground is partly protected against quakes in the same way submarines are during high storms, she said.
Leaving nuclear waste on the surface indefinitely means it will get into the environment so Japan has to solve this, she said.
“An adequate place underground is better than waiting for the best possible place.”
Source: Bloomberg Business
July 11, 2015
Posted by dunrenard |
Japan | nuclear waste |
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Sellafield workers are helping clean up the destroyed #Fukushima nuclear plant A group of Sellafield Ltd workers have spent five days at the tsunami-stricken Fukushima plant in Japan, which is in the process of “being decommissioned” after being devastated in 2011.
The trip is part of Sellafield Ltd’s ongoing commitment to support Tepco FDEC (Fukushima Daiichi Decontamination and Decommissioning Engineering Company), the company charged with the task of cleaning up the site.
During the most recent visit, Sellafield Ltd experts toured the facility and surrounding area, seeing first hand a decontamination effort of unprecedented scale, while providing advice and technical expertise on environmental management and radiation protection.
This was a follow-up to a successful trip to west Cumbria last year by their Japanese counterparts, who are already implementing some of the environmental practices used at the Sellafield site.
Members of the leadership team, including the recently appointed Managing Director, Paul Foster, also toured the plant to see the progress being made and provide a more long-term, strategic insight into decommissioning programme.
“My first impression of Fukushima was something I will never forget,” said Mr Foster.
“We’ve probably all seen the news footage of the reactor buildings which were severely damaged by the explosions, but to actually be there and see it first hand was a humbling experience.
“We’re keen to help them as much as we can and the fact that they are so keen to access the skills and expertise that exists in west Cumbria is something of which I am extremely proud.”
Although there is much more work to be done, the progress at Fukushima to date indicates that the benefits of the arrangement are already being realised, with experts from west Cumbria actively contributing to the clean-up.
Mr Foster added: “During the visit we shared our approach to managing large, complex programmes as well as some of our technical and tactical issues. They want to learn from us and, in time, we will learn much from them.”
“Seeing the sheer scale of the task at Fukushima highlights why we must continue to share experience and technical expertise amongst the global nuclear family, and this now resonates with me more strongly than ever.
“This was always the intention of the agreement and the benefits already emerging prove that it is happening in reality, making us both better equipped to deliver our respective missions.”
This mutual commitment between Sellafield Ltd and Tepco FDEC was formalised in a co-operation agreement, signed by the two companies in 2014, which would see them exchange knowledge, experience and skills on an on-going basis to ultimately help “decommission both plants as quickly and safely as possible.”
Source: News and Star
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/1.1222143
July 11, 2015
Posted by dunrenard |
Japan | Fukushima Daiichi |
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Kyushu Electric has completed loading nuclear fuel into a reactor at Sendai Nuclear Station,
The last rod assembly —the 157th — was embedded into the reactor at 12:12 a.m. Friday, ending an operation that engaged some 50 workers around the clock since the loading process started Tuesday at the station in Kagoshima Prefecture, a company official said.
Subject to inspection clearance by the government’s Nuclear Regulation Authority in the coming days, Kyushu Electric is envisaging firing up the reactor around Aug. 10 to start trial power transmission three days later.
The reactor is expected to be geared up to full steam later in the month before starting commercial power transmission in September, a move that would likely bring relief to the company, which has been reeling from losses caused by hefty fossil fuel costs to run conventional power plants with all its six nuclear reactors idled.
The resumption of the reactor — one of the two at the Sendai plant — will mark the restart of nuclear power generation in Japan that has been at a standstill due to safety concerns following the ongoing triple meltdown disaster at the Fukushima plant. None of Japan’s commercial reactors has been online for nearly two years.
If the nuclear authority finds any problem, Kyushu Electric will be required to address it and this may result in the restart being delayed.
The utility is aiming to reload fuel into the second reactor at the Sendai plant in early September and reboot it in mid-October.
Source: Japan Times
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/07/10/national/kyushu-electric-finishes-loading-fuel-nuclear-reactor/#.VZ_o5PmFSM9
July 11, 2015
Posted by dunrenard |
Japan | Nuclear Plant Restart, Sendai |
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To mind that this article is from Yomiuri, a pro-government newspaper
Two years have passed since new safety standards were introduced requiring utilities to strengthen their measures to prevent serious accidents at nuclear facilities as a result of major earthquakes or tsunami, requirements put in place following the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Safety inspections are under way at 25 reactors at the nation’s 15 nuclear power plants. However, only five reactors at three nuclear plants, including the Nos. 1 and 2 reactors at Kyushu Electric Power. Co.’s Sendai plant, have been approved as meeting the new standards.
Given the time-consuming process of post-approval checks, all of Japan’s nuclear power plants continue to remain offline.
