TEPCO on a tightrope in attempt to move tons of radioactive water
Japan nuclear safety plans too lax for crowded, quake-prone nation, say nuclear experts The Star, By: Mari Yamaguchi The Associated Press,Apr 08 2013 TOKYO
“…….TEPCO is moving tons of highly radioactive water from the temporary tanks to two similar ones nearby to minimize the leak. They are among seven underground tanks of different sizes which employ the same design.
TEPCO admitted Sunday it had dismissed earlier signs of water loss as within a margin of error and waited until a spike in radiation levels around the tanks was detected. Critics suspect cash-strapped TEPCO built poorly designed underground pits instead of safer and more manageable steel tanks to save money. TEPCO has also been criticized for delaying replacement of makeshift equipment, raising questions about whether the plant is really under control.
The underground tanks, several times the size of an Olympic swimming pool and similar to an industrial waste dump, are dug directly into the ground and protected by double-layer polyethylene linings inside an outermost clay-based lining, with a felt padding between each layer. Officials suspect there were ruptures in the linings due to the weight of the water.
Contaminated water at the plant, which suffered multiple meltdowns after the 2011 disaster, has escaped into the sea several times during the crisis. Experts suspect a continuous leak into the ocean through an underground water system, citing high levels of contamination in fish caught in waters just off the plant.
The contaminated water in the tanks is part of more than 270,000 tons of water used to cool melted fuel at the plant’s reactors damaged in the disaster. So much water has been used that TEPCO is struggling to find storage space. The water is also kept in hundreds of steel tanks.
NRA commissioner Toyoshi Fuketa told reporters Monday that the water leak poses a more immediate threat to the plant’s water management than to the environment. He questioned TEPCO’s risk evaluation in the tanks’ design process, but acknowledged that regulators have to allow TEPCO to use the remaining underground tanks for now.
“Although we need more long-term plans, we have to tackle the most immediate problem first. TEPCO’s decommissioning process is a tightrope situation to begin with,” he said. http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/04/08/japan_nuclear_safety_plans_too_lax_for_crowded_quakeprone_nation_say_nuclear_experts.html
Another water storage tank leaking at Fukushima Daiichi power plant
Second leak detected at Fukushima nuclear plant Reuters | Apr 8, 2013, TOKYO: Radioactive water has apparently leaked from another underground storage tank at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said on Sunday.
The volume of the latest leakage was believed to be small, it said. On Saturday, it said as much as 120 tonnes of radioactive water may have %leaked from another nearby storage tank.
The plant’s seven storage tanks are lined with water proof sheets meant to keep the contaminated water from leaking into the soil.The power company has faced a range of problems with leaks and with the plant’s cooling system.
Tepco said on Friday it lost the ability to cool radioactive fuel rods in one of the plant’s reactors for about three hours, the second cooling system failure at the plant in three weeks.
Nuclear fuel, even after use, has to be kept cool to prevent it from overheating and beginning a self-sustaining atomic reaction that could lead to meltdown http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/Second-leak-detected-at-Fukushima-nuclear-plant/articleshow/19435752.cms
Fukushima Daiichi tank leaks 120 tons of radioactive water
Kyodo: Radioactive leak is up to 120 tons from Fukushima Daiichi tank http://enenews.com/kyodo-radioactive-leak-is-up-to-120-tons-from-fukushima-daiichi-tank-video 7 April 13
Kyodo News April 6, 2013: Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday that up to 120 tons of contaminated water may have leaked into soil from one of the seven underground reservoir tanks at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Around 13,000 cubic meters of contaminated water remain in the tank, with TEPCO having begun transferring it to other tanks nearby on Saturday morning, the utility said. It will take roughly two weeks to complete the transfer, TEPCO added. […]
NHK WORLD English: Tokyo Electric Power Company says a small amount of radioactive water may have seeped out of an underground water storage facility at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The water contained strontium. […] The level of radioactivity is considered by the utility to be low. […] The utility recently constructed 7 large-scale underground facilities for storing the water after removing some radioactive substances. Each facility can accommodate up to 14,000 tons of water. […]
RIA Novosti: : The company operating the disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP) in northern Japan warned about the possibility of radioactive water leak, the Kyodo news agency reported on Friday. […] Radioactive substances have been detected in the water that accumulated outside the tank, covered by three layers of waterproof sheets. The exact volume of leak is unknown, but radiation levels in the water stand at about 6,000 Becquerel per cubic centimeter. […]
Failure of Fukushima cooling system due to rat risk
“We were installing wire nets to keep the rats out. But the end of one of the wires may have momentarily come into contact with a live terminal,” said Masayuki Ono, general manager at Tepco’s Nuclear Power and Plant Siting Division. “The next moment, there were sirens.”
