January 23, 2014

Jan 23, 2014 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • The newly-found leak in unit #3 may come from around the main steam piping. The large pipes pass through the Primary Containment wall on the Reactor Building’s first floor. The flow across the floor seems to be coming from the room housing the steam pipes. Tepco says it is possible the material sealing the opening in the Primary Containment wall around the pipes may have deteriorated due to the high temperatures experienced during the early days of the accident. Also, the deterioration may have been worsened by the salt water used for cooling after fresh water ran out at 12:20pm on Sunday, March 13, 2011. This cannot be confirmed by visual inspection because of the high radiation field inside the Main Steam Piping Room. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140121_05.html
  • Tepco has received its latest evacuee compensation funding from Tokyo. It is intended to cover evacuee pay-outs through the end of February. The total for the month is nearly $1.2 billion from the Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund. This will raise the total Fund support to be about $34.8 billion. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2014/1233755_5892.html
  • A Japanese research group proved that nuclear fuel can be detected using cosmic rays. A team from the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) used muon detection to correctly pinpoint the location of the core and spent fuel at Tokai unit #2 from outside its reactor building. Muons are a major part of naturally-occurring cosmic rays that constantly strike Earth from outer space. Muons generally pass through most everything on the Earth’s surface and are attenuated (stopped) by the dense material deep inside our planet. However, a very dense material like Uranium (and/or corium) will attenuate more muons than the surrounding materials inside a reactor building. The detectors identified these changes at Tokai and mapped out the location and rough geometry of the core. KEK would now like to use their system at Fukushima Daiichi to see where the cores of units #1 through #3 are located. This could possibly answer the question of whether or not any of the three actually melted through the many-inches-thick steel bottom of the Reactor Pressure Vessel. KEK hopes Tepco will allow them to run their system at F. Daiichi.  http://www.kek.jp/ja/NewsRoom/Release/20140123110000/ (right click and translate)
  • The public’s use of personal dosimeters in Fukushima Prefecture has dropped significantly. Soon after 3/11/11, most municipalities in the prefecture handed out the devices so that worried citizens could monitor their exposure. Roughly 140,000 dosimeters were issued. However, the number of them still in use is about 85,000. One reason for the decline is the more than 50% decline in radiation levels since April, 2011, according to Fukushima health consultant Dr. Osamu Saito. He adds that some parents feel having their children carry dosimeters causes them stress over radiation. Saito cautioned that people should keep their devices active because not everything is known about the health risks of low level exposure. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140121_11.html  (comment – There can be little doubt that many who have stopped using the dosimeters have become informed about the trivial risks of low level exposures outside the exclusion zone. Why carry the devices when all they show is that there’s nothing to worry about?)
  • Tokyo’s Environment Ministry has designated three sites in Miyagi Prefecture for low level waste burial. The potential sites are in the municipalities of Kurihawa, Kami, and Taiwa. One will be selected for the facility. The materials to be buried will be sewage sludge, incinerator ash and non-burnable debris having more than 8,000 Becquerels per kilogram of activity. The three sites were selected based on three criteria; distance from local communities, distance from water sources and availability. Tokyo wants to study geology and other specifics with each location in order to make a final decision. Minister Shinji Inoue made the announcement in Sendai on Tuesday, asking the three mayors for their cooperation even though the prospective properties are state-owned. All three expressed concerns, with Kami Mayor Hirobumi Inomata the most oppositional. He said, “This is the worst location as local residents strongly opposed even a plan to store pasture grass contaminated with low levels of radiation. We can’t cooperate.” The other two said they have received numerous objections from residents and can’t agree to the government plans. On the other hand, Miyagi Governor Murai said “Nothing will move forward if we say ‘no’ because of opposition from residents.” http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0000958834 — http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html — http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140121p2a00m0na003000c.html
  • Canadian professor David Suzuki says he regrets his recent apocalyptic predictions for F. Daiichi. On October 30 he said Fukushima posed a high risk of a second nuclear accident which would require the evacuation of the North American west coast. He then added, “If that isn’t terrifying then I don’t know what is.” Suzuki rescinded the statement in an Email to British Columbian newspaper The Province, which said his statement was an “off-the-cuff response” and, “I regret having said it, although my sense of potential widespread disaster remains and the need for an urgent international response to dealing with the spent rods at Fukushima remains.” It should be mentioned that Suzuki’s wild October claims were vehemently dismissed by science experts in Canada. One was David Measday, professor emeritus of nuclear physics at the University of British Columbia, who said, “…it’s totally impossible! I can’t believe he would say that. When he’s in his own field, he’s usually reasonable. But this is just crazy.” Even staunch nuclear critic Mycle Schneider had problems with it, “I’m really, really shocked about the way it’s being discussed in Canada. It’s just totally insane.” http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/01/20/david-suzuki-regrets-claim-that-another-fukushima-disaster-would-require-mass-evacuations-in-north-america/
  • A Fukushima worker has internal contamination 200 times lower than Japan’s natural background level. The individual’s internal dose over the next 50 years has been diagnosed at 0.38 millisieverts, while the average internal natural background exposure for people in Japan over the same half-century will be ~75 mSv. The man said he briefly removed his face mask to clear the fog that had accumulated. He was working at the unit #2 reactor building when he made the error in judgment. Although the individual is at no risk from the internal isotopes, the Mainichi Shimbun made it a lead story on Tuesday. http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140121p2a00m0na001000c.html
  • The Tokyo governor’s race is officially started. Wednesday marked the first day of the campaign. The Press is focusing almost entirely on one candidate, former PM Morihito Hosokawa, due to his extreme antinuclear position supported by another former PM, Junichiro Koizumi. Koizumi has been crusading for a no-nukes national policy for months. Hosokawa presented his agenda when he announced his candidacy. He said nuclear energy is “a top priority that must be addressed first. Without clearly mapping out a direction for zero nuclear power, it will be impossible for Japan to exit from its dependence on nuclear energy in 50 years or even 100.” In addition, Hosogawa stated, “In order to realize a Tokyo that is not dependent on nuclear energy, I would prompt the public and private sectors to generate renewable energy as well as to ask for cooperation from the residents of Tokyo to conserve energy.” While most Press outlets seem to be reviving their failed national election ploy of making this a public referendum on nukes, one news source (Japan Times) has shown some balance by also covering the three other main candidates, led by pre-election favorite Yoichi Masuzoe, who is ahead in the Polls.  http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2014012200930 — http://mainichi.jp/english/english/perspectives/news/20140120p2a00m0na012000c.html — http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/01/22/national/hosokawa-to-play-tokyo-nuke-card/#.UuAMMMso4dU