The fearful town of Minamisoma.
by far the biggest problem is the Fukushima reactors. I think the accident shows we have to stop building nuclear plants. The radiation doesn’t stop in Japan: it goes all around the world.”
A city left to fight for survival after the Fukushima nuclear disaster – The Irish Times , Apr 09, 2011“……A common plot sees a modern city reduced overnight to a ghostly husk as fears of nuclear contamination empty it of people. Businesses shut and food, water and petrol run out. Old people left behind begin to die. The city mayor makes a desperate televised appeal for help. Such is real life in Sakurai’s city of Minamisoma. Continue reading
USA sending huge concrete pumps to Fukushima nuclear plant
Massive pumps departing U.S. for Japan nuclear plant, By Vivian Kuo, April 8, 2011 Atlanta (CNN) –– Two of the world’s largest concrete pumps will depart the United States later this week as part of the effort to resolve the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, officials said.
Each pump weighs 190,000 pounds and has a boom reach of over 227 feet, and can pump water and concrete at massive rates. They will be loaded aboard enormous Russian cargo jets Friday.
The pumps’ manufacturer, Putzmeister, said in a release the devices are normally used to pour concrete for bridges and high-rise construction projects, but can offer pinpoint accuracy “to directly target hotspots within the reactors” and help with cooling.
There are only three such pumps in the world, said Putzmeister spokeswoman Mary Roberts……Massive pumps departing U.S. for Japan nuclear plant – CNN.com
Unprecedented problems face Japanese workers at Fukushima
“The fact they have to handle two spent fuel pools and three reactor cores with kid gloves, (they) don’t have any margin for error,”
Nuclear experts: Many challenges, few options for Japanese By Jim Barnett, CNN Senior Producer,April 7, 2011 Washington (CNN) — Nuclear experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists said again Thursday there are many challenges ahead and few options left to Japanese workers trying to ease the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Continue reading
High radiation levels at Minamisoma
“While the Japanese government’s data is not necessarily incorrect, it is neither telling the full story, nor being adequately used to protect the health of people in Minamisoma…“Our measurements, taken between government monitoring points, show elevated levels of contamination outside the official 20 km mandatory evacuation zone that indicate a risk to health, yet people in Minamisoma are only being advised to stay indoors or leave on a voluntary basis. This is unacceptable.”
Greenpeace Team Identifies “High Contamination Levels“ in Minamisoma Vegetables, April 6, 2011 Yonezawa, Japan- (PanOrient News) Greenpeace said in a statement today that its radiation experts investigating impacts from the Fukushima nuclear crisis have discovered high levels of contamination in crops grown on the outskirts of Minamisoma city, raising further concerns over health risks to residents and a lack of official information outside the 20 km evacuation zone. Continue reading
Hitachi nuclear company freezing its proposed new projects
Nakanishi indicated a grim outlook on exports of nuclear power infrastructure to Vietnam, which is being jointly pushed by Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 plant…..
Hitachi to cut back on new nuclear power projects, asahi.com, BY SATOSHI DAIGUJI , 8 April 11 Hitachi Ltd. will scale back its nuclear power projects following the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Continue reading
No one knows how to deal with Fukushima’s radioactive water
international law forbids Japan from dumping contaminated water into the ocean if there are viable technical solutions available down the road….So Tepco is considering bringing in barges and tanks, including a “megafloat” that can hold about 2.5 million gallons….Yet even using barges and tanks to temporarily handle the water creates a future problem of how to dispose of the contaminated vessels.
Cleaning up Japan’s radioactive water could take decades, latimes.com, 7 April 11, No one is sure how to safely dispose of millions of gallons of highly radioactive water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. ‘There is nothing like this, on this scale, that we have ever attempted to do before,’ a U.S. expert says. Continue reading
Radioactive Cesium can travel up the food chain, in fish
Power company back pedals over reactor plans, Sydney Morning Herald, Andrew Higgins April 7, 2011, FUKUSHIMA:”…….After unsuccessful attempts with concrete, and even newspapers and sawdust, engineers used sodium-silicate to stop the leak, but radioactivity in fish exceeding health guidelines has been detected for the first time off northern Japan.Caesium radioactivity in sand lance caught south of the Fukushima Daiichi plant was 526 becquerel per kilogram, compared with a health ministry standard of 500 becquerel.With a radioactive half-life of 30 years, caesium can build up in the meat of marine predators as they eat smaller animals…..Power company back pedals over reactor plans
Risk of new explosion at Fukushima, -gas being pumped in
Experts say the risk of a detonation could rise as the nuclear fuel rods cool and as the steam inside the containment vessel condenses into water, reducing pressure inside the unit and drawing air in through cracks.