Rat Chase Again Bedevils Fukushima Nuclear Plant http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/06/world/asia/rat-chase-again-bedevils-fukushima-nuclear-plant.html?_r=0 By HIROKO TABUCHI April 5, 2013 TOKYO — Workers at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant who were installing wire nets Friday to keep rats away from a vital cooling system instead tripped up that system, causing it to fail for the second time in weeks. The spent-fuel pool at the site’s No. 3 reactor went without fresh cooling water for almost three hours on Friday afternoon, said the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco. Continue reading
Shellfish species disappears near Fukuhsima nuclear plant
UPI: ‘Shellfish gone near damaged nuke plant’ — Researcher: Likely extinct because of Fukushima nuclear crisis http://enenews.com/upi-shellfish-gone-near-damaged-nuke-plant-japan-researcher-extinction-likely-caused-by-fukushima-nuclear-crisis
April 2nd, 2013
Xinhua, April 1, 2013: Japanese researchers announced recently that a sort of shellfish called Thais clavigera disappeared in a 30-km coastal area near Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. […] Other shellfish species, such as Cellana grata, were found in the alert zone but the amount of them declined, with high dose of radioactive materials inside their bodies, according to the researchers. […] Toshihiro Horiguchi, a researcher from the environmental institute and the head of the team, said that it is a rare occurrence that Thais clavigera entirely disappeared from a 30-km long area, adding the extinct was probably caused by the nuclear crisis. The link between the disappearance and the catastrophic tsunami was excluded as the shell was also found in other areas that affected by the disaster, according to the team. […]
UPI, April 1, 2013: Shellfish gone near damaged nuke plant […] A species of shellfish has disappeared along an 18-mile stretch of coast near Japan’s devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, scientists say. […] Other shellfish species were found in the alert zone but their numbers had declined and high levels of radioactive materials were detected in them, the researchers said. Lead researcher Toshihiro Horiguchi said the disappearance of Thais clavigera was likely a result of radiation from the damaged plant. […]
See also: Study: Significant decrease in abundance of Fukushima birds and butterflies as radiation levels increase -NYT
AUDIO Groundwater flows from Fukushima reactors to the ocean
Tecpo shows groundwater flowing from Fukushima reactors into ocean April 2nd, 2013 http://enenews.com/tecpo-shows-groundwater-flowing-from-fukushima-reactors-into-ocean-photo
Title: Progress Status of the Groundwater Bypass Construction
Source: Tokyo Electric Power Company
Date: March 27, 2013
[…] Gradual Reduction of Groundwater
The groundwater level will be gradually reduced with the groundwater bypass put in operation. Careful water level control will be implemented to prevent the accumulated water in the buildings from leaking to the outside while monitoring the groundwater level reduction and its water quality. The sub-drains installed around the buildings will be fully utilized for the monitoring. An observation hole will be newly installed between the Reactor Building and the pump well. […]
See also: Graphic shows ‘direct discharge’ going from Fukushima Daiichi reactors into Pacific — Underground flow of contaminated water also indicated (VIDEO)
Physicians counter the lies of World Health Organisation, on Fukushima radiation
Even though the global media is controlled by just a handful of mega-corporations (4; 5), some people (perhaps too few of them) – to their credit – do not instantly accept the WHO’s findings and are now becoming more vocal in their demands for accurate information.
In contrast to WHO disinformation and what may only be described as pro-nuclear propaganda, a report from the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) has analyzed some of the available data from Japan and found “[t]he initial health consequences of the nuclear catastrophe are now, two years after the incident, scientifically verifiable” (9).
WHO Lies Refuted: Physicians’ Group
Predicts 100,000+ Fukushima
Cancer Incidences/Deaths
rense.com By Richard Wilcox, PhD
3-14-13 “All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out.” – I. F. Stone
In this new age of instant information, navigating the pitfalls of overload (too much); uncertainty (lack of); misinformation (poor quality); disinformation (intentional distortion, lies); is key in determining the scope of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and assessing immediate and long-term impacts on the international and Japanese public health. Fortunately we have one of the first attempts from researchers to set the record straight and calculate the death toll from the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The report comes from the courageous men and women of International Physicians for Preventing Nuclear War (IPPNW) who expose the Big Lie being perpetrated by the World Health Organization (WHO) that few ill health effects will occur.
