April 6, 2012

Apr 6, 2012 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • TEPCO says another leak from a waste water pipe has reached the sea. They found another leak from the same pipe that leaked on March 26. The pipe is attached to a decontaminated water storage tank. TEPCO estimates that 12 tons of water was released before it was found and isolated. The company believes a large portion of the water flowed into the sea through a nearby drainage ditch. TEPCO says the concentration of Cesium in the tank is low, but the level of Strontium-90 in the tank is higher. The situation is spawning “high radiation” articles in many Japanese newspapers. However, the water contains only 16.7 Becquerels of the Cesium per cubic centimeter. The level of Strontium is being researched. (NHK World)
  • TEPCO says the number of employee voluntary retirements has gone up 350% over the last year. The main reason given was threats and bullying of their families by people angry at TEPCO’s response to the Fukushima accident. Analysts say morale is low at the utility with current employees being unsure about the company’s ability to secure a stable supply of personnel. TEPCO announced this week it was cutting executives’ annual income by 25% and everyone else’s salaries by 20%. It also said it would not be paying any bonuses this year. (Japan Today)
  • Reconstruction minister Tatsuo Hirano says an uninhabited buffer zone will be created around Fukushima Daiichi. Hirano said, “I suggested at a meeting of the government’s Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters [on Saturday] to set up a buffer zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.” He says the “no-return” zone could be in effect for up to 20 years and should include parts of Okuma and Futaba towns that are adjacent to the power complex. Hirano says the town’s mayors are positive about the idea. He added that new guidelines to compensate residents from the no-return zone will be needed. Finally, Hirano stressed this new designation will not be created out of radiation levels, but will be strictly for resident safety reasons during F. Daiichi recovery work. (Yomiuri Shimbun; JAIF)
  • The Tokyo government has made it official; they will not restart any nukes until they get local support. In a public statement, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura referred specifically to 2 reactors in Fukui Prefecture that are suspended for regular inspection; Oi units #3 & 4. Fujimora stressed that local community approval is not required by Japanese law, but the government will fully explain the situation to local officials before any restart decision is issued. (NHK World)
  • The Prime Minister’s restart task force is meeting regularly. The task force is made up of P.M. Noda, Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura, Disaster Minister Goshi Hosono, and Economic Minister Yukio Edano. On Thursday, Noda directed Edano to draft new safety standards that might ease public opposition to nuke restarts. They are to cover increased emergency power sources and beefed-up earthquake and tsunami defenses. Noda says he will send Edano to the local communities after they have reviewed the new standards to explain them to the affected officials and exchange views concerning restarts for Oi units #3 & 4. The new standards are to be based on the recent 30-point recommendation made by NISA. On Friday, Edano said he will demand all nuclear power companies create firm timetables for meeting new safety rules. He feels the most important lesson learned from Fukushima is that companies failed to regularly enhance safety by incorporating new ideas. He added that there is no need to restart reactors so long as Japan’s electric demand is met by other methods. All ministers and P.M. Noda support the new standards. (NHK World)
  • The new nuke safety standards being drafted are based on previous NISA recommendations. The changes will include avoidance of lost power sources needed to activate safety devices, separating back-up power supplies so that one cause will not knock them all out, and providing increased tsunami protection. The current draft chides TEPCO for being slow to release pressure from the reactor systems which would have prevented the three hydrogen explosions, plus having gauges and communications systems that were unusable during the first days and weeks of the accident. NISA says 13 of the 30 steps are to be made immediately, and some have already been completed by companies that own nukes. The rest are mid-to-long term fixes that require new equipment and facilities. (JAIF)
  • The new safety standards are already coming under fire from anti-nuclear groups. Baku Nishio, co-director of the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, criticizes the new safety standards saying they are just ad-hoc measures. In other words, the standards merely address what happened at Fukushima and do not cover the wide range of nuclear issues beyond the accident itself. Other critics say it remains unclear what kind of facilities power plant operators should build and to what extent they should boost safety. The critics argue that the new rules are a mere band-aid intended to make restarts of idled nukes seem proper. (Mainichi Shimbun)
  • A prestigious international research team has determined that the level of F. Daiichi isotopes in Pacific Ocean fish is literally too low to matter. The team includes experts from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Stony Brook University, and the University of Tokyo. They found that the level of cesium found in numerous species of fish were well below those from naturally occurring radioactive elements such as Potassium 40 and Uranium which are dissolved in seawater. This includes the levels that might be retained in consumers of the fish. For the complete report, go to… http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/03/26/1120794109.full.pdf