July 31, 2014

Jul 31, 2014 | Fukushima Accident Updates

  • Unreported by the Press, it seems Tepco’s shoreline barriers are working quite well. The contamination levels inside the F. Daiichi break wall continue to lessen with no detectible (ND) Cesium-134 and no more than 3.1 Becquerels per liter of Cs-137. One of the five sampling points shows gross Beta activity of 18 Bq/liter, while the other four show ND gross Beta. In addition, the Tritium levels have dropped to 34 Bq/liter or less at all five locations. More importantly, the activity levels inside the inner port (quay) have dropped to new lows. Cs-134 varies between ND and 16 Bq/liter, Cs-137 between ND and 51 Bq/liter, and gross Beta between ND and 550 Bq/liter. In all cases, the levels are below Japan’s drinking water standards. Compared with the levels six months ago, these decreases are significant and indicate that current levels are probably residuals. There is no indication of increases coming from groundwater seepage into the sea. Thus, there can be little doubt that the soil solidification walls built along the immediate shoreline are doing a very good job of containing groundwater contamination. Data for this posting comes from Tepco’s latest report on sample activities.  http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/f1/smp/2014/images/2tb-east_14072901-e.pdf
  • The advanced nuclide removal system (ALPS) should be fully operational later this year. The three-stream system was upgraded and restarted this spring after problems with component wear surfaced. In order to further upgrade system efficiency, further “enhancements” have been successfully tested and are expected to be approved by the Nuclear Regulation Authority. The enhancements include upgraded isotopic absorption to bring all radionuclides below regulatory limits. All three streams are currently in an extended “hot test” stage for the removal of all radioisotopes except Tritium. Each stream can process 750 tons per day. So far, more than 100,000 tons have been purified and are in storage at F. Daiichi. The initial three stream system is expected to be in full operation at some point after mid-October. An second multi-stream system and an “advanced” process are currently being assembled, with hot testing scheduled through December. If all goes as planned, all three systems will be in full operation before 2015.  http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/2014/1239858_5892.html — http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/roadmap/images/d140731_01-e.pdf
  • The first detailed surveys of the unit #2 Torus (suppression pool) room wall penetrations show no leakage. One of the on-going unanswered questions about the Fukushima accident concerns the degree of damage to the containment surrounding the unit #2 reactor. Tepco believes that high pressures inside the containment caused piping penetrations through the thick, steel-reinforced concrete walls to spring leaks and release contamination and hydrogen gas to the outer reactor building. It is assumed that these leaks are still allowing water to pass through the wall and into the Torus room. Using two robots (one submerged and one crawling), Tepco has examined nearly half of the wall containing several penetrations and found no apparent leakage. A tracer was released in the water at each penetration point to show whether or not in-flow is happening. Five piping penetrations have been examined. http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/handouts/2014/images/handouts_140728_05-e.pdf
  • Oregon researchers say no Fukushima contamination has reached the coast. York Johnson of Oregon’s Tillamook Estuaries Partnership said their testing shows that no Fukushima radioactive material has reached the North American coastline. He added that the coast should be safe for recreation if radiation levels climb over the next several years as expected. Johnson predicts that water off the Oregon shore will peak at around 10 to 20 Becquerel per cubic meter [ton] of water in the years ahead. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution senior scientist Ken Buesseler said, “We’ve seen [Fukushima] radiation halfway across the Pacific, north of Hawaii, but in U.S. waters there has been none, yet.” http://news.yahoo.com/no-fukushima-radiation-tests-off-u-west-coast-231454163.html
  • Tepco is dumping ice into contaminated equipment tunnels. It is expected that this will allow the refrigeration system make an impervious ice block along the wall of the connected basements, stopping the influx of contaminated liquid. Two tons were dumped into the unit #2 tunnel and the temperature had dropped by 40C by the next day. On Wednesday, 15 tons of ice were placed in the tunnel. Sources say that Tepco wants the tunnel water to drop to 5oC to insure that the installed freezing system will form a solid ice block at the basement wall. If this happens, the more than 5,000 tons of water in the tunnel can be drained and a permanent water-blocking material can be used to replace the ice. NHK World; Ice put into utility tunnels at Fukushima Plant; 7/30/14
