- A Mainichi Shimbun articles alleges that the unit #4 hydrogen explosion on March 15 may have been caused by the generation of hydrogen from the spent fuel pool. Hydrogen and Oxygen are separated from each other in water when in a Gamma radiation field (radiolysis). The group of researchers from the University of Tokyo and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency say spent fuel pool radiolysis might have been the critical reason for the explosion. TEPCO maintains the explosion was due to Hydrogen that leaked from unit #3, and we agree.There are two problems with the new claim, based on what’s written in the Mainichi article. First, the concentration of Hydrogen needed for detonation in air is not 4% (as the article claims). NASA’s Hydrogen Safety Manual says it’s at least 15% for a dry air environment. 4% is the ignition level in the presence of a spark, but burning alone would not have blown the refueling deck apart. Second, the sheer volume of hydrogen needed for detonation in an open space as large as the refueling deck (more than 250,000 square feet) is enormous. While there was certainly some Hydrogen radiolysis in the #4 SPF between March 11 and 15, the volume had to be at least thousands of times less than needed to produce a 15% concentration. Thus, the SPF’s Hydrogen may have exacerbated the detonation a tiny bit, but it was neither the cause nor a significant contributor to its magnitude.
(To find the NASA manual : http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/codeq/doctree/canceled/871916.pdf )
- The most recent JAIF posting of Fukushima data includes a new category; Waste Produced. This includes sludge from the water decontamination system as well as its “Concentrated Waste Liquid”. There are currently 555 cubic meters of sludge and ~2,500 tons of the liquid. All is presently stored on-site. Ultimate disposition will depend on governmental decisions.
- TEPCO has further reduced the injection rate to #3 RPV. The feedwater pipe flow is now 4 tons per hour, while the feedwater spray rate remains at ~3 tons per hour. Bottom head temperature seems to be holding at slightly below 100 oC.
- JAIF, NHK World, and Mainichi Shimbun report on yet another example of informational non-transparency in Japan. The Japanese House of Representatives Special Committee on Promotion of Science and Technology and Innovation ordered TEPCO to submit their official nuclear emergency procedure manuals nearly two weeks ago. Last week’s submittal was “heavily redacted”, meaning most of the information in the manuals had been blacked out. When ordered to resubmit by the committee, TEPCO (on Monday) handed in a three-page copy of the index of actions to be taken in an emergency. Nearly everything is blacked out. In fact, only two entries in the index were not blacked out; “firefighting” and “inert gasses”. In addition, while NISA has the legal authority to force TEPCO to submit unredacted material, they have done nothing of the sort. Mainici Shimbun quoted one outraged committee member, “It is unacceptable for TEPCO to refuse to disclose these materials in the wake of this kind of disaster,” committee chair Hiroshi Kawauchi said. “Furthermore, the fact that NISA knew there were legal grounds to demand the documents’ disclosure but did nothing about it angered many of the committee directors.” In response, the Mainichi quotes a TEPCO representative, “These manuals are entirely internal documents pertaining to the operation of the reactors. They are not for general publication. The issue here is the protection of nuclear materials, and our intellectual property rights.”No…the issue is the smell of a cover-up, whether or not one actually exists. Protection of nuclear materials? Intellectual property rights? When will TEPCO learn what “transparency” means?
- In what seems to be a reversal of his prior position on the issue, former P.M. Naoto Kan has called for an overhaul of the nation’s spent fuel policy. Specifically, he wants Tokyo to create a promotional policy for the recycling of spent fuel. Kan says France has offered to reprocess all of Japan’s spent fuel and produce new fuel cells out of the recycled material. He wants Japan to accelerate is own reprocessing program in order to become a leader in research and development. This seems at odds with his shutdown of Japan’s reprocessing project at Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, after March 11.
- In a related story, Mainichi Shimbun reports the governor of Shizouka Prefecture, Heita Kawakatsu, has gone on record demanding that the nation’s spent fuel problem be resolved before he gives permission to restart any nuclear plant in his domain. In other words, passing government-mandated safety tests won’t be enough to get his prefecture’s nukes restarted. Will other governors follow suit?
