nuclear-news

Earthquake, not tsunami, caused first Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown?

Japan Nuclear Disaster Update 30: It was, is, and will be worse than you thought, Greg Laden’s Blog  July 9, 2011, by Analiese Miller and Greg Laden Perhaps the most interesting single thing on the table in today’s update is the revelation that at least one of Fukushima’s reactors suffered sufficient damage from the earthquake that hit the region … prior to the tsunami … to have likely gone out of control or melted down. Continue reading →

July 10, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Radioactive caesium in beef from Fukushima prefecture

High levels of caesium found in Fukushima beef, ABC News,  Jul 9, 2011. More than six times the legal limit of radioactive caesium has been found in beef from Fukushima prefecture, home to Japan’s crippled nuclear plant, an official statement said on Saturday.

The meat was taken from one of 11 cows shipped to Tokyo from a farmer in Minamisoma city, according to the statement by the Tokyo metropolitan government.

The 11 cows all showed high levels of radioactive caesium, ranging from 1,530 to 3,200 becquerels per kilogram, compared with the legal limit of 500 becquerels, the Tokyo statement said.

It was the first time excessive levels of radioactive caesium have been found in meat, according to a Tokyo official……http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/07/09/3265533.htm?section=justin

July 10, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Decades to clean up Fukushima nuclear plant. Cooling battle continues

Japan’s Kan says nuclear clean-up could take decades,  Jul 9, 2011, (Reuters) (reporting by Kaori Kaneko and Kevin Krolicki, editing by Miral Fahmy and Sugita Katyal) – Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Saturday it will take decades to clean up and decommission the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant after the world’s worst atomic accident since Chernobyl.

Kan’s comments marked the first time that Japan’s government has offered a timeframe for the clean-up at Fukushima beyond the emergency measures now underway to shut down its reactors.

“It will take three, five, ten years, or eventually several decades to take care of the accident,” Kan told local officials from his Democratic Party ofJapan meeting in Tokyo…….

Efforts to cool the Fukushima reactors currently hinge on a complex and hastily constructed system to decontaminate thousands of tonnes of water being pumped into the reactors and then to circulate it back through the reactors……http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/09/us-japan-nuclear-hosono-idUSTRE7680Z520110709

July 9, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Fukushima soil more radioactive than Chernobyl’s was

The survey of four locations in Fukushima city, outside the nuclear evacuation zone, showed that all soil samples contained caesium exceeding Japan’s legal limit of 10,000 becquerels per kilogram (4,500 per pound), they said. The highest level was 46,540 becquerels per kilogram, and the three other readings were between 16,290 and 19,220 becquerels per kilogram, they said.

The citizens’ groups — the Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation and five other non-governmental organisations — have called for the evacuation of pregnant women and children from the town.The highest reading in the city of 290,000 people far exceeded the level that triggered compulsory resettlement ordered by Soviet authorities following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, they said.

Kobe University radiation expert professor Tomoya Yamauchi conducted the survey on June 26 following a request from the groups.

“Soil contamination is spreading in the city,” Yamauchi said in a statement. “Children are playing with the soil, meaning they are playing with high levels of radioactive substances. Evacuation must be conducted as soon as possible.” The coastal Fukushima Daiichi plant has been spewing radiation since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out its cooling systems…..http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ivr747xKaxw9RGq5zMSDO-On_WRQ?docId=CNG.62875ee35cc28aa30725ee1bfd4cfbde.111

July 6, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Need to test children in Fukushima region for internal radiation contamination

When asked whether the cesium levels found in these children were significant, Mr. Boilley said, “The amount of cesium should be zero.”  He said Acro has determined traces of Cesium-137 in the air, soil and water around the world before the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, saying these traces could be remnants from nuclear experiments in the 1960s and the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. But he says that Cesium-134 is certainly from the Fukushima disaster.

More Fukushima Worries: Internal Contamination, WSJ By Anna Novick, 2 July 11 A urine analysis performed by a French non-profit organization on a small number of children in Fukushima city suggests they may have suffered internal radiation contamination from reactor fuel from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, even though they live outside the national government’s 30-kilometer evacuation zone. Continue reading →

July 2, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

UK government held gravest fears about Fukushima crisis

The British government made contingency plans at the height of the Fukushima nuclear crisis which anticipated a “reasonable worst case scenario” of the plant releasing more radiation than Chernobyl, new documents released to the Guardian show. Continue reading →

June 22, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

TEPCO’s sloppy care of 3700 nuclear clean-up workers

Whereabouts of 30 nuclear power plant subcontractors unknown: Health Ministry  Mainichi Daily News 21 June 11 The whereabouts of about 30 subcontractors who helped deal with the crisis at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant is unknown, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said on June 20.

The workers are among some 3,700 who worked to control the disaster in March, the month the plant was struck by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

The workers’ names were listed in records showing that they had been loaned dosimeters, but when the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), contacted the companies they were associated with, the companies replied that there was no record of those workers.

The ministry has branded TEPCO’s administration of workers “sloppy” and ordered the company to conduct an investigation to identify the workers.

“We don’t know why there is no record of the workers. The records and dosimeters were managed by TEPCO and its administration can only be described as sloppy,” a representative of the ministry’s Labor Standards Bureau said…..http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110621p2a00m0na005000c.html

June 22, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Another failure in Fukushima water treatment system

Decontamination system fails again at Japan nuclear plant THE HINDU 22 June 11The operator of a damaged Japanese nuclear plant suspended another test run of a newly installed water-treatment system after its pump stopped on Tuesday.

Tokyo Electric Power Co said the pump was overburdened by excessive liquid flow, Kyodo News reported.

The system designed to decontaminate highly radioactive water stopped only five hours into full operation on Friday at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, 250 kilometres north-east of Tokyo.

