Russia repeats offer to help Japan in the international crisis of Fukushima radiation
The idea of pumping water for cooling was never going to be anything but a “machine for generating radioactive water,”
Russia Offers Fukushima Cleanup Help as Tepco Reaches Out By Yuriy Humber & Jacob Adelman – Aug 25, 2013 Russia repeated an offer first made two years ago to help Japan clean up its accident-ravaged Fukushima nuclear station, welcoming Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501)’s decision to seek outside help.
As Tokyo Electric pumps thousands of metric tons of water through the wrecked Fukushima station to cool its melted cores, the tainted run-off was found to be leaking into groundwater and the ocean. The approach to cooling and decommissioning the station will need to change and include technologies developed outside of Japan if the cleanup is to succeed, said Vladimir Asmolov, first deputy director general of Rosenergoatom, the state-owned Russian nuclear utility.
“In our globalized nuclear industry we don’t have national accidents, they are all international,” Asmolov said. Since Japan’s new government took over in December, talks on cooperating between the two countries on the Fukushima cleanup have turned “positive” and Russia is ready to offer its assistance, he said by phone from Moscow last week. Continue reading
AUDIO: Mark Willacy reports on the gloom of Fukushima fishermen
there’s a sense of hopelessness and pessimism that they’ll ever be able to go out and catch fish again.
Fishing ban reinstated as Fukushima nuclear leaks affect marine life http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2013/s3833333.htm Mark Willacy reported this story on Monday, August 26, 2013 TONY EASTLEY: With the Fukushima nuclear plant leaking hundreds of tonnes of radioactive water into the Pacific every day, fishing has once again been banned off the coast.
While scientists say it’s too early to tell how the contamination will affect marine life, test catches have shown that some fish – especially bottom-feeding species, have been affected.
The ABC’s North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy has managed to get a berth on a boat which is catching fish for testing off the coast.
I spoke to him via satellite phone a short time ago. …….. Continue reading
What do we tell the younger generation about what happened to our ocean?
TV: We’re talking about generations being affected by Fukushima, and also their future healthcare… How are those in charge getting away with this, time after time by just saying sorry? — What do we tell the younger generation about what happened to our ocean? (VIDEOS) http://enenews.com/tv-were-talking-about-generations-of-people-being-affected-by-fukushima-and-also-their-healthcare-into-the-future-how-are-those-in-charge-getting-away-with-this-time-after-time-
Asia Today, , Aug 23, 2013 – James Chau, Anchor (At 2:30 in): How is this one company been able to get away with this time after time, and just coming up with a sorry? Because we’re talking about generations involved here — and also their healthcare into the future.
Watch the Asia Today broadcast here
CNTV, Aug. 23, 2013 – Tomioka Residents (At 1:00 in): “What can we tell the younger generation about what happened to our ocean?” “It is not acceptable to say the water has accumulated and unfortunately some of them slipped into the sea.” Residents fear the situation may be uncontrollable. “It is no longer a matter for the Tokyo Electric. It is becoming an international matter and I want the government to take 
the initiative to prevent these occurrences.”
Fukushima: 2 water tanks to be drained
TEPCO to drain two tanks at Fukushima nuclear plant Phys Org 25 Aug 13, Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said Saturday it would empty two more coolant tanks that hold radioactive water over fears of fresh leaks at the crippled nuclear plant. Earlier this week, TEPCO said around 300 tonnes of radioactive liquid was believed to have escaped from one of the hundreds of tanks used to cool the broken reactors.
The episode was dubbed the most serious since the plant went into meltdown in 2011 after being hit by a quake and tsunami.
TEPCO said Saturday that the affected tank was one of three to have been relocated from their original zone because of ground subsidence in the area.
TEPCO has not yet pinpointed the source of the leak in the first tank but there are fears the relocation may have been connected with the incident.
Accordingly, the firm has decided to pump out water from the other two starting on Sunday, a company official said.
Nuclear watchdog inspectors who toured Japan’s crippled Fukushima plant following the discovery of a huge radioactive leak declared Friday that water storage at the site was “sloppy”……. http://phys.org/news/2013-08-tepco-tanks-fukushima-nuclear.html#jCp
Fukushima catastrophe might well measure 21 on International Nuclear Event Scale
TV: Isn’t Fukushima Daiichi at least a 21 on International Nuclear Event Scale, equal to 3 Level 7′s? “Global catastrophe… Disaster of unimaginable proportions” (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/tv-isnt-fukushima-daiichi-at-least-a-21-on-international-nuclear-event-scale-global-catastrophe-disaster-of-unimaginable-proportions-video
Title: Interview with Kevin Kamps Source: The Thom Hartmann Program Date: Aug 21, 2013
Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear7 is the highest rung on this [INES] ladder which is global catastrophe, in my words.
Only Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi have reached the seventh rung on this scale.
