Radioactive water accumulating daily at stricken Fukushima nuclear plant
NYTimes: Alarming reality at Fukushima Daiichi — Plant faced with new crisis — “Tepco is clearly just hanging on day by day” http://enenews.com/nytimes-alarming-reality-at-fukushima-daiichi-plant-faced-with-new-crisis-tepco-is-clearly-just-hanging-on-day-by-day
Title: Radioactive Water Imperils Fukushima Plant
Author: MARTIN FACKLER (Makiko Inoue and Matthew L. Wald)
Date: April 29, 2013
[…] the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is faced with a new crisis: a flood of highly radioactive wastewater that workers are struggling to contain. Groundwater is pouring into the plant’s ravaged reactor buildings at a rate of almost 75 gallons a minute. It becomes highly contaminated there, before being pumped out to keep from swamping a critical cooling system. […]
That quandary along with an embarrassing string of mishaps — including a 29-hour power failure affecting another, less vital cooling system — have underscored an alarming reality: two years after the meltdowns, the plant remains vulnerable to the same sort of large earthquake and tsunami that set the original calamity in motion. […]
“Tepco is clearly just hanging on day by day, with no time to think about tomorrow, much less next year,” said Tadashi Inoue, an expert in nuclear power who served on a committee that drew up the road map for cleaning up the plant. […]
See also: NYTimes: Fukushima plant unstable says official, concern another accident can’t be prevented — “Vulnerable… Very dangerous”
Huge underground wall for Fukushima?
‘Great wall of Fukushima’ to be built underground? — Structure around reactors proposed http://enenews.com/great-wall-fukushima-be-built-underground-structure-around-reactors-proposed
Source: Kyodo
Date: April 27, 2013
Great wall of Fukushima?
A government panel has begun studying ways to prevent more radioactive water from accumulating at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, including a plan to build underground walls around the damaged reactor buildings to stop groundwater from entering. […]
Proposals made by Taisei Corp. and Kajima Corp. Friday included building a subterranean wall around the reactor buildings using a claylike material.
Tepco considered building a wall on the mountain side of the plant after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, but abandoned the plan because of the risk that radioactive water flooding the buildings might be leaking into the soil. […]
See also: Japanese professor: Melted fuel has gone through containers and is on concrete foundations sinking into ground below, as far as I can tell — Underground dam was being prepared, but TEPCO resisting
Fukushima radiation- accumulating exposure is the worry
Experts are most worried about three radioactive substances iodine-131, caesium-134 and caesium-137-all of which can cause various types of cancer years later.
Although the radioactivity in iodine-131 fully disintegrates in 80 days, it can find its way rapidly into people through the air and through milk and leafy vegetables, lodging quickly in the thyroid gland, where it can cause DNA damage and raise cancer risk, particularly in young children. Among the people who were exposed to the Chernobyl accident as children, at least 1,800 have gone on to develop thyroid cancer, a study has found.
Cumulative radiation from Japan’s plant sparks health worries http://www.brecorder.com/top-stories/0/1179391/ April 18, 2011 RECORDER REPORT Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has so far leaked around a tenth of the amount of radiation released in the Chernobyl disaster, data showed on April 12, leading some experts to warn of serious long-term health risks.
“If that is the total radiation so far from the time of first leakage, that amount is very serious. It’s undoubtedly very bad. That is close to one-tenth of Chernobyl’s radiation in a month,” said Lam Ching-wan, a chemical pathologist at the University of Hong Kong and member of the American Board of Toxicology.
“It means there is damage to soil, ecosystem, water, food and people. People receive this radiation. You can’t escape it by just shutting the window.”With Japan widening the evacuation zone beyond the initial 20-km exclusion zone and encouraging children, pregnant women and hospitalised patients to stay out of some areas 20-30 km from the nuclear complex, Lam said he feared the radiation leakage may still be far from under control. Continue reading
International Atomic Energy Agency not facing up to the facts on Fukushima
IAEA Gives Little Insight To Fukushima Disaster Cleanup http://www.simplyinfo.org/?p=10267 April 24th, 2013 The IAEA visited the Fukushima Daiichi disaster site after multiple failures ended up in the news. They made very few comments from the trip and reaffirmed they think TEPCO can handle the disaster.
What they did mention:
- It will take more than 40 years to clean up the disaster
- Technology still needs to be created to deal with the task of removing the melted fuel
- Problems and failures at the plant will continue to be an issue
- TEPCO should replace temporary systems with something more permanent and safer
- Contaminated water is expected to seep outside the plant after “decades”
The Japanese government is still intent on sending everyone back to the area as soon as possible.
