- TEPCO reports that the water injection to unit #2 RPV has been reduced from 17 tons per hour to 9 tons per hour. The reduction in cooling flow has shown “no abnormality” with respect to vessel temperatures.
- TEPCO plans to literally pave the seabed along nearly one kilometer of shoreline at Fukushima Daiichi. The material to be used will be a mixture of clay (bentonite) and cement, 60 centimeters (~2 feet) thick. The paving is designed to keep radioactive sands and muds from migrating into the open ocean. The paving will cover more than 72,000 square meters within the existing “silt dams” that close off the quay areas inside the power complex break-walls. The seawater inside the dams has lost most of its radioactivity due to the cesium slowly precipitating onto the sea floor. As a result, the mud and sand inside the quay contains about 1.6 million Becquerels per kilogram of Cs-134 and Cs-137. The paving should keep the Cesium in the seabed from being picked up and carried away due to wave action. (Yomiuri Shimbun) The process will have two steps. First, a low-density layer will be laid down to capture any floating or suspended mud above the sea bed. The second layer will be a high density mixture to keep wave action from eroding the lower density mixture below. A test project will begin on February 25 (Saturday) and main construction in 3-4 months thereafter. (IAEA)
- Disaster Minister Goshi Hosono is literally begging political parties across Japan to help with tsunami debris disposal. Since most Prefectural heads oppose giving assistance due to public fears that the debris might have Cesium from Fukushima Daiichi, Hosono wants national representatives to use their political influence to break the log-jam. He has told the party heads that the mountains of un-processed debris are hampering national recovery from the natural disaster. He points out that in the year since the tsunami only 5% of the rubble has been disposed of, which indicates that the goal of full disposal by March 2014 is unrealistic and the road-map for recovery will have to be revised. (JAIF)
- A new technology for decontaminating soil, first announced late last year, has completed its testing and removed more than 99.9% of the Cesium. The test soil contained more than 67,000 Becquerels per kilogram before processing, and 29 Becquerels when finished. There is no actual burning of the soil. It is heated to ~1300oC and mixed with a calcium compound which strips the cesium from the soil and suspends it in the hot gas. The gas is run through a high-efficiency filter to remove the Cesium. The filters will be disposed as high level waste. The decontaminated soils can be used to make bricks and other building materials. It is possible that existing furnaces in the Fukushima area can be used as the heat source. (Mainichi Shimbun)
- The Prime Minister’s panel investigating the Fukushima accident is interviewing five foreign experts. The speakers maintain that the plant operators have the primary responsibility of dealing with the accident itself. But, with Fukushima it was unclear who was making the technical and operational decisions. Was it the operators, TEPCO home office, or the Japanese government? They said the Japanese government should have frankly admitted to lacking certain knowledge. The experts also emphasized the importance of clear, transparent information flow, which it seems was not always the case in the weeks and months following March 11. The experts include Andre-Claude Lacoste, head of the French Safety Authority, and Richard Meserve, former chairman of the US NRC. (NHK World)
- Mayor Tru Hashimoto of Osaka opposes a recent petition for a nuclear plebiscite. Hashimoto says that he was elected on an anti-nuclear platform and the plebiscite would be no more than an expensive redundancy, “The result of last November’s mayoral election clearly showed that the will of Osaka’s people is for a move toward ending the region’s reliance on nuclear power. So the aim of the plebiscite proposal, to let the people decide the issue, has already been decided.” On the other hand, Hajime Imai who heads the plebiscite drive, says the Mayor’s intentions are not nearly enough, “Moving away from nuclear power was a minor (election) issue, and one that accounted for just two or three paragraphs in the party’s 18-page manifesto. You can’t claim nuclear energy was sufficiently debated during (Osaka’s) elections or that it proves people voted for Hashimoto mainly because they shared his opposition to atomic power.” (Japan Times)
- The municipal government of Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, will base decontamination efforts on protection of their children. This is the first local government to commit to decontamination goals more strict than the official national objectives. The city decided to prioritize decontamination of environments where children might be exposed to 2 millisieverts or more of radiation per year. In those areas, decontamination work will continue until the projected exposures will be 1 millisievert or less. The decision was based on the results of a relatively comprehensive survey record of the large municipality, which stretches nearly 20 km along the coastline and as far as 20km inland. The study showed a considerable difference between coastline and flatland exposure (2-4 millisieverts per year) and mountains (~9 msv/yr). Soma, which stretches between 30km and 50km north of Fukushima Daiichi, was utterly devastated by the March 11 tsunami up to 5 km inland. (Mainichi Shimbun)
- The city of Naha on sub-tropical Okinawa Island has cancelled its annual “snow event” because of fear of radiation. Each year, some 600 tons of snow from Aomori Prefecture, 350km north of Fukushima Daiichi, is shipped to Naha for their winter celebration. Last week, an anonymous caller demanded the cancellation of the event for children. Because of the call, an open meeting was held which was attended by 20 mothers who had evacuated from Fukushima Prefecture after March 11. All said they did not want the snow because it might contain radioactive Cesium. Aomori Prefecture had tested their snow and found that it was safe. But, fear of radiation held the day. “I can’t trust the explanations given by the central government and the municipal government,” one evacuee said. In response, the city cancelled the children’s celebration. “The snow was found to be safe in checks and we are sorry for the children who waited for the snow, but we considered the worries of the evacuees,” a city official said. However, at least one rational mind takes issue with the decision. “Under the current circumstances, radioactive materials aren’t being scattered in the air, and people don’t have to worry about radiation exposure through snow,” said Atsushi Kumagai, a doctor of Nagasaki University Hospital. “If people just assume that everything from the Tohoku region is dangerous, they won’t be able to make rational decisions” about whether there is a health risk. (Yomiuri Shimbun) Please bear in mind the numbers of people involved (above) and juxtapose it with the city’s population of nearly 360,000.
- The American Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued the first firm regulatory orders based on the Fukushima accident. There are 3 groups of orders; (1) safety upgrades to protect against extreme situations (i.e. natural disasters) for sites with multiple power plants, (2) improved instrumentation for spent fuel pools, and (3) improving “vent” systems designed to depressurize the power plant systems and structures. The NRC’s mandates full compliance by the end of 2016. (Reuters) Will Japan’s nuclear regulators follow suit? And if they do, how long will implementation be delayed by petty politicking?
