MINAMI-SOMA, Fukushima Prefecture–The central government lifted on Dec. 28 the last recommended evacuation advisory for several districts in this city, saying radiation levels from the nuclear accident fell below the annual exposure limit.
However, many of the residents of 152 households within these districts voiced their opposition to the lifting.
The central government designated areas that registered high radiation levels outside the zones under mandatory evacuation orders as specific recommended evacuation spots following the triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The residents living within these locales were encouraged to evacuate from their homes.
The districts in Minami-Soma were designated as such because they were at risk of exceeding the annual accumulated dose limit of 20 millisieverts, or 3.8 microsieverts per hour.
The central government in June 2011 issued the advisory for some locales in the cities of Minami-Soma and Date and the village of Kawauchi, all in Fukushima Prefecture, home to 281 households. The advisory for Date and Kawauchi was lifted earlier.
Central government officials explained their latest decision to the residents and local officials, saying that the health risks are not expected because radiation levels in their sites now measure well below the designated limit of 20 millisieverts.
They also presented support measures to encourage the residents to return to their homes.
However, evacuee Katsuji Sato, among the residents of the 152 households, said he would not immediately return home.
The 79-year-old, who lives in temporary housing in Minami-Soma, had lived in a family of six of four generations before the Great East Earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, set off the nuclear disaster.
Sato’s mother died where she evacuated to, and his eldest son, the son’s wife and their elementary school child moved to Miyagi Prefecture.
“My wife and I cannot return to our home even though we want to unless decontamination work is undertaken again,” Sato said.
The head of the Takakura district, right, reads aloud a statement in opposition to the lifting of a recommended evacuation advisory to officials of the nuclear emergency local response headquarters
Fukushima rocked by strongest quakes to hit country this month; Epicenter just offshore from reactors; Nuke plant cam shows shaking for over a minute — Top Japan Newspaper: ‘Major quake disasters could strike anywhere in nation’… Great increases in probability; Measures urgently needed (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/fukushima-rocked-strongest-quakes-hit-country-month-footage-nuke-plant-shows-shaking-minute-top-japan-newspaper-major-quake-disasters-could-strike-anywhere-nation-great-increases-perceived-probabil?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29
Yomiuri Shimbun, Dec. 24, 2014 (emphasis added): Major earthquake disasters could strike anywhere in the nation — What is the probability of a major earthquake striking each part of the nation? The government’s Headquarters for Earthqake Research Promotion has unveiled its 2014 version of a geographical forecast for massive quakes… A glance at the map shows us that no region in this nation is free from the risk of seismic disaster… The data in question shows that no further delay may be permitted in taking necessary measures… Despite theurgent need for measures to cope with the situation, some municipal governments have not done enough… In producing the latest version, the headquarters expanded the scope of the areas with estimated epicenters while also extending the scales for predicted quakes. This resulted ingreat increases in the perceived probability of a major earthquake striking some areas, including Saitama [north of Tokyo]. The figure for the city marked a 21-point increase to 51 percent.
Prensa Latina, Dec 25, 2014: 5.5 Magnitude Quake Rocks Japan — A 5.5 magnitude quake rocked northeastern Japan yesterday night… The medium-intensity quake [was centered off] Futaba district, Fukushima, with epicenter at a depth of 30 km.
Epoch Times (China), Dec 25, 2014: Earthquake Today in Japan: Strong Quake Off Coast of Fukushima on Christmas… The US Geological Survey said the quake… was measured at 5.5-magnitude… The quake had a depth of 6.2 miles, said the USGS.
The Herald, Dec 21, 2014: Earthquake hits near Fukushima — A 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit Japan’s Honshu island… shaking Fukushima where crippled nuclear power plants are located… A spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power said no irregularities have been found at its Fukushima Daiichi or Daini plants.
Ministry, TEPCO seek to end compensation for Fukushima businesses in Feb. 2016 Mainichi, 29 Dec 14The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) have proposed to Fukushima Prefecture’s commerce and industry federation a plan to end nuclear disaster compensation for businesses in February 2016, it has been learned.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and TEPCO presented the plan to the Fukushima Federation of Societies of Commerce and Industry on Dec. 25. The ministry and the utility told the federation that they plan to end compensation payments to all businesses, except for those in the agricultural, forestry and fisheries sectors, in February 2016. Ministry and utility officials explained that they would map out future policies after hearing claims from business owners.