Sources:
Apparently uncontrolled continual leakage of Fukushima radiation into the ocean
Fukushima’s Catastrophic Aftermath: The Dangers of Worldwide Nuclear Radiation, Global Research, By Stephen Lendman 28 April 13,“……..In early April, around 120 tons of contaminated water leaked from Fukushima’s No. 1′s underground storage tank. It contained an estimated 710 billion becquerels of radioactivity.
Water around the affected tank is highly radioactive. It’s about 800 meters from the Pacific. Government and Tokyo Electric (Tepco) claimed it won’t likely reach it. Numerous previous reports suggest otherwise.
Tepco general manager Masayuki Ono said “(w)e cannot deny the fact that our faith in the underwater tanks is being lost.”
In November 2012, Nature.com headlined “Ocean still suffering from Fukushima fallout,” saying:
“Radioactivity is persisting in the ocean waters close to Japan’s ruined nuclear power plant at Fukushima Daiichi.”
New data show high contamination levels. “The Fukushima disaster caused by far the largest discharge of radioactivity into the ocean ever seen.”
Radiation levels aren’t dropping. “The implications are serious for the fishing industry.”………http://www.globalresearch.ca/fukushimas-catastrophic-aftermath-the-dangers-of-worldwide-nuclear-radiation/5333138
17,000 tons of radioactive rice still stored in Fukushima prefecture
“It would bedifficult to find an option other than disposal.”
Fukushima’s ‘contaminated’ rice still in storage two years, Asahi
Shimbun, April 25, 2013 By TETSUYA KASAI/ Staff Writer
FUKUSHIMA–-Officials are still struggling to dispose of some 17,000
tons of contaminated rice produced in Fukushima Prefecture after the
nuclear disaster there two years ago. Most of the rice, called
“kakurimai” (rice separated for disposal), was produced in 2011.
The central government wants to incinerate the rice, but disposal
facility operators have been reluctant to do so for fear that harmful
rumors could start circulating if they handle contaminated material. Continue reading
Parents may appeal, as Japanese court dismisses lawsuit about radiation
Japanese court refuses to rehouse children near Fukushima site RT April 25, 2013 A Japanese court has dismissed a lawsuit demanding that the government pay for the re-settlement of children from the city of Koriyama, 60 km from the site of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which suffered a meltdown in 2011.
On Wednesday, the Sendai High Court said that while the radiation level in the city of over 300 thousand still exceeds the Japanese average, it poses no danger to health, and said those worried are free to re-locate at their own expense. “The children are victims with absolutely no responsibility for the nuclear accident,” complained the Toshio Yanagihara, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, following the ruling, which can be appealed in a higher court. Continue reading
Japanese court admits radiation risk to children, but rules out evacuation
Japan court rejects demand to evacuate kids, acknowledges radiation risk The Associated Press CTV News, , April 25, 2013 TOKYO – A Japanese court has rejected a demand that a city affected by the fallout of the country’s 2011 nuclear disaster evacuate its children. The unusual lawsuit was filed on behalf of the children by their parents and anti-nuclear activists in June 2011. The Sendai High Court handed down its ruling Wednesday.
The case had drawn international attention because it touched the uncertainties about the effects of continuous low-dose radiation on health, especially that of children, who are far more vulnerable than adults.
The lawsuit argued the city of Koriyama had legal responsibility to evacuate children at elementary schools and junior-high schools, which are part of compulsory education under Japanese law.
The court acknowledged radiation in the city exceeded levels deemed safe prior to the disaster. But it said the government shoulders no responsibility for evacuating the schools as demanded — in effect, telling people to leave on their own if they were worried. Continue reading
Rejection of evacuation claim for Japanese children – is this justice?
Japan court rejects demand to evacuate children while acknowledging radiation risks on health http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/04/24/japan-court-rejects-demand-to-evacuate-children-while-acknowledging-radiation/#ixzz2RWzeEca2 April 24, 2013 Associated Press
TOKYO – A Japanese court has rejected a demand that a city affected by the fallout of the country’s 2011 nuclear disaster evacuate its children.
The unusual lawsuit was filed on behalf of the children by their parents and anti-nuclear activists in June 2011. The Sendai High Court handed down its ruling Wednesday.
The case had drawn international attention because it touched the uncertainties about the effects of continuous low-dose radiation on health, especially that of children.
