Fukushima nuclear reactor No 4 – a dangerous global worry
NYTimes: Countries increasingly worried about Fukushima Unit 4 spent fuel — Experts: Concern over potential cracks in pool walls — Professors: “In deteriorating condition”; “This is a critical global issue”; “Could have fatal consequences for Japan”http://enenews.com/spent-fuel-pool-4
New York Times, Sept. 3, 2013: […] thousands of workers and a small fleet of cranes are preparing for one of the latest efforts to avoid a deepening environmental disaster that has China and other neighbors increasingly worried: removing spent fuel rods from the damaged No. 4 reactor building and storing them in a safer place. […]
Xinhua, Sept. 4: […] Mitsuhei Murata, a former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland has officially called for the withdrawal of Tokyo’s Olympic bid, due to the worsening crisis at Fukushima, which experts believe is not limited to storage tanks, but also potential cracks in the walls of the spent nuclear fuel pools. […]
Telegraph,Sept 4, 2013: […] Tom Snitch, a senior professor at the University of Maryland and with more than 30 years’ experience in nuclear issues, said “[Japan officials] need to address the real problems, the spent fuel rods in Unit 4 and the leaking pressure vessels,” he said. “There has been too much work done wiping down walls and duct work in the reactors for any other reason then to do something. […] This is a critical global issue and Japan must step up.”
Japan Focus, Sept. 2, 2013: […] from November, TEPCO plans to begin the delicate operation of removing spent fuel from Reactor No. 4 fuel pool. […] The spent-fuel pool […] was damaged by the earthquake and tsunami, and is in a deteriorating condition. It remains vulnerable to any further shocks, and is also at risk from ground liquefaction. […] If a fuel rod is dropped, breaks or becomes entangled while being removed, possible worst case scenarios include a big explosion, a meltdown in the pool, or a large fire. […] This is literally a matter of national security – another mistake by TEPCO could have incredibly costly, even fatal, consequences for Japan. […]
South Korea banning all fish imports from Fukushima region
Video: South Korea extends ban on Japanese fish imports .http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-07/an-skorea-bans-japan-fish-imports-over-fukushima-concerns/4942274 South Korea has extended its ban on Japanese fisheries products over fears of contamination from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Australia Network News, 7 Sept 13
Consumption of fish products in South Korea has dropped sharply in recent weeks as Japanese workers struggle to contain leaks at the tsunami-wrecked facility.
The plant’s operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has admitted that highly toxic water may have made its way into the Pacific Ocean.The company also says up to 300 tonnes of mildly radioactive groundwater is making its way into the sea every day.
South Korea had previously imposed an import ban on dozens of Japanese fisheries products produced in Fukushima and seven other prefectures following the meltdown at the nuclear plant, triggered by the 2011 tsunami. The government has now widened the ban to take in all such products from Fukushima and the seven other prefectures – Ibaraki, Gunma, Miyagi, Iwate, Tochigi, Chiba and Aomori. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries says it is taking action in response to rising fears in South Korea.
“The government has concluded that the information provided by Japan so far has failed to make it clear how the incident will develop in the future. “Under the new measure, all fisheries products from this region will be banned regardless of whether they are contaminated or not.”
The ministry has also urged Tokyo to immediately provide accurate information on the leaks of contaminated water…….
Concrete burial a better option for Fukushima- but not good for PR?
Japan Expert: Covering Fukushima reactors in concrete like at Chernobyl should be considered — Nuclear Official: If we just buried them, no one would want to look at another nuke plant http://enenews.com/japan-expert-covering-fukushima-reactors-concrete-like-chernobyl-be-considered-nuclear-official-buried-one-look-another-nuke-plant-years
Title: Errors Cast Doubt on Japan’s Cleanup of Nuclear Accident Site
Source: New York Times
Author: Martin Fackler
Date: Sept. 3, 2013
[…] some experts dismiss the current cleanup plans as just a way of defending the status quo by convincing the public that the damage can be undone […]
Harutoshi Funabashi, a sociologist at Hosei University who led a critical examination of the recovery efforts by the Science Council of Japan […] and other critics say Japan should consider other options, including the tactic adopted by the former Soviet Union at Chernobyl of essentially capping the shattered reactors in concrete and declaring the most contaminated towns off limits for a generation.
