The 3 reactors at the plant in northeastern Japan have been offline since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and they ain’t comin’ back!
Tohoku Electric Power Co.’s Onagawa Nuclear Power Station is seen from a Mainichi Shimbun helicopter in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 11, 2011.
Utility plans to scrap reactor at Onagawa plant
October 25, 2018
Tohoku Electric Power Company has told Miyagi Prefecture that it is going to decommission an aging reactor at its Onagawa nuclear power plant.
The 3 reactors at the plant in northeastern Japan have been offline since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The utility’s president, Hiroya Harada, conveyed its decision to Miyagi Governor Yoshihiro Murai on Thursday.
Harada explained that additional safety steps would create technical difficulties as the No.1 reactor is more than 30 years old. The measures are required under government regulations that were introduced after the 2011 disaster.
Murai asked Tohoku Electric Power to put top priority on safety in scrapping the reactor as the work is expected to take a long time. The governor also asked the utility to properly disclose information and maintain stable power supplies.
The utility hopes to put the 2 other reactors back into operation. The No.2 reactor is being checked by the nuclear regulator, and the firm is preparing to apply for an inspection of the No.3 reactor.
Utilities have decided to decommission 10 reactors at 7 plants, including Onagawa, since the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. They cite the huge cost of additional safety measures. These figures do not include the all 6 reactors at Fukushima Daiichi.
Tohoku Electric to scrap aging No. 1 unit at Onagawa nuclear plant
October 25, 2018
SENDAI (Kyodo) — Tohoku Electric Power Co. said Thursday it will scrap the idled No. 1 unit at its Onagawa nuclear power plant in the northeastern Japan prefecture of Miyagi, more than 30 years after it began operation.
The company cited difficulties in taking additional safety measures as well as the relatively small output of the reactor that would make the business unprofitable. Tohoku Electric President Hiroya Harada conveyed its decision to Miyagi Gov. Yoshihiro Murai.
“We decided to decommission (the reactor) at a board meeting today. We took into consideration technical restrictions associated with additional safety measures, output and the years in use,” Harada said when the men met at the prefectural government office.
For its resumption, the company has been required to expand safety measures at the unit under stricter standards introduced after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Under the standards, Japanese nuclear reactors are not allowed, in principle, to operate for more than 40 years.
Having entered into operation in June 1984, the boiling water reactor with an output of 524,000 kilowatts is the oldest among four units operated by the utility.
The utility said in a statement that the No. 1 unit lacked additional space to set up fire extinguishing equipment and infrastructure to secure power supply.
Harada told a press conference on Sept. 27 that decommissioning was an option as the unit’s age made it difficult to implement the required safety measures.
In the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, the basement floors of the Onagawa plant’s No. 2 unit were flooded. The company is building a 29-meter sea wall to guard the complex.
Tohoku Electric aims to resume operations of the No. 2 unit at the three-reactor Onagawa plant in fiscal 2020 at the earliest, and the Nuclear Regulation Authority, the country’s nuclear watchdog, has been screening its safety measures.
Spraying of anti-scattering agent before taking down the wall panels of Unit 1 building cover at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
Video taken on: August 4 and September 3, 2016
Produced by: TEPCO Holdings, Inc.
The outer layer of the crippled No. 1 reactor building at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is exposed as Tokyo Electric Power Co. removes one of the panels covering the facility at 6:22 a.m. on Sept. 13.
The devastated outer layer of Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant’s No. 1 reactor building has been exposed for the first time in almost five years in the painstaking reactor decommissioning process.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. began removing on Sept. 13 the exterior walls of the cover installed around the structure to prevent the dispersal of radioactive materials on Sept. 13.
Shortly past 6 a.m., a large crane began removing a massive piece of the cover installed around the reactor building. The panel dismantled that day measured 23 by 17 meters and weighed 20 tons.
The cover was installed in October 2011 as a temporary measure after a nuclear meltdown occurred following the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March that year. The meltdown caused a hydrogen explosion, blowing the walls off the building.
Once the cover is dismantled, the operator can assess the state of the building’s interiors and remove the debris fallen onto the spent fuel pool inside.
“Steady progress is necessary in reconstruction, but we hope they will carry on the procedure with safety as the No. 1 priority,” said a Fukushima prefectural government official.
TEPCO said that it plans to remove the remaining 17 panels of the covering by the end of the year. The portion covering the roof has already been removed.
Once the cover is removed, the utility will begin drawing up plans to remove the 392 fuel assemblies from the spent fuel pool and melted nuclear fuel from inside the building.
The plant operator said that it plans to be extra careful during the procedure. It will shroud the building in tarpaulins once the cover is removed as a precautionary measure against dust and other materials containing radioactive materials from being carried aloft by the wind.
The utility and central government’s joint schedule for the decommissioning process of the reactor states that the removal of the fuel rods from the pool will start in fiscal 2020.
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has resumed work to remove a temporary cover from a damaged reactor building.
