February 22, 2012

Feb 22, 2012 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) says “stress tests” are but the first stage of assuring nuclear safety. A second round of nuclear safety inquiry must be performed. This is the first mention of a second round of investigation being needed before restarts of idled nukes can happen. NSC chief Haruki Madarame said the first tests only focus on equipment essential for nuclear emergency mitigation. An NSC team of 11 experts will review the recently-accepted and approved data for two Ohi units, but they want to include as much Fukushima accident information as possible before any restart decision is made. (JAIF) Senior cabinet officials say they have no idea why Madarame has called for a second round of stress testing and fear he is undermining the need to restart nukes to avoid summer power shortages. (Asahi Shimbun)
  • The power shortage caused by politically-idled nukes intensifies. Since the closure of Takahama #3 on Monday, Kansai Electric has been buying over 100 MWe from neighboring Chubu Electric, supplied by fossil fuel plants. However, running fossil-fueled plants beyond their design capacity is also taking its toll. On February 3, Kyushu Electric’s 2,290 MWe Shin-Oita power-plants had to be shut down. Since then, Kyushu has been buying 2,400 MWe of power from six other companies. The situation has sent chills through the business community…”Unless nuclear reactors are restarted, the exodus of companies abroad will accelerate due to fears of power shortages and a rise in costs,” said Toshihiro Nagahama of the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. (Yomiuri Shimbun)
  • Some of NISA’s own expert panel has formally bashed the approval of the Agency’s Ohi stress tests for a second time since January. Professor Emeritus Hiromitsu Ino of the University of Tokyo said discussions with the panel hadn’t been exhausted and he feels deceived. Masashi Goto, a lecturer at the Shibaura Institute of Technology, says he feels NISA rushed to announce a conclusion. NISA says the panel met eight times before the Ohi announcement and felt the panel had endorsed the findings. (NHK World)
  • Disaster Minister Goshi Hosono says the March 2014 goal for disposal of all tsunami debris is unrealistic. This is because 95% of the tsunami debris of March 11 has yet to be disposed of, nearly a year after the natural calamity hit. Of the more than 22 million tons of rubble, only a little more than 1 million tons has been incinerated or buried. 72% of the debris has been removed from the coastline and is being stored at temporary sites. 28% remains moldering where it has lain since March 11, mostly within the 20km Fukushima no-go zone. (NHK World)
  • The test incineration of tsunami waste by Shimada City shows its ash contains ten times less Cesium than the Tokyo standard for disposal. The ash contains 48 Becquerels of Cesium per kilogram, far below the 500 Becquerel limit. Shimada burned 10 tons of debris from Yamada, Iwate Prefecture, mixed with 56 tons of local household garbage for the test. The ash was scanned by city officials and local residents. Shozo Masuda, who runs a city produce shop, scanned the ash and said she was relieved, “I was assured that (burning the debris) would be OK. I want the city to dispose of as much rubble as possible and will tell others that there is no need to worry.” Shimada Mayor Katsuro Sakurai said he will formalize the city’s plan for tsunami rubble disposal next month if further incineration tests fail to detect any radiation dangers. (Japan Times)
  • A comprehensive radiation monitoring system for Fukushima has begun, including schools and parks. The 2,700 monitoring location’s data is being fed into the Education Ministry and posted on their website. Concerned parents can access the site to find out what the latest radiation levels are for each location. The system is designed to update the data every 10 minutes. (NHK World)
  • The Fukushima government released the preliminary results of their comprehensive exposure survey on Monday. 58% of the residents of Fukushima Prefecture received less than 1 millisievert of internal exposure from the nuclear accident. ~95% were below 5 millisieverts and only two people have greater than a 20 millisievert exposure. The highest was 23 millisieverts. The results are out of the data taken from more than 10,000 residents of the prefecture. More than 431,000 residents have entered data into the survey, so the prefecture has a long way to go. (Yomiuri Shimbun)
  • A report in the UK Telegraph brings the promise of rationality to the true Japanese disaster of March 11…the tsunami itself. Entitled, The world has forgotten the real victims of Fukushima, the article blasts the Japanese and international news media for virtually ignoring the calamity that killed 20,000 while focusing on “a nuclear disaster that never was”. Don’t take my word for it…read it yourself… http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9094430/The-world-has-forgotten-the-real-victims-of-Fukushima.html