Japanese officials said the large amounts of groundwater under the plant mean that just covering the reactors with concrete would fail to contain the spread of radiation. They also said giving up on a large portion of Fukushima was not an option in a densely populated country where land remains a scarce commodity.
But they also suggested that the reason for eschewing a Soviet-style option may be the fear that failure could turn a wary public even more decisively against Japan’s nuclear industry.
“If we just buried the reactors, no one would want to see the face of another nuclear power plant for years,” said Shunsuke Kondo, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, an advisory body in the Cabinet Office. […]
See also: Bloomberg: Tepco now in talks to cover Fukushima reactors with concrete for next 75 years — Officials reviewing plan in U.S.
Could the Fukushima Ice Wall melt?
Nuke Fatigue & the 2020 Tokyo Olympics EE Times, Junko Yoshida, Chief International Correspondent, 6 Sept 13, “…………So far, I’ve heard no skeptics in Japan questioning the science and long-term viability of the technology behind the proposed ice wall — especially on NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster.
To hear the argument against it, I had to turn to Tuesday’s edition of the PBS Newshour, whose link my former colleague and science writer George Leopold sent via e-mail.
‘Risky experiment’
In the program, Arjun Makhijani, an engineer specializing in nuclear fusion and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, called the proposed ice wall scheme “a risky experiment.”
Looking at Risks if the Fukushima Ice Wall Defrosts
Makhijani explained that the Japanese “hope to freeze the soil, basically, with a giant freezing machine, just like your freezer at home, [to] put cooling coils in the soil, lots and lots of them.” He pointed out that this scheme “takes an enormous amount of electricity.” That is just what the Fujushima nuclear plant can’t do.
The biggest worry is potential power failures. Makhijani said:
…if the power fails, you know, just like if your — when the power goes out with your refrigerator, everything will de-freeze in — defrost in the freezer. Even though ice wall technology had been used frequently to stabilize the ground in big construction projects, like the Big Dig highway project in Boston, The New York Times pointed out that some critics are dubious.
They argue that it’s a costly technology “that would be vulnerable at the blackout-prone plant because it relies on electricity the way a freezer does, and even more so because it has never been tried on the vast scale that Japan is envisioning and was always considered a temporary measure, while at Fukushima it would have to endure possibly for decades.” http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&_mc=SM_EET&itc=eetimes_sitedefault&doc_id=1319412&page_number=2
TEPCO continues to put out unreliable data on Fukushima radiation
Regulator Raps Fukushima Operator Over ‘Unreliable’ Data VOA, Reuters September 05, 2013 TOKYO — Tokyo Electric Power Co. [Tepco], the operator of the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, is still putting out questionable data on radiation leaks, causing confusion and a heightened sense of crisis, according to Japan’s nuclear regulator.
The stakes have been raised as Japan makes a final pitch for Tokyo to host the 2020 Olympic Games, while a steady stream of bad news from Fukushima, the site of the worst atomic disaster in a quarter of a century, leaves officials frustrated by Tepco’s missteps and miscalculations.
“As I’ve said before, Tokyo Electric has not been properly disclosing the situation about the contamination and the levels of contamination,” said Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority [NRA]. “This has caused confusion domestically and internationally. Because of that, the Japanese government has a sense of crisis and I, personally, feel a little angry about it.”
“I wouldn’t go as far as to say Japan’s reputation has been made worse, but releasing incorrect information about the radiated water problem has created trouble around the world,” said Tanaka…… Officials have been keen to assure the world that Tokyo will be safe during the Olympics in seven years, if chosen. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe flies to Buenos Aires later on Thursday from a Group of 20 meeting in St. Petersburg to lead Tokyo’s final pitch before the Olympic committee. Madrid and Istanbul are the other contenders.
“We would like to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games here in Tokyo and welcome athletes, people affiliated with the events and visitors from all over the world,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, adding that food and water in Japan is safe….. http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-japan-regulator-raps-fukushima-operator-over-unreliable-data/1743815.html
Japanese people ‘in denial’ about Fukushima radiation – suffering ‘nuclear fatigue’?
