March 20, 2014

Mar 20, 2014 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • The IAEA continues to support controlled discharge of treated water from F. Daiichi. Yukiya Amano, IAEA Director General, says the continual build-up of wastewater storage tanks at the station is “not viable” because “a huge amount of water is stored on the grounds and the ground is not limitless.” He added, “Common practice is to treat contaminated water as much as possible…and then release it into the environment.” Amano stressed that Tepco should concentrate on issues that pose higher risk, such as the removal of spent fuel from the pools in units 1, 2 and 3. When fully operational next month, Tepco’s hi-tech contamination removal system (ALPS) will strip wastewaters of all isotopes except relatively harmless Tritium, the naturally-occurring isotope of Hydrogen. After the waters have passed through ALPS, release to the sea would result in no discernible risk to anyone or anything. However, local fishermen have opposed the discharge of tritiated waters dreading another loss of consumer confidence due to radiation fears. http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2014/03/17/fukushima-watch-iaea-says-controlled-release-of-contaminated-water-should-be-considered/
  • The final testing run for all three units of the ALPS system was halted on Tuesday because the B unit’s output lost efficiency. Typically, the system drops “all Beta” activity by roughly a factor of one million. All three units have been in a final testing run since March 12. However, B stream suddenly showed output activity in the tens-of-millions range. Tepco immediately stopped all three stream operations to investigate the cause and fix the problem. The two other units were shuttered only as a precaution. A TEPCO spokesperson told AFP News, “We don’t know yet when we can resume operating the system as we have not detected the cause of the defect yet. But we still have room to store toxic water so there is no immediate concern.” On Tepco official feels that the isotopic absorption components had reached their limit and lost removal effectiveness. Another possibility has to do with the replacement of metal-removal filters last week. The company will continue the investigation and keep all three units off-line until the matter is resolved. Tepco also says they may have to re—run 15,000 gallons of water through the ALPS system once it is up and running again. http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2014031900112 — http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2014/03/280029.html — http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/tepco-halts-water-decontamination-system-at-fukushima-plant — http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2014/03/280301.html  (comment – The past three days have had nothing else negative concerning Fukushima. The only subject reported has been the ALPS shutdown, which would normally be a secondary issue, and it is being given front page headlines. Nearly every Press outlet in Japan has reported on it every day since Tuesday. The four listed links above are but the tip of the iceberg. In addition, speculations were not uncommon. For example, the usually-nuclear-neutral NHK World posted, “The shutdown is generating fears that contaminated water may be flowing into the plant’s water storage tanks.” The latest negative speculation is that Tepco will soon run out of storage tanks and have to dump wastewaters into the sea. The Press reaction to the ALPS shutdown shows us that negative nuclear energy stories are the second-most popular topic with the Press, only superseded by war. It doesn’t matter how insignificant the nuclear event might be…ALPS is in the test phase, for crying out loud!)
  • 39 households from Kawamata Town have won a $20 million settlement for land and property compensation. This is the full amount suggested under existing compensation laws. Tepco had tried to reduce the pay-out because all 39 properties are located in a district (Yamakiya) outside the mandated evacuation zone that had been declassified to a lower contamination level. Tepco felt this meant the owners were no longer qualified for full compensation. However, the households filed a complaint with a government arbitrator and won the case. Tepco says they will comply with the decision. This is the first time that full property compensation has been awarded to people in the lower-contaminated locations outside the evacuation zone. NHK World; TEPCO to fully compensate Yamakiya residents; March 18, 2014
  • In April, Fukushima Prefecture will introduce new food detectors for Cesium in all municipalities. The units will be more user-friendly than those now in place. The ones currently used require cutting food into small chunks before scanning and takes 30 minutes to display results. There is no need to cut up the foods with the new units and the delay time for results will be shorter. Fukushima Prefecture has set aside enough funds to provide one new unit to each municipality. The units will be distributed to those communities who say they want them. The prefecture plans on locating the units in public places, such as community centers. The minimum level of detection will be 20 Bq/kilogram, which is one-fifth of Japan’s strict standard for radioactive Cesium content. User-friendly devices are already provided for certain food items (e.g. rice) but these units only scan for the specific foods to be tested. Fukushima City has installed several of the new units and is currently amassing data on a variety of foods the machines are designed to test. A consumer affairs official said, “We will introduce the new detectors after verifying each product’s accuracy. We want to offer an easy to use testing environment and to reduce people’s concerns.” http://www.fukushimaminponews.com/news.html?id=318
  • There have been at least 97 “solitary deaths” within 3/11/11 quake and tsunami evacuees. The Yomiuri Shimbun asked the police in the three most-damaged prefectures (Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima) about “cases in which people living alone in temporary housing units were found dead in their units”. The newspaper calls these “solitary deaths”. The results are 47 in Miyagi, 28 in Fukushima, and 22 in Iwate. 60% of these were over the age of 65, and more than two-thirds were male. Long periods of evacuee life have caused many people to become isolated and/or develop physical or mental problems. Yoshimitsu Shiozaki of Kobe University said, “Many elderly men cannot cook, so they became unable to maintain a balanced diet as they did before the disaster, or they develop a habit of turning to alcohol to alleviate psychological pain. As a result, they can easily fall ill.” The numbers have been growing over the past three years, with 16 in 2011, 38 in 2012, and 41 in 2013. In the three years following the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, there were 188 solitary deaths. The numbers have greatly increased since then and now sit at 1,057. There are currently about 46,000 temporary housing units in the three Tohoku prefectures, which compares favorably with the 48,000 provided after the Hanshin catastrophe. This suggests that Tohoku’s solitary death figures will continue to increase. It should be noted that Tohoku refugees living in 60,000 private-sector housing units rented by the government were not included in the police data, so the current Tohoku solitary death figures are likely but a portion of the actual numbers. http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0001136006
  • Meanwhile, PM Abe continues to fixate on nuclear evacuation-related fatalities. He told Fukushima Minpo that Tokyo will reinforce its measures to prevent as many possible fatalities as they can. He said, “It breaks my heart that there are evacuees who have passed away amid thoughts of wanting to return home. We need to take measures in a sound manner.” Abe specified measures such as speeding up the rebuilding of homes and communities as well as securing public health nurses give evacuees health guidance. It has been widely broadcast that the number of indirect deaths in Fukushima Prefecture related to the tsunami and nuclear evacuations is now greater than the number of Fukushima citizens killed by the tsunami itself – 1,671 vs. 1,603. While nearly all other news outlets in Japan make it seem that all of the indirect deaths are due to the nuclear accident, at least Fukushima Minpo shows that this is not the case.   http://www.fukushimaminponews.com/news.html?id=322 (comment – once again, the squeaky wheel gets the lubricant. What about the more than 200,000 tsunami refugees in Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures? Don’t they deserve at least as much attention as those in Fukushima Prefecture?)
  • Naoto Kan has taken his anti-nuclear crusade to Germany. Speaking to a Berlin audience, Kan said the Fukushima accident is still happening, “It remains a fact that the accident is going on,”  and added, “Despite that, the Liberal Democratic Party is trying to reboot many nuclear power plants.” As proof that the accident continues, Kan said that F. Daiichi has had many wastewater problems and that 140,000 evacuees are unable to return to their homes. Finally, he said there has been no major social disruption due to the nuclear moratorium he mandated in 2011, so the nukes are not needed. http://japandailypress.com/japanese-ex-pm-naoto-kan-says-fukushima-disaster-unresolved-criticizes-abe-administration-1946049/