- NHK World tells us that one of the 5 municipalities located between 20 and 30km of Fukushima Daiichi has taken the decontamination bull by the horns. The municipality is located southwest of Fukushima power complex, in a region with relatively low contamination levels. The village of Kawauchi has submitted a plan to decontaminate its locale in the hope of enticing the return the 2,800 villagers who have left. More than 300 residents have not evacuated. Local governments must submit recovery plans as a condition for the central government to rescind voluntary emergency evacuation requirements. This is the first municipality to comply with Tokyo’s mandate. In addition to decontaminating their portion of the 20-30km zone, they will build new housing for the 350 residents who lived just inside the 20km no-go zone.
- Japan Times has front-paged the latest pie-in-the-sky report from Greenpeace. Greenpeace says Japan can completely shut down all of its nukes within a year, restart none, and replace them with solar and wind farms by 2020. This would require building numerous liquid natural gas (LNG) power plants (~10,000 Mwe) and stretch the existing Japanese “thermal” (i.e. fossil fueled) capacity to its operational limits. In other words, Greenpeace advocates the release of greenhouse gasses, and wants their superstition-based risks of nuclear replaced with the real risks of global warming. This position alone entirely contradicts everything Greenpeace stands for with respect to global warming. But, their fairy tale doesn’t end there. Total nuclear capacity in Japan is about 45,000 Mwe, so the suggested 10,000 Mwe of LNG capacity just scratches the surface. While their dream of 6,000 Mwe of new wind and 7,000 Mwe of new solar are built over the next 10 years, the Japanese people “merely” have to conserve another 17% in electricity consumption beyond the voluntary 21% reduction they already experience. And, there can be no increase in demand whatsoever, virtually dooming any hope of Japanese business and industry growth over the period. Further, the 6,000 Mwe wind farm would cover about 400 square kilometers and the 7,000 Mwe solar farm another 700 km2. This would make 1,100 km2 of Japan essentially uninhabitable for decades, if not longer…which is more than the 800km. of theoretically uninhabitable area due to Fukushima.We are proponents of nuclear and renewables, as well as the total elimination of fossil fuels, to make electricity. We are also proponents of rationality and realism. What Greenpeace proposes is irrational, unrealistic, and contradicts their position on fossil fuel burning. Not to mention the possible collapse of the third largest economy on Earth.
- Japan Times reports on a man in Iitate who has not evacuated. Iitate is 39km. northwest of Fukushima Daiichi and inside of the government’s high contamination evacuation corridor. Nobuyoshi Ito says he does not believe much of what the government or the Press say about the risks of low level radiation. “There are two camps when it comes to the effects of radiation: the antinuclear folk, who tell us even a small dose of radiation is dangerous to human health, and others who say even much higher doses contain less cancer risk than that caused by such factors as smoking or even food. I decided to become a human guinea pig to help settle the argument.” Ito believes what the National Institute on Radiological Sciences (NIRS) reports, which say there is no evidence of negative health effects below 100 millisieverts of exposure per year. Ito estimates his exposure will be no more than 25 millisieverts over the next year. Thus, he does not feel his health will be threatened. He is also growing a vegetable garden, and having the produce tested for Cesium absorption. So far, nothing has been detected. Ito has also grown some sunflowers, which are believed to be a way of decontaminating soils. But, he says tests on the plants and seeds show a Cesium concentration 3 times less than the soil itself, making the sunflower-absorption solution seem questionable at best.
- Science Daily reported on Sept. 11 that Tracy Tipping, a health physicist and laboratory manager at The University of Texas at Austin’s Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory, said the average person in the U.S. receives about 16.4 microsieverts of radiation dose per day (~6 millisieverts/yr) from various sources of naturally occurring radiation, such as radioactive materials in the soil, cosmic radiation from outer space and naturally occurring radioactive materials within the body. She also says negative health effects begin at exposures somewhere between 2 and 3 million microsieverts “at one time”, 20-30 times the minimum risk level cited by Japan’s NIRS. Tipping further points out, “Detectable does not mean it’s harmful.”
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