395 bags of tainted material washed away in floods
Japan’s Environment Ministry says nearly 400 bags of weeds and other waste contaminated with radioactive materials were washed into a river during a torrential rain in Fukushima.
The plastic bags contained weeds, branches and soil from cleanup work in Iitate Village in the prefecture. The area was contaminated by fallout from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.
The bags were being stored on farmland near a river temporarily.
The ministry says that of the 395 bags that were washed away, 314 were recovered. But about half of them were torn, and their contents were empty.
Environment Minister Yoshio Mochizuki noted on Tuesday that the grass and branches in the bags had been collected recently and had relatively low radiation levels. He suggested that the possibility they will affect the environment is low.
He added that his ministry will work to recover the remaining bags and implement measures to prevent a recurrence.
Source: NHK
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150915_24.html
Tepco started discharging contaminated groundwater beside crippled reactor buildings
Tepco started discharging the contaminated groundwater to the Pacific on 9/14/2015, Tepco reported.
It was discharged for nearly 6 hours in daytime. The reported volume of contaminated water was 838 tons.
The discharged water was pumped up from 20 of 41 wells called “sub-drain” situated beside crippled reactor buildings 1 ~ 4.
10,800,000 Bq/m3 of Cs-134/137 and 16,000,000 Bq/m3 of Tritium were measured from the water pumped this August. Tepco announced they purified water before discharging, however unremovable nuclide Tritium still remains in water. 390,000 ~ 600,000 Bq/m3 of Tritium was detected from “filtered” water from third party organization’s analysis.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/tepconews/library/archive-j.html?video_uuid=q2f3u22p&catid=69619
http://www.tepco.co.jp/decommision/planaction/sub-drain/index-j.html
http://www.tepco.co.jp/cc/press/2015/1259086_6818.html
http://www.tepco.co.jp/cc/press/2015/1259171_6818.html
http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2015/images/handouts_150902_07-j.pdf
http://www.tepco.co.jp/cc/press/2015/1259687_6818.html
http://www.tepco.co.jp/cc/press/2015/1259973_6818.html
http://www.tepco.co.jp/cc/press/2015/1259923_6818.html
Source: Fukushima Diary
[Video] Tepco started discharging contaminated groundwater beside crippled reactor buildings
850 tons of ‘decontaminated’ Fukushima water dumped into ocean
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) that operates the crippled nuclear plant released its first 850 tons of filtered radioactive groundwater by sundown on September 14. This is a part of TEPCO’s “subdrain plan” that was approved in late July after a year-long battle with local fishermen who opposed the release fearing that it would pollute the ocean and contaminate marine life.
A third party panel has given the green light to the release after confirming that the radioactive content was below measurable limits, according to The Japan Times. TEPCO allows one becquerel of radioactive cesium per liter of decontaminated groundwater, three becquerels for elements that emit beta rays and up to 1,500 becquerels for tritium, which cannot be removed with existing technology.
Monday’s batch measured 330 to 600 becquerels per liter, TEPCO said, citing analyses conducted by the company and an outside organization.
TEPCO has yet to deal with remaining 680,000 tons of water that was used to cool the reactors during the 2011 meltdown.
“The risk that you run is that you have all these tanks full of water,” Dale Klein, the chairman of a committee created to prevent possible meltdowns, told AFP. “The longer you store the water, the more likely you are going to have (an) uncontrolled release,” he said. Klein added that he hopes the supplies will be released from storage in the next three years.
TEPCO, much criticized for handling the tsunami-triggered meltdown at Fukushima No.1 reactors, is running behind schedule on a project to build a huge underground ice barrier – the “ice wall” – around Fukushima plant as it tries to stop groundwater from reaching the reactor building basements.
In addition, flooding from Typhoon Etau caused new leaks of contaminated water to flow from the Fukushima nuclear power station into the ocean last week. The incident came after a rush of water overwhelmed the site’s drainage pumps.
Source: RT
https://www.rt.com/news/315350-fukushima-decontaminated-water-ocean/
Tepco dumps treated groundwater in Pacific to ease toxic water buildup at Fukushima No. 1
This article was removed from the Japan Times website certainly due to censorship. Maybe someone did not like something said in it or its style. Luckily i had already copied it early when it came out and before they deleted it.
FUKUSHIMA – Tepco on Monday discharged into the ocean filtered groundwater taken from wells around the damaged reactor buildings at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in an effort to curb the buildup of toxic water.
