Japan’s Mihama nuclear plant reports radioactive water leak, sparking concerns after Fukushima discharge plan
August 2, 2022
About 10 days after Japan’s nuclear regulator approved the plan to discharge nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima power plant, another nuclear power plant in central Japan leaked about seven tons of water containing radioactive elements, sparking wide concern over safety of Japan’s nuclear power plants.
Also, on Tuesday the local government in Fukushima Prefecture agreed to allow Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to build facilities to dump the nuclear-contaminated water, Japan’s NHK reported. The Nuclear Regulation Authority of Japan on July 22 officially approved the water discharge plan.
According to the operator Kansai Electric Power Company, about seven tons of radioactive water leaked from Mihama 3 reactor at the Mihama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture on Monday. The amount of radioactivity of the leaked water is about 2.2 million becquerels (Bq).
According to the Waste Management and Recycling Department, Japanese Ministry of the Environment, 100Bq/kg is the standard for safe recycling of waste and 8,000Bq/kg is the standard for safe disposal of waste.
The company claimed that the leak was contained and had no impact on the external environment.
The over 40-year-old reactor is currently out of service. The company is investigating whether the leak will affect the reactor’s scheduled restart in mid-August, Japanese media outlet Sankei News reported.
The aging Mihama 3 reactor has a stained history. In August 2004, a pipeline of the reactor broke down, which killed five and seriously injured six people, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun.
Voices from civil society have expressed their deep concern over the Mihama nuclear power plant.
According to Kyoto Shimbun, a civil group on Friday urged the governor of Shiga Prefecture to publicly announce their opposition to the Kansai Electric Power Company’s plan to restart Mihama 3 in mid-August.
The latest radioactive water leak and the dumping of Fukushima nuclear waste have largely overdrawn the credit of the Japanese authorities and related companies, according to both netizens from Japan and China.
A Japanese netizen said the old Mihama reactor has long been in bad condition. Another Japanese netizen said the accident could be intentional.
“The leak will not affect the outside environment. Really? Japan said the same thing when they decided to dump the Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water into the sea!” said a Chinese netizen.
Zhang Yancang, director of the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea Research Institute of Dalian Maritime University, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the ocean is not Japan’s sewage disposal site, and the marine ecology is an organic whole, so once the pollution spreads, it may affect the entire body. Most countries, including the US, cannot be immune to it.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, states should hold an international legal obligation to combat transboundary pollution of the oceans. However, Japan has prepared for a long time to avoid legal responsibility for dumping nuclear-contaminated water and radioactive water leaks, Zhang said.
Resumption of Mihama Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3 delayed due to leakage of water containing radioactive materials, Kansai Electric Power Co.
August 3, 2022
Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) announced on August 3 that it would postpone the resumption of power dispatch for the Mihama Unit 3 reactor (Fukui Prefecture), which is undergoing routine inspections and was scheduled to restart on August 12. This is due to a leak of water containing trace amounts of radioactive materials in the reactor’s auxiliary building, which has necessitated an investigation into the cause and restoration work. The resumption date has not yet been determined.
According to KEPCO, the leak was discovered during a routine inspection on the morning of January 1, near a device in the auxiliary reactor building that prevents primary cooling water from leaking outside. The amount of leaked water is estimated to be approximately 7 tons. The company claims that the water did not leak outside the building and that there is no environmental impact or radiation exposure to workers.
At the nuclear power plant in Fukushima found a leak of radioactive water
February 14, 2021
A radioactive water leak was discovered at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. It is reported by RIA Novosti citing a press release from TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company).
TEPCO specialists found out that due to the earthquake in northeast Japan, a small amount of water poured out of the pools for storing spent nuclear fuel at various units of the Fukushima-1 and Fukushima-2 nuclear power plants.
Representatives of the company said that about 160 milliliters of water were spilled at the first power unit of the Fukushima-2 nuclear power plant, and another 1.4 liters spilled from another pool. They assured that this incident should not affect the cooling of the spent fuel. Local media also reported that about 600 milliliters of water spilled out at the fifth power unit of the emergency nuclear power plant “Fukushima-1”, and 1.6 liters of liquid at the sixth. Another 600 milliliters were missing in the common pool for the two power units.
It is noted that the spilled water does not pose a threat to the environment, since its volumes are too small, and the content of radioactive substances in it is insignificant.