Nuke Fatigue & the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, EE Times, Junko Yoshida, Chief International Correspondent 9/5/2013“………..What’s unacceptable to me, though, when I come back here, is to witness firsthand how Japan is handling the persistent radioactive leakage problem at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima. The people, the government, and the entire nation seem to be living in total denial.
Hitomi Nakayama, a lawyer and a long-time friend of mine since college days, calls it “nuclear fatigue.” She laments the fundamentally stoic nature of people in the stricken region of Tohoku. Some who lived in villages in Fukushima, heavily nuked as a result of the meltdown at the power plant, still harbor dreams of returning to their homes. Many have never even considered suing the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco). Instead, with a shrug, they say they’re thankful for Tepco’s contribution to economic growth in the region, Nakayama explained.
People and the media in Japan would rather talk about something else, like the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, as they look past the still unfolding nuclear crisis in Fukushima.
I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling troubled by the supine media here — who are insanely obsessed with the pending vote by the chronically corrupt International Olympic Committee. Japanese newspapers and TV are clearly dancing to the tune of those who badly want Tokyo to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.
In contrast, there is little public debate about the worst atomic horror in Japan since Nagasaki……
Cataracts in the eyes of birds in Chernobyl and Fukushima
the key factor determining the presence of the disease was the intensity of local radiation, with cataract scores of over one proving to be far more common in areas that were above ten microseiverts per hour
Birds live with cataracts in Chernobyl The Economist, Sep 7th 2013 CATARACTS are relatively common in people who live to a ripe old age. They are sometimes seen in animals that live in zoos as well, but in the wild they are almost unheard of. The reason is simple. Losing eyesight is in effect a death sentence for a wild animal that must find its own food and, should that animal live long enough to develop the disease, starvation or predation would quickly follow|cataracts unrelated to age are surprisingly common in birds living near the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.
This is revealed in a new study by a pair of ornithologists, Timothy Mousseau of the University of South Carolina and Anders Moller of the University of Paris-Sud, which is published in the Public Library of Science. That cataracts and ionising radiation are related is well known. As high energy ions, usually produced by the sun’s rays, slam into the water found next to the lenses of the eyes, free radicals are created that damage DNA and cause errors to develop in the formation of proteins that make up the lenses, resulting in cataracts.
This led the researchers to suspect that cataracts in birds might be common in areas where there are high levels of ionising radiation, and they turned to Chernobyl as a study area. Continue reading
Japan Olympic Committee desperately spinning Tokyo’s safety from Fukushima radiation
Japan Olympic Committee delegates in radiation spin control Media trip up team while it tried to put best foot forward Japan Times, BY DAVE HUESTON, 5 Sept 13 KYODO, AP BUENOS AIRES – What should have been a resounding kickoff for the Tokyo 2020 bid with the International Olympic Committee’s vote coming Saturday turned into a fencing match as bid chief Tsunekazu Takeda tried to parry questions from the media about the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
Takeda, who is president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, and Fujio Cho, president of the Japan Sports Association and honorary chairman of Toyota Motor Corp., held a media event Wednesday in Buenos Aires to pitch Tokyo’s proposed marketing program and emphasize the capital’s certainty to deliver the games in first-class style……..
Death within hours – if you get close to Fukushima reactor’s radioactive areas
Nuclear disaster: Radiation levels at Fukushima would now be fatal within hours Raw Story, By Justin McCurry, The Guardian, September 4, 2013 The crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has radiation leaks strong enough to deliver a fatal dose within hours, Japanese authorities have revealed, as the government prepares to step in to help contain leaks of highly toxic water at the site.
On Wednesday the country’s nuclear regulation authority said radiation readings near water storage tanks at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have increased to a new high, with emissions above the ground near one group of tanks were as high as 2,200 millisieverts [mSv] per hour – a rise of 20% from the previous high.
Earlier this week the plant’s operator, Tepco, said workers had measured radiation at 1,800 mSv an hour near a storage tank. That was the previous highest reading since Tepco began installing tanks to store huge quantities of contaminated water that have built up at the plant.