Fukushima is 1,000x’s worse than we thought!
But as a colleague John Laforge with Nuke Watch in Wisconsin put it back at the time 2 ½ years ago, while there where 3 meltdowns and 4 explosions at Fukushima Daiich, isn’t that at least a 3 times 7, or a 21 on the scale? […] The ocean’s just getting hammered at Fukushima Daiichi.
Thom Hartmann, Host: A disaster of unimaginable proportions […] Watch the broadcast here
Fukushima nuclear plant built on site of a diverted river
Wall St. Journal: They don’t know where Fukushima’s melted fuel cores are, or in what state — Expert: “It’s important to think of worst-case scenario”… Even greater levels of contamination may be on the way — Plant “built on a river” http://enenews.com/wsj-they-dont-know-where-fukushimas-melted-fuel-cores-are-or-in-what-state-expert-its-important-to-think-of-worst-case-scenario-might-be-even-more-heavily-contaminated-water-coming-th
Title: Japan Races to Contain Worst Fukushima Spill Since Meltdown
Source: Wall St Journal
Author: Phred Dvorak
Date: Aug 22, 2013
[…] Tepco said it doesn’t think that water has flowed into the sea but can’t say for sure. Some of the flooded reactor basements are similarly too hot to approach, and it is still not clear where the melted fuel cores are, or in what state.
“In the future there might be even more heavily contaminated water coming through,” said Atsunao Marui, head of the groundwater research group at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and a member of a blue-ribbon panel set up in May to figure out ways of managing the radioactive water. “It’s important to think of the worst-case scenario.”
Mr. Marui and others say the biggest reason for the scramble now is that Tepco—and the government bodies that oversee it—weren’t planning far enough ahead and waited too long to respond to problems they should have seen coming long ago.
Fukushima Daiichi was built some 40 years ago on the site of a river that was diverted in order to situate the plant, Mr. Marui says. It should have been clear that lots of groundwater would be rushing through the site, he says, and that any walls or barriers built on the seaward side would soon be overwhelmed—something that, indeed, has happened in recent weeks. […]
Radioactive water leaking from Fukushima’s tanks, basements, cracks
BBC: Fukushima “much worse than we’ve been led to believe, much worse” says nuclear expert — Contaminated water is leaking out all over site http://enenews.com/bbc-fukushima-much-worse-than-we-have-been-led-to-believe-much-worse-says-nuclear-expert-its-leaking-out-from-cracks-all-over-the-place
Title: BBC News – Fukushima leak is ‘much worse than we were led to believe’
Source: BBC News
Author: Matt McGrath Environment correspondent
Date: Aug 22, 2013
A nuclear expert has told the BBC that he believes the current water leaks at Fukushima are much worse than the authorities have stated.
He says water is leaking out all over the site and there are no accurate figures for radiation levels. […] “The quantities of water they are dealing with are absolutely gigantic,” said Mycle Schneider, who has consulted widely for a variety of organisations and countries [France, Germany] on nuclear issues.
“What is the worse is the water leakage everywhere else – not just from the tanks. It is leaking out from the basements, it is leaking out from the cracks all over the place. Nobody can measure that. […]
“It is much worse than we have been led to believe, much worse,” said Mr Schneider, who is lead author for the World Nuclear Industry status reports. […] Full BBC report here
Prime Minister Abe’s plan to restart Japan’s nuclear reactors is now under threat
Calls for Japan nuclear switch-off threaten ‘Abenomics’ Ft.com By Ben McLannahan in Tokyo , 23 Aug 13, Yumi Murakami began her weekly vigils not long after the tsunami-induced meltdowns at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant almost two and a half years ago. The 64-year-old housewife was at her usual spot outside the ministry of economy, trade and industry in Tokyo on Friday evening, bedecked in “No Nuke” badges, about to join a protest march to the prime minister’s house.
This week’s demonstration was vital, she said, following the disclosure from Fukushima’s operator that it had discovered a 300-tonne leak from one of the hundreds of jerry-built tanks holding contaminated water used to keep melted fuel cool.
“We can’t keep ruining people’s lives”, said Ms Murakami. Switching Japan’s reactors back on would be “hell”.
Shinzo Abe, beginning a five-day trip to the Middle East, was not there in person to see Friday’s protest. But the prime minister is acutely aware of the tensions between economic need and civil unease that elections have done little to resolve.
Mr Abe’s Liberal Democrats – the only party not calling for the elimination of nuclear power – comfortably won last month’s contest for control of the upper house of parliament. But turnout was low, as it was in December for the lower-house election that put the LDP in charge.
Opinion polls show significant shares of Japanese opposed to restarting the 50 reactors shut down in the wake of the Fukushima crisis, all but two of which remain idled. A survey this month by state broadcaster NHK found only 24 per cent of Japanese were in favour of restarting nuclear plants.
