May 26, 2014

May 26, 2014 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • Tepco has moved 924 bundles out of the unit #4 spent fuel pool. This accounts for 60% of the 1533 fuel bundles originally in the pool. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/decommision/index-e.html
  • The amount of money paid out to Fukushima evacuees now totals more than $38.4 billion. More than $16 billion has been disbursed evenly to the 85,000 evacuees mandated by Tokyo in the spring of 2011…more than $188,000 for each and every man, woman and child. The typical family of four has thus far been paid more than $750,000. In addition, property and business owners have been paid approximately $17.3 billion, above and beyond the individual compensation amounts. How the “Corporations and Sole Proprietors” volume is broken down has yet to be reported. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/comp/images/jisseki-e.pdf
  • Tepco is ordered to pay additional mental anguish money to Namie evacuees. Last year, town oofficials filed a petition with the Center for Settlement of Fukushima Nuclear Damage Claims. The Center has granted an additional $500 per month above the $1,000 per month already paid to each resident for mental distress. 98% of the refugees have agreed to the settlement. Originally, the town asked for a $2,500 per month increase, but arbitrators reduced it. The increase will apply retroactively to February 2013, when the current mental compensation pay-outs began. There is a two year statute on the new amount, which ends next February. This will be paid to all of Namie’s 15,000 residents who evacuated the town in 2011. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140526_31.html Tepco has also been ordered to pay $4,000 per month to a single evacuee. The payments will last one year, totaling $48,000. Kyoto District Court said the man’s mental distress due to the nuke accident and subsequent evacuation has kept him from holding down a job. The original filing was for $1.3 million. The plaintiff’s lawyers said, “Many people might have accepted low damages through out-of-court settlements, giving up on damages suits due to the time-consuming processes before rulings. The decision could be useful for people to file damages suits even while being in economically difficult positions.” http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/05/26/national/tepco-ordered-to-pay-damages-to-nuke-evacuee/#.U4NBnKNOUdV
  • The high-tech wastewater isotopic removal system at F. Daiichi has restarted. All three units of the Advanced Liquid Processing System have been shut down since last week due to problems with a filtering resin. The system outlet waters had become cloudy and high in Calcium. Tepco believes the resin used in the Calcium filters could not stand up to the radioactivity entrained during operation, so the material has been replaced by a more radiation-resistant substance. The company restarted the “B” stream on Friday. The B unit has been off-line since March for renovation. Lines A and C are undergoing the same renovations and replacement of filtering medium. Both are expected to be restarted in June. NHK World; TEPCO partially restarts water treatment system; May 23, 2014 — http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2014/1236858_5892.html
  • The results of samples taken during the last week’s release of groundwater to the sea are posted. The data includes the radioactivity levelsoif the water in the storage tank that housed the liquid to be released, and also measurements at the location where the water entered the Pacific Ocean during the discharge. In all cases, the isotopic concentrations were well-below Tepco’s self-imposed limits. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2014/images/gw_drainage_140523-e.pdf
  • The Nuclear Regulation Authority approved construction of the F. Daiichi ice wall. The plan is to surround the basements of the four damaged power plants with frozen earth, in the hope of stemming the daily seepage of groundwater into the buildings. This will either stop or greatly reduce the rate of increase in contaminated waste waters. The ice barrier will extend 30 meters deep into the ground and be approximately one mile (1500 meters) in length. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) will start construction of the wall in June. The NRA had raised 30 points of concern with the plan, but all have been resolved to the satisfaction of the agency and their experts. The concerns included whether or not the ice wall will interfere with cooling the melted cores of units #1 trough #3, and whether or not the ice will cause the reactor buildings themselves to move. The NRA said the wall will have no impact on the safety of the plants. http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140526p2a00m0na009000c.html — http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco
  • Antinuclear groups oppose restart of the two Sendai nuke units in Kagoshima Prefecture. It is believed the Sendai reactors may be the first to be restarted this summer. Representatives of seven civic groups from Kagoshima and Tokyo descended on a local government office on Thursday. Tokyo is about 850 miles from Kagoshima. A petition was presented with roughly 3,000 signatures of those opposed to the resumption of Sendai plant operations. The petition was given to Kagoshima officials one day after a lower Fukui court ruled against restart of two Oi station units over allegations of insufficient safety measures. The Kagoshima groups argue that the Nuclear Regulation Authority has not considered the possibility of volcanic ash and rock from the eruption of inactive volcano Aira Caldera, allegedly causing another nuclear accident. NHK World; Civic groups against restart of Sendai plant; May 25, 2014