August 22, 2013

Aug 22, 2013 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • One of the Cesium-stripped water storage tanks at F. Daiichi has lost 300 tons of water. The tank lost the water into a coffer dam surrounding 26 tanks grouped together, each holding 1,000 tons. The leaking tank has been drained and the water pumped into another non-leaking storage tank. The issue was exacerbated by a drain valve from the coffer dam being cracked open, allowing some of the water inside to leak out. The amount of dam leakage has been estimated at about 4 tons. Absorbent material was mixed with the wet soil around the leakage point, gathered up and removed. Soil and sand analyzed from outside the leakage location show no further contamination spread. The dam’s drain valve had been opened to drain the rainwater that had collected due to the recent torrential downpours experienced by northern Japan. It seems this one valve had not been fully closed after the accumulated rainwater had been drained. Tepco says they will review the procedure used of coffer dam draining to insure this doesn’t happen again. The contaminated water inside the dam (and thus the water leaked out) shows a trace of radioactive Cesium (0.47 Becquerels per milliliter) and all other radioactive isotopes having a combined activity of 80,000 Bq/ml. The Nuclear Regulatory Authority has judged this as a level 1 incident, the 2nd-lowest on an 8-point international scale. Tepco spokesman Masayuki Ono said, “We apologize again for causing anxiety among the public.” Seawater samples inside the station’s quay show all radioisotopic levels remain as they have been since April. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2013/1229867_5130.html — http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2013/1229899_5130.html
  • The NRA is considering declaring a level-3 severity rating with F. Daiichi. Specifically, level-3 on the INES scale, which means “severe incident”, all due to the cumulative effect of contaminated groundwater and recent leak reported above. Level-3 is not considered an “accident”, but is one step down from one declared being. However, most Japanese press and the international news media are reporting that the “level-3 declaration” is a “done deal”. The NRA initially evaluated the incident as an “anomaly,” or a Level 1 event on the INES scale, several weeks ago.  http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130821_17.html — http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/japan-upgrades-fukushima-water-leak-to-level-3-serious-incident?utm_campaign=jt_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=jt_newsletter_2013-08-21_PM — http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201308210065
  • The NRA’s announcement of considering a level-3 incident assessment has caused adverse reaction from Korea and China. South Korea’s Asiana Airlines has cancelled all flights to Fukushima Prefecture, beginning in October. An Asiana spokesperson said, “The service will be halted in October and a decision will then be taken on whether to extend the cancellation depending on conditions. Passengers are clearly anxious and we are paying close attention to all reports on nuclear reactor pollution levels at Fukushima.” Meanwhile, China’s government says they are “shocked” at the situation.  http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/08/21/business/fukushima-fears-lead-asiana-to-drop-that-route/#.UhTNKOvD8dU
  • Tepco’s nuclear chief is being moved to F. Daiichi for direct control of the situation. Nuclear Vice President Zengo Aizawa will take command of all decommissioning and incident mitigation efforts at the station. Aizawa apologized for the utility’s continuing to cause so much concern nearly 2 and one-half years after the accident. He said he will treat the water leaks as an issue of the highest priority. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130821_35.html
  • Tepco estimates that 30 trillion Becquerels of contamination may have leaked to the sea since May 2011. The company’s estimates are 20 trillion Becquerels of Cesium and 10 trillion for Strontium. This is much greater than Tepco’s self-imposed limit of 220 million Becquerels of total radioactive releases per year. The assessments are based on levels of contamination detected in the power station’s inner harbor (quay) and Pacific Ocean sampling out to 15 kilometers from the site. Further, Tepco assumed that leaks have been constant since May, 2011 and the levels of contamination found in quay samples are the result of on-going out-flow from the station. The company adds that it is difficult to determine the exact amounts of Cesium and Strontium which might have leaked because both elements are readily absorbed by the soil. Tepco will continue to assess the situation and bring in outside experts for consulting purposes. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130822_05.html
  • The recent events at F. Daiichi have many Fukushima residents and politicians up in arms. One angry resident told the Press “It’s just one problem after another”. Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato moaned, “We’ve repeatedly demanded that TEPCO improve its safety management, and this latest incident is very frustrating. We want these problems dealt with for what they are, a national emergency.” Local Fisheries Chairman Tetsu Nozaki echoed the governor’s words when he wondered if the utility “can really deal with the crisis on its own. This problem ought to be dealt with as a national problem.” Fukushima prefecture has formally demanded Tepco find the cause of the latest incident and take appropriate countermeasures. The prefecture’s department heads are meeting to deliberate a further response. http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130821p2a00m0na012000c.html
  • Fukushima Prefecture has discovered 18 child thyroid cancers. This is out of the 210,000 children tested across the prefecture, which had about 360,000 individuals under the age of 18 at the time of the accident in 2011. In addition to the 18 confirmed cases, another 25 are suspected of possibly having thyroid cancer. The national incidence is said to be “one in hundreds of thousands”. For example, in 2006 only 46 cases were confirmed in all of Japan. The Prefecture says they cannot determine whether or not the 18 cancers were caused by Fukushima radioactive releases. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130821_06.html (comment – It should be noted that the world’s medical community agrees there is a 4-5 years latency period  after radiation exposure before induced thyroid cancers manifest. It has been about 2.5 years since the Fukushima exposures happened. Also, the Fukushima Prefecture’s study is the most complete and intensive study of its kind ever attempted in Japan. Thus, until other prefectures run similar studies there is nothing comparable with which to establish any firm conclusions. Keep in mind that after Fukushima Prefecture found that their child thyroid nodule-rate was ~40%, three other far-distant prefectures ran the same detailed investigation. It was found that Fukushima’s thyroid nodule incidence is the lowest of them all.)
  • 19 Tohoku Region residents are suing Tokyo for violating the new disaster support law. The Act on the Protection and Support for the Children and other Victims of TEPCO Disaster was legislated in June, 2012. The government’s Reconstruction Agency is responsible for administering the law, and is the focus of the suit. The plaintiffs are from Fukushima City and Koriyama, both of which are outside the designated evacuation zones, including many people who fled voluntarily. The group also includes residents in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, and Marumori, Miyagi Prefecture. The law says that support measures for victims (which the plaintiffs feel they are) must be enacted by June of 2013, based on radiation exposure surveys. Because radiation dose standards for determining who should receive Agency support have not yet been set, neither areas to be supported under the law nor a basic policy have been determined. Because a firm policy on enactment has not been worked out as yet, the plaintiffs charge the Reconstruction Agency with “illegal inactivity”. The plaintiffs criticize the government for failing to provide housing and employment assistance to people who evacuated voluntarily. They also demand one yen (about one cent) each in compensation to show they are not just trying to be awarded money.  http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130820p2a00m0na013000c.html — http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2013082000376
  • The NRA says the geology under the currently-operating Oi nuclear plants is not seismic. It turns out the suspect geology called “the F-6 crush zone” is not the remains of an earthquake, but may be the result of an ancient landslide. Because the crush zone is relatively close to an active fault, called F-6, the investigating experts say they will try and establish whether or not the crush zone is attached to it. Regardless, the crush zone, which runs beneath an emergency seawater cooling intake structure, is not itself an active fault. The details posted in the Press beyond the above are quite contradictory and defy summation.  http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130820p2a00m0na015000c.html