The operator concluded on Monday that absorbent materials inside the decontamination equipment needed changing more frequently than previously estimated, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The company is trying to reduce radioactivity in water that has accumulated around the plant as a result of emergency measures to cool the reactor cores. Storage facilities for contaminated water were reaching capacity.

June 22, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Giant cover for No 1 nuclear reactor to stop Fukushima radiation to atmosphere

N-bldg cover to be built, unbuilt, rebuilt, The Yomiuri Shimbun, 21 June 11 IWAKI, Fukushima–-Work to assemble parts of a giant cover for the No. 1 nuclear reactor building at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is proceeding at a fever pitch at Onahama Port in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.

The giant cover is designed to prevent most radioactive substances from dispersing into the atmosphere from the No. 1 reactor, which was damaged by a hydrogen explosion on March 12.

It will enclose an area of 42 meters by 47 meters and will stand 54 meters high.

To limit workers’ exposure to radiation and shorten the construction period, 62 parts, including pillars, beams and polyester-sheeted panels, are being assembled at the port into a unified structure. After it is confirmed that the parts fit together properly, the cover will be disassembled and transported to the nuclear power plant by ship.

On-site assembly of the components is scheduled to start next Monday. TEPCO plans to complete the work in late September. Final construction of the cover will be carried out by two giant cranes, which will be remote-controlled.A traditional Japanese insertion-only joint method, which does not employ welding or bolts for joining materials, is being used to assemble the cover… http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110620004790.htm

June 21, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Japan experimenting with incineration of radioactive rubble

Environment Ministry to approve incineration of rubble contaminated with radiation, (Mainichi Japan) June 20, 2011 The Environment Ministry has decided to approve the proposed incineration of rubble contaminated with radiation from the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant at existing incineration facilities equipped with exhaust gas filters and absorption devices, officials said.

It made the decision after discussing how to safely dispose of rubble contaminated with radiation from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.

No law currently provides for ways to dispose of waste contaminated with radiation from a crippled nuclear power plant. After consultations between ministries and agencies concerned, the government decided to apply the Waste Disposal and Public Cleaning Law to the disposal of radioactive rubble.

The ministry had initially urged local governments not to move radioactive rubble out of temporary storage sites. However, it will explain its decision to local governments concerned and ask them to resume their disposal of contaminated rubble as early as the end of this month……….

The government will also try to form a consensus among Fukushima residents about its plan to build final disposal sites for radioactive waste in the prefecture….http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110620p2a00m0na017000c.html

June 21, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Tokyo residents fearful, as radiation ‘hot spots’ confirmed, far from Fukushima

Some city, ward, town and village governments in the Tokyo metropolitan area have started doing their own radiation checks. An increasing number of citizens also are apparently checking radiation levels themselves…..

Precise response needed to quell ‘hot spot’ concerns,The Yomiuri Shimbun,18 June 11 As the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant continues to unfold, high radiation readings have been confirmed in several isolated areas outside evacuation zones. Residents in these areas are feeling increasingly anxious about their radiation exposure.The government must quickly expand the scope of radiation measurements to grasp the actual condition on the ground and take steps to remedy the problem.”Hot spots” with high levels of radiation also were detected after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in the former Soviet Union. Some were several thousand kilometers from the Chernobyl plant. Continue reading →

June 20, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Japan’s green tea industry hit with radiation crisis

VIDEO Crisis brewing as Japan’s tea farmers face radiation ban June 19, 2011CNN) — Japan’s green tea fields sway in the early summer winds, the picture of bucolic beauty. But beneath these peaceful rows of young green buds, ready for the second harvest of the year, a national crisis is brewing.Earlier this month, Japan’s government banned green tea from parts of three prefectures: Tochigi, Chiba and Kanagawa; and banned tea from all of a fourth prefecture, Ibaraki.The authorities had detected levels of radioactive cesium in tea leaves above the legal limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram.Now the discovery of radiation in fields further south in Shizuoka, Japan, some 400 kilometers away from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, threatens the most robust tea-producing region in Japan.The Shizuoka government says it asked five tea manufacturing plants in the Warashina district of Shizuoka to voluntarily stop shipping green tea leaves, after tests revealed dried tea contained 581 to 654 becquerels of cesium per kilogram…Crisis brewing as Japan’s tea farmers face radiation ban – CNN.com

June 20, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Radiation rise forces Japan to halt Fukushima water clean-up

Japan nuclear: Radiation halts water clean-up, The radioactive water will be temporarily stored in special tanks when it is removed from the site, BBC News 18 June 11 Operators of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant have suspended an operation to clean contaminated water hours after it began due to a rapid rise in radiation.

Some 110,000 tonnes of water have built up during efforts to cool reactors hit by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. The contaminated water, enough to fill 40 Olympic-sized swimming pools, has been at risk of spilling into the sea.

A spokesman for the plant operators said engineers were trying to find the cause of the jump in radiation levels.

“The level of radiation at a machine to absorb caesium has risen faster than our initial projections,” a spokesman for the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said. Earlier this week, officials had warned that the growing pools of radioactive water at the Fukushima Daiichi plant were in danger of spilling into the sea within a week….http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13819767

June 19, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Some Japanese mothers rebel against complacency about Fukushima radiation

Japan has long been a country that values consensus – and thus it’s particularly trying for mothers who are speaking out against the very system that’s responsible for educating their children. Most have invested in their own dosimeters, as the local government is not providing daily radiation readings.

The Geiger Club: Mothers Bust Silent Radiation Consensus, WSJ, By Mariko Sanchanta, 18 June 11″…….Some, who were due in March or April, gave birth overseas or as far away from Tokyo as possible. Most expat wives and their young kids left Japan, leaving their husbands here. Continue reading →

June 19, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment