September 19, 2013

Sep 19, 2013 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe has asked that undamaged Fukushima Daiichi units #5&6 be decommissioned. His surprising request coincided with a visit to the nuke station to observe the wastewater contamination situation. Abe feels decommissioning the two fully-functional units will allow Tepco to concentrate their efforts on all problems stemming from the nuke accident. He also called for Tepco to set a firm deadline for complete purification of all wastewaters. Tepco’s president Hirose responded that they will give full consideration to Abe’s request for scrapping units #5&6, but stopped short of saying they would comply. Hirose added that Tepco’s deadline for wastewater decontamination is March 2015. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130919_28.html — http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2013/1230730_5130.html
  • Typhoon Man-Yi forced the F. Daiichi staff to let 1,130 tons of waste water drain to the soil. Heavy rains from the typhoon filled many of the coffer dams around wastewater tank clusters to nearly-overflowing. Samples taken from seven of the dams showed total radioactivity below the governments limit for release – 30 Becquerels per liter – with the highest concentration being 24 Bq/liter. Plant staff opened the drains from the dams and allowed the water to flow onto and into the surrounding soil because it did not exceed limits. Since the wastewaters in the tanks have been stripped of their Cesium content, no Cesium releases have been anticipated. Tepco says some of the drained waters may have entered one of the two nearby drainage ditches, but there is no way of knowing if it actually occurred because of the deluge caused by the typhoon. Tepco says a sample taken from a puddle outside a coffer dam showed only 9 Bq/liter of total radioactivity, thus any of the very-low-level contamination that might have hypothetically reached a drainage ditch was in no way harmful. Most of the Japanese Press reported that Tepco’s staff pumped the 1,130 tons directly into the ditches and the sea, but it seems these reports are unfounded. Water that needed to be removed from the 11 dams showing activity above the 30 Bq/liter limit was pumped to empty storage tanks. One of Tepco’s sandbag barriers at the confluence of the two ditches was overwhelmed by the high flow of typhoon run-off, but the barrier was re-set less than two hours later when the flow of rainwater through the channel slowed. Tepco had drained the waters above the sandbag barrier before the typhoon hit, hoping to prevent failure. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130917_25.html — http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201309170057 — http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2013091700036 — http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2013/images/handouts_130917_02-e.pdf
  • The Asahi Shimbun reports a new method to speed up establishing Strontium-90 activity samples. A team of Fukushima University and Japan’s Atomic Energy Agency researchers have reduced the analytical time from several weeks to as short as 20 minutes. They say a new device can separate the Strontium from the “all Beta” isotopic group through the use of a Strontium-specific resin. The new method will not be as sensitive as the currently-used process, but will have a minimum detectability of 3 Becquerels per liter of water and 5 Bq/kg in soil. Team leader Yoshitaka Takagai said, “It is possible to choose the new or conventional method depending on the intended use. I hope our new method will be used widely.” The team’s research paper will be published online by the Royal Society of Chemistry. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201309190058
  • Fukushima’s fisheries have ceased whitebait fishing due to concerns caused by news reports of Fukushima water leaks. Iwake City fishermen say they will postpone their whitebait catch until next spring. Their report on test catches show no radioactivity in most fish they have caught and below-limit levels in the rest. Regardless, all near-shore fishing has been ceased. The fisheries say they have decided to resume off-shore test catches on September 26. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/japan.html  The decision was not because any of the catch is unsafe for consumers to eat. It is because there is little hope of selling the fish in enough markets to make a profit. The perception that the food might be radioactive is the root of the problem. The Nuclear Regulation Authority has recently decided to perform a detailed study of the situation covering a 1,000 square kilometer area off the Fukushima coastline. The NRA will also unify all independent efforts to study the situation. NRA Commissioner Kayoko Nakamura says this unity will provide data to the world that is easy to understand. NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said the Press is “letting down the people of Fukushima” with its handling of the information.” His words were echoed by Satoshi Nozaki, head of Fukushima’s fishery cooperative, “We find it too hard to sell our catches due to the tainted image of Fukushima sea food.” Japan’s Fishery Agency also says that only 25 of the 1,000 species found in near-shore waters have radioactive levels above the national limit, compared to more than 50% two years ago. In addition, the recently-reported off-shore “hot spots” of Cesium in bottom mud are not in the water-itself, but are at depths below those that are habituated by food fish. These facts have gone unreported by the Press. http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2013/09/18/fukushima-watch-seeking-unified-view-on-contamination/
  • Japan’s current reliance on fossil-fueled electricity causes constant concerns. With Sunday’s routine closure of Oi unit #4, fears of even higher imported fuel costs and a possible power shortage this winter have emerged. While most electric customers have reduced their consumption, Yoshitaki Kimura, a local Oi businessman, worries that increased electricity costs and power-saving efforts will hurt his gas-station business. Across Japan, utilities are running fossil-fueled plants to compensate for the nuclear moratorium mandated by the government since 2011. Since April, 10 of these old units have have failed, already approaching the number of failures for all of 2012. Kepco has 32 such units, but could keep them all running for only seven days in August. Scheduled maintenance on the “thermal” units have been delayed or cancelled in order to meet customer demand. Most of the thermal units were intended as temporary replacement power sources during routine nuke plant shutdowns, but they were never intended to be a constant source of base-load electricity. http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0000617744 Japan’s trade minister Toshimitsu Motegi says the government wants to reduce long-term reliance on nukes, but the country may not have enough reliable power for the future if it happens. Business and industry leaders feel reducing reliance on nukes is not a good idea, especially if fossil fuel prices (liquid natural gas and/or oil) from the Middle East go up. Also, there is no way of knowing how long the burdened fossil-fueled plants will continue to operate reliably. http://japandailypress.com/trade-minister-says-japanese-government-considering-lessening-nuclear-energy-dependence-1736058/
  • Japan told the IAEA that leakage from F. Daiichi to the sea is contained. At the International Atomic Energy Agency General Conference in Vienna, Science and Technology Minister Ichita Yamamoto told the international nuke watchdog that any pollution is inside the fully-barricaded 3-square-kilometer “quay” along the F. Daiichi shoreline. No contamination is going into the open sea. He added that all foods and drinking water in Japan are safe to consume.  An Austrian participant said he feels Japan has a lot more work to do. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130917_08.html