The court acknowledged radiation exceeded levels deemed safe prior to the disaster. But it said the government shoulders no responsibility for evacuating the schools as demanded — in effect, telling people to leave on their own if they were worried.
Man made corium lava – from Fukushima, toxic for centuries
Wired: ‘Healthy debate’ about location of Fukushima corium — Lava can melt a foot of concrete per hour — Cooling with water may not stop corium flow Title: The Most Dangerous (Man-Made) Lava Flow http://enenews.com/wired-healthy-debate-about-where-fukushima-coriums-are-lava-can-melt-a-foot-of-concrete-per-hour-cooling-with-water-may-not-stop-corium-flow
Source: Wired
Author: Erik Klemetti
Date: April 18, 2013 at 11:45a ET
h/t Room101
Title: The Most Dangerous (Man-Made) Lava Flow
[…] researchers at the Argonne National Lab have created corium in the laboratory […] They found that corium lava can melt upwards of 30 cm (12″) of concrete in 1 hour! This is why it is so important to know if a nuclear reactor accident has gone into true “meltdown” as the corium lava will rapidly melt its way through the inner containment vessels (or more) in a matter of hours unless it can be cooled again.
However, results from these CCI (core-concrete interaction) experiments, suggest that cooling with water may not be sufficient to stop corium from melting the concrete. One thing to remember — much of the melting of concrete during a meltdown occurs within minutes to hours, so keeping the core cool is vital for stopping the corium for breaching that containment vessel.
[…] TEPCO, the Japanese energy company who ran Fukushima Dai’ichi, claims that the corium didn’t breach the outer wall of the containment vessel (although there is a healthy debate about this). […]
So, why is corium so dangerous? Well, even long after the flow has stopped, that lava will be highly radioactive for decades to centuries (along with the surrounding countryside if radioactive material made it out of the containment vessel) as the various radioactive materials in the lava decay. In fact, we don’t even have pictures of the corium lava from Fukushima Dai’ichi due to the high levels of radioactivity near the reactor. […]
Japan’s nuclear future – very uncertain
Japan’s nuclear future Don’t look now A series of mishaps comes at an awkward time for the government the Economist, Apr 20th 2013 | TOKYO In February this year, Shinzo Abe, leader of the then incoming Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), said the new government would restart reactors after they passed a forthcoming set of new safety tests. The country’s “nuclear village”, a cosy bunch from industry and government, cheered. But now the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi plant is starting to alarm the public once more. Continue reading
Solar power developments in Japan: battery storage
Japan To Implement 60,000 kWh Capacity Battery http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3697 19 April 13 The Japanese government plans to install a massive battery at an electrical substation on the island of Hokkaido.
According to the Japan Times, the country’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) says the battery will be put in place by the end of the first quarter in 2015 to help develop a stable electricity supply generated by solar and wind power sources. The battery system will have a storage capacity of around 60,000 kWh and will use up a large portion of ¥29.6 billion earmarked for battery projects.
Hokkaido is Japan’s second largest island and the largest and northernmost of Japan’s 47 prefectures. It has become a hive of renewable energy activity due to the availability and low prices of suitable land. According to Bloomberg, the island’s power infrastructure is approaching its limit for handling the amount of clean electricity being generated.
Japan has seen solar uptake skyrocket since the introduction of a feed in tariff scheme, currently paying 38 yen per kilowatt hour (around AUD 38 cents) for rooftop solar power systems under 10kW and slightly more for larger systems.
In other renewables news out of Japan, METI states based on data compiled by the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE), the total combined new renewable energy capacity added between April 1, 2012, and January 31, 2013,reached 1,394,000 kW .
Photovoltaic power facilities accounted for 1,329,000 kW, with household solar panel systems making up 1,023,000kW of that amount. METI notes that 37,000kW capacity was added by January 31 – with all of that being added after June 2012.
METI also announced Japan and India have decided to hold the “India-Japan Energy Forum 2013” in September in New Delhi and Greater Noida, which aims to reinforce the two nation’s cooperation in the field of energy.
