September 23, 2013

Sep 23, 2013 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • Tepco’s water clean-up program continues to be criticized. The company says all waste waters will be stripped of their radioactive isotopes by March, 2015, but some people have their doubts. Once the two ALPS systems for final activity removal are operating, it is anticipated that 1,500 tons per day will be purified except for relatively innocuous Tritium. By diluting the fully-purified waters to drop the Tritium level below national limits, Tepco hopes to be allowed disposal to the sea. But, doubts raised by the resent loss off 300 tons of wastewater from a storage tank and the worries of local fishermen over any releases to the sea place Tepco’s plan in question. Un-named observers feel the company needs more credible plans. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130920_25.html Tepco President Naomi Hirose told PM Shinzo Abe that if “everything goes well”, the purification of wastewaters can be completed in fiscal year 2014. The government says they will spend up to $150 million to insure that the ALPS system will do its job. The decontamination of waters in the turbine building basements cannot be completed until the in-flow of groundwater is stopped, but emptying the wastewater storage tanks will reduce the ongoing issue of possible tank leaks. http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0000633436
  • Critics believe data showing no radioactive contamination of the Pacific Ocean is flawed. Michio Aoyama, a senior researcher at Japan’s Meteorological Research Institute, estimated that 30 billion Becquerels of radioactive Cesium and another 30 billion Becquerels of Strontium-90 leak into the outer ocean every day. He bases this on two assumptions. First, just because there are no detectible levels in the outer ocean samples routinely run, it does not mean there are not lower-than-detectible concentrations leaving the barricaded inner port. It only means that the actual radioactive levels are too low for monitoring equipment to measure, but Aoyama says some surely remains. Second, he estimates that 20% of the quay’s water experiences daily replacement due to the shifting tide, and as the waters flow through the quay’s silt fence it takes contamination with it. Aoyama also says that while radioactive decay necessarily drops activity over time, the levels in the quay have remained constant so there must be contamination coming into the inner port. Another un-named “expert” points to uncertainty with respect to the data, “Measurements could vary tenfold at the same site.” An additional critic says the data itself cannot be trusted because “the analysis methods are outdated.” http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201309200053 (comment – Aoyama is an experienced chemist, but it seems he is completely naïve about the filtration of Cesium and Strontium by the soils and the entrained “silt” in the fence enclosing the quay opening. Any Tritium getting into the quay can easily pass through the silt fencing because the isotope is part of the water molecule itself. Assuming the rest of the materials also pass through the barrier at the same rate is necessarily flawed.)
  • The ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan is considering a takeover of F. Daiichi. LDP recovery committee head Tadamori Oshima says Tokyo should consider a takeover so that Tepco can fully focus on company business and Fukushima evacuee compensation. He also feels that removing F. Daiichi from Tepco will speed up decommissioning. Under the suggested plan, all Tepco employees at F. Daiichi would be transferred to a new company funded by the government. Critics are already attacking the idea because the new company might result in a confusion of responsibility. Oshima says there are other possible options such as forming a new government agency for decommissioning or creating an independent institution toward that end. http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130922p2g00m0dm002000c.html
  • Tepco says it will delay filing for the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuke’s restart. Company president Naomi Hirose has tried to get Niigata governor Hirohiko Izumida to approve the resumption of operation for K-K units #6&7, but Izumida has refused because Tepco did not brief the prefecture before announcing its plans. As a result, Tepco has been forced to delay the restart filing. Izumida welcomed the news and said Tepco has promised to better communicate their intentions. In an official statement, the governor suggested he would be willing to meet with Hirose and come to an agreeable decision. Operation of the K-K nuke station is critical to Tepco’s plans for financial recovery. The combination of nuke accident recovery, compensation payments to Fukushima evacuees, and the high cost of fossil-fueled replacement power due to the nuclear moratorium have placed Tepco in financial jeopardy. Tepco is optimistic that they will eventually get the Niigata governor’s support so they can pursue restarting the two K-K units.  http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0000641143
  • The Industry Ministry wants any disposal of high-level radioactive waste to be retrievable. They believe irretrievable disposal at this point in time would be a mistake because a future technology will likely be created to better-handle the material. The ministry wants to bury high-level material 300 meters underground for successive 13-year periods, but strong public outcry has held them back. Critics want high-level waste permanently entombed deep in bedrock, but the Science Council of Japan says there are no locations in Japan that have seismic stability for the tens of thousands of years. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/japan.html