- We have finally found a down-loadable copy of the completed enclosure surrounding unit #1 reactor building…
- TEPCO announced they have nearly doubled the cooling injection flow to RPV #1. It is now 7.5 tons per hour, versus the previous flow of 4 tons per hour. This has been done to insure there will be no steam production, which could hamper work inside the new enclosure due to high humidity.
- The Tokyo government has designated Fukushima Prefecture as the site for a temporary contaminated material storage area. The exact location has yet to be assigned. Environment Minister Goshi Hosono told Fukushima Governor Yahei Sato the government will set up the facility and plans on being ready to accept material in 2015. Sato was non-committal, saying he wanted to study the Ministry’s proposal in detail. Most of Fukushima’s 59 mayors have issues with the plans, although no details have been released. “To be honest, we cannot accept it,” said Katsuya Endo, mayor of Tomioka, where the Fukushima Daini is located. “It will cause serious damage to our regional development.” Endo’s comments exemplify the opposition positions. (Asahi Shimbun)In a related article, some local people have expressed relief that decontamination will continue, while others are adamantly opposed to having a storage facility built in their hometown. There are places where decontamination has not been carried out due to the difficulty of finding temporary sites for storing contaminated soil and waste because local people oppose the construction of a storage sites near them due to radiation fears. Many are bewildered as to why contaminated soil and waste must be stored for 3 years in the prefecture. On the other hand, some welcome the decision…sort of. “I think three years is acceptable,” said Haruo Sato, 65, a farmer in Date, Fukushima Prefecture. “I won’t tolerate anything longer. I’m worried that the period might be extended to four years, five years….” (Yomiuri Shimbun) Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) issues raise their ugly head, once again.
- Now that the first “stress test” results for the Oi #1 nuclear plant have been submitted, it seems that even if it passes NISA scrutiny, it might be spring before a restart is possible due to political delays. The remaining 10 operating nukes will all be shut down for maintenance and refueling by then, leaving Japan without any operating nuclear capacity. By the numbers, this will produce a further 9.2% shortfall of electricity supply, in addition to the existing shortages. The government says everyone will have to further conserve, but a poll of 230 Japanese businesses shows that only 1% can further reduce consumption before cutting output. Only 2% of non-manufacturers said they could further conserve before restricting business hours. (Yomiuri Shimbun)
- A new re-calculation of the amount of Cesium released by the Fukushima accident has been making the news media circuit, both in Japan and around the world. Andreas Stohl of the Norwegian Institute for Air Research says the Japanese may only have accounted for the Cesium released over land , and not out to sea. Thus, instead of 15% of Chernobyl’s Cesium, it could be as much as 40% of Chernobyl. The journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics posted the report online for comment, but a formal review by experts in the field has not completed, nor has it been accepted for formal publication. In other words, not verified. Regardless, the scary-sounding data is making headlines. Stohl points out two things found near the end of each article. First, making a speculative conclusion like this should not be considered significant, given that estimating uncontrolled radioactive release volume is an inexact science. Second, only 20% of the released Cesium fell on Japanese land. He mentions in the report that Cesium releases dropped considerably when water was sprayed into one of the Spent Fuel Pools, which was probably due to the spray stripping water-soluble Cesium from the air. But, the news media speculates the Cesium may have come from melted fuel bundles in the spent fuel pool.
- The Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety in France has reported that 30 times more radioactive Cesium was released to the sea from the Fukushima accident than what has been admitted by TEPCO and the Japanese government. How this extreme amount was calculated is not in the Japanese article (Mainichi Shimbun) nor to be found on the IRSN website. We will keep looking, though.
- Another relatively extreme hot spot has been discovered, this time in the Setagaya Ward, Tokyo. The spot was found at the conjoinment of an asphalt street and cement sidewalk. The reading at one meter above the spot is 170 microsieverts per hour, some three times greater than last week’s previous record of 57.5 microsieverts (contact) reading in another Tokyo ward. Because the source is clearly underneath the asphalt and cement, which has been there for years, the Science Ministry says it is unlikely to be from Fukushima. There is no record of any underground drainage lines in the area, either. The Ministry will have the asphalt torn off and dig into the ground beneath to find the source. (NHK World) As we have posted several times before, the Japanese have no idea about their inland natural background levels, and are totally naïve of localized sources in their communities that have been there for a long, long time. Now they’re finding out. It’s just starting. We hope the Press will have the decency to point out that these sources haven’t hurt anyone.
- Now that the Food Safety Commission has caved to fear of radiation and will lower food radiation limits by a factor of five, they are being lambasted by the Press for setting the limit at the lowest theoretical level for cancer incidence, rather than many times below it. The Press asserts children are harmed by radiation more than adults, so lowering the standard even more should be done to protect the kids. Mainichi Shimbun says the new limit should be lowered by a factor of 10, from 1 millisievert per year down to 0.1 millisieverts. Regardless, the Press reaction in Japan over the new food standards going into effect in April is clearly further evidence they feel the only safe level of radiation exposure is none at all. Further, the 1 millisievert per year exposure limit is equal to what is considered as Japan’s “normal” natural background level. So, if 1 millisievert per year is unacceptable, is Japan’s natural environment unacceptable?
- The first article we’ve seen concerning the impact of the tsunami’s seawater on near-coast farmland was posted Saturday. It is estimated that 240 km2 of farmland has been made unusable due to salt contamination in six prefectures along the northeast Honshu Island seacoast. The government estimates it will take three years to desalinate the soil through continuous fresh water flushing. Unlike surface stripping of soil for the removal of Cesium, the seawater soaks deeply into the soil so that the salt has permeated down as far as the topsoil goes. The only way to get rid of it is through continual dilution over a long period of time. None of this has anything to do with Fukushima, but it does tend to put contamination issues in perspective. (Asahi Shimbun)
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