January 29, 2015

Jan 29, 2015 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • Tokyo will soon begin building two Fukushima rural waste storage facilities. Both are in existing industrial parks near F. Daiichi. Each will have an area of about 10,000 square meters. They are part of the 16 square kilometer site in Okuma and Futaba which Tokyo plans to use as a 30-year storage facility for rural radioactive waste materials. It is hoped that initial movement of the waste will begin by the March 11th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Work preparing the two sites should begin February 3rd. The industrial parks are government owned and will be used exclusively until existing private property owner issues are resolved. Fukushima municipalities have been pressuring Tokyo to make firm plans for moving the existing materials out of the thousands of present locations. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html
  • Fukushima fishermen protest against plans to discharge fully-treated wastewater. Last week, the Nuclear Regulation Authority divulged a plan to release the biologically-harmless water to the Pacific beginning in 2017. A national fishery association demanded this plan be halted because Tepco does not fully understands the ramifications of the release. The National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations’ head, Hiroshi Kishi, submitted the request to Industry Minister Yoichi Miyazawa on Tuesday. The Federation says the plan is deplorable. Kishi called it “extremely deplorable”. He stressed that fishers do not like the idea of releasing water even if it meets government standards and added that he wants the nuclear regulators to know that. Miyazawa said the administration will not allow release of radioactive water without due care. The Federation fears that even if the release meets all of Tepco’s self-imposed standards, which are many times less than the national limits, rumors could cause further harm in the marketplace. The national limits for discharge are 60 Becquerels per liter for Cesium-134, 90 Bq/liter for Cs-137, and 60,000 Bq/liter for Tritium. National drinking water limits are 10 Bq/liter for Cs-134 and Cs-137, respectively, and 10,000 Bq/liter for Tritium. Tepco’s self-imposed limits are 1 Bq/liter for Cs-134 and Cs-137, and 1,500 Bq/liter for Tritium. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html — http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/01/27/national/fishermen-oppose-dumping-radioactive-water-into-sea/#.VMem3aMcQdU
  • A Fukushima official is accused of illegal sales of dosimeters. He admitted he used the money to pay off personal debts, much of which he lost through playing Pachinko. He sold 181 dosimeters, valued at about $37,000. The man worked for the prefecture’s Local Medical Care Division between 2010 and 2013. In October and November of 2013, he was in charge of buying and managing dosimeters. It was then that he made the illegal sales to two companies. http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150129p2a00m0na017000c.html
  • Former government accident investigation chairman Yotaro Hatamura speaks out on nuclear policy. Hatamura headed the Prime Minister’s Cabinet inquiry into the Fukushima Accident in 2011. On Wednesday, he addressed a government commission considering future nuclear policy. Hatamura said that as long as Japan has nukes, accidents will occur and unseen risk remains even if all new standards are met. He added that the Nuclear Regulation Authority is correct in not saying nukes are safe, but drawing up evacuation plans is not enough. He feels post-accident decontamination and reconstruction plans also need to be included in the regulations. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150128_32.html
  • Work slowly resumes at Fukushima Daini. Nearly all labor activity at both nuke stations in Fukushima Prefecture was halted last week when two workers were killed. Tepco, owner of both stations, called a halt to all contract labor in order to review and upgrade worker safety at both locations. Since then, Tepco has focused on meeting with the numerous contractor and subcontractor companies at both sites to insure they are appropriately instructing their staff on proper safety habits. On Wednesday, two of the roughly 250 labor operations at F. Daini restarted. One was inspection of a crane in unit #1, and the other was cleaning of radiation monitoring equipment for cooling water. Tepco says other operations will resume as soon as proper safety measures are addressed for each task. Safety inspections at F. Daiichi will continue, but none of the work projects are expected to resume before next week. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html
  • Four utilities restart purchase of electricity from solar providers. The four utilities are Hokkaido Electric Power Co., Tohoku Electric Power Co., Shikoku Electric Power Co. and Kyushu Electric Power Co. At least five Japanese companies stopped accepting new solar–based power in October because of an unexpected influx of new supplies. The inflow resulted from Tokyo’s ill-conceived feed-in tariff, forcing utilities to buy every watt of power generated and guaranteeing new solar companies generous profits. Solar generation is necessarily intermittent, only producing power during the day, and then fluctuating due to a number of factors such as weather and the angle of the sun’s rays striking the solar panels. Intermittent input to the transmission system is limited. Too much, and voltage fluctuations could cause system failure. The Industry Ministry was tasked with resolving the problem. As a result, the utilities will be given more flexibility in the amount of solar-based electricity they can take. The lessening of profit guarantees will probably discourage some new solar unit construction. Under the original feed-in tariff, utilities could curb input of solar and wind power when it reached more than 500 kilowatts for 30 days out of the year. Under the new rules, kilowatt provision was removed. Now, restrictions are 360 hours per year for solar and 720 hours for wind, allowing utility decisions to be made hourly when solar and/or wind-generated power is coming into the grid. http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150128p2a00m0na004000c.html