The federation’s secretary-general, Hideki Endo, however, criticized the proposal.
“Fukushima business owners face different situations depending on their evacuation statuses and their business categories,” he said. “While we understand the need to draw the line somewhere, we cannot accept the end of compensation payments within a year and a few months from now when the nuclear disaster has still not been brought to a conclusion and there are no prospects that harmful rumors will end in the foreseeable future.”…….http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20141227p2a00m0na007000c.html
Gary Griggs, Our Ocean Backyard: Tracking Fukushima radiation across the PacificBy Gary Griggs, Our Ocean Backyard 26 Dec 14, Radiation from the meltdown of the three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in March 2011 quickly entered the offshore ocean.
The radiation was detected in the water immediately. Several species of fish caught offshore in 2011 and 2012 had radioactive cesium levels that exceeded Japan’s seafood consumption levels, but overall concentrations have dropped since the fall of 2011………..
Anything picked up by the Kuroshio Current as it passes by Japan, whether tsunami debris, glass fishing floats, or radioactive contaminants, heads towards North America, but slowly, a little more than 5 miles every day on average.
At this speed, water moving from Japan in a straight path would take about three years or longer to get to the west coast. Shortly after the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown and radiation release, oceanographers projected that it would likely take until 2014 until it reached the West Coast of North America……
the nuclear bomb testing that went on in the Pacific from the 1940s to the 1980s, contributed hundreds of times more radioactivity to the oceans than Fukushima. There is also uranium dissolved naturally in seawater.
So Fukushima is not the largest contributor to radiation in the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
772 interviews were conducted in 2011 and 2012 by a government committee that investigated the disaster.
The testimonies came mainly from government officials and staff from Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Some testimonies including those from then prime minister Naoto Kan, and then plant chief Masao Yoshida have already been released.
An additional 127 were made public on Thursday after receiving consent from interviewees.
Among those newly released is one from a worker at Tokyo Electric headquarters. He analyzed conditions inside the reactors in early April 2011 when the effects of the disaster began to unfold.
The official said he thought the upper half of the nuclear fuel rods at the No.1 reactor core must have completely melted. Cooling water was covering only the lower half of the rods.
But the employee added he remembered his company refrained from using the word “meltdown” in news briefings as much as possible. He said he heard TEPCO feared that a misunderstanding could occur as there was no exact definition for the term. Nuclear fuel melted at the No.1, 2 and 3 reactors. But Tokyo Electric admitted the possibility of meltdowns only in May 2011.
New method for contaminated water may be failing http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20141226_37.htmlTokyo Electric Power Company has indicated that a new method aimed at tackling a large volume of highly radioactive wastewater at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has not been entirely successful.
TEPCO gave a progress report on its work to a panel of experts at the Nuclear Regulation Authority on Friday.
The utility last month began pouring cement into underground tunnels filled with the contaminated water from the reactor buildings to stop the water inflow. The water is believed to be leaking into the sea.
TEPCO officials told the panel that workers have completely filled the U-shaped tunnels except for 4 vertical pits that connect the tunnels to the ground surface. They removed 2,500 tons of radioactive water.
But the officials said that when they pumped water up from one of the pits, the water level at another pit changed. That suggests that gaps exist in the concrete-filled tunnels. The officials argued that they can stop the water from flowing into the tunnels once the 4 vertical pits are filled. But panel members and authority commissioners said more thorough inspections are needed.
TEPCO plans to monitor water levels for a month, look for gaps, and study more effective ways to block the water.
The utility initially planned to freeze wastewater at the end of the tunnel to stop inflow from the reactor buildings and remove the water. But the plan did not work.
Fukushima ex-governor slams government for tardy radiation evacuation orders, Japan Times 26 Dec 14 JIJIFormer Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato had criticized the central government for failing to issue evacuation orders in a timely manner in March 2011 after the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant suffered three reactor core meltdowns and spewed radioactive fallout, according to records disclosed Thursday.
The central government at first did not provide any information about the meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, the records quoted Sato as saying.
“Because we received various information from local communities, I decided to issue an evacuation order,” Sato said.
The prefectural government issued an evacuation order on its own to people living within 2 km of the plant soon after the disaster started.