In September 2014, the Sendai nuclear plant in Kagoshima Prefecture cleared the new safety standards set by the Nuclear Regulation Authority. Kyushu Electric started loading fuel into the Sendai plant’s No. 1 reactor on Tuesday, which is highly likely to be brought online as early as mid-August.
Screenings have been completed for Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at its Takahama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture, but a time frame for resuming operations is not yet in sight. The Fukui District Court had issued a provisional disposition order to forbid the restart of the reactors.
Regarding Shikoku Electric Power Co.’s No. 3 reactor at its Ikata nuclear plant in Ehime Prefecture, the NRA will likely issue a screening certificate verifying that the reactor satisfies safety standards.
Safety screenings are progressing more slowly for 10 reactors at eight nuclear power plants, including TEPCO’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture, which uses boiling water reactors like the ones at the Fukushima No. 1 plant.
Estimates of maximum seismic vibrations, which form the basis for safety measures, have yet to be finalized for these reactors.
KEPCO is aiming to extend the operational period of its aging Nos. 1 and 2 reactors at its Takahama nuclear plant, as well as the No. 3 reactor at its Mihama plant, also in Fukui Prefecture, to more than 40 years. Forty years is the maximum period generally allowed by the state.
The three reactors must pass screenings and other inspections by July next year and November next year in accordance with state regulations, raising the issue of the need to speed up the inspection process.
“The new safety standards have set considerably high standards,” NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said at a press conference on Wednesday, “so I believe utilities are having to take some time to satisfy those requirements.”
Source: Yomiuri
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002276652
July 9, 2015
Posted by dunrenard |
Japan | Nuclear Plant Restart, Sendai |
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The government has decided to lift evacuation orders for wide areas around the disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and end blanket compensation payments to people in Fukushima Prefecture who are still suffering from the aftermath of the reactor meltdowns.
More than four years since the nuclear disaster, the uncertain future of the affected local communities and their members is causing further negative effects.
Setting clear dates for lifting evacuation orders will make it easier for evacuees to plan their futures. The move is also meaningful in terms of clarifying the government’s responsibilities to improve the environment for the evacuees’ return home through such measures as decontamination and rebuilding infrastructure related to their daily lives.
But the conditions are not the same for each disaster victim. The move to lift evacuation orders and end compensation payments should not be a simple termination of policy support. It is essential for the government to start fresh support based on careful consideration of the circumstances of individual sufferers.
POSSIBLE BOOST TO RECONSTRUCTION EFFORTS
The government has set clear dates for lifting the evacuation orders for two of the three categories of restricted areas—“areas to which evacuation orders are ready to be lifted” and “areas in which the residents are not permitted to live.” The levels of radiation in these areas are relatively low, and entry into these areas is permitted in the daytime.
The evacuation orders for these areas will be removed by March 2017 at the latest after accelerated decontamination efforts.
The people of Naraha, a town that has been entirely designated as “an area to which the evacuation order is ready to be lifted,” will be allowed to return home on Sept. 5.
The town will be the first among seven municipalities to have an evacuation order for all residents lifted since the meltdowns at the plant in March 2011.
For the residents to be able to start living in the town again, however, it is vital to repair or rebuild damaged houses and secure jobs for the returnees.
Major homebuilders have been reluctant to work in evacuation areas, saying they can’t carry out operations until the evacuation orders are lifted.
Since it was stuck by the disaster, Naraha has persuaded 11 companies to locate their plants in the town. All but one of these companies, however, have been waiting for the removal of the evacuation order to start building the plants.
The scheduled end of the evacuation will bolster efforts to rebuild the community. In a survey of evacuated Naraha residents conducted last autumn, 45.7 percent of the respondents said they would return to their homes in the town either “immediately” or “when necessary conditions are met” after the evacuation order ends. The figure represents an increase of 5.5 percentage points from the previous survey.
But it will be difficult to completely restore the status quo. Many evacuee families have members who are already working at places where they currently live or children who have grown accustomed to their new schools.
NO RETURN TO PRE-DISASTER LIFE
Evacuation orders for parts of Tamura and Kawauchi have already been lifted, but only about half of the residents of these areas have returned.
If the population of an area doesn’t recover sufficiently, it will be difficult to operate such public facilities as medical institutions and schools in the area. This further discourages residents from returning.
Farmers and self-employed people in such areas also face a tough time trying to restart their businesses.
Concerns about radioactive contamination of food grown in disaster areas will remain even though test growing of certain crops has started in some areas. Part of local farmland has been used for provisional storage of soil and plant debris from the decontamination work. Heaps of large bags filled with contaminated materials remain at many sites.
A survey by the Fukushima Federation of Societies of Commerce and Industry of members in evacuation areas found that 56.4 percent of the respondents had restarted their businesses either in or outside the prefecture by June this year.
