- The hi-tech multi-isotopic removal facility, ALPS, has returned to full operation. All three parallel streams are in operation for the first time since March. Tepco says it is a final test run. When the test will end has not been stated. The most recent problem of deterioration with filtering material caused by radiation has been resolved. Two of the processing lines will be briefly halted next month to check for corrosion in some of the connected piping. Each of the three streams has a design capacity of tons per day. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140622_13.html — http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/water-decontamination-system-resumes-at-fukushima-plant?utm_campaign=jt_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=jt_newsletter_2014-06-22_PM
- Tepco has received another $894 million (USD) to cover evacuee compensation for July. The money has come from the Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund under the special business plan approved in January. In addition, the company announced that last week’s evacuee pay-outs have brought the total to-date to the brink of $40 billion ($39.97 billion) in personal and property compensation. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2014/1238203_5892.html — http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/comp/images/jisseki-e.pdf
- Tepco has posted two handouts of work being done inside units #1 and #3 by robots. The unit #3 handout addresses the surveying being done on the walls of the torus (suppression pool) room walls and piping penetrations coming out of the inner Primary Containment (PCV). The posting illustrates the robot being used for the investigation, followed by pictures of the PCV penetrations that have been studied. It should be noted that underwater penetrations were examined using “floating matter” and tracer dispersed around the penetration piping to indicate whether or not leakage is occurring. None of the five locations viewed by June 13th showed any indication of containment compromise. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2014/images/handouts_140613_09-e.pdf …The second shows the robot being used for debris removal from the first floor of unit #1 by the decontamination robot known as MEISTeR. The device weighs 550 kilograms, has six cameras and two dosimeters for radiation monitoring. The cable-operated robot has a top speed of 33 meters/minute. It has been used since last November and has removed roughly 41 tons of debris, including concrete, damaged fencing, drums, gas cylinders and waste paper. Two before-and-after images vividly depicts the effectiveness of the device. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2014/images/handouts_140620_06-e.pdf
- Japan has two satellites to study the environmental impacts of Fukushima and Chernobyl. The satellites were made by Tokyo University and placed in orbit by a Dnepr rocket launched in Russia. “The satellites have a number of missions and monitoring the two nuclear plants is part of them. I hope that the data will help Japan and Ukraine correctly acknowledge the impact on the environment near the two plants,” said project leader Shinichi Nakasuka. The satellites will take pictures and compile other data from the two accident sites on a regular schedule. He added that the satellites will also compile information from “22 countries such as Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and Bangladesh [to] receive the data as part of efforts to avoid damage from major floods.” http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/japanese-satellites-to-monitor-fukushima-chernobyl?utm_campaign=jt_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=jt_newsletter_2014-06-20_AM
- Two Fukushima farmers made headlines by bringing a bull to Tokyo. The bull is from inside the state-mandated exclusion zone and it should not have been transported the 250 kilometers to Tokyo. The bull’s owner Masami Yoshizawa said he has violated restrictions to protest the culling of cattle left abandoned by owners since they were ordered to leave their farms after the nuclear accident. He took the animal to the Agriculture Ministry, but was stopped off-loading the docile beast by a policeman because “It’s dangerous”. The black bull has developed small white speckles on its hide and Yoshizawa wants to know why. He was accompanied by rice farmer Naoto Matsumura, who has defied government orders to leave Tomioka Town. Matsumura tends forty cattle on his farm, while Yoshizawa takes care of more than 350 on his “Hope Farm”.The Japan Times says the white speckles are a “mystery disease” developed after the nuke accident, implying it is due to nuke contamination. http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/fukushima-farmers-seek-aid-for-radiation-zone-cattle?utm_campaign=jt_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=jt_newsletter_2014-06-21_PM — http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140621p2g00m0dm051000c.html — http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/06/20/national/farmers-haul-fukushima-cow-tokyo-seeking-probe-mystery-disease/#.U6V0eqNOUdU
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Al Jazeera has posted a fear-mongering report on the recent problem with freezing an equipment tunnel at F. Daiichi. Completely contradicting Tepco’s Thursday Press release to the contrary, Al Jazeera says this is a failure to build the groundwater-inhibiting ice wall around the four leaking basements. The news service unabashedly says the ice wall looks like a “dirt Slurpee”. Tepco’s Thursday news release said many news outlets have confused the attempt to freeze a contaminated water-filled equipment tunnel with building the ice wall. (see our June 19 Update, below). Al Jazeera should post a correction, but their past record of publishing only Fukushima misinformation makes it seem unlikely. http://america.aljazeera.com/blogs/scrutineer/2014/6/18/fukushima-ice-walllookingmorelikeadirtslurpee.html
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