Consider that it is standard operating procedure for governments and industry to obfuscate, cover-up and lie about a nuclear disaster as soon as it occurs. The chaos that unfolds during a nuclear disaster such as Fukushima is used in a carefully orchestrated Big Lie process whereby damage control and perception management allow the perpetrators of the Big Crime – Tokyo Electric Power Company, the Japanese government and the international nuclear apologists and nuclear industry – to eventually get off scot free (1).
Even though the Japanese government was fully aware that three reactors had melted down and another one severely damaged, and that people should have been evacuated in a much more bold and expedient manner, the phrase that will live in infamy, “there is no immediate danger,” was repeated during the worst days of the nuclear crisis by the government. …. Continue reading
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority suspect earthquake cause of Fukushima disaster
Japan: A New Nuclear Inquiry
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/world/asia/japan-a-new-nuclear-inquiry.html?_r=0By
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS March 27, 2013 Japanese government regulators
said Wednesday that for the first time they will conduct their own
investigation into the country’s nuclear crisis to address unanswered
questions. The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami cut power and
destroyed vital cooling systems at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant,
causing meltdowns at three of its reactors. Experts still suspect that
the quake, not the tsunami, may have set off the meltdowns.
The
Nuclear Regulation Authority said this issue, which could affect
antiquake measures at nuclear plants nationwide, would be part of its
investigation. The authority said the inquiry would also look into
other issues, including how much and from where radiation leaked at
the plant.
Increased radiation released as Fukushima cooling systems lost power
Fukushima Spews More Radiation … Due to Tepco’s Carelessness Zero Hedge by George Washington on 03/21/2013 Power was lost to the cooling systems to virtually all of the spent fuel pools at Fukushima for more than a day.
Some of these fuel pools have lost containment, and are arguably the top short-term threat to humanity … and America’s national security.
The loss of cooling increased the radiation output from the pools. And the loss of power was due to carelessness by the operator of the Fukushima reactors. As nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen notes:
Is TEPCO doing an adequate job of keeping the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power site safe?We don’t think so. Continue reading
High tadiation levels prevent workers from entering Fukushima nuclear reactors
Inside Fukushima two years on: radiation levels too high to enter reactorsTelegraph UK, 6 March 13, Two years on from the second-worst nuclear disaster in history, The Telegraph’s Julian Ryall visits the Fukushima nuclear plant to see what progress – if any – is being made. By Julian Ryall, Fukushima Nuclear Plant, Japan
Radiation levels within three of the reactor buildings at the Fukushima Nuclear plant in Japan are still too high for people to start decommissioning the reactors, two years on from the second-worst nuclear disaster in history.
Scientists still do not have a firm understanding of the precise conditions of the reactor cores in three of the six units at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and are resorting to using remote-controlled vehicles to get inside the tangle of wires, pipes and rubbles that has lain untouched since the tsunami tore through the facility. Continue reading
Fukushima nuclear reactors: water pumped in just leaks out
The melted core cracked the containment vessel, there really is no containment. So as soon as they pump the water in it leaks out again.
Loss of containment of nuclear fuel also exists within the spent fuel pools at Fukushima.
Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 3 Spent Fuel Pool – Fuel racks where refueling machine mast rests http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3A1YA1lt8k&feature=player_embedded
Nuclear Expert: “The Melted Core Cracked The Containment Vessel ” There Really Is No Containment” At Fukushima Reactors http://www.opednews.com/articles/Nuclear-Expert–The-Melte-by-G-Washington-130302-594.html Nuclear Cores and Spent Fuel Pools Have Both Lost Containment Steven Starr – Director of the Clinical Laboratory Science Program at theUniversity of Missouri/Senior Scientist at Physicians for Social Responsibility – said :
The Japanese basically lied about what happened with the reactors for months. They said they were trying to prevent a meltdown, when in fact they knew within the first couple of days Reactors 1, 2, and 3 at Fukushima Daiichi had melted down, and they actually melted through the steel containment vessels.