An unprotected person standing close to the contaminated areas would, within hours, receive a deadly radiation dose. The nuclear regulation authority said the radiation comprised mostly beta rays that could be blocked by aluminium foil, unlike more penetrative gamma rays…… http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/04/nuclear-disaster-radiation-levels-at-fukushima-would-now-be-fatal-within-hours/
Fukushima radiation exposure will later bring cancer death toll
Nuclear Engineer on Radio: Unfortunately, the truth is there will be a large death toll from Fukushima — Damages to be seen “over the next century” — Disaster at plant is unprecedented in magnitude (AUDIO) http://enenews.com/radio-interview-nuclear-engineer-truth-death-toll-fukushima-will-be-large-hazard-will-remain-many-decades-disaster-plant-site-unprecedented-magnitude-audio
Title: Interview with Dave Lochbaum
Source: Linda Moulton Howe
Date: Aug. 29, 2013
Dave Lochbaum, Nuclear engineer, former Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
instructor, current director of Union of Concerned Scientists’ Nuclear Safety Project: The Fukushima site is unprecedented in the magnitude — 3 reactor cores have melted down, 4 spent fuel pools that are in jeopardy, 3 buildings that exploded — so, they have a lot of problems. […]
Linda Moulton Howe, Emmy-nominated journalist: And Fukushima, the reality, without any sugar-coating is, that in the next 18 to 19 years, there will be a death toll from radiation exposure in Japan that will be large.
Lochbaum: Yes, that is unfortunately the truth. Plant operated for 40 years and will remain a hazard to people living around it for decades longer. Politicians and society will have to determine whether the benefits derived from those 40 years offset the damages done over the next century.
More from this interview on Linda Moulton Howe’s website here
Full broadcast here (subscribers only) — Interview currently available on YouTube here
Fukushima radiation spreads under pacific Ocean seabed
Japan Expert: Contamination from Fukushima is traveling “under the seabed” and spreading further out in Pacific Ocean — Measures needed to stop flow http://enenews.com/japan-expert-contamination-fukushima-traveling-seabed-spreading-further-pacific-ocean-measures-needed-stop-flow
Source: Associated Press
Author: MARI YAMAGUCHI
Date: Sept. 3, 2013
Atsunao Marui, an underground water expert at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, said a frozen wall could be water-tight but is normally intended for use for a couple of years and is not proven for long-term use as planned in the outline. The decommissioning process is expected to take about 40 years.
“We still need a few layers of safety backups in case it fails,” Marui told the Associated Press. “Plus the frozen wall won’t be ready for another two years, which means contaminated water would continue to leak out.”
Marui said additional measures should be taken to stop contaminated water from keep traveling under the seabed during that time and leak further out in the sea.
See also: Japan Expert: Contamination from Fukushima flowing beneath seafloor? “Could spring up outside the port”
Most dangerous new nuclear power plant at Taishan, Guangdong
Nuclear threat on our doorstep, South China Morning Post, Green groups say flawed and untested technology puts city at risk from ‘world’s most dangerous nuclear power plant’, South China Morning Post,05 September, 2013 Ernest Kao ernest.kao@scmp A nuclear power plant being built just 130 kilometres away from Hong Kong was yesterday labelled by green groups the “most dangerous nuclear power plant in the world” The plant in Taishan, Guangdong, is using technology that has never been used before and would put the city and another 30 million people at risk in the Pearl River Delta in the event of a Fukushima-style meltdown, say nine groups, including Greenpeace, Green Sense and the Professional Commons lobby group. They are calling on Hong Kong authorities and the provincial and national governments to look again at the risks involved.
The Taishan Nuclear Power Plant, due to start operating in December, will run on two European pressurised reactors, or EPRs – a new Franco-German pressurised-water reactor which the groups say is immature.
French nuclear power giant Areva sealed an €8 billion (HK$92.53 billion) deal to build the two reactors for China’s state-owned Guangdong Nuclear Power Group in 2007. Construction began in 2009.”It is very risky to import a European nuclear reactor technology that has not even met the proper nuclear safety standards and regulations in Europe,” said Albert Lai Kwong-tak, an engineer and a policy expert at independent lobby group the Professional Commons.