Earlier it was reported that in northeast Japan happened powerful earthquake. The magnitude of the earthquake was 7.1, the epicenter was recorded in the area of Fukushima prefecture. The number of victims of the disaster exceeded 100 people.
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Highly radioactive water leak at Fukushima No. 1 nuke plant
Radioactive water leaks from storage tank at Fukushima plant
The latest contaminated water leak at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant occurred at a flange-type storage tank, whose seams are connected by bolts.
Up to 32 liters of radioactive water leaked from a storage tank at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, but the contaminated liquid has been contained, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Oct. 6.
The leaked water is currently within barriers surrounding the tank that are designed to block the flow of fluids, TEPCO, the plant’s operator, said.
The liquid contained water that had been treated to remove radioactive strontium and other substances, as well as highly contaminated water from the bottom of the tank that was stored shortly after the nuclear accident started in 2011.
A radioactivity level of 590,000 becquerels of beta ray-emitting materials was detected per liter of the leaked water.
The water seeped out of a tank with bolted seams on its sides, which are more prone to leaks than those with welded walls.
TEPCO continues to use the bolted containers despite the risk because production of welded tanks cannot keep pace with the buildup of contaminated water, mainly from groundwater entering the damaged reactor buildings, at the nuclear plant.
Storage tank leaks at Fukushima Daiichi plant
Workers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have found a leak of highly radioactive water from a waste water tank.
Its operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, says the water likely leaked from a seam of the tank.
The leaked water was spotted on Wednesday on the side of one of an array of steel tanks holding contaminated water that is continuously generated at the site.
TEPCO’s analysis found 590,000 becquerel per liter of beta-emitting radioactive materials in the water.
Tokyo Electric estimates that 32 liters of such highly radioactive water had trickled out, mixed with rainwater, and remained within a barrier around the tank.
Workers moved water in the tank to another one to lower the water level enough to halt the leak.
The leaking cylindrical tank is made by splicing steel plates with bolts. But they have had waste water leaks in the past from seams.
The operator has been replacing these leak-prone tanks with new seamless ones. But the increasing volume of waste water makes it difficult for the utility to completely do away with the old ones.
TEPCO: Groundwater Surfaced and Possibly Leaked at Fukushima Plant During Typhoon
Fukushima Daiichi Floods, Show Lack of Preparedness
News reports indicated that groundwater at Fukushima Daiichi had risen so high it broke the surface and flowed into the port as a recent typhoon passed through the area. As TEPCO prepared to close the steel sea wall and freeze the underground frozen wall, NRA stopped the process for a review of the potential for flooding within the reactor building area.
The conclusion was that TEPCO thought they could sufficiently remove excess groundwater with the sump pump subdrain system near the reactor buildings. There were also concerns of the groundwater dropping too low, allowing contaminated water to flow out of the reactor building basements.
With all this review, nobody conceived a need for more water removal capacity. TEPCO ended up employing some sort of makeshift pumps and also using septic tank trucks to pump up water. This lack of anywhere for rainwater to go may have contributed to the water flowing out into the port as it built up on the surface.
Without some major changes at Daiichi this problem of groundwater rising to the surface and flowing into the port or the sea will continue to happen when significant rainfall takes place.
http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/?p=15765
Typhoon rain raises tainted Fukushima plant groundwater to surface
Heavy rain brought by Typhoon Malakas caused contaminated groundwater to rise to ground level at the radiation-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant Tuesday night, raising fears of tainted water flooding out to the plant’s port area, its operator said.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. said in a press release that plant workers are doing their utmost to pump up tainted groundwater at the Fukushima compound, while trying to measure the level of radioactive substances contained in the water.
Under normal circumstances, groundwater taken from wells around the damaged reactor buildings at the Fukushima plant is filtered and stored in numerous tanks built on the compound.
Shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday, groundwater reached the surface level at an observation well near the seawall at the power plant’s port, and at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, groundwater stood at 3 cm above the surface level, Tepco said.
The well has a far higher wall and the ground around it is paved, the company said, playing down the possibility that any water flowed out of the well.
By 9 a.m. Wednesday, the water level had dropped to 3 cm below the surface.
Meanwhile, some rainwater may have flowed directly into the port before seeping underground, according to the company.