The project has been touted as one of Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s key measures in tackling the contaminated water problem.
Some 300 tons of untainted groundwater seeps into the buildings each day, where it mixes with water made radioactive by keeping the damaged reactors cool.
By pumping up groundwater through 41 wells and discharging it into the sea after treatment, the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. hope to halve the amount flowing into the reactor buildings.
On Monday, Tepco released some 850 tons of filtered groundwater — part of some 4,000 tons pumped up last year on a trial basis and stored in tanks — after confirming that radiation levels were below measurable limits.
Tritium, which cannot be removed with existing technology, measured 330 to 600 becquerels per liter, well below the legally allowable limit of 1,500 becquerels, the utility said, citing analyses conducted by the company and an outside organization.
Fishermen in Fukushima Prefecture had long opposed releasing the water over concerns it would pollute the ocean and contaminate marine life, but signed off on the plan in August.
In exchange, the fishermen demanded among other things that Tepco and the government continue paying compensation for as long as the nuclear plant damages their business.
Tepco is running behind schedule on a project to build a huge underground ice wall at the site, another key measure to prevent groundwater from reaching the reactor building basements.
Source: Japan Times
Partially Decontaminated Groundwater release starts at Fukushima Daiichi. Sept 14, 2015
TEPCO releases first batch of decontaminated Fukushima groundwater to sea
Tokyo Electric Power Co. was set to release 850 tons of treated radioactive groundwater into the sea off the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant by sundown on Sept. 14.
The discharge marks the first release under the utility’s “subdrain plan,” an additional measure conceived to help diminish the build-up of contaminated groundwater at the crippled facility.
TEPCO began discharging water after a third-party panel confirmed that the radioactive content was below the standard set by the utility.
The plan utilizes subdrains, which are essentially wells set up around the main buildings of the power plant to collect groundwater flowing into the complex. Once the groundwater has been pumped from those wells, it undergoes decontamination in a special facility for release into the ocean after being checked for radioactive content.
The Fukushima Prefectural Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations gave the green light to the operation on Aug. 11, and TEPCO began pumping in earnest on Sept. 3.
The release of the first batch of decontaminated groundwater, which had been stored in a tank since last year, started around 10 a.m. The water collected from Sept. 3 will be released in a few days.
TEPCO’s standard is set at 1 becquerel of radioactive cesium per liter of decontaminated groundwater, 3 becquerels for elements that emit beta rays and 1,500 becquerels for tritium–a substance which is very hard to treat.
As for now, the utility plans to pump 100 to 200 tons of groundwater daily, but will increase the volume to 500 tons if it does not encounter any problems with the decontamination facilities.
TEPCO believes the subdrains can halve the approximately 300 tons of daily groundwater buildup at the plant. However, the utility is uncertain how many months it will take to see whether this holds true.
Source: Asahi Shimbun
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201509140069
Partially Decontaminated Groundwater release starts at Fukushima Daiichi
The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has started releasing groundwater into the sea pumped up from around reactor buildings. The water is decontaminated and monitored before releasing.
The government and Tokyo Electric Power Company say the release is aimed at reducing the daily production of radioactive wastewater by half. The work began at around 10 AM on Monday.
300 tons of contaminated water has been produced daily in the damaged reactor buildings due to flow-in of groundwater.
By evening the operator plans to release some 850 tons of groundwater. This is from the 4,000 tons it has already pumped up from wells around reactor buildings since August last year. The groundwater has been cleaned to permissible radioactive levels.
Workers will continue to release the stored water for 3 more days this time.
Municipalities and local fishermen worry about possible effects on the environment if something goes wrong. The government and the Tokyo Electric Power say they will conduct strict monitoring of the discharge.
Source: NHK
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150914_22.html
Japan: call by former Prime Minister Koizumi for a national anti nuclear movement
Koizumi calls for national movement to lead fight against nuclear power,September 13, 2015 HE ASAHI SHIMBUN by Shinichi Sekine and Takashi Funakoshi
Although he has no plans to return to national politics, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi tells the electorate not to lose hope in the campaign against nuclear power. In an exclusive interview with The Asahi Shimbun in Tokyo, Koizumi called for a national movement to steer Japan away from nuclear plants. “We should patiently continue to make efforts toward such a movement,” he said on Sept. 9. “It is worth our efforts.”
