nuclear-news

Fukushima has new radiation hot spots

New radiation hotspots found at Fukushima nuclear plant ABC News, North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy, wires  1 Sept 13, The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant says it has found new radiation hotspots, one with levels so high it could kill a person within a few hours. TEPCO has long struggled to deal with the growing volume of contaminated water it has used to cool reactors that went into meltdown after being struck by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

The company says workers have discovered high levels of radioactivity on three tanks and one pipe at the Fukushima plant.

It says one reading was 1,800 millisieverts per hour – a level that can kill a person in four hours.

Although no change in water level was detected in the tanks, TEPCO does believe that new leaks could be possible……. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-01/an-new-radiation-hotspots-found-at-fukushima/4927684

September 2, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2013 | Leave a comment

Fukushima radiation levels vastly higher than previously thought

Fukushima radiation levels 18 times higher than previously thought, Justin McCurry in Tokyo theguardian.com, Sunday 1 September 2013 Operator of Japanese nuclear power plant claims there has been no leak but has yet to discover cause of radiation spike Radiation levels 18 times higher than previously reported have been found near a water storage tank at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, causing fresh concern about the safety of the wrecked facility.

The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said radiation near the bottom of the tank measured 1,800 millisieverts an hour – high enough to kill an exposed person in four hours. Tepco said water levels inside the tank had not changed, indicating there had not been a leak. But the company said it had yet to discover the cause of the radiation spike.

Last month Tepco said another storage tank – of the same design as the container causing concern at the weekend – had leaked 300 tonnes of radioactive water, possibly into the sea.

Japan‘s nuclear watchdog confirmed last week it had raised the severity of that leak from level 1, an “anomaly”, to level 3, a “serious incident”, on an eight-point scale used by the International Atomic Energy Agency for radiological releases.

Earlier, the utility belatedly confirmed reports that a toxic mixture of groundwater and water being used to cool melted fuel lying deep inside the damaged reactors was seeping into the sea at a rate of about 300 tonnes a day.

Experts said those leaks, which are separate from the most recent incidents, may have started soon after the plant was struck by a powerful tsunami on 11 March 2011……… http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/01/fukushima-radiation-levels-higher-japan

September 2, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2013 | 1 Comment

Land is now “mushy” under Fukushima nuclear reactors

“Big Problem”: Cracked floors in Fukushima reactors leaking into groundwater that’s rising and rising and rising due to Tepco wall — “Can no longer be stopped from getting in ocean” — “Worse than that… buildings now on mushy land” (AUDIO)
Title: Breaking News: Entergy pulling the plug on Vermont Yankee
Source: Fairewinds Energy Education
Host: Nathaniel White-Joyal
Date: Aug 27, 2013

Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds chief engineer:: The big problem is the nuclear reactors themselves have cracked floors. The buildings in those reactor buildings have cracked floors. And groundwater is getting into those buildings, and becoming contaminated, and then leaking out. So, in addition to what’s in those tanks, the physical plant itself is contaminating the groundwater as well.

So what Tepco tried to do is to build a wall along the water. They injected basically a concrete type of a compound and made the ground less porous. That’s not a good idea — it’s a poor idea — because what happened is the mountain that’s behind Fukushima continues to pour the water into the ground. Now it’s got no place to go. So now the groundwater’s rising and rising and rising and likely over-topping this wall, certainly going around it on the sides. So we’ve got radioactive water that can no longer be stopped from getting in the ocean.

It’s worse than that though. The radioactive water has made the site seismic response different. The buildings that were on dry land are now on mushy land. So that if there were to be another earthquake, the seismic response of these buildings — which was already marginal — is further compromised because the ground that they are now on is wet soggy soil, when before it had been firm.
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August 30, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2013 | Leave a comment

TEPCO’s plan for diverting Fukushima water into Pacific Ocean

Fukushima Fishermen Ruined by Tepco Now Key in Radiation Fight, Bloomberg, By Yuriy Humber, Chisaki Watanabe & Masumi Suga – Aug 29, 2013
 Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) ruined the livelihoods of the commercial fishermen that trawled the seas off Fukushima prefecture when its leaking reactors poisoned the fishing grounds. The utility now needs their help.
At issue is a series of wells and pipes built by Tokyo Electric to alter the course of groundwater flowing from the hills behind the wrecked Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear station. The bypass, which is ready to operate, will divert water away from the plant’s damaged reactors and into the Pacific, thus reducing contamination, Tokyo Electric says. The utility must first get the approval of the 1,500 members of Fukushima’s fishing cooperative and others in the area to begin using the bypass. With Tokyo Electric’s history of falsifying safety reports, hiding accidents and ignoring warnings, fisherman aren’t convinced the system is safe.
“We have yet to reach a conclusion” on whether the cooperative will agree to Tokyo Electric’s bypass plan, Tetsu Nozaki, chairman of the Fukushima Prefectural Federation of Fisheries Co-operative Associations, said yesterday in Tokyo. “We will make a cool-headed decision.”
The three-month impasse has implications beyond Fukushima and Japan because it’s holding up the bid to reduce the 300 metric tons of radioactive water gushing into the Pacific each day.
More than 330,000 tons of water with varying levels of toxicity is stored in pits, basements and hundreds of tanks at the Fukushima nuclear plant 220 kilometers (137 miles) northeast of Tokyo. The water is the result of efforts to keep the reactor cores from overheating and groundwater pouring into the facility, wrecked by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Consensus Sought
Some of those tanks are vulnerable to leaks, Tokyo Electric, or Tepco, said last week. Moreover, the groundwater seeping into the Fukushima plant is mixing with radioactive water, getting contaminated.
Estimates say about 400 tons of groundwater flows down the hillside each day. The bypass would reduce that by about 25 percent, piping the water from the plant and into the ocean before it gets contaminated.
“We want to reach a consensus soon,” Yoshihisa Komatsu, an official at the Fukushima fishing cooperative, said by phone Aug. 28 in reference to the bypass talks. “But some members oppose it so we are caught in the middle.”…… .http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-29/fukushima-fishermen-ruined-by-tepco-now-key-in-radiation-fight.html

August 30, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2013 | Leave a comment

Foundations of Fukushima’s nuclear reactors now becoming unstable?

Warning that foundations of Fukushima reactor chambers have been “compromised” — Groundwater rising fast, now just 10 inches from surface http://enenews.com/warning-that-foundations-of-fukushima-reactor-chambers-are-compromised-underground-water-now-just-10-inches-from-surface

August 29, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2013 | Leave a comment