Tokyo Electric Power Company had covered the partially collapsed No. 1 reactor building to prevent radioactive materials generated by the 2011 accident from spreading.
It started the removal process in July last year, the first step in the retrieval of spent nuclear fuel from a storage pool in the building.
The operation was suspended after sheets from the roof area were removed to assess the building’s condition.
On Tuesday, cranes were used to detach the panels from the side of the building, and the debris inside was exposed for the first time in 5 years. Each panel is 23 by 17 meters and weighs 20 tons.
TEPCO officials say they will spray chemicals to ensure that radioactive substances do not disperse even in strong winds.
They say they plan to complete the operation by the end of November, so that the debris can be removed. The removal of spent fuel is due to begin in 2021.
Industry ministry official Masato Kino who monitored the progress at the scene said difficult procedures will continue, but the first step has been taken. He said he hopes to carefully and safely proceed.
Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have removed half of the ceiling panels covering a damaged reactor building. The work is part of efforts to decommission the facility.
The No.1 reactor building was heavily damaged by a hydrogen explosion during the 2011 meltdown. Tokyo Electric Power Company installed a cover around it to prevent the spread of radioactive material.
The utility is now removing the cover so it can clean up debris inside the facility. Two of the 6 ceiling panels that make up the cover were removed between late July and early August.
The utility then halted the work to monitor radiation levels and check the conditions of the debris. Since no abnormalities were found, workers removed a 3rd panel on Tuesday using a remote-controlled crane.
TEPCO says there’s been no change in radiation levels around the reactor buildings. It says measurements taken before the work on Tuesday showed that wind blowing inside the cover was weaker than expected.
The utility plans to finish dismantling the cover by around late next year.
According to Tepco, they started removing the main part of cover of Reactor 1 on 7/28/2015.
They announced that there was no significant change in dust monitoring data and radiation monitoring post readings.
The former Fukushima worker “Happy11311″ commented on Twitter that the high level of contamination might be retained on the ground floor with rain after they take the cover away.
Tepco on Tuesday began dismantling the temporary shroud covering the wrecked reactor 1 building at the Fukushima No 1 nuclear plant.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. installed the cover in October 2011 to keep radioactive materials from dispersing.
Workers used a crane Tuesday to remove one of the six panels that form the shroud’s roof. Each panel is about 7 meters wide and about 42 meters long.
As the panel came off, the upper part of the reactor building could be seen for the first time since December, when part of the cover was temporarily removed. The building’s exterior was shattered in a hydrogen explosion in March 2011, in the first few days of the crisis.
Tepco plans to complete removing the shroud in fiscal 2016 and to clear debris and install equipment for the sensitive process of removing the 392 spent fuel assemblies currently lying in the building’s storage pool. That procedure is expected to begin in fiscal 2020.
Takao Kikori, a senior nuclear safety official in the Fukushima Prefectural Government, called for care to be taken in the dismantling work to ensure the safety of local people.
The utility plans to remove the second panel in early August or later and complete the removal of all six panels by the end of this year. Later it will remove the side panels and install windbreaker sheets ahead of clearing the debris.
The cover was installed as an emergency measure to keep radioactive dust from scattering. Tepco initially planned to dismantle it in fiscal 2013 or 2014 but was forced to delay the work to take additional dust control and other measures.
The interior of the No. 1 reactor building of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant can be seen from above after a canopy panel was removed on July 28.
OKUMA, Fukushima Prefecture–Tokyo Electric Power Co. on July 28 started removing a canopy covering a damaged reactor building at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant to prepare for the eventual extraction of spent nuclear fuel inside.
Around 7 a.m., workers using a giant crane lifted away the first of six canopy panels, each measuring 40 meters long and 7 meters wide, from the No. 1 reactor building.
The 30-minute removal of the panel left a large hole in the canopy through which steel beams on the damaged upper part of structure could be seen from above. Workers closely monitored radiation levels in the surrounding areas during the removal process.
The utility plans to remove the remaining five panels from next week.
The removal of the canopy will allow TEPCO to clear debris inside the building, possibly in the latter half of fiscal 2016. That process should pave the way for the removal of nuclear fuel rods from the spent fuel pool in the building.
Before removing the canopy panel, the utility sprayed the inside of the reactor building with liquid resin through holes drilled in the cover to prevent radioactive materials from being stirred up during the dismantling work.
TEPCO initially planned to start removing the canopy panels from the No. 1 reactor building in summer 2014, but the schedule was delayed because a large amount of radioactive substances was released into the environment when the utility removed debris from the No. 3 reactor building in August 2013.
Even after the anti-scattering resin was sprayed into the No. 1 reactor building in May, removal of the canopy panel was postponed by a problem inside the building.
TEPCO will start dismantling the cover on July 28.
TOKYO (Sputnik) — Japanese utility company TEPCO will resume work to remove a protective cover from the stricken Fukushima reactor building in late July, a public Japanese broadcaster said.