For Mr Abe, however, restoring nuclear power is a vital part of the grand project to pull Japan out of the deflation that has dogged it for much of the past 20 years……. Continue reading
Severity of Fukushima’s radiation problem has been covered up by Japanese government
Media now exposing Fukushima cover-up: “So many terrible things are not being reported” — Official radiation figures cannot be trusted — Regulator suspects Tepco giving false data — Problems much worse than officials claim http://enenews.com/media-now-exposing-fukushima-cover-up-so-many-terrible-things-are-not-being-reported-official-radiation-figures-cannot-be-trusted-regulator-suspects-tepco-giving-govt-false-data-proble
BBC News, Aug 22, 2013: The “worsening situation” at Fukushima has prompted a former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland to call for the withdrawal of Tokyo’s Olympic bid. In a letter to the UN secretary general, Mitsuhei Murata says the official radiation figures published by Tepco cannot be trusted. He says he is extremely worried about the lack of a sense of crisis in Japan and abroad.
Time, Aug 22, 2013: “It’s time we faced the danger, ” said Takashi Hirose, a writer shocked by the under-reported radiation levels he found on recent trip into the evacuation zone. “So many terrible things are not being reported in the news.”
BBC News, Aug 22, 2013: Fukushima leak is ‘much worse than we were led to believe’ […] A nuclear expert [Mycle Schneider] has told the BBC that he believes the current water leaks at Fukushima are much worse than the authorities have stated. […] He says water is leaking out all over the site and there are no accurate figures for radiation levels. […] some nuclear experts are concerned that the problem is a good deal worse than either Tepco or the Japanese government are willing to admit.
Irish Timess,, Aug 21, 2013: Cover-up [….] Many experts believe Japan’s government continues to underestimate the cost and complexity of the decommissioning, and that Tepco has been systematically covering up problems.
Bloomberg, Aug 21, 2013: At least one commissioner at the regulator questioned the accuracy of data being released by operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) and whether the incident had been fully reported. […] “This INES evaluation is based on the 300-ton leak, but I really wonder if we can trust data provided by Tepco,” Toyoshi Fuketa, a commissioner at the NRA, said at a meeting in Tokyo today. “I really wonder if we should judge based on Tepco’s data.”
Massive underground reservoir of radioactive water moves closer to Fukushima coast
The turbine buildings at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant are about 150 meters (500 feet) from the ocean. According to a Japan Atomic Energy Agency document, the contaminated underground water is spreading toward the sea at a rate of about 4 meters (13 feet) a month.
At that rate, “the water from that area is just about to reach the coast,” if it hasn’t already,
radioactive cesium levels in most fish caught off the Fukushima coast hadn’t declined in the year following the March 2011 disaster, suggesting that the contaminated water from the reactor-turbine areas is already leaking into the sea.
But TEPCO hasn’t provided the details he and other scientists need to further assess the situation.
Radioactive Groundwater at Fukushima Nears Pacific abc news, TOKYO August 23, 2013 (AP) By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press Deep beneath Fukushima’s crippled nuclear power station, a massive underground reservoir of contaminated water that began spilling from the plant’s reactors after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami has been creeping slowly toward the Pacific.
Now, 2 1/2 years later, experts fear it is about to reach the ocean and greatly worsen what is fast becoming a new crisis at Fukushima: the inability to contain vast quantities of radioactive water.
The looming crisis is potentially far greater than the discovery earlier this week of a leak from a tank that stores contaminated water used to cool the reactor cores. That 300-ton (80,000-gallon) leak is the fifth and most serious from a tank since the March 2011 disaster, when three of the plant’s reactors melted down after a huge earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant’s power and cooling functions.
But experts believe the underground seepage from the reactor and turbine building area is much bigger and possibly more radioactive, confronting the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., with an invisible, chronic problem and few viable solutions. Continue reading
Over ¥1 trillion cost for International Linear Collider,planned for Japan
Tepco digging ground to assess extent of radiation contamination at Fukushima
The utility will dig areas measuring 12 sq. meters in total to a depth of 40 to 50 cm where pools of leaked radioactive water formed, and then measure levels to determine how far the contamination has spread and how much soil needs to be removed.
Some 300 tons of highly radioactive water recently spewed into the Pacific from one of 26 tanks built in an area just 500 meters from the plant’s seawall. The tanks are surrounded by dikes, but some 120 liters of the water leaked outside of them, making it necessary to collect soil to prevent the contamination from spreading……. Groundwater that mixed with the tainted water has already flowed to the ocean, and Tepco said Friday it has launched an operation to pump it out of 28 wells….. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/08/23/national/tepco-testing-tainted-earth-at-no-1-plant/#.UhleVNJwonF
Digital change in the advertising world
World of advertising undergoes digital change By Chris Betros EXECUTIVE IMPACT AUG. 19, 2013 Takahiro Uchinaga, CEO of Isobar Japan TOKYO —
The world of advertising has seen many innovations in recent years as the media landscape changes. The changes are being driven by digital communications.