In the first interview Koizumi, 73, has granted to a media outlet since he stopped down as prime minister in September 2006, the theme was nuclear power. The former prime minister denounced the Abe administration for pushing to rely on nuclear energy despite the 2011 Fukushima disaster, calling the recent restart of a nuclear power station “wrong.”
“Japan will be all right even if all its nuclear power plants are abandoned right now,” he said.
While in office from 2001 to 2006, Koizumi, of the Liberal Democratic Party, had promoted nuclear power generation in line with previous governments’ policy. Koizumi, however, had a dramatic change of heart in the wake of the triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011, pointing to the potential danger of nuclear plants.
Last year, he actively campaigned in the Tokyo gubernatorial election for former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa on a primarily anti-nuclear platform. Hosokawa placed third in the race, behind winner Yoichi Masuzoe, who was backed by the ruling LDP.
Koizumi said the costs of bolstering the safety of nuclear power stations in quake-prone Japan would prove massive, citing powerful temblors in recent years such as the 2007 Niigata Chuetsu-oki Earthquake and 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
“Nuclear power plants are not safe,” he said. “If additional precautions are taken (to help prepare nuclear facilities for a giant quake), it will cost a huge amount of money.”
The former prime minister also hit back at the government’s argument that continuing with nuclear power will be a step in the right direction in terms of addressing global warming, given it does not emit carbon dioxide while generating electricity.
“Nuclear power is not clean at all,” he said. “It is obvious that nuclear power also generates ‘nuclear waste’ (highly radioactive waste), which is more dangerous than carbon dioxide (that is spewed by thermal power plants).”
Koizumi criticized Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for “being influenced by promoters of nuclear power” and pressing ahead with the restart of a nuclear power plant……… http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201509130042
Iodine-131 detected from dried sewage sludge in Funabashi city of Chiba
From this May to June, Iodine-131 was measured from dried sewage sludge according to Funabashi city government of Chiba.
They collect the samples from 2 sewage plants in the city. This May, 38 Bq/Kg of Iodine-131 was measured from one of the plants. This June, 19 Bq/Kg of Iodine-131 was also detected from the other plant.
Cs-134/137 was also detected. 12 Bq/Kg of Cs-137 was measured from the former sample. 91 Bq/Kg of Cs-134/137 was measured from the latter sample.
They don’t analyze other nuclides. Regarding this detection of Iodine-131, Funabashi city government has not made any comment.
Related article.. I-131 detected from dehydrated sludge of sewage plant in Gunma [URL]
http://www.city.funabashi.chiba.jp/machi/gesui/0001/gesui-odei27.html
Source: Fukushima Daiichi
Iodine-131 detected from dried sewage sludge in Funabashi city of Chiba
Nearly 70,000 evacuees still living in shoddy temporary housing
Temporary housing in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture
Tens of thousands of evacuees from the earthquake and tsunami disaster in 2011 are still living in temporary shelters designed to last only two years.
Most of the 68,000 evacuees are from the hardest-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.
Temporary prefabricated housing was erected hastily because so many people lost their homes and livelihoods in the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake and ensuing towering tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan.
Under the central government’s system to help victims of natural disasters, such prefabricated homes are to be used, in principle, for just two years.
The scale of the disaster led to delays in constructing more permanent public housing for those made homeless.
Many of the communities devastated by the tsunami in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures are trying to build new public housing units for disaster victims on higher ground, but that is proving difficult because the coastal areas are so flat.
In the case of the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995, all evacuees had left temporary housing and were relocated in 25,000 public housing units just five years after the disaster.
It has been estimated that 29,501 public housing units need to be built for the victims of the 2011 disaster. But as of July, only 11,000 units had been completed.
Officials say construction of all the needed public housing will likely not be completed until fiscal 2018.
Many of those still living in the temporary housing units are senior citizens or those on low incomes who face difficulties in finding other housing on their own.
That is one reason there has only been a 40 percent decrease in the number of evacuees from the peak figure in March 2012. About 199,000 people are still living as evacuees.
About 10 percent of those in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures living in temporary housing either said they were unsure where they would go after leaving those units or local government officials could not confirm the intentions of the evacuees.
In Fukushima Prefecture, about 20,000 evacuees live in temporary housing units. Because nine local communities are still covered by evacuation orders due to the Fukushima nuclear accident that was triggered by the earthquake and tsunami disaster, about 70,000 residents are unable to return to their homes.
