May 9, 2013

May 9, 2013 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • Tokyo Electric Company plans to pump groundwater away from the leaking F. Daiichi basement walls and discharge it to the sea. Tepco has analyzed the groundwater under the station and found it to have the same radioactive content as the streams and rivers of the region. Until now, groundwater has been flowing into the basements of units #1 through #4 at a rate of about 400 tons per day. Once the groundwater pumping begins, the in-flow will be 300 tons per day or less. The process will reduce the rate at which contaminated wastewater volumes are increasing. Tepco has tested the new system by pumping about 200 tons to the sea. Tepco’s Toshihiko Fukuda says, “We would like to release that water into the ocean if we can gain the understanding of the relevant officials.” Tepco will meet with representatives of Tohoku region fisheries on May 13 to explain what they are doing and why it will have no radiological impact on the sea. They want to start the operation the very next day. Tetsu Nozaki, chairman of the local fisheries federation, said, “We would like to cooperate in settling the situation by giving our approval once safety has been confirmed.” Tepco insists there is no groundwater contamination from the recently discovered leaks from their large underground storage reservoirs. It should be noted that the Asahi Shimbun makes an unfounded speculation that Tepco has adopted this as a new strategy “to avoid a total collapse of its system for handling radioactive water.” The paper also alleges that Tepco never anticipated the groundwater in-leakage problem and is scrambling to stop it. (Mainichi Shimbun; Kyodo News; Asahi Shimbun)
  • Tepco says that transferring the waste waters to above-ground tanks could raise property boundary radiation levels above the self-imposed limit of 1 millisievert per year. Tepco added the exposure level may be 7.8 mSv/yr with one tank nearest the plant boundary. The boundary exposure level will last as long as it takes for the future ALPS isotopic removal system to cleanse the remaining radioactive materials from the Cesium-filtered waters. 30% of the total transfer to above-ground tanks has ended. The currently-used tanks are far enough from the plant boundary to keep the level below 1 mSv/yr. (Japan Daily News; Kyodo News; NHK World)
  • Futaba town, adjacent to Fukushima Daiichi, is being re-zoned. On May 28, a portion of the community showing less than 20 millisieverts per year exposure will be reclassified as an area “in preparation for lifting the evacuation order”. This will impact about 250 residents out of the 6,500 who lived in Futaba before the evacuation orders were mandated in March of 2011. Futaba is the 10th of 11 communities inside the old “no-go” zone to have the restrictions relaxed. All communities inside the original 20 kilometer evacuation zone will have eased restrictions once the Futaba change becomes official. (Jiji Press)
  • Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures now believe they will have all tsunami debris disposed of by the end of 2014. Upon completion, nearly 23 million tons of material will have been handled. Up to this point, both prefectures were not optimistic about meeting the 2014 goal due to lack of support from enough other prefectures. However, 2013 has witnessed a large increase in assistance. Currently, 17 prefectures have agreed to take and handle most of the nearly 700,000 tons of burnable trash that remains. Iwate and Miyagi will deal with all remaining sand, mud and non-burnable trash themselves. (NHK World)
  • Disposal of the more than 3 million tons of tsunami debris in Fukushima Prefecture remains at a virtual standstill. To date, only 2% of the original 3.3 million tons have been handled. None of the tsunami debris inside the Fukushima evacuation zones has been touched. Tokyo says they will take care of all evacuation zone tsunami debris, but every attempt to get started has run into local public and political roadblocks. The Environment Ministry says they will set new goals for the Fukushima materials this summer, in the hope of starting the process. Formerly, the ministry wanted all Fukushima tsunami debris disposed-of by 2014, but that will not be possible. The small amount of debris already gathered languishes while Tokyo and prefectural governments struggle to secure temporary storage facilities and find ways to lower the radiation level of the rubble. The ministry wants to speed up the installation of high-efficiency incinerators for burnable trash. Also, they want to beef up their public information program concerning construction of temporary storage facilities. Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara said, “Local residents are worried that temporary storage facilities will become permanent storage sites, but governments are doing their best to explain that is not the case.” (NHK World; Mainichi Shimbun; Japan Times)
  • Sardine fishing has resumed in Ibaraki Prefecture. Local fishermen have voluntarily refrained from catching the “whitebait” for more than 2 years, because one different off-shore species of fish was found to contain some radioactive Cesium. The fisheries cooperatives in Otsu, Hirakata and Kawajiri restarted the young sardine catch after “test fishing found no safety problems” for contamination. This type of sardine is considered a delicacy by many Japanese consumers. Whether or not the catch will sell in large markets is unknown because of radiation rumors. Fisherman Heishiro Suzuki said, “I’ve got misgivings about whether consumers will buy our fish, but we must move forward, one step at a time.” The fisheries made test catches once a week from August to December last year to establish the safety of the fish. (Mainichi Shimbun; Jiji Press)