One of the companies at the forefront is the Aegis Media Group, a global communication agency established in 2003 (and bought by Dentsu), that operates in over 30 markets with digital at its heart. One of the group’s subsidiary companies is Isobar, a professional full support digital marketing group working on strategic planning, creative system planning, media planning, analytics, consulting and application service, to support clients with technology all over from the world.
Isobar’s global clients include Kellogg’s, adidas, Reebok, Disney and P&G, while its Japan-based clients include Panasonic, Fujitsu, Casio, H.I.S., Jetstar and Pernod Ricard. Continue reading
Radioactive water crisis out of control at Fukushima
Japan’s leaky nuclear plant, No end in sight The Fukushima nightmare lingers http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21584054-fukushima-nightmare-lingers-no-end-sight Aug 24th 2013 | TOKYO THE agonising efforts to clean up the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant hit new obstacles this week. On August 21st the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said that leaks of radioactive water were a level three, or “serious”, incident on a scale that goes up to seven. Some help from American experts aside, Japan has been dealing with the disaster itself. Now, even Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the plant’s owner, would welcome foreign help.
TEPCO is under intense fire at home. It “has no sense of crisis at all”, grumbled Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the NRA, as the leaks worsened. Another NRA commissioner questioned whether TEPCO’s data could even be trusted. After months of denial, the firm has only just admitted that contaminated water is leaking into the Pacific. China and South Korea have both expressed concern.
The plant’s melted reactor cores are tainting both the hundreds of tonnes of water pumped into them each day and the groundwater, producing vast quantities of radioactive liquid. After underground pools leaked, TEPCO has hastily built around 1,000 surface storage tanks. Several are leaking from joints sealed with plastic. The most recent leak, of 300 tonnes, prompted the NRA alert. Experts say many more tanks are at risk.
A shortage of cash may have heightened the crisis. TEPCO faces massive bills for replacement fuels and compensating evacuees. It failed to install even the most basic system to monitor water leaks. Its workers stand on tanks and memorise water levels. The NRA this week ordered TEPCO to install water gauges at once. “What’s needed is tanks with stainless-steel seals, but that would take time and money,” says Neil Hyatt, professor of radioactive-waste management at the University of Sheffield.
Huge and growing area of tanks storing Fukushima’s radioactive water
Radioactive Leaks in Japan Prompt Call for Overseas Help, Bloomberg, By Yuji Okada, Jacob Adelman & Peter Langan – Aug 21, 2013
“……..Toxic Sludge. Tepco was storing 330,000 tons of radioactive water as of Aug. 13 in tanks covering an area equal to 37 football fields, according to the company. The utility is clearing forest to make room for more tanks as it adds to the stored water at a rate of 400 tons a day after pumping it out from under the plant’s reactors, which melted down as a result of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The water is treated to remove some of the cesium particles before it is stored, which has left 480 filters clogged with the radioactive material at the site. Each weigh 15 tons and are warehoused in what the utility calls temporary storage, though it will take hundreds of years for the radiation to decay. Other radioactive contaminants remain in the water even after treatment. That includes strontium, which has been linked to bone cancers.
Besides radiated water, the site north of Tokyo has more than 73,000 cubic meters of contaminated concrete, 58,000 cubic meters of irradiated trees and undergrowth, and 157,710 gallons of toxic sludge, according to the utility.
’Biggest Concern’
Japan’s nuclear watchdog has ratcheted up alarm over the potential for more leaks of highly radioactive water from the hundreds of storage tanks at the Fukushima atomic plant.
The possibility of leaks from other tanks “is the biggest concern,” said Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shunichi Tanaka at a press conference yesterday. “This will need to be handled carefully on the assumption that one incident could bring another.”
Late last night, Tepco said water leaking from the storage tank probably ran into the ocean, citing high radiation readings in a drainage ditch.
As much as 20 trillion becquerels of cesium and 10 trillion becquerels of strontium leaked into the ocean since May 2011, Tepco spokeswoman Mayumi Yoshida said today. The total amount of cesium and strontium is equivalent to about 100 times the annual limit on radiation from the plant to the ocean under normal conditions, according to calculations based on Tepco data……….
Leaking Tanks
Japan’s government has ordered an investigation into the safety of hundreds of other tanks storing contaminated water in Fukushima, the site of the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl reactor exploded in 1986.
There are 226 tanks of similar bolted design to the leaking unit with the same 1,000-ton capacity at the site, said Tatsuya Shinkawa, director of the nuclear accident response office in the government’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, which called for the probe…… http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-21/tepco-shares-plunge-on-report-of-serious-radiated-water-leak.html
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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