But most of them are construction or manufacturing businesses, while only a few of the affected retailers and service providers have started doing business again. That’s because their trade areas have disappeared.
After the evacuation order for the Miyakoji district of Tamura was lifted in April last year, a temporary store to sell foodstuffs and daily necessities was opened under the government’s leadership. A convenience store was then opened along a national highway under the initiative of the government. Sales at the store have plunged to a quarter of their peak level partly because of route sales of another convenience store.
In Naraha, a local supermarket is struggling to rebuild. It is concerned about a possible blow to its operations from a new store of retail giant Aeon Co. that is expected to open within a commercial complex built by the neighboring town of Hirono along a national highway.
Amid these circumstances, compensation payments to disaster victims by the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima No. 1 plant, will be discontinued.
Compensation for mental health damage (or consolation money of 100,000 yen per month per person) will end after the payments for March 2018. Compensation for damage to businesses paid to small and midsize companies and self-employed people that remain out of business will be terminated after the payments for March 2017.
Critics have been pointing out problems with the way such compensation has been paid to people and businesses damaged by the disaster. They say the compensation programs widen the economic disparity between the recipients and those who don’t receive the money, divide communities and hinder victims’ efforts to regain economic independence.
PAY ATTENTION TO DIFFERENT CONDITIONS OF INDIVIDUALS
But rebuilding shattered lives entails formidable challenges. Consolation money is often used to cover living expenses.
If evacuees can’t find a way to earn a living in their towns, they will be unable to make ends meet when they return to their homes after the evacuation order is lifted.
The government plans to set up a new public-private organization to help self-employed people and farmers restart their businesses in the next two years. The new body will start its work by visiting 8,000 such people for counseling by the end of the year.
But there is still no plan for specific steps to be taken. It will take considerable time just to grasp what kind of situation they are in.
Fuminori Tanba, an associate professor at Fukushima University who has been involved in the development of reconstruction plans for many disaster-hit areas, points out some key factors for successful support to such businesses.
It is crucial to draw up a detailed prescription for each business to sort out the challenges it faces, he says. It is also important to take measures to coordinate the trade areas of similar businesses and retrain those who are seeking to change their businesses.
Tanba also stresses the need to pay attention to problems these people face after restarting their businesses to ensure that they will get on track.
In short, policy support should be provided through the entire process of business reconstruction.
In addition to such support, the government should consider creating a public framework to provide financial aid to cover living expenses for people struggling to rebuild their livelihoods.
These people are suffering from a disaster that happened at a nuclear power plant built under the government’s policy of promoting nuclear power generation. The government should not end financial aid to individual residents of the affected areas.
Four years since the harrowing accident, the conditions of individual residents of areas around the crippled plant remain complicated.
It is necessary for the government to make flexible responses to their needs from their own viewpoints. Now is the critical moment for work to rebuild the lives of people in Fukushima that were destroyed by the disaster.
Source; Asahi Shimbun
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/editorial/AJ201507090061
July 9, 2015
Posted by dunrenard |
Japan | Evacuees, Fukushima continuing |
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A customer selects Japanese biscuits in a store selling Japanese goods in Taipei, Taiwan.
Authorities find fault with entry documents and compliance with customs clearance procedures
Two dozen Taiwanese firms have been found to have imported food products from five Japanese prefectures in violation of a ban in effect since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, the island’s health authorities said on Wednesday.
The Food and Drug Administration said that since it began strengthening inspections on Japanese food imports in March, the 24 Taiwanese companies were found to have imported 381 food product items from the five prefectures.
After the March 2011 disaster, Taiwan banned food imports from Fukushima and nearby Ibaraki, Gunma, Tochigi and Chiba. It has been conducting random radiation checks on nine categories of imported foods.
Among the 24 firms, 23 filed entry documents inconsistent with the products they imported and one failed to follow proper customs clearance procedures, the administration said.
Wang Te-yuan, deputy director of the FDA’s Northern Centre for Regional Administration, said firms that unwittingly imported food products from the five prefectures must report it to authorities or face punishment.
Offenders could be fined up to NT$3 million (HK$750,000) and will lose permission to import the products in question, according to the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation.
Authorities beefed up inspections after investigators found some Japanese food imports carrying Chinese labels different from the actual place of origin – a practice allowed in Japan but illegal in Taiwan.
A legislative committee passed a motion in late March tightening inspections on food products imported from Japan.
Under the new measure that came into effect on May 15, such items must carry prefecture-specific labels of origin, and some food products from certain prefectures must carry documents proving that they had passed radiation checks.
Source: South China Morning Post
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1834956/24-taiwanese-firms-violate-bans-japanese-food-imports
July 9, 2015
Posted by dunrenard |
Taiwan | Fukushima continuing, radiation |
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Look closely at this picture! This is one of the great land storage sites of the contaminated soil which has been removed after the Fukushima disaster.
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