In a related development, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency updated its figures on the number of dead and missing from the 2011 disasters to 21,955 as of Sept. 1 against 18,554 on Sept 12, 2012. It said the number of fatalities includes those who died while living as evacuees.
Source: Asahi Shimbun
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/recovery/AJ201509120035
Bags of tainted waste swept into Fukushima river during torrential rain
FUKUSHIMA–Seven sites for radioactive waste generated from the Fukushima nuclear crisis were submerged during torrential rain in eastern Japan on Sept. 11, raising fears over a possible radiation spill into the environment.
The temporary storage sites, located in Kawamata, Naraha and other municipalities near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, store soil, grass and other radiation-tainted waste generated by decontamination work due to the 2011 triple meltdown.
In Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, where all residents remain evacuated, at least 82 black polyethylene bags containing tainted grass and other waste were swept from a site of decontamination work into a river.
Each bag can hold 1 cubic meter of waste.
An Iitate town official alerted the Environment Ministry’s Fukushima Office for Environmental Restoration around 6 a.m. on Sept. 11 that bags of waste were being swept away.
By 6 p.m., officials had retrieved 37 of the 82 bags. The remaining 45 bags got stuck under bridges and other obstacles along the river.
Ministry officials said none of the bags located thus far had spilled their contents and the impact on the environment was minimal.
At the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, heavy rain caused radiation-tainted rainwater to spill into the ocean outside the plant’s harbor from the drainage system that encircles the reactor buildings on Sept. 9 and Sept. 11, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
Floodgates normally block tainted water from reaching the ocean from drainage ditches, but the torrential rains overwhelmed the gates twice in the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 9 and Sept. 11, the plant operator said.
Utility officials said rainfall increases the radioactive level of the water in the drainage system as rainwater accumulates radioactive materials in surrounding soil when it flows in the ditches.
While the drainage water usually contains less than 100 becquerels of beta-ray-emitting radioactive substances per liter, the water measured 750 becquerels per liter on Sept. 11, TEPCO officials said.
Source: Asahi Shimbun
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201509120043
Flooding swept away radiation cleanup bags in Fukushima
Black plastic bags containing irradiated soil, leaves and debris from the decontamination operation are dumped at a seaside in Tomioka, Fukushima, near Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s crippled Fukushima No. 1
nuclear power plant in February
Bags filled with grass and soil from work to remove radioactive substances spewed by the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant were swept away in the flooding of rivers in Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, the Environment Ministry said.
A total of 82 of the bags were discovered, with 37 of them recovered Friday, though it remained unclear how many had been washed away, the ministry said.
Scores of 1,000-liter bags were used during the cleanup work, mainly to store surface soil that had been contaminated from the release at the plant, which was heavily damaged in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Source: Japan Times
Japan ignores post Fukushima nuclear safety guidelines
Who Opens a Reactor Next to a Volcano? Japan’s New Nuclear Gamble, The Daily Beast, 11 Sept 15
Massive earthquakes, volcanoes, tidal waves, and natural disasters galore—Japan would seem a rather precarious perch for nuclear power plants. Flooding from Tropical Storm Etau, which overwhelmed the water pumps at the infamous ruins of Fukushima, washing more radioactive waste into the ocean, ought to serve as yet another reminder of how fragile Japan’s atomic energy program really is.
But is anyone paying attention?
Last week the International Atomic Energy Agency sounded a barely heard alarm. In its final report on the March 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the UN watchdog blasted Tokyo Electric Power Co. for not taking sufficient disaster precautions. “A major factor that contributed to the accident was the widespread assumption in Japan that its nuclear power plants were so safe,” it noted.
The report should have been taken as a warning. It was mostly ignored.
Among its recommendations: “Pre-accident planning for post-accident recovery is necessary to improve decision-making under pressure in the immediate post-accident situation.”
On Sept. 1, Japan’s National Disaster Prevention Day, The Mainichi newspaper ran a story showing that absolutely nothing had been done in the three years since the government ordered new disaster-response guidelines for 17 nuclear research and storage facilities—including the Rokkasho facility in Aomori, which has enough plutonium to make hundreds of nuclear bombs.
Meanwhile, Japan’s first nuclear reactor to be restarted after the shutdown in 2011, at Sendai, went back online on Aug. 11. Things have not been going smoothly.