Tokyo Electric Power Company has indicated that a new method aimed at tackling a large volume of highly radioactive wastewater at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has not been entirely successful.
TEPCO gave a progress report on its work to a panel of experts at the Nuclear Regulation Authority on Friday.
The utility last month began pouring cement into underground tunnels filled with the contaminated water from the reactor buildings to stop the water inflow. The water is believed to be leaking into the sea.
TEPCO officials told the panel that workers have completely filled the U-shaped tunnels except for 4 vertical pits that connect the tunnels to the ground surface. They removed 2,500 tons of radioactive water.
But the officials said that when they pumped water up from one of the pits, the water level at another pit changed. That suggests that gaps exist in the concrete-filled tunnels.
The officials argued that they can stop the water from flowing into the tunnels once the 4 vertical pits are filled. But panel members and authority commissioners said more thorough inspections are needed.
TEPCO plans to monitor water levels for a month, look for gaps, and study more effective ways to block the water.
Japan Atomic Power set to deploy 100 specialists to help with Fukushima dismantling THE ASAHI SHIMBUN by Daiki Koga and Tsuyoshi Nagano, 25 Dec 14 Japan Atomic Power Co. is working on plans to send a team of more than 100 specialists, backed up by robotic technology, to the beleaguered Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to accelerate decommissioning work there……….
The plant operator finished removing nuclear fuel at the No. 4 reactor on Dec. 20 and is expected to start full-scale dismantling of the more problematic Nos. 1 to 3 reactors soon.
However, due to difficulties in preventing the spread of radioactive substances and removing debris around the reactor, the removal of fuel at the No. 1 reactor is estimated to start two to five years later than originally planned.
Some of the procedures are likely too difficult for TEPCO to undertake on its own, as the utility does not have sufficient experience in decommissioning nuclear reactors.
Workers in protective suits undertook the removal of fuel from the No. 4 reactor in rotation, as radiation levels were relatively low there. However, as radiation levels are much higher at the No. 3 reactor, the removal of fuel from its storage pool has to be conducted using remote-controlled robots……..http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201412250035
INTERVIEW/ Yukihiko Kayama: Experts should help Fukushima mothers speak up about radiation fears, Asahi Shimbun December 26, 2014 By YURI OIWA/ Staff Writer FUKUSHIMA--Psychiatrist Yukihiko Kayama said it is becoming more embarrassing, with the passage of time since the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011, for mothers in Fukushima Prefecture to casually discuss their fears of radiation.
In a recent interview with The Asahi Shimbun, Kayama attributed the trend to a “division” within the population of Fukushima Prefecture, whereby a divergence in their lifestyles according to their residential areas, available economic resources and other factors has made it difficult for them to relate to each other’s feelings.
He proposed meetings of experts with small audiences of residents, where participants could feel at ease talking about their own experiences, concerns and other problems. That would ease the speakers’ emotions to a certain extent, Kayama said.
Excerpts of the interview follow:……………
“….For one thing, people consciously keep from talking about radiation because many of them have found their own ways of coming to terms with radiation in their lives. But rather, I think it is truer to say that, with the passage of time since the nuclear disaster, it is becoming more embarrassing to talk about radiation at all.
That is partly because you are afraid you could be taken for being eccentric if you don’t react to radiation concerns the way others do. Some are concerned they could be taken for nervous ones who still worry about radiation if they just mentioned the topic of radiation.
Tochigi firm warned for hiring high school student for decontamination work, Mainichi 25 Dec 14 NASU, Tochigi –– A construction company hired a high school student for work to decontaminate houses tainted with radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned.
The Nasu Municipal Government revealed on Dec. 25 that a construction firm in the town employed a male high school student from outside the town as a part-timer for decontamination work in possible violation of the Labor Standard Act. The law prohibits engaging those under 18 for work that exposes individuals to harmful radiation. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has ruled that the legal ban applies to decontamination work.
The municipal government gave a verbal warning to the president of the construction company, while reporting the incident to a local labor standards inspection office in November.