  • Tokyo has set policy to obtain land rights for rural contaminated waste sites. Many landowners in Futaba and Okuma refuse to sell their land to the government, so the new policy will allow leasing rights so that it can use the land without transferring ownership. This will permit landowners to decide whether to sell their land or lease it. Those who decide to sell will retain their legal residency which will let them return to ownership after the temporary facility has been decommissioned. http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0001458669
  • The government will raise the limits for their decontamination “target”. Currently, the target is 0.23 microsieverts per hour for unshielded exposure estimates. However, personal dosimetry data shows that residents spend much of their time indoors and are shielded from outside radiation levels to some extent, reducing their actual exposure. The cities of Date and Soma gave dosimeters to their residents and compared ambient (outdoor) radiation levels with the actual doses. Individual exposure varies with location and daily activities. Based on the data, the Environment Ministry says they will raise to the target ambient radiation level to end decontamination efforts at somewhere between 0.3 and 0.6 µSv/hour. The ministry plans to use future dosimetry data to adjust cleanup operations accordingly and focus on areas of the most need. http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140731p2a00m0na022000c.html
  • Dr. James Conca writes that Japan’s regulators are creating a roadmap for economic destruction. He writes, “The country’s new nuclear regulatory agency is throwing its weight around to impress the public with a tough-on-nuclear stance.” Conca, a professional Geologist, says that the NRA has “decided to redefine what an active geologic fault is with respect to nuclear power plants, contrary to all the other scientists in the world” by describing a seismically active fault as one which has moved in the last 120,000 years. The consensus international standard is once in 10,000 years. He adds that this overly-strict criterion is keeping Japan’s nukes shuttered at a cost of $35 billion USD per year in increased fossil fuel imports. The impact on public and private electric bills has been considerable and threatens the entire economy of Japan. To make matters worse, when independent geologists find that anomalies show no movement within the 120,000 year period, the NRA cavalierly rejects the findings and asks for more costly investigations to be run. Conca says, “Many experts think the whole post-Fukushima regulatory situation is a mess and there are certainly accusations that NRA is posturing.” Further, if the nuke owner cannot provide 100% assurance that a fault is not active, the NRA concludes that the fault is necessarily active. This is ridiculous reasoning for there is nothing in the universe that has 100% certainty. Conca goes on to say that no nuke in the world has ever been harmed by an earthquake, not even the massive 9.0 Richter scale temblor of 3/11/11 in Japan, “In fact, Japan has performed many revisions to their seismic rules since they’ve had many substantial earthquakes in the vicinity of nuclear plants in the last 30 years, with no issues, even though ground movements were greater than expected for many of them. But given the recent difficulty of the new Nuclear Regulation Authority to promote science-based regulations, and to abstain from political shenanigans, it may be a long time before reason returns to Japan’s energy sector.” http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2014/07/29/japans-nuclear-roadmap-to-economic-destruction/
  • Ex-Tepco officials may be indicted for nuke accident culpability. A lawsuit was filed by Fukushima residents in 2012 with allegations of criminal negligence against more than 30 Tepco officials. Prosecutors dismissed the suit last September, but the plaintiffs exercised their legal right to being heard by a public inquest panel, narrowing the focus to six Tepco officials. The panel has decided that three indictments ought to have been issued. The three are ex-Tepco president Tsunehisa Katsumata and two former vice presidents, Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro. The panel admits it is uncertain whether natural disasters will occur, but Tepco should have taken mitigating measures because such earthquakes and tsunami were likely to hit F. Daiichi. The decision will be remanded back to prosecutors to decide if indictments are warranted. If they reject the decision, it will be returned to the public panel for a final judgment which could force the three men to stand trial. The following two links are indicative of what is a widely-covered story in Japan – the first (NHK World) is representative of an objective report and the second (Japan Times) exemplifies the rest of the nation’s antinuclear Press. NHK World; Panel: Ex-TEPCO officials should be indicted; 7/31/14 — http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/07/31/national/crime-legal/indict-tepco-execs-over-disaster-judicial-panel/#.U9o6AKN0wdU