September 21, 2015

Sep 21, 2015 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • More rural contaminated waste bags were found washed away. Last Monday, we reported that ~400 large bags containing mildly radioactive decontamination debris were swept up by flooding along the Hiso and Niida Rivers running through Iitate in Fukushima Prefecture. Many were torn and empty. On Friday, another ~340 bags were reported to have been washed away by flooding on Kinugawa River in Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture. City officials said 17 had been recovered, but the contents were gone. They said the reason was due to erosion accelerated by the river’s flooding. There were a total of 558 bags stored at the location of the incident, protected by mounds covered with sheets. When part of the embankment collapsed, most of the bags tumbled into the river. The radiation levels inside the lost bags were so low that no discernible environmental impact is expected. http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150918p2a00m0na001000c.html — http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201509180069
  • Japan’s nuclear watchdog says there are no laws concerning radioactive rainwater run-off. Fukushima Prefecture has been besieged by nervous residents and fishermen to do something that will stop the occasional overflows of mildly contaminated water from an F. Daiichi drainage ditch during torrential rains. The prefecture has called for the Nuclear Regulation Authority to set limits on the releases. Prefectural official Kiyosh Takasaka wants it done immediately. However, the NRA says they can’t set limits because there are no laws prohibiting discharges of radioactive rainwater, and creating such laws could take a very long time. The problem is the K-channel at F. Daiichi, which has had rainwater activity fluctuations for more than a year. When rainfall is less than 14mm/hr, installed pumps remove all run-off and send it to the barricaded inner harbor (quay). If rainfall exceeds pumping capacity, the channel fills and spills over the closed-off outlet to the sea. Tepco is working on re-channeling the ditch to the quay, but estimates the major undertaking will take about six months to complete because much of the needed work is underground. Fisherman Tomomitsu Konno says, “I’m worried because we don’t know how much radiation-tainted rainwater has leaked out.” The most recent incidents happened on Sept. 9th and 11th when a typhoon skirted the Tohoku region, dumping huge volumes of water resulting in flooding of low-lying areas in at least seven prefectures. Officials called the constant, days-long downpour “unprecedented”. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/09/20/national/radioactive-rain-releases-cant-curbed-due-lack-laws-nra/#.Vf6mQZDosdV
  • Some Tohoku residents complain that the new, massive anti-tsunami barriers are an eyesore. On March 11, 2011, the worst tsunami in Japan’s history devastated the 400 kilometer coastline of Honshu Island, a region known as Tohoku. Two-thirds of the more than 300 barriers designed to handle a tsunami utterly failed. The coastlines of Fukushima, Iwate, and Miyagi Prefectures witnessed entire communities washed away, more than 20,000 total deaths, and 250,000 refugees who lost everything to the black water surge. Tokyo vowed to rebuild the failed structures, making them massive enough to withstand another similar tsunami and protect the coastline. Much of the work is done, but some is still progressing. The total cost of the project is estimated at over $8 billion. However, some residents don’t like what they see…or rather, cannot see. The new wall along Yamada, Iwate Prefecture, is 7.5 meters high (~23 feet) and is a little over a mile long. One sea-side store owner complains that it blocks his view, “The scenery I used to know was taken away when the barriers were installed.” Next, the new wall protecting the fishing companies of Iwate’s Rikuzentakata is 10 meters high (~31 feet) and a little less than one-half mile long. 80% of the town was lost on 3/11/11, with some 1,900 killed. Residential construction is no longer allowed, but the fishing business is needed for local recovery. Regardless, one elderly resident says the money to build the wall is being misspent. He said, “There’s no need for such a thing if nobody is going to live in the area.” He wants the old barrier repaired and the rest of the money given to refugees. In Miyagi’s Kesennuma City, the 6.5 meter high (~20 feet) wall has been built with Acrylic glass windows because the residents did not want to feel like they were in a prison. 1,400 Kesennuma residents died in the tsunami that peaked at 26 feet. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/recovery/AJ201509210033 — http://extremeplanet.me/2014/02/04/detailed-imagery-of-the-2011-japan-tsunami/ (Comment – Relatively little Japanese Press coverage has been afforded to tsunami recovery. We post what we can find in order for our readers to juxtapose with the comparatively huge Press coverage given to the nuclear accident.)