Japan using gas to avoid explosion at nuclear plant, THE STRAITS TIMES, Apr 7, 2011 Japan using gas to avoid explosion at nuclear plantTOKYO – WORKERS at Japan’s stricken nuclear plant on Thursday pumped nitrogen gas into a crippled reactor in a bid to contain the world’s worst atomic accident for 25 years and prevent a possible explosion. Continue reading
Fish off Japan found to contain radioactive Cesium
Toxic caesium found in fish off Japan, ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy, 7 April 11 Traces of radioactive caesium have been found for the first time in fish off Japan’s east coast.
It is believed the contamination came from overheated fuel rods at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Continue reading
Two days after Fukushima disaster TEPCO planned 2 new reactors there
Tepco announced last week that four reactors at the centre of the crisis will never go back into service. At the same time, however, it submitted a report to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry that included a proposed timetable for the construction and commissioning of two new reactors – No. 7 and No. 8 – at the same complex….
Power company back pedals over reactor plans, Sydney Morning Herald, Andrew Higgins April 7, 2011, FUKUSHIMA: Even as it struggled to contain the world’s worst nuclear disaster in a quarter of a century, Tokyo Electric Power Company late last month quietly set out big plans for the future: it proposed building two new nuclear reactors at its radiation-spewing Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Continue reading
Growing volumes of radioactive water entering the ocean from Fukushima nuclear plant
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said officials were growing concerned about the sheer volume of radioactive materials spilling into the Pacific. It is not clear how much water has leaked in addition to what is being dumped purposely…….”Even if they say the contamination will be diluted in the ocean, the longer this continues, the more radioactive particles will be released and the greater the impact on the ocean,..”
Japan nuke plant dumps radioactive water into sea – seattlepi.com, MARI YAMAGUCHI, YURI KAGEYAMA, April 4, 2011“………More water keeps pooling because TEPCO has been forced to rely on makeshift methods of bringing down temperatures and pressure by pumping water into the reactors and allowing it to gush out wherever it can. It is a messy process, but it is preventing a full meltdown of the fuel rods that would release even more radioactivity into the environment. Continue reading
Desperate efforts to cool stricken nuclear plant, and stem radioactive leak
Government sources and TEPCO say that the water in the pit almost certainly came from the reactor core in Unit 2 where the fuel rods have apparently melted down, at least in part.
A Sense of Desperation as Nuclear Workers Fight to Plug Radioactive Leak, Forbes, Osha Gray Davidson , Apr. 4 2011 “……The water being dumped comes from different sources, including runoff from water sprayed on the reactors to cool fuel rods, newly-found contaminated groundwater near the turbine building at Unit No. 1, and runoff from Units No. 5 and 6 (two units that had previously been termed “safe”). Continue reading
Years to deal with damage and radioactivity at Fukushima nuclear plant
The task at Fukushima Daiichi is especially complicated because it involves at least three damaged reactors and apparent damage to nuclear waste pools……the situation will become much more complicated if workers find fuel melted in the reactor core.
Nuclear Plant Cleanup Will Take Years, Not Months – WSJ.com, 1 April 11, By REBECCA SMITH As Japanese officials struggle to stabilize damaged reactors at Fukushima Daiichi complex, an international team already is assembling to help them tackle the next big task: the cleanup…… Continue reading
11,500 metric tonnes of radioactive water to be dumped into the sea
Japan to dump 11,500 metric tonnes of radioactive water (Reuters) 5 April 11, – Japan needs to discharge a total of 11,500 metric tons of low-contaminated water into the ocean from a stricken nuclear power plant, a Japanese official said on Monday.Koichiro Nakamura, a deputy director general of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), said the measure was needed to “avoid a more serious risk,” without elaborating. Continue reading
Huge civil damages claims looming from Fukushima disaster
“If the government nationalises TEPCO then they take on TEPCO’s debts, and if TEPCO remains private it will probably need government support for its obligations to pay damages, so whichever way you look at it the government will be taking on responsibility
Japan nuclear crisis to trigger huge civil damages claims | Reuters, Mon Apr 4, 2011 * TEPCO and government to handle claims* Hundreds of thousands of claims expected* Claims could top $130 bln in worst case – BofA-ML* Government likely to set up central compensation fund By Rachel Armstrong – Japan’s nuclear crisis is likely to lead to one of the country’s largest and most complex ever set of claims for civil damages, handing a huge bill to the fiscally strained government and debt-laden plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co . Continue reading
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