- The inner port (quay) contamination spike at F. Daiichi is abating. The increase in radioactive Cesium relative to the unit #2 near shoreline was caused by embankment barricading which caused some contaminated soil to spill into the water contained by a silt fence. The drop in Cesium content is due to the contaminated soil fines slowly precipitating to the floor of the quay between the unit #1 and unit #2 intake structures. On Saturday, the combined Cesium activity was at 970 Becquerels per liter. By this morning (Monday), combined Cesium had dropped to less than 190 Bq/liter. Before the contaminated soil intrusion last Tuesday, the reading was about 90 Bq/liter. There has been little mention of the activity abatement by the Japanese Press and none by the international news media. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2013/images/intake_canal_131011-e.pdf (The most recent posting in English) — http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2013/images/intake_canal_131014-e.pdf
- Tepco has decided to run daily seawater analyses in and around the outer port at F. Daiichi. While the company has sampled waters inside the “water intake channel” (quay) every day for several months, the outer port was being sampled on the average of twice per week. Since one outer port location recently had a barely detectible level of Cesium activity, they will sample and analyze all five locations every day. The increased frequency of sampling began Friday. http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20131012p2g00m0dm002000c.html
- Former American nuclear official Gregory Jaczko says F. Daiichi urgently needs a better water recycling system. He said the resent leaks show “a weakness in the safety system, in the oversight and the management of the project, and I think what is needed is corrections for those elements…What is really needed is an effective, rigorous system of accountability and management at the site…what needs to be done is a more effective system of reuse of the water, the existing water… In the long term, a program to release the water would be very damaging for the credibility of the Japanese.” http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201310140011
- One district inside the former “no-go zone” will have all repopulation restrictions removed. The Miyakoji district of Tamura City has allowed residents to return for a “long stay” of three months, which is set to expire at the end of October. Tokyo plans to remove all restrictions when the long-stay period is over. The plan is being presented to district officials today. The officials will next canvas both those who have already returned and others who have not due to radiation fears. Those who agree to return will be issued dosimeters so they can monitor their on-going exposure. The City plans on creating a temporary shopping area and bring in a convenience store to build a permanent outlet. Further support measures may be taken to get as many people to repopulate as possible. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/10/12/national/districts-evacuation-order-may-be-lifted/#.UlqazIHD8dU
- Iitate village will build a state-of-the-art contaminated waste incinerator. This will reduce the volume of material which will need to be stored for long term disposal. The Mainichi Shimbun has arbitrarily dubbed the proposed facility “makeshift”. Regardless, flammable contaminated wastes from Iitate, Fukushima City, and five other municipalities will be incinerated, making it the first such facility in the region to handle wastes from neighboring communities. It will also be able to transform the resulting ash and low-contamination soil into construction material by removing the radioactive isotopes using a novel process developed by researchers in Fukushima Prefecture. Materials that cannot have contamination lowered to below national standards will be stored in concrete boxes for shipment to future temporary storage sites. Iitate Mayor Norio Kanno said, “We will aim to reduce the amount [of radioactive waste] as much as possible before transferring it to an interim storage facility. It is based on the idea of ‘mutual assistance,’ in which we do what we can” for neighboring communities. The facility is planned for completion by the end of 2014. http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20131010p2a00m0na003000c.html
- The International Atomic Energy Agency says some F. Daiichi workers may have had higher Iodine exposures. The agency’s radiation expert group, UNSCEAR, says the radiation scans used by Tepco were calibrated for I-131, so they may have not detected I-133. As a result, it is possible that 160 workers had exposures that will qualify them for lifetime thyroid examinations, in addition to the 2,000 already eligible. The UNSCEAR summary report says Tepco’s thyroid scans may not have accounted for “the potential contribution from intakes of shorter-lived isotopes of iodine, in particular iodine 133…as a result, the assessed doses from internal exposure could have been underestimated by about 20 percent.” UNSCEAR says the estimate should be verified before extending the thyroid checks to the additional 160 workers. The report also says that the new numbers for I-131 show thyroid exposures above 2 Sieverts with 12 workers and “an increased risk of developing thyroid cancer and other thyroid disorders can be inferred.” While UNSCEAR posed this as a possibility, and not an actuality, the Japanese Press is treating it as a certainty. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/10/13/national/radiation-estimates-for-no-1-workers-likely-20-too-low-u-n/#.UlqadYHD8dU
- Sunday’s Nagaoka nuclear accident drill included actual local residents and wind data to direct their movement. More than 6,000 people living close to the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuke station, near Nagoaka City, participated. They were told to move in directions away from wind-borne radioactivity. During the evacuation, they scenario included a sudden 30-minute wind shift which caused a change in resident movement. This is the first nuclear accident drill in Japan to include a large number of public volunteers and include wind directions in the drill scenario. City safety director Yoichi Kojima said the intent was to quickly determine evacuation routes resulting in lowest public exposures. The haphazard evacuation from around Fukushima Daiichi in 2011 did not use available wind data, thus resulting in unnecessary exposures to thousands. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20131013_19.html
- Greenpeace says Fukushima decontamination is “insufficient”. Greenpeace admits the radiation levels of homes and municipal facilities have been “significantly lowered”, but they feel it is not nearly enough. The international antinuclear group says their monitoring of the 20-kilometer radius around F. Daiichi shows that much of the area has not been decontaminated. Jan Vande Putte said most forests and farmlands are untouched, calling the cleansed buildings and roadways “islands and corridors” in an otherwise polluted region. He also said it would be “unrealistic” to expect returnees avoid these places. He argued, “They can be exposed to high levels of radiation” if they returned home. Greenpeace opposes repopulation of any evacuated area that is not decontaminated to meet all of the group’s concerns. Vande Putte also says that financial compensation should continue even after people return home, “no matter what”. http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/fukushima-decontamination-insufficent-greenpeace — http://japandailypress.com/greenpeace-says-fukushima-decontamination-insufficient-1137635/
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A relatively large antinuclear protest was held in Tokyo on Sunday. The downtown march culminated at the home office of Tepco where demonstrators chanted “Stop the atom” and “Don’t pollute our sea”. Participants said the Japanese Press is not reporting on Fukushima water leaks, and only the international news media is covering it. [
Comment – actually, the Japanese Press is covering everything reported by Tepco and the Nuclear Regulation Authority, no matter how trivial. – end comment.] Rally organizers confused reactors with bombs calling for an end to both because both involve radiation. Lead organizer Misao Redwolf said demonstrators are angry because of PM Shinzo Abe’s “lie” about F. Daiichi being “under control”, “I am really angry to see (Abe’s) lie go unchallenged.” Metro police estimate that 9,000 people took part, while protest organizers said the number was more like 40,000.
http://japandailypress.com/anti-nuclear-activists-stage-demonstration-in-tokyo-1437683/ —
http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2013101300175