On Aug. 20, an alarm at Unit No. 1 went off at 2:19 p.m. after seawater apparently leaked into the reactor’s secondary cooling system. Plans to return to full capacity were delayed. The restart had been delayed again and again—and for good reasons………
human error isn’t Japan’s only matter of serious concern: In addition to Etau’s nearly three feet of rain and an onslaught of other typhoons this year, there’s Mount Sakurajima, a volcano 30 miles from the reactor in southern Kagoshima prefecture that’s showing signs of having a major eruption. On Aug. 15, the national meteorological agency advised people within two miles of the crater to leave the area.
The NRA states that the volcano doesn’t pose a threat to the nuclear power plant.
According to Kyushu Electric Power, there are 14 known active volcanoes within 100 miles of the Sendai reactor. The company says its new equipment is fully prepared to withstand 15 centimeters (or about 6 inches) of volcanic ash. In a country that’s home to 10 percent of the world’s known active volcanoes, not everyone is convinced by those assurances.
Why the rush to put a nuclear plant online in the first place?……..
Japan’s big business association [Keidanren] is also under the strong influence of the nuclear power lobby, and it has long demanded that the government restart the plants as soon as possible,” said Prof. Koichi Nakano, an expert on Japanese politics at Tokyo’s Sophia University. “The ‘nuclear village’ is very well represented among the power elite behind the Abe government, so it has long thought that if this government cannot resume nuclear power generation, no other government can.”
“The problem for them is that the public remains very strongly opposed to nuclear power,” Nakano added. “The Sendai facilities in Kagoshima prefecture are far away from any major city in Japan, so presumably they thought that it is a suitable plant to start with. But given the strength of popular opposition, it won’t be easy to restart so many other plants as if nothing happened.”
But in light of the Fukushima disaster and the frequent seismic activity endemic to its Ring of Fire setting, is Japan’s reliance on nuclear energy a wise choice?…….
The restarts illustrate that the lessons of Fukushima are being ignored and that authorities are still wishing risk away,” says Prof. Jeff Kingston, author ofContemporary Japan. “The evacuation plans are a macabre joke. If there is an accident, it won’t be possible to get people out of harm’s way in an orderly and timely fashion. In the event of a tsunami, landslides, and or volcano eruption, many of the roads could become impassable. There is no Plan B.
“The new, so-called strict guidelines do not meet global standards and focus on hardware, whereas the main lesson of Fukushima is that human error was a major factor contributing to the meltdowns,” Kingston added. “It is clear that these significant risks remain unaddressed in the rush to restart. Yet again corners are being cut and public safety is being risked to help the bottom line.”
In the aftermath of Fukushima, former Prime Minister Kan Naoto, who was in charge during 2011’s triple disaster, acknowledged nuclear’s lethal uncertainties—and then one more. “Nuclear power is a huge risk. Not to mention the possibility of human error. And the Fukushima accident also showed the world how vulnerable nuclear power plants could be to terrorism,” Naoto wrote in his memoirs in 2012. “Terrorists don’t have to bomb them, they just need to get inside and cut the power to potentially unleash great destruction.”
Unarmed guards protect Japan’s nuclear power plants, and background checks are not required for employees. Members of organized crime, the yakuza, staff construction teams and work within the plants. The Japanese government has acknowledged in reports that not only is there a threat from outsiders storming the nuclear plants, but also a high risk from workers already inside—in other words, terrorists might walk through the front doors as employees.
And there is another time bomb ticking here for the Abe administration: Japan’s anti-nuclear activists and the courts……….http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/11/who-opens-a-reactor-next-to-a-volcano-japan-s-new-nuclear-gamble.html
Tepco investigated equipment hatch of Reactor 3 PCV / “Next time, use robot with a smartphone”
On 9/9/2015, Tepco investigated the equipment hatch of PCV 3 (Reactor 3 PCV) with a portable camera.
They reported the hatch is not leaking coolant water from the inside of PCV 3, nor was damaged however the floor was wet and didn’t confirm where the water was leaking.
None of the atmospheric dose or nuclide analysis data was released. On the other hand, the video shows the white noise caused by extremely high level of radiation.
Considering what they have found in this investigation, Tepco is to decide to send a remote-controlling robot for the next phase. The robot is planned to carry a “smartphone camera” for some reason.