TEPCO Not Disclosing Worker Injuries At Fukushima Daiichi SimplyInfoDecember 25th, 2014
Journalist Ryuichi Kino has documents a large number of injuries to workers in 2014 that TEPCO has not made public. The information was submitted to the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy. TEPCO’s excuse seemed to be, if the workers didn’t require an outside ambulance ride or helicopter, they were not going to disclose the injury. But some of these injuries were quite serious. Eighteen required repair of broken bones or sutures. There were also 32 cases of heat stroke, this can be quite serious and was the cause or contributor to the death of a number of workers in the first year of the disaster……..http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/?p=14246
Moves to reconstruct nuclear power plants unacceptable, Mainichi 23 Dec 14拡大写真An expert panel to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is poised to include the approval of rebuilding nuclear power plants in an interim file to be compiled later this year as one of the subjects to be considered. The move appears to signify the government’s clear declaration that it is not pursuing a zero nuclear power policy.
After the Dec. 14 House of Representatives election, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) gave a de-facto stamp of approval to reactivation of the Takahama Nuclear Power Plant’s No. 3 and No. 4 reactors in a safety screening. This is one of a series of moves leading to dependence on nuclear power. We cannot tolerate any moves that would promote a U-turn to nuclear power without any debate or seeking of public opinion.
The expert panel — the Nuclear Energy Subcommittee under the ministry’s Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy — is planning to include acceptance of nuclear plant reconstruction in its interim file by underscoring the need to ensure “the supply capacity to make up for the decommissioning of reactors.”
It will be the first time for the government to spell out the need to rebuild nuclear plants since the outbreak of the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant disaster. Reconstruction of a nuclear power complex — in which a new plant will be built while dilapidated reactors are decommissioned — is essentially the same as building a new nuclear plant………. Continue reading →
Japan in Depth / Fukushima decommissioning inches on, Japan News December 21, 2014 The Yomiuri ShimbunRemoval of all nuclear fuel assemblies from the No. 4 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was undoubtedly a milestone in efforts to decommission the facility, but Tokyo Electric Power Co. faces a mountain of more difficult problems to remove nuclear fuel from the pools at the three other heavily damaged reactors and extract the melted fuel inside them……….Removing all the nuclear fuel out of a reactor building is a significant step in the decommissioning process.
“If the whole decommissioning process were compared to the distance of 100 miles, this work would be only a mile,” said Akira Ono, head of the nuclear power plant, reflecting on the work that took more than one year……..
TEPCO began full-fledged activities to remove the nuclear fuel assemblies from the pool at the No. 4 reactor in November last year. The company repeated the cycle of putting the fuel in a transportation container and taking the container out of the reactor building. Then the spent nuclear fuel was transported to a shared pool about 100 meters west of the reactor building, and unspent fuel was moved to a storage pool at the No. 6 nuclear reactor about one kilometer from the building.
Next, the decommissioning efforts will be focused on the removal of the nuclear fuel from the Nos. 1-3 reactors. Since all of them melted down, radiation levels within their buildings are very high. That would make working conditions there even more difficult than those at the No. 4 reactor building, where workers could operate a crane from the roof above the pool, watching the nuclear fuel directly below them with their own eyes. However, a crane would be mostly remote-controlled at the Nos. 1-3 reactors. But workers still sometimes have to enter the buildings for maintenance and inspection of machines used there. TEPCO is planning to take measures to lower radiation levels there such as by scraping away the contaminated portions of the floors and putting up iron shielding. http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0001806728
Fukushima nuclear fuel removed from reactor http://khon2.com/2014/12/21/fukushima-nuclear-fuel-removed-from-reactor/ By Web Staff December 21, 2014,FUKUSHIMA (AVN/NHK) – The operator of the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant has completed the removal of nuclear fuel from one of the reactor buildings.
By Friday, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) had removed 1,331 units of spent fuel as well as 200 units of unspent fuel from the fuel pool of the Number 4 reactor building.
Company officials invited the media to watch the removal of the last 4 units on Saturday.
Workers lifted a container of fuel from the pool and transported it to the Number 6 reactor building. It will be placed in a pool in that building.
The plant chief, Akira Onodera, says the completion of the operation marks a step forward in the process of decommissioning the reactors.
Workers have yet to remove fuel from the Number 1, 2 and 3 reactor buildings. That work will be more difficult because of the high levels of radiation.
The head of the Takakura district, right, reads aloud a statement in opposition to the lifting of a recommended evacuation advisory to officials of the nuclear emergency local response headquarters