For the Pacific Ocean? – 400 tons daily of Fukushima radioactive water
Bloomberg: Radioactive water from Fukushima reactors to be dumped in Pacific? “It’s obvious they can’t keep storing it forever”http://enenews.com/bloomberg-tepco-to-dump-radioactive-water-from-fukushima-reactors-into-pacific-its-obvious-they-cant-keep-storing-it-forever
Title:Title: Tepco Faces Decision to Dump Radioactive Water in Pacific Ocean
Source: Bloomberg
Author: Tsuyoshi Inajima
Date: Apr 11, 2013
[Tepco]’s discovery of leaks in water storage pits at the wrecked Fukushima atomic station raises the risk the utility will be forced to dump radioactive water in the Pacific Ocean.
Leaks were found in three of seven pits in the past week, reducing the options for moving contaminated water from basements of reactor buildings. […]
Not Ruled Out
Officials at the utility known as Tepco, including President Naomi Hirose, have said the company will not “easily” release radiated water into the ocean, indicating it’s not ruling out the possibility if it runs out of storage.
“It’s obvious Tepco cannot keep storing water forever as it increases by 400 tons a day,” said Hideyuki Ban, co-director of the antinuclear group Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center. That’s why the company won’t rule out discharge into the sea, Ban said in a telephone interview. […]
See also: Tepco: It’s ‘really impossible’ for us to keep storing liquid from Fukushima reactors — We need to think about discharging it into ocean (VIDEO)
Fukushima nuclear plant is NOT stable
NYTimes: Fukushima plant unstable says official, concern another accident can’t be prevented — “Vulnerable… Very dangerous” http://enenews.com/nytimes-fukushima-plant-unstable-says-official-concern-another-accident-cant-be-prevented-vulnerable-very-dangerous April 11th, 2013
Title: Fukushima Nuclear Plant Is Still Unstable, Japanese Official Says
Source: New York Times
Author: HIROKO TABUCHI
Date: April 10, 2013
[…] a series of recent mishaps — including a blackout set off by a dead rat and the discovery of leaks of thousands of gallons of radioactive water — have underscored just how vulnerable the plant remains.
Increasingly, experts are arguing that [Tepco] cannot be trusted to lead what is expected to be decades of cleanup and the decommissioning of the plant’s reactors without putting the public, and the environment, at risk. […]
“It’s become obvious that Tepco is not at all capable of leading the cleanup. It just doesn’t have the expertise, and because Fukushima Daiichi is never going to generate electricity again, every yen it spends on the decommissioning is thrown away. That creates an incentive to cut corners, which is very dangerous. The government needs to step in, take charge and assemble experts and technology from around the world to handle the decommissioning instead.” -Muneo Morokuzu, a nuclear safety expert at the Tokyo University Graduate School of Public Policy
“The Fukushima Daiichi plant remains in an unstable condition, and there is concern that we cannot prevent another accident.” -Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority
See also: Tepco: “Losing faith” in leaking Fukushima tanks — But we don’t have anywhere else to put the radioactive water
World ignores Fukushima radiation at our peril
Fukushima is currently releasing up to 93 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium into the ocean each day. How much radiation is that? A quick calculation shows that Chernobyl released around ten thousand times more radioactive cesium each day during the reactor fire. But the Chernobyl fire only lasted 10 days … and the Fukushima release has been ongoing for more than 2 years so far.
Indeed, Fukushima has already spewed much more radioactive cesium and iodine 131 than Chernobyl. The amount of radioactive cesium released by Fukushima was some 20-30 times higher than initially admitted.
Fukushima also pumped out huge amounts of radioactive iodine 129 – which has a half-life of 15.7 million years.
Fukushima has also dumped up to 900 trillion becquerels of radioactive strontium-90 – which is a powerful internal emitter which mimics calcium and collects in our bones – into the ocean..
Radiation Is Not On People’s Radar, Dr. Mark Sircus, Activist Post, 9 April 13, In publishing Atomic Suicide Drs. Walter and Lao Russell united with Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s 1957 appeal to the world to end nuclear tests, and in fact any and all use of radioactive elements. In this prophetic book, the Russells explain clearly that with radioactive elements unleashed into our atmosphere, the human race is heading for catastrophe. Giving detailed scientific evidence, they warn that ‘to fail to consider the nature of radioactive elements and their consequences would be a folly for which humanity would have to pay a terrible price.’ Continue reading
1 This Month
Read the Public Inquiry Report, the Commissioners’ report, Surrendering Australia: The AUKUS Deception is available to download for free at aukuspublicinquiry.com. Or just watch the replay of the National Press Club Luncheon.
19 November – Webinar – The Reality of Reprocessing
Time: 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada) / 2:00 PM Eastern / 7:00 PM UK / 8:00 PM CET
Register for the Zoom Event Here
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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