The plan image of the new robot to investigate inside PCV 3. A smartphone is used as its camera.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2015/images/handouts_150909_12-j.pdf
http://photo.tepco.co.jp/date/2015/201509-j/150909-03j.html
Source: Fukushima Diary
Kyushu Electric begins fueling second Sendai reactor
Kyushu Electric Power Co. said Friday it was loading fuel into the second reactor at its Sendai nuclear power plant, bringing it a step closer to a planned mid-October restart.
The No. 2 reactor at the two-unit plant will be the second nationwide to secure a restart since regulators imposed tighter safety requirements on the industry following the Fukushima nuclear crisis. Kyushu Electric reactivated the No. 1 unit at the complex on Aug. 11, which marked a revival of nuclear power generation in Japan after a two-year hiatus.
On Friday, the utility began inserting a total of 157 fuel rod assemblies into the No. 2 reactor — a process that is expected to take about four days to complete.
The government identifies nuclear power as a key electricity source. It is promoting the restarting of idled reactors even though anti-nuclear sentiment remains strong among the public.
However, the outlook for the resumption of other nuclear reactors remains uncertain due to hurdles such as the need for prolonged safety screenings by the regulator.
Kyushu Electric expects its earnings to improve by ¥15 billion a month when the two units are online, potentially putting it into the black this business year for the first time in five years.
Source: Japan Times
Bags of Radioactive waste spilled after torrential rain.
First thing that came to mind was “how would those radioactive waste filled bags hold during yesterday’s torrential rain in Ibaraki, Tochigi and Fukushima which forced thousands and thousands to evacuate?” . Predictable answer is “they did not”!
Exhibit A; The village of Iitate Mura, Fukushima
Under the influence of heavy rain the river bed overflown and spilled and shredded bags of temporarily stored radioactive waste (tainted grass, soil and other radioactive substances removed during decontamination).
There were several places in Fukushima where radioactive waste was spilled, but so far, the most hit place is Sekizawa. It is reported there are unidentified number of similar black bags are scattered around at multiple locations like this one. And each bag contains radioactivity of 0.5 to 1 μSv/hour.
For years these bags have been piling up, in open air, often abandoned on the side of roads or hidden in a forest nearby. There are hundreds of sites hosting this dangerous material in those three prefectures. Most of the bags are starting to deteriorate as they are meant to last up 2 to 3 years only. But yet again, the government keeps on ignoring even the simplest of predictable outcomes – such as heavy rains from a Japanese trademark; Typhoons. We know that, most of the population knows that – but the government keeps on turning a blind eye and mixing up priorities. Securing these radioactive bags should have come before the Olympics. So much shame and laziness of the mind
Entire homes and cars were carried away on the torrent as the Kinugawa River burst its banks after two days of heavy rainfall.
In Tochigi, more than 500mm (19 inches) of rain fell in 24 hours in places, according to local public broadcaster NHK, which said that was about double what normally falls there throughout the whole of September.
Parts of central Tochigi have seen almost 60cm of rain since Monday evening, breaking records.
Many other areas of eastern and north-eastern Japan have also been issued weather warnings, including Fukushima prefecture, home to the still-damaged nuclear plant hit in 2011’s earthquake and tsunami.
The downpour overwhelmed the site’s drainage pumps, a spokesman for operator Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) said. Huge volumes of water, used to cool the plant’s crippled reactors, are being stored at the site.
Source:Evacuate Fukushima
http://www.evacuate-fukushima.com/2015/09/bags-of-radioactive-waste-spilled-after-torrential-rain/
82 Contaminated Waste Bags From Fukushima Washed Away By Typhoon Flood
At least 82 bags filled with contaminated material from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have been swept away by flood water as typhoon Etau hit Japan, officials said. TEPCO said rainwater from the nuclear plant has been leaking into the Pacific.
Flooding caused by Tropical Typhoon Etau has swept at least 82 bags suspected to contain radioactive grass and other contaminated materials that had been collected at the site of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP).
They had been stored in a nearby town in the same prefecture, the Environment Ministry said on Friday, according to local media. Though the Ministry went on to say that most of the bags had been recovered undamaged, local media reported that only 30 of the bags had been found.
Officials said the flooding had not reached the nuclear reactors damaged in the 2011 disaster, when the NPP was hit by a tsunami that had been caused by an earthquake. The nuclear disaster at Fukushima, which took place over four years ago, was dubbed the worst since the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident.