So there was a worst case scenario that they were trying to hide, they even knew that at that time enormous amounts of radiation were released over Japan and some of it even went over Tokyo […] Continue reading
Fukushima becoming like a totalitarian state
In his article, Nakajima likens the situation that of an almost totalitarian state, wherein one either adheres to the commonly held belief set or is seen as a potential threat
The government has created an environment wherein people are going about their daily lives, all the time wondering whether their child will develop cancer or leukemia, yet conditioned not to breathe a word about it. It’s like living in wartime Japan again.
Lead Architect of Microsoft Windows 95: Something very much amiss in Fukushima — Like an almost totalitarian state — People now saying “For the sake of my child’s health, I’m not going to think about radiationhttp://enenews.com/lead-architect-of-microsoft-windows-95-something-very-much-amiss-in-fukushima-like-an-almost-totalitarian-state-people-now-saying-for-the-sake-of-my-childs-health-im-not-go Title: Japanese Blogger’s Troubling Insight into the Psyche of Post-Disaster Fukushima Residents
Author: Philip Kendall
Date: Mar. 1, 2013
In just 10 days’ time, two years will have passed since the magnitude-9.03 earthquake […]
According to one former Fukushima resident, however, there is something very much amiss in the prefecture. […] Continue reading
Misleading information masks true level of radiation received by Fukushima workers
63 workers exposed to higher radiation than logged in their records,
March 02, 2013, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN by Toshio Tada and Jun Sato
Dozens of workers at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant
were exposed to radiation levels higher than those registered in their
personal records, according to a health ministry investigation. Continue reading
Workers say Fukushima radioactive debris dumped in a river
Fukushima cleanup workers break silence: Ordered to dump ‘debris’ into river — Gov’t “appeared not to believe him”http://enenews.com/fukushima-cleanup-workers-break-silence-ordered-to-dump-debris-into-river-govt-appeared-not-to-believe-him
March 2nd, 2013
Asahi Shimbun,, March 1, 2013: CROOKED CLEANUP: Workers break silence to allege boss ordered corner-cutting […] Three laborers involved in radioactive cleanup around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant have alleged that a supervisor told them to dump debris in a river […] At a news conference in the Diet building on Feb. 28, the men said a foreman ordered them to discard fallen branches and leaves into a river in an upland forest in Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture, in November 2012. […] this is the first time that decontamination workers have publicly come forward. […] The third man, in his 40s, said he related what had happened to officials at the Environment Ministry. He spoke to them for more than an hour, he said, but they appeared not to believe him. […]
See also: Asahi: River turned brown after dumping radioactive waste into water — “I was following an order, I am sorry for polluting
Ocean fish to be studied for Fukushima radiation
L.A. Times: NOAA to start testing wildlife for Fukushima contamination http://enenews.com/l-a-times-noaa-to-start-testing-wildlife-for-fukushima-radiation
February 26th, 2013
Title: Radioactive tuna from Fukushima? Scientists eat it up
Source: Los Angeles Times
Author: Eryn Brown
Date: February 25, 2013
Title: Radioactive tuna from Fukushima? Scientists eat it up
[…] In coming months, the three researchers and colleagues at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other institutions plan to analyze hundreds more bluefin tuna, as well as albacore tuna; mahi mahi; ocean sunfish; opa; mako, blue and salmon sharks; loggerhead turtles; and sooty shearwaters, a type of migratory seabird.
They’ll examine samples collected in New Zealand, Hawaii and Alaska as well as in California. They might look through archived specimens for salmon and whales to test. Other research groups may track the contamination to study marine animals too, [Dan Madigan of Stanford University] said.
If scientists find Fukushima radiation in swordfish, for example, it will be the first evidence that the species migrates across the entire Pacific. […]
“Amazing”
They concluded that their tracking method worked, and that Fukushima provided “an unprecedented opportunity” for scientists to use radioactive tracers to follow animal movement. “This was just nature being amazing,” [Nicholas Fisher of Stony Brook University] said.
He imagines pulling together a map of the Pacific crisscrossed by the paths of radiation-toting animals — “an amazing image of transport … all from a little dot” in Japan, Madigan said.
See also: HuffPost: “Radioactive Fish Found In California” — Is it a good thing?
1 This Month
10 March A LIVE WEBINAR THE REAL EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR POWER
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1:00 PM Mountain, 2 pm Central, 3 pm Eastern. Live on the Keepers of the Water Facebook page
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register for the zoom:
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of the week – STOP SMALL MODULAR REACTORS IN CANADA
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