April 28, 2014

Apr 28, 2014 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • 748 fuel bundles have been safely moved from the unit #4 fuel storage pool. 726 of the transferred bundles are spent (used) fuel and 22 are unused. The fuel transfer operation is steadily approaching the half-way mark with no radiological incidents. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/decommision/index-e.html
  • The amount of pay-outs to Fukushima evacuees has topped $37 billion. Payment to evacuees for the evacuation itself plus psychological damage is just over $15.3 billion, while combined corporate compensation and property payments has reached $17 billion. Last week, Tokyo sent nearly $2 billion to Tepco to cover pay-outs through the end of May. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/comp/images/jisseki-e.pdf
  • Tritium plus massive numbers equals disturbing headlines. On April 24, The Mainichi Shimbun posted “4 crippled Fukushima reactors dogged with 3.4 quadrillion becquerels of tritium”. A quadrillion is a thousand-million-million. Tepco told the government’s Tritium task-force that 68.5% is contained in the damaged unit’s 1, 2 & 3 fuel bundles, 24.5% in stored wastewaters, about 1.5% in the standing water of the four damaged-unit basements, and roughly 1.4% in trenches and cabling tunnels. The limit for Tritium per nuclear station is 3.7 billion Becquerels per year during routine operation, but Fukushima Daiichi is far from being routine. The amount of Tritium in wastewater storage has increased by 17 trillion Becquerels since Tepco’s January estimate, and some critics fear that it is due to leaching out of melted fuel. http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140425p2a00m0na006000c.html  (Comment – The increase in stored wastewater Tritium is probably due to the additional tens of thousands of tons of wastewater placed in tanks since the beginning of the year. Regardless, Tritium is a virtually innocuous radioactive isotope with the lowest Beta radiation emission energy known to exist; too weak to penetrate the outer dead layer of skin. Further, all Tritium limits are based on…well…to be blunt…nothing! For background on Tritium limits and how they were extrapolated from mere assumptions, click on “Background Information on Tritium” in the left-hand menu.)
  • The plan to eventually fill the containments of units 1, 2 & 3 with water may be untenable. During a seminar in Tokyo, the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning (IRID) said filling the containments with water might not be feasible due to the inability to locate and plug leaks. Tepco’s plan is to eventually fill the containments in order to shield de-fueling staff from high radiation levels, since water is an excellent radiation barrier. (Aside – the drop in radiation would be a factor of 1,000 or more) IRID says Japan should investigate other methods and/or new technologies that could work without the use of water. Tokyo says they will begin accepting alternative proposals in June. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html
  • The staff at F. Daiichi will begin detailed studies to find leaks from containments of units #1-3. Finding and plugging the leaks is necessary to flood the PCVs and facilitate damaged fuel removal. Earlier this year, leaks were found in all three units via cameras carried by robots, but the exact locations of leakage were not pinpointed. Tepco will use more-advanced robots to examine the bottom of the unit #1 PCV, the unit #2 pressure suppression chamber (Torus room), and the area below “scaffolding” inside unit #3 where water was found to be pooling. The company also feels there may be additional leakage points not yet been discovered, thus a more complete investigative program is needed. NHK World; Detailed containment vessel probe to begin soon; April 27, 2014
  • Kawauchi residents are allowed to begin “long-stay” in their homes. The district is inside the 20 kilometer exclusion zone, and the second area of the old “no-go” zone to allow overnight visitation. District evacuees willing to go home can stay for as long as they wish over the next three months in order to prepare their homes and property for a full relaxation of living restrictions in July. There were 276 people living in the district before 3/11/11. But, only 40 people from 18 households have applied for permission to take advantage of the opportunity. Decontamination of the area was recently completed and local radiation levels are well-below the 20 millisievert per year limit for repopulation. Dosimeters will be supplied to all returnees who want to monitor their own exposure rate. http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0001238286
  • The restarts of two units at Oi nuclear station have been delayed. They were the two units that were safely operated by Kansai Electric Company in the summer of 2013 to avoid power shortages in the Chubu region. The Nuclear Regulation Authority has prioritized to two Kyushu Electric Company units in Kagoshima Prefecture, which has bumped the two Oi units down the list for restarts. The NRA has concerns about geologic anomalies near the two units being quake-prone. Kansai Electric Co. feels the Oi nukes will not be restarted before March of 2015. http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/restart-of-two-reactors-at-oi-nuclear-plant-to-be-delayed
  • The cost for the nuclear moratorium continues to climb. Since the shutdown of all Japanese reactors following the Fukushima accident, the nation’s utilities have had to buy about $87 billion for imported fossil fuels to compensate. This explains why the combined losses since the moratorium reached $47 billion by the end of March. The bill for “no-nukes” is becoming unwieldy. Electric rates will have to rise or the government will have to subsidize the utilities, raising taxes to compensate for the financial shortfall. Will there be government bailouts? Former banker Tom O’Sullivan says it is possible because the situation reminds him of the public bank bailouts of the 1990s, “The banks were forced to consolidate after those losses, so the outcome might be similar in this case.” Another possibility is creating local transmission and distribution companies which would purchase the cheapest electricity available for their customers, which might minimize the public financial impact. But, in any case, the equity ratio (shareholder financing versus lender funding) of the utilities has severely weakened. Hokkaido Electric is down to 9%, compared to nearly 25% before 3/11/11. Kyushu Electric’s ratio has been cut in half, now at about 11.5%. Other industrial ratios in Japan average at about 43%, but no utilities are close to that number. Further, Tokyo itself is going deeper and deeper in debt, and the population is getting older. Consultant Gerhard Fasol says, “Given Japan’s government finances are mainly paid for by debt, bailing out the utilities means they’re passing on the cost to future generations, which are declining in numbers. Speeding up the pace of liberalization might help by reducing costs. But this is unlikely to happen, given the pace of change in the electricity industry is generally slow.” http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/04/25/national/costs-keep-mounting-for-idled-reactors/#.U1v3lKNOUdX
  • More critics are saying the “world’s strictest nuclear standards” phrase is not true. Last week, Niigata Governor Hirohiko Izumida said it is a bold-faced lie. Now, other detractors are chiming in. An anonymous LDP official said, “The assertion that the standards are “the world’s strictest” is a lie. That is mere lip service to allow the restart of reactors.” Former PM Naoto Kan recently demanded the Abe administration explain what the statement means, to which the written response was, “We have designed the standards so that they can attain the world’s highest levels, referring to the other country’s regulatory criteria.” Kan retorted, “No evidence has been shown. It is just tautology to say the standards are the world’s highest because they are the world’s highest standards.” Nuclear Regulatory Authority Commissioner Toyoshi Fuketa says it is difficult to say NRA has the strictest standards in the world, but they are considerably tougher than what Japan had before the agency was formed. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201404260044