Two EPR projects, one in France and another in Finland, have been plagued by delays after safety-related flaws were found. Both projects are not expected to be completed now until 2015 at the earliest, despite construction commencing years earlier than in Taishan.Lai said that upon completion, Taishan would be the “most dangerous nuclear power plant in the world” given its potential radiation level was three times higher than Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant.
“Design flaws such as how to power cooling systems for its external spent nuclear fuel pool in the event of an emergency have not been addressed,” he said.
“A digitised and automated emergency control unit also lacks a manual override … these are all lessons which should have been learnt after Fukushima.
“One must ask if Chinese authorities have taken any of these into account.”……. http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1303433/nuclear-threat-our-doorstep
USA’s intense worry about nuclear Pakistan
Pakistan and the Nuclear Nightmare FP, By Dan Twining , September 4, 2013 –The Washington Post has revealed the intense concern of the U.S. intelligence community about Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program. In addition to gaps in U.S. information about nuclear weapons storage and safeguards, American analysts are worried about the risk of terrorist attacks against nuclear facilities in Pakistan as well as the risk that individual Pakistani nuclear weapons handlers could go rogue in ways that endanger unified national control over these weapons of mass destruction.
These concerns raise a wider question for a U.S. national security establishment whose worst nightmares include the collapse of the Pakistani state — with all its implications for empowerment of terrorists, a regional explosion of violent extremism, war with India, and loss of control over the country’s nuclear weapons. That larger question is: Does Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal promote the country’s unity or its disaggregation?
This is a complicated puzzle, in part because nuclear war in South Asia may be more likely as long as nuclear weapons help hold Pakistan together and embolden its military leaders to pursue foreign adventures under the nuclear umbrella. So if we argue that nuclear weapons help maintain Pakistan’s integrity as a state — by empowering and cohering the Pakistani Army — they may at the same time undermine regional stability and security by making regional war more likely………http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/09/04/pakistan_and_the_nuclear_nightmare
Wall of ice planned, to go underneath Fukushima nuclear plant
Japan to build $470M ice wall to prevent nuclear leaks http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57601127/japan-to-build-$470m-ice-wall-to-prevent-nuclear-leaks/ 4 Sept 13, The Japanese government announced Tuesday that it will spend $470 million on a subterranean ice wall and other steps in a desperate bid to stop leaks of radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant after repeated failures by the plant’s operator.
The decision is widely seen as an attempt to show that the nuclear accident won’t be a safety concern just days before the International Olympic Committee chooses among Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid as the host of the 2020 Olympics.
The Fukushima Dai-ichi plant has been leaking hundreds of tons of contaminated underground water into the sea since shortly after a massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami damaged the complex. Several leaks from tanks storing radioactive water in recent weeks have heightened the sense of crisis that the plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., isn’t able to contain the problem. Continue reading
Japan’s radioactive leaks to Pacific Ocean make it imperative to get international help
Nuclear error Japan should bring in international help to study and mitigate the Fukushima crisis. Nature, 03 September 2013 The radioactive water leaking from the site of the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan is a stern reminder that we have not seen the end of the world’s largest nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl meltdown in Ukraine in 1986……..
The most important impacts of the leaks will be those on the sea off Fukushima and the larger Pacific Ocean, which must be closely monitored. After assessments by US and Japanese scientists in 2011 and 2012, two major questions remain unanswered. How much radioactivity is still entering the sea? And, given the high levels of radioactivity that have been measured in some species long after the accident, when will fish and seafood from the region be safe to consume? The leaks make it more urgent to find answers to these questions.
To make reliable assessments of any environmental effects, scientists need to be able to collect data on contamination of marine food webs with all long-lived radionuclides, and particularly with caesium-137, strontium-90 and plutonium-239. They also need to know the sources of contamination, and to study the transport of radionuclides in groundwater, sediments and ocean currents. Current Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his government have promised to boost science; they should encourage and support researchers from around the world in collecting and sharing information. Chernobyl was a missed opportunity for post-accident research — in that sense at least, Fukushima could do much better. http://www.nature.com/news/nuclear-error-1.13667
1 This Month
19 May – Webinar No To Nuclear: Why Nuclear Power Destroys Lives, Derails Climate Progress and Provokes War
1 June Webinar – The High Cost of Nuclear Power – Register
of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
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