July 2, 2012

Jul 2, 2012 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • Friday’s organized Tokyo protest against the Oi restarts drew considerable Press coverage across Japan. Thousands marched and chanted in front of the Prime Minister’s office building, waving banners that said “Rise up against the restart”, “Absolutely no restart” and “The nuclear era is over”. The demonstration was largely peaceful, with a lack of the venom and threats had at last week’s protest. Organizer Misao Redwolf said the coalition has worked hard to separate the rally from the violent image many associate with public protests, and mount the kind of demonstration that anyone can feel comfortable attending. Redwolf was quoted as saying, “The best we Tokyo residents can do is to protest in front of the prime minister’s office.”  Protestor Satomi Nakata said, “I learned on the Internet that the protest would be peaceful, so I came with my kids.” Another demonstrator Hideyuki Tanaka, 38, joined the rally on his way home from work, “I’ve never joined a demonstration before, but I can no longer be indifferent. (The protest) didn’t seem to be of a political character, so I wasn’t reluctant to join in.” A 57-year-old man said he joined the protest for the first time when he learned about it on Twitter. He said the government’s handling of the re-start lacks transparency and that it should review the way nuclear power plants are operated. A 40-year-old woman was with her son and mother. She was at first reluctant to take part in the protest, but wanted to protect her children from radiation fears. Regardless, the protest caused Prime Minister Noda to remark that the shouts and chants were quite loud and could be heard clearly from inside his residence. By 7pm, the crowd was very large and getting chaotic, so the organizers announced the protest had to end. The demonstration was the latest in a series of weekly protests that began a few months ago. The question is just how many attended. Organizers told News on Japan that there were 100,000, while at the same time telling Mainichi Shimbun there were 200,000. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan police put the number at less than 20,000. Tokyo Lawmaker Yoshisu Arita said there were about 20,000 demonstrators. Regardless, it was an impressive turn-out. Despite the wide variance in crowd size estimates, the feelings of the attendees were largely laced with anger. Kazumi Honda, a housewife, summed up the general misunderstanding of the crowd, “I think it’s outrageous to restart (the Oi reactors) when the Fukushima No. 1 plant accident has not even been contained.”  (Mainichi Shimbun, NHK World, Japan Times, News on Japan)
  • Despite the attempts of a few hundred antinuclear fanatics, Oi unit #3 began the slow process of restart on Sunday night at 9pm. (Kyodo news) Literally one-by-one, control rods were being withdrawn from their fully inserted position to provide the optimum pattern for restart. After patterning was complete, a few key control rods were further moved out and the self-sustaining chain reaction (criticality) began. The reactor fuel cell achieved criticality at 6am Monday. It will take several days of sequentially withdrawing all necessary control rods in order to heat the water up to operating temperatures. After making some necessary full temperature tests, it is felt that the first power electricity could be transmitted by this coming weekend and full power output by July 8th. Meanwhile outside the plant property, about 200 protestors clashed with riot police to vent their displeasure with the start-up. Occasionally, demonstrators skirmished with the local officers. At one point, demonstrators blocked the Oi access road with their cars, in a naive attempt to keep the start-up from happening. When asked to move their vehicles, one protester replied, “If the plan to restart the operations at the nuclear plant is suspended, we will remove our cars.”  Almost all of the unruly mob was not from the Oi vicinity, but traveled considerable distances to partake in the protest. people came from communities as far away as Ikata, Shika, and Mihama. A Kyoto university lecturer, Keiji Kobayashi, said there is a geological fault under the Oi facility, and it might be active. Due to this he said, “We must block the restart of the operations (at Oi nuclear plant).” (Asahi Shimbun) One of the protestors, Taisuke Kohno, inadvertently revealed the important impact on him and the demonstrators caused by the Hiroshima Syndrome. He asserted, “It’s a lie that nuclear energy is clean. After experiencing the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, how can Japan possibly want nuclear power?” (Japan Today) After the protestors heard the reactor had reached criticality on Sunday night, they left the premises feeling they had failed. (Mainichi Shimbun)
  • A large “thermal” (LNG-powered) power station of Kansai Electric Co. failed today. The 600 MWe Himeji Daini unit #5 went off line due to a major steam pipe-break in its boiler. This constituted about 5% of Kepco’s thermal generating system, dropping the company’s capacity reserves from 19% down to 14%. At 5% reserves, rolling blackouts are a possibility. Kansai Electric says they should have the Himeji Daini #5 power plant repaired and operating again later this month. (NHK World)
  • The alternative cooling system for unit #4’s spent fuel pool automatically shut down on Saturday. It was down for more than 24 hours. When the system stopped, the pool was at ~33oC. It was heating up at a rate of only about one-fourth of a degree per hour because the decay heat level is very, very low, at this point. The pool temperature was at about 43oC when the cooling system was restarted late Sunday afternoon. (Kyodo News) Comment – Undaunted by the miniscule risk involved, Japan Today reported that if cooling was not restored in three days, the pool could be “spewing radiation” once again. News on Japan said the fuel bundles must be covered in water to keep them from burning up. Talk about ridiculous! First, the fuel bundles must heat up to in excess of 900oC before any radioactive material could possibly be released. That’s just not going to happen with decay heat as low as it is. Secondly, for a so-called “fire” (actually, more like a fireworks sparkler) the temperatures would have to reach more than 1100oC. Third, there is not, never has been, and probably never will be a radioactive release from the pool. Japan Today and News on Japan are reporting fantasy as a real possibility and should print retractions.