A dome was installed over Reactor No.1 in 2011 to stop radioactive particles from escaping into the atmosphere after the facility suffered a meltdown when a tsunami caused by a powerful earthquake crippled the Fukushima nuclear plant.
According to the NHK broadcasting organization, the operator will begin dismantling the cover on July 28 if weather permits.
TEPCO began preparatory work to dismantle the protective cover over the Reactor 1 building in May. The preparations began with anti-dispersal agents poured through holes in the cover’s roof to prevent radioactive dust from escaping into the surrounding environment during the dismantling process.
Dismantling has been delayed several times due to technical failures.
The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has decided to resume work to dismantle the cover of the No.1 reactor building later this month.
The work is part of efforts to decommission the facility, which suffered a meltdown after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
A hydrogen explosion damaged the No.1 reactor building. Tokyo Electric Power Company installed the cover to prevent radioactive material from dispersing.
The utility initially planned to start dismantling the cover last year to clear away radioactive rubble and remove spent nuclear fuel stored at a pool inside the building.
The plan was postponed several times after people expressed concern about the dispersal of radioactive substances.
Engineers also found a problem with a device that controls the air flow in the building when dismantling work was set to begin in May.
The engineers say they have addressed the problem. TEPCO decided to resume the dismantling work on July 28th as long as weather conditions permit.
As part of the plan, chemical agents will be sprayed to prevent radioactive dust from being released into the air.
OKUMA, Fukushima Prefecture–In preparation for clearing debris and eventually removing nuclear fuel from inside, Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Nov. 10 temporarily removed another panel from the canopy covering a damaged reactor building at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Debris inside the building were visible from the opening, which is 40 meters long and 14 meters wide, equivalent to one-third the size of the entire roof.
The first of the six canopy panels was removed on Oct. 31.
The utility has been spraying the inside of the reactor building with liquid anti-scattering resin since Oct. 22 to prevent radioactive materials from being stirred up during the dismantling work. The interior of the building will be checked throughout this month.
TEPCO also plans to keep a close eye on radioactivity levels inside the plant grounds and will notify local municipalities if any abnormalities are recorded.
The removed roof panels will be reinstalled as early as within this month, and their full-scale removal is expected to begin in March 2015.
October 20, 2014
2,800 ~ 11,000 Bq/m3 of Strontium-90 have been detected from pumped water around Reactor 1 and 3, according to Tepco.
On 10/1/2014, Tepco released nuclide analysis data of groundwater. The tested groundwater was pumped up from the facilities called “sub-drain” located beside Reactor 1 ~ 4.
These “sub-drains” were originally to reduce groundwater volume to flow into the basement of each reactor building, however abandoned because of the high level of contamination after 311. Tepco is trying to restart using these sub-drains to pump up highly contaminated water and to discharge to the sea.
(cf, Tepco to pump up highly contaminated groundwater for potential discharge today / Drainage plan submitted to NRA.
The samples were taken this September and last September. From the sample near Reactor 1, 11,000 Bq/m3 of Strontium-90 was detected last September. From the sample near Reactor 3, 2,800 Bq/m3 of Strontium-90 was measured this September.
These readings were not checked by third party organizations, so the actual density can be higher than announced.
Either way, the data shows groundwater contamination is spreading from around the reactor buildings to the outside of the port. (cf, Strontium-90 detected outside of Fukushima port / Highest reading in front of Reactor 4 too. http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2014/images/around_rb_141001-j.pdf
Source: Fukushimary Diary http://fukushima-diary.com/2014/10/strontium-90-detected-potentially-discharged-water-reactor-1-3/
Reluctantly, I have realised that the climate crisis is the most huge and urgent problem for humanity, now. This website is not able to do justice to this enormous topic. All that I can do is to pick out significant information as it arrives, and also note some, (not nearly enough) of the climate events happening.
Meanwhile, nuclear-news will focus on its original purpose, to reveal the disastrous effects of the nuclear industry, and to refute the propaganda lies from the nuclear lobby.
Existential Abrupt Climate Change Risks to Humanity: Part 1 of 3
Fortunately, Chernobyl health records are now available to the public. They show that people living in the radioactive traces fell ill from cancers, respiratory illness, anaemia, auto-immune disorders, birth defects, and fertility problems two to three times more frequently in the years after the accident than before. In a highly contaminated Belarusian town of Veprin, just six of 70 children in 1990 were characterised as “healthy”. The rest had one chronic disease or another. On average, the Veprin children had in their bodies 8,498 bq/kg of radioactive caesium (20 bq/kg is considered safe).
Currently, policymakers are advocating a massive expansion of nuclear power as a way to combat climate change. Before we enter a new nuclear age, the declassified Chernobyl health records raise questions that have been left unanswered about the impact of chronic low doses of radioactivity on human health.
Chernobyl’s disastrous cover-up is a warning for the next nuclear age
