September 25, 2014

Sep 25, 2014 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • One of the Cesium absorption systems at F. Daiichi stopped briefly. The stoppage of a pump in the system is thought to be due to the improper closure of a valve. The shutdown occurred at about 8:30am on Wednesday. Tepco staff decided to shut down the entire system containing the pump. The company says another Cesium removal system is available and will be used until the cause of the problem is confirmed and resolved. Then, the system will be restarted. The Cesium absorption system treats about 500 tons of highly contaminated waste water per day. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html
  • More information on resentment toward Fukushima evacuees. The Asahi Shimbun surveyed about 1,500 of their readers in Iwaki City (pop. ~340,000) and received nearly 680 responses. 72% said they sympathize with the evacuees, but 74% said they feel the compensation paid to them is unfair. Plus, 65% said they feel “envious” of the evacuee compensation. It is estimated that 24,000 evacuees have taken refuge in Iwaki, contributing to housing shortages and difficulties at city hospitals. Ryosuke Takaki, an associate professor of Iwaki Meisei University, says, “The central government should make itself accountable for the improvement of the city’s infrastructure and the injection of human resources such as doctors to alleviate the city’s obligations in taking in evacuees for a long period of time.” http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201409230032
  • Japan’s nuke watchdog says cementing contaminated tunnels is necessary. Acting NRA chief Toyoshi Fuketa believes the only way to stop water flow through contaminated equipment tunnels is solidification. Attempts to freeze the contained water to stop flow-through have been unsuccessful. Fuketa says concrete may well be the only solution, and prevent contaminating groundwater assumed to be seeping into the ocean. He added that unless the tunnel flows are stopped, it might not be possible to make the frozen wall in the ground on the sea-side of the turbine basements. Tepco wants to plug the tunnel points of in-flow with cement and then remove the remaining contaminated water for treatment. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140924_42.html
  • Japan’s Press keeps alive the notion that Naoto Kan prevented a Fukushima abandonment. Japan Times has re-posted a Kyodo News editorial saying the false rumor of site abandonment was due to Tepco being unclear in its communication with the Prime Minister. However, the article indicates the Prime Minister’s office over-reacted to Tepco’s state of helplessness after 3/11/11, and assumed the company was about to pull everyone out. Tepco maintains that a partial evacuation of unnecessary personnel was being considered, but full withdrawal was never deliberated. Tepco President Shimizu repeatedly phoned Industry Minister Banri Kaieda on March 15 to seek approval for the partial evacuation, but the minister incorrectly assumed a full abandonment was being requested. As the condition of reactor #2 seemed to worsen at 3am on the 15th, Kaieda told Kan abandonment was imminent. Kan over-reacted and said, “If people withdraw, the eastern part of Japan will be destroyed” and ordered Shimizu to not abandon the plant. Shimizu responded that “we do not have in mind such a thing as withdrawal”, but Kan and his staff did not believe the Tepco president. The Press article says, “While officials in the prime minister’s office had misunderstood Tepco’s intentions, Shimizu was also at fault for a lack of clarity in his statements.” Regardless, Kan went off on a 10-minute diatribe, which was watched by Tepco staff at F. Daiichi on a teleconferencing screen. Kan later denied “yelling at everyone” and said he merely meant to keep Tepco from making a withdrawal. At F. Daiichi, an equipment restoration supervisor, Takeyuki Inagaki, said, “Even though we were doing our best, we felt like we had been shot in the back with a machine gun.” http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/09/23/national/tepco-plea-evacuate-enraged-kan/#.VCK8lKN0wdU
  • Most evacuated children attend schools outside Fukushima Prefecture. The evacuation resulted in 15,281 children attending new schools. Of these, 9,767 are attending schools in other prefectures. Many are from inside the mandated exclusion zone, but almost as many are the result of voluntary evacuations from outside the zone due to parental radiophobia. One mother from Koriyama (outside the zone) moved to Kyoto and registered her son in a new school. She says, “I wish I could raise him in my hometown, but I’m worried about how the radiation will affect his health.” http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201409250049 (comment – The listed Asahi article says 130,000 people remain in a state of evacuation. There are about 70,000 who continue to be estranged from their homes inside the mandated exclusion zone. Thus, ~60,000 voluntary evacuees remain separated from their homes due to radiation fears, and for no other apparent reason. Their fears are certainly severe because their government-granted compensation pay-outs ceased more than 18 months ago. They could return to their homes because the radiation levels are completely safe, but distrust of the government and the persistent false assumption that there’s no safe level of exposure keeps them from going back.)
  • A major antinuclear demonstration occurred in Tokyo. Rally organizers claimed that 16,000 people gathered Tuesday to protest the anticipated restarts of two Pressurized Water Reactor units at Sendai Station, Kagoshima Prefecture. The rally, “Goodbye to Nuclear Power Plants,” was planned for Yoyogi Park in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward, but was hastily rearranged due to an outbreak of dengue fever. Socio-political author and Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe, one of the organizers of the rally, said, “Three and a half years has passed since the nuclear accident, but self-examination has yet to be made. The government is going ahead with the plan to resume operation at the Sendai plant without compiling sufficient anti-disaster plans,” and, “We must raise the voice of national resistance. Let’s dissuade them from reactivating the nuclear plant without giving in an inch.” http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140924p2a00m0na021000c.html — http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/demonstrators-rally-against-restarting-nuclear-plants?utm_campaign=jt_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=jt_newsletter_2014-09-24_AM