Tepco will continue pumping groundwater around the seawall, located near the damaged No. 1 to No. 4 reactors, and carry out close examinations of water inside the port, the company said.
In order to curb the flow of groundwater into the sea, the company has covered the seawall with water shields and carries out groundwater pumping operations.
Typhoon Malakas itself was downgraded to an extratropical depression at around 9 p.m. Tuesday as it moved along the coast of the Tokai region and swayed toward the Pacific. It was initially forecast to hit the Kanto region in the early hours of Wednesday.
The previous typhoon, Lionrock, earlier this month killed at least 17 people. Before Lionrock, two typhoons had claimed at least two lives in the northeast.
TEPCO: Possible water leak at Fukushima plant during typhoon
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sept. 21 it will check for radiation contamination in seawater near its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant after heavy rain from Typhoon No. 16 brought tainted groundwater to the surface.
The water reached the top of wells at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, and there is a possibility that some of it spilled into the sea.
“We will analyze the seawater because we cannot determine whether groundwater containing radioactive materials has actually leaked,” a TEPCO official said.
The official added that the company believes most of the water that may have poured into the sea was rainwater that had not seeped into the ground.
The utility constantly monitors groundwater levels in wells around the reactor buildings at the plant to prevent overflows.
TEPCO said groundwater in wells on the seaside area of the nuclear complex reached the surface around 10 p.m. on Sept. 20 amid the heavy rain brought by the approaching typhoon. The water kept rising despite workers’ efforts to lower the level using makeshift pumps and septic tank trucks.
The groundwater level remained the same as of 7 a.m. on Sept. 21 before it finally dropped to about 3 centimeters from the surface two hours later, the company said.
According to TEPCO, about 575 millimeters of rain fell in the area of the nuclear plant from Aug. 1 to Sept. 20.
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201609210047.html
Tepco admits they concealed the fact of meltdown 7 million Bq of all β nuclides leaked as contaminated water in Fukushima plant
According to Tepco, highly contaminated water leaked from a water storage tank on 6/26/2016.
All β nuclides density is reportedly 96,000,000 Bq/m3. Cs-134/137 density is also 700,000 Bq/m3.
Tepco states the leaked volume was 72 L. Based on their announcement, at least 6,912,000 Bq of all β nuclides leaked to contain Sr-90.
Tepco says no contaminated water spread to the outside of the tank area.
The type of this tank has unwelded joint parts, which is vulnerable for leakage.
The life of these tanks was reported to be 5 years but in 2013 Tepco admitted it has no basis.
These tanks are not bearable for the contaminated water but these are still in use.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/press/mail/2016/1301003_8708.html
http://www.tepco.co.jp/press/mail/2016/1301004_8708.html
http://www.tepco.co.jp/press/mail/2016/1301009_8708.html
TEPCO says 5.3 tons of tainted water leaked at nuclear plant
An estimated 5.3 tons of water contaminated with radiation leaked from a pipe in a building housing cesium removal equipment at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the facility’s operator said.
The leaked water contained 383,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium per liter and 480,000 becquerels of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances per liter.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said March 23 the water has not flowed outside the high temperature incinerator building. TEPCO said it was in the process of pumping up the water for storage.
The utility said workers doing remodeling work earlier in the day cut off a pipe inside the incinerator building. When workers subsequently operated radioactive material removal equipment in another building, contaminated water leaked from the cut section of the pipe to the floor of the incinerator building.
TEPCO said it is trying to determine the cause of the incident, adding that workers had confirmed that they closed a valve before cutting off the pipe to prevent water leakage
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201603240048
2,029,900,000 Bq of Cs-134/137 leaked as contaminated water in Fukushima plant
According to Tepco, a leakage detector of waste incineration building went off around noon of 3/23/2016.
Tepco reports the leaked volume was 5.3 t. The leaked contaminated water was from the cesium absorption facility to contain extremely high density of Cs-134/137.
From Tepco’s announcement, Cs-134/137 density was 383,000,000 Bq/m3.
All β nuclides to include Sr-90 was 480,000,000 Bq/m3.
At the moment of the press release, Tepco had not completed removing the leaked water but they state the building is designed to retain contaminated water inside.
The pipe from the cesium absorption facility was cut off due to a construction however somebody turned on the facility to cause the large leakage.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/cc/press/2016/1270693_7738.html
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