Earlier on Friday, Tokyo Electric Power CO. (TEPCO), the company in charge of the damaged NPP, said that one of the holding tanks on the premises of the plant has been leaking drainage rainwater into the ocean. Later in the day, TEPCO said the leakage had been stopped. According to the company’s website, there have been several similar cases in recent days.
“On September 9th and 11th, due to typhoon no.18 (Etau), heavy rain caused Fukushima Daiichi K drainage rainwater to overflow to the sea,” TEPCO said, adding that the samples taken on Wednesday “show safe, low levels” of radiation.
“From the sampling result of the 9th, TEPCO concluded that slightly tainted rainwater had overflowed to the sea; however, the new sampling measurement results show no impact to the ocean,” it continued.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga warned that the rainwater drenching the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant could flow into the Pacific Ocean, the Japan Times reported on Friday. However, he told reporters that the radiation level of such rainwater would be “sufficiently below” the legally permitted level.
TEPCO said on Friday it will continue to monitor the ocean to “ensure the water quality” and has taken “multiple precautionary measures” to protect the ocean water nearby.
Tens of thousands of Japanese people were ordered to leave their homes across the country as typhoon Etau hit Japan this week. The flooding resulting from the torrential rains has been dubbed the worst in 50 years. As a result, three people have been killed, 27 injured and 26 are still missing across Japan.
Meanwhile, Japan officially restarted the No. 1 reactor of the Sendai nuclear power plant for the first time in two years on Thursday. The reactor resumed commercial operations after receiving the approval of the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA). Kyushu Electric Power Co., the operator of the Sendai plant, plans to launch the plant’s No. 1 reactor in mid-October.
After the disaster at Fukushima on March 11, all nuclear reactors in Japan were shut down. Due to electricity shortages, two reactors at Kansai Electric Power’s Oi plant in the Fukui Prefecture were temporarily restarted. However, they were taken offline again in September 2013.
Source: RT
http://www.rt.com/news/315098-radiadion-fukushima-waste-leak/
Typhoon Etau flooded Fukushima Daiichi
Heavy rains in north eastern Japan have caused flooding at Fukushima Daiichi. Rivers in the region have flooded and a number of nearby towns have declared flood alerts. JMA reported flooding in Tomioka and Futaba near the plant. While TEPCO has not released a clear report on ongoing problems at the plant, bits of information came out in the routine reporting.
K drainage, one of the existing rainwater drainage systems known to transport contaminated runoff out of the plant over topped its containment system. Contaminated water reached the open ocean. Radiation levels recorded on the 9th showed moderately contaminated water was leaking.
K drainage as of the 9th
130 bq/liter c134
550 bq/liter c137
970 bq/liter beta
TEPCO did announce that they were now diverting K drainage water into the C drainage control system.
“※ camera for drainage of K drainage is, by providing a weir at the same drainage channel, we have established a transfer pump but has been transferred to the C drainage channel leading to the harbor within, September 9, which was placed in a K drainage After a review of the video, due to the influence of rainfall, over the rainwater weir between 0:28 minutes to 2:34 and 3:58 minutes to 4:24, it is drainage part to the open ocean side Make sure. After that, all rainwater K drainage channel is transferred to C drainage, no drainage to the open ocean. “
The B&C drainage systems at the plant were closed due to leaks at the H5 tank farm on the 9th. This system is known to transport contaminated soil and debris to the open ocean if the system is left open during spills or heavy rain events. TEPCO has not said if they have been able to successfully deal with the volume of water that flows out of this system.
Unit 1 work was suspended due to weather on the 9th.
The C tank farm has seen rain water leak out of the weir for this tank group. Water was being pumped out of the weir to prevent further leakage. Radiation readings for the leaking water were reported by TEPCO.
C plant (C East area and West area C) outside analysis of rainwater in the Weir
< Stormwater C East in the Weir area>
• Cesium–134: detection limits (0.59 Bq/L) less than
And cesium–137: detection limits (0.71 Bq/L) less than
–All beta: 30 Bq/L
< C West area in the Weir in rainwater>
• Cesium–134: detection limits (0.60 Bq/L) less than
And cesium–137: detection limits (0.72 Bq/L) less than
–All beta: 25 Bq/L
< C plant outside in rainwater>
• Cesium–134: detection limit value (0.70 Bq/L) less than
• Cesium 137:1.1 Bq/L
–All beta: 44 Bq/L
1 This Month
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